(Hi my family and friends! It was an incredible week!)
To start off this next week we'll be having Zone Conference on Monday so I will be emailing on Tuesday instead, just so you're aware and don't think that I got eaten by a polar bear ;) But this week has been incredible like I said. Many ups and down points but I'm seeing the hand of the Lord in the work here in Granby.
This week for a Spiritual Thought is brought to you by the Last Days. Seriously we are in the last days right now and it's going to be soon when Christ shall come. I have no idea when but still the signs of the times are all around us. The speed is picking up on both sides of the battle for good and for evil. So my challenge for you this week is to see what you can do to add to the good side. It seriously is a war right now with Satan but a thought I have kept in my heart and I see struggles and trials is that the only way Satan can win is if we give up. If we continue to push forward with what we've got be it little or small then we will come out victorious! Push forward through rain or snow! :D
Monday 10th:
So after doing emails last Monday we got to go play Sorry with Frere Donovan and Lolo at Kalila's place which was super fun! Then we got equipped with a whiteboard and I got some bookends for my desk. Office supplies have never been so awesome! :D At the end though, the Levesques provided us with a fantastic, super balanced dinner. I love our members!
Tuesday 11th:
In my personal study I started 1 Samuel. I love the Old Testament so much! Never thought I'd ever say that before my mission honestly but now I find so much in it. After my mission I am definitely going to take an Old Testament class at BYU.
But the weather that day was absolutely beautiful! That afternoon we went and saw Monique, our ami who came to Ward Conference the Sunday before. She loved it so much! She said she was going to arrange her work schedule so she can come to church every Sunday now! :D Then right after that we went to Sister Riggs to have a lesson. Turned out that the lesson went a completely different way than we planned and we ended up showing her how she can upload all her family history stuff onto Family Search. I had the Spirit of Elijah so bad then haha! I wish I could have just stayed with her the rest of the day doing family history. But now she says she has a lot of work to do but she wants to do it! Woohoo! Thank you Dad for preparing me to help out with that! :D
Wednesday 12th:
In my scripture study I found that honestly when we want something for long enough, God will give it to us. Now that also comes with the consequences attached such as the ones found in Samuel and how they wanted a king which then led to their captivity. Yeah desire good things in life and you'll get them through our own work and diligence.
Later I got to check out some family history of my own. I loved reading about my great grandma Grace Leona Heaton and how she sacrificed learning piano herself so her children could learn. That sacrifice has made my life so much of what it is today! Thank you! Then I was happy to read up a bit on Gerrit Van Tussenbroek and how he was in the Tabernacle Choir for 25 years! Wow! For dinner that night I made us some bowtie pasta with alfredo and tomato and pesto sauces mixed with chicken and oh my was it good!
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| District Meeting :) Elders Hunter, Perkes, Pilling, and Peery |
Thursday 13th:
I read Enos that morning and I seriously love it. Take a day sometime soon to reread it. I noticed this time just how much he talks about Christ and how Christ is part of his story. After lunch that day I got to cut Elder Losee's hair which went pretty well for my first time haha. Only had a little casualty of accidentally snipping his ear with some scissors when I was trimming around his ear...Thankfully he forgave me... :}
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| Haircut - before |
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| - during |
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| and after! |
But that day we did a lot of knocking in the cold. But we found some people! We found some people interested in learning English and then also a young 18 year old who was open to talk! Sweet! At the end of the day though, the Wus treated us to a feast as always and they talked to us about their recent trip to the Holy Land which was awesome!
Friday 14th:
In 1 Samuel I started the story of David. He is so awesome! So much faith in God and courage because of it which I love! He was so bold to Goliath and then he followed up with action! I also realized that Mosiah 3 is practically all quoted from an angel. No wonder it is so good!
That afternoon we had our second lesson with Monique. We started out by watching the Restoration film and it just set everything off right. Monique felt the Spirit and it showed. We then went over how it all came to be up to our time now and talked about the experiences in the Book of Mormon that she's already had because she's already halfway through 2 Nephi. But to crown it all we invited her to be baptized at the end and she said yes! Then we also tacked on the date of December 20th and she said yes but we could tell she was a little so-so about it but nonetheless we were so excited! Already she's cross referencing with the Bible and we showed her how to get even more on LDS.org! She's amazing!
