March 13, 2017 – Week 24! BiRtHdAy!

March 24, 2017

This week was awesome! I'M 19 YEARS OLD. WHAT.

There was a new 1st vision video released on history.lds.org, and it's AWESOME! I encourage you all to watch it if you want a little more insight on the details of the 1st vision accounts of Joseph Smith!

We had some more lessons with our recent converts Aisha and Jesica, both of which went well! They are great, and I know that they'll continue to be great members of the church!

This week after P day, which ended 3 hours early, we went to Parque de las Aguas! 3 hours less on p day for a great trip to the park on Thursday! It really was awesome. There are so many water fountains to see. They have a little water show too with music and everything, and a part of it reminded me of the World of Color show at Disneyland. It was awesome! The park was also right next to the National Fútbol (Soccer) Stadium of Peru, and a game was going on. So crazy because EVERYONE around the stadium was selling shirts and then during the game you could hear cheers and everything. I wanna return after my mission to see a game there. It would be so hype.

Funny story. Drunk people are great. As we were walking, one opened his arms wide like he wanted a hug or something, and we just walked up and did a little contact. But when I shook his had to leave, he said "where are you going?" but not in a rude way and just held on to my hand for a few seconds to keep me from leaving. So I talked a bit about Jesus and his gospel, but he rejected everything I said, so then I just kinda started saying "yeah. yeah" just to not fight. He ended by saying he knew the truth and I didn't, and that Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet and Jesus didn't have a face so the contact card really wasn't showing a representation of Jesus and etc etc etc. Oh the fun times contacting haha.

I definitely do know that Jospeh Smith was and is a true prophet of God, and that Jesus Christ does live. I know that God has revealed the gospel of Jesus Christ to us through his prophets, and that we DO know the truth as members of this amazing restored church of Jesus Christ! My testimony of that won't fail.

Although we didn't have tons of lessons or contacts this week, I'm always glad to preach the gospel. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes outside when you know you need to contact, the devil really does bind your tongue. It's the weirdest thing when you just want to talk but can't. I felt that this week, but when I just opened my mouth on Sunday and started contacting again, even though it was a bit awkward at first and I failed at grammar in Spanish, I felt better. I knew that I could receive divine help if I just did what was needed of me!

My birthday this week was awesome! I got cheesecake, a cake to be smashed in my face, and another cake from some of our recent converts! 3 cakes in one day. CRAZY! That's never happened before. I got the package that my parents sent me, which had lots of candy and little helpful things in there too. We had a ward noche de hogar (family home evening) on my birthday too, and that's where Patty (a convert of san miguel 2) along with Patricia and Eugenia, gave me a great chocolate fudge cake. It was great! Then they all sang to me (and one of our converts Mayra since it was her birthday too), but it was just a tiny bit awkward since they had to sing quietly, because in the other room a funeral was going on (yeah kinda bad timing) but it still was great! I love the ward here. They are so accepting and fun people! They help us out as missionaries so much! Transfers are in one week, and if I leave, I'll really miss the ward members here!

I hope you all have had a great week! I can't wait for the week to come! Congrats to all those who are receiving misison calls / leaving on their missions too!

con much amor siempre,

--Elder Bruner