To the Statue Today

Great week! I can't believe I only have three more left! Things are going really well here in Manhattan. Elder DeGraw and I are teaching a cool investigator named Christian. I may have told you a little bit about him before. He's awesome. 17 years old. This week we took the bishop's 19 year old son with us to our lesson with him. What a great experience that was! We talked to Christian about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I've taught this lesson so many times on my mission, and it is more true to me now than ever. President Smith invited all of us this week to study Joseph Smith History, verses 1-20. That's been a really cool thing for me to focus on right here at the end of my mission. I have absolutely no doubt that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he truly was called to restore Christ's church, complete with the power of the priesthood and the Book of Mormon. I'm grateful for him. I've had a lot of people question my testimony of Joseph Smith in the past two years, but nothing is going to break me. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon. I'm reading it now for the fifth time on my mission, and it has proven again to be the truth. I hope you all can feel my love for the gospel and for the opportunity that I have to be a member of the restored church. We had interviews with President Smith yesterday. He's a good man. I love him and his family so much. It's sad that I don't get more time to serve with them. Sorry for the short email this week. We're going to the statue today! Hopefully I'll have time to get on later this afternoon and email a little more. Have a great week1 See you soon! Love you!! 

~Elder Allred

29 more days!!

 IHOP

His 5th Yankees game of the mission! And they played the Rays for every game he saw. Haha 

Hello family!
First I just want to say how sad I am to hear of the passing of President Boyd K. Packer. I remember watching him speak at general conference ever since I was a young kid. He was a good man to say the least and definitely an apostle of the Lord. I have no doubt that whoever the Lord calls to replace Elder Perry and Elder Packer will be men of God. I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend! Mine was a lot of fun! As you all know, we went to the Yankees game on Friday night. That was so much fun! It was cool to see Mo-tab there. Actually in the days leading up to the game we ran into some of the members of the choir out on the streets of Manhattan. That was pretty neat. The event also provided a great opportunity to start conversations with people in the subways. Did you go to the game? How did you like the choir? That's our church! Haha. That was pretty cool. I love when the public eye gets a positive perspective of the Church, because there is just way too much out there that tries to put out a negative image. Sadly I hear the negative rumors quite often here. So to have this event was great! The game was pretty good too. The Yanks were struggling a bit for the first six innings. I don't know how many of you watched the game, but most of you  probably at least know what happened. I was bummed because Tanaka wasn't pitching too well. I was excited to see what all the buzz was about this new pitcher in his second season with us. Our offense was decent. Had a few good hits, but nothing really came of it. When I had to leave at nine o clock it was right after the sixth inning and the Yanks were down 3-0. Of course the next day I was asking people about the game and heard how it turned out. Sounds like it was pretty awesome! I wish we could have stayed for all twelve innings! Then on Saturday we had to be in the apartment an hour earlier than usual. One of our roommates is a missionary from Germany. He's been out for about eight months, and this was his first 4th of July! So we cooked some burgers and fries that we had bought from Cosco and tried to give him the most "American" experience we could without being able to catch fireworks. It was a lot of fun! However, the 4th just doesn't feel the same without fireworks. Next year! The work is going well in our area. We have a few pretty solid investigators that I'm excited about. Elder DeGraw is great, and we're having a lot of fun working together. This week it started to get very hot and muggy! I think my last four weeks in New York will probably be some of the hottest four weeks of the year. I remember being in Harlem last summer, and July was pretty brutal. Drinking lots of water these days and sweating it all out. As long as my short sleeve shirts can survive a few more sticky, sweaty weeks I'll be alright. Haha. Other than that I'm just getting ready to see you all soon! This is the most bittersweet time of my entire life. You've heard me say it before. Excited to come home to see you but sad to leave this great city and this amazing work. Hope you all are doing well. Love you! 

~Elder Allred

Five weeks to go!

