June 8, 2015

Saying good-bye to Sister S*******!!!! :( :( :( waaaaaahhhh!!!

Dearest Mom,

Haha yeah, 90 degrees is a breeze here in Arizona! :) it was really cool this week!! (At the end of it at least!) and we even got rain :)!

The carpet really looks great!!! I like it! And my dad is handsome!! [I sent her a picture of standing John on our new carpet.]

Oh yeah, I forgot to respond last week about the fact that I just hit my year mark. Crazy, right?

There was a rainbow on my head [in one of the pictures she sent last week] because of the lighting in the room. Also, I think because my forehead was so shiny :). The M*****'s have a tee-pee in their home because someone made it for them :). Hahaha - the priests ate my hamburger because they are rude. I saw the two boys again on Sunday and I said "Did you enjoy my hamburger....?" Hahaha - they both accused the other.....

Hahahahahaha you are funny about Emily's sombrero story! I am glad she got into C-notes!! Do they know who the new choir conductor will be?

We are allotted a certain amount of miles and we are not allowed to go over. [That is why they walked everywhere last week and got blisters!!]

You “hope” Dad and you go on a mission someday? Don't you mean you will? You guys should start planning for that along with retirement! But I hear the church recommends that couples wait at least a year after retirement before serving a mission together...

Are you guys ever going to put new hardwood in? Or you guys should stain it a darker color in a few years! I helped a member family do that here! So I could help you too!! :) or maybe that's what it already looks like - haha, I can't fully tell from the pictures :)

Sorry about the ruined lawn! Glad you got a new one!!

YES FOR THE FAMILY REUNIONS!!!!

I am so excited about that and I am so glad that it will be every other year!!! (I would love if it was every year, but that can be kind of hard since we all live far away!) but I am glad that it will be every other year!!

Haha no, in 2025 I will be 30 and married with one, maybe two, kids. [I told her she would be married with 5 kids.]

Have fun in Ohio!!! I want to go visit Michelle next summer and all of my sisters and brother really!! But I haven't gotten a chance to spend time with just Michelle and her family, so that would be fun!

When is Girl's Camp and what is the theme this year? What is Emily's unit called?

I'm sorry about your friends dad passing away :(

So what is the story of Geoffry painting the baptismal fonts? He did that right? Or did that I create that in my mind? Haha - I have been known to do that.  [My step-dad painted the baptismal font in the Kapaa, Kauai chapel back in the 70s.] 

Haha - I was actually wondering what would happen when I was home and you were still at work! This is the first time my mom has been working! (Other than when she was writing that book and wouldn't play with me:)) yeah I would love to help you at the library!!!! AND CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING THE JOB!!!!! :D [I – Shelly – got a job as a middle school library assistant – starting in September.]

Oh you are going to be a wonderful librarian!!! What kinds of things will you do with the kids? Read to them? Are you going to decorate the library!!!? I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!!!!

Here were some of my favorite middle school books:

Harry Potter

The Giver (and it's sequels)

Ender's Game (maybe a little for an older person though...)

Cirque Du Freak :)

Have Katrina and I ever been in the temple together?

Yeah for Bill being baptized!! Who did the proxy for him and his parents in the sealing? And for Bill's baptism?

You can never write too much mom.

This week we did service for a lady in our ward. Sadly, her house had ticks...I found three of them on my pants after we finished.

After cleaning a home in our area I found three of these on my jeans...

Two of them I found and flicked off right after we got out of the house...

One made it all the way to the church bathroom with me...

Attack of the Ticks...

None were inside me fortunately, but those little things do not die. I flicked two of them off, but one rode with me to the church building were we completely inspected our entire bodies (in separate bathroom stalls) and I found it crawling on my jeans... (See the picture I sent... It's still alive).

But we were happy to serve and we were protected!! Yay!!

We also were able to have another wonderful lesson with F****. We read Alma 7 which I think helped him to understand just how much the book of Mormon really is about Christ, and we committed him to read 3 Nephi 11 and to meet with us again next week :)

Life is great!! I love being a missionary and I love you!!!

Love,

Sister Brady

Man Vs.Wild

I finally tried one of those scorpion lollies......

Dear Dad,

Thank you for the work info!!! I want to learn more about what you do! Do they ever have a bring your kid to work day for adult kids?

I still think you should work at Disneyland someday. Maybe after you retire, you and mom can spend your winters working at Disneyland :)

What do you think of mom's new job?! I am so excited for her!! I'm glad she will only be at work while Emily is still at school. That is so important for a parent to be home with their child for the majority of
the time.

I actually had a morning the other day where I felt excited to get married :) haha, it made me wonder if there is a boy out there somewhere who is praying for his future spouse.... (Me :))

I love you dad!!

Love,
Sister Brady

Erica (Airwrecka)'s friend sent this to her!
Apparently we have all been spelling it wrong!!

June 1, 2015

A rainbow on my head.
One of the Elder's was really excited
and took a picture of it.

 Dear Mom,

Can you guess what we did this week?

It was the end of the month, and we were COMPLETELY out of miles in our car. We had just enough to get us to our area and back (an 8 mile round trip).

