Women's Conference Amazing! Love Uchtdorf! Excited for General Conference! Excited to read the Book Of Mormon in a week!

Monday, September 28, 2015

Right now, emailing you!

Hello Sweet Family and Friends!

 

This week hasn't been too full of news, just normal appointments and teaching people about this amazing gospel that we have on this earth. We have met a few nice people while tracting this week, they have very good potential, but we will see when we go back to teach them some more. Its going to be great. I hope.

 

We were able to go to the Woman's Broadcast on Saturday, it was so amazing!!! I love Uchtdorf! That guy is so amazing and is always so powerful with his words. It was so fun to hear those amazing words and to receive revelation from them. I am so excited for General Conference and to hear more of the things our Heavenly Father would want us to know. Its going to be interesting with the 3 apostles that have past away and won't be with us, but it will be cool to hear the new people that will be disciples of Christ.

 

This week, our whole mission will be reading the Book of Mormon- in just one week! We are going to just stay inside and read. If we have appointments, we can go to them, but other than that, we are going to  be inside reading. It's going to be so awesome! I am really excited for it. They did this last year and it was successful, so president decided to do it again.

 

It has cooled down a lot here and has rained a lot. I love it!! It's so nice, but the humidity is still there. bleh.

 

We have done a lot of service for older ladies in our ward and for less actives. They remind me so much of Grandma but they are crazy messy! They have the most craziest and nastiest things laying around and I have been sneezing and sniffing like crazy. Dang allergies are starting to hit me.

 

We have been working a lot with less actives lately and trying to reactive them. Some are progressing very well and others just like us to come and visit.  But it is still fun to talk with them.

 

Sorry this email isn't very interesting this week. We didn't have many things go on besides tracting and less actives. A big rain storm might hit this weekend. yay!! I love ya'll so much,! Thank you so much for you wonderful emails. I will give my brothers and sister a second chance and won't call them out until next week. haha I love ya'll so much!!! Have a wonderful week :)

 

Love Sister Brooks

Sisters' Training, missionary work, and I am not being transferred- Life is Good!!!

Email- Monday, September 21, 2015

Hello, Hello Sweet family and friends!

Us right now!  Emailing ya'll :)

This week has been pretty good. If any of ya'll are wondering, I am staying here with Sister Fuhriman and I am not getting transferred! Yay!! :)  

On Tuesday we had a Sisters Training Meeting. It's when all the sister missionaries meet together and the Sister Training Leaders teach us. It was from 10-4. It was really fun! We had lunch and also had a clothing exchange where you bring clothes you don't want anymore and you can just grab tons of clothes you want. Yeah.. it was awesome. I got a few cute new things and I am sure you will see them in pictures! It was really fun to be with all the Sisters and President Wilson and his wife.

This week has been full of ups and downs. We texted Ashley, our investigator, Tuesday night to see if we could set up another appointment with her so she could get her baptism going along. She ended up texting us and said she moved to Virginia Beach- hahaha-like what the? So now she isn't even in our mission boundaries. We started focusing and getting too stressed out about her and Heavenly Father must of not wanted us to be so worked up about it. It's sad to see her go, but we think it is for the best. We referred her to other missionaries, so maybe Barry will run into her.. :)

We were able to meet with Howard (the sketchy guy) and his family this week. He was really excited when he heard there was a primary for his kids. His wife doesn't speak much English, but she has a teacher right now and a few people in our ward speak Spanish, so we are hoping they will come to church this coming Sunday. It's the Primary Program and they are doing a special lesson for investigators during Sunday school, so we are trying to get as many investigators and non members as possible.

We have found a few more investigators this week. We have been struggling with finding new people to teach and it has been very discouraging. We started to go see some people in the Apartment complex and we knocked on this door and this older lady answered the door. Her name is Theresa. She invited us in and was very interested to learn more. She said she had missionaries over a few years ago. We went back later this week and taught her again. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes, with no hesitation. We see her again tomorrow, we hope she continues with the faith she has right now.

We also found this other girl, Sasha, and we taught her a lesson, we just can't get a hold of her any more at all. She either ignores our calls or has her daughter answer their house door and say she isn't home or feeling well. But we will see how she ends up as well.

This week, as we have been tracting, it's been so much more fun because we have met some really nice people. This week hasn't been as bad when it comes to rude people and people shutting the door on us- thank goodness! Heavenly Father knows we need a little pick me up, so he has been blessing us a lot.

Darryl, our investigator, around 50 years old, is doing so good. He has long curly hair. It's not as good of shape as Uncle Howard's, but it still reminds me of him. When I first met him, he would try and prove us wrong and tell us about some random space theory. He loves to research, which can be really bad sometimes, but he is so dang smart. The past two lessons, we have really seen him soften up and start to listen and accept our message. He is going to pray about baptism and if it is the right thing to do. He reads the Book of Mormon all the time and loves and knows it is true. He just doesn't want to say yes to baptism and pick a date, until he really knows this gospel is true and has a purpose behind saying yes. He wants it to mean something rather than just doing it, which is really good. We are seeing him tomorrow, so we hope it works out as well.

