October 22, 2012

Hey Family and Friends,

Oh yeah, we heard that young men can go on missions when they are eighteen years old now.  Cool stuff.  I hope Bill is OK. [My friend Bill has fallen a couple of times.] That doesn't sound good.  Dad never took me to a football game when I was a kid.  I always asked to go, but he would just remind me of the times he got angry at me.  Ha ha Just kidding

So this week all of our appointments fell through.  We did a hundred contacts as well.  We had 6 investigators at church though, which was awesome.  One of them I had never seen before, but we were unable to get his address. So, maybe next week we can.  But we have some investigators who are really cool.  We have one guy named M******.  He goes to church every week with his family (his wife and son are members) and he loves having us missionaries over at his house.  However, he is also very strong in his Catholic faith.  He is a great Catholic that practices everything that he is taught.  He goes to church every week.  So we still talk to him about our church and eventually he kind of implied, if not confessed, that the reason he is so strong in his Catholic faith is because of his father.  It was how he was raised.  So I guess that will approach the way we teach him in a way that suits him better.

Experiences like this are what make up the mission.  There is always one obstacle that the investigator has that keeps them from getting baptized.  So we missionaries come in and we help them around it. Of course, conversion really only happens if it is their choice (and/or desire) to be converted.  It literally comes down to agency.  We can't force them.  We can't.  We have to be patient with them and keep encouraging them.

We have two less-active families though that we are teaching.  We are doing our best to be their friends and help them out.  They have been inactive for a while, but they are coming back to church little by little.  We have made plans to visit them every day of the week so we can help them to gain the spiritual strength that they need.  I am sure that this will help them out a lot.

There has been a new change in our mission:  Because it is daylight savings time, the missionary schedule changed.  Instead of waking up at 6:30, we wake up at 7:30.  We then go to bed at 11:30 at night.  President wants to give us an extra hour of proselyting.  I am not completely sure that we can work up until 10:00 at night, but maybe we can plan more family home evenings with members that can last a little longer.

President F***** called today, and Elder N***** will be transfered tomorrow to C*******.  He will be Zone Leader.  I have no idea who will be my companion yet. It is a good thing though that I have memorized this area.  We have made enough contacts right now, that I think we can start going to the addresses and teach the people.  I have high hopes for this area.

This is the Lord's work and I enjoy doing it.  I love the people here and I learn new things everyday.  I love you guys.

Love,

Elder Brady