Sister Jennifer Bradley, Indianapolis Indiana Mission : It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: Email From Jenny

Sent: Monday Dec, 5 9:09am

I can't believe it is December! Hopefully all of you are staying warm in this crazy cold weather :) I am trying...I still have all my fingers and toes haha anyway, this week I wanted to tell you all about our investigator, the one and only, Brian Sloan.

Brian is amazing! He is such a giving, loving person! He is always trying to learn something new too! For example, he is trying to patent a medical instrument to make a specific procedure cheaper and more affordable for people (he works in downtown Indianapolis where there are more lower class people). Anyway, this makes trying to have a lessons with him kind of difficult sometimes because he is so busy! We had to move a meeting for him this week and it was totally worth it!!! Preparing for this lesson, we really wanted to meet his needs specifically and we really wanted him to feel the Spirit this lesson. That morning we studied super hard and just focused on Brian. I felt prompted to read all the accounts of the Atonement and select ones to help him truly understand what Christ did for him individually and how because He did this we can be forgiven of our sins. Brian knew of Jesus Christ, but didn't fully understand the need for Him as his Savior and Redeemer. Sister Harris and I brought our studies together and prayed that this lesson would help him understand his need for Jesus Christ in his life.

At the lesson, we caught up with Brian and reviewed the reading we gave him which was Genesis 2 and 3 and 2 Nephi 2. I know, quite a bit of reading, but he really has a desire to understand. We also invited him to pray before he read this and....He totally understood the Fall of Adam and Eve after this! You literally would have thought Brian was a member already because of the way he explained it! He didn't have any questions and he was ready to learn more :) okay, by this point I was so happy, but wait it gets better. After this, I told him that we were going to read about Christ's Atonement. We had explained it, but Brian didn't understand the gravity of this event because he didn't completely understand it. We read the accounts in Luke 22 and Mark 14 with him and were able to pause and give background and explain things to him that he found confusing. Brian was in awe of all this! He couldn't believe that someone would go through all those things so that he could be forgiven of his sins. We then talked about prayer with him and come to find out, Brian didn't really know how to pray. We explain it it him and showed him how and talked about how we are communicating with our Father in Heaven and building a relationship with Him. He said he would practice and that he would PRAY NEXT TIME and that he would pray to know if these things are true!! This is huge for him!!! Everything is starting to connect and is making sense for him and it is amazing to see first hand how this is happening.

This made it even better. Tony his friend in Utah called us and told us he had just talked to Brian and that he said he is really enjoying his time with us and that he really wants us to have dinner with his family!! Actually, Brian just barely texted us and asked us if we could come to dinner with his family :)

Brothers and Sisters, I don't think I have ever felt this much joy in my life. The change that is taking place in this man as he realizes that he is a son of God and that God has a plan for him is amazing and this joy has carried into everything else I have done as a missionary. Share the Gospel, you won't regret it.

Serving with a Smile :)

Sister Bradley

So...a member of our Branch bought us a REAL Christmas Tree!!!! :D