That night though we got to start teaching Shelley who is Valerie's daughter. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and specifically the Sacrament which is so cool! It's awesome to see Valerie help teach when she's only been in the church a little less than a year. So awesome!
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| Snow! |
Saturday 15th:
Mosiah 5- Take upon you the name of Christ and write it on your heart. That's what we do when we are truly converted. I love it! Such a great reminder of what we should be doing as members of this church.
Around lunch time I made peanut butter cookies from a recipe on a PB jar and they turned out awesome! So good! Then we bagged 90% of them up and went out with them to spread some love! We passed by a less active and it turned out she needed help. So she went in search of another man and came back with one of our good friends... Samson from Congo! So we helped her put her bed together and then set up with Samson to come back and teach him the day after!
Then we passed by Monique and gave her cookies. She was so happy to see us! Then in seeing how she was doing, she casually pretty much said, yeah the 20th will work. Then we inquired and she was meaning about her baptism in December! We were so happy! She said she had a "flash" as she calls it when she was reading Isaiah and felt that what we were telling her was true! Ah! We love Monique! :D
For dinner I did a pork and veggie stir fry with rice which was great :) Then we went out knocking. we had some rough contacts...But then towards the end we found a girl around our age who had never heard of Christ before! So we shared about him and she said she's interested to learn more! Woohoo! After trials come blessings always! That night we had to decide who to give our last few bags of cookies too and I felt like we should go give some to Kalila. We went unannounced and turned out she was in pretty bad pain but she also had a friend over so we were able to come in and give her a blessing. Totally brought all together by the Spirit.
Sunday 16th:
It was such a crazy awesome full day! To start out there was lots of snow all over when we left. Taking that first step into snow and hearing the crunch was so satisfying and made me so happy! :D I love snow! But at church it was so awesome! We had President Patrick, mission president, and President Pirret, stake president. The talks were just amazing and so many times through our meetings I felt the Spirit testify and just wash over me telling the things being said were true. I love it! President Patrick shared that the key to sharing the gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which contains 5 simple points: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. That's it! Then in Gospel Principles he also shared that every Sunday is fast Sunday because we fast from the things of the world. Wise insight I'd say.
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| In the hall just outside of Church with President Patrick |
After church we had just enough time for lunch and then we went out teaching! We first taught Robert our friend from Rwanda. We addressed his question of being baptized. Sadly it didn't work to well. He loves us and all but something is getting lost in transmission about authority and what not. But he still wants to keep working with us which is great because we love him! Then between that and our next lesson I commented that if our next lesson brought up that he didn't want to be baptized because of being baptized already I'd be dumbfounded. Then we went in and taught our friend Samson from Congo and taught him the Restoration. It went awesome! Then at the end we invited him to be baptized. And what did he say... he was already baptized! Gah! But it's ok because he said he was missing the family aspect of church that he had in Africa and we told him that that was what he had in our church and so he's going to come! Woohoo! :D
After dinner we went to Francois and Paulette with Frere Donovan. We started out by talking about why we come to see them and it was awesome! We all had a little different spin and then Frere Donovan brought it home that we're here to baptize. What a champ! They said they're really not interesed in changing but still want to meet with us and learn. So we went and taught the first two points of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of faith and Repentance. Frere Donovan brought up a comparison between Alma the Younger and the Apostle Paul in Alma 36:5-21. Paul had to change churches even though he had started out in the right church. Good food for thought for me :) But we came back and I was feeling great. Although Elder Losee was feeling a little down due to the many struggles that are going on here in Granby. I have come to the conclusion that Satan really does not want us to become a branch and so he's doing everything that he can. But as long as we don't give up with will succeed! So we shall continue forward!
Monday 17th: I finished 1 Samuel today! And we went and played chess with an old investigator, Gustave which was fun. :)
I am so excited for what is to come here in Granby! In a little more than a month we should be having a baptism and I just love being a missionary! Even in the snow haha! :) So keep your heads up and push forward in faith because you will overcome anything if you put your trust in God. I have a testimony of that :)
I love you all so so so so so much!
Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup! :D Le Francais vien tres vite pour moi maintenant et j'essaye de parler le plus que je peux :)
(I love you lots and lots! French comes very fast for me now and I try to speak as much as I can)
Take care and have a fantastic week everyone!
Love,
Elder Brooks :)
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