HOLA! Does that ever get old?

August 18, 2008

Hola mi familia,

This week has been a good week. We've had lots of members helping us out. As a missionary, you only have a certain allotment (?) of miles and we were WAY over for where we were in the month so we had to really step it up and get our members to drive us instead of the other way around. AND... Sister Dastrup and I think that we made a very convincing proposal to President Jardine to make this mission a bike mission for the Sisters as well. Right now, D and I are ready to go and start riding bikes but I'm sure that will wear off after a couple weeks; but it makes sense, especially when we don't have a ton of miles to cover our HUGE area and we don't have bikes to fall back on like the Elders. Pres. Jardine seemed to like that idea and was going to look into it. I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

California is FRUIT amazing! Sister Dastrup and I were tracting the other day and met this lady who had 2-3 peach trees in her front yard with HUGE peaches on it and she gave us a grocery bag and told us we could take as much as we want. And before that, we had bought another HUGE grocery bags worth of peaches and nectarines for $5. I love fruit! Cheap fresh fruit!

Friday night, two Elders ended up eating at the same members home as us and it turned out to be a very entertaining night for the missionaries. At interviews, Sister Jardine asked us to do a "4 thank you"s” thing and then leave a sticky note thank you around the house for them to find later. The funny thing was Sister D and I had already thought of that before and were already planning on starting that and so we got our sticky note hid within 5 mins in the house! The Elders were like "What? its too early in the game" Elder Barsdorf decided he was going to out do us and stick his note on the ceiling fan... while it was spinning full speed. So at a point in dinner when the little kids weren't paying attention and the parents had their backs turned, he jumped up and tried to stick it on the fan, ended up making a loud noise, the sticky note floated to the floor, and the little kids were saying "WHAT HAPPENED? What was that?" and us missionaries are sitting there laughing and Sis. Hixson (the mom) comes back to the table, has no idea what made that noise, why the kids are confused and why the missionaries are laughing but starts laughing like she knows what’s going on! It was really funny but it might be one of those have to be there moments!

I don't know if you know what’s going on here in Cali, but the stake president spoke in church yesterday about the Campaign to pass a new amendment to overthrow the law the supreme court went over the votes of the people and passed legalizing Same Sex Marriages. It's really interesting to be here at this time and see the church take a stand to protect the family, especially when the church usually does not get involved in anything political! Everyone is getting ready to start knocking doors next Saturday to pass fliers out to pass this amendent that states that Cali. Marriage is defined as a marriage between a Man and a Woman. All the members are really busy working on that.

I have been super happy. Guess what is the easiest thing to get me up out of bed and make me willing to sacrifice 30-45 extra minutes of sleep? If you said Basketball, you are right. The past two Saturdays, I've convinced most of my district and a few other elders to play b-ball for exercise in the morning. I LOVE it, and suprisingly enough, I am getting better! You would be impressed Dad. But I don't know how much of that is because I've really improved or if it’s because the elders don't really try and stop me as a sister! Who knows.

Thanks for the package! We have been enjoying the CD, chocolates and I was super excited about my Mary Kay! Thanks so much for everything! And thanks for the help with my glasses. I was super bummed when I knocked into the fridge (not even hard at all) and my glasses broke! I'm glad my glasses were passed around the masses and everyone is in agreement that they smell like me. I hope I smell good?!?

I love you all! Everyday I'm out here, I learn more and more about the gospel and the plan God has for us and the more and more I am grateful for this perfect plan and that no matter what happens, we can be together forever! Until next week!

Love Always,
Hermana Bradfield

Buenas Dias Noticias Newsletter - The work, as always, is great! We've "dropped" a lot of people who weren't progressing. We've been dropped by some of our good investigators and we've picked up on some of our old investigators. This week, Sister Dastrup and I felt impressed to visit Arturo again after dopping him a month ago. When we got to his house, he told us he had prayed the night before for the Hermanas to come back. the only problem with this is that he still thinks it's coincidence even though he's had his prayers answered. MANY times before this. Hopefully, his heart has softened within this past month and he's ready to really learn and pray for the truth. We were both really happy when the Spirit told us it was finally time to go back. Arturo is a really awesome guy and he would make an awesome member with a WAY powerful testimony.

This work is so important. As members of the church, we have an obligation to share the gospel with the world by being an example or talking to our friends and family, or sharing it with someone while we stand in line at the grocery store. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's true church, restored to the earth once again. We have a living prophet who leads and guides us and holds the keys to God's authority. People can say that God doesn't exist, but all I have to do is look around me and take a look at what I have been blessed with, and know that He does exist and He loves us. We are so blessed to be alive at this time when the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and we can receive the blessings the gospel brings to our lives and families.

I love you all. Thank you so much for all your love and support. Keep on smiling and have a good week, especially with school starting again.

Always,
Hermana Bradfield