"Fra-gee-lay"

Hello my dear beautiful family,

First, let me apologize for not sending out a mass email on Monday. We had transfers last week and the assistants decided not to let us use the Internet until Thursday, which was kind of a bummer. But don't feel too bad for me because right now I'm writing to you all from the mission home where Hermana Bloomfield (we didn't have transfers--begged president to let us stay together and he buckled :)) and I spent the night so that we could be here for p-day to help Sister Ward decorate for Christmas. Yes, it does pay to be the closest sisters to the mission home. However, I almost didn't sleep last night because I was so excited about having AC, a comforter and a hot shower to look forward to in the morning. Sister Ward also had us do a P90X workout with her this morning and it was intense. I'll be feeling that one in the legs tomorrow! Right now I can hear Sister Ward listening to some MoTab Christmas music while she's sorting out various boxes of decorations she discovered. We helped set up the fake Christmas tree and I can tell you all that I felt a slight pang in my little corazon when I thought about the REAL pinion pine that would be spending Christmas without me this year at home. Ah well...it's just one Christmas!

Last night I got to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, which I'm assuming that many of you didn't see because of the Taylor family Christmas party (though I'm guessing only Mom and Dad were around for that one...). I quite enjoyed that and it's the closest I'll come to a MoTab Christmas concert this year, so I lived it up. I still can't get over the fact that you're all wading around in snow while we're just getting into "springtime" here. Odd.

Teaching-wise, I don't have too much to report. The Aguirre family whom we love so much didn't come to church yesterday which just about broke our hearts, but we're still trying to see what we can do with them. Hermana Bloomfield and I, being former soccer players, played against Camilo and his boys with Monica last week and I was surprised at how much I missed soccer! And it was pretty cool beating a professional soccer player :) (that's right--we won!)
We love them so much. They're just having a hard time letting go of the Catholic traditions...keep praying for them.

We did have an amazing testimony meeting yesterday with our ward. I think about 90% of the congregation was in tears. I try not to miss you all too much here (thankfully the work keeps me plenty busy and I don't have to ever worry about that) but every once in a while you all come flooding to the mind like some giant tidal wave I've been repressing and the tears start to trickle a little. I think that's what happened yesterday when one of our cute families in the ward all got up and bore their testimonies together (that's what people do here). The oldest boy who is about 13 starting talking about how grateful he was for his family to up there all together and he started choking up. That's when the tears hit everyone, I think. Hermana Bloomfield and I were no exception. So anyway...I guess I love you all :). I'm not pining for home or anything, don't worry, but I do miss ya. Thanks for the prayers. Do some fun Christmas stuff and send me some pictures.

Les quiero mucho,

Hna. Brewster

THANKSGIVIIIIIINNNNNNGGGG!!!

My dear family,

WOW. This week was truly the week of miracles here in good ol´ Marcasa. First and foremost, GABRIEL GOT BAPTIZED! It was a really beautiful service this weekend. We combined his baptism with one of the Elders´ because our font is being remodeled and for me, it couldn´t have been more perfect. President and Sister Ward surprised us by showing up and we all had a traditional Panamanian arroz con pollo lunch with brownies made by Hermana Bloomfield and me (the pictures, of which, I believe are being posted on the mission blog as we speak...). Hermana Bloomfield, Elder Savio, Elder Gretsch and I sang ¨Señor, yo te seguiré¨ (Lord, I would follow thee) as a special musical number (and it was pretty special...seeing as we didn´t get to practice all together beforehand...). Gabriel bore a beautiful testimony afterwards and we were so proud of him. This decision has been a long time in the making. And yesterday he was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a blessing to witness that.