It's fun to be back in Manhattan again. Elder DeGraw and I have seen some awesome things happening as we have begun working with each other here. We have on investigator named Christian. He's a 17 year old kid who is going into his senior year of high school this year. Actually Elder Coburn and his companion tracted into his door just a couple weeks before I came to Manhattan the first time. I had heard Elder Coburn talk about him a few times, so I already knew who he was. Then on Thursday, my first full day in the area, we went to visit him.  Apparently Elder DeGraw and his previous companion have been trying to get a lesson with him for months and nothing had worked out. Then my first day here we got in and had a wonderful lesson. The main topic of our conversation with him was the Savior, and he accepted a baptismal date in September! Awesome! He ended up being sick on Sunday, so he couldn't come to church. We went over again yesterday, though, and we brought one of the priest-aged young men in the ward. It's just so great to be involved in bringing people the message of the restored gospel. Christian is really excited about what we've been talking about and committed to start reading the Book of Mormon this week. We have another investigator named Vincent. Elder Coburn and I actually tracted into him when we were companions. He is in his 40's, so because we were in the YSA ward, we referred him to Elder DeGraw. Same story. He and his companion have been trying for a couple months to get in contact with him, and it hasn't worked. Then on Friday we had a great lesson with him. So many wonderful things happening. It's starting to get real now. With the way this week went by so fast it's starting to hit me. My mission is coming to a close very soon. It's a pretty sad thought to know that I will no longer be directly involved in bringing people the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love teaching the gospel, and I love to see the joy that it brings into the lives of those who accept it. At least I'm finishing out strong with wonderful people to teach. So grateful for that! Another big thing from this week was that we had a meeting yesterday at the temple. President and Sister Morgan flew home to Utah on Monday. A few hours before they flew out, President Smith flew into New York with his wife and three children. The meeting that we had yesterday was the first time that we got to meet President Smith and his wonderful family. They are so awesome! President Smith is very energetic and excited to serve. I am confident that he will fill President Morgan's shoes well and do a lot of good here. It's kind of sad actually that I only have a few weeks to serve under his leadership. I have absolutely no doubt that he was called by God to lead this mission at this time. As sad as it is that I won't be sent home by President Morgan, who I love more than words can express, I know that it was designed by the Lord that I would serve with President Smith for five weeks. I'm very excited for this weekend! Friday night is the Yankees game! Number 5 on my mission. How awesome is that? This is a great way for me to end my service as a missionary in New York. Watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform at a Yankees game. Is that  a coincidence? I don't believe it is. The event paints a perfect picture for what has happened in the last two years. A Yankees fan from small town Utah goes to serve his mission in New York City. I'll remember this night for years and years to come. I hope  you all have a wonderful week and a happy 4th of July!! Light off a firework for me! Love you all!!

