Surprise email from the Bishop's wife

We had your wonderful sons over for dinner the other night.  They looked great, well actually Elder Brady was quite sun burned so I took a photo to send you from my phone.  We had a delightful time.  Elder Brady was so sweet when he gave us a message; he used the scripture that his mom sent from the Doctrine and Covenants, the one about Joseph Smith and his trials for his experience and growth. She would be proud of him!  Have a great Sabbath.

Jackie White

2nd Transfer

Wow! One transfer has already gone by! Crazy stuff. Elder Kennard and I are staying here together. Not too many people are changing except Elder Everitt and Elder Souza are leaving our district.  So we will get a new missionary sometime today in our apartment that will be Elder Emery's new companion. I will miss Elder Everitt. Elders Everitt and Emery are my Godfathers and Elder Kennard is my dad.  We are a great big happy mission family. The Mission relationships and statuses are hilarious…such as when you are born and when you die (when you get to the mission and when you leave).  Our Zone leaders are awesome but unfortunately they are dying... they go home after this transfer.  The Elder's out here are so cool and I know that we will be lifelong friends and it's only the beginning! It's unfathomable... unfathomable.... without fathom. ;)

But yeah I got a bike! It’s so much better than the other one I have been using! It's very light, super smooth, and it's mine! I think I will spray paint it eventually sometime with some flat black along with some Chinese characters on the side or something, you know me. It was the least expensive bike they had at sports chalet but still very nice. I also got a bike lock and helmet. I still need to get some lights for at night. But that Wal-Mart purchase was definitely a necessity... You know, one of my purchases that come around about 5 times a year that is a MUST have. Ha-ha yeah, so, I bought a collection of Stuffed Angry Birds and we play Real Life Angry Birds at nights now! We set up boxes and make hard levels to pass.  It's hilarious. We have gotten very creative out here. (I think it might be better than the electronic version) ha-ha

I am very excited to stay in this area because I know mostly everyone now and have great relationships with a ton of people out here. So it will be awesome to stay around and grow even more and become even closer!

Well we have to go pick up the Elder Emery's new companion and bring him to the most awesome apartment known to mankind!

Love you all!

Love, Elder Brady

2 months down...

Ty has offically been out serving the Lord for two months... only 22 left to go!

Good, Better, Best... make your good better and your better best!

Good morning Baltimore!

Today I am really short on time but I will still try my best to cover everything.

I am loving Lancaster and I am now pretty familiar with the area and people. There are a lot of great people out here and I have such a strong love for them. It's crazy to me how much I am drawn to these people. Even though I have only known some for a month, I still feel like I have known them forever! There are two young couples in particular (Cross and Millet family) (both have little boys 3yrs and 4yrs old who are so much fun to play with and to do fun learning objective lessons!) who are in the ward and we are teaching them the missionary lessons. They are like brothers and sisters to me and help us out a lot. They are super fun and supportive. It's people like them, that make me feel like I have known them before and great help and examples to me...

Right now the only computers we have access to are the ones located in the Family history center within our church stake center that we have to get the keys for. The bishop and his wife are very nice to us and it has been great getting to know them better. I have definitely made a lot of adjustments since coming out on the mission. It's a whole new world. A dazzling place I never knew. But when I am way out here, it's crystal clear, just what Heavenly Father wants for me to do!!... (Sorry got a little carried away there)  But anyways, these adjustments can be hard but in reality only make life easier. This is the last week of the transfer and we will know what we are going to do on Saturday (whether moving/staying/new comp/etc.) from the mission president.  We had interviews with him last Tuesday which was awesome!

 We faced some trials this week but Trials only make us stronger! I am now on my 3rd bike tire this week and elder Kennard had a flat as well. It definitely made things interesting. For instance we were on our way back to eat dinner when it exploded as I jumped up a curb and we had walk all the way back to our apartment and ended up missing our dinner time and it was already time for our next appointment. Just then a member stopped by and said, "Hey! Here are some snacks for you guys!”... Do you believe in miracles? Coincidence, I think not.  There are a lot of great experiences that have happened that have strengthened my testimony that as long as we are doing what we are commanded to do, the lord will always provide a way. (1Nephi 3:7)

We also had a problem with an outlet plug in our apartment that broke off and I tried to fix it by pushing it back in, and just then a mini Nuke went of in my face and Fire burst out of the socket destroying all electricity in our apartment one night. That was interesting! Ha-ha But it's all good now. I am writing down all the funny experiences in my journal so I can share them with you when I get back!

 Well, we have to get going now! I am sorry! I wish I could write to everyone! I love you all and will talk to you next week!

