August 6, 2018 – Week 97!

This week has been pretty awesome! It started out with a pretty cool contact. We talked to a young man, and the conversation went something like this-

us "This is the Book of Mormon, have you ever heard of it?"

him "no, can I see it?" (we give it to him)

    -to his mom he said "uhmmm. 2 mormons are ere looking for Estrella. (we were looking for his sister to teach) Can they come in for a minute?"

his mom "no, she's not here"

him "it'l just be a minute!"

his mom "yeah ok"

and we entered! We shared the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. I know that as we testified of the Book of Mormon, it sparked his interest and helped him to feel a desire to hear about the gospel! Even if we just left a little seed, sometimes it's all that's necessary for someone to accept the gospel in the future!

On Tuesday we found 2 new investigators as well! One was a former investigator who had 3 church attendances, and was interested in hearing us again. the other was the mom of a recent convert. We talked about how the gospel can bless her and her family, and she accepted the gospel and wanted us to come back to share with the family! We haven't been able to have the appointment yet, but I know that as we share the gospel, and share how it can bless families, more people will want to hear about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ because they'll want the same blessings in their families that we experience as members of the true church of Jesus Christ! 

On Wednesday we found 4 new investigators! The number of people keep incrementing daily! We taught about the Restoration as well, because the 4 have never heard from missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was a great experience! They all liked what they heard, and they all accepted to come to the Stake Conference that would be held on Sunday! they all have different religious ideas, but they all were interested in hearing more about the gospel! Maybe their time to progress isn't now because of other ideas they heard after we came to teach, but they said that their experience hearing about the gospel was a good one, and they'd be willing to hear more possibly in the future! Seeds. It's all about the seeds and feeling the spirit. If the spirit can touch their hearts and souls, and they accept it, grand blessings can come. Sometimes it's sad to hear when someone had such a great spiritual experience, and then don't act on what they felt. This is why personal conversion, true conversion, is so important. If we are truly converted, we will stay strong in the gospel and strong in what we know is true even when the difficulties and trials arise. We may hear negative comments from others, but as we remember that God has called a prophet in these days and has a plan so that each of us can return to His presence, we will know that He has power over all the trials, and that we can truly become like our Heavenly Father if we just stay strong!

We didn't have a ton of things going on on Thursday, but we had a full weekly planning! It's necessary to make goals and plans and fulfill them if we want to have success as missionaries!

Friday was cool because we taught a family during some divisions! They before heard about the gospel, but didn't pay much attention the 1st time. Now they have a strong desire to make the changes necessary in their lives to show a good example to the rest of their family members and to strengthen their family spiritually! We went to teach them again on Sunday, and this time we explained more about the Restoration after having taught about repentance and baptism, and we also explained how observing the Sabbath Day can also strengthen our families, and they all accepted to go to church this Sunday! they feel a little desire to prepare for baptism too! Hope they can get married soon so they can achieve the goal of baptism as a family!

On Saturday there was a Noche Blanca "white night" in the stake. We got there just on time to see it with Veronica and her family. We missed the photo time though, oops! It was great motivation to see 7 people getting baptized on the same day! I hope that more investigators in our sector can accept baptism, because every time I see a baptism, it's so satisfying! Each baptism means that one more child of God is starting on the right path that leads to Salvation! 

Sunday was stake conference, and it was a great one! Elder Alvarez (Area 70) joined us, along with President and Sister Strong, and also the temple president! I learned a ton about the sabbath day, and about the importance of marriage (especially temple marriage), and about more gospel principles! We also visited a member family to strengthen them and help their son prepare for a mission. Their daughter drew a picture of my companion and I with crayons, and it was so cute! Gifts like those are so precious.

Today, P Day, was a day of cleaning and purifying our room for 3+ hours to prepare for transfers (if we have them). It is great to have a realllllllly clean room in the mission! That way, we feel the spirit more! 

this week was a great week! This will be a transfer of miracles, I'm sure of it!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Bruner

burritos!

with my companion

zone pic! thanks elder smith for taking it

with the flag i bought

a cool sign

shaking hands with a dog. Yes, we even teach them sometimes :^P

Service! We helped the husband of our pensionista to lift up some bricks and sand and put them into their places. It was a fun service! "Lift with your arms, and not your back" is what you'll hear in the service opportunities here in Peru, because we do a lot of lifting and carrying! Haha

pollo broaster. SO GOOD

drawing on the whiteboard while waiting for our ward mission leader

with Mathias!

with the Pongo family for lunch on Saturday

my companion borrowed my nametag because his fell off and got lost when we were getting into the car to go to the baptisms on saturday. So he is my twin. He wrote that because President and Sister Strong noticed and said "Oh, hi Elder Bruner, you're twins!" they were there at the baptisms too. They're funny :P

with the Bishop and his wife for lunch on Sunday