(Almost) Over the Hill-(Tucuman) Week 52

Hola familia y amigos!

Well it was a really good week! We had some serious success this week! More lessons than I’ve had since I got here and we were able to have 11 investigators in church yesterday! It was sweet. It was also freezing cold (there was snow on the mountains) so there weren’t that many members so we brought like a 4th of the congregation haha!

We had the familia Juarez come and we also found and started to teach the brother of Gustavo (father of the Familia Juarez) named Andrés and his family of 9! They all went too and they loved it! They’ve been reading and praying and they feel that it’s true! We call them the Familia Juarez 2 haha! There’s also a familia Molina 2 but they couldn’t come 😦

Also another woman that we’ve been teaching for a while finally came to church. Her name is Analia and has a baptismal date for July 16th!

Funny thing that happened this week: We were teaching the Familia Juarez on Wednesday and it was all good. Talking about the plan of Salvation and stuff and then I see a rat climbing the wall going to where the cement walls meet the roof (made out of metal plates with ridges. Kind of like large metal ruffles. They’re called chapas) and I said hey there’s a rat. There’s a tiny bit of space so the rat just chilled there looking at us. Now this family sells food for a living so its very important that rats aren’t in their house. Gustavo goes into his room and I hear “voy a pegarla con un tiro” (basically its slang for “I’m going to shoot it”). He then walks out with this rifle and all his daughters and his wife were like ” NO NO NO” and like screaming and stuff. And we were just dying laughing just in shock at the sudden change of circumstances. Then he tells us it’s just a big bb gun. He loads it, cocks it and with some serious marksmanship hits the dang rat square in the head.

Imagine all of this happening while like 5 or 6 women are screaming and saying “papá noooo” and then the moment he fires his wife says “sabés que sos tonto no?” (You know you’re an idiot right?) The spirit was gone so we just laughed it off, said a prayer and left.

Well that’s all I got! I love you all! I love this gospel so much!!

Livin’ the Dream

Elder Brundage

ps. Keep the Familia Molina in your prayers. They are still going through a lot of problems. They need all the prayers they can get!

Happy Birthday/Father’s Day (Tucuman) Week 51

SHOUTOUT TO THE BEST DAD IN THE WORRRRRLLLLDDD BARRY BRUNDAGE!!!! Happy father’s day and birthday this last week!!!!

Also happy birthday to my Grandpa and Nick who also had birthdays this last week!

Well it was a good week! We’ve got some really solid new investigators that we’re working with that are making some great progress and really have a strong desire to know more and feel the blessings of the gospel!

Some highlights:

Some testigos de Jehová (Jehovahs witnesses) knocked on our door during weekly planning. I opened the door and they went from “HI!” to “oh…” the moment they saw my nametag and my general gringoness indicating that I am a mormon missionary. They then tried to preach to me and asked me if I had read the bible and I was like “yeah”. She just did her little shpeal (no idea how to spell that.) and then I contacted her and offered them juice. Then i back hand sprung away from the awkward situation (only my sisters understand me. struggle)

That same day we heard firecrackers and people yelling and police sirens coming from the freeway and we both totally thought it was a protest. We leave and go to see and they have this really big statue of the Virgen de Milagros (its the Virgin Mary but dressed in a specific way and they say that the virgin appeared in the sky during the ultimate battle for Argentina’s independence). They were taking this virgin statue down the freeway and worshipping it in like a parade type thing. People were lighting off fireworks and there was a lot of screaming and yelling. Catholics gone wild!! lol

Today we were able to go to my first area and visit the familia Bonanno and eat lunch with them! Bruno is doing great and is still active in the church! I kind of dropped cane with love on the rest of the family because they stopped listening but still read the Book of Mormon a little and they go to church every now and then. So I told them what they needed to do haha! They’ll all make it some day!!

Love you all!

Livin’ the Dream,

Elder Brundage

Bruno Bonnano family from Braden’s 1st area of Tucuman (Braden’s 1st baptism of the mission)

Un año más! (Tucuman) Week 50

Hola Familia y amigos!

