Overwhelming Spirit

So some big updates for this week! Ari is getting baptized this Saturday at 5:00! We've been waiting a long time for this! She is so excited! Then we set 2 more baptismal dates with two other girls, Kelly and Tiffany for June 16th! My last Sunday! At the beginning of the transfer we set a goal to get 3 baptisms before i return home and it's looking good so far! :) The spirit has been so incredibly strong this past week it's insane. We have felt that we are 100% instruments in God's hands numerous times! Just to share how well things are going right now i will share with you our numbers from this past week. 

Goals: 3 baptismal dates; 4 at church; 8 member present lessons;4 new investigators 

Actuals:3 baptismal dates; 7! at church; 9! member present lessons;4! NI's!!!

That is just for our area :)

Then for the zone-

Goals:   7 BD's; 10 @ Church; 21 MP's; 10 NI's

Actuals: 7 BD's; 14 @ Church; 24 MP's; 17 NI's!!!!

These Goals at the beginning of the month were making us stretch and now all the missionaries, in this zone, faith has increased significantly! It's so awesome to see! I feel so much joy for each of these missionaries and being involved with each of their successes! (Alma 29:14-17) Is one of my favorite Zone Leader scriptures... :)

Anyways though, big news! A new missionary got advanced early through the MTC, Elder Pisa from Samoa and came to our mission this last week! They needed a place to put him and saw that we had plenty of room for him here in Saugus. So Elder Ballard is Training him in Saugus 3rd and we are helping him since Elder Ballard is being trained himself haha. It's so much fun. Kind of a language barrier but he has a heart of Gold! We have been wearing the lava lavas(Hawaiian formal dress things) around the house! It's awesome! So right when we got settled down, making both of our plans mesh together, and got both wards under control, they mix things up again! Always keeping us on our toes! "The Gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable!" Haha so true! Happy Always, Content Never!!!

P.s. i got the package this week thank you! And Kena called me this week worried that i wouldn't be able to make it back for the performance of her baptism... I told her "i promise we'll be there",... so we have to be there! July 7th @ 5:00 White Oak Stake Center in Granada Hills,CA! Thank you! As for anything else i am up for whatever we do/ wherever we stay.

Heavenly Father has definitely been blessing us big time! He's spoiling us.

Once you look around you, and take the time to notice his blessings, he blesses you with more. Also if you record them, you'll receive more :) Blessings of having a journal.

"Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done!"

Love, Elder Brady

---NO REGRETS---

Cali Life in Saugus Wards

Sup Fam! This Past week has gone by way too fast. I am with the 2 most incredible Elders in the mission. We are having such a blast! I am becoming a big fan of Trio companionships! There's NEVER a dull moment! Lately i have been in denial... I don't feel like i am ever going home haha. Like they say, time flies when you're having fun! So, i told Elder Ballard and Wright, guys we need to stop having so much fun... lol. This last transfer is going to go by way too fast! :( 

Sorry for not e-mailing last Monday, but it was awesome talking to you guys last Sunday! It was more of a reality check that slapped me in the face... hearing about all of those updates and knowing that all of my friends are, Married!!! I still can't comprehend it. 

You are on your way to Hawaii!?! Since when? Ha that's awesome. I'm jealous, have fun! I'm glad you liked that picture of the Adams family's tropical backyard. p.s. Is that duac medicine on the way? 

So as far as our investigators that we have, with both wards combined, we have a teaching pool of about 20 investigators! So we are constantly booked bouncing around between areas. We are seeing miracles left and right as we are constantly on the run. We don't know how we are doing it right now, we are just TRUSTING (alma 36:3) in the Lord and it all works out every time! :) This is probably one of the most intense transfers i've had with our very inspired/unexpected Trio we have going on here. It's pretty cool to be back in Saugus 3rd as well, and on Sundays it's pretty awesome to know all the members walking through the building no matter what ward their in. 

