The Work in Uheske Hradiste

Howdy hey,

so I got transferred... KIDDING. bahaha did I get you??

Sister Roubickova came to UH. It's really cool because she was in my MTC group. We are sooooo excited to serve together!!!!! PUMPED.

This week was amazing. We finally taught our family!!!! They are so awesome. They remind me of what it was like growing up. They're house is crazy and they argue but you can just tell how much they love each other. But the mom doesn't believe vubec. It might be tricky to teach them because everything is so crazy but it's going to be awesome!!!!!!

We also had this amazing experience with this man that I called at the beginning of last transfer. He didn't have any interest but for some reason I told him that we were in a trio and he said that maybe we would see each other on the namesti sometime. One day we were walking along the street and a man started to yell out to us. We were actually pretty freaked out about it but we went over and he talked to us for about 30 minutes. It was the same man I had called and he recognized us because we were in a trio. He still wasn't interested but he said he would come to english. He came to english and sister Graham talked him into meeting with us. When we met with him it was amazing. He is seriously golden. SERIOUSLY. We read the first vision with him and he looked amazed. He said "That is what I think too" He is so cool!!! MIRACLE.

Lukas is still doing great as well. We are teaching him the word of wisdom tonight!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

This transfer I have seen God's hand in the work so much!!! I have seen how God is wise and that everything happens for a reason. I would have never put myself in a trio especially training and with 2 of the most unexpected people but it worked splendidly. We saw the coolest things that could have only happened to us in a trio! God is there. Jesus is our Savior. The church is true! I love being a missionary!!!!

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

I Just Love Talkin' Bout Jesus

Ahojte

So this week was really funny because one of the recent converts we teach started calling me a 

jižanka. Which means southerner. We taught him how to say the word sasparilla... in a southern 

accent. It's hilarious.

Anyway on to the good stuff... We are teaching Lukáš. He is doing užasně!!! He's so golden. He came 

to church on sunday and loved it. We taught him the plan of salvation this week and it was great. 

It was a little awkward at one point because martin, the friend that referred him taught with us and 

when we were explaining Christ's role in the plan of salvation, the atonement, Martin said something 

like "Yeah so everytime you smoke a cigarette, Christ is suffering for your sin" It was very awkward, 

but also very true. We thought that Lukas was going to be embarrassed but he was so good about it. 

The spirit was strong and we testified that we can change and become better. It was good. Now we 

know he knows that smoking isn't good. 

We also taught Radek again. We taught him with President McConkie last week and it was kind of a 

frustrating lesson, but we went into this lesson just with love and we just got down to business. We 

asked if he wanted to know if he should get baptized. He was only allowed to say yes or no. He said yes. So we told him we needed a date to help him be prepared. We said we didn't care if it was in 2 months or 

2 years but we needed a date. He said that he had talked to members and it took them 3 years to 

get baptized so we said fine we will mark you for three years. He said that he probably wouldn't need 

that long, probably just need till the end of the year so we said fine and marked him for December 20th.

 I know that may seem a little ridiculous but believe me, God was really working with us on that one. 

We also started over with the restoration and discovered that he doesn't understand the restoration at

 all... not good. So basically we are starting with ground zero. It's fun. It's a good place to be. We are just so excited because he has been taught for almost a year now and has never accepted a date until now! 

YE-HAW.

I think you will all be happy to now that we stalked someone this weekend. mwaahahah. My 

facebook stalking days really paid off. I kid but really. We say that really cool family we met a few weeks 

ago walking to the grocery store and we followed them in. We saw them by the bread aisle and it just 

happened that we "needed" bread for the week and just happened to walk by them and run into them.

 The good news is that their phone was broken and they had been painting their house all week and

just finished. They invited us over on Saturday to see it. We have their address and everything now. 

THE WORTH OF SOULS WAS WORTH FOLLOWING SOMEONE INTO A GROCERY STORE. 

It was a good week. Love you all!!!

s laskou

sestro bruno 

It's Getting Hot

Hello erebody,

Summer is a'comin' and it is getting hot!!! It makes missionary work super fun. 

This week was a good one. We had training. Those are always awesome. Then President came to UH for the branch conference. It was a really good sacrament meeting. Our branch in UH is so close to being able to be a ward. It's insane!!! I just love my mission president. He is so great!

Then we met with Lukas this week. He was a referral from Martin a recent convert here. And now Lukas has a baptismal date for the 21st of June. He is so awesome! He had already read the uvod and the testimonies before our second meeting. He is so golden. It was so cute because it was Sister Frampton's first time ever extending the commitment of baptism and he accepted and she started to cry. She's a great missionary. We are so excited for him!!

Today was a really fun p-day because we went on a vylet with some members and lukas. It was really fun and we hope that he felt at home in the branch!!! 

Baptism is just the best. The sacrament is just the best. We get to feel clean from all of our sins once a week. It's so worth it! Being a member is so worth it!!! 

Love you all,

Sestro Bruno

1. 
   

Gonna go serve in Metz!

Heya! So I'm going to Metz! It's a city right on the border of Luxembourg and France, So I'm actually going to be able to go into Luxembourg on exchanges and stuff! Pretty exciting!

This week was pretty good, we had some good lessons with Pierre and Aka, They're pretty solid as usual, but we're just working hard on getting them baptized! It's hard when people are so busy all the time! But they'll get there!!!

We did A LOT of contacting this week and we found some cool people, but we just couldn't fix return RDV's. This week looks like it's going to be great for whoever's coming in and I'm super happy! I really hope that I can just work hard and make every area better than I found it. I'm really starting to realize that people here in France are READY and I'm going to find them, and the church is going to grow, and the members are going to get excited and WE ARE GOING TO EXPLODE!

My companion says that he loves you. His name is Elder Rigsby.

Remember that this church is the people of the covenant, and even though we cannot control how others use their agency, we can control how we use our own!!! DO ALL THAT YOU CAN, ALL. If you do that, then you don't have to worry about anything, you just have to keep moving forward, and when you don't do all that you can, REPENT, and start doing ALL THAT YOU CAN!

It's that simple :)

Love you all,

Elder Bruno

Shout-outs from Heavenly Father

Hey all,

This week was a good one. I know I say this every week but the members in UH are probably some of the best members I have ever met ever. I just love them!!! And I love UH.

