Pensamientos Delgaditos!

Hello again!

How is everyone?! Another great week in Guate, as always, the weather has been nice to us, but everyone says it's just a tease, the real heat is gonna come in a few weeks! I'm ready, I think..? We had Zone Meeting this week, we have them every month and usually they are great, but kinda boring and we end up just thinking about how hungry we are than anything. This one was way different, we had a practice where we taught a lesson and shared the gospel to one of our best friends who isn't a member. We always do practices of lessons in our house, but never have I felt the spirit so strong in a practice, I was in tears! After we taught the lesson they asked us how we felt and if we feel like that during all of our lessons. Everyone was just kind of quiet because we realized what was going  on, why can't we teach every lesson with that kind of spirit and love? Everyone is our brothers and sisters and should be our best friend, it was way neat. I have been changing my teaching habits a lot this change. Another thing that was way cool that they had us do in the meeting was they had us all go to separate rooms and pray as a companionship about an investigator that we can baptize in the month of March. It was my turn to say the prayer and I was way nervous because it was kind of a big deal.. haha but after the prayer we just knelt for like 2 minutes then said the same name at the same time, prayers really do work! haha We had a really cool lesson yesterday. We're good friends with a recent convert, she's 19 and got baptized in September last year. Her mom has come to church a few times, but the missionaries before us didn't teach her. We've been trying forever to try to get ahold of her and we finally did like 2 weeks ago and taught a lesson and invited her to baptism, she said she would be baptized, but needs lots of time and needs to get married, so yesterday she came to church and then we visited her last night. We brought one of the members who lost her husband 5 years ago and has 3 kids under the age of 12. We taught my favorite lesson, the family :) The sister shared her testimony about how families are forever and she misses her husband, but feels very calm about it because she was married in the temple and has nothing to worry about, she just needs to live the best she can. Then I shared something, I really don't remember what I said, I think  I just talked about my family and how I want to live with them forever and then when I have my husband I can be married in the temple for eternity and teach my kids the same.. Really I don't remember what I said, but after the spirit was so strong. We just kinda sat in silence for about a minute, we invited her to baptism, she was in tears and said she is going to talk to her husband tonight about getting married and if all goes well she wants to be baptized in April! We're crossing our fingers :) Today we went to caves near our area as a district, I have an new found appreciation for Nephi, holy smokes, we had a lot of complainers in our group... we were a little lost, but I wasn't worried, we're servants of the Lord right?! haha When we found our way back they rejoiced, then we kinda got lost again, and they complained, then when we made it to the promised land, or the mouth of the cave, they rejoiced.. ugh, poor Nephi, how annoying! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I sure love you all :)

Love, Hermana Brems

                                                            Love you!!

 

Don't mind my sweaty face haha! One of the members gave us coconuts…and yes I drank all of the milk! Blah...

 Then I hit it with a machete :)

Success :)

Cave, before when everyone was happy!

Skinny thoughts!

Si Febrero es loco

'Si Febrero es loco, Marzo es otro poco'

Hola from the HOT HOT HOT Guatemala!

That is a little saying they have here, the weather in February was way weird, and that means March will be the same! I love it though, my skin is finally looking Guatemalan ;) But holy smokes, it's so humid.. I didn't think I could sweat so much in my life or drink so much water and not have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes! 

How was your week?! How are all of you?! I sure miss you and I'm so thankful I have such a wonderful support system :) I am loving life and always have a smile on my face! How can I not, I'm doing the work of the Lord!

We had such a bomb lesson the other day with one of our investigators, her name is Lorena and she has a son that is a member, and she's had missionary lessons before, but just wasn't ready to take the plunge! We had a lesson on Faith and it wasn't going anywhere.. I ususally don't like to share with people my personal feelings and frustrations because I don't want them to have pitty haha! But I felt prompted to share 1 Nephi 3:7 with her and told her that life is full of challenges, but we just need to say I will go and do because the Lord has prepared us for every trial we are going to face. I just told her that I have so much faith and I always feel Heavenly Father's love for me when I pray and just plead with Him that I will be able to do what He would have me do. She teared up and said she wasn't going to worry about work, she would be at church on Sunday! Wooohooo! 

Juliana is doing so great, she is so excited to be baptized, we asked her how she felt about it and she said very blessed! We have been looking for a friend for her that lives near her and is her age because she needs a little buddy to hold her hand when we leave. We prayed and fasted and would you look at that, we found her one! We visited a semi in active family the other day and invited them to church and told the 10 year old about Juliana. They came and her and Juliana were skipping down the hallway and have plans for a little play date... ahhh I love this work!

