Transfers!!

We had such a good week because our little 12 year old got baptized, Gladys! She is the cutest and she has such a strong testimony! She always tells her friends that she goes to the true church of Christ. The CUTEST! It was also such a blast because Hermanas Rosas and Maddock had baptisms too so it was a NOCHE BLANCA! It was the best way to send Hermana Rosas home, although we're going to miss that girl so much!!

BUT, such stinking happy news.....I'm staying in my area.....and HERMANA TAYLOR IS MY NEW COMPANION!!!! I literally screamed when they told me. I am so pumped, we're going to have such a totally fun transfer, I cant even believe it!! I love her and I love this area and it's going to be amazing. Sad that Hermana Gonzalez is leaving me, but also happy for Hermana Taylor!! wahoo!!! 

Today the man we're teaching called us and basically told us that he wants to get baptized. BEST pday of my whole life haha. So we're seeing many miracles here in San Pancho!!

I hope everyone has an amazing week and you are preparing yourselves for general conference this coming weekend. We are going to literally listen to the prophet of God and his apostles. WHAT A BLESSING!!! Also, it is a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with other people and invite them to the conference! I just love to be a missionary so much and hope that everyone is doing so well back home. I hope you are doing good with the Book of Mormon challenge!!

Love you all,

Love your favorite chapina!!

Hermana Bracha

This week was really good!!

AMANDA AND BRANDON HAD THEIR WEDDING AND BAPTISM! It was such a happy day and everything was so good! It was a little crazy trying to get everything ready, but it all turned out good and the church looked so pretty!! The members helped us a ton. But man, they were just SO happy, both of them had smiles on their faces the WHOLE time and they were so cute. After Brandon was baptized he said to me, "wow, Hermana, I don't know what just happened, but I just feel so darn good, I feel so free." It was the best day ever!!

This week always was crazy because we did a ton of intercambios and basically weren't even in the area! But that's okay, because God always helps us find his children! Today I found Bob Marley drawn on the wall and a license plate from Oregon, so that made me happy haha! But honestly, this week was so amazing! Seeing the excitement and joy that Amanda and Brandon had after they were baptized made me realize just how much I LOVE this work and that I LOVE to be a missionary. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and His amazing plan that he has for his children. Our families can be together forever as we read the Book of Mormon, go to church, and pray, the Lord will help us in all that we do!

Bob Marley

You find Oregon in the most amazing places!

Hermana Normand -- she's the first person who talked to me when I got to Guatemala!

I have a challenge for everyone that loves me:) haha. I just hit my one year mark. I encourage AND challenge everyone to read the Book of Mormon BEFORE I GET HOME! I'm about to start the Book of Mormon over again, and we'll see who can do it! I hope that everyone can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, if you feel like you don't have one, GET IT, pray! Ask God if its true, He will tell you!! He always answers our prayers!

I'm so happy that general conference is in a few weeks!! Start preparing yourselves for things you want and need to hear from the apostles and prophets! Also, it's a great opportunity to share the gospel with friends and family! Invite a friend to conference!!!

Me and Hermana Pereira

Me and Hermana Gonzales

Wrapping my foot in a bag because of my ripped off toenail.

Love you all and have a good week!!

Love, Hermana Bracha

WAHOOOO baptisms!!

This week was AWESOME because I had permission to go back to my old area and be at the baptism of Francisco! I don't know if you remember about him but we were teaching him for like 3 months and his mom wouldn't give him permission. Long story short, she gave him permission and he got baptized!! She didn't want him to get baptized because she didn't want him to go on a mission and be away from her for two years. How stinking cute and sad at the same time is that! I'm so happy for him and it was so fun to see everyone from the old ward again!!! Also I got to see Hermana Morales and Ralph!! I still cant believe they're comps, so happy!

