January 13

So I'm in the Jax East zone in the Ft. Caroline ward!!! My comp is Sis Houtz. She's super cool. She's 26 and from Fort  Collins Colorado. And Yes... It was quite cold. But now the weather is absolutely lovely haha

So this week has been super eventful! The first real day there we helped a lady move in. Her situation is so sad, her husband was deported at the beginning of the month and the cops did it right in front of her kids. So so so sad. It was in a sketchier part of town, but I enjoyed it. The area I'm serving in is too nice... hahaha. There were confederate flags up in peoples yards and trailers on trailers. The south I've been wanting! hahaha. 

I seriously love all the members so much! There are so many cute old ladies that we go and visit because they're less active. Except Sister C (I'm not giving full names and I'm changing names because this is going up on a blog.) She's the sweetest thing! She's in her mid 90's and still kickin! I love her so much. We also visited a sister the other day who's probably in her late 70's and her favorite show is The Big Bang Theory!! I laughed so hard when she said that. She's a crack up.

The members and the ward is amazing! The ward already has me super busy haha. I taught gospel principles yesterday, I'm speaking next sunday. Teaching the Sunday after that and doing a musical number after that hahaha. They somehow stalked my mormon.org profile and saw that I sang, so the sacrament music coordinator hunted me down yesterday hahaha. 

So we've been teaching the Wall family (The name has been changed) Sis Houtz was teaching them before I got here. And they're awesome! They've been coming to church and they love it and their daughter loves it too! We have a baptismal date set for them too!!! They just need to get married and quit smoking now... hahaha But they're great! I love them so much and I love teaching! They're so ready to join too! It's amazing! I can't wait for their baptism! 

So I thought you might enjoy this. This first time I went tracting, the first door we got to the lady was like, "who is it?" and sister houtz was like "The sister missionaries!" and then all you hear is ".... No.." hahaha. My very first door. It was great haha And then we were tracting for a little while longer, Sis Houtz had been taking the lead the whole time and she finally told me I had to speak. So we knock on this door and I had the perfect intro and said all the right things and then the guy just looks at me and says "... No english..." hahahah my luck. 

We really haven't been getting any new investigators... It's mostly been just visiting less actives, because we have A LOT in our area.. So that's been our big focus, trying to get them to come to church again and then having the members fellowship. I just wish they'd realize how beautiful the gospel is!! I love the gospel. haha

I seriously love being out here. On some real levels. It's definitely had it's ups and downs this week but it's totally worth it. I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Sister Bradford