Last story, We were tracting one night and had 30 minutes before we had an appointment with one of our members- She is the sweetest and cutest lady ever. We go see her once or twice a week. She is going through a hard time with her husband right now because he is currently in jail for some things and she keeps finding out more. We had sometime to kill before our scheduled appointment so we knocked on one door and this nice couple invited us in. The husband is also a guy who loves to research other religions so he just started reading the Book of Mormon earlier this week. He and his wife seem really interested. They also invited us back so we are teaching them this week. They have two teenage kids, which we didn't meet because they were at the movies with their friends, but they seem really interested. Their names are Daniel and Glenda. They moved here recently from some foreign country. I can't remember now.. oops.

Anyway, I love ya'll so much!! Thank you for being so supportive and the best family and friends a girl could ever ask for!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! I still have the same address, so SEND AWAY with your letters. Hehe its okay, I understand you're busy. But I may start calling some people out in my next email... :)

I love you!!

Love your missionary, Sister Brooks.

At Sisters Training Meeting -I met Hermana Payne.  She played soccer for Uncle Gene. :)

At Sisters Training Meeting (Me and Sister Fitt)

 Thinking of my dad!

 Thinking of my Uncle Howard!

Great friend makes Mom and Dad's day!

Sunday, September 13, 2015 (written by Sister Brooks' Mom)

Our friend and neighbor, Michael Hinton, works in Mechanicsville, Virginia occasionally (where Sister Brooks is currently serving).  This weekend (Sunday) he was able to go peek on Sister Brooks.  He took an awesome video of Sister Brooks and Sister Fuhriman getting out of their car at church.  They had arrived early for a meeting. When Sister Brooks walked out of the door of her meeting, he was there to greet her and snap a picture with her.  He sent the video and pictures to us and it MADE OUR DAY!  

Thank you Michael!!!!!! 

Sister Brooks said in her Monday email that she was so surprised and excited to see him. " I knew he looked familiar then he smiled at me and it all clicked in my mind! Michael Hinton!  It was so fun to see him and to know that home actually existed still and I didn't drop off the earth!!

 Mechanicsville Church Building

 Secret Video of Sister Brooks and Sister Fuhriman walking into the church building.
(In the video, Sister Brooks is waving to David, their newly baptized investigator)

Michael Hinton and Sister Brooks

Getting out of my comfort zone and talking to people, holy cow!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Hello Sweet Family and Friends,

This week has been full of tracting appointments and people cancelling appointments. ugh. Oh and don't forget getting yelled at, being called devils and walking into houses and about dying because it smells like smoke and then you smell like smoke the rest of the day. Try telling investigators you can't smoke and then showing up to their house smelling like smoke... just picture it in your mind- doesn't go well. But it was still fun sharing this gospel!!

So on Friday, the new missionaries (Me, duh) had a meeting called Return and Report with President Wilson and his Wife. We received some training and then they send us out on the streets of downtown Richmond and had us street contact for 2 hours. We were split up from our trainers and paired with new missionaries so there were the new missionaries paired up and the trainers paired up. Make sense?  Anyway, VSU was right there, so most of the missionaries went there and talked to people. We got a few good lessons in and I handed out Two Book of Mormons. It was a little weird and scary not having my companion with me to talk firs

t, but don't worry, I was a big girl and learned to do it myself. I have progressed so much. I actually think I know what I am doing now; well in lessons, at least. I'm definitely not afraid to talk to people and strike up conversations. Missions make you realize you need to get out of that, holy cow. But it has been so good.

We have been really frustrated this week because we have had Ashley cancel all three of her appointments. She has been so dramatic and so crazy, we don't really know what is going on with her. She still wants to be baptized but we don't have a specific date. Hopefully more good updates will be here next week...

We haven't had any success finding new investigators either. No one has been interested. On Saturday we were tracting and just about to give up on finding people when we decided to go down this road. We saw this guy sitting on his porch smoking and (sorry, judgmental Kaylee coming out, whoa, that was weird saying my first name) he looked really sketchy, but I had this feeling we should talk to him. I was slightly scared because it was dark and brushed the feeling aside. We were walking back down the street to our car and I just walked up to his doorstep without realizing where and why my legs were taking me there. Right when we got on his porch, he opened the door and just smiled. He told us he saw us and figured we were missionaries but has never seen girls before. We get that A LOT! So he told us how his ex wife was  a Mormon and how when he moved to Peru he would have missionaries over all the time. He gave us his number and told us to please call him to set up an appointment, WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR HIS NUMBER YET,  BUT HE GAVE IT TO US. He has 3 kids and him and his wife. They are so cute. We are hoping everything goes well with them. We are calling them today to set up an appointment.

