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

More singing in the Plaza

Well, I should write something at least. ( We had just spoken to her over Christmas and she is doing good) 

There's this family we taught who found a bunch of huge LIES about Joseph Smith online and so we got into that lesson and it was super contentious. But the lovely RM Sheyla fixed it all for us, and then we testified and talked about finding the truth through prayer, and the Spirit filled the room! Also, the little girls in that family are so cute. They're like angels, and they say I'm a doll, and always play with my hair. I love it. Even though my hair always ends up super frizzy after the lesson. Haha.

Enrique Marquina accepted preparing for a temple recommend, so that should get him to reactivate! Yay! He doesn't even fight against any of the commandments because he understands them. He just has to start living them again. It's fun to teach him. I couldn't think of the word bromista the other day, so I made up bromeador. They laughed at that. But hey, if they understood me that's all that matters. So then they decided I'm a chistadora. Which is also a made up word. So much teasing, it isn't fair!

Italo didn't come to church.  Oh yeah, we found him this week, and he's super cool. He's agnostic which is so refreshing being in Perú. It feels like I'm talking to someone from the states. He speaks English perfectly (He went to some super pituco school where they do everything except PE and religion in English). So it"s fun to teach him. He's a reference from putting his info on the internet! Never thought I'd have one of those! And he has a Mormon friend. SO cool. SO neat. He's so going to progress, if he actually comes to church like he said he would! But he said an amazing prayer (And actually talks to God, he doesn't just SAY a prayer. He speaks with his Heavenly Father). He felt the Spirit super strong and said he felt as if he wanted to cry. He said it felt the same as one time when he was talking to his LDS friend about the church. Yeeeeessss! :)

Christmas was cool. Christmas eve was cooler. We had a party as a zone. For like two hours. It was neat. I ate too much paneton, and I still want more. Luckily everyone still has some and invites us to some every time we teach. Woo!

We found a guy named Luis this week too. Embarrassing story for me of how we found him, so I'll just say that we found him, and I think he's going to progress too if I can convince my comp to go visit him more. 

Feliz navidad y feliz año nuevo!

Hermana Brogan

( a video of Haley singing her trio in the plaza, she is the Soprano)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA7S-2PCBh0&feature=youtu.be

Singing in the Plaza

This week. We sang in the plaza and it was AWESOME! Okay, the second night on the blog, I wore a shirt with stripes and I'm in the front. I can't even find myself from the first night. I'm somewhere on the right, I think....It was super awesome the second night during one of the groups, fireworks started going off. I felt like we're rock stars. It was way fun to sing in public! Thanks to a long series of events, I got to sing a tiiiiny bit in a trio both nights, when a week ago I wasn't even going to be singing. That was awesome. I love how little things work out sometimes! 

We found a cool family this week because a nine year old girl asked us why we write a ton of information down when we were in the street at a less active's house. That was neat! So then later we were trying to find her house from what little she told us. Something about a metal door next to a house of other random people we contacted (helping them put things in their car). So we were just confused, but they saw us from inside and the girls ran to us! Awesome! their mom is awesome, was very interested int he Book of Mormon, and just wants to know the truth. Good condition to be in for missionaries.

News from Otuzco, Otilio is getting baptized December 26th. Someone I found is getting baptized! What a blessing! I'm super happy. How cool for Hermana Morales 'daughter' too, to start your mission with a baptism. That's so cool!

Oh, Dallin, we contacted some random guy from Japan. I thought about you. He stayed in the plaza for the Christmas choir. Which was neat. But I think he said he's from Kyoto. 

I had an intercambio with Hermana Pineda. We spent the whole day (aside from finding 5 new investigators and teaching a ton of awesome lessons), singing to people, and singing in the street trying to copy all the soloists voices for the choir. I love Hermana Pineda. She's going through very similar experiences I went through at the same time as me, and so we were able to just talk a ton, and it was just good. It was a good day. She's such a  wonderful person. I like when I have awesome sister leaders. :) 

And we were working in the rich part of our area last night visiting with a menos activo and a recent convert, and they fed us paneton, twice, cake, and hot chocolate which was better than it normally is in Peru (no it was delicious! So yummy!), all in one night. So good. It made us late to reporting though. Which was good because there was actually a huge party on our street so we wouldn't have been able to hear a thing...

