Week 3 in Gijon

Hello everyone!
It was really good to hear from you this week! I have missed you so much!!

This week has been really slow. Slow is a lot different here in the mission field. We had a lot of lessons planned, but they pretty much all fell through. It was kind of a disappointment, but a lot of good things happened this week as well.

We had Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with Ricardo and Gema and their family. President Florin and his family came as well. We had the lesson on the spirit. It was so good, and the spirit was so strong. They are all so ready to be baptized. I really wish they could get their marriage papers all taken care of. That has been a huge struggle, and the longer it takes the more the adversary is going to work on them. They are in my prayers every night.

On Tuesday we met with Malu and her door was locked from the outside with a padlock! so weird! it is always an adventure going to her apartment, we never know what is going to happen. Then we went over to Nancy´s apartment to help her clean out her storage closet.

On Wednesday, I had my very first Zone meeting. We went to Leon. It is about a 2 hour bus ride. We stopped in Oviedo for the missionaries there. I saw Sister Johns. it was so good to see her. She is so funny, I missed her a lot. The ride from Gijon to Leon is so pretty. It is through the mountains. There was snow and lakes! I haven’t seen snow in such a long time! I miss it a lot. The meeting was really good. I met a lot of new missionaries and saw some I already knew. We talked about the temple trip the branch members are going to be able to take this week and how on Feb 1, 2 and 3 will be our meetings with the President. On February 26 our mission is having a mission tour. One of the members of the 70 will be coming! I’m so excited, that will be so great.

Also I got my packages! I was so excited! When you send packages to the mission office, they keep them until the next zone meeting, so that could also explain why they took so long. Thank you all so much! I love everything. Sister Zitting was so funny. We got home and she put up the Christmas tree and we put on Christmas music while I opened them!

We did some family history with Frank this week. Have you looked at our family history recently? It was really interesting. We have family history done all the way back to 200. I’m not sure if it was right or not. We are related to a lot of royalty...it seems fishy to me, but who knows.

This Sunday, Frank and Elvin got the priesthood!! It was amazing. When I got here Sister Zitting was so worried about Frank. He was homeless, he had some drinking problems. Since then, he found an apartment, has been going to church, priesthood lessons, and Noche De Hogar, and now he has the priesthood! He is so happy and has such a light around him. It was a miracle. The gospel can do so many amazing things in our lives. And Elvin is planning on serving a mission. I am so happy for them.

We had lunch at the presidents house with Malu and then went and had a lesson with her and one of the members of the presidency. We watch the Joseph Smith movie and talked about the restoration. Since my mission, I have gained such a testimony of the restoration. Tengo un testimonio de la resauracion. Yo se que Dios llamó Jose Smith ser un propheta. Yo se que el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. El Libro de Morón es verdadero. Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadero. Mediante el evangelio nuestras vidas podemos vivír con nuestro Padre Celestial. (I have a testimony of restoration. I know that God called Joseph Smith to be a prophet. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. The Book of Moron is true. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. Through the gospel we can live our lives with our Heavenly Father.)

Today is P-Day so Sister Zitting and I are going to the beach and are going to visit the shops there. It has been super rainy and cold lately. Hopefully it will clear up soon.

I brought my camera so I am going to figure out how to send you some pictures.

I read a talk by President Boyd K Packer "Some things Every Missionary Should Know." Joseph should definitely read it!

I love you guys and pray for you! I love being here. Missionary work is so hard, but so important and the most amazing experiences I have ever had. It is definitely humbling, but I love it! Talk to you soon! Le Amo-Hermana Brumble

Week 2 in Gijon

January 20th,  2014

My first week was great!! Almost done with my second week! I love it here. I’m still getting used to everything, but each day is great. Things have been a little slow. It is a hard time of year because people go on vacations a lot. It has gotten pretty cold here. It has rained a lot this week, good thing I came prepared for that! This is my schedule: Each morning we wake up at 7 and exercise for a half hour. Then we get ready and eat breakfast. At 8.30 to 9.30 is personal study. At 9:30 to 10:30 is companionship study and the 12 week program. Then at 11 we go out and work. At 2 we come back and have Medio Dia (noon or mid-day break) until four, and then we go out and work again. We come back to our piso (flat or apartment) at 9:30 and go to bed at 11. We have a couple of appointments each day and usually contact in apartment buildings. I got a door slammed in my face:) that was fun.:) We meet some pretty interesting people. Now that I'm out of the MTC I have a lot more time to think about home, I miss you a lot and love you guys, but don’t worry I'm not home sick. ;)

