Happy New Year

DC Street Performers

     Hey everybody I hope y'all had a merry Christmas! Mine was pretty good even if it was 75 degrees and no snow. Anyway I'll just tell you a little bit about my week.
     Monday we went into DC with Elder Kerr and his new companion and we went to the National Cathedral. It was awesome, but all my pictures are on my camera so I will get them sent out here pretty soon. After that we went to see the National Christmas Tree, but before we got there we ran into some street performers and listened to them for awhile then on to the Christmas Tree. The tree was on the Mall behind the White House and it was surrounded, but a bunch of little trains going around it, it was pretty sweet. Then in the evening we went caroling as a district, it was a lot of fun and made me think of when we would go caroling for Young Men and Young Women back home.
     I'm going to skip to Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve we went up to the Temple Visitor's Center because our mission was doing a performance, but we had to direct traffic but it was still fun. I got to be with Elder Kerr and we had the job of making sure everything went smoothly so it was pretty fun.
     Christmas was a great day, we didn't get back to our apartment until late at night but that's ok. We got to Skype home and that was awesome! Skyping home is probably one of my favorite things we get to do, it's nice to see and hear everybody. After Skyping we went to the Bishop's house and played some card games with him and his family and then we went to the Shamlion's for dinner. We finally got back to our place and opened up presents, whoo!
     Saturday we spent most of the day in Willow Crescent, an apartment complex, trying potentials in our area book. It was a long walk there and a long walk back. We didn't get anybody that wanted us to come in or even come back so that was a bummer, but hopefully we will have something work out for us soon.
     Sunday we had church and then after that we went to the Bishop's house for the mid-singles pot luck for lunch. It was pretty good and fun, we talked about the weirdest Christmas presents that had been given and received. I couldn't even think of any b there were a lot of good ones that other people had.
     Well I hope y'all are doing good and had a great Christmas and I hope you have a Happy New Year this week!! 
     ~ Elder Brady

The Christmas Lights at the DC Temple

Merry Christmas

Christmas Tree and Stocking...check!

     Hey everybody I hope you are doing well and having a good holiday season so far. It blows my mind Christmas is this week mainly because it just doesn't feel like it, there is no snow and it's supposed to be 70 degrees on Christmas Day! Whaaaaattttt? It's just driving me nuts, I need me some snow and cold for Christmas but it looks like the closest I'll get is rain...oh well I guess there's not much I can do about the weather.
     So on Monday we decided to do service for Brian and move our P-day to Tuesday. We helped him stack a bunch of wood and then we started a fire and just relaxed for a bit, burning a bunch of sticks that he had collected over the summer, it was nice. Later we went and got a Christmas tree so we could maybe feel a bit more Christmasy. We had District Meeting and that went pretty well, I have a pretty good district so that makes it better. We got the tree set up and the stand is a protein bottle and to keep it up we used some weights tied to the tree as a kind of anchor thing. It's pretty jenk.
     Wednesday we did some service, we helped with a move. We got the uhaul filled up at the storage unit and then went over and unloaded it at the house. It wasn't a huge uhaul so it wasn't all that bad. That evening I got to interview Ana and Sharon for baptism! It was a super cool experience and they are just awesome. Ana is Sharon's mom and Sharon is 11 and they were so excited about baptism it was awesome! 

Santaaaaaa!

     Thursday Sister Huntsman (president's wife) picked us up and took us to the doctor because Elder Coles had an appointment, so while he was back I got to talk to Sister Huntsman. She is great I like her a lot. After that we went to a Christmas party at our leasing office for residents and that was fun, I talked to some people about the church so it was cool. They also had a raffle which everyone got a ticket for free and they were giving out a bunch of gift cards and two Blu-Ray players and I just happened to win one of them. I don't know what the heck I am going to do with a Blu-Ray player, but hey I won.

     Mission Christmas Conference was on Friday and that was a lot of fun! The beginning was like a regular meeting with some speakers who all did a good job and then we had lunch. After lunch was the talent show and that was awesome and hilarious! There was a lot of good ones, the finale was a hot dog eating contest and President Huntsman won, he destroyed everyone else it was great!
     Saturday Ana and Sharon were baptized and I got to go to that so that was cool. Then we had our Ward Christmas party which was really good. It was pretty funny, there was two guys at the table next to us watching the BYU-Utah game and they would tell me scores and how much time was left, it was great. Oh and I got to sit on Santa's lap, woot woot!!
     It was the Christmas program in church on Sunday and it was really good, most of it was singing. They told the story of Christs' birth through the songs so it was cool.
     Well I hope you all have a great week this week and a great Christmas! This is one of my favorite times of year and it's a great time to show people we care. Don't get too cold back home! Merry Christmas!!!     ~ Elder Brady

Missionaries I came out with. This is the sisters
last transfer, they go home in 4 weeks!

