September 4th letter

Hello,

SORRY for not letting you guys know that I would have preparation day today instead of Monday - I need to be better about that. We have a leadership meeting every first Monday of the month.

Elder Riquerme and AJ

Wow, I had forgotten that it was just last week that we had area transfers! I was only reminded when you guys asked about my new missionary companion. He is Elder Riquerme, and he was born in Santa Catarina here in Brasil, but for the past 4 years he has been living in Ponta Grossa, Paraná. He arrived in the mission field the same day as Elder Zacheu [a previous companion], so he's got 6 months on the mission. He's a really cool guy - he likes to joke around, talk about stuff, and he laughs at my jokes, so that's cool. He didn't know that he was going to be a zone leader, so that really took him by surprise. In fact, he wasn't supposed to be my companion...I think next week the Elder chosen by our Mission Presidente will trade places with him. There has been a delay because the other Elder got chicken pox and is still recovering. I was disappointed when I heard that Elder Riquerme would only be temporary because I like the guy a lot.

To respond to your question, yes I was zone leader and the junior companion. All of the zones except for the zone that Elder César [most recent companion] is leading has a companionship of two zone leaders. I'm training Elder Riquerme to be a zone leader, so technically I'm zone leader and senior companion now.

Nothing super cool happened this week. Well, on Sunday a new Ward Mission Leader was called and he is on fire! He is the best Ward Mission Leader I've had on the mission and I've only been with him for 3 days! We sat down on Sunday and for 2 hours made plans to get our ward in gear with missionary work. I'm excited. As a missionary you work with all types of members and all types of ward mission leaders, some do nothing, some give rides to places, some support your ideas, but others create ideas and get the ward moving! So I'm really thankful to have this guy working by our side.

As I mentioned, we had our zone meeting on Monday and it was the first time that I had control (and responsibility) of a zone meeting. I was a little nervous and we did some training and things that were a little different, but it ended up going well. After that I did an exchange with one of the mission president's assistants and he gave me some pointers about how the meeting could be even better and stuff. I'm glad that even though I've been out almost a year and 6 months I'm still learning a lot - it means I'm doing something right.

LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Bradford

Picture of zone at this week's zone conference

August 26th letter

Hey yall,

So Elder César was transferred to another area, and he's going to be zone leader and trainer! It's weird, because I've always seen two zone leaders together, but Elder Cesar is so darn good that he's going to lead a zone practically by himself and train a new missionary. I stayed and am anxious to know who will be my companion!! I'm thinking it will probably be an Elder that I know fairly well.

So how am I doing? Well, I started this week thinking that I was full of energy to work and stuff, like wow, I'm so good that I'm not even getting tired of missionary work. But then this week I don't know what happened, I got really tired. Several times this week I thought, please God drop a bed here in the middle of the road for me to take a quick snooze. But no bed appeared. haha. But this week I'm excited to work, partly because I'm sort of bipolar and my negative phase just passed (just kidding, sort of) and also I will have a new companion. It's not that I didn't like Elder Cesar, I liked him a lot - he is funny and very street smart, he taught me a little about this, he taught me how to teach better and corrected me in some things. He taught me the importance of standing up for what's right. I think we could have done some things different, worked more with the members, and as junior zone leader I was able to comment to him what I wanted to do, but I didn't have the authority as senior to say definitively, this is what we're doing. Now I think I'll be senior and will be able to have more control in the decisions.

I am happy but baffled the time on mission has passed so fast. I feel like there is so much more that we can be doing here in our area to baptize and help the people in our zone. There are still things about me that I want to change. Remember that whole getting distracted thing? So it was because I was not focusing. So I'm better at this but I still need to work on focusing more on where I'm at, what I'm doing right now instead of what I was doing some other day, or what I will be doing at home. It's pretty hard to control the brain but it's what God wants me to do so I'll get there :)

I love you guys! Keep up the prayers!
Elder Bradford

August 19th letter

HelloooO!O!O!!!

This week was tough!! But we had a lot of good experiences. Pretty much sums up almost every week of the mission.

So last week we had met Adriano, and we passed by almost everyday this week. He has some difficulty with cigarettes. We're helping him with this to get ready for baptism and hoping he'll be ready for next week! We took him to the Campinas temple last week and he thought it was cool, then we gave a lesson in a waiting room area by the temple. On the temple grounds it has a complex with a distribution center, a cafeteria, and an apartment complex for people who have to travel far to visit here.

