HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLA!!!

PLEASE take note of the change of address. The mission home moved to a new location...

Sister Kelly Bradfield
8267 Deseret Drive
Fair Oaks, CA 95628




Top Picture - Mario, Hermana Dastrup, Julian, Hermana Bradfield, Maria, Jordan, Jose, Rafael

WHAT A GREAT WEEK! I wrote more about it in my newsletter so you will just have to wait for the details; but be VERY excited!

Maria and her boys, Julian and Jordan, were baptized yesterday! They are so cool! It was a great baptism! It was one of those moments when you realize exactly what it's all about and every bump/rock in the road was worth it for that moment! We are so excited for this family and we are going to continue working with them to make sure they stay strong! We've seen so many miracles this last week! It's been amazing and so humbling!

Well, I'm really sorry this letter is going to be so short, but this week is a little different. Pday technically is tomorrow and we are going to be at the temple all day having a lunch with the President; and then he and the temple President are going to take us into the Celestial room and talk with us a little bit and answer our questions before we go and do a temple session! We are so excited. But since we are doing that and it's an all day thing, we were told to get emailing and shopping done during one or two of our "lunch breaks" this week so we are trying to get it all done today!

By the way, next pday is Christmas Eve (in the evening)/Christmas so I wont be writing and calling home till then! Sister Dastrup and I wont be able to check our email until Christmas Eve at the earliest, SO we will try and get things worked out with Sister Hixson! If you have a time preferrence of when to call, email her and have her tell me!

Love you all! Have a GREAT week and we'll talk on Christmas! Hasta luego!

Love Always,
Hermana Bradfield


Buenas Dias Noticia - Hola! What a GREAT week we've had. This transfer is going to be the best transfer of our missions. Our zone has made so many changes and all for the better. We have such a strong desire to serve the Lord with all our heart, might, mind and strength, and already we've seen the blessings and the miracles. We were all asked to sacrifice and consecrate something to the Lord this transfer. One thing Sister Dastrup and I decided to sacrifice was our English. It's alot harder to do than you would think. Many times we catch ourselves speaking English and have to help each other remember to speak Spanish. We've already seen so many blessing for it!



Our zone meeting was intense and powerful. We talked about our theme for this transfer - Alma 22:16: "If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt kneel down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest." by the end of the meeting, the Spirit was so strong, tears of hope and love were shed by many, and there was a spirit of love and unity amongst our zone and a determination to get out and go to work. I wish you all could have been there for that great meeting.



Since then, miracles have come left and right, and I think Sister Dastrup, myself, and everyone else in the zone, are more exhausted than we've ever been! And it's GREAT. I know Sister Dastrup and I are loving every minute of it.



Following our awesome zone meeting, we had our zone conference. It was everything that Sister Dastrup and I needed to hear. They talked about how to help our investigators to progress toward baptism, and how to strengthen our members in their own personal missionary work. This spirit has definitely guided us since, and helped us come up with new ideas and ways to help out investigators and members. One of those is that we are working with the Bishop to set up a young men/young women activity to get the youth more involved in missionary work. We'll let you know how it goes as we get it set up.



Last night was a great night. Four people were baptized. One was a little girl whose family just recently reactivated themselves, and then our family, Maria and her two oldest boys, Julian and Jordan. They were all so happy and Maria is such an awesome woman. She has such great faith in our Heavenly Father; she is an example to me. The best part about this baptism was that everyone performing the ordinance was baptizing someone for the first time. Rafael, Mario (baptized 2 weeks ago) and Jose (preparing to serve a mission) and the little girl's dad, Hermano Cabrera. They all did an excellent job and EVERYONE was all smiles after!



I never would have imagined that this work, helping people come unto Jesus Christ through His gospel, would be this satisfying and bring such great joy. I don't think I would rather be anywhere else this Christmas season than here in Stockton, serving our Heavenly Father.



I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and that you will all keep close to your hearts the true meaning of Christmas; remember the greatest gift that was ever given - our Savior Jesus Christ.



