Hello, Hello. This week was a crazy one to say the least. Missionary work always keeps you on your toes.
Saddest news of all, I’m leaving Sister Tadd and getting transferred. I don't mind I'm being transferred cause I love seeing more of Virginia. But I don't want to leave Sister Tadd!! When I received the call Saturday night, we were at the Innsbrook sister’s house, who lives by us and we just looked at each other and started crying. When we got home, we just sat on our bed and cried some more. Yeah... We don't want to leave each other. Transfers are on Tuesday.
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| Sad to leave Sister Tadd |
So, Monday night Jesse had his baptism interview and President
Anderson, in the mission presidency, interviewed him again. This was a do or die moment. We were really scared, to say the least. But we knew whatever happened, it was supposed to happen. After the interview, President Anderson told us to come into the room to chat. He said that he nailed Jesse and he just had a really good feeling about things and told us Jesse was good to go! Ahh yay!!! We were so excited. He said he would contact our bishop and let us know as soon as possible how bishop felt about it and if we needed to continue to plan Jesse’s baptism. So, we patiently waited. We finally heard from him on Tuesday and he said Bishop said it was okay with him. We were really happy about that. But Wait.... It doesn't stop there. There was a worldwide missionary broadcast, it was amazing and you'll hear about that very soon, and President Anderson came walking towards us and sat down by us. Oh great. He then started telling us how Bishop just texted him and said he isn't sure how he felt anymore about Jesse being baptized so he didn't want him to. By now, we had everything confirmed for his baptism and ready to go. So, being the sweet guy he is, President Anderson said he would call Bishop that night around 7 when Bishop is off work. WE HAD TO WAIT 7 HOURS. It was way long. We had an appointment with Jesse that evening and wanted to fill his baptism record out. We filled it out anyway, just in case. When we were done with a lesson with him, and only seconds later, President Anderson said he talked and softened up bishop and he now supported it. Woot woot! We just prayed nothing else would get in the way-- hahahahahahahahaha--- boy were we wrong. I'm leaving you hanging, story continued in a few paragraphs down.
So, the world wide missionary broadcast was so cool!! They haven't done one of these for like a decade, or something around that time. The mission presidency was able to talk to us and all about how we can better work with our investigators and be full purpose missionaries. I love conferences and broadcast, because I always leave them on a high. It just makes me realize even more how wonderful my calling is and how lucky I am to be a missionary and spread this wonderful gospel to those around me in Virginia, even if they are mean and crazy. My calling is so great. I see how fast time is flying and it makes me want to be that much better of a missionary, because I know I won't have the opportunity to wear this badge on my heart for too much longer. It was fantastic. We have great leadership, that's for sure.
This week we had so many lessons set up and guess what?--- No one showed up or was home for their lesson except Jesse. Yay Jesse.
We had a lot of Virginians tell us to be prepared there was going to be a big snow storm hitting this weekend. Virginians exaggerate a little so we didn't think it was gonna be that bad. But it started dumping on us so hard Friday morning. It was constant until early Sunday morning and then it finally stopped. We were expecting to be shut in for the weekend but, oh no. Not on President Wilson’s watch. (Chris is probably thinking we are such babies cause he had to deal with this all winter in Montana.) But it was crazy for the Virginians. President told us that our cars were grounded and we had to walk everywhere. We didn't think it would be too bad until 30 minutes later it got TONS worse. We live in the elder’s area, and on foot it would take us about an hour to arrive in our area. We didn't feel like tracting in the elder’s area, so we decided to journey to our’s. We got about half a mile from our house and realized we had to go on a little highway and we didn't want to risk it because cars were fish tailing like crazy and the last thing we wanted was to get hit and fly over the edge to the freeway. So we decided to go to Monica's because she was the closest person we knew in the elder’s area. So we started our 3 mile walk in the storm. We didn't think it was that far, but boy were we wrong. After about an hour and a half later, we arrived at Monica's house safely, but completely frozen. We stayed for a little and then begged the Innsbrook sisters to pick us up. (Sister Hendrickson knew how to drive in the snow, that's why we dared call them). We arrived home safely and decided we would stay in the elder’s area the rest of the night and make some phone calls. Saturday wasn't much different except the storm was worse. We still tried contacting people, but we didn't find too much success; they all looked at us like we were dummy's . Yes, we kind of were. We then called/texted every single potential in our area book that night. It was funny, we have people from 2003. We had a few good responses so that was good. But we mostly didn't get any response back.
The snow was so crazy, but we got some cool pictures out of it. So
that's all the matters right? Hee hee just kidding.
The worst part about the snow storm was, we had to cancel Jesse’s
baptism :( it was so snowy and plus our car was grounded and NO ONE was on the roads. We had to reschedule it. Ugh. And I probably won't be here for it, but it's okay. We also had church canceled yesterday and President Wilson just wanted us to help people shovel their driveways because it was nice and sunny. So we did. We finally got our car out and went to Vicki’s and cleared her driveway and walkway. I've never shoveled snow in my life. It was fun. Now I can help Dad in Pine Valley!! I'm pretty much pro now.
Now, for the better news. . .
The elders texted us one night and asked us if we have ever contacted this less active in our ward named Sani Johnson, we didn't admit, but we had no idea who that was, so we decided to see her the next day. We went to her house and knocked and there was no answer. It was FREEZING outside and we just wanted to find someone to teach and go inside. We started walking towards other apartments and then Sani opened her door and yelled for us to come back. She even invited us in! She is so cute, she is in her 30's and is married with 3 little boys. She has been having bad marriage problems and told us the only reason she married her husband was because she was living with him and knew she couldn't be baptized unless she got married to him, so they got married. Anyway, she really wanted to come to church with her boys but her husband wouldn't allow it. They have had a lot of problems lately so she was kicking him out of the house and he had to be gone by the end of the month. She said when he leaves, she will be taking her sons and herself back to church. She can't wait. She then told us she works at Bath and Body Works. She told us to come into her room and see her collection. And WOW!! She had this HUGE shelf full of products. She told us she appreciated and loved us so much already that we could pick a set to have. So we took home a lotion, perfume and body wash! That's like $30 or more worth of stuff, it was pretty cool. She wants us to start teaching her son who is 9 and help him get baptized :)
We were tracting one night and ran into this guy named Christian. We introduced ourselves and the first question he asked us was, "what ward are you in?" We were really shocked and couldn't believe he knew that. He then started to explain to us that he did all the heating and air conditioning in our church buildings and knew a lot about the Mormons. He said he would be interested in learning more with his family. We were really excited. We had an appointment with him this week, but couldn't go to it because of the snow.
On Thursday, Sister Tadd went to mid mission (a meeting you go to with President and Sister Wilson when you're half way done with your mission, it's a day and a half). Sister Hendrickson’s (Innnsbrook sister) companion had to go as well so we were companions for Thursday and Friday while they were gone. We went to the Innsbrook area and did work there for the day. It was really fun to meet her investigators and to meet their ward. It was so much fun.
In my personal study the other day I was reading about the life of
President Hinckley in the "Our Heritage" book. I am obsessed with
that book. But it had a few quotes in there that he would always say and I love them. He said "Forget yourself and go to work". I love this because as a missionary you really need to forget about yourself and go serve the Lord. Then there was, "be believing, be happy. Don't get discouraged, things will work out" which also applies to missionary work. It gets discouraging sometimes but the best way is to just continue to be happy and know everything will be okay.
Scripture of the week. Mark 8:35. When you lose yourself in the Lord’s work and in His gospel, you will be able to feel more of His love.
I love y'all. Have a wonderful week!!
Love Sister Brooks
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| Sister Missionary tries to be Skateboard Queen ?? |
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| Yeah, that hurt my wrist real bad! |
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| P-day with our Zone at the church |
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| Saying Goodbye to Sister Tadd :( |
On Friday, January 22, we (Sister Brooks' family) received a special text on our phone with a picture from Monica:
Sister Brooks, your daughter is a truly dedicated missionar.y She walked through a blizzard, not realizing my home was so far from hers. She knew I am pretty much a shut-in who had heart surgery about a year ago. She wanted to see if I needed anything. She and her companion walked for an hour and a half, 3 miles. Fortunately, they got a ride home with some encouragement. Thank you for sharing her with me.
Monica Dean
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