Sister Brady Fry: LDS Missionary: Hello mi familia!

Hello mi familia!

Alright, so I haven't been able to read anyone's emails yet but I skimmed through for questions and hopefully I will answer all your questions. I have so much to tell! This week was a wonderful week. Sis. White and I had a lot of fun this week! Ok, to answer questions. On P-days we pretty much email, go shopping, take a nap, and relax. We honestly haven't done anything too exciting. There isn't a lot to do in Greenville, but we were thinking about going to a museum today. We'll see. For finding we are required to get 7 hours of tracting each week. That is how we find most of our investigators. Tracting is still a struggle for me. I am becoming more confident and Sis. White and I had a fantastic training session on Saturday that helped me to be more confident. I realized that even when people get upset or offended, I shouldn't let it bother me because I am giving them an opportunity to hear about the restored gospel of Christ. I should not feel bad about waking them from their nap or interrupting their day. If Christ came to their door would they be upset about Him interrupting whatever they were doing? Sometimes we feel weird knocking on people's doors so many times, but Sis. White said that Christ would never stop knocking. I feel more confident and strong in proclaiming the gospel. We have the truth and I am here to share it.

Speaking of tracting, Saturday was really rough, but yesterday was an amazing day of tracting! We met a guy who listened to us and the missionaries had tracted into him a year ago. We are going to go back and teach him and his family. We talked to a bunch of teenage boys playing basketball about the Priesthood and a few of them were interested but several of them just smirked at us. Silly boys. They have no idea. We also met and visited with a deaf man! My ASL is really rough, but I was able to communicate a little bit and understand part of what he was saying. His name is Danny and he is the nicest man in the world! We gave him a pamphlet and we are going to go back and give him The Restoration DVD since he can watch it in ASL. Super excited! We also went to a door and started talking to a man about Christ and the Restoration and he started telling us about his divorce and how he is trying to follow Christ and live the commandments. All of a sudden he started to cry and then told us bye and shut the door. It was the most heart breaking experience. We are going to try to visit him again. We met a lot of great people and also a lot of rude people on this particular tracting adventure. There was a man who told us he didn't need Jesus today and slammed the door. Didn't feel so good. We ALWAYS need Christ.

So we do spend a lot of time visiting members and less actives. We have one less active who was baptized about a year ago and she is wonderful. I think I mentioned her last time. Her name is Latoya. Oh that's right I did. She is looking for a job and she has been using the site ldsjobs.org. She also is having some health issues so we have been really concerned about her. She won't come to church though which is killing me. She knows it is true, but she still doesn't completely trust that it will really help her in her life. I honestly love her so much!

Right now we have 7 investigators with baptismal dates, but none of them have come to church and we haven't been able to meet with a lot of them. In order to get baptized they have to come to church at least twice. But guess what? On Saturday we went to Kyah's house but she wasn't there so we taught her mom, Rose, a lesson. Rose is absolutely wonderful and she is always there when we stop by so we have talked to her a lot. Right as we were leaving Kyah came home so we talked to her for a bit and she said she missed us so much! She absolutely loved the dessert we took her for Thanksgiving and she said her whole family loved it too! She told us that she noticed that when she didn't see us for a while, things started to get really rough. She totally recognizes the Spirit! Then she said, "So still the 14th right? What time?" We looked at each other and told her we would have to get back to her on that. She is still planning on being baptized, but she still doesn't completely understand what that means. It takes a lot more preparation. We are meeting with her this Tuesday and she is coming to church on Sunday. I just know it will happen. (This is the young mother that Brady challenged to baptism her first week in Mississippi.)

I haven't played the piano a ton (especially since no one has pianos here in Mississippi since it is so poor) but Sis. White is really good at making sure I get to play for a bit each week. Sometimes I play for classes at church. Actually, I told the music director that I really want to play in the Christmas program. She was so grateful I volunteered and said I definitely could. So I am playing in sacrament meeting on the 21st. I am super excited!! Yesterday in church it was so spiritual. We fasted that we would be able to get 300 baptisms as a mission by the end of December (this would be a total of baptisms for a year for the mission). Right now we are at 256. I started my fast on Saturday night and just ate a granola bar for breakfast and then fasted until 1pm. It truly was a blessing to be able to fast so long (Brady’s hypoglycemia often prevents her from fasting). I could have fasted longer, but I was hesitant since we were going tracting for a while. Since I was fasting though I really got a lot out of church. I bore my testimony and in Sunday School we talked about Exaltation and in Relief Society we talked about Christ. Someday we will all get to become like our Heavenly Father. So amazing.

We mostly drive in our car. Our area is pretty big so we just drive. However, we may have to bike some more this month because we have used a lot of miles already. It is getting a lot colder. For about a week it was really warm. But now it is pretty cold.

So I think Sis. White sent you the story about the high people we taught, Edtrice and Jabari. We went back on Tuesday with a member and taught Edtrice the Restoration. It was so spiritual and she cried as we told her about the First Vision. Then that afternoon Jabari called and talked to me for about 20 minutes. He was going on about how they are struggling so much and they need our help. They are struggling to put food on the table and to pay their bills. That night we took them some dinner, but then we soon realized that was not the best idea. We both had a sick feeling and started to worry that they were scamming us. We taught them again on Friday and they committed to come to church. We had a member go pick them up but no one answered the door. Then last night Jabari called and apologized for not making it to church, but asked if we could get them food. When we meet with them on Tuesday we are going to have to be straight with them. We can't provide for them. We can't just give them fish, but we can teach them how to fish by hopefully giving them a few resources. They really need to get jobs. Who knows, maybe they will actually have a desire to learn about the gospel, but right now they just want us to help them physically. Makes me really sad.

On Wednesday we went to an area of our mission called Cleveland which is about an hour away from where we live. Half of our ward lives there and we have some investigators there. We stayed Wednesday night at Sis. Solomon's house (the Relief Society President) and then Thursday walked everywhere. Tender mercy. When we are in Cleveland we get to teach at Delta State University!!!! On Wednesday I was really missing school and then on Thursday we got to eat lunch on campus and teach some less actives on campus. It completely made my life!!!! I was so happy all day long! I absolutely love school and being at DSU made me feel so good. It was also great talking to people my own age. It truly was one of the best days this week.

So Sis. White is still struggling with her sinus infection and I think I started to get one this week because I had a headache for about 4 days straight. Not super fun. Apparently it is very common to get sinus infections in Mississippi. They call it the "Delta or Mississippi Crud." I didn't have a headache yesterday so hopefully it won't get any worse.

Alright, I was reading in my scriptures in Alma this week and here are some scriptures y'all should read. Alma 28:14, Alma 29, and Alma 30:41-44. These are just wonderful missionary scriptures and they reminded me of my purpose as a missionary and they made me want to be a better missionary. So read them and try to apply them into your lives. They are really powerful. I also had very spiritual experiences as I watched The Restoration DVD with an investigator and The Testaments with Sis. White. Amazing videos! After watching The Restoration I asked our investigator if she would be willing and have the faith to do anything the Lord asked of her just like Joseph Smith. Then I realized that that is what I am doing. You're right Mom, I am not giving myself enough credit. If I didn't have faith I wouldn't be out here. Yes, it is not easy, but I am doing what the Lord needs me to be doing. The Testaments also strengthened my love for the Savior. He is the perfect example and I want to be just like Him. I love the Savior so much and I know He is with me every step of the way.

You are all amazing! I love you so much! Everyday you strengthen my testimonies. Keep working hard. I love you and have a blessed week! :)

Love, Sister Fry