Hey Mom it’s good to hear from you again,

You are so trunky for me to get home you counted up emails you’re crazy! Everyone here is trunkier for me then I am. All my friends remind me of how much time I have left. You know how I am; I just live in the moment, I’m so laid back I’m vertical. That’s what someone once said to me about Frye and I.

Well this week has not been a great one; we once again just had one of those weeks where not much right stuff happened and lots of wrong did. Christina and Charlene are dropped; they were more interested in us then what we had to offer them; and that goes for Christina, a 40 year old married woman. So, they are not going to be taught anymore. To be honest, Grone and I are relieved to not be teaching them anymore; it was a lot of stress and drama which should not have been there. As for Tim he is still not so good; we went to see him but it was not a good day for him so he politely said not today. As for Karrie, we have seen her as in drove past her, but not talked to her since. We have made many attempts to see her, called by her house several times but never have gotten an answer. Andre and Cecilia are still not baptized as far as I know; they seem to love money more than God, and won’t get their feet moving. But I still have high hopes for them.

Now for some good news; Janice is amazing! She told us the other day that she really wants to know the truth and so she’s really looking for it through us. She is reading and praying and Bob is actually helping out. Bob the other day kind of bore his testimony and said her church is not right and is unfair as to heaven and hell; where in our church he finds nothing unfair or wrong. So those really made Janice perk up. My real goal now is to have Janice baptized before I go, which is kind of tough cuz Bob is moved back in. We helped Jason move out of his house the other day and back into Janice’s. Today we’re going to take a TV to the dump for him. So we are making some progress with him; now we just need to teach him with his mom. We saw Richard and talked a bit with him; his girlfriend was over, so he was not too friendly with us cuz she was there. I think with his mom joining he will be more curious. Bob is doing well we think, it’s hard to tell with him cuz he doesn't speak his mind much and he is pretty quiet. He really likes us and enjoys listening to the lessons. I think the fact that he is will to go to church is a big thing. They will be coming this Sunday. Yesterday they were in Dublin together so they could not come but it will be good. Oh and Peter Simpson is good just the same as always.

Well I think that's everyone really big. Good to hear Cody is good and Cakes (Caitlin) is good. I have been writing her pretty good; I wrote to her not too long ago and have not gotten a reply yet. I’m planning on writing to her again real soon. I have something to send to her. I’m going to try and write her on her mission even while I’m home since she has been good to me and doing it. It’s really too bad we won’t see each other. I mean we really only miss each other by not much. So who am I going to hang out with when we go to Moab now? I guess she has been asking the same question these past two years. So, do I know Danny?

I have something to send to you I think you will just love, I just need to finish it all up. Grone has been helping me out a bit with it so it will be good. I’m not going to tell you what it is yet so it can be a surprise.

As for anything I need; I think I’m happy. I know I will need garments for when I get home and I will need clothes but that's for home. If you’re sending sweets, send me some hot tamales and Kool-Aid. I really miss those and I know you’re good; you will send me some good stuff.

Well the other thing I guess I can talk about this week is I have been sick, nothing big. I have had a cough for about two weeks so Sister Creer told me I had to go to the hospital. So I got some medicine. They said I have mucous built up in my left lung, not too bad but that's why I have been coughing. They gave me some antibiotic stuff and some nasty cough syrup stuff to break up the mucous. The members here are so funny; I called a member named Cathy Graydon, she is the mommy here in the ward for all the elders. She came rushing over with soup, oranges, cough syrup and the number for the doctors to get me seen fast. Then she told all the other members, so on Sunday I had an out pouring of sympathy and love from all the woman of the ward and they all told me to go home stay warm and sleep it over. The members love us so much here cuz Grone and I always do stuff with them and like to talk to them and do what we can for them. Also the youth like us cuz we talk with them and just get to know them maybe tease them a little bit too. But it’s been really fun here. I will be so sad when Grone leaves because he has been here so long; he’s the one who has the main relationship with them all.

Well I hope this email was good enough for you. I tried to make it long cuz I know that's the way you like it. Grone would like the address for Ali Edgington, he wants to write her. So if you can send that to me next week that would be great. Thanks for the good email mom love you so much and miss you.

Much love,
Brady

Hey mom thanks for the email and answering my questions.

