Week 60: It's Transfers again!

 November 24, 2014

Friends & Family,

I love Gloucester SO much!!!! Every place I go I get attached to members. I love them so much. I love everyone I meet. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and meet all these people.

 So I am getting transferred to Virginia Beach. I will be with Sister Newman and we both are training together!!! So that will be fun! Also, I will be able to serve in a Spanish branch, so EVERYTHING will be in Spanish. I am very excited about that because I have served in all English so far!!! I am grateful for that and really excited!! I will miss everyone in Gloucester and I love them VERY MUCH!!! I am grateful for ALL they did for me and my companion.

So something crazy we found out. Our church is buying out YouTube for one day on December 7 so all the ads and everything will relate to The Church of Jesus Christ Day-saints on that day! CRAZY HUH? I think that that will be so crazy!!!

This week was great!! We had a lot of success!! We are so excited for one of our investigators getting married in 4 days and getting baptized December 20, I am hoping and praying I will be able to go back for her baptism, HOPEFULLY!!!  But I will miss her a lot!!!

I am really sad me and Hermana Camps are getting split apart. She will always be my best friend!!! She has made these last 3 months so fun!!! She is so great and I am VERY grateful for her and the example she was to me!!! :)

Hma. Camps and another girl getting ready to serve a mission!

 Since Thanksgiving is coming up I just want to say I am so grateful for all of you. I am grateful for my amazing parents and family, my ward family at home, and my friends!! You know who you are. Mostly I am so grateful for this Gospel! The joy and happiness it brings to me and my family!!! I am loving my life and having the time of my life!!! I have never been so happy!

I am excited to Skype in 1 month and see ya’ll in 18 weeks!!! :)

I love and miss ya’ll :)

Hermana Brugman

Week 59: Rely on the Lord!

  November 17, 2014

Sunday night fun, playing scrabble! :)

Friends & Family,

I am so sorry... this is going to be really short..I am emailing all of my family right now!! So I don't have much time left!!! SO I AM SORRY!!!! this will be lame!!

This week was good!! We set one of our investigators with a date of December 20, 2015. So that will be great! We are so excited for her! :) We just love being around her! She really is just great. Another investigator is set for December 13, 2014

Transfers are this next week.  I really DON'T want to leave this area. I am so sad that it is the day BEFORE Thanksgiving... so I will be soooo sad if I get transferred right before. Of course it is what the Lord wants but I will be sad. I am loving it more and more every day. The members here are seriously amazing!!!I feel so at home when I am around these members.

These last couple of weeks I have learned so much,  I have came close to my Father in Heaven.  I love that with whatever we need... we need to rely on him!!I love this scripture that I read this morning in The Book of Mormon, Alma 37:36-37 it says, "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let ALL thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. Counsel with the Lord in ALL thy doings, and he will direct thee for the good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy hearts be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day. "I love this scripture. If you have any doubts, questions, concerns... ANYTHING. Go to your Father in Heaven. He will help you. He listens to your prayers and answers them!!I have had so many cool experiences lately where I just feel his love for me!

Love, Hermana Brugman

Week 58

 November 10, 2014

Jaymee and her past companions! :)

Friends & Family,

Man I really can't tell you how many times I have ignored the Spirit in the last 2 months... You think that I would know by now but NO. haha So many things happen throughout the day ( like 3 times a day) where I feel like I need to do something else or whatever but I just ignore it and than 10 minutes I was like ahhh I was thinking that... But I just think to myself no its just myself.. it's not the Spirit. SO... I learned... that no matter if you think it is the Spirit or yourself... If it is something good.... IT IS THE SPIRIT.. just do it. If it's bad it's not. So this week's focus is following the promptings of the Spirit!!!

