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