Monday, August 31, 2015

Wow it sounds like the Brunson family had a great week at Mt. Rainier and Camp Zarahemla!  I'm not sure my week can compare but I’ll attempt to tell you about it.  So first off I will tell you guys a little more about my companion.  His name is Elder Holmes and he just turned 20.  He is from Saint George, Utah.  He is a real funny guy and is super good at doing voice impressions, so that reminds me of my papi.  His best impression is probably the Grinch. It is pretty crack up when he does that one.  He didn't play sports in high school but he really likes sports.  He likes a lot of things I like.  He really loves movies so we talk about the movies we like in our limited spare time.  We both really love Jimmy Fallon too.  Funny story actually!  So we both love watching Jimmy and one day we went to a nursing home to visit this old lady from our ward.  She had the T.V. on and guess what show was on?  Jimmy Fallon!!!!!!!! We both wanted to watch it so bad, but we were good missionaries and didn't watch it!  (I miss watching Jimmy.  Last year in school during my computer apps class I would finish my work in two seconds and then watch Jimmy Fallon for the rest of class, it was the best!)  Anyways back to my companion.  He is a really nice guy and we get along but it’s his first time training and he has only been out 6 months.  He has a great testimony and loves the gospel but I feel like I'm really far behind.  He doesn't exactly train me all that much, so I have kind of felt like all the learning has been put on me. It’s really hard to say anything to him too because he kind of just says everything is fine and not to worry.  He is a great guy though and he has a ton of knowledge.  He has 2 sisters who are both married and a 12 year old brother.

Now the question you have all been waiting for (all meaning my mother)…did I eat goat?  So last preparation day we had planned to eat goat for my companion’s bday. The Filipino, Elder Gutierrez was so excited to cook it. However, when we got to Amy and Logan’s, which are our investigators who live out on a farm, they were frantically trying to get one of their cows up.  So here is the story.  They had this cow that was giving birth to twins.  The first cow made it out alive but the second cow died inside of her.  This somehow made the momma cow pinch a nerve which caused her to lose the feeling in the back of her legs.  Most farmers at this point would just shoot the cow, however, Amy and Logan are really poor and shooting the cow costs $2,000 so they decided they would try and help her to walk.  So they got a tractor and attached the cow to it and lifted it up, then we as missionaries held a board up to the cow’s butt so it wouldn't fall over backwards. It is really hard to explain but we ended up spending p-day trying to support a cow.  I stepped in cow poo a couple of times which wasn’t very pleasant haha.  It was cool though that we were able to serve on our pday!  Elder Gutierrez was so sad though and he kept trying to convince his companion (the district leader) Elder Rios, to come back Tuesday and have another preparation day since we served. Elder Rios shut that idea down real quick haha.

Tuesday we went on a companionship exchange which was great!  I went with Elder Rios and we had a ton of fun!  I felt like our day was way more productive than the other days on my mission. The thing was we weren't seeing any more people than we normally do but we were trying much harder to find people.  Elder Rios taught me a lot and he is a great guy.  We get along really well, we are really similar and he thinks it is really funny how much my mom did for me in preparing for my mission.  He will ask me where I got something and I will always say, "I don't know, my mom got it."  So now when he asks me where I got something he just says, “Should I ask your mom?”  He calls my suitcase the pharmacy because I have so much medication.  He told me to thank momma Brunson because on the night of our exchange he had some stomach acid so I gave him some tums and it really helped.

Friday night we had a movie night at the church.  We watched Ephraim's Rescue.  I forgot how much I love that movie. RT watched that movie with us one time when we were driving home from Utah.  We thought we would get a bunch of investigators to the movie night but we only had one so that was sad.  But it was really good none the less and my testimony was strengthened just by watching the movie.  The power of the priesthood is real!  And it’s real because we have the same priesthood authority that Jesus Christ held when he was on the earth!  Elder and Sister Belliston came and put the movie on. They are the Senior couple from Gisborne.  They are super nice.  They were supposed to send a picture of me and Elder Holmes but I didn't know your email since it’s new.  I tried to give them dad’s work email but I'm not sure if I remembered it right.  Also she was going to try and add you as a friend on Facebook mom.  Also they have really good friends serving a mission in Denmark so they were going to see if they know Grandma and Grandpa Ottley.

Sunday I gave my first talk since being out on my mission!  I made it the whole 15 minutes without a single note!  I was a little nervous!  People think missionaries aren't human but we are, we get nervous!  I had to ask someone after I gave my talk if it was in English or not because it sounded Chinese to me!

I love you all, thanks for reading my emails, and thank you to all the people who have influenced me in my life!

Did Berek get his mission call?  I keep thinking about him.  He is going to be a great missionary!!

Love,

Elder Brunson