~Elder Allred 

Six More Weeks in the City

The cost of discipleship is that you have to allow your will to be swallowed up in the Father's will. You have to give yourself up and let go of your desires, even if those desires are righteous. Sometimes we want good things, but the Father has better things for us. My desire was to finish my mission in Danbury. I love Danbury. The people here are amazing, and I will forever be grateful for the time that I've had to serve here. If the first few sentences of this email haven't given it away yet, I'll tell you what's going on. I'm being transferred again. We got the call on Saturday night. This one was a tough one for me to swallow.  Still is. When we got the news I was pretty upset. I was angry and hurt. This wasn't the way it was supposed to end. I was supposed to stay in Danbury, watch Brother Dan and his son be baptized, and come home rejoicing. I didn't understand why I couldn't just have that. Was that not a righteous desire? Would I not be able to serve the Lord well in this area for six more weeks? I didn't sleep very much on Saturday night. In fact, I crawled into bed still angry, hoping I would wake up in the morning feeling better about the whole thing. I woke up Sunday morning, still upset. It has taken me a few days to overcome my emotions. I've started to think about the Savior. Not comparing myself to Him, but did He not have a similar (much more intense) experience? When He was in Gethsemane, knowing that He would soon be crucified, and asked His Father if there was any way He could not go through with it. "Nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done". For a moment, He wanted to pull the plug on the whole thing, but He so quickly understood that His Father's will was much more important than His. He had agreed to be the Savior and fulfill the Plan of Salvation. He was on His Father's errand and wasn't there for Himself. I was being very hard-hearted and selfish when I was presented with this change. I've been reminded in the last few days that I'm not on a mission for myself. I didn't agree to serve a mission so that the whole thing could go my way. I did this to serve my Father, and I ought to be willing to do what He asks. I'm still sad about leaving Danbury. It breaks my heart. But at least now I have calmed down enough to realize what I need to do. There is a scripture in the Old Testament that has become a motto for me in the past few months as the homestretch of my mission has come with a lot of unexpected turns. Isaiah 55:8-9. His ways are always higher than our ways. The Lord had a purpose for me being in Danbury for six weeks. He has a purpose for me in the six weeks I will spend in my next area. I don't know when I will see or understand that purpose, but all I can do is put my trust in Him and move forward with faith. Now that you see a glimpse of how I feel about this transfer, I'll tell you where I'm going to finish my mission. I'll be in a family ward on the upper east of Manhattan, back in my last zone. My area boundaries are partially the same as what I was covering when I was in the YSA ward. Then I was covering the whole east side of the island. Now I'll just cover about 40 blocks North and South. I'm sure I will love the area and the people, and I'm quite sure it will be difficult for me to leave there in six weeks. One more thing I wanted to share with you guys this week. I finished reading the Book of Mormon this morning for the 5th time. Just as true as ever. I have a personal goal to read it again before I come home in six weeks. Last time I did a timed Book of Mormon read was when some of you joined me for the 120 day challenge, which I thought was amazing. Now I have to do it in just 42 days. You don't need to read along with me for this one. It will be a lot of reading, and I have the luxury of having an hour each morning to study the scriptures. I would encourage you to continue to read the Book of Mormon at your own pace each day. I promise you will be much happier if you do that. I'm excited to continue to allow this amazing book to change me for the better. Now we're on the last lap everybody. I'll see you in six weeks! This will be the shortest six weeks of our lives!! See you soon. Love you!

Temple trip

Hey everyone! 

Things are great here! The work has been awesome! I think this week's email might be the shortest one yet... we just got out of a temple session. I'm really happy about that, because I haven't  been in about four months. I can't imagine being in a mission that has no temple. We are so blessed here that we have one right here in Manhattan. It's seriously so easy to get to, and we get to go all the time. There is no better place to learn and feel the Spirit than in the temple. Now we have to head back up to Harlem and get an early start on our work tonight. We've had a hard time all week getting a baptismal interview scheduled for Kristina, and it finally worked out for today at four. Normally pday ends at six, but we're going to sacrifice a couple of hours today for the interview. As long as she is good to go for Saturday, I'm good! I hope you are all enjoying the 120 day challenge. We finally made it through the Isaiah chapters!! Haha. I still didn't understand a whole lot about what was going on, but I got a little more this time through than I ever have before. I love the chapters right after the Isaiah quoting finishes. Chapters 25 and 26 are the ones I just read yesterday and this morning. Nephi's testimony of the Savior is absolutely incredible. I can't wait to meet Nephi one day and talk to him face to face! He's an inspiring man. Anyway, that's about all the time I have this week. Everything is going well. Time is just flying too fast, and we're hitting some fall weather back here. Love you all. Have a great week! 

Elder Allred 

Halfway There!

