Brady had a zone mission party on Monday, so we didn't get a letter until Tuesday.


It was awesome to talk to you guys on Sunday.  I feel so happy to see and hear that everything is good at home.  It was a little weird to come to life from the perspective of the tv.  But I really enjoyed it even if I cried through almost the whole entire thing.

Yesterday the party was pretty awesome.  We got there and played basketball and soccer.  We then broke the piñata and ate carne asada for lunch around 2.  Then we got to watch a movie.  From the emails from my friends I believe that everyone got to watch the same movie.  It was Star Wars-The Force Awakens.  It was pretty fun and I enjoyed it a lot.  All of the missionaries that have over a year and hadn't seen it were really excited.  It was pretty cool.  From there we played some volleyball and then had a white elephant.  I got some pretty cool (a little small) lion slippers.  They´re pretty alright.  Then we cleaned up and came home.  We did have some Elders from Panuco stay in our house because they weren't able to go home because it´s an hour and a half for them to get home.

I´m glad to hear that you guys had a great Christmas too.  I´m a little jealous of your breakfast caserole, but I did get to eat some pancake and cold cereal so I did enjoy that a lot.  I also ate some ice cream to finish off the night.

I am really grateful for all that the other people in the ward and in the family that they are so willing to support me on my mission.  I am so grateful that I can be out here serving God and doing the things that He would have me do.

I loved seeing the snow, It made me really happy (not as much as seeing you guys).  I am really happy about silverrush too.  That is so cool that you were able to raise all of that money in just 3 short weeks.

I am excited to get back to work today in the afternoon.  I loved the relaxing weekend that we had but I am anxious to get back into the swing of things.

Everything is great here.  I hope you have a great week and keep doing the things that you know are right.

I love you
Elder Brady Allred

More pictures! Check out the photos page.

The package has not arrived yet, but don´t worry, it´ll get here when it get´s here.

It´s ridiculously cold here too.  Last night it was supposed to get down to 9 degrees (Celsius of course) but it´s really cold with the humidity.  Luckily we don´t have the fog that soaks your clothes in seconds yet, but it´s really hard to dry clothing with the cold. We also have to hang up clothes in the house, but it´s really not big enough even though we have stuff in every room.

I am really looking forward to Christmas.  I have no idea why, but really I´m more excited about this Christmas than I ever have been in the past.  My companion is hating my excitement (I think he´s missing his family a lot, and in part a girlfriend) and he won't let me sing the Christmas hymns in companion study.  We stilll do about 3 times a week, but he doesn´t enjoy it.

I did get the testimonies and I really appreciate that.  I´ll print off some of them, and try to hand them out.

I´m excited to hear about the Silver Rush total.  It´s pretty exciting, and I´m glad all of the concerts went well and that the door looks just as good as ever.

This week was pretty good.  I´m really starting to love the work, even though it is still not going perfectly well.  We´re going to leave a few more investigators because they won´t stop drinking or doing drugs and they won´t come to church even when we talk to them like 15 times.  Yesterday the whole ward (with 2 sets of missionaries) only had 1 investigator and it was a family member of the bishop (the bishop is great).  When church started we only had about 30 people in the chapel, it did fill in though a bit by the end.

We had a Chirstmas party in the ward this week which was pretty good.  We had 15 investigators that came to this (and the other Elders had 8 investigators).  It started only an hour and a half late.  There was a nativity, a whole bunch of group performances and Santa came.  We did get to finish with dinner so that was good, but I like Dad´s Christmas parties better.

I am the ward pianist if I hadn't told you, I had to play and practice with like all of the groups for the party,  It was a bit of a pain taking time out of the work, but it improved their performance about 500%, because everyone here cannot hear the notes right.

This week on Friday we get to all come together as a Mission to eat Christmas dinner.  We´re all pretty excited to have all 150 missionaries together.  Then we get to play sports, watch a movie, and hang out as a zone on Monday, so we´re all pretty happy.

I was really happy yesterday that the Stake President got me out of speaking.  He went a little over time and so I did not end up speaking.  Hopefully they don´t move me to next Sunday, but we´ll see what happens.

I love the mission, and I´m really excited for Christmas.  I hope you have a great week and a Merry Christmas.

