December 31st letter

FELIZ 2013! QUASE!! [HAPPY 2013! ALMOST]

So, it was really cool to talk to yall on Natal [Christmas]! This week there's going to be a looot of fotos [see previous post].

I'll just talk about our pesquisadores [people we're teaching]. M isn't doing much to get rid of his addiction, like I said in the chat he has not changed really since we met him. He still is super willing to go to church every week, so we have him walking with a member who lives close. We haven't given him the "commitment" discussion yet (to determine if we keep teaching). I think we'll talk with him this week.

We met this other lady called Maria, and the first time we met her she seemed not very interested and very attached to her beliefs and her church. We returned there the next day to mainly talk to her friend who is kind of spiritually lost and seemed to us she would accept the Gospel, but her friend wasn't there so we just talked briefly with Maria. Afterwards, I was thinking about if we'd pass by there anymore and Elder Mora felt we should. Maria had told us that 11 years ago she talked with missionaries from our Church, and that she owned a bar and had no interest in religion or anything. One missionary promised her that he would return after his mission, and when he returned she would have completely changed her life and devoted herself to God. So, she didn't think much about it, and time passed and her bar began to fail. She kept losing money until she had to close the bar. She realized that she didn't want to give this kind of example to her kids, of having to sell beer to make a living. She realized that she needed God in her life. So, she began to go to a church and became converted to Jesus Christ. By living the Gospel she was blessed and obtained a good job and the means to take care of her kids. And then, this last week she met us, and upon seeing us she was reminded about the promise of the other missionary (she had forgotten). I agreed that we should go back and teach her the Restauração [Restoration] discussion, so this last Saturday we went there with a member and taught her. While Elder Mora was teaching about the First Vision, I saw Maria look over at me really fast and then back at Elder Mora. After Elder Mora finished, he invited her to be baptized and I couldn't believe it but she said yes. I began to bear my testimony and she pointed her finger at me and said, "I know that everything you guys have said is true, because while Elder Mora was recounting the story, I looked over at you and saw a bright light to the side of your face. God is with you. Do not stray from this path that you're on, because God is with you." I was taken back and didn't know what to say. I continued to bear my testimony and the member bore his testimony and we left. Unfortunately, she didn't attend church like she said, but we're going to pass by this week. that was a really cool experience.

During my call home on Christmas I mentioned about how we make contact on a bus...so, there's three types of things we like to do:

1. Sit next to someone and have a good conversation. It's the hardest actually to do, but it usually results in getting the address of someone.
2. Hand out cartas de amizade [pass-along cards]
3. Stand up in the front and yell to everyone to go to church. Elder Mora and I like to do this thing where I yell in English and he translates to Portuguese. It's actually really hard to do because I speak Portuguese every day to talk about the church. I don't know if it actually works because I have never seen anyone go to church just on a brief invitation.

Ok, my time is up. Tenha um feliz ano novo!! Eu te amo!!! [Have a happy new year! I love you!]
Elder Bradford

Christmas pictures

Below are several pictures AJ emailed to us this past week...

We had a Fraternização de Natal [Christmas Activity] two weeks ago with half the missionaries of the mission (the rest of the missionaries had it the next day). It was awesome...we had a spiritual part at the beginning, at one part we watched this video called Missionary Work and the Atonement. It is really good...it actually made me cry :D. Afterwards, we had lunch and every zone did a presentation; for ours we sang a hymn.

Yeah, the package!!!!! [we lucked out and a family headed to Brazil were kind enough to pack items for AJ in their luggage, which then shipped from Sao Paulo] 

Papai Noel [Santa Claus], our mission president, distributing presents (our missionary packages)

Our apartment with the Christmas items you sent us! Obrigado [thank you]

Elder Mora and AJ holding the clever Christmas stockings made by his mom - AJ also enjoys some of his mom's homemade toffee 

So, Elder Boring dressed up like Papai Noel and we went walking with a group of members, singing carols while he distributed candy to all the kids. It was really funny. He would walk by a group of kids and they would all yell 'Papai Noel!!' and run to him! I was pretty jealous because he was able to run around and be a little goofy in his suit while we were in our missionary clothing, so had to behave ourselves a little more.

The family with whom we spent Natal! [they provided AJ and another Elder a computer for their Skype call home]

Panettone is the equivalent of Christmas fruitcake, but waaaayy more popular (Laurattone is a brand of Panettone). When you go to the supermarket during the Christmas season, there are literally aisles filled with boxes of Panettone. It's like this sweet bread with pieces of fruit, but also there's versions with chocolate chunks or jelly or doce de leite [sweet milk]. It's really good.

You know that group of cool dudes in every ward that always hang out together?

A market in front of a fruit farm

There's this guy in our ward who owns a banana plantation and every Sunday (except for Fast Sunday, of course) he brings a ton of bananas to church for everyone to eat.

December 17th letter

Boooooooooom dia [goooooooood morning]!

