A Final Post

Well, a few people have requested a final post on my blog. So here it goes...
The last week in my mission was fantastic-ly insane. My companion for health issues went home, after a series of clinic visits the last week. Luckily, my parents  happened to come pick me up from my mission the same day that my companion went home. We sat in the mission home for a minute when we went to drop off my companion, then ask my mission president who will be my companion for the last day and a half of my mission. Well, he decided the best course of action would be for me to proselyte just with my parents. Alright then. So I got to teach a few lessons with just my parents. Meaning that I basically taught full lessons alone. It was fun. It was also stressful as I closed my area to hand off to the office secretaries, who are the new missionaries in charge of the ward. I really hope they care well for those amazing, prepared people we've just found. I hope to hear good things one day.

I don't know too much what to write to wrap up the whole mission, so 'll go ahead and leave my testimony. I know that first and most importantly, our Savior lives and loves each one of us. We are children of a loving Heavenly Father who not only lets us talk with Him, but desires that we speak to Him and allow Him to guide us. For we really all have agency, that beautiful privilege to shape our lives and destinies. I also know that as we trust our Savior, our lives will become so much more than we ever imagined. Priesthood power is real. God has a plan. We have the true church today on the earth! How marvelous is that! I love my Savior, and I am so grateful that the Lord has sent me to minister to His children in Peru.

THE LAST EMAIL!!!!!

Okay, general email first since I kinda forgot about that last week. 

This week was funny. A great week too! Okay, mostly yesterday was funny. It was election day. Weird day. Weird weird weird. So Marìa Elena while coming down her stairs when we went to her house after not finding anybody at all home all morning (So much walking, so much sun!), was chanting, Keiko Keiko Keiko! Before she saw us, I responded, we don't vote! She realized it was us and laughed. Our dueña (the same one who sat on a glass pane the other day) was trying to fix her broom with a knife and dropped the knife. I don't know how she manages to not hurt herself. She's such a funny lady. So nice though. :)

Then we tried to go find a less active in Primavera 2 (still caring for two areas here- way to keep me working President! Well, she said she didn't have time because she was about to go vote (surprise surprise) AND was making lunch. Okay. Well, then she got locked out of her apartment, and locked in the gate. She was stuck. And couldn't do either. Part of my five year old self (okay this is really mean) inside laughed a bit thinking, well, that's what you get for saying no to the missionaries. But then I actually felt really bad for her, and kinda concerned that her stove was on inside her apartment. We passed by later and everything seemed fine. 

We taught Enrique. I guess Estefanìa isn't going to California this week because he said she didn't clear it with him first. Haha. She'll get there though, I think... Enrique was asking us if it's a sin to get remarried since he's divorced, because his son was saying so (he's from a different church). So we had a bit of explaining the purpose of God is giving us exaltation and how he needs to get sealed for that to happen. But both us, his daughter, and his girlfriend are all trying to get him to go to church. Just listen to the women in your life! We have a a point. He's just an awkward person though, so it made a weird day just a bit weirder. Then we had a lesson, and our pensionista came with us, and then left in middle of the lesson, and RETURNED. I was so confused. It was just an odd day. It made me happy.

We met the best member reference ever this week. Karina! Marìa Elena contacted her in a park with Hermana Diana and we passed by and did some major testifying. And she said she'll be baptized in May. We also taught her later in the week lesson one, and she started reading the Book of Mormon the second it was in her hands. We were sitting there like, wait, keep listening to us! Okay, I guess you can read the prophets' words... Uh... But we did manage to finish the lesson, and even though she had some typical first lesson doubts, like Joseph Smith seeing God and Christ, she loved it, and is excited to read and pray. :)

Hey, another weird thing. I had a dream last night with President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar. (They're my favorites.) Well, Elder Bednar was giving sandwiches to some really hungry kids. And then the hungry kids shared with some other kids who were literally starving. So random. Then President Uchdorf (just remember this is just a dream, but it made me happy). spoke, and he was saying the keeping a journal helps us triumph over trials. It had some cool alliteration, and I woke up repeating that phrase in my brain. Well, I must have written in my journal right before going to bed! :D

Aside from that, I've sung twice at zone things this week. I think they have some obsession with my voice or something. I really don't sing THAT well. And I'm not the only one who sings. My companion sings too.

Okay, well, I don't know what end of the mission reflections I maybe should add, so I'm just going to leave it as a normal letter home. It's been a great week, and I'm working to the end! Have a great week, love you all, see you in some days or weeks depending on who you are. ;)

Hermana Brogan

All's well. There is next week.....

