Seperation Anxiety

Kamusta Mo!

Primero Ako nahiguma kaninyo!

Karon Semana Nindot Jud! As In Nindot gahapon!

Some days I forget how to Talk in English. I can't really talk to the pulti's on the Dyipneys it hard to switch from Bisayan to English so I talk to the white people in broken English... On the dyipney the other day there were three white girls I told them bisayan then tried to translate to English "free the tour" I said talking about the temple tours we have every Thursday. We are basically visitor center missionaries too because we give tours of the temple and explain it and explain baptism and prophets and the church. Its fun but at the same time hard because none of us had training for it so we never know exactly what to say.

I almost lost my companion the other day. We were riding the dyipney and it stopped so I got off but it hadn't stopped all the way so my companion was still on the dyipney. Luckily it only went ten feet so I could still see and hear her! Haha but it was not a good feeling to almost loose a companion. We said if we ever get separated to meet at the house. Haha.

The weeks and time has gotten shorter and it will soon be next transfers. I am most likely staying for another transfer but I don't really know. I love it here though so I wouldn't mind staying this area is awesome. I really don't want to transfer to a city area that would not be as much fun, but I will go wherever revelation brings me. It's all in the plan so I'm not complaining. I have been blessed greatly on the mission.

I Love all of You

Sister Bruno

Recognizing Blessings

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Philippine CebuMission <cebumission08@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: Week
To: Annika Bruno <annika.bruno@myldsmail.net>


A missionary that not only experiences blessings, but also recognizes these blessings as to their source are always blessed with the spirit of their calling.   Continue to work and pray for those recent converts................truly, the ward should be doing the bulk of the shepherding now that they are baptized...........perhaps this can be brought to the attention of the bishop through your WML.    Have a great week..   Pres.Hansen

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:13 PM, Annika Bruno <annika.bruno@myldsmail.net> wrote:

 

Dear President Hansen,

This week has been really great.  I am enjoying the work, and love my investigators.  We have been trying to teach a recent converts son Jassen Velez.  He is really one of those people you know will be strong when they convert.  He wasn't home when we went to teach him on Saturday, but he went to church.  We were all really excited, but again when we went to teach him on Tuesday he wasn't there.  I wasn't so much frustrated as sad that we couldn't teach him. 

Our recent converts are 50/50 some are strong going to church and some are back to old habits.  We are working with them all and I hope that they can stay strong.  I hear that the first year of a converts life into the church is the hardest for them.  I only hope that we are strengthening them to withstand the adversity they face!

One of our recent converts when we went to visit him he was smoking and drunk!  When we taught him the next day his prayer was a powerful plea for help to resist drinking and smoking.  We pray for him and continue to encourage him to remain strong! 

I feel the love that God has for His children when I teach especially the little children.  The children in the Tintay area love when we come over to teach, and ask when we are coming back.  There is a whole group of kids that attend church with our recent convert Sister Judith.  She is a strong woman and she has helped her neighbor Rose Flores to have a greater desire to be baptized.  I love her she is such a special spirit.

Sister Caluyo is an amazing teacher and I hope that one day I can have her gift of teaching.  She is a great companion she always makes me smile.  I could not have asked for a better companion. 

Living with the four of us in the house in really fun we talk about our investigators, and Sister Tumala and Sister Williams has given us really good ideas for our lessons to help our investigators.  Sister Williams is a great trainer I can see her love for Sister Tumala.

The language is progressing, and my goal for no english except on P-days has really helped the progression go a lot faster! 

This week has been filled with many blessings from Heavenly Father.

Thank You President Hansen!

Sister Bruno

Mission President Letter: Obedience

From: Annika Bruno annika.bruno@myldsmail.net
Date: Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 2:32 PM
Subject: Transfer Week...
To: cebumission08@gmail.com


Dear President,

This last two weeks have been really hard for me. I was struggling with ome sickness and not getting along with my companions, and then I realized that I just wasn't communicating with them. I started to voice my concerns and not only were we getting more done, but I became really close with them. I also decided the reason I was home sick was because I was worrying and stressing about things I needed to change about myself, and after I talked with my companions I decided I can not change them but I can be the example and be obedient.

One concern is getting home on time, because it is really hard because the investigators may have concerns we are trying to help resolve, and I am always stressing about being obedient and getting home on time so I can go to bed on time.

God is molding me into a better person and I am forgetting myself and going to work. I am now happy and love my companions, my investigators, and my mission. I love the people they are so humble and kind. I am thankful for your talks and weekly emails of encouragement. Changing my attitude I have realized that Heavenly Father gives us golden investigators when we are obedient. We have met two people who are prepared to hear this gospel. I know God prepares these people for us if we are being obedient and good missionaries to be trusted with His children.

Sister Bruno

Life in the Trenches: Taking Cold Showers

It's hot today really super hot! I'm in this little shack of a Internet cafe  writing emails today. It's really loud all the school boys are playing World of Warcraft and shouting at each other. It's always loud everywhere.  This mission is not one that you can teach without expecting distractions. I am now officially jealous of the American-going  missionaries but this is way more of an adventure!

We spend most of our P-Days in town. We go play basketball in the mornings and then take a shower in the patron housing because it has hot showers! It's nice having a real shower once a week. Some mornings it's  hard making myself take a cold bucket shower but there is no way I am  going to skip taking a shower. We get super dirty and gross during the  day especially in the city with all the smoke and car pollution. Good  times.