This week was good. We had a few miracles this last weekend. On Saturday we just decided to follow-up with as many contacts as possible in this one neighborhood and commit people to go to church on Sunday. Pretty much everyone was like "uhhh, if it works out I'll go tomorrow" or "someday I'll make a visit to your church". However, we ended up running into this guy named Leonardo, who said that he would like to go to church with us. Sunday morning we went to pick him up but he told us that he was going to a wedding or something, so we were pretty disappointed. He even gave us the wrong address at first, so we were thinking about forgetting him, but I felt we should pass by his house Sunday evening. So, we went by there and he was really receptive. At the start of the lesson I asked him "What does it mean to you to know that you are a child of God?" And he explained to us that he doesn't really feel a sort of connection with God. I asked him if he would like to have this sort of connection and he said yes. From that we were able to teach him personally rather than a standard first lesson. I like when we are able to do that! The lesson was very spiritual and positive, especially during the First Vision. We marked his baptism for the 30th! I am excited to see how his relationship with God will progress as he studies and prays.

You guys are certainly right about how our main purpose is not necessarily to baptize, but to bring souls to Christ. It's just that as imperfect missionaries sometimes we need a material, measurable goal to keep us going strong until the end. I think it would be very difficult to serve in Japan or Russia or some place where baptisms are very rare. Here, in the Campinas mission, we are told that if we work in the Lord's manner it's possible to baptize weekly.

So, the Christmas package you sent has arrived! I haven't got it yet, but our zone leaders said that it's at the mission office. We receive letters and packages usually weekly in the district meeting, after the zone leaders pass by the office some time during the week. But in this case I will receive it on Wednesday when we have our Mission Christmas activity.

Also, I was going to talk about what I studied today, but we're actually leaving right now - maybe you guys can study it and see how it relates to the mission and the faith and prayers of those waiting back at home (1 Nephi 4; 5:1-7)

Ok, that's all for this week!

Elder Bradford

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A Berimbau, traditional instrument of Brasil. One of the people we are teaching gave us two - I don't know how to play it yet though

The t-shirt reads 'There will Always an island in a sea of hope so BIG' [nice Engrish]

December 10th letter

Oi Família!!!

First of all I let out a cheer when I read two things in your emails. First of all, that Lucas was baptized! YEEEAAHH!! And the other part, that you guys sent Mom's toffee!! WOOOO!!! I had forgotten to ask about that until you told me that you had already sent the package, so I was like oh well, I've already asked for a bunch of stuff. But I'm so excited now! About the stuff that you couldn't get sent right now, don't worry too much about getting it sent in a hurry, I'm good with one Christmas package!

Ok, so this week was still tough, but it was better. This Sunday we had double the number of pesquisadores [people we're teaching] attend church as compared to last week (which was one). None of our pesquisadores were really progressing though. However, we had a miracle. On Friday we made a contact in the street with this guy, M, we invited him to go to church and he said that he would go this Sunday. So we were like awesome, where do you live? And he told us that he lived in this one neighborhood way off in which we never pass, but I remembered there is a member that lives there so I told him that the member could give him a ride to church. So on Saturday we tried to get a hold of this member but his phone was turned off or something, and on Sunday we were a little pressed for time and were contacting some pesquisadores that live close to the church (none of which wanted to wake up), so I was thinking about forgetting about M and getting in contact with him another day. But I felt that we should do something to get M to church, so we got a member to drive us over to this neighborhood during church - turned out that the address was correct and M was waiting for us (which usually doesn't happen!). He absolutely loved the sacrament meeting, he kept telling me 'Eu estava precisando muito disso, eu gosto muito de coisas assim' [I was in need of this, I really like stuff like this]. We passed by his house later on in the day and committed him to baptism. Ele é eleito! [He is an elect!] He accepted everything we taught without hesitation. The only problem is that his family is sort of messed up, and he's addicted to café, bebidas alcoólicas, cigarros, and maconha [coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana]. And he's also mentally a little out there (I think it's because he's been using drugs for so long). But we're going to work hard with him to help him get rid of his addictions and change his life.

Also something interesting that happened - our bishop yesterday after church pulled us and 8 families aside and gave to each one of them a copy of the video Finding Faith in Christ; the purpose is that each family mark a night with someone they know, neighbor, coworker, friend, whatever - and they invite us to watch this with them and their invite. Clearly our bishop has a bit of trust in us. I'm focusing my prayers right now on having the help of the Holy Ghost, so that when we sit down and have this spiritual experience with a member family and their friends, we will know what to do and say. I'm actually a little nervous...sometimes the church members here can be an unknown factor in a lesson. But, as Elder Mora pointed out, if the bishop trusts us, and he receives revelation from God, it must mean that God trusts us! And that means a lot!

To respond to your questions! I haven't done much with piano in Limeira. There's a few members here who already play piano (one of which wants to go professional). I did end up playing at the Christmas program; when we showed up they were needing someone to play this one song, which in fact I had played with the choir at the CTM [missionary training center]. Funny how that works out, huh? I've played a few times in the zone conferences also.