I'm alive and well. And ran out of time. Woops! Sorry, I'll write home next week. Two accepted baptismal invitations, conference was great, and Estefanía, less active is moving to CA. To Fresno! How cool!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Happy Easter from Trujillo

Okay, I suppose I should write a bit about my week. It was wonderful. SO wonderful. 

We sang in the multizona. That was fun, but I was super nervous to sing. Later on in the week we had Sunday. We didn't proselyte at all because the office called us and invited us to be part of the missionary choir for the day. We sang in my building for three stakes, and later in La Esperanze for two other stakes. So we got to church at 8:50ish. We brought two investigators too! Yay! Melissa and Yanela, the cousins we found. People are progressing! Por fin!

Then we stay for consejo. We stay for choir practice. We stay for the performance. We leave about 7 or so to go to la esperanza and then are there until 9 or 9:30. It was so good. I felt a lot like I did when I performed with Zion's choir. Such a sweet familiar spirit singing in a choir. There were also some very beautiful special musical numbers involved too. I think this is one of the best Easters I have ever had. And I've always had good Easters. :)

Then today we got to go to the temple. I got to see Hermana McCally. :) That was the best. For Easter and in the temple. I also woke up at 4:40 this morning to get ready to go to the temple. My comp wanted to get there early. And we got there when nobody else was around. The lights weren't even on. There were only security guards. Haha. But shortly after everyone else showed up. It's so amazing to be in the temple again. I love the Spirit I feel there. 

Oh, we also had picture slide shows as part of the Easter program, and there's one of this little girl with curly hair and Christ. It made me happy.

Oh. The other big news. I knew  I had forgotten something. So in the middle of the transfer, this Thursday, they closed Primavera 2. So now my companion and I are taking care of it until they can put missionaries there next transfer. Our area just doubled in size, and we have to maintain all the progressing people over there. That's insane! Well, hard work to the end! :) Just the thing I need to keep me overly focused. I think I'm going to be very tired by the end of this transfer.

So Sister Beasley is going to Pacasmayo and Sister Vasquez to OTUZCO! So her new comp (btw they're the sisters who were in Primavera 2), came down from Otuzco, and was with us while Sister Vasquez showed us around her area and presented us to some of the people she's teaching. Well, Hermana Rimache (amazing missionary, so much light in her countenance), told me about a ton of amazing things going on in Otuzco. One lady I worked with Consuelo is now rescued, they're working on getting Elkin baptized, and he's finally getting his act together. He and his wife aren't fighting anymore!!! Um, Marilu was with a baptismal date. What else... I don't know. But it was so great to hear that there is real progress there in the branch. It makes me so happy!

Oh yeah, women's conference was the best. Sister Marriott makes me laugh. Especially when she chuckled a bit after her experience. 

Lessons are lessons. I learned something from one of the members who came with us this week. She said that we know we're truly happy if we can be happy with ourselves, with God, and with those around us. I like that a lot! :) Happiness is a choice. It doesn't depend on our surroundings. :)

President Marler spoke to us about obedience this multizone and we watched the spiritual crocodiles video. Then he said there's a lot of them when we go home. Well thanks for worrying me president. Haha. No, but it's all good. :) 

We moved again this week, too. We're back on the same street we used to be. Different room though. But now my companion can sleep at night. So that's good. 

Okay, it's long already. I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

Feel like nothing happens..but, then again....

Okay, first thing's first. Next week pday will be on TUESDAY because we're going to the temple. So I will write you TUESDAY. I don't know at what hour, but that always changes anyways. :)

This week. SO much happened. And when we report on Sundays I always feel like nothing happened. Then I actually look back through my planner, and SO much happens every week!

Well, Estefanía came back from Germany. She's so weird. I really like her a lot. I think working through her, we'll be able to reactivate her and her dad. She promised to start reading and praying and coming to church again. She's actually- praying. It's  a start. We'll just have to remind her more often. 

We taught Melissa and Yanela the first vision. The Spirit was so incredibly strong in that lesson, I can't even believe it. I invited them to baptism. They said yes if they do come to know it's true. They definitely responded with the Spirit. Then Satan came in with the doubts after how that means they'd have to change a lot and who knows what else. I think they're already getting their answer. They felt the Spirit so much. The next visit on Thursday, Melissa hadn't prayed. But not out of laziness, she's scared of what the answer will be. So we explained to her that everything that comes from God is good, and it's a blessing. And that He's there to support her and help her. She recommitted to pray about the restoration.

