Week 25: Livin in Harlem!

The REAL Santa! 

First week down in Harlem! Man it’s been such a packed week, but we’ve seen some super awesome stuff. I can already tell this area is gonna be sweet! 

Okay so basically the first few days we just went around to all the people that the elders here were teaching before I came so I could introduce myself, and that all went good. Basically just saying hi to people and pulling the classic “oh no way you’re from Mexico so am I what part?!” which always makes them laugh haha. But sometimes they actually believe me so that’s no bueno and I have to let them know that I’m actually just the white guy from Idaho. But all the people I have met so far have been super cool, and the ward here is dope so I’m so excited for this area!

We had a super cool experience on Wednesday night. So we went and met a super solid family in the ward, and just had some dinner and got to know them. Then we ended up going to the Harlem hospital with them, because the dads brother apparently had gotten into a pretty bad accident and had been in a coma until the missionaries that were here before I came gave him a blessing, then he woke up a few days later. We got there and the guy wasn’t looking to good, and could only move like the right side of his body. He couldn’t talk either, but we said hello to him, and then the dad asked me to give him a blessing. That was probably one of the cooler blessings I have given on my mission. I didn’t even know the guy, but I could literally feel God’s love for him and said what God wanted him to hear. So cool!

We had another awesome experience this week with an investigator whose mom is a member. Apparently the elders here have been trying to get him to church forever. We had a lesson with him on Friday and just talked to him and then read Alma 42, but replaced all the “my son” references with his name. It really helped him apply the scriptures to himself which was pretty cool. After the lesson we just talked for a while and his mom came in, and I ended up talking to her for like 10 minutes just about people in the Olmstead ward because that’s the one she used to go to! And the best part is, both of them came to church this Sunday for the first time in forever! 

Baptism!

I had a baptism! Saturday, Maite, Johnathan and Carlos got baptized and president Smith let me go back to the Bronx for it! I was so hyped! I gave a little talk on baptism for it, and when they were all baptized I felt the spirit like crazy. They are the coolest family ever and I am so happy I had the opportunity to find them and then get them baptized! Their cousin actually got the chance to baptize them too right before he heads off to Honduras this next week so that was super cool. The kids ran up when they saw me and hugged me for a good 2 minutes straight haha those guys are awesome. Definitely a pit stop I’m going to make when I visit NY again! 

Baptism Round 2!

On Monday we went to go look up some people, and on the way we helped a lady bring some groceries up this huge hill to her apartment building. We got all of her information and she said she would really be interested in meeting with us or the English elders, and then right when we left our ancient phone freaked out because it’s so messed up and deleted all the info we had just gotten, and we couldn’t get to her door because the security guard won’t let random people in. To make matters worse, our look up we did straight up lied to our face and then as soon as we left they started using some choice words to describe us to their friends that were there. We kept going on to the next look up though, and went to find this lady named Maria. We were waiting outside the door to get let in by her, when this kid walks up and opens the door and asks who were looking for. We tell him Maria and he’s like, oh yeah that’s my mom! We were super confused because he wasn’t Hispanic but we went anyways. She ended up being a old lady from Czechoslovakia, that didn’t speak any Spanish but as soon as she saw us she started yelling “oh church people come in Come in!” So we went in, and found out that she has really bad cancer. She had just gotten home from chemo, and apparently has lost like 35 lbs in the last month or two. Her son has special needs and is 21 and super nice, and her other son that let us in is trying to help provide for her and go to school at the same time. Their house didn’t have like anything in it, just the bare necessities. Beds, a desk, a dresser, and a super humble kitchen. We talked with them about their lives and got to know the 21 year old better, asking him what he likes to do and just laughing a lot with him. He loved the jokes I was telling him, so that definitely helped make him comfortable with us. We showed them Prince of Peace, and I just lost it. I was standing back from the rest of them so they could see the video, and I just was looking around their house. It was so humble, yet they seemed so happy and just like nothing was wrong. It definitely taught me to have more humility. There’s just a lot of things you see on your mission that change your perspective honestly. This was definitely one of them. Sometimes you just wish you could do more for people, but I know that sharing the gospel with them is going to help them the most! They’re so cool, and even though it wasn’t the maría we were looking for, we ended up finding and having such an awesome experience with them.

Me and Elder Gomez before I left the Bronx...we printed this off and gave to families we taught!

I just wanna finish up with a cool quote I heard this week “I have realized that is sometimes our condition as mortals to feel as though we are surrounded by darkness. Even though we might feel lost, God promises to illuminate the way before us, no matter how long it takes.” If we’re ever feeling down, lost, surrounded by darkness, there’s always going to be a light provided by our loving heavenly father!

Love you all so much! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Adam Ray Allen
New York New York North Mission
700 White Plains Rd Ste 315 Scarsdale, NY

10583