Hermanita Canchita Mormonita

Yup, that's what you hear when I walk by anyone! haha

How are all you doing?! Sounds like you all had a wonderful week, filled with lots of love (for Valentines Day!) And holy smokes my sister is engaged, I have a new neice, and Elder Del Toro is District Leader?!?! Funny how fast things can change when your not in the thick of things, right?!

This week was way sweet, our numbers might not have been too hot, but we worked really hard and followed the Spirit in everything we did. When I say everything I mean it! We were walking down a street and a few weird things happened and Hermana De Leon just looked at each other and turned around because we did not feel good about it. I don't know if anything happened in that area later.. but oh well! We had a really cool experience this week too, always we have cool experiences.. it's the work of the Lord! haha But we contacted a lady and she told us that her daughter is a member, but inactive. We tried to visit her that day, but she wasn't there. Then someone else in our district asked us about her on yesterday, which was way weird because we had never heard of this lady in the past 10 weeks, and then 2 people told us that we should visit her in the past 2 days! We went and visited her and shared a scripture and she kinda broke down. She had had some rough times in the past 2 days... coincidence? no! So we just talked to her and cleared up some doubts and told her she has 2 best friends, us! It was way sweet.

We had District Conference this Sunday which means President and Hermana Curtiss came up and gave a talk! Hahaha talk about cincho de Presidente :) He had all of the missionaries stand up and told everyone to look at us because we are angels and that they better believe it! And then he explained that we have a rule that we can't be out in the street without a member after 5:30. Then he said 'and you know what happens when they are in their room? Do you want to know? Nothing. Nothing, that's what. ABSOLUTEMENTE nada.' It was the best. All of us missionaries were ABSOLUTEMENTE dying laughing! It's true though, we can't do this work alone, and they want to have a stake, but don't really want to work...

I sure love you all! Have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Hermana Brems

                                                    Proof, I can flip tortillas!
                                               

          From last week, we had gotten soaked like 3 times…this little guy is nuts!

                                  Somewhere over the rainbow :)

                                             We got souvenirs!!!! How cool right?!

                                     Vos! I love this picture…...

                                   Today, just chill in in Flores :)

Seed Planters

Hello Again!

I hope your week was wonderful, I always look forward to hearing from all of you! I am so grateful that I have family and friends that I love and miss, :) I know it's something that not everyone has in the world,

So this week went by way fast, I hardly remember what happened! Everything is just kinda a blurr, everyone told me that would happen and of course I never thought my time would come when I would have those same feelings. But something major did happen that basically changed my mission, I read a talk by Elder Holland, he always lights it up! If I ever need a pep talk for something serious he's going to be the first person I call, (after you mom!). So I knew everything that he said in his talk, but it just hit me this week, I have always known missionary work isn't my work, it's the sacred work of our Heavenly Father, but that really hit me.. I just have to give everything I can and the Lord will point me in the right direction. This work is the most glorious and hardest work in the world, but it's so cool to think that I am on the same team, doing the same thing as the Prophet and Apostles, men we all look up to! How cool is that? It's like  being in the huddle with Larry Fitzgerald, or being on the same relay team as Michael Phelps, but even better!! I only have 15 more months of this work, only 15 months and these men do this work their whole lives without complaining! Okay, who wants to go on a mission now?! Yup, that's how I felt too :)

I don't know why, but Hermana De Leon and I are ALWAYS teaching kids!! We don't look for them, but we always find them... ugh! I really feel like my mission is all about setting an example and planting the seed of the gospel in their hearts. Before my mission I was like, I'm totally going to baptize like 50 people, but I've come to realize, being an example and planting a seed is just as important as having a baptism. Yeah it's cool to say that you had a bunch, but it's just as important to know that someday the people that I'm teaching will be baptized and I had an influence in their lives!

We helped Cony make tortillas.. always haha! We visited her like everyday, just to say hi. We also invited lots of people to be baptized and 2 of the women we are very hopeful! I just love my mission and I know this is the most important work in the world! If you can't tell, I am one happy missionary :)

I love you all and I miss you so much! I'm working as hard as I can :)

Love, Hermanita Brems

(everyone refers to us as HERMANITAS!!)

Have to know the bad to recognize the good!

Hey guys!

Another interesting week in Guatemala! We didn't have any more lizard encounters, thank goodness, but we did have some ups and downs.. again! Ahhh.. haha! But weeks like this just make me realize how Heavenly Father must feel when we make a wrong choice. I absolutely love my job, having the ability to share the gospel with everyone I can and being a representative of Jesus Christ, life doesn't get much better than that right?! 

We started teaching a lady that works in a tortilleria, her name is Cony and she has 3 kids. We shared a little message with her, but she was working so it was hard for her to pay much attention. We made an appointment for another day when she would be on a break in her house. Anyway.. my stories are always so long, sorry! haha When we were planning what we were going to teach the night before the lesson, we had no idea, we prayed that we would know what she needed, but nothing came. We got to her house the next day and still had no idea, let's just say it started our a little awkward, but holy smokes, it got so good after the prayer and song! We invited her to be baptized at the very start of the lesson, we never do that and we both thought it was weird, but she was like, that's exactly what I wanted to talk about today! SAY WHAT?! Yeah, she came to church with us on Sunday, and is super excited for our next cita! We want to start teaching her husband to so she has support from him, and we need to make sure they are married... haha!

