Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Power of Prayer

Dear Family,

I'm so sorry if you didn't get an email from me today, I will make it up next week I hope. It's been a crazy few days as I did get transferred from my dear Tacoma to a small little town very close to Canada called Sequim (pronounced Squim) It is literally a town right out of a story book and the perfect place to spend Christmas lol. Especially as there are 8 inches of snow on the ground. I was ready for rain but not snow! My wardrobe is not quite fitting lol. Apparently this is the most snow Sequim has had in 25 years. The whole town is in a buzz. It took us 5 hours to get here from Tacoma, they aren't prepared to deal with snowy conditions like Utah is. But alas we are here and we are out meeting the people. I'm over to wards here, Sequim Bay and Happy Valley wards. I'm about 20 minutes out of Port Angeles and an hour or so from Forks. Quite excited to go there for a P-day sometime :) I'm serving with Sister Burgess, she was my mtc companion almost 11 months ago! We are SO excited to back together! We've been hoping for it for sometime! Sequim is wonderful and the work is pushing forth here. I'm so excited to get to be here. There are 5,000 people in Sequim so I figure lots of people are gonna want to be baptized.

It was hard to leave Tacoma. A sweet sweet part member family through me a surprise birthday part with party favors and cake and all. It was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me I think. It was hard to say good bye to them in the same day. Cameron did indeed get baptized on Sunday! It was a pretty amazing service as the ward totally rallied around him and his lest active and non member family. He will be such a blessing to his family. His non member grand parents came down to take him out for dinner and he insisted that they do it at home so that he wouldn't have to break the sabbath right after his baptism. What an amazing eight year old!

My testimony of personal prayer has grown so much over the past few days! I was a little terrified to be coming to Sequim as I've served my whole mission in the city. I got here and although I was charmed by this picturesque town, reality sunk in and I was so scared. I spent a lot of time on my knees. The Lord answers prayers. Humility is key as we sincerely ask for his help, but I can testify that it most assuredly comes as we are humble and seek for it diligently. I'm so excited to be here. I do have a new address for letters, packages are still sent to the one in University place but my new one is

Sister Bradley
812 N. Bakehouse Ct.
Sequim, WA 98382

Thank you for all your emails, Mark I promise to write you next week! I loved your email! Thank you for writting. I hope you all have the most amazing Thanksgiving! So grateful for you all!

Love Sister Bradly

p.s. My dear dear Sister Fox is now training a greenie in Tacoma! I'm so excited for her!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Miracles are still there

Dear Family,

The weather here has taken a turn to colder than cold. I thinking I have more vitamin C in my system than water. I always remember Mom saying I couldn't overdose on vitamin C lol so I'm not too woried about it.

Things were hard this week, but also rewarding. It was one of those weeks where the worst possible thing happens, and yet somehow the Lord strengthens us to bear it. My dear friend Sally has been progressing AMAZINGLY as we've met with her every other day at the chaple with the PERFECT fellowship. She's had three seperate sisters, including the Relief Society President. On Saturday night we commited Sally to baptism for the 21st and she more than just accepted, but was excited! She loved the plan of salvation and we had just taught her the doctering of baptism. However Sunday morning a half an hour before church she called and told us that she was no longer interested and that she's decided to stay with her episcopal church. I neither wish to express in words or want you to know how many pieces my heart broke into as she told us. It wasn't about numbers, or baptisms. I saw the light of Christ shine in Sally's eyes as we taught her. I saw her commitment and excitement to enter into Christ's church. It was a hard day at church as with each lesson I realized was perfect for Sally and just what she needed to prepare her further.

However the Lord has blessed us with a tender mercy as a young boy of an excommunicated mother commited for baptism and his mother gave her consent last night to be baptized next Sunday. I honestly couldn't see this ever happening until he was an adult as his mother didn't seem like she would EVER be willing to consent. But we've been teaching them in her home and at the church for several months now and just this Saturday we took them on a church tour and her heart was softened. Tom didn't get baptized yesterday unfortunately, but he's promised to give it "maximum effort" this next Sunday, he's such a funny old man.

