Hope everyone's Spanish is good to read this one.....

Tell Sister Clark hi back! :) And the sisters.

So my week:

I had my intercambio. With Hermana Kennedy. Who is now one of the most amazing people I've ever met. I had the most spiritual day since I've been out in the field.We turned the lights off and laid in bed and must have been talking until midnight (she also has the prettiest southern accent!) But she told me so much about her life. I really understand obedience a LOT better now. It really is one of the best ways to show the Lord you love Him and trust Him. That you would do anything for him. Even the little things. :) She's changed the way I think about a lot of mission stuff. But my companion is a little homesick lately. I have been suuuper into working hard this week. We got our 100 conacts. And she feels a little lost now that she doesn't really need to support me emotionally anymore. Basically what I went through like 2 or three weeks ago. But she's getting out of it a bit already I think. :)

Last night was my turn to call and report our numbers to Elder Miranda. It was TOO funny. He called and asked how I was. I said cold. (Bueno, Hace frío). ¿Hace frío? Sí elder. ¿Frío? Sí. ¿En Jaen? Sí Elder. ¿Jaen? Sí. Soy de California, es por eso. Estoy lista para reportar. Yeah, Hermana. Pero no tenga frío. Está bien elder. Voy a tratar. Later on... ¿Contactos? Ciento seis. ¿Cuantos? Ciento seis. ¿Cuaantos? Contactos or contactadas? Contactos. Yeah ciento seis. ¿Cuantos? Ciento seis. Muuuuy bien Hermana. Felicitaciones. (Our mission is really contact focused. BTW). It was too funny. He couldn't believe me. 

We had a lesson with this lady who seemed really cool. But in the middle of the lesson, her dogs were playing with a  bat. Poor thing. So she put it in a dust pan, walked it through the house, out to the front. Then the dogs escaped out front. And her two friends came over (we got to conact them while Rosa chased her dogs down. Heavenly Father really helped us contact this week. Even in a lesson. But then we went over yesterday, and she ran inside her house and was totally avoiding us! So we left and her dog followed. So we went back, and her daughtr took it in. It somehow got out again and followed us around the block AGAIN. But we just let it be. But we met this lady right then who was going to church 2 years ago, but then traveled and didn't go back. But she went for a couple months. Hopefully now is her time!

On the intercambio, we contacted this lady. Do you think you'll be with your family after this life? No. No no no. Do you want to be? No. No no no no no. That actually pained me a little bit. Anyways, we finally got into her house. Started teaching lesson 2 (after convincing her it's good to be with your family), and in the middle of the lesson she got up and walked away! To her kitchen. We told her we were almost done, and she said, another day. So we just got up to leave, and then she gave us juice. (It was the grossest chicha ever. And I love chicha!) It was so funny! Hermana Kennedy and I decided if we were ever going to teach someone unprepared, it may as well be that funny!

Also, have you showered with a   bucket? Because I have! I was all soaped up when 'they' (whoever they are) turned the water off. Yet again. Luckily we store water in buckets now. Not right man. But hey, now I can say I not only had to take cold showers (so nice here), but that I've showered with a   bucket, Haha.

It was POURING the other day. The street literally looked like a river. After a lesson with Norma who wants to know for real if Joseph Smith was a prophet and we have living prophets, but thinks it's too much to ask God for an answer when he already gives her so much. That was a cool lesson. I felt very led by the Spirit. :) But then back to the river. There were four kittens drenching wet! So Hermana Favero and Saira (the member we went with) picked them up and we went and took them to her house. They lived!

We taught an adventista couple. The husband walked in and then tried to convert us. At least it was out of genuine concern for the welfare of our souls. So yeah, we're not going back there. They aren't quite ready. Well he isn't at any rate. 

Women's conference was awesome! I've been really close to the Spirit lately, so a lot of it (specific phrases) were confirmations of what the Spirit has been teaching me. SO COOL. But also what stuck out was what I have promised. I promised God to be obedient, to comfort and lift others and that's how I can show Him my love because He loved me first. He loves each one of us and NEEDS us. He wants us to go back home to Him! So good!

