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