07/22/13

Hey Family!

Hows everyone doing?! Im doing really well! The training is going well, my companion is just like any other missionary already. That helps alot. He is pretty cool, hes olny 18 though and its the first time he has left home, but he isnt that bad. I havent got my new debit card yet, but maybe it is already here at the mission office. I think i just wouldnt take as much clohing with me as i have. I have alot of normal clothes and its not like we use them that much haha. I have alot of shoes too. The shoes i have are great. I still have the first pair and i only stopped using them because they got wet in the rain. They are still nice though. So they would for sure work for cameron. Itll for sure come up fast. Its good that he is working alot. And that was pretty funny story with kelley! I got a laugh out of it. Sounds like you are a pro at work already Mom! After raising six crazy kids how hard could being a nurse be? I glad that the Celebration for Bobbi went well. It sounds like it was a good visit for all you guys. So i have a few things from this week to share with you guys. So last monday we had a BBQ atthe bishops house. Thats always fun! Then we all played card games and just hung out. Lets see yesterday we taught a 12 year old girl that doesnt live in our area but goes to our ward. So i had already taught her once with elder wilkins and we left a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet about the restoration with her. Then yesterday when we taught her we taught the restoration, and she remembered everything, she had even started reading the Book of Mormon. And she wants to be baptized, so we will see what happens there, we get to teach her again on saturday. We did a family night with another family we are working with last night too. The parents arent members, but their two daughters are. It was super cool, my comp planned it all and gave a super cool lesson about families, and almost all of them cried, but not me, because i dont cry. Then we got to eat dinner! This family is super cool and i enjoy helping them. What else, we played soccer again, it had been a while. I was goalie this time. And lets just say i suprised myself and didnt play too bad haha. I try and take some pictures of us playing this week. Oh and i have a funny story myself for you guys this week. So we did splits this week with the other elders we live with and one of them is elder wilkins cousin, elder wilkins. So we were working in a poorer part of my area and we bought this ice cream thing they have here that is amazing and cheap and we were just standing on the corner eating them when a bunch of boys came up to us and started talking to us because we are american. So we should be able to teach a few of these guys this week, if we can find them again haha. Its crazy what just eating ice cream can do to help you find new people to teach. So i ahve some pictures for yall this time too. A baptism. This time our bishop took us to a place above the beach. And me drinking coconut water! Oh and a family night we did where i made cookies. Well i think thats all i got for you guys this week. Love you!

Abraço,

Elder Brady Simpson

07/15/13

Hey Family!

Hows everyone doing? I did get the graduatioin announcements, they were super cool! Everyone loved Cams hair in the pic haha. So cool that Kelley is having all these missionary moments. This week was pretty good for us, nothing really crazy happened, just the normal. We walked a lot, talked to some people, walked some more, then it started to rain, so we worked in the rain. Yeah thats about it. I got kinda sick, but im already getting a lot better, so thatsBBq here, its super different from back home, but delicious. Its al ot of fun here, we all just goof around with each other, lots of times i feel like I'm at home. Hey isn't it Tylers Birthday today?! Happy Birthday Tyler! I hope the cake is good, if i was you i would get an ice cream cake! haha. I was super sad to hear about Bobbi! thats awful send Bob and Phylis my love. Sounds like work is going good, if it seems like its still school that should be a sign that you were taught well right? and know what you are doing! Lucky cam, how many people can say they shot a cop in the face, and didn't get in trouble or go to jail haha. Everyone here is joking about his mission, saying that he will live in the jungle and that there will be a lot of monkeys and the transfers will be in little sketchy planes and stuff, its super funny. itl'l be fun for him. I think thats about it for today! I love you guys!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

07/08/13

Holy crap alot happened this week. i didn't even know about Bobbi, that's super sad and for sure i will keep them in my prayers. I'm glad Tyler and Nathan had a good time with grandma and grandpa, how is it that Ive never gotten stitches and everyone else has! I'm a little jealous haha. Mom CONGRATS on your test! I knew that you would pass! That's so cool! MY mom is a freaking nurse now haha.. what did you decide about taking more classes from BYUI. Sounds like the fourth there was a blast, here i bought some ice cream, oh and the day of we had a meeting and interviews with the new president. It was pretty cool, they seem like really good people. So this week was pretty full for us too down here, it went by pretty fast. Lets see so we played a little bit of soccer last Monday and i tweaked my back when i kicked the ball, and it hurt pretty bad, then when i woke up on Tuesday one of my hips was higher then the other and my right side was swollen, sweet huh. Well i went to the doctor, i hate doctors, they only have bad things to say, even when you are healthy.. but anyways they took an xray and said that my spine and hips are fine, just a problem with the muscles so nothing big, its just kinda sucks, they gave me a anti-inflamitory to take too and it was 50 reais for ten, really expensive. But I'm doing great and its getting better! It made it kinda hard to work for the first few days this week, but yesterday we had a baptism! His name is Felipe and he is ten, we are working with his family and they are super soft investigators, so we baptized Felipe and i hope he will be able to help us help the family understand and become better investigators. yesterday after the baptism i was kinda worried that he wasn't prepared and that maybe it wasn't the right thing to baptize just yet, but i said a prayer and today I'm feeling a lot better about it! After the baptism his mom said it was a super beautiful thing and that she like it and felt good, so i hope that the spirit was talking to her.

So Tyler has a cell phone now or is it a hell phone(question mark)! that's crazy, i don't even have a cell phone, lucky me. Sounds like Kelley is pretty busy right now! And cams is crazy, 4 sticks of dynamite. I'M kinda jealous that you guys got to see everyone! I think that's about it this week, oh a funny story, we were walking in the street this week and a few drunks guys talked to us like 5 or 6 at the same time, i just like to let them talk because they say crazy things and funny stuff too, but we walked down one street and two girls were sitting in front of their house playing guitar and a little ways after we passed down they street one of them yelled OH what a cute boy, but i don't think she was talking about me, because my side was still swollen i i looked super funny hahaha. I love you all and hope you all have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

07/01/13

Hey Família,

This week was pretty good! We have been teaching this family of 4 and we marked the oldest son to be baptized yesterday, but everyone in the family was feeling sick. So they didnt go to church and the boy didnt get baptized, but i think he will next week. This family has been kinda hard to teach, sometimes it seems like they arent interested, and other days it seems like they are. We have to do the wedding of the parents though so that could take a while, also they dont know how to read or write so that makes it hard too. Sometimes its hard having pacience. My comp is pretty cool, some of the things he does gets on my nerves haha but that happens with all companions. It sounds like the trek for kelley and tyler was super different from when we went. Lets see, we had some super cool parties in the ward this week. São João is a holiday here that all they do is set off fireworks, have big fires, and eat lots of different foods made from corn. Weird huh? It was pretty cool though. They had a stake party and there was a trampoline. So we played a little bit on that haha, i did a couple backflips for everyone and suprised everyone. Then we started playing crack the egg with some of the primary kids and a sister from another ward showed up and got mad at us. she said that there could only be 3 people on the tramp and only up to 250 pounds. So pretty much only me. Super lame. What else, we played soccer a couple times this week with the boys from the wards, and some investigators. It was fun. Then yesterday we got invited to watch the final soccer game of the confederation cup with brasil and spain playing. Brasil won, and there was food and it was alot of fun. Thats crazy that cam has already gone through the temple! And good luck on your test this week mom, youll do great! I never studied for as much time as you have been and i always managed to pass the tests, so im sure youll do great! I hope everyone has a good week!

