This week wins on the crazy scale.  It started off alright with a lot of successes in the work.  We were able to talk to a lot of people that were very willing to accept our message.  So in that aspect we did have more luck than usual.  We also had interviews with President Ramirez and they went very well and he gave us some new ideas for how to teach better and how to keep finding new people.

So it was all going very well until Saturday. I woke up and felt a little bit drained of energy.  I tried to do exercise but I couldn't do all that much.  I ate breakfast and we kept going.  About 12 got here and I felt super tired and a little bit discouraged.  We even had some of the worst rejections Elder Sanchez or I have ever seen in our 3 years of combined missionary experience.  We went to the house because the sister that was going to feed us was going to bring us Pizza.  We thought that it was just hunger.

So we ate and then went to a stake Christmas "devotional" (I say that because there was really no opportunity to feel the spirit there, it seemed very "worldly" to me and the other missionaries)  So we were there and I felt like I had a fever, and I felt pretty bad.  We went back to the house and I got some rest.  I am feeling better now.

We also had transfers today.

Guess what!  I have a new companion.  His name is Elder Bawlby (I still have no idea how to pronounce it).  He is from New Jersey but he and his family live in Utah right now.  I really haven't talked to him that much because of being a little sick, but I'll get around to that.  We are still here in Lomas and we hope to keep working hard.  Elder Sanchez didn't go far, he is only on the other side of the city but he is going to be training a new Elder.  So we will still be seeing one another.

I do want to tell a great experience that was very much a miracle this week. We were looking for a past investigator called Gloria.  They were teaching her about 8 months ago.  We were in the colonia and the street but the register didn't have her house number, it just said that she lives in front of a bike shop and we had no idea where that was.  So we stopped to pray for direction, and we were going to contact people while asking for the bike shop.  We finished the prayer and an older lady was walking towards us.  She stopped us and started talking to us about the Jehovah´s Witnesses that stopped visiting her a few months ago without telling her why.  We told her that we aren't the JW´s.  And then we asked her name.  Guess what!  Her name is Gloria.  She said that she had felt the impression to talk to us.  So we went to her house and started talking to her.  She is recently separated from her husband, her 2 daughters already moved out, and she is alone.  the Gas also got there while we were there to fill up her gas tank, and the water jugs also got there.  She also found her pills that she had to take for her stomach just before we got there.  It was really cool how everything fit together and now we are hoping to find her in her home tomorrow to teach her some more.  But we are hoping for some great experiences with her and we hope that all of this was a sign that it is her turn to change her life.

I love you all and hope you have a great week full of miracles.  I hope you enjoy this Christmas season.  Thank you for everything.

Love,

Elder Brady Allred

This week was a ton of work.

We planned a ward/stake missionary activity.  We were going to let some helium balloons go with some cards for Light the World initiative.  So it turns out that helium is really expensive so we had to give away candy attached to the cards instead.  And it just happened to be one of the coldest days in Victoria in about 20 years.  And then the next day was the coldest in 20 years.  We did go below 0 degrees Celsius.  I guess that was why the list asked for a below 0 coat.  It was cold and we all (every body in the whole city) froze half to death.  We did alright, but it was definitely very cold.  It's different here.  They don't have insulation in the walls and they don't have heaters. The good news is that the house does have a water heater so we didn't freeze like all of the other missionaries did.  But we outlived it and we will keep going on.

So El Chino told us that he doesn't want to get baptized until he knows more (we already taught him everything) and he still drinks coffee.  He's stopped coming to church.  So right now doesn't seem to be his moment.  Hopefully we can see some progress soon but for right now we will not have a baptism on Saturday.  It's kinda sad :( 

Aylin, the little girl that we told you about a few times a few weeks ago, seems to be going well and we hope that we will be able to get something moving in the family.  It may be time for a baptism there.  The family situation seems to be going better.  We just have to find them home.

Antonio and Laura don't seem to want to progress right now.  They have some problems in their house and we still can't figure out what they are.  They did stop smoking, but they haven't done anything to get married, and they aren't going to church, or reading either.  So it may not be their moment either.

We did find a man that seems to have potential.  He is called Javier.  He is 57, he works in the state government.  And he is a lifetime alcoholic.  Honestly, I do like working with alcoholics.  Sometimes they don't make it all the way out of their addictions but at least we do leave their lives a ton better than before.  He has drank since 13 years old.  He has destroyed his pancreas, and I think that his liver is about pickled.  He has tried to stop drinking but has never been able to accomplish it.  He said that right now the alcohol is the only thing that keeps his blood pressure down.  He thinks that drinking alcohol is better for him than taking pills.  He doesn't have much hope.  But we see a lot of potential.  He loves to read so we are hoping that the power of the Book of Mormon can get him out of his problems.  He just needs help and support.  Hopefully we can change his life.  Well I guess we're not going to change his life, the Gospel and Jesus Christ will do that.

