ONE YEAR down ONE YEAR TO GO!

Just a little explanation. As I was raking leaves this week, I asked Carson to help with the bagging and she was complaining about the hard work it was. Her comment was "Wow, I guess Brad did do some work around here because I never have had to bag leaves before."

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I just wanted to start off this weeks email saying THANK YOU!!!!! i know it would take a while but im glad im finally getting some appreciation for the things i did at home... hahahahaha i honestly laughed at that comment that carson made that wow brad actually did stuff while he was here. haha just one of the things or maybe its jsut that im so tired right now that ... haha ummm yeah its just funny cause im tired. but i dont think thats why.
ummmm i hope the holidays were good for you guys. i was talking to an elder in my district that has the same age as me in the field and we were just saying how much better thanksgiving will be next year because spain doesnt beleive in ANYTHING american. really. like no turkey no stuffing no pie no nothing . we can get the stores mashed potatoes but it doesnt even taste like mashed potatoes it just tastes like waterry .... nothingness haha i cant even describe it. but. its come and gone so there is no need to worry about it anymore. ummm im just trying to think . i complete a year this thursday. which is kind of intense. i got a call last week from our mission president and he asked me to change my district meeting from tuesday to thursday so that he can be there. thats not pressure at all. i dont know what im going to teach. last week i had a story about a missionary in his first day of the field that got rocks thrown at him .. he threw a rock at the telephone pole so that it didnt cause problems cause he was angry and then the people started having competitions with him to throw rocks at the telephone pole. well we all have rocks in our lives it could be our companions it could be our families it could be our job or our calling in the church but as we focus on giving the "rocks" to the "telephone pole" or christ then our focus changes and we help others put their focus on him as well.
something to think about.
this week i was thinking about talking about the converting power of the book of mormon but we will see. and yes it often feels like im just a babysitter here as a district leader haha and some of the things that happen in the companionships just make me laugh. they really get mad at eachother cause one wants to go contact and one doesnt... anyways its the life. and i love it. im happy and time is just going by so fast right now its insane. but we have made it a year and we have less than that to go which is weird. anyways keep smiling and keep being happy you are doing awesome!

Day 360

so becasue we are missionaries and what not we are celebrating thanksgiving day today. SOOOOOOOO

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting me out here.
Thanks for all the family and friends that have been praying for me.
Thanks to mom, dad, Portia, Kelsey, Carson, Abby and their families.
Thanks to Everyone else in the family.
Thanks for the people that listen to the gospel.
Thanks for the people that give us their friends to listen to the Gospel.
Thanks for the Book of Mormon and all its teachings.
Thanks for the gifts of the spirit.
Thanks for all the good memories,
Thanks for all the good weeks and good days,
Thanks for the chance i have to sleep and to study and to teach.
Thanks for the people that have been changed by my testimony.
Thanks for all the emails and letters ive recieved,
Thanks for the gospel in my life.

i could go on and on and on and on. but you are all amazing and i am more and more and more grateful every day to be supported out here.

The area is going well. its just been hard to get started cause the last elders didnt do anything .. im learning to hate irresponsiblity. so we are starting from nothing and working our way up. its been a long week this last week. we had 4 dates for baptism that we have set with amazing people who cant go on with it because of family members and stuff. soooooo we have no investigaters or antying really right now. ... but that doesnt mean there isnt good things happening .. we are happy and healthy. and working ... its harder in a big area cause there is a lot of time for travelling from place to place and trying to be on time and everything but the work is moving along. we are celebrating thanksgiving today and then there are some other people doing it on thursday that we might go by and visit haha. its nice having power to decide what to do. ANYWAYS.
live is good we are happy i missy ou all and i hope you guys enjoy the holidays with out me .. haha have a great week!

Day 353 Happy 20th Birthday Week

Here is the picture that I got this week from a mom in the ward in Cartegena. I guess I have to be careful what I ask for. Thanks to Sis. Richardson who was so accommodating to my son.

