New town, new companion, and new adventures!

 Hi y'all!! 

Let me answer all the questions you are probably really curious and wondering about. Transfers were last Tuesday.  I am in Powhatan, Virginia, its comparable to Kanab or Enterprise, really, really small. It’s definitely a lot different than the other areas I have been in, but it’s starting to grow on me. The ward is really nice and definitely gave me a nice welcome yesterday.  Our apartment is the funniest and the best, it used to be an old phone company building and then they made it into an apartment, it’s really small, but I love it!! 

I haven't had time to do a little tour with the camera, but I will definitely have to, its the best!  My new companion is Sister Squires. I love her, we get along and work really well together. I definitely have been blessed with good companions. (knock on wood) She has been out for 10 months and lives in Texas. Even crazier thing, our birthdays are 3 days apart. Her birthday is on the 23rd, so we will be having a party that week! haha It’s been really fun!

Sister Squires and Sister Brooks

Another exciting thing, JESSE GOT BAPTIZED and I WAS ABLE TO GO!!!! We live about 40 minutes away from my last area, so we got a member to drive us and we went! I was so happy I
was able to go!!  It was so fun to be there. The font was super low for some reason and if you could imagine, it would be pretty difficult to baptize someone who can’t see, but after 5 dunks, he was finally baptized, haha, it was so funny, we were all laughing pretty hard. I am glad we were able to go :)

At Jesse's Baptism with Sister Tadd

Sister Squires has been telling me this ward isn't very good with member missionary work. When she and her companion came in 2 transfers ago, they replaced the elders, so there is only one set of missionaries in this ward. But this ward hasn't had a baptism for over 4 years so we have been working our tails off to try and find solid people to teach and hopefully prove to this ward we can do it. We have been trying to work so hard!! We have found a few good people and are continuing to work with a these people to help them come closer to our Savior and hopefully work towards a baptism date.  But things will all work out, I know it will. We just have to continue to exercise our faith and pray for many miracles.  It’s going to be a good transfer though :)

We were able to go on "power exchanges” where the STL'S (Sister Training Leaders) come for a few hours and work with us. They are in a trio right now, so I was with two of the Sisters and Sister Squires was with the other STL and went to a lesson. We were tracting and the houses are so spread apart so we have to walk a lot. But, after about 30 minutes of tracting, we were walking to the next house and a cop drove down the street. We jokingly said it was for us thinking someone called on us and just laughed and were totally joking. Next thing you know he pulls up to us and asks us who we were. We explained and he just laughed and said someone called the cops on us because there were three strange girls at the door. He just laughed and told us to go on our way and good luck with everything. People are crazy. Like, what are three girls in skirts going to do to you. hahaha 

Wednesday night we decided to go contact some investigators so I could get to know them a little. We went up to this house and as we were walking up, the mom storms out and starts SCREAMING at us telling us she doesn't want us to ever come back and meet with her daughter again. Her daughter is in her late 20's. She chased us off of her grass.  She wasn't very happy.  Sister Squires looked at me and just said "Welcome to Powhatan".  It was really funny. 

This rest of the week I have been meeting investigators and ward members. It has been fun to meet them and get to know them. We have been able to have really good lessons and the spirit has been so strong.

We have this family in the ward named the Despain's.  They are known all over Powhatan as Santa and Mrs Claus. He looks exactly like Santa! They are an older couple and so, so sweet.  We had lunch at their house on Saturday.  They had their daughter and her family and one of her friends and her family over to have lunch with us. Make sense? haha When we got there, they handed us some coveralls. We were super confused. They then set a shower curtain on the ground and told us to sit around it. We did. They came in with some spaghetti, salad and garlic bread and just threw it all on the shower curtain, (don't worry, it was brand new). They told us to dig in. We had to eat with our hands and if someone wanted something, we had to throw it across the room for them to get it. To say the least, we were a mess by the time lunch was over. It was hilarious.  They have chickens and we are going to help them kill them on Feb 20. I cant wait !!!! HAHAHA Pictures will be coming! Nothing else too exciting has happened, just trying to get to know the ward, area and investigators. 

We had Zone Meeting this Saturday and a quote that I loved that was given in one of the trainings said "when we make choices, we shouldn't look for the good one or the better one, but the best one" We really need to find the best choice in our life and what is God's will, instead of our own. 

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 2:16 it says that we are free to choose to act for ourselves. God has given us agency and we need to use it the best we can and choose the things that would be best for us in life. 

I love y’all so much!  Have a wonderful week :)

Love, Sister Brooks

Last days with Sister Tadd: