Kinda a Bummer Week.

So Kati's baptism didn't happen. She doesn't want to give up drinking, and I think she just feels like the standards are too high for her. Also, I think her boyfriend is a bad influence on her. Bah.

 But this week honestly wasn't very fun. I hit my year mark, and had the most depressing lessons that day- hearing everyone's stories of abuse and such. And nobody is really progressing too much this week. Except Greli, who is a menos activa we found.  We got her to come to church with us Sunday. Everyone received her really well. And she really appreciates our visits. So the goal is to get someone in the branch to be her friend so Greli will keep coming to church without us. She needs a little extra motivation to get out of the house. She basically sits around doing nothing all day. Poor girl. 

Also, I've learned from my companion by observing, that humility really is a strength. She's one of the most humble people I've met, and she's so talented and capable. I have so much to learn from her, I swear!

Also, we always eat at one restaurant. (The owner is the sister of the RS president), and she has a terrible 2 year old, Jimena, who hates me most of the time. (Sometimes we're friends). But it's hilarious. She'll always come sit with us though. Haha. 

Um, not much else. Kinda a bummer week, so I don't want to make you all sad. 

Have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

ONE YEAR MARK, TODAY!!!!!

Okay, this week has been EVERYWHERE. First off, we hiked that mountain

again last week for pday. It killed me. I had headaches in the nights

the next few days, and water wasn't doing it. So I bought Gatorade and

that fixed my problem. Yay gatorade! But it was super nice to sit on

top of the mountain. I love being in high places and seeing

everything. Even though all the buildings are adobe, so the town is

just brown.

We're teaching Amelia a lot more now. My companion has a blast

teaching her. We always come out of the lesson laughing. Amelia is so

flippin stubborn! She has to be right, and she has to contradict us!

But we'll get there. If she converts it will be a true miracle.

News from Jaen, Alexandra is getting baptized this Friday, and is VERY

excited about it! I am SO happy to hear that! Hopefully she'll send me

pictures!

 So one of the guys who walks around the street, the one who always

asks if I speak english, came into a farmacia we were in pday, and he

asked if I spoke english (for the millionth time). So I lied and said

no. Very Christlike... Then he asked if I was from the United States.

I said no again. (I've started to tell random people I'm from

Argentina to see if they'll believe me. Okay, like two people. But

since then he's dropped the english thing! Well, while we were in the

pharmacy, the lady working there, casually pulls out a bilingual bible

and hands it to him. He takes it and walks out. Haha. Then the other

night, he came up to us again and informed us there was an earthquake

in Chile two hours before, and started talking about the end of the

world and stuff. It's always fun to see this random guy.

So my companion has been sick since she got here. With a cough. Well,

it got to her lungs and in her throat more, and we had to go down to

Trujillo Thursday morning to take her to the clinic. Elder Heward (in

the office) also texted us saying we had to come down Friday for me to

sign papers (so I can keep being a missionary in Perù and stuff...).

