I'm Back!!! (last post from the Philippines)

hey everyone,

just a short note to remind you all that i love you. today is my last time using the computer in the mission, so its up to you if you write back or not. ill be home in 9 days, but i only have 7 days of work left. 5 of those 7 days i have things going on like service projects, 3 hour planning, meetings at the mission home, church/PEC, temple tour, and my last baptism. ill enjoy this time and take lots of pics.

i love you all

Fun Times!

hey everyone,

just want to say sorry if any of you got hurt over my last email. im sorry i cant please wveryone at the same time.

this week has been a tough one for me. i had my last zone cof this week and after that a new feeling came over me. i felt so tired and ready to go home. i have not slept very well this whole week. one time i was being crawled on by a cockroach, so i got scared and didnt fall back asleep, one time water from our tank was falling 3 stories and crashing next to my window right next to my bed, and i have had a lot on my mind. its hard for me to get up each morning, and i have found the only thing that does get my up is my hot coco hahaha.

work has taken its toll on me. we bust our butts and the blessings have been comming in. we had 8 at church yesterday and we have 7 with a bapt date. when i came in we had 3 atchurch and 1 with a bapt date.

if any of you want names of people to pray for here is one ALMIRA. she has been taught for 3 years and her bapt is on the 20th. she is 19 and her parents are both dead, so she has some social problems. we try to help her, but she is scared to do anything in life so its hard for her ad us.

there is a pic of me with some fake hair on and another one of me and my daughter in the mission.

i miss you all. elder brunson #1

5 More Weeks... Will My Shoes Last?

hey everyone,

so 5 weeks left here and im spending it in a place called GEN T. DE LEON valenzuela. my companion is elder apostol, we are co-senior. he will be the lucky one to kill me. i have been put with him again (i follow up trained him) because he about to be sent home. i have to help him change and endure to the end. i love this elder though. he is one of my favorites of all time. we served together for 12 weeks before and now we have another 6. this area is good, but the work is low because of the things the elders did here before. the ward hates us because of the same reason.

im so excited to work here. we should have a bapt on march 6. and a few more after that. i hope....

anyways i love you all and i cant wait to see you.

elder brunson

It's NOT a Joke!

hey everyone,

so i got the message that you all think im just joking about going home on the 1st of april. its true. thats the end of my 24 months. i thought i would extend, but i had to make a hard choice, and i got the answer that it would be best for me to come home in april.

i found out last night that i will be leaving antipolo. tomorrow i find out where i will be spending my last 6 weeks in the mission, and who will be my last companion. i really hope that i train another american, that would be fun.

last night i didnt sleep at all because an elder from my zone is going home. he is finished with his 2 years. its a weird feeling cuz i met him in the mtc and we have seen eachother grow these 2 years, and this morning i walked him out with his bags and waved him off. i will miss him, but ill see him when i get back to cali.

the work here had been hurting the ladt 2 qweeks, im tired of being a ZL and dealing with all the problems of the zone. i have never been so stressed in my life, at the same time our investigators make 1 step toward the good side, then fall back a few steps. im out of ideas, so its a good thing im leaving antipolo zone. they will get some fresh meat in this place.

this computer wont let me look at my pics, thats why i cant send you any of them, but next week i will.

just a shout out to TIM in brazil. keep up the coackroach killing.

cool stroy of the week: i had a dream that i pissed all over everything everywhere. i woke up amazed at how much i was able to pee. so i drank a super amount of water that morning and peed a lot. well, we were about to walk out of the house when i had to pee again, so i ran to the CR to go pee, but the floor was all wet and i was in socks. i was just going to pee on the floor, but i decided to make my dreams come true and pee in the sink. it was nice, and the best part is i never use that CR, only the other elders in our house do. we have our own CR on the 2nd floor. hahahahahahaha

love you all

APRIL 1ST!

hey everyone,

well i have been thinking and praying, and i have decided to just come home at my 24 month mark and not extend. it has been an honor serving, but this week i have just felt its time to go home.

