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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 

#SharetheGift

Life is good here in Poughkeepsie! Elder Romo and I had an awesome week! We're getting along really well . Having a lot of fun and going some good work. I don't even know where the past two weeks went. Now Elder Romo only has three more weeks until he goes home. It will kind of be a bummer when he leaves but I'm excited to continue working with him for a few more weeks. Our area is great. We're always really busy and have plenty of opportunities to teach, which is a big blessing. A lot of missionaries think that areas upstate out of the city are tough and kind of make it an excuse to not work hard and to settle for less than they can do. Luckily that's not the case for us here. We're both working hard and seeing blessings. We had one cool experience with a less active yesterday that I'd like to tell you about. His name is Harvey. His aunt is an active member who we visit every Tuesday for lunch. (The same one who I said "mucho gusto" to last week haha). Anyway she told us that he could use a visit, so on Monday we dropped by. He wasn't home, but his wife answered the door. She took our number and said she would tell him that we came by. This happens often. We give someone our number and they say they'll call. In my experience they usually don't ever call. So, we didn't think much of it. Didn't think he would call and just kind of shrugged it off, hoping we could drop by again next week. Well, at about five o clock yesterday we got a call from Harvey. He told us his wife relayed the message to him and that he wanted us to come and visit. We asked if he was free at six thirty and he said yes! So we went over and had a great visit with him. He's from Peru (which happens to be where Elder Romo is from) and speaks Spanish. So I didn't really get to say much. I understood parts of the conversation but couldn't get the whole thing. My understanding of the Spanish language is a lot more than it was before my mission but still not enough to communicate. So I asked Elder Romo afterward how it went. He said that Harvey told him he has been feeling guilty for some of the mistakes he has made and started this week to pray for help. We showed up right on time! Now Harvey wants us to visit often and help him, and he wants his non-member wife to learn about the church. Is it coincidence that we showed up when he needed us most? No. I am convinced that there is no such thing as coincidence in the work of the Lord. He directed us to Harvey right when he needed us. The Lord has His hand in what I'm doing every single day, and it's amazing when I get to see that as clearly as I did from this experience with Harvey. I love being a missionary. I'm also really enjoying my new calling as zone leader. It's been a bit of an adjustment for me. I was a district leader in Harlem for over four months, so I was pretty comfortable with my responsibilities in that calling. One thing I've learned is that when you get comfortable, the Lord doesn't let you stay comfortable for long. If that were the case we would be missing the purpose of progression in this life. So it's good that I'm adjusting to something new. I'm learning a lot and trying to figure out how I can lead the missionaries in my zone well. I had a great opportunity to learn on Friday. Usually the last Friday of each month the mission has a mission leadership council (MLC). The purpose of MLC is so that President Morgan, his assistants, the zone leaders and the sister training leaders can meet together and council on the needs of the mission. November's MCL got pushed back a week so we went to Scarsdale on Friday to attend that meeting. It was really cool! We actually had the opportunity to have Elder Anthony D Perkins from the First Quorum of the Seventy in that meeting with us. He is a spiritual powerhouse. Since he visited our mission I studied the talks he has given in general conferences. I really enjoyed his talk from the October 2006 general conference, "The Great and Wonderful Love". I learned so much from his teaching, and it was a really cool experience to be that close to a general authority. We also had some other awesome visitors. Elder Allen, who is the head of missionary work in the entire world and a team of five other church leaders in the missionary department joined us. They talked to us about the He is the Gift initiative. The team is actually the one that worked on this project and brought it before the Quorum of the Twelve. They are visiting New York City because a lot of the focus for this initiative is in this area. The Church has purchased space is Times Square and on public transportation to advertise this initiative. If any of you haven't heard of He is the Gift yet you should definitely check it out. The main part of the initiative is a video about Christmas and how Christ was the first gift. 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

You can also search #SharetheGift to see what people are posting about it on social media. I love the video, and we're trying to use it a lot in our teaching and finding efforts. The way that the church is using social media is so cool! I'm so grateful to be a missionary during this exciting and historical time in the church. Anyway, that's about it for this week. Life is good! I'm loving it and just trying to soak in every minute of the time that I have left to serve the Lord full time. I hope you are all doing well. I'm so grateful for each one of you, and I love you with all my heart!