Well it’s good to hear that Cody was the craziest of all the boys when it came to drugs. That's funny to see how he reacted; and he is pretty swollen. Tell him its okay he can play in the next batman with that kind of a jaw. Elder Austin Johnson told me about when he got his taken out; he kept getting angry with the nurse because he thought they had broke his jaw, and that he was then going to use it to kill a 1000 philistines like Samson from the bible, that's pretty nutty. How is he on the medicines does he need as many as me? Just keep me up to date on him.

So I have been telling everyone about the cruise and the catch tied to it with me. (We are booking a family cruise for next January 2011 before Cody leaves on his mission. Brady better not have a wife or something because we are booking the dates and paying for it now) Everyone just laughs; you two are funny.

Well our church was fun this week or yesterday. We had a “linger longer” after which was a lot of fun. It was absolutely perfect for investigators; Grone and I were very excited for it. But none of our investigators showed up to church. Yaw we were very upset to say the least. We were expecting 4 all confirmed to be coming; and none showed. We had a better week then last, but not by much because we lost two investigators last week so we are trying to regain some. We have started to teach Janice’s kids Jason and Richard are her 2 and 3 oldest kids. Jason plays the piano and is very talented musically which is very good we can always use them in the church. Richard is a builder and fixer upper kind of a guy; very handy man. He is really cool, we gave him the Book of Mormon and he started to flip through the pages and stopped listening to us which was sort of cool. So hopefully he will read from it. Bob Taylor, Janice’s partner the less active is now back. Hopefully he will not bring her down. She is so great and we know she would join the church but Bob is the main problem.

Well the story with Karrie is she and Tim have broken up and she wants nothing to do with him because her mom does not like him. Her parents have a really strong hold on her life and they don't treat her very well. The doctors, Tim, and her uncle and aunt have told her she needs to be away from them. We have tried by her house just down the street from us; but no success yet. We went to Tim’s and he is not doing so well either. Apparently he struggles with depression also and took an overdoses after she broke up with him; but luckily he failed. Karrie gave Tim back the Book of Mormon we gave her and said she only took an interest in us to help Tim out; which is not true she was always wanting us to visit her in the hospital so that's her parents speaking through her.

Peter is doing really well, I think I have said before he will be baptized it’s only a matter of when. He knows what he needs to do so once he decides the time is right he will do it. He was not at church this week cuz he had some meeting he had to attend to. He lives in a very strong Protestant area and was a big hot shot during the troubles; so he works to make sure the troubles don't happen again; he attends meetings and other things. Peter is a really cool old guy; I could just sit and listen to his stories forever.

The other investigators we are working on hard are Christina and Charlene a mother daughter. Christina the mom wants to be baptized and has asked me to do it. Which is cool but she has so much work to do. She struggles with depression, panic attacks, large groups of people, and smoking. Due to all of this she does not come out to church as much as she should so she can’t get baptized. We get on her case and tell her all this but she just does not seem to be able to do it. I don't know what to do with it all so keep her in your prayers.

Well I got to get heading I love you all so very much. Thanks mom for a good email and all the updates.

Much love hugs and kisses. Happy Birthday to Dusty!

Brady

Hey Mom

It’s good to hear from you again. I love Mondays, getting to hear about home and how everything is going. It’s too bad to hear you forgot about my baby brother and now his surgery is not going to be so easy. But doctor Burton is really good so I’m sure things will go very well. I’m so glad to learn about everyone's teeth and that they are so good and clean I hope there are no cavities in any of them. I hope the same for mine too.

I’m so happy for Cody and that his swimming went well. I felt the same as him, there was a lot less pressure when I swam the relays then when I swam my individual events. The individuals you have no one else to rely on but yourself. However, with the team events you feel so much stronger. You can take on the world. Especially with my relay team mates. It’s weird that you can’t wear those longer suites even in the Olympics. What’s the reason behind it? If you would let me know?

Well it’s good to know I will be speaking so soon. That way it will still be fresh on the mind and I can still remember all my stories and mission stuff. Speaking of going home, did you get my email about all my flight plans? It tells when I will be landing in Utah and all that stuff cuz I don't remember it. It’s not important really..

Well this week has been a hard week and a not so good one sorry to say. It was so stressful and mind frying I’m glad to have it behind me. We lost contact with one of our investigators named Karie I told you about her I think she was in the hospital and is the partner of a less active named Tim. Well she is out of the hospital but we don't have a phone number for her and we don't know where she lives other then the estate name, but what number we have no clue. Also I guess Tim has now put himself in the hospital for something. Not sure how and what for but he has. Then we had an investigator named Wanda who forgot about our appointment and got herself wasted. She came to the door and apologized for herself which was good and set up for the next day, when we went by she was not in. Even more maddening. Also we had a mission conference which made us miss another appointment. The conference was good by the way I will get to that later. Also Janice missed an appointment on Saturday which she is so good with her appointments. Then we had another investigator named Sharon Nash who has investigated for a year; she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet but does not know our church or the Catholic church is true. Well she got her answer that it’s the Catholics by playing a game of bingo. That was the worse one of them all. So as you can see we got kind of upset by all of this in the last half of the week. So this week we taught only 15 lessons and had one investigator to church when we were expecting 4-5 to church. And about 20 lessons.

This week we had some good things happen as well, Sunday was great. So we told one or two people that the week had been rough on us, and did not go so well. Well the thing about our ward is any rumor spreads like wild fire and by the end of the day everyone was feeling bad for us and wanted to feed us that night. We had three invites to dinner that night and of course to all our favorite places the Smyths, McGee’s, Nelilson's and McKenna’s so we visited as many as we could but had to turn down some of the food. Smyths act like our best friends and let us just relax at their house. He is our landlord so he is cool. The McGee feed us every other Sunday with the McKenna’s...they switch off. So we have one every Sunday. The Smyths usually feed us during the week, sometimes, but they wanted us over just for some fun and games.

The mission conference was good; they had some shocking news. The Ireland Dublin mission is going to be merging with the Scotland mission. This will be happening July 1, so it won’t affect me at all. It was still crazy to hear. So President Creer is the last Irish mission president ever, and I’m one of the last IDM missionaries to come out; its exciting news really. Kind of sad but really it’s going to make it so we will be on the same level as the rest of the British missions. I’m kinda sad I won’t ever get to serve in Scotland. Do you remember one of my dreams of serving in Scotland? Well, if I was to be here after July 1, my dream would have come true.

Well I don’t really have anything else to say; I love you much and hope next week’s letter will be more exciting for you cuz this week’s was not so much. I love you all and miss you. See you very soon!

Much love

Brady

Hey well hello family,

It’s good to hear from you all. It was a surprise to have so many writing. This time even Dusty with his so much to say. Well I’m glad to hear that as soon as I get home I have another great talk to give my first Sunday home. But hey that's okay I’m used to it. I’m just happy to know Jer can be there. But will Amy? Nobody said, I would love to have her if it's possible. Well I’m glad mom you like the new bishopric the only one I know is Bishop Mullen. But I’m sure they will do great.

This email is a bit harder to type up because I had so many different individuals write to me. So I want to talk to you all but it’s hard to. Jer it’s exciting to hear baby is coming along good. I tell everyone here that I’m going to be an uncle soon. And then Grone makes fun of me and says in a baby voice "Uncle Brady". So I look at him with a serious face, like Dusty's are you serious face and say "yup." Jer you’re lucky to be in the young mens, I would like that as a calling when I get home or a primary teacher again, either one would be a great calling. I just hope the stake just does not try to force me to a singles ward. I really don't want to go to one, I would like to just stay in the home ward and just have a cool calling. That’s what they do here in Ireland. All the RMs get called to young men’s, ward mission leader or elders quorum something.

Cody it’s good to hear from you too. Thanks for the update on swimming, sorry to hear you did not make it to state in your individuals, but relays are the best anyways, and you get to do all three now. But it’s good that you’re taking it well. That’s the kind of stuff that shows what a humble person is. You are great and it’s awesome to hear your scoring with the chicks that's the most important one anyways. Remember you don't get to take swim with you to heaven only a girl. Ha-ha.

Dusty Yup

Julie thanks for talking to me more. The entire missionary's thinks it’s so cool that you’re a pilot; I do to too. I hope you get your office position you want. What kind of office position do you want? And for what? Anyways talk to you later.

Mom you again as you can see I do not really want to make any big plans. I like the idea of a cruise. And just think you can use all that saved up money in our piggy bank to go towards it. Remember that was the idea. Man I’m going to love it.

