November 21, 2016 - One Week In Peru!

November 26, 2016

Hey everyone! Week one finished in Peru! It's been a crazy week. Adjusting to the eating schedule is hardest. It's completely switched from America. They have a huge lunch, sometimes more than you think you can eat, and then a tiny breakfast and dinner. We usually eat dinner after everything we do, so it's about 9:30 pm when we eat. Sometimes later.

Already hearing and seeing stuff that reminds me of home, haha. We heard the song "Work" on the bus once. I saw a big Super Mario promotion on the side of a 2 story McDonalds. And I saw a Wii U section in a supermarket. I only miss those things when I see them. We work a lot, so I don't have time to think about videogames or stuff that I miss. Missionary work is first!

Contacting people is the hardest for me. I feel so awkward and don't always know what to say, but I've been practicing! I usually talk second, but there are sometimes where my companion (Elder De Arce) has me talk first, so I try! Door to door contacting is more rare here since there are so many apartments and houses behind gates. Lots of our contacting is with people walking on the streets. Many people are Catholic here, which sometimes makes it easier to talk about Christ, but sometimes harder because they don't want to change religion.

The lessons we've had are going good! A few already with members. Our lesson last night with a man named William Haceregui. He is an English teacher, so I actually used a bit of English in the lesson to convey my feelings better, and he understood it all. He knows lots of English. He is so kind, and really wants just more time with his family because his work takes so much time. He doesn't want to have a loose relationship with family. He is the golden investigator. He's had lessons with the missionaries in past transfers, but still didn't have a Book of Mormon for some reason. As he was talking about family, he cried too. He said he saw general conference once, and said it was the first time he'd seen a pastor or teacher or someone of that rank cry in front of so many people, and he said he felt the same way at the time. We all felt the spirit so strongly. We even read from the Book of Mormon, and after, the son (he has a Son and daughter. Son named Matias is 10 and daughter is 13) was just reading the Book of Mormon and asked who Nephi was. Already reading before we asked! The father accepted our invitation to baptism, so I hope it actually goes through!

We also taught someone named Jessica Calma, who seems ready for baptism on Dec. 3rd! It may be one of our first baptisms! It'll be awesome if it all works out.

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Cool things: As missionaries, we get to hear the Christmas Initiatives early, and we watched the video! #LIGHTtheWORLD is the initiative. Service every day in December! Ideas for service will be on Mormon.org

We got a free fruit after sharing a message with someone in a store that had heard missionaries before!

We went to the zoo today for P-day. Saw lots of animals native to South America. Lots of monkeys and birds!

There are like 2 KFC's and McDonalds in our area. I guess it's kinda common here too. Pizza Hut and Papa Johns are here as well!

Some good food here is called Veterraga, and Milanesa de pollo. Veterraga is purple and has something like potatoes and other stuff in it. Not sure exactly but it's good! Milanesa de pollo is just mean pretty much. One food I don't like as much is caucau. It's almost like a thick chicken skin. Not even sure.

I also saw a little McDonalds food stand type thing. They don't have those in Utah. Ony has a few menu items like ice cream and coffee and other small stuff. Kinda cool!

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Church is great here. The ward is bigger than ours (about 150)! Lots of people. We were asked to teach a small 5 minute lesson to the primary kids about Sacrament. So great seeing little kids here.

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Not sure what else to write! It's been pretty good here. Of course new, but still great! I love hearing about what's happening back home, so send emails!

Hope you all are doing great!

Con mucho amor

Elder Bruner