The best thing you'll ever seen on TV - Jenny Email, May 29

Hey hey there friends and family! It has been a fantastic week!! First off, Linda, our 80 year old investigator, got baptized!!! :D what a special and touching experience it was to be able to find, teach, and baptize her. She was so prepared!!! We met her April 27 and she was baptized literally a month later on May 27. I am not sure there are enough words to describe how wonderful this experience was (you'd be here all day). Linda was very guarded at first and hardly talked at all, but a special light has come into her eyes now. She knows who she is, and why she is here on this earth. And now she can start to do work for her family to bring them the same joy that she has just experienced!!! :) God is so good.

We had the COOLEST experience with Peggy! Backstory, we have kinda been struggling with how we can help her best. We can only meet with her short amounts of time because she is so weak, and she is too weak to come to church and struggles to concentrate to read the scriptures. Pretty much all she has been doing is praying, which don't get me wrong is great, but there is more to spiritual nourishment than just prayer. We weren't even been sure if she really knew the Book of Mormon was true or that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and we had asked her to pray about these things lots of times. I felt prompted that we needed to show her the Restoration video, and not just a short clip, but the whole thing. We came to her house and said a prayer and put in the video. I was praying in my heart that whole time that she would feel the Spirit and that she would know the message was true. She was engrossed the entire time and after the video was over she said, "that was the best thing I have ever seen on TV!" Peggy had tears in her eyes as she said "now I understand why you girls believe the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. I know it is true now too." We all felt the Spirit so strongly in those tender moments, we were crying and Peggy was crying as we bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For once in Peggy's life, she was speechless (and she loves to talk!) she hardly had words to describe the way she felt. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true my friends, and it is one of the most important things we can come to know here on this earth.

We taught Lisa this week and she is 108 pages into the Book of Mormon! It was so wonderful to see her progress and honestly a little humbling for me. It helped me remember that I am honestly here to just invite and teach, and then the Spirit does all the conversion. The Spirit changes people, not me. We have been trying for weeks to get Lisa to read, and now she finally is because she has been open to the Spirit and the Spirit is working in her life. We did share a cool analogy though that I thought you all might like, and it can work a couple different ways. When relating it to Jesus Christ and His Atonement we can see that living the Gospel is like going to the gym. We can buy that membership and we can drive to the gym, but if we just sit there and don't work out, nothing is going to happen for us. We will be stagnant, and unhappy and our muscles won't get stronger and we won't get into shape. This is exactly like knowing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not living it. Jesus Christ has performed His  Atonement, the equipment is there, and it is our choice and more importantly our job to partake of of His Atonement by living the gospel (having faith, repenting, making and keeping covenants, and enduring) and only after we do those things can we receive the blessings of the Atonement. This is where we find forgiveness from sins, and peace and real, lasting joy. Don't just standby, be active in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On a funny side note, we got invited to two parties this week! One was by this guy in the ghetto who said his party was super fun and we should come, but then he told us there would be weed and alcohol and we had to politely decline and tell him that isn't really the type of "fun" we like haha Next we got invited to a Ramadan  party by this Muslim guy! We might actually consider going to that one ;) haha

Serving with a Smile, 

Sister Bradley

 1. Exchange with the Elkhart Sisters! Sisters Murray, Williams, Me, Olsen

2. It is weird to have wildlife just roamin' around everywhere...

3. Linda got BAPTIZED!!!

4. Linda's first selfie :) 

Missions are the best - Email from Jenny, May 22

Hey there everyone! I went on an exchange with South Bend this week which was interesting because it is a lot more ghetto than Mishawaka. We went finding and happened to pick the street that was literally almost all Catholics, but they were pretty nice. While we were tracting, this guy yelled "Missionaries!" to which we turned real fast because people usually don't get that excited to see us! He was a summer sales guy from Utah selling direct tv! He was baptized a member but not super active at the moment, but his friends he came with are active and were actually trying to find which chapel they were supposed to go to! We happily gave him the address to share with his friends :)

Sister Murray and I have been trying to find new ways to find people to teach and decided to go to a teenage suicide awareness walk/event. We went to this park where we thought it was, and walked all over trying to ​​find it. We asked these two old men sitting on a park bench if they knew where it was and they told us we were at the wrong place, but that they both were retired psychotherapists who dealt with suicide counseling! We talked with them about it and explained what we did as missionaries and gave them both our card. It is cool to see that even though we didn't find the event we were able to talk to two men who were very involved with suicide prevention.