Well investigators and all that jazz. This week has been the best week we have had together so far. Grone and I also just had our moves call and we are staying together. The next moves call will not be until a week before my birthday. So Grone and I have some more quality time before us. President was thinking of moving me but we told him we would go home if he did. So he said "wow better not do that." To help us out he released Grone from being the district leader because we were so busy. And that's it.

This week I spoke in church on keeping the commandments. I just got up and spoke. I had a few bullet points and some scriptures written but that's it. I was supposed to speak for 20 min., but the first speaker did not show up so they told me 30. Well I did the best I could but we still ended 5 min early which I don't think is a bad thing. To go along with that we got 5 investigators out to church. Peter, Christina, Carline, Flo, and Janice. It was an awesome day you could tell the members were well impressed which made them love us even more. I did not put them asleep with my talk so it was even better. We also taught 20 lessons this week so our leaders are all impressed with us. Like we care; Grone and I just love the people we are teaching and want this area to be the bomb that's it.

So many missionaries have talked bad about this area and it’s not even true. This area and the entire member really rock. The only thing the members could do better is their fellowshipping. If they were more outgoing in talking with them rather than us introducing them it could be one of the best wards. Also the bishopric is good they just need to have their meetings more often. But the members are so good to us. Dinner appointments every day just about and food given to us at church. They come out with us if we call them and ask. It’s so good. See elders have had this bad mind set about the area and so they come here and survive it and don't get the work done. But we have all sorts of stuff happening we are going nuts and need help with it. I just wish we had some other people to help us.

Well the weather has not been too great it snowed again, but it’s warming up now and the skies are blue today. Grone has been out just over 17 months coming up on 18. Driving is fun and I’m all used to it no problem. I don't even get butterflies anymore when I’m behind the wheel.

Well I love you all; this is a very long email and needs sending

Much love

Hugs and kisses

Brady

Hey Mom and family

Hey how is everything going? It’s been good to hear from you. I’m very sad to hear about George Roy. I loved him very much. He was the best scout leader I ever had for sure. He was so fun too. I remember one time he took us out to the church parking lot and spun doughnuts through the snow it was so funny, cuz we were playing corners in the car also. We were all getting smashed hard. I’m also sad to hear we are getting a new bishop also. That means I have had 4 bishops while being on my mission cuz I still claim the 10th ward as my ward too. They do have a plaque up of me in their ward too so I claim them. I wonder how many elders or sisters can say that.

Well sounds like swim life is going really well. I miss the pool so very much. Swimming was my life and that pool was my life and now I can’t swim its pretty gay. It’s good to hear Cody is swimming really good. He is getting quick. I just wish I could be there to see him, and cheer him on also. I could also probably get a coaches ticket and be on deck with the team too. I’m sure Chris would do that for me. At the very least timers pass. That’s so weird the new region; when did all these schools open? Just this past year? I knew of the one by Springville, cuz Grone told me about that one. But the others I had no clue about. So is the new school Orem high looking good? How much is done and how much is left to do? Maybe you can send me a picture of the new school.

Well we are still busy we did not have as good of a week this past one but it’s going to be much better this up and coming week. This past one we had two investigators on holiday and a few dodged appointments which really made us mad. But this up and coming one should be really good. This last week we only taught 17 which is still above average to the rest of the mission but this next one we hope to teach more than 20; it’s not too much more to increase. We also have planned more member present lessons which our president asked us to do on Wednesday. We had interviews so we had a good chat. He was very happy with us. We told him we want to stay together cuz we are doing so well and we really get along well. We then told the ZL’s, APE’s, president, and sister Creer. They all are very informed. Now all we have to do is pray for it. And that's the whole chain of command.

We got another really good investigator. One of the golden kinds. Her name is Karie. She is the partner to a less active member named Tim O'Sulivan. But to make it even better Karie and Tim do not live together making it easier again. Tim has been with her a good while and has mentioned the church; well, this past month or two she has been very curious about the church. So, Tim started to teach her kind of the lessons the best he can. Well, we decided to just drop by cuz we had some time and we met her. She has been reading and praying now about the Book of Mormon for a while. She was in 2 Nephi and knew a lot. She also wanted a priesthood blessing cuz she has some health problems so we did. Now we teach her twice a week, they also are looking to come to church very soon. This will be the first time for her to come; and a first for Tim in over two years! She is probably our best or second best investigator right with Janice. Teaching less active partners is awesome cuz we are teaching/fellowshipping and bringing back the fewer actives - it’s a two for one score. Karie is also very funny bubbly active kind of a person so the ward will have no problem fellowshipping her and they already know Tim so it will be sweet there. Janice is now back from her vacation and we will be teaching her again. We are very excited for that one. Hopefully the vacation did not turn her away at all; we don't think it did, but I will let you know next week anyway. Keep those ones in your prayers as well as Peter Simpson. He struggles with smoking and wants to quit but finds it very hard. He has cut down a lot and I mean a lot. But still can’t quit all the way.