So we convinced him to let me do it Thursday, no problem. So we headed

off after breakfast, and arrive in Trujillo. We first go to the

clinic. My comp had to get shots (one that day, and we carried two

with us for the next two days in Otuzco that we went to a pharmacy to

put in. She wanted me to do it originally. Yeah? no!) And some sort of

cough syrup, and pills. Since the medication, she's been trembling a

lot. And feeling randomly nervous. SO sketchy. But it's the approved

clinic, and her cough is getting better. So after I called Elder

Heward and he told me to come to the mission office so my comp could

tell them the results of her visit. So we go into the office, and

nobody is there! We keep walking, and we walk into a meeting with all

the office missionaries and President Marler and wife. So awkward. So

they invite us in, and we're talking to President Marler in front of

all of them. SO awkward. So then afterwards, he asks us if we've eaten

yet (it's 11 am. In the mission we eat at 1). So we say no, and he

tells the elders to give us money for lunch in the mall. So they go

and get us 50 soles. That's like a ninth of our food money for the

whole month! Just for lunch! When they handed us the money, my eyes

got super wide. President started talking to me in English (my poor

comp), about how my comp is, how she's doing, if we're using the

heater they gave us (the elders don't get a heater). I told him that

Amelia is a little obsessive about the electricity, and he told us to

use it anyways and the mission will pay more if need be, and then

asked if the elders were treating us okay. SO funny. I don't really

get why the sisters are so spoiled in this mission, but I don't mind

it. :P

So we go get some papers signed and notarized, and then we go to this

restaurant they told us to go to in the mall. By ourselves. On

Thursday. SO much trust. In the Chiclayo mission we couldn't ever set

foot in the mall. But we ate such good food! I felt like I was in the

states. It was so delicious. We joked that it was our birthday or pday

or something. We left a word of wisdom pamphlet on the table. Haha,

missioanry jokes. And we finished up buying McDonald's ice cream. Then

we came back and worked in the evening.

We visited Kati, who was sick with sores in and on her mouth, and her

stomach was upset too, and she was just exhausted. So we taught her

the law of chastity with Efraìn (our 23 year old ward missin leader)

haha. So much awkward. It was fun. But she told us her desires to be

baptized were on the floor. Then I asked her if she'd like a blessing

of health. That night we went with the elders for her blessing.

Afterwards we testified, and as we left, I hugged her and asked how

she felt. She said she felt really warm inside. I explained to her

that's the love of her Heavenly Father for her. It was super amazing.

The Spirit was so strong there. The next day we visited her, and she

still had some sores, but she was energetic, and feeling better, and

everything. Then last night her sores have been healing, and she looks

basically like normal now! :D I love miracles.

Staying on the topic of Kati, last night we visited with her on a

bridge over chicken river. And we taught about work for the dead in

the temple, eternal marriage, tithing, and the sabbath day. (I don't

know why, but we felt like she needed all the things.) So we talked

and talked, and returned to the topic of baptism. She doesn't want to

be baptized for how her family and boyfriend will react. So I asked

her if she was the only person in the world, would she be baptized.

She gave a definite yes. Then we worked a bit more, and got her to

agree to be baptized this Saturday. She's happy about it. And her mind

is just everywhere. But she knows it's right. I am SO excited for her!

She's made some huge lifestyle changes, and she's so happy with the

gospel. She'll go with us to do baptisms for the dead ont he 10th of

October with the branch too. :)

So that's two miracles this week. Also, we were int he middle of

fasting last night for Kati and Amelia. (Kati to accept a date, Amelia

to soften her heart). Now I've had two solid experiences with fasting.

I love the power of a fast.

Also we found a menos activo couple (because they work far away), and

we will be working with them on getting to the temple. Pericles and

Anna. Pericles' eyes were so lit up when we were talking about getting

sealed in the temple. They just need to prioritize church a bit more

so that it can go from a goal to a reality. But we talked with them

about setting a specific date as a goal for them to get sealed. :) It

will be fun to work with them. He's been a member for 17 years and his

wife for 1. They're a cute couple.

Aside from that, my comp and I just keep joking around a ton, and

enjoying the life.

Also, earlier in the week, I was wondering and praying about why I'm

being the best missionary I can be, with the most faith I can muster,

and striving to be obedient, and why I'm not seeing much success. So

then all that I just wrote about happened. So there's an answer to my

prayers. Patience is something I gotta work on I guess. Haha. Oh, but

also, we got a reference from a recent convert. The refernce is

Verena. She wants to be baptized. She has parkinson's, and I think I

actually contacted her my first week in Otuzco... But she's now come

to church twice. (Once since we started teaching her). So she'll get

baptized on the 17th of October. (Only that far out so we have time to

teach her all the lessons).

Okay, I really do think that's it now... Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

With her last companion Mna. McCally

Photo bombing the Elders or is the Elder photo bombing Haley? hmmm.

A Native Speaker Companion..Woo Hoo!!!!