Ok, that's all for now. Até mais! Eu amo vocês! Continue orando por mim, por favor. [See you later! I love you! Please keep me in your prayers].

Elder Bradford

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This is a fruit called graviola [also known as soursop]

We made graviola juice

Some pics of our Ward Christmas activity

December 3rd letter

Oi Família!

Thank you for your comments! Thank you so much! I actually got a little emotional when I read some of your inspired words. This last week was better. We found some new people to teach. We are working with E, who when we met him was smoking ~20 cigarros, drinking beer and coffee everyday. When we talked with him Saturday he had completely stopped smoking already! But he didn't go to church yesterday like he told us. In fact, we had about 10 people confirm with us that they'd go to church but none of them went. It's really disappointing! So we're going to pass by his house Wednesday and see how he's doing. He's a really cool guy. I don't think I told you last week, we met him for the first time last Sunday while we were looking for his brother who was a contact made several months ago. We got to talking and within a couple minutes he had already accepted a baptism date. He's super excited, he knows that the Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] is true.

We also met this young couple, L and A, and we taught the Restauração [gospel restoration] and they accepted baptism...just that they aren't married yet, but they plan on getting married soon. They are really great people too. We went to walk with them to church yesterday morning, when we got there they had forgotten but L sincerely apologized to us. We're going to pass by there tomorrow, I have a lot of hope for them also. So things are looking up! I'm still feeling a looooot of stress though. I need to remember to relax, that God will take care of things. It's kind of funny actually - in a previous area I sometimes wished we would get home exhausted, a sign of hard work. But now that we get home tired almost every day, I wish that I could find a way to take it easy. But yeah. I will pray better this week, I will apply the counsel you've given me and go from there.

Man, Natal está chegando!!! [Christmas is coming!] I got really excited to hear that a package is already in commute! And Elder Mora got excited to hear that you included something for him! I think we are going to see how much are Christmas lights over at the supermercado and maybe put some up in our house. Oh yeah, so about our house...this is the smallest one I've been in so far. There's the kitchen, study room, bedroom and bathroom. I actually like it better this way. Means less stuff to clean! The missionary boardings vary a little from what I've seen. Some of them are actual houses like with my first two areas. But several of them are spaces behind other businesses, like little shops or bars (like our current place).

About taking on the second part of the training for Elder Mora, I've seen it happen a few times with other missionaries, so it's not that uncommon. Elder Mora grew up in the church. He's from a city called Quito in Ecuador. His mom and dad both served a mission. And guess where they served? Both of them in the Guayaquil Ecuador mission! Elder Mora told me that while they were serving the mission split in two, and one parent went to the north part and the other to the south part.

Keep sending the letters from other missionários (I love reading those - I've even read some of them to other missionaries). Also, we finally made the Peanut Butter cookie mix I brought with me, We added some chocolate chunks, foi bom demais!! [it was so good!]

OK, that's all for this week! Muuuuiito Obrigado! Eu amo vocês!!! [Thaaank you! I love you!]

Elder Bradford

First Week in Limeira

Opa família,

Location of Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil

Nossa, que bom que hoje é P-day. [Wow, I'm glad today is P-day] This last week was tough. Toughest on the mission so far I think. So let me explain. Right now I'm in a city called Limeira, serving in the Nova Itália [new Italy] area (in the Nova Itália Ward) in the Rio Claro zone. I am finishing the training (the last 6 weeks) of a verdinho [new missionary]. Yeah, pretty crazy right? His name is Elder Mora, as far as he knows he's the only missionary from Ecuador serving in Brasil (he asked the lady in Ecuador who works for the Church doing visas). He's pretty cool - he's actually teaching me a lot more than I'm teaching him.

AJ and Elder Mora (from Ecuador)

We just had our weekly planning this morning, and after companionship inventory I feel whipped! But I'm going to pick myself up and just do my best this week. I'm hoping I can rest a little today, get rid of some stress. I'm not used to being in charge of everything. On top of that, when I got here our grupo de ensino [teaching pool] was down to a couple people, so we're working to find a bunch of new people to teach.

I went through the area book and we visited some people with whom other missionaries had only made contact and suggested that future missionaries pass by there. We spent a lot of time chasing down people who ended up not having interest. We finally found some people yesterday in a completely different area, I think we'll work more there. Haha, 'I think'. I don't really know what I'm doing! I need to confide more in the Spirit to give us direction, but I'm not sure how to do that yet. Being the perfectionist that I am, I like to have the week like perfectly planned out, but that's pretty much impossible to do. So yeah, I'm tired to say the least. I think this is all in response to my prayers for more faith in Christ. Just that, how I'll get that faith, I don't know yet.

