2 MONTHS!!!

I can't believe I have been out for 2 Months! That is crazy business!

 Funny stories of the week: 

    Our neighbor who is an older guy thought that we were nuns. He asked us if we were allowed to get married. We told him we could after our mission. He then asked if we can have kids. We told him we could after our mission, and after we were married. He then said, " Well God bless ya, hope you have a lot of kids." It was pretty funny! That is definitely on the top ten of strange things that have been said to us.

While we were tracting we came across a lady who said she would pray with us. Before we prayed with her I asked her what her name was. She then said, "sorry, Robin." I am pretty dumb, and didn't hear her say Robin, so I go " well nice to meet you sorry, that is a cool name I have never heard it before." Definitely a "could of had a V-8 moment right there." It was slightly embarrassing but oh well. 

The branch had a trunk or treat and chili cook off on Saturday night. We invited a lot of people, but no one we invited showed up. Not much we can do when people have their agency. It was a lot of fun though. The kids were all dressed up and looked really cute. The four of us missionaries had to judge the chili cook off. Yea, I tried two of them and  then just let the other three judge.

The weather this week was sort of crazy! We had fog every single morning. It rained quite a few days this week too. When it rained it was usually a misty rain. We would still get soaked because it was a constant mist. It was strange. It is starting to get chilly at night, but still pretty warm! 

Brittany, the 12 year old girl, is doing really well. She is understanding all that a 12 year old mind can understand. She has such a strong desire to get baptized, which is so great. She is doing better with keeping her commitments, but we are still working with her on scripture reading. She came to church yesterday, so that was exciting. We will be setting a new baptismal date with her this week since the other one fell through. She is our only progressing investigator right now, but I know we will have more by the end of this week.

Things are starting to look up more in Somerset. We are getting more investigators slowly but surely. The members are getting more involved, which is really nice. I am excited to start teaching all of our new investigators this week.

We had zone meeting this week, which is always great! I love being able to learn more, and know how I can be a better missionary. It is also fun to  get to know other missionaries.

The new Elder in Somerset with us is Elder Beale. He is from New Mexico and has been out for 14 months. I worked with his sister in law Ariel at Pizza Pie Cafe. I thought that was pretty funny.

Well that is about it for the week! I love Somerset Kentucky and all the people here! I hope all of you have a fantastic week!

Love you all!

Love, 

    Sister Bradley

ZOMBIE WEEK

The title of my e-mail this week is just fitting. Let me tell you why!

Well on Saturday they had a thing downtown called Zombie walk. We went and contacted for a couple hours, and boy was it fun! We talked to a ton of people! There were a lot of people dressed as zombies, but we talked to them anyways. We will hopefully get some new investigators since we talked  to so many people!

I crashed on my bike yesterday. Yes mom I am still alive and fine. We were going down a hill and I was going pretty fast. I was trying to be cool like my companion. Well I accidentally went off of the sidewalk onto the grass. I tried to get back on the sidewalk, but that did not work out so well. My handle bars went all crazy and my bike went down. I skidded across the sidewalk and everything flew out of my bag. Sister Peterson was ahead of me, and just heard the noise. I got up and my hands were all bloody along with my elbow and knee. I was more mad because it ruined my shirt, belt, and skirt. My hands/arms and my knee are pretty bruised today, but what can you do. I am all good and life is great! The tire on my bike is bent up, so I have to get that fixed. 

We met this older couple while tracting this week. We chatted with them, and he was in the army, and had a lot of inventions. He told us of one invention that he made for cars. He modified his car and he drove across the whole country on one tank of gas. I thought he was joking at first, but he was dead serious. We talked about it, and he said he couldn't tell us  anything about it. He told us that he tried to sell it to different companies, but they wouldn't buy it. They won't because of people high up in the company that would lose their jobs and money if they bought it. He said that when he got home from trying to sell it there were cops waiting at his house for him. They told him  that if he ever reveals that invention they will throw him in jail. I thought it was pretty cool! I was skeptical about it at first, but by the end I totally believed him. Wouldn't it be nice to drive across the country on one tank of gas!

