5/13/19: La quinta semana

Buenas tardes amigos!

We had a pretty fantastic week here in New Rochelle filled with a lot of proselyting (finally) and some really awesome lessons. It's been cool to see the Lord's hand in our area this past little bit and see the people we are teaching begin to implement the gospel fully in their lives. 

I've had a lot of time to ponder on my mission experience recently, and it's been such a blessing. Everyone always says the last bit of your mission is the hardest to keep the focus, but I think it's the opposite. I've never felt more focused on Christ in my life! I've been able to set apart time mentally just to think about how awesome He has been the past two years, and how great He has made this experience for me. I remember at the beginning I definitely did not have that same perspective. When hard things would happen I would always be tempted to give up, let loose, or slack off. Due to great companions, leaders, and my personal relationship with Christ that has developed the past 24 months, I was able to keep going, just like all of us have to do in this journey of life. 

Elder Robert D. Hales said,
"We cannot expect to learn endurance in our later years if we have developed the habit of quitting when things get difficult now."

How often do we get discouraged when working towards a goal or end, and just give it up? 

Not giving up (Endurance) is an essential attribute that all of us need to develop while growing in the gospel in order to make it back to Him. Without the guidance of the Spirit in our lives, we won't last!

In the 4th chapter of 3 Nephi, there is an awesome story that I was reading a few days ago. The Nephites and Lamanites at this point had joined forces to fight against the Gadianton Robbers. This battle that they have is basically the equivalent of the movie "300". After the battle is over and the Nephites and Lamanites had won, this scripture is written in verse 33,

"33 And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction."

I have had no shortage of tears these past few weeks, and they have all been shed with joy. It has been such a great opportunity to serve here in New York and I am so excited for this next week to go out and continue to give it my all. I love the people, and more importantly, I love the Lord. 

Have a great week!

Elder Allen

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