I love you all so much.  Thank you for all of your support and love.  

Elder Brady Allred

So this was probably one of the most difficult weeks of my mission.

I started by getting really sick on Monday night.  A fever and everything.  Turns out that the cold that I had had the week before went away and then I got sick from a bacteria.  It was all in the throat and it was super miserable.  So we didn't work Monday or Tuesday cuz I had a fever.

Wednesday we worked a bit in the afternoon, I still didn't feel great but we honestly had to get out of the house.  The bad thing that happened on Wednesday is that we found out that they had tried to kidnap Alexis (El Chino).  They hit him a few times, loaded him up in the car, and when they were going to start beating him up again he got away and made it back to his house.  So he is staying in his uncles house and we still have no idea where that is. He also lost his Book of Mormon so he wasn't reading.  But now we are going to get going again with him.  That's 2 weeks without a good lesson.  He didn't come to church this week. So we'll get that figured out.

Antonio and Laura... well for all of the illness we lost touch with them a bit this week but we hope to start it up again with them this week.  They didn't come to church either.

Thursday was a normal day...kinda.  It was just a weird week and our time didn't go as we had hoped on Thursday.  I had had a dream that night that I was going to be bitten by a dog, and then we saw more dogs that barked and chased us on Thursday than my companion or I  have ever seen in our lives.  We saw 8 dogs in the last 2 blocks to get home.  But we were able to get away without any problems.  

Friday...We went to Tampico.  We had to take a baptismal record from some sisters in the zone and they weren't at the meeting place on time, they were in the bus central, so when we got there, we were going to go on the bus but it left 5 minutes early that time.  THEY ARE ALWAYS LATE!!! Except that time.  So we had to wait.  And we got to the meeting more than an hour late.  So that was really embarrassing.

The Christmas devotional was great.  I love all of the talks about love.  I hope you are all lighting the world in these days.   There are people that need your help.   We even picked up garbage yesterday looking for some way to light the world a little bit more.

So it was a rough week.  This week we are going to work hard and we are going to talk with literally everybody that we can.  We hope to have a lot of success.  I'm going to try to be more diligent this week.  The mission is great but it makes you realize all of your weaknesses.  I hope to be able to overcome all of them soon, but I think it's a life long practice.

Christ is there to help each of us.  If we honestly want to change then he will help us out and we will be able to do it.  I've seen many people.  Those who want to change do it, and those who don't, don't. And there are those that only want to change a bit, and they change a bit.  But God wants to change us completely, and if we are willing then He will make us what we were intended to be.

I love you 

Elder Brady Allred

I am super excited for the Light the World activity this year.  We are going to serve a ton and we are going to be doing a few stake activities to show the world our light.  I am super excited and hope you all can catch the wave as well.   Share the activity with everyone that you know.  Member and non member alike.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgivings.  We ate some tacos (called flautas) and cake to celebrate but I'm excited for next year to eat a ton.

This week we worked pretty hard.  My companion is pretty funny so we have been enjoying our time quite a bit and we have also been able to help a lot of people to accept the gospel for only being nice people.  We are sowing a lot of seeds and if we aren't able to harvest them, well it doesn't matter somebody else will be able to do it afterwards.  Maybe in 6 months or in 6 years.  The next time the missionaries pass by they'll say. Oh they are nice young men.  And then someday they will move that good thought to a desire to be like us, and to be happier than they are right now.  I've realized that its important to have that idea in mind, that even though they don't accept me now, that shouldn't keep me from sharing the gospel, because someday they might accept it.

We had splits twice this week. One day Elder Jensen a missionary from Purificacion came with me.  He's pretty great but he doesn't speak any Spanish.  And the other day I wen to Planetario with Elder Sandoval.  It was pretty great and we hope that we were able to help them out to be able to work harder.

This week we really started to progress with a couple.  Their names are Antonio and Laura  They actually came to church yesterday and they are committed to stop drinking.  Then they just have to get married and we can baptize them.  They are really nice and it looks like they've had some good experiences with missionaries before.  If they can get on with the wedding then we should hear about a baptism soon.  I'm excited to keep working with them.

Alexis (El Chino) is also doing great.  He has accepted a baptismal date for the 16th of December.  We are excited.  His parents said that it's alright if he gets baptized, so we are going to keep teaching him and he is already rereading everything that we have given him. Hopefully everything turns out alright there.

Dalia is also going to start progressing soon.  This week she couldn't go to church for a few personal issues and tests in the university, but now she is going to start reading and we hope that she can come to church next Sunday with us.

I love you so much.  Thank you for everything. 

Elder Brady Allred

​Today is revolution day here in Mexico.  It's not that big of a deal. It's more like Labor day, we don't do anything really special.  There is no school, but there are only a few small parties in a few houses.

