Mother's Day skype call & pictures

AJ & Elder Zacheu via Skype

AJ poses during our Skype call

We had a great conversation with AJ on Sunday for Mother's Day. A family that was recently baptized offered their home to him and his missionary companion to make Skype calls home. For those less familiar with an LDS mission, the missionaries are allowed to call/skype home twice a year - on Mother's Day and Christmas Day.  It was great to hear that AJ is doing well, and apparently he's gained some weight -- he mentioned needing to be better about turning down Brazilian desserts :-). I've included a couple of pics we took during our conversation, as well as some AJ sent the following day.

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I got caught by a candid camera on the ônibus [city bus] doing contacts

A family night we did with Hiago, his family, and a member family who lives on the other side of the road.

Hiago's Baptism!

May 6th letter

Oh glória [glory]!

So this week we had the baptism of the super special family Eurico, Simone, Lais and Melissa. It was cool. What else happened this week. Right, so Saturday before the baptism I did my very first baptismal interview with a rapaz [guy] named Wellington who got baptized yesterday. I was really fortunate that my first interview was also pretty easy. He already knew almost everything and was super excited to be baptized.

Something cool happened after the interview. We ended the interview with a prayer and then we left the room to talk to his mom, grandpa, and grandma who were waiting outside the house chatting with Elder Gaines. In that moment I felt like I should say something to them, and I announced that Wellington was prepared to be baptized and had had a change of heart. At first their reaction was one of doubt, as it seemed like he had been kind of a rebel and had done some damage in the family. Wellington stood there, looking down. His grandma looked at me and said 'Really?' I restated my position, telling them that I had perceived a change of heart. Then all of a sudden Wellington standing there burst into tears, and went to hug his grandma, crying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry". He then went and hugged his mom who by that time was tearing up. Elder Gaines and I just stood back and watched the family have this moment together. He hugged his grandpa, and then Elder Gaines, and then me. It was a cool experience. It makes me feel good that he must have had a spiritual experience or something during our interview, which is what really should happen. This is indeed true repentance. How will it be to run in tears to the arms of our Savior and give him a hug in the next life when we are made clean through his sacrifice?

Ok, gotta go. Can't wait till Sunday [Mother's Day skype call]!
Elder Bradford

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Só brancura [all whiteness]! From left to right: Elder Zacheu, me, Elder Aguileira, a woman from Louveira who
was baptized, a brother from the ward, Eurico & Simone's family, and Elder Gaines

The reception for Eurico and Simone's wedding (the morning of their baptism)

April 29th letter

Boa Tarde! [Good afternoon!]

We did a Noite Familiar [family night] with Eurico & Simone's family
(being baptized this Saturday!) along with their friend Misael.

So, I'm doing good. We worked really hard this last week. We were able to teach quite a few lessons. We got 12 pesquisadores [people we're teaching] to attend church! We also have 8 of them who have potential to be baptized this weekend! There's the family of Eurico, Simone, Melissa and Laís who are super awesome, they've been taking lessons for 6 months now and will be getting married this Saturday, and we'll have the baptism afterwards! I'm pretty stoked! There are four more pesquisadores with whom we'll have to work quite a bit more; two of them have been being taught for 2 weeks, and the other 2 we met Saturday! This week is going to be tough but special!

I actually got to talk with Tanner Nelson this past week! [he just arrived in Campinas and is from AJ's home ward]. I called the office last Tuesday to pass some references, and he was there so we were able to converse briefly. It was pretty cool! I heard from the secretary who his trainer is, Elder Peterson - he's pretty crazy but a good missionary. Also, the group of dudes in the picture I sent last week - it's just that, a group of dudes. We've passed by a few times and talked with them, but come Sunday morning, unfortunately no one wants to wake up and go to church.

My allergies have caused some problems recently, like sneezing and stuff, especially when there's a lot of dust. But it's not horrible. This last week I got a cold, but it passed quickly....onto the other Elders. Elder Zacheu and Elder Gaines (the new missionary in Nova Vinhedo) are dealing with it right now.

I wanted to pass along a challenge to all young men preparing to serve a mission. To be more prepared for your mission you need to bring with you written down or at least in your memory:

• 1 experience when you received revelation at church
• 1 experience when you received revelation through the Book of Mormon
• 1 experience when you received revelation through your prayers

If you don't have all these things, ask of God and it shall be given you. Why do you need these things? First you need to believe through personal experience that the people you meet can have revelation from God by going to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. Then you will be able to teach with power to the people, and be able to help them obtain revelation. And why would this be important? It's a way to get the interest of people (who wouldn't like to talk with God?). And for people to know that you are servants of Christ and that they need to be baptized, they need to have a spiritual witness (revelation).

Obrigado por TUDO! Continue orando por mim! [Thanks for EVERYTHING! Continue praying for me!]
Elder Bradford

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Stroganofe - the Brasilian Missionary's standard.

I finally remembered to take a photo of our apartment!

A sister in our ward makes and sells a Book of Mormon board game (O Jogo do Livro de Mórmon)

April 22nd letter

Hello!

Okay so I have very little time again. What's new. Well, this last transfer we've been working in a neighborhood called Jardim Eldorado, and we found some really good people, but some are hard to find at home and others didn't cumprir os compromissos [keep commitments]. So I am very excited to work somewhere else! We are going to finish up our planning session tonight and I hope we can get the Lord's opinion on this.

Right now we are working on fine tuning our work, perfecting it. Because we aren't having much results yet. I've already identified a few things I can change. Believe it or not, I still have music passing through my head a lot of the time, and I need to remove this distraction. The Spirit is super sensitive, in Pregar meu Evangelho [Preach My Gospel instruction] it says that if we're even just thinking about other things, or getting worried about something that is not related to the task at hand, the lesson (in other words, the Spirit) can leave. Please pray for me so that I can focus more on the work and have the Spirit more. If there's one thing I learned on the mission, it's that I am NOTHING without the Spirit. God did a good job of humbling me.

Eu amo vocês muito! [I love you a lot!]  Eu estou aguentando felizmente a missão ainda! [I'm still happily handling the mission!]
Elder Bradford

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We had a lesson with a cool group of guys and after I wanted to take a picture with them.

We celebrated Elder Camargo going home with a 'lil cake (2 candles for 2 years)

April 15th letter

Hallo!

I don't have much time...I'll just talk about Fransisco today. About 4 weeks ago, at 7pm we were walking up and down this street trying to find this one address. We decided to go up one last time to find this house, didn't find it but as we were going up this guy in the middle of the road was walking toward us. We went right up to him and started doing a contact - but turns out that he is a member of our church. He was baptized 25 years ago as a kid, and grew up in the church and everything. He was about to serve a mission but ended up marrying someone who wasn't a member of the church and become inactive. He raised a family but apparently something didn't work out, and he ended up separating and became an alcoholic.

Fast forward to four months ago, Fransisco moved here to look for work or something. He gained a desire to return to church but he didn't know where church was held or anything. So he prayed that he could know, and sure enough, he ran into us. He expressed a lot of desire to return to activity in the church and to be worthy to go to the temple. So we passed by his house to talk to him. He lives in a place called a 'kitinete' which is a super small, super poor apartment. If you removed everything from our house in Vancouver except the entryway, the living room and the bathroom, you'd have a bigger sized kitinete than his. All he has is a moldy mattress and some clothes, a pair of shoes, some documents and the Bible. We brought him a Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] and a pair of socks, we still need to buy him a toothbrush. He needs a lot of help. He isn't able to resist beer when handed to him. Fortunately, he's been able to mostly avoid the bar but sometimes he still goes. We've brought him to the Alcoholic Anonymous place, which seems to have helped.

I get pretty upset at Satan when I see stuff like this. Fransisco is exactly how Satan wants him to be. Miserable and without hope. Satan really uses the little things to drive people to be the worst. And he even is able to get the most elect to follow this trail. I thought a comment by Elder Bednar at general conference was interesting - the hypocrisy that Satan uses as his main weapon, something that he does not have - a body. I can testify to you that when people say there's a war on Earth, they're not exaggerating. There is! And it's brutal. I have learned a lot of things from Fransisco. He is very humble. Whenever he gives a prayer after one of our visits, he starts with something like, "Father, now I enter into your presence. I know that I am not worthy of this privilege, but I also know that I am your son, and you will hear me." I don't know what else to write about him. We've already talked with the bishop and priesthood leaders and are working on a solution. Maybe he'll have to go to another state where his siblings live.

That's all for now.  Eu amo vocês!
Elder Bradford

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Three 'generations' of missionaries in the field
Elder Hill (left) trained AJ, who is now training Elder Zacheu (right)