The good news is that when it says that we have to preach the gospel to every creature and then baptize them in the way Christ described, we realized that the crocodiles in my area are already baptized.  So we will leave them alone.

We had another good week with a lot of success.  We were able to find a few families and put a few baptismal dates this week end.  Jose Mateo came to church all by himself.  It is really a miracle when an 86 year old man can get to church when he had told us last week that he had no idea where the church was.  He got there alone.

We also are teaching a sister called Veronica.  Elder Johnson and I found her a few weeks ago.  We struggled a bit to be able to find her again in her house but finally we were able to have a good lesson on Saturday with her two daughters.  They struggled a lot to understand prophets. We tried in about every way we could think of to describe it and they didn't get it.  The good thing was that they understood it enough to understand Joseph Smith and the restoration. So they accepted a baptismal date for April 28th.  Only Veronica came to church yesterday.  Hopefully the whole family can come to general conference this week end.  It's a family of 5. We've talked to three of them. We only have to talk to the dad and the older brother now.  It may be a little rough to teach them but with the spirit it is not impossible.

We also taught a sister called Blanca again yesterday.  She went to church a ton of times a long time ago and she then went back to the Catholic church cuz she wasn't sure if her answer that she got was from God or just herself. So we are going to teach her again and we hope that now she can make the right choice.  She also accepted a baptismal date for the 28th. Then we found out that her friend that has been living with her is not her boyfriend, just a coworker. So the good news is that we wont have to marry her to any one, cuz he's going to San Luis Potosi. So that all got worked out fast.

We've got Elder Melanson in the zone,  He's the one that trained me to be a zone leader, and he was also the last companion of my trainer Elder Mondragon.  He is our district leader so it has been interesting to work with him again.

We had the missionary leadership council this week which was also great.  The best part was that me and my companion decided that we would tell the truth about what is happening and not try to put on a show that we are perfect zone leaders. When they asked us a question, President was a little surprised with our answer, but it turned into a very edifying experience and we learned a lot about planning and following up, and about serving the Lord in his way, and in trying to have a burning desire to do things, not just a desire. Hopefully, they are things that will help the whole mission.

Then we found a real cool family.  We contacted the daughter on Thursday and she said that we would come back on Sunday.  She said that the missionaries were going a few years ago but that her dad had decided to not listen to them. So we got there and the mom and dad came out.  Hello we said. And then we presented ourselves. We asked their names and the brother said "I am the ex Elder Chavez"  So that was a surprise.  He took his records off the lists of the church a few years ago when they were going to join the Jehovah´s Witnesses, but then he didn't join that church either and they decided that churches aren't necessary. He has some historical problems with the Book of Mormon. So we talked to them for a few minutes. I knew we couldn't just go in shooting, cuz we would get shot down before we got into the door.  So we started a very casual conversation about some missionary memories and about their family. And I realized that they basically live all of the principles from The Family : A Proclamation for the World. And so I asked if he knew of that. And he didn't. So I pulled one out to share it. And then the miracle. They looked at each other and said "well if you would like to come in we could talk about it inside"  YEAH we got into the house!!! We couldn't believe it. So we talked about the Family and it opened a lot of doors. We were really careful with how we talked about prophets and stuff like that, but they accepted us really well. And then they invited us to come back and invited their kids too.  The great thing is that they are the same ages as Gonzalo´s Kids, so we have some fellow-shippers a block away.  We are going to have to be really careful with them because if we say something that we shouldn't then we lose everything. We hope that in a few weeks they will accept to progress and we are praying so that they go to the conference this week end.  It's the Chavez Family if anybody wants to pray for them.

I love all and I keep asking for your prayers in my behalf.  It's rough out here. Any extra faith is very needed.

I love you

Elder Brady Allred

Well, I am still here.  But Elder Johnson went to Valles.  That is literally about as close as you can get to the sun.  It can get up to 60 degrees Celsius there.  That is 140 Fahrenheit.  And last year it did make it to 63.  So hot that your shoes can melt to the side walk and the doves fall down from the heavens.  I am pretty sure that Moses was in Valles when the Israelites ate all of their birds, until it came out of their noses.  I hope you got that scripture reference.