not much time to tell stories, lets just say the pastor family that has recently been baptized is doing amazing. brother pastor knows so much about the BOM already and he shartes it with us.

i love you all

FROM 1/25/10

hey everyone,

sorry this is short i had a nice long email ready to send to all you guys and the interet cut out and it was all lost. so sorry for that.

thanks for all the bday messages you sent and the emails and stuff i really love it.

we had 2 bapt this week and 5 more to come on the 30th. they all passed the interview so its a go go go.

well my comp got sick for 2 days this week, so we had to make up a lot of work. we did well, but you jst cant cover up 2 days of no work. im just happy we have lots of bapt.

wed zone conf this week, we ave a great workshop on finding people. my testimony has grown so much, but i know i still have a lot to learn these last 4 months.

thanks for everything
elder brunson

A Family, A Family, We Got A Family!

hey,

i set a goal and i have now reached it. i baptized a family this week. the pastor family was one of those golden ones that we all look for. they were a little rough around the edges, but ones you give then a little polish they look very nice. they are amazing. and now they are members. on august 5 thier youngest daughter will be 8 and her dad or brother can baptize her. its just so great i cant explian it. i love this family. we took them to the temple saturday morning and did a tour, then we went home, they changed clothes, we got the font ready and we baptized them. after that they all went to the church across town and supported the oldest of their children while she was involved with new bigginings, then we walked by the church on our way home and we see brother playin some b-ball with the members. it was a dream come true.

the work out here is going strong. i am loving it very much. we still have so many comming to church. this month we have baptized 10 people, but still have 13 who came to church this week. i dont know what it is, but they just do what we ask them to and then they change so they enjoy it and pretty soon they are dressed in white and we are standing in the water with them. ahhhhh what an amazing time.

i sent some pics of the temple and the pastor family. i hope you like it.

i love you all so much

Hello!!!

hey everyone,

this week has been a blast. we had zone leader council which is always a blast. i had some new pants made finally, and we did some drop by visits to some of our elders and had a little "chat" about obedience.

2 of our investigators passed the bapt interview yesterday so they will be baptized next week.

brother pastor gave up his job offer on the ship cuz he said it didnt feel right to him. he came to church yesterday and they will be interviewd next week for bapt on jan 30th. im way excited to see that family all baptized.

we had 22 people come to church yesterday. out of the 200 people in sacrament meeting 22 of them were ours.

this week we set a goal to get 25 lessons witha memeber present, and we did it. we had to bust our butts and work so hard and begg the members, but we got it.

well, i just want to let you all know i love you.

Grandma and Grandpa, i love you both very much. thanks for the picture. grandpa still looks as handsome as ever on his tractor. thanks for all the love and prayers.

elder randy brunson

Out of Order... Sorry (From Jan 5, 2010)

hey everyone,

happy new years to you all an i send you my love. im here in antipolo and we just got the news that im staying here aNOTHER 6 weeks with elder loveless.

we had 22 people come to church this week. thats my personal best my whole mission, and i know its cuz im doing what the LORD wants.

well we spent new years at home cuz we ate too much and got the runs, but at least we had time to talk a lot to each other.

we are teaching a family that we found about 6 weeks ago from tracting. i walked right inside these peoples gate and up to the house and told them we are going to share about jesus. they are the PASTOR FAMILY. we have been teaching them and they have been commig to church, but we have been dragging our feet. we gave them a goal date for jan 2 and only the mom and theoldest daughter said yes. well since we were taking it slow we didnt teach the word of wisdom to them and it turns out they drink coffee once in a while. we forgot to push thier date back and the daughter asked why she didnt get an interview. i had to explai since the coffee problem. the girl was devestated. i said sorry about a million times, then she told me that she had not drank coffee in a very very long time. only the mom drinks it abut once a week. she said she wanted to be bapt on the 2nd of jan, so we made the district leader come out the next day and interview her and she passed. she was bapt last saturday along with 2 other girls from a partmember family. it was so nice to start the year with 3 bapt. and the rest of the pastor family will be bapt on jan 23 (the day after my 21st bday).