Update on the investigators:

Linda is getting baptized this Saturday, May 27! It is amazing to see now how the Lord had prepared her! We found out that her son was the one who encouraged her to start reading the Bible and going to church and he was in Jail! She went to this church for a couple weeks out of convenience and then we found her sitting on a bench with her dog in the park! To be honest, teaching her was super super awkward at first, but I have grown to love this 80 year old lady so much. I really feel that as we've gotten to know her (which was really hard at first because she doesn't talk very much), I have been able to see her through the eyes of Christ and the infinite worth she has. A couple things about her: she goes up and down stairs like a champ everyday to get to her apartment, she has a smelly little dog that loves to sit on us and beg for attention, after we taught her the Word of Wisdom she realized that she was drinking something that had coffee in it and immediately threw it away, she was totally willing to pay tithing even though her budget is already super tight, and she loves watching the Dogers play baseball. And to think we could have just walked on by her and not said anything to her at the park kills me a little bit! You never know who God has prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Doug is such a champ!! He has all these crazy medical things happen to him and he still comes to church and reads the scriptures and prays. He is a great example of finding a way to keep God's commandments even though it may not be to convenient at the time.

Last, I wanted to share a little tidbit I heard at our Mission Leadership Conference that has been on my mind a lot since. We talked about receiving revelation and counseling with others. And it was said that we should seek to receive revelation vertically rather than horizontally. That just got me thinking, how often do I ask those around me for advice before I go and ask the Lord, who knows all. God is the greatest source of help to us in our times of trial and times of need, seek His guidance and His help first.

Serving with a Smile,

Sister Bradley

1. Guess who went to MEXICO??? #crossroadsofAmerica

 2. "Hey they are riding a tandem bike!" "Nope...that's not a tandem."

 3. Exchanges: Sister Murray, Rowley, Filipovic, me :)

 4. Road trip to get our new car! Chevy Malibu 2017 (I'll probably never get new cars this frequently ever again haha)

​​​​​​​​This is Tara who is a teacher in an Elkhart Elementary school. She was stoked to find that the quote on the back of the 6th grade teachers is a quote by our beloved Prophet!!!!!!! The teacher who chose the quote had no idea who Thomas Monson is, and therefore stuck the quote on the shirt!! She had no idea how much missionary work she'd be doing!! :D​

Video of us being silly :) - Email from Jenny May 15

Miracles be happening' in Mishawaka - Email from Jenny May 15

Hello Friends and Family!!  I wanted to give a quick shout out to my Mom for being such a wonderful lady! You are the best! Keep being the extraordinary lady you are!!

We had some pretty cool things happen to us this week!

1. At church, during the sacrament, this guy named Randy started calling us. I had no idea who this guy was, and I looked at Sister Murray and she told me that he used to investigate but they dropped him in January because he wouldn't keep commitments. We were pretty confused as to why he was calling, so we stepped outside after the sacrament and apparently he was trying to find the church!!! We stayed on the phone with Randy for like 10 minutes and directed him to the church over the phone!!! Pretty cool miracle to know that God is still preparing those who have stopped investigating and it is a testimony to me that because we are trying our hardest to work and be obedient, that God is presenting us with opportunities to teach His children!

2. We were dropping by little mother's day gifts to potential investigators and I was prompted to give one to a lady named Jennifer Lubelski who we had met before but was so busy with work that she was unable to meet with us. The timing was so perfect yesterday! We caught her right before she was about to leave for Michigan and she had literally just quit her job earlier that week!! That means she has way more time now for God in her life!! We offered service and invited her to church for the Spiritual renewal she was in need of after being in her taxing job for so long and she agreed to come!

3. We saw Lisa (an investigator who was really struggling to keep simple commitments like praying, reading scriptures and coming to church) on Wednesday and WOW what a meeting! She had read her scriptures and was so ready to start doing what God asks her to do. We talked a LOT about faith and repentance and she completely agreed that she really wanted to start showing her faith and repenting of her sins! This is the most effort she has shown in months! So we are very excited to start working with her again! :)

4. We are working with an 8 year old little girl named Ivy who is neighbors and super good friends with an 8 year old recently baptized member! She loves us and so we started teaching her, and on the last lesson we invited her dad to sit in, and he was completely okay with the things we were teaching her (he is Catholic in background, so we were a little nervous) and he was the one who encouraged her to come to church Sunday even though Ivy was a little nervous and unsure if she wanted to go! :) (oh, and she loves it and wants to come every Sunday!)

