Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Una semana mas [ One more week ]

Well, I just feel like every week all I do is tell you all about how much I love Mexico. Like, I love Mexico so much.
Something I have really learned is that God really knows and loves all His children, and He knows exactly where there are and what they need. This past week, we found people, members, less actives, and investigators, who just really needed us in that moment in particular. La verdad [The truth], I never really felt particularly inspired to go to any of these people, I was just trying to be obedient not just to the mission rules, but to Preach My Gospel and the scriptures and everything. Obedience really does bring miracles.

Oh and so awesome story here:

We asked this one member the other day, so how did you find the gospel? (AMAZING QUESTION TO ASK PEOPLE) and she said that when she was little, she never understood why Jesus didn´t come to the Americas, like why did He only go to Asia? its so far away. Then one day someone gave her a Book of Mormon and she loved it but it didn´t have the name of the church on it, solo Libro de Mormon [only "Book of Mormon"], and so for 17 years she looked for the church, but never found it because she thought it was called "Mormon Church" not "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de los Ultimos Dias" ["The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"], and during these 17 years she lived 2 blocks away from one of our churches. And she said that during that 17 years, people would siempre [always] come by her house from all sorts of religions and she always would say to them, "Before you say anything, did you know that Jesus came to the Americas?" and every time "No, we didn´t" and she would say, "Alright, I´m not going to listen to a word you say"

Then one day she was at her sisters house and some elders came by.

Elders: Hola [Hello], we´re missionaries and we´d like to share a message about Jesucristo [Jesus Christ]

Ella: Well I can´t let you in because its not my house and also I don´t want to listen to you

Elders: But it´s an amazing message about Jesus!

Ella: Well, I have one question for you

Elders: Si, sister, ask away!

Ella: Did you know that Jesus came to the Americas?

Elders: Yes

It was like she had just been punched with the Spirit.

Ella: what do you call yourselves?

Elders: Elder

Ella: That's the name of your church?

Elders:  La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de los Ultimos Dias [ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]

Ella: Ok, but if I were to call out to you on the street, what would I call you?

Elders: Elder

Ella: Yeah but a member of your church, Like I´m from the catholic church so they call me catholic, for you guys i can´t say,"oh look it´s a member of the La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de los Ultimos Dias!" [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!]  That´s just super long!

Elders: Ohhhhh we´re known as Mormons.

Again, punched by the Spirit. Her search for 17 years had ended! She was baptized 3 months later, 2 of her 3 kids served missions and the third is on the mission. They are all sealed in the temple and she and her husband are leaving on a mission later this year.

I love mexico.

LOVE YOU ALL

Julie

More photos from Julie's mission





La verdad [The truth], Mexico is just super awesome. We had a new investigator at church, he´s seventeen and he already goes to all the youth activities and it was so awesome to see him at church. His best friend wants to baptize him, which will be in one month, yay!

I love mexico. Like seriously, I can´t get over how much I love this place and the paople here are my favorite ever.

Since I´m training, and I´m still new to the mission, I end up calling my district lider[leader] like crazy, como[like], and how do i do this or how do i do that? 

Oh something else cool, we got a menos activo [less active] to listen to us, which was pretty great. His wife isn´t a member, and we´re going to start teaching her the gospel. He was telling us how he wants to get sealed to her and his daughter in the temple and all this stuff and I´m so excited!
 
Love you all! Hasten the work!

Hermana Brooks

p.s. this is me drinking a coke for the first time in mexico. IT TASTES SO MUCH BETTER HERE


Thursday, April 10, 2014

Hermana Brooks - Senior Companion and Trainer

This past week has been CRAZY!

First, we went to Cerro de la Silla. I thought we were only going around the mountain, but no we went straight up to the top, and it was AMAZING!  So Cool!  And to think that we hiked that, wow.





Then that night, we had transfers. Being the end of my 12 week missionary training, it was pretty sure that I´d get a new companion, and when my district leader said, "Hermana Brooks, you're training", I literally screamed. 



