Three days!

I guess you are all aware that Brad is coming home this week. We are so thankful for the support that you have all given to us over the past two years.  He has really grown in the gospel  and we are all so excited.  Three more days.


Hey yall,

This is it. the last time you will hear anything from me until i get home (unless inah has something to say about it) haha she will probably call you and then call me and then call you again :D that was really nice of her to do and really really weird to hear moms voice but it was a great party. im going to miss everyone here, they have changed my life so much. but the time has come and i guess i could be more of a man about it haha. We found out last night that tomorrow we go in to Malaga.we leave here at like 315 in the afternoon and then get there at around 9 or so. then all day wednesday in the mission home intervviews with president and the likes. and then try and sleep if thats going to even be possible to get up early thursday morning and start traveling. its going to be a nightmare i can almost see it now getting off the plane and just going to sleep and not waking up for a week hahahahaha. that would be the life but i doubt itwould happen im to used to the schedule of the mission and working and walking and stuff so that i wont be able to sleep. too much ill do my best hopefully ... alright as you can tell im kind of just really rambling i dont have too much to say this week. ill see you all on thursday haha. thats weird. alright well love you! dont get too crazy!

An epistle from Brad and 10 Days left!

well it was a rough week. but its part of the life out here. 

So, inah and inma are just going strong they are great and are just excited to keep learning and growing and that has been a blessing in our life and especially in my life. i have learned a lot from being around them and teaching them. and they have great faith so its been a great experience. haha. they both have interesting stories. but we each have our own. so yeah. haha. this weekend on saturday inah wants to make us breakfast and dinner haha she is crazy and then on sunday she is going to make us lunch. she makes sooo much food and its really really good haha but she wants to do it cause it will be the last time that me and elder biamont will be here and she wants to throw us a party and one for my birthday as well. she is crazy but i love her. as well there is going to be a baptism this weekend. just not from an investigator .. these two little boys that are twins are going to get baptized and they changed it to this weekend so that we can be there and watch it as well. haha i love them they are the happiest little guys ever.. they get in trouble at home anddd at school for laughing and they are usually just laughing cause of dumb stuff but they dont even need ot be together to laugh just by themselves. haha. i can never leave their house without wanting to just be a happier person. haha. they are really cool haha. to say the least. 

So its my last full week as a missionary. thats weird. haha it still doesnt feel real. i cant really explain cause like we are just going to go out and work and everything like normal this week. so maybe next week it will start hitting me cause i still feel the same. like i know its going to happen but we are just still normal. haha i dont know. everyone asks if im excited and stuff. its like a normal transfer when you know its going to happen yeah your excited to go and see new things and stuff but you leave a part of you in every area.. and its hard to leave every area cause of the relationships that you make with people and the people you have seen change their lives and the people that have changed your life and everything its not something that is explainable but when you go and give your heart to people a part of it stays there. it will never leave. 

but at the same time like i said there are times to move on. and sometimes its hard and a lot of times you dont know whats going to happen after or in the future or how you are going to deal with it or anything. but as you push forward the lord is there and helps and you can make it happen. i was talking with elder cooper this week and we were talking about everything (like always) haha and it just feels like now that we have made it 2 years in a different land and a different culture and everything like that and sometimes feeling totally on your own its kind of like i feel like i can do anything and take on the world and make it work when i come home haha. like i feel one of the biggest things you learn is how to put your mind to something and to getting it done whether you like it or not and to create good strong healthy habits that help you move forward and progress. instead of ones that stop and hold you back. studying the scriptures praying sharing testimony and just helping people. i dont think that i have ever been happier in my whole 20 almost 21 years of life. and its never been anything i have ever been able to explain because there is so much negativity and things that are against you as a missionary and everything. name calling to getting things thrown at you to doors slammed in your face to people telling you they dont want anything anymore to anything you can really imagine even sometimes your companion not wanting to do anything or be around you and not talk to you and you are so alone. but to see the light of the gospel in your life and see the blessings and applying them in your life it makes you change your heart and you look at everyone differently cause you dont know exactly where people have come from or how far they have come on the journey of life. and i think one thing that i have learned is just what elder uchtdorf has said. its not a race but a journey. elder woodford in our district meeting brought up like 2 weeks ago. how much time do we have left like 20 days (at the time) but how many moments do we have.. innumerable..

it doesnt matter how much time we have left in life .. we can count the days but its never really been about that i think its always more about the moments we have.. the things we dont know good and bad and you can never count those cause you never know when they are going to happen and what sizes or shapes they come in. 

WEll that was a long email haha. but i am excited for this last week i have to work we are doing a lot of good and next week i will be coming home! CRAZY haha. anyways just know that i love you all and am grateful f or everything that you have all done for me have a great week!

A baptism and 17 days left!

wow, it was a really really good week.Inah is so funny. she is in germany now with her family but she will be back on sunday. what a crazy girl and just fyi i was the one on her facebook she has it on her phone haha. so i said hi through her but it was me .. haha im so funny. but it was a great baptism. she should have put pictures up on facebook so you can get some from the baptism haha. im going to miss her soo much. and she is going to make a mango cake for my birthday before we leave here . she has such a big heart. so yeah. 

then we are working for a baptism of a couple on the 10th they arent marrid like everyone else so they want to be baptized so we will see if we can get them seperated to be able to live the law of chastity. until they can get married which is a process.. butt they will be able to get baptized. its going to be a struggle but we will know this thursday. anyways. life is good .. its ending soon. i feel good about it . we still are going strong . so dont worry about that. im excited but i dont really have a lot to say . haha anyways i love you all! have a great week!

