Week 8 in Gijon!

3/3/14

This week has been crazy!
I’ll start with the good things. We went to Madrid this week! It was amazing!! We left on Wednesday and had a 7 hour long train ride....not so amazing. We got to Madrid and stayed overnight in a hotel. The next morning we went to the stake center on the temple grounds. It was so weird being back in Madrid! Seeing the MTC and the Temple. It was a lot of fun meeting all the missionaries and meeting so many people I hear about all the time. There is one Hermana, Hermana Dietzi. She is from Sweden and served in Gijón. She was like, "You’re Hermana Brumble! My mom follows your blog!" Ha-ha it was so funny.
The meeting was amazing. Hermana and President Jackson spoke to us and then President Teixiera and his wife spoke to us. They are great. I learned so much from them and their messages. The first thing he said to us was " Missionary work is special, if we lose that sight, we lose our mission". Then he talked about how all missionaries have problems and concerns and the only thing he really wanted to accomplish with us was to answer all our questions and hopefully help us have more confidence in what we have been called to do. The questions that seemed to be most important to me were: How do we get members excited about missionary work. He said, "leave it to the Bishop or the Branch President". He said that it is hard, but it is their job. He also talked about patience and how we need to have patience and that patience is to have hope and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. He also said that members will be excited when they see the success of the missionaries. If you want the members to get excited, GET EXCITED! Then we talked a lot about good finding and contacting. He was so funny, he would practice contacting with us and how to introduce the gospel the first time you meet someone and how to tell if someone is interested. It was so helpful, I think contacting is what I need to work on the most. Then he talked about faith and how faith is a principle of power and action. "The action is repentance in which we receive power." He said that repentance is the change of thoughts, actions, beliefs, and desires. He went into depth about changing our beliefs and how there is a belief system which is our priorities. If we want to change, we need to evaluate our priorities and really believe in what we are changing. It is kind of like the difference between repenting because you got caught or recognizing that you really need that change and are willing to act. I think the most important thing he talked about for me was goal setting and knowing if your goal is realistic. he drew a diagram the top line being the goal and the line underneath being our result. The space in between is the gap. he said that the gap erodes our faith and the only way to shorten the gap is to move one of the lines. Preach my gospel says " If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease, your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the spirit." The solution is your plans. If we have a gap, don’t adjust your goals, adjust your plans. He said that a goal is only realistic if we believe that we can reach them. " Always set goals high enough to stretch your faith and help you improve." The meeting was so great, and I left feeling so uplifted and there were so many times the Spirit bore witness to me that I was called as a representative of Jesus Christ. I have the power and authority to teach and act in His name. I know I am supposed to be here. I know this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ! I love this gospel! He gave us a challenge at the end of the meeting that was really cool. He challenged us to pray for and with the people we work with. To ask our investigators if there is anyone that they know that we could pray for. He promised that if we do this, Christ will lead us to them and them to us. He told a story about a Cowboy went in search of gold. He dug in one place and found one nugget, then traveled miles to another spot. He said if we find gold, keep digging because there is more there. He said that we will double or triple our investigators in the Madrid Mission, which will double or triple our possibilities. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to go to that meeting. It helped me so much! After, we traveled back home, it was a 5 hour train ride this time, we got home around 12:30 in the morning!

We cleaned the house of one of the members. It took all of our medio dia and a little more! But it was much needed and I know we really helped this sister. We have a lot of good members who helped so much! And then, we are having trouble with our fechas (appointments). Please pray for them. Satan is working so hard here. It seems like every time it starts progressing, something awful happens! I know it will work out.

I love you guys, please give my love to every one! Talk to you soon!Con Amor - Hermana Brumble