The next day I went to the offices to learn a bit about my overwhelming responsibility and pick up my new "hija," [daugher - mission slang for a sister missionary who you have trained. ] Hermana Pérez. She´s from Oaxaca and has about 3 weeks total in her mission, I love her to shreads and we're already planning on rooming together at BYU after our missions, she just needs to learn to speak English first (she speaks less than my last companion, who didn´t speak English either).


We also got Elderes in our ward, which means we had to split the area and now our area is a whole lot smaller, which is nice because it means not as much walking. I love having elders! The one thing that´s annoying is that we can´t call each other to pass references or other things like that so we have to go through our district leader almost every day. Pobrecito. [Poor guy.]

I love the work here! Everyone needs to just do everything they can to share the Gospel, it´s the greatest thing ever.

Love you all! Les amo!

Hermana Julie Brooks

Hiking "Cerro De La Silla"

Okay, hoy fuimos a [Today we went to]  Cerro de la Silla. [Cerro de la Silla is mountain peak that is very recognizable and associated with Monterrey.  You can see this mountain peak from anywhere in the valley where Monterrey is situated.]
and by that I mean my whole zone and I went to CERRO DE LA SILLA!!!!!!!!!!! And we literally hiked to the very top, like the very very top, to get any higher we´d have to climb the antenna.

This week has been hard, but we´re really doing all we can to find people prepared for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to have baptisms every week, and we know it´s possible, so we´re kicking our butts trying to do the Lord´s work. Seriously, hiking Cerro de la Silla is way easier than the Lord´s work, because the reality is to do the Lord´s work you just need to swallow your pride and leave it to the Lord to do.

This is really wierd trying to think only en english.

No photos just because I don´t have time! Next week!  [ translation: The hike took up most of my P-day time. ]

Love you all! Go and do! (Nephi 3:7)

Hermana Brooks

Baptisms!



We had 2 baptisms this past week! Super amazingly fabulous! Our mission president and his wife came to the first one, which was pretty cool to see them.



The thing about missionary work is that we really do nothing. Seriously, this is the work of the Lord, and there is no one else who can do this work. Yesterday, we visited a less active and he was like, "When your eight year old daughter dies, then you can come and talk to me." and the truth is that we will never know how he feels, we will never know the pain that he went through, but Jesus Christ does. All we can do as missionaries is invite people to come unto Christ.

We were praying a lot this week to find families prepared for the gospel. We went to visit someone we contacted on the street the other day and this was our first lesson with her and her family. My companion says, "Okay, we´re going to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon" and they say "Hang on a second" and they go into another room and a minute later they come out with 2 books of mormon and a GIANT triplet. I was like, okay, the Spirit is right, they´re getting baptised.

We also found someone else who practically begged us to get baptised. 
Something I´ve really learned is that the Lord knows his sheep, He knows where they are, and He works harder than we do to bring them back into the fold.

By the way, you may have noticed the same person baptizing almost all of my converts. He isn´t a ward missionary or ward mission leader, he´s just a super amazing member missionary. When my companion and I visit the less actives, they´re always, "Oh yeah, we know him, he came and visited us" and literally investigator after investigator is like "I want him to baptize me". I encourage you all to be just like him!

By the way, it´s super common for mexicans to name their children after people in the book of mormon. There´s Nefi, Lehi, a lot of Mosiah,Jarom, Abish, Zarahemla, I´ve even seen a Moriancumor. I love mexico.

LOVE YOU ALL! PRESS FORWARD (2 Nefi 31)

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Julie's House



Meet Virginia

Maria Virginia has had a lot of trials in her life, but none of that made her want to learn about the gospel. Her nephews had been baptised, her brother wants to be baptised, and her daughter was taking the discussions, so she knew about the church and it wasn´t like she had never heard the gospel before. It was one night when her trials were really weighing on her shoulders, she was in the back of the house whereas we were in the front with her daughter teaching her a discussion. Virginia was praying, Should I join the lesson? and the Book of Mormon that just so happened to be in the room suddenly fell, and there was no way that was physically possible. She joined us for the lesson, and ever since she has had an amazingly strong testimony of the Gospel.



