Southern Hospitality

Why hello family and friends,

I bet everyones week has been fantastic! Can I just say that I love southern hospitality. There are so many genuine people here!

We met an older couple this last week while walking down the street. They invited us into their home and we chatted with them. They told us they are hard core baptist, and weren't going to change. We respected that and had a nice conversation about what we believe. Before we left they invited us to come over for dinner sometime this week. They also told us that if we ever needed anything that they would help us. Everyone here is always watching out for us. They are so generous and kind. I love the people here! One lady we talked to was like I respect all of you for doing the Lords work, and I am not going to change my religion but here is 100 dollars. We can't accept money since it is a rule, but that was really generous!

I am pretty sure I know how to roll cigarettes now. We have less actives that we visit, and they all roll their own cigarettes. One lady explained how you do it and showed us. It was funny. 

You all know how klutzy I can be. Well lets just say I am pretty dumb sometimes when it comes to riding my bike. I have ran into so many poles, curbs, and construction signs it is not even funny. People probably think that I am a drunk person riding a bicycle. I don't mean to run into things but sometimes I just don't see them. Most of the time I am distracted and that is why I run into things. I am just fine and I have no broken bones, so no need to worry about me.

We have videos in our apartment that we can give out to people, and Sister Peterson and I haven't seen some of them. Well we decided that every Friday we are going to have "date night" haha! We eat our dinner while watching one of the videos. It is hilarious and great! One of them is called together forever. It is the cheesiest video I have ever seen!

We stopped and talked to this 28 year old guy, and boy was it an interesting conversation. He told us he was in prison for a while and that they had a Book of Mormon in the prison. He  said he studied it and told us what he thought. He told us all the things he thought were weird or wrong about our religion. He wouldn't let us get a word in so we just listened. We said a few things, but he didn't care what we had to say. He asked us how long we had been Mormon. We both said that we were raised in it. He said he was sorry that we had been raised in it and then proceeded to tell us of how our religion was a cult. Well then he told Sister Peterson that she had no hope of getting out of the cult and that she was to deep into it. He then looked at me and told me that I was still searching for the truth and that I had hope of getting out of the cult. He was strange. Don't worry everyone I have hope of getting out of the "cult". Haha! Yea definitely wouldn't be on a mission if I was still searching for the truth. People have some strange opinions on things though.

We found an investigator tracting this last week named Mattie. She is this adorable old lady that is in her eighties. We taught her the first lesson, and I committed her to baptism. It was crazy because she said yes! That was awesome! We met with her again, and she knows the Book of Mormon is true, but she won't come to our church. Se doesn't fully understand everything yet, so we are working with her. 

We have another investigator named Debbie. Debbie is in her fifties. She is single, in her fifties, and has had a rough life. She is so strong though for what she has gone through. We have taught her three lessons and she is so solid! She has a such a desire to learn more, and she understands everything. She can't see very well so we are getting her a large print Book of Mormon. I know she will get baptized. She is constantly telling us how we are blessings in her life. She is going to come with us to the general relief society meeting so she can meet other sisters from the branch.

Okay so it kills me to see how some people live, and what they go through sometimes. One investigator that we have was sitting on her front porch as we were riding by, so we stopped and talked to her. Well she was crying and she told us how her husband is abusive and she showed us her bruises. It killed me to have to hear that. She is an awesome person and does not deserve that. I hope she gets out of the situation somehow. She has five children too, so hopefully everything works out. On the positive side she hasn't put down the Book of Mormon and loves reading it! She remembers everything she has read too! It is crazy! I hope that things work out and that her life will turn around for the better.

Well that is about it for now! Things here in Somerset Kentucky are fantastic! The people are great, the weather is great, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is great!

Have a great week everyone!

I am going to do a challenge of the week for everyone back home.

CHALLENGE: This week I want everyone to think of one person. Take the person that you thought of and do random acts of service all week for that person. I am sure by the end of the week you will like or love that person a lot more than you did before.

I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Breanna Bradley

Well Hi Ya'll

Well hello family and friends!

I hope everyone has had a great week! Things here in Somerset are are pretty fantastic!

- Funny story: An old lady answered her door the other day holding an old black pistol. Once she saw who we were she put it behind her back. It was hilarious! It scared sister Peterson. I thought it was funny because it was this old lady wearing her awesome pink pants and floral shirt with a gun in her hand. It was also funny because we were in a nice area.

 We went to an older couples home who are less active. Their names are Danny and Anna. Anna didn't really ever say much she just sat there. She is probably the first woman I have ever seen with a full on beard and mustache! haha. Danny is a super depressed man, and he never stopped talking about how awful his life was. He told us that he had a friend who killed someone and ate them. I was mortified when he told us that. He was an interesting person to say the least.