And now for the other miracle of the week: CAMILA AND MONICA´S FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH!!! I wrote to you all last week about how much we loved this little Colombian family and how Camilo is a professional soccer player (we found out he´s the star of the team--see if you can find anything about Sporting San Miguelito on the Internet). They had told us that they would be able to come to church with us on Sunday if Camilo´s team won their big game this Friday. Since the beginning of our missions, there has been nothing Hermana Bloomfield and I have wanted more than to have a family come to sacrament meeting (and eventually get baptized, of course). Well, in district meeting this past week, our district made a ¨vow¨ with the Lord: if we get at least 20 lessons and 140 contacts each week for the rest of the year, He´ll bless us with a family to baptize. I can honestly say that I have never worked harder than I did last week to ensure that we made our goal. As part of our determination to get Camilo and Monica to come to church, we decided to fast and pray for them to be able to win their soccer game so that they could come. Yes, I know it might sound odd fasting and praying for a soccer game, but what we really wanted more than anything was for them to come to church and for their family to be supported through the rest of the year. Camilo actually asked us if we´d pray for his team because if they lost and got kicked out of the playoffs, they would be out of work for the Christmas season. Of course we didn´t want that to happen, so we promised him we´d be praying for him. We thought about asking President for permission to go watch the game but unfortunately it didn´t start until 9:30 on Friday night, so that was out. We did however get the chance to stop by while he was warming up to wish him good luck. It was really hard to sleep that night. I remember as I was going to bed thinking that it really didn´t matter if they won their game or not; we´d done our part and the Lord would provide. We were fasting and praying that they would be able to come to church and that their family would be blessed. If winning a soccer game didn´t do it, there´d be another way.

On Saturday morning we got a phone call from Monica. They lost the soccer game. HOWEVER...our small moment of saddness was quickly ebbed when they told us, ¨Well, we´re going to come to church with you anyway.¨ I can´t tell you how absolutely elated we were when we picked up Camilo, Monica and their sons Mateo and Juan Jose for church yesterday morning. I couldn´t contain the grins when we walked into sacrament meeting and all the members just stared at this beautiful family filing into the pew with us. Immediately after sacrament meeting the members came up to introduce themselves, invite the kids to primary and ask Camilo for soccer tips :). It was a happy moment. They ended up sticking it out through the whole 3-hour block and seemed to really enjoy it. (All except the whole crowded room in Panama with limited fans thing, which no one enjoys.)
We stopped by their house again last night to make sure they hadn´t been too overwhelmed and they assured us that it was a good experience. And they absolutley love us :) (p.s. Angie, you have to accept Monica as my friend on Facebook.)

The even better news is that we have an appointment tonight with Camilo´s teammate Mario and his family. Camilo had been talking to him about our lessons with them and took us over to their apartment last week (that´s right--he´s already giving us REFERENCES). Tonight is the follow up appointment and we are pumped to have another family. We joked that we´re going to end up baptizing a professional soccer team :) I don´t see why not... We just pray that they can continue to grow and progress in their knowledge and study of the gospel. After seeing the blessings of it in our own lives, it´s hard to keep it from others whom we love so much. And we are in love with this family, let me tell you. Pray for them!

So there you have it. Just a little taste of the amazing things we´ve been able to experience this past week, which comes right in time for Thanksgiving. Just so you all know, I could not be more thankful for each one of you. For your prayers, your thoughts, your letters and everything you do. I´ll miss the Thanksgiving table banter this year but next year we´ll just have more material :).

I love you all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

love,
Sister Brewster

I'm at 9 MONTHS!! (on the mission)

Helloooooooo!
This was a great week, family. Great week. Did you know that missionary work could be FUN as well as spiritual and informative? Well it can. Our goal for this week was ¨hacer algo diferente¨ in each lesson so we wouldn´t get bored (and neither would the investigators). One thing we decided to do was use the hymns to teach about the Restoration. Since a lot of people ¨don´t have time¨ to listen, we did what I like to call ¨hymn caroling¨ where we´d introduce ourselves and just ask to sing a hymn about our message that we had. We sang Oh esta todo bien (come come ye saints) for a crotchety old catholic lady outside of her house who in the end said she´d be Catholic till the day she died, but when we went next door, her neighboor told us that she heard us singing and wanted us to sing for her because it carried over to her house ¨like magic.¨ Knowing we´re not the best singers in the world, that was a cool experience for me because it taught me that we´re really not the only ones singing and teaching people. We´ve got some unseen support.

