Tyler and Taylor

As you all know, today is transfers. Sadly my time in Poughkeepsie has come to an end. I wish that were an April fools joke. Poughkeepsie is an amazing place. I remember when I received my mission call and I looked at the mission boundaries online. Something about Poughkeepsie was so interesting to me. I remember just looking up pictures and information and wondering if I would serve here. I think that may have been the Lord preparing me for these past eighteen weeks. Poughkeepsie will always hold a very special place in my heart. I have come to know a loving God here more than I've ever known Him before. I have been a witness to incredible miracles, and it is absolutely undeniable that the Lord's hand was the main functioning mechanism in those miracles. What made Poughkeepsie so special was the people. The people here are amazing. English and Spanish. I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve among the Spanish people. I love them so much. I've learned so much about them. I couldn't really speak to them too much, but that didn't matter. What mattered was the Spirit that I felt as I was among them. The Holy Ghost speaks in a universal language that brings all people together. I will miss Poughkeepsie so much, and I'm really down about leaving. It's hard to say goodbye to a people and a place as special as these. I know, however that the Lord has a wise purpose in all things. He no longer needs me to be in Poughkeepsie. I have done what He needed me to do here, and I have personally progressed in the way He needed me to. Now He needs me in South Manhattan. Back to the city. There is a possibility that this will be the last area that I serve in on my mission. I only have three cycles left. It's very untypical that you serve in an area for only one cycle, so I think I will for sure be there for two. Unless I get transferred somewhere else for my final six weeks, I will end my mission in Manhattan. This will be a much different area than any that I've served in. I served in the city before, but I was in the Bronx and Harlem. Much different worlds than the wealthy part of the island at the bottom. The ward that I will be serving in is a young single adult ward. I've come to love the family wards that I've served in so much. This will be a wonderful experience for me. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and the people there. I almost forgot to mention my companion's name. Elder Coburn. I'm pretty sure Elder Coburn is from Manti, but I might be wrong about that. I'll know for sure soon enough. I haven't really served around him too much, but fro, what I hear he is a great missionary. I think that he and I will have a lot in common and will work great together. Change is good. It can be uncomfortable and can make us stretch, but it is good. I'm excited. I'm also incredibly excited for general conference this weekend! It will be my last general conference as a full time missionary. I can't wait to receive the revelation that the Lord has in store for me. If I don't email you back personally today, I apologize. Today is going to be a busy busy day, going from the very top of the mission in Poughkeepsie to the very bottom of the mission. I'll try to have more time to email next week. I love you all and have a very Happy Easter!!

-Elder Allred

Another Great Week

Another great week! This one went by super fast again. This whole cycle has gone by really fast. Glorias's baptism was on the first Saturday of the cycle, and it feels like that was just the other day. Now we're here at the end of the cycle. Next Wednesday is transfer meeting, so I'll find out on Saturday if I will be staying in Poughkeepsie for another six weeks or moving to a new area. I really want to stay, but I have a feeling I'll be getting transferred. Elder Wagner and I have already been together for twelve weeks. It's pretty uncommon for a companionship to stay together for more than two cycles. We'll see what happens. No matter what happens I know I will feel that familiar calm assurance that the Lord has a divine purpose. I've felt that way for fourteen different transfer calls now. His will is ALWAYS much greater than my will. That principle is true for everything in life. He knows much better than we might think we do. Anyway, I have loved my time in Poughkeepsie. Four and a half months has felt much too short. We've continued to see amazing miracles among the Spanish people. I think I may have written about a little Mexican family a couple weeks ago, Oscar and Cristina and their daughter. I can't remember if I wrote about them or not. Anyway we found them tracting a couple months ago. We found them at the perfect time, right when they were ready to receive messengers of the Lord. Just a few days before we knocked on their door they had lost almost everything they owned in a fire in their apartment building. Sorry if you've already heard that story, but it has all just been amazing. They're so incredibly humble and open. They came to church for the first time on Sunday! Cristina also brought her sister who was there with her son. So we had a whole family of five at church! The ward was so excited to see them. Especially the Spanish people. There aren't too many active Spanish members. The regular sacrament meeting attendance is about 80 people with maybe 5-10 of those being Spanish. So they were so happy to see more Spanish people there. It may sound like a broken record, but I love the Spanish people. I love them so much! Well that's about it for now. Kind of a short email this week. I love you all! Have a great week! 

~Elder Allred 

Still working on Spanish

Hey family!

