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!!!

I'm transferring and going to be an STL!

Hello!

Holy cow time goes by so fast!! I can't believe it's almost May and this transfer is already over. It seriously is so crazy and I never believed missionaries when they said that time goes by fast, but boy they are right. It's flying.

Well.. I'm sure you're curious about transfers. Let me give you the background story... On Saturday nights from 6-9 the A.P.'s or president will call you. If you get a call, that means you're being transferred. But, if President calls you, you're going to train or get a leadership position, so it's scary when he calls. We were visiting this less active and talking to her. It was about 7:30ish and we decided to head out. We got in the car and we had a few missed texts so we went over those. We were driving down the street and Sister M said, “oh no... we have a missed call from President. We called him back and he started some small talk with Sister M so I was thinking it’s for her. Then he asks to talk to me... Long story short, I have been called to be an STL (Sister Training Leader)! I'm excited for this calling and to see all the amazing sisters in other areas of our mission. I'll find out Tuesday where and who my new companion is. I seriously will miss Powhatan so much. I love it here. It's definitely been the most challenging place I have been so far, but it has been so amazing to see and meet all these amazing people. I have learned that even the smallest things that happen are so appreciated and I am so grateful for. I said goodbye to some people yesterday like James and Lisa, I have become really good friends with Lisa and it was so hard saying goodbye to her. But, thank goodness for airplanes and coming back to visit ;) 

This week has been pretty good. We didn't have a very good week last week, so we decided to work our bums off and work like crazy!!  The week started out with just tracting and trying to find new people for our teaching pool. When we were tracting Tuesday night, we were getting very discouraged. We had 3 more houses on this street we were tracting and were ready to get them over with so we could do something else. We knocked on the 3rd to the last door. This SUPER cute girl named Kaycee, (I was totally going to hook Chris up with her until she said she was a senior in high school) answered the door. She was so happy and said she would love to hear our message. We shared the restoration with her and she thought it was so cool and was way excited to read the Book of Mormon. She has (I can't remember the exact wording) some qualifying meet for swimming soon to get into the Olympics for swimming. She could be the next Michael Phelps, who knows. It was a cool miracle because she said she is never home until 9 but she came home today because she hurt herself during her practice as they were lifting so they sent her home. She recognized how cool it was and how God really must want her to listen. 

Super hyped about how cute Kaycee was and how we finally got a lesson and met someone cool, we were in good spirits now. The next house was a potential that the elders that were in Powhatan met about 2 years ago. We decided to just "tract" into him and talk to him. We walked up his driveway and we saw a guy sitting in the porch. He came over to us and we explain who we were and what we were doing. He invited us over to his porch and explained he has met with missionaries before and his name is Zach. He is probably in his early 30's late 20's. He then told us he has had a terrible day and it's been really hard for him. He said we could share a quick message. We knew we didn't have much time so we wanted to get the main points down, but the Holy Ghost was definitely with me and knew what Zach really needed to hear. I just started telling him about how much our Heavenly Father loves him and knows him by name and Sister Mailata was testifying about it as well. We looked over and he was in TEARS. He explained how he needed to hear that and was really doubting God and if He knew him. He was sobbing at this point and was really embarrassed; I thought it was super cool (his emotions not his embarrassment). He invited us to come back another time because he didn't want to keep crying in front of us. But it was so cool. It was such a testimony builder about how much the Holy Ghost is with us. He knew exactly what Zach needed and made us speak the words. As we were leaving his driveway, we knew the spirit was with us and it was us relaying the message through us. 

One more house to go, we are super pumped. At the last house, this guy answered. He said he had a few minutes to talk with us and wanted to hear our messages, and it was an excuse to get away from his crying baby. We shared the restoration with him and he really enjoyed it. He is a Baptist, but was so amazed about Joseph Smith. You could tell her was really touched and could feel the spirit, because we definitely could. Let's just say we ended that night very happy!! 

We were able to do some service for a less active this week. Her husband was in a car accident about 4 years ago and has had major problems with his leg since then. He went in for surgery and had his femur fixed and a knee replacement. He has been on bed rest, in hospital and getting worked on for about a year now. That makes our less active, Sister Wilton, having to do ALL the work. She is working about 12 hour days and doesn't have time to do anything for herself or even clean her house. She is the busiest lady ever. We have been trying to reach her almost this whole transfer. She finally reached out to us the beginning of this week and asked us if we could come over and help her. So we did. She said she hasn't deep cleaned her house for over a year and it was really starting to gross her out. We helped clean her bathroom, vacuumed, and dusted. She was in tears as we were leaving and was so happy we came and helped. 