The Branch is awesome. It is so small. This Sunday was better, we had about 60 people there and the family we are teaching came! We had lunch with one of the families. They are so great. Most everyone is a convert. They got baptized it their twenties and then got married. They adopted a cute little boy from Ethiopia. He is so funny. They asked him who his favorite missionary was, and he said Elder Fish! They asked him why and he said because he is "smart and attractive" ha-ha it was so funny. He reminds me of Joseph. He loves cars and Legos and showed us his room.

Frank is living is an apartment now! We are so excited for him. He is doing so much better. He has been coming to church, he bought a suit, and is almost done with his priesthood classes. He could be getting the priesthood really soon. It is so amazing to see his transformation from when I first met him. He is so happy.

Joseph is amazing, he is really dedicated, I've learned a lot from him. That is so exciting that he is taking a temple prep class! When can he turn in his papers?! Sister Zitting's brother is in Honduras right now serving a mission. She talks about him all the time. I can’t wait for Joseph. He is going to love a mission. Tell him to start studying Preach My Gospel so much and to start cleaning and cooking!

That Temple class sounds great. The temple has been such a blessing for me on my mission. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to go a lot before and during my time at the MTC. It definitely gives you a lot of strength.

I got empatronized and am working on getting my residency taken care of. The craziest thing happened. We were filling out paper work when this man comes up to us and asks us if we are American and wants to know where we meet for church on Sundays. His name is Nelson. He is from El Salvador and lived in Nevada. He is so prepared to for the gospel. His family is still in Nevada, and he talked about how much he misses them and how he really felt like it was time for him to get to know God. He has tried every church you can think of and he said, "I realized I hadn’t tried the Mormons." His friend in the US tried to get him to go to church and he felt like it was probably time. He had so many questions and has so much potential. I know Heavenly Father put us in his path. It was definitely a tender mercy from Heavenly Father to put him in my life. He wants to make sure he doesn’t forget his English because his wife is American so he wants us to teach him in English!! So good!!

I am having a great time. We teach English classes, I teach the piano, we have family home evening. I love it here and have been having a great experience. We went to Villaviciosa the other day. Which is the place that Kenny was talking about that specializes in apple cider. It is way beautiful there and it is in my area. I could definitely smell the apple cider though. It is a really cool fishing village. It is ancient. I saw a church that was established in 1663 and an tree stump that was 6,360 years old! It’s way cool there. We went to a less active women’s house there named Marivi. It is hard because it is one hour away from Gijón where the church is so it is hard to get to church, but she came to relief society. She is great and so smart! She is also the most amazing painter.

My companion is great! Sister Zitting is the best and each day I love her more and more, she really is exactly like me, it's kind of like living with myself. She goes home in April, I’m really excited for her.

That is so great about Jr and Micah. I’m so glad everything is working out for them. It would be so great if the Clarkes could adopt them. Will you let them know how much I love them and am thinking and praying for them?

We go to a shop on the street to e-mail. It is run by Muslims who love us! They are so funny. We go in there sometimes to talk with them. It is a great way to contact people.

I miss Mom’s food, I love the food here in Spain, but sometimes I just want a hot meal from my mom. :). We've only had a couple meals with members so most of the time Sister Zitting and I cook. I really need to learn how to cook, I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get transferred.

Well, I have to go. But I love you guys and miss you so much. Give my love to everyone! Feliz Cumpleanos (Happy Birthday) Bennett. Tell him his Tia (aunt) from Spain loves him!

Les Amo! Hermana Brumble

Week 1 in Gijon!

Hola from Gijon,
I love it here. Gijon is a beautiful place. It is right on the coast, so we have the ocean. It is kind of like Capri, only a little less tourist-y. It is very green and there are so many hills. I live in the city in a little piso (apartment). It is great, very small, but great. We have a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and washer. We don’t have a dishwasher or a dryer, but that’s fine. My companion is Sister Zitting. She is 22 and is from Tennessee. I love her, she is great and helps me so much. She is a lot like me and has great taste in music. I can’t wait to spend the next six weeks or so with her.

