Albuquerque Temple

 Hey everyone, this week has been crazy with transfers and planning for the temple trip. I got a new companion and our Ward split into two areas and so I was blessed to stay in my ward. My new companion is Elder Bostock! I love him! He is from Logan, Utah. In high school he played football and did wrestling. He has been on him mission for 6 months. I have already learned so much for him. One of the biggest things I have learned from him I'd that you can still have fun while being obedient and staying busy!! That's something that has helped me alot just this first week with him. He's amazing! 

Let's see in one of the pictures, looks like a wedding. NOPE that's a quinceañera. The quinceañera was for bishops daughter and so we got invited to it. They had dinner from 6-8 then the dance from 8-1. They party. We only went for dinner and it's a good place to talk to people in the ward and even meet new people! 

Definitely the high light of my week was going to the temple. The hard thing about preparing for it was finding a ride. Our elders quorum president was awesome and drove us up. So yesterday we were up at 4 am do that we could be there in time for our session. It's about a four hour drive from El Paso to Albuquerque and absolutely boring. But we made it in time and the session was awesome! After the session we stopped by a house that Hermano Henke (our elders quorum president) owns that has had sewer problems. So by the time we were done with that and got home, it was 8:30. Such a long day but it was such a blessing to go to the temple. 

So many blessings come from the temple and that's something that I can promise you. That no matter your struggles or problems or questions. As you attend the temple regularly, God will help you and will help you find the things you need to help you in your life and your situation. Have a great week, I love you all!

Baptism!!!

This week we had a baptism and so nothing else really matters!! on Saturday we were able to baptize Jorge. He is our former investigator who is paralyzed. and so the baptism was kind of crazy! so we got to the church at 8 so that we could fill the font up and then got everything ready and got dressed. Jorge got there at a little after 10 and told us he forgot to call the bus and so he had to find a ride and forgot him wrap for his stomach. he has some medical stuff on his waist that couldn't get wet. so we had to wait for someone to bring that. and so when they brought that we got started. and so we had the prayer and hymn and the first talk and then took him back to get ready. it took 30 minutes to get him ready. in the process he ripped a toe nail off and the wrap wasn't on as good as we wanted it but he said it was fine. and this whole time i'm trying not to freak out because i'm being told what to do in Spanish. I can barely introduce myself in Spanish and so i had no clue what they were saying but we got it. and so we got him into the water and it took three times to baptize him! and so we were finally able to get him under the water and then we took him out. and the wrap that we wrapped around him totally came off. but where it needed to be dry was completely dry. Heavenly father was diffidently helping us out. and then we got him dressed and went out and finished. it was about two hours in all which was so long but it was so good to get him baptized. 

The next day at church I spoke. in Spanish. and it was hard. I don't think my eyes came off the paper once. haha. my Spanish is not good enough yet to just talk. which sucked but i got the talk done. My talk was on how can we develop Christlike love. and so i talked about service and service in my life. but the ultimate sacrifice of love is the atonement. the love that Jesus Christ had for us diffidently helped him be able to go through that. and so although we will never go through something like the atonement, we can have love for others like he did and help them use the atonement and come unto Christ. the atonement is so powerful and even as a missionaries, we use it everyday! you are never to far away for the atonement. I love that. 

That's all that I have this week. literally nothing else matters because Jorge was baptized. I have never felt joy like that. thank you everyone for everything. Los amo!

Service Opens Opportunities

 

Hey everyone!! Weeks fly by and so it is crazy to be emailing again. Nothing really exciting happened this week. I know I talk a lot about service but this week something amazing happened with service. 

So we were helping the refugees last night. And while we were making sandwiches, Annie, one of the workers came up to us and said, "we have an older lady who is part of your church. Do you guys want to talk to her." of course we said yes and so we were able to talk to her. her name is Ada. She is from Honduras. She is a convert of nine years. She is going to live with daughter who lives in Utah! The elder that taught her lives in Utah as well. She told us that after she was baptized, she told him that one day she would come to Utah and visit him. And she was beyond exited for that. She has been raising her ten year old grand daughter since she was two. And when ICE (border control) took them, they separated them. And they wouldn't tell her anything about her grand daughter because she didn't have custody over her. All that she knows is that she got deported back to Honduras. It was so sad so see her say that. But as were were talking the spirit told me to ask if she had a Book of Mormon. And so I asked and she told me she couldn't bring it. And so we were able to give her one. She loved it! She didn't let go of it the whole time that we were there. It was so cute. You could tell the love that she has for the book. Which made me reflect about my Book of Mormon and how I would feel if I couldn't take it with me. It would be sad. She also couldn't stop talking about temples. And I can't wait for her to go to one in Utah. I let her know that there are plenty where ever you go. But it was nice to talk to her. Nice to hear her testimony through her conversion story. 

I'm sorry that I didn't have more this week, but I hope this ladies story touched you in some sort of way. It blew me away and I've been hoping and praying for her and her grand daughter all day. Thank you everyone for everything. I love you all!  