5. We have been trying really hard to help Linda (cute 80 year old lady) see the importance of praying every single day morning and night. After explaining our relationship to God and how he is literally our Father and how if we want a relationship with Him, we have to talk to Him!! By the end of the discussion, she said,"I want to make a promise. I am going to faithfully commit to saying my prayers everyday." Yay!!! (oh, and I am going to toot my own horn for a second, I didn't freak out and was able to keep teaching and remain calm when we saw a mouse cross the floor in the other room :) haha)

Update on Doug, he has a Baker's cyst (we thought that was kinda funny because his last name is Baker) in his leg and has been in a ton of pain. We only met with him once, but he was able to come to church still even with all the pain he was experiencing! He has surgery today, so hopefully all goes well!

Patrick has been facing a lot of opposition, and can use a lot of prayers right now!!! He just had to have surgery because he had an abscess, so he has been going through a lot right now.

I decided this week that I wanted to focus on a Christlike attribute a week, so I started from the beginning of the list they have in Preach My Gospel and focused on Faith. I saw an extremely different attitude in myself as I did missionary work. The things that we get to do as missionaries that would normally make me nervous were a lot less scary as I turned to the Lord and showed my faith in Him. As I relied on Him, I felt an increase of faith and an increase desire to work. It is amazing how the more you give to the Lord, the more He gives back to you in blessings. 

I love you all! Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Serving with a Smile,

Sister Bradley

 1.Channeling our inner childhood :)

2.Road trips can get pretty crazy...

 3.One of Sister Murray's favorites, I am not sure why though ;)

 4.LOL I can't with these cheesy church signs... I think they were trying to say happy Mother's day?

Mothers Day - Video Chat

For the video chat with Jenny on mothers day, we had a special surprise for her.  (I) Sarah had these shirts designed and printed for everyone in the family.  

We were all sporting them when her call came through.  These shirts show our love and support for Jenny but also gives us and opportunity to share our testimonies of missionary work! We love you Jenny #Sisterbradleyfanclub

And a big thank you to our Mom for sharing her mothers day chat time with this big crew! 

And we delivered a shirt to Brooke (Elder Grieve's mom), whose son is serving in the same mission as Jenny!  We all love Indiana!!

*Written by Jenny's sister Sarah

Indiana Mission Facebook Post - MLC May 14

Here's how beautiful spring is here in Indiana. We had MLC at the mission home on Friday, May 12, 2017 and the missionaries enjoyed the perfect weather at lunch time.

*Taken from the Indiana Indianapolis Mission "With Full Purpose of Heart" Facebook post.

It's OFFICIAL!!! - Email from Jenny, Monday May 8

Great news!!! Sister Murray and I are both staying in Mishawaka!!! :D Best news ever!!! We are going to kill it next transfer!!

This week I had two of those moments that make being a missionary all worth it! First off, we called Doug to set up an appointment to meet with him after our zone conference and we started asking him about his Book of Mormon reading. We have asked him in the past, but he's never really given us a solid answer. He has also started over a couple of times, starting at the introduction, and now he is reading all the cross-references as he reads. BUT, this time when we asked him he said without hesitation, "Oh yeah, definitely. I know it is true." like it was some casual thing haha we then asked him if he knew The Church of Jesus Christ to be the only true church upon the earth, to which he replied, "Oh, yeah yeah, definitely!" Sister Murray and I were happy dancing like there was no tomorrow!!! :) 

Second, We were able to drive down to Zionsville for Soy's Baptism!!!! :D It was such a wonderful experience!! I had the opportunity to sing "I Need Thee Every Hour" (it was a blessing I could even sing because last week I had such a bad sinus infection!) Soy was so happy!!! The Spirit was so strong as he entered the waters of baptism and was baptized. He had to wait a long time for this moment, but I think that made it even more special for him. When he came back in after he got changed he yelled, "I NEW MAN!!!" hahaha :) and he is right. He has a completely fresh start! All the the past mistakes and bad things he has done are completely gone! He bore his testimony after and said, "I know God loves all his children" and he started crying. It is so beautiful to see what the Gospel of Jesus Christ has done for him. He kept telling me "this is all because of you! If you weren't here, I wouldn't be baptized today." It all started with a simple invitation to church and then to take a Book of Mormon, and then to meet with us, it's all history from there :) I feel so privileged to be an instrument in God's hand in bringing Soy to Christ. I know that this is literally Jesus Christ's Church here on the earth with the same Priesthood authority that Jesus Christ himself held while he was here on the earth to enable us to be washed clean of our sins to return to God's presence!

