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 :) 

Photo Shoot time. . . . 

After a crazy five minute rainstorm on Saturday,
 it was a pretty rainbow.

Selfie after church

Baptisms aren't planned this way! :) :)

Sister Jensen, Sister Leavitt, Me, and Sister Bray 

(I came out with Sister Jensen)

We are emailing in the lobby/office of our apartments.

Hello hello!!! 

It was so fun talking (Skyping) with y'all on Mother’s Day yesterday!! Thank you so much for making my day so special. I sure do have the best family, and the most AMAZING MOM in the whole wide world!!! I am so grateful for the amazing support and love that I receive from y'all. Thank you :)

This week has been very good. Monday we had a baptism and oh boy... It was literally the funniest thing. Almost everything that could go wrong did. But it all worked out and Marissa was baptized!! Marissa is 14 years old. Her dad married a member a few years ago and last September the dad was baptized and around February, her little brother Thomas was baptized. So she was the only one left, but her parents wanted it to be her decision. So, our ward mission leader was supposed to go fill up the font around 5:30. The Baptism was at 7:30. We were going to head over around 6:30 and start setting things up. We don't have a font at our building so Sister Bray starts driving to another church building about 20 minutes away. As we drive there, I'm trying to call and text our ward mission leader to see how things are going and tell him we are on our way... But no response. We get there and Sister Bray said, "Oh no, I drove to the wrong church building." We got in the car and start heading to the other building. Our phone battery is flashing, we start freaking out because we still have to get a hold of people. We call our ward mission leader’s wife, praying our phone doesn't die, and she starts freaking out and told us he went to take a quick nap after work and still hadn't woke up! Well, the baptism starts in about 30 minutes and it takes about 2 hours to fill up the font. Our ward mission leader finally called us and said he could not get a hold of the elders, they are the ones with the keys... So we called a few of our sisters (Sister Tadd saves the day)  and they had keys and opened the church for us. But, (haha) they didn't have keys to the font. Our ward mission leader called a few people to have them come open it for us. Well, long story short, we had to feel garbage cans with water to help the process go faster. The baptism ended up starting around 8:00, thank goodness, because Marissa and her family were late. Marissa didn't tell anyone she was being baptized and wanted a really small baptism. We were walking to the font area and we passed the boys bathroom and heard water going. We walked inside and a trash can was in the sink and the bathroom was FLOODED!!!!! No one told us they put a trash can there. So we had a nice mess to clean up afterwards. We started the baptism and at the last minute, Marissa freaked out and told us she was too nervous. We didn't take that for an answer. We talked to her and jokingly (but we were dead serious) told her we would pick her up and take her if we had to. Haha but in the end, she was baptized and was confirmed yesterday!! I am so proud of her :) After the baptism we got in the car and looked at our phone, thinking it would be completely dead because it was beeping for 2 hours saying low battery. Well it wasn't, it had two bars... We don't understand that one. All I know is God has a sense of humor. Hahaha, it definitely is really funny now!! Good memory. 

Wednesday we had MLC (missionary leadership council). It’s when the STLS and the Zone Leaders get together and get trainings from President and Sister Wilson, the AP's and we had a special guest! President and Sister Wilson's daughter arrived home from her mission on Tuesday night, so she was able to come to our meeting on Wednesday morning, and she was still a missionary (she had not been released yet)! She is so darling and way way fun to talk to. The trainings that we were given were the topics we would be training and giving at zone meeting. So yay me, I got to train at zone meeting. I talked about the importance of working with members. I have come to realize how important it really is on my mission. Members are EVERYTHING in our work. As missionaries, we are here to help the ward do THEIR missionary work. We have been trying get a lot of members out to lessons and have them tract with us. Our ward is VERY receptive to coming out with us. It's so amazing! 

It's a tradition to play speed at lunch during meetings. 

The girl holding the ball in the middle is "Sister Wilson" President's daughter. 

She got home from her mission on Tuesday night. 

I GOT TO SEE SISTER SQUIRES AT MLC!

 IT WAS THE HAPPIEST DAY EVER!

 The sisters I went down to the meeting with. 

Of course we had to stop by Cafe Rio on the way home. 