Love,

Elder Brady Simpson

06/24/13

Ola Família,

Como vocês estão?

This week was pretty good! We got a reference of a family thats pretty cool, but I don't know how everything is gonna go with them. The first time we tought them was super cool but then when we went back the second time they seemed like they were not interested. It's a family thats having problems with money and lots of other things. We bought them some rice and beans though haha. But they need to get married and stuff. They went to church though. So thats good. My companion is pretty cool, he is super green though haha. It gets kinda annoying at times but its all good. And I think everyone was excited to see me again haha at least i hope so. The broadcast was super good, I really liked it. I did get a little trunky from the videos though, with the elders playing basketball and football. We played soccer all morning with the guys from the ward today its was legit. I love playing sports haha. It sounds like everything is going super good at home! Tell the elders there to baptize Kelleys friend already. The trek should be fun for the kids huh? Um so yeah I think thats about all I have this week, not too much happened. Well love you guys, have a good week!

Love Elder Brady Simpson

06/19/13

Ola família!

Hows everyone doing?

So U have some news this week, I am training a new missionary! He is from São Paulo and got here today. I hope I'm up to the challenge. Also I stayed in my area in Ipés which I didn't think would happen because I've already been here for 4 months. So that means I will stay in the João Pessoa mission. Congrats on graduating Mom! Thats super exciting! I was super happy to hear that, and that you got me a new debit card, because mine expires next month in July. So I think you could send it in a letter, and just put a few picture of Jesus and the virgin Mary on the part that you seal on the envelope. I dont' know. We had a Conference with President Hall last week, it was super good, he talked about Christlike attributes and how they help in the mission. It was also the last one he will give before he finishes his mission. I think it will be super weird to get a new mission president. So on Tuesday night we had a family night with one of my favorite families here in the area, and the family of the bishop. They had me make cookies, and they bought Açai. And we ate dinner. It was super good and I got super full haha, but the Dad of the family said something that really made us happy, that his family and the ward can trust in us missionaries, and that me and Elder Wilkins were like a part of their family. It was super cool. So something that will be funny today and tomorrow will be seeing everyone again, because the Zone Leaders said I needed to pack my bags because I would be leaving the house, so I went and said bye to everyone. But as it turns out I stayed here. They put another group of missionaries in the area next to us and then told me I would live like a half hour walk from my area, but our house is in are area, so I ended up staying. So saying hi to everyone again will be fun haha. We always walk around with the book of mormon in our hands, and its amazing how many people ask us about it. I'm jealous of Tyler at football camp, I miss it, if it's possible do you think you could send me a football? Sucks that Nates got sick, barfing sucks. Get Better little man, actually not so little, he has gotton big, at least it looks like it in the pic you sent mom. One more thing, mom do you think you could get on my facebook and add all the people waiting to be my friend? A bunch of people have said they are waiting for a response. If not, I can have a member log on for me, but I'd rather you do it. I love you all and hope yall have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

PS i have pictures to send, but I forgot my camera in the house. On monday I guess! Oh and I havent had problems yet with mosquitos, sometimes I get bites on my ankles, because they stick off the end of the bed while I sleep, but thats about it!

06/10/13

What up yall!

Hows everyone doing? This past week for me was pretty good, except nobody went to church with us, I think cuz it was raining though. So about the guy that knocked, he didn't show up to our appointment and we didnt know how to find him so we lost him. Kinda sad. The other family that we are teaching went on a trip this Sunday and so that kinda screwed up our plans, but the dad has a month off of work starting now so we should be able to teach and baptize them this week.. I hope. So I  have a couple funny stories from this week. On Friday we played soccer with the boys from the other ward, and the other elders, and me and Elder Wilkins showed up and were saying stuff like oh we don't really know how to play and we are gringos so we will be bad sabe? Then when we started playing we destroyed them haha. Elder Wilkins had three goals and I had two. Elder wilkins even made a header. It was super funny because everytime we scored or did something good everyone that was watching would get super excited and start cheering. It was 2 legit to quit. To be honest my knee hasnt been as bad this week, i think it might be because after playing soccer, the rest of my leg has been super sore haha, im so out of shape now. I think summer is gonna be the hardest part of being on the mission, because I know all my friends and family are at home doing cool things. So about Kelleys friend in texas that doesn't have church clothes, tell her that the type of clothing you have is not what matters at all. The Lord knows that she doesn't have the clothes with her and the Lord knows that she has the desire to go to church. We get people at church here in t shirts and jeans and any kind of clothing really. What you wear is not that important. Its all about your attitude. The other funny story I have is from Saturday, we did splits with another group of elders, and guess who I went with, Elder Taylor, my comp from the MTC. It was so much fun. We messed around a lot, and taught a lot of people. So it started raining and two super cute girls passed by in their car and asked us if we wanted a ride, But we said no, because we were close to where we were going. Then it started freaking pouring. and the person we were trying to talk to wasn't home. We started wishing we would've taken the ride in the car haha. We did get to walk along the road of the beeach in the rain though, it was pretty cool. Everytime that we passed a puddle of water Elder Taylor would jump in it to try and splash me, my shoes are still wet today haha. It was super fun. Thats really all the cool things that happened. We have transfers next week. Hope you all have a good week. Love you guys!

Tchau!

Elder Brady Simpson

06/03/13

Ola Família

This week was pretty good! We have a family that we are starting to teach, but they live in a different area so its kinda hard. They visit our ward though, because the dads girlfriend lives in our ward and they are planning on getting married sometime soon. So we went all week with out seeing them, and on Sunday one of the girls showed up at church and asked if we could teach her yesterday afternoon. So we went over there and marked her baptism for next week, she has already been to church a ton and likes it a lot. So it looks like we will teach her everything this weekend. It super cool when we find people that God has already prepared to accept the gospel. Also another cool story from yesterday. We were sitting in sacrament meeting, when my comp turn to me and said there was a guy outside knocking on the gate to the church. Weird because the gate was open. So we went out there to talk to the dude. It turns out he was looking for work, but we went ahead and invited him to watch the rest of the meeting with us, and he did. He ended up crying during the testimonies and closing prayer. We marked an appointment with him for tomorrow and  I hope he shows up. Our transfers are the 19th. I have no idea if  I will stay in this mission or if I will go to the other mission. I will find out on the 18th I think. Congrats to Cams for graduating! And it sounds like school is going good for you too mom! You ll graduate here soon and be one of the best nurses in the city! It would be super cool to get your Bachelors degree. Would you have to go to BYUI or do online classes? That story from the 70 is super cool. I hope this week goes well for y'all and i have some pictures I will try to send of the cake I made from the package and stuff,  Idon't think so though!  My knee has been okay, it was kinda an easy week on it. Some days it hurts a lot, and some days not so much. I love you guys!