This week we did a lot of fasting and praying. We have really been searching for people to teach, and for things to happen in people's lives that would change their hearts enough to want to meet with us. We had a really cool experience just yesterday. We had just ended our fast and we had trakting on plan. I love trakting, but I don't like it very much. So it was a little hard to go back out after we had had a little break in the apartment, but one of my companions, Sister Graham said that when we don't feel like doing something that is when we should do it. So we went out. 

The first door we trakted into was this little old lady. She had a really hard life. She was 88 years-old and her daughter committed suicide right when she finished high school so the woman had once believed in God but stopped. She said that she was doing everything-- going to church, praying, everything but after her husband died she couldn't believe in a righteous God anymore. It was so sad. She didn't have very much interest in the Gospel, but she asked where we were from and I said South Carolina and she started to laugh. Last Christmas she visited America and went to South Carolina. She started to talk about Charleston and I said YES that's so close to where I'm from and then she said Summerville. I was in shock. I said that is my place. To je muj misto. Her friend that she was visiting lives in Summerville, SC!! In that moment I really knew that Heavenly Father loved me and this lady I was talking to so much!!! She doesn't have much interest in the gospel, but we are going to go back and bring her something next week. She is a special person. We all are!!! I just love that God loves us enough to give us shout-outs from Heaven that show us we aren't alone and he has interest in our lives. 

I also had an epiphany yesterday that someone is getting baptized this transfer. It seems a little strange because we haven't been teaching very many people, but I just know it. UH is so close to being a ward and so close to getting an actual building built here. IT IS SO CLOSE. Someone will be baptized from UH in the next 3 weeks. Just you wait and see.

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

The Week of Finding

Hello!

This week was a week of finding. We had a couple RDVs set up, but nothing even close to what we normally do, and so we decided to go finding. We went finding in the morning, we went finding in the afternoon, and we went finding at night. It was kind of awful... We had a lot of rejection this week, but there are two cool miracles that happened

The first was that we met a little asian guy named Sy, he was such an awesome guy and we taught him about prayer. It was weird because I had never met someone who didn't really have a christian background, but we asked a couple inspired questions and he talked about how he really would like to know how he could be happy in life. We prayed with him and afterwards he felt soooo good and it was really awesome. The only sad part is that he didn't know his phone number because he barely moved here to France (we actually taught in English) and so we set a RDV for a different day and he didn't show up. He has our card though, so there's always hope!!!

The second was when we were on the bus. I was kind of just sitting there praying for someone, and on walked a man, who could have easily sat in an empty seat, but instead he sat next to me. This just happened to be on a day that Franny sent me two letters and I had decided to put them in my bag and read on the bus. It turned out that the man(who was from congo) had lived in the Czech Republic for 5 years and spoke fluent czech. I pulled out my letters and he even told me what some of the words she wrote meant. We set up a RDV for this Saturday because he's so busy, but we'll see what happens!!!

I'd have to say this week is definitely an example of not giving up though. Even though we had a lot of hard times during the week and a lot of impolite people, we had a lot of miracles. When I sit down and think of the week that's all I really think about. Life might be filled with hard times, but I know that if we don't give up all that really matters, all that we really remember are the good things. That's why we just keep on chugging along.

Have a good week

Love,

Elder Bruno

Allo

Hello there everybody!

This was a pretty good week! It did have a pretty crazy twist at the end though!

So this week we got to see a lot of our amis, we saw Alex and Andrea and extended a soft baptismal invitation, Alex said he wanted to when they got married, but Andrea didn't see the reason for being baptized again, and even after we explained it for a couple minutes, she wouldn't accept it. She keeps telling us that she's catholic and that's it. Hopefully we can talk to them about marriage next time and she'll see a little more importance!

We met with our ami Aka and set a baptismal date for the 18th of may. We filled out a little calender and it was a really great lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's really excited about the fact that we can recieve the gift of the holy ghost and we still have to teach him the commandments, but he's awesome and we're really excited!

Pierre is still questioning everything, but his questions are always really great and apply to the lessons. We taught the plan of salvation and he accepted a soft baptismal invitation.

We also got a referral from the Zone leaders in the Paris area and so we started teaching a really awesome man named Corneil! He's an electrician looking for work right now and he's from the Congo. He didn't totally understand the Restoration and so we went over it again and extended a soft invite and he accepted! super awesome lesson.

The crazy part of the week was when we taught a man that lived on the very border of our sector. He lived in a really highly muslim populated neighboorhood, and after we finished our lesson with him we didn't have enough time to go home and eat, so we ate a pretty missionary popular cheap fast food invention called a kebab. After we left the kebab shop we saw a couple of guys on motorcycles playing chicken with the buses and there we probably 20-30 teenager muslim kids watching them. Finally a cop car showed up and started chasing the motorcycles, When the cop car showed up the muslim kids on the street started throwing plastic bags that would explode. We found out pretty quickly that the bags were filled with tear gas, we weren't super close to the gas, but it still hurt super bad and me and my companion got out of there as fast as we could. It was insaneeee! moral of the story though, tear gas really hurts.

ANYWAYS, in terms of spiritual thought for the week, I would have to say be aggresive, be be aggressive. by that I mean be a go getter, if you go out into the world and you do everything you can you'll be alright. God wants us to do his part before he does his, go work hard and then you'll be blessed. I've seen that this week and so It's my invitation for you to do it too!

Love you ALL!
Elder Bruno

Positive to the End

Hey family-fam,

The UH is just killing it. We had a pretty good week considering all the crazy things that happened. On Wednesday we started teaching Elenka, a members granddaughter. She is a feisty little ten-year old. AND I LIKE IT. haha But really she is super cute and she acts like an adult. It's hard though because her dad is against faith and had a really hard time letting her go to church so we aren't sure how he will react to her getting baptized. But in the closing prayer she prayed that her dad could gain faith. It was the sweetest thing ever. It just reminded me how blessed I was to grow up in the family and place that I did. 

On that same day while we were at the church building someone came in while we were teaching a lesson and stole one of my companions bag. It was the one that was in her last transfer and they stole her camera(with all the pictures of her mission), her pass, visa, money, cards, DRIVERS LICENCE, etc. It was terrible. It has made doing missionary work harder too because we can't drive the car until I get my driver's license now because there is no way for her to get another one. I hate when people steal. It's not very nice. But she has a really good attitude about it. She said that they stole her bag so they could find the Book of Mormon, read it, and want to get baptized. She's great. 