I'll quickly share a Miracle of the week. We were able to host 2 companionship exchanges back to back this week. One with the assistants and one with a new missionary! Pretty cool experience to do one right after the other. With the new missionary we had a really cool experience. I went to his area in Canyon Country on bike! It was fun to be back on bike again for a day. Right when the we started the day we set some goals and they were currently struggling to find new investigators. So i asked him if he had the faith that he would find a new investigator that day. He thought about it for a while then said yes i do! So i told him, Great, then we will find one! Right when we went out the door, 10 minutes later we found ourselves at a corner of a stoplight. A guy passed us and we started talking with him. Come to find out, he already had a book of Mormon in his house and has been reading it. He said he decided to convert to Mormon last year and considers himself a mormon but doesn't attend any churches. So we talked to him about it and he is going to start coming to church and we told him about baptism and he hasn't been baptized yet either! He said it's something he definitely wants to do! Miracle! So they are going to start teaching him! Super prepared guy was placed right in our path by the Lord because of our faith! Come to find out, this new missionary was wondering why he was on a mission and thinking about going home. He told me that night, after we had an incredible day talking to everyone we came in contact with, witnessing miracle after miracle, that that experience was a confirmation to his prayers why he is on a mission. Now their companionship has been on fire this past week and got 6 new investigators! Super cool experience!  

Also, a randomly cool side note, i was talking to Kirby Heyborne this past week (main actor from "the best 2 years" movie) and he told me he graduated from Alta! Small world. He is such a funny guy in person too!  

Life is so good right now. Us three are best friends, with a house in California to ourself, two cars, two wards, while being instruments in God's hands everyday all day to change peoples lives for the better! Missions are incredible. Wouldn't give up these experiences for anything! I now know without a doubt that God lives. The Book of Mormon is True. The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly does transform lives, as it has done with mine. Because of my mission, i am now a fully-converted disciple of Christ. Nothing will be able to bring me down as long as i am continually building up my foundation upon Jesus Christ. This Church is soooo True! 

I love you all!

Love, Elder Brady

no regrets.

Your Elders

We're feeding your boys tonight. They all send their love from sunny California!
Have a beautiful day, The Adams Family 

Pictures

Bryant's Baptism

Sup Fam.  

This past week was so awesome! We baptized Bryant yesterday! It happened last night in a members heated/lit up pool surrounded by tiki torches! We started off with a potluck dinner with the ward then did the baptism. It turned out so AMAZING! I wish i could describe how cool it was... Definitely a baptism i will never forget. Everyone in the ward was so excited for Bryant! We even skyped in some missionaries who used to serve here so they could see Bryant dressed up in white standing in a pool surrounded by the entire ward! Very emotional day yesterday. Elder Bates definitely got to go out with a bang and got to do the honors of performing the baptism. He goes home this Wednesday and I will get my next/last companion tomorrow morning... So many mixed emotions right now. Elder Bates has become one of my very close mission brothers just like every other companion i have had! It is just a bummer we only got to be together for one transfer... I guess on the bright side i will be able to have one more mission brother! I will let you know the details next week.  

A couple weeks ago President Hall made an announcement that there are no more 8-5 Zone Leader Council meetings. And the missions are starting a new culture where sister missionaries are now getting leadership positions. So i was able to attend the last ZLC ever as well as attend the first "Mission Leadership Council." It was actually really cool. President would just bring up topics of discussion and we would all throw in our input of how we can improve our mission. Then proceeding that, on Friday we took what we learned and trained our zones. I love how the church operates and how organized everything is, it's so true, and constantly improving.  

Tonight we are also helping out the new missionaries that are coming in. They are going to stay at our house tonight and then we'll give them a training then take them to their new companions tomorrow. I love welcoming the new missionaries and helping them chill out because they always come in so stressed!  

Oh, last Saturday was Elder Bates' birthday, and just like my companions in the past, i planned a couple surprise parties for him all throughout the day with the help of the missionaries in our zone :) It was such a great day, but i think both of us are not going to eat cake again for a while... haha

Besides all of this i guess all of the other updates for this week was that we helped a new young couple that moved into the ward paint their house. As we got to know them, i found out that he graduated Alta High School around the same time as Kristin? He said her name sounds super familiar but couldn't find his year book. His name is Zach Collins if that rings any bells for you Kris... Also we had dinner with the Cook family this week and come to find out sister Cook is Marianne Haslem's sister! Super small Mormon world that's for sure... they said they have even gotten some vegetables from grandma Erickson's garden and know what house i live in! haha super crazy.  

Lastly mom, i would love it if i could get some appointments scheduled at the dentist and such. I haven't had one for 2 years! Thank you! Also i am out of duac if i could please get some more of that. 

I love you all!

Love, Elder Brady

NO REGRETS