Hola!

Buenos Dias Familia y Amigos,

Como estan? I'm doing just wonderful. Today we did our zone "Secret Santa" gift exchange. It's was funny. The Elders in this zone are something else. One elder, who is going home in two weeks, got a ring and earrings; and then others got t-shirts and what not. It was a fun way to end the transfer with Christmas in August! I ended up printing off a couple of pictures, of one of our members, and giving them to my secret santa with writing on them that said, "Use our member coupon!" It was an inside joke kinda thing, but I think the elder rather enjoyed it!

The work is going really well. We had to go by and tell almost all of our investigators that we couldn't teach them anymore, but encouraged them to keep studying for themselves. No one was progressing. It's always hard because you love the people so much and you want them to experience the same joy and blessings you have from the gospel; but we also can't force them to accept the gospel either. Anyway, so "dropping" people is always hard, but we all have faith that the Lord will bless us with other people whom he has been preparing!

With all the opposition we've been facing, it's really helped me to realize one important truth. I felt like the first half of my mission, we taught, baptized and brought many of God's children to the knowledge of truth. In comparison, this last half has seemed as if I haven't been doing any good. BUT I know that that isn't true. Every person we talk to is a seed planted. Just like it says in Matthew 13, sometimes the seeds fall by the way side and the fowls come and devour them up; some fall upon stony places where there isn't enough soil, so when they spring up, the sun dries up the roots; but some seeds fall into good ground and bring forth good fruit. There is never a wasted effort. I know that while I'm not seeing the fruits of our labors that what we are doing is making a difference in the lives of those we meet.

Yesterday we were all ready to go to church. We had spent the week preparing Claudia for church, but she wasn't home when we went by to "face to face" her. That's not like her at all and she wasn't answering our phone calls. We hope nothing has happened to her. But anyway, it was one of those let down kinda days, and I just felt drained. As we were studying together over a quick lunch, we read Alma 19 and I read the story of Ammon, King Lamoni and his household. They all were overcome with the Spirit and all seemed to be dead. But there was one Lamanite girl, who had been converted by a vision her father had long before, who was overcome with joy at what had just transpired and went to tell the rest of the people what had happened. When the people all gathered together, things didn't work out quite as she planned. Everyone started arguing over what was to be done, and she felt sad for what had happened. But instead of letting herself get down about the situation and giving up, she put her faith to work and went to the queen. As soon as she touched the queen, the queen arose and then the others arose as well. Although this might not mean much to anyone else, I knew that this was a tender little mercy from God pushing me forward and telling me not to give up. We ended up going out and knocking doors 15 minutes later, and during that time, we ended up finding a bunch of people from English, Hmong, and Miehn, interested in learning more about the restored gospel; AND a part-member family who moved here from San Jose 4 years ago and hasn't been to church since, and set up an appointment with them. Funny thing is, this is the second part-member family that we have tracted into that aren't on our church records! I love the Lord's little tender mercies!

Some C.A.M.E. Moments for the week (I kinda forgot to keep tract):
1. When you knock on a door, a Spanish man answers it without his shirt on and sees that it's 2-3 sister missionaries; so he excuses himself and returns a minute later, completely dressed. Very thoughtful of him, wouldn't you say?

2. Going by to drop off a granola bar for your investigator for a quick snack on her lunch break, only to find her home, hand her the granola bar and leave without an explanation. We didn't expect her to answer the door and be home. I guess next time we will plan better!

So, there you have it, another week in the mission... In a VERY short summary. Really, everything is going by so fast that it all kinda mooshes together somehow.

One more funny good note to end on... Our family, who can't be baptized right now, ended up getting a ton of good jobs lined up for this month. He was so funny because he told us, "amazed at the fact that it did "EVERYTHING that you've told us to do ACTUALLY works!" Lol! It was so funny and we got a kick out of it. But that's what happens when the doctrine is true, the blessings are sure and the authority by which it is promised is given by God. I LOVE being a missionary, nothing beats this work!

Love you all; have a great week! Remember, next TUESDAY is p-day and that next Wednesday I will have another new companion. I think President told me in interviews that her name is Hermana Wyatt. I'm excited to meet her but nervous about training her. I think training this transfer has gone a lot easier because it has been a joint effort, and Hermana Harris is just an awesome missionary. I'm not worried at all for the Spanish program after we leave because the mission just got 3 AWESOME new sisters to keep the fire going and growing!

Ok, Love you again,
Hermana Bradfield