Happy Easter!

     Hey everyone I hope you had a great Easter! It is one of the best holidays and I think it is easy to under appreciate it. Anyway I hope your week was good and you had some great experiences. This past week for me has been good, just super busy like always. I guess it's a trend or something now.
     Anyway on Monday for our p-day we went to the stake center and played some ball. It was alright and there was one game where our teams were pretty even and it was a super good game, we were trading buckets back and forth and it was high pace. It was just really good. After a couple games though everyone started lagging and getting tired and slowly the number of players got smaller and smaller and the number of people emailing got bigger and bigger. After emailing a little we played a game of lightning and called it a day.
     Tuesday we went to the office and did some work there and then went to do the apartments in the Oakton zone. We came back for dinner and then picked up a desk from a member that is getting rid of it so we grabbed it for the mission. After that we grabbed another desk and ran it all the way up to Leesburg and then to Herndon to drop off some stuff there.
     Wednesday we had district meeting which was good. Elder Ma is our district leader and he is from somewhere over by Beijing. He did district meeting on forgetting the past, learning from it but then moving on and looking to the future. It was way good. After district meeting we went to the office and did a little here and then went and did the apartment pick ups and drop offs in the Centreville Zone. We went to drop stuff off to a set of sisters who lived way out there but when we got there, no sisters. They had moved and their address was wrong, they actually live right by where we were just before so we drove all the way back to where we were before. Elder Chan drove the van for the time today and got an aggressive driving violation in tiwi, it was pretty dang funny!

Our new mission van!

     Thursday we went with President Lowe (Vehicle Coordinator), down to Woodbridge, which is out of our mission, and picked up our brand spankin new van!! I got to drive it off the lot and that sucker only had 16 miles on it, it was fresh! It's a 2016 Ford Transit and it is big. It's bigger than our old can and Elder Chan is scared to drive it. Anyway that took most of the day and then we went to the office and got the transfer cards done for Sister Huntsman's transfer board she has at the office.
     On Friday we switched vehicles with the APs because the seats don't come out very easy in the new van and we didn't have time to take them out so we used the truck. We did the apartments for the Annandale Zone which is too far from us so it wasn't bad. Elder Chan was trying to teach me Chinese, but it is super hard to remember all he tried teaching me so I don't think I retained much. It was fun though.
     Saturday we went to the office and got the pictures of people baptized this year put on the our big 300 so we were up to date. After lunch we went up to Alexandria and did the apartments up in that zone. One of the sister's apartments had 3 office chairs so we got excited but when we got there we weren't excited anymore, the chairs were trashed. They live on the third story and we didn't want to carry them all the way down so one of the sisters and I chucked them off their balcony! It was awesome! On the last one a guy on the ground started cheering and yelling telling us to throw a grill, it was so funny!
     Sunday was Easter, woot woot! It was also my Grandma's birthday, happy birthday Grandma Davis! Church was pretty good, I mean it was the Easter program so of course it was good. The primary sang a couple songs and then the choir sang, it was way good. Two speakers talked but it was more like a narrative about the life of Christ, it was just pretty good. After church we had dinner with the Green's who are super sweet and then we did the Springfield zone apartments which didn't take too long. We tracted for the rest of the night and got nothing but something will happen soon. We finished off the night by doing numbers at the office, rolling in at about midnight, yeah buddy.
     Well I hope y'all had a great week and that you had a good Easter. I hope you came closer to Christ over the week and knows his love for you as well. I was thinking about the Atonement a lot this week and I can't begin to comprehend what Christ went through for us, he experienced every single little bit of our pain, be it physical or otherwise he has gone through it for us so we could have a way out. He's taken everything we go through on his shoulders already so don't be afraid to turn to him, don't make his sacrifice be in vain. He loves you and has his arms open to you. Follow him. You guys are the best, keep being awesome!     ~ Elder Brady

Sick truck I want!

Workin

At the Dulles Air and Space Museum

     Well, this is a little bit of a late email, but better late then never right? Anyway, this past week has been pretty good just swamped like always. We have had some opportunities to share the Easter videos that the church just put out with some members and that is always way good. Those videos are awesome and they have something for everyone, go check them out if you haven't seen them! Go to LDS.org and search for "Hallelujah Easter Initiative."
     Alright, so a little bit about my week. On Monday, we went and picked up Elder Kerr and his companion and went to the Dulles Air and Space Museum. It was my second time and it is pretty dang good. We talked Elder Chan into going on these flight simulators they had, it took us a while but we got him to do it. They were super sick! It was basically you and a buddy in a tiny cockpit having a"dogfight" trying to shoot down enemy planes. So sweet! Elder Kerr and I went twice and it was so much fun!

