Elder Adam Ray Allen's adventures in the New York, New York City Mission!!

Hey all! Man what a week! Not only did we have tons of meetings with other missionaries in which we were able to give some trainings and receive some awesome guidance on the work, but General Conference as well!  I'm mostly going to focus this email on the thoughts and impressions I had while listening to the ordained servants of our Savior. 3 Main Take-Aways I Got: 1: Repentance is a daily, eternal process of progress. 2: Our homes should be literal "heaven on earth." 3: Christ is at the center of all we do. 1. If you didn't hear the word "repentance" during the 5 sessions, you might want to clean your ears out with some hydrogen peroxide and go give them another listen. There were so many talks given on it, but so many different ways to think about it. One over-arching theme I caught on to was that they were all talking to ALL people. Not just non-members of the church, less-actives, or those who have made serious mistakes...

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...

Buenos dias! We had just about the quickest week of my mission so far with exchanges. We went with 4 of the 8 Zone Leaders in the mission for 4 days straight, and it was awesome. Starting tomorrow we will be going with the other 4, so looking forward to that. Exchanges are probably my favorite parts of leadership, so going on so many makes me the happiest camper out there. We had some sweet stuff happen and definitely more than one interesting experience. Those ranged from someone telling us that they are a prophet, a possum playing dead in the hood of Mt Vernon, and a BBQ with tons of Mexicans (Finally was able to use my spanish again) Title Explanation: When you have exchange weeks, your diet goes out the window and Costco becomes the go-to. Chicken bakes were my main source of energy, and that can only go so far before you start feeling like your toes are filled with cheesy bread and chicken breast. This week is already looking better, straight tuna, chicken...

Hey! It's been an eventful week, and probably one of the longest of my missions, due to one simple fact. WE HAVE BED BUGS. I got eaten alive, like literally over 300 bites with some on my face. So that was not the best start to the week, but the good part is that they're coming to treat our place today. Regardless of the bad infestation of those little menaces, we had some cool stuff happen. The Lord always blesses us if we just keep going! In my personal study this week I found some interesting things. I was studying in the 18th chapter of Luke, where it talks about the pharisee and publican that go to pray. The pharisee is basically pumping himself full of pride, while the publican sees how unworthy he is to reside in God's presence. This made me think of myself, and others, and how we sometimes think we are doing enough. "Doing enough", isn't the problem, but not recognizing our constant need for progression unto pe...

That's right! I'm back in the best state on earth, NY! I got transferred down 2 weeks ago and am now serving in an english ward in New Rochelle. It's different but super awesome. My first english sacrament meeting and second hour was definitely a little bit of a culture shock haha.   Last week I didn't have any time to write out a big email, we were picking up the new missionaries so we were running around like crazy. We had a sweet chance to go street contact with them though right after we picked them up from the airport. I took about 5 of them in one of the vans while my companions at the time (Elders Bolingbroke and Daybell) went in other ones. We all went down to the heart of Queens (Jamaica) and sent them all out to go street contact. They loved it and honestly did way better than I did at the beginning of my mission that's for sure haha.  Later that week we went and took the departing missionaries home and that was a crazy experien...

Heyo! Sorry for no email last week, we had to drive down to NY for a temple trip so we were pretty busy the whole time. It's been a BOMB past 2 weeks. We had 2 baptisms, the latest one being Yudid Ortega! She is a 9 year old of this family we have been teaching. The parents can't get baptized yet, but they really wanted Yudid to do it. She was super pumped, and made sure the water was the perfect temperature before getting in. It was hilarious, because about 20 people showed up for the baptism but they brought enough food for the entire Branch of Danbury. Needless to say everyone got their fair share.  We are working with the Rosario family a ton and actually had dinner with them and our Branch President on Friday. Whitest dinner I've had in a while, which was awesome. The family loved it and made quick friends with the Newbolds. It was sweet cause on Sunday we were talking to the wife a little bit about the difference they have felt and seen at...