December 28

Its been a good (And lonely) Christmas XD I love the christmas season but I just couldnt get into the spirit this year without family. Timo wasnt feeling it either since his family is currently in the city too. so we just kinda hung out with him this week.

Tuesday- Tuesday my companion wasnt feeling so well. He decided he was ok to work, so we started working a little bit, but he started feeling bad again so we went in earlier. When hanging out in the house, Timo invited me to play uno with him and his family (and thus started the card game tradition)

Wednesday-  my companion didnt feel well enough to leave, so we stayed home again, and I played cards all day. 

Thursday- Christmas Eve!! We were going to try and work, but my companion didnt feel well, and Timo wanted some company.

We were asked to help someone in the morning to build a grave. The people here, build houses to put on top of the grave, so we helped gather and carry the materials to build the house with. it was great, and hard work. My companion wasnt able to help a ton.

Friday- Christmas!!! well... Talked with my family! And...We had a Christmas party and it went well. We had a lot of less actives who have been missing for a while there (the majority also showed up on sunday)

Saturday- Well.. we started working again, and my companion started  feeling bad again so we only taught a couple of lessons and went home again.

Sunday- Hoeft was feeling really bad. He woke me up at 5am with severe stomach pain and diahrea. sooo... we went straight to the doctors house to wake her up. We were in the clinic and he got an IV, but we missed church, sadly, and we were the speakers, and 2 of 4 priesthood holders on the island right now. 

So obviously... we took the day tranquilo again. A few members came by to see how my companion was doing, and apparently church went well even without us there :) which is good.

Monday- Well... With the sickness and being in the house a lot, the house has gotten messy. So I spent my morning cleaning, sweeping, pulling weeds, washing dishes, etc.  until it was time to take Hoeft to the clinic again. Hes feeling a LOT better now, and i  think we will end up going to work tomorrow :) pray for health for us :)

Well. That pretty much explains our last week. There has been a lot of illness out here, and other issues, but the zone is working through it all, and everybody is still happy and loves to be here. I never get any complaints from anyone here- I have to draw it out of them to figure out if they are sick. I love being here :) I love my island and being a missionary here. Im just excited to start being able to work again :) A working missionary is a happy missionary. Although ive been kept busy with other administrative things since Ive been in the house.

anyways- the Bradburn rant is over.

 I love you all! Remember to pray and read your scriptures. Obey the commandments. Let the spirit light up your life :) 

Elder Bradburn

Machi Senigua

Tule Bander

December 21

Well.. this week has been a little bit eventful..

Monday- All the missionaries came for Zone Conference :) It was pretty
fun. The assistants brought us pizza and The Cokeville Miracle. That
was a really really good movie. It made me cry :) I encourage all of
you to see it :) I would have to say it was one of my favorite church
movies, and it was really well done.

The Conference itself went pretty well :)

Tuesday- All the missionaries left, except for the assistants to do
Divisions with us. (we also recieved Hna Bean to our airport and saw
off Hna Anderson... Hope youre doing well at home Sister Anderson!!)

Me and Elder Machado went to the Jungle to help Timo in his farm :) It
went pretty well out there. The day with the Assistants went pretty
well. Although the day ended at 5..... Silahs from another community
came, so it was manditory congress for everyone, Tuesday through
Thursday. We actually had to go too. It was really really interesting.
President Martinez (branch president of nargana) translated for us :)
It was pretty cool. I actually enjoyed it :)

Wednesday. Well.. we were asked for help from an old investigator,
Miguel, to help him carry his canoe out of the jungle. The was they
make their canoes, the chop down a tree in their farm, and carve it
out, and then you have to pull it to the nearest river. It took 8 men
(including us) 3 hours of pulling to make it all the way to the river
xD im guessing it was just about a mile. and later, we worked for the
time left, and went to congress again

Thursday- We did Divisions with Ukupa :) Things went pretty well. I
hung out here with Elder Mann, and we worked pretty hard throughout
the day :) It was actually pretty nice.  We also went to congress
again :)

Friday- We went to the jungle again to help Lucio out there :) We also
practiced some things we learned in congress- They taught how to be a
good son-in-law (helping your father in law, walking in front and
cutting down things to obstruct the path so he doesnt have to, etc)

When we ended divisions, my companion started feeling sick, so we took
his temperature, and he had a fever of 104! so we when straight to the
clinic on the island. They think he either has Zika or Dengue
(probably Zika) and so that killed our next couple of days. Poor kid
was miserable. He started feeling better yesterday (sunday).

