DESMOND WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!

Happy email day!

Happy happy Monday family  and friends dear!! 

I hope y'all had a wonderful Fourth of July, it definitely was different in good old Virginia, but it was still so much fun! We went over to a member in our ward and there was lots of food and there were tons of people. It was raining all day, but thank goodness it was only sprinkling when it was time for fireworks :) they had SO many, it definitely reminded me a lot of home and I loved every second of it. Desmond was able to come as well and meet more people and even better, get away from his friends so he wasn't tempted to break the Word of Wisdom. 

Fourth of July FUN!

Some really fun and exciting things happened this week, our zone and the work in the mission is progressing very well. I can't tell you enough how much I loved President and Sister Smith. I will talk about them soon. 

Okay funny/creepy stories...

One evening we had a few more minutes before it was time to go home. It was about 8:30, and we were walking around these apartment complexes. We didn't have any potentials in one of the buildings, so we decided to tract it a little. We were down to the second level and this guy comes up to us yelling at us and telling us he isn't interested. (We didn't say a word to him or even look at him, we had no idea he was there until he started yelling). We were polite and told him okay and just went on our way knocking doors. He then started saying all this crazy stuff to us and just screaming. Then a girl pulled up in her car and was walking up to her apartment (God sends people to help us, I'm telling you). She heared us getting yelled at and walked back down the stairs and invited us in her house. Long story short, she told us that the guy is crazy and has been in jail 5 times for harassing women. We start talking to her and she said, “Hey! My boyfriend is a Mormon. She wasn't interested at all in us teaching her, but it just showed us that God really does work in mysterious ways. He put her, us and Mr. crazy pants yelling at us in each other’s path just so we could meet her. God is funny sometimes. Once the guy finally left and walked into his apartment, we were able to leave. 

      We were again knocking some doors on Friday. We knocked on this door and this guy answered. He was really standoffish and didn't want to hear from us at all. I then asked if I could give him something (a picture) and his eyes lit up and was SO happy. He thought we were there trying to sell him something or we were the police. He was saying how amazing it was that we came by and how he knew this was a sign from God and he had to become a Mormon now. Don't get your hopes up, this story gets crazier. We set a return appointment with him for Saturday. We went by and talked to him a little more. He then became weird. He said he is half human, half alien, and God speaks to him and he had it on film and he showed us, (it was just a giant lightening/thunder storm we had the other night), he can smell me at times through the day and even when he ate his popcorn that night, and then he told us he was part of the Illuminati. Yeah- We won't be going back there again. Haha Jess, one of the young women, was with us... She was weirded out big time. 

      I forgot to mention this last week; it is so funny and so cool!! When were in the middle of our last MLC with President Wilson and he was in the middle of a sentence, his phone rang. He looked at it and said, "hold on one second." He left for a few minutes and came back in and said, "Sorry, that was President Monson, and he just needed to talk to me for a second." He had no emotion or anything on his face and started up where he left off. Everyone was just sitting there like what the heck!?!? It was so funny but cool to know the PROPHET was on the phone with our mission president. 

       We were able to have Zone conference with President and Sister Smith. They are so inspired by God and are truly called by Him. They know exactly what we need and will try and strive to do everything they can for us. Cool fact about President Smith: he marketed and came up with the idea of Funfetti cake mix, so of course, that is now our mission’s favorite type of cake :).  He also worked for the juice company, Ocean Spray. If that doesn't show you how cool he is, I don't know what will. Haha 

We had the chance to volunteer at an Animal shelter this week. I don't know if you remember me talking about the Hoyts. They are non-members and fed Sister Bray and I one night. Well, they own an animal shelter and we finally got a hold of them and went and volunteered. They mainly have cats and dogs. But we got to learn how to take care of them; we played with them, took them on walks and helped clean around their shelter. It was so much fun. They have so many types and sizes of cats and dogs. Their shelter is amazing because it's not a kill shelter. Most of them are. But they will keep the animal until they get adopted. We hopefully will be going back this week. 

    One thing that has been slacking really big in the mission since I have been here is getting investigators to church. But it was so amazing, we were able to have a girl that we found recently named Tasha come and Roger who has met with missionaries before but we got in contact with him again and he came to church, and of course Desmond! They all LOVED it. They both plan on coming back next week :) Roger came to all three hours and participated in class and loved when they talked about Temples and baptisms for the dead in his priesthood class. The elders came up to us after church and said he was so happy and excited when he heard there were baptisms for the dead because his father passed away and it has been really hard for him to get over that. He is super cool. He is in his middle 40's. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK- DESMOND WAS BAPTIZED!!!!! Holy cow he has been doing amazing. He really has changed and progressed so much the last two weeks. He keeps saying this is his church, he knows he needs to do this and he has God more in his life now. It has been a stressful week with him because so many things have been going wrong, but then of course, things always work out wonderfully. He had his interview on Wednesday and he walked out of the room with the district leader, threw his hands in the air and said, "I did it, I'm getting baptized!!!!" Everyone just laughed. His family has been trying to talk him out of meeting with us and coming to church, but he has held strong and he knew he needed to do this. He was baptized last night :) He went to put his baptism jumpsuit on and walked out of the bathroom and just looked at me and said, "ew, I look like a stuffed turkey." And of course, the room busted up laughing again. There were SO many people at his baptism. So many people from the ward were there and some of the elders and sisters brought their investigators! He asked us if we would sing at his baptism, so of course we did. His baptism had the spirit their sooo strong. I am so grateful for Des and his decision to be baptized and do good in his life. 

Scripture of the week:  Moroni 6:6. I have been thinking a lot about the sacrament. Really, we are so lucky and very privileged to have this ordinance here for us every week. It's a chance for us to repent and remember our baptism covenants. This should be a time we look forward to and really ponder as the sacrament goes by. I have seen such a change in my Sabbath worship as I have focused and prepared more for the sacrament. 

It's so crazy; we receive transfer calls on Saturday. These transfers have been going by crazy fast.  I love y'all so so much!! Like what the heck, can you believe summer is pretty much half over??? 

Love Sister Brooks :)

Crazy sunburn- from walking around tracting

P-day crafts with the Sisters