Last day of April

Hey! So, this week was alright. I thought it was pretty boring myself. It wasn't the best week for sure. Nothing really exciting happened. I've started writing random stuff that happened, though, so I have stuff to write about. But, this week, I saw a Blockbuster, which I thought was funny, so I decided to tell you guys about it. But, this week we've had a lot of bike trouble. On Monday or Tuesday last week, I fell off my bike once and got a little scraped up. About 2 seconds after that, my companion's pedal fell off. The next day, a little part broke on my bike, so I bought the part to it the other day. It only cost 20 dollars. I thought it was going to be more. And now my companion's bike is broken again. And I'm waiting for some guy in the ward to put the part I bought back on my bike. So, we both aren't riding our bikes. The day my bike broke, though, we were far away from our apartment and we had to get to an appointment, so I had to run with my bike all the way back. It was super tiring and then once we got back, the appointment was canceled and then we had to fast for someone that night, so it was a pretty exhausting day. But, there's honestly not much happening here. Church was fun yesterday because I taught primary and the kids are awesome. I hope you guys are doing well. Keep sending letters and some recent pictures too. I got the pictures you sent me and I like them and I got the letters you sent. It feels like forever ago that I left for a mission now. It's weird. But, I'll be able to skype soon. I'll see if I can do it on the person's skype account that I use. But, send me your skype info or something so I can add you guys as a contact. I've been picking up guitar a little more while I've been here. I've learned some more chords and I'm going to keep practicing. The concert we have will now be on May 15th. I was going to sing a song called Dream Big, but they changed it up now, so now we'll be doing something with a member in our area and a non-member, just so they get more participation. Any thing you want to send me that you think will be helpful with the language, or just anything that I like, feel free to send it. Have a super good week, Elder Brady

What's Uppp?

Hey! So, this week was pretty good! There are a few changes that happened and I wouldn't say I'm really happy with them, but there's nothing I can do about it. So, they decided to do units for each ward. So, now we only have 3 companionships in the English ward and I'm one of them, which means we only teach English people now. I'm afraid my Spanish is going to go down hill this transfer because I don't speak as much now. All of the Spanish investigators that we find, we have to hand them to the Spanish Elders. I still use my Spanish on the street, but not that much anymore. I don't even go to the Spanish Ward. But,that's that. Also, our area that we're in tripled in size and we're still on bikes, so it's gonna be crazy.
But, I like biking a lot. It was tiring for the first week, but I've gotten in good shape, so we are cruising as a companionship now. It has gotten pretty hot here, but it's nothing bad yet. The wind from biking keeps you from sweating, but as soon as you stop, you get drenched in sweat. It even rained here a few days this last week. It was an alright week though. Mothers Day is at the end of this transfer, which means I get to Skype you guys. Idk if I have a Skype account, so that might have to be something that we work out before the time comes. Also, we are having a concert with all of the missionaries on May 9th, which is cool. I'm playing violin for one song and I'm doing a duet with someone for another song. It's going to be at a big park. Members will be coming, investigators, and just about everyone. It's supposed to be a huge turn out. Some of the missionaries will be going around throughout the concert and trying to meet and teach people, so it will be a good missionary activity. So, that's cool. One of our recent converts that lives in our apartments got in a fight the other day. We came at the very end of it. It all started with not keeping dogs on leash. The neighbor had a few pitbulls that he wouldn't keep on a leash. They discussed it, but the other neighbor starting talking with an attitude and messing with him, so he just punched the guy. The guy starting bleeding pretty bad but then the guys friend starting fighting too, so it was 2 on 1. They all ended up going to jail. But Kevin, our recent convert, is out now. The guy he punched is the son of the owner of the apartments, so they are moving, but they'll still be in our area. It gets pretty crazy here. There are a lot of interesting people here. It's mostly a Catholic population, but there are tons of Jehovah Witnesses here too. But, it was a pretty good week. I taught Gospel Principles class yesterday, which was fun. People said they really liked the lesson. It's a lot easier to teach Gospel Principles after being a missionary for this long. Keep sending letters, if you can. Hopefully, you can find the right address. [I am pretty positive it's Sam Houston STREET] The mission office should have any details if you guys have any questions. Hope you guys have had a great week!! Continue to pray for me! Elder Brady.

Spanish member that we have to leave behind

Flooding at the beginning of the week

Flooded path we ride

Poisonous snake some rednecks killed and skinned

Some family's pet raccoon in their backyard

Our Apartment Complex

What's Up?

