December 31st letter

FELIZ 2013! QUASE!! [HAPPY 2013! ALMOST]

So, it was really cool to talk to yall on Natal [Christmas]! This week there's going to be a looot of fotos [see previous post].

I'll just talk about our pesquisadores [people we're teaching]. M isn't doing much to get rid of his addiction, like I said in the chat he has not changed really since we met him. He still is super willing to go to church every week, so we have him walking with a member who lives close. We haven't given him the "commitment" discussion yet (to determine if we keep teaching). I think we'll talk with him this week.

We met this other lady called Maria, and the first time we met her she seemed not very interested and very attached to her beliefs and her church. We returned there the next day to mainly talk to her friend who is kind of spiritually lost and seemed to us she would accept the Gospel, but her friend wasn't there so we just talked briefly with Maria. Afterwards, I was thinking about if we'd pass by there anymore and Elder Mora felt we should. Maria had told us that 11 years ago she talked with missionaries from our Church, and that she owned a bar and had no interest in religion or anything. One missionary promised her that he would return after his mission, and when he returned she would have completely changed her life and devoted herself to God. So, she didn't think much about it, and time passed and her bar began to fail. She kept losing money until she had to close the bar. She realized that she didn't want to give this kind of example to her kids, of having to sell beer to make a living. She realized that she needed God in her life. So, she began to go to a church and became converted to Jesus Christ. By living the Gospel she was blessed and obtained a good job and the means to take care of her kids. And then, this last week she met us, and upon seeing us she was reminded about the promise of the other missionary (she had forgotten). I agreed that we should go back and teach her the Restauração [Restoration] discussion, so this last Saturday we went there with a member and taught her. While Elder Mora was teaching about the First Vision, I saw Maria look over at me really fast and then back at Elder Mora. After Elder Mora finished, he invited her to be baptized and I couldn't believe it but she said yes. I began to bear my testimony and she pointed her finger at me and said, "I know that everything you guys have said is true, because while Elder Mora was recounting the story, I looked over at you and saw a bright light to the side of your face. God is with you. Do not stray from this path that you're on, because God is with you." I was taken back and didn't know what to say. I continued to bear my testimony and the member bore his testimony and we left. Unfortunately, she didn't attend church like she said, but we're going to pass by this week. that was a really cool experience.

During my call home on Christmas I mentioned about how we make contact on a bus...so, there's three types of things we like to do:

1. Sit next to someone and have a good conversation. It's the hardest actually to do, but it usually results in getting the address of someone.
2. Hand out cartas de amizade [pass-along cards]
3. Stand up in the front and yell to everyone to go to church. Elder Mora and I like to do this thing where I yell in English and he translates to Portuguese. It's actually really hard to do because I speak Portuguese every day to talk about the church. I don't know if it actually works because I have never seen anyone go to church just on a brief invitation.

Ok, my time is up. Tenha um feliz ano novo!! Eu te amo!!! [Have a happy new year! I love you!]
Elder Bradford

Christmas pictures

Below are several pictures AJ emailed to us this past week...

We had a Fraternização de Natal [Christmas Activity] two weeks ago with half the missionaries of the mission (the rest of the missionaries had it the next day). It was awesome...we had a spiritual part at the beginning, at one part we watched this video called Missionary Work and the Atonement. It is really good...it actually made me cry :D. Afterwards, we had lunch and every zone did a presentation; for ours we sang a hymn.

Yeah, the package!!!!! [we lucked out and a family headed to Brazil were kind enough to pack items for AJ in their luggage, which then shipped from Sao Paulo] 

Papai Noel [Santa Claus], our mission president, distributing presents (our missionary packages)

Our apartment with the Christmas items you sent us! Obrigado [thank you]

Elder Mora and AJ holding the clever Christmas stockings made by his mom - AJ also enjoys some of his mom's homemade toffee 

So, Elder Boring dressed up like Papai Noel and we went walking with a group of members, singing carols while he distributed candy to all the kids. It was really funny. He would walk by a group of kids and they would all yell 'Papai Noel!!' and run to him! I was pretty jealous because he was able to run around and be a little goofy in his suit while we were in our missionary clothing, so had to behave ourselves a little more.

The family with whom we spent Natal! [they provided AJ and another Elder a computer for their Skype call home]

Panettone is the equivalent of Christmas fruitcake, but waaaayy more popular (Laurattone is a brand of Panettone). When you go to the supermarket during the Christmas season, there are literally aisles filled with boxes of Panettone. It's like this sweet bread with pieces of fruit, but also there's versions with chocolate chunks or jelly or doce de leite [sweet milk]. It's really good.

You know that group of cool dudes in every ward that always hang out together?

A market in front of a fruit farm

There's this guy in our ward who owns a banana plantation and every Sunday (except for Fast Sunday, of course) he brings a ton of bananas to church for everyone to eat.

December 17th letter

Boooooooooom dia [goooooooood morning]!

