LAST ONE!

Jaime and Daniela are going to tell us a baptismal date tomorrow, it's kinda sad that I won't be here for their baptism, but they are really prepared now. We have overcome all of their questions together and they continually tell us that they are going to be grateful forever to us.  I sure hope he is a bishop someday, it's very possible.

We finally found Vanessa yesterday and talked to her again, she is willing to continue learning and progressing.  She isn't ready for baptism yet but she should be there soon.

Georgina and Eduardo are taking their time on getting married, but we put a baptismal date with Kevin this week so that he can start progressing again.

Just about everything else was just normal.  We had some great experiences with some of the lessons but nothing overly noteworthy (I'll tell you about the rest of it next week!)

I might just give away a suitcase to a young man that is preparnig for a mission. If everything fits in one then I am going to give it away. Don´t be mad....

Thank you all for your support and your love. I think we've all grown a lot in these last two years. In 2 days it'll have been two years!  I know more now than I knew before that this is the truth. Christ does direct this church personally and He is my friend.  There is peace in Christ (dyc 19:23)  I know that God and Christ did appear to Joseph Smith and that he did translate the Book of Mormon. President Nelson is a prophet of  God. I also know him and I have no doubt that he is prophet. The Holy Ghost can and does convert people and brings them to Christ. There is a power stronger than death, illness, and contention. It is the priesthood that opens the power to heavenly help, help that can come thanks to the Atonement of our Savior.  This means everything to me now!

I love you!  I"ll see you on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Elder Brady Allred

This week was crazy.

Tuesday we had splits with the zone leaders. It was crazy! we had to go to the mission offices for materials. We got there and President Robisnon came out and said, "Do you guys want to go eat in my house? we have sandwiches and ice cream! come on."  Well we had a lot of materials that we didn't want to take in the bus and it was ice cream so we called to cancel the food (the sister was relieved btw) and went and ate a great American type lunch. The creamy potato soup was incredible! 

So any way we ate and then went to our area. President said do you want a ride and we said great! free rides all the way from the offices to the area. And then he said that there was a hook. oh no, he got us hooked, real good.  He said we love you a lot and when you love someone a lot then you expect a lot from them... "where is he going with this"... he said that we should be like a combine, we should pass through a lot of people and leave the ones that don't want to progress behind and just keep the few precious grains of wheat.  He asked us to contact 10 people per missionary per day! that's a ton more than what we do.

So I have started contacting more, I'm not perfect but I'm contacting more, and I can say that you feel a lot better about yourself when you get home at night when you can contact more, you feel successful about yourself and you feel happy and at peace, knowing that you did everything that you could that day to invite others to come unto Christ.

Our baptism this weekend is going to fall through. Vanessa got nervous and now she kinda disappeared. We´ll have to see but we don't know what happened exactly, hopefully she can find the answers that she needs soon!

Daniela and Jaime are progressing great I hope to be able to put a baptismal date this week and hopefully I might just be able to see their baptism before I go, hopefully.

I love you all so much hope you all have a great week! Two more weeks and i will see you in the airport. I think that it'd be alright if just you guys were there and then we can see grandparents later.

That´s a lot of stuff!  Sorry.

I love you and I know that we are an eternal family!

Elder Brady Allred

We finally moved this week and so our day and our week have been really crazy, that's why I'm writing a little bit latter this week! We couldn't find a place to write, but we found one. But my letter will be short.

We moved Friday, and now we are saving a lot of money in buses, that we don´t have to take on a daily basis anymore! 

We also had interviews with President on Wednesday and he taught us about the Sacrament and the importance of helping the investigators to understand its importance, and to make it more important in our lives. It was a good lesson that should help me all of my life, and I'll have to keep applying it to the investigators for a few more weeks. It was good stuff. And his wife made some good Lasagna.

Vanessa went to church and we are planning on following through with her baptism on the 25th, she knows everything.  She destroyed the class of Gospel Principles yesterday. She knew every single answer. It was kinda funny.  She just has to keep her priorities straight and keep reading the Book of Mormon and everything will be great.

Daniela and Jaime also went to church yesterday for the first time. Their fellowshipper Arturo is doing a great job of taking care of them, every two or three days they go to visit them and they are going to do a mini family night together today.  They didn't invite us, but I guess that can also be considered a good thing too. They aren't going to have to depend on us after their baptism!  They still don't want to commit to a baptismal date, but I think that soon they will. They are great and we have answered a lot of their very difficult and deep questions, and now we are trying to help them to answer their own questions on their own.

Noelia is doing alright, but we have found some problems with the word of wisdom that she has to get over. We'll be there to help her.

I love you all and I'm excited to continue working these last three weeks!  I love each of you and I know that the church is true, and that Jesus Christ does direct this church.  I have seen too many things, and experienced too much to deny it. The Book of Mormon is true, without a doubt it is. I love Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father and I know that they are always there to help me!  Pray and they will give you peace. There is peace in Christ.

