Christmas 2013 pictures

HELLO,

So today I'm just gonna send pictures! Yeah! Christmas was pretty awesome!

This was taken during our Skype call with AJ on Christmas Day

Mom, my missionary companions and I loved the little Christmas stockings...thank you so much for sending them!

Jesus soda

Christmas lights!

For our Christmas lunch we ate fried chicken with Tabasco - yeah nothing like tradition!

Our Christmas feast

On Christmas, as we went to our appointments, we handed out kites to the kids. Man they get really excited. They were literally on us like wolves to a...dead...thing. We made the mistake of going to a football field in the end and trying to give out only one, but as soon as the other kids saw they came running in and grabbing at the bag and before we knew it we were robbed by a bunch of 9 year olds :-)

Us in front of a little nativity at the rodoviária [bus station]

The bottom row reads "I am proud to be Brazilian"

My missionary companions with some cool church members in the area I'm serving

We nabbed the following two pics from the Campinas Mission Facebook page:

Entire Campinas mission together for a Christmas party.  AJ is four rows back, 7th from the left.
Tanner Nelson (also from our church ward) is four rows behind AJ, just a little to the right.

December 16th letter

Hello family!

Gabrielly and her grandmother Clarice

So this week was kind of like the week before, we weren't able to enter into many new houses, very little productivity and that kinda stuff. I did include a picture of our baptism we had this past week.

We had a ward Christmas activity on Saturday, like this huge barbeque. It was pretty sweet and some church members brought their friends!! That's like the best thing ever, when members bring their friends to a ward activity or to church.

I gave a talk in church yesterday about persevering until the end. I used a story from a church manual, it's like an institute class called Leadership Principles or Principles of Leadership. Man it's an awesome manual...you guys should try to find it and study it. I think I will use it my entire life.

Well, I'm going to have to apologize for this being short [again] but I spent a good deal of time translating Dad's talk he sent me on a mission experience in Zimbabwe. I'm going to share it with my mission zone. Have a great week! I love you guys so much! Thank you so much for the package! I will likely pick it up tomorrow at the mission Christmas activity!

Elder Bradford

December 9th letter

Hello everyone!

AJ with Elder Cox at the Campinas Temple
(he's in AJ's mission zone and
finishes his mission in the next week)

Sorry, but today the LAN house [internet cafe] decided to close up early, so I don't have time to write a whole lot. This week was kind of...ehhh. We had a bunch of meetings and didn't have a lot of time for our regular missionary work, so we're continuing from the same page as where we started last week. We were able to participate in a Cantata (singing thing) at the Campinas temple this past Saturday, so I included a few pictures from that.

We haven't had much success recently in teaching, and same for the mission zone. Sometimes I feel like the blind leading the blind. Christiane [mentioned in last week's letter] had promised to attend church and visit the temple, but didn't end up doing either.  This was obviously disappointing, but this week we'll  pass by her place...we want to visit since she won't be able to attend church for a month because of her work schedule...and her son won't attend without her because he's very shy.

So that's it for this week. Thank you for all the emails! I love you all and please keep up the emails and love and prayers!

Elder Bradford

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The sister in front (Sister Aspítia) has only two days left on her mission and the other missionary (Elder Brayden)
has the same time remaining as me, but since we actually have 3-1/2 months left, he rounded down.

December 4th letter

HELLOOO!!O!O!O!!O!!!

So I have little time again...but I will tell a cool experience.

We got a referral to teach someone about two weeks ago; her name is Christiane. We weren't able to get to her house immediately and had to go a few days later. When we got there she said that she'd been praying and praying every day that we would go by there. We talked with her and met her son, Vitor, who's had some problems with drugs. We talked with them both and taught how they can apply the atonement of Jesus in their lives. I've found as a missionary you end up giving a lot of family counsel!