Don't contact white guys. They're rude.

This lady CONFUSED our church with another. So we are now Movimiento misional de los mormones. Fun conact.

The kids remembered my name! On one of the streets. I heard out of the blue... "La Hermana Brogan" That's a first. Usually it's my comp. My name's hard here!

And finally, on intercambios, Hermana Escobedo misdialed us. So we told her she had the wrong number. Then we went to Zoila in the Elders area, ran into the Elders. Hermana Escobedo called them and Hna Kennedy answered, ¿Qué Quieres? What do you want? So funny. We convinced her she misdialed again. So mean. SO funny.

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

Six month mark today!

So I am at my six month mark today. What the heck? Not cool time. Not cool.

We have found a really amazing family. We taught Deyla and her daughters yesterday (their dad works in Bagua, so he'll be there for the next lesson.) We just got to know them and taught them about prayer, and so Deyla said the prayer at the end, and prayed that we wouldn't forget to come back because they really need us right now. So COOL! We've contacted the father before too, so we already know he's cool. I'm excited to go back!

Also, Natali prayed about Joseph Smith, but didn't get an answer. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read, ponder, and pray. I really hope she gets an answer! She'll be hard though because she studies Saturdays and Sundays, so it will be hard to get her to church.

We're also teaching some presidents. Roosvelt (That's how he spells it) and Lincoln. And their mom, María. The son, Roosvelt is a LOT more interested than she is, but he's really really wanting to learn more, and would probably get baptized fast if we were allowed to baptize youth. But we have to get the whole family to do that. So this is the beginning of an adventure with them.


Fun fact of the week. It rained hard. And when it rains hard- no running water. Or electricity. So the last couple days have been an adventure. Hermana Favero is taking it harder than me. I'm not too bothered by it. They turn the water on for like an hour or two each day except today we haven't seen any yet. So we can shower and stuff. But man, brushing teeth at night and going to the bathroom is a party. But hey, I'm in Peru. I can't really say it's THAT unexpected.


Another fun fact: I say 'como' in Spanish just about as much as I say 'like' in English. I still talk like a teenager. Even with a language barrier. Great.


The sister leaders want to have ANOTHER intercambio this week on Wednesday. They are intercambio happy. And I might go crazy. Intercambios are always kinda hard for me. This time I'll be with Hermana Kennedy though, and it should actually be good. I'm staying in my area again like last time.


Also, what I learned this week: Gratitude. I was trying to figure out why, as a missionary, I just haven't been feeling like I used to before my mission. With the Spirit super strong, and being almost too happy, and all that good stuff. So I pulled out my journal from before my mission and read some of the entries, and that's completely what changed. With my first companionship in the field being super hard, and then just having my confidence shot, I totally lost my gratitude for a lot of things. And so I've been focusing on that a lot these last couple days, and I feel just like I did before coming out here, and in the CCM. It's so wonderful!


Aside from that, just contacting our hearts out and ending up with only... 66 contacts at the end of the week. I wish more people would walk around our area. But we're working on it.
We contacted an adventista this week, and she asked us why we worship on Sundays, and not Saturdays. UGH.

Also contacted a lady who thinks it's more important to care for dogs and cats nowdays than your fellowman. So she takes care of like 15 animals. She just talked a lot and was really weird.
That's about all though!
Love you all!
Hermana Brogan

The bridge was at a park we went to

Bienvenidos a Jaen

The pic with the monkey at Cascada Park from last pday

Welcome to Jaen with me and my comp. Also, there's motos in the background. That's what we always take to get places.

Working on finding

Okay, so still working on finding- so not too much happened lesson wise this week. BUT, there are some pretty amusing stories! :P

We went to teach Natali again, and before she sat down, her ten year old nephew was running around the house NAKED. 100 percent desnudo. So much awkward. I just looked really hard at my scriptures. But he went and put clothes on and we had an amazing lesson! She already recognizes the spirit. We asked her how she felt after teaching her the first vision, and she said it feel right. And it's something new, so this must be the right church. SO cool. Now we just have to get her married to her convivente. Like always...