Tchau!

Elder Brady Simpson

05/27/30

Ola Família,

This week was pretty good, but it was pretty slow teaching wise. I went to physucal therapy everyday, so that took up alot of time and made it hard to go visit a lot of people. Physical therapy here is so much different than it is in the states. I did exercises once, and then it hurt a lot that day so they didn't have me do them anymore. Lets see what else happened this week... We got a call from President Hall one day, telling us he needed us to go to the hospital, because one of the missionaries was there. So we got there and it turns out one of the guys got hit by a bike, pretty hard. He went to cross the street and stepped back again because a car was coming and a bike hit him as he stepped back. He ended up breaking a bone under the eye, or part of the eye socket, so he is gonna need surgery this week. We also got super lucky this week and at church a family brought another family that seems super cool and interested and they have already visited the church 3 times, so I think that's where our focus will be for the next few weeks. It's always best to get references, because we can knock on doors and talk to a lot of people but 1 out of 100 will be baptized but with references it's almost everyone that gets baptized here and I'm sure the number is a lot higher in every mission. So Cam is gonna graduate huh? Congrats buddy! And about the Hymn books, no they don't have the American songs, the hymn book here is only like half the size because a lot of the songs don't translate, and a lot of the songs have different meanings in Portuguese. It sounds like school is going well for everyone and that everyone is doing all right. And no you didnt offer to buy me a yearbook when I was a senior. Its crazy that football is starting up again, I wanna play so bad, I miss it a ton. So the good news is that the package came, the bad news is that I will have to pay a tax on it, but luckily I have the money because of the dollars I traded in last week! Its good that the missionaries are cool, one thing I've noticed is that when the missionaries are bad or not cool with people it kills the area they are working in. Nobody wants to help, and a lot of the times the members are really closed with you. Then for the next people that come it sucks. That and the members are the key to missionary work. Alright well I think that's all I have for this week, I love you guys and hope everything goes smoothly for y'all this week.
Com amor,
Elder Brady Simpson

PS. I have some cool flip flops too, and a sweet tan line. But its not as bad as everyone says mom. And they said don't be barefoot in open grass fields and dirt fields, because that's where all the nasty stuff is.


 

05/20/13

Hey Family!

I miss you all, isn’t crazy that it’s already been a week since mother’s day? Time is going by fast, at least this last week did. I haven’t got the package yet, but I have faith that it will come one day. I got a card from grandma and Grandpa Grover, but I know I have another letter waiting for me at the mission office so it’s probably the one from Grandma Simpson! We do have subway here, but I don’t know if they accept subway cards ha-ha I sure hope so. It sounds like everyone at home is doing super well. This week for us was pretty good, we had another baptism! Of Flavia the mom of the kids we baptized last time. Also she threw us a party for my birthday with cake and other goodies, it was pretty cool! I made cookies and brownies this week too, they came out pretty good, its a lot different making them here than in the states ha-ha. So when I was cutting up the chocolate bars to make chocolate chips one of the other guys was like it’s a lot easier if you just crush the bars, and it reminded me of the time I made brownies at Sister Creers house and I volunteered to crush the Reese’s cups, and then she told me that there was no crushing in her kitchen, but that I had to carefully cut the Reese’s into 16 pieces. I responded to the other elder with the same thing, that there is no crushing in my kitchen. It was pretty funny to me, but not to him, because he didn’t get the joke... ha-ha Lets see what else, oh we also did service this week and help Flavia and her family move houses, it was pretty fun, my knee was dead after though. Lots of times it’s just like a steady throbbing pain, and lots of times my knee just feels exhausted. It gets pretty annoying. Oh and yesterday, we got to church and the bishop came up to me and was like Elder Simpson can you do me a favor, and I responded with sure. Then he told me I would be the first speaker. So I ended up speaking about prayer. I’m not sure if anyone listened to me though ha-ha. Our bishop here is super cool though. I have a funny story from this week for y’all. So we were at Flavias house, teaching here the baptism interview questions, and filling out the form, when her youngest kid Davi who is 2 walked in and gave the largest loudest fart I have ever heard from a baby ha-ha, and to make it all worse it wasn’t just a fart. But when he walked in the room he was standing behind me and everyone looked at me first like it was me that did it, but no, it was the baby. We all had a good laugh. I think that’s about all I have to say, I hope you guys have a superb week and good luck with everything. Hopefully the birthday package will come this week!

Love you guys,

Elder Brady Simpson

05/13/13

Hey y'all!

It was super great talking to you all yesterday. I don’t really have anything new to say today, I think I said it all yesterday. We do have a baptism planned for this week so pray that it doesn’t fall through. It’s to finish a family so it will be super cool. The rest of this family is super excited that the mom will be baptized. Good luck on your test mom! One thing I’ve realized from being on the mission is that I actually miss studying and learning. Weird huh? who would’ve thunk. Super cool that Elder Woolf and his fam passed by! He was probably the coolest missionary that ever went to our house. I Love you guys and hope you guys have a good week! Tchau!

05/08/13

Como vai?

Its sounds like everyone is doing super good at home! Cameron is crazy! Tell him not to change in the mission; everyone likes the crazy guy’s ha-ha. I think it is weird that grandma and grandpa are already done with their mission. Time went by super fast. Doesn't it feel like Christmas was only a couple weeks ago? Congrats to Kelley with Buddy Club and Miamaids ( menina-moça). I don' wear the jacket that I came with, its way to hot here, Cameron might though because it rains a lot more there. I heard it rains almost every day there, but not like for a long time sabe? Alright so let’s get to the big news: I have some. I got my MRi read and it turns out that I have a degenerative process in the medial meniscus, and maybe some small tears, at least that’s what the doc here said, I dont know how good their info is, because it is Brazil. He told me to do 10 sessions of physical therapy and then if there is still pain to go see him again. So I don't need surgery for now. The worst part is that normally people don’t have this problem until they have 50 years or so. So as soon as I know more ill keep you updated. We also had 3 baptisms Sunday! So far I have baptized 8 people here in this area. 5 of them are from the same family. We baptized a brother and sister of the girl we baptized a couple weeks ago, and her aunt. And I think maybe the stepmom a lot less, but it seems like we are still being blessed. Kind of cool. Also a cool story from this week. We did service at the bishops house this week, building a ceiling, everything here is built from bricks and cement. So we had to make the cement and lift it up to the ceiling with buckets and guess who the guy that got to lift the buckets. Me ha-ha, the best part was the BBQ we had after. The BBQ here is super different; they only cook the stuff and Shish kabob skewers and only put salt on the meat while it’s cooking! It turns out super good every time. Transfers were this week and me and Elder Wilkins stayed in our area. I use my iPod a bit, but also you can tell cam to put all the music on a pen drive because here they have little speakers that you just plug a pen drive into. It’s a lot easier and cheaper. So on Sunday I think I will try and call at like 3 your time so 7 my time. Also I might call you on the phone today to get it all figured out. Alright? Well I think that’s all I have for now! Até Domingo!

