January 2, 2016 - Happy New Year!

I can't believe that this week will mark 3 months in the mission! Time seems to go faster in the mission field for sure.

New Year's was crazy. More fireworks for a solid 15 minutes starting at midnight than on Christmas, I've been a bit sick with congestion this past week, so it was easier to just forget about the fireworks and fall asleep after getting used to them for like 5 minutes.

This week we did lots of contacting. We had some lessons, but the majority of the time was walking around talking to people. It's sometimes a bit hard to just start talking, but once you start, it's a lot easier. We also are trying to contact more families as a mission, especially during this season of Christmas and New Years.

We had transfers this past week, and some new elders came into our Zone! I didn't get transfered, so I'm still in the same sector with Elder de Arce. It's normal to be with the same companion in the same area for 2 transfers. One of the new elders is from Canada, and the other is from New Zealand. Elder Golder (or Goulder) from New Zealand is with Elder Paz right now, so I see him every day at lunch! I'm kinda translating for him a bit when he doesn't know words. Crazy to think that that was me about 6 weeks ago. He's cool. He understands more spanish than he speaks, and he sounds like a native spanish speaker because of his accent.

We went to the beach last P-Day, which was awesome. That's something we don't have in Utah that I'd love to have. It's a rocky beach, and not safe to swim in, but just smelling it and being near the water was great.

We had kind of an awkward first lesson with an investigator this week, because it was in a member's house, and we forgot there were a bunch of mannequins in the front room, and the whole setting with that and questions and how our investigator was a bit timid and didn't answer lots of questions just made it more awkward. Oh well, we haven't lost her yet. She's still coming to church! Haha.

I contacted someone who didn't speak spanish this week too. Kinda funny, when he said "i dont understand you" I replied "Oh, I speak english too" or something like that. He was hoping I'd start speaking english. He lived here but didn't speak much spanish yet.

We also were contacted by someone in english who was a jehova's witness. He spoke only in english, no spanish. It's hard to switch for me and think and reply in english sometimes. Also interesting how some people are here (not visiting) that don't speak much spanish.

One great spiritual experience this week was during weekly planning. We got a call from Pres. Larson one morning, and he said he wanted to come and have weekly planning with us. He thankfully said we were going to do it in the church, since Our apartment wasn't the most clean (it's not dirty by any means, just not tidy at that moment). We went to the church, and he met us there, and we just talked about our investigators with him, and he gave us suggestions, and it was just really spiritual and great!

I haven't felt well this week. Lots of congestion, but thanks to prayers and the strength of the spirit, I've been able to just work every day and not have to rest. It's not always the most fun, but I'd definitely rather be sharing the gospel and talking to others instead of staying in bed all day. Hope I don't have too many sick days in these 2 years.

Funny story: One night, we saw some guy in another apartment window just dancing crazily. We were watching him a little, but he then noticed us and stuck his head out of his window to look around, then shut his window. We just laughed and hoped he didn't see us too much watching him dancing.

I know that the spirit has helped me so much here. I know that this gospel is true, and I love sharing it with others here in Peru. I hope we can have some baptisms in January, and I know that the spirit can help us with that too!

Hope you all have a great start of 2017!

--Elder Bruner