We committed Lisa the mom to be baptized on March 8th!

Hello there!

Christmas was a good day! I took a little nap while Sister Howard called her family so it was sort of a Christmas nap haha. I fell asleep when we had breakfast at a member's house that morning too. I was really tired and there was a couch... haha. I think the holidays are really hard because it's weird getting such a long break it makes you like 100 times even more tired.

 

We had companion exchanges the next day and I had the hardest time without Sister Howard haha. It was like leaving my mom for the second time. I think that I have become a better missionary from just that one day though. So that is a good thing :)

I'm not sure I could handle speaking another language on top of being a missionary because it's already pretty difficult. I know that I'm supposed to be in Indiana! It's really awesome to be called by a prophet!

I love everything! I may need to send the animal beanies home because I can't wear those haha. They are cute though but not very missionary appropriate haha. I have been doing yoga almost every day so hopefully I can't get some of this weight off me haha. 

We go to bed at 10:30 every night and wake up at 6:30 every day. I've been sleeping pretty okay just wake up a lot during the night. I would have to say that P day might be the most stressful day haha. We just have so much to get done so we can be ready for the week. Basketball is fun and I'll probably play some today if I get done replying to my 21 letters. :) 

I'm not getting transferred don't worry! I might be in West Lafayette for 6 months haha. But that’s just what I've heard about this place is that you get stuck here forever but that is alright with me!

The family I told you about came to church this week again and we committed Lisa the mom to be baptized on March 8th! When I asked her if she would be baptized she was like "can I be baptized?" and we were like heck yes you can! She is such a sweetheart! She has already figured out what the Holy Ghost feels like and I'm just thinking that it took me like 18 years to figure that out! haha. I really hope that her family follows her example. It's still so crazy we found them! 

Oh and Jane is back in our teaching pool we are just not allowed to talk about baptism for awhile. Which is hard since that is our purpose. Her mom just passed away and her sister is probably going to pass away soon :(

Love, Sister Brooks

 More pictures from the Christmas Conference...

Heavenly Father has been blessing us for all the hard work we are doing...

Mom!

I'm so excited to Skype you all! We will be with a older couple from our ward all day for Christmas. They have an i-Pad so I think that is how we will Skype. We get 60 minutes to talk and 5 minutes to set up the appointment on Christmas Eve. We are going to go do service all Christmas day and hopefully get a nap in there somewhere because we all know that’s the only thing I really want for Christmas. It might take me a bit to write back to letters this week but I'll try! 

We had a really rough start to our week this week. I thought that I might need a therapist haha. Mission life is really stressful especially when you have no one to teach and then everyone rejects you. We had some guy anti us basically and he is a member. It's weird how things like that can make you feel physically sick when they are just words. I was just being a baby though and you know just sort of had a meltdown haha. So I just called and talked to Sister Cleveland and she helped me out a lot she is super awesome! Sister Howard made me get a blessing. At first I was like really annoyed by it because I don't want to be the needy Sister in our district. Priesthood blessings are so awesome I really need to appreciate them more because I felt so much comfort from the words of that blessing. I'm feeling so much better now I think the Christmas party may have also been a part of that haha. It was so awesome seeing all my MTC friends and just seeing I'm not the only missionary who feels inadequate. But seriously don't worry! I have my vitamins I'm okay mom :) Also I'm good on the tights I seriously have like 20 pairs of tights. 

Our week also got a lot better because we found a TRAILER PARK!!! :D haha. The best people live there! Seriously we found a family there on Saturday and taught them about the restoration. They came to church yesterday which was a really good day to come because we both gave talks. Heavenly Father has been blessing us for all the hard work we are doing. We also got a referral that seems pretty legit! I'm really working on patience because you know most of the time I'm not a very patient person. I just want them all to be baptized already. 

  

We have been caroling a lot lately and it has been so fun! It makes people willing to listen to you. We are going tonight again and probably all day tomorrow because it's still a proselyting day.

Thanks so much for all the Christmas presents! I can't wait to open them either. It's weird like having presents sitting around since we never do that. I'm so excited for Christmas! It will be an awesome day I just really hope I can nap haha.

I've been getting a lot of mail and I LOVE it! :) 

I think that’s all I got to say bout that....

I love you all and I'm so grateful for a family like you! I think about how lucky I am everyday to have you and dad! You seriously are the best parents ever! I hope that you aren't too stressed with all your holiday work. I think dad should email me too.... I miss that weirdo! 

I love you! Sister Brooks

Missionary work is awesome and I hope you all are getting on that wagon! Help the missionaries!