This week was weird because my companion got here Wednesday in the evening, so I worked with Elder Adair and Elder Andrade until then. It was weird being with two missionaries.  I did work a bit in my area with some members and it was fun to work with them.  We did find a few new people and we put a baptismal date.  But it is so much better to work with a companion always by your side.  A lot less stressful.  you have to focus on a lot of things at the same time.  When is my companion going to get here? And how am I going to get him from the bus central? And a whole bunch of other things as well.

But now he's here.  Elder Sanchez is crazy, but really great.  He's from Mexico City and he has a little bit more time than I do, but not too much. He's really excited to work and to be obedient.  He met almost all of the members this week, and we are now going to work super hard because we now have the whole week to work.

So we are now teaching a sister called Dalia.  She accepted a baptismal date. The problem we are going to have with her is getting her to be able to come to church every week. Her spouse is a lawyer that works in Monterrey and he only comes here to Victoria every few weeks. He is an inactive member, and he just wants to sleep on Sundays when he comes, because he usually gets here Sunday mornings at 2 am and then sleeps in and just wants to play all day.  But we are going to try to help him to change and that way his wife can come to church at least.

We are also teaching a young man called Alexis.  We just have to talk to his parents and then we are going to baptize him. He has been coming to church with the Bishop's family for a few weeks and we have been teaching him little by little, but he wants to get baptized, so when we talk to his parents he's all ready to get there.

We are super excited for these next few weeks. I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving this week.  I am getting excited for Christmas. This Friday they post the video "Light the World"  Share it with everyone you know and live it.

There are some frogs and some pictures from the zone.

I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week this week and can keep doing everything right.

Love,

Elder Allred

We are still working hard but we are still not seeing results.  We are trying everything and we have finished organizing the area book and we are looking for all of the past investigators.  We have found a lot of people but honestly we have almost nobody in our teaching circle.

The few people we have right now are Alexis AKA el Chino (the Chinese ? who knows why) and Amayrani.  But we are thinking about leaving Amayrani for a time because she isn't really progressing either.  That's one of the hardest parts.  Leaving an investigator.  Because we are just losing our time teaching them.  They aren't reading, praying or going to church and so really it leaves us no choice.  And usually it is almost impossible to find them.  Out of every three times we go we find them there once.  So sometimes we just have to say "we're moving on" and then 2 or 3 weeks later go back.  

We have found a lot of people to teach but when we go back for the first appointment they are never there.  Don't think that we are depressed or anything.  We just keep swimming.  We keep going whether there are results or not.  It's hard sometimes but we enjoy the little things.

El Chino is a young man, 14 years old.  He is the Bishop's neighbor.  He came to church a few weeks ago and now we are teaching him.  He said that he wants to get baptized but he wants to know more before he takes that step.  We have yet to talk to his parents and we hope that today in the evening I can go there and talk to him and his parents in a family night with the bishop and his family.

Now there's a funny thing it what I just said.  I said that we hope that I can go.  That is because today are transfers.  And my companion, Elder Melanson, is going all the way to Huejutla.  For those of you who don't know Tamaulipas and Veracruz Geography, that is about 8 or 9 hours in a bus.  So he went and my new companion is the ex-Financial Secretary, Elder Sanchez.  He has to finish a few things up in the offices of the mission and he is going to come to Victoria to be my companion on Wednesday.  I am going to be with Elder Adrade and Elder Adair these two days.  But we have appointments in Lomas, so I am going to be traveling back and forth with members to be able to go to some of the appointments.  For example the family night with the Bishop.  And then tomorrow we have more appointments than I have had in one day in all of my mission.  We have 8 appointments tomorrow.  They are all new people that we have never taught before so there is a very low probability that we find them. But I am going to go with Brother Hernandez to talk to each of them, and if they are not there then I will talk to their neighbors.  It should be super fun.  And then in the afternoon I am going to go with a recent convert named Homar to visit some other people.  He is super excited to go with me and I really hope that we have some great success so that he can keep being excited about the Gospel. He really shares it with everyone so maybe I can train him a bit tomorrow on how to do it better.

The computers these weeks aren't working to be able to send pictures so sorry about that.  We saw about 3 million frogs today by the river San Marcos and took some pictures.  They are smaller than the thumbnail but they are all over the city now,  It's super cool.

Thank you for everything.  I'm super excited for what's to come and I hope and pray that we can start having more success.  It's a lot of work but worth every single moment.

I'm loving the work and can't wait to start working with my old District Leader as companions now.  

I love you and pray for you. I can hardly wait for Christmas.

Love 

Elder Brady Allred

This week was a lot of hard work, and once again everything fell apart at the last moment.  It was pretty rough.  I guess we are still missing something.  We had great goals and plans, and we worked hard and finished tired. I guess we are just going to have to focus in a little bit more and work a little bit smarter.  I think that we can do it.  It's just a ton of hard work.

We had a few great lessons that we were able to use several great scriptures to help the investigators to understand a little bit more about how to have the Holy Ghost and revelation always.  We talked several times about the idea that we can all receive revelation from God and that when we get baptized and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost then we can have constant revelation. We also could tie the sacrament to that principle. So that way we could teach everything; The Book of Mormon, prayer, baptism, prophets (they go right with revelation) and going to church all at once.  It was really cool and we felt the spirit very strongly in many lessons that we had, the only problem is that no one actually showed up.  So we are going to have to do it better this week.

We have been working a lot with the members helping them to preach the Gospel. More than anything, we have been sharing videos from Mormon channel with them and then having them share those videos with friends or family. We are not receiving a ton of results still but they are at least sharing the gospel message with people. Hopefully if we keep it up in a few weeks we can start to receive references. But I invite all of you to look into Mormon channel and maybe (maybe) think about using a social media outlet or at least text messages to share those videos.  You can just send the link from a text message and you can all share the Gospel while being at home and without actually having to talk to people. Mormon.org is also a great resource that the church has for preaching the Gospel. Look into them.

Really nothing else happened. Just a lot of hard work and trying to share the gospel. I'm sorry that it's kinda short.  I also had some good experiences in my personal studies. One of the most profound things that I have learned ever in my study came the other day when I sat down to read the 11th Chapter of 3rd Nephi.  I read the first two verses and then learned that through the death of Christ the Americas were changed from a wicked place to a very good place.  Through the faith of the people they were able to outlive the disasters. So if we have faith then through the sacrifice of Christ we can change from wicked people to only good people and even though it is a hard process we can really change completely like it says in verse one.  It was honestly a great doctrine that I learned about the power of the atonement and repentance that I have reflected on several times.

I really liked this video. Look into it and you can share it with someone else.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znzx2HXY8fo

I really love you guys and hope that you take advantage of the things that are within your reach.

Love

Elder Brady Allred

I think that I have about 62 weeks now.  Something like that. Maybe more maybe less.  But yep I made it to 14 months.  Now is the time in the mission when everything should be about 2nd nature.  And it's getting there and I'm starting to enjoy it more.

This weeks was really crazy.  We went to Tampico on Tuesday for a Mission training and then on Wednesday we had the rest of the training and came back in the evening.  So that's a lot of traveling, especially for us because we usually don't travel more than about 5 or 6 kilometers every day, and we went three and a half hours two days in a row.  But it was worth it and I learned a lot about how to be a better missionary and I saw a bit more the vision that President Ramirez has for the Mission.

Then on Thursday we had Zone Conference and interviews with President.  It was really great and a very worthwhile experience.  I hope to keep putting in pracitce everything that I learned.

Friday we planned in the morning for this week and we actually set goals from here to the end of the year.  That was a great spiritual experience.  We prayed a lot and put very high but achievable goals.  And we are now working like crazy to achieve them.  And I think that we should be able to do it.

Saturday we went with a few young women investigators that we have.  They are great and we are trying to make sure that they are interested in the gospel and not in us.  But that is why we leave the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon and other commitments, because usually if they do those things then they are looking for God in their lives.  But it's a little weird to teach young adult women that are our age.

Yesterday we had two really great experiences with two families.  The first one was with Gerardo.  A new investigator that we found about a week ago.  He has a great past and is a very smart and questioning person.  So this type of person is my favorite type of person to teach.  Somebody that has very well developed questions and understands when you explain it.  You don't have to simplify as much with them.  So he asked a few questions about why the Lamanites had to be colored.  We told him that it was a way that God could show Nephi's descendants who are the good people and the bad people, and that the skin color could change based upon obedience.  His other question was about evolution.  We told him that God created man, and everything else, but that He hasn't actually told us how.  We read 2 Nephi 2:27 and told him that God has given us everything we need to be able to make right decisions, the decision between the great Mediator of all men or captivity and death by the power of the devil.  We told him that HOW God created us is not going to influence our decisions about right and wrong as much as a testimony that God did create us.  If God created us is going to affect us a whole lot more than worrying about HOW God created us. And he was honestly very convinced that he doesn't have to know exactly how.  It was super cool and super spiritual and he told us that after many years of doubts, specifically those two, he feels that now is the time that he has been waiting for to change his life.  So next time we see him we are going to put a baptismal date.  We're super duper excited.

The other great experience yesterday was with Rocio and Hector (Rocio is a very beautiful name, it means dew in Spanish.  It's pronounced Row-SEA-o).  They go to a Christian church, and told us that they are rather happy there.  We asked how their family is (it was a question given us directly from heaven) and it is honestly not up to par.  They have a lot of problems between them.  So we told them that we have a unique way to help them.  We taught them about prophets, and then we showed them the family Proclamation for the World.  The spirit filled the room as we talked about their family and how these direct counsels from God can change their lives.