I love you all! Always,

Hermana Bradfield



MERRY CHRISTMAS! AND FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Can a get a Hola?

Hola!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the package. I told you we would make not writing on Thanksgiving up to you!

Ok, the Christmas light thing. Usually we can pick out (not always but very often) houses that have Spanish people living there for a few different signs, i.e. 1) an unkept yard 2) sheets in the windows for curtains 3) cans in the front yard! 4) Catholic Saints and Virgin statues and 5) Christmas lights that are old that are still hanging outside on the house in July! So, there is the explanation of the Christmas lights. I threw that in there figuring you might not get it, but I'd explain it later!

This week was so AWESOME. We came SO close to hitting the Standard of Excellence. We didn't even realize how great of a week it was until we added up our numbers last night and compared to the goals we had set at the beginning of the week. It really was an awesome week and We now have 3 firms. I wrote more about them in my letter but their baptism is scheduled for next Monday!

We truly have been blessed these last few weeks. The work here in Stockton is amazing. I can only imagine it's going to increase this month due to the time of year and the spirit that is always in the air because of the Christmas season.

This week is Zone Conference, Next week is our Christmas lunch and Temple trip with President and then the next week is Christmas. Christmas day and New Years are going to be our p days so I won't be calling or writing until Thursday of that week. This means one more regular pday next week and then the next few weeks will be a little different! Then it will be transfers again! The time seriously flies.

We didn't get a chance to go to the Christmas Broadcast cause it was in English and most of the Spanish ward members don't go; and we already had appointments scheduled. It was a bummer, but I'm sure we'll get to read their talks later!

Well that's all for now! LOVE YOU ALL!

Love Always
Hermana Bradfield

Buenas Dias Noticias - Hola familia y amigos! This is your weekly "shout out" from the inner city of Stockton, CA. Old missionaries have gone home and a new generation has begun the service in this great and marvelous work. As the weather starts to really cool down and the rains are on their way, the missionaries of the Sacramento Mission press forward diligently searching for real seekers of truth. Come rain or shine, warm weather or freezing, they continue to work with smile on their faces and a joy in their hearts that comes from serving the Lord.

Okay. Enough of that! Sorry that I'm not New York Times material! So this last week was an AWESOME week for Sister Dastrup and I. We are truly being blessed in our area. We had the best week we have ever had since our beginning here in Stockton. We have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday. A mom and her oldest two boys want to be baptized. The Lord has been preparing this family. They randomly showed up last week at church with her less active brother who hasn't been to church in five years. She is such an awesome woman and has a strong faith in God, and always relies on him for every decision and everything in her life.

We are still working with our family, Rafael and Carla, but they've really slowed down. He's lost a lot of the fire he had in the beginning, and I think she's waiting for him. It's a difficult situation to be in, and we may have to stop teaching them for a while if they don't start progressing again. Dropping people is probably one of the hardest things to do as a missionary. You know how much the gospel would bless those you teach and you love them so much, but because you love them, you have to do it. We will see what happens with them this week.

I wish I had hours...well, maybe not hours :) or more time to write about all the wonderful people we have been teaching, and all the miracles we see in this work. I'll close with last night's miracle. Sister Dastrup and I decided to go check on some referrals we had received from the elders earlier that week. We went to all the different apartment numbers and none of them were home. We had a few minutes before our next appointment, so we decided to tract/knock a few doors. The first door we felt impressed to knock ended up being a woman, single mother, who has seen and talked with the elders in passing on a number of occasions. They always said "Hi" to her and offered to help her with carrying groceries inside, but nothing more than that. As we spoke with her more and more, she told us that things in her life just seemed to be going the opposite direction than she had ever planned, and she had been praying for the strength to know what to do to strengthen her relationship with God again. It was a very powerful contact and she was very eager to have the elders come over and visit her and share our message.

God is always guiding us to His children. He's always leading us to those who He has been preparing. I love getting to see the Lord's little miracles everyday and being a part of those miracles. This truly is the Lord's work!

I wish everyone a wonderful week!

Love Always,
Hermana Bradfield