Gabraltor and 23 days left!!!!

so today we went to england. i bought dr pepper in pounds. i saw africa. anddddd i had monkeys on my head. thats pretty cool right?

we had a good week overall. just some struggles that happen in the missionary life sometimes but inah is going to get baptized this weekend and we are very excited for her she is a great lady! haha just a ball of energy and love hahaha. that sounds weird but she makes us authentic filipina food which is really really good and with 4 missionaries we can never eat it all. its soooo goood though. anyways umm yeah we are doing great things inah is our only investigator right now but sometimes thats how it goes and we can only see her on the weekends . inma the spaniard is doing great and we are going over to her tomorrow. but thats a party as well. anyways i just wanted to make you guys jealous that i had a monkey on me haha and im cool and i love you all ill have a good baptism story next week! love you!

1 month to go!

Hello family,

Good news from home, tayler and Gabe are both working on their papers now?! thats way exciting! good to know that they are taking the prophets advice and doing the right thing. you just learn so much on the mission its incredible. but so true. anddd yeah, its been a great week to say the least. my companion is crazy. he never stops singing. sometimes we have to put little limits. like if elder cooper sings in the next 10 minutes he has to buy us a cake. and he doesnt want to do that so he doesnt do it haha its a nice little win win situation for me. haha. no he is a great kid. 

We had a wonderful baptism this weekend. Inma got baptized. my first spaniard and she is so grateful for the chance that she has had to be baptized into the church. its amazing to see the change in people and see the gospel bless their lives. and she is just amazing. going strong . she gave her testimony in church and it was a powerful experience. im proud of her and where she has come in such a short period of time and she is just willing to learn really. 

In other news. Ina is doing great we broke the news to her that she needs to be baptized again. we were kind of worried becuase the last 20 years she was with another church and she never got baptized with them and then we asked her and she took a deep breath and said ok. then she got really excited and wanted to know who was going todo it and we gave her the option and she looked at me and asked me to do it. Something that has been special for me, i got to baptized inma (my only spaniard) and i will baptize ina my only asian. haha. they are really special people too. big testimonies and they love us.

I am learning a lot by being out here and its really weird that i only have a month left but its true one month from today. its starting to cool down a little bit here but we are still in short sleeves. anyways we are just having a blast and working hard trying to find the elect cause they are everywhere. im grateful for the love and support! have a great week i love you!

38 Days left. What???

WHEW!

so i know that you are all wanting to know about what we think about the new age for missionaries and everything, well this is what i think if it was there when i was 18 then, i would be home for almost a year now. haha. i think its a great idea because there is so much temptation that happens from the time people graduate from high school until they leave .. in my time so it would be good to get out earlier.. we will see what happens from here on out now. haha. 

So other than that it was a great Conference i really enjoyed it .. it was my last one as a missionary and we are getting a lot of revelation and inspiration for this last little bit and for life. i love conference and really enjoy the spirit that is felt and the opportunity that we have to listen to our leaders. 

we have some good news coming out of Jerez. We are having a baptism this Saturday for Inma. she is a spaniard and is just progressing right along. she really enjoyed conference and has enjoyed the spirit that has been felt in our lessons and everything. she doesnt understand a word that she reads out of the book of mormon but she opens up and reads a couple chapters anyways every day..she knows that someday it will stick with her. haha. it reminds me of when carson would read harry potter with us and pretend to read it and out of no where in a couple of hours she would have it done haha. its good though. she loves us. 

As well we are working on a case that sometimes happens. its when someone gets baptized 25 years ago and the form for the baptism gets lost due to inactivity or sometimes they just get lost. basically what that means is its kind of like she never got baptized and gets the opportunity to do it again..... so we havent told her yet that there is no form for her old baptism and hopefully with her as well we will be having another baptism coming up. she is a great lady . she makes us food every saturday night and its SOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOODDDD. she makes a lot too. haha. but its ok. we love her. other than that we are just trying to stick with the program. life is going really good. Elder cooper doesnt stop singing. haha. but its ok... im sure in a couple weeks we will have a comp inventory about it ... haha. anyways have a great week! love you all!!

45 days left!

well one week down . 6 more to go.. haha. but who is counting? 

well we are Finally seeing some love this time of year. lets just share that story. i think last week i talked about how paco started reading with his family and we could tell the difference for doing the little things. well we got a reference from him cause the spirit was really strong and it ended up being a reference that he gavve like 8 months ago to the missionaries but she didnt want anything and he was like maybe now is a good time well we met with her and explained why we are in spain and everything and she asked us if she could come to church. that doesnt happen too often so we invited her and she came to all three hours. so we set up a time to go with her to her house yesterday. we took a member that served his mission in provo and got home like 3 months ago he wanted to come really bad with us. we just havent had people to teach. haha. so we teach her about the plan of salvation. she had some questions the first time about what happens after this life so we went through step by step and she said that it actually made sense and that it has a purpose for her and all her trials make sense and having that perspective she can see and have the hope of getting through all the hard times. it was way cool she even accepted a date to get baptized on the 10th even though we are going to have to change that to the 13th ahaha elder staples wasnt thinking when he set the date.  but she is awesome. she is a spaniard. and she is just doing amazing. we are excited for her. she is going to general conference this weekend, she doesnt even know what it is haha but she is excited cause she is going to the relief society part with the women in the ward haha. she is just excited and we are seeing the blessings of actually teaching the doctrine and having someone accept. its just the best feeling anyone could ask for. 

so i know who my new companion is .. he gets in tomorrow and t hen elder staples leaves tomorrow so im excited .. we are just working we are going to be working hard this transfer too looking for people. anyways we are doing good it rained all last week and its good weather again. HAppy october! :D love you all!