I said, "Wait a second! How do you feel right now in this moment?" 

They said, "Really peaceful."  

We read Galatians 5:22-23.  The fruit of the spirit is love...peace...tranquility.

"Is that what you feel right now?"

"Well...yeah?"

"That's the spirit.  How would you like to always feel that way?"

They said It would be great but it is really hard to feel that way at work.  It's a warehouse and the people are sometimes a little cranky, they complain, they fight, it's not a peaceful place.

I told them, "Guess what.  I worked in a warehouse and I was able to feel peace.  The prophets have taught a way that we can always have peace and ALWAYS feel the spirit." 

So we explained the doctrine of Christ.  Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and then the glorious gift of the Holy Ghost, or in other words, constant peace. Hector said that if the Family Proclamation is really written by prophets then he will get baptized.  Rocio said that she'll think about it.  It was super spiritual and a really great experience. I think that they are going to get baptized very soon as well.

I love you so much and I am so grateful for the opportunity that you are giving me to be on a mission. It is life changing and a great experience.  It's hard, but worth every thing.

I love you

Elder Brady Allred

This week was great. We worked really hard an found a ton of people to teach. Hopefully some of them can progress and we will be able to see some baptisms in the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully we can keep up the hard work.

I hope that all of you have been reading the Book of Mormon, praying and sincerely taking the sacrament.  I hope you all have a great week this week.

Did you read the conference talks?????  They are really great.

Love,

Elder Allred

These weeks I have started reading the conference talks from all of the Liahonas (or Ensigns for those of you that live in Utah and are spoiled with three church magazines instead of just one).  I am learning a ton and I am trying to write down some of the most powerful quotes for my investigators to be able to share some of the words of our modern day prophets to accompany our Book of Mormon prophets.  This was one of my favorites that I read this week end.

www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/i-will-not-fail-thee-nor-forsake-thee?lang=eng

It is a great talk. Read it , listen to it, and meditate it.  Look for one of the Ensigns from one of the recent conferences and read some of the talks.  They are our modern scripture.  It will strengthen your testimony of modern prophets, modern revelation, and modern priesthood power, and more than anything it will strengthen your testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Look for some talks and print them and share them with your friends.  Or give away some of the Ensigns, New Eras, or Friends to your non member or inactive friends.  That is a very simple, cheap and powerful way to preach the gospel.

This week was really rough in the work.  We didn't have much success and we got really tangled up in a lot of things that weren't really all that important.  But we have recommitted ourselves and I have honestly asked God to help me be better this week and I am going change.  I hope that you can all find something that you need to be better in and to do it. And I really hope that you have all be reading the Book of Mormon everyday.  If it wasn't enough that the Prophet of God told us to read it last conference, about 6 or 7 of His living apostles told us that we need to do it too.

Sorry Mom and Dad that I didn't write as much to you this week, but I was writing to my siblings because they all wrote to me this week, which hasn't happened in a long time and I told them each some things to do and stuff.  But thank you so much for what you each have done for me.  I hope that you are enjoying the school year and if there is anything that you want help in, or if you have a question I am more than willing to help you all out.

And one comment before I finish.  We are working with some great families and we are hoping that they can all progress in these weeks.  It is so great to get to know these great people and to be able to work with each of them.  I'm learning to love serving them and teaching them and I hate when I am not able to do everything perfectly to be able help them. When I mess up I feel horrible.  But I am so grateful to see that I am able to change and be forgiven of my mistakes.  I hope that some of these wonderful people can move forward on their paths towards covenants.  I hope to do my best to help each one of them, and hopefully there will be more fruits next week. Even though I know that outward fruits are not always the best sign of inward success.

I love each one of you so much and I hope the best for all of you in this week and every day.  I love you.

Elder Allred

Happy Birthday to everyone that has one this week.  Especially Jakon and Kira.  17 and 15.  Be sure to act mature and to be good people this year,

It's great to hear that you are all staying so busy.  I hope that it can stay that way.

This week  was really great.  It felt really good to finally have a companion that likes to work as hard as I do.  When it's hard for me to want to work he helps me keep going, and when he gets discouraged I'm there to help him to keep going too.  There are some great people in this area and a ton of potential for the coming weeks and months.  Hopefully we can keep everything moving and achieve a lot here in Lomas.

The ward is really great I got to know a ton of really great people this week and the whole ward is really willing to work hard with us.  I think that this week the members must have asked us for at least 15 Books of Mormon. It was something so weird, because they asked us without our asking them.  That is something that has never happened before. But I think that some really good Elders were working here and got a really good system going with the members.  Hopefully we can take advantage of that and we can help each one of the members and families to keep giving away Books of Mormon and preaching the Gospel.  They really obey the prophet in his saying "every member´s a missionary."

