4/1/19: Otra semana terminada

Another week of exchanges down! It was an awesome few days spent with the rest of the Zone Leaders, and they are the coolest. Other than knocking on hundreds of doors, we had some sweet experiences with people we are teaching. By far the best part of it all though is getting to know these missionaries. The influence they have on the missionaries in their zone is tremendous and it's so cool to see how much they love them and want them to be happy.

After these splits, we were walking into our apartment building here in New Rochelle and I hear someone yell "Elder Allen!" I turned around and to my surprise, there were two of the youth of a family I taught in my first area in the Bronx! They were literally the first family I had taught on the mission. So we headed into the building and they told me that their sister lives there as well, and it was a sweet reunion.

I've come to appreciate just how much the mission has changed my life this past week. It's been such an awesome few days studying, and one of the things that stuck out to me on Tuesday was a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland when he was at the MTC a number of years back. Every missionary has heard this talk, and I had read it a few times, but for some reason this occasion meant something more to me. 

Elder Holland talks about the impact that his mission had on him and how he has never been able to forget it. He also goes into how that goes to show the importance of being prepared for that mission. We have such an awesome chance to prepare ourselves more than ever to go and share the message of the Restoration with the world. I wish I would have taken that more seriously on my way out here. The best part though is that the mission molds you into the exact person that God wants us to begin to become. This process of 2 years is literally a spiritual refining one, and it changes lives. 

Elder Holland said about his mission, 

"To have forever and ever and ever affected my life evermore, is more than I will ever be able to thank my Father in Heaven for. In this long list of things I can’t thank Him for in this Church, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, beginning first of all and above all else, for the Atonement and gift of His Son.

But so closely related to that was the chance to go talk about it. To go and learn about it. To go start to have some feelings about it, for the first time in my life."

Our missions give us the opportunity to share the truths we already know, to learn more of them, and to begin to internalize them for the first times in our lives. What a wonderful blessing we have as young people to go out and do so! It'll change everything, if you let it. 

I love you all so much! Hope you have an amazing week!