On Wednesday I had an intercambio with Hermana Alvarenga. She's from Argentina, so everyone on the street calls her gringa. And she told me that she hates that because she's not north american. She's Latina. She's such a cool person! She's so happy and optimistic. And we just had this amazing day teaching Estefanía the first lesson and  finding new investigators in the morning. But more important, we found Angela. I've been having the impression time and time again to go to her house. (She's on the directory). We found her this time, and got in the door. Well, some fun facts first. She had cranberry juice (I forgot that existed!) She's thinks it's gross, then I saw what it was (it was in english) and got super excited about it. So good! And gave us cake as well. Then I learned that her job is cremating. Wow. She described the process to us. Not going to lie. I was pretty disturbed. I'll leave it at that. I freaked our zone leader out about it later on in the week just mentioning it. Haha. But then we got to the spiritual. She can't have kids. Her husband is a returned missionary who doesn't want anything to do with the church. (She wouldn't tell us why). She says that she feels very alone in a church that talks so much about families. That centers on them. She's basically just lost hope. She doesn't see a point. Well, after she went on and on about how the church centers on the family, I thought, well, it also centers on the atonement. I asked her, what do you know about the atonement? And she was quiet for a moment, and said, Wow. I haven't thought about that in a long time. I testified to her that through the atonement, all the injustices in this life can be made right. But we must do our part and come to Christ so that He can pour the blessings out on us. And maybe they won't come in the moment, but they will come. But we must remember the gospel is what we must live as conditions of the atonement. Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end (Or see, living the pattern of faith, repentance, and renewing covenants). How amazing that our mission president right in this time is having us, as a mission, study about the atonement in depth for the multizone we're having tomorrow. My testimony of the atonement is being strengthened and relivened as I do the assignment we have to prepare, and also review my own experiences in my journal. I am so grateful for the Lord's love. For the angels he's sent me to lift my burdens. For the miracles I've seen. And for the changes that people can make thanks to the grace of the Savior. That lesson was so spiritual, and I could see renewed hope come into her eyes. She admitted it would still be a process, but she went right after the lesson to share a scripture Hermana Alvarenga had shared in D&C6 with her husband. What a blessing to see that lesson. 

We've also found two convivientes. One menos activo and his wife is investigator. He wants her to be baptized. He wants to reactivate. She wants to know more. We talked to her of the temple and eternal families, and now she really wants to know. They're young. 19 and 20. They'll progress. :)

I'm so grateful for this week. It's been full of amazing experiences. 

Have a great week!

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

Singing in Zone Conference

This week. I felt really happy when a menos activo told us he wasn't

going to come to church, but changed his mind when we called him the

night before. I wasn't happy that he wasn't going to go, but I

realized that those small acts can really mean a lot for some people.

It's also nice to see how someone can be so GRATEFUL for small things.

Gratitude is so important. It's something I've been trying to work on

lately. Being more grateful for everything.

But we had this awesome lesson last night focusing on faith in the

Savior and repentance. I swear I learned more in that lesson than he

did. The Spirit was so strong. I could really feel it as the Spirit

spoke through me on how repentance isn't a punishment, but rather a

way to hope, light, and healing. It's the way to avoid the punishment

for sin. It says so in the Spanish guide for scripture study!

Repentance is the best! And when I asked him how his faith in Christ

was, he completely opened up and just told us everything was with the

members (It's always because of the members). I told him to just look

straight to God. And testified a lot of His love for us and how He'll

always support and help us through everything. It was an amazing

lesson, and Carlos is now committed to come back to church. He's

convinced that now is his time.

Lesson: This gospel is one of hope. (How appropriate for this Easter

season). And the small things really do help in a big way. By small

and simple things. :)

Antony Chunque is looking for his mom's permission to be baptized.

He's 12. A super fast learner, but I want to help him have truly

spiritual experiences. He understands everything, but I want him to

have a true conversion...

We taught Luis yesterday. He's the father of Diana who we lived with

before we moved. He's been uber prepared. He basically told us he's

willing to be baptized with time, but that he wants his wife to listen

too, and also basically told us he already knows it's true. Well,

having the missionaries in the house for a year probably helped a bit

with that. I'm so grateful that Diana took him to the temple open

house and that she keeps a picture of the temple and pictures of

Christ on the walls. He's really prepared, but I hope that means that

he's ready to act. He said he'd start praying daily though. :)

I think those are the best experiences I had for this week. I sang in

our zone conference. I was super nervous, so it wasn't my best

singing, but I could still really feel the Spirit come in a lot. I

sang I'm trying to be like Jesus with my companion. Such a sweet song.

It's still one of my favorites. I can never figure out where to

breathe in one part of it though......

Yeah, so have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Brogan

The Finding Continues...

So my week. Nothing crazy has happened. But the work is picking up like crazy. We're finding really good people, including the daughter of my companion's convert from another area. Still nobody comes to church. Even though we do everything we can on our part. 

We found a less active who left the church right after she was baptized as a kid, so we're basically teaching an investigator. But she's better than the members with missionary work. She has a friends she wants us to teach already! Yay!

