6 Months!

     Hey everybody hope you all had a good week. Here's what happened in my past week, or most of what happened anyway. On Monday I was with Elder Robbins in the morning because Elder Schenk was getting his hair cut so Robbins and I went to the mall. We walked around and almost every store we went into we went straight to the hat racks. It's a miracle neither of us bought anything. Then we went and got Schenk and then emailed and to the stake center for basketball. We were going to be late for dinner so we went straight there after ball and we had to change in the car. Schenk's hair was a mess so he tried to use snow to get it wet and actually made it look a little better. It was pretty funny and we were laughing and finishing getting ready walking up to the doorstep.
     Tuesday we were driving to dinner and got lost, well we went to the wrong restaurant. The place we were supposed to go was the opposite direction and we were running on a pretty much empty gas tank. Got the car gassed up and made it to dinner even if we were a little late.
     Wednesday morning we went to the other Elders' apartment so Elder Robbins could cut Elder Belliston's hair. For dinner we went to the Ellsworth's and afterwards Brother Ellsworth asked if we could help him make these peanut butter/cornflake cookie things so we did. It was funny to see three of us missionaries making cookies, they probably shouldn't have turned out very good, but they did! On our way home we were at a stoplight when two fire trucks, sirens blaring, came up behind us. We were turning left, but the light was still red. Schenk made the decision that didn't matter so we starting turning, almost hit a car, almost went down the wrong side of the road, but got back on the right side and everything worked out great! We were laughing all the way home that big.

     Transfers were on Thursday. Elder Robbins got a new companion, it's Elder Seely! (my trainer) He is now the other Zone Leader here. It's crazy they got put together again because earlier they had been companions for two transfers already, but that's cool. Elder Schenk and I are still companions so that's a good thing.

Burning a tie on my 6 month mark,

20 February 2015.

     Friday morning we were at the church for a little meeting for Zone leadership and all of a sudden the alarm started going off. There was this loud noise in the chapel. It was water pouring down on the stand! A pipe broke or something and the whole chapel ended up being flooded, the fire department came and everything. It was a good thing we were there or who knows what would have happened. It was also my six months today so i burned a tie! We just went out on our back patio and had us a little pyro fun.

Elder Brady, Elder Oyler, Elder Peterson, 
Brother Noonan, Nathaniel, Jason Doyle, Natalie, 
Elder Johnson, Elder Seely, and Elder Robbins

                Saturday we traveled to Ft. Belvoir! It 
was Jason Doyle's baptism!!! It was awesome and he had so many people show up, a good part was all the missionaries that have taught him. He has gone through a lot of us, but he finally got baptized! It was so great and I got to say the opening prayer. It was so cool to see him get baptized and to see how excited he was. He had so much support from the people of the ward too, it was amazing. On our way back it snowed really good so by the time we got back we weren't supposed to drive. So Schenk and I walked around and pushed cars up hills when they got stuck. Then we shoveled and scraped the snow off of all the cars in our parking lot.
     Sunday was really nice, it was sunny and like 40-some degrees. We went to church and 

More Snow!

then had correlation afterwards. We talked about the ward mission plan and how we can get the ward in on the plan. Our ward mission leader is super excited for the plan and can't wait to get everyone on board for it, it should be good. I love all you guys! Remember everyone can use some help here and there. 
     ~ Elder Brady

Snowwwww!

     It's been a good week this week. We've got multiple days of snow which I am stoked about, the only thing is Elder Schenk is the designated driver and being from California he has never driven in snow, but we haven't crashed yet, he's doing good!
     So Monday was the regular Monday, we went shopping then emailed and then played some basketball. We stayed at the Zone Leaders' place again because our floor is still messed up. It was pretty sweet though we got to party ha, not really, but it's just different so it was nice.
     Tuesday we almost died. We were crossing a street and this car didn't see us I guess and so it started going and almost rocked us! It was crazy! Being us though, we just took off running and laughing, arguing who would have died first. We couldn't make up our mind on that though.
     Wednesday night we were staying at the Zone Leaders' place again. Elder Robbins left the back door unlocked so we snuck in and decided we were going to scare Elder Walters. We went through the kitchen, around to his desk and ran up behind him yelling! Made him jump so we did what we wanted to do!!
     Skipping to Saturday. In the morning we played some football with some of the youth and that was fun, nice to throw the ball around some. After that we helped a member move in, and they actually moved into our apartment complex so we didn't have to go to far. Had Stake Conference tonight too and it was really good. Talked about families and family councils and how they resemble/parallel heaven, it was really, really good!
     Sunday we had some more Stake Conference and it was about the Atonement a lot, which is always good. We had dinner at the Stephenson's and I was told I had a Boston accent. That's the second time on my mission someone has told me that, haha I think it's pretty funny. Anyway that's about all I got for this week.
     Hope everyone has a great week!
     ~ Elder Brady

Shake Things Up

     Preparation Day on Monday was different than usual. We still went
shopping, still emailed, and then still went to the stake center to
play basketball, but this time President Riggs showed up and played
with us. I guess he is really into basketball and has actually played
1-on-1 games against missionaries, he has only lost one of those
games.

