I don´t know how but I have realized that my typing and piano playing are both improving a lot. I practice the piano for maybe half an hour a week and I type for 50 minutes each week and some how they both keep improving.  I guess that walking is good for the finger coordination or something.

I am so tired.  We worked so hard this week to just find people to teach.  No luck.  I don´t know how it works but every time I go to an area we find a lot of people the first few weeks and then we stop finding people.  And when we contact more we find less people.  Who knows why but I guess that´s just my luck.  We are still working hard and hopefully this week we have some more luck now that their 2 week long spring break is over.

We are sitting here at the computers trying to think about what we did this week.  We walked a ton. I guess that´s why my feet hurt a bit too.  And don´t worry that it is because of my shoes.  Anybody´s feet would hurt after walking as much as we did.

We did remember that Friday we had the first mutual in about 9 months in the branch.  8 YM came (we had more youth that you did for the temple).  We watched a short video from the church and then they played soccer. We are going to keep it up and we are going to train all of the youth to be good member missionaries because we have realized that the youth are more willing to help us than any other group.  Hopefully we can find some people to teach through the youth.  And the YW are going to come this week too.  They were jealous I guess.

Lolis is doing alright.  She has had some struggles with her "spouse" but we are trying to help her overcome all of that and keep moving forward to baptism.  She really likes the church and the Book of Mormon and hopefully we can pull just enough to help her keep moving forward.  She wants to but sometimes her "husband" makes it hard.

Really nothing else happened.  A lot of talking to people.  No really funny experiences there.  All of our appointments fell through except for 3 or 4.  Really nothing else happened.  The good news is that we are still excited and we have some good plans for the week. Hopefully I can report some more exciting news next week but it´s on the Lord´s time table not mine.

Keep up the good work.  Keep doing everything that you know is right.  I love the work even though we don´t find people to teach.  Hopefully God blesses us with more people in our paths this week.

I love you and pray for you every day.  Good luck in school and in sports this week.  Do what is right.

 

Elder Brady Allred

More Photos!

I hope that you all had a good week this week.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time and hope that you did too.

Before anything else I'll let you all know that the baby did wait long enough for us to baptize Sandra.  We talked to her this morning and she said that today she feels like it is really close to time.  I'm glad that we got that over with before the baby came. (not that it's something to "get over with").  It went well.  We should have filled up the baptismal font another half inch or so and it would have gone in the first time.  And the second time.  But the third time we did get her all under the water.

The coolest part was that I got to go in the font while my companion baptized her.  Due to the large baby protruding from her abdomen we got permission to both enter in the font during the baptism and I got to help.  I honestly felt so much love for Sandra being in the font with her and being able to be a part of this great process.  I then got to sit really close during the confirmation because I was right there at the piano.  It was honestly a feeling of Joy that I felt in those sacred moments and moments that I will never ever forget.

Other than that it was not that great this week.

We'll start with Tuesday.  I woke up and felt like I hadn't slept at all.  It felt like it was not time for the alarm to be going off.  I got up to turn the cell phone alarm off and realized that it was actually a phone call and that it was only 10:45  I guess that explains why I felt so tired.  They called us to tell us that Tuesday we had to go to Panuco for interviews with President and that they changed the schedule for us so that we could leave at a reasonable hour.

We got up in the morning and we left the bedroom and my closet had fallen apart during the night.  Yep, so that's twice in my life that my closet has fallen apart.  It made me laugh to remember the pile of clothes that I had last time spilling out of my closet.  But we got that all taken care of.

Other than that we just looked for people to teach all week.  And we didn't have a ton of success.  We are excited for this transfer and hope to have a lot of success.  We did teach a few people like:

Abraham - He was a reference from a sister in the branch.  He has come to church twice now and he likes it there.  He's a little special needs but he loves talking to us.  I think it may take a while to teach him but he is great and really accepting us well.  I think that we will have a lot of success in teaching him.

Andrez - He was also a reference that a sister brought to church. He gets distracted really easy and it is really hard to teach him.  He also likes coming to church.  Hopefully we can find a way to help him pay attention better and help him learn more and come closer to Christ.

Lolis is also doing well.  We found out that she is scared of the water, and I mean really scared so I think that we are going to end up leaving her baptism in May.  And I'm not mad about that at all.  I think that it is great that she is willing to get baptized even if it really scares her.  She said that she isn't scared of the covenant or the commitment or anything.  Just the water.

Other than that we are still working and giving everything we have.  I'm excited to stay another 6 weeks here as you can tell by the very full Fridge and the ice cream.

Thank you for all you do.  I hope that you have a great week and keep doing the 5 things that dad said you should do.  I actually told a very similar list to my companion yesterday about the things that we should do to raise a happy obedient family.  I included love in place of tithing but I guess that tithing helps raise happy children too.

I wish I had more to write but I really don't remember much more.  Have a great week.  I love you.  Choose the right.  Have fun in school​

One new photo this week.

This week we worked hard to find people.  And we organized a baptismal service for this upcoming Saturday.  We are pretty excited because Sandra passed her baptismal interview with flying colors.  She is so ready and we are so excited.  Hopefully I can send some pictures next week without losing them in the computer.

Tuesday was a crazy day.  We had appointments all morning and didn't have a chance to return home to grab our water.  We asked an investigator for water.  I guess that my cup was a little dirty and I got a little sick Wednesday.  I guess that I pulled the good old Allred family problem at 5 am.  The rest of the day I had a very explosive situation and it made my companion laugh pretty hard all day.

We also had a training in Tampico this week and got to go there because my companion is new.  It was pretty good and we learned some very good things to apply to improve our companionship and keep having success.  We also got to eat some very tasty carne asada. Then on the bus ride home we both felt pretty sick.  Good news is that by the morning we felt great.  I guess that means I only got sick one time this week.  I also got to see Elder Crum there.  It was great to see him again and he seems to be doing well.  I'm now taller than him again.  I don't think that I'm growing but maybe a little.  I haven't noticed.  He has pictures and he's going to send them to me for next week.

Lolis is also doing great. We are thinking that we are going to move her baptism up a week because she is so ready.  She is really working hard and is progressing like nothing I have ever seen.  We are really excited and she is really doing well.  She told us the other day that she has made changes in her life that she has wanted to make for years and she's done it in a matter of a month.  I can testify of the power of Christ for that.

I love applying the concepts learned in conference and seeing the changes in my life.  I testify that God has prophets on the Earth again and that because of them we can have the restored church.  I testify that the Living Christ is the living head of the living church.  I know that He has a body of flesh and bones.  Through His Atonement he can help us overcome everything and helps us become more than we can without Him.

I love you and I know that we have an eternal family.  Keep doing what is right and God will bless you.  I hope you have a great week and enjoy Easter.  BTW there is no Easter bunny here.

I love you and I hope to have those pictures for next week.

Elder Allred

This week was great!!! we worked hard and we are getting there.  Really we are only teaching two people because we have been working with a lot of people for a few weeks.  We thought that conference would be a good opportunity for them to come to church at least one time.  I guess it just wasn't easy enough to make time for 2 hours this weekend.  We only had two people come to church, and one member brought one friend.  I guess that talking to and inviting everyone and asking 20 members to bring one friend to one session just wasn't enough.  We handed out over 60 invitations this week.  I guess that's what you call a "Brady Party" for every 30 people invited 1 person comes.  Typical.

The good news is that the two investigators that did come, came 3 or 4 times and were going to come to the Priesthood session too.  The only problem with that is that they are not male.  Sandra and Lolis are really excited and they are really working hard.  Sandra is going to get baptized next Saturday April 15th.  She is great and is reading and now we got her praying.  The only problem with this baptismal date is that she is now 8.15 months pregnant and is expecting for the end of April.  Hopefully nothing happens suddenly.  That would make it a little hard.  Lolis is also doing great.  She is reading and praying too.  She had some really good questions yesterday.  She felt like the talk by Joaquin E Coasta was directly for her....and I think she's right.

They are two of the best investigators that I have met in my mission and we are excited to see them progress.  They are really excited and working hard to get to baptism.  April 15 and May 6.  And good news we also are putting Baptismal dates for the 20th of May.  When my companion said that day I knew it was an important day in my life.  I´m sorry to say that it took me about 5 seconds to remember that it is one of the two most important days of my life.  We´ll see if dad remembers why...

Conference was also a highlight in my week. We also had the English subtitles for President Monson's talk.  It was rough to see him that way but it really motivates me to pass my physical limits for the work of the Lord. He could have easily sat down to give his talk, but he knew that there is no excuses to only do a job at 90% (and that is not talking bad about the other apostles that sometimes do sit down) but he gave everything that he had to help us to understand his message.

Have a great week and keep doing what you know is right.  I love you.

Elder Allred