Salt Water Fishin (Missionary Style) and other fun facts in this Week's Bradley Letter

Got One!  Wait, where is it?  Oh, now I see it.

Salt Water Fishin...watch fer them gators!

Professional Bamboo Poles

Dinner

Family Rogerio

Oh meus queridos,

Thanks for the emails :) I don’t think I have ever told you thank you for that, so thanks! You all have always supported me to be the best missionary possible! Love you all!

Well Mom, like you dont know where to begin, neither do I! I will start on a few of the happenings.

Last p-day we went fishing with Indio and Douglas, some members here. We walked by the side of the road with some worms, a big knife and hooks. Got a piece of styrofoam for a bobber, some bamboo that we cut into various poles and walked to coast that is in our area. It was pretty neat :)  We only caught the little guys, but it was way fun! I learned that there are actually alligators there, pretty neat!  Indio is really an Indian and has a history that I can only tell when I get home...it is that awesome and unbelievable. I will just say that he was raised by a samurai that deserted the army and was raised fighting to survive....it is pretty awesome. But he said that he will get some alligator for lunch one day. Today we had lunch with a family in Nonoai, where Elder Singelo baptized a family.

We have had several meetings in the week, with all of the zone leaders, branch president, baptismal interviews that I did in Restinga, and a meeting with the stake president. The new stake president is President Finholdt. I love his family. They live in the Ipanema ward. And we have the same favorite soccer team :) Corinthions!!! yaa!  Ha, welcome to Brasil, you have got to pick a team. With all of these meetings and organization, it is easy to see that the organization of the church is PERFECT. There is not one problem. This was clearly created by God. No one can question that.

So you all remember Veronika, right?  Well we have been trying to help her overcome her fear to be baptized for a while.  All of the missionaries before set a goal way in the future. She had a lot of time to think and got scared.  But, we set a goal for the next day! It would have been perfect! But Oseias, her boyfriend, is serving for one transfer in another area and could not go this last Saturday to baptize her, but our plan worked, she was completely ready and pumped. In the meantime, we were worried about achieving our goal for June, 4 baptisms. It is complicated because so many people need to get married and visit church, but we had stake conference and the Manaus temple dedication is this Sunday. By the Church leadership manual, we can only give the Holy Ghost on Sunday in the sacrament mtg, unless you have authorization from the stake president. But this last Friday and Sunday we did a fast to help find these 4 people to baptize in June. Veronika came up to us and asked if she could be baptized this Friday....2 of our branch presidents nephews came to church with him and are now frequenting our branch...and José a man we are helping with a number of things has his hand glued to the Book of Mormon....I LOVE THE MISSION. Certainly we can achieve more.  Anything is possible for the Lord....Lets just say I wont be afraid to ask for more help and people to baptize in the future :)  We have already gained permission from a general authority to baptize Veronika this Friday, she will be able to attend the temple dedication.  Gustavo and Geovani have known for quite some time that this is the church of Jesus Christ alive and strong in our days, and José is showing amazing faith. How wonderful are these 2 years?!  I am going to try and sneak into the mission office and erase my arrival date and say that I just got here. Sorry, it will be another 2 years for you all :)

Rogerio, Ana, Crislane, Pablo are great! That guy with the hat on is Crislane’s fiancé, Douglas, father of her daughter.  He is a soccer player who will be famous here in a short time :)  He was interested by the Book of Mormon. We had a family night with them this last Saturday night where we showed the movie about the Book of Mormon in a family’s conversion.  We are helping them to receive an answer to their prayers of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith still.

Our zone is fantastic.  Some little things here and there that we are looking into and helping. But, all with a lot of Love and patience. That is what many of the missionaries need.

I love you all and I am very grateful for you all in my life!

I know that this is the one and only Church of The Lord Jesus Christ,

Elder Bradley J. Dawson