Love you guys!

Elder Brady Simpson

04/29/13

Ei Família,

This week was good! It started being winter finally and so we get rain like everyday now, but guess what it is still freaking hot all the time. It was a pretty slow week work wise though. It gets a little harder in the rain, not as many people in the streets and such, and the motivation to go out and get soaking wet isnt all that great sometimes haha. So yesterday Ricardo the guy we baptized and married went to church and got confirmed that was big, he usually is super lazy and doesnt go to church. We talked to him this week and he said he has already noticed changes for the better in his life since after the baptisim. Its so great to know that we are really helping people and families. So i have a funny story from lunch yesterday. The family that gave us lunch is a younger couple like late 20s and they always do like a practice lesson like they are investigators. She was baptized not that long ago like a few years or something so she always ask questions that we have to think about. and they wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon ( our Bible haha) She asked a question about where in the Bible does it say that there was people in the Americas. And i shared the scripture of when Christ says that he has many sheep that are not of his fold in Jerusalém but they will hear his voice. Except in portugues the word for sheep is really close to the word for ear... and i said the word for ear (orelhas) not sheep (Ovelhas) and everyone just laughed for a long time haha. So Christ had a bunch of ears that were not in Jerusalem. I think Kelleys friends question is a valid question. and i think we have all wondered at one point why do men have nipples? I would like to know the answer too so if the Elders know shoot that answer to me hahaha. Im not sure how much weight ive lost, but i weight less than 250 pounds now. Im pretty sure ive lost all my muscle. Updates about my knee, i got an MRI this week and i get the results back tomorrow so i might email you tomorrow with the pictures from the MRI to give to Bro Higgs to look at if he can. But life is good! The Church is Ture and the Book is Blue! Love you all and hope this week goes really well!

Elder Brady Simpson

04/22/13

Hey Hey Hey! 

How´s it going Família? This past week was bonzinho! We started it off great with a birthday party of a investigator Izabela on Monday. It was really cool, we heard some sweet music from Brazil and the cake was super good! It was a good end to a good p day. So then Tuesday we started off the day with a visit to the doctor. His office is like right on the beach so it was way cool ha ha. We walked there and it was only like 25 minutes of solid walking but it was good. At the doctors they took x-rays and said that the x-rays looked fine. It was honestly the most ghetto looking -xray machine I've seen in my entire life. They want me to go get an MRI this week though so I need to schedule and appointment for that. Luckily my area is in the city so everything is relatively close. Oh and when we came back we walked down the road of the beach and took some pictures. 'Ill try and send them to you. I was wearing normal clothes because its kinda hard to do a knee exam in church clothes. Needless to say I got sunburned. I didn't even realize I would because I'm so used to the heat and the sun in my church clothes. I had just bought some new flip flops the day before and I already have them tan lined into my feet. sweet huh? The next day elder Wilkins got sick, I think part of it was because he got super sunburned. He had a pretty bad fever and stuff. And now lets skip to Saturday! The day of the wedding. So the wedding was planed for 9am and we got there at 8:30 and nobody was there. UHHH so we waited and waited and finally people started showing up. Mormon standard time I guess. So then the wedding started at like 10 or 10:30. After the wedding we had the baptism of the groom Ricardo. It was super cool. Hopefully he will go to church so that in a year on their wedding anniversary they can get sealed as a family in the temple. So the morning went well. So like I said earlier we have been teaching Izabela she is 14 and we are teaching the rest of her family too. But she loved church the last times she has been and the other youth here really like her so she went to an activity that was in the afternoon and after it we got to baptize her too. It was a super good day! That's really all that has happened here this last week. I don't really know what more to tell you about my knee. It hurts when I wake up in the morning, so I think that's the arthritis, and it hurts when we are walking and when I stop for a while it will start to hurt. Its kinda stupid. I'm pretty sure whatever time is good for y'all is good for me to call on mothers day. I have church in the morning here so its before you all wake up I think haha, but if I get transferred in may it might change. Do you think you could ask Brother Higgs about the lubricating shot he put in my knee and then tell me what is was? Oh and one more thing. If it's possible could you look and the Nike website and find a cheap soccer ball and maybe a few shirts that are cheap for some of the Brazilian guys here? Anything that is Nike here is super expensive. Like 250 reals for a normal pair of shoes and stuff ridiculous like that. and I think the website has soccer balls for like 10 bucks or something. If you could that would be awesome. Other than that I'm doing super good down here!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

04/15/13

AHHHHHHHH hes coming down here to Brazil! I called it! So I don't know too much about Belem, but I live with a guy from there. It does rain a lot. But its super hot too! And its gonna be super sweet, I'm super excited for Cams! Parabéns buddy!  I got the Easter package this week! Thank you so much mom! The only other thing I could think of for a birthday package is maybe a Seattle sounders jersey. I can buy towels here so I think it would just be better to do that. I'm super glad to hear that everyone is doing well though! The shoes I have a still good, I'm still using my first pair so that's good! So this week was pretty good! We started off the week well. Then Tuesday we taught a lesson with Sister Hall in the chapel with a lady that does all the printing for the mission. She was really receptive and the spirit was super strong. It was kinda a weird lesson though. We showed here the whole church, then we gave her a blessing because she has problems with kidney stones. Then we watched the prophets talk from conference Sunday morning. We have another lesson with her this Thursday. The craziest part of the whole lesson was that at the end Sister Hall surprised everyone even herself I think and challenged her to be baptized, and she accepted. So this week we have to get everything all figured out for her. Then Wednesday we had interviews with President Hall and training from Sister Hall. She was still talking about the lesson and telling everyone about it haha. Even President Hall mentioned it to us. Then President told me I'm helping another elder that I live with because I'm running with him in the mornings and work out with him. It was kind of funny. Friday morning kinda sucked though. Elder Felix and I, the other Elder we live with left the house super early to find a doctor so that I can do physical therapy down here. We walked like all the way to the beach looking for the place and then found out that it was on the other side of the city. So we walked there. When we finally found the place they told us that the doctor we need to see only works on Monday at noon. So then we had to walk all the way back to our house. Like 3 and a half hours of solid walking haha. That's really all that happens this week with me. Love you all and I hope y'all have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

04/08/13

Hey Fam!

