Radical Richmond for another 6 weeks!

Well hello my dear family and friends,

I am pleased to tell you  that I get to be in Richmond with Sister Vikari for another transfer!! WOO HOO!!!

Monday- We went to a trampoline park with Hadli! It was super fun! I still have some tricks up my sleeve! For those who know skills I got to do double tucks and pikes, half-outs, all the twisting skills, whips, and some other fun things!  When we drove up there we got to ride on the ferry which was cool!

 trampoline park!

Sam Lyon told us he wanted and was ready to be baptized!!!!!!!! He told us he had quit smoking for two weeks already. He has to come to church two more times, so he will be baptized on July 12th. We are super excited! He has a testimony of the Gospel and is truly ready for Baptism! His wife Roxy is doing very well. She is absorbing the Gospel. She asked us who her home teachers were and wants to be involved. It is amazing! I can truly see them going to the temple in a year to be sealed as a family! 

our awesome district! Our zone all got hats so we wore them for out district picture! Thugs for real!

We are teaching a former named Wei. He was an investigator back in January of this year. He was dropped because they lost contact with him. Sister Durfee had told me all about him when I first came into the area. We always had a hope that we would see him or that he would call us. Well, Sister Vikari's first week here he called, but we were in a lesson and could not answer. We tried calling back but it was a number that you could not call back on. I prayed and prayed that he would somehow get in contact with us again. This last week he searched the universities data base and found Shannon Crouch's e-mail address and e-mailed her. She was his fellowship when he was being taught! He contacted her and said that he wanted to come to church! He came to church yesterday and we are going to start teaching him again this week! We are so excited! He is so prepared and ready for the Gospel! 

Kelly is doing well. She is reading and praying everyday. She is searching for that witness and truth of the Gospel. She is also related to Joseph Smith!!  Her family is big on genealogy. We thought that was pretty cool. There are so many things that have led her to the Gospel! I am so excited for her to continue to progress! 

Lindseys  leaving. She goes on her mission next week! She came out with us all the time and is amazing!

We dropped quite a few investigators this week, and many dropped us. We are going to be finding new people quite a bit this week. We know that the Lord is going to direct us on where we need to go and how we can best go about finding new investigators who are ready for the best message of their lives!

I hope you all have a fabulous week! I love you!

Love,

Sister Bradley

BOOK OF MORMON!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all the wonderful FATHERS out there!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY CUTE NEPHEW JACE WINWARD THIS WEEK!!!

ROXY GOT BAPTIZED this week!!!!!! It was an amazing experience as always! She had such a glow when she came up out of the water. She couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day! She felt the spirit so strongly and knew that she had truly made the right decision! We went to a fireside last night and she bore her testimony! It was so precious!  I hope her husband Sam will come around now and be Baptized. He is slowly but surely progressing. I love to see this family continue to progress in the Gospel! It is truly changing them! 

Kelly is doing fantastic! She is reading everyday and praying to know the truth. She asks us questions and she is right on track! She had a slight concern about Nephi killing Laban, but we were able to hopefully resolve that. We are praying that she will be able to come to church. It is hard for her because she works almost every Sunday. She is seriously so prepared though! She found the missionaries and she wants so badly to know the truth of the Book of Mormon! 

We are doing  an 8 week program with our ward called the M&MTC. It is the Member missionary training center. We teach the members how they can be missionaries. We help them answer questions that they have been asked. We do roleplays with them. It is great!!  The members are loving it, and we are starting to see a change in there confidence. We are excited to see them progress in missionary work! 

We started working with a couple of former investigators this week. We are working with a couple Brenda and Jason.They are a young couple who need direction in their life. They are also wanting to start a family, so it is the perfect time for them to have the Gospel!  We are also working with Heather

. She was recently dating a less-active member, but is no longer doing so. We are hoping that she will gain a testimony now that He is not holding her back. She has been to church many times, and has even spoken in church. She is amazing! I know she is going to receive that witness that the Book of Mormon is true!

We were meeting with one investigator named Chastity. She is simply amazing!  She has many friends that are members and that is how we found her. Well, she told us last week that after we came the first time her kids have been playing " Mormon Bible School." They take the Book of Mormons and pretend like they are reading them and her daughter teaches her son. They call themselves Sister Maddie and Sister Jack. I thought that was hilarious! She told us she had to confiscate the Book of Mormon's from them! haha. 