The elders gave us a reference in their area of a single mom and her three kids. It is seriosuly the best. They have a six year old boy, and we were teaching them to pray. He wanted to say it, and we told him he could ask for whatever he wants. He asked- for money? We laughed. If you want, we told him. So cute. 

We also found a mom María and her two sons. Another family. So cool! We just did como comenzar enseñar with them, but Herman Favero is SUPER excited about it. I need to work on having more hope with investigators... But they are cool. :)

Also, we locked ourselves out of our room accidentally (And went and made copies of the key today, so that won't be a problem anymore). Our land lady, couldn't find the key. (She's disorganized. She found one last time... Also, Hermana Favero is in charge of the keys fyi. :P) But anyways, the bishop lives across the street from us (our pension's husband), and he and his daughters came over. The oldest, Milena, came up with an idea to go in through the windows over our door with a broom and unlock the door. And it worked. Nice to know the bishop's family knows how to break into a room. (The windows up top are just bars- no glass. And it's so nice to have a cool room at night!)

Last thing this week: We literally have a crazy lady living on our street. So Hermana Favero and I just thought she was on drugs earlier in the week. Our pension makes cakes, so she was over in her living room one night asking her to make her a cake. And I don't even know how to describe it. She was just weird. And then she was doing yoga the other day. And she was trying really hard to get men. Like cleaning the motos on the street and strutting around. Apparently (I didn't see this one, no worries), she was naked on the street yesterday, and so the police came and took her to the hospital. But the hospital said they didn't have room for crazy people, so her nephew, a cop, took her back and locked her in her house with a window open. Her neighbors took care of her last night, and she's going to Chiclayo to an asylum or something today. So seeing the police cars yesterday was eventful. We were just passing by the street in the middle of the day. Luckily we got to get the story from our pension. Gotta love her!

Also, we went with the sister leaders to a park today. I held a monkey's hand! I need to stop promising pictures because we keep ending up in weird internets, but I'll try to send a picture or two next week!

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

no fancy title March 8, 2015

Dear Family, Rachel, whoever else reads this,

So I had a rough week again. Just a lot of stress, and me being a
perfectionist and hard sister leaders deciding that doing a second
intercambio would help... But luckily Hermana Williams (the
mission president's wife) is one of the most amazing women on this
planet. I think I'm really going to change around how I do personal
study in the morning and focus even more on studying by topics. She
gave me the hugest list of comforting scriptures and hymns, and told me
how good I'm doing, and all that fun stuff. So after that phone call,
I've been back to my normal self. 

As for our area, like I said last week (I think), we've dropped most if not all of our investigators because they either were really cool, but needed to be given to the
elders, or weren't progressing. And so we have been contacting our
hearts out (so not fun after a while). But I'm really good at street
contacting now. We have found two amazing ladies. One, Chayla, is
awesome. She is really sincerely interested, and we've taught her the
first lesson so far. She prays already (not recites), and I think
she'll actually pray. We'll find out tomorrow. THEN, we found Natali.
She's 20. The missionaries visited her when she was 12. She went to
church back then. Remembers how happy she was. We haven't even taught
her the first lesson yet. We just did como comenzar enseñar, and
invited her to baptism, and she accepted! Also, it didn't really occur
as strange until now, because Peru, but she was just in a towel that
entire lesson. She let us in right when she was about to go shower...
And it's not even remotely awkward here. Peru is funny sometimes. You
know, just the best lesson we've had all week, and she was in a towel.

