December 11, 2017 – Week 63!

Hope you all are having a great time preparing for Christmas! Only 14 days more until the day remembering the birth of Christ! I hope you all are already remembering and thinking of the Savior. This time of the year is so great. Sometimes we may get caught up in thinking of gifts and decorations, and that's not always a bad thing, but let's remember as well the real reason we have Christmas, which is to celebrate and remember that day when the Redeemer of us all was born. The Savior was a perfect example of service. He was born literally homeless. There was no inn that had room for Him. Even though that was the case, he served the poor in spirit and the poor temporally his whole life. I am glad that the Savior was born, because without Him, there would be no purpose to coming to earth. Without Him, none would be able to return to God's presence. But we know that He lives, and He loves us, and this is the perfect time to remember Him in all that we do.

This week for me was pretty good! We may have not found the number of people that we were searching to find, but we were able to serve and bless others, and that's what counts!

This week we've been able to visit some recent converts, Elvis and Oliver. Elvis's dad in one of the visits played us some Andino Folk songs on his harp, and it was so cool! Elvis told us various times that he wants to serve a mission, and little by little he's preparing! He's still got more than a year to go until he can serve, but I know that he'll keep preparing! We also were able to help with his uncle this week, to help bless the family and give them some comfort. -- If any of you as well know someone that's sad or who'se passing through trials, send them a message of comfort! Give them a smile or a hug, and make their day better. I promise it'll make your day better too. :)

We've been helping Mayri prepare for her baptism as well. If all goes well, her baptism will be this Saturday! She's been preparing for a good time now, but it's been a good help for her testimony! I know she can keep preparing to make this first covenant with God and feel good about her decision!

We had some intercambios as well with the Zone Leaders and the Elders in Valdivieso3. They went well! It's great to see how other Elders work so one can see how to get better with their teaching and finding efforts!

We had interviews with President this week too! It's always a good experience. I learned a lot, and I know that even I have small things that I could change to be better at obeying with exactness! Sometimes small things can become bad habits, like going to bed late, or not leaving exactly on time, but by making a firm decision to change and then act on it, the needed changes can happen, and more blessings are seen! That doesn't just apply for missionaries either. Small things can become bad habits, like not reading the scriptures daily, or not praying daily, but those habits can be changed as well! We must remember Christ and His atonement, and remember that we CAN change for the better!

Well, that's jsut about all that happened this week. Now the season of Panneton and hot chocolate starts, and it'll be one more smell that'll remind me of the mission later on!

Hope you all have a great week! Remember to remember the Savior!

Elder Bruner

panneton on the shelves of Tottus

Christmas tree decorating! we still havent finished it.

playing the harp. Elvis's dad

With the Elders waiting for interviews

some of the 2000 Books of Mormon the misison ordered for this month of Christmas.

With the Vara family for lunch

with a Christmas tree and a little patch the mission gave us to put on our bags for light the world.

They celebrated the Bishop's birthday in the ward after church because it was on a sunday-

with the missionares in our ward and the Felix family

With Hno Carrasco. He offered us Ceviche but we couldn't have it haha, but we had a good Arroz con Pollo with him!