I was able to go on my first exchange as an STL. I was with Hermana Schmactenberger and we stayed in MY area. She is darling. She has only been out for 2 weeks now and holy, you wouldn't even be able to tell! I had way too much fun with her and got to know her more. I love getting to know all these new sisters and learning from them. You really gain so many relationships and new friends! 

We received a call randomly one evening as we were trying some potentials. It was a gentleman in another ward calling us and telling us about this middle aged couple, probably in their 40-50's, Bob and Lori Hoyt. They aren't members but they have family who is and a nephew who went on a mission and they know that people feed the missionaries and wanted to know how they could do that. He passed our number to them and we arranged to have dinner with them on Saturday. Holy cow!! It was a feast and SO good. They are the sweetest people ever and will do anything for us. They aren't interested in learning about the gospel right now, but hopefully they soften their hearts soon, and it sure didn't stop us from sharing a message :) they are one of our good friends now. They even sent us home with a big bag of food!! 

We have been able to see a lot of wonderful miracles and teach many lessons this week. I am so grateful for the wonderful blessing I have to be out on a mission and serve my Heavenly Father and help others come and learn more about Him and our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Scripture of the week: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17- God has given us each amazing bodies. We need to treat them like a temple, well because they are, and let the spirit of God dwell in us. Don't harm our body, take care of it and show God how much you truly appreciate his wonderful creation! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!! Have a wonderful week. 

Love Sister Brooks :)

Sister Bray and I before the rain and. . . .

. . . . after us being in the rain for probably 5 seconds. It's been raining all week. 

Mom wasn't this a nickname of yours?
 I swear I remember Uncle Glen calling you this!

New Area! New companion! New Experiences!

Hello!! Happy May!! 

Thank y'all so much for all your sweet emails on Friday (my hump day). Definitely made me so happy and grateful when I saw them. Thank you for thinking of me, I really have the best family ever. I sure love y'all :) 

Transfers were on Tuesday.  We met at the Stake Center.  I would not be meeting my new companion until I arrived in my new area.  It's too far for her to drive to meet me at the Stake Center.

Sister Sylvester (Sister Bray's old companion), she came out the same time as me,
and Sister Dawdy(she is now Sister Sylvester's companion)

Well, I am sure y'all are so curious where I am and who my companion is. I am in the Aquia Ward up in Stafford, Virginia- it is northern. It is fun being up north and experiencing more city. It's sure different from Powhatan, but I miss Powhatan like crazy already.  My companion is Sister Bray. She is hilarious. 

Get this, she is from England!!! (Leicester, Cornwall, and Sheffield) I'm sure grandma had something to do with this ;) it is a little tender mercy and I know grandma is watching over me. It's so fun talking with her about England and just knowing my grandma grew up there. She is 23 years old, but you wouldn't be able to tell. She is so funny and fun to be around!  Aquia is great, I get probably triple the amount of lessons and investigators then I did in Powy, so it was quite a shock for me to teach 5 lessons in one day, which we would normally get in a week. Ha ha it's so fun though. In our area, it's mostly army, marine, navy, police officers and FBI for occupations. I haven't met one person who hasn't had one of those jobs. So we have a really big and nice family ward. There are a lot of "single" moms because their husbands are on active duty. It's fun to see so many little kids too.  It's cool and fun to meet so many people who have defended our country and talk to them about their experiences. It makes me so grateful for those who go out and serve our country and protect our freedoms. We are so blessed and I'm beyond grateful for all those who are or did serve in the marine, army, navy, etc. 

My new area:

My new address is:

6 Davenport Drive #104

Stafford, VA  22554

Anyway... We have had tons of miracles this week. This week I've just been trying to learn the area and learn all of our investigators. We have some pretty solid ones and a few who are working toward baptism, so we are hoping they continue their progress and want to know more. This ward is SO willing to come out with us and our ward mission leader is so great too. He goes around asking people to go out with us and they all are so willing!! We had our ward mission leader’s daughter, Skylar who is 18 and planning on serving a mission, with us last night and our Relief Society president a little later that night. We tried some potentials with them and were able to teach them and answer so many questions! I never realized how important it was to have members out with you as a missionary and for the ward to help with the missionary work. I've learned so much that it's all about the members. As missionaries, we are here to assist the MEMBERS in THEIR missionary work. They should be the one doing the finding and we should be the one doing the teaching. It's so cool to see this ward put that into action. It's so great!! We have a baptism tonight for a girl named Marissa. I think she is 14 years old. Her family has all been baptized and she is the only one left. She wanted to do it on her timing and do it for herself without the pressure, which is really cool. She doesn't want her baptism to be big or have a lot of people come, so only about 10 people know about it and she will surprise all of them when she gets confirmed next Sunday! I am so grateful I have been able to get to know her and teach her a little this week. She is so dang cute and I am so happy and excited to be a part of her baptism. :) 

Being an STL is great. It's not much different but you just have tons more meetings and you get a lot less sleep. (I know, you're feeling bad for me and scared for everyone around me, but thank goodness for lunch break naps) We will start going on exchanges this week with the Sisters and Hermanas, so I'm really excited for that.

Here are some cool facts- 

·  There is a Hermana that is in my zone and in the same apartment complex as me and she went to Dixie and is the same age as (Barry) Elder Snow and knows him. Her name is Sister Stewart. We go and work out at the gym every morning with them and another set of sisters and talk about Elder Snow and how cool he is!! Literally I have the coolest family/cousins. 

·  I finally have a washing machine, dryer and dishwasher in my apartment. 

·  My apartment is the bomb and has a free Starbucks hot chocolate machine in the lobby, a super nice gym and... A tanning bed!!! Haha J

·  It has rained for the past 4 days and won't stop until next Sunday 

·  Sister Bray and I had a "slumber" party and slept on our couches last night ;) (They are almost exactly like our leather couches at home) and a HUGE thunderstorm was going on in the middle of the night. (Totally thought mom would love it) It sounded like it was RIGHT outside our window. It was pretty cool. 

·  Sister Tadd is in my zone so I will be going on exchanges with her and seeing her a lot now. I'm so excited I can't wait :) 

·  I will be seeing Sister Squires at MLC on Wednesday and I can't wait to see her, literally almost started crying of happiness. 

·  Last cool fact, two of my areas, Mechanicsville and Glen Allen are now STL areas so I could maybe be called there again. 

I am so so grateful to be out on a mission, I seriously love it so much and I know this is where I need to be. I love it so much!!!!! EVERYONE should go on a mission and experience and see the wonderful blessings our Heavenly Father has given us and of course you get to see and meet so many wonderful people and gain relationships and have friends forever, like Lisa Cox!! (Hi Lisa) 

Scripture of the week: Alma 8. I have been studying and reading Alma for my personal study lately and read Alma 8 the other day. It's when Alma is preaching to the people of Ammonihah and they are rejecting him, spitting on him and casted him out of the city. So he leaves, but an angel came to him and told him to go back and continue to teach them and HE DID!! Alma was seriously the best missionary. He was so obedient and followed all the promptings that the Lord gave him. We all need to be like Alma and be obedient and follow God and the promptings that are given to us. 

I love y'all so much, have an amazing week!! I CAN'T WAIT TO SKYPE YOU ON SUNDAY!!! 

LOVE Sister Brooks :)

Last pictures with Sister Mailata:

Saying Goodbye to our Bishop

Saying Goodbye to our Bishop's wife

Sister Montrose, our ward mission leader's wife

Our Investigators Lizzie  and Delta Rae.

Lizzie and Delta Rae.
She said she was not happy so she would not smile.

The Andersons- a new family that moved into our Powhatan ward.

Sister Bray and I

Slumber party!
My Mug is from Aunt Kalynn.  She gave it to me for Christmas!
Thanks Aunt Kalynn!

On my hunt for streets named after my brothers.
This one is the best I can do for now Mike!

We found a bunny when we were contacting some potentials.

The bunny was shivering, so we put a blanket (napkin) on it. Hee hee

Rocks will help hold down the blanket. :)

This was the BEST TWO MINUTES OF MY LIFE!
A less active told us she had a hairless cat. . . . . . 

. . . . . I had to see it and hold it.  I FELL IN LOVE!!!