We were using the directory this week to find families. Well in one house we went to, this family had never lived there, but we found Karla, an amazing new investigator. She's studying medicine, and we really feel the spirit with here. But it's also always really awkward when we first get there, which is kinda hilarious. 

We're also working to rescue an RM,  he has all the desires and is almost there. His brother and wife are also less actives that are starting to come back to church, so we basically just get to teach them and support them. Yay!

We went to Kathy, the daughter of Hermana Utley's convert, one day when we didn't have a cita, because I felt like we needed to the night before. I don't usually do that if we already have an appointment planned, so it was cool. We went and she really needed us in that moment. She has desires to repent and be baptized, so we just have to get her to stop working on Sundays, and she'll progress really fast. 

We also found two other university students, who are cousins. I think that they think we're really weird, but my companion and I really felt the Spirit teaching them, so I think they'll figure it all out pretty fast. This girl, Melissa, actually told us she used to pray every night, and one day she felt like God betrayed her, so she consciously decided to stop praying. This was a few years ago. So we invited her to start again, and she agreed to it. She's also super sincere and told us she wasn't going to come to church just because, she feels like it's too fast. I like that it isn't a yes and then she just doesn't come. It's a lot easier to work with them when they don't tell us just what they think we want to hear. Honesty is the best. But she did say she'd pray. Pretty good when all we taught was that- prayer. 

We're working with Ronaldo on accepting living prophets. That's my favorite part of our message is that God lives. We have the same church, the same gospel, the same blessings for us today. It isn't just some tradition, or something that happened in history. The gospel is an active thing. The Savior is involved personally in our lives. So we left him the homework of praying and watching a conference talk. I think it should help. He can usually resolve his doubts pretty well.

My companion and I will be singing in the zone training tomorrow, and hopefully a multizona later this month. We'll see how it goes. We're trying to arrange two songs together for the multizone. But I'm excited! We also have conference coming up. Yay! And a temple trip at the end of the month. So much is happening these weeks. :) It will be good. 

Have a fantastic week!

Hermana Brogan

Happy Leap Day.

Okay, so transfers. My companion is seriously the coolest. She is such an amazing, but amazing missionary. Like we now have two people preparing for baptism and got a less active to church this week amazing. She's been here 6 days. Not even. Like 5 days. Because the day of transfers, we had to go work in her area one more day.

So going to that story, yeah, they took the sisters out of her area and put in elders. Two elders I know from Zona Sierra actually. Elder Lagrava and Elder Rodriguez, so we got to proselyte with them all day. Well, it was awkward because I went to transfer meeting thinking we'd go straight back to my area, and they told me IN THE MEETING, that I'd be in her area the whole day. So I was without a Book of Mormon.  (Lesson, always, always have a Book of Mormon no matter what). And without sunscreen. It was like a field trip almost. Haha. I like my area a lot better than hers. It's more tranquilo. But it was nice nearing all the news about Otuzco. Hermana Utley's last pension's mother in law commented on how happy I am and how she'd like me to stay. Haha. I guess I'm super happy. It was cute. She commented on it like 3 or 4 times. But at least your companion is happy she told Hermana Utley. :)

We're dropping a lot of investigators. (Including Susan. Sad day. Well, maybe.) So we can find more who are prepared. We found a less active I've been looking for for a while that I'd never met. He's cool and said he'd come to church next week. It's weird having a companion who sings. Well. We harmonized in a lesson last night. It was so cool! 

The family we live with is who we taught actually. (We don't live with them, it's just we live on their roof and their door is always open in the style of the sierra. So then the uncle commented on how he heard me singing in  the morning and stopped to listen. Hahaha. Yeah, I sing a lot. In the states, people usually just look at me weird and let it go. I love that in this culture, they mention it. It's fun. But that just means I have to sing primary songs that teach basic truths all the time, right? Right. 

That's about it for the week. It's been an amazing week. :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

Transfer week...Last one!

So we live on a rooftop. It's awesome. Every morning I wake up I just go a few steps out of the front door to say hi to the world. We wake up to the sunrise. It's gorgeous. Then when we study it gets really hot... 

Okay, so we have a new pension too. She treats us like queens. I'm going home fat I guess. Haha. Good table manners is eat your huge mountain of rice every day. Ugh. Not like I ever am able to. But she's learning fast- :)

Transfers tomorrow. My companion will be Hermana Utley. She's North American. I don't know much else about her. Transfers have me stressed. I really want to help someone get baptized or rescued before the end of my mission, and I've got 8 weeks. But I'm also a little excited too. 

