Welcome Home! #oneyearstime

Hello family!

Well, I was in the Airport in the same time.

Getting off an airplane in the same time as he was.

But I was half a world away.

I am happy for you guys and I really wanted to send this from the airport...but I didn’t have time...and there wasn’t internet.

And don’t worry about me, I am really happy

Zack, giving Taylor a 'Welcome Home'...just from the Lima airport instead of Salt Lake!!

Well, I am kinda glad that that last week is done.  It was a tough one. 

Well....I guess I’ll just give a little run down of what has happened...Monday was an awesome P-day, and Tuesday was pretty good.

We really aren’t teaching many people, but the people that we are teaching, are progressing, so hey. We have a family of LA’s which we are visiting which has really built my testimony.  We started teaching them, and our first lesson (with me here) I went with our Mission Leader from the ward.  And we invited them to Read, attend church, pray together, and to speak to each other about their problems....(because they had lots!)  They did what we asked them to do, (just menos the attending church and reading), and when we visited them Tuesday, they were so much better!  From their little bit of faithful obedience...they received tons of blessings...Really cool!  that was my highlight Tuesday.

Lima......So we left from Tumbes with 4 other missionaries Tuesday at night.  And we got there at 12 in the morning!  And the missionaries that picked us up there, were like... ‘lets go for Pizza’ so they took us out for Pizza at midnight...jaja...then we all felt really sick! 

Zack with Elder Smith..."While we were waiting, a guy came by selling cotton-candy...so, of course, we bought some!"

All of our friends from Piura had arrived earlier, so the hotel that all of the other missionaries were in was full...So they took us to another hotel and they put us 4 Elders in the same room.  It was so fun!  We stayed up till 3 talking and it. was. a. blast.  The best part about going to Lima is the 1)friends.  2)food... and 3) its not 100 degrees.  For the first time in one whole year, I wrapped myself up in a blanket in a cold room and went to sleep....and it felt so good. 

The next day, we were just doing paper work the whole day....It was the worst mix of Disneyland-lines the DMV and Peru.  But it was awesome to chill with all of my friends.  My good friend (Elder Smith, from California who I sent of photo of with the guitar) was there and we had a good 4 or 5 hours to talk.  It was a good trip.  But I kinda feel like we got robbed...because we didn't get to go to the temple!  We had time...but they didn’t take us there.  :(

But, I bought donuts though...so it was cool.

The next couple of days were just filled with walking, closed doors, heat and no success...But thats how it goes,  Like I said...it’s just really slow.  We do have one investigator that is progressing.  His name is J.  He reads, attends, and is awesome, just doesn't want to put down a baptismal date.  It was cool because he has a son that is leaving on his mission TODAY.  Yesterday we passed by to teach and the son was there.  It hurt me to see his mom and his family in his last day there.  Made me think of my time at home one year ago...And I haven’t opened that dusty box for a while.

Other than the less actives (the family V Q) and J, we are stuck.  Just need more work and more things to try.  It's all good.  It just feels like when I am eating a PBJ sandwich without milk.  It's so hard to chew because its so dry, that it doesn't taste too good because your too worried about how hard it is to eat it.  That's exactly how I feel right now.  jaja

This Sunday was Election day here, and it strengthened my testimony of the our voting system in the USA.  Freaking, it was so bad!  It was about as organized as a high school student council election.  Cars driving up and down the roads, blasting music, (think Modern Family with Cam and the other guy).  Horrible!

Also, this week we did a service activity for a member family.  We were cleaning the room where the 5 girls live and it really was quite the humbling activity.  The 5 girls (the oldest is 9) all lived in a dirt floor very small room.  The walls were tarps and bamboo and mud and we basically dedicated the whole time to killing spiders...including the one as big as a McDouble at McDonalds.  So sad...and never again will I complain.



Oh...and for my one year anniversary, we had some great plans...but we just found out that President Rowley is coming to inspect our rooms and in the night he is going to accompany us. Soooooo there goes all of our plans....There is an other elder from my group in our district...so we are going to do something fun at some point!

I am good today.....super tired....because we played soccer in the morning, then we went to the beach,....and played more....I'm sooooo tired.

I really am all good, just looking forward for a little bit of a boost this week.  I am really happy that you all had a great week and I hope that everything continues to be good there.  There isn't much I can do from here, but I am always here to help you guys. 

Have a good time and be safe!

Love you all!

Elder Bradshaw