Monday, October 25, 2010

There are awesome investigators here preparing for baptism

WELL HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLO OVER THERE IN WASHINGTON!!!!

How are you doing? How is school? Primary program? Fun!!!!! I wish I could be there that sounds awesome. Hopefully the exchange students can make it! I haven't gotten the package yet but hopefully it comes soon because those granola bars sound delicious :)

Okay well it has been a bit of a hard week for me. I really missed "mi mama" or trainer Sister Villalobos. It was hard to change companions AND cities... but day by day, prayer by prayer things are getting better. I love Laredo and miss it and the people... especially LELILAH :) I hope everything is going well with all the investigators over there. Things here in Weslaco are great though. We are over a bunch of cities around here so there is a TON of work to do. I'm learning a lot from Sister Sigler. She really takes the time to get to know people and work by their needs. She is from Las Vegas and is a super hard worker. We will have a good time together, I know it. There are awesome investigators here that are preparing for baptism. One of them will get baptized on her birthday which just happens to be Halloween :) She has sacrificed a lot to be baptized and I'm excited for her to take that set this Sunday. She is a nurse too! Another investigator is reading the Book of Mormon like nobody's business. She is already in Mosiah 14 and she will get baptized on Nov 7.

Have you ever been to Luby's before? The Longoria family took us there the other day and it was DELICIOUS. They are a really sweet family and let us wash clothes over there.

On Saturday we walked everywhere. It was fun :) It was SUPER windy though and my skirt kept blowing up as we were talking with everyone haha it was pretty bad. I wish we could walk every day! We are having a hard time finding new investigators... but we know that there are prepared people out there... it is just a matter of finding them.


I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! I PRAY FOR YOU OFTEN AND THINK OF YOU! HOPE ALL IS WELL

SISTER BRICKER

Monday, October 18, 2010

Sad to Leave Laredo

PUES HOLA MI MADRE HERMOSA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom that is interesting that you read the book "How to Have Difficult Conversations." You should gives me some tips/pointers! PLEASE! Last night we had a rather lengthly conversation with a Jehovah's Witness preacher about Adam and Eve. I'm still learning how to go about those the right way without getting into Bible bashing. People want us to back up our teaching and beliefs with the Bible... and then when we do they are always like "no, that is not what it means... it actually means this" and it is a bit frustrating... that is why PRAYER is so important because you can ask God Himself what it really means. Hahaah okay sorry that was a rant. But yes feel free to give me a summary of that book!

FELICIDADES ABOUT YOUR JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOM THAT IS GREAT!!!!!!!!!! YOU DESERVE IT! It brings me great joy that the Lord is blessing you with prosperity - because you are sacrificing so much right now for Jon and I to be out here.

I'm excited for the package! Thanks for moving it... SERIOUSLY THAT WAS THE LAST THING I THOUGHT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN THAT I WAS TRANSFERED! I JUST GOT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Laredo and I LOVE SISTER VILLALOBOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH! She is "mi mama" in the mission so I am sad to leave her... she has taken good care of me and taught me all I know :) Don't worry though we have already planned a backpacking trip for after the mission so you'll meet her someday... and LELILAH. She is a recent convert here who comes out with us ALL THE TIME and takes us out to eat. She seriously has the biggest heart. I'm so blessed to be here with great people. She is the one who texted you saturday :) We BIKED ALL DAY (saturday is now bike day) and we were EXHAUSTED so we went out to a delicious chinese buffet. I was a tomato! I'm suprised I haven't gotten super burnt here. The Lord is blessing me.

This week was honestly a week of MIRACLES. Seriously I have never seen the hand of the Lord so OBVIOUS in my life. These are stories for another day so you'll just have to take my word for it :) THE ONE INVESTIGATOR THAT WE HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE FOR OCTOBER 31ST! We are soooooooooo excited for him. He is prepared and ready. Everytime he is talking to someone about us he refers to us as "his angels." It's really kind of special to think about being someone's angel... but when we turn ourselves and what we do over to God every day, we can become those angels/servants for God. This isn't a missionary thing - this is an every person thing. This is a YOU thing. Everytime you work for God, you are His angel. I love that Spencer W. Kimball quote that talks about - God meeting our needs through other people.

Anywho! I am sad to miss his baptism. I am sad to leave Laredo but I know God has other things in store down in McAllen. The area I'll be working in is called Weslaco. Everyone I've talked to about Weslaco LOVES IT! I'm really excited. My companion will be Sister Sigler and she has been out for five months. It is about 50% Spanish and 50% English. I'm excited!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL

2 NEPHI 27:23

ENOS 1:1 (switch "father" with "parents")

Monday, October 11, 2010

THE BIGGEST GRAPEFRUITS YOU HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!

WELL HELLO THERE! Thank you for your email! I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading them. I apologize because I only have fifteen minutes left to write!

JON LOOKS SO SKINNY!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS LIKE ?QUIEN ES ESO? HE LOOKS REALLY GOOD AND HAPPY!!!!! That is so amazing. I love that kid. He never writes me though so thank you for forwarding emails!

MOM WAY TO BE A MISSIONARY! You are seriously better than I am at this work! Way to go! That is so cool! Could you write this in it for her:

"Se que las palabras en este libro son las palabras de Dios. Testifico que cuando lea este libro puede ser mas cerca de Dios. Se que lo bendicira su vida mucho. Me cae bien su hijo Jorge! El es muy amable y divirtido!"

