WEEK 13!

 December 30, 2013

 Friends  & Family,

Well skyping my family for Christmas was the best Christmas present I could have gotten! It was so amazing! I loved seeing all my family! It was so hard to say goodbye but I know that I will see them soon again!!! :) I have the best family EVER! :)) but Christmas Eve was fun! We all went over to some senior missionaries house. We played games and she gave us all a box of goodies. like puzzles, candy, hot chocolate, etc. It was so fun! Then we went home and hung out and went to bed! We woke up and opened some presents on Christmas Day! Hung out then got ready and went to a members house! We had brunch... SO much food!! Then I skyped my family. :) BEST DAY EVER!!! Then we went to another members house at 5 with the Elders and ate dinner! Then went home at like 7. FIRST CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME.... I WENT TO BED AT 7:30PM hahahah I didn't think I was that tired but I laid down then fell asleep before 7:30 hahaha! Funny. But Thursdays are always long because we have to weekly planning for 3 hours! So we plan for the next week and do all this stuff.. haha it takes forever! But its good :) haha but I kind of just realized... I live in the GHETTO... haha (don't worry grandma Nilsa I am okay. But if you want you can send pepper spray.. hehe just kidding) But we met this new family!!! Norma, Manuel and two kids! We just started teaching them! And they are amazing!! We invited them to church! ( IT IS SO HARD TO GET PEOPLE TO CHURCH....) BUTTT They came! All 4 of them! It was so amazing I saw them come in and light up!! It made my day! They are so great! My Spanish is getting a lot better and I'm actually talking more and more in each lesson!! So thanks to all your prayers! :) But don't stop ! hahaha But it is crazy how much I've grown and learned since I have been on my mission.. I absolutely love being on my mission and love everything about it! Yeah I miss my friends and family and my life at home.. but this is as close as real life I am ever going to get! This is WHERE, without a doubt I am supposed to be! :) I have never been so happy! Thank you for all the Christmas pictures and cards!! And thank you for all my friends and family back home! I miss you all and love you!!! Have a safe week!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)

Hermana Brugman 

 

WEEK 12!

 December 23, 2013

Friends & Family,

I am so excited I can't believe Christmas is so close. It literally doesn't even seem like it is almost here! I really am missing home! My first Christmas away from home.... but I know that I will be okay! It is really an amazing time to be serving the Lord. All I really even think about is the true meaning of Christmas. Yeah we always do, but especially cause I am serving the lord I am CONSTANTLY thinking about it! It is such an amazing feeling!! The spirit is always so strong in my life! Being a missionary is by far the best decision I have ever made!! I know I always say I love my life but I never thought my life could possibly get this great!! :) So this week was SO great! We just went around sharing the Christmas message door to door! It is so amazing the experiences I go through! We had a Christmas conference on Friday, so Thursday our whole zone drove down in a bus to stay in Virginia Beach with other missionaries! Then that next day we went to a Christmas thing! We were all so confused on what it was... but we get there and President Baker said you guys all need to relax.. so we watched the Mumpit Scrudge, haha It was so fun, then we had a bunch of people from our mission to do musical numbers!! :) I felt the spirit so strong and loved every minute of it! :) We went with a member and her two cute kids! Sister Anderson! ( The one we had thanksgiving with) And we delivered cookies to the less active!! and to see their faces lighten up made me so happy inside!! :)

 This week nothing really exciting happened, it was just some really cool experiences! I absolutely love the Christmas season! It makes me so happy! I'm so excited to Skype my family.... :) You all know that I loved my family before I left,  but being on a mission makes you understand how much you are BLESSED.... I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the family and friends I have! I couldn't be any happier!! Thank y'all for being the best!! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Hermana Brugman

WEEK 11!

 December 16, 2013

Beautiful sunset over the bay outside their house!

Family & Friends,

Wow how blessed am I to have a family like mine! I can't express my love towards them! Thank you for all the Christmas packages! I love it all so much! :) I will be sending home letters to you all!

So this week was alright. I'm not gonna lie. It is getting harder and harder with this language thing! I have by far taught more lessons in English then Spanish! Without a doubt. So that doesn't help me! I barely know anything! I just keep praying and praying that someday I will. So we had 1 of the 70's come and talk to all of us missionaries! It was really good! It was ALL day long from 8am -4pm and it was about an hour away! But it was so amazing! I love being around worthy and such spiritual people! Some people bore their testimonies and they were so strong! I seriously could not imagine my life anywhere else but here! I never thought this is where my life would take me! But I am in LOVE with my life! It's an amazing thing to know that Heavenly Father is ALWAYS there for you! Knowing that he loves you so much and knows you blows my mind! We had a ward Christmas social! It was so much fun! We helped set up everything! the next day... my amazing family sent three packages!!! haha It was amazing!!!! I never thought letters and packages meant anything to me! but it's nice! haha That day we went tracking in a trailer park.. it was freezing! We didn't find anyone. So frustrating! haha but I am starting to realize some reasons why I am here! Hermana Bennett said to me, " You know how you come on a mission for a reason but sometimes you don't know why or for who?" I said yeah! and she said, "You get along so well with the young women, I think you are here for them!!" I was in shock and said, wow thanks! haha in my ward here there are 15 young women and 3 come to church! I got 2 young women to come! I love these young women! I love working with them! It's amazing! Then we ate brunch at the Andersons! It was so YUMMY! Crepes and potatoes and eggs and bacon! Yummm!! :) Our lovely, golden investigator is AMAZING!!! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and at the end he looked at us and said, "It's weird because I drink ALL the time but every since you guys started teaching me, I haven't drank"!! Ahh how crazy and amazing the spirit works!! It is amazing! Hopefully he will get baptized.  It's just hard cause his wife lives in Mexico... but hopefully!! :) So Sunday I went to church and I was about to walk out and Sister McCormick runs up to me and says, "Your sister had her baby!!!" I looked at her and was confused because I didn't understand how she would know! haha then I was like WHAT?? And started crying in front of everyone!!!! hahaha I am so happy Jayden and Derek for this amazing baby boy Kedson to come into the world! I can't wait to Skype him!! I love all of you guys! I hope you have a great week!! :)

Hermana Brugman 

 -Jaymee and Hermana Bennett decorating the tree-

 -Jaymee, Hermana Bennett and the Elders decorating-

 -Hermana Bennett almost biting Jaymee's face. :0)-

 -Group Picture-

WEEK 10!

 December 9, 2013

 To Friends & Family,

So Tuesday, was like a lazy day.. we had to deep clean our house. So we took a couple hours and deep cleaned EVERYTHING. It was nasty haha but anyways this week was very slow as toward missionary work but still great! I love everyone in my ward! They are seriously so great! They LOVE their sisters... haha They are all like fighting over us! :) haha Its funny but The Shumways are from Arizona. so he always gives me updates on ASU football! haha :) Its great! Elder Hart left his camera in our car so we took about 30 funny, ugly, scary pictures. It was so funny! haha but our Elders here are great! It's sad cause transfers are next week and some of them will probably get transferred! :( but oh well! haha So Friday we had our first zone meeting! President Baker and his wife came to that! It was so great and I felt the spirit so strong. It is so crazy how I thought I felt the spirit so strong at home... It is a different kind of feeling! It is amazing! I am so grateful for this life I have. I seriously never thought I could be this happy! I miss my grandparents on both sides so much!! I really wish y'all could experience what I am experiencing! I am thankful for the people in my life! Thank you all for being there for me and my family! And thank you to the young men and young men leaders in my home ward for sending me a package and all writing me, it means a lot! :) Friday night we had a play, the forgotten carols, and a lot of people came and it was very good! Music brings the spirit so strong! Saturday was the Christmas Devotional, and it was so great!!! Russell M. Nelson is so great! Sorry my email is so short! It was a very slow week here in Elizabeth city! haha I hope y'all have a great week! Hopefully next week I'll have some awesome stories!! :)

Hermana Brugman

**...PICTURES TO COME...**

WEEK 9!

 December 2, 2013

     Wow how thankful I am for my life and all the people in it!!! This week was probably the best week.  I am surrounded by loving fun people!! So Monday I had a thing called exchange so I go with another Sister and my companion goes with another Sister for the day! So I was with Sister Snow! She is so cute and so fun! We did all English and went to visit some less active!! It was really nice to not have to worry about the Spanish for that day! :) hehe but Tuesday we went and knocked at this trailer park and this African American lady came to the door with toothpaste all over her mouth and started yelling at us and slammed the door... hahaha I walked away so scared but laughing so hard! haha The funny things you see on a mission!! haha But we found our first real investigator. Wow he is golden, his name is Adan (Adam in English) He is very humbled and very sweet and willing to hear our message! He came to church on Sunday!!! It was so Amazing!!!!! :) Hopefully he gets baptized! haha but wow Thanksgiving!1 I missed my family and friends on this day!! I stopped to think and started crying cause I miss my amazing family so much! But all the missionaries (six of us) went to Sister Andersons house. She has two very cute kids! haha but it was so fun! We went over at 10:30am and helped her cook alllll day while the Elders were working on the yard and setting up Christmas stuff! The Elders thought it would be so funny.. to pull a prank on me..... so they found a frozen crawdad (a little lobster) and put it in my shoe... so after we ate, food was amazing, we went to all take pictures outside! So I was putting my shoes on, my Sperry's.. and something was in the front of my shoe and I couldn't put my shoe on, so I go to look and I see a crawdad. Oh my gosh.... I have never been so scared in my LIFE!!!!! I screamed at the top of my lungs and jumped and threw the shoe.... EVERYONE was laughing. I started crying cause I was so scared! hahaha everyone said I jumped so high they didn't know a girl could jump that high! haha All the Elders were laughing so hard for like 10 minutes. So now I have to get them back, if anyone has an idea... LET ME KNOW! ;) haha So Thanksgiving was a blessing. We all ate, hung out, played games, and put up their Christmas tree! It was a great day!!! I am thankful for being in such a loving ward! :) I love my companion, we have SO MUCH FUN which helps a lot!!! :)  I am beyond happy and love my life!! Thank you  all for being so supporting and loving!!!

I love and miss you all.

Hermana Brugman

(Pictures will be coming soon)

 -This is a picture of the missionaries at a members house for dinner 12-4-2013-