So President has been emphasizing baptism a lot since our mission is
highest in contacts in this area (South America Northwest or something
like that), but really low on baptisms. So we try to mention baptism
in every contact we make. We make our purpose here very clear. You'd
think that would scare people off. It does- the ones whose hearts
aren't soft at all, and so we're left with those who say no for the
time but really want to listen, and the amazing people like Natali. So
I'm really a big fan. Plus Satan's the one who has hidden motives. We
just put everything out in the light. I really like it. (It also works
really well with the culture. People are blunt here).

So this week's intercambio was again with Hermana Escobedo. My Spanish
has REALLY improved. We talked about normal stuff the whole time. And
she, in her Peruvian way, straight up told me I need to grow my hair
out, start wearing makeup, style my hair, and lose weight. Yeah,
thanks Hermana Escobedo. I laughed my head off when she told me that.
She told me I would't get married if I didn't. I'm not exactly too
worried about that right now. She also thinks you can't be exactly
obedient if you don't run for 15 minutes every morning, and went off
about that for like an hour. Yeah, that isn't actually a rule. But
aside from that, she was really funny. It's cool to get to know her.
I'm really excited to get my first Latina comp eventually. My Spanish
will get good when that happens. (I speak, my accent just sucks and
I'm still really shy with it).

Also, tomorrow is transfer days. But we get told if we have transfers
the Saturday before. No transfers. I get Hermana Favero for at least
another transfer. :)

Also, little moment that made me smile. Yesterday, while out
contacting, this little girl came running around the corner laughing
and screaming, and then her teenage older brother came around chasing
her, and caught her and picked her up. It was cute. It makes me happy
to see families like that. We're going to go contact their mom one of
these days. Hermana Favero magically knows who she is.

I love you all!
Hermana Brogan (Who almost typed her own last name Borgan... awkward)

¡Oy, Estrella!

So lots about Peruvian dogs this week. So our pension's dog is named Estrella, and she is always eating our shoes, on our feet. And it's funny. She's just a really happy well loved puppy. It's the best part of meals! (The food too!) But it's very common to hear, 'Oy, Estrella!'

This week in sacrament meeting, there was a dog in the chapel! It just wandered in! It was so funny. So this one lady carried it out by it's front legs really awkwardly. It made me happy inside. Also, the day before, we saw this gang of dogs walking down the street, following this little girl dog. and then two of them started fighting. But the dogs leave the humans alone. Also, a lot of the girl dogs here HATE men. But are completely fine with women. It's so funny. I'm glad I'm a sister missionary. So I guess feminism is reaching Peru via dogs...

So like I predicted last week, there were a TON of blessings this week. Pretty neat. :) We changed around the limits in our area in our district meeting this week, so we got some streets where people are actually walking around (more businesses). So we can contact now!

We also found the elders on the street where we live this week, outside of a member's home (we can visit whatever member in our combined areas). But they were just out on the sidewalk, standing by Tatiana's (my pension's younger sister) pepper bush. It might not be HERS, but it's in front of her house. Really little tiny super spicy peppers. And Hermana Favero and I convinced them each to eat one. It was SO funny. They had to ask for water, and got super red and teary eyed, and all the fun stuff that happens when you eat a pepper you really shouldn't eat. I then tried one seed from one and it made my whole mouth burn. Too funny. :P (Yeah, we may be a little mean). But they knew more or less...

So we had to hand our favorite investigator José over to the elders. He's going to move out, so we can't teach him solo. But I invited him to baptism before that, and he accepted the date for the end of March. So hopefully that ends up working out! I really hope it does. He's amazing.
We did intercambios this week. Not fun. I'm better at contacting now. Also, the sister leaders had us drop a lot of investigators who aren't progressing, so we've got a lot of finding to do now.
We found this lady, Cecilia, who really needs to feel a relationship with her Heavenly Father, so it's really good to go over there and feel like I can actually help her with something immediately. Despite what she says about baptism. (Right now, not so big on it...) But she's super neat! She has a boyfriend or spouse or whatever they are. Covivientes. Who treats her not so great. So her self esteem is shot. He isn't abusive or anything, but he does get jealous of her having friends, and is just kinda a jerk who thinks women only belong in the home. But she's got a bunch of chickens up on her roof (there's always animals on rooftops here), so we went up there and got some pictures! She is also suuuuper uncomfortable praying, so that's fun to get her to do every lesson. We'll get her there.