There is a family we are starting to teach.  They are so great! We have only taught them one lesson, but we will teach them again this week. I have high hopes for them!

Another investigator that we have is Conan. He loves theology and is very intelligent. Most of the things he said just went up and over my head. We taught him the first lesson as well and have an appointment with him again this weekend. We will see how it goes.

A mailman gave Sister Peterson pepper spray the other day. He told us that there are a lot of vicious dogs around the area that we were in. We just have sitting in our apartment now.

We have had a couple guys who want to bible bash us. We always just walk away and tell them we have to leave because they are pretty crazy!

I biked up to a guy last night and thought in my head that I was going to be bold. I looked at him and said, " what would you do if you knew that the church Christ established was on the earth today." He just looked at me and said I don't know. We had a long discussion with him, and will be teaching him when he has time. He is working 4 jobs right now.

Everyone here has a cat or dog it it crazy! Every house we enter either smells like cats and dogs or smoke. Everyone also smokes here. One house we went into I had to leave because I could not even breathe the smoke was so bad.

We have people here in town that we see all the time who are baptist that are now our friends. They always ask us if we need anything. Definitely some southern hospitality!

We saw a pig the other day in someones yard! I wanted to chase it and and go look at it,but I knew I shouldn't. We will go back to that house one day and I will take a picture with it!

Well family and friends I am doing great! I hope all of you are fantastic!

I love you all!!

 Have a great week!

Love,

 Sister Bradley

FIRST WEEK IN THE GKLM!!

 

Hi Ya'll!

   Well It was my first week in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission! Boy oh boy was it interesting. haha!  

I am serving in Somerset Kentucky which is south of Louisville. It is funny that I am serving here since that was the street we lived on in Poky! My companion is Sister Peterson and she is awesome! We are opening a new area, which sucks by the way, but we will see the miracles happen later. We are in the downtown area of Somerset. Yes it is a little ghetto, but its not bad haha! It is soooo Beautiful here. This town reminds me of Pocatello. It has about the same population, the mall is little, the downtown area is about the same too. I already love the people here though!

Oh so the first 2 days our water was BROWN! It was sooooo gross. I felt like I was in a third world country. Luckily it was just that the apartment had been vacant for so long that the water heater just needed to run for while. It is all good now though! 

Sister Peterson is from Riverton Utah. She is 20 and has been out for 4 months. She has been in 4 areas, which is crazy! I feel bad for her. She is such a go getter! She talks a lot and sometimes I don't really get to ever talk when we go tracting or contacting, but it is fine with me! She always knows exactly what to say haha!

 

The branch here is little. There are about 60 people that come regularly. There are a ton of less actives. The church is a half an hour away when we bike. It is not in our area. Luckily we get rides to church. The members are awesome and we will get fed a lot. I had a yummy pot roast dinner yesterday at a members house! There are elders here in Somerset too. They cover the outer area, and they have a car. They are awesome though. One of them is the district leader and his name is Elder Chrichton. He is from America Samoa.

Our apartment is great except it smells like smoke ugh! Its fine though because everyone smokes here! I will definitely be used to smelling smoke soon enough. It was sad because we saw some little 12 year olds smoking and I was appalled! I didn't even know what to say or think.

The first day on our bikes was interesting haha! There are a million and one hills here in Somerset, so my legs are getting nice and strong.

We started talking to some guys on the first day who were out on their porch, and boy was it interesting. One of them started talking to us about how we don't believe there is a hell, and all this crap. Then he  started to try and prove all this stuff. It was dumb. I stopped listening and just looked at the trees while Sister Peterson listened to him.Then the other guy came up to me while other one was talking to Sis. Peterson, and started asking me about Joseph Smith. I told him about it, and then he asked me some random conversation questions. He told  me that both of us looked like we weren't old enough to be doing this, and we told him our ages. He then proceeded to ask me out, but I didn't understand/hear him. Sooo I said yea, because I didn't understand what he said. He goes so when would be a good day, and I went WHAT? He asked me out again, and I go oohhh. Yea I can't do that. I told him why and he told me that it would suck to not be able to date for a year and a half. I was so grossed out afterwards and just laughed a lot since I misunderstood him. He was probably in his 30's. YUCK!  Another guy the other night told me that he felt safe around me and that I was an angel. That was also interesting.

The reason why opening a new area stinks is because there is not much info about it. We got some info from elder Chrichton, but most of it was potential investigators. We have visited almost all of them, and none of them are interested. We have done sooooooooooooooo much tracting and contacting it is ridiculous. Sister Peterson told me this was the hardest week of her mission because of how there was not much success in finding people.

We have 4 investigators. Two different couples. One couple is an older couple who is strong in their Baptist faith, but told us they would read the Book of Mormon because they love reading and learning. They are also going to let us teach them.

The other couple is Nicole and Michael who we found while looking for someone else. They have 5 children, and they seem like good parents. We taught them the 1st lesson and it went really well. We go back this week sometime. I think they are really interested, but I know they will struggle with the word of wisdom! They both smoke and drink a lot. Lets hope that their hearts will change over the next couple of lessons.  

Guess What everyone  I have 45 mosquito bites at the moment!  Yes they itch, but I try to resist from itching them. I have been using repellant, but it doesn't work to well. I guess they just love me! It will all be good though.

We met a couple who is catholic and they chatted with us just because. They collect clocks and they had over s thousand in their house it was crazy!

There is one girl that will get baptized here in a few weeks hopefully. She is the only member in her family who isn't baptized, but she is 12. We will be teaching her all of the lessons soon!

Love,

Sister Bradley

The first Pictures

This little excerpt is from the Mission Presidents Wife. The pictures are from her first day in the field and are with her first companion.


Dear Brother and Sister Bradley,

Your letter, as wonderful as it was, didn't do  justice to your daughter. She is even more amazing and delightful than you described, and we've only just started getting to know her!

Your beautiful daughter arrived safe and sound Monday evening here in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission. We instantly fell in love with her, with her faith, her enthusiasm, and her commmitmetn to serve the Lord, and are looking forward to great things with and through her.

Thank you for sending your precious daughter to us.

Love, Sister Woodbury

Chivalry isn't dead!

Well Hi everyone. It isn't p-day but we don't really get one since we are flying on monday. We leave the MTC at 3:30 a.m. to the airport. We fly out at 7:30 from SLC. We get into Atlanta at 11 or so. Then we land in Louisville at 4:30. I don't know for sure when I will call but it will probably be in the morning before we get on the plane, so before 7.

This week has been spiritually awesome! We seriously have the best elders in our zone ever!! Story time!!!

 We had a devotional at the marriot center Tuesday night at 7. It was everyone in the whole MTC that went. Guess who spoke??? It was Elder Anderson from the 12! It was an awesome talk!! We walked to the devotional and it is about a 25 minute walk from west campus. Well after the devotional was over they made us sit and sing  for a while because I guess there was lightning and thunder outside. After that went away they let us go. Well it was pouring rain!! We literally stepped outside with our zone and all the elders gave up their suit coats for us to use! It was great! Yes we got drenched but it was fun! They also never let us open any doors, and never let us take our trays at meal times to the garbage. They are just great!

     Well we taught our real investigator who are people hired by the MTC on monday night. some of them are real investigators, but most are members just acting. Well Sister Hall and I got a real one. They aren't allowed to tell us but we just knew. The first lesson went awful! We left there very hopeless. Well we worked hard and the next one was great and we helped her with her PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) She really has it. When we showed up the 2nd time she was having a mental breakdown. She told us an emergency phone number to call in case anything happened. It was scary. Well we got her relaxed and having a good time, so we didn't share much with her that night we just got to know her. Well last night we taught Leah for the last time. She wrote us notes thanking us for everything we did for her. We sang songs and did our lesson. When we were done we bore our testimonies and she totally felt the spirit it was awesome! She is christian and says that Jesus Saved her. She is the director of her singing group for church. She is a really great singer and plays the guitar., She made us sing with her to a song she wrote that is amazing grace mixed with another song. It was different but awesome! haha. She had us write down our e-mails, so she could keep in contact with us. At the end we had her pray and when she prays she asks us what we want to pray for and writes it down. That is what they do in her church I guess. Well during the prayer she said that she had felt something different tonight with us and was grateful for the happy feeling she felt. I was pumped when she said that! Since she has PTSD she blocks out all feelings because if she lets in positive ones that bad ones come in too and over power her good ones. We are so happy we got her to feel something! It was the best feeling ever. After we left all I could do was be thankful to be a missionary. These are the experiences that make this church so true! Seriously most spiritual experience ever. I cried with joy! She told us she loved us and was so grateful for us. I hope that one day she gets baptized and converted to this true gospel.

   Well that is about it for the week! Today is the last day of classes and then one more full day until I am out in the field!! CRAZY!!! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!

especially you mom!

Love

Sister Bradley