Wow it's hard to believe that this is the last time I will be writing home from my mission.... Super weird. Today I just hung out with all my mission buddies who are still here in Maputo. We went and bought some stuff, had lunch and just hung out. It was really fun but I'm super sad to be leaving them. I've really made some super strong friendships while I have been here. It will be good to see them get home as well.

It's funny you mentioned what Elder Groburg said, cuz that is pretty much how I feel. I don't feel like I'm leaving. Like he said, the plane just comes and I'll get on and leave. I don't think it will really hit me that I'm going home until I wake up that first morning on my own bed. Until then I'll probably think I'm dreaming. It's hard to describe my feelings, but I'm sure you and dad both can understand since you've both served also. But it was just like you said, I'm excited to come home, but at the same time, a piece of me will always be here. I won't lie, the people haven't always been easy, the culture has been terrible, the food sucks, we don't have power more offten than we do, I've had to take showers out of buckets, I've gotten worms and all sorts of weird African diseases, (I'll talk more about that when I get back heh heh some stuff to look forward to :-)) but at the same time, I'm going to miss this little hole I've lived in for the last 2 years!

Yesterday I spent some time at a members house I visited when I was in the office, it was good to sit with them. They are the ones that the mother is from Russia. She still isn't close to joining the church, but I guess I'm the only missionary she likes so her daughter told me her mom wanted me to visit before I left. It was really good, I like that family a lot. We just sat and chatted, ate, and then we left. It was good. Later this week I'm going to spend a few days in Matola visiting people. It should be really good, but at the same time, it is going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone. Hopefully I'm able to come back in Nov and see everyone again though.

Man it's weird to think about all this stuff about home. Queen size bed!?!?! Milk!?!?!?! I can't even remember what good food tastes like anymore! Man I'm super excited to see it all! Clean streets, paved roads, man it seems like another world to me right now! I'm pretty excited to get started with school. I know that it will be super hard, and a super long road. But I know that the Lord will help me with it. I'm just excited to get it all started. It should be exciting.

I'm full of mixed emotions. Saying good-bye to people has been weird, and I'm sure it will get even weirder this week as I'll be doing it everyday now. Even though my mission as been super hard and difficult, just thinking about all the sacrifices and work that we've put in here will make me miss it. I'm excited to come home! I can't wait! But I know I'm going to miss this place still. The mission wasn't easy, it was the hardest thing I have ever done, but it was worth every sacrifice. I'm sure it will bless the rest of my life.

I better get goin. Thank you for all the love and support that you have given me throughout my mission. You have been great!!! Thanks so much for always being there for me. You guys are the best parents ever. I love you so much, and I'm grateful to have you as my parents. Thanks again! Love you! See you in a week!

Love Brady

Wow, I hadn't even thought about that but I guess you are right. I will only do email here one more time after this huh. hmm.... it still doesn't feel real to me. I swear it's a myth! Missionaries don't go home! I still feel like I will be here for another 4 transfers. I guess it's good though. I can't be trunky if I don't feel like I'm going home right! So ya I guess it is good. It probably won't hit me till I see you guys at the airport. Until then I'll just feel like I'm being transfered to Beira or something ha ha! Yeah it's super weird being 21.... I still don't feel like I had a birthday, it's kinda weird, I still feel like i'll be here forever and that I'm still 19 ha ha! Maybe that whole party thing will help me feel older and at home!

Anyways, this week was alright. We had our zone conference on Friday. I bore my testimony as a dying missionary which was weird but like I said, it still doesn't feel real to me! It was a good zone conference though. We had a doctor there from the area who spoke to us about malaria, water, meat, and other foods and how we need to be safe and stuff. Anyways, I got to translate in front of everyone from English to Portuguese... Man it sucked! It was super hard and I couldn't even say most of the medical things he said ha ha! He talked about how malaria attacks the red blood cells and makes them grow little spikes and has them all stick together and all this super technical stuff! Man I looked pretty dumb up there ha ha! But oh well, it was fun. Other than that not a whole lot happened this week.

Training is going great! Burton is a champion! I really like him. He's doing well too. He's learning super fast and everything is going great! Right now it's hot and humid as usual. Seeing Elder Burton scares me cuz he's dying of heat all the time and is sweating even when I think it's alright so I think the cold is gonna hit me hard!

Anyways, everything here is going ok, Everyone is still gone so work is still going slow. Oh well. The people we have still are doing well. We are still teaching that family that as marrital problems and tries to get us involved and they are still doing pretty good. We also had some investigators and inactives come to church which was good.