Seriously, being a missionary is the best thing in the world. Seeing people's face light up, being able to help people in need and doing the Lord’s work is amazing. I couldn't ask for anything better. I am so grateful to be out here on my mission and to serve the people of Virginia. I know this is where I needed to be. I know I am in the right place and couldn't be doing anything better in my life right now. 

Yesterday, we had dinner with James and Lisa and they had the Despains, and the Nalders over-the Despain’s daughter. We had a little feast together and took lots of pictures and were able to say goodbye. I love all of them so much. It was fun and nice of them to all come together and as they called it, have a goodbye feast. I sure will miss them. 

 The Despain Family- in their cute matching shirts.

The Nalder Family

James and Lisa :)

My best friend, Lisa. 

James is doing wonderful. He is slowly but surely getting towards baptism. He is to the point where he has to work and try for himself to know if it is for him or not. But, thank goodness for Lisa. She is the biggest help and example to him. He has changed SO much since I have met him and I know he feels the spirit and God’s love for him. He just needs to have the faith in himself that he can do it. 

I am so grateful I had the chance to serve here in Powhatan.  I have grown so much since I have been here and know I needed to be here. I'm sure going to miss it. 

Scripture of the week: Doctrine and Covenants 84:85- I know the Holy Ghost will give us the things we need to say. We shouldn't be afraid of talking to people or sharing what we people, because the Holy Ghost will put words in our mouth and will not leave us alone. He will always be there to help us and testify of this wonderful gospel. To us and those we are talking to. 

I love y'all so much. I can't wait to tell you my new area and companion next week. I hope y'all have a fantastic week. Y'all definitely deserve. Always remember that you're a child, a son or daughter of God. That he knows you by name and cares so much about you. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love Sister Brooks :)

(I just found out I was the only "English sister" called to be an STL. There was one leaving and out of ALL the English sister I was called.... Wow, I feel so honored!)

Me, Bro. Noe, and Sister Mailata.. 

Yes they are dark, I am white, but I had a disadvantage, 

the flash was right on me. But yes, I'm white. 

With Dan. I'm not crying, I just got done sneezing. Dang pollen. 

Terri, Lisa's mom. 

She is currently writing a book right now. 

She read us a few parts, it's super good. 

The following is a picture put together by the Despains and emailed to Sister Brooks' family with a message below.  (We think the world of you Despain Family!!) 

We are sad to learn that we will be losing our dear Sister Brooks this week because of transfers.  We don't know where she is going; just that she will not be in Powhatan anymore.  How sad for us.  We really love and appreciate the time that you have shared your daughter with us in this part of the Lord's vineyard.  In many ways, we consider her our daughter too....we hope that you don't mind.  We know that the Lord has more to teach her in other areas so we send her away with love. We really look forward to having you in this neck of the woods next year.  Your family will always be welcome in our home.  Sis. Brooks asked us to be all ready to serve you a "special" dinner so we can't let her down. See you next year. Again, thank you for sharing; we love all of you too.

Ron & Kathy Despain

Focusing on positive instead of Grinch's "wallow in self pity"

Emailing at the library

Happy Monday!!

I hope y'all had a wonderful week!! Well, to say it bluntly. This week was hard. Very, very hard. I am very happy for this week to be over, haha. But I was still able to see God’s hand in my week and throughout the day. He is too good. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. No matter how my week went, how many doors slammed in our faces, or tough it is to get along with people or companions, He is always there for us. No matter what, He wants us to be happy. I've really tried to focus on the positive this week rather than, as the grinch would say, "wallow in self-pity" or something like that.. Haha which I wanted to do sometimes. haha. 

Krista, our cute miracle investigator was so busy this week and we were hardly able to get a hold of her or see her. She is in the process of moving and selling her possessions and overly stressed. We will just have to give her a little time, but start back up with teaching her soon. :) 

We had a cute new family move into our ward this week!! Yay! We have had so many people move out or die... Our ward is starting to get really small. This family moved from northern Virginia and the mom, Anna, (pronounced Iike the girl on frozen) was converted in her late 20's by sister missionaries, so she loves is ;). We helped them move and unpack this week and really got to know them. She is seriously the best member missionary. We helped her on Tuesday, then Friday she called us telling us all the people she has met this week and wants to invite over to her home for us to teach. She is so dang cute! She said once her house is unpacked and ready to go, she will start inviting them over for dinner.  We told her we would be over to help that process speed up. ;) haha 