We didnt even go to church so we didnt get the members sick- its a
mosquito born illness and the church is on the coast- lots of
mosquitos.

Monday- well. today we spent chilling out :) its been a good day.

Anways. Sorry to be so uquick. I feel like ive been running short on
time ever since I was put here in Playon :P there is just so much more
to write about now xD Im doing well here :) Me and Hoeft get along
great and we are working as hard as we can, amid the illness.

anways. Yall have a good week! love yall! Merry Christmas!!

-Elder Bradburn

P.S. Remember Christ in the  Christmas Season. We are showing people
Alma 7:10-14. It talks about Christ and his birth, and the suffering
he went threw for us. We are also inviting everyone to think of a gift
they can give back to the Savior- to show our gratitude for what he
gave us (using his atonement, following the commandments, improving.)

December 14 - Christmas season

Things are starting to get Christmasy out here :) I was already
starting to feel the Christmas spirit, but now there are decorations
and christmas hymns being sung by all, all over the island :) Its
great :) Still nothing like back home, but Im getting a new christmas
experience out here.

Tuesday- well... Just about everything fell today. I got a little bit
frustrated. We talked to just a few people, but nobody was home. So we
went wandering the island and contacting people and got rejected by
basically everyone xD but whatever. I love this island, and the people
inside of it. Im going to keep working my hardest :)

Wednesday- Talking to Timo and Ultiminio in the morning, I got a
little bit emotional and upset about people not listening to us. As
Geoffrey R Holland says in "Missionary Work and the Atonement" - "This
is the truth, isnt it? Why do the people reject it? Why do the reject
us?" Timo told me that on our small island, there are 7 churches. And
everybody is set in stone to their church. Theyre like political
groups, and if they start investigating another, they get kicked out
of the group. So nobody wants to try any other churches. Nobody from
other churches even want to talk to us- Some lady told us that she
couldnt talk to us anymore because the members of her church started
talking bad about her.

So, we are just trying to march along and preach the gospel of christ.
Even though we keep getting rejected. I dont even care about trying to
convert people necesarily to our church- I want to bring these people
closer to Christ. To help them see his goodness and doctrine. Maybe
then some of the vain traditions will start to go away, and these
people will start to understand.

Thursday- We started divisions with Tikantiki. Bush came to be with
me, and Hoeft went to be with Nelson in Tikantiki. It was a great time
being with Bush. the only problem is that to do divisions i have to
stay alone for a while.. the boats pass by at 6 to get my comp, and
then drop off bush at 2PM. so im left alone for a good chunk of time.
But its alright. I hung out with Timo while I waited :) We got to
work, but it was a slow day, because of the travel and everything.

Friday- We went to the jungle with Timos brother-in-law, to help him
gather coconuts in Timo`s farm. This farm is SUPER Far away. we had to
walk  over an hour to get there, we left at 8, got there at like 9:15,
and worked till noon, and got home at like 130ish. It was soooo tiring
xD We talked to Nigga, and gave him a Book of Mormon :) that was super
cool.

Saturday- Welllll I hung out by myself again to finish divisions. My
companion got back, and he was miserable from the travel, so we had
another slow going day. Timo needed some help with thigns, so we
helped him out as well.

We talked to Cerezo about missionary work, and he had a few good
questions about different things. I love that guy :) Hes started
coming to church a lot :)

We also talked to Eustolio. Im super proud of him. He out of nowhere
went super inactive, and now he is coming back :) hes started being
the same old man that I used to know :)

Sunday- Well.. today we came out to church, and helped gets things
ready. After church, we stayed to help save all the tithing and fast
offerings for the last 6 months into the computer xD boring but fun.

