Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone! Merry Christmas!! I can't believe it's already this time again. I'll talk to most of you on Skype tomorrow, so I'll keep this email short. I mostly just want to talk about the Book of Mormon challenge. I read Moroni 10 this morning and finished. I can tell you that I took Moroni's challenge. I prayed for a witness of the Holy Ghost that this book is true, and this promise was fulfilled. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that to be true just as much as I know anything else. What an incredible experience this has been for me, and I'm so grateful that some of you joined me. My testimony of this book has become so much stronger over the past few months. I've seen miracles in myself and in others with this challenge. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. It is a powerful testament of our Savior, and I don't know where I would be without it. It is my rock and the foundation of my belief, it is the reason I'm even on a mission, and it has brought me nearer to God than anything else could. I hope you have all had similar experiences over the past 120 days, and I hope that you will continue to read from the Book of Mormon. I"m excited to read from the first chapter of First Nephi tomorrow! I love you all so much! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and that you can feel the Savior's love for you during this very special time of year! Thank you for all of your support! I've received several packages, letters and cards this week that I'm super grateful for! I love you!!! 

~Elder Allred 

Pictures!

ELDER ALLRED in MILLBROOK, NY

I'll probably keep this email a little short today. That way I will have some time to email some of you back individually. Everything in Poughkeepsie is wonderful. We are having a lot of success, and our teaching pool is great. One of our main investigators is a 20 year old guy named Joe. He's from Washington DC but is currently attending Marist College in Poughkeepsie. He was introduced to the church when he met his girlfriend who is also attending Marist and just happens to be Mormon! So she brought him to church, and now we're teaching him. He's really cool, and he's taking the lessons really well. It's kind of cool to be teaching someone my age. I can relate to him much better than a lot of the other investigators that I've taught. This past Friday we had our mission Christmas devotional. I love that program! It's the only time of year when the whole mission gets to come together, which is about 260 missionaries these days. It's fun to see all of your mission buddies who are serving in different areas. It's been kind of hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year. It might just be because we haven't had much snow yet. I'm not really sure why. It doesn't really bother me though. I really think I"m just more focused on the missionary work that I'm doing and less on the holiday. I'm sure I'll get into it more this week! This is the last week of the Book of Mormon challenge! For those of you who are reading along with me, I'm going to make a few changes to the schedule so that I can finish on Christmas Eve. So tomorrow I'm going to read Ether chapter 13. Friday I will read Ether 14-15. Saturday I will read Moroni 1-2. Sunday Moroni 3-6.. Monday Moroni 7. Tuesday Moroni 8-9. Wednesday Moroni 10. I hope that schedule makes sense. Maybe someone could post this altered schedule on the Facebook group so everyone who is reading can follow if they'd like to. The Book of Mormon challenge has been incredible! I'll wait to share my thoughts next week as we finish it out. The challenge has had a huge impact on me though. Well, like I said, this email is a little bit shorter. I'm hoping to be able to email most of you back. I love you all so much! Can't wait to see you on Skype next week!!

~Elder Allred