So, we later took them to a family home evening and it was cool, and we returned there yesterday with some church members. The lesson ended up being a conversation between her and one of the members, but that's no problem because that's what we want anyways. We decided to leave a small thought at the end and I talked about daily prayer and scripture study. We invited them to read everyday. Then I started to explain about how they could start reading the Bible, and Elder Lierley asked them if they had a Book of Mormon. She said "no, I don't". He asked, "do you want one?" She said "yes". It was kind of funny because we hadn't yet talked about the Book of Mormon. So I took out a Book of Mormon from my bag and briefly explained about it and I promised her that if she read and prayed about it she could know that the book is true.

Christiane then interrupted and said, "but I already know that this book is true". And I was like, uh... Sometimes when we teach people they say the Book of Mormon is true simply because it talks about God and Jesus. So I doubted her and I asked, "what do you mean?" And she said, "I had a dream that I would receive this book". She explained with tears in her eyes that she dreamed that someone gave her a book, and not just any book, but a special book...and that she hugged the book and said I will love reading this. Then she hugged the Book of Mormon and we promised her blessings for having accepted it and recognizing the hand of God in her life. She's going to church this Sunday with her son and we're planning to take her to the Campinas temple on Saturday! I'm sooo excited to be teaching her! God indeed prepares people to hear the truth!!

HAVE a great week!
Elder Bradford

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Our recent visit to the Campinas temple

November 25th letter

Hey family, yeah my time is already up!!! hehe, I only have time to write a little here.

This week was good, we had two baptisms yesterday. Elder Tiago took the pictures and he hasn't sent them to me yet so I will send then next week. This week I'm having Elder Lierley act as Senior companion, to help with his training. Hehe it will be cool!

Have an awesome week! I will write more next week!
Elder Bradford

November 18th letter

This week was good. I ended up playing piano in the Primary program yesterday. We went to the church building on Saturday morning to make some calls (we have only 50 minutes per month on our cell phone, and the bishop offered the phone for us to use). The primary was starting to rehearse, and we were there talking with some of the kids when one of the women asked if I knew the song they were rehearsing. I told her yes, and ended up practicing the whole program with them. I was really grateful for having learned how to sight read! It was also pretty cool because I was also able to play some awesome primary songs.

So we have Elder Tiago now as part of our companionship! He's from Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil. He's pretty tranquilo [quiet], pretty relaxed, but he is also pretty creative and funny. So now it's him, Elder Lierley, and me. The two are pretty much like, "yeah, you know what you're doing...we'll just let you take the reins". So, I'm thinking about what I can do to help them be more independent, self-sufficient. Maybe I'll designate one of them to act as senior for a week.

One of the pressures of being a leader is that you must be obedient with exactness. Of course, you have to have obedience to have the Spirit, but if anyone following you sees or hears of you being disobedient, they lose confidence in you as their leader and will not ask for or easily accept your opinion or vision. It kind of bothers me that some of the missionaries in our zone hold me up against a higher standard than they themselves try to reach. It's like "well, you're our leader, so you need to be perfect, but I can do what I want and you're not going to bug me about it". I was thinking about that and it came to my mind that never was my zone of missionaries asked to give a sustaining vote, like they do with church callings, with the right hand for me to serve as zone leader. Neither was I interviewed or set apart by the laying on of hands specifically to be zone leader.

What a blessing it is to have a calling in the church and receive a sustaining vote by every single member of the ward or stake! Any district/zone leader can come in and the missionaries will decide - can I depend on this guy or not? Will I listen to what he'll say or ignore it? Will I tell him what I need or should I save my breath? So as appointed leaders we have to win over the other missionaries, in a sense. I often think this is because of the maturity level of some missionaries, but when I really think about it more, I see that I do this too. I'll keep working on it.

Have an awesome week! Thanks for the Prayers!
Elder Bradford

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We did a family home evening at a members house and we made more of those donuts (like we did for the recent ward party). We had arranged with some people we are teaching to come, but they didn't show, unfortunately. But, it was still good.

November 11th letter

HELLLOOOWW!

