Two emails today!  The first was hurried because they were low on time.  They found more time and he sent a second.  He was also able to get his camera to communicate with the computer so we have a few pictures form the MTC.

Email #1

So I figured out my problem with the pictures.  The lock was on, but this week I ended up on a computer without any place to put in the flash drive so hopefully next week I have a computer that is better for this.  I sure hope so, I have over 30 pictures to share.  I`m really glad everything is going well at home, It`s going great here.  We`ve talked to a ton of people and have a ton of lessons set up.

Elder Mondragon is great, we work hard, it`s really hot, it`s really humid so I sweat all day.  We walk 5 or 6 miles and then every morning we run 3 to 4 miles too so I`m getting pretty tired.

I`ve learned a lot about buying food.  first that it`s important to always have a snack ready if you cant get a meal. second that it`s not good to cook your eggs on the sidewalk nor freeze them in the fridge. Third that beans and rice are ridiculously cheap.  and fourth that people here serve really good food and I`m not sick yet.

So more about my companion.  He is from Mexico.  umm he works hard, and likes to be pretty obedient.  I don`t know.   If you want anything else it would probably be better to ask specific quetsoins

So the people do serve good food.  I`m not sick at all yet, and I`m drinking tons of water because I`m always sweating.  My biggest complaint about the food is that we eat breakfast at 7 or 7 30 and then eat at 2 or 2 30 and then again the next morning.  It is sooo long inbetween meals, but I guess I`ll adapt.

We do get to watch conference live.  it starts at 11 local time but 10 mdt.  It`s cool to think that we are watching it together but I have to have the voice over.  We have lots of investigators coming to watch too.

Sorry we don`t have as much time to write today, we had a busy p day.  But the grocery stores are pretty similar.  Different sections and stuff, but they do just have stuff sitting out more, meats, bread...you know it`s not packaged until you take it to the counter.  But it`s all really good.

So I am in the city and stake Madero.  In the ward Miguel Hidalgo.  WE live on 13 de Enero (13 of January) all the way next to the factory PEMEX kinda in the north east of the neighborhood.  We are just one block north east of the chapel.  All the way at the end of the street and on the left side.

I don`t really have any specifics on investigators.  We have about 10 or 15 investigators that are all about at the same point right now.  We are going to start teaching actual lessons this week so we`ll see how many of them are actually interested.  I`ve learned a ton about teaching the gospel and that it is very importan tsometimes to just
stop arguing and testify.  My companion has a really hard time with that, but we`re figuring it out.

I want to invite you to talk to somebody this week about the gospel. It`s really not that hard you just talk to them.  It`s probably way easier for you guys because it`s in english.  I wish I had been more involved in the work before I came.  It`s really the memebers that do the work, the missionaries just teach.  Please be like the members in
this ward and have inactives that you want to help and nonmembers to help teach.  It really doesn`t matter where they live they have a system to get references around and it works great.

I know that Christ is our Saviour and the God is our loving Heavenly Father.  We have the potential to be like Him if we are obedient and make the covenants that He has comanded.  I know that this is His church and that we will be blessed by living it.

I love you guys.  Keep doing the things you should and you will be blessed.

Love, Elder Brady Allred

Email #2

​So since my compainion didn´t get the chance to email earlier, we are emailing again and since I didn´t get a full hour I am on the computer again for just a few minutes.  And I am uploading photos for you guys.

I just remembered to write about the smell here.  So it´s hot, humid and then there´s a smell.  It´s only occasional. and I finally figured out what it is.  It´s the sewers.  They are just rivers that run along side the road, open for the whole world to smell.  Only on some roads but it is the worst smell I have ever experienced in my life, and you do not know the deffinition of the word stinky until you have smelled this for at least 10 minutes total in your life.  It almost makes me throw up every time and my companion just laughs at me, but trust me it is horrible.

The ward has about 100 active members, at least that´s about how many I think there were at church yesterday.  They´re pretty good and they want to work with us and we want to work with them.  The bishop is pretty great, he doesn´t talk much.  We went to ward council last week and it was pretty alright.  We´re going again this week.  The people are really open to talk about religion here, but most of them are pretty stubourn about their beliefs that God is God and that all religions are bad, and then they group all religions like the catholic church.  But it really does feel good to testify to them aobut the gospel.  Sometimes you see the spirit change them right there, other times they completely reject it.  It´s hard to watch them reject it.  But it´s amazing to see them change dramatically right before your eyes.

One inactive member was talking to us and wouldn´t let us get any ground (agian with my companion getting a little bit into fighting mode) and I stopped him and bore testimony.  He changed right there in front of us.  He softened up a lot, and even though my companion had no faith that he would come to church yesterday, I knew he would come and he did come and had a pretty good time.

I hope that I have more stories like this next week, but like I said we are still figuring out who is here because there haven´t been any missionaries here for 6 weeks so it´s like starting a new area.  I think we´ll have a great week this week we have some really promising investigators, so I´ll let you know what happens.

I have already learned so much from Elder Mondragon he is a great trainer, definately hand picked by God to train me.  He thinks in a way that I can understand so well and learn so well and fast.  He has decided that I am really smart and so tells me everything he knows, because he knows I can handle it.

What´s really funny is that I am our navigator.  Me with not even 1 week out of the MTC am the one who gets us around.  I know most of the streets already and if it weren´t for me my companion would have us on the wrong end of the Ward before we realize we are lost.  So I´m really glad that I have a good sense of direction.

I hope everything goes well this week. You guys can all be examples to other people at school, they all need it and can learn a lot from you.

I love you.

Love Elder Brady Allred