This past Thursday, we were teaching her about the atonement and I felt inspired that we needed to sing a hymn, so I opened my hymnbook and the Spirit told me "oh toda esta bien" (Come come ye saints) so I told Virginia, this song is about members of the church who were going through a rough time. As we were singing, she started to cry. When we finished, through her tears she told us "I heard the voice of a man. I heard the voice of a man singing with you!" That´s when I started to cry, because me dio cuenta que estuve cantando con Jesucristo. I was singing with Jesus Christ.

Maria Virginia was baptized yesterday. This is the picture. She has totally changed my life and I am forever grateful for the opportunity I had to serve her.

I have really learned that this work isn´t mine, all God wants me to do is to listen and follow Him and He´ll get this work done.

Press forward in the work of the Lord!

Hermana Brooks

Another amazing week in Mexico

Last week, we started teaching this guy who no joke was a referencia [referral] of a referencia of a referencia. He is so amazing!  After about 10 min, we were filling out the registro of bautismo and confirmacion [Recommend for Baptism and Confirmation]. He came to church all by himself yesterday, early! and he brought his Book of Mormon and folleto [pamphlet] we gave him. We´re super excited for his baptismo [baptism].

Yesterday one of our investigators was telling us about how she and her family sometimes don't have enough money for food and after our visit with her, someone came by and gave her and her family food, and then after they left, someone else came by and gave them more food! She was crying as she was telling us, "I know the church is true!"


I love being here, the people are so amazing. The members are pretty great too.

God really knows and loves all his children. Por ejemplo [For example], we went to visit a less active, and we asked if we could sing her a hymn. The Spirit told me to pick How great thou art, and I had no idea about this, but it was her favorite hymn. She started crying.

I love the work!

Hermana Brooks

[Julie also found this picture that made her think of Tiffany.]




I love this place tan muchisimo. [So much]

Pues, mi espanol no es el mejor en el mundo, pero a veces no quiero hablar en ingles por espanol se siente mejor. [Well, my Spanish is not the best en the world, but at times I do not want to speak in English because Spanish feels better].

Well my Spanish isn´t the best ever, but sometimes i just really don´t want to speak English because I feel more comfortable in Spanish and there are words and things that I can express better in Spanish than in English.

My companion and I are working hard like crazy to find people who are prepared to hear the gospel. We had to drop some people who weren't progressing, which isn´t really that depressing because if you know they´re not ready the but thing for everyone is to move on.

By the way, something I learned is you know how Americans think British accents are the most attractive thing ever? Well, Mexicans think that American accents are the most attractive thing ever. The other day we were contacting and I was inviting the guy to baptism and he was like"mande" (significa como [which means], "say that again, I didn't hear you?"), because I still can't pronounce baptism right in Spanish and I was like "I´m so sorry I know I have an accent!" and he goes "No, your accent is really beautiful" and I was like "great, people can't understand a word I say, but at least I sound amazing"

Also, I have totally fallen in love with puppies and small dogs, but its kind of complicated when you´re trying to say a prayer with a family and a dog wont stop licking you.

We have one investigator who needs to quit smoking to get baptized, and I am so amazed at how easy its coming for him!  We were doing a thing where it was like okay, today 3 cigarettes, tomorrow 2, the day after 1 and so on and he´s been totally faithful to it!  The Lord is helping him so much!

I love this place so much. Everyone, keep up the missionary work!

Love you all,

Hermana Brooks

Mas en Mexico

Okay, this week, I really learned how much you should not take the temple for granted. If you can go to the temple, GO! This past week I saw so many people who are suffering because they can´t go to the temple or their family refuses to go to church so they can´t get sealed and be an eternal family. One member was crying to us because she had children with 3 different fathers, was never legally married to any of them, and she wants more than anything to be sealed to all her children and go to the temple but its a long road.

Everyone, go to the temple, and live worthy of going there.

