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!

52 Days left!

hey everyone.

This week we had elder Richards of the seventy with us. we had a
meeting with him and we sat there for four hours just listening to him
really. he talked about a lot of good things. hehe. to make the
comparison it was like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. so much
information betweeen what he was teaching and the spirit that going
through my notes again later i was still writing down notes it was
pretty crazy. but it was god and in our stake conference he said that
the only way to get out of crisis is to pay tithing and that he was in
a meeting with Pres Uchtdorf and that he had asked them the question,
if you had enough to pay tithing or feed your family what do you do?
and he said to pay tithing to get the blessings and then go to the
bishop to get the food. it was really good.

lets see what else. we had a really powerful lesson with a family i
think i talked about them last week how we talked to them and told
them to read and pray and to do that every night and stuff. well this
week you could totally tell the difference. they are doing amazing and
even have some references for us! we have a couple of the recent
converts doing their visits and they have gotten some of the members
to get involved so we are seeing a little bit of a change.

This week ill find out who will be my last companion in the field. we
are planning this week on going to the evangalist church and the
jehovahs witness church and even the catholic church. its elder
staples death wish ahah we are pretty excited though
it should be crazy. well other than that we are just cruiseen by. just
finishing up our p day and then going out and trying to get into some
houses. you guys are awesome have a great week!

59 days left

So apparently my school internet is not letting me access blogspot anymore. So I am sorry that this is so late but Brad was also late in sending it to me. But it's a good one.  Of course, he sent me a different email asking about things like a phone when he gets home.  So that is our life now! Haha!

first of all, something that caught my attention from moms email that i wanted to share with you all. mom said that she went and cleaned the church went to the temple took cars and abs to the fair and then went to stake conference.......... it was so nice to see that there are people that do that. we are struggling with people out here doing the basics right now of reading and praying and coming to church- the church is always dirty and the members just complain. it was just nice to know that even though we are trying and stuff that there are people that can still do their duties.

it really just called my attention, this last week was good we are finding a lot of new investigators.. i think since i have been here we have found 12 new investigators which is just under what they want us to have. Elder staples with elder keller the transfer before got 25 news.. but they just arent ones we get back into contact with they just fall of the face of the earth and that has been frustrating for us and we have been trying to keep moving forward with it. but i dont know its been hard finding people willing to listen and teaching and then not being able to get back in touch with them. 

then with a lot of the recent converts they arent keeping their coventants from baptism. problems with things like the word of wisdom and the likes. well some have been doing good. but they ahve been going to the leaders and members for help and no one is really helping them we have been getting people to try and do their visits for home teaching and stuff and we got a couple of the recent converts to do it and really its been a blessing that they have been doing it because it has gotten the ball rolling with a couple of the people as far as members to do it. we used the talk from how the one bishop got the primary to pay tithing to help the ward pay their tithing and use the examples of that to help others wellllll we thought of that with the recent converts and the blessings that have come from that have been good people that havent been visited in 3 years are getting visits and its been nice to see the blessings of that. we feel that if they just did it and helped out then so many of the problems that are going on wouldnt be problems and we wouldnt be worrying about so many things as a ward. ....

but really besides the challenges that we have been going through we had a really cool lesson last night with a family they have been struggling as a family in doing the basics and wanted to know how to get better faith and they wanted to know what they needed to do we told them that they werent reading or praying or going to church like they should and honestly they were surprised to think that that would be a change that they needed to make and we set up with them how they are going to need to do it. and we set up every night before they eat to pray and read for 5 minutes and then end with a prayer to bless the food. and to see the humility in them to accept to do this and other things that were so basic really was cool to see the change come over them and to know that everything will be alright if they just did what the lord asked them to do. they dont want to fall away and i know that if they do this and get their testimonies stronger that it will be a big change in the ward and what we need. 

thats just a little bit of whats been going on lately. we are doing fine. still looking like crazy for people to teach and help. i hope you guys enjoy the dedication of the temple and all of that!!! i love you all!! have a great week!

66 days left!

hey how are you all doing??

well i hope you had a great week. we have just been working. we dont have a lot of investigators right now. this last week took a lot out of me walking a lot all around because we havent been able to get in a lot with people and everyone is getting back from vacations but they start school this week so its been just as bad haha .but once schedules start working out and stuff. but no worries we are doing weellll.

so my companion is a champ he is getting ready to finish in 3 weeks so its been just trying to get stuff going so that i cacn get a new comp next transfer and get stuff going with him before i come home. jerez is a struggle there are so many crazy people here haha we just deal with some strange people on a daily b asis sometimes contacting is really fun cause you really never know what kind of people you are going to get in contact with haha. but we are getting along fine. we actually have a lot in commong and he is funny cause he normally talks and its just monotone and so he tries to get excited and stuff  but its jsut no change in his voice but he is funny. we get along great. i have been lucky even though i have had a lot of different companions recently in the last transfers i havent had problems with them and we have been really great friends with them and so we are just partying and trying to help people . 4 man pisos are the best in the mission we are jyst doing great and having fun i dont know what else to say. haha.

well i hope that this week is amazing for you guys. keep moving forward and being true to you. you guys are the best i love you!

73 Days left

Here's all he sent this week.  I think the heat is getting to him.

plaza de la serrana #5 1´B

11401 Jerez de la frontera (Cadiz)

españa

80 Days left

hola!!

well lets see this week was a great week. its a lot cooler here. its still around 100 but a little less. more humididy but thats to be espected by the ocean. ummmmm. i live in a 4 man piso which is the first time in my mission and i really like it. there are the other elders Mambo and Biamont mambo is new and its still his first area but he is good he is a champ and then biamont goes home with me in november. then my companion elder staples dies this transfer so next transfer will be another companion again. haha. anyways its nice because we just party. any free time is just party time and we are living it up and having fun. as well as like, it makes the time go by really a lot faster too. i cant believe its already monday and that this weekend is already september. haha its weird but it works i guess. 

lets see we have been talking alot about love lately charity and the likes. i dont remember what i wrote last week so if im repeating myself. well the prophets do it all the time and it must mean its important. haha .anways we talked about how we are obedient for like 3 reasons the first we are scared or we are going to get punished. the second because we are going to get a reward for being obedient or the third simply because we love God. and if we love god we will keep his commandments. and if we keep the commandments its either because we love god or soon we will love god for doing so. its just interesting to think about why we do things or why we dont. but as we understand what it means and how it affects us and those around us it makes a difference.

i dont know that its always fun being obedient and we dont always understand it. for example the party scene. there are tons of people that seem they are having fun and living the life right now. but if you wait like 5 years and see where they are its interesting to see how much better off we are and how much they depend on that stuff. and we really are free. 

