Monday, September 30, 2013

Nothing can come together until everything has fallen apart.

Oh Yeah! The reason that i wrote the title is that this week it seemed like everything broke. My Belt snapped in half, a seam came out of my pants, one of my shoes seam came out and all that stuff. It only seemed to happen when i was discouraged though, Haha, so I better stop being discouraged and get back to work! Everything broke this week, but it all seemed to come together.

Bonjour ma famille et mes amies!
This week I've heard a lot about writing home spiritual experiences, but if i just wrote home spiritual experiences you'd miss a lot of what's happening. That's why I'm going to write a big plates history account and an itty bitty plates account of the spiritual stuff that's happened this week! For those that don't know what I'm talking about, it's the whole big plates of the book of mormon being the history and the little plates being the spiritual portion.
BIG and possibly hilarious plates
Alright, so since P-day is monday i'll start with Tuesday
Tuesday
Alright, this is possibly the best day of my entire mission. Tuesday we started out normal with class and all that good stuff, and then we had a medical meeting so that we could get into Belgium. Funny thing is, Belgium makes you take a parasite test to get into the country and a blood test for diseases. First we went to the nurses office and got our blood taken (I even have some pictures!). Then, we had to poop in a cup. That's right, I had to poop in a cup. As much as i think poop is one of the most hilarious things in the world, this was an incredibly traumatic experience made even worse by the fact that while i was doing it my shorts fell in the toilet. we were about to exercise, so luckily I had spandex on i could run back into the room in, but it was still pretty embarrassing. It was possibly the worst and best thing i've ever had to do in my whole life. I also got tricked into calling myself ugly in Danish (The black guy in our district, Elder Pederson, got me to say it to another Elder from Denmark). We had a devotional from Don R. Clarke and i got to sing in the choir, but more of that in my spiritual portion. We also found out the Elder Ghirelli (the brazillian elder who's super quiet) swooped in and stole a girl that had been engaged before he left on his mission. They broke up before he left, but she still writes him every week. It's funny because you'd never expect something like that from a guy as shy and quiet as he is! Unfortunately Tuesday was the first day i said crap out loud. When I woke up I thought I had gotten up late so i yelled, CRAP ON A CRAPSTICK! It was funny, but I was a little upset about it.
Wednesday
Wednesday was incredibly uneventful other than the fact we got a new teacher named brother Mayne and we played some B-ball. Other than that it was freezing and I thought i was going to die, but it might have been the first time i was really bored...
Thursday
On Thursday we sat in class most of the day, I learned how to speak some German from Sister Grunke (the German sister in our district), but I couldn't say it without an Indian accent, so I'm guessing that I'm not really cut out for German. Other than that i nicknamed an Elder going to the French-Tahitian mission Papa bear because he's like 6'8" and he asked for a hug so i jumped into his arms. He literally held me three feet above the ground. It was a little scary.
Friday
FRIDAY WAS AWESOME. We got to go to San Fransisco to get our visas from the French Consulate, which was cool in itself. But the best part was that afterwards we got to go to Pier 39, from which you can see Albatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge, HUNDREDS of sea lions, and the sea (which I've secretly been missing a lot). I bought a little keychain that has a sea lion on it.I also met a really awesome elder named Elder Edmund. His family owns a T-shirt printing company and he's really awesome. We Had to wake up at 1:30 in the morning though, and we went back and forth from Salt Lake to San Fran, so by the time i got to bed that night i thought i was going to die! It's alright though, it was fun. We also gave our bus driver (Edgar) a book of Mormon. I talked to him for a couple hours while we were driving and found out he was from the Phillipines and he had been driving for 18 years (longer than i've been born!) He was really awesome though! He thanked us for the book of Mormon and said that even though he'd been driving Elders for 7 years, nobody had given him a book of Mormon yet.
Saturday
Saturday was pretty uneventful compared to Friday. I named the red haired Elder next to us who's going to a haitian creole mission Elder Gumdrop (Because he's the GINGERbreadman! HAHA, get it?) all that really happened than that was Elder Oviatt was way too distracting. He's getting a little bit too loud, but I'm hoping that i can get him to calm down a little.
Sunday
Alright, Sunday was so super spiritual that all I'm going to say in this section is that it was fast sunday, i was super hungry, The Provo Temple President, Robert H. Daines, and his wife spoke, and then we watched the Character of Christ video by David Bednar.
Little and spiritual plates
Alright, so I'm going to talk about four experiences
1- Don R. Clarke's talk was really really really good.He talked about emailing home about spiritual experiences and finding the house with the red sign (which is basically just finding people to teach from anywhere). His talk really inspired me to organize what I write in these emails, who I write, and the whole Edgar experience.
2- Brother Merrill and the book of Mormon. Brother Merrill basically had a lecture with my district on the book of Mormon. We talked about the Godhead being three distinct beings and the Divine Investiture of Power. For those of you who have no idea what that is, don't worry about it yet, for those of you who do, you know how awesome it is!
3- President Daines talk was really awesome and talked a lot about respecting women. I had already been thinking, gotta stop thinking about girls, but his talk really inspired me to respect them. By being more respectful to women, it really helps any kinds of thoughts, no matter how small.
4- The Character of Christ by Bednar. This might have possibly been the single most spiritual thing i've ever seen in my whole life. If you haven't seen it, see it. It really made me think of how selfish I've been in my life and inspired a lot of change in me. It was incredible and I hope that I don't forget it.
Anyways, I have a lot of work to do
Au Revoir from your Elder,
Elder Michael Beneamato Bruno