We met another older couple who is in our branch this week. They are the Hensleys. They are like one of three people in the branch that live in our area. He was a combat surgeon for the army, psychologist, and realtor. He has done a lot in his life. His wife was an engineer for the army, a realtor, and a beautician. Brother Hensley said he could tell our personalities just by looking at us. We didn't say one thing about ourselves and he told me I was a natural born leader and headstrong. It was funny! He then proceeded to tell me about my future husband. He said I would have a husband who is also a leader. He said he would be a millionaire!! oh yeah! He also said specific dates that would be important. It was weird, but he is an awesome guy! Sister Hensley was baptized this past April. She was really nice! We are going to their house again this week! I am excited!

I would tell you cool spiritual stories about investigators, but we only had  a few lessons this week. Yea, so sorry about that.

Transfers are tomorrow, but I am not getting transferred. Elder Chrichton, the big samoan guy and our district leader, is getting transferred. I am really sad about that! He was an awesome district leader! We are going to a going away dinner for him tonight. 

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

Love,

Sister Bradley

We had a low week with investigators, and everything, so it was a dead (zombie) week. We probably tracted like 20 hours this week and contacted almost 200 people. The average that we contact normally is around 100. We are working hard to find new investigators because we had to drop so many. We are back to square one, but it is all good. You just keep pushing along. 

GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!

What is up family and friends?! I hope you all had an awesome week!

  How did everyone like general conference? I thought it was amazing! I loved it all! I loved S. Gifford Nelsons talk he was so enthusiastic.

Well lets just say that this week has been interesting. We went from three baptismal dates to zero.

We tried Louise three days in a row and she wasn't there. The last night we went over there she wasn't home. Her neighbor said she was next door at her other neighbors apartment. Well we called her before we walked over, and a lady answered saying we had the wrong number. Well we decided to go over to the neighbors apartment that she was at. We walked over and the door was open. I looked in and saw Louise. I said, " Hi Louise." Her friend looked at us and told us to go away and was just rude. Louise hid behind her friend while she yelled at us. Her friend was also the one who answered the phone ans said it was the wrong number. It was weird and I was pretty upset. She texted us the next day and told us she was simply not interested.

  Brittany's baptismal date was dropped because she needed to come to conference and didn't. She forgot about conference. We are still working with her though.

We don't know for sure if Debbie is still interested or not. She cancelled on us the other day. We saw her yesterday morning and her neighbor yelled at us and told us to get off the property or he would call the cops. He said there was no soliciting allowed. She just told us it would be best to leave. We asked her if she was still interested, but she wouldn't answer. We will see about that, but we aren't going back to those apartments.

We met a lady named Jackie who writes poems for God. They were actually really good!

We were bringing our bikes into our apartment one night, and a cat ran in. We chased it from room to room trying to get it out. We were making weird noises and doing everything we could to get it out. We were finally able to chase it out. It was really funny!

Oh my goodness listen to this funny story. I called a person the other day and they didn't answer so I left a message. This is what I said in the message, " Hi this is the sister missionaries we were just calling to see if we could meet with you sometime. We are so grateful for thee... (pause as I realize what I just said)." Sister Peterson was laughing her head off. I started laughing and then I tried to say our phone number. I said the first three numbers and then Sister Peterson had to finish. It was hilarious! I literally was saying a prayer or something in the middle of a voicemail. I hope that person doesn't hate us! haha. It was really funny though.

That was about it for the week. There was nothing to exciting. We did a lot of service for members of our branch and other people. We stayed super busy though!

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love you all!!

Love,

Sister Bradley

CRAZY WEEK!

Well OLO family and friends! (name that movie)

I hope all of you have had a fantabulous week! Keep smiling and being awesome!

