Focusing on positive instead of Grinch's "wallow in self pity"

Emailing at the library

Happy Monday!!

I hope y'all had a wonderful week!! Well, to say it bluntly. This week was hard. Very, very hard. I am very happy for this week to be over, haha. But I was still able to see God’s hand in my week and throughout the day. He is too good. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. No matter how my week went, how many doors slammed in our faces, or tough it is to get along with people or companions, He is always there for us. No matter what, He wants us to be happy. I've really tried to focus on the positive this week rather than, as the grinch would say, "wallow in self-pity" or something like that.. Haha which I wanted to do sometimes. haha. 

Krista, our cute miracle investigator was so busy this week and we were hardly able to get a hold of her or see her. She is in the process of moving and selling her possessions and overly stressed. We will just have to give her a little time, but start back up with teaching her soon. :) 

We had a cute new family move into our ward this week!! Yay! We have had so many people move out or die... Our ward is starting to get really small. This family moved from northern Virginia and the mom, Anna, (pronounced Iike the girl on frozen) was converted in her late 20's by sister missionaries, so she loves is ;). We helped them move and unpack this week and really got to know them. She is seriously the best member missionary. We helped her on Tuesday, then Friday she called us telling us all the people she has met this week and wants to invite over to her home for us to teach. She is so dang cute! She said once her house is unpacked and ready to go, she will start inviting them over for dinner.  We told her we would be over to help that process speed up. ;) haha 

We met this lady name Mindy while we were tracting. She said she knows everything about almost every religion, but she doesn't know much about Mormonism. She said she would love to sit down and talk with us. I was pretty excited, she was super cute and nice and I thought she was totally interested. We started sharing the restoration with her and next thing you know she just started bashing and saying she isn't sure if it could happen and just POUNDED us with questions. Half her questions I had NO idea how to answer and really relied on the Holy Ghost to help me answer them. After we shared our message, she got all calm and was like okay that was nice, sorry I just pounded and bashed, I wanted to see how you reacted and answered questions and to test you to see if you really believed. She said we could come by any time to teach her. It was so so strange. 

We had stake conference Saturday night and yesterday. We had two general authorities from the 70’s there and they had wonderful talks. We went with James, Lisa and Lisa's mom yesterday.  They weren't planning on going but we asked for a ride and  so they had to.  See what I did there hahaha!  The talks that were given were EXACTLY what James needed and he was able to recognize and see that. Afterwards, we introduced them to President and Sister Wilson. The Wilsons have heard a lot about James and were so excited to meet him. It was so good for James to talk with them for a little and feel of President Wilson’s sweet spirit. We had a really good lesson with them after stake conference about temple marriage. As we explained it, James mentioned he really wanted to be with Lisa forever. We told him he could; he just needed to be baptized first. He told us, he knows he will be baptized one day in the near future, he just has to really gain a testimony and live the way he knows he needs to. He is doing so well. I am happy for him and Lisa. He went to a bachelor party last weekend, scary thought- his friends all drink and he gives into peer pressure- Lisa shared this with us without him knowing.  But at the party, of course they went to a bar, James had only 2 drinks and started to feel funny and get a stomach ache. He knew he shouldn't be drinking and ended up drinking water for the rest of the night. WE WERE ALL SO PROUD OF HIM!!! I sure love them. 

We have been trying to work with less actives and go visit people in the ward we don't have any information on or we haven't met before. We have been able to get into quite a few homes and talk with them and get to know them. It's been so fun to meet them and help them know how much their Heavenly Father really does love them. 

On Saturday, we killed chickens again. I ended up killing this big giant rooster. I was pretty much a pro from last time ;) haha but we had dinner with the Despains last night and at the chickens that we killed, holy cow they were so good... I don't know if I'll be able to have a normal chicken again. We might have to start raising some mom and dad ;) Pictures below.

It's crazy, we have transfer calls this Saturday.  Thank goodness this transfer has gone by pretty fast.  I am interested to see what this next transfer will be like. 

Scripture of the week: John 20:29. This scripture was shared yesterday in stake conference. Jesus is speaking to Thomas and told him that because Thomas saw Jesus, he believed. But blessed are those who don't see Jesus Christ, but still believe. It really made me think of some of our investigators or people I have met. So many people want or expect a sign or some miraculous thing to happen to them so they will start believing. But instead, we really need to have faith in Jesus Christ and know, even though we don't see him, he really is always there for us and he does live. We all need to have more faith and believe in our Savior Jesus Christ. 