First things first, my new address is 1501 Sam Houston St. Apt: 9F, Harlingen Texas, 78550. Okay, so my new area is in the same stake as the last one, but its like 20 minutes away. It's a little more north, but the area is still filled with Spanish people and that's the biggest thing I was worried about. ha ha. My area is called Dixieland, but its a super awesome area! I have tons of members here and they're all super awesome and it's so much easier to find investigators here. My area is a bike area, so no more car for me for a while. One of our investigators's name is Andrew, but he goes by "BAM'. He's a gold medalist in the Olympics for boxing. His trainer was Sugar Rey Leanord, or something like that, who I heard is a really good boxer. So that's pretty cool. It's funny down here. All of the people down here kind of say I have a little bit of a Georgia accent when I speak English, which is weird to think about. When I speak Spanish though, I don't have an accent. When I was walking the other day, me and my comp got eaten a little bit by a Cactus. We rubbed up on it a little and all of these pokey things stuck to our arm. They didn't hurt too much, but they were super annoying for a day. They're so tiny that its hard to take them out. Another funny thing that happened was when we were at a door. All of a sudden a big dog comes out and just starts peeing on my bike. Right on the tires. But my companions name is Elder Browning. He's from Washington State. None of my companions have been from Utah yet, which is surprising. But yeah, send me a package and letters now that you have the address. The people in the apartment here are awesome. It was an answer to prayers because my companion and all of the others here are really obedient, but super fun and that's what I wanted. It's funny. The other elders in Brownsville emailed me saying that they miss me and that the apartment isn't the same anymore, so I guess things have changed over there. Me and the elder who's there now just switched places, so now he's in my old area. It's cool though because one of the families in our apartment complex has a brother that lives in my old apartment complex, so if we ever need to give the other elders something or if we forgot anything at the transfer, they get it for us. The families in my area right now are families that I'd want to visit after the mission because they're super cool. But yeah, the missions still really hard but its getting a little better I think. I wish I was surrounded by people that didn't speak English in the apartment though because I'm trying to totally eliminate English from my mouth,

unless I'm speaking to investigators that don't know Spanish. Glad you guys had fun at Stone Mountain and everything. Have a super good week. Elder Brady

Transfer 2 Down

Hey, so this week actually went pretty well. I watched all of conference and took notes on every single speaker, so those will come in handy. Holland's talk was good. A lot of the speakers talked about marriage this year, so I thought that was pretty funny. But, before I get into detail, I want to tell you guys that I am getting transferred to a different area! We found out today! I'm super excited. Hopefully, I go somewhere besides Corpus Christi or Sinton, but I don't think I will because President knows that my Spanish could help a lot of people out. I was kinda getting tired of my area right now, so I'm excited. My area right now has almost no members and is country, so I'm excited to be going somewhere else. I'll find out my new area and companion tonight. So, don't send letters to my actual address until I get further details, so just send them to the mission office until further notice. I wanted to mention something to you guys about the culture just so you get a feel for how it is here. It's all Hispanics. Sisters greet each other with kisses on the cheek, which is pretty funny. The priesthood isn't as strong here. I've been super obedient this past week. I've been really trying to be a better missionary. There are 3 things that I really learned this week that I'd thought I'd share with you. One is sacrifice. Some things don't seem to hinder the work that much, but if you do them, you don't show sacrifice to the Lord, so this week I took away some of those things to show that sacrifice. It has been really hard and the temptation is always there, but I know that if I avoid the temptation and stay strictly obedient, eventually those temptations will go away. So, I've been good at doing that. I've learned that constantly living a principle, even if you don't see the blessings right away, patience is key through trials and constantly working to stay obedient. The last thing I learned is that there's only one thing we have that God doesn't have. That is our will. If we give it to him, he'll pour blessings upon us. I've been working on that. I've been getting a lot better. The mission is still super hard, but I'm willing to wade through it. I'm excited to find out where I'm going and who my comp will be. I'll probably be saying bye to some families today. But yeah, pictures and everything like that will be nice. It's always exciting to get packages and letters. It's a little sad to leave some of the families I've met here and some investigators I just set baptismal dates with and start over, but it will also be exciting. I passed the 4 month mark, which is good. hah! I switched up my hair, so it looks cool. I'm gonna miss Elder Latu cutting my hair. He makes it look fresh. But, I hope everything is going good there. Las escrituras que me han inspirado. Eter 12:27 Mosiah 2:41 Dios nos bendecira si guardamos los mandamientos y si seamos humildes. Have a super good week. Elder Brady