Quick update on everyone:

• Patrick: His baptism is coming up the 20 of May, he came to church like a champ even though he was in a ton of pain because he just had mouth surgery! He has quit smoking and is progressing very well!
• Doug: We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he agreed to keep it!
• Peggy: She just got out of the hospital again and is pretty weak, we are hopefully going to visit with her this week!
• Linda: She has been doing a lot better about remembering the things we teach her (considering she is 80 years old!) and is progressing toward being baptized May 27!

Have a great week and Happy Mother's Day!!! :)

Serving with a Smile,

Sister Bradley

Hey hey! Look at that guy all dressed in white!​

 President and Sister Carlson in the back with Sister Murray and I on the left and Sister Bitter and Sister Arlint on the right.​

 ​We had dinner at Panda Express with Soy after his baptism because it is the food of his people. (JK, Soy is from Laos, but he is half Chinese and half Vietnamese)​

​NAANANANANANANANAAANANANANANANA...BATMAN!​

Indiana Mission Facebook Post - Soy's baptism, May 6

Saturday May 6, 2017 was a wonderful mission day - some great baptismal services. Each had a sweet story behind it.

*Taken from the Indiana Indianapolis Mission "With Full Purpose of Heart" Facebook post.

Indiana Mission Facebook Post - Zone Conference, May 3

On Tuesday, May 2, 2017 the Elkhart and South Bend zones met at the Mishawaka building for zone conference. They were gooooood at teaching each other about the Book of Mormon.

*Taken from the Indiana Indianapolis Mission "With Full Purpose of Heart" Facebook post.

More Pictures, Email from Jenny Monday May 1

 Look at those missionaries!​

Love her!!​

​Don't worry, 2 more sisters came :)​

​Joe the Catholic Mormon (long story) brought us to lunch!!!​

HEEEY!! Email from Jenny, Monday May 1

What a WEEK!!! To kick it all off we were able to go to Lake Michigan last Monday(so blessed that New Buffalo, Michigan is in our mission!) which was SUPER FUN!!! It was like going to the beach except we were all fully clothed and no one got in the water haha :) #missionarylife 

Anyway, Sister Murray and I have really bee trying our hardest to talk to EVERYONE that is put in our path and sometimes it is so awkward, but I know that God has been blessing us for our efforts. Just this week we found this lady named Linda that we could have easily passed by and not said anything to, but we took a moment to stop and talk to her and she said she would like to do a Bible study with us! When we went over to her house later that week we read John 10 and then introduced the Book of Mormon with verse 16 and she loved it!!! We went back a couple days later to teach her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved that too and had been reading the Book of Mormon!! She said she would be baptized if she came to knew it was true and said she felt that it was true! AND to top it off she came to church on Sunday!!!

Doug told us that he stayed up until 4 in the morning reading the Book of Mormon and is progressing so well!!! He is so open and so humble, and I feel so blessed to be able to teach him!! He came to church on Sunday too and had a wonderful time!! :) The Gospel is TRUE my friends!

I had a super cool experience on exchanges in South Bend this week!! A member in Zionsville served in this mission and had a convert in Mishawaka that had gone less-active and he asked me to reach out to him. I looked and looked for him and found out that he was in the neighboring ward.The missionaries said they had tried to contact him but hadn't had any luck, so I was praying that he'd be home! We paid a visit to his home and not only was he there, but he was super nice and said he wanted to come back church without us even asking him!!! He also said he recognized me from somewhere which was kinda funny :) we drove down the street and did some tracting and we got 3 new investigators!!! The sister I was on exchanges with had really struggled with tracting so hopefully it increased her faith to find those that God had been preparing for us to find!!

This week we shared a scripture from 3 Nephi 11 with Peggy, which is the chapter where Jesus Christ ministers to the people in the Americas, and I thought I should share it with all of you. In verse 15 it reads "...and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands and did know of a surety and did bear record that it was he, of whom it was written..." I think this verse is so beautiful. God is a "one by one" God. All of our conversions are unique and individual and our relationship with Heavenly Father is unique and individual as well. We as missionaries go out and find the ONE, and we are each Baptized individually. Each one of us are of great importance to God. He truly knows us personally. He knows our struggles, he knows our situations. He always has His arms stretched open to us.

Have a great week!!! Love you all!!!

Serving with a Smile,

Sister Bradley

​This picture pretty much defines our relationship :)​

​Cool rock thing that we walked on!​

 ​Found some cool puzzle pieces :)​

LOL!