Funny story, My companion was showering. (our water sucks.. it just stops working in the middle of our shower and drizzles out..) So she was showering at night, Note: its 35 degrees outside so it's cold inside, we just turned the heater on. The water stops..... all I hear is HERMANA!!!!!!!!! I ran in there... I thought she died or something and she said LOOK.... IT STOPPED.. (It was literally dripping so slow. I started laughing.... I said okay I can pour some water ( from our water jugs) on your head and she said no its fine...then 5 minutes later.... HERMANA.... maybe can you do that.. so I filled up a bowl and started pouring it over the shower so she can wash her hair.. hahahah she was so cold.. She got out of the shower and said... "Thanks for bathing me..." HAHAHA it was the funniest thing ever!!!! I love my companion.. We have so much fun!!! She is so funny!!! :) There is NEVER a dull moment with her.... :)

So we have these meetings called zone meetings the first Friday of every month. This zone meeting was the most powerful meeting every. I have NEVER felt Heavenly Fathers LOVE so strong before. I literally felt that his arms were wrapped around me... I just have been a little sad at not teaching Hispanics, most of you know I am supposed to teach in Spanish but both of my areas now have been all English expect a few people.. it's been really hard for me in learning a new language when we don't teach anyone. These past couple of weeks I just have been struggling.. I have came to a realization that it doesn't matter what language I speak.. EVERYONE needs to hear about the gospel.. and this zone meeting was perfect for me!!! I felt Heavenly Fathers love and it made me so happy!!!! I love this gospel. It is so true!!!!! It is the ONLY way we can learn to get back to our Loving Heavenly Father!!!!! :)

Have a great week!! LOVE YA'LL!!

Hermana Brugman

These pictures are from a Hispanic Festival!

Week 57: Happy Halloween!

  November 3, 2014

Friends & Family,

This week was GOOD.  It is so weird having holidays when you are away from home. It didn't even feel like Halloween happened. haha but whatever :) For Halloween, we had to be in at 6:15 to be safe. So we came home and carved pumpkins, and hung out. It was fun!!

FUNNY story: ME.. Locked  myself out of the bathroom. I was on the outside and couldn't get in... so I call the elders and ask them what I should do... they sat there and laughed for like 3 minutes.... NEVER CALLING THEM AGAIN. hahaha I had a blonde moment..... :/

This week the Spirit was VERY strong with me and my companion. haha! So we both felt like we shouldn't go to this house but we both didn't say a word to each other. SO WE DROVE 25 MINUTES...  and just kept going... and we got into the driveway... and it was pitch dark and we both looked at each other and I drove off really fast and left. We both don't know why we didn't feel right and we never will know, but we are so glad that we have the Spirit with us and we are directed by the Spirit. We both wished one of us would have said something before.. but we didn't. I am just so grateful for the Spirit and being in tune with the Spirit. I have learned so much about the Spirit on my mission. It is amazing. Yeah, we feel the Spirit but we HAVE to act on the feelings we get.

 Another note, again we felt the Spirit as we were teaching a lesson last night.. I felt very prompted to ask a  certain question.... an my companion is speaking and I was going to ask it after she was done.. but she asked him that exact question.. I thought I thought of that question all by myself. NOPE it was the Spirit.  I just love being a missionary and experiencing these things for myself. This gospel is so true, there is no doubt about it.

There was a scripture that I read this morning.. yeah I have read it 100 times but today it grabbed my attention and now is my favorite! Also it is in the Bible as well as in the Book of Mormon. I love finding scriptures that are in both because some people don't think we believe in the Bible  and that The Book or Mormon was "just added". So it is just a testimony builder to me that we believe in the Bible AND The Book of Mormon AND THAT THEY WORK HAND AND HAND!!   It is in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 26:24, "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he LOVETH the world, even that he LAYETH down his OWN life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." The one in the Bible in John 3:16-17. I love these scriptures because Jesus Christ suffered everything for YOU personally. He loves you. He knows you. He has felt what you have felt or what you feel.

I love Jesus Christ and OUR LOVING Heavenly Father. We are so lucky to have someone love us so much!!

I love this gospel more than anything! I am so happy serving the Lord!!!

Have a great week!!! Love ya'll and miss ya'll!! :)

Hermana Brugman