Christmas Week

     Another good week, but it was also snowless. That was bummer. First 

Christmas without snow. ... I hope you all had better luck haha.     Monday we had a white elephant gift exchange as a zone activity. You pretty much had a bunch of missionaries scrambling around their apartment, looking in the narnia closets trying to find something to take. At least that's what happened in our apartment ha. It was actually a pretty good white elephant given the fact it was all missionaries...and we are all broke.... Whoo! It's all good because we played some basketball too so it wasn't a complete bust of a Monday.     On Tuesday we had yet again another great district meeting. Elder Rothermel (older couple missionary) said something that I thought was pretty significant. He said, "The Lord, when he was in Gethsemane, didn't say nope this isn't for me. He had self-discipline." Thinking about that for awhile I realized he was right. Christ went through so much for me, for all of us, I want to give back the little I can. After district meeting I went on an exchange with Elder Erickson. He is a Spanish elder so that was interesting....I pretty much just   sat there while he went crazy in Spanish woo hoo!

Elder Brady having some fun with Alma

     Wednesday Elder Oyler and I had dinner at the Kough's and it was great! We also went caroling as a district that night and that was awesome. Almost every door we went to and sang at the people were so excited and they all said they've never had Carolers before, that they had only ever seen it on T.V. That blew my face right off! I immediately felt bad for not really wanting to go at the beginning, but it turned out to be a great experience. It was a good Christmas Eve.
     Thursday....CHRISTMAS!!!! It was great we woke up and opened presents haha that was fun! Then we played some games and ate breakfast and just relaxed. The best part was getting to skype home though. I loved seeing them and talking with them was so great.
The rest of the week we have spent trying to get back into the groove of missionary work and oh boy is that tough. Partly because we want it to be Christmas again and partly because everyone is still gone on Christmas vacation. Oh well the work goes on. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and hope everyone has a great New Years!      Love,     Elder Brady

Chillin'

Messing around with our Mike Wozowski

Candy cake Mataia made and sent

Merry Christmas!

     I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hope it's a great one and we all remember Christ, Our Savior, through the holidays.

     Another good week in Fort Belvoir. On Monday we went with our whole district (two sets of elders, a set of sisters, and a senior missionary couple) to Gunston Hall which was the home of George Mason. It was huge! It was also pretty cool because there was like no one else there so it was a private tour pretty much. After we went through the house we got to walk around the grounds. Behind the house there is hills dropping down into woods on the side of the Potomac. It was a great view. The peace of the outdoors is one of my favorite things ever! Later that night as Elder Oyler and I were biking home we started trying to dance. On our bikes. It was interesting and I'm sure we looked ridiculous but it's ok haha we have done it two or three times since then so obviously we don't care how crazy we look. We look pretty crazy a lot of the time I'm sure. Oh well it makes things fun!

     Tuesday at District Meetings I taught on a Christ-like attribute, I taught about diligence. I made it super easy on myself and showed a video after explaining diligence a little bit. In the video it talks about a lot of great things. (The video is on my Facebook page, so go watch it if you want to). Something I stressed when I was teaching was "Be yourself." Be yourself and don't let the negativity of the world get to you and drag you down. Stay diligent no matter what others think and no matter what they say.

     We had interviews with President Riggs on Thursday and it was great! We get to talk to him about whatever we want to, and if he wants to talk about anything with us. He shared three stories with me that helped me see how I can become a better missionary. It's nice having help sometimes. I know that's true in everyday life as well.     Friday morning we helped a couple move. They don't have very much stuff so we got it all packed and over to their new house fairly quickly, and the unpacking didn't take that long either. It was the couches that took forever to get into their house! Elder Strawn and I got the first (and smallest) couch in the house and it only took us about 15 minutes I'd say. The next couch was the bruiser. It was the last thing we had to get into the house, everything else was done. We took the legs off of it and got it standing up just inside the door which was the only way we could get it in the front door. Once we got it there though we were stuck because we had to go at a right angle through another doorway. We ended up taking the door off and eventually got it though! That one took about a good 45 

Washington DC Temple Lights

minutes. It was nuts. Got it done though. Yeah buddy! Elder Oyler and I also got togo see the temple lights Friday night with a part member family. It was so amazing! There was so many lights and the temple is huge, it was just incredible. I can't wait to go back again.

     Saturday night we did service for an older couple the other Elders are teaching. We got to put up their lights around their house. It was pretty fun even though we did end up doing them in the dark and it was a little chilly. It was nice to see how happy it made them.

     On Sunday it was the Christmas Program at church and it was so good. The choir did the whole thing and there was lots of great songs. After sacrament Elder Oyler and I handed out little gifts to the kids (thanks to our parents) and the kids loved them. It was cool to see how excited they got over just little gifts. Reminded me that presents aren't what it's all about, it's about Christ. 

Elder Brady & Elder Oyler

     MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

     ~ Elder Brady

Elder Brady at the Washington DC Temple

Gunston Hall - Home of George Mason

The view behind Gunston Hall

Birthday Week!

So this week started off great! It was my birthday on Monday woo!!
Birthday week! Birthday week! We ended up biking to the Stake Center
and playing basketball all day which was fun. When we got home Elder
Oyler and I had dinner with the Maygren family. It was awesome because
it was their daughter, Lilly's birthday as well and she was turning
10. We had a little party and it was way fun, they are such an awesome
family.

On Tuesday we went to the Kough's house for dinner and had another
birthday party there. Elder Oyler and I both got our own cakes and we
are now fat. No but really it was so much cakeeeeee it was awesome!
After the party we helped them set up their Christmas tree and
decorate it. This whole time Alma was being so cute. She was a ball
full of energy flying around putting ornaments up and singing made-up
Christmas songs. They were pretty good ones too she like needs to make
a CD or something.

Wednesday was another good day. It was Elder Oyler's birthday! He
turned the big 20. For dinner we went to Zohra's house, Zohra was one
of Elder Oyler's investigators when he first got into the mission
field and he got to baptize her. Anyway, we had Afghan food there
because she is from Afghanistan and she is super sweet! The food was
different...but it was good, it was good. She made a pretty good
cheesecake from scratch too.

Friday was the next big day in the weekly line up. We had the Mission
Christmas Concert which was pretty much a giant talent show. There was
a whole bunch of acts that went on and it was really good. After the
talent show part there was a more spiritual part where we had a
speaker come in and talk to us. Something that really stood out to me
was that we can never quit on anyone. We can't ever give up on
someone. Someone needs us and if we don't give our all we will let
them down as well as ourselves.

Saturday morning rolled around and we had service to do, we got to go
to Arlington Cemetery and put wreaths on the graves. It was probably
one of the coolest things I have done so far on my mission. There were
thousands of people there and even with all the commotion of that many
people, there was a peace. I walked out of there with so much respect
for the people who fight for our great country. It was a surprisingly
spiritual experience, such a simple act of service by honoring those
that have gone on with a wreath. It is something I really want to do
again. I can't wait to go back to Arlington, it was just amazing.

Last night we had dinner with the Lyman family. They are a young
family with a little two year old boy named Ethan, and a girl on the
way. We had a great dinner and afterwards we showed them the "He is
the Gift" video. (If you hadn't seen it I highly recommend you watch
it!) During the video I looked at Sister Lyman and saw tears running
down her cheeks. It really made me stop and think about Christ and the
meaning of Christmas. Christ did so much for us we should be able to
give a little back, especially during this holiday season.

Speaking of holidays I wish you all a Merry Christmas! Hope it's a great one!
Remember Christ.

Elder Brady

Happy 19th Birthday, Elder Brady.

Birthday Week for Elder Brady on December 8th,
 and then for Elder Oyler on December 10th.

Sister Kough made me a wonderful ice cream sandwich cake for my birthday,
and then we helped them set up their Christmas tree.

The Finished Product at the Kough Family. 

Mission Christmas 2014 Concert - Dinner & Talent Show
Placing Christmas wreaths on the headstones at Arlington Cemetery.

What a beautiful site.

No Snow in December

Hey hey everyone! Hope everyone had a great week! As you can tell there is no snow in December. . . . and it's pretty warm..ish. It's definitely different that back home.

Anyway so last Monday we went thrift shopping for Preparation day woooo! Life of a missionary! After that Elder Oyler and I raked some leaves at an investigators home and we finished right as it started raining. Perfect timing!

Tuesday we had a great District Meeting. We talked about ways that we can do finding through service because it is the Christmas season. We came up with a lot of great ideas that are soon to be put into motion we hope! After district meeting we all came back to the apartment and crashed on the couches. We were so tired ha that nap was awesome!

Jumping to Thursday. We had a big, long meeting with three Zones and President Riggs talked to us. He talked about a lot about our attitude and how we see things and how we should try to see things through other peoples' eyes. It was really good but sitting for seven hours made me really tired. Really tired and my backside was pretty sore haha.

On Friday we took more naps during meal times. This week was really tiring I guess. We taught the Plan of Salvation to the Hales, a member family. They are super awesome and they probably feed us Elders the most. They are an "Elders' Family" haha.

The ward Christmas party was Saturday and it was sweet! Santa was even there! It was way fun and the primary kids did a Nativity and there was lotsssssss of food! I love food. When we got back from the party we decided to rearrange the apartment for some reason, so we moved the couches and table around. Just to change things up a bit.

Yesterday was an interesting day. We were supposed to have a baptismal interview for one of our investigators, but she bailed.....again. This is the third time we have had an interview set up and she has bailed day-of. It's so frustrating because she is so close and every time we talk about baptism she says she is ready and gets all excited. I've been able to see her life improve as we have worked with and taught her and it's frustrating that she never pushes all the through. Oh well, I guess it's not a mission without hardships. Hopefully she comes through for us next time!

We'll have a great week! Keep smiling!

Love,
Elder Brady

Thanksgiving!

First of all happy Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone had a great one!

So last Monday we had all these plans to go play some basketball and
we just couldn't get them to work out. So we decided to just go home.
On the way home we stopped at Five Guys and had lunch and the potatoes
they were using that day were from Garth Sutton Farms in Rexburg,
Idaho! Yeah Buddy! Anyways, as we were going home Elder Oyler and I
decided to go ride around the pond across the street from our
apartment. We made it about half way around when we stopped to talk to
a lady who looked upset, her name was Arleen. She said she was having
breathing problems and didn't think she could make it back to her car
and she asked us to help her. As we were helping her we talked about
life and God and she kept asking us if we thought we were there at
that time for a reason. We said of course! She doesn't live in our
area so we gave a referral to the missionaries in her area to go teach
her. After she left we went fishing. It was awesome haha Elder Oyler
and I always have fun and are always laughing, it's so great. It
turned out to be a good day!

Tuesday was not so great a day. Last week Elder Oyler crashed, this
week it was my turn. Through a series of events of stupidity, I had
the best crash yet. I ended up flipping over the handlebars and it was
just awesome..... Woo for crashing!!

Wednesday it snowed!! Well sort of, it was more of a slush. So it
slushed. Close enough to call it snow though. It didn't really matter
because none of it stayed but it was sweet to see some snow fall for a
little bit.

Turkey Day! We played in a turkey bowl this morning and the field was
like a sponge of water. Everyone was slipping and sliding and falling
and penguin sliding all over the place. It was awesome!! So much fun!
After that, from about lunch on, we went from one meal to the next. We
had three houses we went to and that meant three meals to eat. I paced
myself but the other three guys were full after the first house, by
the end of the night they were dying. It was a lot of food. A lot of
food.

Friday was Elder Jones's six month mark! Elder Oyler and I bought him
a tie to burn. It was way fun and he was pretty excited. He's awesome.
We have been working hard lately and not seen very much come of it,
but that is a part of missionary work. We are in the grunt work and
it's kind of a bummer. Something should come up soon though so we will
keep trucking woo! Never Quit.

Elder Brady