Called as Sister Training Leader's

Something crazy happened. We have been called as the sister training leaders. I am sooo not qualified for that! I guess the Lord calls the weak and the simple. I am trusting 100% in the Lord! If He wants me to, then I will! We are going to do an exchange for the first time this week. I have never done one before! They are on an "as-needed" basis. So I guess it's good that I never had one. I have heard there is some drama with other sisters but I love all the sisters in my zone.

We got the call to be STLs when we were role-playing in the driveway of an investigators house. She is a great lady, but struggles with gender issues. And we were going to teach the law of chastity. Hermana Jahnel told me that the law of chastity is the hardest one because of the language and that she would let me do it and just add thoughts that came to her mind and comment as prompted by the spirit. I was so scared out of my mind! So when we got the call at that moment, we were both experiencing stress.

We prayed really hard and the Lord helped us to be focused on the lesson. We keep in mind "All I have to do right now is.... " and it helps us. We taught it then went back to teach another lesson and ended up teaching the law of chastity again.. ah it is so hard! I don't know all the answers and I ended up just telling her that I had never taught in this situation before so I would have to get back to her. We asked all the elders and sisters and leaders and it’s so hard to know. I think she will be baptized next month though. We will have to wait and see.

Here is something funny/sad.

We attended the English ward this week and there was an old lady speaking.

She ended her talk by saying "I pray that this will be my last talk. I don't want to do this again" On the way down from the pulpit she tripped down the stairs. It was scary at first but she was fine. When we went home for dinner I laughed for so long because God answered her prayer so fast! Careful what you ask for. hahaha

We are going to have a chili cook off for Halloween in our branch- I am so excited.

As sister training leaders we were privileged enough to go to a special training by Elder Soares of the 70. He is from Brazil and spoke Portuguese with Hermana Jahnel for a while after. It was training on how we can better work with our wards and stakes. Also, as leaders in the mission he shared 1 Nephi 3:7. I know this scripture very well but it had new meaning this time around. Nephi didn't say he would go and do it because his leaders said so or because his dad said so. It was because the Lord asked him to. The same is with us. When we receive advice from our leaders it is really the Lord asking us to do it. This can especially relate to the standards of excellence or acceptable performance standards. They are from the Lord, not President Cusick. I really liked that.

Well, I have to go now. If I don’t stand up to leave Hermana Jahnel might never finish and we still have a lot to do today. I love you all so much!!

Make it a great week and I will talk to you next Monday!

Also, Tim gets my prayer day this week

Love,

Hermana Bryan

Meeting with Elder Soares of the Seventy

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6 Months Already

We taught 28 lessons this week - we're on fire!

Also, guess who got transferred? 

NOT ME AND NOT HERMANA JAHNEL!!

I am so excited we get to stay together again!! This is going to make 6 months together- can you believe that? I am very happy and so is she.

Also, today makes 6 months in the mission. WHOA.. right? Time is going too fast. I really hope they extend girls missions to 2 years this next conference. (;

What a great week! It all started last Tuesday when we were informed that we had done away with the “Standards of Excellence. Don’t worry, there is a replacement - Acceptable performance Standards. It's a little more tricky.

Speaking of tricky- that is one of the words that Hermana Jahnel uses now because I say it a lot. It is funny to see how she repeats things I say a lot.

This Friday we are having "Noche de Hispanidad" It is an activity that the rama is doing. It is going to be so fun- music and dancing and food. Rama Cortez really knows how to have a party. All the different countries are going to have a table with food and fun stuff. The missionaries are in charge of having their own table too. The elders are going to make PB&J's and the Hermanas are bringing brownies (because we did it once and now they ask us to do it every time).

This week something crazy happened. Someone actually called us because they got one of our mormon.org cards. THAT NEVER HAPPENS.I always thought they were the most unproductive things ever. Guess I was wrong!

Today we were walking and this old guy came up to me and started singing... Very Loud! in Spanish. I had no clue what he was saying. I tried to look for my companion for help but she just laughed and let it happen. Pretty soon people were circling around us watching the awkwardness. I had no clue what to do!! I mean, I could have sang with him if I knew the words, but I didn't. So I said thanks and invited him to our activity on Friday haha.  

We taught a man yesterday who told us what he believed about the creation and Adam and Eve and all that. He is so close but has a few things he needs to straighten out. We will continue to work with him. Please pray for him to open his heart and to learn by the spirit.

I love it here!

Talk to you next week.

Hermana Bryan

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!