     On Tuesday, I went to Annandale on an exchange with one of my Zone
Leaders, Elder Walters. We helped one of their investigators, Fadel,
move and that took the whole night. Fadel had to be out by the next
day at noon so he was stressing out and getting mad at everything. He
started cussing up a storm and wow, buddy it's been a little bit since
I've heard those words! It was actually pretty funny because Elder
Walters and I just looked at each other and were trying not to laugh.

     Wednesday morning Elder Walters and I were back helping Fadel move
again. We had to take everything up in elevators and in the building
we were moving the stuff to, only one of the four elevators worked. So
that was a big old traffic jam with mattresses, lamps, desks, a T.V. and a whole lot of other things plus all the other people in the
building. One of the desks we were carrying fell apart and fell on our
feet, then as we were carrying it a different way to try and make it
to the room before it completely broke, the inside shelves fell and
smashed my thumb. Eventually we got everything moved and I switched
back to Wakefield and Elder Schenk. That night we tried to meet with
some of our potential investigators, but went down swinging with every
single one.

     Thursday we were studying and something had been stinking up our
fridge since I got here, so we decided to clean that out. We cleaned
out the fridge which led to cleaning the kitchen, which led to
cleaning the apartment, which led to rearranging the apartment! Got to
shake things up a little bit here and there.

     On Friday we were seeing potential investigators all day because we
have over 250 of them that we need to get in contact with. Yet again
we struck out.

     Saturday night Schenk and I decided we were bored, so we snuck into the
other elders' apartment and waited for them to get home. Then we
scared the living daylights out of them. That was definitely a good
finish to a day!

     Sunday was an interesting day. They started tearing out our sink and
dishwasher and pretty much half of our kitchen! So we are staying with
the Zone Leaders until they are done. When we got to the Zone Leaders'
place Elder Robbins and I started trying to find a way to hang up this
little basketball hoop he has, and after we got that hung up we taped a
little court on the carpet. Now there is a basketball court in their
living room. That night we played a couple of 2-on-2 games and had a
dunk contest. It was pretty dang fun. Oh and we got a car so no longer
on bike at the moment. 

     ~ Elder Brady

Basketball court that we made at the Zone Leaders apartment.

More Snow!

     Had a pretty good week this past week and I hope everyone did as well.
I love hearing from you guys and seeing how things are going, how they
are changing and what is happening.

So on Monday the impossible happened. It snowed! Again! Whooooo!! It
actually snowed pretty good so we got maybe an inch but hey I'll take
what I can get. We went shopping then emailed and we ended up playing
some basketball at the stake center with the rest of the elders. After
that we went to the Stake President's house, President Bush, and
talked about their missionary opportunities and how they can better
help the work move forward. Both he and his wife have someone specific
in mind who they are going to make better efforts to talk with about
the gospel. It served as a reminder to me that everyone needs a little
push here and there no matter who they are or the position they hold.

     Tuesday we had Zone Conference. It was a REALLY long meeting, from
9:00 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon. Yeah my backside was
getting a little tired to say the least. It was really good though,
President Riggs talked to us about How To Begin Teaching. We practice
taught with each other and worked on how to better be able to talk to
people and explain what we are teaching them so they can understand
and personalize it to their life.

     On Wednesday we had another meeting, this one was about Family History
and how we can use it in our missionary work. They want us to know
more about it so it will be easier for us to show people what it is
and how to do it because a lot of people, even if they're not all that
interested in the church, are interested in Family History. It's
really cool actually.

     Thursday we had splits with Brother Mortenson. We were able to see two
potential investigators, a less-active family and teach an
investigator so it was a really good day! When we were teaching the
investigator, Regina, it was cool because Brother Mortenson talked
more than we did. He was better able to help her understand the Book
of Mormon and its origin. Members are so important to the work, it's
incredible, the spirit they can bring to a lesson is amazing.

     On Friday Elder Schenk had a District Leader Meeting so I went with
the other Elders in our ward, Elder Rogers and Elder Belliston. It was
pretty cool to be in a tripanionship for a day, we had a good time
anyway.

     Saturday Elder Schenk and I had dinner with the Staton's, they are a
young couple with a little boy who is almost two years old. We played
with the little boy whose name is Charlie, played cars until dinner.
It was a pretty good night.

     On Sunday we went to church and of course none of our investigators
came, big bummer right there. We had some people say they'd come but I
guess they just couldn't make it. We taught the Teachers Quorum in
third hour. We taught them how to start conversations with their
friends about the gospel and teach it so they can understand it. 

     Well that's it for this week. Love you guys!

     ~ Elder Brady