Un Boracho? Si!!!

I hope everyone had a very very Merry Christmas, mine was wonderful, talking to the family was the best part! I love my family and hearing their voices is music to my ears :) Christmas day we were working in the area and passed a drunk guy (boracho) and he said, oh hi, and we said buenos and kepts walking, picking up our pace, he stood up and started following us, then we started running and he started running!! We were panicking, it's hard enough running with a backpack, but in a dress as well just adds to it! Anyway, he chased us for a few block and we passed a lady and she was like un boracho? we were like uh SI!!!!! thinking she would help, she thought it was funny... punk. But it sure made the day interesting! For Christmas Eve we were invited over for tamales, the tamales here are different, their soupy and need to be eaten with a spoon and have a chunk of meat and bone in the middle, but they are kinda tasty! We also were invited over for a BBQ and we cooked the meat, it was fun! But they had meat like intestines, liver, heart, some things I didn't know/want to know... 

We had a Sunday of miracles yesterday, we were running a little late and I said I hope there's a taxi outside, because there never is by our house, we walked out and there one was! We picked up Jorge, Virctoria and their little brother then went to see if another new investigator that we had taught once wanted to come, he was all ready and waiting for us, his name is Marlon, he's 16 (he told my comp he's always wanted to be in this church! -golden). We were walking to the bus stop and a taxi passed us and said he'd give us a free ride with all of the investigators! Woot woot! It was a miracle that Jorge came as well because Saturday he was in huge trouble with his family and the police, he had stolen money and the police went to his house... we're not sure if he'll be allowed to be baptized, we're praying our hearts out that he changes his ways...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2015 is going to be a wonderful year, I can't wait to get it started :) and GO BRONCOS!!! Love you all :)

Love, Hermana Brems

                                                        "Pam"

                                                 Last P day in Salama

                                               Hna Pedrina

                                           Cooking the meat

                                                         Meat

                                                         Christmas Jammies

                                 Buenas Dias!!! Christmas morning after not sleeping all night.

                                           Christmas Day - New Outfits

                                   I thought about you guys all day Saturday!

                                Our Sunday best - and new outfits :)

Navidad Navidad!!!

It's Christmas time!!! Hermana Portillo and I are more than excited, we are always saying, Navidad Navidad and singing Christmas hymns and always have our tree lights on and we have lots of fun plans for the week :) Ahhh and I am SO SO SO excited to talk to my family, best Christmas present EVER! We had the Christmas Zone Conference this week, we focused a ton on the Book of Mormon, president was like, elders and hermanas, we're not selling bread, don't be quiet or shy about giving away a Book of Mormon, it's the most special book/thing anyone can have in their life. o we're not selling bread, we're bringing Salvation to these people, even if their hearts are hard.. haha We also watched Frozen and I saw Hermana To'a!!! I literally jumped in her arms, it was so fun to see her again! We have a super special new investigator, he was a reference and is so ready to be baptized, I asked him what he likes to do and he was like 'learn the truth' I told him, oh great, you're talking to the right people then! haha But we taught him with a member and I asked him if he would prepare to be baptized for the 31st of January and the member was like, that's really soon right... AHHH I almost hit her in the face! haha no no no, it is never too soon to be baptized. But we're working with him, he'll come around to the baptism date! So did I mention I'm super excited for Christmas and I am super proud of my sister Sari!! She's getting married this saturday, I am so proud of you sissy and I will be thinking about you so much :) Jordan is a lucky guy! Well I love you all so much, have the Merriest Christmas :)

Love, Hermana Brems 

                                                              I bought this beauty :)

                       The bus ride to Coban. he ended up sleeping on my shoulder...

                                                                    Hna To'a!!!!!

He's a mean one Mr. Gripe

Why hello hello!

How are all of you this lovely day/week?! We had a great week here in Salama, except I got the gripe (the flu) :( it was horrible and my voice still sounds very manly, but I'm feeling much better! The one good thing about being sick wa it was a great excuse to drink hot chocolate and have our nightly planning in front of the Christmas Tree :) That's all I wanted to do and Hermana Portillo didn't mind, when life gives you lemons right?! 

