Sister Kaylee Brooks: I SAW SISTER WALTON (from the Washington DC mission)!

This is us NOW, emailing
I'd like you to meet my new companion, Sister Johnsen

Hello from Richmond!

Before I start anything I have to tell you something Super cool—Sister Bray is now serving with Sister Grace Walton. Their area is right above us. We tried to figure out how we could meet before I was transferred on Tuesday. We both called our president and they both said it would be fine if we met for breakfast Tuesday morning. We only could meet if an investigator or recent convert came, so we invited Desmond to come up with us so he could see Sister Bray again. Well, WE WERE ABLE TO MEET THEM!!!!!! I got to see Sister Walton and Sister Bray before I left to transfers. It's was the best ever! I have tons of pictures!!!

I was transferred this week and I am now serving in the Chippenham YSA ward. Our area is covering 3 stakes of all YSA age students. We mainly do street contacting around VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) and have found quite a bit of success this week. It's a little bit slower because it's summer, but there are still so many people around campus and this area. It is so much different than a family ward, but it seriously is so fun! We serve with the AP's, so we are with them a lot. We mostly walk around all day, so if you combine that with the heat and humidity.... We are drenched within an hour.

Transfer Day!

My new companion is Sister Johnsen. She is seriously the best!! Funny thing is, I kind of knew her before my mission. She went to Dixie State University and we played intramurals against each other a few times. She even knows Chris very well. I seriously love her to Death. We already have so much fun together and work so well together!! She is super athletic and loves working out which is awesome because we play ball a lot. We also live in the same apartment complex as the elders and there is a little gym here. Since we can't work out with them, we switch off every day on who wakes up at 5 to work out and who goes to work out at 6. To say the least, we are pretty tired. But that doesn't stop us!

We have been able to see SO MANY Miracles this week. We have been able to see pretty big ones as well. It's so cool how God truly does bless us. Within 5 minutes of us going out and contacting, we find one person to share a message with them and they are interested in learning more. Here are a few miracles that have stuck out to me today:

We met Shaquan (pronounced Shay Quan) as we were walking to campus. He was sitting on a bench drinking a smoothie. We asked him if we could give him our card and then started talking to him. He had many questions and we read scriptures from the Book of Mormon to help answer his questions. He was really intrigued with the Book of Mormon so we explained to him what it was and how it came to be. He said he really wanted it but he didn't have enough money to pay for it. We told him it was free and his face lite up. We talked about how Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father truly do love us and it wasn't a coincidence that we met him. He knew we met him for a reason. We gave him the Book of Mormon and invited him to read the introduction. We set up another time to meet with him. A few days past and it was time to have our return appointment with him. It was sooo hot outside and we didn't want to meet outside. There is a church building right down the street that we hang out in, so we decided to have a lesson there, but we couldn't go inside because if we are with a boy inside, there has to be a third female. Anyway, we tried so hard to find a female to come with us, but it was the ward temple trip so EVERYONE was gone. But, the last person we called was able to come!! We had an amazing lesson with him. It was only a 15 minute lesson because we had to get to another appointment. He asked us if next time we met, we could meet a little longer because he loved learning about this and felt something when he met with us. It was awesome!

Next we met Badaidra,(pronounced buh-day-dra). Nathaniel, in our ward, brought her to church yesterday. We met with her afterwards and we were able to share the restoration with her. The whole time during the first vision she just kept saying "Wow, this is amazing, I love this!" She was super excited to learn all about our church and come and experience it. She loved church and wants to come back next week. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes without hesitation. She set a date and everything! We will be meeting with her again this week.

Few other miracles:

-We set three more people on date.

-We met many solid new people who want to learn more.

-We were texting people in our area book and a guy texted us back saying he was interested and would love to meet with us.

-We were contacting and a nice breeze came in and saved us from dying. (Okay that was exaggerated, but it was so hot)

Now for a few funny stories:

We were walking around campus one night and we were talking to some people and next thing we know some lady is trying to get this drunken guy off campus. She found him passed out on the library stairs. Sister Johnsen recognized him. His name is Robert and he was one of the elder’s investigators. Well, he was super drunk and security was called on him, so this sweet girl was trying to get him off campus so he didn't get in trouble. Well long story short, we tried to help him and sat with him on a bench for a while (about an hour). He told us his life story, which was wayyyyyy too much information. We stole all his alcohol and threw it away sneakily. He sang us songs and tried running away from us. After about an hour, he was knocked out and sleeping on the cement. The police and EMTs finally came and took him to the hospital. It was a very interesting night to say the least.

Because the mission orders so much pizza for meetings, the AP's had tons of free Pizza coupons. So on Saturday they got a few and we walked around a park that is right next to the campus and fed all the homeless people. There are a lot of homeless people around here. We had around 12 boxes of pizza and we got wiped clean. They were so happy and thankful we came around and delivered pizza to them. It was really fun.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 12:24- we need to serve God with all our heart. We need to think and "consider" like the scripture says and really ponder about what He has done for us and the many blessings He has blessed us with.

I am so grateful to be on my mission. I love it so much out here and can't believe how blessed I am each and every day. I love y'all!

Love Sister Brooks :)