Sister Kaylee Brooks: Great Morning! Amazing Week!

Emailing at our apartment office

Happy Monday (P-day)!

I hope y'all had an amazing week! It sure was a good one for us this week! We were able to see so many miracles and have quite a few members out with us. (I also don't know how I don't have a six pack yet because I have laughed way too much this week.) It's so important to work with members and have them at the lessons because, as missionaries, we won't be here forever, but the members of our ward will, so bringing them and having them fellowship with our investigators is so important. We have had some pretty funny experiences as well this week.

Monday, we had a mission clean day. (Best idea ever and it was one of the Elder’s idea) We were talking about it at MLC and one of the Elder’s suggested we all take a Monday to clean our apartments and cars. Well, this transfer, we moved into the Elder’s apartment.(Obviously the Elders moved out) It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it was still kind of gross- like the gross little hairs when they shave... Yeah all over in the drawers. It was gross. Well we were super happy about cleaning and definitely took advantage it. We SCRUBBED the whole apartment. Deep cleaned carpets, fridge, under the sink (I don't know how long there was a leak, but the water was black and I had to step outside or I would be cleaning my throw up as well. Huge hooray for Sister Bray for not having a gag reflex.!!!!!!!!!!) She's a rock star. Anyway, as we were walking out of our apartment to throw away trash, I picked up a big paper bag with sick, nasty, old food and you wouldn't believe what happened. Yep, it was soggy and it broke. A big glass jar of olives fell straight on my foot and broke and it ended up ALL over the carpet that I deep cleaned. I cried a little inside. After cleaning it up and being super mad, my foot and carpet ended up being OK.

Mission Clean Day. Thank goodness! #eldersaregross :)

Monday night we didn't have any set lessons so we decided to try some potentials- people who have met or have received a lesson before. We were able to have 3 lessons back to back. The coolest one was a middle aged man named Matt. He met with missionaries about 3 months ago and they gave him a Book of Mormon. He sounded like a nice guy and seemed pretty interested so we decided to go visit him. When we arrived at his house, he wasn't home :( His roommate answered and she told us that he usually gets home around 9:30, which is a bummer because we have to be in by 9. We talked to her a little and then a truck pulled up. Confused, she said that it was him pulling into the drive way. We walked over to him and started asking him when he met with missionaries and he was so confused. He told us he had never met with missionaries before and has never heard or seen anything to do with the Book of Mormon. It's either he was not all there when the last missionaries came by or he really needed to be seen. But we explain what the Book of Mormon was and what our church is. He started telling us he doesn't like organized religion because it's all about the money. We went on to tell him that we don't get paid, it's all voluntary. He LOVED that!! He just kept saying why he didn't like religion and everything he said, we had something to say on why we don't do it. He was very impressed and "intrigued". He said he would come to church, but sadly he didn't :( We hope to see him soon though.

I was able to go on exchanges with Hermana Rodriguez.

Me and Hermana Rodriguez. (It was early in the morning)

The Crew!
Hermana Stewart, next to me, is the one knows Barry.

Hermana Rodriguez just came here from temple square about 2 weeks ago. She is so cute. She had shoulder surgery a few months before she came on her mission and wasn't able to finish physical therapy so she was hurting a little. She called the "mission Doctor" and he suggested to go to a chiropractor. I was fortunate enough to be with her when she did. He is a member of the church and his daughter just left on her mission 3 weeks ago. (He helps missionaries for free) And even cooler, his name was Dr. Brooks! Woot woot. He adjusted her and afterwards looked at me and asked if I wanted to as well. Of course I did. Well, it was amazing and my back and neck felt AMAZING afterwards. He was amazed on how off my hips were and legs. He asked if I had any major pain. I said I had aches every once in a while but not bad. He was amazed I wasn't in pain every day. I didn't know it was that bad haha but boy did it feel good. GOD IS GREAT AND WATCHES OVER MISSIONARIES SO THEY DON'T HURT. YAY!

We met with one of our less actives roommates this week. Sister Bray has taught him before and she felt like it would be a good time to see him again. We had a lesson with him and he was really excited to hear the message of the restoration. He works night shifts at a gas station so it's really hard to find a time to meet because he is usually sleeping, but he woke up to meet with us. Of course, we invited him to be baptized and he totally agreed. He accepted a date and everything. We just hope and pray he can get Sunday's off and continues to progress and meet with us.

We were out walking around a neighborhood around 8:00 one night. We were, of course, talking to everybody that we saw. We saw this guy smoking on his driveway and talking on the phone. He told us to go knock on the garage door and talk to the people inside. We did. This old, I mean old, lady answered the door and we talked a little and she wasn't interested at all. So we started walking away and the guy on the phone stopped us and asked what we were doing. We explained and we introduced ourselves and he introduced himself as Brother Billy. It was funny. We started talking to him and explaining what we believe and a brief restoration lesson. He really liked it and wants to learn more. He was in Pennsylvania yesterday so he wasn't able to come to church. But we are meeting with him tonight and will be teaching him. He is an FBI agent.

Okay, two of the funniest stories, (you might be crying cause I sure was) . . . .

So we had a lesson with this African lady. After the lesson, Sister Bray says the prayer and we start to get up to leave. She asks if she can say a spiritual prayer. We look at each other and were like, sure I guess. So she kneels down and asks us to cover her. We were so confused. We put our hands on her back and she started saying this weird chant all in another language. We had a member with us and we were all confused and weirded out, well it gets worse. I had to sneeze REALLY bad and her head was on my lap. My nose started to itch and I was trying to hold the sneeze so bad. I lost it and started to giggle a little, Sister Bray and the member were trying to hold in their laugh. Finally after what seemed like 5 minutes, she got up and boy did that sneeze come out. It was so refreshing. The prayer was very interesting to say the least.

So we were teaching this 17 year old girl on her door step. She was very sassy. She asked about the 3 degrees of glory and said she didn't understand why we had 3 kingdoms in heaven. We started to explain the reasoning and explain to her that in 1 Corinthians it explains it as well. She snapped back at us and told us "I know the bible and I didn't read that, it's not in there." We slowly started to wrap the lesson up. She then told us she was sorry for saying “WHAT?” so many times. She was deaf in one ear. Next thing I know, Sister Bray whispers, "sorry". The girl gave her the most confused look and of course I lost it and started laughing so hard.

It sure was a really funny and week full of miracles!!

So what made my morning so great? Michael and Christa Hinton (friends from my hometown of Santa Clara, Utah) were in town and took Sister Bray and Me to breakfast at Ihop. I had so much fun with them!!! They are way too sweet and it is definitely a highlight of the month for me. Thank you Michael and Christa!!!!!!

Scripture of the week: Alma 32:26- Faith has been something I have really learned and have increased my knowledge on. I really have to have faith in Christ that he will lead me to those who need to hear the gospel and that He does have a plan for me. Faith is so much more than I thought it was. It has been so fun to increase my faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ and know if it's His will, it will happen.

I love y'all so much, I hope you have an amazing week and enjoy the last few days of school!! Woohoo :)

Love Sister Brooks :)