Mariachi!!

The weeks are just flying by so fast. This week we stayed busy and also had some fun! This week we did a lot of service. I absolutely love service. We help this lady out who lives alone on a wheelchair with cleaning up her yard and pulling weeds and making it look all pretty. And it really did look so much better after. We were able to go twice this week and each time was good. The other service that we do and it is personally my favorite is when we go and help out the refugees. It is so much fun. We help them get their information, fill out the paperwork, and call their families to get tickets to go where they need to go. and so let me tell you, this is the best Spanish practice that I have had. I am talking with natives from like Guatemala and Honduras and all of those places. They are patient with me just like everyone else, but it is how I think I learn the most Spanish. We have so much fun with the kids too. We aren't able to take pictures with the people and kids there but its so fun talking to everyone and especially to kids. they are so fun and will laugh at your Spanish but are also the most fun to laugh with and to play games and all of that fun stuff. We always seem to have a blast when we are there. We also are not aloud to talk with them about who we are, our church, and teach them. but if they come to us asking questions then it is all free game. And so we actually had about 4 people ask us about who we are which opens the gate to conversation which is awesome. And I think more than anything, us being there with our white shirts and black name tags, they are going to remember who the missionaries are and be open to them when they see them where ever they go. So many great things can come from service. 

This week we were able to go and blitz another area. It was different than I thought it would be. but it was good. The missionaries that we helped gave us a list of people that needed to be visited and we went. No one was answering and so we went to the neighbors house of a member and he was wasted. haha called to us from like two houses away and we went and talked to him and totally gave him the address to our church down the road and said we would love to see you there. hahah I don't think he went but he was fun to talk to. We were able to catch a less active family. They were so nice and like most everyone else invited us in and we talked for a while. People here are so nice. even if they want nothing to do with the church they will still talk to you most of the time. Which also makes it hard because you don't know if people are actually serious about wanting to learn more. 

Saturday we had a blast. Earlier in the week we met this guy digging a big hole and so we told him we would come back Saturday morning and help him dig it and he said perfect. And so we went back and he wasn't there. of course. So we left and while we were driving we decided we should go to a yard sale and talk to people. and so we did. We found this yard sale and we were just standing there and the lady comes up to us and says my husband is selling model airplanes if you want to see those. So we said yes, knowing it was another person to talk to. so we went in and talked with him for a while. He told us to look around and see if there is anything that you want. and we told him we only had eight dollars because we didn't think there was going to be planes. Well we didn't think we were going to a yard sale either but there we were with our eight dollars. And so he said oh that's fine and goes and gets three planes and gives them to us. and he wouldn't take our money. so we told him who we are and gave him our phone number to come back and help with service. then went home with three model airplanes. Later that night Bishops son was married and so we went to the wedding reception. It was such a party. luckily the real party wasn't starting till later that night. but they had a taco bar with really good tacos. And it was fun to see everyone and talk with people. we sat with stake president and his family and they were so cute. Such a nice family. But at the wedding they had a mariachi band who would just play music and people including bishop would go up and sing songs and they would play. it was so fun. I wanted to be there all night but we have a curfew so we left. but we had so much fun. 

There is my week in a nutshell. Teaching, service, and fun! Thank you for all the love and support. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Over 100 Parakeets!!

 

This week was such a fun week! I don't think that a lot happened but all the little times made it awesome. this week the weather was crazy! on Tuesday we were able to help this guy in the other ward move his house. And while we were helping him it started to snow!! people here in El Paso freak out when it snows. haha not me it was so fun! I mean the snow literally melts as soon as it hits the ground and leaves it wet but people do not know what to do when it snows. It is like the world is coming to an end. But I will say that It was 45 degrees when it snowed and I don't think I have ever been so cold. It was freezing. Later that night we were able to visit the Hernandez family. I love them. she is a single mother of two and works like crazy to provide. and so she isn't able to come to church because she is always working but we try and visit weekly. She appreciates is a lot I think. then later that night we were able to go and have a lesson with Jorge. he has a baptism date in march and comes to church every week and is super awesome. He is paralyzed and so he takes medication and everything. and so we went and taught him a lesson. and he was so tired from his medication. and so he kept falling asleep during the lesson and snoring. I had to hold myself back from laughing. but at the end of the lesson we asked him if he had any questions and he fell asleep again. and so we kept going and while we were talking he wakes up and asked us this random question it was so funny. we ended teaching the same lesson the next appointment because he didn't remember anything. 

Then the next two days nothing really happened that was different. although people have not been answering doors this week and so we have had to find things to do because the people we were planning on seeing didn't answer. but on Friday the weather once again was awesome! The wind was blowing so fast. like first was everywhere and it sucked and my eyes hurt but it was so fun. And then later that night the rain started to come and so it was rainy windy and cold. I don't know why but it made it so much more fun! Lets see we were also able to teach this lady who is isn't super solid but she has a son on a mission in Argentina and he gets back in the summer and so hopefully he gets back and helps her progress and get baptized. it would be awesome for him to baptize her. then after her lesson we tried to go see other people but no once was answering! like come on people. but while we were walking we saw the really loud fighter jets fly by a couple times and that was awesome! 