Now for the sad part... Carlos broke our hearts this week. On Wednesday he was totally fine, totally happy and still shining bright like a diamond, then came Saturday.. he was a totally different person. He told us he had a dream and that in his dream he was told that another church would bring him more blessings in his life.. we were like okay, but we know this church is true and you do too! And then he told us that we couldn't know anything is true about this church. Hna De Leon and I literally teared up in the lesson. We both bore our testimonies to him, but he wouldn't listen. His whole countenance had changed, he wouldn't smile, he wasn't paying attention, and he just had a dark cloud over his head.. 

It's a new week though, we're working so hard and trying our best! I love you all so much! Thanks for your letters and support!

Love,

Hermana Brems

                 This is how I feel when I study Spanish…all of those words are for the word 'get'                                                                        

                            Woohoo! We didn't drive it, don't worry!

                                 Carambola fruit, how cool huh?!

                    He was a little angry!! I didn't want to get too close!

            That's what I call a hill! (Hermana Brems is standing at the top)

                           A little slice of heaven! I mean my area...

Y azucar?

Hola everyone!

How was your week?! Mine was pretty great in here Guatemala, like always! We didn't have as much success as usual, but we realized that this change we are supposed to learn patience. Patience with our investigators, members, ourselves.. everything! haha But it's great and we're working hard!

I realized this week that I know spanish grammer so much better than English grammer. Lots of people ask me for help with their English homework and I can't explain why the past tense of 'run' is 'ran' or 'understand' is 'understood' sorry! But I can explain to them things they have never heard of! this week I realized, I think I'm going crazy! We had English lessons and they wanted to learn a song and I had the hardest time remembering it in English.. maybe it's because we sing it at least once a day in spanish in the lessons, but man! Sometimes I'll be saying a sentence to Hermana De Leon and I don't know how to say what I want in English or Spanish.. this is a dilemma for sure! haha

We had the weirdest lesson Hermana De Leon said she's ever taught, and she has 11 months in the mission so that's saying something! It started out great, the family was way receptive and nice, we were just getting to know each other, how many years we have, what we like to do.. just so they didn't feel like they were talking to strangers! We were getting ready to singe when a lizard fell on Hermana De Leon!! She flipped it on our member, Maidely, who then stood up and started squealing in terror, when I realized what was happening I stood up and started squealing likewise! Great first impression right?! So we calmed down, sang, said the prayer and were getting ready to start when Maidely taps me on the shoulder when I had my back turned.. I thought a lizard fell on me, I FREAKED!! No good.. but I calmed down, kind of, I jumped everytime a bug landed on me! We invited them to be baptized and the wife said yes, then we turned to the husband.. oh boy. He aksed why we couldn't drink coffee, we didn't bring that up at all, but we quickly addressed his question. He then aksed us, okay, if coffee is bad for you, what about sugar? Sugar?? When he said that, haha you should have seen the look on his wife's face! He went on and on about sugar, and pills... it was just weird. After all of that, they are moving so we can't visit them again.. oh well! 

I hope you all have a fantastic last week of January! Love you all so much :)
Love your favorite Hermana,

Hermana Brems

Alguien, Ayudenos!!

Hello hello family and friends!!

What a week, I don't even know where to start there are so many stories! Hermana De Leon and I are still companions!! Woohoo!! And we had a little guest visit our house this week, dang lizards, I swear they can smell fear and like to torment  me wherever I am. We came home from a long day and there a lizard was on the wall, Hermana De Leon is scared of them too so we were in big trouble! After trying to figure out what to do and creating many strategies that we never actually tried because that would mean one of us would have to go near the ugly thing, we decided to just sit on the other side of the room and try to not think about it.. I thought I was being very helpful though by saying Alguien ayudenos (someone, help us) out the door :) 

Okay, now to the good stuff!  It was like 8:20 and our member had to go which meant we couldn't teach any more lessons, Hna De Leon was like, well let's go home! I didn't want to though because we still had 40 more minutes left in the day! We made a deal that we were going to knock on 5 doors and then we could go home, my idea! haha We knocked on doors 1 and 2 sin exito, then door 3 came. We knocked and like 8 girls answered, it was a mom and her daughters. We made an appointment to come back another day and explain our message and why we were here knocking on their door! We went and had a lesson and found out that they really need the gospel in their lives, everyone needs it, but these girls are ready to have it, especially Leslie. She's my favorite investigator so far. Everytime I teach her I can just relate, she said that she felt that she was so alone in the world. I shared that sometimes I feel like that too, I have a hard time understanding people and I can't talk very well and it becomes very lonely at times, but I have faith that everything will be okay and whenever I feel alone I pray. I challenged her to do the same! We went back another day for a lesson and she told us that she was unhappy and she had a ton of laundry to fold. Before the lesson we helped her finish folding laundry and she started to cry! She has to work so much and doesn't have time to take care of her son, so her sister in law is taking him.. I felt so bad :( I have so much hope for her, she just needs to come to church, but because of work, she can't.. ugh!