Yeah, Christmas time in Peru. Gotta love it.

Peace.

And good will to men.

Hermana Brogan

practicing for the concert in the plaza.

Caught in Spanglish mode

So this week. Hmmm, what's happened. My companion still rocks. She's working really hard on learning English and learning to sing. I'm learning a lot how to teach English and how to teach singing. I think I'm not too bad at it. So it's fun. But it's really messing up my Spanish and my English because now I just mix it up all the time, and I say random things in English to my comp thinking I'm speaking Spanish. It's a pain. 

Okay, funny story, so we had about three priesthood holders come with us to some lessons yesterday. (I don't really understand my companion's organization, but I'm still learning the area, so it's kinda up to her for now). Then she looked at me and asked if we can do divisions. Completely serious. I said no, waiting for her to realize the rules. She didn't get it. I had to tell her we can't go on splits with men, only with sisters in the ward. Hahaha. My companion. I love her so much. 

Oh, my companion says thank you SO SO SO much for the stocking. Even her family hasn't sent her anything, so she really appreciates it. 

I got talked into singing for the zone training this week. So that was... interesting. It was the night before too. So luckily, we were in the chapel for a meeting with the bishop, and Hermana Furness happened to be there, and she rocks at piano, so she and I arranged something super fast. And I told myself, it's going to be okay. It's only 16 missionaries. (For some reason, singing for my peers is harder than for strangers, or the branch in Otuzco). Well, then the next day, the elders from the office decide to waltz into our meeting just about 20 minutes before I sing, so then there were more like 20 people. Why is my chapel the building with the offices? it's weird to see them left and right. 

Juana and Esther already sent people in my ward to tell me hi (They came down for training since Hermana Esther is seminary teacher, and met people in my ward.) That made me happy. I miss them. 

We met a new investigator at church- Santos- the grandma of a primary kid who we're helping now with her faith in God book. So we were helping the girl with learning how to do an FHE and learning about the sacrament, and then Hermana Santos had a ton of questions for us about Joseph Smith and prophets and apostles and basically we just really need to teach her the first lesson already. 

We ran into a random recent convert of about a year who doesn't live in our ward, but we ended up teaching him (He was in the house of some menos activos we went to visit). He's struggling with deciding to go on a mission, so I shared with him a bunch of experiences and I don't know what else, and he was saying, wow, at many wise things the Spirit had me say. Then later he asked, "and how old are you?" I say 20. He was pretty surprised. Pretty fun.

We went to the temple as a zone this week. It was amazing. I love the peace and joy I feel inside the temple. The more time I've been on the mission, the more I feel like I need the temple. It really helped me reground my testimony in some basic things I knew pretty well before the mission, but got a bit weaker in Otuzco. So it was just what I needed. 

Then Saturday we helped out with a baptism of the ward.  Angelì, who's only 8. Her mom is a rescue from missionaries before us. Well, the bishop basically just put us in charge of everything and wouldn't even answer his phone all week. So then everything just went wrong because we needed keys to the font. So one of the RMs in the ward (who served in Chiclayo), came to help us out. We had to wait for the font (which we found full of water and dead and living insects) to drain, so he could climb over the railing to unlock the doors that go to the stairs, and then we had to clean it and fill it up again. Nobody came but the family, and because of the font, we started two hours late, and then the primary was having an activity, but stopped it to come to the baptism, so then there were a TON of people there (including Santos!), and it turned out pretty good.

Then last night we had a stake Christmas devotional. The missionaries sang. YW sang, primary, Hermana Pineda and Hermana Smith, and who else? But it was super good. President Marler came and spoke, and it was just a really cool night. We had some people we're working with come. That was nice too.

We have a Christmas tree from the elders who were in our house last year? But they left the tree, so we set it up in our room when Diana was decorating the rest of the house one night. 

I think that's about all for our adventures. We're performing this week in the plaza de armas. It should be fun. They're even bringing down the missionaries from Cajamarca! Everyone is going to be there!

I love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Brogan