~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

Puh-kip-see

 Sister Kovac, whose Mom is a friend of Elder Allred's Mom

Sister Torres, who is Elder Allred's cousin Kylie's  BFF since they were teeny little girls:) 

Big week! So as most of you probably know... today is another transfer day. I'll just cut right to the news. I'm being transferred out of Harlem! President Morgan called me at about 9:45 Saturday night and told me that I would need to pack my bags. He also informed me that I would be released as a district leader and that he is calling me to be a zone leader. So I will be going to Poughkeepsie, NY, to be a zone leader with Elder Romo. A mixture of emotions filled me after I got that news. I'll explain a few. Sadness: I love Harlem so much! As you can tell from the emails that I've sent since coming here, I've had some incredible experiences and really feel like I've fulfilled my missionary purpose here. The people I've met are incredible. It was so hard to say goodbye to them over the past few days. Just so many amazing people. Members in the ward that I really look up to. Investigators. Other missionaries. Little pieces of my heart are scattered all throughout Harlem. Excitement: change is always exciting! I know that there are new opportunities to learn and progress just waiting for me in Poughkeepsie. It will be kinda nice to be out of the fast paced and tiring lifestyle of the city. I love it here, but it has for sure made me tired. I could use a slow down, and I'm excited to get back into a taste of the quiet country life. Nervousness: being a zone leader is a huge responsibility. I will be expected to train and help a lot more missionaries now. The effect that a zone leader has on his missionaries is incredible. I will need to learn to lead by example and love. I know that I am capable. That's why the Lord is calling me to do it. It will be a challenge though, and there will be a lot on my shoulders. I let my weaknesses scare me a little bit too much sometimes. Anyway, these are just a few of the feelings that I've had over the weekend. There are several more! It's just been so crazy and busy! Packing up your whole life and moving on a three day notice leaves you with a lot to do in a little amount of time. I will miss Harlem so much! This place will always be a special and sacred place to me. Some other news is that my roommate/zone leader, Elder Smith, was called to serve as an assistant to President Morgan. He and I are really good friends. We came to Harlem together and have lived in the same apartment for almost six months. I'm excited to have him leading the mission, and I will be able to continue working closely with him since I will be serving as a zone leader. Zone leaders have pretty frequent contact with the assistants. I'm ready for what is ahead in the next part of my mission! I know that I will see miracles in Poughkeepsie! Elder Romo is a great guy too. I've know him since the beginning of my mission. We were in the same zone when I started in Newtown and again in the same zone when I went down to the Bronx. Really good friend of mine. So I'm excited to see the work that we will be able to do together. Anyway, life is great! I love the mission so much! It's really scary how fast it is slipping through my fingers now, but I'm just trying not to think about it and continue serving the Lord the best I can. I hope you all have  a wonderful Thanksgiving and that the Cowboys lay down a good beating on Philly! I love you!!!! 

~Elder Allred 

Brrrr!!