We had a family come to Church yesterday, the family Hernandez.  The missionaries have been teaching the family for about 2 weeks. They are neighbors of a recent convert called Guillermina.  They came to church for the first time yesterday.  The dad, the mom, and their 3 kids, (2 of which are 8 years old or older).  So we are hoping to help them progress and hoping that they are going to be prepared to get baptized on the 28th of this month. We have faith in the planning that we did last week. We were planning and trying to get to an agreement on how many people we would be able to help get to the waters of baptism this month.  We were talking about it and decided to pray.  We still didn't think the same thing.  We talked a little more and prayed again.  Still not the same.  And then we did it one more time and we both felt the spiritual confirmation that we would be able to baptize 5 people in the month of October. So we are working to be able to bring to pass that revelation that we received.  I think that that is the definition of faith.  Find out what God wants for us and then working so that it can be true, and I think that humility is very closely related with that.

Humility is not so much that I am humble before my companion or my parents or anything like that, although true humility will a lot of times be reflected in those aspects too.  Real humility is that two people will be sufficiently humble to talk about an idea and then praying about it. Or being humble before God and then doing what He wants us to do.

Thank you for everything and I love you all so much.

Elder Brady Allred

I got changed again.  What a surprise!!  I am now in Lomas, Victoria (ward, and stake)  I am with Elder Melanson.  He's from Lehi,Utah.  I sure hope you don't need a map to find where that is.  He has 15 months.  I'm super excited to learn from him seeing that he is a really great missionary and has a lot of experience with other great missionaries.  Finally someone that can teach me more about how to work hard!!!!!!

So that means that I left Daniel, Karen and Rebeca there in Flores to keep trying to go to church. I honestly am a little bit sad that most of the converts that I have had are not going to church.  I learned today that Frederico (from Hidalgo, Madero, my first area) is still super active.  He's blind and mentally impaired but he's the only one that is still active, besides Daniel who came to church yesterday.  We are still trying to help the other ones to come back and find the church again, but that is really a lot harder than retention.  Retention is easier than reactivation, every time.

So we had an eventful General conference.  We got there on Saturday and to our surprise the projector had been stolen.  Somebody had set it up the night before in the sacrament room, instead of the high security room that all of the churches have here.  That's where they guard all of the technology.  And every door in the church has a lock.  But to our surprise somebody had left it out and somebody else opened one of the windows (they broke the lock) and stole the projector and broke the door of the other bishop's office.  In the bishops office they didn't find anything of value and tried to open the security room.  But let me say, the church knows how to make a high security room.  It's impossible to open without the crazy keys that they use for those doors.

So the consequence of that was that we didn't see the first session of the conference, we only got to hear the last part of the talk of Jefferey R Holland, thanks to the modern technology called the cell phone, and we saw most of the second session.  And then they worked out a temporary replacement and that worked everything else out for us, for Sunday.

But other than that the conference was super great.  I felt a lot of love and a great message of repentance and forgiveness.  I honestly recommitted myself to study the Book of Mormon with more prayer.  I hope not to hurt anybody's feelings, but it is a lot harder for me to find time to read the Book of Mormon in the mission than at home. At home I could do it at 11 or 12 at night, but here I can't do that.  So I have missed a few days, but I have recommitted to never miss another day and to study it more than just read it.  Honestly it is a very true book and with the spirit of pray anyone can get to know Jesus Christ a whole lot more.

I'm super excited to be here and I'm excited for what is to come in these weeks that are on their way.  I am glad for what I've learned and I hope to apply it and have a lot of success here in Lomas.

I love you.

Elder Brady Allred

It's great to hear from you all again.  It sounds like you all had great week.

I'd like to thank you all for your prayers.  It's honestly quite a testimony of the power of prayer because I honestly feel a ton better this week and we had an amazing week with a few very powerful miracles.

So last Sunday we had the baptismal interview for Rebecca, and everything turned out really well with her and her family.  But Daniel had a much harder time.

He was supposed to have his interview on Tuesday in the morning, but thanks to a certain secretary in the offices of the mission nobody had told anybody that President was going to come Tuesday for zone conference.  President Ramirez personally informed the zone leaders on Tuesday at 8:30 he was going to get here at 10:00.  I suppose it was the spirit that told him to warn us because the secretary called at about 9:50 to tell the zone leaders.  President Ramirez would have been there all alone.  So we moved the baptismal interview for in the evening of Tuesday.

We did splits and my companion stayed here with Elder Baldwin to do the interview.  They called us that evening to tell us that Daniel was not able to go the baptismal interview. He has family that lives in Mexico City and he was worried about them.  He also had some very strong family opposition to his baptism.  The didn't want to let him get baptized.  So we thought it was all over.

