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