We got permission to go to Relay for life this week! We went with some members and contacted people all evening. They did the awesome lighting ceremony and lit the lanterns like tangled! It was really cool! It was amazing as well because all the stories they told of people that had cancer all involved God and Jesus Christ in their story. They all said that they wouldn't have made it through without God and Jesus Christ! 

I found out at zone conference that an investigator in Somerset that I found who was supposed to get Baptized soon died. That was very sad. I know that he will be able to get his temple work done though! 

 

We had zone conference this week with President and Sister Woodbury! It was their last one. They leave next week:( so sad! The theme of zone conference was the Book of Mormon! All the training's were on the Book of Mormon! It was amazing and spiritually exhausting! I learned so much! The Book of Mormon truly is the most powerful and correct Book on the earth! It can bring you closer to God and Jesus  Christ more than any other Book!  It powerfully testifies of Christ and his suffering and sacrifice for us! I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon again. Pray to know the truth of it if you haven't already. If you have pray to know the truth again and re-confirm that testimony of it. Go through and highlight all of your favorite scriptures of Christ! Also, read 1 Nephi 1-4 and compare that to the Restoration of the Gospel! It is amazing how the correlate in every way! Christ, Nephi, Abinadi, Moroni, Joseph Smith etc. all suffered SO much so that we could have the Book of Mormon today! Are you using it to it's fullest? What will you tell them when you see them again? Will you be able to tell them that you used the Book of Mormon to your fullest ability! I hope I do and I hope you do as well! 

I hope you all have a marvelous week! Enjoy the sunshine and remember Smile, Be happy! 

I am going to do a new thing at the end of my e-mail and that is ask for all of you to pray for someone specific that we are working with! 

Prayer: Sam. Please pray that he may gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon! He is amazing! 

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Bradley

His Grace is Sufficient!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cute nephew KAYLEB Winward on Wednesday! I love you!

For all of you that know what key indicators are we got 22 Member presents this week! That is a lot for our mission! It was crazy! All of our leaders keep asking how did you do that?? It was funny!  We had members with us almost every hour of the day. It was amazing. We were able to teach many great lessons with members. We also had many times when members were with us but appointments fell through. Luckily, we have backups for that reason. I am so grateful for all of the members and how willing they are to come out and teach with us. They are simply amazing. We now call ourselves Richmond Sisters who don't bike, because members are with us all the time! 

Roxy gets baptized this week! That is exciting! She really is prepared for this. She is trying her best to stay strong and continue to grow in the Gospel while being a mother and being pregnant. We are excited for her!

a funny sign we saw.

We are working with this fantastic person named Kelly! She saw the Elders at the library and waited for the Elders to come out of the Library one day, so she could talk to them. She told them she wanted to learn more. We met with her a couple times this week! She is more than prepared! She has been through a lot in life, but knows this is what she needs. She is reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to know if it is true. She has such a strong desire. She has a baptismal date for July 12th!

dulcimers- an instrument here

Tom is continuing to progress. He is the one that is Jehovah's witness. We had a great lesson with him the other night on the Plan of Salvation and were able to address and answer many of his questions and concerns. 

I went on an exchange this week with Sister Durfee!! That is right...my old companion! It was so much fun!! It was an easy exchange because we already taught well together. We contacted these people and literally for three straight sentences we said the same exact thing. After the contact we walked away and started laughing so hard because we are still unified! haha. It was hilarious! It was a great day and we were able to teach some amazing lessons! 

Third art hands- they are all over town.

We are meeting with this amazing couple as well! There names are Alexxis and Dario. We taught them for the first time this last week and they are so prepared! They have a baptismal date for July 19th! 

Crystal is a less-active that lives across the lawn from us! She is amazing! She is quitting smoking and it is great because she is doing everything she can! She got a blessing, fasted, and had us fast. She comes to us whenever she needs a little boost. She is reading, praying, and doing everything in her power to do what is right! I am so excited for her! Her goal is the temple!!

We went to Berea last Monday with an investigator! It was super fun! Berea is a town 15 minutes away that is super crafty and cute! I will send pictures from that day! 