Love

-Elder Brady

He is more important than that...

President Monson was returning to Salt Lake  after a speaking engagement and when his Plane arrived there was a limousine there to transport him to his home.  As he prepared to get into the limo, he stopped and spoke to the driver.  'You know' he said, 'I am 87 years old and I have never driven a limousine. Would you mind if I drove it for a while?'  The driver said, 'No problem. Have at it.'  President Monson gets into the driver's seat and they head off.

Down the highway a short distance away sat a rookie State Trooper operating his first speed trap. The long black limo went by him doing 70 in a 55 mph zone. The trooper pulled out and easily caught the limo and he got out of his patrol car to begin the procedure. The young trooper walked up to the driver's door and when

the glass was rolled down, he was surprised to see who was driving. He immediately excused himself and went back to his car and called his supervisor. He told the supervisor, 'I know we are supposed to enforce the law.... but I also know that important people are given certain courtesies.  I need to know what I should

do because I have stopped a very important person.' The supervisor asked, 'Is it the governor?' The young trooper said, 'No, he's more important than that.'  The supervisor said,  'Oh, so it's the president.' The young

trooper said,  'No, he's even more important than that.' The supervisor finally asked, 'Well then, who is it?'

The young trooper said,  'I think it's Jesus, because he's got President Monson for a chauffeur!'

More than meets the eye

Thank you so much for all your letters! Every time I read them I feel like I am really there! Love it. This week was super busy but not the most successful... but still good! It's very hard to get our investigators to come to church. They have to come to church 3 times before they get baptized and so far none have been able to make it. It's kind of depressing but we are still working with them. As a result, the baptismal dates are all getting pushed back another week, again. But anyways, besides this we are talking to so many new people every day and I am really growing to love this area and have such a strong love for these people and their desires to do what is right. 

We have been trying to mix things up lately and set some new companionship and personal goals.  Last Saturday I made a personal goal to wave at 100 people in one day and get a response back from them.  Elder Kennard thought, "100 was way too many, and an unrealistic goal!" So I started the day out by waving to everyone that was not close enough to talk to and counted them out loud so "I couldn't cheat" ha-ha. By around 5:00 I was at 60 people, and then by the time we were on our way home I was in the 90's and had to get 10 more.  Right before we got back I had 99 and we were going to save the 100th acknowledged wave for a special person! Ding Ding Ding "Congratulations you're our 100th person we waved at today! Please accept our free gift of Eternal happiness and get baptized!" ha-ha we are too funny. It was a slow day but super funny with all of the priceless reactions on people's faces when we would go out of our way to wave at someone... awesome.

Oh, and Saturday's are the day for yard sales!  We probably passed 15 different yard sales throughout the day and would contact every there. Sometimes it would work and other times they would say "we know exactly what you're trying to do here" and basically tell us to get lost with some other choice words... We would "fake" shop and pretend interested in their crap and turn it into a gospel lesson. Elder Kennard is very clever. There was one yard sale that was pretty cool actually and you would never guess what I saw there for ONE DOLLAR! A Michael Jordan 23 Red/black/and white Jersey!!! It was a steal so I bought it ha-ha. Even though it's 2xL and big it's still completely awesome!

Thank you everyone! I love you all! And I love what I am doing! So far the mission is tough and many things can get you down, but I can truly say I have never been happier!

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going"

"The one overriding rule is simply never doing anything that would embarrass you, your family, your team or your community" (Forever Strong)

Love, ELDER BRADY

Best letter yet...

Okay this letter sounds so good in my head right now because I took some notes earlier today of some things I want to share. The organization of these ideas is going to be disastrous, just FYI, so every time I use a bullet point that means I have a new thought...

• I just got the most fixed address to where the mail will always get to me where ever I am. It's the Mission office of the San Fernando Mission and they will always forward the mail to me.