Anways. Im emailing today, because tomorrow we have Zone Conference,
so I wont be able to write tomorrow. Im excited for it :) we are going
to get to see The Cokeville Miracle with the zone :) Conference will
be great :) itll be great to see everyoe :)

So I will let yall know how conference goes tomorrow :) Love you all.
I gotta get going so we have lessons and stuff tonight :) so yall take
care and ill talk to you next week :)

December 7

This has been a pretty good week. Things are a little stressful, and we have had illnesses in the zone ( including my companion) but we are working through it all :) This week has also been rough because all the youth left the island for summer vacation :/ they all go to Panama for vacations to hang out. So we lost all of our deacons teachers and priests, and also 4 positive investigators. So, the area is a little rough right now. but its whatever :) we are working hard and loving it :)

Tuesday-  the Elders of Ukupa showed up this morning at our house, on their way to Ustupu. They had to go and teach the area to the sisters. Today was mainly a day to unpack for Elder Hoeft, and we had to run some errands for Timo.

Wednesday- Straight day of work! yay :) it went pretty well. Me and Hoeft are getting along really well, and we actually teach pretty well together. Im happy for that :) We found out that one of our investigators, Cerezo, isnt married to his wife. So we have to figure that out so he can get baptized. but he is a boss :)

We helped another investigator, Nigga, put some leaves on his house for his roof. He also asked us to go help him next week to go search for more leaves in the jungle, because he needs people to carry them for him :) Who is always willing to help?? the mergimala (the gringos)

Thursday- CONSEJOS!!!! freaking christmas miracle. We got Mission Leadership Council to work over skype. San Blas has not participated in Consejo for over 8 months. and we now have participated :) It was great. I was even able to make some comments, eve nthough the connection was bad. but it was nice :) ALSOOO happy birthday mom :) Love ya! I was going to attatch a video but my camera is broken.. sorry :)

also, Nigga sent us some fish for helping him out :) hes a great guy. 

Friday-  Elder Hoeft got sick :/ so we spent the day in the house. we got to talk and get to know each other a lot better :) which is always good

Saturday- We went with Igwa to his Yuca farm in the jungle :) that was fun. He gave us some yuca to take home and we ate fried yuca for dinner :) Elder Hoeft accdentally forget the bag of yuca that he was supposed to carry xD and me and igwa didnt notice.. poor elder Hoeft. 

Our plans for the rest of the day fell, but we had a few impromput lessons with some new investigators :) we were looking for a ponga so we went to the lady who is the ponga lady, and decided to teach her :) it was a pretty positive lesson :) m excited to keep teaching her

Sunday- Sunday was alright. Hoeft starting feeling sick again, so we took it slow. 

Monday- Wellllllllll we went with domi to his private island. Hes a less active member. We helped him clean it all up and make it look pretty so he can get permission to start using it as a tourist island. I have to say me and Hoeft did a good job :) annnd.. my camera fell in the ocean... I was taking a selfie on the beach, and a wave came and i slipped and fell in with my camera :( dang it. its not sitting in a bag of rice in the house.. hopefully it dries out...

anyways. Life out here is going well :) things are a little stressfull, training elder Hoeft in Blas AND training him as a Zone Leader, but things are going well :) im excited for th rest of this change to come :) Next monday, the assistants are coming so we wont write until tuesdasy or wednesday (or maybe sunday) so we will talk to yall later!

Keep the Faith!