Hey everyone! We've had an awesome week here in Harlem! The Sisters that serve in the YSA Ward had two baptisms! One on Saturday and one on Sunday morning. So many amazing things happen here, and I get to be a first hand witness to it all. I love it! When a convert gets baptized, they are usually interviewed by the district leader or a zone leader. In special cases they are interviewed by the mission president. I had the opportunity to interview both of these people, and it was such a cool experience for me. Elder Raine and I are doing pretty well. I've been a little frustrated the past couple of weeks. After Rafael, Kristina and Noel and got baptized we were left with no progressing investigators. So for the past couple weeks we've been working extra hard and trying like crazy to find new people to teach. I've been kind of a bum about it and Elder Raine has heard my complaining all of this week. I had an experience on Sunday that was very humbling for me though. Rafael and Kristina haven't been able to come to church since Rafael's baptism. This week they showed up early and worked on family history before church started! Then they stayed for the meetings. The whole sacrament meeting was about temples and gospel principles class was about temples and family history. It was so cool. Just the perfect day for them to keep them excited and progressing in the gospel. I say that this experience was humbling because it made me realize something very important. I've been so worried about not having any investigators preparing for baptism that I wasn't acknowledging the blessings that God has given to us. I wasn't even thinking about how amazing Rafael, Kristina and Noel are and how we are still fully engaged in the work of bringing people to Christ as we prepare them to go to the temple. It was a bit of a wake up for me. I still wish we had atleast one solid investigator, but my perspective is different now as I'm trying to take each day with an "attitude of gratitude" rather than one of complaint and negativism. One more cool thing from Sunday was from Bishop Kelly. In case I hadn't mentioned it before, I look up to that man so much. I've learned some amazing lessons from watching his humble service as the bishop in Harlem. Not a very easy position to hold. He takes it so humbly though, and the and the people here trust him so much. I hope that when I come back home and have callings in the church, I will be able to serve half as well as I've watched Bishop Kelly serve here. Anyway, after the two speakers were done in sacrament meeting, Bishop Kelly took the last ten minutes or so and said a few words. He talked about the temple and how important it is for all of us. He spoke specifically to recommend holders, those who are currently unworthy or don't hold a recommend, recent converts, and young people preparing to enter the temple. So pretty much everyone, but he wanted to make sure everybody felt included. What he said was really powerful. He posed a question, "What do you need to do in order to prepare for the temple?" I loved his answer. He said that in order for all of us to prepare to enter the temple (whether we currently hold a recommend or not) we need to learn about, understand, and apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Loved it!  If we feel the effects the Atonement can have on us, we will feel clean and worthy enough to enter into the house of the Lord. I'm grateful that Bishop Kelly said that. It was definitely an inspired message for the saints in Harlem, including me, to hear. Well, that's about it this week. Saturday night is shot calls! So I will find out if I'm staying in Harlem or leaving. I've been here for quite a while so I imagine I will be getting transferred. I"ll be happy either way. I love Harlem so much! I could stay here for the rest of my mission and be perfectly happy. Change is always good and exciting though. We'll see! I'll let you know next Wednesday. Well I hope you are all happy and well! Love you! 

~Elder Allred

Riken and the Plan of Salvation (November 12 email)

Hello family!

We had zone conference yesterday, which was awesome! President and Sister Morgan focused all of their messages toward the Savior. Sister Morgan's talk invited us to ponder how well we "Know the Shepherd". So throughout the holiday season we will be thinking about Christ and studying a lot about His life! We naturally kind of do that more around Christmastime anyway, but I think this year there will be even more of an emphasis on it. I have a feeling this holiday season is going to be really special. It's my final one as a missionary, and it's also President and Sister Morgan's final one. They will return home to Sandy, UT about a month and a half before my mission comes to an end. Anyway, I'm excited for the season. By next Saturday, I will find out where I will be spending my birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. There's a pretty good chance it won't be in Harlem, because I've already been here for four cycles, and and I've been with Elder Raine for three of those four. We'll see what happens! I did have one really cool experience teaching this week. Elder Raine and I were over at Rafael and Kristina's on Monday night. After someone gets baptized, they need to be taught all of the lessons over again to review and make sure they have a basic understanding of it all. So, we're teaching them about the Plan of Salvation, which is usually one of the more difficult lessons to teach, but this time it was really easy and going really well. Right when we were just about to start talking about what happens during our life here on Earth, Rafael noticed that the background on my iPad was a picture of Riken. He pointed it out right in the middle of the lesson and said that he was a cute kid. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to talk about Riken for a minute and to show him off a little bit, like I always do haha. So I showed them a couple of pictures and talked about how much I love the little guy. You might initially think that took us off track a little but and distracted us from the lesson. In reality, it did the opposite! I was able to talk about how Riken is just beginning to grow and learn. To learn how to use his body. To learn how to talk and walk and run. To learn how to be funny and express his emotions. To learn how things work in the world. I related that to all of our experiences here on earth. Just like Riken is growing, learning, and progressing, so are all of we as we live in this part of our Heavenly Father's plan. It was perfect! Never thought I would be able to talk about Riken (Which is something I do a lot) and teach a missionary lesson at the same time. It was really cool. One of the best Plan of Salvation lessons I've ever taught on my mission. Anyway, life is good! The mission is great! Love you guys!!

