This week was the end of all the zone conferences so I'd like to just share some thoughts on repentance. Some scriptures for you to study are D&C 18:10-16, 19:15-19, Moroni 8:25-26 and if you want to scare yourself away from not repenting there's Mosiah 2:38 haha ;) Repentance is such a blessing. The Lord in his mercy has granted us this power to rid ourselves of our mistakes and to have a fresh start at any moment, but especially each Sunday as we take the sacrament. How great is our Father! :D He loved us so much that he gave his only Son so that we could repent and come back to live with him! (See John 3:16) As a missionary I get to call people to repentance every single day by inviting them to read the scriptures, to pray, and to do many other things that ultimately bring us back into God's presence.
Your invitation if you choose to accept it:
I exhort you to make repentance a daily activity. Each night as you kneel and pray, think over what you could have done better and confess and ask for help to do better the next day. I know you will receive the help and guidance from the Lord. Take that next step towards the Celestial Kingdom. I promise you will feel Heavenly Father's love more abundantly in your life :)
Monday the 25th:
We had dinner that night with Fr. Jaeger which was a blast. We taught him about repentance and it was fantastic! :D That man is a spiritual giant and he is so open to share experiences and his feelings which makes for a powerful environment of the Spirit :)
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| We got a dragon fruit :) It looked like a heart and also a mouth with saliva even... |
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| But it tasted kind of like a watery kiwi with lots of seeds. |
Tuesday the 26th: Longueuil Nord Zone Conference
We got up a little early to head up to Québec City. It was super funny because on the way, President Patrick passed us and so we stayed in proximity to him for a while, passing each other back and forth... And he never noticed us haha! We had a ball with that one :)
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| President Patrick passing us on the road to Quebec. Never noticed us haha :) |
The conference went just great! Those missionaries were so prepared and it made for the best conference up to that point. We really dug into the doctrines of Justification and Sanctification with the preparatory gospel that led to the fulness of the gospel :)
After the conference we left out equinox with the Alma elders and then we grabbed a bite to eat at the local mall up there. It was cool to see an amusement park inside the mall including a roller coaster and ice rink :) But then we took the Chevy Colorado truck and we headed down to Montreal through a snow and then rain storm. And we got back right in time for bed :) Although on the way, I felt super inspired and I called both Francois and Everett and ended up calling them both to repentance super boldly about reading the scriptures every day :) It's a commandment that blesses us so much so do it if you're not ;)
Wednesday the 27th: Longueuil Sud Zone Conference
It was so much fun being back in Longueuil :) It felt like coming home to my old stomping grounds almost. The conference went great as well and it was really fun catching up with the Granbites. I even got to talk to Fr. Donovan at one point and he couldn't tell it was me when I was talking in French haha! :D My accent has improved :D I got to spend some time with old friends such as Elder Lund and Elder Brown the old assistant. He shared us his joke from Nacho Libre just modified a little.
"Why are there no investigators at church?"
"They dropped us. :("
"Didn't you tell them it was the Lord's church?"
Haha I enjoyed it pretty well :) Then President made a comment later to the two of us saying that Longueuil Sud "looks like this is where old assistants come to die." Haha yeah I gave him a good look after that one!
That night we got to teach Jean with Everett again. Jean is reading and praying little by little and he's starting to feel the Spirit. He just hasn't really recognized it yet but we're helping him along!
Thursday the 28th: Montreal Zone Conference
It was such a good conference!!! We felt like it was our most polished training and the missionaries were extremely prepared :) Here's some highlights:
"We teach true doctrine because the Spirit testifies of it"
I realized that the baptismal interview questions are super inspired and really open good conversation with investigators and less-actives :) Then during our training I was super fired up and during the roleplays as they practiced teaching repentance I went around and helped guide some of them to try new things and it was so awesome! There were lots of one on one moments from it :) And at the end of the training we got to bear powerful testimony after reading Helaman 5:9-11 on how we are angels sent from God to preach repentance to the world :) I love it :)
After the conference a senior couple sister asked me if I was going to be a lawyer after my mission. It kind of took me back a little because I had never thought about law before. But she said that I held myself and spoke with confidence and precision. Pretty nice compliments :) Then I told her I was going to be "just" a mechanical engineer :]
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| The District! Elders Critchlow, Evans, me, Ritz and Sisters Fleming and Gammon |
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| Elder Evans and I all Mr-Mac'd out ;D (matching suits) Our glasses were even super similar! |
We had dinner with the Wegners that night where we taught about the Priesthood :) It really helped Sr Wegner because she had questions about how she could help her boys understand even though she didn't have it. I turned her to some good sections in D&C 20 and 84 :)
(Oh and we picked up our new car, a dark gray nissan Rogue :) )
Friday the 29th: Mission Leadership Council
MLC turned out to be a big discussion on following up on our zone conferences and then some changes to how we do transfers and exchanges. From now on the mission office is not a central meeting place for transfers and instead missionaries will go directly to their new area unless their training or going home. And for exchanges, now the leaders will receive the entire companionship into their area to model a functioning area. So this means that the assistants are going to have killer exchanges with zone leaders and the area is just going to explode :)
After the meeting we had lunch together :) Sadly President had some family things to take care of so we weren't able to finish transfer planning together.
