December 3rd letter

Oi Família!

Thank you for your comments! Thank you so much! I actually got a little emotional when I read some of your inspired words. This last week was better. We found some new people to teach. We are working with E, who when we met him was smoking ~20 cigarros, drinking beer and coffee everyday. When we talked with him Saturday he had completely stopped smoking already! But he didn't go to church yesterday like he told us. In fact, we had about 10 people confirm with us that they'd go to church but none of them went. It's really disappointing! So we're going to pass by his house Wednesday and see how he's doing. He's a really cool guy. I don't think I told you last week, we met him for the first time last Sunday while we were looking for his brother who was a contact made several months ago. We got to talking and within a couple minutes he had already accepted a baptism date. He's super excited, he knows that the Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] is true.

We also met this young couple, L and A, and we taught the Restauração [gospel restoration] and they accepted baptism...just that they aren't married yet, but they plan on getting married soon. They are really great people too. We went to walk with them to church yesterday morning, when we got there they had forgotten but L sincerely apologized to us. We're going to pass by there tomorrow, I have a lot of hope for them also. So things are looking up! I'm still feeling a looooot of stress though. I need to remember to relax, that God will take care of things. It's kind of funny actually - in a previous area I sometimes wished we would get home exhausted, a sign of hard work. But now that we get home tired almost every day, I wish that I could find a way to take it easy. But yeah. I will pray better this week, I will apply the counsel you've given me and go from there.

Man, Natal está chegando!!! [Christmas is coming!] I got really excited to hear that a package is already in commute! And Elder Mora got excited to hear that you included something for him! I think we are going to see how much are Christmas lights over at the supermercado and maybe put some up in our house. Oh yeah, so about our house...this is the smallest one I've been in so far. There's the kitchen, study room, bedroom and bathroom. I actually like it better this way. Means less stuff to clean! The missionary boardings vary a little from what I've seen. Some of them are actual houses like with my first two areas. But several of them are spaces behind other businesses, like little shops or bars (like our current place).

About taking on the second part of the training for Elder Mora, I've seen it happen a few times with other missionaries, so it's not that uncommon. Elder Mora grew up in the church. He's from a city called Quito in Ecuador. His mom and dad both served a mission. And guess where they served? Both of them in the Guayaquil Ecuador mission! Elder Mora told me that while they were serving the mission split in two, and one parent went to the north part and the other to the south part.

Keep sending the letters from other missionários (I love reading those - I've even read some of them to other missionaries). Also, we finally made the Peanut Butter cookie mix I brought with me, We added some chocolate chunks, foi bom demais!! [it was so good!]

OK, that's all for this week! Muuuuiito Obrigado! Eu amo vocês!!! [Thaaank you! I love you!]

Elder Bradford

First Week in Limeira

Opa família,

Location of Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil

Nossa, que bom que hoje é P-day. [Wow, I'm glad today is P-day] This last week was tough. Toughest on the mission so far I think. So let me explain. Right now I'm in a city called Limeira, serving in the Nova Itália [new Italy] area (in the Nova Itália Ward) in the Rio Claro zone. I am finishing the training (the last 6 weeks) of a verdinho [new missionary]. Yeah, pretty crazy right? His name is Elder Mora, as far as he knows he's the only missionary from Ecuador serving in Brasil (he asked the lady in Ecuador who works for the Church doing visas). He's pretty cool - he's actually teaching me a lot more than I'm teaching him.

AJ and Elder Mora (from Ecuador)

We just had our weekly planning this morning, and after companionship inventory I feel whipped! But I'm going to pick myself up and just do my best this week. I'm hoping I can rest a little today, get rid of some stress. I'm not used to being in charge of everything. On top of that, when I got here our grupo de ensino [teaching pool] was down to a couple people, so we're working to find a bunch of new people to teach.

I went through the area book and we visited some people with whom other missionaries had only made contact and suggested that future missionaries pass by there. We spent a lot of time chasing down people who ended up not having interest. We finally found some people yesterday in a completely different area, I think we'll work more there. Haha, 'I think'. I don't really know what I'm doing! I need to confide more in the Spirit to give us direction, but I'm not sure how to do that yet. Being the perfectionist that I am, I like to have the week like perfectly planned out, but that's pretty much impossible to do. So yeah, I'm tired to say the least. I think this is all in response to my prayers for more faith in Christ. Just that, how I'll get that faith, I don't know yet.

