5/27/19: El Ultimo Correo

Well, this is it. I feel like I've been putting this moment off for as long as possible, and now it's finally here. I have tons of mixed emotions leading into the next couple days, but one that sticks out the most is the feeling of gratitude.

I'm so grateful for my mission. These have been the best two years of my life up to this point, and I am going to make the next two years even better. Everything I have experienced and learned out here has brought me to where I am today, and has changed everything. 

Jeffrey R Holland said some things about his mission that I think perfectly relay what I want to express about mine.

"to have gone as ignorant, and innocent, and confused, and befuddled, and mystified as I was, and to have had the experience that I had in two years. 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."

Coming out as blind as I was, and having the best experience of my life makes me feel intensely grateful for this chance I've had to wear the name of the Savior on my chest for 2 years. 

My mission has literally changed everything. The way I think, the way I act, the way I look at others, and most importantly the way I view my Father in Heaven and His Son. I can't express the feelings of love I feel for New York City and the people I have met here. If I was allowed to take a jack hammer and knock out a piece of sidewalk I would, trust me.

I'd like to just leave you all with my testimony.

I know God lives and loves His children, you and I, so much that he gave up His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ in order that we could be forgiven for all of the incompetent things we do here. I know that His sacrifice and suffering while in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary is there not only to cleanse and heal us, but to perfect us if we are willing to let it do so. I know that both of these divine personages appeared to the boy prophet Joseph Smith in the grove of trees behind his farmhouse in upstate New York. Some time after, he was given ALL of the priesthood keys necessary to gain exaltation while on this earth. Today we have a prophet who leads and guides The Church, Russell M Nelson, and that he receives revelation for us in behalf of the Father. I have no doubt about any of these things. They are true, and truth never changes. The Holy Spirit has testified to me that all of them are, and now it's my job to live up to that testimony I have received. 

I love you all and will see you in a few days! 

- Elder Allen