Cams call is already coming?! That's insane! I waited a month or more to get mine. I actually got mine a year ago this week! Crazy huh? Did you all watch conference? It was pretty amazing huh? Conference here starts at one in the after noon, then the afternoon session starts at 5. We got to watch it in English too so that was nice. It so much better when you get to here the different ways that the apostles talk. We got to watch with president and sister hall too. One thing I noticed is that almost everyone talked about the importance of the family. This is one thing that I see every day down here in Brazil. Most families here are not really families or people don't really have a family. I'm so grateful for my amazing family and the things you all taught me. I'm grateful for the opportunity i have to help other people have amazing families too. I saw the trailer for the movie you all went to in a members house and it looks super good! Funny that dad fell asleep ha ha? How's everyone been doing lately? The towel I have is great! it dries super fast which is nice. The only thing that sucks is when I wash it and then take a shower forgetting that it is in the wash. Then I don't have a towel to use ha ha ha. My companion is pretty cool, he is from Sacramento California. I thought about some things I would like you to send me, and I came up with Those rubber CTR rings, to give to the kids we baptize, some livestrong bands, cuz everyone wants mine ha ha deodorant too ha ha. Toothpaste, the good American kind because here it sucks and is expensive, peanut butter and oreos ha ha  I got letters from cam and Kelley this week so it looks like I'll need to write y'all some letters. Also we have a super cool new family we are teaching now. They are super receptive and like the doctrine. They went to a session of general conference too. The only problem is that we will have to get them married first. Oh and we have a wedding on the 20th of this month so it looks like I've got some wedding planning to do ha ha. I hope y'all have a good week, I love you all.

I think Cams will go somewhere legit, it would be cool if he came down here to Brazil, so that's my first guess. Second I think like Samoa or Hawaii or somewhere like that. Where ever he goes its where the Lord needs him, and there will be a specific reason for him to be there and people that are waiting for him to help them. And things to learn there. 

Abraço,

Elder Brady Simpson

04/03/13

Hey Fam!

I'm doing super good! This week was transfers again! I got a new comp again. His name is Elder Wilkins another American ha ha, I was sad to see Elder Jensen go, he was great but Elder Wilkins will be cool too! That's crazy about Cam and the mission papers, his call should come soon! It sounds like everyone is doing super good at home! So not a lot happened this last week with me. Elder Jensen got sick like all week so the first part we didn't really work much. IT was a lot of down time. That's super annoying because we have nothing to do in our house. We did have a dinner appointment with the family of the kid we baptized on Friday and its tradition here that the Friday before Easter everyone eats fish. Not meat. I don't like fish ha ha. The work has kind of gotten hard too. We want to help so many people, but its hard when they don't want to help themselves. Lots of times the poor people use the excuse of being poor to not doing something and it super annoying. I did get the letter from Kelley, but not the package yet. That's really all I have this week. It was kinda funny this week that for holidays everyone just goes out drinking here. So it was like lets celebrate the Resurrection and Christ's death by getting super drunk. Needless to say we saw a lot of drunk people. The letters are getting to me just fine, but we only get mail like once a month which kind of sucks! But i Love you all and hope y'all have a good week!

Ate mais,

Elder Brady Simpson

03/25/13

Familinha! 

It sounds like you guys are doing super great! Glad to hear that finals are over mom! I'm sure you did great. Crazy about Cam starting his missionary papers! I'm glad to hear it! Tell him that he needs to read the Book  of Mormon. Really read it though, not just to say you read, but to learn and grow from it. It is an amazing book. In fact you should all read it. Reading that Book and praying about it is really the only way we can have a sure testimony that the church is true. Its the keystone of our religion for a reason. Sucks about the dentist for him though hahahaha. Harrison's mission will be great, I've been hearing that people are accepting the  gospel there like crazy. It hasn't been uncommon for one set of missionaries to baptize 100 people at the end of the week! Crazy huh! So this week we started working in the richer parts of our area, which is hard. The people there are a little bit more closed and not open to talking to people in the streets. It kinda sucked at some points, but at the same time it was cool. When I saw richer parts it still doesn't compare to the states though. Nobody here has a yard or anything. and everything is fenced off. So we have an investigator, the mom of our baptism last week that has been a pretty tough investigator. She was baptised in the Evangelical church and it was such a good experience for her that she doesn't think she needs to be baptized again. Also she is having a lot of problems, they are super poor. Like one room house status with 3 people living there. She just didn't understand the priesthood, and she is scared of being a member of another church I think because she had a bad experience in the other church. But we had a really good lesson with here on Saturday. At the end she started crying the spirit was so strong. I think she knows that our church is different, but she is just scared to change. That's a problem with a lot of people. But hopefully we will be able to help her more this week. It would really help her kids too if she was a member and they all went together. Glad to hear Ben got home safely! If you could send me Tyler and Sawyers email addresses that would be great! But other than that I think I'm doing pretty good! Eu amo vocês! I hope y'all have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

03/18/13

Hey Hey Hey!

Hows everyone doing? It sounds like everyone is doing pretty good, Jess sounds good in her emails too! I knew it was Dads birthday and then I remembered that I forgot to say something in my last email, so I guess I'll say happy birthday now. 46 years old. Closer to 50 than 40 now ha ha. I wish we would get fed steak like you guys feed the elders. usually we get some type of chicken with rice and beans, which I love, they way they make the rice and beans here is amazing. So we had a conference of two zones this week with president Hall and Sister Hall, it was super good and the spirit was super strong. Then the same day, Tuesday we showed up to a baptism of the ward, a boy from the family we are trying to get married. And they asked me to baptize him so I did! It was super cool. All his siblings were crying because they wanted to get baptized too ha ha. So the week started of really good, then it got kinda hard. No one wanted to talk to us in the street and we were just getting rejected left and right. And I wont lie that kinda sucks. One of our investigators a 12 year old kid that went to church last week even said he didn't want anything to do with us anymore. And that's kinda how the week went until Sunday. So we had marked a baptism of a 10 year old kid, and already done the paperwork and had permission and everything for the baptism that night. We went to look for the kid to bring him to church and his mom wanted to talk to us. She said she was thinking about the baptism and she thought he needed to wait some more time and get to know the church better. So I was thinking great our baptism is about to fall through. We managed to convince the mom to go to sacrament meeting though. And guess who gave a talk yesterday, this guy. The whole time preparing the talk and before I gave it I had been praying that the spirit would be there and that I would be able to help anyone with something. And my topic was preparation for baptism. I'm not gonna lie I was pretty nervous to give a talk. But after sacrament meeting we were talking to the mom and she said that the baptism was gonna happen tonight. She said she felt the spirit and that she felt like it was the right thing to do. That really boosted my testimony that God answers prayers, and that its the spirit that does the talking, not us, because my talk was not that good i don't think. So we were able to baptize Glaydson and to me it was a miracle! I was so happy. Also i finished the Book of Mormon in Portuguese yesterday! That was a pretty big accomplishment for me too! Brenn's letter was freaking amazing! I miss that kid so much and I'm so happy for him that everything is well. Oh and mom I was thinking that maybe if it wasn't too late you could send some jellybeans, like the starburst ones or the nerds ones! I hope this week goes great for you all!
Com amor,
Elder Brady Simpson
Ps. fotos from the baptisms will be sent. my face is awful in the one with glaydson.