I love you
Elder Brady Allred

Dia Guadalupano (Day of the Virgin)
All of the Catholic´s are celebrating today, pretty crazy.

I don´t know how or why you shared the cold with me but I got it too. I´m just finishing getting over it, but mine was only for 2 days.  Hope you get well soon.

I´m still in the same area with the same people, Elder Marrufo.  6 more weeks and we´ll see what happens.

We had another baptism in Hidalgo this weekend, Lizbeth.  I couldn't go but it sounded like it went well.  I´ll ask for pictures.

I´m getting pretty excited about Christmas.  I don´t know why, but I´m still feeling the Christmas spirit and I bought myself a Grapefruit today because it reminds me of Christmas.

Yesterday we had Stake conference with Elder Castañeda.  He´s a 70. We can only go to the General session but his talk there was incredible and the bishop said that the other 2 were great as well.  He had us bring 60 investigators as a stake (We had 30).  He had them all stand up and then testified directly to them.  It was so cool.  I have never felt the spirit so strongly (besides one other time in my life) than when he said with tears in his eyes "I testify to you that what the missionaries are teaching you is the truth"  They felt it,
and there is no way anyone in the congregation did not.  He bore testimony so many times.  He told some incredible stories about the temple and repentance.  He said that it is not an effective church meeting unless we leave feeling like we need to repent or change something in our life.  The Stake president talked about how we need to repent.  Repentance is not just to stop sinning but to really change how you act and what you want.  It was a great Stake conference and I learned a lot.

Everything is going well we are starting to find a few more people to teach.  We have found a lot of drug addicts and drunks that say that they can hear the spirit when we speak and that they know that it is true.  But when we try to get them to do something they say no.  They hear the voice of God but they don´t follow the Good Shepherd just know that He is good.  It made me wonder how many times we do that in our life.  We know that Christ has all power and that the Church is true, but we have those things that we don´t want to change, or that we keep away from Him.  Here is a picture of our zone.  Elder Nixon back left, was the district leader but he went home today to West Jordan.  Hna Clark in the front center went home to Provo.  Everyone else stays.  (The picture did not actually attach, so hopefully he can get it to us next week.)

Hope you all have a great week.  We´ll keep going here and see what happens.

I love you
Elder Brady Allred

Where´s the Snow? 85 Degrees?

It´s still hot here.  I asked someone when the cold will get here, because occasionally we have a cold front they just laughed.  They said "Here, it´s really hot for ten months out of the year.  And then just hot for the other two months."  So I guess there will be no snow here for Christmas.

Pretty much nothing happened this week.  We worked everyday.  Found a few people to teach but nothing really happened.  We couldn´t find any of our remaining investigators so we´re hoping they were just on vacation this week.  Honestly I looked at my Journal to remember what happened this week.  Then I remembered that this week my journal took up only about 2 pages becuase nothing happened.  Usually it´s about 8 or 9 pages and some weeks 15.  so Yeah it was a pretty boring week.

Regardless, I´m enjoying my time here.  With 4 Elders in the ward we still eat together a few days out of the week so that is really fun. With Elder Martinez and Elder Button we laugh a lot.  They know how to work hard, but when we aren´t working they know how to enjoy thier time too.

I found out that Hidalgo is going to have 4 baptisms in the next few weeks of people that Elder Mondragon and I taught.  A family of 3.  Nataly and Brandon and their duaghter Melani.  I guess they finally decided to get married so we are pretty happy about that.  If I stay here (transfers next week) then I should be able to go.

Bishop Preza is really starting to do some missionary work.  He had 4 family members (Nephew, Brother in law, Grandkids) all come to church yesterday, separately.  We are starting to teach his sister.  We are very pleased with him.  His story is pretty good too.  He´s a convert of 4 years.  The day after getting sealed to his spouse (1 year after his baptism) he was called to be second counselor in the bishopbric and now he´s bishop.  He said he goes to every training or meeting that the stake has for organizations (YW YM, Relief Society.....) He´s a pretty awesome bishop that is really taking to the missionary work and helping us a ton.

Christmas day it sounds like we go to church and then go to any dinners that we are invited to.  Other than
that we stay home.  the 26th we get to play sports, watch a movie, and hang out with the zone, so we are pretty excited about that.

The Christmas devotional was pretty good last night, we only got to see about 20 or 30 minutes but we still felt the
spirit so that was great.

