Teaching in English... Whaaat?!

We were knocking doors and met this lady who speaks English and she invited us right in! I thought that's kinda weird, haha but whatever! We get in and she is one of the most devout Christians I've ever met, she's just amazing. She's a five time cancer survivor and just has so so so much faith.

So, we taught her an amazing lesson and I was able to teach in English and bear testimony in my native tongue and it was amazing. It felt weird but that was because I didn't have anything memorized like how I teach in Spanish so it was all my own words because I never teach in English.

At the end we asked her to pray and she had us hold her hands haha and she prayed and one thing in the prayer I'll never forget is that she prayed "Thank you for God for sending these men to open my eyes. Please help me to be a better Christian every day." It was an amazing prayer. Then she gave us hugs!! Haha Her name is Carol and I'm pretty sure she's gonna get baptized. We had to pass her off to the English speaking missionaries though which makes me super sad... but tomorrow's another day, so I won't let it get me down too much.

Have a great week everybody!

Elder Brunsdale

Me and Elder Hilde (love this guy).

How precious are these bunnies? Wow! 

Pool on P-day!

Happy President's Day!!

Hey hey hey! This week was great! Elder Thompson and I have been doing some great work! It's a lot of fun to have my companion be white because now people will actually look at me when I'm talking and compliment us on our Spanish haha. I'm having so much fun doing the Lord's work out here. I love you all! Have amazing weeks and always remember to keep praying! :)

Elder Brunsdale

Que Triste

Well, another week gone in the mission, it's flying by. I said farewell to my trainer and hello to Elder Thompson! I already miss Elder Lucero but Elder Thompson is great and I'm really excited to do some good work with him. I'll include a picture of him next week. But here's a picture of the district from last transfer, I love all these peeps. You're all amazing and I love you! Keep praying and have a fantastic week and a great Valentines day! :)

Elder Brunsdale

Transfer Week

Not too much happened this week. We had some more adventures in the hood with the police and a guy high on Meth. But other than that not much! 

We've just been teaching and finding some good people. Now the challenge is to get them to Church haha. I did get to go on a fun exchange and teach a man from Ghana. He taught me a little bit of Twi which was pretty cool. But my hands are pretty full with Spanish right now haha. There was also a Brazilian that came to church and only spoke Portuguese. I was actually able to talk to and understand her a little bit which was weird haha.

 

We found out that my trainer is going to another area and I'll be staying here in Mannasty!! I'm pretty excited to meet my new companion and switch things up! Not much time for writing today but I love all you! Keep praying :)

Elder Brunsdale 

World Wide Conference

Not much to report on this week. The biggest thing is just that we had a worldwide conference in which the brethren told us that the missionary schedule has changed! We now have two extra hours on P-days and they gave us the agency to choose when we study! We feel all grown up now!

But besides that it was just the work. We've been having some real success but we've also been having some hardships with some people who just can't bring themselves to change. That's about it, I hope you all have an amazing week! Never stop praying! 

Elder Brunsdale

My First Baptism!!!

Some pretty great things happened this week, the obvious highlight of which is my first baptism!! Her name is Hermana Guzman and she's amazing, super funny and she's made so much progress just in the time I've been here. She went from getting in big arguments with us and never seeming very happy to where she is now. She just glows with joy every time we see her. She was baptized by her husband on Saturday. He was so happy that after 9 years of her investigating the church he was finally able to baptize her.

We've also been seeing some slow but steady progress with our investigator who's on date but has a very big problem with alcohol. We're working with him a lot and hoping he is baptized in the next couple months. He lives in George Town South (The hood) and the other night we walked out of his house after a lesson and saw 4 cops running down the street toward us. One of them asked out of breath "Have you seen a guy?... Black hoodie?" We said "No, we just walked out of this house." They kept running down the street but one of them turned to us and said quite angrily "You guys picked a great neighborhood to walk around in." Those words aren't particularly music to the ears when spoken sarcastically by a police officer. I didn't say it but I just thought "Sorry... I didn't choose it, take it up with the Lord!"
 
But on this particular night we happened to have parked about a 10 minute walk away on the same street someone was shot on in November.  On our way to our car we counted 16 police officers running around and 4 patrol cars. As well as 2 people in black hoodies. We finally got to the car and right next to one of our investigators houses there was probably about 10 officers banging on a door demanding it to be opened. They got in and arrested this guy we see almost every day riding his mini bike around. Anyways we decided it might be best to pick a different area to teach in that night. Good thing we've got guardian angels!

Here's a picture of my mission with Elder Ballard and Rasband! I also threw in one of our zone because I love these people. I hope all of you have an amazing week! The gospel is true and God loves you and wants to hear your voice. So pray! :)

Elder Brunsdale

Hermana Guzman's Baptism day!