Pray

10/15/2018

Bom Dia Família!

Turns out I speak Portuguese! Haha, I was is Sao Filipe for the first couple days of this week waiting for my new companion and I got to spend some time proceliting with the sisters there. It was the weirdest thing, I knew what people were saying and I could respond! lol Apparently the people of Covo Figueira just have the thickest most difficult creole in all of Cabo Verde. But it's good because everyone there all thought I had way more time in the mission than I do and kept telling me how good my Portuguese is. I'm still far from being fluent or where I'd like to be but I guess for only having three months in the mission I'm not doing too bad. Milagres!

Wednesday, I finally got my new companion and returned to my favorite village on the Island, Covo Figueira. Sister Ashby is really cool, she's very spiritual and a great teacher. I'm excited to be working with her and I'm sure we'll have an awesome transfer together. Introducing her to the área has been fun, she's adjusting to the whole hiking to get everywhere thing... she's very longsuffering. She's excited to be here though, she says they only send the strong sisters to Covo Figueira because it is so physically demanding. I like to joke that they had to send me here to toughen me up. Sister Ashby and I teach super well together. It's been a little difficult being the one to have to know everyone and decide where to go and what to teach, but I've definitely learned and grown a lot because of it. Now, if only I spoke or at least understood creole!

A quick spiritual thought I have for you all this week is about a topic I've been studying, which is prayer. Most people pray everyday and I'd say there's a good portion of people in general who pray everyday, but if you pray everyday what are you doing to make those prayers meaningful or significant? Some goals I've set for my own personal prayers are to be more accountable before the Lord for my day and to be specific, praying for people by name and focusing my attention on who/what is at hand, not just listing off names or blessings. Something I've come across in my study is how we should let the spirit guide our prayers because, surprise, our Father in Heaven usually knows what we need a little better than we do. In addition to that, we need to remember that we close our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, so our prayers should be given in harmony with the character/ teachings of Christ. Do we express sufficient love, charity and gratitude in our prayers or do we focus them more on ourselves and the blessings we'd like? Finally, one of my favorite things I've learned/read in my gospel study of prayer is in the Bible Dictionary, which talks about how often times when someone feels uncomfortable praying or doesn't want to pray it's because they've forgotten who they are talking to. Prayer is our way of communicating with our Father in Heaven. The more we remember that, the better our relationship with him will be and the stronger our prayers will be. I'd like to encourage you all this week to work towards strengthening your prayers and growing closer to your Father in Heaven.

I love you all and hope you have a beautiful week, and don't forget to pray!

-Sister Bradley