I'll just say that politics in Mexico are VERY different from American politics.  They still use pencil and paper to vote.  It was pretty crazy to see and it only increases my love for the US political processes and for our freedoms that we do have.  I think that the political party Morena won the presidency, that would make Lopez Obrador the president but I'm not sure.  He's supposedly going to change everything if he gets in. We'll see.

It's also very crazy that all government officials at all levels run for political office at the same time every six years.  I like the random but still predictable voting system that we use in the US much more.

This week we tried to use the priesthood more to bless people and their houses and to just help them in any way that we could.  It was incredible to see how exhausting it was to use the power of God.  It does seem to take some energy to be able to use the priesthood but we did see changes in the lives of the people we met and we know that they did feel peace.

We decided on Thursday to try contacting in a different way. We decided to present ourselves as Representatives of Jesus Christ and ask them to let us go in to share a message and leave a blessing on the home. We practiced in the morning and decided that we were going to put an appointment at 6 pm on Saturday.  We got everything ready.  So we go out to work after eating (Thursday we plan for the coming week all morning) and we start with a prayer. go and contact a house and the first people let us in, felt the spirit, accepted the appointment for Saturday.  Then guess what! They were actually there on Saturday when we went.  They told us about their lives a little bit. Georgy the 19 year old son said that he has been asking himself if there is a true church. the Mom, Georgina, is looking for how to help her children. Kevin the 10 year old is willing to follow his mom.  Eduardo the husband is a little bit more closed, but he's willing to let us go to his house.  If his family starts to change and to do everything that we invited them to do I'm sure he will follow.  We put a baptismal date after talking about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. July 28th. They accepted.  We even took a member to the lesson, and her testimony about receiving guidance from the Holy Ghost was like the cherry on top.  I'm pretty sure it was my most "by the book experience" that I've ever had and I feel certain that his family will progress and be baptized July 28th. I'm very excited about them!

Wednesday last week we had a reunion to say good bye to President Ramirez and his family. And tomorrow we are going to meet President Robinson. It's very exciting.  I'm pretty sure that we won't see too many changes in my short time.  But who knows. President Nelson changed everything as soon as he could (it was 100% by revelation not just his own ideas).

We are working a lot and we are almost into the new house, supposedly tomorrow we will be able to move in. Hopefully.  We are finally figuring out the ward for the food everyday, and we are going to start eating separate from the Sisters, which has it's pros and cons.  

We also had a very successful ward missionary activity. It was the first activity since the ward was reformed a month ago. It was very good and the unity is starting to grow in the ward. Hopefully the church attendance will also grow soon. We are the smallest ward in attendance in the stake right now even though the estimated attendance from the changes says that we should be the biggest.  We're working on it.  It's a very good ward and I think that it will be in the top 3 favorites.

I'm enjoying a lot my time here and loving being district leader, it's a lot calmer.  I'm doing alright with my shoulder, but the pain comes and goes.  Through the Atonement of Christ I can receive the help that I need to be able to continue. I felt that it was one of the themes yesterday in our testimony meetings.  The first few testimonies did make me feel the spirit, and then it kinda went away with all of the "thankomonies".  There were a few very powerful testimonies from a few ex missionaries that did make the difference. There are some very impressive people in this ward.

I love you all very much and hope you have a great week!  Thank you for all of your prayers, they do make such a difference.

Elder Brady Allred