Also, I got a little surprise in my district meeting this week. Yeah, mail doesn't take THAT long. ;) But I was SOOOOO happy! I love the pictures and the candy and the stickers and the glow sticks. But mostly the pictures. I've been dying for more. :) I'm really grateful for the Oakland temple one, and of all you guys of course. so THANK YOU! (And sorry that it's a month early, but I'm about a third of the way through transfer wise...)
Love you all!
Hermana Brogan

Haley got her package from home.

Chickens on the roof.

February is almost over..time flies

 I'm doing great today, and I've been feeling better for quite some time. I feel like days are eternity, so I don't actually remember how long ago I was sick. It just feels like a long time ago. Haha, I still sing and dance like crazy (in our room), no worries. Aw, I miss Zion's Choir so much! I hope they get to perform more soon.  The weather here (and always in Jaen) is HOT. It is always burning up! And my comp hates it. Luckily I grew up in California so I like it (most of the time). It is hard to proselyte in the heat though. Sounds like things are going good back home! Keep being awesome! (Haley was answering some of my questions here..I think you can figure out what I asked.)

So as for my week. I had a really hard week in all honesty. We had our investigator who was GOING to get baptized this week decide not to come to church yesterday, and had 'just a little bit' of beer on Friday for his birthday. So we've got some work to do with him. (He's 80, so it's kinda hard to change). He has desires though. He just needs a little more time. It was also hard because it's so hard to find new investigators in our area. Contacting is almost impossible here. It's all kids or young men, so we can't really contact them.

 But as for the good and normal:
We went to a chacra (a little farm) for pday last week and made some sort of peruvian food. (Just fried dough of some kind). It was fun to hang out with our district though. Only 2 out of the 6 of us are Latino, and so they have started praying in English in our meetings (the Latinos are supposed to be learning English out here). They're doing really good! Also, the elders made us chocolate chip cookies for our district meeting this last week. That's like unheard of down here. It was AWESOME!!! Hermana Favero's birthday is today (Happy birthday to her!). So she got a package last week. Her mom sent me a pencil that had a Minnie snow globe on it. It was so sweet of her! I took a picture of myself with it with Hermana Favero's camera. She also got new music- and one of the cds is a missionary tribute cd. So there's this one song that starts with a bunch of kids saying the date they can turn their papers in, and then it's just a song that's sung by the kids that's super upbeat, and makes me feel so good for being out here! (Even though I only knew for about a year that I was going before I came). I just LOVE the enthusiasm for missionary work that's growing even still since the age change. I love the mission, and I'm so glad it's getting even bigger!

We also helped the EQ president with his English assignment this week. He had to write a recipe for jello cake (it's a thing here) in English. So that was kinda hilarious, and fun to help with.

Sometime's I do things that freak my companion out because it's out of character for me- like asking for directions from a random lady in a shop to the closest internet.

We had an amazing lesson with Mari this week (we finally started the restoration with her!), and she listened really intently, but we haven't been able to find her since! Hopefully this week. I really want to know if she prayed. She's really close to the spirit, she just needs to have an open mind! (Also another discouraging thing was not being able to find her).
It was Hermana Favero's turn to get sick (only for a day- something different), so I finished the entire missionary library, including the 800 page Jesus the Christ I had already started).  I also planned out a lot of my immediate future after my mission. So that's nice.

So then last night, I kinda just cried a lot. But it's okay, because that hasn't happened in like 9 weeks (first time in this companionship), so I read my patriarchal blessing (and letters from Rachel which made me crack up). But this is the first time I've read through my blessing since I've gotten it that it felt like Heavenly Father was talking to me in the moment. I was just overcome with His love for me, and with tons of encouragement. I'm so grateful for the blessings that come from this church! Then Hermana Favero made me talk to her, and now it's her birthday, and I'm seriously in the best mood ever today! :D We went and took a ton of pictures (which this internet place doesn't have a way for me to send them, so next week. Sorry to tease). And I bought her lunch, and we decorated our room, and we're going to make cookies with our district later. So it's just what I needed. Pday can't have better timing sometimes. But I'm all ready to work this next week now!