Of course, he turns 20 tomorrow. Happy Birthday Brad!
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wellllllll, this will be the last time you talk to me as a teenager. know what that means? good ... cause i dont. all i know is that im so tired. and that i am so exhausted. i dont think i have ever been so tired in my life! haha lets see what happened this last week . . . we walked a lot. i contacted a lot of peoploe (my comp doesnt like it so he doesnt do it) and we passed by a lot of people. well someone contacted us in the street. we went over a different day and we ended up putting fechas with them . a mom and her two daughters. THEY EVEN CAME TO CHUIRCH!!!! haha wellll apart from that we found out that the mom might not be married... our curse. no one is married. it sucks to be a missionary in that situation. sooo now we have to tell her to marry the guy or leave him. which sucks butttttt its not as bad as it has been in the past. sheeee has 2 daughters and they can still be baptized soo 2 still.. they should be on the blog in a couple of weeks. but dont stress ill keep it on the update.

im trying to think i dont know what we are going to do today we are just going to go eat at 2 as a district and then we might go see a castle or a roman museum or something that sparks the interest at the time... did you know the first submarine ever made was in cartagena? thats what i hear. but i dont know how good my spanish is in cartagena (every area has a completely different accent so its like starting all over again with the learning process of a language) haha

ummm my birthday tomorrow :D thanks for all of the love and support i know its hard with me here in spain but... what can i do haha im glad you like the picture that family is from england and the mom reminds me a lot of ours. just no excuses go to mutual. haha good thing i was on her goodside :D haha ummm life is ok we are progressing. we are getting in the direction we need to go so i cant complain elder anderson has been sheltered his whole mission which sucks so i am just giving him responsablities i dont know how much he likes it but oh well i dont care anymore he is older than me he should learn to grow up. but for the most part we get along alright he is ... different but i dont have a problem with him we are just getting him to do the work. thats the most frustrating part. but we are getting better so im happy.
District leader is alright just some more responsablity and keeping track of the missionaries doing what they need to but there arent major problems here so im happy haha anyways life is good im happy im a teenager and we are going to ball it up out there i hope you are all happy and doing great thanks again for all the love!

Day 346-- New ADDRESS!

Just an FYI _- The Mission Home has asked that we send packages to their home address. The mail system has been holding packages that are sent to the mission home address and making them pay to get them. SO if you are so inclined, please send them to this new address.
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Mom i thought i said this last week but it must have not gotten past this thought. Yes i got my package from sister dixon while i was in valdepenas ... please tell her thank you for the letters and for the updates on life and for the peanut butter! haha also let her know that i will send a letter when i can sit down and write one back .. thanks!

dad. no we cant go back to any other area that we have been in just for a baptism. it sucks but we cant do it. and yeah mom we dont believe in partying in our mission so we go strait from area to area haha .. naw we just go cause its so much cheaper to go from place to place instead of all the way back to the mission home.

Cartagena ... is Beautiful!!!! i love it! there is a lot of work to be done and it has rained a ton and i havent eaten anything but spaghetti since ive been here.... we didnt have anything in piso except for pasta so that was breakfast and dinner and the members feed us here and every single member has made us spaghetti. i didnt know i could get so sick of it so fast. haha oh man . the youth are amazing i was asking why they dont come out with us... on sunday i talked with all of them every single day they are going to have a youth come out on splits with us so it should help us with out work.

my address.
Elder B-Rad
Plaza tenor mario cruz 4, 5A
30320 Cartagena (murcia)
spain

so send me whatever you want and ill be able to get it. anyways im happy the area is great the ward is great and we are just going about doing the work . there is no where else to go from where we are but up. im super tired its been none stop running around since ive been here but thats what i get it helps the time go by really fast haha
its insane i dont have much to say life is good everyone is happy and we are just going to enjoy our day. i love you all!!!!