Fast and Busy Week!


October 26, 2015

Hello Hello, 

This week has gone by so fast!
On Monday, we had Sister’s P-day with our zone. We all brought pumpkins andice cream and ate ice cream and painted pumpkins. It was really fun to be withall the Sisters and to talk with them! (pictures to come) 

We had a lesson with this cute lady named Patricia, she reminds me of mom. We had a member out with us and we were walking up to her door. She ranoutside and told us we couldn't meet with her because her husband wouldn't allow it. (those dang husbands) We asked her if she read the pamphlet we left with her and she said no she didn't because when she walked inside her husband took it from her and ripped it up. I wanted to go in there and slap him, what a Meany head. But I didn't. Thank Goodness. 

We met Dre Fogg, the one that was referred to us by other missionaries. He is a 10 year old boy with serious ADHD but is so funny and cute. He wants to be baptized so bad. His dad is covered in tattoos head to toe, literally. He is very nice though and is so supportive and wants his son to be baptized. He has a son that is 12 and he was already baptized. They came to church yesterday and seemed to really enjoy it. We are hoping to get Dre baptized on Sunday, but we are still waiting to hear from bishop. Cross your fingers it’s on Sunday!! 

David Miller is going to the temple for the first time this Saturday!! He is doing baptisms for the dead and is going to baptize is brother and dad that have past away. He is so excited and doesn't stop talking about it. We are so excited for him:) 

We had Zone Conference on Thursday. Everyone wore pink because we just found out that our mission President’s wife has breast cancer. She is the sweetest lady ever. We had a great zone conference and I learned a lot. 

We got these little black boxes installed in our car. I am not sure if you have ever heard of them, but they are pretty much like going through simulators in drivers ed all over again. It tells you if you’re going too fast and if you're driving too crazy and if your seat belt isn't on. It will give you a warning (verbally) and then it will dock
you points the next time you do it. After each transfer, it will rank you, and if you're not driving good, they will take your driving privilege away from you. haha its kind of funny. Thank goodness I am not the designated driver yet, so I don't have to worry about that for awhile. 

I will be finding out on Saturday about transfers if I am leaving or not. If you are sending anything, don't send after Wednesday because if I am getting transferred, I wont be able to get it. If you want to send something and it is too late, just send it to the mission home and I will get it sooner or later. I will let you know for sure next Monday if I will be staying or going! 

Scripture for the week: Matthew 21:22- its all about prayer, if we pray and believe we will receive our answer, we will. God will never leave us without an answer. We just need to have faith in him and really listen for our answer.  I love ya’ll so much. Thank you for your love and support. Ya’ll are so amazing. Have a wonderful week :) 

Love Sister Brooks 

We Live For Miracles!

Monday October 19, 2015

Hello Family and Friends!

This week has been a pretty good week. We haven't had too many lessons this week, which was a bummer, but we have found a few little miracles. I live for miracles. THEY ARE THE BEST EVER!!! Tuesday evening through Wednesday evening, we were on exchanges with the STL (Sister Training Leaders). They are seriously so sweet. I stayed in Mechanicsville, my area, and Hermana Draper came to be my companion. (Chris, I have found your future wife. Picture will be coming soon.) Also, Jeff's companion knows her too. Small world! I learned a lot from being with her and found a few new ways to reel people in on door approaches. I’m not going to lie,  my cast is pretty good and I hook them and reel them in quick!  Did you like my analogy dad, Chris, Ty and Mike? It probably didn't make sense, but oh well.  We have found 3 people that are pretty interested and want us to come back. We are meeting with one tonight named Patricia. She reminds me exactly of mom, seriously the nicest, cutest and thinnest lady. I can’t wait to meet with her tonight and to hopefully continue to meet with her. 