That is awesome that you had the missionarys over! What did you cook them?! That will be great for the exchange students. The members here have started inviting us over more = :) :) :) Tonight we are going over to a brazilian members house and I hear really good things about her cooking so I'm excited. I'm also excited because through the members is where the best missionary work happens.

This week was good! It had some hard moments and some good moments. We went on exchanges this week for my first time. I went with Sister Bevan and she is AMAZING. It was fun to work with her and see how she does things because everyone is so different. President Trayner came up from McAllen to do interviews. It was good to talk with him and Sister Trayner. Transfers are next Tuesday... I have almost survived my first transfer in the field!!!! Crazy eh? I think I will be staying here in Laredo with Sister Villalobos... or at least I hope anyway.

The one investigator I was talking about didn't come to church this week :/ I hope he is okay. We have an appointment to come back tomorrow so we'll see what is up. That is the hardest thing when people start out so strong and then slip away... like Jon was talking about the guy that didn't want to get baptized anymore. It is rough but we just keep moving - like he said everyone has their agency. I realized this week how much I need to be working on to become more like Christ. Every moment and every thought of this life counts. I'm so grateful for this experience to be out here. Thank you and Grandma and Grandpa Palmer for making this possible. I am grateful every day.

Oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!! THIS WEEK WE WERE OUT CONTACTING AND THIS GRANDMA LET US INTO HER HOUSE AND GAVE US THE BIGGEST GRAPEFRUITS YOU HAVE EVER SEEN! THEY WERE FRESH FROM HER TREE IN THE BACKYARD AND WERE AS BIG AS A MELON!!!!!!!!! AND SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! I'LL SEND PICTURES :)

LOVE YOU ALL!

TAKE CARE!

P.S. WILL YOU TEXT BLAKELEY HAPPY BDAY FOR ME? OR ON FACEBOOK HAHA AND TELL HER TO WRITE ME SOMETHING B/C I DON'T HAVE HER ADDRESS

Monday, October 4, 2010

THE BAPTISM WAS AMAZING! The Lord works miracles.

WELLO (WELL HELLO HAHA) MAMA!!!!!

Okay I have so much to write I need like TEN HOURS TO FIT IT ALL IN! I'm going to speed type for you all. Conference was amazing right?

Okay so we had a BAPTISM AND IT WAS AMAZING! The Lord works miracles. It was amazing how calm and at peace she was later in the week when we talked to her. We had all been praying for her to feel at ease with the decision... and the Lord works according to our faith :) Her husband was able to baptize her on Saturday. It went perfect. She asked me to give a talk on baptism and I was honored. It was my first time speaking at a baptism. She came up out of the water and I knew she was clean. What a great feeling. They are planning to go to the Temple in a year with their little girl. Miracles happen.

The one investigator we met last week continues to amaze me. SOOOOOO many times people tell us "yeah come back next week..." but then they are NEVER there... but he was there and he had READ the pamphlet about the gospel. We had an amazing lesson about faith using Alma 32 and Ether 12. I can see the light and hope enter into his eyes already. We invited him to prepare for baptism and he is thinking about it. We also invited him to conference... and HE CAME..,.. and listened intently to the WHOLE thing. It was amazing. He did look at his watch once. Afterwards he told us that he loved it. He said that he felt like they were speaking DIRECTLY to him. It was Saturday afternoon session which talked a lot about faith... and I know the Lord specifically had him in mind while directing the speakers... so he is starting to feel it and each day I can see his smile is a little brighter. I really, really wish you and dad were serving down here as the senior missionaries... because honestly him and dad are SO MUCH ALIKE! He reminds me of Dad all the time and the things he has gone through. I was thinking as he was talking to us - "Dad would be the perfect member to take to these lessons." But anywho he is doing so well and I can't wait for you and Dad to serve a mission someday BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!

So I have had some really interesting tracting stories from this week. First we were speaking with this lady at her door about the restoration.. in Spanish. I was explaining prophets and all of a sudden I hear my companion SCREAM... and I was like uh oh... and I look down and there was a GIANT HUGE GRUB WORM crawling past her feet on the portch. It was seriously three inches long and a half an inch wide. I have never seen one so big in my life. The owner kicks it to the side and we keep talking. Well Sister Villalobos invited her to be baptized and so the lady was thinking... and thinkking... and then all of a sudden she starts screaming hahaha I was like what in the world is going on around here... the bug decided to make another appearance. This time the woman gets her broom and procedes to golf it off the porch... we gave her a card and went on our merry way.

Second happened yesterday. A man opened his door and we introduced ourselves. He then asked us these questions

-Are you all pretty close?
-uhhhh sure.. yeah?

-Do you share things together?
-umm... not really but sometimes

-Would you ever share you husband?

Oh my goodness it was so ridiculous. It was really creepy and not a good conversation with him. I just thought it was funny though because he must have spent a long time thinking up those questions. No husband sharing for me!

Okay one last thing... THE COCHROACHES ARE CRAZY! We deep cleaned our apartment and found like 100 in the cupboard dead. We proabably kill one a day but they are small little buggers so it's not a big deal. The mosquitos are crazy and eat me like crazy. They are out at all times of the day--I don't get it!

Well I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SURVIVED FOUR WEEKS OUT HERE SO FAR WOOOOOOOOOT WOOT!!!

TAKE CARE!

LOVE,
HERMANA BRICKER

send my love to everytooonea;sdfj!!!!!!!!!!1