January 28th (birthday) letter

Alô família,

Yeah, now I'm 20! I can't believe it. It didn't really hit me until Dad mentioned "no more teenage years" in his letter. I felt like, holy smokes - that part of my life is already gone. Já era! [roughly translates to 'It's gone/It's over']. It's all serious business from here on out, right?

Well, this week was also tough. We had our reunião de distrito [district meeting] again, and yet another week we happily reported that we would have miracles in the coming week (code for 'we have no one to baptize'). After the reunião I was like, it's my birthday this Sunday! We need to baptize someone this Sunday! So we went through our area book, made a list of people who've been previously taught and had already gone to church, but for some reason the missionaries stopped teaching them. We passed by each one, and some we couldn't find at home, the rest didn't have any interest. We did talk to this lady named B, who Elder Mora and Elder Oliveira Souza had taught. We've been teaching her for a while, but in terms of baptism she was always kind of eeeeeehhhh não sei [I don't know]. She's Catholic and after 80 years she's understandably having difficulty letting go of some things from her life in the church - it's a miracle she's even considering changing religion. There are a lot of old folk in Brasil with the attitude 'I was born Catholic, and I'll die Catholic.' But B is quite different. She agreed to be baptized this next Sunday! So here's hoping that next week I can send you a picture of her baptism!

So, we were working hard this week, nothing was happening, we spent 5 hours with a member making visits on Saturday, we only entered in 2 homes, pretty much all of our planned visits fell through. On Sunday we had no pesquisador [people we're teaching] at church. I was like, wow this birthday stunk. I was feeling pretty down on myself. Then later that day we went with some church members to visit those we haven't seen for some time. No one was home. Finally, I looked in my planner and remembered about a reference we got from the other missionaries in Limeira; a lady whose house was in the same neighborhood we were in. So, we get there and the lady wasn't there.  Her husband answered the door and he had no interest, but we were with this member who is really good with words and somehow we got invited into his house. We began to talk about family and he told us that he has had some deaths in the family. We were able to bear testimony that families can be together forever. In the meantime, their son had gone to look for his mom (the lady we were trying to meet with) and call her home so she could hear our message.  They returned and we talked with her, and she indicated she'd been going to our church many years ago when she lived in another part of Limeira.  Since she moved she didn't know of a church building that was close by. While going to church those years ago, she never talked with the missionaries, but she had a testimony about the church and everything. She received a Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] but had given it to her brother and never saw it again. So she was pretty prepared to hear our message! We taught about eternal families and linked it with authority from God and linked that with Joseph Smith and the Restauração [gospel restoration]. We have the entire family scheduled for baptism on the 9th of February! That means they'd be baptized and confirmed before the next missionary area transfers! God gave us a present - a family who's waiting for us to teach them the gospel and show them the way to eternal life.*

Afterwards, I was like, maybe this was a good birthday after all. I said this to Elder Mora and he told me that he had prayed that morning for a miracle. He asked God that he could give us a miracle so that I could have a good birthday. That meant a lot to me. I felt like hugging him, but it wasn't really that kind of brotherly love moment, so I just thanked him. Today we did pancakes with a church member, but everyone was kind of running around doing their own thing so it didn't really work out to take pictures. But it turned out pretty good.

About Limeira, yeah it's just us four missionaries here. They're thinking about creating another church branch, but it's not official yet. If so, we might get another pair of missionaries in the city, which I think would be really cool. Limeira's pretty modernized - like most of the cities here close to São Paulo. It also depends if you live near downtown or out in the boonies (unlike the US, the neighborhoods close to downtown are where some of the richer people live. The ghettos are the neighborhoods farthest from the downtown usually)

