Week 22: Is It Christmas yet?

Pic in front of a dope wall!

Yo everyone!

It's been such a bomb week out here in New York! The work is moving along and it's even better with the holidays coming up! We're playing Christmas music all the time so you could say we're ready for it haha. 

So last Wednesday after we played sports and did everything else we needed to do, we went by GNC and I finally grabbed myself some pre workout so I'm not dying when I lift in the mornings. We've been going pretty hard with working out morning and night which is awesome cause it's the best stress reliever ever. Also update, we didn't bring the bench into our place because we were scared there were bed bugs on it 😂 but, we did end up giving the lady we met a Book of Mormon so that was awesome!

We had a super cool lesson with M___ and her family on Thursday, and ended up inviting them to pray about a baptismal date for December 30. They said they would and loved the lesson we shared about the plan of salvation. I seriously love teaching about the plan of salvation, like how cool is it that we have the chance to live with our families forever! It's so awesome, and literally is the coolest thing to see how people light up when you explain it to them.

View outside of the chapel in Kingsbridge

On Friday we had interviews with President Smith and they were super good. We talked a lot about what my goals for my whole mission are, and what I want to be at the end. I had never really thought about that before, so a lot of my studies this week have been focused on that! It's so crazy to look that far ahead, but I've got a pretty good idea now of what I want to see myself as. It's wild too how fast this is going! Hit my 5 month mark two days ago! It kind of sucks how fast it goes cause I really don't wanna leave all the awesome people I've met in Hunts Point, but who knows, I might end up staying in this area for a while!

Saturday we had a freaking awesome experience. We were visiting our dude Francisco, and he has been having some big medical issues. He was super positive though and we got to talking about family history and the temple. He said that elders had tried finding his mom and dad through family search and stuff but never could find any info. In 5 minutes of looking, I found a marriage certificate for his parents, and a birth certificate for his mom and her parents! It was so crazy! I showed him and he was seriously almost crying he was so happy. He just kept saying "que lindo!" and smiling super big. It was such a cool experience and now we all have the motivation to keep looking for his family members and take their names to the temple this month.

 Elder Gomez attempted to make a collage of me and the BoM lol

Also on Saturday, we went to meet up with R___! This guy is legit like the coolest guy ever. I seriously would hang out with him outside of the mission every day haha. He wants to come to Idaho and just chill with me for a week, so we're planning out a trip for him to come to the west. But, we went over to teach him about repentance and the importance of it, and his brother ended up being there. He's been away from the church for a long time but loves it so much, and knows just about everything. We showed a video and talked about how awesome the atonement is, and he was feeling the spirit big time. He and R___ came to church together the next day which was so awesome! These guys are like my brothers out here its sweet. They took us out to seis vecinos that night too and bought us baleadas which were sooooo money. They're basically soft tacos but with these special beans and stuff, and from Honduras. They are like my new favorite food haha. Oh yeah and R___ just bought a super nice Audi A6 so he gave us a ride home in it, and our roommates saw us get out of it and were like what the heck is going on?! It was hilarious 😂 

Sunday was awesome because we had M____ and her family come to church! It was a super good fast and testimony meeting, and I really think her kids liked the classes. We're hoping to bring the kids to mutual on Friday if it's not too cold. We also went over to N____house that night and watched the Joseph Smith movie which is like the coolest ever. 

Cool sunset over Harlem

Alright last experience! So we went to our investigator named I___'s house yesterday to teach him about the apostasy and restoration of the Priesthood and really have him pray about it. We showed a video and he loved it, and his girlfriend really liked it too. He said he would continue reading and praying, but he has some pretty deep catholic roots so he's pretty hesitant to change that. But, we were talking after the lesson a little bit about their trip to Pennsylvania and he invited us to go with him this weekend haha 😂 We told him we couldn't because it wasn't in the mission, but then he said that he wants me to come and visit him with my family when I come back to New York after the mission. Super cool guy! He also invited us to a Thanksgiving lunch with a bunch of his family! He legit is like the nicest guy ever, so cool.

 Dope Derek Jeter jerseys that me and Elder Stevens got

There was a super cool quote by President Uchtdorf I found this week that says "Let God open your eyes. Let Him give you a new heart. Standing in His light, you will be able to navigate the course of your life." I know that as we seek to follow Him, we can feel and recieve that light and that love that He has for us. Hope you all have a super good week!

Love,

Elder Allen