Buenaaaaaas!

Howdy y`all!
As always, it feels like an entire life´s worth of events have occured since the last email, so I´ll do my best to fill you in. But you´re only really going to get a taste of things. Sorry!
So this week was pretty jam-packed. The best and most excited news is that we had a huge baptismal service as a zone on Saturday and two of our investigators, 11 year old Christian and 9 year old Josalyn (brother and sister), were baptized. I wish you could meet their little family. Your hearts would melt. I think my favorite part was when Josalyn looked right at me before going under the water and she had the biggest grin on her face. She´s a special little girl. I promise someday I´ll send you those pictures I promised and maybe I can give a better account of things on Mother´s Day when I get to call (Whoa...only two weeks away??).
Since our zone met our goal of 14 baptisms, the president is supposedly going to allow us to go do a session at the temple, so I´m pretty excited for that! I just hope it actually happens.
Last week we had exchanges for a day, too, and that was actually quite a thrill :). Hna. Zamora from Honduras was my comp for a day and so that was my first experience being with someone who spoke only Spanish. It actually went really well! Well, okay, it went well until I turned the light off while she was saying her nightly prayers and she screamed, ¨Ahhhhhh!!¨¨ That´s when I learned that Latinas don´t like to pray with the lights off. And there are other cultural differences that are pretty funny too: don´t shower at night time because it makes your bones brittle, don´t sit on a warm sidewalk because your body will get inflamed and soak your clothes for 3 days to ensure maximum cleanliness. I smile at these things :). Culture cracks me up sometimes. Oh, how much more I could say on that subject...but for another day! But that experience really was neat and it actually built my confidence up a lot. I´m grateful for it.
Things here are going well. We only have one more week left of this transfer and then I´m pretty sure my trainer will go to a new area and I´ll be staying here in Arraijan, though I can´t be positive. I´d be all right with that, though, because I feel like I´m really starting to get familiar and comfortable with the area. Everyone says our area is an elders´area because there are so many steep hills and mountains to climb, but I personally love it. Keeps me young--even if I´m extremely gross and sweaty at the end of the day .) (you should see my tan lines--they´re awesome!).
Anywho, I am out of time. I hope everyone enjoys little Taylor´s baby blessing and that you take lots of pictures for me! Love you all!
Hermana Brew (this is what I´m telling people to call me now. Brewster is just entirely too difficult.)

3 months out

Hola Fam,
I hope these emails are being circulated to all of you (Hilary, Ryan and Dave included). Hopefully I´m not boring you with my missionary tales :).
As far as things go investigatorwise, we have met a lot of promising families this week, so it was much better than last week. We´ve also had our fair share of encounters with...unusual...persons. I´m learning to distinguish between a drunk and a sober person, though, so it´s getting better.
One thing we´re really trying to work on the last couple weeks of this change (whoa...already been here a month) is activating and encouraging the members here. I´m really trying to practice speaking Spanish with all of the families so that they know the tall white girl actually does have a personality. Thank goodness for my expressive face or my feelings might never be made known.
Good things are happening, though. I can tell you that much. That Satan, though. I tell you. He´s used two of my favorite things against me: children and dogs. The dogs here are devilish--especially the ones who bark for an hour at 3 am outside our house. And children--holy cow! I can´t tell you how many lessons have been interrupted by a child throwing a ball at my head, screaming in the other room or doing some other very loud and distracting thing. AHHH!!! We were at a lady´s house who had a little girl that was playing with a kitten (and when I say ¨playing¨I mean trying to break its legs). The ironic thing is that my companion was teaching the lady about how children are sinless. The lady raised her eyebrows as she looked at her daughter. I did too.
There are a lot of funny stories to tell you! Remind me in my next letter to talk about the huge cockroach, the crazy drunken lady, the silent praying woman and...well, I´ll just leave you with that right now :). but I´m finding ways to enjoy myself, so no worries about that. My life is a comedy.
SEND ME PICTURES.
love you all,
Al

Que sopa?

