Dear friends and family,
Happy One Year Mission Anniversary to US! Are you as amazed as we are?? We cannot believe that we have been gone for a whole year! Well, a year and 3 days at this posting! Time is flying. In less than 11 months, we will be home and Christmas 2026 will be upon us all!
The best news for all of our blog readers is - I don't have a ton of pictures on this post. Maybe only half a ton. It was a lovely week in Thailand so on to the photos for a recap of the week.
But first we love you and miss you and appreciate your support, prayers, and kind words.
With love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)
Saturday morning, we drove out to Chachoengsao to do a house inspection. Elders Schaffner, Gao, Gibson, and Auernig did a great job! We took a drive to McDonalds to celebrate! Traffic was a little crazy so our outing took a total of 5 hours!
This beautiful drawing was done by a person who was just recently introduced to Christianity! We have a "miracle book" in the mission office and we offer a digital copy to all of the missionaries when they are finished with their mission. Missionaries send in pictures and experiences (miracles) they have as they are out and about finding people to share the Good News with! Sunday afternoon, I came into the office to work on the Miracle Book and loved this entry so much, I had to share it. Elder Westcott and Elder Sevilla are serving in our Rayong Branch:
Submitted by on January 8, 2026 - Elders Grant Westcott & Marc Sevilla
"M - Today we met with a referral who told us last week on the phone that he was not interested, because he was too busy. On Sunday, he showed up at church and gave us this drawing of Jesus that he said he spent the whole day before drawing. Tonight we met with him and his friend at KFC and started teaching him!!!"
Monday, Sister Brady had lunch with Katie Bunker at a cute little restaurant called Roast.
The Salmon salad was so delicious!
Katie worked as a flight attendant for SkyWest years ago. I love that we have the Flight Attendant/SkyWest Connection! I also love that we randomly met at the distribution store!
This is the view from Katie's apartment in Bangkok.
The Bunkers live part-time in Bangkok and part-time in Guam. Colin is a pilot and flies out of Guam.
Katie proudly shows pictures of her daughter Caroline who used to be a missionary in the Thailand Bangkok West Mission! She is now in Ireland going to culinary school! We loved Sister Bunker! She was such a great missionary!
Throwback to last week! One year in the mission!
Throwback to the Mahanakan Skywalk! Kneeling on the glass floor 84 stories above Bangkok! This picture popped up in my memories so it landed here in the blog!
Wednesday, we got a facetime call from Sister Taylor! Malea is back at BYU and starting her semester!
But she misses us and so she called! It made our morning!
We miss Sister Taylor! She always makes us laugh!
Thursday, after our house inspection with the APs and Office Elders, we headed out the door to go to lunch. These Elders did a great job and had a very tidy and clean apartment.
Hamburgers at EAT AM ARE! Elders Hiatt (joining us for lunch on an exchange), Baltomore, Wright, Bradys, and Elder Huber. Elder Nash the other AP missed lunch with us because he was on exchanges and had another appointment. We will bring him a well deserved treat another time!
Money necklaces were for sale everywhere!
Friday morning, we took a train to Samut Prakan to see Sisters Jenkins and Pathoumma! They did a terrific job cleaning their apartment! We were not surprised! They are wonderful sister missionaries!
After the house inspection, we were off to the Mall on the Songthaew. Sisters hold on for dear life!
Elder and Sister Brady are seated safely inside the vehicle! (Basically a pickup truck with bench seats!)!
All roads lead to Pepper Lunch! Was it good? As usual, YES!
We had the first two Patriarchal Blessings of 2026 scheduled for Friday afternoon. Did I mention that Elder Brady gave 52 blessings in 2025. All but one (for our granddaughter, Jenna, before we left for our mission) were done after July 30th! This couple is from India. They requested their blessings about a week or so ago. This is Trinadha and Jagadeeshwari from India.
After the blessing, they wanted us to meet their darling children!
Then last night, we got an email from another person wanting a blessing on Friday because they were heading back to India on Saturday. So Elder Brady gave 3 blessings today Friday afternoon. This is Prabhu and his wife (she received her blessing when she was a missionary a few years ago).
After we finished the blessings we headed down to the office to type them all up and get them into envelopes to deliver them this evening as all three of them head back to India tomorrow morning! We started the blessings around 4:15 and finished everything by 7pm!
And that is a wrap for this week's blog!
We love you and miss you and hope to hear from you soon!
Until next week! Bye!
Happy yearaversary! You both look great and happy. That drawing is amazing. What an artist! You're missing a terrifically mild winter here. It's so warm and sunny, and no chance of snow. We just spent a couple days in Lincoln City where it was nearly 60 degrees, sunny, and no wind at all! Crazy, but beautiful. We sure miss you two, especially around the cribbage board. Be well, be safe, enjoy every moment of your fantastic journey. The Lord is in the work!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting! :) Yes! That picture is amazing, isn't? I have heard from a few friends and family that Oregon is having such a mild winter! I am sorry to miss it! We do miss our annual trip to Lincoln City and look forward to that next year! We miss you two as well! Can't wait for cribbage game in the future! Take care! Say hello to your family and the ward!
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