So the great news is that Elder Jones, the other Zone Leader is with me now. That is just going to make my whole life a ton more easier  (that is horrible English but I'll just leave it there).  We can talk about the Zone now without having to talk on really dinky little phones.  They call these dumb phones "cacahuates" or peanuts.  And sometimes it might be better to use a peanut to talk to someone.  It is going to be great and the whole zone is going to move like crazy now.  We have two ex-zone leaders as our new district leaders.  They are both about ready to go home but they are going to help us a ton to move forward in the work here in Ampliacion.  I'm really excited.

This week the two kids of Gonzalo, Antonio and Ivonne, both got baptized.  It was a very simple service. There were great talks, and great prayers.  The best part was that Gonzalo got to baptize his kids.  He did a great job when he finally found the right words.  There was a very strong spirit there.  I think that they are going to stay active their whole lives.  They are so excited and it is always just great to see the smiles on their faces when we talk to them.

Jose Mateo went to church yesterday.  We had some great lessons with Him this week. We taught the Restoration with questions and he got to his own testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet.  And he believes that we are the only true church.  We are going to have to keep going so that he can learn everything he needs to know to be able to pass the baptismal interview.  Hopefully we can do it.  His day is the 21st of April.

Good News.  Federico from Hidalgo, the blind and partially handicapped man that got baptized has the Melchizedek priesthood.  He has passed the sacrament a few times and has hardly missed a week. And Lizbeth just had two of her cousins baptized.  They are my strongest converts and they are from my first area.

This week we focused a lot on questions.  And how to find the needs of the people that we are teaching.  We learned a lot and had a ton of really spiritual lessons.  One of the best was with a student of the Jehovah's Witnesses.  She didn't want anything to do with us.  But we started asking her questions to get to know her and to figure out why she needs the Gospel.  And when we figured out that she had some problems in her childhood that she couldn't get over we talked about how Christ could help her to get over those problems and to forgive and feel better.  And we related it to prophets.  Cuz without prophets we wouldn't know that.  We had her in the corner and she felt the spirit. And so she suddenly pulled out a ton of excuses and basically ran away.  It was great. 

We did that with so many people this week.  I can honestly say that it was one of my most spiritual weeks in the whole mission.  Elder Johnson and I got along great and we were able to teach really well together.  Questions taught, Jose Mateo and about 8 or 9 other people this week why they need the gospel and we brought them closer to making covenants with God.

I got to do a baptismal interview for two kids this week. And I talked to their mom to see why she doesn't go to church or read.  We were able to explain the difference between real intent and passive curiosity.  It was really cool cuz she really understood it.  I hope that I can do that now with Elder Jones and that we can have even more success now. We have a ton of people with potential and hopefully some of them can progress.

Keep praying for us.  We can feel the difference, and don't forget to pray for the speakers in conference, they can feel the difference.

I love you and hope you are all doing great.

Elder Brady Allred

I was studying this morning and I loved that talk from general conference. And I loved the footnotes as well.  I thought I should recommend it to you.  It's by Elder John C Pingree Jr.  It is a great talk, and It should help you a lot.

This week I also reflected a lot on "The Reasons Why".  Really we need to do more than just read the scriptures or pray or go to church or to the temple or share the gospel.  We have to do it for the right reasons. And maybe just say to receive revelation is not a good enough reason.  We have to go before the Lord with a specific question every time that we pray, read, study, meditate, or take the sacrament or go to the temple we should be meditating a question, and a specific question at that.  And that way we can get a specific answer, and really grow line upon line and precept upon precept until we do get to be perfect "even as [Christ] or our Father in heaven [are] perfect" It's very interesting that we all learned about the same lessons this week, but in such a different way.

