Happy Belated Birthday, Rhett.

So world, I suppose I should announce the birthday of my wonderful

brother Rhett, Happy belated birthday!

So this week was another interesting one. The elders had another

baptism. They told me the same morning I was going to give the first

talk. Good thing I've been a missionary for a year and can come up

with something. But I'm not that exciting of a public speaker in

Spanish todavía.

My pensionista interpreted a dream I had with a  bunch of

cowboys-chacra workers, and a  bunch of refugees. She only told me it

means I'll meet someone very interesting. I was cracking up as she

listened to my crazy dream. I have a lot of weird dreams actually.

It's always fun to see what my subconscious comes up with.

We visited Lucía, and there was a turkey.  It didn't chase me too

much. It just puffed up it's feathers every time I looked at it.

Another day  in the street a Turkey started chasing us. We used our

umbrellas as a shield as we ran away. Why are turkeys scarier than

dogs?

And I had a pretty powerful lesson with a widower where I told him

very boldly that he can be together with his family for forever, but only 

through covenants, and that he has to make them in the true

church, which is ours. And I don't know what else. I  felt the Spirit

pretty strong in that lesson. It was cool. I normally have a different

teaching style, so I know the Spirit was talking through me. :)

That's really about it though. We have interviews tomorrow, so I'll be

going down to Trujillo. Woo.

Have a great week!

Keep writing!

Hermana Brogan

The work continues forward.

Okay, my companion and I are back to being best friends. She's calmed

down about being exact with exact exactness. (There's obedience with

exactitud, then there's forgetting about other parts of the gospel,

like that we should be happy, and just try our best and trust the rest

to the Lord, and we need to love others and be patient with them). So

we found a balance, and now we're having a ton of fun here.

President Marler also wrote me this week and told me that really a

large part of the work with our little branch isn't so much to get it

to grow, as much as strengthening it, and helping the members progress

towards the temple. And lots of encouragement. All is good now.

We had a zone meeting and intercambios this week. (And we always stay,

both in Otuzco since our leaders come from Trujillo). The elders also

had intercambios the same day. 8 missioanries in Otuzco. So cool!

We found some cool people this week. We had an amazingly spiritual

lesson with this lady, Betti, and I really helped her feel comfortable

praying, and we got her to pray to end the lesson. It was a very

spiritual experience. I basically walked her through it before she

actually prayed, and then she just had to add the start and the end.

It ended up being a very effective way to teach her prayer.

My companion with Hermana Hidalgo had the miracle lesson (I swear

there's always one in intercambios), where they talked this guy into

going back into his house when he said he was busy, and he believed

everything about the restoration. Future priesthood holder!

Later on in the week, we had an activity where we learned to make

picarones (I always come out of those not having learned... I need

recipes. I'm dependent on them. Here, they aren't.) But the

electricity went out, and we wanted to do a movie night with the JAS

(mostly investigators from the elders, and Greli, our menos activa)

(JAS=Young adults). So I asked my comp if we should pray. She said

yes, but then abandoned me in the dark and went to the kitchen. I

thought she went to the bathroom, so I just stayed in the chapel.

Haha. So I said a quick prayer to have electricity, because it's

usually out for a couple ours, but we needed it within half an hour.

It turned right back on after about three minutes. Prayer works!

We also caught Elkin and Natali dancing in the street together from a

block away. It was cute.

We climbed up the mountain, Cholocday (the tall on with a white cross.

I finally learned its name), at five in the morning with the zone to

watch the sunrise. SO early. It's fun to climb mountains early! It

was super pretty. I actually left my camera so I could enjoy the

sunrise more than be obsessed with taking pictures. :) Good choice on

my part.

Elder Lagrava is always bothering me now saying that he can see in my

eyes that I want more food. In whatever situation. When we're with

Esther, when we're eating pancakes as a zone, picarones, and who knows

what else. He always says that. There's nothing in my eyes. I don't

want more. Thanks. (One time I did want more pizza, but we were going

to go eat lunch with Hermana Chepa.

Our branch mission leader is always bothering my companion about going

inactive. (Just joking around), so last night we ask him why only her,

and not me. He said that those from the USA never go inactive. Ha. He

then told me I'd live in Utah the rest of my life. Never. Only for

school! So much apostasy from him. He jokes about going inactive and

I still don't know if it's a joke or not.

I cried the other day because three dogs were barking pretty viciously

at us. They did no damage, but it was kinda scary. I said a prayer in

my head, and suddenly all their owners were in the passageway for

whatever reason. Not going back there again.

On the intercambio, we're focusing a lot on finding new people to

teach, so Hermana Pineda asks if we should set a goal of one. I said,

no, 3. And we ended up with six. Pretty neat! :)

Okay, that's all folks.

Love you all,

Hermana Brogan

Prayers, please!

Okay, short and sweet on your side, then mine too. It really just

because we kinda delayed writing today until we have very little time.

So this week in short.

I have a hard time communicating and defending my opinions in Spanish.

Sometimes makes the companionship complicated. But we're still going.