Birthday/Transfers

     Hey everybody I hope things are going good for you. Everything here is going fairly well and the Christmas lights are definitely up. Depending on where you go there is either a neighborhood full of lights or one that isn't so full, I have decided I'm going to always try and have some lights up, it just seems to make people feel happy when there are Christmas lights. Anyway this week was a pretty busy week what with all that went on.

     On Monday Elder Kerr and I went into DC and we got to go to the top of the Washington Monument! It was super sweet! By far the best view I've seen in a long time. After we were up there for a bit we went to the zoo and spent the rest of the day there. It was nice because there weren’t a lot of people so the place wasn't packed, we could basically go anywhere we wanted as quick or as slow as we wanted. 

     Tuesday was my birthday! I am 20 years old.....that's really weird to say because I still feel like I'm 17 or something like that sometimes. Anyway we had a zone training which they taught us what we were taught in the "special" meeting last week so it was pretty good, but a repeat for some of us. We went to the Bank's for dinner (an older couple) and when they found out it was my birthday they got a tiny cupcake, put a candle on it, sang happy birthday to me and made me blow it out. It was great, they are super nice. Afterwards we went to the Johansen's who my mom had gotten in contact with and they had made me a cake and they sang happy birthday to me there as well. It was a great day, but it didn't end so great, we found out that Elder Kerr was being transferred so that was a big bummer. 

     Wednesday we spent most of the day at Brian's helping him with some things and making a trip to the dump, then he took us out to get milkshakes because Elder Kerr is leaving. When we got back to the apartment Elder Kerr still had to pack so he started that and I....well I don't remember what I was doing.

     Thursday....transfers. It was rough because Elder Kerr was being transferred and Elder Schenk was going home, but that happens. I was helping the new AP, Elder Jones (one of my good friends) load the luggage of the missionaries going home and was sitting on the side of the truck talking to Elder Kerr when President Huntsman came walking up and I decided to give him a hard time. I said "You're splitting us up!" He apologized and started telling me how hard it is to get transfers figured out and I totally believe him, it has got to be really hard. I have a lot of respect for him even though I'm not too happy Kerr and I aren't companions anymore. Anyway my new companion is Elder Tyrel Coles and he is from Meridian, Idaho. 

     The rest of the week went pretty good although nothing too spectacular happened, but it's the little things that matter right? Sunday was stake conference and that was pretty good, they focused a lot on temple attendance and I wish missionaries could go more, but we are lucky to have a temple so close so I shouldn't complain. It is about time for another temple trip though, going to look into that. After dinner there was an "Evening of Music" which was basically a concert with people of all different faiths performing at the church. It was really cool and interesting to see how people interact during the holiday season even though they are of different faiths, it all seems to just kind of get pushed to the back of everyone's mind and Christ comes to the front, it's really sweet. Christ should always be the center of our lives, this is how it should always be.

     Well I hope you all have a great week and stay safe. Remember the reason for the season, remember Jesus Christ and focus on keeping him in the center of your lives throughout this season, and throughout the year as well.
     ~ Elder Brady

Squirrel

My District

     Hey everybody I hope y'all had a good week! My week was pretty good, I wish I had more time to tell you about it but we are going into DC so I got to be fast.
     We had a pretty fun district meeting this week, we played a game kind of like jeopardy. There was a bunch of questions where they had to find scriptures and explain the answer but there was also just some random stuff like rope the cow we have or put leaves on the table. It was pretty funny and crazy but a lot of fun and then afterwards Sister Rossi, who is going home this week, bore her testimony and it was really spiritual. She really stressed making the most of everyday because time slips through your fingers faster than you realize. It was really good.
     This week I was invited to a special training with all the leaders of the mission and some other missionaries. It was an all day thing and we were trained a lot on planning, that's what they spent most of their time on anyway but we were also trained on how to really help our investigators progress and they did role play after role play for a couple of hours to show this. It was pretty intense but I learned a lot.

One Squirrel

     We went to the church early one morning and helped for a couple hours with the Syrian refugee coat and blanket drive they were doing, we had a ton of boxes filled! It took a big semi and then a big packing truck and half of another packing truck to get all the boxes we got done and there's still more. People are going back tomorrow to finish the rest or try and finish the rest anyway. After that we went to Brian's and we were helping him out with some hides and he came up to us with a squirrel and said who wants supper? A little bit later we had another one and we skinned and cleaned them, cooked them over a fire and ate em... wasn't too bad actually. Kind of weird, but not too bad.     Well it was a good week, but I'm out of time right now we got to get going into DC. I hope everyone is doing well and I hope I get to hear from y'all soon. Have a good one!      ~ Elder Brady

The ball that I received for my birthday.

Skinning a deer hoof.
Oh, the things we learn on a mission.