This week was good. We had a few miracles this last weekend. On Saturday we just decided to follow-up with as many contacts as possible in this one neighborhood and commit people to go to church on Sunday. Pretty much everyone was like "uhhh, if it works out I'll go tomorrow" or "someday I'll make a visit to your church". However, we ended up running into this guy named Leonardo, who said that he would like to go to church with us. Sunday morning we went to pick him up but he told us that he was going to a wedding or something, so we were pretty disappointed. He even gave us the wrong address at first, so we were thinking about forgetting him, but I felt we should pass by his house Sunday evening. So, we went by there and he was really receptive. At the start of the lesson I asked him "What does it mean to you to know that you are a child of God?" And he explained to us that he doesn't really feel a sort of connection with God. I asked him if he would like to have this sort of connection and he said yes. From that we were able to teach him personally rather than a standard first lesson. I like when we are able to do that! The lesson was very spiritual and positive, especially during the First Vision. We marked his baptism for the 30th! I am excited to see how his relationship with God will progress as he studies and prays.

You guys are certainly right about how our main purpose is not necessarily to baptize, but to bring souls to Christ. It's just that as imperfect missionaries sometimes we need a material, measurable goal to keep us going strong until the end. I think it would be very difficult to serve in Japan or Russia or some place where baptisms are very rare. Here, in the Campinas mission, we are told that if we work in the Lord's manner it's possible to baptize weekly.

So, the Christmas package you sent has arrived! I haven't got it yet, but our zone leaders said that it's at the mission office. We receive letters and packages usually weekly in the district meeting, after the zone leaders pass by the office some time during the week. But in this case I will receive it on Wednesday when we have our Mission Christmas activity.

Also, I was going to talk about what I studied today, but we're actually leaving right now - maybe you guys can study it and see how it relates to the mission and the faith and prayers of those waiting back at home (1 Nephi 4; 5:1-7)

Ok, that's all for this week!

Elder Bradford

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A Berimbau, traditional instrument of Brasil. One of the people we are teaching gave us two - I don't know how to play it yet though

The t-shirt reads 'There will Always an island in a sea of hope so BIG' [nice Engrish]

December 10th letter

Oi Família!!!

First of all I let out a cheer when I read two things in your emails. First of all, that Lucas was baptized! YEEEAAHH!! And the other part, that you guys sent Mom's toffee!! WOOOO!!! I had forgotten to ask about that until you told me that you had already sent the package, so I was like oh well, I've already asked for a bunch of stuff. But I'm so excited now! About the stuff that you couldn't get sent right now, don't worry too much about getting it sent in a hurry, I'm good with one Christmas package!

Ok, so this week was still tough, but it was better. This Sunday we had double the number of pesquisadores [people we're teaching] attend church as compared to last week (which was one). None of our pesquisadores were really progressing though. However, we had a miracle. On Friday we made a contact in the street with this guy, M, we invited him to go to church and he said that he would go this Sunday. So we were like awesome, where do you live? And he told us that he lived in this one neighborhood way off in which we never pass, but I remembered there is a member that lives there so I told him that the member could give him a ride to church. So on Saturday we tried to get a hold of this member but his phone was turned off or something, and on Sunday we were a little pressed for time and were contacting some pesquisadores that live close to the church (none of which wanted to wake up), so I was thinking about forgetting about M and getting in contact with him another day. But I felt that we should do something to get M to church, so we got a member to drive us over to this neighborhood during church - turned out that the address was correct and M was waiting for us (which usually doesn't happen!). He absolutely loved the sacrament meeting, he kept telling me 'Eu estava precisando muito disso, eu gosto muito de coisas assim' [I was in need of this, I really like stuff like this]. We passed by his house later on in the day and committed him to baptism. Ele é eleito! [He is an elect!] He accepted everything we taught without hesitation. The only problem is that his family is sort of messed up, and he's addicted to café, bebidas alcoólicas, cigarros, and maconha [coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana]. And he's also mentally a little out there (I think it's because he's been using drugs for so long). But we're going to work hard with him to help him get rid of his addictions and change his life.

Also something interesting that happened - our bishop yesterday after church pulled us and 8 families aside and gave to each one of them a copy of the video Finding Faith in Christ; the purpose is that each family mark a night with someone they know, neighbor, coworker, friend, whatever - and they invite us to watch this with them and their invite. Clearly our bishop has a bit of trust in us. I'm focusing my prayers right now on having the help of the Holy Ghost, so that when we sit down and have this spiritual experience with a member family and their friends, we will know what to do and say. I'm actually a little nervous...sometimes the church members here can be an unknown factor in a lesson. But, as Elder Mora pointed out, if the bishop trusts us, and he receives revelation from God, it must mean that God trusts us! And that means a lot!

To respond to your questions! I haven't done much with piano in Limeira. There's a few members here who already play piano (one of which wants to go professional). I did end up playing at the Christmas program; when we showed up they were needing someone to play this one song, which in fact I had played with the choir at the CTM [missionary training center]. Funny how that works out, huh? I've played a few times in the zone conferences also.

Ok, that's all for now. Até mais! Eu amo vocês! Continue orando por mim, por favor. [See you later! I love you! Please keep me in your prayers].

Elder Bradford

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This is a fruit called graviola [also known as soursop]

We made graviola juice

Some pics of our Ward Christmas activity

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