Merry Christmas.... Christmas is a hard spirit to catch on a hot tropical island xD

Elder Bradburn

November 30

Well, Im quoting my old companion Elder Perkes on this one. As Guna
Yala Zone Leaders, we live 5 weeks in paradise, and 1 week in hell, to
make our 6 week change. and that was particularly true. Even though it
was thanksgiving xD I hada very humble thanksgiving. Ill get into that
a little further down in this email

Tuesday- Well.. Tuesday. Tuesday was a rough day. It was the day
Perkes said goodbye to everyone. We still didnt have changes, but
president said it was sure enough that he should pack and say goodbye
to everyone. so we went around saying goodbye.. several people cried,
and i almost cried too. These people are amazing. Im never leaving. I
refuse

Wednesday- We flew in to the city. I didnt have my passport or my
panamanian ID, but they let me through anyways xD silly people. but
whatever. We couldnt do anything because we still didnt know changes,
so we couldnt buy anything. Because.. at this point, rumor had it that
we were getting Hermanas in the zone again... and they have different
purchasing needs. So we sat around and didnt do much.. it was a waste
of a day

Thursday- We found out changes at like 1 pm. so it ate away most of
our day waiting for that. The rumors were true... Elder Mann got
pulled out of Ustupu, and Hermana Anderson went back. Her companion is
Sister McGowan :). Elder Barker and Perkes also left. My new companion
is Elder Hoeft :) We shared an apartment in the MTC so we already know
each other pretty well. Hes a great guy.

we started buying everything today. We just went to pricemart and let
the sisters run off on their own xD

Thursday night, a family invited us over for tacos xD its a reminder
for them every thanksgiving of their humble beginnings. Their first
thanksgiving as a couple they had no money, and threw together
thanksgiving dinner  from what few things they found in the fridge.

Later, i bought myself egg nog and ice cream xD my city trip tradition

Friday- We finished shopping, and I confirmed our travel plans for
Saturday . More stressful time trying to prepare everything and pack
everything to go. I went to bed at around 3am, and woke up at 445 for
the car.

Saturday- 445am  We got everything ready, but our car didnt show up
until 630. WAY TOO LATE. its a 3-4 hour drive to the port, and all the
boats leave by 9 or 930. We got there, and couldnt find a boat. So,
luckily I know the port workers pretty well, they offered to let us
leave our stuff in the office and give us a ride over to Carti, to
spend the night. So we all just got screwed xD it was fun though. We
had a pancake hot chocolate party, just the elders, the sisters had to
figure out their own party xD

I was able to confirm pongas for everyone (we all had to take separate
pongas, because there wasnt enough space on one ponga for everyone...
I also set up a deal with certain ponga drivers to take the food for
certain elders every 6 weeks.. for example- Etilio and his boat from
tikantiki, will take food for us to nargana and tikantiki every
change)

Sunday- we got to port early, and everyone got to their areas safely.
We all showed up too late for church though...  We bought a new stove,
that was a lot hotter than the other, and my oil caught on fire :/ so
we had a scary oil fire but everything turned out alright in the end.
Our branch president got burned though :/ poor guy

But ya. thats my crazy week xD 5 weeks of paradise, now starting :) I
hope I stay here for a while. I love it here, and I love this people.
This has been a great privilege for me, serving the Lord here. I could
have never asked for a better experience on my mission. Anyways.. Im
out of time :) so ima let Elder Hoeft write now.. and im going to sing
with my new english hymn book :)

Love yall :) take care!

Elder Bradburn
Machi Siniqua

November 23

Hey! how are you all doin?! Ive been doing a little of thinking
lately. Ive been thinking about the place Im in. It looks like an
island paradise, and everybody in the mission wants to come here. But,
nobody realizes how hard it actually is. The work here is hard, we
have to work through crazy native american traditions, and these
people have no sense of time so most lessons fall everyday xD its just
crazy.

Anyways- here goes my week-

Tuesday- We started divisions with Ukupa today. I stayed and hung out
in my area with Elder Sharp. We had a good couple of days. We still
didnt have water, so we had to carry water for the hna. to wash
clothes and to cook with, and carry our bathing and drinking water (we
carry water from a well on the other side of the island... its
"bathing only" but we boil it and assume its ok...........)