03/11/13

Hey fam! 

Sounds like everything is going super well with y'all in the states! Sounds like Jess is doing super good too, except for the being sick part! I think getting sick here is a little bit worse though ha ha. The drug stores are kinda sketchy ha ha. It sounds like your new clinical thingy will be super good, working on the floor you will work on and all. It is  crazy that Ben gets home already! I would kill to have a blizzard down here ha ha it is always so hot, and once  you get hot it's hard to get cooled off again. I've got a couple cool/ weird stories from this for you all. So quarta-feira we were talking to some boyzinhos that live pretty close to the church that played basketball with us on p-day, and their family was there so we ended up talking to them all, but towards the end his sister that is 14 and was already baptised was talking to us with her friend. She was dressed in immodest clothing and has a bunch of earrings and piercing, needless to say she is inactive. And her friend started asking us about the church and gay people. Needless to say he is gay. I think he said he is 17. Elder Jensen was kind enough to answer all his questions haha. But during the middle of the conversation they lit up a homemade joint. haha pretty sketchy huh? But on Sunday the girl and her brother and her best friend, another girl that is baptized went to church! And another kid that lives there that was a reference from a deacon. It was cool to see them there! Also in another contact this week somebody lit up a homemade joint, but this time it was only tobacco. So the other story I have is from yesterday morning. We did splits to go look for people to bring them to church (the people that said they would go) and I went to a villa like a little apartment thingy built down the side of someones house. It's pretty much a side street with a bunch of tiny houses like one room. But this one is the most ghetto one I've ever been in. Seriously a ghetto. I don't even know how to describe it. I'm going to try and take a picture this week of it for you all. But so we went there and as we were walking down the street we saw the cops in the road and I was thinking oh crap it looks like its in front of the villa. It was. So we started talking to the owner real fast, one of the guys we were looking for, and he said he was a little busy. Come to find out that one of the guys that lives in one of the apartment thingies beat his wife then left saying he was going to buy a gun so he could kill her. Its almost impossible here for someone to own a gun legally. So really only the gangsters have them. So it was kinda a big deal. And the two guys I was looking for didn't go to church because they were busy haha. I think I would like some more spark, some lemon aid would be amazing. Like the country time stuff or something. also some more Tylenol stuff. an American soccer jersey haha. i don't know ill try and think of some stuff. This week was really good, I don't even remember the hardest part. I think it was just walking. one day I woke up and it hurt to walk. But só vai! Brazil is awesome, I love the people here. Sometimes it can get a little bit sketchy, but its legit! Oh and I'll try and write some letters this week and send some tang in them. They have about a million different flavors of tang here.

Hope you all have a good week! 

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

03/04/13

Hey Fam!

This week was pretty great! On p-day we played basketball and threw around a football with some members. Its nice that we have things we can do on p-day here! The bad news is that  I've had knee pain all week but I just try to ignore it because its not to terrible yet.  Then the next day we got money for our lunch appointment so we ended up buying stuff to make brownies and snickerdoodles and no bake cookies.  Everything turned out well except for the snickdoodles, funny story with those. I think our recipe is wrong because the batter? was not thick enough so we made it into a cake! It tasted just like snickerdoodles, but it was a cake! Pretty sweet right! We have been teaching a lot here in this area, and it has really paid off! We had another batismo this week on Saturday! I don't have a picture yet for you though sorry. So her name is Camillia and she is 23 and I showed up here and she was already in investigator, with her boyfriend thingy. They have a kid together that's one year old and crazy ha ha. So we were planning on helping them get married so they could be baptized, but then they separated and we didn't have to wait anymore and she really wanted to be baptized. So it was super cool. We are still trying to work with her boyfriend Daniel but he is really hard to find, and he is super mole (soft, lazy I think is the translation) But for the reunião batismo we had to be fast because stake conference was the same night. That's why I didn't get a picture because we were in a hurry, we don't even get to watch stake conference, except for the Sunday session. We also made brownies and cake for the batismo too. Everyone loved it! So yeah this week has been pretty great! Stake conference was good too! Presidente and Sister Hall spoke and they talked about how us as members need to help the new converts get adjusted to a new way of life in the church. We speak a different language and have a different vocab in the church and if people don't have help they will just go back to the way they were where everything is normal for them. Also some big news for y'all! The missão will split here in July, it will be mission João Pessoa and mission Natal. So Rio Grande Do Norte the northern state in the mish will be a mission and Paraíba will be a mission. It will be weird I think. Also missionaries are miracle workers, because my comp and I are wedding planners ha ha we are helping a couple in the ward that isn't married get married and then we can baptize the man. They been together for 10 years already and have three kids, one will turn 8 this month. Its pretty crazy ha ha. I never thought I would be helping with a wedding before the mish. That's pretty much all I've got to say this week. I'll try to write some letters soon. Ive been super slow with being transferred and all, and we have been working a bunch, but I'll try! Oh and I'll throw in some pictures for y'all. One is from a baptism in the ward. It was super cool and over the top. But we took picture with the dolls they had there ha ha.  Oh and a cake we got to eat last night at a fireside that the Moças did, Young women's. The cake was super tasty ha ha.

Love you all and congrats on the Job mom I'm super excited for you! 

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

 

02/25/13

Opa Família! 

This week has been pretty good and its gone by pretty fast! My companions name is Elder Jensen hes been in the mish for a year and he is super cool. It wasn't really hard to move areas, but I sure wasn't expecting it. This new area seems pretty cool and all the people are really nice! We haven't had a fault of water yet so that's good in the new house! Getting to know a new area is super hard, it just takes a little bit of time haha. I think the best part of the week has just been getting to know the people and our investigators. Its also the hardest part too I think. Everyone is used to a different person when you show up so its kinda weird haha. We have some investigators that are ready to get baptized, they just have to get married first. Which means they just have to get the money to get married legally, and then the church can do the party for them. It sounds like everyone is doing pretty good at home. Congrats to Nathan and Tyler, and game winning basket and a pin is always great! You didn't like the state penn mom? Por que nâo? haha time is passing by so fast here, I'm already a fourth the way done with the mish. It´s crazy! I hope the news from the interviews is good and that everyone has a good week! Tell everyone i love them! Oh and ill put some pictures in this email, because the Internet at the place today isn't terrible.
So we have pictures of the baptism, one of Jacó and his family and one of Jacó and us together, and there is a picture of the Madeiras family!
Love you all!
Elder Brady Simpson

Brady and Mom did some online chatting this week :)  This is what he responds to my questions:

Yeah i like my new comp he is super cool, its weird speaking English sometimes though. Because we both speak English and there is a Brazilian in the house that speaks it too haha. The city is cool, everything is super close together though and i don't really like that and its more expensive.