Okay, this week:

New companion, Hermana Morales, from Cuzco Peru! (And has never been to Macchu Picchu, haha!) She has 7 and a half months, but is basically senior comp, she's so amazing. She teaches great, contacts great, remembers everything, respects the branch president in his calling a ton and knows how to work with the members super well. Basically perfect in every way. On top of that, she's suuuuuper humble. And sweet. And hilarious. We have had so many little adventures this week! Spider killing, throwing tiiiiiiny little pebbles at a menos activa's window who won't come out of her house (so romantic) and getting yelled at by her neighbor, zombie jokes, randomly racing to light posts and corners of streets, knocking doors with a pecan I can't break open that Elder Jensen gave me. It's sooo much fun.

She was telling me a story the other night while waiting at a door. So she and her friend were at the university, and they were walking backwards together, and fell into a  huge hole higher than their heads. They were very famous after that. Well, as she was telling me this story, I thought she knew there was a hole behind her, and that brought up the story. Well, she didn't. And almost fell in. Bah. (That's slang my comp picked up in her only other area, Ascope). Also they end everything with Joven. Ex: They're not their youth! (No hay joven!) I don't know, we just joke around all the time. 

Then we were knocking a dark house the other night, and were commenting, "watch, a dog is going to come out from under the door" (there was a gap of about a foot). As we were saying this, two kittens came out. So my companion chased them around the house to catch them, and held them up. So I acted like Mufasa to pretend to put marks on their foreheads. Ahahaha. As she was trying to catch the second one, she fell and scraped her knee a tiny bit. 

Then the other night we were teaching a 14 year old MA, Keyco. Well, my companion has this cough, and we told Keyco. So Keyco goes and gets this weird bee juice (I really don't know what it is), but it made her throat feel like fire. SO we were saying she'd become a dragon and climb up onto the ceiling. I totally called the ceiling the heavens the other day accidentally. I've been saying the weirdest words with her! I shall create my own language! Muahaha!

Then Saturday, the elders were coming back from Huamachuco (Mom, only us and the elders in Otuzco, 4 in total) We're four. Haha. Well, they had  a baptism, so we ended up planning everything for them. We got to play telephone with a  real phone. No, but really, we were calling SO much! But we had to go set up the font (it's like one of those pools that you put above ground). So we figured that out, and used little metal ladders for the steps to get in. The elders got carsick coming back from Huamachuco, so had to go rest. I got talked into doing the musical numbers (since this transfer started, my voice has gotten really popular with the missionaries. Everyone says I sing well. It all started with Elder Jensen. Then the new hermana Leaders wanted me to sing for them too when they came up for the zone training. So now I sing a ton. Also, we had a goodbye party and a welcome party for the missionaries leaving and going two nights in a row! So much cake. SO much food. How am I not fat after a year in Peru? 

Uhhh, okay the more powerful,

Taught a  lady Carmen yesterday. She was sad, so we hugged her, and promised to pray for her, and promised her that there is refuge in the gospel.

We taught Kati. Her animos are down. (sorry, spanglish, um she's less excited). So we talked to her about the seriousness of the baptismal covenant, and enduring to the end, and how it will affect her future. Any problems with her family now will pass, but she also has to think of her future family. We found out she has a boyfriend who wants to run away with her. (She's won't) To be sure, we're going to teach the law of chastity next time. Once we teach her something, she always understands, and applies it. So that's good. We're going to move her baptism to the 26th. Elder Jensen last night, when I was reporting, promised she'd get to baptism, but that we just need to have confidence that the spirit will be there when we teach and that the words we speak will reach her heart, and it will all work out. Sweet. I love promises.

 

We taught Manuel y Juliana anoche (MA), and my comp did so good with them. It was a completely different lesson than we've had with them before. She really encouraged them, and I think they'll start progressing soon.  They're really looking forward to our visits now. Manuel asked if he could do anything for us. 

