Working

Elders Brady &  Schenk at the Iwo Jima Memorial

     Last Monday we went into DC all day with a member family that is
friends with Elder Schenk's 

family and used to live in California but
now live out here, and a pair of sister missionaries they brought as
well. We went to the Iwo Jima Memorial first and I have to say it's
probably one of my favorites so far. After that we went to the Tomb of
the Unknown Soldier and got to see the changing of the guard, that was
pretty cool. When that was over we went to the Lincoln Memorial
because one of the Sisters had never been to DC yet and wanted to see
that one. Since Elder Schenk and I have seen it multiple times already
we just sat on the stairs and watched everybody go by. This guy and
girl came up to us and the girl was like "my mom loves missionaries!"
So she took a selfie with us to send to her mom so that was fun.

Elder Schenk & Elder Brady at the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

     Tuesday we had an interesting District Meeting, Elder Schenk is our District Leader so it's never boring, but this one was awesome. He had
us all stand on the table and do the trust fall. It sure made everyone
lighten up and laugh some. 

     Wednesday I went on an exchange with Elder Falslev in Annandale, he goes home at the end of this transfer. We went and saw this guy they have been seeing and he asked me if I had accepted Jesus yet. Then he said if I 
need any help just come talk to him, he was an interesting guy. After that we went to dinner and then we went around all night seeing people. It was actually a really fun exchange and was better than I thought it was going to be. Plus I got to be in a car for that time so that's always a plus!

Look what I found at the Arlington Cemetery

     On Thursday Brother Carlisle came out with Elder Schenk and I on splits. We went and met with one of Brother Carlisle's home teaching families and taught them, well the kids, a lesson on obedience. Then we went and tried to see one of our investigators, but no one was home and by this time it was almost time for us to be home, but Brother Carlisle said he had something to show us. He took us to this huge oak tree in his neighborhood and it was gigantic! Schenk wrapped his arms around it, but it took him four and half times doing that to get around it. Yeah it was pretty darn big.
     It rained then snowed and then rained again all day Friday. We were pretty wet by the time we got to dinner and then we dried off a little, but dinner happened to be in the very bottom of our area. It takes us about 45 minutes to bike there. So needless to say by the time we got home that night we were drenched and more than a little cold. Our bikes were cleanish though! 
     Saturday we struck out on everybody we tried to see. It was definitely a bummer of a day.
     On Sunday we were at the church for seven and a half hours. We had a couple meetings before church and then after church we had correlation with the Ward Missionaries and the bishop. Oh the bishop is Bishop McConkie and he is related to Bruce R. McConkie! But anyway yeah so Sunday was a long day at the church and we were pretty tired at the end of the day not to mention dying of starvation. Altogether it was a good week and I hope everyone had a good week too! Love you guys! 
     ~ Elder Brady

"Ours is the responsibility to keep our lights bright for others to see and follow."
          - Thomas S. Monson

Stealth Mode‏

     Had a good week this week, we got two new investigators! Monday we went shopping and then emailed. After that we went to the stake center and played some basketball for the rest of Preparation Day. After dinner we walked to the Stake President's house, President Bush, and talked with his family about their personal missionary work goals. They have a dog named Maximus and he ended up laying on my feet and I rubbed his side till he fell asleep. Warmed my feet right up! That was good because it rained all dayyy.     On Tuesday we had District Meetings and it was pretty funny. Elder Schenk is our District Leader so it's always a party. When we were practice teaching he tied his tie around the eyes of one elder and put his backpack on the head of another, it was pretty funny. Later that night Elder Schenk and I helped a guy who was parked on the side of the road with his hazards on. It was a pretty busy road so we decided we would push him down around the corner to get out of the way so we wouldn't die. Got the car working though so it worked out. President Bush came with us on an exchange to see some potentials and none really worked out. Bummer.     Wednesday we met with the Sanchez family, they are a less-active family that came to church for the first time in ten years last week. They're pretty cool and we get to see them every Wednesday. I don't know why but we laughed a lot today, oh well it's good for you.     Thursday our sink broke, and we locked ourselves out of our apartment. Our apartment is a lock out apartment so we can't forget the keys but yep, we forgot them and subsequently we were locked out for the rest of the night. Went stealth mode and got back in though so it's ok. Now for the sink, we think something is wrong with the disposal but Schenk was in looking at it and it like threw up nastiness and almost hit him. He dived out of the kitchen, landed on the ground and army crawled to get further away!      Friday we did a lot of biking but it all worked out. We got a new investigator named Komonte. I'll take all the biking for that.      Saturday we had a Whole Mission Conference, Elder Holstrom and Elder Perkins of the Seventy came and spoke to us. A lot of it was about letting the mission better you for the rest of your life, it was really good. We also got our second new investigator, his name is Clifton. It was another pretty good day.      Sunday was good, we went to church and then came home and got ready to go to dinner. We had dinner at our Ward Mission Leader's house, the Capatingan's. After dinner we went to see some people but yet again nothing seemed to work out. Well I hope everyone has a good week! Love you all and I love hearing from everyone!      ~ Elder Brady

Transfers

     It was transfer week this week and I did get transferred, my new area is the Wakefield A area. My new address is:

9930 Fairfax Square

Apartment #13

Fairfax, VA 22031

     So to start the week last Monday we had a pretty good, relaxing preparation day. We went shopping then emailed and then just hung out at our apartment. At one point we went and played some catch with a football and that was awesome. Boy do I miss that game. I think I'm getting Elder Oyler on the 

football train because now he wants to play catch all the time! Oh yeahhhh mission accomplished! 

     Tuesday something exciting happened.... It SNOWED!!!! Not going to lie I was pretty excited about that ha. Finally got some good ole white covering the ground. (Even if it was only an inch) Tuesday night we also got transfer calls and obviously I ended up leaving The Fort. I was kind of sad about it because I've got some good friends in that ward, plus Elder Oyler. Love that guy. But 

it's time for me to be in a new place and to meet new people.

     Wednesday was my last day in Fort Belvoir so it was a pack/say bye day. I started packing in the morning and that took longer than I expected, I guess I had more junk than I thought....oops. That night we went to the Doyle's and saw them for awhile and said good-bye. We didn't get to stay very long because Jason and Nathaniel had to go to scouts. Then we went to the Kough's and of course Sister Kough had food for us. She always has food ready it's ridiculous, and she always makes us eat a lot of it haha. Anyways so we were there for awhile and I was on the couch and Alma came over and told me to scoot over because she wanted to sit by me. So obviously I scooted on over and she crawled up and sat next to me for the rest of the night. As we were leaving she came up to me and gave me a picture of her, she is so cute.

     Thursday was Transfer day and I was nervous because I wanted to get a good companion. President Riggs must have known I was nervous or something because I was one of the last ones to get called. My new companion is Elder Schenk...score! He is pretty cool and he is from California. It should be another good transfer. He has this remote control car he always plays with and it's pretty entertaining not going to lie.

     Friday night was a tough night. It was pretty cold and the sidewalks here still have iced over snow so it makes biking difficult to say the least. The area is pretty big too it is usually a car area but hasn't been the last transfer or two, another missionary broke his collarbone so he needed the car. Oh well biking in the cold is good for you, builds character I've heard ha. 

     On Saturday we tried to see some potential investigators but no luck. We did find a little stream that was iced over and we had the genius idea of ice skating! Well we tried but I guess you kind of need ice skates or something for that to really work, who knew? We had dinner at a members home, the Atkinson's and it was almost a missionary dinner, we has sub sandwiches! It was pretty funny I thought haha. 

     My first Sunday in the new ward was pretty good, well we got some hot cocoa mix so we got that going for us. After church we went to a dinner/lesson at the William's house. They had invited one of our investigators (Randy) to dinner so we got invited as well. The lesson ended up being like two hours long, Randy can talk. He does know a lot of history about the church and the Book of Mormon and Bible so it's pretty cool to talk with him about those things. He is a very facts/history oriented guy and likes to see things line up on a time line, so teaching him is going to be challenging. We are going to brush up on our history! 

     Altogether it was a pretty good week. Hope everyone had a good week as well and I love you all! New area and new companion = new mission, or so President Riggs says. Let it begin!

     Oh and Happy Birthday to my two little cousins, Olivia Potter and Ella Davis!!

     Love, Elder Brady

Happy New Year 2015!

     Happy New Year everybody! I hope it was a good one and you enjoyed it. I had another great week in The Fort. Monday we went into DC for our preparation day and got a tour of the Air and Space Museum, Brother Paone works there and he gave us a free tour. Just to show you how much he knows and how big the museum is this was my second tour of the Air and Space from Brother Paone and I still saw and learned things I hadn't the first time. It was great! I think my favorite part is the military exhibits though, they really intrigue me. All the stories and information about our military is just amazing and gives me even more respect for them.
     Tuesday was a good day for us. We found two potential investigators. Our first one was at McDonalds, oh yeah! Elder Oyler wanted some food so that's where we went and then he got into a gospel discussion with the girl that was taking his order. We exchanged contact info and as easy as that we had a potential! It was sweet! Then as we were leaving Elder Oyler looked back at me for some reason and smack! He ran straight into the door haha I died! Laughed all the way across the parking lot and that just started the night off great. Then we went to a referral and this guy is so ready for the Gospel. He has been going to a different Ward four weeks already! He said he wants to become a full member by July, I looked at him and said we can help you with that! Haha it was a good night.

Elder Oyler & Elder Brady on New
Year's Eve directing traffic at the
Washington DC Temple Celebration

     On New Years Eve we got to direct traffic at the temple. We rode up there with the other elders in our apartment and another pair of elders from the Mt. Vernon Ward. It wasn't that cold so it was actually pretty fun. A little bit into the night we started playing with the walky-talkies and doing code talk to the other elders just to pass the time along, it was some pretty funny stuff. Don't trust a handful of 19 and 20 year old guys with walkie-talkies I guess haha.     Thursday night we met with Reyna. (Potential we met at McDonalds) She wasn't home yet but there was three guys outside her house that we started talking to. They were high as could be. When Reyna got there Elder Oyler started talking to her and I continued talking with the guys to kind of keep them out of the conversation, we were just trying to make it a little easier on Reyna so she didn't have distractions. Not going to lie I had a pretty... interesting conversation with one of the guys, he jumped all over the place. We talked about hunting and somehow ended up talking about aliens and other things. Oh and we had a push-up contest haha. At 9:00 and in someone's driveway.... It was an interesting night haha.
     Saturday it rained. A lot. We tried to wait it out and it did stop, it stopped just long enough for us to get to one of our appointments. When we came out of that one it was pouring again. We only had to go a short ways to our next one, but by the time we got there we were soaked. It just so happened that the house we were at was the Kough's so we got food like always and got to warm up and dry off. When it was time to go home it was still pouring so Matt gave us a ride home and we just left our bikes there. We went back and got them the next day. Good thing the Kough family is so awesome haha. Well that was pretty much my week. Have a great week everyone!

     ~ Elder Brady

Elder Strawn & Elder Brady

Doing some service by preparing a garden for our ward mission leader 

Elder Oyler's new friend

Funny sign at a church