Sept. 20, 2010

My dear Familia,

What a week it has been! An exciting one at that. First we had a baptism! A young man by the name of Joshua was baptized yesteraday at the stake baptism where 6 other people also entered into the waters of baptism. Joshua is a pretty amazing story. He is a single dad of an 18 month old little girl name Mackenzie. The mom is abusive, but fought for custody and Joshua was able to get full custody. He's currently not employed and has had a lot of challenges over the past weeks. He's been fighting a pretty intense virus as well. Because of everything he's only been to our ward twice. But he really wanted to get baptized this weekend. So he came to a ward activity Saturday night, walked up to the bishop, and told him that he wanted to get baptized tomorrow. He and the bishop were in his office for almost an hour and when he came out the bishop just said "Lets baptize him." We were SO excited! He has a long road ahead of him, but I know it will be an easier one because of the choices he has made to follow the example of His Savior Jesus Christ.

Amanda, our investigator that we've been working with for months now also came to the ward activity, but she did something she's never done before! She brought all five of her kids (all under the age of 7) and her husband came! THEY LOVED IT! We're now hoping to prepare Craig (her husband) for baptism on the 10th of October! They are getting there marrige license this week! That is a big family! I love them so much. Craig couldn't come to church because he had to stay home with the two littlest, as they were sick, but Amanda came with the other three girls! They are an amazing family.

We are continuing to see the hand of the Lord in this work as we pray for spiritual sight and understanding. The Lord blesses us so much when we strive to be obedient to his commandments. I'm learning a lot about sacrifice, through my own experience and through witnessing others. When we sacrifice the Lord blesses us so much! I've seen it time and time again. Sometimes the hardest thing to sacrifice is our weaknesses. It takes humility and a sincere desire to follow the Lord, but when we are able to do so we more aline our will with the Lords. I love you all and pray for you!

Love Sister Bradley