This week was alright, I'm sick with a cold, have a really runny nose and out of paitence. My computer sucks and my keyboard is sticky so this email may be short sorry. First off transfers. I will have Elder Depew as my comp. He's from Canada and is an awesome guy. He played hockey too so I'm sure we will get along great. The Elders from Beira don't get here till friday and with all the stuff happening I think p-day might be on Tuesday next week so if I don't write on Monday that will be why.

Tomas's baptism went well. He showed up like a half hour late and almost wasn't able to be baptized but he made it so that's good. We had a really good week though with a lot of success and a lot of lessons. We taught a guy from Nigeria who was really good. He only speaks English so it was hard to teach him but we were with the BYU students again so they did all the teaching and I translated for other people who were there so it worked out well.

Anyways, I better go, sorry again this is so short, but I love you and I'm really grateful to be your son!

Love Brady

Helping Sister Cox Make 150 Sandwiches for the BYU-Young Single Adult Activity

Guess who I went on a split with last night?!?!?!?!?!? Brother Bills!!! My MTC teacher is here in Mozambique studying abroad and he lives in Maputo. Him and 3 other rm's came and did divisions with us and we got a ton done and found a ton of people!!!! It was cool to knock doors and teach lessons with my old MTC teacher! He's a great guy and it was great to get to know him not as a teacher but just as a friend. I felt like a super young jr. comp again ha ha! He ate it up though! He served in Portugal so he wasn't use to people being so receptive and willing to listen. After he said "man I taught more lessons today than I did in a whole transfer in Portugual!!" It was funny but I really liked it! We found some amazing people and we needed the help. He said we could call him anytime to do splits and if he had time he would come. We found one guy that was awesome. He's from Nigeria so I'm glad Bills was with me cuz I can't teach in English anymore ha ha but he was outside pondering on wheither he existed before this life or not and we just contacted him! He had a ton of questions and we are going back to teach him this week! It was way cool to see how the Lord had prepared him for us at that very moment!

(Brother Bills dancing with a Mozambican at the YSA BYU Activity)
Talking to Americans was weird, we have a group of BYU students here and I talked to them a lot on Saturday. It was really weird talking to white people who weren't missionaries. Especially the girls!!!! Wow that was super weird! It was fun though, I can tell it is going to be a big time shock when I get home though to see all those white people! And having to talk to them will be hard ha ha! I'm weird! And every day my comp points out words I say funny ha ha! You may have a socially retarted son when I get back! (Decorating for the Activity)

We are baptizing Tomas this week, he is the strongest person that I have taught on my mission! He really wants to serve a mission so we are baptizing him early while his parents work on their marriage process. I'm way excited though, he really is way strong so I was lucky to be here to teach him!

I really do love the work here though. Everything is going great and we are having lots of success in our area! I better go, thanks for everything! I love you and I'm grateful for you!

Love Brady

Questions:
1. Do you get together with Maputo zone for P day or just Matola zone.
Yeah sometimes we do stuff together, today we are going to play football so it should be fun!
2. What do you do for Pday in Matola? What kinds of things are there to do there?
Not a whole lot, just eat, sleep and go to the gym if there is time.
3. How does matola compare to Maputo and Beira?
yeah it is a completely different mission in Beira! Matola is pretty much the same as Maputo there isn't much difference. Everyone is semi inteligent and speaks Portuguese.
4. Are the group of missionaries still going to Angola in July? What is the status there and how many missionaries are in Angola? How many going? Is Elder Brower still going?
yeah they will leave in a few weeks. Elder Brower is going :-( but I think everything is a go now. There will be 8 there now.

KFC - Mozambique!

