HApPy BiRtHdAy!

Date: Jan. 10, 2011

Area: Itaporanga,Sergipe

Companion: Elder Smythe

From: San Fransisco, California

  Hey guys thanks for the birthday emails!!! It's weird that I'm 20 years old already I'm getting old!!! Today we went and ate at subway for my birthday/ pday.

      Man, my new area is kinda rough but pretty sick! I'm in the other state in Sergipe in a tiny little city called Itaporanga its a really cool looking place, its a nice, clean, green little city and there´s like a bunch of dirt huts and stuff. I feel like I'm in Africa sometimes.

     But the branch is tiny we generally have 15 or so people at church but yesterday it rained so we had 8. We have to teach Gospel Principles, bless the Sacrament, and we both spoke in Sacrament. and were speaking next week too. I dunno its way sweet here but at the same time it might be kinda hard the church is just a house, and we only have lunch once or twice a week.




Elder Smythe & Elder Ludlow

       But at least my companion is way tight his name is Elder Smythe he is from the bay area and is a cool surfer kid. man, another American!!! that's crazy!!! He´s a way good missionary and we already taught some really powerful lessons, He has like a year and 2 mos.

     We are teaching a lady, and she prayed about the church, that night she had an awesome dream. she dreamed that she was in this huge field, and there was like hundreds of churches, and this huge flood came and destroyed all of the other churches, but God put like this invisible wall around the church of Jesus Christ, and that's where her and her family were. and basically everyone died except the people in the church of Jesus Christ. It was really cool, but she's still not taking it that seriously. she knows its true but i think she´s gonna have a hard time changing. but I dunno I bet we baptize her.


     Man, on Friday we went to this place called the Matador, where they kill cows, cause Smythe said they let us watch them butcher the cows, but neither of us really knew what to expect. So we like walked in there and there was all this cow skin piled up and there were a bunch of guys gutting the bulls and stuff, and then we see this cage where they herd a cow into, and there's this guy standing on top of the cage with this huge spear like 10 ft long, and the tip of it was like a foot long. and then he just stabbed the bull in the head but he kinda missed so it was just bleeding everywhere, then he stabbed it again and the cow just dropped dead instantly. It kinda freaked us both out lol.

     But I'm excited for this transfer, this area isn´t really a baptizing area but we have some really good investigators. People hecka try and bible bash with us here, theres a ton of churches for how small the city is. and of course we live by an Assemblia of god again.. I'm really starting to not like that church.

     But yeah I really like Sergipe, its a lot nicer than Alagoas. I'm coming from the poorest to the second poorest state in Brasil, but its a huge difference, it actually has a curb and gutter with like plants and parks and stuff and there´s way less litter, and my zone has a lot of really cool Missionaries.

So I hope I get your package on Thurs for interviews.

     Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.

     That's really cool that McKay went through the Temple. and Isaac is home, his mission went by fast!

     I´ll get a package ready for you guys.

Love you all, be safe!   Thanks for everything!!

Love, Bradley