That was sad, but we just knew that it meant good things were coming. On Friday just two days after we had a lesson with an RCLA and we decided to go on splits. I went with a member and taught Martin in the park and the other sisters went and contacted. It was a really cool lesson... I WAS THE ONLY AMERICAN. (way coool) Anyway while I was teaching the sisters found a family of 6 that were formers that want to meet again. IT WAS SO COOL! Then on Saturday randomly on the members texted us and told us that they decided their 15 year old son needs to learn about the church, so on Sunday we went over for lunch and taught him. It was really cool... I definitely learned that I am still scared of 15 year old boys even though I'm 21. I feel bad for Nikita. They are terrifying. But no seriously he is a really nice boy. It was a really funny meeting because his dad didn't tell him until we were all sitting down that he needed to start the lessons and he said he doesn't care if he gets baptized but that he needs to at least know every thing. We think that he is secretly hoping and praying that he will get baptized because you can just tell every time you are around that family how much they love each other and baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end are the only way they can be together forever. We have high hopes for him. 

It was a great week. Moral of the story... Families are just the best. They are the MOST important organization in the world. hahah They really are. Love my fam...

love,

Sister Bruno

  

Just Another Day in Paradise

Hellllerrrro my dear dear family,

This week was good. We did a lot of finding. Sometimes it was successful. Sometimes not. But that's missionary work. We did have a cool experience where we had a seminar about mormonism and one of the guys from english stayed and asked us questions about the church. Afterwards he asked about the Book of Mormon and took a copy. We asked if he would have time again next week and he said yes! We are excited because he has already been to church a couple of times and asked our branch president how he could learn more about our church. I guess a missionary in the past got his phone number but it didn't save, but he started coming to english and now we can hopefully start teaching him! Also we have a member whose granddaughter has been coming to church and we set up to meet with her! The member is awesome and the little girls mom is already a member she is just inactive and her dad is against the church but hopefully we can talk to them and we can teach her! The branch here in UH is spectatular. I really want to work harder and be the best missionary I can be for them because they are so great!!! Seriously. They are wonderful! Our branch president is only 27 years old and he has already been branch president for 2 years. He started when he was still in school and barely married. They are a serious power couple! They look like the couple from Tangled because his wife has the most beautiful long blonde hair. I love this branch!

We also went to Brno this week. We had district conference and then had zone conference after. It was a long weekend. But it was awesome because another 70 came to speak to everyone in the district. Elder Jouttenous(sp?) from Finland. He was the nicest man ever! And our training was great because we talked about the power of our call and watched a ted... if you know what those are. I didn't. But I guess they are inspirational podcasts and it was really good. It was this lady who talks about powerstances and how if we do these stances we will feel more confident and how when we are confident and believe in our selves and even just fake like we believe in ourselves until we succeed, then we really can succeed. It was really great. I am really working on these stances. Especially in contacting. I just keep telling myself to "BE BIG" I think it helps :).

Training is going good. Sister Frampton came pre-trained so everything is all good. The trio is great. We are thinking about getting shirts with our faces on them. hahaha kidding... kind of. But really everything is good. I am so lucky to be a missionary!!!!

Love you all! Hope all is well

s laskou

Sestro Bruno

Bittersweet

Hello hello hello,

This week was a bittersweet one for me. I found out that I am leaving plzen :(. It's bittersweet because I will miss Plzen so so so much, but I am also excited to serve in a new area. IT IS GOING TO BE QUITE AN ADVENTURE! I will be serving in Uherske Hradiste you say it ooo-hair-sh-kaa hhh-rad-ish-tee-yuhhhh! (it's a tough one to say) And I will be in a trio. And we will be training... weirddddd. 

Also I found out that my last companion went home because of health conditions. That's why we are in a trio. It was really tough to hear that. I had no idea until president called us and told me what was happening on saturday night. I was basically just shocked. I didn't expect it. So I'm excited I have no idea what to expect so I'll just expect the unexpected I guess. 

This week was pretty great. I had a good birthday. Still can't believe I'm 21. I still feel like I'm 19. But it was good. We went to Indian Food and had district meeting and taught english. Good stuff. Then we had a mormonism seminar and we taught about temples. Which leads me into the coolest part of the week. We stumbled upon the coolest, most prepared man EVER!!!

His name is Jiri. Elder Foster contacted him at the beginning of the transfer in front of the mall on a scooter and couldn't for the life of him set up a meeting, but the man said he would come to english. So he came to our english class and one week we taught a lesson about the book of mormon. During the thought he asked (very loudly) where he could buy one. We told him we gave it for free and got his number. That brings us to this week when we taught about temples. He was visiting Alberta Canada and saw the temple and tried to go inside but they told him that he couldn't! He was so confused why not. This week we had a lesson with us and he is so prepared. We taught the restoration and he agreed with it all. We asked if he would be baptized if he knew it was all true and he said, jasne, obviously. He said he had been coming to english to be around other believers. HE LOVES WHAT WE TEACH. He and his four kids and wife are totally going to get baptized!!!

Simona and the girls are doing okay. We taught Law of Chastity... she said it sounds like a fairytale and no one does it... sad day. We don't know what is going on through her head. We haven't seen her since thursday and she cancelled todays lesson, but we have faith that everything will be okay. 

It was just a great week. I love love love Plzen so much. I love the members. I love the city. I love the people. I just have loved this place sooo much. I can't believe it's already time to leave. I just love being a missionary so so so much. I never want it to end! Our mission is on fire right now. We are baptizing more then ever before and I know that the Lord's hand is in our work so much!

I love you all and can't believe how everyone is changing so much. I'm not even going to recognize you anymore! Promise to remember me????

Love yaaa

Sestroooooo

Be The Change You Want To See In The world

This week a lot happened.... 

First and worst off.. Italo decided he didn´t want to get baptized anymore. He went out of town for a few days and came back with his heart as cold as ice. He went out of town for a couple of days and made some bad decisions. And now he says that a religious life isn´t for him. He says he believes in the book of mormon, the church, the prophet, the importance of baptism everything, but that he just doesn´t want to give up his old life and his old self. And nothing we said or did made the slightest difference. It was maybe the most depressing moment that I have seen in my life. To think that someone is willingfully denying all of the blessings that Heavenly Father has for them. 