When we start teaching people we often start by trying to have them esplain the word truth. Think about it what is truth? we get answers like well its not lies and its something thats right. well thats true but still... not very clear. we then ask them if they like listening to lies ... which no one likes being lied to. haha so we go one there is a scripture that explains it in DyC 93:24 that truth is a knowledge of things how they are and how they were and how they will be. something that we know that never changes. the truth is the only time we can recieve blessings from god is when we show our love and are obedient to what he asks of us. that is truth and if you dont believe it or dont have a testimony of it it is because you arent being obedient and as we know you can only recieve a testimony AFTER the trial of your faith. Be obedient try it out . test the Lord. it only will work out for your good. and hey, if by chance it doesnt work (which it will) then really what have you wasted besides a little bit of effort and a little bit of time. which would have been wasted on something else anyways.

keep working hard keep being the best. i know that this is all true and the more we dedicate ourselves the more the lord shows his love towards us. have a great week! LOVE YOU!

87 Days Left!!!!

hey everyone sorry about last week. i just got confused. so funny thing mom wrote on the blog in the first time in i dont know how long and said it must have been the temperature haha well this week or last week or whenever 55 degrees. thats pretty hot .. haha but yeah. so thats funny.

 I am getting transfered this week to jerez de la frontera. its in cadiz and they are known for how bad they speak the language haha so i probably wont be coming home speaking anything but blab haha. but no stress. lets see here. live is good apart from that. Pres. Deere and his family came to church and spoke. they gave good talks and he challenged the ward to have everyone help with the missionaries and how that is the only way to help this work move forward. well its true. i testify that its true.right after the meeting a less active kid that we helped come back to church told me that he was going to serve a mission and is starting his papers this week andddd that tomorrow(aka monday night aka tonight) we are going to be giving his girlfriend the first lesson. haha we are pretty excited.  i havent had a baptism in my whole mission unless they contacted the missionaries orrrr it was a member reference. which means. basically that i have gotten now probably thousands of futures and of them and my knowledge so far not one has been baptized. buttt that doesnt mean it wont happen it just is more effective. so think about that. who can you help come to Christ? it will help your testimony and it will help theres. and whats the worst that could happen? they are going to say no? well i have had rocks thrown at me. been shot with bb guns and been yelled names for the last 2 years. trust me .. you guys can do it. 

 apart from all that im glad to leave sevilla for the heat. they say its a little bit colder down where i am going which will be way nice. haha. not too much but enough . haha. anyways we played soccer today and lets see today we are going to write in peoples books and get all the stuff packed. i havent started and all my clothes are dirty. which means i have to wear longsleeve tonight .haha i hate when this happens but sometimes you just dont have time and if you do it over night then it sits there in the heat of everything and becomes super stinky anyways haha soooooo thats no bueno. anyways im excited for this week .we are hittin up the last area of the mission and just partying and working hard. know that i love you all and pray for you all thanks for you love too. its much needed and appreciated haha. you are all champions. remember small and simple brings big and great. :D

94 Days Left

Okay So Brad didn't send us a group email today!  I guess the heat is getting to him.  But there were pictures on the mission blog so we know he is alive!

101 Days left!!!!

ok well first things first! 

 Mario and Marius got baptized yesterday. they are amazing and great examples to so many people. we had a great time with them during the service that we had right after church. haha they were so excited they just couldnt wait any longer. we started to change after church and marius got so excited that his shirt was inside out haha he didnt notice and i dont think anyone else did either. but its ok. little minor detail haha. anyways mario as well started to cry when he was giving his testimony and it was  really powerful. they just are going to be such great members and when they turn 19 their dream is to serve a mission and go and convert a couple of 13 year olds too. so they have great desires. 

Also we have been working with some members and trying to get in to teach some of their family and stuff. well yesterday the mother of out ward mission leader(he served a misison in logan utah) made us some brownies and ice cream and we taught them. we had already done some service for them in the past and have a great relationship with them so now its trying to move into teaching them about the gospel and helping them see the beauty of it. so we taught them and they have SO MANY QUESTIONS! we love that as missionaries. man ask away. as long as they arent the typical dumb questions that no one really cares about. but she had some great questions so we said that we could pass by other times and for her to write down the questions and we will show her. we feel like we will need to use the bible a lot with her seeing that she uses it a lot with her religion but it wont be too hard to help her find the knowledge and the truth especially as she opens up and understands more and more of the restoration. she has a lot of questions about the plan of salvation and we are really excited to start teaching her daughters and stuff.typical. anyways this was a great week we are just having aa great time in this august heat. of death. haha its hot here but its not stoppin how hot we are.. we on fire haha. anyways im tired and we have to catch a train back to sevilla we are in cordoba today to se ethe mesquita and stuff typical apostate stuff that is cool to take pictures of. anyways. i love you all. keep on chugging the gospel is true! MUAH

108 days left

haha ok so i would just like to say that this week has been a lot cooler it has been like 35 degrees the mornings have been the best. butttt towards the end it started to get warmer again. 40 to 42 degrees and yesterday 45 which is 113 degrees. this week is supposed to be hot so between 45 and 50. haha carson and abby. ill go to your family vacations and you can come to sevilla and do missionary work :D  haha. i thought that was funny. andddd i thought the fire alarm was funny as well. haha. 


im glad you all got to get away for a little bit. haha and the funny memories. i dont remember who sent them but they were good ones i like the refreshners haha. they were funny moments.  haha. anyways life is going really well. news of the week is that jamilia came home from romania last week! so mario and marius are getting baptized this sunday right after church. we are really excited for that haha they have been waiting for like 3 months they were supposed to get baptized before i got to sevilla. but with all the family stuff going on.. so needless to say they are really excited and they asked us to do it. so we are working on that. other than that just trying to get people to listen to us. nothing really new there. 


but i was reading in jesus the christ this week i decided to read it this transfer and i am on the last chapter so it has been a great study guide haha elder barney thinks its better than the student manuel that they have .. anyways i was reading this week about the apostles and the way he explained pauls experience and how he didnt hesitate once he knew to be baptized and to fight . one of the lines that called my attention the most was that it didnt matter the errors of saul of tarsus because paul the apostle gave his all. and i remember hearing the talk by pres. uchtdorf about how people are waiting for that experience and i feel like we all have one that is great even if its great in our own eyes. its that change that is going on .. it was a cool way of looking at it. i dont know i thought it was interesting and he is one of my new favorite apostles and his story and how he didnt hesitate in following through once he knew about it. he is just a champion. anyways. that was my week. thanks for the love and support haha miss you all! have a great week!

115 Days left!!!

well this week was really good not too much to complain about. haha. we got a handful of new people. really we are excited about that we will see if they go anywhere but its nice to have some new faces. we set some baptismal dates with a couple of them but we will see how promising they become. but its exciting. im super exhausted. i cant even describe how tired i am. just all over the place i feel like i will be home in november and will literally sleep for a week. haha but its ok. we are moving onward and upward. WE are excited for this week, haha today we are going site seeing. that is always an exciting thing to do ... feel a little bit like anormal person but its ok. ummm. i dont know what real exciting things have happened. we bought a jamon leg. haha we feel really spaniard! haha its so DELICIOUS! too. haha. raw pig leg that has been sitting in salt for the last 2 years. really nothing like it. haha. anddd. on sunday in priesthood the guy that was teaching said that the really obedient people are going to be the prophets kids and the non obedient ones are going to be chinese communist kids ( the obedience came from the pre existence) haha there was an elder translating and he just stopped talking. haha sometimes some of the things that come up in classes in spain are quite questionable. haha it got taken care of though so no stress.

i dont know what you really want to know. or anything i dont feel like there is anything really different. walking in the heat contacting and teaching .. thats about all right now im learning a ton and am still going strong so no need to worry. haha thanks for all you do i love you all!!!

122 Days left!!

wow what a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im exhausted im just so tired. dia de diamonte was amazing we got a ton of futures in the mission we almost got 3000 which was our goal. not quite we got about 2146 but it was still so close! oh man. but the thing is we saw the temperature and it was 47 degrees. we were just like noooooo!!!! so we took out our phone and did the conversion so that we could tell you how hot that is... 115 degrees. trying to talk to people haha. my shirt was so wet with sweat it was gross haha but .. such is the mission.

 elder barney is a champion we are just getting along so great just trying to do it the best we can. he ends the same day that i do so we are excited for that. then... lets see we have had we dropped a family that was sad. we dont know if the two kids mom will get back this week or not yet so their baptism is still in process... kind of. thats just a frustrating thing. and then besides that we are just looking and teaching having fun. thats the life haha. anyways

so you met presidente clegg? that is really cool he is a great man! thats great that you went to his talk and everything!! that makes me happy. haha and carson THROWING UP?!?!?!?! i think that i will have a little bit of scared to go into that bmw when i come home i have only thrown up once in my mission and it was becasue of that stupid gespacho... its that season again.. i drank it once and i kept it down... barely hahaha. but anyways so we are working on that. but other than that. just a normal week. 

thanks for all you do!!! you guys are champs!!!! i love you! :D have a great week!

129 Days left!

alright so i wrote down some things to send off to you so that you can keep updated on my week. i dont have a whole lot of time and ill try to get it all in.......

first offf. transfers. im getting a new companion his name is elder barney. im excited he is a good guy i was with him in the madrid mtc and havent seen him since so this will be fun he is a hard worker. im going to mess gibson because he is a champ i dont think there was one day that we didnt laugh our faces off. and thornley is getting his new compy on tomorrow. haha. so yeah. thats whats going on. another transfer another companion but its what it is. i guess. i dont know how i feel about it we will see. thennnn....

the new blog. is 

 thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com its the same as the other one except it says the at the beginning. so yeah just be patient she is an amazing mission mom im excited for them. they are great we met them on wed. so that was fun. they are a great family.

thennnn.....

 funny story yesterday we lefft a cita and were going to go do the numbers for the week and call the other missionaries and this guy stops us and  says he wants to quit smoking so we say ok. he was drunk as can be almost fell over a couple of times. i didnt want to be a part of the contact so i kind of just stood to the side. so ... haha yeah sometimes i need to work on stuff. he started going off on weird things and i just didnt know what to say but then we were like ok lets go and we got his number and gave him a card and stuff. the normal. haha well then he grabs elder thornley on the shoulders and is just like asked him for a kiss. hahahahahaha. i was like woah. and thornley was just like no sir. and put his arms out haha. THis man wanted to kiss him!!!! oh my gosh .. so me and elder gibson are just trying not to laugh at this man in his face and elder thornley gives him his hand to shake and to leave and the man kisses his hand 2 times! haha oh my gosh i just started walking away and we go around the corner and fetching just started dying.!!! thornley was on the verge of throwing up and the man was saying BYE GUAPOS like the whole time we were leaving hahahahaha. oh my gosh. it was awesome. so if that doesnt make you feel grateful that you arent in spain in the heat i dont know what will. haha im loving it. so many great people and just weird stuff. anyways have a great week i love you all!

136 days left!

what a week! well with the heat and the eurocup people have been hard to talk to but we got a baptism! funmilaya and felix. they are a couple from nigeria. they are so sweet and were so prepared for the gospel. they have a cute little daughter named precious and a son named tobi. they are so funny. i love them. they are a great family. so yeah . then we changed mission presidents and he seems really cool. we will meet him on the fourht of july at a zone conference we are all pretty excited. he has already gone out with missionaries and met with their investigators and stuff which is really cool. he is younger and has a lot of ganas de ayudar. he is a stud. other than that we are just getting along great here in our trio. elder thornley will be with us til next week cause the transfers end next week and he is training so yeah just one more week then who knows what will happen . . .

 

 alright so this week i dont know the eurocup was crazy. tons of people just yelling and honking that was fun. we were in piso there was no point in leaving no one wouldve listened haha. so i read the book of mormon and we had a member text us when goals happened and stuff. even though it wasnt needed you could hear the whole world yell and boo and stuff. haha. but they said it was a shame game 4 to 0 in a final is pretty... rough.

 

so everyone around here is happy. i feel like there was so much to say but right now i just cant think too much. we have quite the week ahead of us. the weather acutally these last couple of days hasnt been too bad. we have been around 30 degrees instead of 40 or 45. i dont know the change i only remember that 40 is about 104 over there. they say that its supposed to raise up again this week to be about 45 to 50 ... its going to be insane. anyways im excited to meet pres. Deere. he is a champ and we are just on top of the world right now. anyways hope all is well have a great week!!! LOVE YOU!! KEEP SMILING! and try not to ruin the cars anymore.. i thought that was my job!:D

143 days left!!!!

so this week because we are getting more missionaries we got a companion we are in a trio. his name is elder thornley he is the same time in the mission as me and a really hard worker .. he is funny too so we are having a great time. so he will be with us for 2 weeks until he gets his kid to train. so that is exciting. umm this week has been one of the most frustrating because ... we lost practically all of our investigators because they all got jobs. we dont know what we are going to do its super upsetting but with the crisis and stuff going on right now its what they need too. so we will see what happens as far as all of that goes here soon. ummm. im trying to think i had a lot to say and i just lost it... haha . i bought a suit. all my pants have worn out. i honestly have walked all of my pants out haha thats nice to know. but it sucks cause i dont have clothes hahaha. just saying. and my shoes are pretty bad. but that will be cheaper ill just go to a zapatero. a guy that fixes shoes and itll be like 5 euros to fix so thats not as big a worry. just some of the mission life. neither of us three have slept very well this last nights because its been hot waking up at 3 or 4 or 5 in the morning just dripping sweat dehydrated and miserable. ive gotten up and drinking a lot of liters of water and then splashing water all over my body and standing in front of our fan until im cold enogh to be able to go back to sleep. it kind of takes a lot of energy out of me. and with the eurocup going on and the heat. not very many people are in the streets so a lot of walking around with no one out. haha its been frustrating but we are getting through we scare a lof of people with 3 of us haha its super funny though. i love it. i have found im addicted to 2 things in life. helping people and making people feel weird haha and contacting with 3 americans makes people feel weird and so i just laugh a lot. which also takes a lot of energy out of me. so anyways like i said we have lost a lot of good investigators. they wil all get baptized soon and the blessing we have been finding some really good people as well. so im in no situation to complain we are doing really really really well. we should be baptizing a couple this weekend it should go through . there arent any problems. except with the ward. they are africans from nigeria.. my first africans. they dont speak spanish and they dont have papers so its hard for the ward to hep them out. but we know they are ready and translation is part of life now. so haha. anyways we will see if that happens this weekend .. other than that life is pretty much the same. jsut tryuing to get t hrough the day and all. so i hope that your week is a great one!! happy end of june.. (so weird) and yes our president is leaving on friday. that is weird as well. but we are excited for presidente deere. we have heard a lot of good stuff from him and should be meeting him soon. haha anyways i love you all!!!

June 18, 2012

crazy crazy week..... oh man.

So last week this guy contacted us and he ended up being amazing we werent thinking to much of him he is a spaniard and he came to church the next day i dont know if i mentioned him last week i dont really remember but he is just the best man ever he is changing my life hahahe is so funny and he wants to be baptized so bad. he gave up smoking opractically already and its seriously has just been a blessing in my life after a week to know him. he  has such a crazy story he almost read the book of mormon when he was 18 but something got in the way and now he stopped us and he went on saturday to a baptism and it was for one of the pueblos so he wasnt able to see the confirmation so all day yesterday he was upset cause he wants to see the second poart.  he will get baptized and he is the first spaniard that i will be  a part of the baptism which is kind of big in our mission seeing as they are opretty closed off. but its ok they are opening up they are stopping from calling us jehovas witnesses so much haha and mormons which is actually good now.. we dont care what they say to us as long as they know who we are hahaha its just funny.  umm what else  the 2 boys arent going to get baptized until july now cause their mom wont get home til then. they are just the saddest ive ever seeen poeople be. they want it so bad and yeah. they love john cena haha so we get the info on the wwe haha they are the best ever.  and then the nigerians that we are teachin g. they are crazy. they are funny though pretty much i just am having the time of my life we are working with great people and we just laugh all day. but its so hot so its like the little things make us super happy haha and we are going crazy. the heat gets to us really really fast.                                 i mighit wear  a jacket all year round next year when i get home haha. anyways this was a really good week we  did a lot of service and it was good for us  a little bit of a change from the normal. but life goes on. this time right now is going by way too fast. i cant believe it. haha anyways you are all the best i love you all and miss you all have an amazing weeek!!!!

Day 562

ok so since its such a problem with the address and i dont even get letters from you ... :D haha here is our address here in sevilla..

 

 elder bradley

 C/ avenida alcalde juan fernandez #25, 8C

 41005 Sevilla (sevilla)

 

 just so if there are any problems there you go :D haha

 

lets see.... the two boys ended up NOT getting baptized cause of some stuff that happened in the family. we are going to go drop by soon and see what the deal is but they bailed the day before so it was a stressful week running around for what seems to be nothing. for now. but they will get baptized we know it. so no worries its just a matter of when. but while we were walking around on saturday morning this guy stopped us and not thinking really we invited him to church. he came and loved what he heard it was amazing and we had our lesson on repentance and he said he has been trying to do that for the last year so we are excited for him he says he wants to be baptized after coming some more.. he is spaniard and if he follows through with getting baptized will be my first spaniard that i will teach that will get baptized. ha its insane. so there are miracles that are happening. Elder gibson is my favorite companion to contact with cause he has such a good attitude about it and we just laugh off all the bad things that happen. he makes it worth while i honestly dont have more fun doing it than now.

 

WOW, i cant believe that we have 3 missionaries out right now!!!! That is insane!!!!!! and that is just in our ward.. its starting to feel like a normal utah ward finally!! haha that makes it like 6 missionaries that have gone that i remember. there was william taylor, the daughter of the thompkinsons jake and then me and now chett and darren. thats kind of just craziness. but its cool. the mission is the best i absolutely love it. anyways this week was stress full and the typical and more problems are happening and so we are taking it one step at a time. tomorrow we are saying bye to president and then getting ready for the new guy to come. we are pretty nervious. anyways. i love you all have a great week!!!!

Day 555

Sorry but he didn't send his new address. That is crazy! but it has been a busy week!

hey everyone so this week was awesome we had a good week. my comp and i are getting along great we are doing a lot of work we have 8 people that have dates for baptism our goal is to baptize every week and so far we are set up for the except for the 23 but this lady walked into church and asked us what she needs to do to be baptized so we are going to meet with her tonight and get that going for that day. we are excited we are growing and just getting a lot of work done haha. its so much fun. ummmm. lets see. i feel like i have so much to say but at the same time no. last week we just had to deal with transfers and then getting adjusted to the new area im really really excited for sevilla there is a _TON of work to do and we are just going to town. haha running around i feel like with the work and the heat i just havent stopped sweating its gross. but its nice to know the work is happening. haha. umm my companion is Elder Gibson he is from mesa arizona he is just like my new lover we just havent stopped laughing since we have been together. its helping keep the mood in a positive note. ummm we are finishing up taking everythnig out of alcala today and taking it to sevilla im excited for that . except there is air conditioning in alcala and there isnt in sevilla so its going to be a sucky summer i dont know how im going to survive with the heat with just a fan. haha anyways you guys are awesome i hope your week is amazing!!! keep living it up and being as happy as can be! loveyou!!!!!!

Day 548

alright i got a ton of things to get through this email in so little time. so ill try to get through it i honestly have like 5 minutes i got caught up in the blog hahaha africa opening up again how cool?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

it really is cool. so listen i am leaving this wedensday to get transfered. haha me and philly lasted a transfer together and we actually did A TON together! so lets start... this last week we just had a rollercoaster ups and downs and all arounds and every day i came home with a headache with all of the crap and drama of peoples problems. its ok though we got called on thursday and they are closing alcala to missionaries due to lack of missionaries. there are 13 going home this week and we are only getting 4. so for this next transfer there wont be missionaries. but you might be wondering whats going to happen with all of the investigators?? welll this last weekend we had 2 baptisms. Angela and Thelma both decided to  get baptized. try getting a baptism together in 2 days. and then another one in an hour haha. a lot of stress but they wanted it. we did not force it upon them because we were leaving they just decided it was a good time as well. so we are  really happy and releived. but you still might be wondering. but elder bradley you still have other people you are teaching. well im going to Sevilla. im going to be a missionary with a really good hard working elder named Gibson. he is funny i love him. the thing is we are taking over 3 areas now the normal elder area in sevilla. then the hermanas area because they are taking hermanas out and as well alcala. so we are going to be super busy now and there are lots of baptisms coming up with all of the work and areas and its going to come down to just good planning. haha i am excited and this week was just full of the spirit. we are happy and we are just working hard. the last 6 months is the time to really shine we know all the stuff and its just putting it to practice. and what better way to start than to just get going on everything haha. oh man. im so happy right now. and so sad cause im leaving haha but its not as bad as philly because he is going away for sure. anyways you are all awesome i dont think i have felt the spirit of helping people more than this last week. or the fruits of it. i am so happy and i know that through examples lives are changed. you are all examples to me and i am so happy and glad to be a part of all of  your lives. and to have you in mine. Spain is growing, people are ready for the gospell!!! and this is the truth! and i love it. havea great week! and dont go crazy with that new beamer dad. ... i might need to borrow it when i come home??? that would be a great birthday present :D