This week my companion and I were walking down a passageway by a park and some houses. We walk by this guy sitting on his doorstep, and we walk past him. The Spirit is telling me to contact him. So I look at my companion to tell her. Hermana Maydana in the same moment looks at me and asks, you too? Yup. So we go contact him. Renzo. 18. Really cool. Really low key guy. He reminds me of some of my high school friends, down to his form of dress. I, of course, made the contact super awkward. See, that's my trick, make them laugh at my awkwardness and then I somehow have their trust, and then we turn it super spiritual. We ended up talking a bit about the plan of salvation. We talk about how everyone has a purpose in life, and that through prayer, we can really know what Heavenly Father desires of us. It just ended up being really cool. I can't wait to go teach him again. I think he'll progress. He's a good listener too. That's weird for Peru. 

We found Kathy again. I don't know if I ever wrote about finding her. But she was an investigator 5 years ago I think. She's going to be able to start to go to church at the end of March. She already has a testimony of the church and very good memories of the elders who taught her a ton. I think she should be able to get baptized pretty fast once she can go to church. :)

The family from the sierra (mountains) actually live in our new building we live in. We  live on their roof. I know they're from the sierra because one, they always keep their door to their apartment open, two, there are always random grains and fruits sitting on tarps in random spots in the building. And three, their way of talking. I love it.

One sister who is in Cajamarca had to come down to Trujillo. She was in my area before. We did intercambios for the evening, and I went to one of her inactive converts with her. It was amazing. She really helped Doli a lot to understand the restoration. The truth is I had no clue how to help Doli. But Hermana Harris showed me how, and now I know. Yay! 

We got another recently inactivating recent convert, Carlo, to come back to church after two months. After Sunday school, I asked him how he feels being in church again. He said it feels like home. Carlo is so funny. He was evangelical before, and he's really good at preaching actually. It's fun to take him to lessons. But it's even nicer to see his own personal conversion. 

Alicia is a less active since her baptism at 11 years old. We've taken the apostles' recent counsel to treat less actives like investigators. We found she has a lot of doubts about the restoration and there being only one true church. We're encouraging her to pray because she has a very good personal relationship with God. I think helping her with the restoration will help her see that she needs to come to church. She's super sweet and loves the Book of Mormon. She just needs to progress a bit more.

Spencer lights up so much when he sees us now. He's like a kid. We watched mormon messages with him this week. He loves it. He finds so much joy and love in the gospel. I feel the spirit so much working with him. He's turning his life completely around. Just to get him to church. But he really is developing his testimony. He has such childlike experiences with prayer and reading the scriptures. Just simple experiences. But I find that those can be the most powerful. He was so happy to tell us that God answers his prayers this week. I am genuinely so happy to hear that. God does answer our prayers. Every single one. 

We have another old investigator back who I taught once at the beginning of my time in Primavera. he's been in Cajamarca, but he came back this week. We're starting over with him. We retaught the restoration and it amazed him. He really feels the spirit. He also completely needed it. It all seemed so new to him. He's super busy during the week, so I hope that doesn't keep him from progressing... But weekends are free. yay!

Rosas and Susan are killing me. I don't know what to do with them. Susan honestly isn't progressing much more. She prays and reads, but does not come to church. But Rosas seems to be warming up. But he's so weird. He always goes off on his dreams and he loves talking about Revelation (the book in the Bible) too much. He can't seem to stay on track.

My companion told me a few days ago she wanted to go home. Poor girl. So I got to convince her to stay on her mission. So much testifying to my own companion. That was an interesting experience. But by the end of the day she had decided that she does need to stay. She's just tired of not having success on her mission. I got to pull out a note Sister Fraser (who served in Morgan Hill 1st ward) wrote me before I left for my mission that has been able to help me. It helped my companion a lot too. Missionaries have an influence that goes beyond their own mission. I love that. :) I love that I got to see that too. There's so many people waiting for us. So many.

So to see what transfers bring tomorrow!

Have a great week!

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

More Teaching and Finding

Okay, not too much to write. 

But first off, earlier this week we had a member come with us to teach. He's recently reactivated and is seriously the best person to come to lessons with! He served his mission 6 years ago or so in the states. Wisconsin? But I haven't heard his english. I think because he just reactivated, he's really

humble in the lessons with us. He still shares his testimony and experiences, but when we talk, he really listens. I've never seen an RM act like that before. He listens and reacts as if it was one of the

first times he's heard this. But it's not. He also has faith that these people really can progress. He has a sincere love for every single person we visited. I don't really know what made the difference

so impactful on me, but really the Spirit was so strong in all our lessons, and they all agreed to baptism and to being rescued. Of course, that isn't too abnormal here. Getting them to act is the big

thing. But I could even tell the investigators felt the Spirit. Now that doesn't always happen.