Sorry to hear the trek is so stressful I hope and pray it gets a bit easier for you. Sorry about the bad weather. Ours is getting better; though it’s still pretty cold. The last few days it hit 0c again, but it’s not too bad cuz there was no snow. And we drive so it’s grand. As for the Christmas cards, I did get a few but not nearly as much as last year, so yeah, do send them I would not mind some post.

Love you much hugs and kisses,

Brady

Hey Mum and Pops,

I'm glad to have one fish again in the house, but I still need a lot more than the one. I taught a guy this week that had 100 gallon fresh water tank and he had a reef in his tank and a huge angel fish. It was a really cool aquarium. It just made me think, "Hum, maybe when I get home I will get one that size it would be real cool." Then I can put Sydney the fish in it and an angel fish and some reefs and maybe even a beta fish. All I need is a lot of mean fish and they will take care of their own.

I’m so proud of Cody and his swimming feat, that's great to hear he is doing well. I would get stuck to sometimes and it always felt so great to get a good race like that one and get a PR. It was like the time I was swimming the butterfly and you put in everything and you come out good it feels so nice. Man I miss swimming!!

This week has been crazy nuts too. We are teaching loads. We are doing very well this week and taught 19 lessons. The week before we taught 20. We come home and are so knackered (tired) that we plan, play a quick game, call people, and go to sleep. Before we know it the alarm is going off, it’s so hard to roll out of the bed we need more sleep! I sometimes take naps during our breaks for a few minutes, but it’s still not enough. Then we are off to teach more lessons. We had a few people who dropped us this week but we replaced them real quick with some more. Our teaching pool is around 10-12 people. I love it! I have never had that many people to teach ever before. And the people we are teaching are good. They all are progressing even the new people and the old ones are working towards baptism. I’m so happy with this area.

So I will talk about some of the people I’m working with. Our main person is Janice Dixon she is a sweet heart love her to death. She is about 45 and has a good number of children. I talked about her a bit last week. Well she right now is going through some hard times. Her partner is a less active member of the church. We found her through him. Well they have been living together for about 10 years or something like that. They act like a married couple and we thought they were for ages. But Bob, her partner, walked out on her the other day because he is an idiot and gets in these moods. So when he does this, he leaves her for a few weeks and won’t talk to her at all. To make it worse, they just got engaged this December and had a vacation booked out for them so Janice had to leave the family take her friend and go on vacation this past Friday, because Bob would not talk to her. Well of all the people Janice wanted to talk to was us when Bob left. So we prayed and asked God for help what we could do to best help her out. A member's name came to our mind, Sister Cathy Grayson, we called her up for help. She came immediately and when she arrived she actually knew Janice. Their kids used to play together. So we sat and talked and listened to Janice for awhile. Then we left to find Bob and try to talk with him while Cathy stayed with Janice. Cathy helped her out so much and we were able to help Janice out and give her a blessing. We talked to Bob but he was still a butt and did nothing, and now Janice is on vacation. This Saturday when she comes home we will be able to teach her again. This experience was amazing and it was a real answer to a prayer. It really helps me have more trust in the members.

The members her in Londonderry are just something else. They love missionaries so much and feed us all the time. This past week I have had 4-5 dinner appointments here. And then if they can’t feed you they bring food for you at church. This Sunday we received 3 bags of food for our flat. Because of it we don’t even need to shop this week. In fact, we have not had a normal shopping week yet. We just buy milk and cereal because that’s basically the only food we use. We either don’t have time for a meal or we have so many dinner appointments we eat at the member’s home. It’s been great.

Tell Tyler Robinson hi from me. I know who he is, he is a really nice guy. We never hung out but we always said hi to each other in the halls. Tyler was one of those kids all the girls loved because he was such a good looking guy.

Well mom, I love you so much and family too. Miss you tons. The time is short and I will be home very soon.

