January 23, 2017 - Week 17!

This week was awesome. I don't have my journal with me like normal, so I may miss some stuff that I'll have to write next week.

Last P day, we played soccer on artificial grass, which was awesome. However, even more awesome was today's activity. We (Our zone) hiked up a cerro in Rimac. Elder de Arce explained that a cerro is like a mountain, but not as big. It definitely seemed close though. (If I can't get pics sent today, they'll be there to see next week) The whole hike up and down took about 3-4 hours. The view was absolutely AMAZING. We could see tons of Lima (when the clouds weren't there) and even the ocean. We were pretty high up! Lima is like Salt Lake City, but I can easily say that SLC has nothing on the size of Lima. You could drive 2 hours and still be in deep city here. It's crazy and I love it. We also saw a shirt made into a flag at the top of the hike, where missionaries before wrote their names and cities. It was awesome. We all added our names to it if they weren't already there. Even though at the end it was hot, and our legs and feet were dying, it was the coolest P-Day I've had yet!

This week was great spiritual-wise too! We decided to contact at the limits of our sector, which resulted in finding some new families to teach! It was awesome. We were definitely guided by the spirit as we were walking. I even decided to contact the house of an English professor, whose wife came out and talked to us, and explained that he was from England, but now lives here and teaches English. Hope we can talk more with them too! He was inside drawing with his son, so it'd be cool if he was an artist too!

We had a couple investigators come to church this week, and one of them has a baptismal date for the 4th of February, so I hope that plans are still on for that day!

We also had interviews with the Mission President this week. Always a good experience! Hna Larson was talking about the Mormon Tab. Choir singing at the inauguration too, because she was watching it live. I didn't know they were singing until one day in the week, a member came up to me and asked, "Is Donald Trump Mormon?" Because he saw that the Choir was singing for him (the inauguration). Pretty cool!

We did some service for the family of Hna Jesica, and my part was to draw some pictures and write the names of the objects in spanish and english. She's teaching another recent convert (Micaela) to read and write, so that's awesome! I'm glad I could put my art skills to use here in the mission!

I also got to test out my dog repeller a few times this week. Works great, even though I used it when I wasn't in real harm some of the time... Cats are startled by it, and dogs kinda tilt their heads and sometimes go inside or leave. Glad it works in most cases! 

Yes it does rain here. A couple days this week it rained, and one day, it rained for lik 2-3 hours as we were walking after about 6 PM. I was soaked, and everything was wet. Crazy though because the next day, everything was dry and dusty like normal. Crazy wet one day, dry the next. Peru. I love it!

I can't explain how much I feel the spirit here. It really is a source of guidance that we all can feel in our lives, and I'm so greatful for it. Without the spirit, the mission wouldn't be the same. God gives us power, and with the spirit, the message of the Restored Gospel can really bring a desire to change into the hearts of everyone. I invite you all to continually seek the spirit if you aren't already, because the blessings it can bring cannot be numbered!

I'll write more next week when I have my journal! Be ready for the photos of the cerro. They're amazing.

-- Elder Bruner