What else??? uh, so we're working with a lady called B, she is about 70 years old and can't read, but she is really smart and funny. She accepts our teachings without hesitation - when we went by on Wednesday last week we taught about the Word of Wisdom, and after learning about how coffee is something we don't do she took her Tupperware thing of it and dumped it in the trash. So, she's pretty cool - she's really worried about losing her Catholic friends when she becomes a member of the Church. We're trying to help resolve this and fazer amizade [befriend] other members of the church.

We also have another person we're teaching, A, who's dating a member of the church. He's kind of losing interest...we're not sure. He told us that he wants specific answers to questions like why is he here, what God wants of him (he had a lot of organ complications as a baby but miraculously survived, and he attributes it to God preserving him for some sort of purpose). We've taught the Plan of Salvation, but he's looking for an answer that only God can give him. So we are searching for God's will on that - whether we encourage baptism and promise that he will find his answers by being baptized and continuing in the Church, or if God is willing to give an answer now and we need to help him find it so that he can be baptized.

I love you!!! Thank you for your prayers!! Keep praying!! A LOT!!!
Elder Bradford

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We had lunch at a church member's house Sunday and it also happened to be the birthday of the mom of the member, so there was a cake and a festinha.[little party] Foi da hora [it was legit]

We live behind an Italian bakery and confectionery.  And it does smell good, especially when we leave for lunch and they're baking sweet bread... ahhhh

Our study desks

So we get home Saturday night I think, its pouring rain and we get to the door, I hurry and unlock it and it kind of opens funny - well, it fell off. So we took a picture of it. Fortunately, we have another door from the kitchen that serves as our front door now.

Final Week in Piracicaba

Oi Família!

So, I'm being transferred! After a very short stay in Piracicaba I'm already leaving. I don't know to where yet. Honestly, I've been a little down and out these last few weeks - we haven't been seeing any success whatsoever in Santa Rosa, and there were also some problems with the family of L...but, I think this change will be good for me. I was a little worried (well, maybe a lot worried) that Elder McCann would be transferred and I would be the one left in charge of knowing the area - the roads, the buses, the members...I had kind of prepared myself mentally for it, but I didn't even expect that I would be the one to go. Maybe God's giving me another opportunity to really focus during the work and put into memory the roads and names that I should remember.

[AJ's thoughts on reverence in sacrament meetings on Sundays, per a question from his Dad on the topic] By being reverent, we show God that we love him and respect him, and we are more able to feel the Spirit and receive revelation. It is also of greater importance to us as missionaries because without the Spirit we are useless in God's hands. For me, the sacrament has become much more important. Because in the mission field I make mistakes every day, and it feels great to sit in the chapel every Sunday and just start the week over and brush off the dust. When I take the sacrament I think to myself, right now I am a new missionary, this week I will work harder. So those moments during the sacrament have become a bigger deal to me, and if there isn't reverence during those moments, it gets harder to concentrate on the purpose of the sacrament, and thus harder to enjoy the blessings that it has to offer.

Regarding Dia de Graças [Thanksgiving], it is somewhat known here in Brasil, but no one celebrates it. I have hardly seen any Americans in Brasil (in fact I haven't seen one in Piracicaba) so I would guess the Americans that do live here celebrate Thanksgiving just to keep the American tradition going.

AJ having a 'snack' of cockroaches ;-)

About the cockroaches - those in the picture are real. That was our kill of the day. Don't worry, that was the only day with more than 4 or so cockroaches. Every night though, we usually have one or two wandering around. It's surprising because we keep our house pretty clean.

Also, about "oppa gangnam style" - it's really popular here! We hear it at least once every day, whether its cars passing by blasting music or the radio playing in the stores. That, and that one song "just call me baby" or something.

Ok, sorry for the short email, we had a churrasco [barbecue] again today so we're short on time - I'm also going to pass by and say goodbye to some folks here in Piracicaba.

Tchau Tchau! Muito Obrigado pelos emails! [Bye Bye! Thank you for your emails!]
Elder Bradford

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Our zone [of missionaries] in Piracicaba! (It was also the birthday of Elder Sego there in the middle)

We did a Family Home Evening night with a family new in the church and the Bishop's family. We played this one game where you put a paper on your forehead with something unknown to you written on it, and you have to ask questions in order to figure out what it is. We got the papers on everyone's forehead and then I pulled out the camera "E agora, a  gente tira foto!" [And now, we take a picture!]  I got them good. :D

So right now we're working with a lady called D to quit smoking. She has some mental problems too so it's making it a little difficult. Here's a picture of the cigarettes we took from her house the first day. Her motivation to quit smoking? The 'L&M' on the cigarette box are coincidentally the initials of a relative of hers that if I'm not mistaken died from cigarette use.

November 11th letter

Oi Família!

Unfortunately, my email this week has basically nothing, but at least I did deliver on my promise to send you a bunch of photos![last week's post has also been updated to include additional pictures]

Me, W, L and Elder McCann at L's baptism last week

Our bishop, our Ward Mission Leader, who is leaving on his mission for Goianha in a couple weeks, L, me and Elder McCann. Yeah, the baptism was pretty da hora [legit]

This is how the meat is served at a churrasco [barbecue] - pretty much steak (carne) and sausage (salsicha)
cut up into 'lil pieces. It's always eaten with rice, beans and salad.

So, it looks like the season for jabuticaba [Brazilian grape] is passing - we stopped by a pesquisador who had just picked a whole bunch of them and he left us with some.  It's a pretty cool fruit. I'm trying to decide if it's safe to eat the skin and the seeds. I've heard different things...some people say the skin gives you constipation and others say that the skin is really healthy for you. At the end of this previous post there's a video that I made about how to eat a jabuticaba.

So I got the package from the Activity Days Girls this last week! [girls between the ages of 8 to 11 in the Vancouver  East Stake put together care packages to send to our missionaries serving around  the world] Muito muito obrigado! Gostei bastante! [Thank you so so much! I really liked it!]

November 5th letter

Hey, so it's P-day!

So L got baptized yesterday! It was awesome! Unfortunately, the only person that was able to come to support him was his younger brother, W. He said that he might be interested in being baptized also! So we're going to work with him on that starting today. Man, it would be soooo nice to have the whole day off for P-day instead of a few hours! But whatever, the schedule was inspired by God and everything.

I was thinking about as a missionary we have the opportunity to see the power of God manifest through our authority - God likes to keep us humble and faithful, so unfortunately we aren't able to see this power 24/7, but still sometimes we have cool experiences to see Him work through us. Like one time this past week, we were teaching this one family - husband, wife and one of their daughters that was 14 or so anos [years old]. We were doing the 1st lesson (the Restoration) and everything was going pretty smoothly.  It was my turn and I explained about José Smith and his predicament, when I began to introduce the First Vision I could immediately feel a warmth envelope me and the Spirit continued super strong all the way through when I was reciting the First Vision. It was so strong I almost messed up the words of the Vision. When I finished, I asked something that I usually hesitate to ask, but I said "Esses sentimentos que todo mundo está sentindo agora, eles vêm de quem?" [These feelings that everyone is feeling right now, they come from whom?]  I could see even the dad, who seemed the least spiritually in-tune, nod his head in agreement that he had felt something. The mom without hesitation replied "Jesus". Unfortunately, even after feeling something they didn't completely accept our message, but it was still cool to see that God helped me out there. I have a testimony that the Spirit testifies of truth.

I've heard a little about the hurricane disaster lá nos Estados Unidos [there in the United States]. Sometimes we meet random people and upon finding out that we're Americans they ask us about it. I didn't know it was up in the North East! Sign of the times, isn't it?

Typical Brazilian churrasco: flank steak, top sirloin,
chicken heart, sausages, bread with garlic sauce,
sliced top sirloin with garlic, and chicken legs

We had a churrasco [barbecue] in the center of Piracicaba today, so right now we're in a kind of questionable LAN house [internet cafe where he reads/writes email]. I'm worried about hooking up my SD card here, so expect a tooooon of photos next week (Seriously, I have a lot). Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to type and stuff today because the churrasco took a long while to get started.

Speaking of the churrasco, so what we did to make a barbecue was get this metal barrel, fill it part way with coals and put a sort of iron grate on top - classic churrasco Brasileiro.

Here's me cutting up some meat on the churrasco

I decided that I needed to learn to do a churrasco sometime, so I was standing there cutting up a piece of meat on the grill when suddenly the whole setup just explodes with this loud BOOM - the barrel jumped in the air and the coals and grate and meat were all tossed to the side.

Even though I was the closest one to the explosion I wasn't hurt a bit - all the Elders were like "are you OK?" - it must have looked pretty bad for me but really not much happened. So thank you for your prayers and everything...you've saved me from an exploding barbecue :-)

You can see to the left that the explosion actually
broke up the concrete under the churrasco

Oh yeah, my comp reminded me that I was bit by a dog yesterday (sort of) - we were walking by this one house with some tiny dogs barking, jumping, and growling at us. Elder McCann likes to kind of stick his hand in a fist towards dogs to irritate them or get them to lick his hand, so I was like I'll try that -- I stuck my hand out at one and chomp. It was a tiny dog like I said so it didn't really do anything, just cause a bruise more than anything. Tchau Tchau!

Elder Bradford