Children's Prayers are Adorable!

Hola,

I watched the Saturday afternoon session of conference and President Monson’s talk in English. It was amazing! Wasn’t it!? I was sad to see President Monson’s health failing. He looked like he was going to fall over any second. He just kept sliding down. I am going to pray extra hard for him. I saw the Womens Conference in English too. I actually understood a lot of the talks in Spanish. I was impressed with myself, but I am still excited to read them in English.

This next week we have Noche de Hispanidad. Everyone is dancing and bringing food from their countries. It is going to be a fiesta. They primary kids were practicing. It was super cute and they let us practice with them for a little bit. They let us wear their hats. The Cortez branch is great- they take every chance they can get to have a fiesta- I love Latinos haha

A few fun things I enjoyed this week:   Children's prayers are adorable!

One said this: "We liberty and respect you. Just to say thank you, we have a special gift...."

On another occasion he said this, "We pledge allegiance to You and the flag"

I was laughing so hard during the prayer. I couldn't help it. It reminded me of Christmas vacation and I was just dying.

So cute- so cute!

Also, getting complaints from investigators is fun. The best complaint we got this week was. "All I see is green! I need more color in my life!" it was from an investigator who works in lawn maintenance. I just laughed!

Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE! We walked outside on Saturday morning and it was a great surprise! I almost tripped on it because I wasn't looking for it. Haha.  It was perfect! Hermana Jahnel was happy too. We opened it that night and she was excited. She is excited about the mac and cheese! I guess they don’t' have it in Paraguay? I was excited about the contacts so I could see. :)

I loved your letter. Sorry about the rat, but I laughed really hard when I read that!

Also, the primary kids are so cute! They made me laugh so hard with their letters. I loved hearing from them. Please tell them Thank you for me!

I love you so much!

Love the sunsets

cute little photo bomber

Finding Strength in the Lord

Hi Everybody,

My cute little friends were baptized this week. It was pretty good. The little boy started crying because he is scared of water (and he is autistic) but he did great. He was so happy after. Here's something a little strange- the primary president gave them both necklaces to welcome them to primary. I thought that was nice until I saw them. They are crosses!! What? I thought we didn't do that in this church? Weird.. oh well.

Also, their older sister wants to take the lessons. She has taken them before and had a baptismal date and everything (a few years ago), but canceled it the day of. Please pray for us and her. We are trying to be very bold and loving.

The 4 min Restoration has brought so many blessings this week. The other day we taught a man standing at his door. We didn't even finish before he said, "Can you come back to teach this again so my whole family can hear it?" W-O-W!

You can imagine our response.

I am doing a lot better -I am overcoming Satan. Sometimes I just want to sing "VICTORY, VICTORY" the way Tim does (and sometimes I do) it actually helps me. The other day Satan made me laugh. He is pretty good at getting to me when it comes to self-confidence, but I have been working hard and I am totally kicking his butt! He has tried a new approach this week- Drugs. We met a man and he was crazy! Saying, "I’m a missionary too! I have been traveling all over South America and my church is doing great. It's a non-religious church. Genesis 2, ever heard of it? Well, yeah.. We had to make it into a church because otherwise it would be illegal. It's really good- we need to use all the plants that god has given to us. Do you like to get high?" *offers us multiple types of different drugs* "It's so great. Here is our card. You can look us up or call us or whatever." blah blah blah.. Oh I just wanted to laugh my head off. He was so ridiculous. We were conversing a little bit about what Mormons believe. He was telling us that Jesus Christ didn't establish his church- I asked him about the 12 apostles and how that would work if Christ didn't call them to discipleship. He said they were already apostles before Christ came. WHAT? umm.. you can check me on this, but I am pretty sure they were fisherman. I had so many things to say to him, but basically I just cried repentance and walked away. What is this world coming to? Hermana Jahnel was so funny. On our way home that night she told me that she just wanted to say "See you on judgment day!" haha It was really cute and funny with her accent.

This week in sacrament meeting all of the YM in the branch bore their testimonies. It brought a special spirit. It was so powerful.

We had a lunch with our branch president this week. We had tostadas. It was really funny because they had this really spicy sauce and it was so good. They were really surprised at how much I liked it- they thought it was going to be too spicy for me. It made them all laugh because I love spicy food and my companion hates it. It was a good meeting.

It has been very cloudy here- so humid. My skin is melting off my body as we speak haha. I miss my desert weather. However- I LOVE all the lightning and thunder here! It is one of my favorite things (along with the sunsets and sunrises.) Florida is so beautiful.

I am SO EXCITED to watch General Conference this weekend!!!!

The only bad thing is that I am going to watch it in Spanish :/

Did you get a chance to watch the general women’s broadcast? It was SO GOOD!

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to the Orlando Temple. That’s about all I have time for.  I love you and appreciate all your prayers!