What else??? uh, so we're working with a lady called B, she is about 70 years old and can't read, but she is really smart and funny. She accepts our teachings without hesitation - when we went by on Wednesday last week we taught about the Word of Wisdom, and after learning about how coffee is something we don't do she took her Tupperware thing of it and dumped it in the trash. So, she's pretty cool - she's really worried about losing her Catholic friends when she becomes a member of the Church. We're trying to help resolve this and fazer amizade [befriend] other members of the church.

We also have another person we're teaching, A, who's dating a member of the church. He's kind of losing interest...we're not sure. He told us that he wants specific answers to questions like why is he here, what God wants of him (he had a lot of organ complications as a baby but miraculously survived, and he attributes it to God preserving him for some sort of purpose). We've taught the Plan of Salvation, but he's looking for an answer that only God can give him. So we are searching for God's will on that - whether we encourage baptism and promise that he will find his answers by being baptized and continuing in the Church, or if God is willing to give an answer now and we need to help him find it so that he can be baptized.

I love you!!! Thank you for your prayers!! Keep praying!! A LOT!!!
Elder Bradford

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We had lunch at a church member's house Sunday and it also happened to be the birthday of the mom of the member, so there was a cake and a festinha.[little party] Foi da hora [it was legit]

We live behind an Italian bakery and confectionery.  And it does smell good, especially when we leave for lunch and they're baking sweet bread... ahhhh

Our study desks

So we get home Saturday night I think, its pouring rain and we get to the door, I hurry and unlock it and it kind of opens funny - well, it fell off. So we took a picture of it. Fortunately, we have another door from the kitchen that serves as our front door now.

Final Week in Piracicaba

Oi Família!

So, I'm being transferred! After a very short stay in Piracicaba I'm already leaving. I don't know to where yet. Honestly, I've been a little down and out these last few weeks - we haven't been seeing any success whatsoever in Santa Rosa, and there were also some problems with the family of L...but, I think this change will be good for me. I was a little worried (well, maybe a lot worried) that Elder McCann would be transferred and I would be the one left in charge of knowing the area - the roads, the buses, the members...I had kind of prepared myself mentally for it, but I didn't even expect that I would be the one to go. Maybe God's giving me another opportunity to really focus during the work and put into memory the roads and names that I should remember.

[AJ's thoughts on reverence in sacrament meetings on Sundays, per a question from his Dad on the topic] By being reverent, we show God that we love him and respect him, and we are more able to feel the Spirit and receive revelation. It is also of greater importance to us as missionaries because without the Spirit we are useless in God's hands. For me, the sacrament has become much more important. Because in the mission field I make mistakes every day, and it feels great to sit in the chapel every Sunday and just start the week over and brush off the dust. When I take the sacrament I think to myself, right now I am a new missionary, this week I will work harder. So those moments during the sacrament have become a bigger deal to me, and if there isn't reverence during those moments, it gets harder to concentrate on the purpose of the sacrament, and thus harder to enjoy the blessings that it has to offer.

Regarding Dia de Graças [Thanksgiving], it is somewhat known here in Brasil, but no one celebrates it. I have hardly seen any Americans in Brasil (in fact I haven't seen one in Piracicaba) so I would guess the Americans that do live here celebrate Thanksgiving just to keep the American tradition going.

AJ having a 'snack' of cockroaches ;-)

About the cockroaches - those in the picture are real. That was our kill of the day. Don't worry, that was the only day with more than 4 or so cockroaches. Every night though, we usually have one or two wandering around. It's surprising because we keep our house pretty clean.

Also, about "oppa gangnam style" - it's really popular here! We hear it at least once every day, whether its cars passing by blasting music or the radio playing in the stores. That, and that one song "just call me baby" or something.

Ok, sorry for the short email, we had a churrasco [barbecue] again today so we're short on time - I'm also going to pass by and say goodbye to some folks here in Piracicaba.

Tchau Tchau! Muito Obrigado pelos emails! [Bye Bye! Thank you for your emails!]
Elder Bradford

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Our zone [of missionaries] in Piracicaba! (It was also the birthday of Elder Sego there in the middle)

We did a Family Home Evening night with a family new in the church and the Bishop's family. We played this one game where you put a paper on your forehead with something unknown to you written on it, and you have to ask questions in order to figure out what it is. We got the papers on everyone's forehead and then I pulled out the camera "E agora, a  gente tira foto!" [And now, we take a picture!]  I got them good. :D

So right now we're working with a lady called D to quit smoking. She has some mental problems too so it's making it a little difficult. Here's a picture of the cigarettes we took from her house the first day. Her motivation to quit smoking? The 'L&M' on the cigarette box are coincidentally the initials of a relative of hers that if I'm not mistaken died from cigarette use.

November 11th letter

Oi Família!

