2nd Transfer down...

So this is the last week of the transfer and we will find out if things are changing or not. Pretty exciting! Whelp, thank you so much for all the letters this week, Grandma Erickson, Grandma/Grandpa Brady, Brade, Lynds, Mom/Family! I love you guys! I have not yet received the "package" but I am super excited! Thank you!

This week has been pretty good. I went on companion exchanges with Elder Ruiz this week which was a blast! It's nice to be with other missionaries once in a while considering Elder Kennard and I have been together for 12 weeks! But yeah it was great, we ran into a VERY interesting guy as we were knocking... George... an Atheist! He does not believe in God. Crazy, I know. Poor guy. We had a very deep conversation and Elder Ruiz and George was going to get in a fight and I was trying to calm the situation... It got pretty ugly and I finally just said, "What would it take for you to believe there is a God, George?" then he said he needed some evidence and not to get brainwashed like we have been... Then we sat there in silence, then I slowly reached into my backpack and pulled out a Book of Mormon all Epic like and pushed it towards him across the table and said, "Here's you evidence, George" ......ha-ha he sat there stunned and was speechless. After a while, he finally kicked us out/ we ran away, but the Book of Mormon is still sitting on his table in his house. MISSION ACCOMPISHED. ;) After that experience, Elder Ruiz and I were a little shaken up, but experiences like these only make us stronger!!! I love it!

This week the Spanish Elders had a baptism!! And I was asked by Darleen (the one getting baptized) to participate in her baptism and give a talk, and I said yes. Then come to find out I was supposed to give a talk in Spanish...? Whoa, Como estas? What? Ha-ha so yeah we all know I don't know Spanish and I was about to give it in English but then we all decided it would be best if Arrieta gave it. Bummer, I know, Darleen is awesome and just turned 18 on Friday. Our whole District threw her a party and gave her a cake on Friday. It eventually turned out to be a disaster. Cake flying everywhere and smearing it in each other’s faces. 8 Whites shirts, Ruined. ha-ha nah jk it was awesome though. Darleen said it was the best party she has ever had! MISSION ACCOMPISHED. Anyways, about the baptism. We brought an investigator, Armando, (who plays soccer with us on Saturday morning) to Darleen's baptism. He thought she was sooo pretty and wanted to get baptized right then and there! Ha-ha very funny experience. Then I introduced them to each other and she bore her testimony (WHICH WAS AMAZINGLY AWESOME!) about baptism and how she felt so clean and pure and gets to start a new life sin free along with the commitment to follow God's plan. It hit Armando so hard and he really wants to change and follow through with this so we are all very excited about that!

Alright well I have to go now. I have become super close with Elder Bennett and he goes home in ONE WEEK! What? Noooo! So we are going to have one last companionship exchange and Do Work together on Thursday! Pretty excited for that. But besides that, Enjoy General Conference and sorry I won't be providing the treats at Priesthood this year...

Love you guys and thank you so much for all the motivation, thoughts, and Prayers! I can really feel it and I feel so blessed! Talk to you next week!

Love, ELDER BRADY

Homie G/L-Unit came to church!

Wow! Super crazy week! Not a lot of success on paper, but we sure improved a lot this week!  We had many meetings this week! First we had Zone Conference, then the adult session, ZDM, District Meeting, Stake Conference... yeah, a lot of meetings. It was awesome though! At Zone Conference, we had all the missionaries in our entire zone come up to Lancaster (about 75-100 missionaries)! We heard that a General Authority was going to come speak to us! We got there and it was Elder Golden. He is such a great guy.  We started out the meeting with zone reports and stuff and then out of the blue, they called on a couple random missionaries to bear their testimonies and share some words with everyone.  Talk about Pressure! After testimonies, Elder Golden talked to us for probably 2 hours! It was a very good meeting! Everyone was in Awe. Then at the end of the meeting, President Martin said," We will now have a couple of missionaries interview with Elder Golden." He called on 4 missionaries and... Yes... Wait... What? He called my name?? Wait, Elder Brady..? Yes. It was me! He was interviewing some zone leaders and then, there's me... ha-ha probably one of the youngest ones there. So we each got to have a personal interview with Elder Golden. It was awesome and very inspiring! An interview with a General Authority... nuff said.

Then, yesterday we were getting ready to go to stake conference which was at 10 instead of 9 am. We walked over to some investigators apartments and knocked on their doors to wake them up for church like we always do, and Jasmine and Larry came to the door dead tired.  We visited with them and told them that church started in an hour and they said yes they would come! It was very complicated getting them a ride and getting us there with them as well. But we did it! Larry, Jasmine and their 2 kids came to church!!! First investigators we have had make it there! It was an amazing experience watching them as they entered for the first time and just observing them throughout the meeting. It was so much different and totally opposite from what they are usually around. They were amazed! We introduced them to a ton of ward members, showed them around the building, and answered some questions. Larry and Jasmine said, "These were the nicest people they have ever met!" They were excited and decided that they were going to come every week!! Hallelujah!! I feel like somehow I knew that they were going to say that (smart-alike) Ha-ha it was funny though watching Larry walk in for the first time wearing Sweats, a pair of high top Nikes, Tall white Tee, and a backwards baseball cap while holding his two daughters in his arms. Absolutely priceless. Different, but hey they made it and that's all that matters! Awesome experience.