Dear Mommy!,         

I miss all of you too! I'm glad Dad is waiting that is very respectful :) haha. I miss music a lot and it's hard not to get worldly songs in my head I mean that was my life before haha. I can't wait for all the new music when I get back! I knew my room would be turned into some sort of gathering place haha. It's like a place to meditate and think of me ;) just teasing.

I'm feeling better I just randomly feel sick sometimes but I think it might just be stress. I have so many vitamins now though and they all really help with energy. My studies in the morning have gotten a lot better. I feel like Dad cursed me with being able to sleep anywhere though because that happens a lot more than it used to haha.

Well one day I got my boots then the next day I got like three packages. Those pictures are awesome! I got one of the picture books not sure if there were any others but I've been showing everyone Maggie Puppy and Gretta haha. One of the elders thought she was my sister haha. Thanks so much for all the cute stuff :) We got our tree all set up with our presents under it for the 12 days. We have been taking pictures every day.

Missionary work is good still not really any solid investigators which is sad. We are just working hard to find people but it is so difficult during the holidays because everyone is too busy or not even home. Tracting hasn't been too successful. We set a date for Jane to be baptized March 22 and she was all good with that and then she called and said that she thinks things are going too fast. She is very confusing but I have a feeling she will call us again. It's just been kind of a rough week with finding but it's all good it will probably be a lot better after Christmas.

The ward we are in does this really cool Christmas thing where they invite families who don't have money for Christmas into our church and there are donations of toys from ward members. The parents get to pick a toy for each kid and then wrap all of them and they also each get new pajamas, underwear, socks, blanket and things like that. It's so awesome! They get family home evening kits so it's a cool way to invite them to learn more about the church. They had all of us missionaries greet people and when they were wrapping presents we helped them and got to know them. It's cool seeing how happy this makes all of these people. They seriously all had smiles on their faces. Grandma would have loved that situation haha. The whole time I was just thinking of how much she loved Christmas and wanted everyone to have a super awesome Christmas like her family :)

Christmas this year for me is a whole lot more meaningful! I feel so selfish for the way I treated all other years because it really is all about Christ and what he did for us. I'm so grateful for his atonement and the love that he has for us. No matter how far away we are from him he wants us to come to him. I think you should check out 2 Nephi 2:4 it seriously is such a bomb scripture! 

We really do have an amazing family! I have been thinking about all of you so much. I think that I have the two greatest parents in the universe! You seriously are the best examples to me and showing me how to work hard. My brothers seriously all have some amazing Christ like attributes. I know that each of them are just teddy bears and they all have so much love for people. Bradley is so willing to serve others and same with Dallon for some reason they just love to make people laugh it might be dad's example haha. Jordan is just such a sweetheart and couldn't hurt a fly he makes everyone around him feel his love. I love you all! :) Families are seriously the best and I couldn't ask for a better one! I need more pictures haha.

Missionary work is awesome and I hope you all are getting on that wagon! Help the missionaries! I feel like the ones in Utah may be neglected. Maybe that’s just because I'm getting super star treatment here though haha.  I really have been thinking a lot about the second coming this week.... Don't want to freak you out by dang that thing is coming fast! All these missionaries going out is insane! 

Man Eric Clapton festival! The new one is out now?! Tell dad he can't watch that tell I get home and see what he says then haha. I miss music... :*( But it will all be worth it! well it already is worth it haha.

Aww Uncle Shawn! I miss that guy! Tell dad we need to visit him when we get home! I'll try and drop something in the mailbox today. 

Welp I love you all! Thanks for the letters finally! haha. I love having them I just re read them all the time. I'm so excited to skype you next week! That will be stellar! 

Love, Sister Brooks

Share with people the reason you are a member of this church!

Hello Family People!

Well the reason I haven't written any letters is because I haven't received one since I got here haha. My mailbox is empty everyday :( I actually wrote you one a few days ago though because I gave in. Thanks for the music whoever sent that :) I'm sure it was you Mother! haha but thanks we love the modesty song! The tights fit pretty well and I love the skirts! Thanks Mom! I miss Jordan! I miss Dad and all of you!!! Please write me letters :)

Well this week has been extremely cold here! My skin is getting so dry! It snowed yesterday finally. It's like dust but all the Hoosiers are freaking out haha. We did some service this week raking leaves at the Veteran’s home. I have never seen so many leaves in my life! This place is just all trees! So now my arms are pretty buff...getting on that Bradley level there... I guess these guys had been raking leaves for the past two months! But they sure weren't done. I'm not sure if they even are now because we spent about 7 hours raking. It was fun though! I really hope we can find more places to do service.

