Another Amazing Week!

Emailing from the Church/Institute building

Happy Monday 

This week was another amazing week! I was very uplifted spiritually this week and I can't wait to tell you about the amazing zone conference we had. Boy, am I glad to be a missionary!! 

   Last Monday, we went shopping with Emma-Claire, a member in the ward. We were going to a mall near Cafe Rio, so of course we had to go eat there. As we went up to pay, the lady at the register said that someone had paid for our meal already and we could just go sit down. We ended up getting out of her who it was that paid for us and went up to thank him. Come to find out, he's a member of the church and saw we were missionaries. We were talking and found out that he lived in Ivins about 2 months ago, probably like 10 minutes away from our house. He just recently moved to Virginia to get closer to his family. He recognized the name Brooks as soon as I introduced myself and we got talking about Great Grandpa. It was so awesome!!  Sadly, I can't remember his name. Terrible of me, I know. Sorry!

Shopping with Emma-Claire 

     Thursday was a day full of meetings but it was so wonderful!! Elder Kopischke from the Quorum of the Seventy came and did a mission tour. We had zone conference which started at 9 in the morning. Holy cow, I received so many answers to my questions and was able to learn so many new things and how I can become a better missionary. One thing that has really stuck out to me and as I go back to re-read my notes, he said this phrase, "Just worry about the things you can control, let God worry about the things you can't." I find myself worrying about investigators or different things throughout the day. Half the things I can’t control. But I can control my attitude and what I do. That's all I need to worry about! We also talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how we can better use it in our teaching. He said, "People will be judged on how they accept the Book of Mormon. We are giving them the chance to learn about the Book of Mormon. We need to present it well to them." It is our responsibility to present the Book of Mormon to those around us and present it well, so they have the chance and the opportunity to accept it. He talked about so many other things that I would love to share, but this could get way too long. We then had a MLC. He met with the leadership and gave us some more council on how we can become better leaders and examples. That night, we had all the bishops, ward mission leaders, stake presidents and anyone else who was associated with missionary work come to a meeting. There we talked about how we as missionary's can better work with the ward and how the ward can work better with us as missionaries. We ended up leaving around 9pm. To say the least, I was very spiritually uplifted, learned so many things I could do better on and came out with a very sore bum.  :)

Elder Kopischke walked by as we were taking a picture and said,

 "I'm going to photobomb your picture." 

Some sisters I came out with 

Zone Conference

     It was really cool. When we were done with our meetings Sunday morning, we received a text from a member saying she was bringing her boyfriend to church and he agreed to meet with us. His name is Christopher. They have been dating for a while and he has been really hesitant to meet with us but his girlfriend had to meet with the bishop, so he agreed to meet with us as she had her interview. He is so cool. He grew up Catholic, but decided he needed to go out and explore other churches to see if this was for him or not. His girlfriend had been talking to him, had brought him to church a few times, given him a Book of Mormon and even took him to the Philly temple open house. We talked to him about the restoration and he had already seen the restoration video. (It’s on Netflix if you haven't seen it, it's the greatest. #favoritemovie) He has a lot of good and deep questions, but there is really good potential in him. We will hopefully be meeting with him again soon.

  I went on exchanges with Sister Mooney this week. Holy cow she is the cutest thing. She just came out on her mission two weeks ago. It was total flash back of when I came out. She is from Panguitch. She went to school at SUU. It seriously is such a small world. We were able to see many miracles and had quite a few lessons together. It was fun to think of the progression I have made, not only in the gospel, but as a person. The mission has changed me in the best and biggest way I could possibly imagine. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Scripture of the week: Doctrine and Covenants 20:11-12; Joseph Smith was inspired of God to translate the Book of Mormon. He was given the power and authority to do so. I know with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true. I read it every morning in my studies and I can't put it down. The stories, lessons and sacrifice people made are incredible. Read the Book of Mormon if you haven't. I know it will change your life, because I have seen the change it has made in mine. 

I love y'all to the moon and back. Have a fantastic week and always remember that Sister Brooks in VA loves you!

Love Sister Brooks :) 

Daniel is the greatest member missionary 

The Moes, the senior missionaries in our ward, left on Thursday :(

Vicki!!! She was from Glen Allen. 

We were contacting last night and found this funny mural.
 I love downtown haha 

My best friend/twin 

Note from Mom:
We received these text pictures from Andrew who takes the missionaries out to dinner quite often. Thank you Andrew! These pictures make our day!!!