The train ride was interesting. There were two other sisters with me on the train, all getting off at different stops...I was the last one. We had to watch very carefully where the stops were because they only give you 2 minutes to get off. It was about a 5 hour train ride and I was alone for the last hour and a half...weirdest feeling ever. Luckily I made it at around midnight.

After that it was right to work. in Gijon there is one tiny branch. They have a really hard time with retaining members. A lot of them are inactive. So we teach a lot of menos activos (less active) and recent converts. They really need some strong families right now. We are also teaching some investigators. We are teaching this family Ricardo and Gema that are so ready to get baptized. Unfortunately they aren’t married. That is really common in Spain.

It is really expensive and hard to get married so people just don’t. Once they get married they can get baptized. I really hope they can work in out soon, their children are so excited about the gospel.

Yesterday Sister Zitting and I decided to go tracting. That is a little different with apartments. We press the buttons until someone lets us in and then knock on doors. We met one man named Constintine. We are coming back to teach him on Wednesday. Maybe he will be a new investigator.

Sunday was interesting. Sister Zitting and I are in charge of playing the piano for sacrament. So I did it this week. Before we had a branch council meeting. And then I was informed that I was to give a 5 minute testimony....it was probably about 1 minute long in very bad Spanish. Everyone said Muy Bien Hermana (very good Sister), but you need to do some practicing. And then we had a class for new investigators and relief society. Relief Society is so funny. We were talking about joseph Fielding Smith and then the conversation spun out of control and everyone was having this really heated discussion about plural marriage. This sister behind us was trying so hard to change the subject, she kept standing up and saying "is this important to my salvation, no." Finally it got under control, which was good because a woman walked in about five minutes later who hadn’t been to church in 8 years and just felt like she needed to come today. Good day to be late to church. We then went to the presidents apartment with Frank, a recent converso (convert) who is living at a homeless shelter, he has been having a hard time so we teach him a lot. All the sisters were there in the kitchen gossiping about the branch. They are so funny and all of them love you to death. They kiss us and feed us, it’s great. It was a really good day.

Sound like everyone is doing great. Bennett looks so big. I sure miss everyone. I hope you all are doing well. I haven’t gotten the packages yet. But they said packages get stuck in customs a lot. They said to be very vague about its contents and to not put the price over 60 dollars. Eventually it might catch up to me. I have received letters from people in the ward. Tell them all thank you for me, I love hearing from them.

There are a pretty good amount of senior couples here and I love it. They are all so funny and really nice to the Hermanas. Most of them are serving in Madrid.

Everything is great here and I can’t wait to tell you more. I will let you know if I need something, but so far I am doing great, and can’t complain. I feel so different and responsible, I am learning a lot here. I am loving being in the field and I love teaching the people here. I don’t know much but I am learning and improving each day. Rosetta stone helped, I know a lot of words, it is just conjugating and forming sentences that is hard. I love you guys and can’t wait to hear from you.

Love Hermana Brumble

Ps. Oh, I forgot, I am also teaching a little girl how to play the piano. Wish me luck!

Kenzie in Gijon

¡Mi familia!
Ok, so I have information for tomorrow! I am leaving the MTC at 8:00 in the morning. From there, I will be walking over to the stake center (it’s across the street). At the stake center, President and Sister Jackson will be picking us up to take us to lunch. After lunch, we will be going back to the stake center to receive our area and companion. President told me that some companions will not be able to pick us up because they are too far. Cross your fingers for me!! I had a meeting with President Jackson and his wife yesterday. It was just a get to know you meeting. It was so fun! They are both so nice and hilarious, they are definitely not what I was expecting. I am so excited and so nervous. My time here has definitely changed my life and I’ve learned so much. The adversary is definitely making me feel weak and inadequate. But I know that’s just making me realize how much we need the Savior in our lives, because with Him, I am strong. Alma 26:12.
I love you all, and will let you know as soon as I can where I live:)!
Give hugs and kisses to everyone!!-Hermana Brumble
PS They told us we would find out the day before if we were going to the Canary Islands because we can only bring one suitcase...still no word...
Received from Sister Jackson, the wife of Kenzie's mission president.
:
Dear Parents of Hermana Brumble,

We received your daughter into our mission Tuesday morning. We brought her
to the Mission Home and fed her lunch. She was excited, and seemed ready to
get to work. We enjoyed spending a good part of the day with her to tell her
about our Mission and to get to know her better. She is wonderful.