As always I'm realizing reguardless of what I do or share, people will always have their agency. I'm also continually learning that no matter what happens the Lord is in it. I'm motivated to do all I can and let Heaven do the rest. Heaven must certainly be busy here in Tacoma, as despite my many short commings, miracles can be found whenever we sincerely look for them. I love you all!

Love Sister Bradley

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

November 9th 2010

Dear family,

I only have four minutes left! But I have to write! What a week it has been. We've found some really amazing hidden miracles in our area book. We went over all the former investigators and decided to stop by a few of them. Two being Tom and Sally. Tom is an 80 year old man retired from the navy and an intense and devout Catholic. He is always willing to come to service but we loose him at baptism as he always says he's already been baptized. Sister Fox and I stopped by and after not comming to church for 3 months he came after our short visit. So we eagerly prepared a lesson on baptsm focusing on Christ's baptism from Matthew and the spirit was so strong as we taught Tom about the proper baptism. He really likes the idea of being able to choose to be baptized as he was baptized as an infant. As we left we commited him to pray about baptism for the 14th of November and he said yes! He started asking all these questions like what he had to wear and who would be there! He's been an eternal investigator for many missionaries in the Skyline Ward and here is actually commiting to pray about baptism. We're very excited for Tom.

Sally is a woman ironically enough that Sister Fox and I tracted into four months ago. She said she used to meet with the elders but had decided to stay with her church. When we knocked into her we hadn't known she was a former in our area book. As we went through we decided to stop by and when we went by her house four months later, we realized that we had been there before. She invited us in imediately and told us that last time we had stopped by (when we had just tracted into her) she took out the Book of Mormon and tried to read it again, but she has a really hard time with it. We gave her a childrens Book of Mormon to go along with it and now she's just cruizing through it. Unfortunately she was unable to come to church on Sunday, but we hope for next Sunday. She's very smart and in tune with the spirit. As we commited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon she knew what it would mean if she got the answer that it was true. She knows that she'll have to leave her church (an episcopl church, she's very religious), but she is really excited about baptism, as she was baptised as an infant, without it being her choice. She really wants to follow Christ's example. Please pray that her fears won't prevent her from taking that leap of faith.

I'm learning so much. The past transfer has been a hard one for me, I would say full of highs and lows, but its been mostly lows. I am indeed gratefull for those lows, as my mission has been full of high highs. It makes them so much more special. Most importantly I'm learning to rely on my Savior in all that I do. Sometimes its easy to let yourself feel alone, and the adversary is really good at making us feel that way. Its always a choice that we make though. Ultimatly we can choose to look to the Savior and be happy or look away. Any other way leads us to saddness and ultimatly misery. I'm so happy to be sharing His message with His people. I'm grateful for Him. I know that He lives and He loves us so much. If we could only really understand how infinite that love is the world would be so much eager to share it. WE would be more eager to share it, because the world is in great need of the precious knowledge that we have. I love you all.

Love Sister Bradley

Monday, November 1, 2010

Seasons Change

Dear Family,

The weeks seem to go by in Tacoma in the blink of an eye. The rain continues to pour here and I've been informed it will likely do that until next July, and I realized that I won't even get to be here next July. So I think I'll be wet for the rest of my mission ;) Although I really do think it is a blessing. Tracting in the rain is a neat experience, although it is freezing and wet, (my cheeks tend to turn a nice shade of blue) people always are willing to talk to us because we look so... well cold.

We found a wonderful family this week. Erin is the mom of two. She came down on a church tour with her daughter on Saturday and seemed to really enjoy it. We are excited to meet with her tonight to teach the Plan of Salvation. Craig, Amanda's husband is also doing amazing things. He told Amanda last week that he wanted to start attending church every Sunday as a family (with all five kids)! They came to the Halloween part on Saturday and to church on Sunday. We are teaching Craig the discussions and are excited to put him on date tonight for baptism on the 14th of November.

The leaves have all changed color here in Washington and it is beautiful! I love watching the seasons change. It smells like fall outside. For some reason I feel that as the seasons change, people to are become ready for change and we find a lot more people who are willing to listen to our message. I'm sorry to make this short, but we're short on time today. I love you all very much. Thanks for the pictures of Ethan and Scotty! They're so big!

p.s. Tell Mark and Jared to send me an email sometime... I haven't heard from either of them :D

love Sister Bradley