This past week was just packed with great things: we went to the Canal at last, we had zone conference with visiting general authority Elder Falavela (don´t know how to spell his name, I admit) and President and Hermana Ward surprised us by showing up Friday night to interview our baptismal candidate, Presbitero. Afterward they treated us to ice cream at Dairy Queen :) (yes, I am spoiled. I won´t even try to deny it.)

I do have some sad news, though. Hna. Calderon is going to be transferred to a different area this Wednesday (we´re already at the end of the transfer. holy cow.) which is a shame because she´s really grown on me. I think when I send pictures and relate the stories to you all some day, you´ll understand. She´s a special little thing and I´ll miss her. But I´m sure my next companion will be awesome.
Things are going great here. We´re finding families and people who really seem to be receptive to the message of the gospel, so keep praying that they progress.
I love you all and thank you for your prayers, letters, thoughts and packages that are always sent my way. Couldn´t be more grateful for my family.

hasta la proxima,
Hna. Brewster

"You are the most beautiful Elder I have ever seen..."

Hey Family!

I´ve got some big news: guess who´s now companions with a GRINGA? Me! We had changes last week and my new comp is Sister Bloomfield who´s most recently from Texas (family moves around a lot--like Pessettos). She´s awesome and I can´t tell you how fun it´s been being with somebody who appreciates sarcasm and certain food cravings :). The funny thing is that she is white blond, absolutely gorgeous and we can´t go anywhere without someonewhistling or often times proposing. The subject line was something someone told her recently. The funny thing is that people think I´M the Latina now and will direct their comments toward me in the lessons even though Hna. Bloomfield´s been out much longer and speaks Spanish better. It´s been fun, itreally has. She´s a great missionary--and we have plans to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving and (possibly) Christmas, if we´re still comps by then. SCORE.

We had a baptism this weekend in Marcasa. Did I ever tell you about Presbitero? He´s a special guy. We had contacted him in our apartment building a month ago and we´ve been teaching him for about a month. I can´t really explain about him right now but he and his family definitely hold a special place in our hearts. His whole family showed up dressed in their Sunday best to his baptism (we´re trying to teach them too...just got to find them all at home one day).

We also had to speak yesterday, which for me was about the 9th time or something. It´s gotten to the point where I just get up there and talk. Didn´t think I´d ever be one to do that but I guess you get used to it after a while. Maybe I just have more confidence in my Spanish talks than my English ones. Idunno.
There are some great investigators that we´re teaching rightnow and I have afeeling that November will be a great month. Keep praying for the missionaries.
Thanks for the prayers and all the love. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love,
Sister Brewster

Gabriel

Dear Mom, Dad, Angie, Caden, Ben, Hilary, Ella, Ethan, Ryan, Natalie, Annie, Logan, Dave, Katie, Sam and Taylor--
(Just to prove I´m thinking of ALL of you)

How´re things back in the homeland? I regret to inform the Campbells, Brewsters and Angie that the Demcak children are now officially the cutest kids in the family, seeing as none of you sent me the Halloween pictures of your kids except for them. I´d love to have you all prove me wrong.

Anywho...I have some good news to tell you all: we have a baptismal date for one of our investigators, a man named Gabriel. I´ll tell you why I´m so excited about this one. Gabriel has been one of the most interesting and yet hardest people I´ve had to teach. About 2 months ago, he ran into Hna. Calderon and me in the street and exclaimed, ``Elders!`` And very excitedly invited us to his house. We came to find out that he had not one, not two, but THREE copies of the Book of Mormon in his house, each of them marked from previous lessons with missionaries. He had even had a baptismal date and everything but at the last minute decided it wasn´t for him. Apparently, back in his day, he was what he calls a ``hippie`` full of free-thinking/crazy ideas about life. This has made it difficult for him to accept the gospel, I think, because we preach about how we need to harness desires and trust in the Lord for everything instead of just living as one pleases. He had told us that he didn´t think he´d ever felt the Spirit before but we explained to him how the spirit manifests itself---the quiet confirmation of truth that someone feels in their heart as opposed to a loud, shouting voice that shakes the soul. A light came into his eyes after we told him that and ever since then he´s been coming to church on his own, studying his scriptures every day. He really WANTS to learn. At times he´s got some crazy notions and questions (which makes Sunday School quite interesting) but he truly has a growing testimony. Yesterday, our Sunday School teacher was talking about Sabbath day observance and asked questions like, îs it better to go to church or go to the beach? To which Gabriel would reply, ``Church, of course! You can´t compare anything to church!`` That made Sister Bloomfield and me pretty proud :). Anyway, I´ve got a lot I could tell you about Gabriel that I´ll save for a later date...for now just pray that he´ll keep his baptismal date for the 21st of November!