Unfortunately, my email this week has basically nothing, but at least I did deliver on my promise to send you a bunch of photos![last week's post has also been updated to include additional pictures]

Me, W, L and Elder McCann at L's baptism last week

Our bishop, our Ward Mission Leader, who is leaving on his mission for Goianha in a couple weeks, L, me and Elder McCann. Yeah, the baptism was pretty da hora [legit]

This is how the meat is served at a churrasco [barbecue] - pretty much steak (carne) and sausage (salsicha)
cut up into 'lil pieces. It's always eaten with rice, beans and salad.

So, it looks like the season for jabuticaba [Brazilian grape] is passing - we stopped by a pesquisador who had just picked a whole bunch of them and he left us with some.  It's a pretty cool fruit. I'm trying to decide if it's safe to eat the skin and the seeds. I've heard different things...some people say the skin gives you constipation and others say that the skin is really healthy for you. At the end of this previous post there's a video that I made about how to eat a jabuticaba.

So I got the package from the Activity Days Girls this last week! [girls between the ages of 8 to 11 in the Vancouver  East Stake put together care packages to send to our missionaries serving around  the world] Muito muito obrigado! Gostei bastante! [Thank you so so much! I really liked it!]

November 5th letter

Hey, so it's P-day!

So L got baptized yesterday! It was awesome! Unfortunately, the only person that was able to come to support him was his younger brother, W. He said that he might be interested in being baptized also! So we're going to work with him on that starting today. Man, it would be soooo nice to have the whole day off for P-day instead of a few hours! But whatever, the schedule was inspired by God and everything.

I was thinking about as a missionary we have the opportunity to see the power of God manifest through our authority - God likes to keep us humble and faithful, so unfortunately we aren't able to see this power 24/7, but still sometimes we have cool experiences to see Him work through us. Like one time this past week, we were teaching this one family - husband, wife and one of their daughters that was 14 or so anos [years old]. We were doing the 1st lesson (the Restoration) and everything was going pretty smoothly.  It was my turn and I explained about José Smith and his predicament, when I began to introduce the First Vision I could immediately feel a warmth envelope me and the Spirit continued super strong all the way through when I was reciting the First Vision. It was so strong I almost messed up the words of the Vision. When I finished, I asked something that I usually hesitate to ask, but I said "Esses sentimentos que todo mundo está sentindo agora, eles vêm de quem?" [These feelings that everyone is feeling right now, they come from whom?]  I could see even the dad, who seemed the least spiritually in-tune, nod his head in agreement that he had felt something. The mom without hesitation replied "Jesus". Unfortunately, even after feeling something they didn't completely accept our message, but it was still cool to see that God helped me out there. I have a testimony that the Spirit testifies of truth.

I've heard a little about the hurricane disaster lá nos Estados Unidos [there in the United States]. Sometimes we meet random people and upon finding out that we're Americans they ask us about it. I didn't know it was up in the North East! Sign of the times, isn't it?

Typical Brazilian churrasco: flank steak, top sirloin,
chicken heart, sausages, bread with garlic sauce,
sliced top sirloin with garlic, and chicken legs

We had a churrasco [barbecue] in the center of Piracicaba today, so right now we're in a kind of questionable LAN house [internet cafe where he reads/writes email]. I'm worried about hooking up my SD card here, so expect a tooooon of photos next week (Seriously, I have a lot). Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to type and stuff today because the churrasco took a long while to get started.

Speaking of the churrasco, so what we did to make a barbecue was get this metal barrel, fill it part way with coals and put a sort of iron grate on top - classic churrasco Brasileiro.

Here's me cutting up some meat on the churrasco

I decided that I needed to learn to do a churrasco sometime, so I was standing there cutting up a piece of meat on the grill when suddenly the whole setup just explodes with this loud BOOM - the barrel jumped in the air and the coals and grate and meat were all tossed to the side.

Even though I was the closest one to the explosion I wasn't hurt a bit - all the Elders were like "are you OK?" - it must have looked pretty bad for me but really not much happened. So thank you for your prayers and everything...you've saved me from an exploding barbecue :-)

You can see to the left that the explosion actually
broke up the concrete under the churrasco

Oh yeah, my comp reminded me that I was bit by a dog yesterday (sort of) - we were walking by this one house with some tiny dogs barking, jumping, and growling at us. Elder McCann likes to kind of stick his hand in a fist towards dogs to irritate them or get them to lick his hand, so I was like I'll try that -- I stuck my hand out at one and chomp. It was a tiny dog like I said so it didn't really do anything, just cause a bruise more than anything. Tchau Tchau!

Elder Bradford

October 29th letter

Opa todo mundo!

Yeah, so it's starting to heat up real good here in Piracicaba [94° forecast for the 31st]. Sun beating down during the day, and believe it or not thunderstorms during the night. We have to keep the fans blowing on us the whole night to keep cool. One thing that I like about Brasil is you can go up to any house and ask for a cup of cold water. It's even easier to do after making a contact with someone, talking with them for a while in front of their house.