As we were done nightly planning and saying our prayers, we prayed that we would have a miracle happen for the following day, Friday. So Friday morning, we went off to Sync our Ipads. We have to go to McDonalds or somewhere with Wi-Fi every day so we can sync our Ipads so we both have the same information. I looked at my Ipad and was like, what the heck, why do we have this random kid named Dre Foggs on date? Really confused. As I clicked on his name, I was reading all about him and he is this little boy age 8-11 who used to live in Midlothian, Virginia but moving in our area and really wants to get baptized. His dad is less active but just started coming back to church recently. He is on date for this weekend, but we haven't seen him or taught him anything yet. We are hoping to get him baptized on Sunday, it just all depends how much we teach him and how the interview goes with bishop. So we could have a baptism this week or next week!! yay :) 

We were able to go to activity days this week. We wanted the girls to decorate Halloween cookies for our investigators and write notes to them. We made the cookies and some notes and brought them to activity days. The girls did so good. The notes and letters they wrote to them were so sweet and thoughtful. We had a few people cry and just thank us for the notes. Hopefully it will soften them up and want to learn more from us :)

Scripture for the week: D&C 68:6, look it up, it says how the Lord is always with us and will stand by us all the time. This scripture has really helped me when I am homesick or not having a good day. I know the Lord is always with me and standing right next to me.

I love ya’ll so much!! Thank you for being the best and so dang supportive!! Have a wonderful week :)

 Love Sister Brooks 

Funniest, weirdest, and testimony builder week!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Family and Friends,
This week has seriously been the funniest, weirdest and the most testimony builder I have ever had.

The week started out great, we had a lesson with our investigator Kitty, who is older like 70's maybe, and she invited two of her girl friends. They were really intrigued and interested in the message of the restoration. They are both Catholics and believed a lot of the same things, but was really curious and interested in Joseph Smith. We gave them a Book of Mormon and they said they would read it. We will be meeting with them next week and they said they will be inviting more of their friends over to hear our message!! woohoo :)
We have been tracting a lot! Now this is where it gets really weird and funny. I'm sure it won't sound funny here, but in person it was like.. uhh!? So we were tracting and knocked on this guys door. His name is Benjamin. He was 31 living with his girlfriend. We started sharing a message about the restoration and then brought up the Book of Mormon, he just smiled and said, "oh my gosh, (except it wasn't gosh) I was just about to buy that at the thrift store but didn't have enough money, I want to read it so bad." Sister Fuhriman and I looked at each other way excited. We told him more about it and said he could have it. He was so confused that we were giving it to him for free. He ran inside to put it in a "special" place. While he was inside Sister Fuhriman and I just smiled, we totally had this guy. Then..... When he came out he started telling us that he was Jesus Christ and had spirits in his body. He would change his voice and that was the different spirits talking. Totally confused on what he was doing, I totally thought he was joking and tried not to laugh. But thank goodness I didn't. I can't explain it very well. Just know it was extremely weird. We set a return appointment with him.

Then when we went back to teach him a few days later, he told us his whole life story on how people think he is crazy, he has been chained up because Heavenly Father was speaking through him and he was screaming some stuff and the police came and got him. He seriously believes that he has spirits in him and started talking as if he was Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, John the Baptist, Matthew, Angel Gabriel, Michael, Noah and those are only a few. We had a 2 hour lesson with him and between Sister Fuhriman and I, we talked for 5 minutes..It was so weird. Like it doesn't seem bad in email, but wow it was so beyond weird in person, you had to be there. Then we had time before another lesson so we decided to go contact a less active. We knocked on his door and a little short guy walks out, around 50 years old. He told us he has told the church 5 times to have no one contact him and was very angry we were there to see him. He started telling us why he left the church and how "Mormons are such liars, the prophet is bogus, I recommend you get out as fast as you can, consider this a warning. it is all a lie. Joseph Smith is the biggest liar. You guys are so wrong with every thing, the Sabbath is Friday night to Saturday night not Sunday" and just bashed on us. We started to say things that would hopefully comfort him and bore our testimonies. He then started to be really nice to us. He thanked us for coming back and invited us to come back whenever we wanted. We were very shocked after the 30 minutes of lecture he gave to us. But he really started to have a softer heart the last bit of our conversation. It definitely was very interesting.

