Concluding mission post

So this is the concluding post for my mission blog. I arrived home on Tuesday, March 25th. It was such a surreal experience. I remember when I was at the mission office on Monday at like, 3pm, just talking, joking with the mission secretaries and the other missionaries there, and suddenly our taxi pulled up the driveway. One of the secretaries came to me and told me that it was my ride. That’s when the silent panic started. I got light-headed.

After my bags were loaded up, I took my seat by the taxista and off we went. And it was in that moment that I think I finally realized that my mission was drawing to a close. I looked back as the mission office fell from view. My heart sunk as I will not see that building again as a missionary. And it`s not even the building that made my head whirl. That building, the mission office, represented a connection to all the missionaries in Campinas and to the mission itself. So when that building got cut off from view, to me that sort of meant that the mission, the dear missionaries I met, all my companions, President and Sister Perrotti, all the members in the eight areas I served, the routines, the lessons, the intensity of the work, the burden, the power, the memories - all of these were cut away from my life in that split second. I turned in my seat to face forward and chatted a little with the taxista but all the while I was surveying the avenues and great, tall buildings of downtown Campinas, trying to enjoy one last long look.

As myself and four other missionaries got to the rodoviaria [bus station] and took the bus to Sao Paulo, and then the flight to Atlanta and arrived at the airport there, my head was swirling. It got worse when I found myself alone in Atlanta - the other four missionaries had departed the plane and gone their separate ways and I hadn't said goodbye to any one of them. I went to my next gate and found a seat. I was there two hours early so it was almost empty. I just sat there for a few minutes and sipped the root beer I had just bought. I needed to say a prayer. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it at the gate even with so few people there, so I finished my drink and I went to the bathroom and locked myself in one of the stalls. I opened myself to God in prayer and told Him everything that I was feeling. I felt comforted. It’s interesting how sometimes we have to be put in situations that make us stressed or worried or desperate so that we can learn how to really pray - I mean, pray with real intent and with all your heart.

I returned and noticed a huge poster on the wall next to the gate that read “Let each man pass his days in that endeavor wherein his gift is greatest.” Two years ago, I was at the gate beside this when I met with another 30 or so nervous missionaries to take the plane to Sao Paulo. I had read this quote from Propertius and I had agreed with it. But this time, as I sat thinking, I saw it from another angle. I don’t know if I agree with that quote anymore. The scriptures teach us that we should search for the best gifts of the Spirit. They teach us that those who come unto Christ with humbleness will have their weaknesses made into strengths. Christ taught that we should even be perfect, as is God. It seems to me that God wants us to pass our days perfecting ourselves in all endeavors. And we can. If we want to. If we are not willing to let God modify a few things in our lives - our desires, our hopes, our dreams - then we will seemingly be much more happy spending our life doing only that which is more pleasing or wherein our gift is greatest. However, we will always from thereon live in a partial happiness because we are not, and do not choose to be, happy when we are forced into other less pleasing endeavors throughout our day-to-day experiences.

Choose to be happy. Choose to let God teach you how to be happy in all that you do. Choose to do all that you can to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know He is our Savior. I have seen some of my many weaknesses become strengths during this mission. Through repentance and understanding of His Atonement, I am free to vanquish my bad habits and my pride. Please take some time to study His Atonement, ponder it in your heart, and pray with all the desire of your heart to know that it is true and to understand it. I want you to feel the comfort and freedom that I feel.

Even though I will probably not see everyone that I met on the mission later in life, I know that I will meet them again at Judgment Day. I know that life is eternal and that our Heavenly Father has wonderful things in store for us, especially for those who do their honest best in this life.

Thank you so much all of you for reading my posts and I desire the best for all of you. If you'd like to get in contact with me please send me an email.

(Elder) AJ Bradford

---

Snapshot at the airport we sent to AJ's sister, Taylor, to signal he was home (she's attending BYU in Provo)

AJ posing in front of poster his sisters (Lexi and Ellie) and Mom made to greet him at the airport

Picture taken by the dad of a sister missionary that was also returning home that afternoon 

AJ surveys a map we created of his mission, cities where he served, and list of missionary companions

AJ after his interview with (Stake) President Shafer,
who officially released him from missionary service

AJ shows off the shoes he wore home  

Certificate presented to AJ upon completing his mission service

Final letter from Brazil

Hey family,

So this is my last email (I think) because next Monday I will be taking the plane home! It's so weird. This email is going to be short because we are out in Vinhedo [AJ served in the area Feb-Jun 2013] and I'm going to visit some church members & friends today! Our mission president lets us visit one of our previous areas before going home. We're going to eat lunch with them and visit some others, it's going to be awesome!

Thank you for all your help during these two years! They flew by. They were incredible. They were the best two years of my life. I'll see you guys on Tuesday the 25th in Portland! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Elder Bradford

March 10th letter

Hey fam,

So today I have even LESS time to write you guys! Busy, busy, busy wrapping stuff up [AJ heads home on March 24th]. I'm still working through a scripture chart in Portuguese that I showed you last week and I finished up some stuff for our mission zone T-shirt (man that was a lot of work). Today we're going downtown to buy some stuff! I was thinking about going to the Dom Pedro shopping mall which is like one of the biggest in Latin America [about 85% the size of the Lloyd Center in Portland or University Mall in Orem], but there wouldn't be time and I think a lot of stuff there must be pretty expensive. There's a lot of stuff in downtown Campinas I can get.

Also I cut my toe pretty bad...just to get you guys worried...actually it's nothing serious. Okay have a great week!!! Thank you for the prayers! Keep praying!

Elder Bradford

March 3rd letter

Hey guys,

So this week was a little difficult. We made a list of all the less-active church members in the neighborhood. We went after the addresses, but we found very few people at home.  Some of them didn't want contact with the church. It was funny, as we spent time running after these addresses without any result, then at church there miraculously appeared some new people to teach. We also talked to some members and got word of some less-active church members who would accept our visits. We visited one of the families yesterday and they received us. So that was cool.

We're having a bit of trouble determining what exactly is the problem in our mission zone in regard to finding people to accept the gospel. We've tried so many things these last few weeks, and months, and nothing seems to work. We're going to have to try something that I've never done...I don't know what that is yet...

Unfortunately, I won't be able to send pictures on this computer, but I will send some next week! It seems that all the members and other missionaries are trying to get me trunky [as in packing a 'trunk' for a trip, as AJ will finish his mission in three weeks]. But that's not gonna work! I'm trying my best to focus on the mission stuff. Thank you for your prayers and love!

Elder Bradford

February 24th letter

Hey guys!!!

So this week we did our best with the two children I mentioned last week to see they were baptized, but it didn't work out. The family ended up having some serious problems and because of the situation right now, we aren't able to pass by their house. A church member that was helping us out is worried about I don't know what and she isn't able to help right now. Also, no one we've been teaching went to church! SOOO, we are going to work in a different neighborhood this coming week. I am excited! I always get excited when there is some change in the work, like a different neighborhood, area, companion, teaching pool - it's good stuff.

Hey mom, I was thinking about what you said, that you feel like it's on your shoulders to get the women excited about missionary work. I had an IDEA! Talk to the missionaries! Tell them you want to get the women excited about missionary work. I'm sure they will be more than happy to help. One of the things that missionaries want most for church members is that they develop the faith, vision, and excitement necessary to do missionary work. I don't know what I'd give to have one of our ward leaders come to me and ask me to help their members to develop these things and to give me all their support.

Well, unfortunately I had a lot to do today on the computer today so I wasn't able to write a lot, but I'm doing well, I'm healthy! I'm learning a ton! Yeah mormonism! I love you guys a WHOLE LOT!!! LIKE A LOT!! Thank you for your prayers!

Elder Bradford

February 17th letter

Yo peeps!

I am liking my new mission ward a lot. Yesterday we had our coordination meeting and I think it was the best one I've ever had on the mission. Probably because it was the first that had the participation of the bishopric and the auxiliary group leaders. When we talked about the difficulties of those we're teaching, they were ready to give an idea, or offer to make a phone call once in a while, or make a visit with us. Man, it was so much easier that having to run after each and every member trying to make visits. Make sure, Mom, that you have a representative of the Relief Society at the missionary coordination meeting because it will strengthen the link between the ward and the missionaries. Man, it was definitely one of the most positive and productive coordination meetings I've had on my mission! Most of the time in other areas it was just myself, my companion, and the ward mission leader in the meeting...and it was just for him to follow up with us and see if we were working. Now I understand a lot more about how to make that vital connection between the ward and the missionaries. I left the meeting really excited to work this week (a sign of an effective meeting)! It means a lot to a missionary to know that he/she isn't working alone.

Yesterday was New Beginnings (Novos Inícios) for the young women in the Bandeirantes ward. I had promised them I would help out by playing piano, so I did that yesterday and it went well. The meeting was small because the ward has only three active young women, but it was still good.

Something cool happened in church yesterday that I wanted to tell you about. We were in Gospel Principles class learning about the Holy Spirit when the thought came to my mind that we should try calling someone that we'd been teaching that hadn't yet showed up to church. I didn't want to interrupt the class, but the thought kept coming strong, so I went over and told Elder Miranda. So we left the classroom and went over to the bishops office to use the phone, but then we remembered we had left the phone number of the guy at home, so we went to go back to class and saw a brother sitting alone in a classroom. We walked by, but Elder Miranda decided to stop and talk to him. It turns out that he is going through some VERY tough stuff right now. We gave him a priesthood blessing and returned to class. At that point the church members were discussing experiences with the Spirit, and Elder Miranda said, "Interestingly enough, we had an example right this very moment of how the Spirit works" and he started to explain what had just happened. It was in that moment that I realized what the Spirit had done so that we could end up giving that brother a blessing. I think I overlook many times how much the Spirit helps me daily.

Please pray for Gabriel and his sister because we are working to baptize them this Saturday! I love you guys, thank you for your prayers!

Elder Bradford

---

This is brigadeiro (have you guys made it yet???). Sometimes people put stuff in brigadeiro, so we put the Reese's Pieces you sent me - wow that was good stuff!

We bought pamonha from a street vendor. It's like mashed up corn with butter or something, but that's also some good stuff right there.

Elder Miranda enjoying some pamonha.

Cleaning the baptismal font!! There was a ward baptism of a boy named Felipe. It was a very good baptismal service and some people we're teaching came (yes!!!)

Transfer in Southwest Campinas (final mission transfer)

Hello family,

Man, we worked hard this week to get some people to attend church...we had a good group of folks, but they didn't make it out...AHHHHHH!! So, we'll be giving them another chance this week, as we really haven't had a chance to teach them much yet.

Also, I was transferred! My new ward is Ouro Verde, which is the other ward in Southwest Campinas that uses the same church building as the ward I've been in! I'm gonna be with Elder Miranda, who was already there, so now both of us will be together as mission zone leaders. It will help us out a lot to get things going in the zone. I'm staying in the same apartment, just moved to the other room. Elder Papenfuss is also staying and now he's going to have a different companion, but his dad (me) is gonna be here to help him out every step of the way! :P

Keep me in your prayers...even at the end of my mission I am growing and learning so much! I'm going to do my absolute best! Have a great blustery, snowy week! Here it's being the complete opposite. I love you guys sooooooooo much!

Elder Bradford

---

Thank you so much for the cookies!!! Man I miss the CTM!!!! [the cookies are from Mr. Cheney's, which is a business that caters to American missionaries and is located next to the Brazil missionary training center, or CTM]. Also, the other package you shipped the beginning of October got here [finally] the same day...thank you so much!!!!

We made something called Pavê for our mission zone activity...it's creme or mousse layered with crackers...it's good stuff!!!

Corn popcicle - mmmmmmm!!! It's actually fairly popular here and it's not that bad!

These pics are from our mission zone activity. We played torta na cara (pie in the face). A scriptural question was posed, and the person that slaps the table first gets to respond. If he gets it right, he can land the pie in the other persons face - if he's wrong he gets it in his own face. It was pretty cool.

February 3rd letter

Hey my best friends!

So this week was interesting. We found some more people to teach, but unfortunately no one went to church! That seems to be one of the most difficult things here, is finding people who will actually go to church! We also had two Family Home Evenings with church members, we taught a pastor, an english school principal, an atheist, and a woman who is returning to church after about 3 years away from it. Yeah it's crazy stuff.

We went to a hamburger place on my [21st] birthday...it was COOL!

You might be surprised to see that I am writing today...the mission zone meeting I mentioned last week was canceled, so today is our preparation day. A missionary in our zone is stopping by the mission office today, so I asked him to pick up my package [for his birthday]. I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Also, today we're gonna do an activity with the missionaries in my zone...it's going to be sweeeet! Unfortunately my time is already up...I know it's probably annoying that I don't write a lot every week. I try my hardest to write the most to you guys, but I usually get caught up in stuff for the mission zone and the area, since we are only allowed and hour and a half on the computers per week.

I love you guys so much...please, please, please pray for me, as well as for opportunities for your friends to hear about the gospel!

Elder Bradford

AJ's 21st birthday

Hello sports fans!

Well, thank you so much for all the emails wishing me a happy birthday! I felt so good today! I felt like I was 21 years old! But just for a moment. I don't even believe that I'm 21. It's so weird. But anyway, I am still a missionary and I still have to work so that's what I'm a gonna do!

Elder Papenfuss's Portuguese is getting better...he's still talking with everyone he meets, so that's good. This very second he turned to the guy by him in this internet café and showed him mormon.org. Man I've never done that! What a splendid idea!

On Saturday, we went to contact a woman we had talked to earlier in the week. Unfortunately, she didn't live at the house number she passed to me, but we ended up talking with the family that did live at the house. We asked them if we could share a gospel message and they accepted (a bit reluctantly). They called all eleven (11) people that were in the house to participate. So, they gave us two chairs and everyone gathered around on the front porch. This isn't anything new for me, but I imagined how scary it must have been for Elder Papenfuss! We aren't able to follow-up with the majority of them because they live outside our mission boundaries, but it was good practice for Elder Papenfuss.

The family that attended church last week wasn't able to go this week (bleh). But I hope...really, really hope...they will attend this Sunday. We will do a Family Home Evening with them and another family in the church ward this week, it's gonna be GREAT!

We had a multi-zone mission conference and talked a little about some stuff from a book called 'Every Missionary Can Baptize'. It's a pretty good read, I recommend it. This book and a few others that I've read talk extensively about focusing completely on the work and the power of the mind.

Okay, my time's up. Thank you so much for the warm birthday wishes! I'm excited to see my mystery package next week! (OH HO HO what could it BE!?!?). I love you ALL and INDIVIDUALLY with all my heart!

Elder Bradford

January 20th letter

Hello famzam!

So this week was cool demais [as well]. We had a stake activity on Saturday where we invited church members that were former missionaries to meet together at a church and then go out and do street contacts in the region. We fasted the day before to help it be a success. We had just six members show up, so that part wasn't that much of a success. But, as it seems to always happen, our fast didn't go to waste...a family of four came to church as well as two of their friends, so that was awesome. They will be our focus this coming week. I would like so much to be able to baptize another family before my mission ends.

We are going to have a multi-zone missionary conference this week.  They have the tradition of having the missionaries who are going home soon give their 'last testimony' during the meeting. After spending a year and eight months seeing other missionaries do this, I can't believe that I'm going to be doing it this week. It's so weird. I'm trying not to get trunky (tranque in Portuguese).

I'm trying to work my butt off. I can see that I still have a lot of things that I could improve if I had a lot more time on the mission, but I know that as a person I have changed a bit and learned some lessons that I hope I will be able to apply during my life. I want to bare my testimony to you that I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the key to our happiness. If we can understand the Atonement and what charity really means, we will have a happy life.

Thank you for all the prayers! And for your emails! Be strong!
Elder Bradford

---

The other two missionaries that board with us

January 13th letter

Hi family,

Well, this week was fair. I'm still liking Elder Papenfuss a lot. His name is German by the way.

So, the situation here is that I am zone leader with Elder Miranda who is in Ouro Verde (another ward that shares the same chapel, and we share the same house). It's a little easier because we are in the same house. I am just now starting to understand the whole responsibility of being a mission zone leader. I think the hardest part of it all is knowing exactly what it is that the zone needs. Like, in what do they need to be trained? It's hard because we can't spend all day, every day in their areas. Which got me thinking...how is it that our Prophet determines what needs to be taught in general conference? I'm curious if any church leaders have made comments about this.

Thank you for looking up my previous questions and please keep me in your prayers! Unfortunately, my time has already ran out on the computer...I spent a bit of time making a ward list. We're gonna visit all the ward member's houses and see about getting some folks back to church! Thank you also for telling me how everyone is doing!

Elder Bradford

January 8th letter

Hello guys!!!!!

AJ and Elder Papenfuss

I am training a missionary again...my little son is Elder Papenfuss. He's from Bountiful, Utah. He has already served 6 months in the Boston mission. He speaks Portuguese real well and is pumped to work. He talks with literally everyone so he can to practice the language. I'm excited to work with him! I'm still here in the Bandeirantes Ward in Southwest Campinas.

So, our bishop here is going to take a trip to... guess where...Washington state!!! So I'm going to send a package with him to take to you! I'll send some English books that I don't want anymore as well as some Guaraná and Paçoca.

And, I was thinking about coming back here to Brasil to work during the World Cup...I'm thinking they'll be begging for people who speak English and Portuguese fluently to help with the tourists...maybe?

I love you guys soooo much! Keep praying for me! Keep reading the Book of Mormon!!
Elder Bradford

---

A LOST MAN!

A DANGEROUS CROSSING!

A RANDOM HORSE!!

A LOVELY CLOUD!!

A POWERFUL MISSIONARY ZONE!!!

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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'.