Hugs and kisses from me,
Brady

I’m a pretty lucky mom, because I was asked by Bro. Sorenson to brag about my son Elder Brady Hafen, who is serving a mission in Ireland. Mothers love to talk about their children, but I’ll try to stay under control. Many of you do not know Brady because he left for his mission just a few weeks after the stake division took place almost two years ago; so yes he is on the downhill side of his mission. His release date is April 16th so he will be standing at this podium in just three months. Many of you might actually see him occasionally or at least see his picture since I do have the most well known missionary in Utah County! Somehow the Daily Herald has my son’s picture and uses it to advertise; the advertisement is to place an ad to announce or share with Utah County everything worth celebrating; so we see him in the news paper frequently.

His mission is called the Ireland Dublin Mission, and includes all of Ireland; Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He went to the Preston England MTC, and loved it. The Preston England MTC is smaller and very personable which he really enjoyed. He loved being able to attend the Preston England temple and misses the temple since there is no temple in Ireland. He has served in 5 areas of Ireland; Bangor – which is in Northern Ireland, Bellyfermont (Jeremiah Sorenson makes fun of the way I say this-good he’s not here; Jeremiah served his mission in Ireland as well) – he actually re-opened this area; it had been closed since 1992, it is very close to Dublin; Tralee which is along the South West shore of Ireland; Firhouse, which is by Dublin; and his new area as of the first of January Londonderry; which is in Northern Ireland, the most Northern part of Ireland you can get.

Ireland is not a big baptizing mission; but they contact people on the street, work in charity shops, and a big part of his mission has been reactivating and fellowshipping members. Every area he has served in he has helped to reactivate someone and he loves doing that. I know that we shared this experience with the youth in our ward, so I apologize in repeating, but this really touched us as a family as well as Brady. After Brady had left his first area in Northern Ireland, our family received a letter from a member of the Bangor ward named Sister Jacqui Richards. Jacqui joined the church in 1978 and was active for only a short time, becoming inactive for many more years. She always believed that the Church was true, but was in a rebellious stage for a long time. In June of 2007 she was diagnosed with cancer and had to have radical surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatment. I would like to quote her letter now: “It was a horrible time for me and my family and it forced me to think about life and what was important; family and a relationship with Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. So one day in April I decided that I was going to go back to Church. When I walked through the doors (which in itself took a lot of strength because I had been away for so long) were the missionaries. One of the missionaries was an Elder Headington from Wales who appeared the more senior of the two. The other was a brand new missionary, just out on his mission, looking very nervous and shy. His name was Elder Hafen, from Orem, Utah.

These two young boys, neither of whom I had ever met before, were to turn out to be real friends to me. They came to my house, taught my children, fellowshipped with my husband, (who isn’t a member of the church) did some carpentry work for me, painted the outside of my house and generally made my transition of going back to church so much easier.

Thank you so much for your son, he is a fine young man and whom you can be very proud. He is no longer with our ward, but while he was here I watched him grow from a shy nervous boy into a confident spiritual young man.

Please take heart in knowing that even if he doesn’t baptize anyone on his mission he was instrumental in bringing at least one soul (mine) back to the Lord and I will always be grateful to him and you for that.” Brady didn’t realize how much the service rendered meant to Jacqui until I mailed a copy of the letter to him.

Brady has been blessed with one baptism that took place while serving in Firhouse. Johnathan Manning became a member of the church on October 24, 2009. One thing that Brady has learned while serving is that sometimes missionaries do not get the opportunity to reap the seeds that they plant, others may reap those seeds. Johnathan Manning was just that, he had been taught by previous missionaries, but because of his strong Catholic bonds with family decided that he shouldn’t be baptized. Three years later Johnathan found a pass along card and knew that he needed to be baptized. He called the number on the card and the missionaries were there; he was baptized after receiving the discussions again. Brady had just broken his wrist playing soccer with the missionaries so he was unable to do the baptism, but felt privileged to perform the confirmation. I would love to read to you a part of his letter. I need to preface this since many of you do not know Brady, but Brady loves to swim. During his High School years he swam for Orem High School, winning State. I quote: “On Sunday I confirmed Jonathan, I was so nervous. It was like being on the blocks for the 400 free relay at state and you are swimming up against the fastest swimmer on the East High Swim team. I could actually feel the adrenaline pumping into my blood, my whole body felt really hot and tingly but once I put my hand and cast on his head I calmed down. I said all the necessary parts but once I came to the blessing I couldn’t say what I wanted to well; but it all came out and went well. Bishop commented on the blessing afterwards. Jonathan afterwards looked a bit goofy cuz there was no way to wipe the smile off his face. He was just so excited. He says he can feel the spirit so strong now.”