Wednesday we went to visit him with a brother (was the high priest group leader, but after yesterday he's now 1st counselor in the bishopric) called Moises.  He and Daniel are kinda friends.  So we got there and started to talk a bit.  We asked a few questions and then Moises started telling him that if he really wants to get baptized than he should do it.  He started to talk a bit about sacrifice and love and a whole bunch of stuff. Daniel started crying, we asked him if  he wanted to get baptized he said yes. We asked when and he said Saturday. So we planned an interview for Saturday morning. He passed and was also baptized on Saturday.  It was a great experience and he feels super great.  He and Rebecca were confirmed in church yesterday and then the bishop interviewed him and they ordained him as a priest. It was super crazy and we are super happy for him.

We also had a great activity on Friday. We did just about everything to get everything ready because none of the members got there remotely on time.  But it all turned out great.  Everybody loved it and it taught a great lesson.  Hopefully next time a few non-members can come.  We did call it a Missionary activity, but I guess the members didn't get the hint that this means that they should bring a friend or 2 or 10.  

Alberto is struggling a lot, but hopefully this week we can help him to change and to really understand and apply the doctrine.  He didn't make it to church yesterday, but at least he made it to the baptism.

We have a few other investigators that we are working with but nobody that really stands out a ton.  Hopefully one or two of them can progress next week.  Some of the names with the most potential are Soraida, Rosaura, Valentin, and maybe we keep trying to find Luciana again. but she´s impossible to find in her house.

Thank you all for your help and your prayers.  We were super busy again this week but I felt a ton better.  I had an extra energy and I hope that we can maintain that energy this week.

I love you all

Elder Brady Allred

So this week was pretty crazy.  I went to Carrera yesterday in splits so that a missionary from there could come to our ward so that an investigator could come to church without being too scared.  It was really weird to go back to my old area.  A lot of memories came back.  It made me a lot more grateful for the great area that I have and all of the awesome members that help us so much with the work.

Alberto is doing pretty well.  He is working on stopping drinking and smoking still.  He didn't want to go to church yesterday because he didn't feel too good.  We visited him last night and today his goal is to make it the whole day without drinking anything, and he's only going to smoke 2 cigarettes.  It's a long and difficult process.

Rebeca and Daniel are still going to get baptized on Saturday.  Daniel wasn't here this weekend but tomorrow we are going to have his interview and then on Saturday the baptism with the other ward in the building.  I think it will all go over well.

Tambien estamos enseñando a una hermana que se llama Luciana.  Esperamos que ella pueda progreasar

We have been living a super crazy life and it is starting to wear me down.  I need your prayers a lot right now.  I'm sorry that time already ran out.  I didn't really write all that much, but that is how my life has been right now.  We do a lot and it's hard to get everything done.

I love you a lot and love to hear from you, hopefully I can tell you more next week.

I love you all a ton.

Elder Brady Allred

This week was pretty good.  And considering what other places are experiencing it was a really good week. 1. We did not feel the earthquake.  2.  It rained for about 10 minutes and then stopped.  It was one little cloud, it did rain hard but 10 minutes and it was more than over.  And in future events in which you hear about hurricanes don't worry about me while i'm in Victoria.  We have a few mountains around us and we'll only ever get water, and we live in the second story so you don't have to worry about that.  They tell us a few hours before at what time we have to guard ourselves in our houses (only for the "tropical storms" not whatever rain) so don't even worry about us.

It's also been hot here.  But we're getting used to it.

Our stake is now the Garden Park Stake?  Sounds like you had some great messages in the stake conference.  Don't forget what you learned, and keep applying it to your lives.

We have been working a lot with Rebecca and she is now  progressing better.  She and her family are changing a bit, and right now we are hoping that she can pray to know that The Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  Hopefully she can do that one of these days and if she does then we will have her interview Saturday and her baptism next week end.

Daniel came to church yesterday and if he can make it to church next Sunday then we will also baptize him the 23rd.  We are excited for a double baptism with the other ward in our ward building.

Alberto is struggling a bit because last week one of his friends died a very sad death.  He really struggled last week, but yesterday he came to church and hopefully God can show his hand in his life to help him come out of these struggles.  We are trying to be there as much as we can for him, and trying to help him remember Christ in all of these struggles.

We are looking for more people to teach.  I have started looking for the spirit more these days and i'm really seeing the changes in what I do and what I say and how I feel.

Thank you for all that you do.  I love you so much.  Thank you so much.  I can't wait to hear from you next week.

I love you 

Elder Brady Allred

Today it finally rained.  It has been cloudy for about 3 weeks straight, but it never wants to rain.  Today it finally let a little water go for about an hour.  It was great and everyone says that now it is going to start to cool down for Winter.  "Cool down" means about 75 degrees, but it's better than 100.