Saturday was kind of a rough day because literally only one person answered their door. but the person that opened the door is so cool! She is an older lady who is super sick. and so we asked her if there was anything we could do for her, and her response was pray. and so we were able to say a prayer with her and that always invited the spirit. After the prayer we asked if we could do service for her. In her yard or cleaning her house. and she said that would be awesome but how much would it cost. it was so cool to be able to tell her Nothing!! We told her we are representatives of Jesus Christ and we believe in helping all people and serving as He would. And so we get to go back this week and help her in her yard. I am so excited!

Okay last night was so fun. Just a normal Sunday with meetings and church. after church we were driving around and we saw this older gentleman pulling weeds on the side of the road and so we stopped and asked if we could help. And so we helped him pull weeds and it was fun. We are also going back on Friday to help with more service in his yard. later that night we had dinner with the Gay family. Awesome people. After dinner the kids asked if we wanted to see their pets. of course we said yes. they took us out back and they have four dogs, turtles, big goldfish that are in the pond outside, chickens, and OVER 100 PARAKEETS. They have a cage with all of the birds and so we got in the cage. I am personally not a big bird person. they are just plain gross. but I got in for the experience and it was actually so cool. Mexicans are really short and so the cage was about just as tall as I am. and so when I stood up the birds were flying right by my head. so I stayed down most of the time. but you could feel the wind from them flying and they were all colorful and so it was fun! Diffidently something I will not forget. Super cool. 

That's really all from this week. I hope that this weeks email is better than last weeks ;) thank you guys for the love and support. I love you all!

Welcome to the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission

This week has been nothing but crazy. This week started off at 2 am on Monday morning. We had to be to the mexico airport at about 4:30 on Monday. So that's what we did. We were there. and streets in mexico are much better at 4 in the morning. We had two layovers and three flights. We flew from mexico to Dallas. and from Dallas to phoenix, then phoenix to Albuquerque. Don't ask me why, I am just thankful for the flight. We had a 3 hour layover at Dallas and we were getting ready to board and then they told us there was something wrong with the plane and so we waited a couple more hours for a plane. Because this happened we missed our flight to Albuquerque and so we got rescheduled for the 11 pm flight. ugh that's so late. We got to phoenix and ate american food finally. haha but tender mercies all four of us ended up on the 8 flight to Albuquerque because people didn't check in. and so we got there at 9:30 instead of past midnight. blessings. 

We got into New Mexico and the first couple nights we lived out of suitcases in different apartments and so it was hard. The first couple days we spent a lot of it in the mission home with meeting and stuff like that. Thursday is when transfers were and so that is when I figured out where I was going and who my companion is. I am in El Paso and my companion is Elder Palmer. He is from Alaska and is a bunch of fun! We are over a whole ward that before was run by two pairs of missionaries and so we are staying very busy. Our zone actually dissolved if that makes sense and so we got thrown in with another zone and so now instead of two zones in El Paso there is only one. So that is why we have so much. But we have found 6 new people this week and have 4 people on date for baptism. and then of course are teaching many more people but there is that. 

People here are very nice to Spanish missionaries. We get fed well and everyone is just nice. It is hard to understand people right now and talk to people but everyone is so nice and just helps us out a bunch. I'm very excited and know that this is where I need to be. I am still learning names and faces to everyone here and so it is hard for me to tell much about anyone because first off they are all new names but they are Spanish names and so its very hard right now, but hopefully all of that changes very quickly. 

I am loving it a bunch here!! thank you for all of the love and support. I love you all so much!!

Last Week!!! Week 6

Bradyn at the Mexico City Temple

Woahhh! Where has time gone? Already 5 days until I leave to New Mexico. I am so excited! Let's see...some cool things that happened this week, because this is our last week my District decided that we are going to help clean the Comedor every night of the week and so that the workers can get home a little earlier than usual. I love service because seeing how happy the workers were after us helping them made it all worth it, and so that has been something that stood out to me this week. Also, last nights devotional was a live broadcast from Provo and it was Elder Holland!! what a man. I love him he is so funny and I bet you can all relate to why he is so awesome. The biggest highlight of my week..we went to the temple today!! I love the temple and after not going for 6 weeks it was even better. So many cool things and in the pictures you can see how pretty it is with the blue sky in the background. definitely won't forget about this temple. I am sorry that this email isn't long, my time is short today but I want you all to know I am doing good and that I love all of you! have a great week!!

Bradyn and his companion Elder Black

Bradyn and Sister Thelin

Bradyn after his haircut

Bradyn before his haircut

Mexico City Temple