Sorry I'm a bit late today. We had a zone activity this morning, and I didn't have time to email before it started. The activity was a ton of fun. We went to this place called Roosevelt Island. I may have told you about it a few weeks ago, because that's where we went for our zone activity last cycle too. Just in case, I'll tell you about it again. It's a little island in the East River about halfway up Manhattan. the way you get out to it is by a tram that lifts you right up next to the Queensboro Bridge, which connects Manhattan to Queens. It reminds me of riding the skylift at Lagoon or taking the lifts at a ski resort. The spot we found at the island was a super nice little field with trees surrounding it. You can see Manhattan on one side and Queens on the other. It's nice and quiet and peaceful and has an awesome view. If I had to live in New York City after my mission, Roosevelt Island wouldn't be a bad place to do it. You get the luxury of the quiet with the convenience of everything that New York City has to offer being so close. I'm sure the cost of living is a little bit above my budget though haha. It was a lot of fun to hang out there today! Also last Wednesday Elder Raine and I decided to to go down and see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was super cool. We only had about an hour to see stuff and didn't get to look at everything we wanted to, so we might end up going back in a couple weeks or something. I can never seem to get over the fact that I live in Manhattan. It's a  lot different than I ever would have expected it to be like, but I love it so much. Of course, when you think New York city your first thought isn't the ancient apartment buildings and projects of Harlem. It's seriously so much fun though. There's a lot that I will miss about this place when I have to leave. Hopefully I'll stay in Harlem for awhile. I don't think I could do it for much longer than two years. There's too much country in my blood haha. I definitely miss being able to see more than a few hundred yards in either direction, and a look at the Utah mountains is a foreign thought to me now. For now it's fun though. The work here is great, and I really enjoy meeting people from all over the world with all different backgrounds. This week has been pretty exciting. We got a new investigator that we tracted into named Noel who agreed to a baptismal date in our first visit. We're looking forward to helping him prepare for the 27th of September! Rafael and Kristina are still doing well. Kristina came to church for the first time for fast and testimony meeting on Sunday. She absolutely loved it! She said when she was listening to the testimonies she kept getting chills and almost crying. The Spirit was so strong in that meeting. I've seen a lot of progress in those two over the past two months, and I'm excited to see even more in the coming weeks. It seems weird to say that I've been here for two months already. It feels like I just left the Bronx. I have no clue where the time is going! Which brings me to my last point of this week's email. Of course you all know already, but tomorrow is my year mark! Seriously? Where in the world did that come from? It's kind of  crazy to be at this point in my mission. I'm reflecting on everything that has happened in the past twelve months, and it is a lot to think about.  Obviously the halfway point is huge for any missionary. You start thinking about all that you've done so far. All the people you've met. All the experiences you've had. All the things you've learned. Then when you're done thinking about that you start thinking about what's ahead. What areas you might serve in. What kind of people you have yet to meet. What kind of lessons you will continue to learn. It's so cool. I'm learning a lot about myself. Who I was, who I want to be, and who I would like to become. Sorry if I may have gotten a little cheesy with all of that, but I just couldn't think of how to express the feelings I'm having haha. But seriously, if I had to describe the past twelve months in a word that word would  be change. And if I had to describe how that "change" happened in a word that word would be "Atonement". Before my mission I thought I knew exactly what the Atonement was and what it could do. Now I can see that I had no idea what its capacity is and what kind of ability it has to affect our lives. The sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us gave us literally everything that we have. I think about the Atonement all the time. I talk about it to almost everyone I meet. It's just such an incredible thing to me. I've experienced the Atonement so frequently and so intensely since the day I put my name tag on a year ago. It has carried me through the twelve most difficult months of my entire life. It has guided, comforted and strengthened me. It has made me the man I am today, which is a much better man than you knew last August. If there is one thing that I will take from my mission it will be my knowledge and testimony of the Atonement. To me that principle is easily the most important of everything that we learn about in the church. Without the Atonement none of the rest of it would make sense. It just wouldn't work. It's the piece that holds it all together. I'm so excited to see what more I can learn about it in the coming year and to see how much better of a person I can become as I continue to allow it to influence my life. I have the unique opportunity to be writing to you today at the peak of my full time mission for the Lord. I've thought a lot about what I would say today, and there is one thing that I want you all to know. It's that the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for me, for you, and for everyone else who has ever lived or ever will live is real. He really did die and resurrect for us. Words can't express what kind of eternal value that has. I can feel His power in my life every single day. I would be nothing without Him. I want you all to know that Jesus Christ loves you. He knows you better than any other person anywhere does. He has a perfect understanding of who you are and what you need. He has experienced every last ounce of pain, sorrow, sadness, joy and triumph that you have or will in the future.  He has compassion for you, and He loves you beyond words. I would even venture to say that He loves you beyond human comprehension of emotion. I hope you all know that. No matter what you may think you have eternal value, and you are always loved. I hope you can all feel how much our older Brother means to me. I wouldn't be who I am today without Him. Have a fantastic week everyone. You are all amazing, and I love you probably more than you know. The strength and support you give me means more than I could explain. Thank you all for everything. Can't wait to give you all a big hug one year from now! 