Alberto is doing great in stopping drinking.  He now is only drinking about 1 beer a day, sometimes less.  That's a lot better than the 15 that he drank before.  He started at 10 am before and now he just drinks one sometimes with dinner when it is really hot.  So we are getting there and we are really happy to see the changes that he is making.  I think the cigarette is going to be harder for him, but he's working on it.  We moved his baptism for October 14th, it's far away but that was the day that Alberto wanted because he beleives that he can be done overcoming his problems by that day.  Maria (his mom) is a great support and is helping him a ton.

We are also starting to teach Rebecca.  She is supposedly a member, but according to the church records she never got baptized.  Nobody has a picture, nor written in their journal, nor anything written about what day was the baptism or who was their.  So the good news for us is that we get to teach her again and baptize her.  She is 13 years old and so we are going to try to reactivate her whole family so that this time she can be sure to stay member.  We are planning to teach her everything because honestly she doesn't remember a thing, but we do have a date for the 23rd of September.

Today was super great because we got to play volleyball as a zone.  It's the first time that I've gotten to play since president Ramirez gave us permission.  It was super fun and I really hope that we get to do it again.

This week we are going to have some family nights with some different members, and we hope that they can turn out well so that we can get to know the family members and friends of some of the members of our ward.  Hopefully we can find some new people to teach that way.

We are working really well with the ward and we are also realizing that a lot of times the activities are very under-planned and that really the church meetings need a lot more direction.  But hopefully we can figure out how to do that.

It's great to hear that you are all getting back to school again.  Work hard and don't procrastinate.

I love you all,

Elder Allred

This week was really great.  It's rough getting to the year mark, but now that I'm almost here it's getting easier to get back into the rhythm again.  I bought myself a new pair of shoes and a tie and socks for my "birthday".

 

We are loving this area and Barrio Flores (Flowers Ward).  The members here are super great and they are really willing to help us with the missionary work and to organize and plan great ward activities.  We decided to plan one for in September and we are hoping to have a lot of members and investigators come.  We are going to preset Lehi's vision, but we are going to do it in a very original way.  We presented the plan yesterday to a committee that we organized and we improved the plan a ton.  Really church committees can get a ton done when they are well organized and have a good direction.

I am really starting to get a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon.  The more problems and stress that I have the more the Book of Mormon helps me to find direction and peace.  As there are more responsibilities in the mission experience more and more I want to read the Book of Mormon and feel the spirit that we can always feel when we read it.

The other day we were talking to a brother named Jaime and he was telling us about all of the problems that he is facing and that everybody wants to give him good advice but that nobody really knows what he is feeling.  I told him that Christ knows how he feels and the way that he can receive Christ's help is by reading his counsels that he gave to the Nephites just after suffering everything that would help him understand us.  In other words Christ suffered and died for us and then after being resurrected he taught to the Nephites the ways to receive his help and his secret for how he passed through our problems.  It was really cool and Jaime committed to start reading the Book of Mormon again.

This week we also worked quite  a bit with Alberto and his mom, Maria.  They are very willing to change their lives and are starting that process.  They have a very rough and personal backstory, but they were very willing to tell us because they really see us as Angels, and believe that we can help them.  It is incredible to believe that two 19 year old young adults who have never had a problem with drinking, smoking, or real life family problems, can help people with all sorts of problems and 3 or 4 times our life experience.  It really strengthens my testimony of the importance of the gospel because it is the Gospel that changes their lives, not us.  We are just the messengers.

Now that school started here too, Steve has disappeared.  We are trying to look for him but it is really hard to find him, except after 10pm, and even at that we may not find him.  And Daniel is also having a hard time in his family and business problems and it is really hard to help him too, because he is moving away from our help in his attempt to fix his problems.  We keep telling him to read the Book of Mormon and he is, but he is really struggling.  but we are there still to help him.

We hope to keep working with Maria and Alberto and hopefully this week we can find a few more people to teach.  We are looking at teaching a sister that got baptized a few years ago but there is not paper or registers or pictures of anything.  And it is not in the computer.  So we are going to have to teach her again.  her name is Rebecca and we are going to try to reactivate her family again and baptize her again.  She is 13 years old and she and her little brother are really fun to work with.  Hopefully she can start to remember what she already knows.

It`s a really great experience to be on a mission.  It is really hard but very worth every effort.  Really I know that this is the true church and that through the ordinances available with the restored priesthood we can find more peace and happiness in our lives.  Really God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son for us.  I know that the Book of Mormon is a true testament of him and that a man can come nearer to God by obeying his precepts than by any other way or book.  I know that all of this is true because I've lived it.  Don't ever forget that God loves you and that he wants to help you get rid of every mistake.  It's not easy, but He will help you.

Thank you for all of your love and support.

Love,

Elder Allred