Picture from last week. This is after the last conference when Elder Golden asked for a picture with us specifically :) Such a great experience with him for that whole week.
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| Left to right: Pres Wiltse of mission presidency, Sister Golden, Elder Golden, myself, Elder Lund, President Patrick :) |
Wow. Seriously this week went so fast! It feels like I was just writing all of you on... Thursday ... oh right. :) I was! But nevertheless (I don't even know if people really say that in everyday talk...) this week was full of miracles and great experiences! :)
This morning while doing a personal study activity in Chapter 2 about studying and applying scriptures, I read Moroni 7:32-48. This passage talks about faith, hope, and charity. I especially loved verses 37-38 explaining that faith is what brings about miracles and the ministering of angels. I have seen that in action this week as we put our work in the hands of the Lord and asked him to make us instruments. Miracle after miracle has happened and I know that is possible in anyone's life. A specific connection that I found in the scriptures is that we can pray to receive more faith and hope which leads to charity. So this week I invited all of you to pray for these Christlike Attributes. Ask for experiences to help you learn and grow (especially missionary experiences). I know that by doing so you will come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that you will have the influence of the Spirit more in your life. And that's a promise! :)
Thursday the 22nd:
We got to teach one of the referrals from the Narcisos. His name is Yashar and he's from Iran. He's met with missionaries before but it wasn't for long. He has a lot of trouble believing in God at all because of philosophy but we're going to go at it slowly and by the Spirit with him. Hopefully his heart will be softened! :)
Then in the evening we had dinner with the Wegner family. Their son Ethaniel was getting baptized on Saturday so they wanted to invite us over to teach him. It all went very well and then we asked if they were inviting some people to his baptism and they were. We brought up the temple open house and before we left, they had like 20 invitations to give out to friends :) It was awesome!
Then we had two quick and powerful lessons with Fr. Richoux and Fr. Mongeau (formerly Everett :) ). They were really great and the Spirit really guided us even though we didn't have a lot of time. But to finish out our day we went to visit the Herrera family with Ezequiel Narciso who referred them to us. We knocked at the door and the mom said through the door that she'd have to cancel unfortunately. We tried to set up a new appointment but she said she'd talk with the Narcisos. Then Ezequiel Narciso chimed in saying "Oh non, les Narciso sont méchants." The Narcisos are mean. Haha! She was so confused until she opened the door and saw it was him haha! But then they were invited to a birthday party for Ezequiel and we went on our way :) But that door wouldn't have opened if he hadn't been there! Blessing of members!
Friday the 23rd:
Friday afternoon we went to the mission office and had a session with President Patrick on comparing notes from all of the conferences. It was a blast! We all learned a little bit from each other which made it all just fantastic :) At one point, President asked who figured it out that the reason the Nephites didn't have the Aaronic Priesthood was that they weren't of the tribe of Levi. So I slowly raised my hand. It was pretty cool because he didn't think anyone was going to get that in the conference but I did because I've read the Old Testament! :D Scripture Power! :D But goodness those notes are going to get a lot of use out of them through my entire life! So much doctrine!