California San Fernando Mission

23504 Lyons Ave. Ste 107

Santa Clarita, CA 91321

• Kan Jam… Nice work Kris and Jas on winning every time, but just to clarify and humble you guys, that only happened because the legendarily deadly Yellow team (Dad & I) wasn't there... ;)
• Thank you for the pictures mom, they are awesome! I love them… and yes you are right it's all about service. Service is the key! Mosiah 2:17
• Nice work dad with letting Braden win, I had to do that many times as well, but shhh don't tell him... ;) We have a living All-Sports Legend in our family! We have been playing ball here too and I introduced them to the free throw competition and Elder Kennard holds the record with 10 in a row out of everyone… so far!  We also play soccer every Saturday morning at 6am as a district and ward members show up as well. Last Saturday we had about 14-16 people show up! Crazy fun.
• Thanks for all the spiritual thoughts Mom! I actually used D&C 122:7 many times last week for many different people who were wondering why life is so hard and why they have so many challenges and trials placed before them. BAM, perfect. I showed them that scripture and lately it has been a cure for many people around here! Thank you Mom for helping me help the people of California! You're amazing!
• I think that Lancaster has St. George beat weather wise.  It has been 100+ everyday and last Saturday was 106! They say the worst time is the end of August into September consisting of around 110ish... wow ha-ha. It's pretty hilarious though, when we go knocking on people's doors we are sweating pretty badly with all the clothes/bike combination. But when they answer the door we are sweating, sun burnt, along with nappy helmet hair! Pretty cool combination.  They always offer us some water and we get in most of the time. Works like a charm! They think we are crazy but we just tell that our message is that important to us and then they listen! (Most of the time)...
• Thank you Grandma for the letters! Grandma you're an inspiration to all of us! Especially to me, you're the best. I love you so much. I am going to put that money you gave me towards a bike of my own that I will try to get in the next couple weeks.
• The mission life constantly pushes me outside my comfort bubble. I don't even know where my bubble is anymore and don't have any time to go looking for it!  There have been so many great experiences happening everyday and we are truly being led by the spirit and simply being a tool in Heavenly Fathers hands. It's an amazing feeling. Even though there are scary scenarios for most people, we have this overly confident attitude that the Lord is with us and by our side protecting us step by step as we preach the word of God every day.  That is because definitely he is! I have no doubt. Nothing, yes nothing, bad will come from preaching the True Gospel of Jesus Christ. So why be afraid? All we have to do is open our mouths and the Lord will fill them. I know this to be true. And our motto is that we need to share our message with EVERYONE we can! We need to put aside their looks/our shyness/ or even the awkwardness of the situation and make sure they are aware of this life changing message! If we pass anyone without saying anything because of these reasons, we are letting Satan win because we are not sharing this free gift of eternal happiness and salvation!
• We ran into a Jehovah Witness the other day (AKA: JDUB) and exchanged beliefs... Man, they are super confused and messed up! That turned out to be one of our many bible bashing sessions. We have heard so many different excuses and they are all pretty much the same. Either, "I have already been baptized, you're wasting your time here,” "I am already saved, go away”, "I believe in the bible and that's it, no additions!”, "Doesn't matter what church you go to, they are all houses of God, the real church is inside of you" or in other words "all the water goes down the same drain, ya feel me dawg?” ha-ha yeah crazy confused people out there but these are 80% of the excuses we hear here daily.  We have some amazing comebacks and really open people's minds, but they are mostly just too prideful and won't accept that they are wrong... except for a couple that are willing to listen.
• Elder Kennard and I and dominating right now and have 6 people with baptismal dates! They are all way solid people and only two of them have smoking/drug issues which will be tough... but we are working with them the best we can.  Elder Kennard had one baptism before and he said he has never seen this much success in the 9 months that he has been on his mission. Pretty exciting time right now and we're only half way done with the transfer! I am so blessed and grateful to be a part of this experience of changing so many people's lives.  Six scheduled Baptisms: Jasmine, Larry, Amy, Cierra, Charles, Wan and a lady who name is Debra but we haven't set up a date and officially asked her but we are 90% sure she will too. This is so totally... AWESOME!
• We come up with a new quote of the day everyday and I will share some of my favorites with you guys.

“The more strike outs you get... the more likely you are to get a homerun!” (Baptism)

“The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are... both right.”

“We can't control how others act, but we have total control over how we act.”

“It's your Attitude, Not your Aptitude, that determines your Altitude in life.”

“We are in the world, But not of it.”

“When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you.” (Preach my Gospel pg.11)

“Yesterday is History. Tomorrow is a Mystery. Today is a Gift. That is why it's called the PRESENT.” (Kung Fu Panda)

• My Motto: I have desired that while serving a mission that I am to do God's will, not mine. If it is the will of God that I should spend my days in proclaiming this Gospel and bearing testimony of these things, I shall think of myself highly privileged and honored. And when the spirit of God is upon me I think it matters very little what I suffer, and what I sacrificed -whether I secure the honor or dishonor of men, or where I die, if it so be that I can keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with joy, I have all eternity before me in which to enjoy myself.

I Love you all so much and thank you so much for all the support you have given me and always lifting my spirit when I read all your letters! Hope I didn't leave anything out and I printed out the letters I received today and will respond to those next week after I read them! 

Love, Elder Brady