Then right after we heard this bad news we went to visit Sandra and Alexandro. Sandra was super depressed and so we decided to help her clean her house. While cleaning Alexandro came out of the bedroom completely drugged up, crying. He started begging us to help him. Begging us to get him out of the situation he was in. He collapsed on the floor and started pleading for us to get him out of his house. Get him away from his wife. I had no clue what to do!!!! We thought maybe this is a chance to get him help. We tried calling the bishop but no response... We sat down and talked to him about how it was the drugs that were making him crazy, but he just said he didn´t want to give them up over and over and over again. Unfortunately neither he or sandra are willing to do what it takes to progress and recieve the blessings of the gospel. Its just a sad situation because they both want so bad to get out of the situation they are in and Heavenly Father sent us to show them how to and they aren´t willing to do what it takes...

Drugs are annoying. Jorge continues to go to church everyweek reads in the book of mormon almost everyday, but can not stop using cocaine. 

In Better News

Paloma is AWESOME!!!! She just is soooo elect. She understands things and she has a deep desire to really be good and do good. She loved going to church because she says that ``mormons are happy`` and that they stress families. And that one day she wants a family that she sees at church. Happy, with strong relationships. Hopefully if all works out accordingly to plan I will still be here to see her get baptized!!!!! I´m soooo excited. 

Pietra who is the child of an inactive that is going back to church is also going to get baptized on the 12th... She is sooooo happy. And it was such a tender moment when we taught her and her mom this week. Her mom was explaining the importance of baptism and shared pretty much her testimony with her. It was the cutest most tender thing ever!!!! 

I know that the gospel is TRUE!!!!! 2 WEEKS!!!!!! 

Ahojky

Hello my family,

This week was a weird one. It felt like we were in Prague so much! We had a training on Tuesday in Prague and then we had district conference on Sunday. There was a seventy that came and spoke. Also they changed the district presidency so it was pretty weird. After all that time in Prague it was good to come back to Plzen. 

I'm really starting to love it here. Which is new because when I first got here I had no idea what I was doing and I didn't like that much. But now I can say that Plzen has become one of my favorite areas purely for the fact that I've done the most changing here. It's weird but I've learned a lot about what it means to love someone purely for the fact that they are your brother or sister in the gospel. All this probably means that next week I am getting transferred to a new city, but I am excited for it. I'm excited to kill it for the 6 months I have left. (I CANNOT BELIEVE I HAVE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR A YEAR!) "The last 6 months are your time to shine"-The District :)))

Other than that we had a pretty great week. Simona and the girls are excited for baptism. They still aren't 100 % sure about the 19th, but in our last lesson they asked who would baptize them and what they will wear and just were awesome about it. 

 

We also started teaching a members girlfriend this week. They are both really really nice. They are a little hard to understand because they are slovak but we are excited. They are totally going to be the next Jackie and Caleb (I don't know why I am referencing the District so much in this e-mail, but there you go) We are excited to teach them. 

 

We also had a way cool experience yesterday. It was pretty much the best weather the Czech Republic has seen in like 6 months so after we got home from Prague we decided to walk everywhere. We walked to a less-actives house and contacted on the way. She was really sick and sleeping so she didn't let us in. It was sad, but we still had an hour until we needed to be home so we contacted home and found this way cool kid! He had time right then so we sat down on a bench and talked about the Book of Mormon and set up to meet again. 

 

It's cool because we had the goal of two new investigators and we really didn't know how we were going to do it but we got them on Saturday and Sunday night. It's just cool how God rewards our righteous desires.

It was way awesome because we had a sister's devotional before district conference and the seventies daughter (who coincidentally served her mission in my mission presidents ward where he was the bishop before he became mission president) spoke to us about righteous desires. And the new investigators had been on our mind all week. She talked about how God really does want to help us but we have to give him everything!!! I can testify that it feels so good when you know you have done everything you possibly can. When you fall into bed exhausted because you worked so hard that day. It's probably the best feeling ever! I'm so glad I get to be a missionary. It's the best ever! I'm glad I get to change and I get to help people do the same because I know that when we change to become closer to Christ we just feel so much better. 

Fiera is such a cutie!!! Thanks for the pics!!! I can't believe I have 2 nieces that I've never met!!! It's freaking me out!!!

Consider the Blessed and Happy State

Hello dear family,

This week Plzen was on fire. For realsies. It was amazing to meet so many new people that have a desire to come closer to Christ. 

Isn't Jesus just the best? This week that seemed to be the answer to everything. Jesus is the best!!! 

It all started on Monday when we ran into a former investigator from a year ago. I knew he was a former because I have had about 4 awkward conversations with this young guy inviting him to activities and trying to meet with him etc. He wasn't taking it. Until Monday... we saw him on the tram and I was like, proc ne? I gotta go talk to him. It wasn't the most spectacular conversation ever, I just introduced him to Sister Cooper, but at the end I invited him to family home evening because we were on the way to the church building. I was shocked when he said, okay I'll be there in twenty minutes. I was even more shocked when he actually came!!! After Family Home Evening we set up to meet with him on Thursday and it was a really good lesson! He is just already so close to Christ and just a really good guy!!!

Simona and the girls are going strong. We just had a lesson with them on Friday and they are just the cutest ever! They are reading and praying and they came to church! ALL OF THEM! And the girls loved it! They didn't want to leave. It was adorable. We are hoping that they will make their date but we still aren't sure, we have to meet with them A LOT more! 

Tomas is Tomas. We might have to drop him soon if he doesn't start reading the Book of Mormon. In our last lesson he said, I'm catholic and I'm staying catholic :( LAME. But we will have to see. 

This week I also just experienced the deepest sorrow I think I ever have for people that choose to sin and reject God. I just love the people of the Czech Republic so deeply and to see the amount of filth that our investigators and members and just nice people here have to trudge through every day just made me sad. I had the opportunity to speak in church on Sunday about King Benjamin. I read all about him last week and probably my most favoritest teaching that he shared to his people is in Mosiah 2:41 It says  

  41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are ^bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

This week I really got to consider that blessed and happy state. I'm so glad that God gives us the opportunity to be so happy and so blessed if we choose. And come on who doesn't want never-ending happiness? I like to think that people here don't know what they are missing out on. And a lot of the time they don't! So yes it's hard to see people reject the message but it's so worth it to get to tell people about HAPPINESS. 

#Spreadthelove. #TalkaboutJesus. #Blessed It just feels so good. EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW! 

love you guys

Sestra Bruno

Easter Contacting

Bonjour mes petits amis,

haha

anyways,

This week was pretty good, we had a good ole time running from Rendez-vous to Rendez-vous, but mostly getting cancelled on right as we got there. That or they just wouldn't show up or answer their phone. It was sad. BUT, we did start teaching two FAMILIES!