Oh my dear family,
Congrats to Angie and Dad on the good news!! :) :) :) I was so happy to get Mom and Dad´s email about that. Sounds like the fam is doing well and being provided for, which I´m very much grateful for (but not surprised by).
How much I love and miss you all! But things are going well, so don´t worry about me. This week was...well, it was one of those ¨This proves you´re a true missionary" weeks, according to Hna. Tracy. We didn´t have a whole lot of luck with our contacts or investigators. I don´t know if it´s because the rain´s starting to come and people are just particularly gloomy, but it seemed like we were being rejected left and right as we waded through muddy streets and had appointments fall through. The saddest thing of all was when Hna. Domitila (I mentioned her in my first email) backed out of her baptism on Saturday. That nearly broke our hearts but we still believe she´ll come around if we just work with her.
But lest you should think that I´m sunk into the pits of despair, I should mention that a number of really good things have happened too. Even though Domitila backed out, we still had another baptism on Saturday, a 14-year-old boy named Donal. I do1t know if I´m mentioned him before or not, but his older brother is a member and they have an amazing little family. The parents, though...not so amazing. Basically they´ve raised themselves..but I don´t want to talk about that right now because it´s a bit of a downer. Back to the baptism: It was a beautiful service! Hna. Tracy and I sang "asombro me da" (I stand all amazed). I figured you´d be impressed by that, Mom and Dad. The nice thing about being in a Latin American country is that I feel like a really good singer here, so there´s no fear :). Anyway, it was a really neat experiene and one that I know I can´t fully convey through an e-mail, but I´ll send you the pictures (as soon as I figure out how to do that). You´re going to love this little family! They are truly amazing.
Also, we set another baptismal date with one of our investigators named Michelle who´s 14 (what is it about the 14 year olds?). We read 3 Nefi 11 with her and at the end I extended the baptismal invitation to her, which she accepted! It´s really a shame that I can´t tell you all the details right now but I promise some day you´ll get the full account. Just know that good things are happening and I´m privileged to be a part of it. (Still need your prayers, though, so keep ´em coming :)).
By the way, I guess I forgot to mention such details as the name of my actual area and what not. My bad! My zone is Arraijan and my area is called Dos Mil. It´s about 20 minutes outside of the city, so we´ve got good, clean water (when the water works, that is...we are often showering with buckets) and our house is not too shabby. OH-we had mission conference last week, too, and guess who I got to see: Hna. Graham and Hna. Kennedy, my dear pals from the MTC!!! Oh what a joyous occasion that was :).
Anyway...as always, my time is abysmally short and I feel like I´ve only given you a peek at the many things that have happened since arriving here in this beautiful, very warm country. (p.s. Panamanian Spanish is its own language. I kid you not. I hear people from Guatemala and Peru that I can understand just fine, but here? Nope. Don´t get it. But I´m learning!)
Things are chuggin´along. I´m laughing at myself daily. Life is good.
Much love to you all!
love,
Hna. Braooohstair (how they say my name)
p.s. if you ever feel the need to send church music or something like that...well, I won´t stop you :)
p.p.s. Ang, one of my friends in our ward, Cristian Conte, added me on FB, I guess. he´s going to put up pictures, so if you could add him, that´d be swell. Gracias, mi querida hermana :)

Catching up

Hey Fam!
Happy Easter plus 1! I hope you all enjoyed it. Mine was really interesting, it being the first one away from home and all. We had a citywide power outage last night while Hna. Tracy and I were walking home and it was pitch black. Pretty exciting. I laughed at our Easter feast: the remaining 6 Hershey´s kisses Katie sent me at the mtc, which we enjoyed by candlelight (due to the lack of power and whatnot). It was hilarious--definitely a memory I won´t soon forget :)
Okay, first off, CONGRATULATIONS Katie and Dave on your gorgeous baby girl! Taylor Lynne looks absolutely adorable and I´m excited to meet her in about 15 or so months. Just tell her who her favorite aunt is so she knows, all right? I´m so happy for you! The fam is definitely growing. I hope I know most of you by the time I get home.
I don´t know about you all, but I absolutely loved Conference this weekend. Luckily for me I got to listen to it in English with the other gringo missionaries. It was funny though--this was the first time I felt like I wasn´t listening to Conference for me. I felt more like I was just going to be a messenger of everything I learned because everything the prophets spoke about (FAMILIES) applied so strongly to the people I´m teaching. And to me too, I suppose. I´m preparing to be a mom myself someday. One of our investigators came with us to the Saturday morning session and she got really teary during Elder Ballard´s talk about mothers and daughters. I think it really touched her.
I had my first interview with President Madrigal this past week! I absolutely love him. He doesn´t speak a lick of English, so the interview was pretty interesting. He asked me what some of my trials had been so far and I just told him I needed to stop worrying about myself and focus on teaching and loving the people. He wholeheartedly agreed and gave me some great advice. We talked a bit about the necessity of trials and overcoming adversity and how that´s what ultimately brings us closer to the Savior. I´ve only been here for 2 weeks but I couldn´t agree more. I´m learning more and more how difficult the mission really is because you have such a great responsibility. I´ve never felt more emotionally exhausted in my life! One minute we´re ecstatic about an investigator who´s keeping commitments and the next thing we know a different one has serious family issues. And there are so many people that we´re teaching right now, so I feel like my emotions are all over the place.
But one thing I´ve learned is that the Lord will occasionally just throw me a bone. I was writing in my journal, sitting by the phone the other night when it rings. My comp was in the shower, so I timidly answered it. And I heard a familiar voice: my dear mtc companion, hna. graham! She was just calling to see how I was doing and said shéd been thinking about me. We chatted for just 2 minutes or so but that made my week like nothing else. I really needed that.
Anyway, the Lord truly throws us those tender mercies. Remember that, fam!
gotta go...almost out of time.
love you