Spencer, who we found last week with that can of beer, told us that day that he wants to reactivate. Yes! But he still didn't come to church this week even after deciding on his own to come. But he'll get there. He did finally read a chapter in the Book of Mormon. Victory! He's awesome!

We also found and taught Hernàn. 20 years old. Same day. He felt the Spirit, UNDERSTOOD what we taught (he's from the sierra, but he's studying. His poor mom, like most people from the mountains, doesn't understand our message or the importance of it, but Hernan really

could feel the spirit and agreed to baptism. He didn't show up for church. Actually, none of our investigators did, even after organizing with the members and everything. They even did their part (the members). But that's how it goes sometimes. Next week!

Today we moved rooms. It was seriously the most stressful thing I've done in a while. I was trying to get all my stuff ready and then the elders told us last night at 10pm that we needed to get a truck ready for the morning, and that hadn't even occurred to me, and I was just stressed out about everything. And then the elders didn't even set up our beds this morning, and my comp and I are not strong enough or that, so they have to come after we write, and just a  bunch of little things on top of not sleeping last night to pack. But it's all okay. It all works out. I have an amazing sister leader, who reminds me of my sister, who can just seem to figure everything out. She helped me a ton today. I'm so grateful for her. But then we got to watch emperor's new groove while in Peru. That's a

neat thing. I've always kinda wanted to do that. :) But the work is moving forward. We're fining and teaching and inviting and seeing small miracles. Just hoping we can get them to church next week!

Love you all! Thanks for writing me. I always like emails!

Hermana Brogan

District Leaders Found Me Profoundly Inspiring

Well, we found a room to live in. We're also teaching the owner of the

house. Sweet! I think she'll progress. :)

We were in the middle of contacting a family of members who recently

moved here for vacations, to contact their non member mother who

actually lives there, when a couple came up to us and basically

demanded that we teach their children right now. And we were already

about to enter into this first family's house, and the zone leaders

were coming in exactly 15 minutes to look at the room we found one

block away. So we ask for the afternoon, and they said no, now! So we

said after this cita. We basically go in already trying to leave the

house while trying to be polite and get to know them and just set an

appointment for the next week, then we go to this other family. The

parents are busy so they leave us with their kids (9 and 7 years old),

and we teach them prayer. After teaching them, we ask them to say the

last prayer and they recite the padre nuestro and the ave maria. Poor

little brainwashed kids. We need to teach them better. They gave us

rosarios (in english, rosaries?) too. Oh my. Buuut, the mom studied in

an adventista colegio, but doesn't like that they speak bad about

other churches, and she and her spouse are married, baptized catholic,

don't identify with any church, and a he's a lawyer and she's a

psychologist. I'm stoked! We're going to teach them ALL today! Yay!

We taught Italo for the last time this week. Crazy kid. He's moving to

Lima. (All my investigators move to Lima. It's the worst.) But he

came to church for the second time yesterday and promised to go to

church in Lima and read his whole Book of Mormon in the commute to and

from work. We reexplained the restoration yesterday because he's got

some wild questions. (They're actually good, valid questions, just

ones we don't get a lot in Peru), and he's gone from agnositc to

definitely believing in God. Progress!

Spencer! He's a less active just out of rehab (alcohol and drugs). We

found him with beer walking down the street when we were headed home

one night. We were on the phone, but I left it with my comp to finish

up talking while I convinced Spencer to not avoid us. He's obedient,

so he stuck around, and then when he hung up, we convinced him to pour

out the beer onto the street. At first he said no. He wanted to go to

a park and think. So we told him we'd go with him, and he poured it

out in that very moment. It felt very victorious. I was super happy

about it! Then we went and talked to him about how God loves and

supports him and how he needs to pray and read the Book of Mormon in a

nearby park, and walked him halfway home. The next day his parents

said he had come straight home. Sweet!

We had an awesome first lesson with Ismael's dad. (Ismael is a

convert). His dad believed us right off the bat, and really felt the

spirit. He works sunday though. So it will take a bit of effort, but I

think he'll get there. :)

Rosas committed to come to church! Miracle! BUT then a relative came

and the family didn't come to church. Next week we should have Susan

and Rosas at church with their four kids. Much praying will be needed.

And that. :) 

It's been a good week. My district leader wrote something

I said up on the board during district meeting as a quote. Awkward

moment. I'm really not so profound, don't they know that?

Have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

Time Flew By

Whoa, el tiempo ya pasò! The time flew by. I only have five minutes.

But we taught Magali this week who agreed to baptism, and is married.

We just have to get her to church. If we can get her to act on her

committments, she's gold. And if not, she's potential gold. We also

taught her husband, and he has potential too. Magali has more desires.