Nobody is progressing. We're also going to refocus on menos activos

because if we don't get church attendance up by the end of December,

they're going to make the branch into a family group, and they'll lose

rights to a chapel. Also, we're dropping basically all our

investigators minus like three or four. And starting over. Joy. Gotta

love Otuzco. It's got a very set culture, and it's a bit hard. Prayers

please! :)

Now for the good (mostly random funny stories, and a bit about Kati).

With permission from President Marler, we get to call Kati. I'm

basically her best friend since I'm the only missionary who went to

every single one of her citas. But I called her and she was overjoyed

to hear from me last night. She told me she's found the elders, asked

me how to talk to them (like she talks to us), and told me she's found

the chapel now and is planning on going. Woo!

On Monday we were teasing little Alisson about marriage. She told us

she wasn't getting married for a long time (She's 6). So my companion

says, well then, at 18. Alisson says, Yes. I'll get married then. She

thinks that's so old. It's so cute.

We're going to have to drop Elkin. He just wants to be our friend, but

he doesn't keep any of his committments.

Elder Lagrava bought a recorder. He plays it all the time. We went to

Josefina's chacra last week, and Elder Lagrava was playing it on a

mountain. No big deal. It's bright green, and cracks me up. So he,

Elder Jensen, and I did the musical number in sacrament meeting. With

the flute. Lucky I didn't crack up.

Joke: Why was the computer cold? The windows were opened.

My companion broke our mirror this week on accident. This is the

second time in my mission we've broken a mirror. Why?

On Friday we contacted this lady and so she told us to come into her

corral to visit her. She has one donkey, one baby pig, and one turkey.

The turkey was soooo flippin mad we were there. Then it chased me

around her little yard. So I jumepd into where the donkey was. Luckily

the donkey didn't care. And the lady put the turkey's rope around a

brick so it couldn't get to me. It was terrifying and hilarious.

Turkeys are weird. And I saw a firefly for the first time in my life last night. It was

so cool! It made me super happy!

Aaaand, that's about it. I love you all! Have a great week!

Also, I love handwritten letters even though I never respond. Sister

Erskine is the best, and I always get letters from her! They make me

super happy! So thanks to her. And mom, I got the December package.

Now I'm hoping I don't have transfers because I don't want to carry it

to a whole new area. It's huge!! But I'm suuper excited for Christmas

season! Also, could someone be kind enough to tell me what day is

Thanksgiving?

Hermana Brogan

Lessons, Halloween and Peruvian Lunches

This week. Oh, this week was an interesting one. 

We're working a lot with Elkin. He's 26, practically Mormon, and his wife is MA. 

We FINALLY got to talk with his wife, Natali, last night (with Elkin

there too). They have some problems in their marriage... minus the

marriage since they never got married. But they're a family- two kids.

Well, Elkin works in a store that makes huge styrofoams characters for

parties. So his store is always crazy and fun. And he has a really

active imagination. It's hilarious. So we go to teach them last night,

and while we're waiting for Natali, Elkin, and one of his workers

ended up doing taditional peruvian dances and playing traditional

instruments. There's no way I'm going to remember what they're called.

Pretty neat though! Then Natali came and we were discussing eternal

marriage and family and stuff. So then Elkin wants to get married, but

Natali doesn't trust him, and so he pulls out a receipt to demostrate

what their marriage will be like. Then he ends up cutting out two paper

hearts, giving one to me and one to my comp, makes us crumple them up,

and tells us that will happen one day to us. What the heck? So my

companion took the opportunity to explain repentance. Hahaha. They're

crazy. I love working with younger people. It's nice to get to laugh.

We went to teach one of Elkin's friends, Alexander. He seems pretty

cool. But he travels to Trujillo a lot, like Raquel (Juana's friend).

He said he'd read and pray. Yay!

We went to visit Jhoner (pensionista's husband) with a member. He went

and hid from us. Okay, not time for that yet. Last night, he was

drinking. Not in his house, but in his shop a door away. So we went to

greet him (comp's idea) so he'd feel bad about it. I've never seen

someone I know drunk before. That made me super sad.

We started visiting Norma again (MA). She finishes studying in the end

of November. Hopefully we get to go work with dirt with her. (She's

studying something that has to do with plants, animals, and dirt...)

The elders had a baptism. Yay! Raquel came. We didn't even get to

visit her or invite her, but Juana, the great future misisonary she

is, and Claudia brougth her along. So awesome!

On halloween, I was my companion. Well, I just wore her nametag. We

also carried around plastic pumpkins full of candy to share with kids,

members, investigators, etc. Well, something I learned is that a lot

of the evangelistas think it's a day to worship Satan. Awkward. Didn't

realize carrying around a plastic pumpkin and giving out free sweets

was satan worshipping.

We also got to teach Elisabeth, the sister of Hermana Esther. She's

the first in her family to accept the gospel, and was going to be

baptized.... 18 years ago. And now she still loves the missionaries, but

never accepts anyone. And we got to teach her. Little miracle right

there! She said she'd pray. I'm excited to see what happens.

And that's about the week in summary.

Oh, and the pension is tasty. I don't really like Peruvian lunches.

She makes pancakes and french toast sometimes. Yay! And Hermana Esther

does our laundry for us.

Okay, love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Brogan