Baptism of Renan

So, this week we had a baptism of a boy named Renan. His mom is returning to church. I've included a picture of him - he was baptized by Elder Lierley.

Yeah, sorry for the horribly short email as my time already ran up. I am healthy, happy, working, tired, a little stressed out, but still going good.

We're going to be getting another missionary in our companionship, meaning there's going to be three of us together. Yeah, it's going to be challenging. But if it's happening that means God knows I can handle it. Please pray that I might write a longer email next week :-).

Have an awesome week!!! Study the Book of Mormon!! Help the Elders!!! They deserve it!!! Abraço enorme [big hug].

Elder Bradford

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Renan's family and us

A family home evening that Elder Lierley and I did!

November 5th letter

Yeah!

Sorry again that I won't be able to write a super long email cuz I spent a lot of time working on a T-shirt design for our missionary zone. But I wanted to tell two quick stories. Experiences that taught me something.

The first was with this guy named Emerson that we are working with. He uses pretty much all the types of drugs you can imagine. But he stopped drinking, so that's progress!! We went to an appointment with him and he said that he couldn't stay because he had to go somewhere. I asked him, "well what do you mean?" He said that he 'borrowed' some crack from a dealer, and the dealer told Emerson that he had until 7:00 to pay him or the dealer was gonna send someone to kill him. It was 6:10. I was certain that he was exaggerating about the killing part because he only owed him 5 reais (R$5), which is about US$2.20. But even so, Emerson didn't have 5 reais. So I said, "well, what are you going to do?" And he said, "well I'll have to find someway, I don't know...maybe stop a car or a motorcycle and rob from someone...I'm gonna have to do something". So I thought...we did have 5 reais, but I had this feeling that if we continued walking down the dirt road we were on that we would find the money on the street.

I asked Emerson if he had faith in God. He said, "well yeah, you have to have faith". I told him that we would find 5 reais on the road. So we started walking along and I'm like, okay let's find 5 reais. I was looking through trash on the side of road, turning over things, and Emerson was just walking along like 'whatever' with Elder Lierley. We walked some 10 minutes, and nothing. We stop near this one river and Elder Lierley and I are searching in the grass and stuff. I asked Elder Lierley, "hey what do you think...do we pay it for him?". And Elder Lierley responded that miracles don't come until after a trial of our faith. So we kept searching and Emerson starts getting nervous because it was already 6:30. He was like, "look, I gotta get going...I'll try to resolve something with the dealer, maybe do a job for him. If you guys could help me out I would thank you from the heart, but if you can't that's okay, because I don't want to take advantage of you guys...I know you guys are here to help me", etc. So we were like, just give God 10 more minutes...your 5 reais will show up. We kept looking and the whole while I was thinking, do I have enough faith for this to happen? During this the whole time Emerson was complaining. But then it hit me. I told Elder Lierley, "I think the one that's lacking faith here is not me or you", and he said "yeah, you're right". Emerson didn't have the faith to believe that God would provide the money even though we did, and he was the one in need of the miracle. Well, Emerson did get the money he needed...we ended up giving it to him. This was a learning experience to me on the principle of faith.

So, the other experience. We fasted for a family of three we've been teaching so that they would come to church...the last two weeks they were sick and they didn't make it. The husband ended up having an appointment at the hospital and his wife and daughter had some excuses for not coming. So, that was really disappointing and got me a little upset actually. But God was merciful and recognized our sacrifice, and at church we received a bunch of referrals of individuals to teach, and Anthony's mom [Anthony was recently baptized] visited church to see her son's confirmation as a member.  These were great blessings to us.

About Christmas, I don't even know what to request right now...except make sure you send plenty of Reese's peanut butter cups! I love you guys and thanks so much for the emails and prayers! Have a great week!

Elder Bradford

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These three pictures are from the Halloween party we had at the church (the donuts turned out great!)

Here's how my insoles are doin'.

October 28th letter

Boa tarde [good afternoon] my family!!

Elder Lierley suddenly got homesick [he's from Alaska]

It was good to hear from you guys! I hope you are enjoying the colder weather there because here it is HOT!! And it's only gonna get HOTTER!! I will come home a little tanner I think...at least on my face and arms.

We had the baptism of Anthony this past week. As mentioned in a previous letter, Vitória had passed along him as a reference for us to teach.  Anthony asked her dad to baptize him. Yeah, Elder Lierley's first baptism!!!!

About your question dad [on filtered water], the mission has emphasized somewhat about us drinking filtered water. Every house is supposed to have a mineral water barrel tank thing and some sort of dispenser/pump. We receive a reimbursement every time we buy more water. Recently, I have been getting better about drinking only mineral water. For most people it's not a big concern because the water in Campinas is relatively good compared to other cities.

I have to tell you, I'm really upset with the devil right now. I know it's really strange to say that, especially for visitors on the blog who read my emails. Remember that as God exists, the opposition exists as well. When we do things that God likes, the opposition is not happy. In fact, it's the opposition that has rule over the earth. So, there's a lot going against those who try to do the right. We are teaching a family that for the second consecutive Sunday weren't able to attend church because they got sick Sunday morning. Gaaaaaah!! Come on Satan, give a little slack here! Well those are my weird comments for today! Enjoy the pics!

Eu amo vocês muito! [I love you very much!] Thank you all for the prayers!
Elder Bradford

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Us with a cool view in Campinas

Photo after our multi-zone mission conference with Elder Steven E. Snow

October 21st letter

Bom dia meus queridos!! [Good morning dear ones]

Today I have very little time to write because I spent most of my time making a document to better keep up with the areas where we have missionaries, so I'll just mention real quick about our friend Antony.

Two Saturdays ago we ate lunch at a family's house, and after we gave the first lesson asked about friends we could teach. Their daughter thought of her friend Antony. She called him and he said that he would stop by their house later that day, so we left and returned later and gave him the first lesson. He understood it well and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to attend church. The lesson was enjoyable. It's interesting how the same amount of information can be at times very enjoyable to teach and very understandable, and then in other lessons it can seem really heavy and way too much for the person.

SO, Antony went to church with the family and liked it a lot. During the week he is gone almost the whole day at work and school, so we didn't get to talk to him until this last Saturday. He witnessed the baptism of a girl in our ward and thought it was cool. We taught him about the gospel of Christ and he accepted to be baptized on the 27th, as long as he feels ready. Then he went to church on Sunday and something must of happened...maybe he felt something. When we went to teach him yesterday I asked, "How are you feeling about your baptism on the 27th?". I was expecting him to kind of look down and say "Oh, I don't know...I don't think I'm ready", but he just looked to the side, thought a little bit, then looked at me and smiled and nodded his head. I was just like, YEEAAAAHHHH!!! I mean, that's what was in my head...I didn't actually scream in the lesson. But we were like parabens pela decisão [congratulations on your decision] and we taught him the commandments...he accepted all of them. He's already cut coffee and tea even though we didn't tell him about it until yesterday. That is so cool. So we're rooting that he can be baptised this Sunday!!

Eu amo vocês! Elder Bradford!

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Here's God's phone number, in case you're wondering [a coincidental reference to 'Eloi', which is an Aramaic name for God as well as the apparent name of a town/business in Brazil]

First Week in Southwest Campinas

Hey,

AJ and Elder Lierley

So I found out after I emailed you guys last week that I would be training a new missionary! So I'm here with Elder Lierley (Liar-Lee) from Alaska! He is 24 and was baptized when he was 8, but his family grew inactive and he became atheist, like one of those really stubborn atheists, until he was 22. And then a returned missionary was able to answer all of his questions about God and the purpose of life. He then read the Book of Mormon and received an answer from God that the book is true. Now he has a testimony like iron!! He is a really cool guy. Seeing as he got here in Brasil last week, he doesn't understand much Portuguese, but he can speak a little. This week I had him teach the First Vision several times and bear his testimony in the language.

Google Streets view of Bandeirantes Ward buliding

We are serving in the Bandeirantes Ward [Bandeirantes translates to 'followers of the banner'], which is in the stake Campos Elíseos. It's kind of cool because we are pretty close to the area in Campinas that I've previously served in (Campinas 3rd Ward). We are in the same zone, so I'll be able to see the missionaries again in that area!

So, I wanted to thank you guys so much for sending the frisbees...man, the missionaries I gave them to so got so excited!! We also played a little frisbee today.

Also, thank you mom for the thoughts about church callings. It is true that as we leave a 'position', having worked hard to magnify the position, we will leave our vision of what we want accomplished. It's interesting how God wants us to always be stretching ourselves, changing tasks, changing us. Which reminds me that I really liked Elder Nelson's talk about change from general conference. When he declared that we can change ourselves, change our desires, I felt that he was talking directly to me! But anyway, thank you for the reminder that I don't have to finish everything perfectly, but just do my best.

Thank you so much for your prayers! I am working on developing charity right now. I'm trying to put myself in the position of others. It is life-changing when you do this. Yesterday was testimony meeting at church and I tried to put myself in the shoes and project myself in the life of the people who bore testimony. It was a very emotional experience. I didn't end up crying, but I could acutely feel the pains and joys of some of the people that went up. Without charity we are indeed nothing.

Have an awesome week! Share the beautiful gospel!
Elder Bradford

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A family that we were teaching in Paulínia

The family's cat...who didn't have a name...I found out that after I left they named him Bradford!

Our ward mission leader, Robson (man he is an awesome ward mission leader)

My two missionary 'sons'! Elder Zacheu [middle] is a mission secretary now.

View from our boarding

A pizza that we ordered!

Final week in Paulínia (18-month mark)

Hi family,

Holy cow dad, that is so cool that you met Elder Dube while serving your mission!! [AJ is referring to his dad meeting a young Eddie Dube in the town of Kwekwe, Zimbabwe in 1986. Edward Dube, a church leader in the 1st Quorum of the Seventy since April, addressed church members during the Saturday morning session of general conference]. I've never even thought about the fact that someone that I've met here could end up being in the general leadership of the church or someone of importance. Wow that blew my mind!! I showed this to my companion and he told me his favorite talk of the whole conference was of Elder Dube. Man I'm going to print the photo you sent and show it to people...hey my dad met this guy on his mission!

About being the new 'Presidente da Soc Soc' [AJ responds to his mom being called as the new Relief Society president in our church ward], as a missionary I can suggest that you work closely with the Elders. Meaning: check up with them every once in a while to see if the dinners are going okay (the Elders will (probably) never call you to say the dinners aren't happening, they won't want to bother you). Well, actually I don't even know if in the US the Relief Society has a part in the meals with missionaries...here our lunches are run by the RS. Tell the women of the ward that the Elders are awesome and every once in a while have someone drop off a snack at their apartment. Encourage the women to preach the gospel with their friends and family. Make sure the RS does their part of the Ward Mission Plan. Make sure that the women do their Visiting Teaching visits. Hehehehe, so you'll already have a lot on your plate besides all of this, but some things to consider!!!

HEY! I almost forgot! I was transferred! I don't know where! I will know tomorrow! Yeah this week was groovy and conference was cool! I love you guys!!! Thanks for the emails, love and prayers! Thank you also for sending the packages!!!

Elder Bradford

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Our zone of missionaries at Pres. Martin's house (stake president)

The missionaries in my mission zone

September 30th letter

Hello family,

So today we're at the house of the Martins again [pics are with August 19th letter], so that means I'm using this iPad that keeps turning my English into Portuguese...it's very hard to write. This week was unproductive. Tiago, someone that we've been teaching, decided against being baptized. This mission zone is kinda dead right now. I'm not sure what exactly to do, but we're going to work hard and have a good mission district meeting tomorrow.