We talked to Brady for 2 hours on Mother's Day. He told us the following stories:
He told us about building a house for one of the families they are teaching. They are currently making cement bricks for building the house. Here's what he said: "We get sand and cement and mix it with a shovel, pour it into a mold and pack it really well. Then when it sets, we hit it with a shovel and break it out of the mold. We are making lots of cement blocks right now. Then we'll build the house when we get enough. This family been coming to church for a long time but the husband has a drinking problem. Elder Nascimento and I came up with a program to get people off alcohol when we were in Beira. It works really well and everyone I've used it with has done really well. We put them under a lot of strict rules such as after work they come right home and stay there and don't go out at night, and they give their wife their paychecks. If they really want to quit and will do it and follow the program they get off alcohol. This family hardly had any money because the husband spent it all on alcohol and they lived in a staw hut with their 5 children. Their hut was falling over, the children had little food and no uniforms, supplies or backpacks to go to school with but since he stopped drinking and they have extra money. They used the money they saved to buy their children backpacks and pens and uniforms for school and they started buying cement so they could build a house. We talked to his wife. She said before they were not healthy, really skinny, the house was falling down, She was crying, saying the kids barely had enough to eat and didn't have things for school, now everytime we go there she's smiling and so happy and she's so grateful." It's amazing the impact Brady and his companion and the gospel are able to have on people's lives! Here's a funny story he told us:

"On p-day we got on the chaupa (taxi/van) to Maputo. It was crowded with people. Sitting next to my companion was a scantily clad woman who took a liking to my companion. He's only been out 2 months so he doesn't understand everything with the language yet. My companion did a street contact with her and invited her to church. She said, 'ya I'll come to your church. I could even get married in your church', but my companion didn't get it. She kept saying, 'I'll come to your church and get married.' Then one of the other missionaries that was with us and I start negotiating with her. Here in this culture you have to "purchase" your spouse. So we began negotiating a dowry to sell him to her. We said, 'he's got green eyes. Those are worth a little more.' My comp just kept saying 'ya, come to church on Sunday.' He asked later, 'what were you guys talking about?' When we told him he just laughed."

It was so fun to talk to Brady and have him describe what he was seeing, things he was doing and spend time chatting. He's having an amazing experience. He's very happy being a missionary!

This week was pretty good. Me and my comp get along alright still. He's into like theater and singing and stuff so we are very very different. He breaks out into song often and you know how much I love that ha ha! No it's going ok though.

We do a ton of reactivations in our area so we don't have a ton of time to teach investigators. I don't mind doing it but I wish I could teach more investigators. We just don't have time because of all the inactives and new members but its ok. The area is really nice and we have really good people there. The investigators we do have are amazing and the member are too! This is one of my favorite areas so far in my mission and I'm way excited to be here! We have one investigator that will be baptized this Saturday named Paito. He got sick a few months ago and lost his hearing which is kinda sad but he might get it back later they aren't sure. So for teaching we just show up with the lesson all written out on paper and he just reads it which is kinda weird but it's cool. We are excited for him. The only problem is the dogs that people have here. They like to bark at each other all night ha ha I only got like 2 hours of sleep and the only thing I thought about while I was laying there was how I could get a gun and go and shoot all the dogs! oh well.

This week we had a busy week with investigators. We have one family who is doing very well. Their oldest son is 19 and wants to serve a mission. He is also spiritually ready so we gave him a baptism date for this month. His parents however aren't married so we are working with them on that. The husband also has a drinking problem but when I was with Elder Nascimento in Beira we came up with a really good system to get people off drinking and it worked with all the people we tried it on in Beira and thus far it is working with him as well. It is hard for people here but now that he can see the blessings that are coming from it he is more willing to do it. They live in a house of straw and have 5 kids. The husband makes good money working on the port but he spent it all on drinking. Now that he has stopped they have enough money to build a cement block house. So on Tuesday we are going to help them lay the foundation and start building it! It's way exciting to see the change in him just after a few weeks of not drinking! I really do love this area! The branch is amazing too. Every member of the branch presidency is incredible and they all want what is best for the branch. I was impressed that in their prayers for presidency meeting they pray mostly for the branch. One thing really hit me last time we met. They are all new to the church so they were asking questions about how things should be run and stuff. They would ask and then all look at me. These are 40 year old men who are trying to do their best to serve the Lord and their branch and they were all looking at me, a 20 year old to tell them what to do and help them do it. It was a strange feeling that I had. I felt so tiny and insignificant. I knew how to answer their questions but it was just so weird to me that they were all looking to me. I should be the one looking to them for advice but it's the other way around. Anyways they are all great men and I'm grateful for the chance I have to work with them.

Anyways I better get going. I love you and I'll talk to you in a few days!!!!

Love, Brady