Carlos is still doing great, smart as ever and so ecstatic and filled with the light of Christ already! He told me my Spanish was really good, but sometimes he has a hard time understanding me haha toda dia cada dia..!

Oh, we were waiting for our member to get ready and her daughter was making tortillas so we decided to help. I'm basically a latino when it comes to tortillas.. I can shape them and flip them over!! Hermana De Leon hasn't mastered flipping them yet.. heehee! I might not be very good at spanish, but I can flip tortillas :) 

 I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week :)

Love your favorite Hermana,

Hermana Brems

                    It wasn't raining 2 minutes before this picture! I definitely wasn't dressed correctly!

                                              For you momma! The moon!

                                    English lessons! They wanted to know animals….:) heehee!

                                                         Classic!

                                           Tuk Tuk, our Taxis when we need them!

Es Typico!

Why hello!

I hope you are all doing well and keeping busy :) I sure miss everyone, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here, serving the Lord! We didn't have a whole lot going on this week, we had divisions Tuesday, a zone meeting Wednesday and then Interviews with President and his wife Thursday. Both of the meetings went a lot longer than expected so basically 3 days we didn't get to work a whole lot, I was pretty bummed.. but what can ya do right? Yesterday we went to pick up Carlos from his house to take him to church, we were running late, chapin time of course, but we found him like half way to the church! The little guy started walking without us! haha Then in Sacrament Meeting I had my eyes closed, just thinking, then the Branch President got up and started talking after it, I still had my eyes closed and Carlos taps my arm and is like, esta dormiendo?? Or are you sleeping? Dang it kid! I was just resting my eyes for like 5 minutes, give me a break! 

We were contacting a guy the other day and we gave him a pamphlet and aked where he lived and if he had a phone number. He told us he didn't have a phone so we couldn't call him. As we were saying goodbye we heard something start ringing and then we just see his eyes get really big and he was like, umm adios! haha The same thing happened 2 more times this week, es typico, silly Guatemalans I guess!

Today we went to Tikal!!!! Ahhh so fun :) That's where all the ruins and temples are! There were tons of tourists having a great time, but I think we enjoyed ourselves the most because we knew the background story to all of these temples! I could just picture Nephi, Alma, Moroni, and a bunch of the Book of Mormon stories and prophets taking place in that area! Ah, bien chilerro. 

Well, that's all for this week folks! Changes are coming up this week and Hermana De Leon thinks she's gonna be changed, she's a sister trainer so she might have another newbe to train. We'll see this week I guess! Have a wonderful week, I love you and I'm so thankful for all of your support :)

Love,

Hermana Brems

                                             Repping a little Mexican wear :)

                                                              Tikal

Chapinga

Happy New Year family and friends!!

I hope everyones new year was fantastic, ours was pretty 'tranquila' haha! We were invited over to a members house for dinner, but she hadn't even started making it when we got over to her house.. chapinos.. haha So we helped her for a little while, in the end, we didn't get to eat at her house, but thankfully we had some tomales in the freezer and some cookies, so we partied! I never realized how soundly I slept, I didn't even hear the fireworks in our street at midnight! Hermana De Leon woke up so tired and I was like, what wrong?! She said the windows to our house were shaking and she couldn't sleep from the noise! oops!

This week has been pretty good, nothing too exciting happened until the weekend! On Saturday I taught English lessons, there's an Elder from Brazil that teaches Portuguese and Hermana De Leon and I teach English, it's pretty fun! I'm glad I paid attention in Kindergarten because songs are really helpful! Last week I taught them the ABC's song and this past Saturday I taught them head, shoulders, knees, and toes. It's actually benefitting me teaching English, because I learn spanish words as well, love it!

Okay now to the good stuff, the most amazing thing happened yesterday!! Sunday morning we always go and pick up our investigators, most of the time they can't come for some reason or another, but that's alright! We were doing our rounds and we just decided to go to Carlos' house, he's an 11 year old boy that we had taught once. We weren't going to get him because his house is way far away, but I am so glad we did! It was fast and testimony meeting so Hermana De Leon and I bore our testimonies, and after we sat down Carlos asked if he could share his. We just looked at each other and were like, uh yeah! What are you going to say?! It's his first time going to church and he bore his testimony!!! After church we were asking him what he thought about it and he told us, he wanted to be baptized and is ready. Uhhh.. dream investigator or what?! We went over to his house after church, he asked us to, to share a little message and extended the baptismal committment. We need to get permission from his mom because he's only 11 and he has to attend 7 times, but he will be baptized March 1st!

I hope you all had a fantastic week :) I love you all so much and I am loving the work! Spanish is coming along, I'm starting to connect the dots with this beautiful language, but it's taking it's time and I'm practicing patience :) haha! Love you!

Love, Hermana Brems

                                           We walked with this butterfly for like a mile! haha

                                                 One huge rooster! Holy smokes haha :)