Susan either needs to get married or live the law of chastity some

other way. She's thinking about separating from her husband. I don't

know why though. Uuugh, why do things get so complicated. Her testimony

is getting so strong. She understands it all so well too!

Italo has disappeared. That makes me sad. He has so much potential.

This week we had to look for rooms. After finding some options, the

zone leaders had to come approve them. No go on all of them. There are

no other rooms in my area! We're in the best option already! 

But anyways, we ended up teaching Magali actually when we were looking at

a room she's going to rent out, and it was just a load of awkward to have

our  zone leaders be in the lesson. Then they somehow convinced us to

buy them cremoladas.... (ice cones??) They kept talking about it ALL

morning, so we caved.

We're going to other huacas (ruins) today! It should be fun. It's NOT

a tourist sight, so Ishould hopèfully get to grab some souveneirs!

Woo! I'm excited.

Aaaand, that's the summary. Other things have happened, but I'm out of time.

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

The Work is Progressing

This week. I had intercambios! It was so much fun. I was with Hermana Smith, who was in the MTC with me my first two weeks in my room. :) She's super sweet. We spent basically the whole time talking about our missions, and the MTC, and our areas, and the MTC, and everything. It was fun. The sister leaders are always the best. She told me some really sweet things about myself, and it was just a very happy, but insane day. We ended up teaching an apostata. I think it was my fault. (We were in her area). She told me this lady had gone through the temple, and was apostate and kinda sassy. Well,I think the word apostate just went right over my head, and I said, let's teach her!!! Yeah, bad idea. She's got some pretty wild out there ideas. It actually made me pretty sad for her. Stay true to the faith!

We also had an amazingly spiritual lesson in the nighttime with one of their less actives. It's probably one of the best lessons (on our part) I've had on the mission. He's already ready to be rescued, so that helped too!

Italo agreed to baptism. We just have to get him to come to church and keep his commitments more faithfully. But he wants to be baptized. Yay! It actually surprised me when he said that he believes Joseph Smith was a prophet. (I had asked him). We haven't talked much about the restoration since officially teaching it. 

Susan wants to be baptized, and her husband at least wants to get married, but they're just so poor that they can't. Arg. I don't know what to do about that. But I love teaching them! Susan constantly reads the Book of Mormon and prays! Her little girls tell me some pretty wild dreams- about how I'm next to Jesus or how I put crowns on their heads, or I don't even know what else. They always talk about angels to us too. They are seriously so precious. 

We found a less active named Caro (short for Carolina). She went inactive pretty fast after her baptism, so it will be just like teaching an investigator, but she wants to come back to church! We talked to her about the temple, and Christ. I told her that Christ would do everything, the atonement, His resurrection, the restoration, everything, even if it were only just for her. Wow. The Spirit really guided my words in that lesson, and I know she felt it. She wants to come back to church. I'm excited!

I had a lesson with two less actives. (The wife is a bit closer to being active). We talked about the law of chastity, and told Nelson he has to marry his wife. (Andrea has wanted to be married for a long time). We also talked a bit about the temple, eternal families, if he really loves his daughters he needs to set an example, and if he wants to be with them, be sealed. And I just told him straight up that he has to get married. And he agreed! I love being direct. They know it's true. 

So the work's going good. We're being set up for a lot of good things happening in our area. Now they just have to actually happen!

Have a great week! I love you all!

Hermana Brogan

A Nun In Our House?

This week....

Italo came to church! Finally! He also went to Lima and asked his girlfriend permission to be baptized. Haha. But that's a good sign. I think it's time to invite him, but for reals this time, to baptism with a specific date. Well, his first time to church happened to be stake conference, so it was insane. But some of the youth, the 18 year olds, befriended Italo. It made me laugh since he's like 30 years old. But hey, whoever reaches out is better than nobody!

We taught a random guy through a window this week. He had a shop, and kinda approached us as we were standing confused on the street. I awkwardly said, hola? And then we ended up talking to him and giving him a Book of Mormon and inviting him to baptism in February. Well, he's traveling until February starts, but he's very interested, and said yes to baptism... I love the excitement, but I'm finding in this area, basically anyone who isn't already super religious says yes. 

We went into our house for dinner on Friday, and as we walked in we saw Hermana Diana sitting in the living room with a  nun. I was really confused why there was a nun in our house. So we go to our room, the kitchen, and then I look out of the kitchen at Diana with a questioning face, and she says, Hermaaanas!!! Let me introduce you to my friend! So it turns out they were really good friends in college. Haha. I wanted to take a picture, but I felt weird asking. But it was pretty cool. The nun was super sweet.

Mmmm, que mas. We contacted an old investigator, Valeria, who was a reference from the temple a year ago. She's 15 and super interested, but her parents don't want anything. We got her number, and we want to teach her parents to try to get them to open up to the church. She still reads the Book of Mormon after 7 months or so. :D

That's about it for the week that I can remember. 

Have a good week!

Hermana Brogan

Getting ready for the Christmas concert. (Back in December) 

Transfer Week and Haley.......stays put!!!!

This week.... What do I tell you guys about. 

Miracle lessons, kid investigators came to church, but not their parents. Italo is crazy, and has some insane concepts of life. He was talking about polygamy like it's just a social construction that we're monogomous, but he's not polygamous either, and he's just weird. It's always fun to teach him. But when we teach him, he feels the Spirit a lot, and tells us that we just make everything seem so simple. Well... Cause it is. He'll hopefully progress. I can never tell where his desire actually to find out if it's true. He definitely wants to come closer to God, and he loves talking about the plan of salvation, but when it comes to the restoration, he doesn't really have doubts, nor a confirmation that it's true. Hmmm... But he's reading and praying. SO that's good. 

Susan flipped out this week when we told her there's a living prophet and 12 apostles. She now has a copy of the conference Liahona, and I bore testimony and her doubts aren't as big now. We felt a big change in the atmosphere of that lesson. We ended with the Spirit super strong. Another day we talked about the temple and eternal families. She wants to go to the temple. She says she has to get married inside. And now that she knows it's actually a possibility, she's excited about it. Please pray for her husband, Rosas. He needs to get on board with his wife. She's super cool and progressing along fine, but he barely ever listens to us. (Not that he's against it, just lack of desire.) But Susan is so good, and her little daughters are amazing. That family is now really good friends with a family preparing to get sealed soon. So that's really nice. Mechi took Susan's daughters to church for her because Susan couldn't come, and gifted the family some hymn books. Yay! I felt like a primary teacher teaching Susan's girls to sing I am a child of God. Also, Bianca, 6, just started telling me about seeing a angel the other day. That was pretty neat. I love that family. :) Being around little kids is fun!

Alicia, menos activa, studying english. We were going to drop her for a bit, but instead we invited her to prepare for a temple recommend interview. She lit up. She didn't understand that she could go do baptisms. But now she has that as a goal, and we told her she can go to gospel principles with us instead of JAS (she feels to young next to the other JAS... hm, kinda like I did!), and she's more excited about church now. Sweet! She only came the first hour because her family needed her, but next week she should come again. :)

We found out about transfers last night. My comp and I stay. But we also heard about our whole zone. Well, our "little brother" Fernando was on the roof with us (where there's a signal to talk on the phone), and he's four years old. He was SO excited when we found out Hermana McQueen is going to Cajamarca. He shouted, CAJAMARCA! The elders asked, who's the kid? I was cracking up. Kids are so fun. 

I think that's a pretty good summary of the week.

We also had a cool multizona this week, Otilio didn't get baptized :( and a zone training. 

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

Haley is Like a Doll

Today, we visited Las Huacas! A cool archaeological site with ruins of a temple. It just makes me think of the Book of Mormon and all the corruption that happened in the Americas. At least they didn't sacrifice children or women in this temple.

Susan came to church by herself (well, and our help, but without spouse) and her four kids ages 2 to 9. She's awesome! She still needs to understand more, but she's definitely gaining a testimony! We're still working with her husband so that he can understand better. He says he's already been baptized. He just needs to understand the whole authority thing.The little girls in Susan's family always tell me I'm like a doll. Doll=Muñeca. So they always say Hola muñeca. Chao muñeca. I always respond the same. Hola muñecas. Chao muñecas. They think I'm sooo pretty, especially my hair, and they always play with it and leave it a little crazier than it already is. Haha. 

They always make me really happy. I feel like they're little angels sent to me. :)

Italo is being a punk and didn't come to church, but he did read a bit of the Book of Mormon. He ran off to Cajamarca this week, when we had a cita with him, to go visit his girlfriend. Can you people just stop traveling so we can teach you? Okay, I guess you can have a life... But still, let us know first. 

There's this family here, the family Chong. And the dad's dad, is in Jose Balta, where I started my mission! Crazy! It's like my mission is a huge circle! Pretty neat. 

We found this sweet 14 year old girl this week, Camila, just by contacting. We haven't taught her much yet, but she's already agreed to be baptized. Her grandfather is Mormon, and she read the Book of Mormon a bit in her childhood. So I'm excited to work with her!

And that's about all. Some of the other missionaries in the zone tried to copy my ballet while we were playing basketball today. It was really funny. My zone leader actually got really into it. Haha.

Love you all! Hasta la proxima!

Hermana Brogan