Beacuse of all the rain, the river in Ukupa overflowed and flooded a
lot of the houses in Ukupa. So we helped the Panama Support group load
food and stuff to take over to Ukupa. Im not sure why they are
donating $100`s of dollars of food to the pueblo... they all have food
and the only thing is that they have water in their houses xD The only
thing they really need is drinking water, because the river is dirty
when it rises like that xD

Wednesday- Today some guy walked up to us and said his name was
Luciano Muñoz and that he would go to church on sunday, and he wanted
us to visit him on saturday. I asked Timoteo who he was, and he said
he died like 10 years ago. (Saturday we went back to the house... the
family told me the guy died like 10 years ago..  I guess we are
supposed to teach his family)

Today was started drinking rainwater from the roof. and... our roof is
kinda made of leaves and is like 15 years old xD so the water was
yellow. I filtered the water through a shirt, to get the bugs and
floaties out of it, then boiled it, then filtered it again... still
tasted funny... xD

Thursday- Well, today we finished divisions, and Ustupu came to our
island because Bartleson is headed home so they came to drop off mann
to be our companion for the next few days. we split up into 2
companionships for the day and doubled worked out area :) It was dope.
We got tons of work done :) It was nice working with bartleson one
last time before he went home

Friday- We took Bartleson to the airport super early in the morning to
get him home :) It was sad seeing him leave. We had a little bit of
extra time at night.. soooo... we used our time ranking the entire
zone on Zombie Apocalypse Survival xD we rated the zone based on
intelligence, strength, dexterity, endurance, and then added up their
numbers to figure out who is best equiped for a zombie apocalypse xD
Me and Perkes tied for first place xD

Saturday- Most of our lessons kind of fell today.. it was kind of lame
:/ but whatever,

Sunday- Well, we went to church and stuff like normal :) I love going
to church. Ive been consistantly blessing the sacrament every week
since I got here :) Its a cool opportunity. I havent been able to do
it for a long time :)

After we had ward council :) we have gotten ward council started :)
its great. Our little branch has progressed a lot because of that
simple meeting to discuss the needs and everything :) Its great :)

Monday- This morning, since we are sure elder Perkes is leaving, he
wanted to go up and hike in the jungle for the last time before he
heads out of here. so we hiked for about an hour to a spot with a
really cool view and then went back :) It ws great. And now we are
emailing :)

Well... This neext week Im headed out to the city wednesday, to get
stuff for the zone. so the next time i email will be mostly about the
city trip :) love yall :) stay strong in the gospel!

Remember, members are missionaries too. I forgot who said this but "if
you dont have a name tag on your chest, now is the time to paint one
on your heart" help out the missionaries- we need it! more people get
baptized from member referrals than from our own efforts.

anyways. Love yall! have a great week!

Elder Bradburn
Machi Siniqua

November 16

Well... we are finishing up our last week of the change... Next
Tuesday I head to the city to buy food for my zone, and to help any
other new missionaries come out with us. We arent sure whether my
companion is going or staying, but we need to figure out changes
sometime this week to organize divisions and things for companionships
who have someone leaving... All over the mission elders are sometimes
left alone for a few hours during changes, but in our zone elders
would have to be left alone for 2 or 3 days.. which is way too much
time. So we have to figure out divisions and things in advance to
avoid that :)

Monday- Our Zone Conference went pretty well :) We had kind of a Zone
Council and it went pretty well. The electricity ran out in the
chapel, so we had to finish it at home xD kinda lame but oh well :)

Tuesday- We went out to the monte with our man Igwa :) he is probably
the most legit and hardest worker here on the island. We helped him
canoe out to his farm, hiked 30 minutes to get to it, and then chopped
out forrest for 4 hours. and in the end, we helped him carry back the
fully grown platanos (those things are heavy) It was fun :) I love the
monte

We went back to have a lesson with a guy named Nigga, but we realized
when we tried to teach him how little spanish he actually spoke. the
first lesson we somehow got through without realizing. Sooo... we need
to work on getting a translator. I can tell this guy is super prepared
for the gospel- we just need to overcome the language barrier with
him. Its crazy that he absolutely knows he can barely understand a
word, but recognizes us as respresentatives of Christ and accepts us
in to talk to his whole family. that takes a lot of faith to
legitimately desire to hear a message that you cant understand.