We´ve got a lot of young families that we`re finding, too, so thankfully we´re keeping pretty busy. I just love seeing people ``get`` the gospel--sometimes I feel like I don´t have the words to explain why I know these things are true. I just know it. It makes sense. It´s TRUTH. Indisputable.
I hope you all know that I really am grateful for all of you and I pray for you daily. I hope you´re all happy and doing well!

Les quiero mucho,
Hna. Brewster
p.s. Sister Ward is letting us use her CROCKPOT--life is so good right now.
p.p.s. Send recipes.

Bloomfield and Brewster...Now I'M the one with the easy last name

Happy Halloween, Fam!

Just so you know, Hna. Bloomfield and I did celebrate. We made macaroni and cheese (because it´s orange) and then cooked devil´s food cake mix cookies in a frying pan (a trick I learned from Hna. Graham. I´ll show you how it´s done some day. A real art.) Anyway, you all need to send me photos of the nieces and nephews! Katies the only one who´s showed off her kids and right now they´re the cutest...unless the rest of you want to prove me wrong.

This was a pretty slow week but really, when you´ve got a blond companion, every day is rather entertaining. We get a lot of attention. Funny thing is that we´ve had several people ask us if we´re related because we ¨look a lot alike.¨ Hmm. Not sure how that works. Must be the accent. Or the name tags. Who knows. I have pictures of hna. Bloomfield on the disc I sent to mom and Dad, so ask them to share it.
Happy November!

Thank you for the prayers as always and I promise next week will be more interesting. It´s the fiesta patrias this week in Panama (like 4th of july) so I´ll have much to report.

Keep praying for the work.

love you all,
Hna. Brewster

Me encanta ver al templo

Guess who just got back from the temple? ME! And oh what a beautiful session it was! It was funny--I sat in the same chair I sat in 6 months ago when I went with my first zone and it was the strangest feeling of deja vous...I can{t believe everything that´s happened since then and how far I´ve come (or hope I´ve come) as a missionary. I´m definitely a lot more at ease now than I was then. I just love the temple. I love it. You all have to come visit Panama someday and we´ll do a session together here because the Panama temple truly is gorgeous inside and out. After this we´re going to the Canal as a zone, so I´ll finally be able to see what the big deal is all about :) And I promise to take pictures with my new CAMERA that Mom and Dad sent me (thank you!!!). I was afraid it wasn{t going to get here but I asked Elder Savio (the mail secretary) to keep an eye out for it. Plus I think it helped that Angie plastered the box with pictures of Jesus. Good going, Ang ;). Speaking of packages, I have things I want to send to all of you but I{m thinking the best option is to send a family package for Christmas when you{re all there. Anyone opposed?

I am really loving my area. Hna. Calderon{s just 6 weeks away from going home but she{s a trooper and is still going strong. We´ve got a baptism scheduled for next week and hopefully more on the way with some investigators that we´ve found in recent weeks. Things are plugging along! We brought 3 investigators to church with us this Sunday which is pretty impressive for these parts. This was definitely a good week.

Thank you all for your constant prayers and little lines you drop me every once in a blue moon. I love hearing from you all.
Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Be good. Hermana Brewster loves you :).

love,
HB