L is set for his baptism this Sunday. He is super excited. He's been making a lot of changes in his life to reach this point, both before the day he met us and after. He is quite determined to let go of his past life and continue forward. He's really an awesome guy. He sometimes struggles with retaining information we've taught him, usually when we ask him to read a scripture.  I'll ask 'What did you understand from this scripture', and he just looks up and shakes his head. Sometimes he doesn't remember stuff from previous lessons. I've focused my study these past days on chapter 10 and 2 of Preach My Gospel, which talk about focusing on teaching people and not lessons. So I've been trying to make my teaching style more simple, and I think it might be working...or we just have the Spirit helping us out more :) The other day we taught L the Plan of Salvation, which we were worried about because, well, it's a lot of stuff in one lesson. But after we finished teaching, Elder McCann asked him, 'So, from what we've taught you, what is the purpose of life here on the Earth'. L turned to him and said 'To follow the path of Christ'. It was such a simple answer but I couldn't help but feel so happy that he had understood this principle.

One day about a week and a half ago we went over to L's house and his mom was sitting outside the front gate. We got closer and saw that she was crying. Elder McCann asked what's wrong but she just turned her head away from us. L came to the gate and we went and had our lesson a way from the house. He explained to us what happened, long story short his mom and dad had been fighting these last few days, and I guess that night they had been fighting and his dad made reference to something painful in the mom's past, and used it to attack her and all this stuff. We talked over it a little and encouraged him to talk with his parents about the problem. After the lesson we decided to do a prayer with the family, so we entered the house and his dad was there shaking a cup of beer in his hand yelling 'Minha vida é mentira! Todo mundo mente a mim!' [My life is a lie! Everybody lies to me!] and whatever, we calmed him down and finally did a prayer and left. I think it was the next day or the day after we met with L and he told us that he had sat down each of his parents and talked with them and now things have settled down. So that just goes to show how awesome he is.

Oh yeah, yesterday was the Primary Program in our ward. The Primary here is only about 12 kids, but the program was still pretty awesome. I couldn't help but think about the Primary back at home... ai que saudades. [Oh how I miss them]

Muito Obrigado por tudo! Infelizmente não tenho fotos esta vez. Eu arrumo algumas para a próxima semana! [Thanks for everything! Unfortunately no photos this time. I'll arrange some for next week!]

Elder Bradford

October 22nd letter

Opa gente! [Hey folks!]

Infelizmente [unfortunately], I don't have a lot of time to write today. Getting the absentee voting ballot organized and sending the audio clip (see below) took longer than I thought! Mas, tranquilo, aproveito o tempinho que tenho [But that's okay, I will make good use of the little time I have].

Beans, rice, sweet & sour sauce, and Asian deep-fried chicken -
one of AJ's favorite dishes (as well as his dad)

As for the photos, we made freaking sweet & sour chicken for lunch last week!! Deu certinho! [It turned out just right!] THANK YOU for the recipes Mom! And also thank you for the hints you sent me this last week! About cheese, I know for sure that they have mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, and something like "Danbo cheese" (or at least that's the translation). They also have cheddar/american cheese, but it's not very common.

Thank you for your responses as to what makes the letters more enjoyable to read! Unfortunately, this letter is kinda poopy, but don't let that make you think I didn't read and enjoy your comments. Also, thank you for the comment Mom about remembering that Christ could very well come in my lifetime [as commented by President Shafer during stake conference this past Sunday]. It made me think about how I want my life to be like the moment he arrives. And really, I need to try right now to be that person I want to be, instead of putting it off for later. It makes perfect sense that Christ would not reveal to us the date of his arrival, because He knows that we would put off applying His doctrine in our lives until the end, and He knows that it is through constant improvement in His doctrine that we become better.

Well, Elder McCann's already finished, so I guess I need to wrap it up :(  I will have to write a lot more next week. Please include in your prayers a kid named L.  He will probably be baptized this weekend, but first he has to pass an interview with our mission president tomorrow.

Eu amo vocês! Tenham uma boa semana!! [I love you! Have a good week!!]
Elder Bradford

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I recorded myself one day in Botucatu for a little bit as Elder Hill and I went out to go to lunch:



We were waiting at a bus stop talking to some guy who approached us (asking about America), then the bus came and it so happened that one of the people we were teaching got on the bus with us. I hope you enjoy it! [AJ later sent a translation of the conversation, which is available here]

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More pics of AJ's sweet & sour feast:

First Week in Piracicaba

Opa Família!

I've been thinking about what makes a good letter home recently. I really, really liked the letters that you sent from Elder Reeves and Elder Russell. They expounded not only occurrences on the mission but also talked about their very personal struggles and growth. I'm going to try to talk about this more. I know that it doesn't really matter that much to have a super engaging letter back home, but I would like it to be the case because (I hope) people are reading the blog and I want them (and you) to get the right impression that the mission is awesome, and that I am growing spiritually and emotionally, in ways I haven't before imagined in my wildest of dreams.