Yeah...about my smile in recent pictures, hahahahaha. I'm still happy, I assure you. My only worries right now are that I learn all that I need to in my remaining 6 months and help improve the work in our zone. But I'm still happy. I think you guys said this because those last few photos were not very good. Yes, I'm getting tired...mentally and physically. But I'm not saying this to say, "whoa, I've worked soooooo hard look at me".  I still have a lot to do and learn. I'm still excited and happy and stuff, but the work is still super tough. But thank you for noticing and worrying about me!

Thank you for your prayers! Have a good week full of learning!
Elder Bradford

September 23rd letter

Hello family,

Today I don't have a lot of time to write because the internet here is really bad.

Ward mission leader, Elder Henriques, Maikon, and AJ

This rapaz [young man] named Maikon was baptized yesterday. He was actually baptized four months ago, but he was never confirmed and after that he stopped going to church and started going to parties and stuff and using drugs, but he stopped now and he's doing fine. We were actually planning to baptize Christians' brother Tiago (Christian was baptized last week) on Sunday morning (the Bishop likes to baptize before church in order to do the confirmation on the same day). We filled the baptismal font and everything and were heating the water when Tiago's mom called us saying that he didn't want to get baptized at this time, so we were pretty disappointed. However, we knew that Maikon could still get baptized - two weeks ago he had come to church, but there wasn't time to fill the font and do his baptism. He was out of town last week and he had told us he would be baptized yesterday, so we left the font full of water and went with our Ward mission leader to his house. He was sitting at the bus stop with his brother (who is a member) and we picked them up and brought them to church. We brought Maikon to the baptismal font and said "look, it's already full...let's get baptized then?" The Ward mission leader already volunteered to do the baptism and Elder Henriques was there and had a baptismal suit about Maikon's size, so he was like okay fine. He changed clothing, we did the interview and got the President's permission (everything by the book) and baptized him. We did it during Sunday School and pulled in the Gospel Principles class with this huge family of 9 that we are teaching, and almost all of them watched the baptism so it was pretty cool.

I was thinking about three things that any person needs to do related to missionary work. I see that I need to develop these three things to be a better missionary: Charity, Testimony, and Courage. Let's suppose that I know Joe. If I have Charity, I will desire the best for Joe. If I have Testimony, I will desire that Joe can live the gospel and be a member, because I know this will be the best for him. If I have Courage/Faith, I will do things so that he can come to embrace the gospel and be a member, because I have Courage/Faith that through my actions, he can come to be a member and live the gospel, thereby entering in the pathway best for his eternal life.

So how do we gain these three things? Mormon teaches us that we need to pray and ask God for Charity with all the energy of our heart. Moroni teaches us that to gain a testimony we need to pray and ask God for responses to our questions. I'm not sure who taught this, but we also know that Faith is a gift from God that is acquired through prayer. Interesting huh? maybe you guys have some more insights on this...

Sorry for such a short email, but unfortunately my repentance in this is incomplete because my email next week will probably be much shorter. Thank you for the prayers and e-mails. I pray for you guys every day. I love you all very much!

Elder Bradford

September 16th letter

AJ, Christian, and  Elder Henriques

OKAY, so this week we had a baptism! It was a kid named Christian, who has been going to church for a long time but didn't want to be baptized until two weeks ago. We got in contact with him this last week, and he was baptized!

So there's really not a lot to write this week. I'm doing fine. Elder Henriques and I did a church fireside yesterday about missionary work, and about 30 members came. We did practices with them about how to share the church materials with their friends. The fireside was OK, but it could have been better. The ward mission leader is good, but he spent about an hour talking and the projector didn't work so everyone had to watch the videos we prepared on the little laptop he brought. But it wasn't horrible.

This week we met with a lot of members and all of a sudden they are passing along to us references of people to teach. I don't know if God is blessing our ward or if we did something that made the members want to give references, but whatever happened I'm very grateful. I've learned the best way to get references from members is to gain their trust and be an obedient, spiritual missionary, as well as be a cool, social person. No member will send boring or annoying missionaries to teach the gospel to their best friends.