I love y'all so much. I hope this week turns out a little better. I just have to keep working hard and push forward, having faith and humble myself to God’s will. Keep being the amazing people that you are. I sure love y'all and pray for y'all constantly. 

Love Sister Brooks!

Me and Sis. Mailata

Rainy day photo shoot

Sis. Mailata had never met Santa yet. :)

We tracted into this guy at the beginning of the week who loved to hunt.
He had everything he has ever shot, on the wall.
This was only one wall of the house. SERIOUSLY, every wall was
COVERED with random animals.

 Saturday, Chicken Killing Again

Getting my rooster set up

Setting up rooster.

Getting grossed out!

Cutting the throat

I tried not to look at the blood.
  Bro. Despain made me laugh.

Prize Rooster

Bro. Despain made this plucking machine out
out of an old washing machine.
It was super cool.

Plucking the rooster and trying to
get it's feathers off.

Dunking the rooster.  
Trying to get a baptism-Just kidding.
This was boiling hot water and we 
dunk it to loosen the feathers to 
make it easier to pluck.

Trying to get the feathers off.  We made
another machine really quick.

Going in for the kill to gut the chicken.

Grossed out.  This Chicken had parts and things
I didn't recognized from the last time and it
freaked me out.

Special emails from Despain Family (Powhatan, Virginia)

Ron and Kathy Despain, a sweet family that Sister Brooks has met and enjoyed being in their home in Powhatan, Virginia, have sent a few special emails to Sister Brooks' family:

Email sent February 20, 2016

This is just a little note to thank you for your sweet daughter and the sweet spirit that she brings here in Powhatan, VA.  She represents herself, your family and the Lord in a good and honorable way.  We love having her and her companion in our home and the good spirit that they always bring.  
Even though missionary work is difficult at times, they continue to bring light to this part of the Lord's vineyard.  They are growing into the type of women that you want them to be.  You should be proud.  Again, thank you.

Ron and Kathy Despain

February 21, 2016

We will indeed make sure that your daughter gets her special "hug"  birthday gift.  We're glad that you don't think unkindly of us for making you daughter eat off of the floor....hahaha. 

Oh, by the way, we had your sweet daughter and her companion over for lunch yesterday and dinner today.  We made a cake for her and sang happy birthday.  There is something that happened this weekend while they were here......you really won't believe it....... She was so.....how can I say it......brave....Hahaha.  We won't tell you more since your daughter will be sending you pictures and a description.....We love your daughter like our own.  Thank you for sharing.

Here is a picture of us.  We hope that it makes you smile.

February 26, 2016

Just to give you an update....
I found where the sisters were having dinner this evening at the Halpins and met them there.  I actually got there before they did.. hahaha... so when the Sisters got there they peeked around the corner not sure what I was going to do.  Well they thought I was going to throw a pie in their faces... hahahhaha ... I wonder where they got that idea????  Who me??  hahaha, oh well.  

I said, “This is from your mom." and I gave her a great big hug, then I said, "This is from your dad, Bro. Despain can't give this to you from your dad, so I will give it to you from your dad." And I gave her another big hug.  She just giggled and said, "Ahhhhh" "Thanks so much!" Laughing she said, "This is so much better than a pie in the face."

Birthday wish delivered with love.
Thanks for allowing me to do this for you.
Kathy

 April 17, 2016

Benita & family,

We still appreciate your daughter and the sweet spirit that she and her companion bring into our home.  We know that you must be so proud.  Here are some pictures that will make you smile.

With love,
Ron & Kathy Despain

Thank you Despain Family!  The pictures did make us smile!!

Happy Miracles Trump All!

Emaling at the library :)

Happy Monday!! 

I hope y'all had a wonderful week and enjoyed the wonderful gifts and blessings God has given you this week.

This week went by crazy fast. I can't believe how fast time is flying!! It has been another fantastic week full of miracles and of course some sad moments, but the happy things trump them all!! 

We were able to meet with James and Lisa Monday because they will both be heading out of town, so we had to see them before they left. James is usually a little reserved and doesn't really answer things for himself, he relies on Lisa too much, but he has been really good lately. We were talking to them about conference and how they enjoyed it. We challenged them to go into conference with questions and if they paid attention, they would receive the answers that they needed. They both went in with super good questions. Lisa said that her questions were answered so fast and she was so happy about that. She is so happy to be learning and growing in this church again. Her faith and desire is amazing. I can't tell you how much she has changed and what an amazing example she is to James. James opened up to us and told us his questions, he didn't even tell Lisa until right then. His questions were about the Book of Mormon, prophets, if the church was true and if he should get baptized. He said he loved conference and was able to get a lot of insight and had some questions answered. He is progressing and doing so well. He knows the church is true, I think his main concern is living the "Mormon lifestyle". He just needs to put his trust in the lord and know he can do it. He is definitely doing very well and I have seen a lot of change in him. It's hard because we have taught him everything multiple times and a lot more random topics, we can't do or teach him anything that he doesn't know or will give him the "ahh I get it" moment, it has to be up to him now and he has to put in the effort. So we are trying to help him with that. I love Lisa and James!!! 

BIGGEST MIRACLE EVER!!!! Brother Stockton, a member who is going through a rough divorce, gave us this referral a week ago. He gave it to us in the beginning of the week, but we had so many things planned so we weren't able to get to her house until the middle of the week. When we knocked, she answered, said her named was Krista and told us she would love to talk but someone is coming to look at her house so she has to leave. She expressed she really wanted to meet with us though. She gave us her number and told us to call her. So a few days passed and on Tuesday night we called her.  She was so excited and asked us to come on Wednesday morning and talk with her more. We got a member and went to see her on Wednesday. She told us a little of her background and what was going on. She is also going through a nasty divorce and attends a local church in Powhatan- PCC- it's pretty much a party church that 3/4 of Powhatan attends. She was telling us how she had a friend (the guy we know who gave us her as a referral but she doesn't know that) who started talking to her about the church and what he believed in. She was really touched because she said she knew something was missing from her church. She then started telling us about the day we came. She explained that she didn't have enough money to keep paying for her house and she needed to down size. She put the house on the market and nothing was happening. At the beginning of the week she got a call that someone was going to come look at her house on Wednesday morning. So Wednesday morning came and she prayed and prayed that she would know what she needed to do and that she would do God’s will and what He wanted, She asked for some guidance and direction. Only a few minutes past after she said amen and we knocked on the door!!!!! (This has always been a Dream of mine to knock on the door just as they got done praying). She knew this was the answer and she needed to listen to us. She couldn't because the people were coming to look at the house. Long story short, right after the people looked through it, they told her they are buying her house and will pay the full price. She knew God was definitely looking out for her that day. She then told us she was talking to her friend and he was telling her all about the Book of Mormon. She ran around town trying to find one but wasn't having any luck. We told her that we had one for her and showed her. She got a little emotional and told us thank you so much, she couldn't wait to start reading it. We shared the restoration with her and she related to that so well. Our member that was with us had a son who was going through something really similar to her, so she was able to help her out a lot. We invited her to be baptized, because we do that every lesson, and she said yes!! So she is now on date. She wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she had to teach at her church, but she is going to find someone to cover for her next Sunday so she can attend. We have stake conference next week and two general authorities from the 70’s will be speaking, so that will be very good for her. I can't wait! She is the cutest!! Definitely made the week soooo good!! Heavenly Father is great!! :) 

Sad story now- our investigator Michael, I talked about him a while ago, he has a drinking problem and was doing SO good for a while but now he is doing awful. He drinks about every day now :( Last week when we were on exchanges, Sister Mailata and Sister Patching went to see him. He was drunk and explained that he didn't want to hear our message anymore and that he wasn't interested. We decided to try him again this week and see how he was doing. Right when we pulled up to his house, he stormed out, with alcohol in his hand and started YELLING at us. He said he was so stressed and going through a lot of things and couldn't deal with us right now. He started getting very emotional. We asked if we could help him with his stress and he said yes, to get out of here. I have never seen him like that and it was super scary... He was starting to walk toward us as he was yelling.  Thank goodness the car was right there because I jumped right in. :( It's sad to see the influence of alcohol. It makes me so sad. I hope one day the missionaries will go back over there and he will be ready to hear and accept this wonderful messages of Jesus Christ. 

We had zone conference this week (we have had so many meetings lately but I love it because I receive so many wonderful thoughts and revelations on how I can help investigators and myself to become a better missionary and person.) we talked a lot about how we can be more diligent, obedient missionary's, This gets talked about every time... Haha,  We learned about better ways to find people, how we need to listen, seeking revelation and what our purposes as missionaries are. It was so wonderful, I loved it. I received great insight, not only for our investigators, but also for myself and how I can be the best missionary that I can be. I am so grateful for the calling that I have to be a representative of our Savior and brother Jesus Christ. I've been thinking a lot about the wonderful calling and privilege I have. I get to wake up every morning and put Jesus Christ name and my name, over my heart each day and teach those about him and this wonderful gospel we are a part of. I hope we are all striving and want to become more like our Savior each and every day and grow closer to him. I am so happy I am out serving in Virginia right now. I know I've been called here for a reason and this is where I need to be. I wouldn't change this for the world!!! 

Note- The following pictures of Zone Conference were posted on Facebook by Sister Wilson:

I (mom) had to put this picture on here.
I love to see the back of Sister Brooks' hair (green sweater)- so pretty!- It's a mom-thing!

We just had Sister’s Preparation day. We went to the James River and Belle Isle, a little island which is super pretty... Picture overload this week, and then we ate lunch on the grass of the Capitol. It was really fun. 

James River:

Belle Isle:

With Sister Mailata

With Sister Patching (one of my STLs)

With Sister Wagstaff

Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 13:7-8. I love this scripture so much. I know if we ask God questions or things, He will answer them. I know that if we seek and act on the answers that we get, that we will be able to be successful and we will find the things that we need. I know Heavenly Father answered our prayers. We just need to have the faith that he will and act on that faith. 

I love y'all so much, have a wonderful week and don't forgot Sister Brooks and your Heavenly Father loves you!!!!!

Love Sister Brooks :)

Our new hats!

I am on a hunt to find street names after all three of my brothers.  So far John B. Trail (Christopher John Brooks) and Tyler Drive.  Still looking for Mike!

Wonderful week of miracles! Watch out for guys who speak in Shakespeare language and need a kiss by midnight! :)

Emailing from the church

Hello sweet family and friends!! 

I hope y'all had a wonderful conference. I loved and enjoyed every minute of it. I received a lot of revelation for our investigators and for myself on how I can become a better missionary. I am so excited to apply and teach our investigators and share this wonderful light, happiness and truth with the wonderful people of Powhatan. One of the many talks I enjoyed from conference was the one from D. Todd Christofferson. He talked all about fathers and it really made me start thinking, and of course missing, my sweet dad. I am beyond grateful and can't even express my gratitude and thanks for my dad. He has and always will be my biggest hero. I sure love you dad!!! Thank you for being the best role model, example and dad a girl could ever ask for!! :) That talk really touched my heart. There were so many other wonderful talk. I would talk about each, but that would take centuries.

After the Saturday session, it really made me think and made me sad how many people had "opposing" votes against the prophet and his apostles. It made me really thing and realize how lucky we are to have a wonderful prophet, Thomas S. Monson, here on this earth, to be our guidance, mouth piece from our Heavenly Father, and good example and teacher. I love him and know he is called from God and has the power and authority to lead and guide us. We need to always support and sustain him and follow his wonderful direction and guidance. 

This week has been such a wonderful week. We were able to see a lot of miracles and teach a lot of lessons!!! It's been kind of frustrating the past 3-4 weeks. We haven't been seeing very many miracles or finding very many new people to teach. We have been really trying to be effective while we tract because it doesn't do much good when we just walk around and don't get any lessons or help anyone. Sister Mailata and I talked last week and decided we are going to work so hard this week and teach many lessons. We just need to be obedient, work hard and continue to be diligent in God’s work. Our mission, yes you may think it's strange... But it works, we always invite everyone to be baptize on the first lesson and every lesson after that, and we try to get them to work toward a specific date. I have been pretty hesitant about setting people on date the first lesson, but decided to work on that this week. Here are a few miracles of this week:

1.  We were tracting last Monday and saw this guy outside smoking in his front porch. We went and approached him and explained who we were and what we do. His name was Adrian. He said, "Oh, I've met a lot of those boys, they are like elders or something?" We nodded. "Yeah, they would come to my house every once in a while and try to talk to me about Jesus, but I never gave them the time of day." Instant feeling of, oh great... Haha. He then mentioned something about Joseph Smith.  What a great lead into the restoration- he helped us start teaching and he didn't even realize how much he helped us ;) He then told us to share our message with him. He wanted to hear it and would give us the time of day. I'm not sure if he said that because we were girls or he really wanted to hear it. J We started right away teaching. As we got to the Book of Mormon, he said he heard about it and always wanted one. He asked where to get it. We told him we had one we could give him. At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized on the 30 of April. He said if he came to know it was true, he would totally be baptized. We asked him if there was another time we could come by and teach him more. He said "can I give you a specific time and day to come so y'all don't drive all the way out here?" Shocked he said that, we told him that's exactly what we wanted to do. He told us to come back on Thursday at 6:30. Well, Thursday rolled around, we got a member and knocked on his door... NO ANSWER. His lights were on and his car was home but he didn't answer, so that was a bummer. We decided to try him again on Friday. We were on exchanges that day and Sister Patching and Mailata went and tried him. He apologized for not being there cause "something came up" but they were able to teach him and talk more with him.