I´m glad to hear that the ward party went well.  About 90 people in an activity would be great, we get about 20. We do have about 150 peopleat church though, but nobody comes during the week.

Thank you for your support.  I´ll keep planting the seed while I look for the ones that other people have already planted.

Thank you for everything you do for me.  I love you so much and hope you have a very Merry Christmas.

Love
Elder Brady Allred

Brady sent a couple of pictures so check out the photo page.

I´m glad to hear that you guys had a great thanksgiving.  I did eat an extra bowl of cereal before bed to celebrate but it´s nothing compared to chocolate pie.  I´m glad to hear you got to play some games, and
I´m really sad that I had to miss that.

I´m getting pretty excited for Christmas, there are lights popping up all over hear.  It´s kinda neat that everyone here believes in Christ, even if they aren't members of the church.  Most people just have a
ton of lights centered around the Virgin Guadalupe (The virgin Mary, but the Mexican version that the Conquistadors used to convince all of the Lamanites to convert to Catholicism, a few months ago the Pope
said that it´s not Guadalupe, but the people don´t really care).

Honestly, this week really stunk.  We lost all of our investigators, except for like 3.  They all decided to stay Catholic or their spouse told them to stay Catholic, or they decided they don´t have time to meet with us any more.  It really stinks.  We also contacted a whole bunch of people trying to find new investigators.  We found that everyone that lives in our area is not interested in listening to us, but everyone else would love to get baptized.  Pretty much it got to the point that if  the person was interested and involved in questions (both answering and asking) then we knew that they lived in Victoria, Tampico, Altamira, Veracruz, or any number of other cities.  We sent in about 20 great references this week and the Secretary of References told us that we caused plenty of work for him this week.  But with all of this work we only found 2 people to teach, and one of them already told us that he´s not interested.  So that was pretty fun.

My companion also got a little sick this week so that cut out a little bit of efficiency and energy.  But we´re both feeling great and we´re ready to give it all this week.

I hope that you've heard about Ilumina el Mundo, or Light the World (?).  The Christmas initiative that the Church has put together.  It´s pretty cool.  It has one main video about service and how we are here in the place of Christ, and then there are 25 short videos, one for each day of December for how we can serve.  It´s pretty cool and I hope that you all get a chance to do it.

It´s going great here.  I love the food, almost everyday.  I haven´t really gone hungry yet, but only two meals a day is a bit of a struggle.  I hear in December that we get fed in almost every house and I really hope that it´s true.  I love the Pan Dulce or sweet bread that they have here, it´s really good.  I also love that I can just
buy bread from people on bicycles for really cheap and it´s really good.  Bread is so good and so cheap.

Keep doing the things that you should.  I hope you can all find someone to share the Gospel with, at school at home, in the neighborhood or in the street even.  Just talk to people and try to share the gospel.  It is part of the covenant you made to get baptized.  And the missionaries will love you more for this than for ice cream.

I love you and hope you can start having a Great Start to December.

Elder Brady Allred

This week went pretty well.  We are working hard and doing everything we should but sadly people still have to have their agency.  We  just do everything we can to help them to use their agency to choose Christ, but ultimately they all have their agency to choose.  Nobody came to church yesterday, and honestly we have no investigators that are planning on getting baptized within the next month.  It is really hard to give it everything I have, and then get nothing back in return.  In preach my gospel it does talk about this.  It is the hardest thing to watch them understand, feel the spirit, know it is true and then even with the pleading of the spirit reject everything.

I am however getting better at talking to people.  I am starting to contact people in the street without even thinking about it, and my conversations are starting to get more natural.  It is incredible to see God work through me to share a message that needs to be shared, or even just ask a question that needs to be asked.

Yesterday we were in a lesson and I opened my mouth to say something and suddenly a very direct and in fact perfect question came out.  It went perfectly with the lesson and actually helped a ton with the direction of the lesson.  God is at the wheel but we are the gas.  We need to take our foot off of the break and give the Gas everything we have and then we can really start to get to where God wants us.

I´m a little sad to miss thanksgiving since it doesn´t even exist here.  We did have Revolution day yesterday.  The celebration of when the government reformed and lost a lot of power, but we really didn´t celebrate anything, there just weren´t any people at church.  We already have 3 weeks celebrating Christmas because the people here don´t have to respect the Turkey this week, but it´s pretty fun to hear all of the same songs while shopping for food that are one the radio at home.

This week I met Indiana Jones.  His actual name is Carlos.  He is a less active, but the missionaries only stop by at his house every few months.  I´ll probably go twice, this week and when I´m showing some one else the area.  He´s pretty cool but also a little crazy.  He speaks 5 languages.  Spanish, French, Portugese, Latin, and Nawatl.
Nawatl is the indigenous language and he understands and can speak 4 distinct dialects.  He has an incredible collection of ancient idols. He has really old furniture a ton of books.  He was making some homemade wine out of toxic fruits that you can only drink the juice of after it has fermented.  We talked for a bit.  Shared a message, in
fact he told us that he still reads the book of Mormon realatively often, but it seems like he is still not interested in coming to church, that´s why we only stop by every so often.  It was a pretty fun experience.

I´m glad to hear that everything is going at home.  It´s really good to hear that Tyler is still scheduled to come down here.  President Ramirez btw does not always put the english missionaries with native
spanish speakers.  Just usually because there are more Latino missionaries than Gueros.

Rollo also emailed me and told me 35.  It´s either the number of days until Christmas or his ACT score.  I sure hope it´s just the number of days until Christmas.

Thank you for all of your support and love.  I love you guys and hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving.


Elder Brady Allred

Brady sent more pictures too.  See the photos page.


This week was pretty good.  We worked quite a bit.  But honestly nobody here wants to listen to us, and our more consistent investigators really aren't progressing all that fast either.  5 of our investigators need to get married before we can really start progressing with them.  Another investigator, Oliveria, is kind of iffy on if she is going to progress or not.  But Alan is progressing really well.  His parents have finally started giving permission for him to
come to church, and they've actually started opening up to us.  It´s because we brought a brother from the ward.  Hno Medina, he is great and can always seem to open the doors on those that are hard hearted.  The family realized that really the church may be a good influence on their son so he is starting to come more.

Really it is getting hard.  WE can talk to everyone, but really have no one interested in listening to us.  Hopefully we can get it figured out this week and find the people that are really interested in changing their lives for the better.  Some references from the members would be really appreciated.  (In 2 weeks we have not received a
single reference, and we ask every one for references.)

Yes we do try service.  Nobody here wants service.  We offer to everyone and when we try to help they just yell at us to go away, it makes it really hard to get in the door when they don´t want help when they need it.  Sometimes it is more humble to ask for too much help than it is to reject to much help.

I cant believe that you guys are unusually warm.  We are about normal, or maybe even a little cool, for Tampico.  But we did have a nice storm blow through about a week and a half ago.  I expected you to ask about it, so I forgot to write about it.  It flooded about every street and some of the streets up to 3 or 4 feet.  There were car accidents, a few people actually died.  We got a ton of rain.  It made national news actually.  So I was kind of surprised you didn't ask about it.  But I am ok, We weren't allowed to go out because the streets were too
dangerous, and we couldn't even order pizza because the delivery motorcycle driver couldn't get through to our house.

We have been having lows in the 60´s and highs in the 70´s.  It has been fantastic, but it´s about to really pick back up again to the 80´s for a few days.  I´m really not looking forward to it.

So Frederico got baptized on Saturday.  I am really happy about that.  I was a little disappointed that I couldn't go.  But we had to go to a baptism where my companion performed the ordinance.  It feels really good to know that I helped him to change his life, and I know that he is really happy about it.

Yesterday we had stake conference, kind of.  It was more of a regional conference that they do every four years.  It was all of Mexico.  230 stakes, 40 districts, 34 missions, and a lot of people.  It was a broadcast from Utah.  Sister McConkie (YW PRes), Elder de Hoyos (70) and Elder Hales and President Nelson all spoke.  Elder de Hoyos is a
native Spanish speaker.  Elder Hales spoke English with the Spanish voice over.  Sister McConkie and President Nelson both spoke in Spanish.  Their Spanish was not very good, but it was understandable.  Apparently in the past 2 or 3 years is when President Nelson learned Spanish which is really impressive for his age.  The real focus was on the doctrine of Christ and obeying the commandments.  It was a really cool experience.

I can´t believe how much everyone is already talking about Christmas.  I guess when you don´t have Thanksgiving as a rule of thumb for starting to celebrate, you just start after Halloween.

I´m glad to hear that everything is going well at home.  Keep doing the things that you should and never let anything become a priority over God.  School, sports and even family are second to God.  If we put God first then everything will fall into place in our life or even fall out of our life.

I love you.
Elder Brady Allred

PS I can´t believe that Trump won.  I sure hope that I can get back
home when I´m done.

Brady's first week in his new area.

Nueva Cecilia is really good.  To be honest, we follow the book on a lot more of rules.  We weren't disobedient before, but how we ran the lessons and everything was not exactly how Elder Marrufo likes it.  The lessons are very structured now, a little bit too much and sometimes we don´t follow the spirit and the thoughts of the
investigators as much.  I am not nearly as tired this week though.  Honestly we do not work nearly as hard as we should.  I´m going to try to put a little bit more focus into this, and especially into working with the members (the work is impossible without references and members assisting the lessons.

Elder Marrufo is from Chiuaua, Mexico.  He has 6 more weeks than I have here.  He´s pretty serious, and I keep telling him to enjoy the work while still working, but I guess it will just be a serious 6 weeks, but he is loosening up a bit, which is really good.

The baptism did go on yesterday. It was really good to be able to go.  Elder Mercado (the new missionary in Hidalgo, Trainer Elder Felix) did the ordinance.  It only took about 10 tries, maybe more.  Apparently she has a severe fear of water, and this was the primary reason that she did not get baptized about a year ago with her family.  We ended up with her on her knees and just went forward into the water.  But it was pretty good.

We didn't work nearly as hard this week and the numbers really show it.  I´m honestly a little bummed, but not depressed by any means.  I only see it as a sign that I need to work harder and that I have plenty of room to improve on.

We did a lot of splits this week with the Zone Leaders and I really like them.  Elder Button and Elder Martinez (from Monterrey, Mexico) are both really cool and really good missionaries.  I´m glad we get to eat lunch with them every day.

I am really glad to hear the cubs won. Thursday I asked an investigator and he said that they had lost.  I was really
disappointed until Saturday when a member out of the blue said that the cubs had won.  I didn't know who to believe until yesterday I saw a newspaper and on the front is showed that the cubs had won.  I have the newspaper clipping in the house and a picture of it too.

Yes we had day light savings.  We are still one hour off.  Elder Mondragon didn't tell me until like 8 o'clock (really 7 o'clock).  I guess getting up at 5:15 you can get a lot more done with your day. But honestly daylight savings didn't kill me as much as usual.  I assume it´s because I just changed back the hour that I changed when I got here 2 months ago (already 2 months?!?!?!?!?!)

Yesterday was my favorite day this week.  Yesterday was fast Sunday and it really set the pace for my day.  I was happier and had more energy yesterday than I have had any other day out here.  I have found that when things are going the best that is when I think the most of home.  It´s less of a distraction.  I don´t understand why, but the
harder I work and the more focused I am the more I remember and think about home.  It´s not a bad thing, just a very interesting side effect of really giving it my all.  I hope that all made sense to you.

I love you guys and hope that you keep making the right decisions and are always an example to the others around you.  Treat the missionaries well, always, always give them treats when they stop by. Cookies, brownies, smoothie, ice cream, anything that is a treat.  It honestly helps a lot with the work.  I´m not just saying that, I really mean it.  The missionaries will love you and will help you to get more involved.  And give them water too.  If you offer they will not say no.

I love that 85 degrees is starting to feel normal.  I hate that mosquitoes bite no matter how much bug spray you put on ( the worst is the bite in the middle of the palm of my hand, how? I have no idea)  My stomach is great, and everything is going really well.

Thank you for all of your support.  I love you
Elder Brady Allred

PS the milk here is really an adventure, everyday is a new flavor.

Transfer Day!  Brady has been transferred and has a new companion.  He also sent a few more pictures so check out the Photo Page.

I´m really glad to hear that everything is still going well at home.  I´m still scared about my safety wtih Jakon´s driving, but I think I´ll be ok here.  I´m probably more scared about the date.