I love you all! I hope everything's going good back home!
Con Amor,
Hermana Brogan

Feliz día de amor!

Mi familia, Feliz día de amor! I hope you guys had a good valentine's day. I celebrated to the extent I can as a missionary. (Meaning I got my companion a candy called 'obsesión' and wrote her a valentine). It said: Hermana Favero, Happy Valentine's Day. Don't have an 'obsesión' with love because you're a MISSIONARY. But you can love everyone. Because Christ does. Love, Hermana Brogan. It was pretty exciting. My companion thinks I'm really funny and dorky, so that's pretty nice.  :P

So I spent about half of this week getting better (I wasn't really sick anymore, just my energy wouldn't come back at all... so I was still kinda sick). BUT I finally asked the elders for a blessing, and they came over and Monday to give me one. The next day I was perfectly fine and able to work. I always worry about having enough faith when I get blessings of health, but it seems to work pretty well every time. So miracles happen. :) I like being a missionary. But, while I had to spend a day or two just laying in bed (my comp made me rest more just in case), we got a little trunky and started wedding planning (I blame Rachel!). But yeah, that was funny. I made up for it though later in the week spending a solid hour right before bed just laying there worrying about my investigators. Yeah, I really love these people a lot! Also, I'm getting to the end of reading Jesus the Christ! It's such a good (incredibly long) book. But I just read like crazy, because it's all so good! I love the story of Mary and Martha, and how he talks about them in there. He doesn't really reprove Martha, but just defends Mary for wanting to listen to Him. I love the respect Mary has for Christ. SO cool!

So we had a lesson with José. He decided we needed to be tougher with him. So we shared some harder scriptures and then taught him again about repentance. He's been going to church for about a year, and he just needs to move out so he can get baptized. His pareja told him the choice is up to him, but she won't marry him. SO he'll be looking for somewhere to live, and we plan on setting a date with him in March! We also shared about Zoram in 1 Nephi 4 with him and how he had to sacrifice a lot of things to go obtain the promise land, and had to make an oath too. So we talked about a covenant path, but how it requires sacrifice. I was happy to have found that analogy!

So they fumigated our room this week. How they do that here in Peru, they do every house on the street, knock on your door one morning, and have you get out of your room. So Hermana Favero had JUST gotten out of the shower, and we ran across the street to the pensions after getting dressed super fast. It was crazy! It's also kinda hilarious. I also took a picture. Yeah, definitely a different way of doing things!

We had a mission night this week (Just games with the ward, investigators, whoever we can get to come). We did a ton of relay races and it was a ton of fun!

So the elder's pension's husband is Hermano Antonio, our mission leader, and brother of our penionista. Anyways, Elder Nordhoff had been trying to teach him 'chubby' and Antonio was over at our pension, and tried to tell us. Well Hermana Favero and I heard 'shove it' and were like, Elder Nordhoff! Why would you teach him that. But then he called Elder Nordhoff to clarify the spelling, and it was just the word chubby. After we had tried to explain what shove it meant... Awkward moments.

We also have an investigator who's super challenging, Mari, but I really like teaching her! She basically just wants biblical proof for everything. (We started with the plan of salvation with her because of her son who passed away. but luckily, Hermana Favero has tons of good scriptures from an invesitgator in her last area who was also hard. But once we show her scriptures, she's totally on board. So I hope she can start progressing. We soft committed her to baptism, but she won't come to church yet. One day! I have hope. :)
That's about it for my crazy week!
love, Hermana Brogan

Apartment getting fumigated

Pension's backyard

Haley's fabulous companion