My First Christmas!!

This week was awesome! It never snowed which was a bummer, but it was still a wonderful Christmas here in Virginia! 

It was wonderful to be able to speak with my family and eat with the members. I took a picture of the last dinner table because this is how much food they prepared just for us four. haha, We were already about to explode but we did our best!

I also got to go to the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center with one of our investigators and his family! The lights were beautiful and the DC temple is just magnificent! I can't wait till I have the chance to enter it. 

I love all of you! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! 

Don't forget to pray :) 

Love,

Elder Brunsdale

Merry Christmas!

 It's already Christmas!! 

Not much has been happening, we're just working our hardest! We found 9 new investigators last week! If you don't know, that's pretty good. haha. 

It's amazing to be out here during such an incredible time! Spanish wards sure know how to throw parties that's for sure! I've been eating way too much. They just keep feeding you. For example we were teaching a lesson right after eating dinner and our investigators just brought out homemade tacos, so we were like "you know why I'm here" so we ate and they were so good, they asked if we wanted more and we said no that's okay. They insisted so we said yeah just one and they brought out 3 more each for us. That's about how every night goes. haha. 

But I've also been feasting on the words of Christ as well! The New Testament is amazing and it's a great time of year to start reading it! So what are you waiting for??

I love all of you. The church is true, the more knowledge I gain the more I know with absolute conviction that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and that his Gospel is restored once again and we can partake of the joy it brings! But it's up to us :) 

Never stop praying,

Elder Brunsdale

D.C. and Christmas Trees

This week was great, we're seeing some real progress with our investigators and everything is just going really good. I'm still learning a lot, and still wishing I could speak Spanish haha. 

We have an investigator who has a really bad drinking problem. He's been investigating the church for 5 years now with absolutely no problems besides that one. He understands and accepts all the doctrine and goes to church and all that. He just can't get over his alcohol addiction and because he speaks Spanish there aren't any twelve step or help programs available to him. So, I had the idea to go through the program with him. So I "lead" my first ever lesson! I wasn't comfortable with the language but I was very comfortable with the things I was saying and what exactly he needed to hear. 

 

There were actually a few times where my comp had to straight up translate what I was trying to say. But we got him started on the twelve step program. I really hope we can help him through this. My comp said I talked for 15 minutes straight (including questions) in Spanish though without his help! I don't think it was really 15 minutes but it's still encouraging to know that I had at least somewhat of a role. 

Then there's Hermana Guzman! Her husband is a member but she's been investigating the church for about 20 years! haha. They are just the funniest most wonderful people. What is kind of discouraging is they speak Spanish so fast I can't understand a word they say. So I'm not able to participate as much (or at all sometimes) in the discussions but she actually said she would consider finally getting baptized in January! After 20 years! We really, really hope that she does so that she can go to the temple with her husband, they're awesome! They're from the Dominican Republic and have a beautiful family.

But yeah, I've had a couple embarrassing mess ups with the language so far. Once I thought someone was calling me ugly so I very strongly asserted that I was handsome! Turns out they were just asking me if the donut they'd given me was bad. Literally the exact same words it just depends on context which I couldn't understand. haha. Spanish is weird. There are these things called purpusas here at restaurants that are super good and once I accidentally said "prepusio" instead. So I was actually asking what kind of foreskin this missionary prefers. He's a native to Mexico so he just cracked up. I just want to be fluent already. 

Today we got to have a guided tour of the Library of Congress! It was super awesome! We got to see one of the original copies of The Book of Mormon! Which was voted 4th in the top 40 best books that have made a difference in your life! It should be first buuut... We'll get there! haha. 

I also got to see the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence for the first time which was sweet! Then I got a library card and we just sat down and studied in the main reading room of The Library. It was super quiet and peaceful and made me want to be there for my studies every day. The mission is going great! 

Also just in case you were going to send a Christmas card or something the address I put in my previous email is wrong. It's apartment 13 not apartment B. My companion just has really bad handwriting. haha. Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

Don't forget to pray :)

Elder Brunsdale

Merry Christmas from D.C.