OKAY have a grrrrrrrreat week!!!
Elder Bradford

A picture of me and Elder Riquerme on Da Alegria road [translates to 'Joy' road]

September 9th letter

Hey people!

Me and Elder Henriques

So today I got assigned a new missionary companion! I'm now with Elder Henriques (pronounced ang-HEE-kees) from Paraíba in Brazil. He's cool.

I don't have a lot of time to write today because I'm going to make a printout for our zone meeting tomorrow. Also, we're going to play Frisbee at this park - it's going to be sweet.  About sending frisbees, I'm wanting one and two other Brasilian missionaries also want one because frisbees here in Brazil are expensive and hard to find.

Haha, I liked the comic strip you included in your email, Dad! [see below] I can't remember this has ever happened to me. It could be that I am ugly. Or I think because many Brasilians know that we speak and understand Portuguese. Many times I've heard people talking about us but it's always kind of secret like as if we weren't able to hear. Usually when this has happened it's people making fun of our accent or complaining about how we (or the Jehovah's Witnesses or Seventh-day Adventists, because we're often confused for them) are annoying or have weird beliefs.

So I'm doing fine. I'm starting to jump rope every morning and night, because I don't generally do exercises in the morning and I need to start doing them! I'm still a lil chubby! Okay that's all for this week!! Tchau!! I love you guys. Keep those prayers going! Please pray that I can know how to help our zone have more success and baptisms!!

Elder Bradford

Comic included in email to AJ this past week

September 4th letter

Hello,

SORRY for not letting you guys know that I would have preparation day today instead of Monday - I need to be better about that. We have a leadership meeting every first Monday of the month.

Elder Riquerme and AJ

Wow, I had forgotten that it was just last week that we had area transfers! I was only reminded when you guys asked about my new missionary companion. He is Elder Riquerme, and he was born in Santa Catarina here in Brasil, but for the past 4 years he has been living in Ponta Grossa, Paraná. He arrived in the mission field the same day as Elder Zacheu [a previous companion], so he's got 6 months on the mission. He's a really cool guy - he likes to joke around, talk about stuff, and he laughs at my jokes, so that's cool. He didn't know that he was going to be a zone leader, so that really took him by surprise. In fact, he wasn't supposed to be my companion...I think next week the Elder chosen by our Mission Presidente will trade places with him. There has been a delay because the other Elder got chicken pox and is still recovering. I was disappointed when I heard that Elder Riquerme would only be temporary because I like the guy a lot.

To respond to your question, yes I was zone leader and the junior companion. All of the zones except for the zone that Elder César [most recent companion] is leading has a companionship of two zone leaders. I'm training Elder Riquerme to be a zone leader, so technically I'm zone leader and senior companion now.

Nothing super cool happened this week. Well, on Sunday a new Ward Mission Leader was called and he is on fire! He is the best Ward Mission Leader I've had on the mission and I've only been with him for 3 days! We sat down on Sunday and for 2 hours made plans to get our ward in gear with missionary work. I'm excited. As a missionary you work with all types of members and all types of ward mission leaders, some do nothing, some give rides to places, some support your ideas, but others create ideas and get the ward moving! So I'm really thankful to have this guy working by our side.

As I mentioned, we had our zone meeting on Monday and it was the first time that I had control (and responsibility) of a zone meeting. I was a little nervous and we did some training and things that were a little different, but it ended up going well. After that I did an exchange with one of the mission president's assistants and he gave me some pointers about how the meeting could be even better and stuff. I'm glad that even though I've been out almost a year and 6 months I'm still learning a lot - it means I'm doing something right.

LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Bradford

Picture of zone at this week's zone conference

August 26th letter

Hey yall,

So Elder César was transferred to another area, and he's going to be zone leader and trainer! It's weird, because I've always seen two zone leaders together, but Elder Cesar is so darn good that he's going to lead a zone practically by himself and train a new missionary. I stayed and am anxious to know who will be my companion!! I'm thinking it will probably be an Elder that I know fairly well.