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Monday, September 23, 2013

First P-Day

Bonjour mes Amis et ma Famille.
Today's my first P-day and I get write you this awesome letter while doing the laundry. This week has been Pretty awesome. I started out in a beginners French class and our teacher didn't show up. it was pretty crazy because i had absolutely no idea what was happening. I did meet the most awesome people in the world though. My companion, Elder Baldwin, is a good ole southern boy just like me. He's from Marrietta, GA and i'm pretty sure we're the only people in the MTC from the south. My roommates include the companionship of Elder Fults From Fort Worth, TX and Elder Oviatt from Edminburg Canada. Elder Oviatt is hilarious, but the funniest thing about him and Elder Fults is that Fults means farts in German and I don't think i've ever heard someone fart as much as Elder Oviatt! the other companions i room with are Elder Ghirelli from Brazil and Elder Pederson from Denmark. Elder Ghirelli is really awesome because he doesn't know a ton of English and it's hard for him to go from Brazilian to English to French, but he Tries really hard. Elder Pederson is really funny though, he didn't know the N-word was bad, so he started throwing it around and everyone freaked out. My district is them plus Sister Hafen from Michigan and Sister Grunke (Smiley Face U though) from Germany. My Branch President two days after i got into the MTC, but President Zimbleman was there long enough to make me District Leader (which i thought would be all fun and no work, but i was wrong). Since the First Day my district has been made the Intermediate French class and everyone in it is amazing at French, well, except for me. I'm so horrible it's almost unbelievable they put me in the intermediate class, but I know with some prayer and hard work i'll be able to do it! My Branch President is now President Merrill, and if that sounds familiar then i will say YES, he is the brother merrill whose been teaching The Book of Mormon class at BYU for 25 years. The guy is pretty awesome and i'm learning a ton about the book of mormon. Right now we only have a teacher for one out of two classroom instruction times (and classroom instruction time is like 3 and a half hours), so we have a lot of free time and most of it we goof off. We've been getting better, and i'm trying as district leader to make sure we're studying during classroom and study times, but we don't get another teacher until Thursday and it's tough to pay attention for that long for all of us. The teacher we do have is named Sister (or Soeur in French) Judas and she's awesome. So far the toughest thing about this whole experience is that one of the Elders we room with has to take medecine an hour before he eats so we've decided we'll all wake up with him. The only problem is that we have the earliest breakfast time. essentially we go to bed between 10:30-10:45 and wake up at 5:30. I'm insanely tired, but i've started saying "the Harder you work the less tired you are". Elder Oviatt asked me if that was true this morning after i said it. HAHA, I told him, "I don't know, but if i stop working then i'm going to fall asleep". Memorable events include The Devotional we had by Elder Merrill Bateman of the quorum of the 70, Me memorizing the entire first vision in French (that's right, I'm Awesome!) and a pretty awesome trip to the Temple. Everyone make sure to send me emails so i can put them in my group letters, I need Gigi's, Flora's, Annika's, Ryan Hayes, Doctor Hassell, Gen's (because i Don't think the email i put is right), Nikki's, and other peoples! JUST SEND ME EMAIL ADDRESSES! Also make sure to log on to Dear Elder and send me a letter! Everyone is getting one and I want one! I promise that if you send me a letter I'll send you one back. I'll be online for the next like 20 minutes, so Email me if you're on :)! P.S. I always heard that most of the girls in the MTC were ugly and there we're a couple of cute ones. let's just say that that is definitely not true anymore! The work is more important than girls though! haha, Au Revoir.


