7/30/18: Hey!

Me and our new mission President, President and Sister Teuscher!!
Como les ha ido?!

Awesome week here in the Bronx! We had 8 of the people we are teaching come to church yesterday, and we'll be having a baptismal service this Saturday for our man Juan Nuñez! It's been so cool to see him progress these past few weeks and to see him change. When we first met him he could barely walk because of an accident, but now after a blessing, lots of therapy, and prayer (duh) he's walking like a champ to church.

We started a cool initiative in the zone these past two weeks, "JOY". One thing we thought would be a way for us to find more joy in the work is talking to everyone. We knew that was super broad, so we came up with certain things to describe what that really means. We came up with a really dumb hashtag, #rejectreboundz. Basically when someone shuts you down after you try and talk to them, you go to the next person, find a cool miracle and share it with the zone in our group chat. It's been so dope to see miracles from it. We traced an entire building one day, with 0 success. The first person we talk to in a park had met with missionaries and while his wife was in the hospital about to pass away, the missionaries prayed with him and gave him a book of Mormon and his wife got better over the next few days. Like what?! đź‘€

As I have been looking for how to find even more joy in the work, I came across Alma 5 in the book of Mormon. In verse 14 and 15 it gives us a few questions to ask ourselves.

"... have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith?..."

As I've asked myself these questions, I've realized not only the change in my nature, but the change in the nature of others as well. I've seen just how joyful this work is and how awesome it is to be a part of it.

I sent something out to our zone this week that I wanted to throw in before ending.

“When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed. …
       “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature. …
              “Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world.
                     “Men changed for Christ will be captained by Christ. Like Paul they will be asking, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’ (Acts 9:6). Peter stated, they will ‘follow his steps’ (1 Peter 2:21). John said they will ‘walk, even as he walked’ (1 John 2:6).
                            “Finally, men captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ. To paraphrase President Harold B. Lee, they set fire in others because they are on fire"

We can change the world as we are captained by christ in our righteous doings! Hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Adam Ray Allen
New York City Mission
700 White Plains Rd Ste 315 Scarsdale, NY 10583

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