Love,

Hermana Bryan

Our baptisms this week!

I thought about Ethan and his family when we drove past this!

This is the group of Sisters that attended the temple with me.

Such an amazing experience!

The church is TRUE!

I love the Temple!

This week has been great! We are teaching the restoration in 4 min!! It is hard but the key is filling the time with the words that count rather than as many words as you can. I love it and it is powerful.

We had the police following us one day. He called us over and asked what we were doing. He told us we were doing a great work and that he appreciated the efforts. He then proceeded to tell us that we were in the most dangerous part of our area and that we should be very, very careful! We are going to avoid that area from now on - don’t worry!

We have a baptism this Saturday for an 8 and 10 year old (in English).

I am so excited for them. The 10 year old says the sweetest prayers! She always says things like, “I am really grateful for your ability to love and give us families and forgive us” and “I hope that when I grow up and die I can live in the celestial kingdom with you and Jesus and my family. I am really sorry for all the bad things I have done in my life and I mean it!”

She is absolutely adorable!

The Elders are helping a lot. They intimidate me with their Spanish, but it’s okay! They are native. I just take it as another wonderful opportunity I’ve been given to learn from those that have it mastered!

I was able to go to the temple this week with my companion. It was an amazing experience. We were able to each ask a question to the temple president.

I am so excited for General Conference! Eager to hear who our new apostles will be.

Here are some fun pictures I thought you’d enjoy.

I love you!

We were so happy to get to go to the temple!

I thought this was strange. Not 15 not 20 but 18?

Lucky Temple Day

Hi Mom,

I didn’t get Grandma’s letter yet. Mom, your email was so sad! I am just sitting here crying in public. I am so grateful that I got a chance to say goodbye to Grandpa before I left. I know he was ready to go and it makes me happy that now he can be with Grandma.

It has been raining here a lot. Also, I have some bad news and some good news. I’ll start with the bad news.

I will not be emailing you next Monday.

Good News:

            I AM GOING TO THE TEMPLE NEXT WEEK! I will have Thursday as my P day and will email you then. I am so excited! We have to be at the mission office at 5:45 AM and it takes an hour to get there. We are going to be so tired but I am sooooo excited! Hermana Jahnel is one year into her mission and they are letting her go. I am the lucky companion who gets to go with her!

This week was a difficult week. We are trying to find people to teach but everyone seems to be far busier than God intended. We have had a lot of first lessons and canceled seconds. It is frustration at times but never to hard to handle. God knows us perfectly and is always giving us tender mercies. It is just up to us to recognize them.

This week the dad of the family we baptized came to church. (AGAIN)! Although he has not yet accepted to meet with us to learn more, his progression is such a miracle. I remember the first time Hermana Jahnel and I saw him. We were actually scared of him. His wife was afraid to talk to him about church too. It took a while for us to get permission for them to be baptized. But we planned their baptism around his schedule so he could come. I remember seeing them walk into the church together. It was a miracle that he was there. Then he smiled, which was another miracle in and of it’s self! He attended the following Sunday to see them be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost. This week we were teaching them in their home and he walked by. We (again) invited him to pray with us-  This time instead of saying “no” he said, “I am busy.” His wife replied, “It’s okay,  We will wait.”

It was a very special moment of kneeling on the floor waiting for the dad. Finally he came and knelt down with us. His wife then offered a beautiful prayer in which she expressed how grateful she was for the gospel and asked God to help her husband learn more. This Sunday he came again. We are so excited to see his progression. We are looking forward to the day they will be sealed as a family and we know that it will start with his baptism. We are going to continue working hard to teach and baptize him.

I have a zone conference this Wednesday instead of a district meeting. I don’t know what we are going to talk about but I know that it will be good. I am excited!

This week I met a prophet! HAHAHA

Some crazy woman was telling us that she was called directly from God and received the Holy Spirit when she was standing next to a church one day. That was a hard lesson!

Last week Hermana Jahnel and I went to Goodwill (like DI) and got a new skirt. I love my Taos. They are keeping my feet healthy. Thank you for getting them for me!

I am so grateful for Hermana Jahnel! I used to think she is patient but now I KNOW it! I have been struggling so much with my confidence these past few weeks. She helps me remember that my confidence comes from the Lord and his atonement, not from myself. I am okay if I mess up as long as I am trying my hardest. I don’t know why I have been so sensitive lately. I get so frustrated with the smallest things. She is helping me to communicate and express my feelings rather than keeping them all bottled up inside me.  I get so frustrated because my body doesn’t move the way it should. Satan is good at putting discouraging thoughts in my head! I am just trying to do my best to learn from all the experiences I am having.

Remember to smile. I am alright and am working hard! I love it here  J.

Te amo,

Hermana Bryan