Love, Elder Allred

Daily Bread

It's the last pday of the cycle, so Elder Hansen and I are going down to Manhattan today. Elder Hansen's last companion is Chinese, so we're gonna go down to Chinatown to see him. I've also heard they have incredible food down there. So, it should be fun! This week has been really good. I've been a little discouraged because we haven't been able to teach very much in the past few weeks. Not too discouraged, but a little bit. Missionary work is just so much more fulfilling and enjoyable when you have atleast one consistent investigator. Luckily, this week has changed that. We started getting a ton of media referrals. Those come as a result of a few different things. Either they got on mormon.org themselves and put in their information, or someone else put their information in without them knowing it. So, a good number of times when we try to contact these media referrals, they don't have any idea that we're coming and aren't actually interested. One of our new ones is really promising though! Her name is Theresita, and she lives in one of the projects in our area. We met with her for the first time on Saturday. I felt the spirit so strongly during that lesson. It was really incredible. She was so excited to have us over, and she kept saying that we were an answer to her prayers. So, she invited us to come back on Monday and teach her again. And we already have another appointment with her tonight! She's really just on fire and ready to learn as much as she can. After our first meeting, she was reading one of the pamphlets that we gave her, and it referenced a scripture in Alma. She said she was looking everywhere for it in her Bible, but she couldn't find it. She finally figured out that it wasn't in there and texted us Sunday night saying that she really needed us to bring her a Book of Mormon. So, I'm just really excited to be teaching her. There's one tricky thing that we'll have to deal with. After our meeting Saturday afternoon, she went and got baptized that night. In another church! Haha. Pretty crazy. So far, we've just been really supportive of her decision to do that. It seems to have been a real faith building experience for her, which is always good! We haven't told her yet that her baptism wasn't done with the authority of the Priesthood. She just doesn't know yet that she hasn't received the full truth and her full potential. We're gonna teach her about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Priesthood tonight, so it will definitely come up in that lesson. I'm excited to see where it goes with Theresita! We also started teaching a kid named Zahill this week. He's a young kid, about nine or ten years old. He and his mom live with his grandma, who is an active member. His mom isn't a member, but he's been a baptized member since September. So, we've just been going over the basic missionary lessons with him. It's been cool, because his mom sits in the other room and does her own thing, but she listens to the whole lesson. The other day, she even helped us explain to him what a word meant. So hopefully by us bringing the Spirit with a gospel lesson, she will feel it. The Spirit is good at catching people who aren't expecting to feel anything. I definitely saw that as we taught Declan, and Sister O'Grady came back to church with him. She didn't think she would ever be active again, but the Spirit did what it does best! Anyway, I just feel really blessed to have the opportunity to be teaching more. If you think of the story of Moses and the children of Israel, God provided them with manna so that they could be nourished and uplifted in the wilderness. There are a lot of things that provide me with "spiritual manna". I think the biggest one for me though is sharing my testimony with others. Being a missionary, I get that opportunity way more often than ever before, and it helps me so much! If you get the chance, watch the Mormon Messages "Daily Bread" and you'll know what I'm talking about here. There are three videos in the little series. I love them so much! Just go to mormonchannel.org or lds.org and you'll be able to find them. Things are great right now. The Bronx is awesome, and the weather is finally warming up a little! It was sixty degrees yesterday! It felt so nice. I had spring fever like crazy, and all I wanted to do was grab a mitt and throw a softball with someone. It's my favorite time of year. I can't believe transfers are next week. This cycle has flown by way too fast. It doesn't feel like it's been a month and a half since I left Newtown, and it definitely doesn't feel like seven months since I left home! I say it all the time, but the time really is flying.  It's kinda weird actually. Haha. I'm sure by the end of my mission, I will feel like I should still have six months left! Anyway, that's about it for this week. Have a great week everyone, and enjoy the warm weather that's on its way. Love you!!!

~Elder Allred