So how am I doing? Well, I started this week thinking that I was full of energy to work and stuff, like wow, I'm so good that I'm not even getting tired of missionary work. But then this week I don't know what happened, I got really tired. Several times this week I thought, please God drop a bed here in the middle of the road for me to take a quick snooze. But no bed appeared. haha. But this week I'm excited to work, partly because I'm sort of bipolar and my negative phase just passed (just kidding, sort of) and also I will have a new companion. It's not that I didn't like Elder Cesar, I liked him a lot - he is funny and very street smart, he taught me a little about this, he taught me how to teach better and corrected me in some things. He taught me the importance of standing up for what's right. I think we could have done some things different, worked more with the members, and as junior zone leader I was able to comment to him what I wanted to do, but I didn't have the authority as senior to say definitively, this is what we're doing. Now I think I'll be senior and will be able to have more control in the decisions.

I am happy but baffled the time on mission has passed so fast. I feel like there is so much more that we can be doing here in our area to baptize and help the people in our zone. There are still things about me that I want to change. Remember that whole getting distracted thing? So it was because I was not focusing. So I'm better at this but I still need to work on focusing more on where I'm at, what I'm doing right now instead of what I was doing some other day, or what I will be doing at home. It's pretty hard to control the brain but it's what God wants me to do so I'll get there :)

I love you guys! Keep up the prayers!
Elder Bradford

August 19th letter

HelloooO!O!O!!!

This week was tough!! But we had a lot of good experiences. Pretty much sums up almost every week of the mission.

So last week we had met Adriano, and we passed by almost everyday this week. He has some difficulty with cigarettes. We're helping him with this to get ready for baptism and hoping he'll be ready for next week! We took him to the Campinas temple last week and he thought it was cool, then we gave a lesson in a waiting room area by the temple. On the temple grounds it has a complex with a distribution center, a cafeteria, and an apartment complex for people who have to travel far to visit here.

It was cool how we found Adriano. We received a reference from a member to visit someone named Adilson and went to his house, gave him and his neighbor the first lesson, and set an appointment to come back. When we came back, we knocked at the gate and this guy was like, hey Adilson moved yesterday to Hortolânida (another city). So we were like, está me tirando [are you kidding me?]. We went to his house...actually to explain better, there is a house in the front with three other little houses/apartments behind it, which is common in Brasil, and Adriano lived in one of the apartments. Sure enough, very empty. So we were like, poxa vida [such is life]. We asked the guys in the other apartments what happened and they didn't really know, but one of them was Adriano and he showed a lot of interest. We scheduled back a visit with him and the rest is history! So the purpose wasn't to teach Adilson, but Adriano.

In regard to your question Dad, I will study this week about Matthew 5:13-16 (let your light so shine). I like the part about how people will glorify God because of His disciples. I didn't understand this part until the mission. How can I influence people to glorify God? People glorify God when they understand who He is, and for this reason they understand how many blessings they have received and His plan for our lives and then proceed to give praises unto Him (or in other words, glorify Him). So how can I persuade people to know God? If people see in me what they desire (light, happiness, peace), they may decide to open themselves to do what I've done to gain light or happiness or peace, etc. And what I have done is try to know God. So there's a chain here. You shine your light, others see it and your good works, they want what you have, they apply the gospel and glorify God in the end.

HAVE A SPECTACULAR SEMANA [Week]! Eu amo vocês [I love you]!
Elder Bradford

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Some pics of the mansion of a guy we visited this past week. He's the owner of a language school. The visit was cool! His house is enormous. There's this one room that has ping-pong, pool, and table soccer. There's a room that's just a theater. He has a tennis court in his backyard with a trampoline, soccer court, and pool...don't worry, we didn't go in the pool :-)

This churrasqueira includes chicken hearts (mmmhmmm)!