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