It was also pretty quiet, it's weird to only have teenagers on Christmas, It's alot easier before Christmas, but at bed time on Christmas eve it's kinda sad, We read a Christmas story on Christmas eve like we always have, and opened our Christmas Pj's, and the kids always sleep together on Christmas eve, this year they chose the TV room in the basement, they played video games.
They got us up at 6:30, we opened presents and then we had a nice breakfast before Bradley called at 10:00 I miss having little kids sometimes, but at other times I'm so glad that I'm past all of that. I guess I'll just have to wait until I have grand kids :)
Christmas Phone call
We got to talk to Bradley on the web cam on Christmas. It was soooo great! the internet connection was really good, We were worried that it would cut out and not have very good reception but it worked perfectly the whole time! We hooked the computer to the big TV and so we could all see him, It was just like he was sitting in the room talking to us.
We talked to him for a little while and he told us some stories and bore his testimony to us and it was very spiritual, then we called Dean and Jill to come over and let them talk to him for a minute, then we had a couple of his friends come over. I think it was fun for him to see everyone, he talked alot to McKay and Micah about the Mission and that it's hard, but it's worth it. He won't see them for 3 years, because they will be on their missions when he gets home. He told us that when he first was out on the mission he was there for other reasons, but now it's very spiritual and now that he feels comfortable with the language it getting easier and better, He loves the families of the wards, and he loves the little kids that are always running up to him and hugging him. They love his blonde hair and blue eyes.
We got to talk to Elder Oborn, while Bradley talked to his family, It was fun to hear Elder Oborn tell how quiet and shy Bradley was when he first arrived in Maceio, he said that he's not like that any more and he loves being Bradley's companion. They have alot of fun together.
We also got to talk to the Sister Missionary's, they are very cute and sweet. Sister Campos and Sister Nigri, both from Brazil. Sister Campos got on a few times, She bore her testimony to us in English, Bradley helped her a little bit but she did great! When Bradley was talking to her family, she was telling us that Bradley is her very best friend in the mission, it was fun to watch them talk to each other and joke around.
It was interesting to watch and listen to Bradley switch back and forth between English and Portuguese, he would be talking to us in English and then he would turn and say something to someone in Portuguese and he didn't even have to think about what to say. He said that he used to have to think of the word in English then translate it to Portuguese but he doesn't have to do that anymore, it just comes naturally now, a few times during our conversation, he couldn't think of a word in English, we would have to help him, and some English words sounded weird to him. It's only been 7 months, I wonder how it will be after 2 years? When he was speaking to us in English, he has an accent, it's so cute!
Brad took the laptop outside and showed him Koda his Husky, and took it out front and looked up and down the street, he was bummed that we didn't have any snow. Then he took him all around the house. Bradley misses Carpet, he hasn't seen carpet since he left the Provo MTC, we had a fire going in the fire place and he wanted to look at it. He said that he loves our house.
Bradley has really grown a lot, his testimony is so strong and he just has this sweet spirit about him. He has really helped my testimony grow, I can't even explain how proud I am of him, I think only a mother can understand how I feel.
