Practice Teaching in MTC

Ola Querida Familia, Where has the week gone? It feels like it went by in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow will be my half-way point. 33 days left. I love the MTC, but I can't wait to get out into the field. This week for Devotional we got to hear Elder Zwyck from the seventy. He is such an awesome speaker! He taught about being a disciple of Christ. It's so important that we are all trying to follow Jesus and be like him and because that's what are goal here is! When were truly being disciples of Christ we put others above ourselves. I've decided to read the New Testament so that I can know more about Jesus and become more like him, and it has been such a blessing in my life. Still reading the Book of Mormon, of course!!!! I watched the Joseph Smith movie on Sunday, and I feel like my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon have grown so much in the last 4 weeks. I love teaching about the restoration in lessons!!!! This week has felt really hectic because now I'm teaching 3 fake "investigators" with the 3 different elders in my district. Sometimes its really hard to teach with elders because they have such different ways of going about things, but I know that its a good experience for me to be able to learn how to teach with different personalities, and its so worth it to see how all of their testimonies have been growing and how much better they've gotten at Portuguese!!!! This week I got a new companion!!!! Shes a solo sister going to Brazil Velem (somewhere in the amazons) it was really hard at first to leave my old companions because I've grown to love them so much. It felt like a break up because even though I still see them a lot, it doesn't feel the same. But my new companion is really nice, and I think Heavenly Father has given me an opportunity to serve someone new now. I've pretty much given up on the thought of going to the Brazil MTC now that I've been here halfway. It would be nice to go, but I know HF has a reason for me being here. I just hope that I get it before my 9 weeks is up so that I don't get reassigned to Salt Lake or something.... I hope everyone is having fun back home and sharing the gospel with all their friends. It really is soooo important that you do. It's a matter of giving them eternal life here!!!! Write me back on Dear Elder so I know whats going on with everyone!!!! Sister Bruno

Loves MTC Devotionals

Hey Everyone! This week has been pretty good. A lot of ups and downs! I feel like I'm learning soooo much, and progressing in both Portuguese and the gospel. I still haven't got my visa, not sure what the hold up is. My favorite things in the MTC are the Devotionals and Firesides on Tuesdays and Sundays. I love singing with all of the other missionaries, its such an awesome feeling. This week Elder Don R. Clark spoke on how to help investigators and be a good missionary. It was awesome because he pretty much gave us the same advice that Gen Gianina Flora and Annika gave me before I came in. It was awesome. You sisters must have been awesome missionaries. He told us that we should be HELPING, if were not helping were not being good missionaries. We do this by Teaching them the doctrine, Helping them keep commitments, Help them Repent, Help them Love the Book of Mormon, and that we need to retain converts by getting to know the bishop and his wife and the mission leader and his wife. It was a really inspiring devotional for me. It made me soooo excited to get into the field and be a missionary. I also love the camaraderie (sp) in the MTC! I love gym time. Our zone loves playing volleyball so we play almost everyday, and every time afterwards we have a handstand contest and roll down the hill by the volleyball pits. It makes my day. I feel like I'm improving in my teaching because it's easier to explain things and I feel much more comfortable teaching. I love having personal study time because I feel like I've learned so much about the Book of Mormon. Right now I just finished Ether and am starting Moroni. After reading Ether 12 I felt like my faith grew about 50%!!!!! I want all of you to read Ether 12 before you go to sleep tonight :) I also love that the Jaredites brought Deseret with them on their journey!!!!! The Book of Mormon is seriously becoming the LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!! I love learning Portuguese and I love being a missionary!!! This week for relief society the 1st counselor of the primary, Jean A. Stevens, came and gave the lesson. It's so awesome to be able to see all these great women leaders here in the MTC. They have such sweet spirits and they love the lord. She gave a great lesson about building our relationship with the Savior and Heavenly Father. Anyways this gospel is true! I love you guys! Keep me posted on things. This week was discouraging not hearing from anyone but I know you all are busy. Thanks for package.... Love, Sister Bruno

The Truth Revealed from Out of the Earth

"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!" (D&C 128:19) The truth of the ever lasting gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth through a prophet named Joseph Smith. The truth that has been revealed from out of the earth is the Book of Mormon. We as missionaries and representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invite all men every where to partake of that truth. Our message is one of Peace, Hope, and Happiness. May you always search and thirst after righteousness. I challenge you to read the Book of Mormon and reflect on its message, and then find out for yourself if it is not true through asking God in prayer. I promise you that you will receive an answer that the book is true.