Day 541

alright I don't have that much time we are going to a cathedral today ans we are excited. It's still hot but it has cooled down a lot this week just to go up it rained yesterday and last night the thunder was really really really intense.  my comp was laughing at me because it was going a little crazy.  It as like 10 seconds long each  one and then with the lightning strike right after and then another 10 second thunder....it was just craziness haha.  other news we work up to 2 cockroaches.....im slowly coming over my fear of little bugs and stuff.  hahah i didn't jump up on the desk this time just the couch haha.  a little progress I guess....haha so we are having good lessons on our part still but people just want to wait so we need to respect that but at the same time the reasons that they are waiting are dumb and not helping things but. if thats what they want. as well transfers are coming up I don't think I am leaving I don't know why I would but I have a little bit of a feeling that I could be leaving just a gut feeling thing so thats just what it is. anyways other than that we are doing really well. im excited to go to sevilla it is going to be a good day today. the time is flying by right now its gong by really fast just trying to do what we can.  haha anyways love you have a great week!!!!!!

Day 534

weelllllll skyping was the best! it was so great talking to you all! we are just doing great and the family loved getting to know you guys and enjoying the jokes and the good times haha they just wish that their english was better hahaha. and i was thinking about it i hope that my spanish doesnt sound like yours haha and if it did when i started well im glad i was in the mtc haha .just kidding its all jokes we all go through it. but it was great ... we are doing really good just the highs of the whole just finished talking  to my family dealio was just going through the roof. we are doing great all the missionaries are on their high stools right now haha there is nothing like family love and i am grateful for my family and the support you all give me through all the things that i have gone through in my life. . . its good that we have families and that is what is missing in so many peoples lives out here in spain.but its good. thats what we are helping them realize. but its ok.

today we are just going to go bowling and live it up with a couple of the other missionaries around here talk about the family and all the stuff that happened this weekend and stuff haha its a hot topic to see how everyone is doing and stuf haha we are pretty pumped. but i dont have much to say i dont like repeating myself too much we are just going on doing well. its super hot its just a problem that is going to have to be dealt with in these parts haha and the family i was with was just making fun of me last night cause it was so hot they say this is still nothing which is still imprssive to me cause its so miserable. i dont know why people choose to live here hahaha. anyways. 

 you are all awesome HAPPY MOM DAY!!! to all the mothers out there. you guys are the best! keep rockin it enjoy these last 6 months with out me cause then you are stuck with me haha anyways it was great t alking with you all! i love you!

Day 527

well mothers day in spain was yesterday so happy mothers day to all you mothers out there!!! lets see next week is mothers day for the american continents sooooo we will chatt it up! we just talked to the guy here at the locutorio and he doesnt open on sunday til 6 in the afternoon so we will be here and ready then but knowing spain it might be a little crazy so between 6 and630which for you guys will be 10 or 1030 so just be ready at 10 and we will get from there. :D good? good! lets see. this week was good there are a lot of people we are teaching that have said that the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith could be a profet. well they say that and then we ask them to be baptized and they just dont want to be mormon. haha. sometimes i dont understand the reasoning of some people. honestly. but whatever. its their choice i feel good because at least its not on my head anymore i did my part. we are dropping lots of people we dropped over half of our investigetor pool this last week and have more to do this week. sooooo... that just means hittin the streets more .. again. like the last 18 months. haha. oh well the lord knows. funn story. carson is struggling with the whole grocery shopping business right now. well elder phillips and myself figured out a solution to our problems. we got with a member who has a big van and she took us to a store that you buy in bulk the stuff andd it came down to us spending 200 euros on food. but no need to stress we are good for at least the next 3 months haha. our fridge has never looked better neither our freezer... and on top of that neither our cupboards haha. plus we have been getting food from members so we are just feeling like a utah mission right now hahaha. cool story angela... she is colombian. she is going to get baptized. we just dont know when. when she feels like giving up smoking we went by last night... she just called me .. haha. and we are going by tonight. but last night we were there and she brought up baptism by herself and said she wants to do it but doesnt want a fecha. the lord has been talking to her through scriptures last week she just opened up and started reading and she read ALMA 6.. look it up. it was kind of like woah! we were excited and since then there has been a lot of progress she came to all 3 hours of church and is seeing lots of blessings hopefully this week she will decide to finally do it. ummm other than that things have just been frustrating. but its ok. we are getting through it all. haha :D well thats about all i have right now. we are getting along great looking for miracles trying to live life to the fullest and loving and serving everyone. some people are rude to us and throw things at us and call us names that i dont understand the need, but last night elder phillips asked me "if you went up to someone and offered 1000 dollars and they rejected would you feel bad?" and i said ... hmmm probably not. its their decision. i would just feel bad that they arent accepting help.. he said. that is how i feel right now about the people here. just remember that in life it doesnt cost 1 cent to be nice. and that we feel better about ourselves when we are. its their decisions to not accept our friendship but really its their loss right? This is the good life. we are blessed.and we are just living in great times. dont let others get you down out there. have a great week! this is the true church the lord loves us all! we will talk on sunday! ciao!

Day 520

hey yall so first off all. Elder phillips mom hasnt gotten back to him but im guessing we are going to keep it on the normal time and do it at 5 o clock spain time and i think that will be around 9 o clock your time. haha so we can just do that and keep it the norm .. its weird because its going to be the last time we talk until i get home. its going by so fast. so tomorrow is tuesday its my 17 month mark and i have 6 months left . the last leg of the race to speak. haha lots of work to do and a crazy ride weve been on. i still cant believe what has happened to me the changes and the blessings and miracles that have happened to me and us the last 17 months of my life. its weird to think we are already here this far and all the stuff that is to still come and happen. Well this week was good we had a good training with the president and his wife and we have a lot of work and are looking for more still haha. its weird how that works but its the life. we are having fun and making goals and working towards those life is good. i feel like our investigators arent really going anywhere but we are in that . we are looking we are contacting and knocking but there is this agency factor that just gets in the way and its frustrating but we are learning. haha we are helping our mission is having so many miracles right now its amazing we are excited. well this one is short but life is good. we will let you know soon about the time . ill let you know by next monday for sure. so keep it open as much as possible haha love you all!! keep smiling!

day 513

This week was a good week. transfers are always crazy haha because i have to do everything it feels like because my comp doesnt know anything or anyone. which is fine we did a lot of teaching which is fun. i guess. haha. we are just doing the stuff that we need to be doing. trying to get people to come unto christ and helping others do the best that they can in this life. i have seen so much on my mission and i feel so sad. that people choose to live the lives they live and not accept anything better. but its what they choose all we can do is offer it. there have been tons of miracles. dad asked if the girl on the blog was the girl i was asking about last week. it was. and yes that was us sewing as well haha. lets just say its a good thing that people dont stare at the hemming jobs and that they stand in a tank of water haha it wasnt our best job it was more of a lets get this thing done and on the road haha it was really a powerful experience though.