Yeah, that's right. families. We've been splitting up our areas since we have three companionships in the same area, and so president asked us to split them up so that we could work more effectively and also because we're starting a new thing called EASTER CONTACTING! Where we drop fliers in peoples mailboxes that say that we're coming by later to knock on their door and talking about the ressurection of Jesus.

Anyways, this is important because it means that there's been a lot of passing of investigators between companionships the last week, and so that's where a really cool couple named Alex and Andrea come into play. they're really the other Elders investigators, but they lived in our sector and so we started teaching them this week, THEY're super cool, they have two kids, speak spanish, kind of french, and an itty bit of english. Alex's family is Mormon and he knows the church is true, but Andrea is SUPER catholic. we're trying to get them to have a family home evening with a really cool family from Mexico though, hopefully that will help! They have two kids, but they're at school when we have Rendez-vous and we haven't met them yet.

Our other family is Jeremy, Estelle, and her half brother Jessie (as well as Jeremy and Estelle's 2 kids). They're SUPER awesome, Jeremy is a member who kind of fell away when he was 14 and started dating Estelle. They live together with their two kids and we helped them move a couple weeks ago. Now that they're done moving though they've had time to meet and we taught the Restoration lesson (well, most of it). We watched the video with them and at the end we asked Jeremie to pray at the end. HE FELT THE SPIRIT SO STRONG. He said he had never felt a response to his questions when he prayed before. They sadly couldn't make it to a baptism that we had yesterday for an 8 year old girl in the ward, but we have a RDV with them tomorrow!

That's pretty much the most exciting things that happened.

Spiritual thought for the week though I would have to say is focus on the young'uns. The church is centered on the family and I have to say that for most people in this world the most important thing for them is their family. Always look for ways to help children grow in their understanding of the gospel, by seeking to strengthen the family the family begins to flourish and missionary work is helped as well. This week we really focused on teaching so that even a child could understand, there is no better lesson than one in which a child can learn and grow. I starting to feel as though the best lessons are the simplest, and the best teachers are children.

Love you guys,

Elder Bruno

I Guess I Have More Time Than I Thought

Well this week was good because we had a lot of really good lessons with our investigators. 

Italo still doesn´t have a desire to get baptized!!! He believes in EVERYTHING, but he says that he just doesn´t want to get baptized.... We taught him almost everyday this week and he just keeps becoming more and more converted.... 

We are helping a few less active families come back and it´s great to see when they too progress, but sometimes it seems harder than even teaching investigators.

Friday was the leadership meeting. It was a greet meeting. I felt the spirit SOOO strong and it made me want to be BETTER than I have ever been. I also got to bear my farewell testimony and of course I cried!!!!! It made me think back about all the experiences that I have had on my mission and think how grateful I am for each person I have met here!!! All of my investigators, recent converts, companions, members!!! EVERYONE!!!! 

Saturday was an emotional day.. First an investigator, who we have been trying to decide whether or not to cut, CUT US!!!! It was weird. He called at 7 am and told me that it was better for him to stay far away from us because he said he was starting to ``like`` me and he knew that it was not allowed. UGHHHHHH it made me sad because I never did anything to make him like me.. I think its just because he is so lonely and we actually cared about him and he felt the spirit and confused the feelings. I don´t know..... I just hope that Heavenly Father gives him humbling experiences that will help him accept the gospel ASAP!!!! 

Then at night we had an open house at our chapel. It was good because 2 friends of a member came and they really liked learning about the church, but me and my companion tried really hard to get people from the street to come and see what it was like, and NO ONE would... :( But one girl that we talked to came to church the next day so that was AWESOME and we´re going to start teaching her on tuesday!!! Woohoo. 

These Last 4 weeks I just want to TRY my hardest and see MIRACLES!!!!!!

Desi 

Little Girls

Hello fambam,

Did you know that this week was the Jewish Holiday Purim? I bet you didn't because why in the world would you... haha. We had a branch activity where we celebrated this Holiday. If you don't know what it is, it is basically the Holiday celebrating Ester from the Bible. The activity was really fun and really successful!!! We had 30 non-members there (That is almost double the branch) And we counted 14 little girls there. (members and nonmembers) It was a lot of fun because the branch put on a skit... basically read the Bible story of Esther... and all the little girls had a part in it! Simona came with the girls and it was so cute because little Anicka had a part in the skit and was so excited about it!!! She loved it. Then all the little kids had so much fun because every time you say the wicked name Hammon they made noise with noise makers and screamed. IT was so great!!!

We also got to go to the girls dance rehearsal this week. They are just the cutest thing ever. It was a pretty funny day because we basically spent it with Simona. We had a lesson with her in the morning where we found out that her mother passed away. We also found out that she didn't like meeting with us because she doesn't like feeling like she is forced to do things. We promised so many blessings and shared so many personal stories, it was insane, but by the end of it she was praying about how much she wanted to do these things! WAY COOL! Then we had lunch at a members house, then we had another lesson about family history and then it was back with Simona for the girls recital. We think that Simona really trusts us now because she introduced us to her Father and Step-mother. They weren't exactly excited to talk to us, but that's okay. It was really good to know that Simona is excited to talk to other people about us. During the lesson she said, "Everyone thinks your a cult... I'm not really sure why because I really like it here. They should all try it. They would like it too" haha It was really good. The only thing we have to do is get them all coming to church and meet more often and then they should be ready for baptism. This week was a really good breakthough because I actually felt like this family could and will make their date. We are pumped.

I also learned the importance of family history. We have started to advertise about family history and how we teach people how to start family history and this week we taught a lesson about it. It was kind of awkward because I realized how little I know about my own family history!!! 

For some reason I am not linked to you on family search... it's awkward. Do you know what I can do about that???

Also I don't have any pictures of my family!!! CAN YOU SEND ME SOME??? I promise it would help my missionary purpose to have TONS! People eat that stuff up. Every time... almost every time... I sit down on a tram I talk to someone about family. And they can not believe that I have such a humongous family! SEND ME PICTURES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! 

Our investigator (the old man) is doing good too. He is super old too and super catholic too. But we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really liked it. And learned new things. He started off saying that God and Jesus were definitely the same person and then we used examples in the Bible where Jesus spoke to God and vice versa and by the end he was just scratching his head and saying, yeah I guess I agree with you. YUSSSS. And it was not bible bashing, I promise hahah. 