~Elder Allred

Happy Halloween from Harlem

I found some funny Halloween stuff when I went on a split with one of the elders in my district yesterday! 

Hello family! 

Everything is good here in Harlem! The cold weather is just around the corner, and I'm starting to feel it already. On Sunday it got pretty chilly, and I actually busted out my winter jacket and my scarf. The last couple days haven't been too bad though. I'm sure we'll see snow before the next transfer at the end of November. The work is going pretty well. Rafael, Noel and Kristina are all doing well. We're working with all of them to try to get them to the temple soon. Noel and Rafael still need to get the priesthood before they can go. One step at a time! We're working with a guy named William. Elder Raine and I contacted him a couple of weeks ago, and we've taught him a few times. He's pretty active in another local Christian church, so he hasn't been able to come to church yet. Hopefully soon! We're also teaching a Jamaican couple named Lindsay and Annette tonight. They're awesome. I don't know if I've mentioned their names in any of my emails before. About three months ago they lost their eight year old son to cancer. We actually met Annette through another Jamaican lady that we contacted on the street right after Elder Raine got here. This little family has been in my prayers pretty frequently for a while now. We've been trying to set up a time that we could come over and teach them, but it just hasn't worked out yet. Hopefully all will go well tonight! Other than that, there's only really one announcement from this week. On Sunday we found out that our Ward Mission Leader, Brandon, got called into the Bishopric of the Harlem Spanish Ward, so he got released from his calling and will no longer be serving with us. I was pretty down all day Sunday after finding out about that. I have learned so much in my time serving with Brandon.  He's just so dedicated to serving the Lord, and he's been incredibly helpful in our efforts. We also lost our Elders Quorum President this week, because he got called to serve on the High Council. He has also done a lot to help us in the work. It's sad to see these good men go. I've learned a lot from both of them. After a lot of thinking, though, I've come to the realization that they have been called to serve in other callings for a reason. The work of the Lord is always moving forward, and sometimes that means that people who have blessed a lot of lives in a certain calling need to move on to bless the lives of others in a different calling and capacity. My only worry is that they'll take Bishop Kelly away from us next haha. The good ones always go fast. Anyway, I'm grateful for the examples of the faithful brothers and sisters that I've been able to serve with in each ward that I've been in. I've learned so much from so many humble examples of Christlike service. I hope that one day when I return from my mission and serve in different callings in the church, I can serve with the same kind of love and devotion as some of these good people that I've mentioned. I'd like to end this week by highlighting something in my Book of Mormon reading. This week we were reading about the end of Alma the Younger's time in Alma Chapters 36-42. Right before he died, he talked one on one with each one of his sons and gave them personal counsel to remember after he was gone. I started thinking about how much I've learned from my father and about how the things he taught me growing up prepared me to go out on my own. I'm so grateful for that. Then I started thinking about how one day, I might have sons to teach and prepare. What do I need to do now in order to have a positive influence on them like Alma had on his sons? Or like my Dad has had on me? God places all of us in the families that we need to be in in this life. We are to support each other and prepare each other for the challenges that we will each individually face in life. I'm grateful that God chose to place me in a family with all of you. Each person who is reading this email right now has played  a major role in my life and has had more impact than you probably realize. Thank you for everything that you have done and continue to do for me. I love you with all of my heart!