April 2, 2018 – Week 79!

AAAAHHHHH Time goes too fast to write each monday. There's so much I've gotta write in so little time! 

Well, to start off. CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING! I still need to watch two talks because our wifi signal cut out as we were watching the sessions in English, so I can't wait to receive even more revelation here after the conference! 7 new temples, a new Ministering program, and a combined Elders Quorum will be SO AWESOME! I can't wait to see these new changes implemented. This jsut gave me a confirmation that this Is the Church of Jesus Christ. No other will make so many changes to make sure that the members are becoming more like Christ in all they do. I have such a strong testimony that this is the Church of Jesus Christ... There is no doubt in my mind. Just hearing the Prophet and Apostles and other general authorities gave me such a comfort in my mind and in my heart. They really are guided by the Lord to teach us and guide us here in our mortal journey! Also, the solemn assembly that we had in the 1st session was a 1st for me, and I loved the experience! Also, as President Nelson had each quorum stand up in the priesthood session, I felt such power, and I felt a connection to the Prophet, like he was speaking directly to me. He knows how to work with us in a great way to help us feel included in everything!

    Conference was also great because we were able to watch it in the Stake President's office with some air conditioning to shield us from the heat outside. But even if I had to watch it in the heat, I would do it, because there is no subsitute to receiving revelation from God!

This week was also cool because it was the Semana Santa. TONS of people were going up the San Cristobal hill, so we decided to do a little activity, and just in time too. On Friday morning, we took a table up to the street that's at the middle point of the hill, and as hundreds of people went up the hill, we presented copies of the Book of Mormon in 3 languages, Liahonas, and pamphlets, and more! (see pics). It felt like a spiritual Comic Con hahaha. We waited until people came up to the table (without pressuring them or shouting), and then explained them about what we had (including the free candies for kids we were giving out, which helped bring people to the table, as everyone else in the hill was selling stuff haha). Many people were interested in the Plan of Salvation, and a few were interested in the Restoration too! Some less active members came up and one of them wanted missionaries sent to her house to baptize her son! In all, it was a great experience. We had rejects of people not believing that we could talk of God because we've never seen Him, and we had others jsut for the fact that we were Mormon, but we also had a great number of accepting people! In all, we contacted more than 45 people in 2.5 hours, and had 15 referrals to send to other sectors of people who were interested in a message of the Gospel! This activity was an idea we had this week, and I'm so glad we put it into practice! Saturday and sunday, nobody was going up the hill, so we did it in the perfect time where there were people! REVELATION!

     Sadly my companion had a little fall and went down like 4 stairs afterwards, but he's ok. No major pain. No success comes free I guess. BUT It was still a great activity and we were willing to do it again!

We also were able to teach the parents of a recent convert this week. Yull and Lizet. They are a great family! They have plans of getting married, and I can see in them a great light. I can't wait to see how they progress!

We're also gonna have to work with a ton of love and work with personal interests of investigators and members. Thanks to the conference, we learned how to work with love. Now, we're gonna apply it and hopefully have great results with both members and investigators! We also learned thanks to our great ward mission leader that repentance is the base of all problems and difficulties with commandments. With a little new insight like that, I feel like we can work even more personally and work adapting to each investigator in how they need to hear about repentance!

I honestly am so happy to be a missionary in this great time of change in the church. I know that God has called me through His prophet so that I can serve the people in Lima. We have transfers tomorrow, and we still don't know if we'll have transfers or not, but if we do, it's all by revelation! I trust in the revelation from God. He is my father in Heaven. He is perfect. He is the source of all knowledge and power. He is love. I know this to be true.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Bruner

eating chicken

walking in front of our hill.

outside of our apartment

More outside our apartment

my book of mormon puzzle i finished, and ended up not using during the activity because there was no time.

DISTRICT PIC (with elder Mena at the left, who's one of the assistants to president)

Set up of our table there in the Hill San Cristobal

General conference!

eating with the gonzales morote family

more general conference pics

eating with the Pantigoso family

Our Hill at the top.

other pics that the JAS took at general conference, and they included us (JAS is young single adult). (we felt like YSA haha)