The Library of Congress.

First Week of December

This week had its challenges, one of our investigators was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but he got drunk a few days ago. We love him so much though and really hope we can help him and he'll choose to use the atonement and overcome his addiction.

I love the holiday season and it's really cool to be a missionary during this time! We'll be taking some investigators to see the temple lights soon so I'm really excited for that!

Today for our P day we went to see the Battle of Bull Run Memorial. It was super cool to learn about it and imagine what it might have been like. They've placed canons in the actual places they had been during the battle. I love History so I feel super blessed to have been able to see that.

That battle site was sosososo cool. Haha. Like seriously one of the coolest places I've ever been. and I haven't even really been to DC yet! This is seriously such a cool mission haha.

The coolest part for me was the big Stonewall Jackson memorial and then about 20 yards away is a memorial where one of his commanders died. Right before he died he said the famous quote "There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" So it was an amazing moment when I looked over to the the monument of Jackson on his horse and it was like I was there for a couple seconds. It was so cool. It's really sad that so many men died there. It was the first real battle of the Civil War, if the North had won it would have been over but they couldn't pull it out.

Anyway, have an amazing week!

-EDER BRUNSDALE (HYRUM)

The Boonies

This week was awesome! Thanksgiving was amazing, we had three delicious dinners and I ate too much :D That's all there is to say about that. 

The most exciting thing that happened this week was we got a referral for an investigator who lives in Sperryville. It's literally on the border of our mission, out in the boonies!! So, we decided to make the trek out there on Wednesday night. It takes over an hour and by the time we get there it's pitch black outside. 

Sperryville is with no exaggeration the creepiest place I have ever been in my life. So, it's so dark and we can't find this guys house, we try knocking on peoples doors and no one answers. A few people just pull the curtains back and yell at us to "please go away!" Creepy. 

We find ourselves on this dirt road trying to find this guy and if you've ever played the game Slender Man, it looked exactly like that. I've only got one really bad picture but it was just creepy. 

We finally find this guys house and we look down at how many miles we had driven that day and IT WAS 66.6! So we're about as creeped out as we can get but we sure as heck were gonna teach this guy! 

His name is Raphael and he is AWESOME!! We went back on Friday and he had read 11 chapters in the Book of Mormon!! He also said he would make the sacrifice to drive an hour to go to church if he had to! So, this guy is a boss and we love him. I hope he continues to progress like he is doing. 

I LOVE ALL OF YOU!! Don't forget to pray :)
-ELDER BRUNSDALE (HYRUM) 

First Week in the Field!

I'm officially a real missionary! Northern Virginia is straight up gawgeous, people. Right off the plane the President took us straight to the Lincoln memorial it was so sick!! We went back to the mission home and played ping pong and Foosball. The President humbled me...

My first area is sweet! It's like two minutes from the Battle of Bull Run so I'll be going to that one of these P-days. We get to go into DC if we want to which is sweet!

My trainer is Elder Lucero, he's freaking awesome! He's trying to teach me Spanish. :D

It seriously feels like someone broke into the settings of the US and changed the language. :D No one speaks English! We go knock on doors in huge neighborhoods and every person only speaks Spanish. It's so weird haha like where am I??
 
It's also super diverse, there are people from 17 different countries in our ward! It is cool cuz every time we get a new investigator we have to choose who they're gonna sit by. We have to think about who else is from Guatemala or whatever so that they have similar cultures and can become friends. It's awesome though!

The members are awesome and we always have dinner appointments, they feed you so much and it's so good. I've already had homemade food from Peru, Dominican republic, Mexico, Guatemala, Pizza Hut, and I think one other. So it rocks!

I'm so happy though and super excited to experience everything that comes with serving the Lord with all my heart in DC.

If you wanna write me a real letter my address is

10861 Gambril Dr. Apt.B
Manassas VA 20109

This leaf was the catch of the day
cuz no one was answering their doors!

Killer rainbow outside the Bishop's house.

Random house I thought was pretty.