We then go to the mall and withdraw our money and go grocery  shopping we get 4000 Pesos twice a month which is about 100 dollars.  Everything is super cheap here (if you convert it to dollars), but as a  missionary you can't think of it as dollars you think of it as Pesos.  Real pearls here run from small 30 Pesos to large 100 Pesos which is  about a dollar for real pearl earrings. They have necklaces but they are  like 150 Pesos still only about 2-3 dollars. You can get some cheap  things in the Philippines but you cant go crazy. The elders always  spend their support money super early and basically starve. A lot of  them like to spend their money going out to eat its kind of funny then  they have to pull personal funds out to pay for plete/bayad (payment for the jeepney rides).


I don't feel like our investigators are progressing very quickly but I quess I just have to be patient and they will accept all in Heavenly  Fathers time.

Its hard having companions and being with someone 24 hours a day but both of my companions aren't too bad I get along with them so I can't complain.

My companion told me about this boy she dated before the mission and how he was a return missionary. She said she realized that the  boy BRTed her (build a relationship of trust) from preach my gospel. I  asked if she liked him and how she reacted and she said that she liked him a lot. HAHA I'm so going to use it when I get back for everyone I meet. It's not a bad thing to do! That's probably why people are so weird when they get back from their missions because they  use missionary techniquesto "friendship" people

Well I miss all of you and Hope all is amazing Love you so much!

Annika

Joining the Church for Right Reasons

Hey!!

The days are passing by so quickly and my brain hurts. Haha! The language is my major obstacle but it's been good besides that. Today we hiked up to the Tops to the huge cross it was kind of creepy but kind of cool at the same time. It was a district activity!

Yesterday we had a CSP where we cleaned up this basketball court for this neighborhood in Sister Robison's area. Speaking of Sister Robison she has a blog its caricebu.blogspot.comAnyways this place had so much trash we burned it in a big pile of grass and weeds and trash. There is trash everywhere here. I don't think
they have littering laws or anything.

We meet with this old lady she is a member her name is Susima she has an amputated foot and she is having a  hard time. We saw four investigators at church this week it was awesome it made me feel like we are doing something. We met with Elicio yesterday and his kids cussed at their mom about chores and the mom yelled back and Elicio is not a member so he was like if this is how members act I don't want to join. We had to do major damage control.

We met with Emerson for the first time. He is 16. His father is a member but his mother is not. He seemed really interested in the lesson and he said he wanted us to come back. He is a cute kid and super nice. He is the  brother of the little 3 year old that can just look at the temple and tell you what temple it is. He is only 3 years old. He is a super smart kid.

Elsie and Sally went to church on Sunday. They live by each other and are friends. I hope they continue to go to church here. You need to go to church 4 times in order to be baptized. They want to make sure the people are not joining only for financial support because I guess it has been a problem because the church is seen as only wealthy people go.

It's really hot here and I love it! It's an adventure every week!

Love you all. How was Midnight mass. HAHA. I was so happy to talk to you on Christmas.

First Philippines Missionary Area: Experiencing the Custom of Alom Pulos

So I'm finally in the Philippines. It's pretty interesting. It's made me realize how much I have in the States. I miss the luxuries of life :) Today we went to the temple I love going because its a place to relax your mind for a couple of hours.

This morning we woke up at 4:30am to go play basketball with the district before it got too hot. But I am way tired now. I don't want to get up that early again, but my companions like to go. It's way good exercise. It's way hot here and I'm constantly sweating. It's some good times. If you couldn't tell by the pictures, I gained a ton in the MTC but its all good. I predict that I will sweat those off. haha...

We went to teach this woman who has a Catholic background. And on the way we passed by like 8 little kids and they all greeted us with "HELLO" and wanted to shake our hands. They were so cute they shook our hands and did the sign of respect by bringing our hands to their forehead. I do this thing called alom pulos where you poke the back of their heads and say alom pulos and they laugh or look up at you annoyed. Haha. Its fun our teacher in the MTC Brother Christensen taught us that game.

Elder Holley is in my district here. I am in the Talamban District. It's in the Cebu city zone. He was in my district in the MTC. its nice to have a familiar face around. In the city it's not too different you can still get a lot of American food and such and they have a mall.  I would send pictures but I forgot my cord I will send them next week. The camera I got takes really good pictures. I am scared to use it though in public because my companions make me all paranoid but I guess you just have to be careful with your belongings here.

We live in this three-story house and the stairs are super narrow and the bottom floor we just use as a room for our shoes and a work our room then upstairs on the second level is the kitchen we have a toaster oven and a refrigerator and a hot pan a sink and that's about it. We also have a kitchen table and three chairs their all plastic. We have two wooden desks to do our studies on. On the third level we have the bathroom and a closet with pop up closets. Then we have the bedroom with two beds. We are in a threesome Sister Williams, Sister Ramos and me. Sister Ramos is my "mom". We have a mattress on the floor. Sister Williams is sleeping on until they get us a third bed sometime this week.

It's not too bad living here. The only problem I have is not being able to understand the language. It's so frustrating. I am studying and yet I still don't understand. I can remotely communicate ideas and wish I was fluent in this language. They speak super fast and super soft.

I thought I would get away from music and TV and such but actually they blast American music all day long outside with the bass and it always seems to be blaring during a lesson. They listen to all American music here mostly hip hop. The music I would listen to at home. It's hard not to listen when its blasting everywhere. They also watch American TV shows so when we are at a house usually members' houses they are watching TV.

I am trying not to be discouraged but the language is hard but besides that it's not too bad of a place.

Love you all!

Annika