March 25th letter

Hallo!

Elder Zacheu and AJ

My new companion is Elder Zacheu (za-KEU) from Florianópolis, Brasil. I think I hardly could have asked for a easier missionary to train. Before being assigned to a companion I was worried about being put with a newbie who didn't want to follow the rules or talk with people on the street or do what I say. But he's doing really well. He talks with everyone on the street. He even can kind of joke around with people to make them feel more comfortable. It's kind of weird because I don't do this easily. He's teaching me a bit more than I'm teaching him. If only my Portuguese was perfect, and I understood the Brasilian culture completely! I've always wanted to be that super awesome companion that is remembered forever. I'm trying to be a good companion but I think I can do better. The training is at least going well. I'm worried about running out of things to teach him! And about constantly being an example.

So this week we did indeed work super hard, but we actually had less pesquisadores [people we're teaching] at church than last week. We marked 8 appointments this last Saturday and EVERY one fell through. One of them was "taking a shower". One was leaving to go to her church meeting. One of them was busy. The rest weren't home. I'm not exaggerating, a lot of people mark an appointment with us for an hour when they know they will not be at home. It's really frustrating. But we'll just keep on working. Even though this happened, I feel still kind of good because we did our best to be on time to every appointment. We did our part. But sometimes I get stressed because even though we did our part, we don't have much to show for it.

To respond to your questions...unfortunately, I haven't seen many referrals from new church converts. Here in Vinhedo we haven't had any. Well, actually the family we had the family activity night with invited a bunch of people but only those two cousins came, so we need to follow up with them. We also need to emphasize this with our recent converts - thank you for reminding me about this. The other missionaries didn't change in our house. Que bênção [what a blessing]. In regard to cooking, I don't do as much as in the past. It's hard to find time, and usually we don't have the money to buy a bunch of stuff. Other than pasta or hot dogs or cake, I haven't cooked anything here in Vinhedo. Oh wait, I made pancakes one time with that delicious buttermilk syrup. But that's all. Hahaha, I think by the end of my mission I will have used 5 of the 30 or so recipes that you've sent me! But who knows, I may have the opportunity to make something fancy at some point in my mission.

Ok, this week's email was a little brief...not much happened. Well, we were walking by a bar and some drunk guys were playing with fireworks, pointing them at other people, but we managed to walk by without incident. THANK YOU FOR THE PRAYERS.

Boa semana! Eu amo vocês MUUUUITO! Feliz Páscoa! [Have a nice week! I love you soooo! happy Easter]
Elder Bradford!!!!!!!!!!

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So on Páscoa [Easter] here it's tradition here to get a gigantic chocolate egg.
It's a pretty good idea! We received one from a church member and then devoured it.

Spider Man Pizza! (you won't see this in the US)

March 18th letter

HELLO!

Wow, I completely forgot about Saint Patrick's Day. That means I am losing myself in the work! Actually this week was kind of a downer. I mean, we had another baptism! YEAH! But we didn't work hard as hard as we could with finding more people to teach. Right now we have no one with a baptismal date. To be successful you have to be always finding and teaching at the same time so that your teaching pool never gets small. We focused a lot in getting Léia ready for the baptism and neglected to find more people to teach. So this week we'll be bater muitas portas [knocking many doors]!

So Léia is Diógenes' sister. Last Sunday when Diógenes was baptised, it was the first time she went to church. Before then, she had received a response, a very clear response, that the Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] is true and that we were true servants of God and that this was the path she was looking for. She was wanting to be baptized, but was still a little uneasy about it and had some doubts still. We talked with her on Tuesday and she was still unsure, she presented us with her doubts. This has happened a few times on my mission already...someone receives a response from God about everything, but they are unsure or unwilling to follow the response. I can be frustrating. Usually as a missionary when this happens I try to use the scriptures and show them that God expects them to follow the response he has given and to be baptized. But this Tuesday, it didn't work out that way. I don't know why. I ended up inviting her to read and pray everyday during the week to get an assurance from God. I usually don't like to do this because I see it as testing God. I don't know if I was inspired by the Spirit to say it, or I just didn't feel like reemphasizing about following the response she'd already received, but I instead decided to convey something else.

Baptismo de Léia

We came back on Wednesday, and when we sat down she said "I made a decision! I'm going to be baptized!" She had reserved the whole day to meditate about the subject, and she received another response from God that she should be baptized! That was a super faith builder for me. Want to know something interesting? The first response she received about the validity of the Church was from the Book of Mormon, but the second about the baptism was from the Bible! I still need to ask her how exactly she got the response. I want to know if she read something that could potentially help touch other people who have the same hesitation. But anyway, she and Diógenes are both super happy and seeing a lot of blessings come in their lives.

I got to thinking a lot about them. They were both really prepared. I think if any pair of missionaries were here in my place, they would still be baptized. I don't think it had anything, or very little, to do with my or Elder Alencar's ability. I just feel so blessed that God let me be here and be a part of their lives. It's a true tender mercy that God gave me.

So, this week is area transfers (this last transfer and the next are only 5 weeks long). Elder Alencar was transferred and will be a trainer already! Makes me think that I should have tried harder to teach him some techniques, but he's already a good missionary. He was freaking out a little yesterday when they announced the transfers. As for me, I will also train a greenie [a newbie to the mission]! Yaaaay! I've been imagining about this for quite some time. I'm excited! And also pretty nervous! A good part of this new missionary's success will depend on me. I'm hoping he'll be an American, but seeing as there are 3 americanos and about 12 brasileiros, I don't think that will happen. But we'll see. Whatever happens will have a reason. I'm going to give an extra effort to keep the rules and be a good example to him. Man I'm excited! Please pray for me that I can know what to do to help my little filhinho.

Obrigado por tudo!!! Continue orando por mim! Eu amo todos vocês! [Thanks for everything!! Keep praying for me! I love you all!]
Elder Bradford

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Missionaries serving in the Itatiba zone!

March 11th letter

BUN DINHA!!

We had a pretty big miracle here in Vinhedo. David, a member, brought his neighbor Diógenes (gee-AH-gen-ees) to visit church last Sunday. He loved it and we scheduled to visit him at his house the next evening. There we taught him and two of his sisters about the Restauração [gospel restoration], and they accepted to read the Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] and pray. We passed by Wednesday and everyone had already read the part in 3 Nephi 11. Diógenes had read it twice, I think, and received a response. He was super excited and open to everything. I remember when we got to talking about baptism, we explained about it and I looked at him and said "Diógenes, I know you are prepared to be baptized this Sunday" and he gave a big grin while I heard his sisters gasping in astonishment. I invited him to be baptized the coming Sunday and he said 'Com certeza' [For sure]. He explained to us that he had received the impression from God that we were going to invite him to be baptized that night.

Baptism of Diógenes (on the left, he usually has a smile on),
and on the right is David who baptized him.

We passed by the next day and explained the commandments, all of which he already knew. Then the interview on Saturday and baptism on Sunday! I have never seen anyone so prepared for baptism. He was already searching for a church, and wanting to start a new life and be baptized BEFORE we met him. Usually, the people we teach that are ready don't have this desire until after sharing one or two lessons. This is one reason that referrals and member missionary work are so important. The work becomes so much more productive when not just the full-time missionaries but also the members are looking for people who need the gospel, because the finding part is the most difficult. Think of the ratio between missionaries and members in a ward. If every member spent a little time doing this, finding God's elect would be a snap.

So to answer your questions, I've passed and blessed the sacrament a few times on the mission. Two weeks ago I passed the sacrament because we have a group (practically a branch) growing in the Capela area and there aren't very many young men.

Also about your comment Mom, at times it is very humbling to see the Spirit work through us to touch people. When I see this I think "Holy cow, this is the real deal. These are real lives being affected here." Sometimes I take things lightly and forget that our work is of saving souls. We hold a lot more power and authority than we understand. One thing I'm trying to do when I talk with anyone is imagine what Christ would do and imagine what he would do to help this person receive salvation. It would be awesome if I could figure out exactly what every single person we meet needs. But the problem is, it's hard! You have to have the Spirit with you and have to be completely concentrated on the person and not on when and where is our next appointment, and man I'm thirsty, and I wonder what I should do next preparation day, and man I'm hungry, and wow that song I heard yesterday was pretty cool (things that pass through my head if you didn't know). I'm learning a lot here in Brasil and I hope to learn more how to control my thoughts and focus on the needs of the people I'm teaching.

Family Home Evening activity with recently baptized family

Regarding the picture I included, we had a Noite Familiar [Family Night] at the home of a recent convert family. We gave a message about helping others, and as the object lesson we taped a broom behind the shoulders of two volunteers and we asked them to eat ice cream by themselves, which gives no option other than just diving in. But then we allowed them to help each other and they figured out that one of them could grab the spoon and feed the other and it's a lot more efficient. They thought it was cool so it must have been a success!

That's all for today! Com todo o amor do mundo [With all the love in the world],
Elder Bradford

March 4th letter

Bom dia família! [Good morning family!]

So, yesterday I heard that in a national report done recently, Vinhedo won the title of best city in Brasil to live in. Então pode ficar tranquilo, estou vivendo bem! [So you can rest assured, I'm living well!]

So this week was normal. Good day, bad days, lessons that went well, lessons that didn't. Let's see (looking through planner). Bento was confirmed, we talked with a Jehovah Witness pastor, and we committed four people to be baptized.

The first is a girl who lives behind the house of some members (In Brasil it's common to have a house behind a house) with whom we had the lesson. She gets home really late from work, in fact the night we had marked with her she got home almost 9pm. So I was like, we'll just share a brief message about the Book of Mormon. I started talking about prophets and then it just kind of slid into the 1st lesson, and before we knew it we were talking about the Restoration. It was a very spiritual lesson and I think the first time I heard on my mission 'Eu quero' [I want to] in response to the convite batismal [baptismal invitation]. The second was a lady we had met a good time ago but never got around to passing by her house. One night our appointments fell through so we decided to pass by her house. We gave another spiritual lesson and she accepted baptism.

Then yesterday, these two ladies went to church and liked it a lot! We had other appointments fall through so we had nothing to do, and we were walking down this road and I asked Elder Alencar how long it'd been since he had knocked doors on this road. So that you guys understand, Vinhedo is pretty much divided in three - the Nova Vinhedo ward which is to the East, the Vinhedo ward which is in the middle, and then a little ways off to the West is a place (almost another city) called the Capela, which is a little confusing because we also call the church chapel the capela. The members in Capela belong to the Vinhedo ward but they meet together in a rented building in Capela because it would be too far away for everyone to meet at the church building in the center of the city. Every other day we work in the Capela, and the other days we work in the middle of the city. The missionaries before me focused more on the middle of the city, so when I got here almost every single road had been knocked through. These last few weeks we've managed to knock through the rest of the streets, so Elder Alencar has literally tracted on every single road in our area except for the Capela. So now when we work in the center of the city its a matter of, which road have you tracted least recently, Elder Alencar?

So anyways we were on this road that is pretty much a block away from the church and I asked Elder Alencar, hasn't it been a while since you tracted here? He was like, forget it, I've talked with everyone on this road, no one is interested. I said you couldn't have talked to everyone, so I stopped and clapped [Brazilian way of knocking] at a house. No one answered, I went a little further until I heard someone behind a house, I clapped there, a lady came out and we talked with her. She was very friendly and we marked an appointment with her. So I think Elder Alencar got the idea and he clapped at the next house, out came a lady who had never talked with the missionaries. We shared with her and her husband the Restoration and they agreed to be baptized. Her husband told us that he was really needing to hear our message and is searching for a church, as he knows the church he goes to is corrupt. So that was pretty cool to see that God is preparing all sorts of people to hear the good news!

I'm glad to hear that I inspire you mom. That makes me feel important and that I'm doing a good job! Really though, you guys are an inspiration to me. All we have to worry about here on the mission is studying, paperwork and missionary work. There on your side there's less enjoyable work, school, bills, taking care of the house and cars, and church responsibilities on top of that, and you still manage to study the scriptures and have that spiritual power with you through the day even though life demands that you don't focus on spiritual things 24/7. That's tough.

Well, that's it for now.
Elder Bradford

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Our mission district (yes, those are the Reeses Pieces you sent - they disappeared fast!)

Almoço hoje, bom demais! [Lunch today, too good!]