I love you

Elder Brady Allred

Some days time just seems to fly by, other days it just goes so slow!  I am super excited and super nervous for what is to come. 2:01! Get an appointment with President King for that same day so that he can release me, too.  Not that I don't want to be a missionary anymore, but that's what we're supposed to do!!

Well everything fell apart this week for the 25th, we'll see what we have to do. Work, I guess that's always the answer.  Work and pray. We do need a few miracles, soon.

We did find a great guy yesterday and right now we are going to go with him and give him the Book of  Mormon.  He has the whole Bible just about memorized. literally. He has a few years since an accident left him paralyzed from the mid back down and he has dedicated the last few years to reading the Bible. But he seems willing to accept our ideas as well, and at least he'll read the Book of Mormon

Yesterday a brother brought a friend called Isaac to church.  Well in Sunday school he started talking about how Christ was a sinner, and that in the oldest french bible it talks about his teenage years etc etc. A bunch of crazy... well garbage.  The ward mission leader (the teacher as well and an ex missionary) told him to read the Book of Mormon and then we'll see whose right.  He has the homework to look for all of the mistakes in the Book of Mormon.  He said that he likes to read so we'll see soon

We also had a great appointment with Daniela and Jaime. We decided to take a fellowshipper with us for the first time with them, and we took Arturo. That was one of the best ideas I've ever received as revelation.  It gave Jaime the confidence to ask his big questions. Polygamy, Blacks and the Priesthood, and some crazy idea about women and their process of baptism and something to do with the bishop.  CRAZY QUESTION!  Our laughter at the absurdity of that idea answered their question that that kind of thing does not happen. And we patiently explained about polygamy and blacks and the priesthood. It was great and they finally seem more receptive to think about baptism and to go to church.  It's great that we could get that one off their chest.

Nobody else went to church yesterday! Super sad. Hopefully some good things can happen this week and we are going to have to give it everything that I've got.  Sometimes, almost always, I am super tired. I'm pushing through, in 4 weeks I can sleep.

I love you a lot and thank you for all of your help and support! It has helped me to keep focused and has definitely made the difference.

Elder Brady Allred

So yes, we did have two baptisms this week.  It was rough cuz we had to drain the font 2 and a half times, with buckets!! That is great!! My back hurts a bit more this week.  We moved a lot of water.

So my companion is just about identical with my first trainer, Elder Mondragon.  He kinda picks and chooses the rules that he should and shouldn't keep.   They both use the strange sentence "you have to know the difference between the law and the spirit of the law".  So I guess I have to work on that a little bit,and worry more about the people while still being obedient. It is seeming to be a very difficult lesson for me to learn. But very interesting to note that both times that God gave me one of these companions I was only with him for 6 weeks.  So we decided that he will work on his obedience, and I will work on my people skills and relating more to them and getting down their level, because he is an expert in that.  He gets down to their level and talks to them like a normal Mexican, the only problem is that sometimes that "normal Mexican vocabulary" is not the best "representative of Jesus Christ vocabulary".... so we are a work in progress.  But aren't we all??

So we did put a ton of baptismal dates this week, just that 3 of them fell through when the people didn't go to church. We are going to spend this week helping the people to want to go to church. My companion is an expert in persuading people to do the things that they need to do, and I have the scriptures to back him up. Actually like Elder Mondragon, he loves to use bible scriptures, and I use Book of Mormon scriptures so that is a great compliment. I guess we are doing that right.

This week all of the youth in the whole mission went on a FSY camp. It's like youth conference or trek and EFY all together in one. It was a great spiritual experience for all of them, and they all shared their testimonies in church yesterday. They sure came back changed and all of them want to go on missions now, so I guess it was a successful activity.  It brought back a lot of memories of EFY and youth conferences.  They are just memories now for me. But take advantage of those activities, they are worth every moment and dollar.  Take good notes too, and take them on your mission. You'll want them while you are there.

I also learned that it is not a good idea to have baptisms the same week as the giant youth activity that is in Monterrey. Everybody is busy and nobody comes to the baptism. So next time this activity comes by (in 4 years) I will make sure not to baptize that week. Or one week before or one week after.  We had to wait both times for a priesthood holder to arrive so that we could have 2 witnesses (I baptized, and my companion and the other brother were witnesses).  I also realized that we need to confirm and re-confirm the talks, prayers, and just about everything. So I can do better in that too!! So many things that I never learned and now I am trying to learn them right at the end, it's like cramming for the final exam.

We have several new people in our teaching circle.  Noelia accepted a baptismal date, so did Vanesa and so did Elizabeth. But they didn't make it to church. They are still on track to get baptized on the 25th of August.  Beatriz had her date for the 18th, but we are going to have to move it back because she didn't go to church. And Luis Alberto and Maura are hiding from us it seems, so we will have to see how to keep helping them.

We worked a lot and learned a lot but there weren't really any super outstanding moments to comment on. Just a lot of character building, and work. I will keep working and I will try to take more care of my back too!!  5 weeks and I will be home!!!  

Thank you for everything and we will see you soon!! I am in this to the end!!

Elder Allred