Huge rocking chair

 

I watched a talk this week called His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. I invite you all to go and watch it! Just search it on lds.org. I loved it and I know you will too! It is all about Grace and the enabling power of the Atonement! 

I love working with Sister Vikari. She is so much fun! We have a great relationship, and work well together. She is an amazing missionary, and I have learned so much in the short amount of time that we have been together. I am so grateful every single day that I get to be with such an amazing sister! 

Everything is great in good ole Kentucky! I am working on my accent everyday! 

Love,

Sister Bradley

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

Hello my dear Family and friends whom I love so much!

Today is the one and only Shari Bradley's BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!!! Tell my mother Happy Birthday! She is only 29! Give her a big hug for me! I love you mom!!

This week was full of fantastic investigators, lessons, miracles, and members. I am so grateful for all of the things the Lord is continuing to bless Sister Vikari and I with.  A few of the recent converts are struggling right now, but we are trying to help them the best way that we can. We are trying to help them understand the atonement and how it can help them. We just have to keep loving them and helping them with their needs and concerns. 

 The Newby's from Firth!

The Lyon family is doing well. Roxy and the kids came with us to stake conference. Sam did not, and we don't know why. They are continuing to grow and learn. Roxy is now getting Baptized on June 14th. She is ready to be Baptized. We would have moved it up sooner, but she needed to obey the word of wisdom a little bit longer. Sam was able to get a priesthood blessing to help him quit smoking. Brother Schlesser, the Elders quorum president, has really taken Sam under his wing it is great!!

Fun with the Bryner Boys!

 

We were able to meet with another family this week. It is the Lee family. It was the first time that we were able to meet with the whole family. We were only able to share the first vision, and the Book of Mormon with them but that is okay. It was powerful when we shared the first vision. The spirit was so strong. They were rambunctious and loud, but the minute we shared the first vision their eyes were glued. It was amazing! They all committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

We are meeting with Tom Jackson again. He was a former from back in November. We are trying to help resolve his concerns and needs. He knows a lot of the Church history. He also has read some skewed ideas from church history. We are trying to teach simply and clearly to help him understand everything. He has great knowledge though!!

EKU!!!

We met with another new wonderful family. Their names are Chastity and Gregg.They have a 9 year old girl and a 4 year old boy. They asked great questions while we were there. We had a great first lesson with them. We brought members with us and they were able to teach and testify. It was the Greff's that came with us. Before we started the lesson the Greff's did how to begin teaching from preach my Gospel. It was amazing! They don't even know what that is, but  yet they were able to do it. They are great member missionaries! Their 9 year old girl, Maddie, is so adorable! She loves Gymnastics, so I am going to give her a few tips and things next time we go. 

So, Sister Vikari and I are pretty creative and come up with awesome lessons for members that have kids. We did one with a couple families this last week called "father may I." Sound familiar? Well we played "Mother May I" and changed it so we could compare it to prayer. We had them ask something that they would ask Heavenly Father for. Then they would move forward and eventually they would get to live with God! We showed how sometimes we pray for things, but they are sometimes answered in ways that we don't expect. It was a fun little lesson! 

We had stake conference this week and I got to see all these people from SOMERSET!!!! It was awesome! I was so excited to see all of them! I saw the Cooks, the Calls, the Bartletts, The Golemans! They are all still the same and great! It was nice to catch up with them though! 

The members in our ward are simply AMAZING! I think I have rode my bike a few times in the last 3 weeks. Members come to lessons with us everyday! They are so great and so willing!  

We were able to do quite a bit of service this week. We helped one investigator move. We helped a family in the

ward paint their house. We also went to the food Bank. I love doing service!!!! Like the primary song goes...." When were helping were happy and we sing as we go, for we love to help Richmond and we all love Richmond so" I added my own little twist to it! 

It was a fantastic week! I love, love, love, being able to share the Gospel every single day! I love being able to study, learn, and grow. I love listening and following the promptings of the spirit. I love accounting to my Father in Heaven at night about what has happened that day and thanking him for all the people that he has blessed us with to teach. I love seeing the Book of Mormon, and the doctrines of the Gospel change lives! I love seeing members get excited about sharing the Gospel! I love this Gospel with all my heart! 

I love you all! Thank you for all of your support and love! 

Love,

Sister Bradley