September 16th letter

AJ, Christian, and  Elder Henriques

OKAY, so this week we had a baptism! It was a kid named Christian, who has been going to church for a long time but didn't want to be baptized until two weeks ago. We got in contact with him this last week, and he was baptized!

So there's really not a lot to write this week. I'm doing fine. Elder Henriques and I did a church fireside yesterday about missionary work, and about 30 members came. We did practices with them about how to share the church materials with their friends. The fireside was OK, but it could have been better. The ward mission leader is good, but he spent about an hour talking and the projector didn't work so everyone had to watch the videos we prepared on the little laptop he brought. But it wasn't horrible.

This week we met with a lot of members and all of a sudden they are passing along to us references of people to teach. I don't know if God is blessing our ward or if we did something that made the members want to give references, but whatever happened I'm very grateful. I've learned the best way to get references from members is to gain their trust and be an obedient, spiritual missionary, as well as be a cool, social person. No member will send boring or annoying missionaries to teach the gospel to their best friends.

OKAY have a grrrrrrrreat week!!!
Elder Bradford

A picture of me and Elder Riquerme on Da Alegria road [translates to 'Joy' road]

September 9th letter

Hey people!

Me and Elder Henriques

So today I got assigned a new missionary companion! I'm now with Elder Henriques (pronounced ang-HEE-kees) from Paraíba in Brazil. He's cool.

I don't have a lot of time to write today because I'm going to make a printout for our zone meeting tomorrow. Also, we're going to play Frisbee at this park - it's going to be sweet.  About sending frisbees, I'm wanting one and two other Brasilian missionaries also want one because frisbees here in Brazil are expensive and hard to find.

Haha, I liked the comic strip you included in your email, Dad! [see below] I can't remember this has ever happened to me. It could be that I am ugly. Or I think because many Brasilians know that we speak and understand Portuguese. Many times I've heard people talking about us but it's always kind of secret like as if we weren't able to hear. Usually when this has happened it's people making fun of our accent or complaining about how we (or the Jehovah's Witnesses or Seventh-day Adventists, because we're often confused for them) are annoying or have weird beliefs.

So I'm doing fine. I'm starting to jump rope every morning and night, because I don't generally do exercises in the morning and I need to start doing them! I'm still a lil chubby! Okay that's all for this week!! Tchau!! I love you guys. Keep those prayers going! Please pray that I can know how to help our zone have more success and baptisms!!

Elder Bradford

Comic included in email to AJ this past week

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

---

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)!