This week has gone by super fast! It has a been a crazy, busy, and fantastic week. 

 Well on Tuesday we were teaching a lesson to our investigator Debbie outside when her neighbor came by. His name is Frank. He was hilarious!  He sat and told us that if he were to come and preach at our church all the ladies would be oohing and aweing. He was super full of himself. He said, " me and Jesus are tight, we be best friends and he is my main man." He then raised his finger in the air and pointed to the sky like ah yeah Praise Jesus. It was really funny. What makes it  even better, is that he is a 60 year old basketball playing african american man. He is pretty much awesome!  I also forgot to mention that he was drunk. Yea, so that was a great night!

We met this lady who was outside her apartment with her kids named Amy. She has this daughter named Abigail who is 7. I am not even kidding you, Abigail is a miniature me. She had the same hair color and blue eyes. She was bouncing off the walls, and never stopped talking. She loves gymnastics and dancing. I literally just wanted to take her home with me. I just love her she is great! We will hopefully be teaching Amy, Abigail, and her brother this week sometime.

Well we set three baptismal dates this week WOO HOO!!

The first one is Debbie! Debbie is 56 and single. We have been teaching her for a couple weeks now. She is always wanting to learn more and she keeps every commitment that we ask her to do. She has nothing keeping her from baptism either. She is golden! She came to church with us with past Sunday, and loved it! Her baptismal date is October 26th. I am super excited for her! She is such an awesome daughter of God! I love her! She is so sweet and wants to be a missionary already. It is great! I love being able to see the change in her countenance as she comes to know the truthfulness of this gospel. She has changed so much in the two weeks that we have known her. It is so cool! I just love her.

The second one is Louise. Louise is a 57 year old woman who also lives by herself. She is really sweet and loves when we come over. She tells us all her life stories. She is unemployed right now, and is looking for a job. I hope she can find one soon. She has a boyfriend that she sort of obsesses over. We are working with her because she doesn't have as much of a desire as Debbie does. We have to teach her a little slower because of her needs, and understanding of the gospel. She also came to church with us this past Sunday. It was so great to have two investigators at church with us! I love Louise she is wonderful and so kind. Her baptismal date is November 2nd.
 

 The third one is Brittany. She is a 12 year old girl whose parents are members, but are not active. She is such a great example to everyone around her. She goes to mutual every week by choice. She always wants to come to church, but never has a ride so we are working on that. She reads her scriptures and prays daily. She is making the decision to get baptized all on her own. She is so great! She is super busy though, so we can't meet with her very often. She is in 7th grade, but is in the High School marching band. She plays the trumpet. Her baptismal date is October 18th. She is so awesome! I just love her too!

We went to the TEMPLE  this week!! We went to the temple on Thursday as a zone. It was so awesome. We rode up with the Somerset Elders to Louisville. The temple was great. I love going to the temple!

We had a blitz this week with the Sister training leaders. Those two came to Somerset and I went with one while Sister Peterson went with the other. I was with Sister Hodges. She is from Washington, and has been out 6 months. I went around with her all day, and I learned so much from her! She is so awesome. We had a great time teaching and being with each other. She knows the Reddish family. We had a good time talking about how we knew them.

Sister Hodges and I went and did service as well. We went to a members house to clean because they are moving. The new house is nice. The old house on the other hand is not so nice. It was flea infested and disgusting. We had a "great" time cleaning the old house.

We went on friday night to Whitakers house. They are the older couple that I told you about who said they would have us over for dinner. Well we ate dinner at their house on Friday night. Everyone be proud of me because I ate 2 new things this week. At Howard and Sues house we had fajitas. The chicken was mixed in with peppers, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms. Yes, I ate it. It was actually good. I also ate at panda express for the first time. We went after the temple, and yes I liked that as well.

that was a summary of the week. I hope all of you have another great week!!

I love you all!

Love, 

Sister Bradley

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