We never ride the bus, only walk. The area covers a couple neighborhoods like maybe from our house to country ridge and all the neighborhoods inbetweeen. It was really hard to speak English when i got here because id already forgotten alot, and lots of times its English and Portuguese together. Its really funny when we say something in English but the format is Portuguese. Oh and I've never not felt safe, so i don't know which is safer haha
The house is better i think, just smaller, and yes they have cockroaches too here they are just another bug no big deal. Ive got to go though. our time on the net is up. Love you mom and it was great talking to you!

02/20/13

Hey Family!

This week was super good! The best part was the baptism last Wednesday! There were more people there than there usually is in sacrament meeting haha. We had investigators, members, less active members. everything! It was super spiritual too. After Jacó got dunked he said he wanted to do it again it felt so good haha. I'll try and send some fotos, but the computer house we are at is super ghetto. This last week has really just been visiting members with my companion because he is finishing his mission today! Oh and some big news, I got transferred too! I'm in Ipés, João Pessoa agora, in the city for real now. It came as a surprise that I was transferred too. Normally they don't send both the missionaries out of the area. I'm excited though, change is always a good thing. So yeah not to much exciting. My new companion is American and he is from the san juan islands. Good luck with your interview mom! And congrats to Cam, placing at state is a big deal! I didn't ever get a video from dad, only photos. I think i'll have more to say Monday, but I love you all and hope this week goes great for y'all! Oh and I'd love to get Tyler and Sawyers emails!

Love Elder Brady Simpson

02/11/13

Hey Fam!

This week was really good! We have an investigator José Paulo that is 60 years old. The lessons are going really good with him! But when we challenged him to be baptized he said no, he said that after 60 of being part of the catholic church it would take some time to be ready. I hope its sooner than later though! Also on Thursday we were at lunch when the Patriarchs wife told us about her grandson, Jacó. He is 9 years old and the only member of the family that isn't baptized. When a kid turns 9 its the missions job to do all the paperwork and teach the kid and so we've been doing that, and his baptism is this Wednesday! He is super excited for it, he has been waiting to be baptized. His family was inactive for a while and so that's why he has waited. I'm pretty excited too, after so much work here in Municípios we are gonna have a baptism! Last week i finally made the brownies you sent me. I ended up making them at a members house that we love to hang out at on P-Day. They like them. We went there again and spent almost the whole day playing Uno with them. I think I've learned that when your working and not seeing success you just gotta keep working and something good will happen. Something President Hall said in a conference was really good, he said that sometimes when we aren't having success its not because we are doing the right things, sometimes its because we haven't done the right things long enough. I think sometimes in life we get frustrated super fast when we don't have success,but sometimes we just need to have patience and do the right things for more time and good things will happen. Oh a met a new missionary here in the mish from mattawa, his name is Jared Sabin. He has relatives in ellensburg too. I think Dad probably knows his family, cuz mattawa isn't so big, ya know? Sounds like cam was almost dying during his matches. But on to state is great! Congrats cam! Best of Luck this weekend! Boa Sorte! About the crab. They other guys in the house say that they have crabs from the ocean here and crabs that live in the sand. We live like 25 kilometers from the coast. At least i think its that far. But we found it under our washing machine. It was strange for us too. Ill try and take some more photos this week for y'all. Oh and Carnival started this weekend. Its a pretty strange holiday. We saw a bunch of guys dressed up as girls yesterday. But its a national holiday. so there is nobody in our town. Everyone is in João Pessoa. All the youth in the church go on a campout during this time too, so there was no one in church yesterday. like 30 people, and 10 were from the other ward haha. I love you all and hope this week goes great for you guys!

Love,

Elder Brady Simpson

02/04/13

Opa Família!

Mom I did get the money in the letter from Kelley! I thought I already told you that, but I guess maybe not. This week was good! I think the hardest part was trying to find people in their houses to teach. We set up a lot of appointments, but lots of times we dont get to teach anyone because they are not home. It gets annoying. I think this week I learned what I've been learning the whole time in this area, and that is to have faith and keep working, even when we are not having success. Something fun this week, we had a family night at The Madeiras house, they are a super cool family! They were baptized a year ago, and have 4 kids, I love going to their house, because the kids are great. they are 13, 12,9, and 3. Im reminded a lot of our house when im there haha. With my new companion we have been teaching more, but we still spend a lot of time looking for new people. We have a new investigator this week, his soon to be wife is a member and all her family, but he isn't. He has already visited the church a bunch and likes it. We taught the first lesson this week and it went super well. And then after, they feed us cake and snacks. It was great. I hope we will be able to baptize him! Dad sent me the article from the paper about districts and it sounds like Cam kicked butt. Sounds like Nate is doing super good in Bball too huh? Its hard when you know you can score points and your teammates have problems with it. I'll try and send more pictures, but I really dont take alot here. You dont wanna take your camera out and take picture in a lot of places because people will rob you and trade the stuff for drugs. but I will try to send more. The 49ers Lost? Dang it. I'll try and remember to write Cam a letter. Tell Cam that church is like medicine, sometimes you dont like it and it tastes terrible, but its good for you, and helps you in the long run. I love you guys and hope you week is great. I'll put some pics in this email. The crab, Elder Orr, and The smoke from the trash fire infont of our house.

Love Elder Brady Simpson

1/28/13

Ola Família!

This week went by pretty fast! Not really a lot happened, we just worked a ton. My new companion is great, he finishes his mission in 3 weeks, but he is still working hard, so that's good. I think we will be able to help a lot of people before he leaves. Lets see, last week we found a crab in our house.. and it wasn't a little crab, it was a big ´ol crab. I killed it with a sling shot after we threw it into the street and it ran into the neighbors house. They thought we threw it over the wall to their house, but nope. We didn't. It sounds like everyone at home is doing great! Congrats on Taz man being called the deacons quorum pres. And to Cams for finally pinning a guy. It took him long enough haha. So really not a lot happened. Mom do you think you could add the people from Brazil that have added me as friends on facebook?  I was able to use my card at the grocery store haha. Oh and bytheway the grocery store here is so different from the store in the US. Oh and Nathan you can buy me a car too! Something our Bispo (Bishop) said yesterday  in a talk was really interesting. He said why do we think that the Lord will answer our prayers right away? Lazurus who was a really close friend of Jesus waited 6 days, he even died. 2 days of being sick, and 4 days of being dead before Christ got there. and the scriptures say that Jesus wept for his friend. I thought it was pretty interesting, and a really good example for us in our lives. That's about all I've got to say! Hope this is a good week and everything goes well for you all! Love you guys!

Elder Brady Simpson!

1/23/13

Ola Família!