I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the prophets we have here on Earth. It was a testimony builder to me because I was able to bear my testimony of the truth we have in the wonderful gospel. We also had good come out of the next few days and found two families to teach. I will make sure to keep you posted on them. Also, David text us on Saturday, the day we saw Benjamin and our less active Brother/Reverend Carter, and told us how amazing we were and how much we have blessed his life and thanked us for being such an example and getting him baptized. That definitely made our day! And yesterday at church he came out with two plates of food for us, turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables and bread. He doesn't have much money or time, so we were extremely grateful for him. He also just received his temple recommend and will be going to the Temple November 14. We are soooo excited for him :)
Scripture of the week: Mosiah 7:33, it talks about how we need to turn out heart to the Lord with full purpose, trust in him, serve him with diligence, and if it is his will, he will deliver us out of bondage or any of the trials we are facing. I love this scripture. I am going to be working on this, this week and really rely on my Heavenly Father and do everything I can to be diligent in his work :)

I love ya’ll so much :) Thanks for the wonderful letters and emails I have received!!! I hope ya’ll have an amazing week!! I LOVE YA’LL!!!!! :) :)

Love Sister Brooks 

With Investigator, Darryl

Missionary Work, Faith, CPR and Service!

Monday, October 05, 2015

Emailing- right now!

Hello my sweet family and friends,

This week has been like the best ever when it comes to feeling the spirit. As a mission, we read the Book of Mormon in a week. Yes, I know, it sounded nuts and I was wondering what the heck president was thinking. But they did it last September and everyone loved it, so he did it again. We stayed inside all week unless we had appointments, dinners or meetings we needed to go to. Holy Cow it was incredible! I thought I would be rushed for time and wouldn't get anything out of it because I would try to read it as quick as I could, but it was the opposite, I was so excited to get up each morning and read! I learned sooo much and I feel  like I know the Book of Mormon ten times better now. Two chapters that I really loved and stuck out the me while I was reading were Alma 29 and Alma 32.

Alma 29 is all about missionary work how we are instrument in the hands of God and how we need to go out and preach the word unto this people. This made me really understand and realize how lucky I am to be set apart by God to go out and preach this wonderful gospel.

Also, I have been huge on faith lately and I know that's what Heavenly Father wants me to work on because it keeps popping up every where. In Alma 32 it talks all about Faith. It talks about how Faith is like a little seed and if you plant it and nourish it, it will grow. Just like any other plant, you can't just plant it and let it be, you have to water it and take care of it. Just like you need to read the scriptures, pray and go to church. The CPR of the church, Church, Pray and Read!  I love it and know I need to put my faith in the Lord and know he will help me through out my mission and the hard times that it may brings me.

I love in the second session of conference when Devin Durrant talked about ponderizing a scripture every week. He challenged us to pick a scripture every week and I decided to take that challenge to help me gain more knowledge and to help me. This week I decided to choose another scripture that has helped me a lot through the beginning of my mission, it is Ether 12:27, I'll paraphrase it- it says if you humble yourself before God, he will make your weakness become strong. I love that so much, I am trying my best to humble myself and put my faith and trust in my Heavenly Father so I can become a better missionary.  

This week we didn't have many appointments but we did do a lot of service. I seriously love doing service, it is so much fun and something different. We are currently cleaning 3 ladies homes, 2 active and 1 less active, and painting 2 peoples homes, one active and 1 non member. Its really fun, I took a few pictures, so I will send them soon.

This week it has been raining all week. We saw the sun once on Wednesday for about 3 hours and then it went right back to rain. When it rains here it either pours like crazy or its just a mist. It seriously feels like you walk into misters.  It seriously is so weird. It has gotten really cold too. It's been in the low 60's or the high 50's. Saint George girl isn't used to this... There was a hurricane that was supposed to hit us on Friday and everyone was FREAKING out, but we are lucky and it turned away and didn't hit us, but we got pounded with rain still.

I love this gospel and the wonderful blessings it brings to me and each one of us. I love ya'll so much and thank you for the wonderful support that ya'll give to me.

Love Sister Brooks

Service pictures: