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