So I would like to talk about Friday.  We started by going with Jose Mateo.  He is 86, I think I already told you a bit about him. He is the one that went running for the Book of Mormon when he saw us coming down the street.  So we went with him for the 3rd time on Friday. We got there and started talking to him about the gospel.  The key to success with him is if he starts talking a whole bunch and telling a ton of stories (that is what all Mexicans tend to do, a bit like the guy in Ant-man) then we just grab the Book of Mormon to share a scripture and then he listens to us. So we were doing that and we explained the Restoration of the Church pretty easily and simply so that he could understand.  And when we got to the end we even invited him to a baptismal date for the 20th of April and he said yes.  So we invited him to continue reading second Nephi 31.  We said that he should continue reading where he was. And he thought that we meant that he should keep reading Moroni 10:5, the scripture we had shared moments before.  So he thought that we said to continue reading Moroni 10:5 until he memorized it. Today we are going to go back and check that.  He said that it is going to be rough to memorize it. So that made us chuckle a bit. But then we invited him to pray. We explained to him how.   "First you say Heavenly Father, then we thank thee for.... and you say whatever you feel grateful for, then we ask thee for.... and you say what you want to ask for. And then you finish saying in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen"  So he looked at the page for a moment, and said OK, I can do that.  So this is word for word what he said (translated into English)  "Heavenly Father.  We thank the for. We ask the for. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."  I thought it was funny but I did contain myself.  But my companion did not.  He let out a chuckle.  The good news is that Jose is a little deaf now, so he didn't realize it. And he looked up with the biggest smile on his face.  So we congratulated him and told him that we would come back on Monday to see how it has gone.  he couldn't go to church yesterday but next week he should be able to.  It was a great experience.

So from there we went to get the food which was as far away as it could possibly be. So we went walking and a lady stopped us and asked for us to come over. She was there with another lady and they told us about how their niece, and granddaughter was in an accident. It was a little girl of a year and a half.  And she died in the accident. They didn't exactly tell us what happened but I think that she got ran over by a car.  So they asked us to say a prayer for her. So we went in and said a prayer for her ashes. And then they invited us to come back at 4:30 to the funeral mass and share our message there.  So we did come back and we shared the Plan of Salvation with 30 people.  And they invited us to come back again the next day.  Both days we sang some hymns.  The first day we shared I Am a Child of God and I Know That My Redeemer Lives. The spirit was really strong.  The second day the people treated us more like just another Christian church and didn't really pay as much attention and the spirit was not as present.  We did share about the Family Proclamation and the eternal nature of families.  We sang Families Can Be Together Forever, and Nearer My God to Thee.  We are going to go back once or twice more this week to see if anybody would really like to know a bit more.  After we finished both days then they started their Catholic prayers and songs, so that was very interesting to be present during that, but the people at least felt the spirit a bit and I think that we planted a ton of seeds.

The other great event that occurred on Friday was when we went with Ivonne and Antonio.  We had to plan the baptismal interview for Saturday. And Ivonne had told us that she was not sure about the baptism a few days ago. So when we got there we thought that we were just going to confirm Antonio's baptism and cancel Ivonne's. But the most incredible thing happened. She told us about her desires to get baptized because of all of the changes that her dad has made.  She wants to follow his example and so she did decide to get baptized and she passed the interview and so did Antonio. That's not all, they also came to church alone yesterday because Gonzalo had to work yesterday for some rainy day postponing to his work this week. But Antonio and Ivonne made the changes necessary to their plans to come with us to church.  The biggest concern Ivonne had yesterday when we talked about the baptism was if she had to fast for the baptism. She was relieved when we told her no.

So that was the best day of my week. Hopefully we can have some more great experiences this week to tell you next week.  I love you and thank you all for your prayers. They did make the difference for Ivonne, and I know that it is thanks to your prayers that I am still here. Thank you so much.

I Love You

Elder Brady Allred

I hope nobody had a heart attack when they didn't see emails yesterday.  I suppose you are all alright cuz you didn't send me another email asking if I'm alright ;)  But I know you were paying attention.

The reason we didn't write yesterday was because we moved our P-Day this week.  We had P-Day today so that we could go to the temple.  It was a great experience.  Really it reminded me of a lot of things.  We did an endowment session, and to be honest it has been way too long since the last time.  But it was a great and edifying experience and I have new goals for this week and for the rest of my mission. It is the greatest thing to be able to go the house of the Lord to ask for guidance and help in my life.  I know that He is always there to give us the direction that we need.