Elder Hill and I agreed that we'd get Água de Coco [coconut water] sometime,
so on our last day in Botucatu we went and got some real quick.
It wasn't super good but it might not have been a very good coconut

So, what happened this past week? Lets find out. After emailing you guys last week, Elder Hill and I went and had lunch at Irmã house, she made a really good lasanha [lasagna] (in Brasil they usually put a deli meat called presunto in the lasanha, it's actually really good). After, we took the bus to Piracicaba, spent the night there at the house of some missionaries. Then, Elder Hill realized he had left his backpack with his money, ID, camera, everything in the taxi we took to their house, so we went back to the Piracicaba rodoviária [bus station] early the next morning and fortunately found his backpack. Then we took another bus to Campinas for the transfer. It might be different for some missions, but for us every single missionary that is involved with transfers goes to the rodoviária in Campinas. I forgot to take a picture as it's pretty crazy with how many kids in white shirts and ties get all grouped together (and not to mention piles of suitcases) in the middle of the bus station. I was able to talk to some Elders from my group including Elder Conner and Elder Doggett, so that was pretty cool.

Elder McCann (from Boring, Oregon) and AJ

My new companion is Elder McCann.  He and I went to our area and from there we've just been working this past week. We are serving in the Piracicaba 2nd Ward. Elder McCann is pretty cool, we get along really well. I was hoping to have a Brasileiro companion, but he's fine with speaking Portuguese 24/7. He's from Boring, Oregon. We are starting to work in a new neighborhood, Santa Rosa, so it's kind of nice not having to play catch up too much. When I was in Botucatu I had excuse not to be familiar with everyone and everything because my Portuguese was kinda weak, but now that I can speak and understand okay I can only blame myself for not paying attention. Don't know if you knew this, but I daydreamed a lot at home [yep, we pretty much knew that one!]. Or, at least I think I did :-). Recently when we're walking around or when Elder McCann is doing a contact, I catch myself just thinking about food or music. Then I just have to shake out of it and try to get lost in the work. Let me tell you, getting lost in the work is really hard to do! It requires more than a change in actions or habits, it's a change in attitude, an attitude which I am trying to develop.

So, about the missionary minimum-age change - when I heard about it I was excited, but not completely surprised - In fact, weeks earlier we had heard buzz from one or two members "yeah, so they changed the age for missionaries, women can leave at 19 years." We were kind of doubting them when we heard this, not sure if they had heard from a reliable source, but maybe it was something that changed in Brasil a few weeks before it was changed worldwide in general conference. Elder Hill and I agreed that there will definitely be a lot more Sister missionaries in the field. I think it's also going to change the cliché view of missionaries in the field. I also think that it will definitely help with the fulfillment of the promise that the gospel would be spread to all nations, tongues, and people.

Respostas às suas perguntas [answers to your questions]:  We don't get the Liahona church magazine sent to our homes, but the mission office always has the latest copies. I know why you thought about asking about writing in my journal - because right now I'm doing really poorly at keeping it up-to-date! I was on a roll for a couple weeks, but the last two weeks I haven't written very much. It's kind of funny - Whenever there's a lot of stuff going on in my mission life, it becomes more important to write in my journal - but ironically I have less time to do so! Also, Elder McCann and I actually do a planning session at night so it leaves even less time to write. Our P-day will be pretty relaxed today so I will have to write a bunch today.

Eu amo vocês bastante! Continuar orando por mim! [I love you guys a lot! Continue praying for me!]
Elder Bradford

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McDonalds in Botucatu.  It's actually really chique in Brasil.

Our room in Piracicaba

Picture from Google Streets of AJ's new humble home -- their apartment is the right-half of the house

Final Week in Botucatu (6-month mark)

Oi familia!!!

Location of Piracicaba city

Yeah, 6 months have passed by sooo fast, it's crazy!! So transferências [area transfers] are this week! From what I've heard I'm going to a city called Piracicaba!! We will be taking a bus later today and spend the night there. Elder Hill will be training a new missionary...he's assured me that it's not my fault he's not excited to train again...he compared it to a long hike...you're satisfied when it's over, but you're not ready to do it again right after you finish. So, apparently I gave him a bit of work! Normally I wouldn't know about transfers until later today, but Zona Botucatu [his area] receives word of transfers early, I guess because we're so far away from Campinas and we need to plan out our travel.

I was hoping I would be transferred, just because I was needing a change and if Elder Hill was transferred I would be left as the expert missionary of Botucatu, and I do know the city pretty well, but not nearly as much as I'd like to. I didn't spend as much time as I should have with paying attention to directions and figuring out the orientation of the city...as if this wasn't a problem before my mission, it just cropped up out of nowhere :D. I am pretty nervous though, as I'll have to adjust to a lot of change all at once. Different house, different companion, different teaching style, different city, different people.