We got a new investigator named Jane! These elders passed her along to us because she wanted to be taught by sisters. She is unable to walk. She is such a sweet heart and gives us diet coke :) She has read the book of Mormon twice and knows that it is true. She just has a problem with Joseph Smith but we are hoping to solve that problem! The craziest thing happened... so we challenged her to read Matthew 7 because it talks about fruits of labors and so she only read the first few verses and got stuck on the part talking about hypocrites so she called to try and drop us because she thought we were calling her a hypocrite. She like yelled and hung up so we called and left a voice mail better explaining what we meant. I had a dream that night that she would call us back the next day and my companion was like no way she hates us haha. But guess what she called the next night and told us we could come back! So I guess dreams really do come true! haha.

Last night we had a really awesome lesson with a less active family. As we were thinking about what we should teach we first thought that we should teach the restoration. I got this feeling that we really needed to teach about God's love and prayer. So we decided we would go with that and we found out that their daughter had tried to commit suicide a few weeks ago. I really connected with that girl and I felt the spirit so strong teaching her. They were probably the craziest nicest people I have ever met. But it really made me remember why I'm here on a mission is to help others come unto Christ. 

So I also was thinking that I need to start committing my family to do things... you know being a missionary and stuff....So I would like to commit all of you and who ever reads this to share your testimony with someone by the end of this year! Share with people the reason you are a member of this church! 

I love you all! I hope that you have a great week :)

Merry almost Christmas!

  Love your Sister,   

Sister Brooks     

I like your witness...

Hello Family! 

Mom you are hilarious and I love you to death! haha. Thanks for all the packages! These boots are seriously amazing and I'm not sure if I will ever stop wearing them and my bed is so comfy and warm :) and the crescent rolls were seriously AMAZING! haha. I was so excited when I opened those!

So we ate at one of the mission president counselor’s house for thanksgiving and I took the craft and so all of us missionaries were cutting puppets out and we actually had a puppet show haha. I forgot to take pictures though :/ but I think they might be on that facebook page or something. It was a lot of fun though so thanks for that :)
 

Everyone is telling me that I'm going to need my own car for transfers haha. But there are like two things that I really want a photo album with just a ton of pictures with friends and family (and Bradley's girlfriend haha). Just like the dumb ones on facebook with like Gretta, Jake, Maria and Skyler and then just like family ones because I just want to show all of you off! haha. and I really miss looking at pictures. Then just some music because I'm going a little insane!! haha. Maybe Motab even! But seriously those packages made me so happy thanks for them all! The beef jerky and all the warm stuff it really is so awesome! I loved the little notes in them you are so cute Mom! 

My apartment is really safe we have a picture of Jesus on the front door. This lady who dropped of one of the packages was like…I like your witness and then she walked away haha. Seriously everyone here believes in Jesus which is really awesome and difficult at the same time because they all feel the need to slam doors in our faces because they think they all already know enough. But it's all good because the people willing to listen make it all worth it! We were able to teach this lady on her porch about the book of Mormon and she really wanted to learn more. I have never felt the spirit so strong as I did bearing my testimony and then she prayed and told Heavenly Father that she was so thankful for us being presented to her. It was such an amazing experience even the Polish lady next door that slammed the door in our face made me smile haha. It really is the best feeling when the spirit testifies to someone that we are servants of God and not just some weird people knocking doors.

I can't believe you sent us a Christmas tree! haha mom you are seriously so awesome! We were going to buy one today but now we are set! I guess for Christmas ideas I just want a ton of Pictures and some CD’s haha. 

We sang happy birthday to you yesterday! :) I hope it was awesome! Time is flying by! it's been a month that I have been gone this week! Crazy!  We have been working super hard on finding people because basically the previous sisters left us no investigators haha. But it's cool we are getting the hang of things and finding where everything is. We have been meeting with a lot of members just so we can get to know the ward members because the ward members here are like crazy supportive of missionary work! Some people take it so seriously it's like their second job. I love it! They are all so helpful! I'm sure they might be able to just loan me a bike haha. Our area is so big though I think that we are just going to stick with the car. We tried walking one day and it took 40 minutes just to walk to our actual area and then we had no time to even find people because we had another appointment. When we first got here we didn't have any miles to use because the sisters before also didn't leave us with any miles haha. Oh I don't know if I mentioned that I have been the driver because my companion's license expired haha. But yeah it has been annoying not having miles but it's finally a new month! So we should really be moving now and have more appointments :)

This week has been a good one! I miss you guys hope you all are doing good! Tell my brothers they should write me haha. I loved that thanksgiving book! It was so funny! I really loved Dad's turkey hand and how all of my brothers have little kid hand writing and they are all above the age of 12. But seriously it was really funny! Dolphins be like eeee eeeee haha. Sister Brooks out!