October 21st letter

Bom dia meus queridos!! [Good morning dear ones]

Today I have very little time to write because I spent most of my time making a document to better keep up with the areas where we have missionaries, so I'll just mention real quick about our friend Antony.

Two Saturdays ago we ate lunch at a family's house, and after we gave the first lesson asked about friends we could teach. Their daughter thought of her friend Antony. She called him and he said that he would stop by their house later that day, so we left and returned later and gave him the first lesson. He understood it well and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to attend church. The lesson was enjoyable. It's interesting how the same amount of information can be at times very enjoyable to teach and very understandable, and then in other lessons it can seem really heavy and way too much for the person.

SO, Antony went to church with the family and liked it a lot. During the week he is gone almost the whole day at work and school, so we didn't get to talk to him until this last Saturday. He witnessed the baptism of a girl in our ward and thought it was cool. We taught him about the gospel of Christ and he accepted to be baptized on the 27th, as long as he feels ready. Then he went to church on Sunday and something must of happened...maybe he felt something. When we went to teach him yesterday I asked, "How are you feeling about your baptism on the 27th?". I was expecting him to kind of look down and say "Oh, I don't know...I don't think I'm ready", but he just looked to the side, thought a little bit, then looked at me and smiled and nodded his head. I was just like, YEEAAAAHHHH!!! I mean, that's what was in my head...I didn't actually scream in the lesson. But we were like parabens pela decisão [congratulations on your decision] and we taught him the commandments...he accepted all of them. He's already cut coffee and tea even though we didn't tell him about it until yesterday. That is so cool. So we're rooting that he can be baptised this Sunday!!

Eu amo vocês! Elder Bradford!

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Here's God's phone number, in case you're wondering [a coincidental reference to 'Eloi', which is an Aramaic name for God as well as the apparent name of a town/business in Brazil]

First Week in Southwest Campinas

Hey,

AJ and Elder Lierley

So I found out after I emailed you guys last week that I would be training a new missionary! So I'm here with Elder Lierley (Liar-Lee) from Alaska! He is 24 and was baptized when he was 8, but his family grew inactive and he became atheist, like one of those really stubborn atheists, until he was 22. And then a returned missionary was able to answer all of his questions about God and the purpose of life. He then read the Book of Mormon and received an answer from God that the book is true. Now he has a testimony like iron!! He is a really cool guy. Seeing as he got here in Brasil last week, he doesn't understand much Portuguese, but he can speak a little. This week I had him teach the First Vision several times and bear his testimony in the language.

Google Streets view of Bandeirantes Ward buliding

We are serving in the Bandeirantes Ward [Bandeirantes translates to 'followers of the banner'], which is in the stake Campos Elíseos. It's kind of cool because we are pretty close to the area in Campinas that I've previously served in (Campinas 3rd Ward). We are in the same zone, so I'll be able to see the missionaries again in that area!

So, I wanted to thank you guys so much for sending the frisbees...man, the missionaries I gave them to so got so excited!! We also played a little frisbee today.

Also, thank you mom for the thoughts about church callings. It is true that as we leave a 'position', having worked hard to magnify the position, we will leave our vision of what we want accomplished. It's interesting how God wants us to always be stretching ourselves, changing tasks, changing us. Which reminds me that I really liked Elder Nelson's talk about change from general conference. When he declared that we can change ourselves, change our desires, I felt that he was talking directly to me! But anyway, thank you for the reminder that I don't have to finish everything perfectly, but just do my best.

Thank you so much for your prayers! I am working on developing charity right now. I'm trying to put myself in the position of others. It is life-changing when you do this. Yesterday was testimony meeting at church and I tried to put myself in the shoes and project myself in the life of the people who bore testimony. It was a very emotional experience. I didn't end up crying, but I could acutely feel the pains and joys of some of the people that went up. Without charity we are indeed nothing.

Have an awesome week! Share the beautiful gospel!
Elder Bradford

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A family that we were teaching in Paulínia

The family's cat...who didn't have a name...I found out that after I left they named him Bradford!

Our ward mission leader, Robson (man he is an awesome ward mission leader)

My two missionary 'sons'! Elder Zacheu [middle] is a mission secretary now.

View from our boarding

A pizza that we ordered!

Final week in Paulínia (18-month mark)

Hi family,

Holy cow dad, that is so cool that you met Elder Dube while serving your mission!! [AJ is referring to his dad meeting a young Eddie Dube in the town of Kwekwe, Zimbabwe in 1986. Edward Dube, a church leader in the 1st Quorum of the Seventy since April, addressed church members during the Saturday morning session of general conference]. I've never even thought about the fact that someone that I've met here could end up being in the general leadership of the church or someone of importance. Wow that blew my mind!! I showed this to my companion and he told me his favorite talk of the whole conference was of Elder Dube. Man I'm going to print the photo you sent and show it to people...hey my dad met this guy on his mission!