I will have a lot of saudades [miss seeing] some folks here, especially Irmã [Sister] B and her family. I don't know if I've talked about her yet. She's the mom of P, the rapaz [guy] we baptized three months ago. She's pretty much our mom here in Botucatu. She's done a lot of things to help us. Elder Hill was super sick one night about three weeks ago, she took him to the hospital at 10 at night, stayed with him and took him back at 4 in the morning. We helped her and her three boys return to church.  They aren't completely active yet but we're working on it. We were most recently helping M and L prepare to be interviewed to receive the priesthood. I hope they still remain active after I and Elder Hill have gone!

To answer your question, I have dreamed in Portuguese a few times already! And also I'm at the point in the language where I can identify almost every word when people are talking to me. 6 months is indeed the magic number like every missionary says. I'm not quite fluent yet but I'm getting closer. It's something that I'm really excited about right now! I need to be careful also with keeping my pride in check, always recognizing that it's not through any of my own so-called talent or skill that I'm learning so fast but by God's help. It just amazes me how much God is helping me learn this language.

Ok, Tchau tchau vocês! Muito obrigado pelo amor, ajuda e paciência!!  [Bye bye you guys! Thank you for the love, help and patience]
Elder Bradford

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We were knocking at this one door and I decided to
snap a picture of this huge dog peeking through.

I found peanut butter here! It tastes a lot different though.
It's a lot sweeter. That little jar was about $4 dollars,
so its actually pretty cheap here.

I tried the banana bread recipe, it turned out really good!
I think next time I'll try without yogurt to see if it becomes less spongy

My messy desk

October 1st letter

Oi familinha! [Hi little family!]

Dad, I've never heard anyone use 'saudações' [greetings] here in Brasil. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what to use instead because people don't commonly say anything that would mean 'greetings' - in letters they just put just say hi or dear so-and-so or nothing at all. It's kind of interesting how commonly used phrases in English aren't used in Portuguese, not because there's no way to translate, but because the people just don't say it. For example, the verb 'rir' means to laugh, but I haven't heard anyone use the word rir or any conjugation of it. Rather, people use 'rindo' which means laughing or 'risada' which means laughter. I'm learning that the trick with learning a language is learning to think in the language, which helps you speak faster, and removes the barrier that the old language places on you (meaning, the fact that a phrase is strange or hardly makes sense in English doesn't impede you from saying it in Portuguese). So yeah, you putting Saudações in the subject made me think of this interesting thing I learned.

Yeah, I got super excited when I saw that Tanner Nelson is coming to Campinas for his mission!!! Nossa! Não acredito!! Legal demais!!!! [Whoa! I don't believe it! That's so cool!] I was thinking another youth from the ward would be going to Campinas sometime, but not this soon!! That would be awesome to train him and have someone I know from home here on the mission!!

Thank you for the comments on spiritual curtains, gostei [I liked it]. I think almost every time I pray I ask for the Holy Spirit to be with us, but really what's more important is that we open our curtains to receive more spiritual light from Him. Sometimes I pay less attention than I should during talks in Sunday or during discussions even! It's something I need to work on.

About flour, I heard from someone that the flour here is lighter, less dense than that from the US. The flour we use is called Farinha de Trigo, or literally Flour of Wheat. I've made pancakes a few times and I've had to add more flour than what is called for in the American recipe sometimes to get the batter right, so I think if I just measure the flour without worrying about not letting it pack up it will turn out good.

Fortunately we'll have general conference meetings streamed to our chapel, which means we can watch all five sessions! The priesthood one is at 9-11pm so that will be pretty fun staying up late.

Baptism of M

So, Saturday a week ago Elder Hill and I leave our house and decide we are lazy and don't want to walk up the giant hill upon which live a bunch of our investigators. So we go to this favorite point of ours and try to hitch a ride (in Brasil, you don't stick your thumb up straight in the air like you do in the States - you kinda point it aside in the direction you want to go and maybe give a friendly wave with the other hand). After many cars passed by, one finally stopped and we got in. There we met R, who is a member but became inactive 3 years ago, the guy she lives with, G (they will get married - they are just waiting on his divorce papers from his last marriage), and her daughter M. It just so happened that when R was baptized with her other two children, M wasn't old enough yet, and because they became inactive she was never baptized. It also just so happened that M is 9 years old! So we passed by their house, taught them and now they are returning to church. G is really excited, and M was baptized yesterday! That really helped my testimony that God is able to put people in our path that are waiting for us.

Okay, acabei. Até a próxima semana! Obrigado pelo amor e apoio. [Okay, I'm done. Until next week! Thanks for the love and support.]
Elder Bradford

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Last P-day we went over to some waterfalls (Cachoeira da Pavuna -
Waterfall of Pavuna) in between Botucatu and São Manuel.
It was a tough hike but the waterfalls were really cool!

We helped a little with a baptism 2 weeks ago of V, an 8-year old boy.
Presidente Gabriel (our branch president) baptized him. Yeah it was cool.

This picture includes our zone and two others when an Area Seventy (Elder Mazzagardi) came and talked to us two weeks ago
[AJ is in the 2nd row, 8th from the left]