October 30, 2017 – Week 57!

November 10, 2017

This week has been great!

We had a couple family home evenings this week where we watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. I always get extremely close to crying at the end of that movie. The more I watch it, the more it affects me. I don't know why. Maybe it's just because of the reality of all of the events. It was a huge sacrifice Jospeh Smith made so that the work of God could progress. He was a great Prophet.

We passed by a restaurant to get chicken and hamburgers like 3 times this week, and we ended up contacting the lady who worked there, and she was interested in the church! We even gave her a Book of Mormon! She was invited with her daughter to the stake conference we had yesterday, but she sadly wasn't able to make it. She still was interested in having the misisonaries visit her, so it'll be fun to see how she progresses as we go frequently to eat at her restaurant! That just shows that really any situation, even eating at a little restaurant, can be a teaching situation!

I also had to give my first baptismal interview this week! It was a bit difficult, but now I at least have the experience to do it again!

We also had a family home evening in the ward which was lead by the bishop and his family. It was a great opportunity to bring investigators and have them share with members! It's also nice to see the bishop in a BYU shirt haha. He's cool.

We had intercambios with the Zone Leaders this week as well. I went to work with Elder Gardner. We contacted most of the time, and then we went to the baptismal interview I had to do. It was a good day! It's always cool to speak at least a little english one day. Even though it's difficult for me now and I feel more comfortable and I say less 'um' in spanish. Oh well! That'll be the mastery that I practice after the mission.

We also had stake conference this week! The night before stake conference, we passed by the house of the stake patriarch because his grandson always left to work with us. So we went to pick him up, and as we were studying / wating for the grandson, a car pulls up. Some stake members come out and shake our hands and then someone else shook our hands who I didn't recognize. He turned out to be Elder Hels (Held?) I didn't hear his name perfectly. He's an Area 70 who lives in Bogota Columbia, and he came here to visit for stake conference and was doing some visits before the conference! It was cool to talk to him for a moment! Good thing we were studying when we saw him, because he says he talks to President Larson lots haha.

He spoke at stake conference, as well as Pres. y Hna. Larson, and some other members of the stake and returned missionaries. It was a great stake conference! One investigator, Oliver, was able to come to the conference with us! He's preparing to be baptized and already passed his interview, so we'll be having his baptism this Saturday! It'll be a great experience! His brother will be preparing to be baptized the following week as well!

I don't have tons of time, but that's the majority of what happened this week! Every week there are great experiences.

Now, some spanish.

Yo se que el Evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero. He tenido experiencias maravillosas en mi vida gracias al conocimiento que tengo del Evangelio y de la Expiación de Jesucristo. Se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y Redentor. Se que estoy aquí en Perú para ayudar a las personas. Se que es Espíritu Santo me guiara cuando estoy obedeciendo los mandamientos.

Hope you all have a great week this week!

Elder Bruner