We started teaching a reference, Mili, this week. Young 30s, intelligent, really cool. Single. Does what she wants. (That joke has no meaning in enlgish. There's a song called soy solteraa that's popular here. We'll teach her lesson one this week. I'm really excited to see where this goes. It will be good for sure. She's super open minded. :)

Those were the biggest lessons we had this week. 

I'm just happy here. Sometimes, I feel inadequate next to my companion, but she's so humble, and the Spirit always encourages me that it just ends up being a pássing thought. This cambio will be amazing. President Marler thanked me for my unfailing faith today (Do I even have that?), and that he's anxious to see what Hermana Morales and I will do with the area. So much trust from him! Man, missionary work is way over my head. But I love it. It's sooo fun

Love you all. Have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

It Is Transfer Week and Haley Is..........

World! So this week. We've found two new investigators names Carmen who are single moms. Their kids are teens. Teens are fast to understand the doctrine and can help us explain it to their parents. I love it. 

Big news. Cambios are tomorrow. I stay, but I'm getting a new companion. Her name is Hermana Morales. Sounds Latina. :D Por fin! And I hear she's hilarious. So it should be a fun companionship. I'm really excited about it!

Um, last pday we found a guy with a monkey on the road. I took a picture of it. I also took a picture on a llama, but I need a better one. Next pday that they're in the plaza. 

Um, not many people came to church. Both Kati and Consuelo were out of town. But Isabel came. (We're trying to reactivate her so she and her husband can get sealed. She has a baby though and uses that as a reason to not come to church...) But President Marler told me about them, so I figure it's kinda an important focus. We just haven't been able to get inside their house to teach them yet. Edgar is always travelling for work, and Isabel is always 'busy.' Maybe some more prayer will help us get in those doors.

Also, I'm stoked to have a Latina comp so when we're teaching old people, or people who just really don't get my accent, I have someone to help me out. Haha. 

We were eating with the nonmember daughter of the branch president at lucnh last pday (or maybe tuesday...?). I don't know how, but she convinced us to let her feed us. So anyways, this random lady from Trujillo came by and asked the elders to bless her cousin or aunt or someone. The lady who lives in Otuzco's name it Maria. She's super old and hard of hearing. But totally willing to listen. She can't walk- so I don't know how we're going to get her to church. She also can't read. So we'll be reading with her a lot. :) She's cute though. Oh yeah, but this lady came by and dragged the elders over to her house to give her a blessing of health. Then dragged us along too so that we can start teaching her. Well, alright. If you insist on giving us a great investigator, then I suppose it's alright! :P

Then, we were walking to a cita one night on the calle Lima, when my comp realizes outside a MA house, there's a lady we haven't met. Well, she's the menos activa. Her name is Mery. She committed to come to church (and didn't come...). But she had us go meet her 89 year old dad, who's on his sickbed. He's literally skin and bones. So sad. But he lit up when we walked in the room. He can't hear, and can barely see. So we just showed him pictures of Christ, and awkwardly sat there for a bit and sang (even though he can't hear it), and prayed. But it was a cool experience. The Spirit was very strong in that room. Though he's Catholic, and when we showed him a picture of Christ, he started praying to it.... Yeah. Well, our visit comforted Mery too. We'll be visiting her and hopefully convincing her to come to church. 

That's about all for the week.

Hope you all have a great week!

Hermana Brogan

Learning to Swallow Pills

So my week! Well, I got a bit of a fever monday and tuesday, so we didn't do anything as I swallowed big pills as the mission told me to do. Mom, you'd be so proud of my pill swallowing skills I've gained. ;) No, but we missed some citas I was suuuper excited about. So that was kinda sad. (I have a goal of getting edgar, and his MA wife sealed. She actually showed up for the last couple hours of church yesterday! We haven't even gotten to visit them once yet...) But we're going tonight! And to Jenci too!