I did get transfered.  I am now in Ward Nueva Cecilia, Stake Madero. It´s about 5 minutes from Hidalgo.  I´m with Elder Marrufo.  Elder Mondragon got transfered to Valles, about three hours away.  We are a little disappointed to leave Hidalgo, and each other, especially since we have a baptism this Saturday.

More about Elder Marrufo.  He just finished his training last week.  He was with our other Zone leader Elder Hall.  We arrived this morning and cleaned the house pretty thoroughly.  He´s pretty cool.  He´s a little bit more focused on the numbers than I want to be, so I think I´ll share the comparison about Alma and the Sons of Mosiah.  I sent
a picture of us in the other email.  (See Photo Page)

I´m sorry but I never did take pictures of the poeple I was working with, but really the scenery in this area is just city, kinda boring. Sorry about that, but I should be able to take pictures Saturday of the baptism and I may be back over there another day this week to show Elder Felix and his New training companion around a bit, and if so
I´ll take pictures.

Fernanda passed her baptismal interview.  She will be baptised this Saturday, and I think I should be able to go.  Frederico, didn´t pass but he didn´t fail either.  He´s going to try again this Saturday in a
more peaceful setting, and hopefully they´ll be able to go on with the baptism.

This last week went really well.  We worked a ton, but really we have nothing to show for it.  Our progressing investigators kept progressing, and we really didn´t find anyone new that was really good, so we were a little disappointed.  We do believe that Elder Felix and his companion can have a lot of success with the few people
and few families that we left.

One of our greeatest lessons this week was with Lizbeth.  She is 16 and she is better than gold.  We left the Doctrine of Chirst pamphlet and she read it.  We went back to her house and she [recited] atonement,
apostacy, baptism and it´s purpose, repentance and faith, from memory. She not only read and practically memorized the pamphlet, but understood it too!!!  She is am incredible investigator.  In fact she even asked us,  ´´So I should be reading the book of Mormon every day. and then I should pray about it. and when is church´´  So she is doing our work for us which is great.  I imagine she should be baptised here in the next 3 weeks too.

I am really glad to hear about stake conference.  Dad, that talk is what we teach.  We center everything on the path, Faith repentace, baptism, confirmation and gift of the holy ghost, and then taking the sacrament every week, with out distractions.  This is the key to staying strong.  The Sacrament.  Between this, praying and reading the
scriptures everyday Satan can never shake us.  Remember the path that you are on, and then help others get on the path.

Everything is going really well here, I hope everything keeps going good at home.  Do the things that are right and God will bless you.

I love you-

Love
Elder Brady Allred

Make sure to check out the photos page for a few more photos from Mexico.

I got Grandma´s first letter this week, the one from the MTC.  I guess it takes about 5 weeks for letters.  I got the package too.  Thank you for the letters.  

I´m really glad to hear that you can still manage to pull off a little fun without me at the cabin.  I really enjoy the hour every night in which I can sit and look at the trees and think about mountains, snow, wolf creek, and especially a little bit about home.

I am really getting used to the weather, I don´t have to drink quite as much water to stay alive everyday, and if nothing else it does not feel nearly as humid as it did when I got off the plane.  When I got off the plane there was water on all of the windows, but I guess I´m nearly used to it.

And I am using the insect repellent, it really does quite a number on the mosquito bites, but really what helps the most is that it has stopped raining.  All of the ponds in the street are drying up.

So the baptisms this week.  Not happening this week.  We should have two baptisms next Saturday.  Fernanda (the 16 year old) and Frederico (the blind one).  We lost our family, Nataly and Bradon, and their daughter Melony.  It´s not even a family any more.  The couple was never married but they decided to move out and so they will not be baptized here.  Brandon, might be staying here, and we are hopping so, because he is really close to ready to be baptized.

Fernanda and Frederico are really excited for their baptisms.  We have contacted a few new people, and have a very promising family of 6, but we´ll see after 1 or 2 more lessons.  We taught an incredible lesson last night to Wendy (a recent convert) and her mom and brother.  We taught her dad a few weeks ago, and so they are kind of interested.

Transfers are this week end.  We think that president will leave us together, but that means that I will probably have more responsibility as a "Zone Leader"  It won´t be official, but Elder Mondragon will be a Zone Leader solo.  We´ll see what president does, but either I´m co-Zone leader, or I get moved just before my first baptisms.  It´s
really the only option, because the zone is losing wards.  We´ll see and I´ll let you know next Monday.