This week was a great week full of Spiritual experiences.  I'll start with one on Friday.

Something that I've learned in the mission is that two good lessons can be very similar but two spiritually guided, and effective lessons will never be the same.  Maybe we will talk about Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, the apostasy, and the restoration, and the Book of Mormon, but if you ask the right questions and follow the spirit then they will never be the same.  We taught a young man called Fernando.  He is studying in the University.  He was very interested to hear about our message.  He read part of the pamphlet and started the lesson asking about the Book of Mormon.  So we did this cool thing where we teach the first lesson, the Restoration with the pictures in the front of the Book of Mormon.  First we talk about God and his love for us.  Then we talk about Families.  Then Prophets, like Lehi.  The Dispensacion cycle that is in the Book.  Then Baptism. Then Christ's coming and his Church.  Then the apostasy.  That leaves us in the perfect place to talk about Joseph Smith and his role as prophet in bringing the book of Mormon out into the light.  It was really cool and really spiritual even though we were standing the whole time.  At the end we invited him to read the book of Mormon and to pray about it to decide if it was the truth.  He ended up telling us no :( so that's real sad.  But if he had said yes then we would have put a baptismal challenge, and maybe even a date.  All of that in less than 30 minutes.  Most missionaries struggle to explain the first lesson in less than an hour.  I do, with out a doubt, know that Fernando felt the spirit, but he did use his agency to choose.  He said it's cuz he doesn't have time, but I know that he will accept the missionaries and their message in a few months when he has more time.

Sunday was really cool.  We were going to church with Gonzalo, the recent convert and his kids.  His kids asked us "Did you eat breakfast?" and before we could answer Gonzalo said "It's the first Sunday of the month, and thus Fast Sunday. No they did not eat"  And we never actually taught fasting super in depth to him.  He just read it in the pamphlet about tithing and put it into practice.   His kids left church to go eat after the first hour.  I think that they weren't fasting, I think that they were just going without food.  I don't think that he warned them, he just made them fast.  It was kinda funny and I got a good laugh out of it.  

We also got to go the temple with Ivon, Gonzalo's daughter, last week. It was pretty neat to hear those great lessons.  It is very worth your time to go to seminary, and even more, if you actually prepare for the classes.  It was a very spiritually edifying experience.

We also got to clean the church this week with the members.  The members are always very surprised when we show up to service and church cleaning activities.  But it's such a great way to get to know them, and to get their confidence, so I always try to set aside time to go help them. We also dug a well this week.  It was cool to go to that too.  I love working with the members.  But sometimes I do wish they would pass a few more references.

We found a great family last week.  We have only met the mom, Vicky, and her daughter. She is great and we are going to go with her again tomorrow. Yesterday when we went, her mom was really drunk and so we couldn't teach much.  She told us that she is going to make sure that all of her chores are done for tomorrow.  She works so hard to take care of herself, her 3 kids, and one on the way, and her mom who struggles with some addictions and some very hard stories.  I really hope that they will open up their hearts to our message tomorrow.

We also found a great brother.  He has a Book of Mormon from about 20 years ago, from sisters that we have never heard of. And they took the sisters out of the ward about 15 years ago.  He has taken great care of it. He saw us coming down the street and ran into his house to pull out the book and he wants to know more.  He's only 86 years old.  If he is willing to go to church then he should progress quickly.

We had a great lesson yesterday with Esmeralda too, an investigator that we found last Sunday.  She's 19 years old, but she has some rough stories about her family.  She really likes the idea of being able to get sealed to her father who died about 6 years ago, her mom, and brothers.  We'll see if she wants to start reading. She's great but so far she hasn't read anything. But we did have a great experience yesterday when we talked about how she could come to have her very own testimony of the Book of Mormon and Christ. And that she doesn't have to depend on anyone else for that testimony.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that every time that we read it, it will help us to make better choices.  We can come to have our own testimony, the testimonies of others will only carry us so far.  Families really can be forever. Go to the temple often. The people in Victoria go to the temple once a month and it is 4 hours away.  Please go, it is only 5 minutes away for you.  I love you and hope that you all have a great week.

Love 

Elder Brady Allred