It was a good week. Basically how blessed are we that we know about the Plan of Salvation. We will get to be with God again and we are happy because of it. It's the best. Everyone needs to know about this! 

I hope everyone has a good week. STILL NO BABY??? :( Looking forward to next week to see her!

s laskou

Sestro Bruno  

Racklette

Good week, we did some good work and really had a ton of help from members.

It started out pretty crazy and stayed the same way pretty much all week. Being in Paris it takes around an hour to get to most Rendez-Vous, we so well that most of the work we did was traveling from rendez-vous to rendez-vous. It was awesome, we didn't do as great as we normally do talking to people on the trams and buses and what have you, but we did schedule do a really amazing weekly planning, which helped us get in contact with a lot of people we hadn't been able to.

This week, we ate and we ate, and we ate. We had a crazy french meal called racklette for district meeting (it's just cheese and potatoes and meat, but you do it with this crazy cool machine), we ate with members (tahitians) who literally would not let us leave their house until we ate all the food they had prepared (and it was a ton of food) and we had racklette again at a members house. The members are getting to be super awesome and only once when I asked for referals did they say they didn't know anyone. The ward is starting to catch fire and it's awesome!

In terms of amis, our crazy evangalist ami is doing great, we got him to church and he's coming around on the Book of Mormon, our old ami is still super old and super catholic, but the sisters are having another baptism this week and hopefully we can get him to that, and we have this super cool new ami who actually speaks English. The first time we taught him we had to translate the pamphlets from French to English, but the next time we came MUCH better prepared.

All in all, awesome week. I really learned this week that you cannot get comfortable. It's not enough to be in a comfortable situation and continue, you should be constantly working to progress and to help others. Whenever you feel comfortable it's the perfect opportunity to turn outwards and serve others. Always look for opportunities to serve and while serving to share the gospel at the same time. It's funny because this week we walked by a lady painting her fence, we stopped, turned around, and asked if we could help her. She said, No thanks, but your collegues already asked. She then asked what we do. And so, we shared what we did. It was cool. It's my invite to you to find someone to serve this week and to share the gospel while doing it.

Love you all,

Elder Bruno

Overweight Missionary

Good week, we saw lots of good things happen

We figured out that the biggest problem with our super old ami named Jackie is that 1-he's old and 2-he'd like to see a baptism before he actually is baptized. The only problem is that it's a little while until the next baptism (about a month), but it's not a huge deal! we're going to probably stop by once a week with a little spiritual thought, get him to church every Sunday, and get him baptized after he sees a baptism!

Our super evangalical ami named Emmanuel was super cool too, he came to church and he sat in on a blessing. He's doing his legality to stay in France, so he asked for a blessing too. We gave him one and he was super excited about it. I will say that the man might possibly be a little crazy, but he's super nice and I really hope that he can understand eventually that he needs to get baptized by THE PROPER AUTHORITY. Yeah...

I gave a talk about where we're going after this life. It was good. I only had to give a 5 minute talk, so it wasn't too bad. It's hard talking to a room full of people in French though.

We also taught a man named Akay this week. He's from Nigeria and he speaks English (which is actually suprisingly hard to teach in when you've taught everyone in French up until this point). It was a really awesome lesson, the only problem is that he wasn't wearing pants. We taught the man whilst he was wearing his underwear and a t-shirt. It was a little weird...

ALSO, members working with missionaries EXPLODED this week. There were a ton of members who invited us over, asked to teach with us, and were just overall super friendly. The only problem is that when we eat with members they always shove us full of so much food I think I'm going to explode. It's not good. 26 pounds and still gaining weight.

Yup, it was a good week

Spiritual thought of the week- Always put God over everything else. I was talking to a really cool kid who's part of a less active family. He's 14 and I sat next to him in sacrament. I looked at him and I just remembered all the times where I wished I was doing anything other than sitting in sacrament meeting on a nice sunday afternoon. I talked to him a little and he said that his friends had invited him to play basketball, but in the end he had decided to come to chuch and his friend made fun of him for it. I told him that there was no better place for him to be than there. There are always times when we want to do something more than we want to go to church, or we feel like we're too busy to do something to help someone else (especially the missionaries!!!), but the work of God is more important than ourselves. We as missionaries invite other people to come closer to God and we invite members to open their mouths and do the same thing. When me and Angel finished talking I invited him to invite his friend to church. He said he would. Work with the missionaries, wherever you are, invite your friends to come to church, to read the book of mormon, MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS! Talk about the gospel with everyone, and always put God above everything else.

Love,

Elder Michael Beneamato Bruno

If you want to baptize as many people as you can, you have to talk to as many people as you can

Oh man have we been talking.

I don't think I have ever talked to as many people in my life. I'm talking trams, trains, streets, restaurants. EVERYONE. Everyone in the city of Plzen is going to know that I, Sister Bruno, am a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at least. What I have figured out is that is the best way to do missionary work. YOU TALK TO EVERYONE. and then sometimes you get rejected so hard. And then later in the day you see them walking down the street, or riding in a tram and you contact them again and you get their number. It's the double contact... works every time!!!

If you are wondering about Simona and the girls... THEY HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE!!! April 19th.It was such a good lesson. The only thing is that Simona is pretty shaky about it and she came to church this week but didn't bring the girls and now isn't setting up with us and her mom is really really sick right now so she has to take care of her too. Saaaadddd. But it's okay. We are having a branch activity this week and she said she would come with the girls so  hopefully we can talk with them there. Plus we have an in with one of the ladies in the branch because they are best friends. So pretty much they are doing good... just a few snags here and there. 

As for Carolina... she dropped us. Skoda It was really sad. She texted and said that she was Catholic and would always be Catholic. We think that she probably talked about meeting with us to her family. It's okay. One day she will remember what we talked about and I hope it will bring her comfort to know that there is more. 

That is the best part about being a member of the Bhurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. THERE IS ALWAYS MORE! I think before my mission that stressed me out. But know I realize how great it is and how many opportunities it gives us. But mostly it just gives me faith that there are better things to come. And I don't really know what they are, but God does and he knows me and he knows what things I need. 

We had a really good week finding. We found 2 new investigators that have a TON of potential. One of them has met with missionaries before and is still reading the Book of Mormon!!! and the other is this way cool lady that we contacted at like 8:45 at night right outside our apartment. We were about to go inside but we decided to talk to her right before she got on the bus. She is so cool. She is evangelical but said she still has questions. We talked about the Book of Mormon and she said that she had always thought that there was more to the Bible. WAY COOL. The only problem is that she really loves her other church and said that it is like a family to her. But she wants to meet again! 