Lets see, we had transfers today, and I stayed in my area! I got a new companion though! His name is Elder Borges, it his last transfer before he goes home. And he is a native Brazilian. It should be good! This transfer is only 4 weeks which will be weird! Nothing really crazy happened, but  I have a few good stories to tell. We went to a members house to talk to him and his family, it's a guy of 18 years, his family likes to drink, a lot, and his grandma came out and asked us if she could tell us the story of her life. Of course we said yes. It was awful haha. She was so drunk. It turned into her talking pretty much to only me for an hour. She ended up saying weird things, like that she knows me and we are super good friends and when her grandson asked her where she knew me from she said the end of the world. Super drunk. I also received another persons life story in hand gestures, because she can't speak and only uses hand motions. Cool huh? It seems like as a missionary, everyone wants to tell you about their lives. Then on Monday we had a mission wide conference. That means the whole mission was there! Elder Craig C. Christensen from the Presidency of the Seventy was there and he spoke to us! He spoke  about our calling as a missionary and stuff like that! It was sooo good! One of the things he said that was really good is that we need to learn how the Spirit speaks to us. What the spirit is saying to us when its with us and we feel it, and what it is saying when we don't feel it and its not with us. He said that when we are first starting to learn we are like children and only receive yes and no answers. Like is the Book of Mormon true? Yes or No. But then he told us that one of the apostles said that now in life they receive paragraphs and pages from the spirit! Crazy huh! The spirit was so strong! It was cool too, because I got to see all my friends from the MTC there too! That's pretty much all that's happened lately! Its good to hear that Cam, Kelley and Nathan are doing super good in sports! I wish we would get some of the cold from there down here! Its been super hot! I'd love to get emails from Joey and Bryce! Its crazy about everyones mission calls too! It seems like everyone is leaving on a mish. Can you send me Brennens address? I dont have it. And the Coach referenced was for sure coach D. I hope you all have a good week and I love you all!

Elder Brady Simpson!

01/14/13

Whattup Fam!

This week went by super fast, but not a lot happened.  I went on splits this week with on of our Zone Leaders, Elder Orr. He is from Salt Lake City, and he played football at Utah State a year before the mish. He was super cool and it was way fun. We got to talk a little in English, but its funny because its English with Portuguese mixed in. Sometimes the words in Portuguese will come to mind before the words in English ha ha. I always like going on splits to see how other people do the work, and not just my comp. It was cool to goof around and still get work done. Lets see, not much else happened. We have a big open field in front of our house where everyone puts there trash, and someone from another street lit it on fire. It sucks when this happens, because the wind always blows the smoke down our street and mainly right to our house. So all of our stuff smelled like garbage smoke. It's awful. Enough people on our street called the fire department though so it got put out before it got super bad. I think the only other cool thing that happened was that we had a guy on the street tell us we missed an appointment with him like a month ago, I think we probably couldn't find his house, but we went there on Saturday and started teaching his wife and him but his wife cant speak and only uses gestures. She understands Portuguese and can read so we will be able to teach them just fine. We have an appointment with them later this week. It sounds like everyone is doing good in sports. Cams is killin it in wrestling and Nathan and Kelley are doing good in Basketball. Does Taz have anything going on right now? Crazy that Jackson is already engaged!! Transfers are next week, this is the last week of the transfer. Crazy that I've already been gone for 5 months. I found a scripture this week for dad ha ha Proverbs 20:29 i think he will like it. Oh and I was wondering if you guys could send me a Seattle sounders soccer jersey. I gotta represent a USA team and not only Brazilian teams. I love y'all and hope this week is great!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

01/07/13

Ola Familia!

This week was super hard. Our area seemed like a ghost town after new years. Thats because new years here is insane, they party all the 31st then all night then all the next day. I think its a bigger deal for them then it is for us in the USA. Its their summer break too so maybe thats why. Happy Birthday to Kelley! Im Glad new years was good for you all, i just went to bed and slept. Lame huh? but we had to work the next day. It sounds like everyone is doing good, and cameron is still scared of needles huh? Sounds like nothings changed too much. We got rain down here for like the first time on the 3rd it rained hard, it had been a hard day of walking and not finding anyone, and we were standing under a ledge of a building and i started thinking that maybe its a test to see how bad we really wanna find someone to teach, so we went out in the rain to the other side of street was a man standing under a legde and we talked to him and he told us we could go to his house another day and teach him and his family. The rain turned into a blessing! I got the family picture you sent in a package, but did you send another? I havent tried my card again, we dont have a bank here so we only go to the bank every two weeks when our cards from the church have money. Fast sunday yesterday was pretty good, its always funny when the primary kids get up and bear there testimonies. Usually here they just say that they know Jesus lives and that this is his church. Super simple, but super powerful. How great is that knowlegde that we have, that Jesus lives and that this is his church on the earth! An a scripture that i really like is 2 nephi 1:15, i love the picture it brings of getting a hug from Jesus, and that he is always there for us! I can try and look for a jumprope down here, a street vendor porbably has one, they sell everyone down here at a street vendor haha. Love you guys! And i hope you all have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

12/31/12

Ola Família! 

Christmas already feels like it was soooo long ago. It was great talking to you all! This week was super long for me, but some cool things happened too. Lets see.. when we were doing street contacts on Friday  we talked to a guy that was sitting in front of his house, and when i introduced myself he said that i had already taught him and his family in João Pessoa a while back. I was never in João Pessoa a while back haha, but hopefully I'll be able to teach him again! Oh I've taken a shower out of a bucket for over a week straight now! It kinda sucks haha. And Friday night we lost power for a couple hours which means it was almost impossible to sleep because the fans wouldn't work. I went on splits with one of the other elders we live with this week too. Elder Dantes. It was super cool and relaxed. Its always good to see how other people do the work. He is much more relaxed than my companion, my companion is always almost running when he walks and it gets annoying, because I like to walk slow haha. Um also we had a church activity Saturday  with dinner! Free food is the best! We ended up helping make the food a little bit during the day, i ended up cutting potatoes for and hour and a half. Fun ne? 100 people showed up for the activity so that was good, but our investigator was traveling this week so he wasn't there. Then in church the next day there was only 32 people. Don't know what happened there haha. Saturday my knee hurt the worst it has since football i think, it felt like every step there was something around my knee getting tighter and tighter. And to make it all worse I got sick Sunday morning, I think it was something with the food Saturday night, because I wasn't the only one that got sick. I'm better now so don't worry! Glad to hear Cam and Kelley are doing good in sports! Tell them not to get too cocky! And its pretty crazy that Sawyer is already leaving for the mish, time is going by super fast! Tell Brandon and Jade Congrats for me! I'm pretty sure by the time I get back all my friends will already be married haha, but seriously. I tried to get money off my card again today at the bank, but it didn't work. We haven't ever gone inside, but the first part of the bank has atm thingys and we always use those, maybe I'll have to try going inside. I think I'll try and use my card at the store today to see if it will work there. Oh and i got the Card from grandma Simpson at the beginning of November I think! I don't think I really need anything, I think I want a jump rope, and if y'all could email a video of cam wrestling and those fotos of the fam that would be cool! I think that's about all I've got to say this week, I'll send a couple fotos with this email too! One is with a giant beer can blow up thing that was in the Street haha and the others are some brothers that are the only youth in our ward that are our age! They fed us dinner on Christmas  Love you guys! Hope you all have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson