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

July 29th letter

Hey family,

So I have a lot of pictures this week, but little to write. This week was slow and VERY COLD. I also got a cold pretty bad, but we were still able to work...like it wasn't so bad that I had to stay at home, just a lot of sneezing.

The good news is that we found...actually, we didn't find anyone, but three people found us...to be baptized. They kind of came out of the woodwork. The mission secretaries called us last week to pass along a referral they received from a member for this guy who attends church in Campinas, but lives here in Paulínia. Weird right? But we talked with him and he told us that he wants to be baptized. Then on Sunday an irmã [sister] came up to us and pointed to a girl and was like "why don't you teach this girl's family?" Elder César got confused because he always thought the girl was her daughter, but she's actually a friend of her daughter who's been going to church here for 3 months and isn't a member! And, this other girl who's a friend of a member went to the Festa Junina [June Festival] the church ward had on Wednesday, and we found out she was almost baptized several months ago but her grandma didn't let her, but now she lives with her mom who is a less-active member! So, we'll get to teach both of them. yeaaahahahah!

In regard to your questions about being Líder de Zona [missionary zone leader], we haven't had to deal a lot with missionaries being disobedient or slacking, but I think this week I'll have some opportunities to give some pointers, because we are going to do interviews and I'm going to do a missionary exchange in an area tomorrow. I think my previous experience as Líder de Distrito [district leader] will help me because I had to deal with a little bit of missionary correction when I was in Campinas. There was one companionship that was struggling a lot in their area, so I did some missionary exchanges with them and gave them suggestions, I made some goals with them, and I wasn't sure if I had done a good job. At the end of the transfer one of the missionaries expressed to me how much he appreciated the service I gave as a LD. It was just proof to me that if I do my best God will do the rest.

Have a week full of miracles!!!! Also send some of that summer warmth over here please!
Elder Bradford

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We had two churrascos [barbecues] this week

When we played basquete last Preparation day

This is called chimarrão ('mate' in English).  It's basically drinking hot water filtered through herbs. To me it just tastes like hot water with a little bit of grass flavor, but it makes me feel healthy and it's popular here too since the weather's getting pretty cold.