Well I better get going, thanks again for everything! Love you!

Love Brady

***************Last Year's Birthday Celebration***********
Hey mom, thanks for the happy birthday wishes!!!! It doesn't really feel like my birthday though ha ha just another normal day but it's all good. I'm going to drink that pop you sent tonight to celebrate and I may even open those oreos!!!!!!! Tonight we are going to our branch president's house and they are going to help me make my birthday cake and have dinner and stuff so don't feel too bad! I'm going to a party tonight haha!

No sorry I didn't make any film of the New Years stuff. I didn't think you would be able to see anything on the film so I didn't bother. Elder Burton filmed some and said that you could only see the big ones that were close so it wasn't even worth it. But ya Africans do make New Year's resolutions and we actually did find a family who wanted to start coming to church and stuff so it was pretty good. They have a lot of marital problems though and they always want us to get involved and tell them who is right and who is wrong which can get kind of annoying. But ya this week hasn't been all that much better with people gone. I think everyone should get back this weekend so hopefully things will pick up this week.

We did have a pretty crazy day yesterday. Lots of drunks and crazies ha ha! One guy followed us for like a half hour talking to me about how he was a professional soccer player and also how everyone in Maputo wanted to kill him. He then told me how much he hated black people (him being black himself) which was pretty interesting. He walked around with just pants, a medical bandage around his mouth and a hat. Then he told me he wanted me to take him to England so he could play for Manchester United as their goalie. I told him that I didn't even want to go to England let alone take him with me. Then he just asked me to process his passport for him. I just told him no. Then he asked me how I liked Mozambique, I told him it was alright. He said he liked it because of all the beer! He then asked me to buy him a beer. I told him no. Then he asked for a coke. I told him I wouldn't buy him anything... he didn't like that much, and started talking to Elder Burton who still can't understand much Portuguese asking him to buy him a coke. I told him he wasn't going to buy him anything either. He got pretty upset. So upset that he told us he was going to have us deported! So I laughed and asked him how he was planning on doing that. He said that his dad was the President and he would talk to him and have us deported. I told him that he could go ahead and talk to the president and send us home. Stuned that I called him on his bluff. He thought for a sec, and said that if we didn't buy him a coke, everyone in Maputo would hate us and "they will throw their shoes at you!" as he put it. I asked him why they would hate us for not buying him a coke, if they all wanted him dead. Again stuned that I called him on another bluff. He said that he didn't like us and then left. He wasn't drunk, this guy was just crazy ha ha!So that's my story! Pretty funny huh?

Well everything here is going great! I love my companion. He really is one of my favorites so far. He's a super good guy and he'll be a great missionary. I really couldn't be happier with a last companion! This week at church was pretty good. We had 3 of our inactives come back and some investigators as well. It was a pretty good week. Everything is going great though, I'm happy and perfectly content :-)
Thanks for the Birthday wishes! Love you! Have a good week!

Love Brady

Well everything here is great! My comp is awesome! He's a super good guy! and guess what is kinda funny. Okazaki is teaching at the MTC and he was my comps teacher! Pretty cool hu? Anyways he's a great guy and I like him a lot. He's from West Kaysville! He knows Issac and some other people I know too. He went to Davis and played football as a middle line backer and was super good it sounds like. He graduated the same year Tyler did which is kinda weird, he is a super cool guy! I like him a lot. It should be a good transfer.

Well for P-day today we played soccer and I was the goalie. While I was playing I jammed my finger pretty good and it still hurts and is all swollen but I'll try and write as much as I can ha ha! It was fun though.

Everything in our area is going good. This week at church we had 3 almost completely inactive members come which was super good! We were pretty happy about that! But with all the holidays it's been really hard to find people at home. Most people are traveling and won't get back until the end of this week so work has been slow and probably will be again this week but oh well.

New Years here was pretty cool! We didn't do anything with the other missionaries though, we just stayed home. But that night we went up on the roof and lit off some fireworks we bought and then waited till midnight. It was amazing dad! I can't even begin to describe how cool it was! When it hit midnight, everyone in the whole city started lighting off fireworks! and from our building you could see almost the entire city! Even clear out in the boonies people were lighting off fireworks! It was really cool to literaly see fireworks going off as far as the eye could see! It was really super cool! I wish you guys could have seen it!!!

Other than that not a whole lot happened this week. Just work as normal. Have a good week! You're awesome! Love you!

Love Brady