Wendy is getting baptized and the next week Amanda and Brandon are getting married and baptized!! I'm so excited, I love weddings. We've already started to plan everything:) They always get to church like 10 minutes early and they are just so excited to learn and be in church. Also in the lessons with us they just want to know everything. Amanda is SO smart and always reads in the Book of Mormon and last week asked if it was okay if she read other parts of the book from what we were giving her as assignments. What a girl! haha.

Update on my area -- the shower water is SOOO cold I literally feel like I'm showering with ice cubes, it's a blast every morning. hahah. I like always scream and Hermana Gonzalez laughs. Also I got proposed to like 4 times this week. There's this one drunk guy that follows us around and asks for pamphlets and everything. So we always invite him to church and this Tuesday he said, "I'll go to church if you'll marry me!" so my comp says, "She can't! she has a boyfriend waiting for her. She's getting married in 2 weeks!" and he started to cry! It was so sad/funny. hahaha.

I don't know how to describe it. This week was also crazy because Hermana Gonzalez got a wisdom tooth pulled and my toenail ripped off. It was a blast. Somehow we were still able to work and life is good! I love to be a missionary and I love Guatemala so much. Seriously, there's bananas everywhere and always! I just love it so much.

Love you all! Have a good week!!

Love, Hermana Bracha 

I Can Hear the Bells!!

Sorry I wasn't able to write last week.. what happened was right when we were writing a really huge storm came and the power went out so I wasn't able to talk about the week.... we had such an amazing week because God helped us so much! I love Him so much.

We went to lunch and we were asking a member for old members that hadn't been to church in a long time to go visit and the member gave us the name of a woman who had gotten married and baptized like 6 years ago but hadn't gone to church in like 2 years since her husband had passed. We tried to look for her that night and we couldn't find her! But the next day we were in intercambios and Hermana Gonzalez went to go look for her and she didn't find her but found her son-in-law who told Hermana Gonzalez "hey, we want to go to church! also, we want to get baptized! Come tomorrow to talk with me and my wife!" (like what, is this a joke?) So we went the next day to look for him and his wife but he wasn't home only his wife Amanda. We had SUCH a spiritual lesson with her and she started crying because she was so happy that we had come to the house because they had wanted to go to a church for a long time and they really needed God's help in their lives right now, but they didn't know where to go. The following day we had a lesson with the BOTH of them and they accepted the baptism date AND WEDDING DATE for the 16th of September. They went to church and were so stinking happy and cute, I love them!! Last night we went to go visit them to see how they felt in church and everything and the husband (Brandon) started to tell us their ENTIRE life story, about how he was a really bad guy before, he treated his girlfriend badly and drank a ton, but about 3 months ago he decided that he didn't want to drink anymore and wanted to be a better person. They wanted to go to a church but they hadn't been able to decide on one. Basically they were at the point of despair and were going to separate when we showed up at their house. He said, "it was like God sent me two angels telling me where I needed to go and what I needed to do. It's true, God really does listen to us". When he finished talking I was gone, I was crying so hard! Like silently but the spirit was SO strong you could've been able to touch it.

God is so good to all of his children. He really does look to help us in every way that He can. Everything worked in His plan too, we weren't able to find where the woman lived because if we would've gone in the week before he wouldn't have been ready. God had everything planned for this family and now they're preparing to continue in the church. We also have a lot of hope to reactivate the whole family and hopefully that the sister will want to go to church this week. I have had a few moments like this in the mission so far, but I think this was one of the most special.

I know that we are children of our Heavenly Father and that He loves us. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer and with Him we cannot fail. I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day saints is the true and complete church of Jesus Christ here in the earth, that it contains the fulness of the gospel. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and if we read it we can draw closer to our savior then any other book. I know that in these latter days we have a prophet and apostles that guide us and lead us to know the will of God. I am so grateful I was born in this last dispensation to see all the amazing miracles and blessings that our Heavenly Father is giving us. I invite every single one of you who question if one of these are true to say a humble prayer and ask our Heavenly Father.. I know that they are true and I will always say it.

I love this work and I love to be a chapine missionary!

Happy week!

Con amor,

Hermana Bracha