Wednesday- Well. It was mainly a slow day. We went around between
lessons and when lessons fell to talk to the ward leadership to invite
them to our Branch Council Meeting on sunday.

There was some random gringo guy walking around our island that
morning, slightly lost. We gave him directions, and found him on the
way back home, walking in the wrong direction. So we took him to our
little store on the island, and talked with him on the way. At this
point in time, all we learned is his name is John, and he´s from
Wyoming, and he ws driving a motorcycle from Chile, back to wyoming.
But, there are no roads between panama and columbia, so he hitched a
ride cheap with his motorcycle from our columbian boats that pass
through here.. although to this point in time he has taken 3 weeks to
get from columbia to panama xD

Thursday- I headed out to Nargana, and do to ponga complications, we
were stuck me, Stracener (nargana elder) and Bush (Tikantiki elder).
It was fun :) I love those elders. We had a great day together. We
helped stracener out with his area. Bush needs to be a Zone Leader
somewhere- hes a great missionary.

That night i went to do the Baptismal Interview. My first :) The kids
name is Eggbert, and hes super legit. He is definiely prepared to be
baptized :) I love that kid. Hes originally from Ustupu. Hes in
Nargana for school or something.

Friday- Well, me and bush went to the docks to get our ponga bck home
(him in tikantiki, and me in playon) but the ponga was delayed by 4
hours... (very very normal for pongas) and.... our gringo friend with
the motorcycle happened to be there! We talked for like the entire 4
hours about his story and everything. He was going to college in
Seatle Washington, and he was bothered by the atheism and stuff in the
science department. So, being sick of that, decided to "find God" and
loaded up his backpack, and started walking. After a few months he
wound up in Texas, and decided to go to mexico. he stayed with a
family and helped out on there farm for food, and was with them for 2
years. When he decided to leave, the grandfather gave him a donkey and
a new pair of boots. he hiked down toward south america with his
donkey, and somewhere 5 years later, in the jungles of Peru or
Paraguay, a snake bit his poor donkey, and he put the backpack back on
his own back. he stayed in chile for a while, and worked construction,
and decided to start making his way home. So he bought a motorcycle,
and started driving up through Brazil and on up here. Hes headed home
now. I asked him why he decided it was time to go home. His emotion
and words were the same ive heard from every missionary ive known
going home- "I love it. and ill miss it. But its time for a new
chapter in my life"

I wish you well John. I hope you find the church again in the states :)

I got back to my area, and we got to work (After some rest, lunch, and
showering) but most of our day kind of fell through.  it isnt too bad
i suppose. We had problems with an less active member who was upset we
didnt show up, but it wasnt our fault. He isnt even home 90% of the
time when we have appointments with him.

Saturday- Saturday, pretty much everything fell, and it was weekly
planning. So we did what little we could, and then went to plan our
week :)

Sunday- We had an INSANE thunderstorm during church. We were positive
lightning was going to hit the chapel (luckily it didnt...) the rain
was so loud that we couldnt hear the speakers even with a microphone.
Our appointments all fell through because of the rain, so we tried
contacting houses and everyone in the street. Everybody rejected us xD
we gave up around dinner time and went to go eat dinner, and then left
again to talk to a few less actives. We read scriptures with them, and
luckily they were home and willing to listen :)

DUDE I JUST REALIZED. Christmas is right around the corner :) my
favorite time of the year :) Im gonna buy a baby christmas tree for
our apartment xD itll be cool.

Anyways. I need to get going. I love you guys, and hope you have all
had a great week :) We week was super tiring, but it was great :)
things are rough, but Im always happy :) Remember, Christ suffered for
our pains and sorrows too, not just our sins. Yall have a good week!

An wisi Bap machi mae (I know the Son of God lives)

-Elder Bradburn
Machi Siniqua