After that we did our weekly planning back at home before heading back over to the Narciso's for our Bishop's birthday :) There were mostly members there but they had two nonmember families that came and we got to talk a lot to them! It was awesome! :D And the food was soooo good! I love Brazilian food so much :)
Saturday the 24th:
Saturday was just jam-packed full. All day we had the focus to share temple open house invitations with everyone we saw and it turned out to be a great experience! We handed out a bunch of Book of Mormons too! :D
Right after studies and lunch we went to visit Fr. Esteve with Sr. Cerise. We taught about missionary work from John 21 and D&C 18 and then his commitment was to give away some invitations. He accepted and said he would! Woo! Then as we were getting back into our car, a sweet little old Jewish lady of 92 years old came up to me and asked who I was. Then we had a nice little chat and she was just so gracious about complimenting us on how respectable we were and that we're going to have beautiful wives haha! A great prediction ;D
Then we visited Sr. Rosario Nolette from Wednesday but this time with Sr. Salvant, a ward missionary also from Haiti. It was so inspired. The first ten minutes of our visit they were exchanging phone numbers and arranging to go to church together and then even going to a church activity that night together. Amazing! Then the lesson was super powerful about CPR- Church, Pray, and Read. Elder Golden shared with us that members who read and pray individually and as a family every day and go to church and take the sacrament every week never go astray. So do those things! :D A great promise awaits you :)
After that we had some down time. We passed by a random guy that called out to us a long time ago and then we got to meet Joey, a professional musician who lived in LA for a while :) Pretty cool :) He's super believing and we had a great conversation with him. We shared what our purpose was and he said that we were wasting our time with him because he already believed all of that haha! So we talked more and introduced the story of Joseph Smith some and he seemed really interested. Sadly though he's going out of town on Tuesday but we'll get him after that! But we ended by giving him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it! :D
Then we went down to Lasalle for Ethaniel's baptism. At the last minute I got called on to play piano which was fun. Thank goodness I can sight read really well because they pulled out the children's songbook haha :) But then as Fr. Wegner and Ethaniel were getting into the font, they realized they didn't have any witnesses... So they called us both up haha! Surprise! :D
To finish our day we visited the Decilon family. At first Luc had a friend over but he turned out to really cramp the Spirit haha :) We actually gave up on teaching them that night and decided that we were just going to say a prayer and leave. And as soon as we said we'd like to say a prayer, this friend said he had to leave. Haha it was perfect!!! :D So then we were able to have the two boys say the prayers and teach about baptism using pictures from a gospel art book. It was the best! :D The boys and Angelie all committed to be baptized on the 21st of November. Sadly Luc was hestitant but we'll follow up and try to answer his concerns.
Sunday the 25th: 16 months...? Wow.
Sunday was awesome! On the way to church after trying to pass by some investigators, we saw someone taking a couch out of a home so we stopped and helped them out. It was great! :D
But church was great. Sr. Nolette came with Sr. Salvant. Everett came too! It was great! :D I ended up playing piano during sacrament meeting again which I love :) But for the first time in at least a while, I took notes during the meeting and I really felt the Spirit a lot :) We actually taught about "The Blessings of the Temple" by President Monson from April's General Conference during the third hour. It was really great building more excitement for the Temple and then giving out over 200 invitations to the members. It was awesome! :D
After church we had dinner with the Leveilles, our former bishop and his family. We shared the lesson on the Restoration after dinner and the Spirit really so strong. Sr. Leveille was almost in tears which means we did our job in bringing the Spirit :) Then Fr. Leveille took us to visit a member with pneumonia who we took the sacrament too. It was great to see how little effort on our part can make the world of difference in someone's life :)
At the end of the day we had a little time so we passed by trying to find a former investigator. They weren't there so we tried their neighbors on either side as we've been taught. And one of the neighbors let us into the building. We met Sid from India we're guessing and we talked to him for a while. He is a former Hindu but isn't so sure anymore. But after talking for a while he wasn't too interested so we offered him an invitation to the Open House and also let him know that we are there if he needed help with anything. We said a prayer before leaving and then left him with our number. Then that night during planning, he called us. We couldn't believe it! He opened up a lot to us sharing how tough life was for him right now. And so we offered again asking if we could come by to share our message and he accepted! It was a miracle :) So great :) And that was how our week ended :)
Life is just grand these days! We have trials of our faith as we implement our knowledge from the conferences but then we always see the blessings. There is wisdom and blessings a plenty in following the counsel of our priesthood leaders! :D I have a testimony of that.
But moreso, I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know this is the Lord's church. I know that he is at the head. I know that he is guiding us and preparing us for whatever may come.
I love you all so much and pray for the best for all of you :)
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Brooks
Elder Brooks
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| We didn't take any pictures all week and so we took some random ones for our 16 month mark. |
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