We discussed the new 12 week training program. During this 12 week period,
your daughter will have an extra hour of companion study each day, and will
be given specific things that she must report to the Mission President. We
know that this is an inspired program, and will help missionaries learn to
be better teachers and better followers of Christ. Please encourage your
daughter in this program. It will help her to develop tools that will help
her to have a successful mission, and a more successful and fulfilling life
after her mission.

Hermana Brumble has been assigned to the city of Gijon, on the north coast
of Spain. She will work with Hermana Zitting, who is from Tennessee. She is
a happy, obedient missionary and will be a good first companion for your
daughter. Hermana Brumble took the night train with another new Hermana and
will arrive in the middle of the night in Gijon. Her companion will be
waiting for her there.

Please send any letters or packages to the Mission Office for the duration
of her mission. We have such a large mission area and mail times are very
unpredictable, so that if she gets transferred while the mail is in transit
it is very difficult to track her down. Don't forget to put her first name
on the package!
Our mailing address:

Calle Fuerteventura, 4
2nda Planta, Oficina 2.8B
San Sebastian de los Reyes, 28703
Madrid, Spain

Our Preparation Day is on Monday. Hermana Brumble is instructed to email her
immediate family every week. We look forward to getting to know her and
working along side her in this great work here in the Spain, Madrid Mission.
We already love her. Thank you for sharing her with us!

Sincerely,
President and Sister Jackson

A New Year and off to the MISSION FIELD!

¡Mi Familia!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo! I am still LOVING missionary work. I will be leaving the MTC on Tuesday at 8 o’clock in the morning. I have to walk to the Stake Center where I will be receiving my first assignment. I am so nervous, I feel like I´ve only been here a week, but I´m ready to leave and start the work. I don’t know much about the plans after that, so the next time I email, I will be in my first area already. Please pray for me so that I can have courage and confidence. I know it will be great and words can´t describe how ready I am. I cannot believe it´s already happening though. Time flies be so fast here.

Sounds like Christmas was so fun. Thanks for all the pictures , I enjoyed seeing you all! Don’t worry about the packages, I had a wonderful Christmas. It was so spiritual, it will definitely be something I will remember for the rest of my life.

New years has been so much fun! Last night we watched a Sound of Music! And we stayed up ‘till midnight. We watched the ball drop in Madrid, and as a Spanish tradition we stuffed 12 grapes in our mouth, one for every time the bell rang. That was a lot of fun. This morning we slept ‘till 8am and had Nutella crepes, scrambled eggs, and fruit for breakfast. After emailing, we will have a treasure hunt, lunch, then we are going to a park to play volleyball, soccer and bike riding. We will then come back, eat dinner, and have a devotional. Today will be so fun! I kind of wish we were having some sort of class though, just so I feel a little bit more prepared for Tuesday. But I am going to try to practice my Spanish as much as I can! What will you guys do for New Years?

I am going to miss the MTC a lot. I think mostly because of all the devotionals we have, the speakers we listen to, and going to the temple ever week. The spirit is always here and it’s amazing. This Sunday I sang a solo!! So scary!!! It was “I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me” from the Primary Children Song book (in honor of mom). I got a little emotional while practicing thinking about her. I miss her a lot and love her so much. I miss all of you a lot!:) But I don’t miss being home, it’s a weird feeling. I love it here and can´t imagine being anywhere else. The song went really well though, I even sang it in Spanish!!.

On Mondays we have youth groups come and we sing to them, and then President Sitterud picks two missionaries at random to tell them why they decided to serve a mission and bear their testimony. I had a feeling before we sang that he was going to pick me... I was right. I was so nervous, but in the best Spanglish I could remember I did it! Ha! It was so scary, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t understand a thing, but hopefully they felt the spirit. I have a feeling that´s how most of my lessons will be for about six months.

I am so excited to receive my first area. Melilla would be fun, But I´m a little skeptical about going anywhere there is a beach. I´d be too tempted to swim:) Anywhere will be great though.

Can´t wait to start and to get out there!! I love all of you and can´t wait to share more experiences with you! Thank you for your love and support! I am going to try to send pictures soon! Love you!

Love,
Hermana Brumble!!!

Spain MTC Christmas Program

 Christmas singing in the Nursing Home, Madrid Spain