Well today’s date is June 13th 2016. On June 13th 2017 I will be headed home. 1 year to go folks. No biggie.

Ok a few experiences from this week:

Tuesday: I did divisions (I found out that in English they’re called exchanges. Weird) here in Villa Urquiza. The comp of our district leader came here, Elder Rudder came here and we had a good day. We broke our curse of not finding new investigators so that was bomb. Selfie of Elder Rudder included in the other email.

Wednesday: We visited the Familia Juarez in the morning because they were going to be working that night and Daniela finally became an investigator! She couldn’t stay long because she was going to be late to institute classes lol. We also scheduled for this next Wednesday to learn how to make empanadas with them. Stoked. Also we set a baptismal date for Gustavo, Cristina, and Aarón (little 10 year old brother) for July 9th! They will get married on the 7th and baptized on the 9th! We are also working to get Daniela and Ivana for the 9th too so that they can do it together!

Friday: We had a conference with Elder Texeira of the 70 and his wife. They’re from Portugal so English is their 2nd language and Spanish is their 3rd or 4th (they lived in Germany for a while too haha). So yeah they are really impressive. Anyways Elder Texeira talked about doing stuff differently. Big ideas and different things that will help us find those prepared for the gospel.

My favorite example:

When he was a mission pres in Brasil an elder called him and asked if he could do the following. Buy a huge sign that says “GET TO KNOW THE MORMONS” and put it outside the chapel. Then they go inside in the less productive times of the day and just wait for people to walk in. When somebody walked in they would explain that they are missionaries and their job is to help people become members of the church and ask if they are interested. Then they went to see the baptismal font and they explained baptism and the requirements. They then invite them to prepare for baptism by receiving the missionary lessons. He thought it was a bold idea so he let them do it.

The first week 7 people walked in. Within a month 6 of those 7 were baptized and confirmed members of the church. The elder wanted to find people who really desired the gospel and the spirit worked in them so that, when they saw that sign, they went in and received the fullness of the restored gospel.  Awesome.

Well anyways. It was a good week.

Love you all!

Livin’ the Dream,

Elder Brundage

Elder Rudder from Nampa Idaho

P-day

Today we played soccer and basketball with some people from the ward and nonmembers and we ate hamburgers whoo

Another week in the life of a missionary (Tucuman) Week 49

Hola Familia y Amigos!

It was a good week! Normal but good. So basically the usual happened: wake up, get ready, study, eat, walk, teach, plan, sleep, repeat. Its quite the routine but I’m happy doing it.

Because of challenges I am growing and developing Christ-like attributes (patience and love)

And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

 32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.

 33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.

 34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. (Luke 6 31-35)

So I tried to do that thing that Bethany told me to do to put a sticky note in my planner and write down stuff that happened so I did! (There’s only 2 things lol)

1. I’m finally repenting for not writing in my journal for a while (uh a long while). So when I wrote in my journal the first time on Monday, I put a page in between the last entry and the new entry. After I wrote I had an idea. I named the time that i didn’t write in my journal (September 22nd, 2015 until May 29th 2016) “The Great Apostasy of Elder Brundage’s mission”. I then titled my entry on May 30th “The Restoration”! Don’t worry I won’t stop this time haha

2. So the familia Juarez is doing good. After the confirmation of Lara and Aylen on Sunday the other kids are super excited about the church! The oldest daughter Daniela went to institute on Wednesday and asked us how she could read talks from the Liahona (ensign) from 2001 and 2003 so that she could do the reading. The next day, Thursday, was her 20th birthday party. Where did she have it? You guessed it… the chapel! Also she did this self sufficiency course that the church is doing and she signed up for one of the weekly classes. The funny thing about all of this is that she isn’t even an investigator yet lol. We’ll do it this week don’t worry 😉

God lives and He love us! He sent his son Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us so that we can live if we believe and follow him!

Livin’ the Dream,

Elder Brundage

Daniela’s birthday party at the church

Shes not a fan of pictures. (sees I’m taking a selfie and says “noooooooo” lololol

The birthday girl!

The best pizza in Argentina (homemade pizza from the familia Juaez