We met this lady name Mindy while we were tracting. She said she knows everything about almost every religion, but she doesn't know much about Mormonism. She said she would love to sit down and talk with us. I was pretty excited, she was super cute and nice and I thought she was totally interested. We started sharing the restoration with her and next thing you know she just started bashing and saying she isn't sure if it could happen and just POUNDED us with questions. Half her questions I had NO idea how to answer and really relied on the Holy Ghost to help me answer them. After we shared our message, she got all calm and was like okay that was nice, sorry I just pounded and bashed, I wanted to see how you reacted and answered questions and to test you to see if you really believed. She said we could come by any time to teach her. It was so so strange. 

We had stake conference Saturday night and yesterday. We had two general authorities from the 70’s there and they had wonderful talks. We went with James, Lisa and Lisa's mom yesterday.  They weren't planning on going but we asked for a ride and  so they had to.  See what I did there hahaha!  The talks that were given were EXACTLY what James needed and he was able to recognize and see that. Afterwards, we introduced them to President and Sister Wilson. The Wilsons have heard a lot about James and were so excited to meet him. It was so good for James to talk with them for a little and feel of President Wilson’s sweet spirit. We had a really good lesson with them after stake conference about temple marriage. As we explained it, James mentioned he really wanted to be with Lisa forever. We told him he could; he just needed to be baptized first. He told us, he knows he will be baptized one day in the near future, he just has to really gain a testimony and live the way he knows he needs to. He is doing so well. I am happy for him and Lisa. He went to a bachelor party last weekend, scary thought- his friends all drink and he gives into peer pressure- Lisa shared this with us without him knowing.  But at the party, of course they went to a bar, James had only 2 drinks and started to feel funny and get a stomach ache. He knew he shouldn't be drinking and ended up drinking water for the rest of the night. WE WERE ALL SO PROUD OF HIM!!! I sure love them. 

We have been trying to work with less actives and go visit people in the ward we don't have any information on or we haven't met before. We have been able to get into quite a few homes and talk with them and get to know them. It's been so fun to meet them and help them know how much their Heavenly Father really does love them. 

On Saturday, we killed chickens again. I ended up killing this big giant rooster. I was pretty much a pro from last time ;) haha but we had dinner with the Despains last night and at the chickens that we killed, holy cow they were so good... I don't know if I'll be able to have a normal chicken again. We might have to start raising some mom and dad ;) Pictures below.

It's crazy, we have transfer calls this Saturday.  Thank goodness this transfer has gone by pretty fast.  I am interested to see what this next transfer will be like. 

Scripture of the week: John 20:29. This scripture was shared yesterday in stake conference. Jesus is speaking to Thomas and told him that because Thomas saw Jesus, he believed. But blessed are those who don't see Jesus Christ, but still believe. It really made me think of some of our investigators or people I have met. So many people want or expect a sign or some miraculous thing to happen to them so they will start believing. But instead, we really need to have faith in Jesus Christ and know, even though we don't see him, he really is always there for us and he does live. We all need to have more faith and believe in our Savior Jesus Christ. 

I love y'all so much. I hope this week turns out a little better. I just have to keep working hard and push forward, having faith and humble myself to God’s will. Keep being the amazing people that you are. I sure love y'all and pray for y'all constantly. 

Love Sister Brooks!

Me and Sis. Mailata

Rainy day photo shoot

Sis. Mailata had never met Santa yet. :)

We tracted into this guy at the beginning of the week who loved to hunt.
He had everything he has ever shot, on the wall.
This was only one wall of the house. SERIOUSLY, every wall was
COVERED with random animals.

 Saturday, Chicken Killing Again

Getting my rooster set up

Setting up rooster.

Getting grossed out!

Cutting the throat

I tried not to look at the blood.
  Bro. Despain made me laugh.

Prize Rooster

Bro. Despain made this plucking machine out
out of an old washing machine.
It was super cool.

Plucking the rooster and trying to
get it's feathers off.

Dunking the rooster.  
Trying to get a baptism-Just kidding.
This was boiling hot water and we 
dunk it to loosen the feathers to 
make it easier to pluck.

Trying to get the feathers off.  We made
another machine really quick.

Going in for the kill to gut the chicken.

Grossed out.  This Chicken had parts and things
I didn't recognized from the last time and it
freaked me out.