With my companion, Elder Weeks

the Elders in our apartment 

The library where we email

Casi 4 meses

Hey! So, this week has been alright. I've worked super hard this week. I've been studying the language like no other. I've gotten to the point where I can understand a lot. Whenever I tell people I only have 4 months they are really surprised, which is good. The language is hard because I just want to be fluent already. I've learned a lot of new stuff and I can just about communicate with everyone or at least know what they're saying. So thats that. I just need to work on thinking faster and speaking faster in the language. Theres a lot of words in english I never knew what they meant so its hard translating so my spanish vocab will probably be bigger than english. And I got the Ukelele safely. And I got lauren and collins letter. That was apreciated. I'll try to send you guys a letter today. Ashley really liked the gifts haha which is good. Keep sending simple stuff like that. I really like it. And I'll need some scripture case for my spanish scriptures. Once thing I do now when we proselyte is to only care the spanish book of mormon. It forces me to back whatever I say up since theres no bible to support the scriptures we share. It also helps me to learn more about the book of mormon. So thats good. I've been studying really hard to improve my understanding, spanish, and teaching skills. Keep keeping in touch with Ashley. She loves seeing paige and peyton and mia. The zone is going to the zoo today but we are all out of money this month so we cant go, plus I already went to the zoo so we dont really feel like going. The transfer ends in a week or two so we will see if I stay or go. Also, conference is on sunday so that should be fun. And btw I got the hoodie mimi sent me.I like that. the weather here has been interesting. It's usually super hot by this time but the weather has been different this year. Its been raining more than usual so the weather has remained fairly cooler. Give it a little though. I'm lucky to have a car. But I hope everything is going good there! Love you guys. I think my desires have a grown a little this week so I've been going to work. Pray for me to learn spanish. But hey have a good week! cuidanse lol

3/23

Hey. How's it going? So, this week was okay. It's still really hard. President Maluenda did call me the other day, but the only thing he said to me was to enjoy my mission and he asked if I was doing stretches, and I said yes, and that's all he said. So it wasn't really much. Still hoping the mission gets better because I still can't say I'm enjoying it. It's easier said than done, to forget yourself and go to work. My companions still really have a hard time with that. They don't even try. All they do is watch NBA highlights and listen to rap. I was really contemplating going home this week because it sounds so nice. I don't want to lose my testimony on my mission or anything. It's really hard. It's hard to never talk to anyone. I did get a letter from Ashley this week. That really encouraged me to keep going, so you can thank her for that. I'll try to keep going. I just need that constant motivation or else the same thing is going to happen over and over again. Because emails just aren't enough. It feels like a month passes by in between every Monday. And my desires are [not there] right now. I don't really have any to be honest. But, I'll try to keep going. It would be much appreciated if you guys send me pictures and maybe recordings or something,  just so I can hear your voice. Especially Ashley. Tell her family that I miss them. But, pictures would be much appreciated and maybe some children's Spanish books or something just so I have something different to read so I don't go crazy out here. Letters would be great too. Just small things that will make me happy. Have a good week. Elder Brady

Okay

Sooo, this week has been very bad and interesting. It hasn't been good at all, to be honest. But, I'll tell you the story. So about a week and a half ago I had a dream. In my dream, my back hurt really bad. I didn't think anything of it because, idk, it's a dream. But I've only had 3 dreams total on the mission because I write them down. But ever since that day, I've had a really strong feeling like I needed to go home. I fought it and fought it. This past Tuesday though, my back started to hurt and its been getting worse. Yesterday I could feel my spine. I really don't want this to be happening. So, I fought the feeling for a while hoping it would go away, but it hasn't. It was a really tough week. So finally, one night, I kneeled down and prayed. I specifically asked for a dream that night that would help me know what to do. I wrote down that dream because I remembered everything that happened in it so clearly. In my dream, was talking to our mom and I ended up getting sent home. I remember waking up that morning and feeling the happiest I've ever been on the whole mission. I saw several people in the dream along the way which I don't want to mention right now, but it stinks. Why does my back need to hurt? My back is getting worse. It's super hard for me to understand. Everytime I pray about it, I get the same answer. Also, the mission doesn't allow me to keep my body as healthy as I want. I've recently gained a testimony of the Word of Wisdom. I just want to eat super healthy and keep it like that. The mission doesn't seem like something that should hurt me and make me sick. Btw, my thing is back. that thing I do when I'm not healthy. I love reading my scriptures every morning and studying Spanish and trying to be a better person, and teaching people, but the other aspects of the mission are really killing me. Idk what to do. and then my companions aren't obedient and they haven't changed at all since they came on a mission, I feel like. I feel bad. This isn't something that any family wants to hear but something has to change. I really want to stay on a mission, but at the same time, I don't want to suffer the rest of my life because I do stay. Please help me.