These are some pictures of me at a ward activity (I totally scored a goal!)  I've learned what position i play in soccer, right offensive, and you know you´re offensive when the goalie says to you "tranquilo!" [relax or settle down]


One is a picture of my "team" and the other is a picture of me and some of the members. The 15 year old on the left is an AWESOME ward missionary and she´s getting her Young Women's medallion this week!
We had Elder Oaks come and visit this weekend, which was fun with the translator because I laughed before everyone else.



I think that Elder Oaks needs to come to our mission more often, because the weekend he was here we had some miracles.

Yesterday, we went to visit investigators with some members and the mother of the wife decided to come and join us for the lesson for the first time ever. The moment she sat down she started to cry. She told us she was in the backroom wondering and praying if she should join us or not and right as she was doing that the Book of Mormon that was in the room suddenly fell, and it was not in a position where that could´ve happened. Then she told us she had a vision of a man dressed in white and she asked him if he wanted her to get baptised and he said yes and she asked if she could wait a bit and he said yes but not to wait too long, and she also had a vision of a baptismal font, describing one perfectly, and she has never been to church once! She was crying during the whole lesson and one of the members gave her a blessing. She wants so badly to get baptised! 

I love this mission. I love all the blessings here!



The picture with me and the guitar is me and my companion on p day, one of the elders has a guitar and i got to play it a little bit which was really nice.

Hermana Brooks

First Baptism!

My first baptism in the mission! 

This woman learned about the church through her next door neighbor. She literally has a heart of absolute gold and has such strong desires to follow Jesus Christ. When she was baptized yesterday, the heater wasn't working for the water, and not only was the water cold but she has almost a fear of cold water. my companion and I heard her praying as she walked into the font "ayudame ayudame" which means, "help me help me". The Bishop baptized her, it was pretty awesome



Also we saw some less actives that we had visited come to church yesterday, which just feels amazing. I love Mexico so much!

Love you all!
Pues (So), I´ve had almost a full month here in Mexico! Crazy!

The language is really hard. I´ll say something and the people will have no idea what I said, and my companion will say the EXACT SAME THING, same wording and everything, and they understand. It´s hard. Also, it´s crazy because not only do I have to learn Spanish fluently, but I have to teach my companion English. I have a huge responsibility to do that because it´s completely possible that i could be her only american companion and I´m her only chance to learn English, which means better job, better house, better oportunities, better future.

This past week we did a lot of teaching this one family. We went with the bishop and had planned to teach the Word of Wisdom because the father drinks and smokes. When we got there, turned out their sister in-law, who we´ve never met before and isn't a member was there. We started to teach the lesson, and I was a bit nervous because the Word of Wisdom isn't something I´d talk about the first thing with someone i´d just met, but she was totally into the conversation and contributing and it was awesome. Then at the end, the bishop explained what a blessing was and offered her one (She has cancer) and she said yes and it was really beautiful.

I love mexico! 

I want so bad to understand these people. It´s really an amazing place

BTW, I was 100% aware yesterday was the Super Bowl, and so was all of Mexico. 

Monday, January 27, 2014

Mas Mexico


Hola mundo!  [ Hello World!]

I´m finalmente empiezando a aprendir esta idioma [finally beginning to learn this language]. A veces [At times], people will talk to me in ingles [English] and i won´t realize a difference until later and sometimes I will say something to someone in inglish [English] and I have no idea until they look at me weird.

This past week we got to go to the temple, which I´m convinced is the most beautiful temple in the world. We did a lot of contacting this week and a lot of teaching. 

Also we did a service project helping one of the members at her house. She needed some trees cleared and so the elders started a mini forest fire while the hermanas cleaned her kitchen and helped her make tamales, the picture is of me making tamales with them. 



We had our first ever zone conference and MTC training in the field (its when we go to the office for an MTC like training session), it was pretty nice because I got to see my companion from the MTC again and other sisters I missed.

Something I´ve learned from being here is how important it is to listen, not just to what people are saying, but why they´re saying it too.

We have a baptism coming up Febrero 9 and a family getting baptized Febrero 15. Tambien [Also], Elder Oaks va a venir a mi estaca in febrero entonces [is coming to my Stake in February so] we´re all super excited and there´s going to be a special stake conferencia [conference] that fin de semana for eso [weekend for that]. I think the missionaries are going to get a special meeting with him, which will be really cool.

There´s a picture of me here eating my first ever taco in mexico. 



Also another picture of me with the sister I went on splits with, she speaks less English than my companion, but thankfully by the time we had splits I knew enough to communicate to her in Spanish.



Spanish is hard but I´m learning so fast!

SO the other day my companion was like, ¨Quiere ver [Want to see] a cool way to contact?" and i was like "Sure" and the next person she sees, she says, "Excuse me, can I share a escriptura [scripture]?" and they said. "Yes", and she read a verse from the Libro de Mormon.

Well that got me super excited and later we see these too guys and I said "¿Podemos compartir una escritura?" [Can we share a scripture?],  "Si" and so my companion reads Ether 12:4 and their eyes go super wide, like WOW wide and i dije [said] "Quieren Mas? [Do you want more]" and they were like "SI!!!!!!!!!" and we read verse 6 and then we talked about the Libro de Mormon and gave them each a copy.

Fabulous way to share the scriptures!

Love you all! And everyone do missionary work and spread the Gospel!

Hermana Brooks

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Happy Birthday to me in MEXICO!

I LOVE MEXICO

I don´t even know where to begin

My zone completely surprised me with a pink birthday cake during our zone meeting! I love the missionaries here!


And then on my actual birthday we visited a family in a ward and there was this little old lady, she may just be 70 or 80, and right when she saw us she ran as fast as her legs would carry her and got the pictures of the missionaries that baptized her in 1974 and she starts to tell us about how she´s never been inactive once since her baptism! 



And then one of the members got me a giant chocolate cake!



I had my first real Sunday in the ward. That was so great!

This morning I went to the temple for the first time on my mission! I´m convinced the Mexico Monterrey Temple is the most beautiful in the world, inside and out!

The people here are my favorite, especially the members. And my investigators too, I like them  We have one investigator who we´re teaching English and the gospel at the same time, which is difficult to juggle but I LOVE THAT GIRL so much! I love it here

Sorry I don´t have much time to write!

Love you all! It is such a blessing to be here!

Hermana Julie Brooks

Friday, January 17, 2014

First week in the Mexico!

I´M IN MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mexico mexico mexico mexico mexico

I got here last Monday and that night the new hermanas and I stayed at the house of the mission president. The next day we found out who are new companions are and where we´re serving.

My companion´s name is Hermana Alcocer. She´s 23, from Mexico City, and was baptized 3 years ago. She´s not the greatest at English, but my Spanish isn´t exactly something I brag about either. She´s been out for a year now.

We´re serving in a place called Escobedo, a suburb. We´re both new to the area, entonces [then] it´s interesting how it works because I´m fabulous at directions and my companion is horrible with directions, but she can speak the language whereas I can´t. Our first day in our area we got lost, but it´s ok because I ate my first Mexican tacos and I HAVE NEVER HAD BETTER TACOS IN MY LIFE. I even took pictures.

The members here are AMAZING! Like, I love them so much! They are so kind and considerate and wow.
 
We have some really great investigators. First, we´ve taken over after the Hermanas who were here before us and their only investigators were a 73 year old man, who we taught the other day and long story short he´s getting baptized this Sunday, and a couple who are pretty much the coolest people I have ever met in my life. They have 5 kids, the oldest 2 have been baptized, and the youngest, their 2 month old son, is named Lehi after the Book of Mormon prophet. I am not kidding. They want to be baptized but the problem is that they´re living together and not married and not only do they have to pay to get married but the ¨wife¨was married once before entonces[then] she needs to pay for a divorce. Yesterday, we went to teach them, which is weird because it feels like we´re teaching members, so we taught them about sharing the gospel with their family and friends and right when the lesson ended the wife took us to her mom´s house and we taught her mom and two of her brothers and invited them all to be baptized and they said yes! AMAZING

Our second day, we were looking for the house of the family I just wrote about when someone asked us to come and teach her. Turns out she´s the niece of the ¨husband¨ of that family and has listened to the missionaries and she and her ¨husband¨ want to be baptized, they have to get married first too. (in mexico, it costs 800 pesos to get married, take a moment america and count your blessings.) We invited them to stake conference this weekend and they came to both sessions! They´re so amazing!