Hey I actually do have a request this time! When you decide to send me a little something, something, could you send me one of those Plan of Salvation puzzles that they have at the missionary mall please?  Elder Kennard has one and it is awesome for teaching that lesson to little kids! Thank you so much! I love you guys so much!  Thank you so much all that you have done for me. You guys have made me who I am today and without you I wouldn't be at this point. I am very grateful to be on a mission and to learn so much everyday and strive to be better continually. Also to be raised in such an awesome family because I see every day out here how difficult it can be without one. We are here on Earth to Learn, Grow, gain experience, be happy, and PREPARE ourselves to me God. In order to reach the Celestial Kingdom, we need to be Celestial material! (D&C 88:22ish... I think) so let's live Celestial Lives now! The sooner the better EVERYONE always say!

P.S. we have been eating "Ghetto Cheesecake" (simply an Oreo with Easy cheese sprayed on top) Amazing... you should try it, ha-ha. I have been introduced to so many crazy things out here.

Love you guys!

Love, ELDER BRADY

--NO REGRETS--

When it rains... it pours!

So I only have like 5 minutes today so I figured that I would hurry and write a short story that happened this week!

One morning we started tracking just like we always do and when we left the apartment at 10 it was pretty overcast and felt extremely good outside for once! We were loving it, and loving the feeling that our faces didn't feel like they were on fire. So we were out talking to everyone and going from one appointment to the next, when all of the sudden, we felt some rain drops!!! Whoohoo! Then we heard some thunder and we looked around to see some huge rain clouds coming our way! Very exciting. Just then we saw a huge wall of rain coming down the street and everyone was freaking out! It was the coolest/most awesome thing ever. Just then it hit us like a ton of bricks and we were probably 2 miles away from our apartment and our next appointment. So we kept on tracking towards our appointment! Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy especially when it started Hailing! We were soaked and the draining system in Lancaster is not very good considering this happens about once a year.  So the streets instantly filled up from curb to curb and until you couldn't even see the middle of the street! It was now a legit river. We were biking through 1-2 feet of water making our way to our appointment Yelling, “the Gospel must be shared!!" hahaha it was awesome! It was unreal and garbage cans were floating down the streets... The rain made it super foggy and you couldn't see anything past a quarter mile because of how much rain was coming down. So we finally pulled up to Keith and Vivian Cones house (the Lancaster Baptist family that is super nice but don't believe that God has a body and other things like that) (and also the picture that I sent you of Benjamin and Joseph, that family) anyways, everyone was looking out of their windows admiring the rain when we pulled up to their house.  They instantly ran to the front door and said, “What are you guys doing out THERE! Quick! Get in HERE! (Yelling over the rain and thunder) Just then we got off our bikes, crossed the river and nonchalantly walked up to their front door as they waited for us.  (At this point they was NO way we could possibly get any more wet) Then, with an epic voice as we approached their house, I said, “Keith, we came to tell you that God, Has, A body." and they all laughed and they really respect us and know that we truly do care about them. We have great conversations and I have a good feeling about them. They will know of the truth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saint! The Book of Mormon works miracles.

I love being a missionary and experiencing moments like this. It strengthens my faith and I know without a doubt that I am doing the right thing and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not knowingly, has blessed my life so much! It's out here on a mission that I am now realizing how important it is to have in our lives. We are so blessed to know of this message and to apply in our everyday lives! I see it every day!

I love you guys so much and I thank you so much for all your support and I'll talk to you next week!

Love, Elder Brady

Afflicting the Comfortable

Hey family! Right now I am really short on time and have to hurry so I’m just going to write a regular update again! So many things to do, so little time!

Crazy news! So in my ward there is a family, named the Noriega's, and they are super cool. We eat at their place a lot and we were talking with them one day, and as I have been been staying in touch with Elder Robinson, we all discovered that the Ty is companions with their Nephew! Talk about small world!

This week we had a lot of success! We set ANOTHER baptismal date with a lady named Estella and she was super excited about our visit with her.  Unfortunately though, she couldn't make it out to church... It must be because it's so early (9am) for the people around here to make it, there are parties going on every night and from what we hear, people don't really sleep, and at nights is when Lancaster comes to life. They are all super excited to come when we meet with them, but then when Sunday comes around.... nada. nothin. zilch. zero. We have about 6 scheduled baptisms but they can't get baptized unless they have come to church 3 times. So that is our weak spot right now. 

Our meetings have been awesome this week and we would mainly focus on the importance of church attendance with them, so they are definitely aware of the blessings and perks. 

It will be a very glorious day when one of our investigators actually comes to church because they will then realize how great it is.  Elder Kennard and I teach Gospel principles class on Sunday and that class is a blast with all the fun people we have in there. Great discussions. Pretty much all of our investigators don't have cars and neither do we. So setting them set up with a member who has a car is a big hassle. Especially when the members don't know how to drive and get in a car crash on the way to church transporting one of our investigators (Amy). Amy still has been a little shaken up about the accident and has been hesitant about getting rides.  Poor Amy.  We have been working with her for a while and last Thursday she finally said she was ready to come out and try it again but she wanted to take the bus. We looked up the bus times and scheduled everything for her. But then the bus pulled up Sunday morning and, no Amy... Dang! WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

Satan is definitely a hard worker and is not making church easy for anyone. We have just stuck with them though and continue to visit with them regularly helping them understand everything they need to know and hopefully someday they will make it to church :)  

Anyways, sounds like everything is going great at home! Thank you for all the letters! You are all an inspiration to me! I did get Grandma and Grandpa's letters! They were amazing. The exact wisdom that I needed, thank you. Mom, You are right about not over scheduling! Just like Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "If life and its rushed pace and many stresses have made it difficult for you to feel like rejoicing, then perhaps now is a good time to focus on what matters most. - Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a strong foundation of truth and paying attention to what matters most. Doing the things that matter most will lead us to the savior of the world!"

The Gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

Love you all!

Love, Elder Brady