But we then picked up Fr. Pellissier in St Laurent and got to work! When we were going to pass by a potential and we talked to a man on the street. Grenier had just arrived from Benin with his family the week before. After conversing with him for a while he was completely willing to have us over to share a message with his family the next day. So we fixed a lesson with him and as we were about to leave we asked who else would be interested and he had some friends in mind that are coming in March as well as another friend that might come. Super cool :) Then we had a little lesson with Sr. Garza about scripture study :)
Saturday the 30th:
We picked up Fr. Pellissier and headed to our appointment with Grenier. When we get to their door we heard lots of noise. (That's either a really good sign or a really bad sign.) They opened the door, they welcomed us in and there were two beautiful African families ready to listen to us. They didn't even have furniture yet so we sat on some African rugs. There were 11 people there. I was amazed. We taught them the Restoration after explaining our role and it was beautiful. We used the mirror analogy with the Apostasy and they totally understood it. They said things like "So all churches have a piece of the mirror but if we understand right, you are offering the fulness like you said." "Yeah that's exaclty right!" It was amazing!!!! We introduced the Book of Mormon and they passed it around like a rare treasure had just been given to them. We then explained the promise of the Book of Mormon in finding out if Joseph Smith is a prophet and if the message is true and they all committed to read and pray and find out! Then we moved on to baptism with them and Grenier had a concern because he had already been baptized. But his friend was right there to resolve it. He referred back to the mirror analogy saying that Grenier's baptism was a good step but it wasn't the fulness. I was dumbfounded. They truly understood by the Spirit and they were all touched. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. Literally one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. So that's how we had 8 new investigators with only 2 investigator lessons this week. Two families with 2 children each over 8 :) AMAZING.
Then we got to go to the baptism of an investigator that Elder Ritz taught in Lasalle. Way too cool! Afterward we got the transfer info from President. Although on our way to the mission office to get it he called us.
"Well usually when an assistant gets transferred he's in the room with me. Elder Brooks do you want to know where you're going?"
He then explained that I would be going to Repentigny like I said and that I'll be training. (My first and only time! :D) He added that this area has been struggling for a while and so he's sending me in to see what can be done. I'm so excited :) So I'm still in the Montreal stake but I'm on the North shore off the island :) It'll be great! And my replacement is the wonderful South African, Elder Caine :)
Sunday the 31st:
Church was wonderful! So many people were so nice in expressing their appreciation for me :) There was a lot of extra time in sacrament meeting (not sure if it was planned or not) so they invited me to bear my testimony. It was one of those weak in the knee testimonies where the Spirit kind of just takes over :) It was powerful :) I focused mostly on the Book of Mormon :) Lots of members were saying they'll miss me in the ward choir especially haha! I can't believe how many solos they've had me do here! Even Stake Conference! But then we got to have a wonderful lesson on service in gospel principles that we taught. It was super powerful from all the discussion we had :)
After church I got pictures with lots of members :) Got our next two dinners figured out too haha :) We also gave a blessing to Sister Fleming and it was powerful to listen to the counsel and guidance given to her as I performed it. It was one of those weak knee moments too :)
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| Selfie with Fr. Leveille! |
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| Fr. Pellissier |
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| The Wegner Family :) |
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| Everett!!! :D |
That night for dinner we were over with Francois and Sr Salvant :) They had three students from China and Taiwan staying so we had a super fun time talking to them :) After dinner we taught them some super basic ideas about Christ and they just ate it up! :D They loved it when we showed them Mormon.org in Chinese :) And after dinner we took pictures with all of them and then they asked to take individual pictures with each of us haha! It was too funny! :D One of them when he was with me for a picture said as we looked at the camera "You're so handsome. I'm really jealous." Haha I loved it :)
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| Asians and Haitians :) (Me, Francois, Sr Salvant, students) |
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| Love this guy :) |
So there's my week! I'm off to a new adventure! Who knows what lies ahead! I'm so excited though so stay tuned!
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| Super sunny today! |
I love you all so much! I know this is the true church. I know the Book of Mormon is true. But above all, Jesus Christ lives.
Love,
Elder Brooks :)
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