It looks like we have a new little missionary here in Salama, Rebeca gave us her cousin as a reference, we visisted him and he is just as sweet as she is! His family.... uhh we need to work on them, but he accepted a baptism date, it's just his fam that might hold him up.... we have FAITH! We also have 2 little girls, Jennifer and Jaime that have been investigating the church for like 2 years that have a baptism date, they really really want to get baptized, but just need permission from their mom who lives in Costa Rica, but is coming the 20th of this month. We're praying super hard that she gives them permission because they really want to be members!!! haha Yesterday in church we had more investigators come than I've ever had in my mission :) 7 was the lucky number and boy were we SO stoked :) We literally were running in the morning to pick up everyone, running during church to make sure they were all in their correct class, and running after to get them home.. we were exhausted last night, but totally worth it :)

Something kinda funny/sad happened. The gal that we invited and she thanked us for the invitation to be baptized, told us to come to her house at 9 am one day. Ugh, we had to change our whole day because of that, well our whole morning, so we got to her house at 9 and she told us not to visit her again! What the heck?! But we just kinda laughed and went on with the day, she'll come around someday! Well sure love you guys, thanks for everything :)

Love, Hermana Brems

                                                       Bathroom Pic:)

                                      Christmas Party…it was freezing!!!!!

                                        Teaching the duck face;)

                                                           So relaxing!!!!!

                                      The things I bought for the missionaries

                                                       Puppy love!

                                               

Make it 8, we'll make it Great!!

Hello hello everyone!

We had changes this week, but Hermana Portillo and I are staying together!! Woop woop and this change is special because it's 8 weeks instead of 6... we're excited to spend Christmas together, we decorated the house today :) It might have made us a little homesick, but in a good way :) I'm so thankful that I have family and friends that make me homesick, how lucky can a girl be?! Well Rebeca is offically a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!! Let's just say the baptism didn't go smooth as butter, but she's baptized and that's all that counts! She is so happy and such a good example to her family, she loves church and reading the Book of Mormon! This week, we had the worst day you can imagine.. like I'm pretty sure everyone talked the day before and decided to not open their doors. Instead they slammed the doors in our faces, called us names and even laughed at us! It was miserable, but we tried to keep a positive attitude. When we got home I told Hermana Portillo we were going to paint our nails... we needed something to perk us up! As we were painting our nails we were watching some Mormon Messages and one of them was a talk that Elder Holland gave to mission presidents. He said when missionaries wonder why nobody is progressing, why nobody will open their door, and why misionary work is hard, remind them that Salvation was never easy. The more perfect man in the world wondered if there was an easier way when he was spit upon, rejected, beaten, but there wasn't. If there wasn't an easier way out for Him, why would missionary work be easy? We're walking shoulder to shoulder with Him. It touched me so much, it's so true, this work is hard, it's tough, but it's the work of the Lord! We had a great zone meeting talking about the new Christmas video and we got a ton of pass along cards, the video is awesome!! We've showed it to a bunch of people and they love it. One last story, we were teaching a gal, she's a cousin of a member, and I invited her to be baptized and she said, wow thank you for the invitation, yes! I was like... wait, did you just say thank you? She said she really wants to change and the invitation to be baptized is her invitation to a new life! I love you all :)

Love, Hermana Brems

              Jenna didn't put a caption for this picture, I think she wanted us to figure it out for ourselves. To me (Mom) she is telling us either: 1) I admire her strength of spirit or 2) a message of encouragement or 3) the idea was uppermost in everyone's thoughts or minds (Christ and Christmas)…take your pick, either way I love that little message and most of all that cute little face!!!!!

                       Cute Hermana's sharing the Gift at Christmas with Hermana Pack!

     Hermana Brems and Hermana Portillo with Rebeca at her baptism. Jenna looks like a 5'1" giant!

                                                 And Christmas finally arrived!!!!

                                                    Christmas pillow cases!!!!!