Anyway, time to go - take care.
Elder Bradford

*[We continued teaching this family until I left. The only hold up for the woman (Fernanda) was her addiction to smoking. We made goals with her but she didn't quit. She was so ashamed of it that on our last day in the area when we went to her house to say good-bye before we moved to another city, she was smoking at the moment was taken by surprise with our visit, and she actually hid behind a car when we got to her house. Her son was like, 'She's right over there behind the car.' Then she hurried off and sped around the corner. We tried to follow her but we lost her. We only walked because I thought it would have been strange to run after her, but now I regret that. A lot. Fortunately the other missionaries who came the next day eventually found her. I thought we had left absolutely nothing out of the Area Book (record of all the people we teach) but the other missionaries later told me that Fernanda wasn't there! They only found out about her because one of the members that had gone with us to her house had asked them about her, and of course they had no idea who she was. So he took them to her house. Her husband continued uninterested, however Fernanda ended up getting baptized a few weeks later! -AJ]

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On Sunday night some church members did a little surprise party for my birthday (and the birthday of a Irmã [Sister] in the ward, whose birthday is the same day!). Yeah, cake with M&Ms! In front there's little sweets called brigadeiro (the dark ones) and beijinho (the white ones).

The sister in the ward, who has the same birthday as me, helps blow out the candle. I asked her how old she was turning and she said "No Brasil, você não faz essa pergunta" [In Brazil, you don't ask that question!]

January 21st letter

Alô familiazinha! [Hello family]

So I can't believe that I'm almost 20 years old already! I have grown a lot this last year for sure. But I still have a lot to change and I've identified what I need to change too. It seems like forever ago that I turned 12 years old. I don't even remember a lot about being a deacon.

I'm not sure yet what I want to do for my birthday. I probably won't do anything different on Sunday [AJ's birthday is the 27th]. Since Monday is Preparation day, I was thinking about doing a pancake breakfast at this members house who lives real close to us and already helped out with a few home maintenance things. That will be cool.

So this last week we worked a lot. But we had very few results. I've been asking God in my prayers to make me a little more humble, and well, he's doing his part! We had the lowest number of lessons I've ever had in my mission. By this I've learned what we need to do to work better. I made a suggestion to Elder Mora about what we should do, and he was like, yeah that's what I told you from the beginning. And I asked, why haven't you done it then? And he said, because I'm following you since you're the senior companion. Later that night I felt like I should ask him "Do you feel like I listen to you?". And he immediately responded, no. We got to talking and resolved some of our differences. He has no fear in giving criticism and I have a tendency to defend myself when people criticize me. So there you have a bad combination. Like I told my District Leader, I got to thinking, wow this guy likes to pick at every mistake I make. And he got to thinking, wow this guy doesn't listen to a word I say. But we've talked it over several times, and I think we're finally understanding each other better as a companionship.

We had a Multi-Zone Conference this last week. Our Zone Leaders led a discussion about resolving problems in our companionships. We all read from 1 Nephi when it talks about Nephi breaking his bow. It's interesting to note that everything is fine and dandy, Laman and Lemuel are even humbled before the Lord, UNTIL the difficulty came and then everyone got angry. President Perrotti made a comment, he said that sometimes companions observe a mistake that the other companion makes and they think "Seu arco quebrou, problema seu!" [Your bow broke, your problem]. This is a problem that I had (and still have sometimes). As a junior companion I would observe mistakes that WE made and I'd think, well he's the senior, I don't have a part in this. But everything has to work if we're to be united. It's from this that we'll gain the power that we need to have results in our work.

So nothing's progressed with João. We could tell that he (and his family) didn't want us to pass by to teach anymore. It's really saddening. But like you guys said, we did our part, we presented the gospel and our teachings, and its up to them to decide. The work is going a bit slow. We only have a few people that have interest in what we're teaching them. We found this guy who's pretty much changing his life from black to white from what he's told us. He also lives super close to the church building! Unfortunately, it didn't work out for him to go to church this last week, but we'll pass by this week and teach some more.

Have an awesome week!
Elder Bradford

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Planejamento [planner] before and after a missionary area transfer

Our church building in Limeira

Limeira!!!!

The missionaries serving in Área Limeira

So we had a rat in our house, and then we used poison, and then it died!!!!!

January 14th letter

Hello! Boa Tarde! [good afternoon]

So continuing with João from my last letter...we went back the next Saturday after the Sunday I mentioned. He felt that the Book of Mormon is true. He didn't go to church the next day. The Saturday after, we went again, he told us that because of the way he felt when we talked with him, he has already changed a lot in his life. He used to have little patience with his wife and daughters, but he just felt like this was wrong and he gave an effort to be kinder. He decided to spend less time away from home. He all of a sudden felt bad when he went to have a drink with his friends. He told his wife about what he felt, and she told him that it was nothing, he was just in an emotional state. She went quite against us, as João explained. As we were talking I got the idea to have a member pass by and encourage him to go to church. So we left, talked to this member, he passed by and it all worked out, he went to church!!!

That Sunday was a very special experience for me. In Priesthood meeting we had a gospel discussion that was kind of wandering into whatever topic (like it can at times) and João contributed and bore his testimony a little bit. It was cool to see how fast the members attached to him and praised him. Since it was Fast Sunday, João got to hear testimonies from members during Sacrament meeting. Elder Mora was sitting next to him and João asked about what was going on. He explained "So anyone who feels like it can go up and bear their testimony about the gospel, but it's not obligatory, you don't have to if you don't want to." João said "I don't know, I'm scared that I'll start to cry or something". "Yeah, you don't have to go, just those who want to". João took a breath and said "Ok, I'll go". He went up and just talked about his feelings - it wasn't the average testimony of "I feel this, I feel that, amen." It was about his experiences and from his heart. We felt pretty good because here he was telling everyone in the ward we helped him feel the Spirit during the lessons. And from there, the ward got a little burst of energy. Suddenly we had members interested in making visits with us. It was cool.

However, from there it went downhill. That Tuesday, we were going to pass by with a member but a rainstorm hit...I think it was God's way of having just us go into the lesson. We had a long discussion with João. The problem is this: What he wants to do and knows is right, is bring his wife and daughters to church to feel the same thing he felt and be converted. But his wife said she does not want to visit our church, and their daughters pretty much follow his wife. So, he wants to check out the church that the rest of his family is going to, and see if it's possible to have a happy, united family that way. He feels torn between what he knows is true what God has told him, and his obligation to unite his family. We promised him that if he is baptized and continues to work with his wife and daughters, they'll eventually be converted and be able to have an eternal family. But his faith isn't quite at this point yet, to be able to trust God that all will be well if he pursues this route. We passed by with the bishop and were able to teach the entire family and gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to João's wife, but after the lesson from what João said, she just tossed it aside and ignored it. We talked more about it Sunday (he went to the other church instead of ours), but he told us that he will walk away from the right path for a little bit and hope that God sends a sign to correct him. We told him that was not advisable. ugghhhhhh. We don't know yet if we should continue to work with them or not. At least later that night, we found out that his daughters are crazy for American treats, and they want us to come back to bake cookies some night (FHE!!!).

Yeah, so that's all I have time to write. I was excited to hear that Greg Gillespie is bishop of the new ward in the stake! [Bro. Gillespie taught the missionary preparation class AJ attended before leaving to Brazil]. He's not young at all, our bishop here is only 31 years old.

EU AMO VOCÊS! Eu oro por vocês cada dia! [I LOVE YOU! You're in my prayers every day!]
Elder Bradford

January 7th letter

Bom dia todos! [Good morning all]

So I wasn't transferred! Both Elder Mora and I stayed here in Nova Itália. When they announced it I was like, okay that's fine, let's work hard and find someone to baptize! This week we worked pretty hard.

We had only one new person we're teaching come to church, but this guy is awesome. His name is John and he lives with his wife and three teenage daughters. When we started to work in this neighborhood, we decided to tract on this one street, and when we knocked at their gate we talked a little with two of his daughters, and they were pretty cool but they said we could only visit on Saturday. When we get contacts like that we usually write them down and perhaps come back later. A few weeks after we pass by this house again, I don't even remember what day it was but we clap our hands [the method for 'knocking' at a home in Brazil], and John's wife answered and was really nice, but there was just her at home if I remember right. So anyways on the 22nd of December we were walking by the house again and it happened to be Saturday, everything was all working out so we decided to stop by. John was sitting out in front and we hadn't met him yet and I thought, oh great, here we're going to meet their controlling dad who won't even let us speak one word about religion, but we talked to him, asked if his daughters were at home, and he was like, yeah, I'll go get them. He returned with his wife and they were like really, really shy and he said they didn't want to talk with us right now. Then I said to him, call them again and tell them we have a Christmas present for them. So he returned and he was able to get one of his daughters to leave the house and talk to us. So we ended up sitting in the garage teaching the 1st lesson to John and this daughter. They are really smart and were understanding the lesson well. Then Elder Mora gave the lesson on the First Vision and John began to cry. He got all embarrassed, he was like, look at me, I'm crying! We were able to testify about Joseph Smith being a Prophet with power and they agreed to be baptized. John described what he felt (later he told us that he had never felt anything like it before) and asked us what it was. We explained about the Holy Spirit. It was a great lesson. They got really excited to read the Book of Mormon (the Christmas present I promised!).

When we finished it was pretty late and we were going to take the ônibus [transit bus] but he offered us a ride home, and since it was really, really late we actually accepted, and told him that we would show him the church building which is really close to our house. Unfortunately, John's daughter wasn't able to come with us to see the church building, but at least we went with John. We entered the building, showed him some of the rooms and then lastly we went to the Sacrament Room (I forget what it's called in English now) [Chapel]. Why did we do this? One of the training movies we had illustrated this with Sister missionaries taking a lady to tour the church building, and at the end they go to the sacrament room and as they stand there the Spirit touches her and testifies to her about everything the missionaries had taught. So we decided to put that to the test. We go into the room with John, we chat a little, explain a little, we weren't feeling anything but we decide to do a prayer. I asked John to offer a prayer but he initially didn't want to, he felt unprepared, but we gave him a little confidence, in the end he gave a prayer and got emotional again as he asked God for help with his family. He explained to us that there has been a lot of contention in his family because of religion, his wife is really committed to another church and he doesn't really follow any religion. I won't include all the details but his family is needing a lot of help. We promised him that he could be the example, the way to change his family for the better by going to church and living the gospel. He told us that he would try to go to church the next day. He didn't go. TO BE CONTINUED!!!!.....(mostly because I'm out of time)

So about Maria, the lady who saw the light by my head while we were teaching her. We passed by Saturday and she was with a visit, her daughter answered the gate. I asked her to ask her mom if she would be able to go to Church with us Sunday. She returned and her mom said that she wouldn't be going because she already has her religion. :-[

Yes, it's been getting pretty hot here. Although the weather is still unpredictable - sometimes when we leave the house the sky is filled with black clouds and we're sure it's going to rain, but not a drop falls. Other times we leave and there are clouds few and far between but during the day it finds some way to pour rain during the late afternoon. The hottest months in Brasil from what I've heard are January and February. It's not as hot here as you're probably imagining. Like, it's hot but it's not unbearable at all.

About goals, yes we make goals (or at least we're supposed to...) every day, every week, and every transfer. I also made some goals for 2013. One thing about goals - sometimes we start to fail in a long-term goal and we think, aw man I've already broken my habit or pattern, there's no use in trying to return to do it. We always have to remember why we decided to commit to the goal in the first place. Will I complete this goal just to say I completed 'x' goal, or will I complete it because there is some growth, some knowledge or improvement that I'll gain from completing the activity? One example is reading the scriptures everyday. I get going for a good few weeks and then one day I get real lazy and I don't read. Then I think, I've already broken my goal, why should I continue to strive to read everyday? I won't be able to say that I read every day in 2013, true. But the point of the goal is the spiritual growth that comes from reading. I think this has something to do with the Atonement. We sin and, filled with guilt we think, why should I try to return to the path? This is what Satan wants us to think. But if we can have that attitude of always returning to the path of righteousness every time we slip a little, then we will understand the power of the Atonement. I won't be able to say that I lived a perfect life, true. But the point of the Atonement is to learn to confide in God and let Him turn our weaknesses and failures into strengths. Yeah, just some thoughts I had :). My, oh my, I've learned a lot on the mission.

Okay, wow I wrote a lot today! Hope you all have a good and healthy week full of enriching experiences! Go tell people about the gospel!

Elder Bradford