Getting a haircut from Sister Maeger

     Tuesday we had our Zone Training and it was pretty good. It was a lot about what we have talked about at MLC so we talked about teaching the Plan of Salvation simply and how we can keep it nice and easy for people we are teaching to understand. I like that way of teaching a lot. Later in the day, we went looking for some potentials we have in the area book and none of them opened their doors, but we saw a guy next to a playground with his kids and went and talked to him. Turns out he was one of the potentials we were looking for! So that was cool. Funny story time.....Elder Hudson and Elder Bunn were getting the mail and Elder Hudson grabbed a letter, which was for Elder Bunn, and starting running up the stairs with Elder Bunn chasing him. (The letter was from his girlfriend). Elder Hudson didn't quite make it up enough flights of stairs and busted into our downstairs neighbor's  apartment, on a sprint! He made it halfway down the hall and saw an older lady standing up off the couch looking scared....then he did a quick turnaround and yelled back over his shoulder "sorry! Wrong apartment!" It was hilarious!!
     Wednesday we went up to Alexandria to switch some beds, but we had the wrong info and didn't take everything that was needed. Whoops. After dinner we headed down to Warrenton and picked up a bunch of things from apartments down there. We didn't finish though. Ohhhh another story. We were going down to Warrenton and I was driving and I was going as fast as tiwi will let me, which is 5 over the speed limit, and next thing I know I'm getting pulled over! The cop came up and asked me what I was doing.....I was a little confused as I was only going 5 over and everyone was still passing me. Anyway turns out I was going too slow and that was illegal just like speeding was, so yeah I got pulled over for going too slow....what the heck?
     Thursday morning we went back to Warrenton and finished up everything we had to do out there. Warrenton is super sweet, it is the most "country" place in our mission and this weekend was my first time going out 

Brother Maeger has a full suit of armor
and he does Battle of the Nations. It's like
old school fighting, way cool! Reminded
me of the movie, "A Knight's Tale".

there. It was super cool. In the afternoon we went up to Reston and picked up some desks from Sonia Kough's work that they were giving away...we fit 16 in the van. Granted the legs came off on some of them but still. After that, we went back up to Arlington to get some more stuff from apartments up there. A lot of driving today, giving me practice for all the road trips I'll do I guess.
     Friday morning we had a meeting with all the office staff and then we had some work to do in the office. After we finished we ran up to Ashburn to get some furniture and stuff from apartments up there, except most of it was just garbage. Garbage boys! When we got back to Burke we picked up some dressers and a bed from some members and then set up an iPad and took it to the Centreville Stake Center to give it to the Zone Leaders because a missionary lost his.
     Saturday we spent most of the day in the office. We were going o print off a bunch of things but got stopped cold when we realized the printer was out of ink. Sister Lowe ordered some more but that put some stuff on slow down till it gets here. We went to the storage sheds to drop stuff off and two senior couples showed up and then the members we got the furniture from yesterday brought a bed so we spent some time there. In the evening, we went to Centreville and picked up a desk and a bed from the Chinese elders there.
     Sunday was good, it always is. We had an awesome lesson in Gospel Principles about the family and a bomb lesson in Elders' Quorum about the Atonement. It was so good! It was definitely one of the best lessons I've ever had. I enjoy learning about the Atonement because it never seems to get dull, it's always a touching topic and is easy to get emotional with. Anyway, it was a really good lesson and a good day at church.
     Well, I hope y'all are doing good and have a great Easter this weekend! Remember Christ in all that you do and work to become closer to him, he wants you to. Follow Jesus Christ!
      ~ Elder Brady

Be Happy

Elder Chan & Elder Brady

     This week has been pretty good but we've had so much to do it's ridiculous. We are getting behind on some of the things we got to do which isn't a good thing, starting to feel a little swamped. That's good though, busy busy busy.
     Anyway on Monday we did our shopping and then went and played Football! It was a super nice day and I'm pretty sure I got some sunburn from it but it was worth it. One of my good friends out here went home today though for medical reasons so that's a bummer but he's doing good. We found out our interviews with President tomorrow were going to be at our apartment, I guess they want to see which is easier interviews at the church or in everyone's own apartment. Went to the office and the missionary who was supposed to do the Warrior Report hadn't sent it in so we did a goose chase over the phone and finally got him to send it in.
     Tuesday we had our interviews with President and they were good even if it was a little weird to do them in our apartment. He talked about 2 Nephi 5 and living after the "manner of happiness" that it describes in that chapter, it was really good. We spent the rest of the day in the office trying to get caught up and get things ready for MLC this week.
     On Wednesday we went up to McLean to pick things up and drop stuff off that we were told apartments needed after they had all been inspected. We got most of it done, but there's still a couple things we have to go get. We went into the office when we got back and made sure the PowerPoint was ready for MLC tomorrow and set up an iPad for a new sister.
     Thursday we had MLC and it was pretty good, better than last transfer. President talked about being happy again and the Assistants talked about how to deal with the excuses people have for not going to church or not reading the Book of Mormon. Then we talked about teaching the Plan of Salvation simply so the pamphlet and that was really good, it just makes things a lot easier for the missionaries and the investigators. The new Chinese elder flew in today so we set up his iPad and got them all squared away.
     Friday we went to the office in the morning and met with a Senior Couple missionary, Elder Torgersen, to talk about the storage sheds. After we had lunch we drove down to Manassas to do some more drop offs and pick ups because of apartment inspections and again we didn't finish. After dinner we tried multiple people but it seemed like nobody was home. We went to the office to find out about the mission history which we are supposed to write one for last year so we were seeing how it's been done in the past.
     Saturday we spent a lot of time in the office trying to fix some things that aren't working. We are having issues with the area book and missionaries' iPads so that was fun. Elder Kinard (Senior Missionary) asked us to help him pick up a bunch of mattress pads so we went with him to do that and it turns out all the ones he'd ordered hadn't arrived yet, only one order was there so we picked that one up and will have to go back for the others next week. Tried some people but we couldn't get in and then we went to the Tolboe's (members) who are awesome and we talked with them for a bit.
     Sunday we had church and then ward missionary correlation and ward council. After that we were supposed to do our weekly planning but we met with the sisters to see how we wanted to split up the members in the Ward we are going to see. We had dinner with the Gillespie's and then we went tracting. We wanted to show the new Easter video, "Hallelujah", and out of all the houses we knocked not one let us show it to them. Woot woot that's what I'm talking about....We went into he office and did numbers to end the night, which ended pretty late.
     Well it was a pretty busy week and I swear we never have enough time to do everything but that's life I guess. Things are going good though and I'm still enjoying being an office elder. Hopefully this next week we can get a lot of things done. Well have a great week everyone and be happy, read 2 Nephi 5 and see what you get from it. Another good scripture about happiness is Mosiah 2:41.     ~ Elder Brady

Transfers

     Hey everybody I'm just going to apologize early for the short email, it was transfer week so we were super busy and this week we are even more so. We are trying to get everything caught up so that's why the short email, I just don't have the time.

     Anyway things are going good and like I said it was transfer week, which means we work overtime and get even less sleep, woo hoo! We take beds to and from apartments that are going to be in trios or that were in trios and aren't anymore. We get things set up for the incoming missionaries and then we pick them up on Wednesday. After we pick them up we take them into DC to go to the Lincoln Memorial, which was super fun, and then back to the mission home.

     Thursday was transfers, Elder Finlayson got transferred and my new companion is Elder Chan. Elder Chan is from Hong Kong and I actually knew him last year because we lived in the same apartment complex. He also goes home in two transfers so I'll either be done in the office this transfer or I could be here for a while.

     Friday morning we woke up at 3:00 am to take the departing missionaries, who happen to be the sisters I came out here with, to the airport. It was kind of weird to see most of the people I came out on my mission with go home, there's only four elders now from my group still out here. Crazy to think about for sure.

     Well, now that transfers are over we start doing all the stuff we need to do. We have been in the office every day almost all day doing work. We have fun though, Elder Chan is pretty funny, so we laugh a lot which makes things easier. We are just super super busy.

     Well I hope y'all are doing good and I hope spring is finding you guys. It has definitely found us, we played football yesterday for p-day in almost 70 degrees! It was pretty awesome, but I'm already starting to not want it to get any hotter. I like colder weather though, and snow I can't wait for some real snow. Anyway stay happy and smile, because that may be all it takes to make someone's day so much better!

     ~ Elder Brady

Elder Jones and I

Taking the new missionaries into DC
to the Lincoln Memorial