HELLO!!! What a cool place this world is friends and family!! So, this week, I had the opportunity to go on exchanges (you switch companions for a day to learn new ways to be a better missionary and prevent you from getting into a routine with missionary work) to CROSSROADS with Sister Williams! What an interesting place! This area is pretty much the ghetto of Indianapolis...(don't worry, the sisters are in the safer part of the ghetto) it is a stark contrast to Zionsville though! So we started off our day with some good ol' service!! This was so nice because we never get to do labor intensive service in Zionsville! Everyone just pays someone to do stuff :) haha but Sister Williams and I, along with two Elders (Goff and Brown) had the job of hauling cement from this pit that used to be someone's patio to a trailer and then moving the cement chunks from the trailer to the side of the members shed. Some of these pieces were ginormous!! Seriously like 50+ pounds a piece (assembly lines for days!!!)! and then the member asked us if we would help him haul these large slabs of Sycamore tree!!! Some of them literally weighed a ton each!!! It was so awesome though to be able to use our brains and the experience God has given us to work together and move these tree trunks the most effective way! Not going to lie, when I was a young teenager I really did not like service. It's a good thing the leadership of my ward provided donuts or else I don't think I would have ever gone, but I am so grateful I did those things because I learned (very slowly) the ways God rewards you for serving. As I have gotten older and especially on my mission I have grown a love for serving. As children of God, we have the privilege of serving God's children and helping them in ways that He would help them if He were personally here on Earth. "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of you God." (Mosiah 2:17) Isn't is magnificent that he has given us, His children, the responsibility and privilege of serving His children? I invite you to take every opportunity you get this week to serve everyone you come in contact with this week! Brothers and Sisters, I promise it will be super rewarding!!! It can even be as simple as letting someone with only a few groceries in front of you in line at the store, we did that and this man was so grateful to us! Who knows, maybe that made his day?! We met some really interesting people during the day but they were all so humble and kind! And after dinner with the Lane's I've never been more full in my life! But, I finally got to eat spaghetti!!! I've been waiting for this for forever!!! haha I have missed marinara sauce.
We had the opportunity to teach Brian Sloan (we finally asked him how he spelled Brian :) ) and he is so amazing! He is an ER doctor in Downtown Indianapolis and he has such an amazing heart! He is starting a program to provide clothes for people leaving the hospital who don't have family to take care of them or provide clothes for them to leave the hospital (so they aren't walking down the street in a hospital gown, a lot of the people he helps don't have cars) He is just so compassionate and considerate! As far as the lesson go, Brian wants to take is super slow. He is an intellectual, so he want to know EVERYTHING and understand it in depth. We are going to help him gain a foundation in the Bible to because he feels like a lack of knowledge there is really holding him back from progressing. He is so genuine though in his desire to learn and I love that! It is just a matter of finding a healthy balance of teaching the doctrine in a logical way and feeling the Spirit :) please pray for him!
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!!
Serving with a Smile,
Sister Bradley
Look familiar? lol
Look! No Mountains! haha but the trees are beautiful!
The Lane family that fed me in Crossroads! I have never been more full in my life!!
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