Well this week should be a good one we are just trying to get people to do stuff. but no one wants to so we feel kind of .... i dont know frustrated. ive been trying to figure out what it means to live up to your potential. i feel like people have said that to me a lot but... then its like i never thought much of it just trying to do my best, but seeing people here i just look at people and its like ... you have a good life but you could have a better life just give up smoking. haha AHHHH sometimes i hate agency but when people dont do things that we ask after they say that they will do it it kind of makes me think of like me... when the lord asks me to do stuff and i say ok and then i dont do it. just a lot of learning experiences. life is really good. i cant complain really its easy we get a lot of stuff done for us and we just focus on helping other people we are trying to find ways of getting over being rejected so much. english is getting hard to type and stuff. i speak so much spanglish and spanish haha it just is weird. we have the americans in our ward and i cant translate for them cause i forget words in english haha. its just funny. anyways ... may is coming up. mothers day is coming up. aka skype day is coming up. we will get details as that comes up closer but just start getting ready cause as you all know it will be the last time we talk and you hear my voice and i hear your voice until i get home. just keep that in mind . love you all have a great week!

Day 506

ok. soooo last week i didnt have much to say but this week. i hope i can get it all in! that said. holy cow! first of all. lessons are being learned over here on my part and from what i hear over there as well thats good, things are going really welll. lets just start off here. Transfers are happening wednesday we got called. i havea curse now of only being with someone for one transfer haha. its a joke though Elder Geest is leaving Alcalá he was a great comopanion and we got a lot done. The Elder that is coming is Elder Phillips, now if you go all the way back to the mtc. he was one of the kids that was in my room then. he was in my district and stuff so we are really really really really excited to be together. he is a great missionary and really fun so news to come with that.
alright so lets get to the miracle. yesterday we had this lady come to church we have been working with her since i have gotten here. she contacted the missionaries and there is a lot of .... trials with that. mainly she is just scared out of her mind that after baptism she will go start sinning again so we had a meeting with her last week and she said on sunday she would give us date to get baptized. The other elders in our district had a baptism last night and we took her too it so that she could feel the spirit and stuff, we have taken her to like three other ones as well. so at church this lady sat by her who is really bold and was like why dont you get baptized tonight?? i mean we can go fill up the font right now. haha and she was just like noo... thats weird. Well we went home and we were kind of talking about it we were worried that we would lose her so we called the other elders and were talking with them and they were like yeah go for it . suprise baptism! that would be the best! haha so we got elder geests clothes. Thanks to having a loving mother and sisters i hemmed them by hand for him (they look great) haha and we got all of the stuff ready then we started talking about faith and in moroni 7:33 and christ says if you have faith in me ye shall have faith to do whatsoever thing that is convinient to me ( bad translation im sure i only know it in spanish) and so we talked about our faith and we got down on our knees and said lord this is possible this is your call we are ready for whatever. we got on the bus and asked her if she wanted to get baptized and we said why not tonight? and she said ok. so we got there and had the interview she was really scared and nervous and the other lady that was getting baptized was like why do you want to get baptized? and our investigator told her and she was like perfect i cant think of any other reason and just so you know im more nervous now than i was for my wedding. so we got her baptized last night and it was a really really cool experience and we were so happy and the spirit was so strong and she is amazing and she will get confirmed on sunday and it was a really cool testimony on faith and how when we do all we can (even if it causes us to poke our fingers multiple time with needles cause we dont have a machine to hemm pants) that the Lord is willing to do the rest and touch the hearts of the people. there are many more miracles coming our way and we are getting in to a lot of doors and with a lot of people. Thanks for all you are doing i love you all keep smiling and keep being happy and enjoy the blessings thats who we are! love you!

Day 499

hey so this week was good we met weird people we are just trying to do what we always do. life is good we are having a district p day. we are going to go to the nike factory today and look around and then go bowling haha we are excited haha. Semana Santa was better last year than this year cause we were in a city and now im just in a pueble but its still pretty crazy haha they just worship idols and get drunk and then say they beleive in God and everything so we say let us share a message about him and they say no. its been frustrating but life is good we are happy i guess. we are going to have a day full of contacting this friday its turning into a real big project im kind of really excited to just have a whole day of just contacting. i think too many people get caught up in teaching and working with people that arent progressing and wasting time. but we are excited. life is good. friday will be a big day. this last week not much has happened we found a guy that has a ton of potential we are actually really excited for him. i dont have much to say this week. be happy be healthy and we will talk next week! love you all! haha keep remembering who you are and what you stand for (for mom)

Day 492

SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... im super tired. haha i feel like i always am and even when nothing is going on i feel like there is always tiredness around me. This week was a rough week it felt like we did a lot but we just got failed a ton and a ton. it kind of felt like a week where we did missionary things not necesarily missionary work. Which is hard to seperate the differnce but i dont know. anyways. Conference was amazing i had a great time listening to the Apostles and Prophets. I had Tons of questions and it seemed like they all got answered in the first session hahaha so we wrote more and have recieved tons of inspiration. we are learning a lot about the atonement . we had a sweet experience last night after conference, one of our investigators Linda iwas there with us at the sunday morning session (which really was at 6in the afternoon) and we gave her a paper to write stuff down she ended up writing down 4 full pages of inspiration and things she liked, right after she said she had way too much to work on to get baptized, she has been hiding a couple doubts from us and we have been trying to get them out, fasting and praying, so we just didnt leave her alone until she told us. 10 at night on sunday on a park bench the truth came out and now we can really help her progress, she has been struggling with some stuff for many years, we were able to get her to understand how important prayer is in her life and how through christ all things are forgiven, it was a really spiritual experience and super powerful to see that mighty change of heart that is talked aobut in mosiah, we were walking home and talking about the day as a normal activity and i told Elder Geest that the thing we just witnessed and were a part of will probably be more powerful and more gratifying and special than any baptismal ceremony that we would be a part of for the rest of our mission. So many people get caught up in the baptisms, that, in all reality. isnt something that we can control or promise will happen with anyone. i think that people need to be more focused on the repentance adn the willingness of using the atonement of christ in our lives and in the lives of others. Elder Geest told me that one of his questions that didnt get answered in the Conference was about the Atonement, there were many talks about it and there will be many more but i feel like its one of the things that you can hear all day but until you experience it or see the works in the life of another person it doesnt have that lasting impression. Like President Monson has said in the opening of the conference if there is anything that needs to be changed in your life change it. if there is anything that you need to do, Do it. there is nothing more important than the Gospel and the atonement is the center of that gospel. Have a great week. i hope a big egg laying rabbit comes around to greet everyone and give some chocolate haha i will be trying to not get yelled at or have rocks thrown at me or anything while semana santa goes on.. it started yesterday so news to come on that. Have a great week love you all!