Everything is going really well.  We are working well together and I am really starting to learn to contact, and to teach more by the spirit and with more confidence.  It really helped that yesterday I taught Gospel Principles to the investigators and recent converts.  It was on Family History and Temple work.  They all said that it was really good and that they all understood.  My companion said that if I can teach individuals like I did the class of 8 or 9 people then I will be a great teacher.

I hope everything is going well at home.

Invite all of the neighbors to church every week, the missionaries would love that.  I promise.

Keep choosing the right.

Love Elder Allred

We got a really short letter this week.  In a note he wrote to Kira and Zander he mentioned he had a lot of other people to write this week.  Since he didn't share much with us this week, feel free to post what he wrote to you in the comments.

Man the work is great.  I love being here in Mexico, there is nothing else that I´d rather be doing.  It is incredible to see the blessings of God everyday.  I've learned that sometimes the greatest blessings that we have are honestly our greatest trials too.  My companion has taught me this.  To not pray for everything to be good, but for us to have trials because that is the only way that we learn.  I´m going to try it, so I´ll see how that goes.

Sounds like everything is good at home.

I want to share just one short experience.  We had a lesson last night with an investigator.  It was his first lesson but he read first the folleto (booklet) about the plan of salvation.  We asked if he had any questions and he went straight to the complex doctrine.  About the Celestial kingdom and judgement.  So we explained it and then went back to basics like prayer and baptism.  I have been memorizing scriptures in Spanish first to learn the language and second (unknown to me before last night) to be able to recite them to investigators.  We aren't here to recite scriptures, but to teach and to love.  (Also), I share James 1 5.  But not word for word.  I knew it wasn't word for word, but it was almost exactly this scriptures.  It was so well portrayed by the Spirit that my companion actually didn't notice that it was a scripture, until I pointed it out.  I hope Juan Carlos can remember the spirit he felt last night, and continue progressing.

I love you guys.  Keep working had and be obedient.

Love Elder Allred

Not a lot to report this week.  But it looks like the work is progressing.


I´m doing really well this week,  It was a pretty boring week, but we worked really hard, and are both exhuasted.

I just realized I haven´t described my district.  We have 2 sisters Hna Clark (from Provo, not related to Judy) and Hna Laurence (i think).  They are the leaders of all the sisters in the zone.  Then we have the assistants and secretaries, one of the secretaries is one of the district leaders.  The other district leader is Elder Nixon and his
companion is Elder Button.  Then there is the other companionship with Elder Hall and Elder Marrufo, Elder Hall is one of the zone leaders. Elder Mondragon is the other Zone leader.  So pretty much I have the best district.

We had a few investigators in church this week.  We had 14 set up, and only 4 of them came and 1 other new one.  We have 4 investigators progressing.  Frederico, the uncle of July.  He is blind and has some sort of special needs that makes him move a little slower.  But he is really smart and is picking up the gospel topics really well.  He has a huge desire to be baptized and was excited to come to church.  We will be baptizing him the 29th of this month if everytihng keeps going well.

Then Nataly, Brandon and Melony (daughter).  Nataly and Melony came to church, and Brandon got his schedule permanently changed to always come on sundays from now on.  In 4 and a half weeks Nataly and Brandon are planning on getting married and then the next day wee are tentatively planning a baptism.  They both have desires to be happier in their life, and have a pretty good testimony that the church is the way to do that.

Then the last is Fernanda (we don´t know the 5th person, they went to another ward)  She is 16.  Her brother and mom are members, but she has avoided the church a bit for some doubts and because she has 2 kids, and doesn't want to be judged.  But she has changed and has a pretty good desire to be baptised.  I think if everything goes well she´ll be baptized around the same time as Melony, Nataly and Brandon.

BTW, every one here has problems with the law of chastity and with marijuana and smoking, but they are all pretty willing to change, so that´s really good.

I´m glad to hear about all of the great stories in your lives in the emails, the parties, blessings, work, Jehovah´s witnesses, Grandparent, the program, red Lobster, all of it.  Its good to hear that life is still moving along.  Thank you for the info on the other missionaries.  I´m really glad to hear about the blog, keep doing that it´s a lot easier for me.

love,
Elder Allred