I'm way happy to hear that you guys had a good trip to Nauvoo, and I'm glad you guys all made it back alright. I'm way happy to hear that Tyler and Kaylee both learned a lot from EFY too. That's funny that Tyler was nervous about going through the airport with without you. I remember when I got dropped off that the airport from the MTC, I was pretty much the only one out of us 3 who had any travel experience when it came to airports and stuff. And we had to pass through 2 of the biggest airports in the world ha ha! I almost died too! I was way nervous! but I'm glad I made it.

That's cool that you and Dad are studying church history too. It really is amazing how much they went through. I have a Joseph Smith movie that I LOVE watching with members! It really is an amazing missionary tool! It shows the members here who are going through ruff times that members from all over the world go through hard times, and especially in the early days of the church. One thing I hear a lot here from members and everyone is "here in africa". A lot of people think that Africa is pretty much the only place in the world that has problems and that no one else suffers. So it's nice to show that movie so they can see that the saints suffered a lot just to spead the gospel.

It's crazy to think that I only have 6 months left! Here in 2 weeks, there will only be 4 missionaries who have more time on the mission that I do. It's super weird that I'm one of the oldest missionaries already. All my senior companions have gone home too! Time is flying by for sure!

Anyways, this week not a whole lot happened. We did do one activity that was pretty cool. We wanted to show some investigators and members how much love the Savior had for them. So I remembered a story I heard in Seminary and we tried it with them. It was an awesome experience. We took cookies there, and we told them that the cookies were special, so special that someone had to pay for them. So for every cookie, I had to do 10 pushups. They laughed and agreed to it. So one by one they were offered a cookie, if they said yes, I did 10 pushups so they could have the cookie. But after about 7 cookies, I started to get tired. After they saw that I was struggling to do them, some one said, that they didn't want the cookie. Then Elder Dunn would say "will you do 10 pushups for the cookie that Victoria doesn't want?" and we kept going and going, I was super tired and couldn't get up, I just laid there on the sand dripping with sweat, trying to do as many push ups as I could but always having to do 10 even for those that didn't want the cookie. It was all to show that the Savior loved us all so much, that he suffered for all of our sins. Even though he knew that there would be many who wouldn't repent or not take the cookie, he still suffered for them just because he loved them. It was an amazing experience for them and also for me. I gained a new appreciation for the love of the Savior. The only down side is, is that now my whole body is sore but it was worth it.

Work with the branch is going great! We had 112 people in sac meeting this week. We are getting a lot of things done and the branch is doing awesome! Some of our reactivated members are going to get callings next week which I'm way excited about! I'm so glad that I was able to be here to see members who I found drunk and passed out in their houses come back, repent, and get callings in the church. We are also working a ton with family history. I was talking with some of the members who said that they aren't sure if they will be able to go to the temple any time soon but they really want their parents to be baptized by someone that they at least knew instead of just sending the names to the temple. Then Elder Dunn said "Well you can give their names to Elder Brown when he goes home and he can baptize his family for your family!" They thought that was a good idea so I may be bringing home a stack of names that we need to do the temple work for! I hope you guys are excited to do that!

I'm so glad that we have the Lord that we can trust and know that he will take care of us. It is something that most people today don't have. I can't even imagine what it would be like to not be a member, living the commandments and not knowing that no matter what happens, God is guiding it and he will take care of us. It really is amazing to me how blessed we are to know that. Anyways, I better get going, I hope you have a good week! I love you!

Love Brady