We tried to visit Amelia this week, and we couldn't even get very far in the lesson. Bah! My comp and I both felt prompted (and didn't follow it, because we both just thought it was our ideas until after the lesson) to tell her she already knows it's true. (She does. I know it.  She has grudges against her son getting married in the temple, and her husband getting baptized while they were separated). But yeah, I'm not giving up on her. I love her too much. 

We watched the Restoration video with Katy to help her get an answer. (I don't know how to spell her name. It might actually be Kati...)  But yeah, she's still looking. She's doing good. And preparing super well for baptism.

I was commenting in english one day about Broccoli saltado I saw on a menu AFTER eating lunch. SO I said, man why didn't we eat that? Healthy. Vegetables. Yum. Then we hear behind me this little boy exclaim, Vegetables! Haha. Yes, you do actually know real english words. 

Also saw random grafitti one a wall that said galletita. Don't want to know why that's really there, but I translated it in my head to little cookie. I thought, how's that as a pet name? My little cookie. It was just a funny random thought. (I think I'm going a bit crazy as a missionary doing all this walking around, haha)

We had an activity to go invite menos activos to church one night. Katy even came to that one. She's not even a member. It cracks me up. But she went with my comp and I in our team. :) It was fun. She's a ball of energy. 

The next day we cleaned our lovely casa capilla in the morning, and the nasty kitchen for a RS activity- to teach the women to make american cookies! (We made it sound SO cool!) It was way fun. Katy came. Juana came (she just sent in her mission papers on Sunday! :D)  Juana and I hung out a lot, since her best friend didn't come. Juana is SO sarcastic. We were going around introducing ourselves, including something we like to do. I was last, and was trying to be funny (I see so much of Dad in me sometimes), and listed a TON of things I like to do. SO Juana interrupts and says, yes Hermana Brogan, we get it. You like ALL the verbs. And then we played "never have I ever", but adapted it to their ability to understand the rules to just "me gusta" So you have 10 fingers, and if you like something too, you keep the finger. If not, you loose a finger. Last one standing wins. Well, Juana had to comment on how I like everything already, so I'll just win. Then she'd say things like, I like "that" for the sake of me not losing a finger. Hahaha. She's funny. 

Sunday, I played the piano like normal for the hymns (with my 6th grade skills, ahha. Thanks for the lessons mom. It's a small blessing for this branch. I'm the first missionary here who can play), gave a talk, did the special musical number, and taught gospel principles. Basically I was church. I spoke on missionary work. Its importanance!

That's about it for the week!

Hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Hermana Brogan

Keep Writing Me Please!!!

*Yep. She's been out 11 months TODAY. 7 to go!!!!!

So this week. Or last six days. I don't know if I mentioned much about Hermana Gutierrez and Hermana Baldeon. But we were up talking with them at night, and Hermana Gutierrez (so much energy!) was just going off talking and said, más mejor, menos peor. I forget the context now. I just remember that was all hilarious.  (btw, she just said more better and less worse.) Also, this joke is kinda requires spanish context,so ask your nearest spanish speaker: We passed by a house looking for a menos activo couple. This little girl in the ward (not their daughter) comes to the door all happy to see us. So we ask, está Deyni? No hay. Okay, está su esposo? She responds, ¿de mí? Haha, NO! De Deyni! The girl is only like 11. Oh Usted form. 

So Huamachuco (the other district) stayed overnight in Otuzco with the elders since Huamachuco is another three hours away, and it was late. So we had a district meeting as a zone. But it wasn't zone training... We did an example of the Spirit which I loved. They placed some boxes really close on the floor and had Elder Larosa walk through them blindfolded, guided by the 'spirit', Elder Rareba. The rest of us were loud voices distracting him. He had to get through the little maze without touching the boxes. And failed. So then, without Elder Larosa knowing, we removed all the boxes after putting him back at the start. Nobody else talked, only Elder Rareba. And he told him to take eight big steps forward. Elder Larosa was hesitant, but did it. It was super cool. We just have to trust the Spirit, even when it seems crazy (Elder Larosa thought the boxes were still there. He took little steps at first.) The wisdom and guidance of the Spirit will never lead us astray. I also realized that sometimes our obstacles are just in our minds. 