About being the new 'Presidente da Soc Soc' [AJ responds to his mom being called as the new Relief Society president in our church ward], as a missionary I can suggest that you work closely with the Elders. Meaning: check up with them every once in a while to see if the dinners are going okay (the Elders will (probably) never call you to say the dinners aren't happening, they won't want to bother you). Well, actually I don't even know if in the US the Relief Society has a part in the meals with missionaries...here our lunches are run by the RS. Tell the women of the ward that the Elders are awesome and every once in a while have someone drop off a snack at their apartment. Encourage the women to preach the gospel with their friends and family. Make sure the RS does their part of the Ward Mission Plan. Make sure that the women do their Visiting Teaching visits. Hehehehe, so you'll already have a lot on your plate besides all of this, but some things to consider!!!

HEY! I almost forgot! I was transferred! I don't know where! I will know tomorrow! Yeah this week was groovy and conference was cool! I love you guys!!! Thanks for the emails, love and prayers! Thank you also for sending the packages!!!

Elder Bradford

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Our zone of missionaries at Pres. Martin's house (stake president)

The missionaries in my mission zone

September 30th letter

Hello family,

So today we're at the house of the Martins again [pics are with August 19th letter], so that means I'm using this iPad that keeps turning my English into Portuguese...it's very hard to write. This week was unproductive. Tiago, someone that we've been teaching, decided against being baptized. This mission zone is kinda dead right now. I'm not sure what exactly to do, but we're going to work hard and have a good mission district meeting tomorrow.

Yeah...about my smile in recent pictures, hahahahaha. I'm still happy, I assure you. My only worries right now are that I learn all that I need to in my remaining 6 months and help improve the work in our zone. But I'm still happy. I think you guys said this because those last few photos were not very good. Yes, I'm getting tired...mentally and physically. But I'm not saying this to say, "whoa, I've worked soooooo hard look at me".  I still have a lot to do and learn. I'm still excited and happy and stuff, but the work is still super tough. But thank you for noticing and worrying about me!

Thank you for your prayers! Have a good week full of learning!
Elder Bradford

September 23rd letter

Hello family,

Today I don't have a lot of time to write because the internet here is really bad.

Ward mission leader, Elder Henriques, Maikon, and AJ

This rapaz [young man] named Maikon was baptized yesterday. He was actually baptized four months ago, but he was never confirmed and after that he stopped going to church and started going to parties and stuff and using drugs, but he stopped now and he's doing fine. We were actually planning to baptize Christians' brother Tiago (Christian was baptized last week) on Sunday morning (the Bishop likes to baptize before church in order to do the confirmation on the same day). We filled the baptismal font and everything and were heating the water when Tiago's mom called us saying that he didn't want to get baptized at this time, so we were pretty disappointed. However, we knew that Maikon could still get baptized - two weeks ago he had come to church, but there wasn't time to fill the font and do his baptism. He was out of town last week and he had told us he would be baptized yesterday, so we left the font full of water and went with our Ward mission leader to his house. He was sitting at the bus stop with his brother (who is a member) and we picked them up and brought them to church. We brought Maikon to the baptismal font and said "look, it's already full...let's get baptized then?" The Ward mission leader already volunteered to do the baptism and Elder Henriques was there and had a baptismal suit about Maikon's size, so he was like okay fine. He changed clothing, we did the interview and got the President's permission (everything by the book) and baptized him. We did it during Sunday School and pulled in the Gospel Principles class with this huge family of 9 that we are teaching, and almost all of them watched the baptism so it was pretty cool.

I was thinking about three things that any person needs to do related to missionary work. I see that I need to develop these three things to be a better missionary: Charity, Testimony, and Courage. Let's suppose that I know Joe. If I have Charity, I will desire the best for Joe. If I have Testimony, I will desire that Joe can live the gospel and be a member, because I know this will be the best for him. If I have Courage/Faith, I will do things so that he can come to embrace the gospel and be a member, because I have Courage/Faith that through my actions, he can come to be a member and live the gospel, thereby entering in the pathway best for his eternal life.

So how do we gain these three things? Mormon teaches us that we need to pray and ask God for Charity with all the energy of our heart. Moroni teaches us that to gain a testimony we need to pray and ask God for responses to our questions. I'm not sure who taught this, but we also know that Faith is a gift from God that is acquired through prayer. Interesting huh? maybe you guys have some more insights on this...

Sorry for such a short email, but unfortunately my repentance in this is incomplete because my email next week will probably be much shorter. Thank you for the prayers and e-mails. I pray for you guys every day. I love you all very much!

Elder Bradford