2.     Miracle 2. It was Wednesday morning and we had just gotten extra miles at the beginning of this month of March, yay us, and had a few extra to spare because it was the end of the month. We decided to go to an area that we don't normally go to because of the miles. We got to this one street and off we went. We were tracting for about an hour and nothing was happening, it was spring break this week so TONS of people weren't home. We were heading toward one of the last houses before we had to leave. They had this really big dog who was barking like crazy. (Sister Mailata is terrified of dogs and almost jumped on top of me she was so scared) I decided we couldn't let this dog scare us!  Wee had to get to this house. I felt really calm and knew we needed to do it. When we arrived at the door, this sweet lady answered. Her name is Pat. She invited us right in!!!!! She explained that she was home from work today because she wasn't feeling too well.  She said she hardly takes days off so it was a "coincidence", (More like God leading us to her, that she was home.. Because she hardly is.) She told us she would love to hear our message. She was so excited that we gave her a Book of Mormon and told us she would love to meet with us again. 

3.     One day we were just sitting at home eating lunch when we got a text from a member. He told us he knew someone we needed to go tract into. They really needed happiness in their life and the girl needed someone to talk to. He gave us the address and we grabbed our stuff and went to go find this mystery person. When we arrived at the house, this sweet and really pretty lady answered the door. We explained who we were and what we did. She got really excited and said she would love to talk with us, but someone was coming to look at her house so that moment wasn't a good time. She gave us her number and said she would love to hear more from us. That was really cool. Member referrals are the best!!! 

We went on exchanges this week, I usually don't look forward to exchanges, even though I end up having fun, but I was so excited for this one to get away for a little. I went with Sister Schenck and Sister Madsen and went to their area. They are in VCU campus, so we would just go around and talk to random people about Jesus Christ. It is really fun. Funniest thing, we were just walking around campus and this older funny guy, he reminds me of this guy named Doug at DSU, Ty and Chris will know who I am talking about. We said hi to him and he stopped us. He looked right at our name tag and said, "ugh, never mind you're Mormon." We were curious why he said that, so we turned around and asked him what he needed. He start speaking in some weird Shakespeare language telling us he needed to find someone to kiss at midnight. He started getting closer to us and we took the cue we had to leave. We were laughing way too hard as we walked away. We had a really cool miracle though. We were talking to this one guy and we noticed a girl was standing right behind us just waiting. Once we were done talking to him, we turned around and Sister Schenck noticed that she had met her a few weeks back. She told us how depressed and sad she was feeling and needed a little "pick me up". We went and sat down with her at a table and started talking about the restoration. She LOVED every second of it. She really related to Joseph Smith and wanted us to keep telling her more. Out of nowhere, she said, “I don't have anything to do this weekend, I wish I did.”  BINGO!!! We told her about conference and how she would love it. She was so excited to go and learn more and to see that we did have a prophet. I texted our STL's last night and they said she went to General conference and LOVED it. It made me so happy!! 

We ran a 5k today woot woot!! I almost died, but I'm still alive baby!! Haha it was really fun. We ran it with our zone, so it was fun to be with the sisters :) 

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 2:17- I loved the woman's conference and the theme of service. We are truly serving God when we serve those around us. We need to strive to always find those who need our help. 

I love y'all so much, have a wonderful week!! 

Love Sister Brooks! 

Nature Walk

Bon Fire

Trying to run over Bro. Noe JK

Zone Meeting

General Conference Sunday Surprises!

This post is written by Mom:

General Conference was WONDERFUL but to add to the beautiful day, Sister Kaylee Brooks emailed some surprise pictures from her camera.  (When she has Wifi, she can email pictures from her camera).  

Happy Conference Face!

Pictures taken during the break of General Conference

In between the morning and afternoon session of General Conference on Sunday, Ashley, my daughter in law (Sister Brooks' sister in law) text me a cute picture that she happily saw on Facebook. Ashley follows "Mormon Fun" and saw that someone posts this cute meme. We were so surprised to see this picture.  We were so HAPPY! It made our day even better! These pictures were originally taken in August of 2015, just a few weeks of Sister Brooks being in Virginia. The meme was put together by some unknown person from Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk in the morning session as he remembered the responses and excitement of the missionaries in Thailand when they announced a temple there a year ago.  After all the missionaries got word of the temple, "the whole mission was up in the middle of the night, jumping on their beds."  "Please don't tell the missionary department!" :)  LOVE IT!