It was cool how we found Adriano. We received a reference from a member to visit someone named Adilson and went to his house, gave him and his neighbor the first lesson, and set an appointment to come back. When we came back, we knocked at the gate and this guy was like, hey Adilson moved yesterday to Hortolânida (another city). So we were like, está me tirando [are you kidding me?]. We went to his house...actually to explain better, there is a house in the front with three other little houses/apartments behind it, which is common in Brasil, and Adriano lived in one of the apartments. Sure enough, very empty. So we were like, poxa vida [such is life]. We asked the guys in the other apartments what happened and they didn't really know, but one of them was Adriano and he showed a lot of interest. We scheduled back a visit with him and the rest is history! So the purpose wasn't to teach Adilson, but Adriano.

In regard to your question Dad, I will study this week about Matthew 5:13-16 (let your light so shine). I like the part about how people will glorify God because of His disciples. I didn't understand this part until the mission. How can I influence people to glorify God? People glorify God when they understand who He is, and for this reason they understand how many blessings they have received and His plan for our lives and then proceed to give praises unto Him (or in other words, glorify Him). So how can I persuade people to know God? If people see in me what they desire (light, happiness, peace), they may decide to open themselves to do what I've done to gain light or happiness or peace, etc. And what I have done is try to know God. So there's a chain here. You shine your light, others see it and your good works, they want what you have, they apply the gospel and glorify God in the end.

HAVE A SPECTACULAR SEMANA [Week]! Eu amo vocês [I love you]!
Elder Bradford

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Some pics of the mansion of a guy we visited this past week. He's the owner of a language school. The visit was cool! His house is enormous. There's this one room that has ping-pong, pool, and table soccer. There's a room that's just a theater. He has a tennis court in his backyard with a trampoline, soccer court, and pool...don't worry, we didn't go in the pool :-)

This churrasqueira includes chicken hearts (mmmhmmm)!

August 12th letter

Hey family,

So today for preparation day we are at the house of Lincoln Martins at his super fancy mansion. I'll send some photos next week.

This week was tough, but we found some more people to teach. On Friday we met this cool guy named Adriano and Saturday we taught him the first lesson. Then on Sunday he went to church and thought it was really cool. We are going to pass by there this week and see if he'll be ready for the waters of baptism soon! It's gonna be great!

Vivaldo, the husband of the couple that got married my first week while here in Paulinia, received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday! It was cool! Btw, sorry if the email is a little messy -- right now I'm using an iPad at this house we're at and I've never typed with an iPad before. It's kind of cool but difficult too.

Something I wanted to mention. Study the scriptures and focus on the gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Strive to understand the atonement and the gospel more. Make difficult questions for yourselves to study and find answers. For example, why exactly couldn't Jesus have sinned at all in order to perform the atonement? Couldn't he have sinned just a few times but repented? I found the answer to this question in the book 'Jesus the Christ' the other day. Why do we die? If I lived a perfect life would I still die? When we search for answers to these questions our minds are opened up for more understanding and we gain a greater love for Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. And we will have the Holy Spirit to help us out when our friends need our help. Study a bunch about the atonement and I promise that something you learn you will be able to pass on to someone to help them see the fruits of the restored gospel.

Yeah, I'm learning a lot on the mission! I've learned that it's very nice to wake up at the hour God wants me to - during these two years it's 6:30am. Have an awesome week! I'll be praying for you guys to manage all the busyness with stuff for school and seminary! Wow, and I think my schedule is jam packed until I hear what you guys are up to!

Elder Bradford

August 7th letter

Hi family,

I have to thank you guys for the emails and the experiences and the thoughts that you sent! I know it doesn't work out for you guys to send so much every week but it was good to have a bunch this week! I especially liked the thoughts that Mom had on chastening, I am learning here in the mission field about how this is important. I'm learning this from my companion. He doesn't hesitate to correct me when I do something that is wrong or is a little weird in Portuguese. But I know that he doesn't do this to make himself feel better, he does this because, as he already explained to me, he wants me to be a better missionary. So I've begun to do the same to help him be a better missionary.

Usually on the mission I've been afraid to correct other missionaries unless they asked for correction, but really its my duty to help other missionaries be better, so I need to correct them at all times, but with love and example. Like you said mom, I'm not really serving the missionaries if I neglect to help them through correction. This last week I didn't have as much chance to give pointers as I thought I would, because we didn't end up doing some interviews that we planned on.

In regard to our apartment, it's good, but very small. The weather is better this week, it's actually getting hot. About the tea and medicines, here in Brazil it's quite popular to drink tea to keep the body strong, but in the São Paulo state it's very common to take man-made medications, so very similar to the US.

Also, we had a baptism of Carlos who I told you about last week.  He was reference we received from the mission office secretaries. It was very cool.

Baptism of Carlos.  So, when we took the picture we were in a hurry and we only got Elder Cesar and Carlos in the picture, but we wanted to send the picture to our mission newsletter. So, Elder Cesar photoshopped me in.

EU AMO VOCÊS!
Elder Bradford