AMBROCIO FAMILY UPDATE

they have been commin to church on and off, but not really progressing. we gave them a new bapt date for jan 23 and we told them everything they had to do to get married. we thought they would do it, but 2 weeks later, they still have not acted. we knew there was a real reason. yesterday we went there early, before brother came home from work and we talked with sister a little. it turns out brother abuses them sometimes and he has started drinking again. she is planning on leaving this year and going to live with relatives in another country. she wants to be a memebr so bad and enter the temple, but at the same time she needs someone who could take her to the temple and her "husband" is not helping.

so we have to try to help them fix some things and see if we can let the kids get bapt first, or whats going to happen, but im sad now.i love this family and i thought that i would see them all become members together.

well i love you all so much

elder brunson

Shout Out!

hey,

im alive this is short, but i want you all to know i love you. my mission pres just aproved me today for my extension, so its for sure now. he told me plan on leaving may 13th.

work is good we have about 13 bapt lined up for this month, so im way ready. i just wish that the elders in the zone would stop being so stupid. they dont listen to me or even the pres of the mission, but what can you do????

right now we are off to talk to one of the district leaders and his companion who have been givin us problems.

love you all

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (from 12/27/09)

Hey Guys!

the infamous sister gabel at the christmas party.

this one is of the drunk guys cooking a pigs head on the 24th.

one is of a jeepney at night, i just though the pic was cool

this week we had a lot of fun, but it was a lot of stress at the same time. i was really disapointed in the zone cuz the numbers werre low and they wasted a lot of time, but oh well right? it just shows their desire for JESUS.

i have had a special week, that i wish i had time to tell you about. lets just say i have found the real meaning of christmas. a memeberfrom the states came here and we helped him find a poor family and we gave them christmas.

thank you for your letters especially the ones grandma sent me. i loved it. thank you as well for your love.

for those of you who wanted to know, im with elder loveless right now. we are the zone leaders of antipolo zone which is in the mountains of a province called rizal. its cold and beautiful here, so we call it "the city of angels"

elder brunson

Merry Christmas!

hey everyone,

this week has been pretty good. we didnt see a bapt like we had planned, cuz the girls parents said she couldnt do it at the last second, but we are working with her still and also a lot of others to get them in the waters and get the holy ghost.

i sent pictures of the meal we made today as a zone activity. we dug a hole, made a fire, heated rockes, then cooked chicken and pork, and fish, and some other stuff. it was soooo good. i loved it. its the style of cooking that the people from islands like fiji, tonga and samoa do. its kinda funny that we did it cuz we have only white people and filipino people and one sister from pakistan, so we just tried it and it works.

i got to climb the coconut trees and we drank fresh juice and ate the coconuts. we really had a good day.

we hope to see one bapt on saturday the 26th and then the next week he can baptize his two step daughters. i think that would be really cool.

oh so there is a member of the 70 who lives in my stake here, and i sawe his wife walking one day and i said hi as we passed and she just said hi as well, then the next minute we are walking and she pulls up in her car and gives us a huge cake and says merry christmas. we went home and ate it that day. i dont know how many elders ge cake from a 70's wife, but at least i know 2 (me and my comp).

i love you all.

elder brunson

Pictures from 12/15

Amazing Week! from 12/15/09 (sorry... kinda behind)

hey,

so im going to be calling home the 25th in the evening. thats friday night for all of you at home.

this week has been great. i sent some pics of the temple tour we went on with our investigators, and there is one with an old man who we teach. and then one of me and my comp and sister gabel with her comp.

we have a bapt on the 19th and one on the 26th. we should be seeing so many more now. we have a part member family we are teaching and we will be baptizing so they are complete. the mom is a recen convert and the husband just changed, and now the kids are all home so we gave them dates and they all said yes.

we have been seeing so much successs. 16 people at church and so many lessons, if only the members would work with us more, we could help more people.

time is short like always, but i love all so much.

elder brunson