We had a 5K this morning.. yes, laugh all you want trying to picture me running. Its probably exactly what you picture- me dying. I am so out of shape,  it's bad. We ran it with our zone. It was really fun and I feel really good right now because I ran A TON. Yes, I ran most of the whole thing. Don't be too shocked. I walked for like 2 minutes with my companion. but don't worry, I'm sure I'll still bust out my ice cream tonight, I couldn't help it, it was on sale...

I am not sure if I am getting transferred-calls are this Saturday and I will know for sure next Monday, but just in case, don't send anything after Wednesday afternoon, cause if I do get transferred, I won't be able to get it. So hold off after Wednesday just in case. The zone leader says he is pretty positive I am staying here, I sure hope so.

The weather.... eww. It seriously has been so hot and humid. I walk out of my apartment and just want to die or walk back in the house. It gets up to 96-98 degrees and the humidity is AWFUL. You walk outside and instantly are sweating, wet and sticky. I miss dry heat. But we were lucky and have had a big rain storm on Friday and Saturday which has cooled it down a lot. Now during the nights and evenings it gets down to 60 degrees and the afternoons are around 89-75. Its cooling down, thank goodness.

 I love you all so much and pray for you each and everyday. I am so lucky and blessed to have you in my life. I LOVE YOU!!!!!

I am too lazy to read over this, so I hope it makes sense and I didn't mess up too bad. I love you all.

Love, Sister Brooks :)

 My cute soccer shirt.  Took a mini photo shoot for Kel (Mikelle). 

David at his awesome baptism!

Sis. Fuhriman and Sister Brooks

  We get bored sometimes . . . .  :)

Below are pictures from our 5K run this morning.  

Lengthen Your Stride 5k!!! Beautiful day for a race!

Richmond East Zone!

Baptisms and Prayer, brings blessings!

Monday, September 7, 2015
(Because it is Labor Day, the library was closed so Sister Brooks emailed from a restaurant with her Ipad. They ate lunch there after emailing)

Emailing with Ipads at a restaurant called Panera (it's like Zupas) "I can't wait to eat!"

Hello family!! 

This week is seriously been so good and busy. We have had a few appointments and service projects. There's 3 people we are cleaning their house for and it's seriously nasty. It doesn't help that they all have cats or dogs. I officially hate cats. And probably not be getting a dog for a long time or a dog at all. Every single house has a dog or cat, I kid you not. It's seriously so gross and they stink so bad. Ewwww.

For P-day last Monday we had our sisters p-day with our zone. We had balloons and filled them up with paint and threw darts at them. I am best friends with all the Hermanas. (Spanish sisters). I'm learning Spanish from one of the sisters in my district but I'm not getting anywhere with that. Ha ha 

I'll just skip to the cool part. So David's (our investigator who was baptized) birthday was on Friday. We made him a little card and made some brownies because that is his favorite. We brought them over to him and he seemed so sad. We were talking to him and he was saying how his birthday has been so bad and he's been crying. He works at a scrap yard, and his best friend is his boss but treats him really bad. He gets hardly any money and works the longest and does the hardest job. He just really needs more money and less physical labor because he just turned 57. His boss doesn't know that he doesn't want to work on Sunday's either. David just doesn't show up.  He asked if we could pray for him to either get a raise or to get a different job. We have been praying for that a lot. 

Saturday was his baptism. We went and visited him before his baptism to see how he was doing. He said that he has felt so much peace and joy and has felt like someone was with him this week. HOLY GHOST!!! He came to his baptism and everything went perfect. It was so spiritual. We had so many ward members come up to us and tell us how amazing he is and how they feel like he has been a member his whole life. The ward already loves him. After his baptism, we were going to an investigators house and we get a call from David. We were really curious about things. He told us how his boss called him and told him he was going to be one of the highest paid people in the job and he was going to get a job with less labor. His boss didn't care about him having Sunday's off and was really willing and open. We were so happy for David and David was so so happy. He kept saying "I just got baptized and I already see the blessings, it's amazing. I can't wait to get the Holy Ghost and see more blessings." Prayers are truly answered. I have grown such a testimony about that on my mission already. If you ever need anything, pray to our Heavenly Father and if you have faith, he will make it happen. There's a scripture about that, I just stink at memorizing where it is. I'm working on that. 

Sunday he received the Holy Ghost in church and you can just see the light he has and how much happier he is. He is so awesome. We love David. 

Other then that, this week has just been busy with appointments and visiting people. Ashley is scheduled to be baptized September 20, if everything goes according to planned. So we hope it all works out. I'm emailing on my IPad, and I took a picture of me, my companion and David on his baptism, so I'll have to send it next week when I am at the computer. I love you so so much. Thank you for you love and all your support. I will send pictures soon. I love you :) 

Love Sister Brooks. 

 With Hermana Beckstead in my district

 Zone P-day

  Zone P-day

 Me, my trainer, and my trainer's trainer!

A sneak peek at David's baptism- a picture of a picture. I will send real picture next week. 

Missionary work- Busy, Crazy, Rewarding and with some Drama! Oh, and I'm learning how to be a Smooth Talker :)

Monday, August 31, 2015

Hello hello!

This week has seriously been so busy and CRAZY!!! I thought drama left when you got out of high school, no it never does. EVEN AS A MISSIONARY. oh maybe its just girls.(A girl investigator in this case) yeah.. probably that one. We have been pretty busy with appointments every day which makes the day so much smoother and faster. I love having appointments, cause let me tell you, tracting isn't very fun with grumpy people, nasty bugs, humidity, and it's just not that fun.

Anyway, we found a new investigator. He's black, in his 20's and has tats. We gave him a book of Mormon and he seems very interested in it. We are meeting with him tomorrow, so we will see how he is progressing. His mom was also interested but wasn't here this week, so hopefully tomorrow she will be there.

We are also teaching this black lady, her name is Juanita! I told her I had a great, great grandma named Juanita, she invited us in after that. I have learned how to be a smooth talker ;)

David, our investigator is doing so amazing. He came to church again with us yesterday! He is progressing and will keep every commitment we extend to him. He definitely is a miracle. His baptism is still set for Saturday and he can't wait. We are meeting with him today. He will text us every morning with a quote or saying how he is reading the Book of Mormon and what he is learning from it. He is the best.

Ashley, the 21 year old girl.. oh boy. We took her shopping on Tuesday because she didn't have any church clothes and informed us when we got to the store, she didn't have any money. So my companion and I payed for it.. ha ha So she was scheduled to be baptized this Saturday with David and we were so excited!! Ashley was a foster child and has had a crazy past. She lives with this family in our ward but has no relations with them at all but is living there for cheap. We went to go see her the other day and the lady she lives with is in-active. She came and freaked out at us for scheduling a baptism date without her permission and how they already had things scheduled that day. We apologized and we had the date changed to that Sunday. We then get a random text from Ashley on Saturday telling us to come to her house right now "Its an emergency." We were super confused. We called and texted her, but she wouldn't answer us. It was right in the middle of our companionship study and we had tons of things to do, but we decided to just go. She met us outside and just spilled out all these problems on how she is getting kicked out of the house, she has a little bit of autism and she shouldn't get baptized this week. We were like UH WHAT!!!!  She called her dad, who is a druggie and going to jail soon, and she is living with him for the next two weeks before he heads to jail. This all lasted for like 2 hours. She gave us a lot more stories and details-this email would be like a novel if i wrote it all down. We got her a ride to church and she came to church yesterday. She then tells us that she is doing good and she wants to get baptized again this weekend. We talked to the bishop and ward mission leader about it and they aren't too sure about it. Our mission president told us if she has a desire to get baptized, then do it, but she isn't ready at all. We have taught her two lessons and we know she doesn't know hardly anything that she needs to. But we are going to work like crazy to try and get all the lessons in this week and try to baptize her, but we don't know how it will all work out. It just depends on the things we feel and if we get everything done that we need to. It doesn't help either that she changes her mind ever second!!! Sister Fuhriman and I really want to baptize her, but we aren't having very good feelings about it right now. So we will just see how things work out this week and if we end up having two baptisms or just Davids! I hope everything works out, but if it is our Heavenly Father's will, it will. He will make everything possible if He wants it to happen :)

On Wednesday mornings, we volunteer at an Adult handicap center. Those people are Hilarious!!!!! It's so funny. It is fun to be there with them and dance and sing. They love us and never want us to leave. Other then that, this week has just been busy with appointments and tracting. I love missionary work!! I'm getting the hang of it and really loving it. Can you believe I have been our for a month!! The fastest and SLOWEST month ever. haha only 17 more to go! WOOT WOOT! I love you all so much. Thank you for your love, support and prayers. You guys are amazing and I couldn't do it without you :) I love you!!!

I couldn't help it!  I had to take the picture!  Reminds me of Cedar! hee hee 

Break time at lunch.

We were weekly planning (takes forever) and eating chocolate. 

 I opened this and couldn't resist.  It was a sign. :)

Cute family in our ward who feeds us sometimes.  

They wanted to do my hair and take a picture with it done.  

Nose Strips, my sweet new PJ's and My Ipad.

With David, our investigator.

This is Obi, a recent convert- he was baptized right before I came here. 

 He is moving to school today.