Basically I'm just super pumped for this week. I'm excited to talk to everyone. I don't feel afraid anymore and it's a great feeling. I just have so much trust that if I talk to as many people as I possibly can that God will trust me enough to put prepared people in my path. Isn't it just so great that we have a Heavenly Father who knows us SO WELL. We watched a mormon message this last week and at the end it said "Of all the titles of respect and honor and admiration that are given to deity, he has asked us to call him father." quorum of the 12 apostles. It's a great month to be a missionary.

s laskou

 

Sestra Bruno

Road Rage Kindness

THIS WEEK WAS GREAT!!!!!

On thursday we had mission conference with Elder Costa from the quorum of the seventies!!!!! He is sooooo awesome..... He shared so many awesome stories. My favorite one goes like this. He had just moved back to Brazil from são paulo when he got called to be the presiding seventy of brazil and his wife asked him.... you´re going to have to learn how to have patience in the traffic of São Paulo... andddd he said his first day driving to church office building he entered a lane in front of a little red fiat and the little red fiat gotttt SUPERRR mad and started honking and following close behind him. When he came to a red light she pulled over next to him motioned for him to roll down his window and started cussing him out.... He remember what his wife said about patience... Nodded his head and said have a good day... god bless.... and went his way. He said the very next day the very same thing happened with the exact same lady. and he gave the same response. Then a few days later they just happened to be in the same spot again.... And a few days later again.... And before he knew it she was smiling and waving back at him... The next week he decided he was going to give her an invitation to stake conference and a book of mormon. And that sunday she went to stake conference and then was eventually baptized.... Hahah it was great to hear all of his little stories.. It made me realize that heavenly father really puts us in the right places at the right times. And we have to take the opportunities that he gives us!!!!!!!

On Saturday We taught an awesome lesson to our investigator Italo who has been saying that he knows the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith is a prophet, but doesn´t feel ``vontade`` Wich is like will or desire to be baptized. We taught him the plan of salvation again and taught him about the importance of faith and repentance.... He was super interested in the repentance part and  he committed to repent and be baptized on saturday.... but then he didn´t go to church on sunday so we have to move it to after he goes to church one more time, so maybe sunday.

We also taught 6 new investigators this week, and 2 of them went to church. We were super happy about it!! ANDDDDD big surprise they also have word of wisdom problems: cocaine... dang it. But one of them is SUPER smart. He read almost 40 pages in the book of mormon after we left it with him. And he remembers like almost every detail. 

Alexandro and Sandra are doing A LOT better. This week we went to the place to mark their wedding, but unfortunately their birth certificates were too torn apart... So we have to order new birth certificates and go back this week. BUT they will get married, and I hope I´m here to see it :)

Hope everyone has a great week!!!!

Sister Bruno

Work Moves Forward in France

Good week, we saw lots of good things happen

We figured out that the biggest problem with our super old ami named Jackie is that 1-he's old and 2-he'd like to see a baptism before he actually is baptized. The only problem is that it's a little while until the next baptism (about a month), but it's not a huge deal! we're going to probably stop by once a week with a little spiritual thought, get him to church every Sunday, and get him baptized after he sees a baptism!

Our super evangalical ami named Emmanuel was super cool too, he came to church and he sat in on a blessing. He's doing his legality to stay in France, so he asked for a blessing too. We gave him one and he was super excited about it. I will say that the man might possibly be a little crazy, but he's super nice and I really hope that he can understand eventually that he needs to get baptized by THE PROPER AUTHORITY. Yeah...

I gave a talk about where we're going after this life. It was good. I only had to give a 5 minute talk, so it wasn't too bad. It's hard talking to a room full of people in French though.

We also taught a man named Akay this week. He's from Nigeria and he speaks English (which is actually suprisingly hard to teach in when you've taught everyone in French up until this point). It was a really awesome lesson, the only problem is that he wasn't wearing pants. We taught the man whilst he was wearing his underwear and a t-shirt. It was a little weird...

ALSO, members working with missionaries EXPLODED this week. There were a ton of members who invited us over, asked to teach with us, and were just overall super friendly. The only problem is that when we eat with members they always shove us full of so much food I think I'm going to explode. It's not good. 26 pounds and still gaining weight.

Yup, it was a good week

Spiritual thought of the week- Always put God over everything else. I was talking to a really cool kid who's part of a less active family. He's 14 and I sat next to him in sacrament. I looked at him and I just remembered all the times where I wished I was doing anything other than sitting in sacrament meeting on a nice sunday afternoon. I talked to him a little and he said that his friends had invited him to play basketball, but in the end he had decided to come to chuch and his friend made fun of him for it. I told him that there was no better place for him to be than there. There are always times when we want to do something more than we want to go to church, or we feel like we're too busy to do something to help someone else (especially the missionaries!!!), but the work of God is more important than ourselves. We as missionaries invite other people to come closer to God and we invite members to open their mouths and do the same thing. When me and Angel finished talking I invited him to invite his friend to church. He said he would. Work with the missionaries, wherever you are, invite your friends to come to church, to read the book of mormon, MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS! Talk about the gospel with everyone, and always put God above everything else.

Love,

Elder Michael Beneamato Bruno

Persistence in the pursuit of righteous desires can help us develop talents, attain our spiritual goals, and serve others.

Tomorrow are transfers!!!! and that means.... just 6 more weeks of me... wearing this name tag.. 6 more weeks of me being this cute sister missionary. 6 more weeks to do my best and help as many people as I can!!!! This week was good. After Elder Evans visit, we worked hard and saw some great results!!!! ANdddd this week Elder Claudio R.M Costa is going to come give us another mission conference. Two members of the 70s in Two weeks... WOOHOOO :) It will probably be my last mission conference. We started teaching a few new investigators. We are helping reactivate a few less actives. The family whose dad is a drug addict didn´t use crack this week. He just used marijuana instead.... Not as bad.... andddddddddd HE WENT TO CHURCH!!!! finally :) :) It was the cutest thing ever to see their family sitting on the church bench all together. It truly was a miracle. They called sunday morning and said they weren´t going... and I kept saying yes you are. YES YOU ARE. Someone will be at your house in 15 minutes to pick you up. AND THEY WENT :) and he loved it. and their going to get married this month and it´s going to be great!!!!! Italo went to church as well, which made us really happy!!!!!!! andd the family that we are helping reactivate...which also made us super happy!!! Sunday we had a weird experience.... We were walking home to do our weekly planning and some ladies from another church stopped us and invited us to go into their church to visit and to talk to their pastors... I´m not sure why I accepted the invitation. But we went in... and just stayed for a few minutes, and prayed with their pastor. It was sad. But I shared some pass along cards with them and invited them to come to our church. Who knows? Maybe they´ll call for the free dvd :) What did I learn this week? Righteous persistence pays off. Alexandro always says that were are persistent and that's why he went to church. When I think of persistence I think of Jesus Christ. He persisted day after day to follow the will of Heavenly Father. And he inspires us to do the right thing in our own lives. To be persistent in our righteous desires and actions. Because one day we will receive a reward for it! I´m pretty sure I will stay in my area with my companion for my last transfer, but If anything happens I´ll let you know tomorrow....