Later, the elders went to buy us a curtain for our study room. (We've been without for a month and a half). Well, what they bought wasn't wide enough. Hahaha. So they put it up anyways. Kinda defeats the purpose of a curtain. It cracked me up.   

Norma is still working Sundays. Ugh, I don't know how to help her.  She's SO poor. 

We did companionship inventory on the white board this week, and just drew out a bunch of situations. It was hilarious and got pretty crazy. Eventually I ended up drawing a stick figure drowning in water with a shark and bees above the water with his eyes HUGE, and a  mohawk. Yeah, we're friends. :)

We went to Hermana Ester to talk to her about a relief society activity. And we find the elders there. Elder Jensen is playing Efraín's guitar, and Elder Cogollo is talking with Juana, and Hermana Ester is just sewing like normal. It was so funny. Apparently they were there to talk to Efraín about creating a branch mission plan (which I suggested a little bit back.) Yup, hard work elders. Haha.

We taught Aralita (Leita's daughter) about the Book of Mormon. We go through the intro super slowly, and she still is confused. At the end, she comments that her mom was reading it and commented on how it was really different from "their" Bible. Haha. I told her, YES! It is! And showed her my bible. I reexplained things for a fifth time, and I think she gets it  better than her mom. (BTW, sorry about this spastic space bar....)

We taught Katy, our golden, lesson three yesterday, and I think lesson two during the week. We invited her to baptism for the 19th of September. She's now preparing. I'm pretty sure she's already more active than me. And I'm a missionary. She's so cute. She's full of so much energy, and she's really attached to me. She was clinging onto me after church and teasing me about my bad memory. (Seriously, my memory on the mission just seems to be getting worse.) It was hilarious.   I don't know what I did to have her love me so much. But I don't mind. It's always nice to have a friend. (She's 19 btw)

That's more or less my week. Hope you guys have a good one. Keep writing me please!

Hermana Brogan

Trujillo Temple trip.....

1. My distirct has got to stop teasing me about marriage. We got to the temple, and it just gets worse. Not. Okay. Baaaaaaaaaaah. Okay, just had to rant to someone, so I chose the world. 

2. I got my birthday package! Almost half a month late. Haha. But I LOVED it. Especially the balloons. I tried to choose some favorites to quote, but they just all made me happy. Our room is still a party. But my comp is a clean freak, so I should pop them before she goes too crazy. I wrote all the messages down in my journal and have a pic though, so we should be good. Also- the beach ball! Yes! And the candy, and cards, and everything. I appreciated Becky's card with english, spanish, russian, japanese, and baby. So multilingual. I love it.

3. Intercambios this week. I went with Hermana Blackburn (who is from... dun dun dun... the group of *big breath* Hermanan Favero, Hermana Kennedy, Hermana Waite, Hermana Lofgran, Hermana McGinnis. Who have all had a huge, positive influence on my mission. Hermana Blackburn fits right up there with them. I felt the Spirit so strong during our intercambio. They're almost done. Crazy! I learned so much from her. Hermana South came up too (so it was more like divisions). 7 lessons in our area in 1 day. (Between the two companionships). We found miracle named Katherine, looking for her aunt, Aurora, who is less active. Well, Katherine is from Lima, but is up here until December. She isn't doing anything. So we invite her to our game night that night (pictionary and charades. It was a blast). She comes. WITH her aunt. Woo! Katherine also came to church on Sunday, but by herself. Her aunt works. She's super interested, and is 19 years old. She's super down to earth, and already a great friend. She's super happy and cute. I love it. 

