Sister Kaylee Brooks: New Area! New companion! New Experiences!

Hello!! Happy May!!

Thank y'all so much for all your sweet emails on Friday (my hump day). Definitely made me so happy and grateful when I saw them. Thank you for thinking of me, I really have the best family ever. I sure love y'all :)

Transfers were on Tuesday. We met at the Stake Center. I would not be meeting my new companion until I arrived in my new area. It's too far for her to drive to meet me at the Stake Center.

Sister Sylvester (Sister Bray's old companion), she came out the same time as me,
and Sister Dawdy(she is now Sister Sylvester's companion)

Well, I am sure y'all are so curious where I am and who my companion is. I am in the Aquia Ward up in Stafford, Virginia- it is northern. It is fun being up north and experiencing more city. It's sure different from Powhatan, but I miss Powhatan like crazy already. My companion is Sister Bray. She is hilarious.

Get this, she is from England!!! (Leicester, Cornwall, and Sheffield) I'm sure grandma had something to do with this ;) it is a little tender mercy and I know grandma is watching over me. It's so fun talking with her about England and just knowing my grandma grew up there. She is 23 years old, but you wouldn't be able to tell. She is so funny and fun to be around! Aquia is great, I get probably triple the amount of lessons and investigators then I did in Powy, so it was quite a shock for me to teach 5 lessons in one day, which we would normally get in a week. Ha ha it's so fun though. In our area, it's mostly army, marine, navy, police officers and FBI for occupations. I haven't met one person who hasn't had one of those jobs. So we have a really big and nice family ward. There are a lot of "single" moms because their husbands are on active duty. It's fun to see so many little kids too. It's cool and fun to meet so many people who have defended our country and talk to them about their experiences. It makes me so grateful for those who go out and serve our country and protect our freedoms. We are so blessed and I'm beyond grateful for all those who are or did serve in the marine, army, navy, etc.

My new area:

My new address is:

6 Davenport Drive #104

Stafford, VA 22554

Anyway... We have had tons of miracles this week. This week I've just been trying to learn the area and learn all of our investigators. We have some pretty solid ones and a few who are working toward baptism, so we are hoping they continue their progress and want to know more. This ward is SO willing to come out with us and our ward mission leader is so great too. He goes around asking people to go out with us and they all are so willing!! We had our ward mission leader’s daughter, Skylar who is 18 and planning on serving a mission, with us last night and our Relief Society president a little later that night. We tried some potentials with them and were able to teach them and answer so many questions! I never realized how important it was to have members out with you as a missionary and for the ward to help with the missionary work. I've learned so much that it's all about the members. As missionaries, we are here to assist the MEMBERS in THEIR missionary work. They should be the one doing the finding and we should be the one doing the teaching. It's so cool to see this ward put that into action. It's so great!! We have a baptism tonight for a girl named Marissa. I think she is 14 years old. Her family has all been baptized and she is the only one left. She wanted to do it on her timing and do it for herself without the pressure, which is really cool. She doesn't want her baptism to be big or have a lot of people come, so only about 10 people know about it and she will surprise all of them when she gets confirmed next Sunday! I am so grateful I have been able to get to know her and teach her a little this week. She is so dang cute and I am so happy and excited to be a part of her baptism. :)

Being an STL is great. It's not much different but you just have tons more meetings and you get a lot less sleep. (I know, you're feeling bad for me and scared for everyone around me, but thank goodness for lunch break naps) We will start going on exchanges this week with the Sisters and Hermanas, so I'm really excited for that.

Here are some cool facts-

· There is a Hermana that is in my zone and in the same apartment complex as me and she went to Dixie and is the same age as (Barry) Elder Snow and knows him. Her name is Sister Stewart. We go and work out at the gym every morning with them and another set of sisters and talk about Elder Snow and how cool he is!! Literally I have the coolest family/cousins.

· I finally have a washing machine, dryer and dishwasher in my apartment.

· My apartment is the bomb and has a free Starbucks hot chocolate machine in the lobby, a super nice gym and... A tanning bed!!! Haha J

· It has rained for the past 4 days and won't stop until next Sunday

· Sister Bray and I had a "slumber" party and slept on our couches last night ;) (They are almost exactly like our leather couches at home) and a HUGE thunderstorm was going on in the middle of the night. (Totally thought mom would love it) It sounded like it was RIGHT outside our window. It was pretty cool.

· Sister Tadd is in my zone so I will be going on exchanges with her and seeing her a lot now. I'm so excited I can't wait :)

· I will be seeing Sister Squires at MLC on Wednesday and I can't wait to see her, literally almost started crying of happiness.

· Last cool fact, two of my areas, Mechanicsville and Glen Allen are now STL areas so I could maybe be called there again.

I am so so grateful to be out on a mission, I seriously love it so much and I know this is where I need to be. I love it so much!!!!! EVERYONE should go on a mission and experience and see the wonderful blessings our Heavenly Father has given us and of course you get to see and meet so many wonderful people and gain relationships and have friends forever, like Lisa Cox!! (Hi Lisa)

Scripture of the week: Alma 8. I have been studying and reading Alma for my personal study lately and read Alma 8 the other day. It's when Alma is preaching to the people of Ammonihah and they are rejecting him, spitting on him and casted him out of the city. So he leaves, but an angel came to him and told him to go back and continue to teach them and HE DID!! Alma was seriously the best missionary. He was so obedient and followed all the promptings that the Lord gave him. We all need to be like Alma and be obedient and follow God and the promptings that are given to us.

I love y'all so much, have an amazing week!! I CAN'T WAIT TO SKYPE YOU ON SUNDAY!!!