                                Christmas in Guatemala. Santa knew where to find her:)

Hey Hey Hey

Hey hey hey!

Well another week down, can you believe it?! Everyone looked like they enjoyed their Thanksgiving, I did too :) The whole zone was invited over and they had turkey, rolls, pumpkin pie, and that was pretty much it for the American food. They also had rice (substitute for mashed potatoes) and a vegetable salad thing, but here the people LOVE their mayo, like they put it on everything. So it was just cooked vegetable with mayo... But it was super fun and delicious :) Surprisingly, nobody was in a very Thanksgiving mood on Thanksgiving, we had 2 investigators tell us to not come back... even after we just finished doing service for the lady for like an hour.. what the heck right?! Rebeca is getting baptized this saturday!!! We have been praying for her like CRAZY so she will understand and gain a testimony of what we are teaching her.. the power of prayer is, well, powerful!! haha She's doing so great and loves the church :) We're super excited. We also found a friend for her mom, her mom can't read and there's a convert that can't read either and she's an older lady.. perfect right? My comp thought I was so mean, but hey it works right? This week it was the birthday of one of the hermana's in my district, Hna Pack, she's from Pleasant Grove Utah, she and her comp don't get along super super well, so I knew I had to do something to make her birthday special! We planned a surprise party for her during district meeting, the Elders decorated and I bought her a cake and juice. When we went to buy the cake we chose one because the lady said it was chocolate, perfect! We were waiting for them to box it up and I was looking at the picutres of the cakes and the names of them and noticed the cake we chose was called Tiramisu.. well usually that's coffee. I asked the lady (who is a member) if the cake has coffee in it. She said no ad showed us the ingredients. There was one ingredient that I didn't know, and she didn't know either, but she said it's probably a kind of chocolate. We were going to be sharing this cake with missionaries and the Zone leaders so I wanted to be sure. I asked if she would call the company and ask what the ingredient was... well sure enough it was a type of alcohol!!!! Ahhh can you imagine? haha But she was like, you gals really do listen to the spirit, thank you, I'm never ordering the cake again! It was pretty funny, and Hna Pack loved her surprise party even with a fruit cake :) haha Have a great week! Love you!

Love, Hermana Brems

                                                  Sisters on Thanksgiving!

Cake!!!

                                               We're like best friends! (Hermana Pack)

                                           The whole district on Hermana Pack's bday.

                                                      A little cold on Thanksgiving!

                                                  Thanksgiving Dinner!

                                              The whole District at Thanksgiving Dinner!!

                                                       Can we say Yummy?

                                                               The car ride back

                                       Trying to warm up with hot chocolate Sunday morning!

An Attitude of Gratitude :)

Hello hello family and friends!!

This week was so great, every week is always so different and a nice surprise so it makes the time go by way fast! Can you believe I've been back for 2 months? So so so crazy. And it's Thanksgiving Thursday and we're a month away from Christmas. ALL of the missionaries in both zones are invited over to a members house for Thanksgiving, I'm way excitied :) I'm praying for mashed potatoes and stuffing! (I know the rolls won't even come close to those of my mom's so I'm not thinking of those..) haha Something funny, we had a zone fast this week, we start after lunch and fast until the next afternoon, finishing right before lunch. The member that makes us lunch didn't have anything ready for us the day we finished our 24 hour fast... we were starving, so she went and bought 4 hot dogs (which are about 3 inches long) and an advocado.. that was our lunch after fasting.. 2 hot dog and a half of an advocdo, and grape soda.. an attitude of gratitude, I'm thankful for the food.. :) But this week we had a surprise visit from President and Hermana Curtiss! They shared a talk with us from Jeffrey R. Holland about the Godhead and told us how we need to focus on teaching that because the investigators can't progress if they don't know who their Heavenly Father is. After we watched the talk we did practices, but in front of everyone. Hermana Pack (not my comp) and I were told we were going to teach President in front of everyone (keep calm keep calm) haha but we taught him and I asked a question and he had us stop after I asked a question. He asked all of the misionaries in the room if they felt the atmosphere change after the question, because it was inspired. SO COOL RIGHT?!?! I don't even remember what I said so it definitely didn't come from my mind haha. We had such a good lesson with Rebeca, the first one this week her dad signed her paper to get baptized WOOOOOT WOOOOOOT it's basically official now, we were kinda worried, but he signed it willy nilly :) The next lesson we had with her we got to her house and her mom let us in, but she wasn't there.. she was with her aunt in a different sector of the area. We called her and she came in about 15 minutes later gasping for air.. she ran at least 1/2 a mile to come and listen to us, she's a sweetheart. We've been worried because she's a little slow at learning, in her house they speak Q'ecxi (a mayan dialogue) but we got there and she had learned so much!! The power of prayer :) Her dad came in and was drunk and made her mom cry.. she was saying she doesn't have any money to buy food or her son shoes, but she works so hard, the husband takes all of the money and spends it on alcohol. So after Hna Portillo and I went and bought a few things and did a knock and run, but they came looking for us... so much for being a surprise... haha! As per Thanksgiving tradition, I am so thankful for 1. My family, for their love, support, prayers, and examples. I am so blessed that they raised me in the gospel. I am thankful for my ancestors for paving the way for me and for blessing me with wonderful and strong grandparents and parents 2. I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, I know it i the only true happiness that there is in this world. Without it, I would be so lost. I am so thankful that I get to share this message with everyone I come in contact with as well. And 3. I am so thankful for my Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, for their sacrifices that they made for me, that I may be able to return to live with them again with my family forever. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week :) and Happy Thanksgiving :)

Love, Hermanita Brems

         Sometimes you just gotta take a nap with a bolo (drunk person) (Mom asked what she would have done if he woke up!!!!) Good thing she can run fast!!!!

                                                                     My Box!!!

                                                                  Letters!!!!!

                                                   Our nails match the autumn leaves!

                                                            Fall decorations!!

Rebeca (in the pink), her mom Margarita and little brother Carlos (notice their shoes, I bought them for them) and Jennifer. Margarita is wearing the traditional clothes, so pretty right?!

  Familia Salvador (the son is leaving for the Mexico Guadalajara East mission tomorrow!)

                                        We got shots (I went first, everyone was scared) before!

                                                                    During...

                                                                     After!

 I was waiting and waiting and waiting for my comp, I had no idea what she was doing…sleeping!!!! Hermana Portillo hahaha!!! It was so funny!

I Lovey You

Why hello everyone!

We had such a good week this week :) Hermana Portillo and I are working together so well and getting along great, she is a sweetheart and is learning so much and improving her teaching skills daily, it's amazing to watch her grow and be more comfortable! Something pretty funny happened this week, the people (men) here like to practice their english on me, usually they only know ´hey baby´ 'are you single?' 'I love you...' great stuff like that! We were walking to an appointement and this guy was walking toward us and stops all of a sudden, slaps himself and says 'oh my gosh, I lovey you.' I gave him a head nod and told hermana Portillo to walk fast! As we were walking away he just kept saying I lovey you, come back, I lovey you.. it was very flattering to say the least. :) haha We've been working more and more with the members, asking them for references and teaching their friends with them present. So far so good! That's how we met our cute little Rebekah and also we have a new investigator and he has a date to be baptized, but we'll see! We have hope, but he still needs to go to church a few times. His name is Steven and he is 18 years old, he's a student of one of the members, he told the member that he wanted to change his life for the better so the member gave us a call! So far so good :) The hardest thing for the people here is to go to church, that is the hardest thing for all of the missionaries in all of the mission, none of the investigators want to go to church, and it doesn't help that we have to take a 20 minute bus trip to get to the building. If they only knew with greater sacrifices comes even greater blessings! We're ready to have another great week and ready to work super hard as always! I sure love you all :) Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Love, Hermana Brems

                When your companion desperately wants applesauce…you revert to Gerber

                                    Mission Leader, we bought him a cake!!!

                                                I was making a "D!"

                                                                   Twins:)

                                                        Always sharing!!!!!

                                                  Hiking in green Guatemala!!!!!