This week has been great! We've seen a lot of success with the Spanish people lately. The English work has been a little bit down. Since Joe and Gloria got baptized we haven't really had any progressing investigators in our English teaching pool. So we've been knocking a lot of doors with whatever extra time we have. We have some good potentials that have come from that effort, but nobody too solid yet. I do love the Spanish people. We met with a little Mexican family for the second item the other night, and they are just so awesome. It's a young couple named Oscar and Kristina, and they have a cute little five year old daughter named Katie. Elder Wagner and I found them tracting a few weeks ago. At the time they had just lost almost everything they owned due to a fire in their apartment building. They are are so humble and just have a wonderful spirit about them. I wish I could communicate with them. It's kind of frustrating sometimes to just have to sit in lessons and say nothing. I'm trying to learn a little bit, but I still can't really say much. I've gotten pretty good at saying prayers in Spanish, so I've been able to do that a little bit. I only really started practicing my Spanish about three weeks ago. I wish I would have started when I first came to this area. I bet I would be able to talk a little bit by now. Now I'll probably get transferred soon and I won't have too much ability by the time I leave. Oh well. I'm still so grateful that the Lord had allowed me to serve here with the wonderful Spanish people. We had a zone conference yesterday, which was awesome! Zone conference happens once every three or four months. It's a meeting where several zones get together and receive training from President Morgan, his assistants, and some other speakers. This time we got to hear from President Checketts. He is the Stake President of the Yorktown Stake. That was the first stake that I served in when I was in Newtown, so it was cool to see him again. He's a great leader and an exemplary priesthood man. He talked to us about being all the way focused on the mission and fully dedicating your time and effort to serving the Lord. He shared with us some stories from the mission he served in Los Angeles as a young man. I'm always amazed at how much people treasure times from their missions. Great men and women who have done so much good in their lives consider their missions their greatest accomplishments. I remember when I was at the MTC and Richard G Scott spoke to us in a devotional about how every good thing in his life is a direct result of the mission he served as a young man. This is an apostle, and he considers his mission the greatest service he has ever given. It's so awesome. A full time mission is a very special thing, and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve one. Well there's not too much else from this week. Everything is great. Just trying to enjoy every moment of the time I have left! I love you all, and have a wonderful week!

-Elder Allred

Elder Wagner

Hello family! A lot of change this week! Elder Romo went home on Friday, which was pretty sad. He was a really good companion. I felt like our five weeks together was way too short. I learned a lot from him though, and I'm grateful for the time that we had to serve together. For the past few days  I have been working in a trio with Elder Burton and Elder L'Esperance, the other elders that are assigned to the Poughkeepsie 2nd Ward. I think I might have told you all of that last week, but I couldn't remember. Anyway, here's something new. My new companion will be Elder Wagner! He actually came out in the same cycle that I did. I saw him in the mission home the first night, and I don't remember seeing him much ever since then. We haven't served around each other at all. I may have seen him at the Christmas Devotionals or something, but that's pretty much the only time we would have been in the same place at the same time.  Anyway, the point is I don't really know him. I'm excited to get to know him and work with him! I've heard really good things about him. He got called to the Spanish speaking program, which is good. We really need it here. Since Elder Romo left we haven't been able to visit any of our Spanish people. So it will be good to be able to go visit them again. Elder Romo also had a big responsibility in the ward. None of the members know Spanish and English well enough to translate for the Spanish members. All of the meetings are in English, and there is a small handful of members who don't speak English at all. So Elder Romo has been the translator for the ward. Not having him there on Sunday made it kind of tough. So it will be really good to have Elder Wagner here! Anyway, transfer day is always crazy! So I will send you a longer email next week to update you on how our investigators are doing and everything. I"m doing well! Loving Poughkeepsie! I hope that I stay here for a while. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! 

~Elder Allred

Mucho Gusto!