We had THE craziest lesson. So we had contacted this family on Saturday and told them we would visit them the next day (Sunday) so we knocked on their door and they were so surprised! After the song and prayer and introducing ourselves, she was like, why did you choose us? Out of all the people on the street, why us? We didn't really know how to respond! She told us that she has family that are members of our church and they had invited them to an activity, but they didn't know anything about the gospel so they didn't want to go. I really hope that we were answers to their family members prayers because we see a lot of potential in them. But here's the weird part, they have a 5 year old and he is NUTS!! He was yelling in our faces and jumping up and down and running around and they said 'Vayanse feas!' which is go away uglies.. how nice right?! haha Have a wonderful week! I sure love you all and I love this work :)

Love your favorite Hermana,

Hermana Brems

                                                     Our cute investigators

                                                               Puppy!!!!!

                                                                Skirt from Mexico!!

                                                 A little turtle made from bread!

                                                                       Pino!

'Dice que no esta'

Hey there everyone!

This week I kissed my teen years goodbye! Can you believe it, I'm like old now.. That's okay, with age comes wisdom right :) It was such a good week, we worked hard as always and had lots of investigators come to church, best birthday gift ever!! haha We had changes, but Hermana De Leon and I are still companions for 6 more weeks, we were both shocked to say the least, we had a moment of silence for about 15 minutes, but we're happy about it! We have some great plans and now we get to see Julinana get baptized in April!! Yeah, that's right, we have a Fecha :) One of the little girls that came to church last sunday now is preparing, with lots of support, to follow the example of her Savior Jesus Christ. She is the sweetest little girl and has the best support from her grandma. Her grandma was sick so on Saturday we went over to her house and helped with chores, sweeped and mopped and what not. While we were there we asked her grandma for permission if Juliana could get baptized and before she said yes, she started planning on what little white dress Juliana was going to wear. How cute is that?! 

To explain my subject.. I love the people of Guatemala, really I have been blessed with the gift of love on my mish, but man they lie about everything!! And they teach them young.. we always yell 'Buenos' instead of knocking, and the kids always run to the door and we ask them for their parents. So they run back talk to their parents and we always get 'they said they aren't here' or 'they're sleeping' when we can see them.. or my favorite is when we ask if we can share a message and they say not now because they're busy, but they're sitting in a hammock.. that's the best! haha

Have a wonderful week everyone :) I'm so thankful for this gospel and the opportunity I have to share my testimony of my Redeemer everyday! Love you :)

Love,

Hermana Brems 

                Some of the girls made me a birthday note! 3 of our investigators are on my left

                                                    My cake !

                                                      Birthday goodies from Mom

                                                             Thanks Momma!

                                                                 Surprise party!

                                                            Another one of my cake:)

¿Por què murmuràis?

Hello hello!

I had a great week this week, I feel like everyday goes by faster and the weeks are just flying by! We had some really fantastic lessons and then some others that were absolutely ridiculous! haha 

We went to pick up one of the hermanas in the rama to go with us because it was 5:30 and she wasn't there, so we were just waiting for a few minutes. One of her grandsons ran up to us and was like, will you please teach my mom and invite her to church? His mom has been baptized, but doesn't want anything to do with the church and neither does her boyfriend, it's hard on her mom because they live together.. She was picking up trash in her yard so we offered to help her, haha she had no choice but to listen to us after that :) A couple of girls in dresses picking up trash is one way to your heart I guess! So we had her son say the prayer and during the lesson he was so excited!! Jumping up and down, running around, grabbing their himnario and Libro de Mormon, it was the cutest thing ever! We also had 3 sweet angelitas come to church with us yesterday, it really was a miracle. We had investigators planned to come with us, but of course they couldn't.. fijase hermanitas.. that's all we hear! ugh! But we had been teaching their mom and older sister, but they were busy, but the little girls ASKED if they could come with us!! We had never talked to them, they had no idea who we were or where we were going, but hey, it was so cute! I gave them my picture book during sacrament meeting and they loved looking at pictures and drawing some of the temples.

We had on crazy lesson. We weren't planning on teaching this guy, but he said we could share a message so we were just making small talk until we came up with an idea. We just talked about how he is the head of the house and needs to be an example and blah blah blah. Then he started, he basically called us liars and that the Book of Mormon was a lie.. oh man, once he said that we were not happy! We had him look up 2 Nephi 29:3, 6-8 haha! It just says por que murmurais because we have another word of God basically.. he didn't really have anything to say after that :) But I don't think we'll go back for a little while.

Today we went to Yaxha for P-day! It was way fun, it's like Tikal, but smaller! I just love Guatemala and the rich history here!

Have a wonderful week and talk to you shortly :) Love you all so much!

Love, Hermana Brems

                                                         Some little kids in our rama!

                                          How many chickens can you see in the tree?  (4)

                                                                      Yaxha

                                                        Hna De Leon!!

                                                                        Me;)

                                                       Just looking out over my kingdom..

                                                                            Me:)

                                                                    Temples

                                                            More of me…haha

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...