Day 485

ok lets see, this week was great, we only had 1 morning to do all of our normal work i guess you could say. like seriously all of our mornings were taken away from us and we still did a butt load of work. thinking back on it all i dont know how we got the amount of lessons as we had. its amazing haha we keep imagining if we had all of our time to do everything. haha anyways. its ok we arent mad. i got my residency card taken care of so i wont get kicked out of spain thats a good thing haha happy moment of the week. we also went to a baptism last night with one of our investigaters, she is from nicaragua and super funny, she is with a friend but her friend doesnt really want anything to do with us, she listens but she likes the worldy things too much, so anyways we hit up that baptism and she has a date for this weekend it wasnt super set it was kind of a lazy date but after seeing the baptism she wants to get baptised. she tried to tell us she would do it in nicaragua. but then the convincingness that comes from the elder bradley that we all know and love came out and she said she would give us a set date where she wont back down the next time we meet with her. so we are excited. we are really happy. haha good things are happening. we are trying to do more but there just is no time or energy. running up and down hills all day like literally haha i love it but i am going to be in such good shape ill probably be in wal mart after the mission and buy everything in 15 minutes cause it will just get done like that haha. its funny. anyways other cool things from this week. i cant really think of much else. we had our specialized training and we talked a lot about personal revelation thats kind of been the focus for president lately before he leaves. i guess. anyways he told us some cool things. we are the top baptizing mission in spain. that has never happened before, we are on track for our goal of 404 plus baptisms for this year. last year we got 325 and that has never happened in our missions history. so we are just going onward and upward with everything that we are doing. we are really excited and happy to be here. haha he went to a mission president conference and said that in other places they got on the plane and it was -17 C and here its 20 or 25 degree C so we are just being blessed a lot.

Elder Geest is an animal. his sister was in my zone in the MTC so i knew him a little bit i have met him once before and we are both really happy to be companions right now we jsut laugh all day really running and laughing i guess that could be the theme of this transfer, he is a hard worker and he says that im always happy. for example last night when we were at the baptism we had to run to catch the bus but we missed the one we wanted because after nine they leave at a different stop. its ok. the only problem is that the next one didnt leave til 11. our investigator watches a grandma and was late for work and she was freaking out and there was this other lady that had missed it as well so we just started get to know you questions for like 30 min and everyone was having a good time. it was kind of cool. but then we got home and we were hungry so we go to the kitchen and there were ants crawling everywhere by the sink ( this wasnt the first time that it has happened we had bought spray and stuff and havent had this problem for a couple weeks) but then i was like we should make a video on our cameras of the disasters in the ant world "and now more on the floods happening in sink island next to the volcano from stovetop" haha we didnt end up making a video but we were just laughing and stayed up pretty late cleaning. its ok though. mission life. no need to fret we havent had cockroaches.... yet. i havent had problems with those in my mission like other elders have had. im praying that i still dont have to but one never knows.

Well things are going great.. Ryker is getting big. cache looks like lance. we are happy and healthy keep being happy. happy spring and enjoy conference! love you all!!!!

Day 471

This week was really cool we live on just hills. its kind of crazy but we have been running back and forth and everywhere to get to citas and stuff. i hope i lose wieght haha. ummm its really hot here kind of... but the people say its still nothing i wear a sweater because it gets cold at night and its pretty windy here. buto ther than that its just super hot. i might die this summer haha ill be ok really though. we have been busy. i have to do my residency stuff so its been kind of a hassle to go to sevilla to do it but i should have like one more stop there this friday to get all the final paperwork done and then just wait til the do it and im done with it. ummm there have been some cool experiences that have happened. we did a contacting activity in sevilla on saturday and we went on exchanges iwth other missionaries and i was with an elder in my district we decided to split up so that we could contact more people in this park. there was this lady sitting on a bench who was praying to know if god existed because of stuff that was going on in her life and she finished and lifted her head and saw my companion she then said if this is you God have him talk to me and he gave her the first lesson right there. it was cool to hear about the experience. then when we were planning on saturday night for sunday we couldnt think of anything to do on sunday night. so we just left it blank and said that we would do contacts if we didnt think of anything. not the best but. its what we felt. so we called in our numbers and had about an hour left. we thought of a member to pass by. they werent home and so we were getting ready to do some contacting and i thought Jose maria. he is a man that was excommunicated and the girl he lives with is a romanian recent convert. they are really nice. so we went over there and they let us in and they thought we were sent cause they didnt go to church. we talked to them and then Cristina the girl asked about one of the references she had given before i got here we talked to her and she wants to be a missionary so we set up a time to do a noche de hogar with them and set that by general conference they have 2 people for us to teach. they are really excited then they asked for a blessing he is sick and has a hard time sleeping at night so we gave him a blessing and he said he felt very inspired and he was glad that we listened to the spirit to go and visit them last night. the lord works in crazy ways. its like in mosiah 4.9 beleive in God believe he created all things beleive that man doesnt comprehend all that God comprehends. People are ready for the Gospel and they are everywhere. look and pray forr those opportunities. i love you!

Day 464 -- New Address

ok. first off. Abster. dude. you gotta stop sending me forwards i dont read them anyways. ok?? thanks :D second. Alcalá is super awesome!!!!!! here is out address.

C/ avena 7
Alcalá de Guadaira (sevilla)
41500

its super pretty. we have our own chapel! there are a lot of hills! im going to get in shape here haha. especially when we get the work to be to the point where we have to run every where. we have already started doing that a little bit but we have a little bit of a ways to go. we are super happy though. the only problem is that the ward is a little negative. ive noticed that a lot here but we are just going crazy. on saturday we set a baptismal date with this lady . we are excited for here. we have 3 dates for baptism now andddd we got this kid who didnt want anything to do with the church to accept going on a mission. so we will see where that goes as well.

umm today we are in sevilla we are pretty excited .. no hills. haha andddd super pretty lots of things to see and we are going to play soccer on grass. its a rare opportunity. to play on grass. haha. so yeah some elders have talked me up to the members about being goalie and stuff. people i dont know have brought it up its an exciting thing. so today at 330 its going down!!! haha we are so pumped and there are kids in my zone that played soccer in utah with me. ok well against me. i dont really remember them but they remembered me from provo and stuff so i guess its kind of cool. we are going with some of the hermanas to plaza de españa .. its kind of a big deal around these parts im excited to finally see it. haha.