Hey family!
First thing is that I'm sorry I wasn't able to do much emailing last week. My day was pretty crazy. Left the apartment in Harlem at about 8 am to go to the city transfer meeting at a chapel in North Manhattan. Then I left from there at probably like 12:30 to go to the upstate transfer meeting in Ossining, NY. We arrived in Ossining right in the middle of a snow storm. So by the time the upstate transfer was over at about 4 we needed to start on the hour long drive to Poughkeepsie which didn't leave me much time to email you guys. So if I left any of you hanging or with unanswered  questions I'm sorry! Anyway, Poughkeepsie is great! Elder Romo is awesome. He is nearing the end of his mission now, so he will go home in about four weeks. Hopefully we can have some fun and get some good work done before that happens. We're getting along really well. I've known him since the very beginning of my mission when I was in Newtown and he was serving in the Spanish Ward in the neighboring town of Danbury. The zone leader area here in Poughkeepsie has to have at least one Spanish speaking elder because there is no Spanish Ward in Poughkeepsie. However, there are a few Spanish members of the church here and some investigators who speak Spanish.  So some of the lessons we teach are all in Spanish and I pretty much just sit there and try not to fall asleep while Elder Romo teaches. Haha. I've been getting pretty good at praying in Spanglish, and I know a few phrases now. The other day we were eating lunch that a Spanish member prepared for us, and I looked at her and said "Mucho gusto!" Apparently what I said to her was, "Nice to meet you." What I meant to say was, "Me gusto mucho." Which would essentially mean, "I like the food a lot!" She understood that I don't speak Spanish and that I was trying. It was really funny though! We live in a small town just north of Poughkeepsie called Hyde Park. Elder Romo and I live in an apartment all by ourselves. It's quiet but nice. I'm definitely way more in my element here than in the city. Driving around the small towns up here reminds me of Nephi and Ephraim and makes me realize how grateful I am for the country life. I'm happy to be here! We're also plenty busy. We have a few pretty consistent investigators that we're working with who you will hear lots more about  as I get to know them better. Thanksgiving was great! We had dinner with a family in the ward. We were at their house for close to five hours. We ended up playing chess and just chilling. It was nice to kind of kick back and relax a little, especially after the crazy day we had the day before. A couple other families had us over for pie afterwards. So no need to worry. I was well taken care of! Although nobody had my favorite chocolate cream pie it was a great day! Haha. And my birthday was great too! I got all of the packages and everything the day before, so thank you all so much! You're the best! Well that's about it for now. Life is great! It's nice to slow down a little bit again and take some deep breaths. Living in the city for almost a year wore me out! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you're all doing well. Love you!! 

Elder Allred

El Libro de Mormon es verdad. Es verdad.

 Hey everyone! Life is good here in the Bronx. We're only two weeks away from another transfer. Typically you will stay in an area for no more than three or four cycles. Since I've already been here for three, the possibility of me leaving is getting pretty high. You never know though. My trainer was in Newtown for six cycles. I kind of hope to stay for one more. I love the Bronx so much! That would mean that half of my mission would be spent in just two areas. I guess only time will tell. I'll find out next Saturday whether I will be transferring or not. For now, I'm just trying to enjoy the last couple weeks of this cycle. The other missionaries that I'm working with are awesome. We have a lot of fun, especially with the guys that are in the apartment that I live in. I've become really good friends with Elder Kohli. I'll be really sad to see him go home. That's just how it works I guess. Before you know it, that will be me scrambling in my last two weeks of full time service. 

I went to a meeting in Scarsdale this week called Mission Leadership Council (MLC). That's once a month, and usually zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders go to receive instruction from President Morgan and the APs on how they want the mission to be led. Two or three times  a year, the District Leaders are invited as well, and this month just happened to be one of those times. They will usually also introduce any big announcements for what's coming up in the mission. They talked about details for a mission tour that we are having tomorrow and Friday. A mission tour is where a General Authority comes and stays in the mission home and speaks to all of the missionaries. This usually happens once a year for the mission. This year , Elder Steven E Snow will be visiting our mission. So, I will spend most of the day tomorrow in Manhattan at the temple for that meeting. Then on Saturday and Sunday, Elder Snow and President Morgan will attend the Westchester stake conference, which is the stake that the Bronx wards are in. Our Stake President, President Taylor, is moving back to Utah, so he will be released and the stake will be getting reorganized. I'm really excited for stake conference, because it will be held at the Yorktown chapel in Ossining. It will take me back to my days of serving up there. The other big announcement is even more exciting. President Morgan is arranging for the whole mission to go to the Yankees vs Rays game on July 2nd!!! I was going to email him soon to try and get permission, but now everyone is going! Do I not have the coolest mission in the world? As hard as it is to be a missionary, I almost feel like I'm on vacation sometimes. President Morgan lets us do some really cool things. So, be watching the game July 2nd to see about 250 white shirts and ties. the Lord knows me so well, and He's pretty darn good to me. I have one cool story before I wrap it up. When I got back from MLC, I was with Elder Hausenfluck, because he is the other District Leader in our zone. He's a Spanish speaking missionary, so we went to some Spanish appointments. I've picked up a little bit of Spanish here but not a whole lot. So, I was pretty much just sitting there not understanding the conversation. I tried to pick up a few words as he was teaching one of their investigators. From what I could gather, I knew they were talking about the Book of Mormon. I had the strongest prompting from the Spirit that I needed to speak up and say something. So, I pulled what I could from my Spanish vocabulary of about twenty words and was able to utter my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I said "Yo tengo fe en El Libro de Mormon. El Libro de Mormon es verdad. Es verdad." Which translates to I have faith in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is true. It's true." That was one of the most powerful experiences I've had on my mission. Listen to promptings from the Spirit. They will always touch someone. You or someone else. Following those promptings is so important and will always increase your spirituality. I love feeling the Spirit and being guided in the Lord's work by His hand. It really is an incredible thing to be a part of. Life is good! I'm happy and healthy and bracing myself for the long, hot, and humid summer! Love you guys! Have a great week! 

~ Elder Allred