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The Harder You Work the Less Tired You Are

Bonjour mes Amis et ma Famille.

Today's my first P-day and I get write you this awesome letter while doing the laundry. This week has been Pretty awesome. I started out in a beginners French class and our teacher didn't show up. it was pretty crazy because i had absolutely no idea what was happening. I did meet the most awesome people in the world though. My companion, Elder Baldwin, is a good ole southern boy just like me. He's from Marrietta, GA and I'm pretty sure we're the only people in the MTC from the south.

My roommates include the companionship of Elder Fults From Fort Worth, TX and Elder Oviatt from Edminburg Canada. Elder Oviatt is hilarious, but the funniest thing about him and Elder Fults is that Fults means farts in German and I don't think i've ever heard someone fart as much as Elder Oviatt! the other companions I room with are Elder Ghirelli from Brazil and Elder Pederson from Denmark. Elder Ghirelli is really awesome because he doesn't know a ton of English and it's hard for him to go from Brazilian to English to French, but he tries really hard. Elder Pederson is really funny though, he didn't know the N-word was bad, so he started throwing it around and everyone freaked out. My district is them plus Sister Hafen from Michigan and Sister Grunke (Smiley Face U though) from Germany.

My Branch President two days after I got into the MTC, but President Zimbleman was there long enough to make me District Leader (which I thought would be all fun and no work, but I was wrong). Since the First Day my district has been made the Intermediate French class and everyone in it is amazing at French, well, except for me. I'm so horrible it's almost unbelievable they put me in the intermediate class, but I know with some prayer and hard work I'll be able to do it! My Branch President is now President Merrill, and if that sounds familiar then I will say YES, he is the Brother Merrill whose been teaching The Book of Mormon class at BYU for 25 years. The guy is pretty awesome and I'm learning a ton about the Book of Mormon. Right now we only have a teacher for one out of two classroom instruction times (and classroom instruction time is like 3 and a half hours), so we have a lot of free time and most of it we goof off. We've been getting better, and I'm trying as district leader to make sure we're studying during classroom and study times, but we don't get another teacher until Thursday and it's tough to pay attention for that long for all of us. The teacher we do have is named Sister (or Soeur in French) Judas and she's awesome.

So far the toughest thing about this whole experience is that one of the Elders we room with has to take medicine an hour before he eats so we've decided we'll all wake up with him. The only problem is that we have the earliest breakfast time. essentially we go to bed between 10:30-10:45 and wake up at 5:30. I'm insanely tired, but I've started saying "the Harder you work the less tired you are". Elder Oviatt asked me if that was true this morning after i said it. HAHA, I told him, "I don't know, but if I stop working then I'm going to fall asleep".

Memorable events include The Devotional we had by Elder Merrill Bateman of the quorum of the 70. Me memorizing the entire first vision in French (that's right, I'm Awesome!) and a pretty awesome trip to the Temple. Everyone make sure to send me emails so i can put them in my group letters, I need Gigi's, Flora's, Annika's, Ryan Hayes, Doctor Hassell, Gen's (because I Don't think the email I put is right), Nikki's, and other peoples! JUST SEND ME EMAIL ADDRESSES!

Also make sure to log on to Dear Elder and send me a letter! Everyone is getting one and I want one! I promise that if you send me a letter I'll send you one back. I'll be online for the next like 20 minutes, so Email me if you're on :)! P.S. I always heard that most of the girls in the MTC were ugly and there we're a couple of cute ones. let's just say that that is definitely not true anymore! The work is more important than girls though! haha, Au Revoir.