Missionary Letter: Investigator Commits to Baptism after Randomly Reading a Scripture

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 12:59 AM

There isn't a lot to really say about this week, I'm spending most of my time on the computer sending pictures this week.

This week went by kind of slow, but it's weird because most days I don't remember what happened. Probably because I was lazy about writing in my journal this week, so I don't really remember what happened in the days.

Yesterday we rode around on our bikes for like 3 plus hours because plans ended up falling through, and then all of the things we did were on the opposite sides of our area. It put me in kind of a bad mood because I was so hot and tired and just didn't even want to bike to our last appointment by the end of the night. But I'm glad we did because we went and saw Rita. I love that lady. She's just so happy and nice she helps make me happier. We talked about keeping the commandments and the importance of baptism. So yeah our last appointment was really good.

I'm just going to tell the highlight story of the week, then the rest of my time i'm using to send pictures. This week we had an investigator, Zhen Peiyu. She's a really cute 28 year old girl who works at the Herbal Life store with her mother. She hasn't really been progressing a lot, so we didn't schedule to really meet with her that often, we would just see her when we went to visit her mom, and just encouraged her. But back a couple months ago, she said she couldn't be baptized until the 6th month. Well, we went over the other week and said, Peiyu, June is almost here, are you ready to start keeping the commandments? And she said maybe she'd try. She said she still remembered to pray sometimes. So we decided to set up with her, which we hadn't set up with just her in a long time. So this week we had an appointment with her Sunday night. We weren't really positive what we were going to discuss because Sundays we don't usually have time for companion study. So we went into the lesson, and my companion asked her if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon yet, they met missionaries back in March. And she said she still hadn't. So S. Hill was like, (and this is me translating to my best ability) well what great luck (geng2 hao3)! We have time right now. Let's pray and ask God to give you an answer if the Book of Mormon is true, since he sees that you have faith and pray. And so we kneeled down and my companion prayed, and while she was praying I was praying that Peiyu would get her answer and feel the spirit. And after the prayer we got the Book of Mormon off the table and told her to suibien flip and see what answer God had for her. She turned to Jacob 5. She started reading towards the end of the chapter about how this was the last time he was going to labor in his vineyard, until I think vs. 75. We weren't so into reading the end about burning in the fire. The spirit was so strong and all the while, still on our knees we talked about how the Lord was speaking to her, and she was sooo excited because she said it answered the question she'd been looking for an answer to about work for a long time, about how she needed to be more diligent and other things. And then after about 15 minutes on our knees, or more...they hurt so bad...we extended the baptism commitment and told her God wanted her to keep his commandments. She said okay and we got up, figured out a good date, and had Peiyu say a closing prayer and thank God for answering her question. After the closing prayer, she still had a question. She said the reason she was willing to commit to baptism was because we didn't' give up on her, even though she wasn't progressing like Daidai or her mother who came to church, but we still wanted to meet with her. So we both shared about how we loved her and gave our reason for being out here in Taiwan and willing to not give up on her. We shared quite a few scriptures, mostly in Alma 26 about glorifying in God and about being comforted when people didn't want to listen, but knowing that this is what will bring them the most happiness in their life. It was a really neat lesson. Seriously the best one I've been in so far. So now Peiyu who wasn't progressing since I got here in Zhongli is progressing! And when she gets back from Korea, she just went to Korea yesterday, then she will start coming to church! YAY! :)

So yeah, now I will go send pictures, if I have more time, maybe I'll write more later. Probably not though! Bye!

Fu jiemei.