Sister Jennifer Bradley, Indianapolis Indiana Mission : LOADS of surprises

Hello friends and family!! Life has been nuts this past week! First off, we went to the temple with Linda!!! It was such a wonderful experience in the end, however, we encountered a bit of opposition when we saw Linda on Thursday (2 days before we were scheduled to go) and were having our last lesson of preparation before she went into the temple. We were telling her about the process and asked if we could see her recommend, to which she replied, "a recommend? I never got one of those....." oh dear. Sister Murray and I made contact with the Bishop very quickly to get everything sorted out. Turns out that it was never communicated to him on Sunday that he was supposed to interview her for a recommend! He was able to do the interview Saturday morning at 8am before our journey 2 1/2 hours south to the temple :) The Spirit was very strong there especially as she was able to bring her family names of her mother and sister to the temple.

We had a super weird experience tracting on Wednesday. We tried knocking on several doors. The first one a boy our age answered and seemed super interested and had just gotten out of jail and was ready for a fresh start and then his grandma came up to the door saying, "No no no..." she asked us if we were Pentecostal to we replied no, Jehovah Witnesses? no. Well, what are you? Mormons. Oh, well we don't want you either. We walked away from that super sad! This boy almost a chance! His grandma scolded him after we left too. Then people were pretty mean too us BUT THEN, we had the strangest experience that kinda made up for how awful the rest of the street was. We knocked on this guy's door and he said he was Hindu. He was really intrigued and had a lot of questions and then his friend came out and joined us. They were both totally drunk (apparently it is a tradition they have to play basketball and then drink cocktails after haha) so it made for an interesting conversation. We ended up giving them both a Book of Mormon and they said they would read it! Then they randomly gave us a Bhagavad Gita, a Petrarch selected poems book and then a tapestry of Jesus Christ and the last supper!!!

We have learned that we need to be better with our miles allotted for our car because we only had 9 miles left a day....yikes. Some members let us borrow their bikes and some elders let us borrow their helmets and a bike lock and we were set!!! We ended up biking 20 miles on Thursday...which is great and all except we weren't used to all the time we had to spend traveling! We had to get creative with the things we did. We ended up going to the Riverwalk which is a beautiful park in Mishawaka and doing some chalking. We drew the Plan of Salvation and left our information there too. That night at 10:21pm I saw we had a missed call from an unknown number so I decided that I might as well call it back since I had 9 minutes. I called back and it was a girl who saw our drawing and was interested in learning more!!! THAT LITERALLY NEVER HAPPENS!! It was hard to fall asleep that night I was so happy and excited!

Sunday, we relied on God all day (well, I guess we always do that, but today it was in a more temporal way). It was a very interesting experience. We got a ride to church and then another member drove us up to the top of our area for a young man's farewell lunch before he leaves for his mission. We left the luncheon walking, not really sure how we were going to get home (considering it'd be more than a 10 mile walk) and started contacting people we saw on the streets. These girls who were leaving the luncheon and heading south for Warsaw saw us and offered us a ride! We just saw God bless us so much for trying to still work to the best of our capacity for what we had been given at that certain moment.

I found that being on bikes and on foot gave me a lot more opportunity to think and ponder about life more deeply. I thought a lot about the decisions that we make, the simple choices, and how those are the sole influence of who we become. I will not lie, it did get very frustrating at times when things didn't go as we planned or when lessons we had already started biking to for 20 minutes would fall through and we would have to change plans, but then I realized I could let that bother me, or I could be proactive, more forward, and make the most of what I was given. This whole week has been full of new learning experiences and therefore a lot of new growth. As I was given this time to reflect all week I was reminded of President Monson's talk. He said, "It has been said by one, years ago, that history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. Our lives will depend upon the decisions which we make—for decisions determine destiny." And now as I reflect on this even more I am reminded of a quote by Dieter Uchtdorf, "It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop." The simple decisions we make everyday determine who we become, and it is the small decisions we make that allow it to be easier to make the right decision when we are faced with the big things. I know that I have a Savior to look to as my perfect example. I am far from perfect, but I know that I have His divine help as I strive to get there. Please examine the decisions you make daily and ask yourselves if they are shaping you into the person you want to become. If they aren't, today is a great day to change. :)

Love you all!!!

Serving with a Smile,

Sister Bradley