Brady’s mission president is from Provo, the Edgemont Stake; their names are Gordon and Janice Creer. Brady loves them. President Creer knows that Brady loves to swim so every time he visits with him he asks if he is gotten in the water. Brady always responds no President that is against the rules, but it is really hard for him to not jump into the ocean. President Creer is released in July and tells him that the two of them are going swimming when he gets home-Brady thinks that might be a scary thing to see President Creer in a swimming suit.

Brady is in a really cold place right now Londonderry, it is actually snowing. Ireland usually doesn’t get snow, they get slush, but he has snow. This area is also an area where many rebels live; they call themselves the Para Military. In 1968 civil violence broke out and continued for thirty years. Peace has returned but there are some who believe the war is still on. They deal with this more in Northern Ireland, so he lives through bomb scares, and basically terrorist activity a little more now where he is serving.

Brady loves his mission, and knows that the gospel is true. He knows that he is acting in behalf of the Lord, and feels it a great honor to wear Jesus Christ’s name everyday on his name tag. He knows that he is planting seeds, and that someday the people of Ireland will be ready to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well this week has been crazy. We have been running from one appointment to the next. We have been stressed out. Me and Grone are best friends and get along super well everyone tells us that they can tell. They say they can tell by Groneman. Grone did not get along with his last companion so now he is smiling and laughing loads we both are hoping and praying for another moves together. And I think some of the people we are teaching are too. The weather here has been so cold the warmest day was 19.5 F; luckily we have a car, or unlucky trying to drive in it! It’s been snowing all week long and they don't plow the roads. Cuz it does not snow in Ireland so what's the point of making snow plows, that's their mentality. All the estate roads are ice 3-5 inches thick you could go ice-skating on them. It’s really bad, cars are stuck everywhere nobody has 4 wheel drive and it’s so hilly here they can’t go up them. Roads have been closed and taxis charge 2 pounds extra cuz of it. People here won’t leave their house cuz of it, not even to go to church. And all the humidity is frozen so the dryness has dried my skin out. My face flakes a bit almost as if I was on Acutane, and my lips have been splitting too.

Well for something to tell the ward about the new area. Its part of Northern Ireland and it’s in the high north. It’s the 4th largest city in the entire island. It’s very beautiful even in the winter. I’m close to the Atlantic Ocean and it’s very cold. The city has a very old feel to it like you would see in the movies. I really like it a lot. This city was hit really hard during the troubles and there are a few factions of Para Military who won’t give up. Small inconvenience for us some times. There was a bomb threat on a road a while ago but it ended up being nothing. It made us 10 minutes late to a dinner appointment which the member was not too happy about. I get fed loads here, every day we seem to have some sort of a dinner appointment, and sometimes it's twice a day. I’m sure I will gain some weight here driving and eating so much. Me and Grone cover the whole city all by ourselves and wish we had the sisters back here every day.

Karl Hamilton is a great member he feeds us every week and is way nice to us. He had just got a new blackberry phone I think for Christmas and took those pictures. He then asked who to email it to so I said my mom. I knew you would like those but what I was afraid of was that you might think it was a scam and delete it; good thing you did not. And yes mom that's my new companion Ryan Groneman. Glad you liked those.

Well like I have said we have been very busy. Our new top investigator is Janice Taylor. She is married to a less active member named Bob. Janice is a really good investigator one of those golden ones who ask all the right questions that lead into the next thing we are going to talk about. She listens very well and understands well. Her and Bob together have 9 kids but it’s a Brady bunch situation. Both of them where previously married and now they all live together. But if we can get them in the church, wow, this ward would grow. The only problem is the kids are older and can make their own choices. We have not taught the kids yet, but pray all will go well there. The ward could use another solid family. As all wards could.

Sorry this is not as personal of a letter and a bit more like a news letter. I’m just in a rush and the first one was deleted off so I’m sorry about that. I hope this was also detailed enough for you.

I love you all so much and miss you.

Hugs and kisses

Brady BOO