We also passed by this one house on the list, and nobody was home. At dinner that night, I felt impressed to go back. So we do and find Manuel. The ex 2nd counselor in the branch presidency who has now been inactive for three years. He's great, but he won't look us in the eyes. He still believes it all, and I asked him a bunch of hard questions. He just kept saying, I know I know. He's hiding something though. Then on Sunday, we met with him and his wife. We shared the message of the restoration, and I felt prompted to use all of the scriptures of the first vision. Including the part about Satan trying to stop him. Never thought that would happen. So I followed it and explained that Satan is going to fight them, but they just have to have stronger faith. His wife is AMAZING. She's ready to come back- she's just living in Trujillo with her kids and doesn't know where to go to church with them. She was so into the lesson, and really felt the Spirit. The first thing she told us was that she wants to feel closer to God. She'll be a rescue super fast- in the South mission. Haha. But that's cool- we'll work with Manuel.

Then, we came down to Trujillo for interviews and the temple! The assistant's interview was great! We had to teach the first lesson in under 10 minutes. They said we're one of the few who have done it. (They're focusing on concise lessons right now...) It was pretty fun. They asked us what WE thought we should improve. So we say asking more questions, because you were looking bored and flipping through the books. So they accuse us of making fun of their acting! NO! We were serious about our observations. It cracked me up. But they also put a lot of focus on the BoM, and have challenged us to always have a copy with us. 

The interview with President was great. Praying with faith. He also told me that the branch in Otuzco really depends on the missionaries (it does). It would fall apart without us. The assistants told us not to lose our faith (again- hardest area for hermanas in the mission).They also told us that they've heard Otuzco really changes missionaries a TON for the better. What blessings. What hard work I have. I love it though. I wouldn't have it any other way. Seeing areas change, and finding people from the beginning is the best. Being thrown into an area with great investigators would be so weird for me now.

Sister Marler talked about the area book and talked about in 3rd Nephi when Christ tells Nephi, why didn't you write about Samuel the Lamanite? And Nephi says, woops, I'll get on that (I think that's one of the funniest parts in the Book of Mormon). and how we needs to write everything down in our carpetas. Even impressions about future lessons. Yikes. Then she talked about how we need to act by faith and work with the Spirit. And then after that interview I went to the bathroom and had an emotional breakdown- half laughing and half crying with my comp just because I felt so overwhelmed after three interviews. Man, I need more faith. Please let me borrow all of your faith. From everyone who reads this. Thanks.

And on top of that, they want us two gringas to basically completely change Otuzco. Which is our plan. But still, so overwhelming.

Also, we taught with Juana this week, who's preparing for a mission. I made her teach about prophets. She did great. After the lesson she said, Hermana Brogan! I don't know how to teach. I say, NO! You can teach. Really well actually. And she says, No me burla. (Don't bully- or tease- me). She needs self confidence. But she is seriously amazing. I really like her a lot. :)

Aaaaand, the temple. It was amazing. It was so nice to feel the Spirirt. President and wife did the session with us and a zone from Cajamarca. It was amazing. Don't know what to say about it, but that in the Celestial room, I had a great conversation with President. He assured me of the love Heavenly Father has for me, and why He sent me here. What my potential is to become, and what I have become. Hmm... Yeah, I'll leave it at that. But it was an amazing experience. President kinda overwhelms me. He's always looking for a specific answer, and I cannot read his brain. But it's cool. I learn a lot.

The temple was so needed. Being a sister missionary can just be overwhelming- we put so much pressure on ourselves to be the best missionary we can be. Which is great- to a point. The temple helped me back off a little. So that was great.

Mom- I found a nativity set. It's little. 18 soles. So like 6 dollars. I'll probably try to find another one around Christmas. Because I love you that much. :) (Whoo Hoo!!!)

We went to the mall in Trujillo. Because we can do that. I ate pizza and ice cream. American food! (Otuzco is just like you'd imagine not being in America would be like. Not globalized at all. All the food we eat IS peruvian.)But it's great. I'm loving the mission still. I'm getting so old, and people have been asking me even more often how much time I have, Argh! I'm in denial. Still in training. Still in training. I do not want to leave. 

But I miss you all and love you! Hopè everything at home is great! Keep me updated on life!

Love, Hermana Brogan