Alcala is cool my comp is awesome we are going to have sucha great time together there is so much potential here and we are just going onward and upward i guess the quote of the week is.
you seldom come accross anything more enjoyable than a happy person.
keep that in mind. we are good. we are happy we are going to change this place. haha love you all thanks for all you do!!!!!!!!!!!! MMUUUAAHHHH

Day 457

so i was in madrid last week and i didnt have time to do emails so i just told mom i was alive so that you all wouldnt worry. so i got to go to the temple and it was so amazing. it was just what i needed right now i miss the temple so much. i did it all in spanish and the person i had to talk to was french haha so... not going into details it was hard and frustrating haha. i feel like its been WAY TOO LONG since ive gone. . . dont let yourselves get that way.
we had to go to madrid cause mendoza had some paperworks to get done. spain is weird. when you have a kid you have to look in their dictionary of names to put the name. sooo his name is jhonny and in the dictionary they have johnny so he had to change it so he didnt have any more problems. kind of frustrating but its ok anyways.
i have some news for everyone. im ... leaving cartagena. i dont know how i feel about it. i love this place so much . buttttt such is life i guess. im going to a pueblo or a little city in the "state" if you can call it that .. the region of sevilla. its called alcalá de .... something. i dont know haha president told me alcalá but everyone around here says something else so ill get more info next week . lets see.
thats about all the exciting stuff. it was a suprise to me to be leaving buttt like i said . oh well. im going on wednesday i leave at 915 in the morning i get there at 630 at night. a long bus ride im not too excited. but oh well.
my new companion is the first on that i know before im with him he is a cool dude so im not worried im actually really really excited to be with him and i have only heard good things about hte area. president told me im going to a house not an apartment and its pretty much a mansion. its the biggest house in the mission for the missionaries so its about time a get treated like a king haha. anyways life is good im happy its weird that its march already time is flying by cartagena feels like a dream haha but anyways im good. ill talk to you guys next weeek! love you!

Day 450

alright this will be short and sweet this week because i dont know what to say but as i go ill probably ramble enough to make it sufficient. this week i saw the importance of a lot of things. little things that have been making a big difference. haha . like always. its always the little things there is a talk by elder holland that is called the tongue of angels. in there he talks about how our tongues are little things compared to our body but they make the biggest difference im trying to remember because i dont have it written down but there was a scripture i want to say in peter im probably wrong its probably matthew but it talks about how the horses have a bit and the things that steer the boats are small but they make a huge difference when turning and stuff. its always the little things that affect us the most. well this week i noticed how small talking the sacrament to people is for us and the difference it makes in their lives. more for the people that cant do it for themselves or come to church and the importance of visiting those we are supposed to well our bishop came with us to this man and his wifes house. that we give them the sacrament every week. they dont ever leave the house because the husband had a motorcycle accident years ago. and is mentally handicapped. well not super bad but bad enough slow to speak and it costs him a lot to keep a conversation going. well he told us how great it is when he is able to take the sacrament and how the missionaries have helped him and his wife, the wife has been having problems taking care of her husband so long and not being able to leave and do the women things she needs in her life .. gossip and stuff haha talking basically. so we invited them to come one hour every week to sacrament meeting after some doubts they accepted and we will see them next week. we are really excited for them though he saw the importance of going to church and letting his wife have an hour a week to be among the members of the church and how he can sacrifice that for her to show his love. it was very powerful to see what really the understanding of a child does to us. so many times we talk about how young joseph smith is and all he did and how the scriptures say that we need to be like children humble meek submissive well i was thinking about that. the people that dont really throw fits about going to church are the kids. i think they understand the importance of going more than others. in the sacred reverence sense. i understand they cant pay attention as long as others and that that comes along with time but looking at the primaria kids when the sacrament is being served they really try their best to be the most reverent. it was just a cool experience. its been so long since they left and its going to be a great testimony to so many members that its possible to endure to the end.they have never given up hope in all the process since the accident its amazing.
we have some good investigators coming out of the woodworks just good people wanting to learn about jesus and how he can bless their lives. we are starting to get more support from the members and starting to see slowly the positive attitudes coming back. we are doing good we are happy i dont think i have been happier in my mission and i think that its ¨harder¨ now than it was in valdepeñas. but its different i dont know whats changed. mendoza is a boss. we are having a great time working hard and just loving the people. dont forget to do the little things decisions made today effect what happens tomorrow. you guys are awesome thanks for all the support and love have a great week!

Day 443

I'd been bugging Brad about sending me pictures. So he went a little crazy on Sis. Clegg's blog.









IM kind of really exhausted this week. it was cold in malaga like it said on the blog but it was a lot warmer than here so then i came back and just got sick its not fun. But i learned a lot there. and i am learning a lot right now about how pride precedes the fall. people are making decisions right now that i guess the affect us as far as the work goes but not to the extent of more than just feeling sorry for them not choosing the right. and i wanted to share something the pres. Clegg shared with us. the difference between simple and easy. its simple the gospel. its simple to have faith enough to repent and to be baptized and to get the spirit and to endure to the end keeping the commandments. its simple but its not always easy. for example people get in the habits of taking the lords name in vain. its simple to know that we should respect that but once caught in a habit .. how hard it is to get out of it. or keeping the sabbath day holy. sometimes its hard to sit in church for 3 hours i know for me it hasnt always been the easiest thing but its so simple to say. i mean if you think about it when you ask the youth a question what are the answers? i doubt they even pay attention to the question cause they always say read pray and go to church. its so simple to understand buy how easy is it to gut up a little bit earlier and read for 15 minutes out of the scriptures or to do home or visiting teaching? its only one time a month!! haha it seems so hard right now but im sure ill have those trials when i get home .. haha and its probably because im in the missionary mode and all im doing is making visits the only thing holding me back from having the visits is the people not letting us in. its simple to understand but its not always easy to do. Everyone has their trials that they are trying to work through we all have our weakness as it says in ether but how beautiful the atonement is that we can through jesus christ turn these weaknesses into strengths. life is really good right now. most missionaries say is hard. all we do is contact an pass by people and get rejected and repeat and repeat and trying to find different ways to do everything haha its ok though. life is good we are chugging. i dont mind it at all. at the beginning of my mission hated doing contacting but something i have learned to hate doing more is nothing. id rather go and get yelled at and laugh at them because of how funny it is than sit around in piso and do nothing haha. Life is phenomenal right now we are so good!!!!! we are progressing as a district and just overcoming our own weaknesses making it the best that we can! i love my mission i love spain its so much fun. and i love being bilinguel haha spanish is actually teaching me more about english haha its kind of cool. mendoza is amazing he is probably my favorite companion and we are just excited to go out and get people to accept us this week. HAppy valentines day!!! live it up this week! love you all!