Just Another Day in the Life of A Missionary

I cannot lie, sometimes I feel like missionaries are all just part of one giant wheel. We might be on different places, but everyone puts the same amount of effort and somehow in the end the work just keeps on rolling. This week just felt like one of those weeks where the wheel just kept on turning. Anyways, This week we did pretty good, we taught 4 lessons with members (which is really good). They were pretty good except for the fact that they were with an 80 year old man who always seems super tired and sick and a 30 year old man who defines himself as a Lutheran Adventist who was baptized by immersion in an evangelical church and believes that the Book Of Mormon is the word of prophets, but not the word of God. BUT, they were still pretty good lessons even if they were hard, AND Jackie (the 80 year old) came to church. I've decided that I'm going to look at all the positives in life (since doing otherwise would make me go crazy) and looking at this weeks positives makes me feel pretty good about the future. This week was transfers, I'm staying with the same companion. Yeah... Nothing really changed, I just thought I should put this in here. Oh yeah, we got invited to a political rally by a member, she didn't tell us it had anything to do with politics before hand and we had to have a very awkward conversation explaining that missionaries cannot be involved in anything political and that the best place to invite us is to family home evenings or other family related activities with their friends/neighbors. That's just about the highlight of crazy things that happened though. OTHER THAN THAT/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT- Find time. Everyone is busy in this world, if you feel busy or stressed out and you can't change anything and there's something that you can do for God, FIND TIME. Everyone is busy, everyone has lives. Sometimes in life we have to just find time to do things. Missionaries need your time, The work is hastening, and we need every single person we can to chip in and help the wheel to roll. No matter who you are, where you are, what you're doing, find some time and (to quote a very well known missionary who said this 5 seconds ago) GET STOKED. Do some missionary work, period. Love you guys, Elder Bruno

Consecrated Missionary

Hello my little family fam, It was a crazy dazy week here in Plzen. We had zone training on Tuesday and it was intense. It was all about being a consecrated missionary. Our mission president talked a lot about opening our mouths. It was a really good reminder for me that there are prepared people here in the Czech Republic but I won't find any of them unless I talk to EVERYONE! Also it was re-emphasized that we should ask for referrals more from the people we teach and people on the street then members. A lot of the members here have been telling the missionaries for the last 10 years that they don't have anyone for them to teach and so we are really focusing on asking everyone. It was really funny because President told us at the training that the people on the street that refuse our message a lot of times are hay and we need to start asking them if they know where any needles are. He said that we should ask people specifically for who we are looking for. We have gone crazy this week, and it's really made a huge difference. WE MET WITH SIMONA AGAIN! And her 3 adorable 10 year-old. They are the cutest ever! We are so excited to teach their family. They are the best. We have another lesson tonight are we are PUMPED. WE"RE TEACHING A FAMILY!!!! It is sooooo cool. We also met with Carolina this week, that way cool girl from Portugal. It was an amazing lesson. She has the most sincere desire to know who God is. And she came to church!!!! Despite the fact that the only Czech she knows is Dobry Den. She is truly prepared. And I knew that when I contacted her she looked really familiar and just reminded me of someone and that's why I talked to her and this week I figured it out... SHE IS THE EXACT MIRROR IMAGE OF SAMANTHA MOORING. It is really insane. And they have similar personalities. I am so glad that I stopped her because I came so close to letting her walk by, but at the last second I stopped her. We asked her what she wanted out of meeting with us and she said she didn't know exactly but she wasn't expecting me to stop her and when I did, she decided that maybe I could help her find out more about God... I almost started crying... she is wonderful. I can't believe I get to teach someone as cool as her. It has been a really great week. I'm so glad that the Lord has put me in Plzen at this time and that we are seeing true miracles at every turn. I know that as I start to focus every energy every thing that I have to doing the Lord's work that he is going to bless me and my area and my companion and everything SO MUCH. It's a great time to be a missionary. GET STOKED. Love you all, s laskou Sestra Bruno

"It's not enough to wish, it's not enough to dream, it's not enough to promise. We must do."

TUDO BEM??? This week was an eye-opener. We are still working with our investigators to help them obey the word of wisdom. Unfortunately we made the decision to cut a few of the investigators that we had that were not interested in changing or even wanting to know more about the gospel :( BUTTT we are going tomorrow to mark the wedding of one of the family we are currently teaching! woohoo. I´m so excited for them. Sandra is SO awesome. She has the biggest desire to change. ANDDDDD she is pregnant. So she will be married before the baby comes. Saturday I had the privilege to go to a meeting that had the zone leaders and sister leaders from the 5 missions in the huge city of São Paulo. We got to hear from Elder Evans from the seventy who works on the missionary executive council. It was an awesome experience. He talked so much about our true purpose as missionaries. A lot of the time missions focus on the one thing that is easiest for them to do. Here it is baptism. In some places is less active work. and we forget that we should be helping in all areas of the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end. Heavenly Father has great expectations for our generation. He wants us to be obedient so that he can bless us. He wants us to help him with his Purpose: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. He also talked a lot about the importance of families. There is nothing more important than our families. We can only get to the celestial kingdom when we are sealed together and enduring to the end as a family. This morning he came and talked to our whole mission. It was a very humbling experience. He was very inspired and hit the key points that our mission needs to be better at. It was one of the best mission conference I have been to. He also told us that Heavenly Father gives us our desires. If we desire good things and good results he will give them to us. and how do we show our desires? By the things we do. So we have to do GOOD things. I know that this really is the work of salvation. Sister Bruno