The 12th Chronicle

Hello Family & Friends!

In Joshua 1:9 it states, "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest". This scripture means a lot to James whose a guy we've started teaching this last week. (He is a stud muffin btw!) Cool story behind this scripture and also the reason why he got the reference tattooed to his back. You have to know that James was really close to his brother. When his brother died it hit him hard. The week after his brother died James was going through his house cleaning everything out. As he made his final sweep, he noticed that one of the A/C units had a vent cover with only one of four screws holding the cover on. James, knowing that there was drug and gang activity near by, guessed that his brother had probably kept some things hidden away. He whipped out a screwdriver to remove the cover. When he got the cover off he peeked inside. Sitting in the back corner, he found a necklace. On the necklace was engraved a scripture reference, Joshua 1:9. Scriptures truly are a treasure and for James it is now an imprinted reminder of what he found that day and the love he has for his brother. People are being prepared by the Lord everyday as they go through life. It's so cool to see that everyday. What scripture means that much to you?

Lots of things to celebrate this week! Ryan got baptized and his father-in-law (who recently received the Aaronic Priesthood) got to perform the baptism! Ryan was confirmed the next day and also was conferred with the Aaronic Priesthood. He is super excited to baptize his eight year old son in the next couple weeks! Also, another sweet miracle... we have been teaching a couple families in Denison, IA. It's about 45 minutes away from the church. It has been such a struggle to be able to get people down to church every week from so far away. We got a call from Rebecca (mother of one of the families) on Saturday with news that she was going to drive herself and her two kids to church the next day! That, like, never happens! As soon as she hung up Elder Durocher and I jumped up and down shouting, "YES!!". Who knew that someone just coming to church would ever make me so excited!

I LOVE my name tag! Here's why. We had a sweet lesson in gospel principles about baptism on Sunday. As part of the lesson we discussed what we covenant to do when we are baptized. One of those things we do is take upon ourselves Christ's name. Brother Smith (who teaches the class) helped explain what it means to take upon us His name. He shared how he remembers his Dad telling him of an experience that he had when he was young. He had done something foolish and gotten in trouble. After it was all over his Dad told him, "Son, remember... don't embarrass my name". I thought about that today, and how important our names are ...and especially our last names. They represent our family and those who came before. We, in turn, represent them too. When we take the name of Christ upon us, we represent Him. That is why my name tag means so much to me. It is a physical representation of my commitment to not only represent Christ but also my family.

Exchanges was a blast! With Elder Durocher serving as a district leader we get to go on more exchanges now! This last week we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders down in Council Bluffs. What a fun area! While I didn't experience anything TOO crazy when I was with Elder Lee, he sure told me plenty of stories of the things he's seen down there. Had a good time getting to learn from other missionaries and do some work down in Council Bluffs, Iowa!

One of the biggest challenges I've seen for myself is working with people who have mental health issues. The challenge is not because they are harder to teach or that they won't show up to church because of anxiety or because they rarely keep commitments. Instead, it is because as a missionary I cannot give advice other than "read your scriptures, pray for help, and come to church".  While all those things are incredibly awesome, they still seem to struggle so much! I've had to bite my tongue as people pour out their struggles to Elder Durocher and I. It's hard to not just blurt out... "You can feel JOY again! It's not you! You're not broken! You don't have to have another melt down or another morning of waking up and just hating yourself and life!" But instead, I have to be quiet and just listen, knowing all the while that there is an incredibly simple fix to their struggles. You can't help someone feel the Spirit or help them ask God for answers to prayers or help them see the importance of the gospel when they are "drowning". So many people struggle and very few truly understand what they go through.

So we had a blast this last week up in Denison! Like I shared above, we've been teaching a couple families there. Both families are from “South Sudan” in Africa. One of the families lives up in a trailer park outside of town. We went over there the other day to see them and found a couple of the kids outside with their cousins. It was such a blast! They shouted, "Hello!" and than ran to grab their siblings AND their Hispanic friends that lived nearby. They LOVE us. We followed them 'cause they wanted to show us their tree house. Then we all went back to their house so they could jump on the tramp. After they had all gotten there, we taught Tag, Piomo, Abula, Fatou, Barak, Jackson, and Tony how to remember the Ten Commandments by using simple hand gestures. Legit probably my favorite lesson I've taught! I felt like I was in Mexico or Africa instead of Iowa, USA. It's fun to have friends especially when they are little adorable ones =)

I've done a bunch of studies recently on JOY and what it is and where we get it and how it affects us and everything. I asked myself, "What gives me joy?" So, here are the top four things I came up with:

#1 - The Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

#2 - Wonderful Family and Friends (who love me). 

#3 - Working Hard and Meeting New People.
#4 - Listening to Music while Driving through Beautiful Iowa Country.

As I made this list I realized that joy is relative to each individual. Some things may be the same, but often they will be very different. I love that! And, because of that it sure made me curious what really gives other people joy. I'd love to hear what joy is to you! Please email me back with your answer to that question... "What brings you joy?" It would seriously make my week =)

Kia Kaha!

Elder Brady