Sister Jennifer Bradley, Indianapolis Indiana Mission : Spanish, a break through and church struggles

WOW! What a crazy week!!! To start it off, we had two exchanges back to back! My first exchange was in Goshen, IN with Hermana Pugmire! First off, I gotta say this girl is a champ. She is at the end of her mission and had the task of training the first Spanish Sister in the mission, all while she barely knows Spanish! It has been so cool to see her grow as she learns the language and the culture (especially with having me as her companion for a day who knows little Spanish...) We started off the day studying at the library but lo and behold we didn't make it too far because we got in a car accident...now before you freak out let me explain. I backed Hermana Pugmire out of the parking space, got in the car and then we jolted forward, someone backed their car into us! Everyone was completely fine though! We got out of the car to look at the damage and while the huge van that the lady was driving had a completely shattered tail-light with fiber glass all over the floor and her bumper hanging down, our car only had a cracked tail-light and barely had some paint scratched off of it! God protects his missionaries, that is for sure! It is funny because I forgot to tell my companion about this, and then I got a call from the mission nurse asking if I was okay after the accident. She was pretty surprised :) Anyway, if you are wondering what I did on the exchange, I said "hola" and then stood there and smiled and looked pretty while Hermana Pugmire talked to them. I tried listening to them intently though to see if I could figure out what they were saying. I understood like 1/3 of the things they were saying haha then when we left I would say "adios" and then ask Hermana Pugmire what happened exactly :)

A little update on the cute 8 year old girl we are teaching: Ivy has decided that she wants to be baptized into our church, but her mom Roxie wants her to be baptized Catholic, even though she doesn't have any of the beliefs of a Catholic! Roxie just ignores ivy when she tries to ask her mom about it :( Please pray for Ivy, this is really hard for her! She went crying to her neighbor who is a member, and doesn't know what to do. Also, pray that Roxie's heart will be softened!

We had a break through with Peggy and she finally understands what the Restoration of the Gospel means after 4 months!!! So much so, that she decided that she would come to church! Let me tell you, this was not an easy process. She needed to go to the ward that starts at 1pm (instead of ours at 9am) but none of the members were able to take her! They all had things they were doing! We finally found a couple to take her and it was perfect because they happened to be speaking in the 1pm ward that week! But then, we couldn't find someone to bring her home, we called SO many people and then when we finally found someone at like 10pm Saturday night, but then they texted us while we were asleep and told us they actually couldn't do it! Ah! Thank goodness the Relief Society President could do it (I finally understand why it is called the "relief" society! hah) We were relieved! But then, 30 minutes before that ward was going to start the couple that said they would take her said they actually couldn't do it! AH! We called them and I think they could tell how much we were freaking out so they said they'd take her. Not to mention how hard we prayed that Peggy's health would be good enough to get herself ready to come because on Saturday she said she felt awful. God answers prayers my friends. He knows when we are sincerely asking. He hears our pleas of desperation. And I want you to know that He is the only one that made Peggy coming to church possible.

To make Sunday even more crazy, Jackie was able to come to church too!!! But, this wasn't easy either! There were so many stumbling blocks in the way! Jackie has a HUGE mobile wheelchair and is a big lady. She has wanted to go to church so badly! She told us she couldn't go because she didn't have any clean clothes and was out of soap to wash them so, we brought her some hygiene supplies so she could wash out her clothes before church. Then we had the task of figure out how to get Jackie and her wheelchair to the church. Thank goodness we have an awesome member named Pule Moala! He is from Tonga and LOVES missionary work! He will do literally anything to help us! And he sure proved it yesterday! He and his son lifted her wheelchair into the back of his
Escalade and brought her to and from church!!! I am so grateful for the service they gave to us that day. Jackie was so excited to go to church, and it was all possible with the help of the Moala family!

In one of our meetings this past week, and Elder gave a training about fear and how that effects missionary work. He asked another Elder, "What would you do today if you knew you could find 3 people to baptize?" none of us expected a question like that and I hadn't ever actually thought about that before. The elder responded that he would pretty much do anything if he knew that. Then he asked, what holds us back from being able to find those 3 people everyday and working as hard as we can to find those people? A huge part of that seems to be fear. Then he proceed to talk about how to overcome fear. As I've been reflecting on this I remembered fear does not come from God. It comes from Satan. Satan is going to try and do everything he can to distract us or slow the work. I was thinking about how this applies to literally everyone though too. What are some things we have all wanted to do or achieve but have never really attempted because of fear? Our potential as sons and daughters of God are limitless. We shouldn't allow fear to stunt our growth and prevent us from becoming what Heavenly Father truly wants us to be!

Sorry for the long email! But I love you all! Have a stellar week!

Serving with a Smile,

Sister Bradley