February 12, 2018

February 12, 2018 – Week 72!

March 20, 2018

This week has been pretty good! We heard also that we are going to the temple again tomorrow (and we'll plan well to be able to enter this time! Haha)

So to start off, this week I tried an ice cream called Queso Helado (Cheese Ice cream) which is actually really good and doesn't taste like cheese! Maybe it's like cream cheese or something similar. Either way, it's great! The artesanal ice creams here are awesome! Better than the ice creams that you get at the stores in carton here.

This week we were able to continue visiting an investigator named Dana. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and it was a great lesson! Their dog was bouncing all over the place, but I just tried to stay focused so that the spirit of the lesson would stay strong. We were able to resolve some of her doubts and invite her to prepare for baptism and she accepted! She also came to church this Sunday and is fulfilling her commitments! It's great to see when someone is pregressing in the gospel. There are blessings that really do come to the lives of people as they follow strong in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

During district meeting this week, we were also able to learn more about teaching simply, and testifying of our companion's words, and also how to teach in unity while at the same time use scriptures and focus on the investigator while they're talking and on our companion while he's talking. It's kinda difficult! But the preactices we did were awesome and I was able to learn a lot!

We also had intercambios this week and I stayed in our sector with Elder Clark. 2 gringos! Haha. It was a good learning experience too! He's got about half the time I have in the mission, but he teaches extremely well too! It's cool to see how other misisonaries work to see what you can take from their teaching and apply it to yourself too!

This week there were also some great ward activities. A movie night (which we couldn't go to because of the movies and we're missionaries haha, but we still passed by to get popcorn and take investigators), and a ward mission night (where it was focused on following the spirit, and we ended up having some time complications and divisions, so we couldn't go to all of it), and then our ward conference this sunday (and 7 investigators attended, which is the most I've seen this transfer here!) It's great to see so many activities in a ward. It really helps the investigators and members see that we can also have fun as we learn about the gospel!

We've found lots of investigators this week, but I feel and see that one of our difficulties is having investigators who accept a baptismal date. That's a goal that personally and as companions we can work on. Changing the way we teach and the way we invite people so that they can feel the spirit and accept the invitations that the Savior is giving them (because as msisionaries, all of our invitiations are really invitations from the Savior, and we are just the guides here on earth to give these invitations to those who hear the gospel). I know that each person has individual needs, and that as each of us as members of the church become more receptive to the spirit each day, we will be able to know the needs of others, and "comfort those who stand in need of comfort" (Mosiah 18:9).

Hope you all have a great week! I know that the work of the Lord is progressing daily, and we are all a part of this glorious work!

Happy Valentine's Day to all! (Or Día de la Amistad (friendship day) if you're here in Peru)

Elder Bruner

a little baby perro peruano (or in quecha, "Qalu Allqu Perumanto" I think is how you say it. My companion said it's correct)

Walking on the path around the hill

me and elder Clark (from montana) in intercambios

me and my companion eating pollo a la brasa with tallarines verdes (a mix of 2 plates)

A house in the hill that wasn't there one day and the next day it was there (thats how fast they build little houses here. Wood with a metal sheet roof)