And then we walked.

And walked.

And walked.

My feet were swollen on one of the longer days.

And a few of my blisters have popped and are bloody. I know, TMI.

But we have seen SO MANY MIRACLES because of our sacrifice and diligence.

We have an investigator who has agreed to take the lessons and she has come to church twice already! And she is just the sweetest person ever!

We also have a sweet member and her husband who are going to drive us to a baptism on Tuesday night. They have been a little less active in past years, but they have been attending more frequently, and they even signed up to feed us this month!

Hahaha, walking really isn't that bad. I am still loving being a missionary. And I've slept REALLY well all week :)

And if you've been watching the weather, yes, we did get well into the 100's this weekend, but you really can't tell much of a difference from 97 to 107. And we saw that we will have weather in the low 90's next week!!! Which is AWESOME!! Because the low 90's feel great! You can definitely feel a difference from 103 to 93. And then anything lower than the 80's becomes freezing. 

Haha, yeah maybe I won't want to walk in the cold December Portland air :) I will probably spend all winter huddled up in a comforter or two.

The M******'s had a tee-pee in their home! Haha...

Oh, but I love being a missionary.

I was reading in Alma this week and I came across one of my favorite scriptures again:

"O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" (Alma 29:1)

But I will be content with being a missionary in the Arizona Mesa Mission :)

Wow it is a blessing/miracle that you did wake up at 3:00am! I am glad Dad got to the airport on time!! [John had a flight to catch and had accidentally set his alarm for 3:30pm.] I hope you were able to catch up on some sleep :)

My cold is not completely over. I don't know if it might be allergies or something? I have a gunky throat and a runny/stuffy nose. But if I drink all my water every day, I usually feel okay (other than the runny nose and the occasional sneezing/coughing) :)

I love the new floors!!! Did you get new hardwood too? Why did you guys put a new yard in?

Michelle had really good advice about Provo!! I love my sisters :) I love my brother :) I love my family :) I want us all to be close. How can we do that when everyone lives so far away? I guess it helps that we have a family email :) I love that thing. But what are some other things we can do? We could have a Facebook group page and include the brothers in law/sister in law!? Or we could make sure we have some kind of family reunion every 2 or 3 years. Something simple. I don't know, I just want my kids to be close to their cousins.

Haha that is funny that you kept calling Seth Sam. Haha was Sam there helping too? Or was it just Seth and Josh? How old are Ben and Abe now?

I loved the pops concert!! What song did Emma sing with her friend?

I'm sad that Mrs. Voorhies is leaving Centennial! But I am glad she got a good job offer!!

Congrats to Emma!!!!!! Yaaaayyy!! I was so excited when I got that award! [Emily won the Outstanding Freshman Drama Award.]

When is Susan's show? Isn't school almost over? Haha, here in Arizona school has been out for over a week, so I keep getting really confused thinking that all of Emily's school things are happening in the summer time :)

Yeah, that was sad to hear of the passing of Elder Perry, but it reminded me of another scripture verse I had read this week. I actually read it the same morning of the day that we found out he had passed away!

"While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of never-ending happiness." (Alma 28:12).

He is definitely in a state of happiness :)

I am so grateful that we have living prophets :) I am so grateful for the gospel!! And I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and for the Atonement. I love being a missionary :)

I love you Mom!!

Love,

Sister Brady

We put food in the fridge at the church because we live so
far from our area and don't have any miles, and on Sunday we opened
the kitchen door and found two priests standing awkwardly.... One of
them looked like he was chewing food..... It was super funny and we
all started laughing... And then Sister Solipo and I said "oh, did you
enjoy our food? ...Our pizza?" They ran past us out the door and said
"no, we didn't eat your pizza!!"

So then we checked, and they were telling the truth!
They hadn't eaten the pizza....

No. They took a bite out of my Haven Burger....
(Their bite is the one on the left.)
 I had eaten half of it the day before
when our WML took us out to lunch"

A ton of PS(s) - -

CONGRATS EMMA!!!! [C-notes]

Why is she wearing a sombrero? [Emily made it into the top choir and was “kidnapped” by the older C-note members and taken to breakfast . . . but she had to wear a sombrero – we sent Erica a picture.]

Where did they go to breakfast?

Oh I wish I could be there!! [Katrina and Gordon and family just visited my dad in Montana]

I haven't been there since K**** threw his retainer in the outhouse. [This happened in an outhouse in Montana - and yes the sign was there back then too!]



Let's go next summer!!! Book it now!!! Ppplllleeeeeaaaassssseeeee!!!!!!!!!!! [Where? Montana]

I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world. [all of them]

Oh my adorable. Nice face Emmy :) [Emily's funny face while facetiming Estela]

Loooks so good!! Congrats Emmy!!!! I love you :) [Emily got her braces off today]

Yes, she could be our triplet. [Emily making the Erica and Chris face]

Will you tell Grandma how grateful I am for the card and money!!! And I don't think she needs a new mind!! Emily's name on my card was totally fine!! Haha! I sure love my Grandmas and Grandpas!!