December 26, 2016, Week 13!

It's crazy that in about one week, I'll have been on a mission for 3 months. Time flies sometimes. 

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I know I did. Talking to family was great, having Pizza Hut was great, and getting out and spreading the gospel with those who needed it was perfect. Christmas is different on a mission, but in ways, it's better. I think I focused more on the Savior and on others than I did in the past.

I'll tell you a bit about Christmas here. We couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve. From about 11:30 to 12:30, there are more fireworks outside than I've EVER heard on the 4th of July. And they were close to our apartment too. I think we heard them louder because we were closer to the explosions (being on the 5th floor of an apartment complex). It was crazy, Gladly they calmed down at about 1:00, which is when I started to fall asleep.

I opened some presents that my parents sent me, and which we put under a home-made "christmas tree" (the fan with a star and our name plaques on it). This was before I realized my parents send a paper cut out of a tree for us... Haha whoops. I'll use it next Christmas.

Church was great that day. 3 investigators came! More than usual! So glad that they had a desire to be there, especially for Christmas.

This past week was great too. Lots of preparation for Navidad. We had our Cena de Navidad (Christmas Dinner) with President Larson, his family, and half the mission. It was great. Really spiritual. They shared the story of the Christmas Oranges, and gave us all oranges and some other small gifts (photos and candies and a DVD with Mormon messages). We also got to eat 3 of the things we couldn't have any other day in the mission! Pork, strawberries, and lettuce! So nice to have it haha. 

We also had a chocolatada, kind of a ward christmas party. The missionaries had to perform something too. We were first up. We had only practiced a bit the day before and in the hour before the party. It reminded me of Men's Drill at Hillcrest, and I think we were one of the best performaces that night. We sang "Angels we Have Heard on High" in Spanish, and coregoraphed a little dance to go along with it. People laughed, and it was great. I only messed up once. I'll see if someone who is in our ward can send the video so you all can see it.

We also had some farewell activities for Elder Chahuara, because he leaves this week for home. He's awesome. It'll be different not having him around for lunch and other activities. 

Some days this past week were spent mostly walking. It was pretty hard to find people to have lessons with. So many were busy with families. We had lots of contacts, but few lessons. It was a test of our strength to persevere, and just keep on trying. We had the spirit with us though, and we didn't give up. We just kept contacting and talking to everyone.

We had intercambios again this week. I was with Elder Zarate in our sector. I was nervous beforehand to lead him, because he didn't know our sector, but it turned out to be less hard than I thought. I know I was guided by the spirit that day, and received help to know where to go when needed. Elder Zarate only has a few months left on his mission, and was a little bit trunky that day (haha), but that's ok. We reached our goal of contacts and had some lessons too! 

All in all, this week was great. Even though some days I didn't feel too well, I kept going and worked hard. I honestly can't write all of what happened, because there's just so much every day, but I definitely know that I can't say the smallest part of what I feel. I feel just so great here. That's definitely a reason for why I chose Alma 26:16 as my missionary scripture. This mission has been great, and I know there's a lot more to come in the future!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I know that if you really want to, and have the desire, you can have the Holy Ghost with you as a source of guidance.

Con mucho amor (como todos las semanas)

-- Elder Bruner
Make-shift Christmas tree!












MTC missionary companion!




















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