Some of the people here are so poor, like I have never personally witnesses poorer circumstances in my life. It is amazing to me to witness their faith and the service they give, like really it´s amazing.

The thing about mexico is it either smells really really really bad, or really really really good. The food here is AMAZING, and smells it. I had no idea corn tortillas actually tasted good. However, Mexicans love their animals. In the past week, I´ve seen about 20 horses, 500 plus cats (dead rotting ones included) and 1000 plus dogs. and there is poop, everywhere. Lots and lots of poop. Entonces[then], either really bad or really good.

Also the milk is amazing. 

Whats really interesting about Mexicans is that in all the ads, the people look Mexican, but all of them are white Mexican. Everyone stares at me wherever I go. Last week, my companion and I are walking down the calle[street] when we start to pass these two woman, and they see me and call all their kids and whole family to come see me and start touching my hair (yes, I was weirded out). This one 20 year old girl comes out of the house (turns out the women were sisters and this is their neice) and no lie she has bleached blonde hair and is wearing blue colored contacts and I think she was wearing make up to make her skin look lighter. I was like a celebrity to her. I offered to teach her English if I could teach her the lessons too and she was so excited! Hooray for gringa-ness! En seriox[Seriously], I am constantly asked if my hair is actually red.

I love Mexico. I love it I love it I love it

And I love all of you! 

Adios from Mexico! (pictures to come in a moment) [I think she had to log off before she could send pictures, because we didn't get any]

Love, Hermana Brooks

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Arrived in Mexico!

Hola! ¿como estan? this keyboard is different.

I arrived in Mexico at about 5 or 6 ayer (yesterday). I don´t know my new companion, I´ll meet her in an hour or so. I don´t even know her name. 

By the way, I´m having Costco pizza for lunch, and I had Costco for breakfast, and lasagna last night. We´re REALLY Mexican here in Mexico.

La noche pasada (last night), the hermanas and I stayed at our Mission President's house. It was really nice. It´s so cold here in Monterrey, it was 1 degree out this morning, which is REALLY cold in Monterrey.

By the way, my Mission president and his wife have been serving for 18 months and the hermanas and I are the last group of missionaries who will have them for our whole missions! They´re super amazing. 

My Preparation dia (day) is on Monday, except once every transfer we use Monday to go to the temple - on those days my Preparation dia is Wednesday. This should happen once every six weeks.
 
They gave us the low down on mail last night. If you send anything to Mexico, put a picture of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on it. Mexicans think if your mail is holy its bad luck to open it. Also, if you send a package, you have to write on the outside whats in it but BE VAGUE. For example, instead of saying, "a skirt, candy, etc..." say something like "missionary supplies" because you do not want someone looking at it thinking, "Oh, my wife could use a skirt or I would like some candy," ¿entiende? (Understand?)

Mexico is amazing, like unbelievable. I can´t wait to email you again. 

I love you all, and yes I´m safe.

Les Amo mucho!!!!

Hermana Brooks

Monday, January 6, 2014

Last week at the MTC



Well, this is about my last week in the MTC, or is it?

Most of my district doesn't have travel plans to leave on Monday like we're supposed to. I'm probably leaving sometime next week, but I don't know when. 

This past week has been a huge testimony builder. I really don't know what to say.

Here are some pictures. 

One is of me and my companion with Hno Savio, who is a great teacher! He showed us a video on missionary work and the Atonement that really showed us how hard missionary work is and how the work of salvation is work and it's a long road. Walking the path that Jesus walked is the best way, but it's also the hard way, and it's hard to be a missionary.




Also a picture of a card I found in the main campus bookstore. I thought it was funny they'd be selling that.



And finally, a picture of me breaking code 33. Code 33 refers to page 33 of the missionary handbook, which by the way I was reading my scriptures one day and as I was in the middle of a verse I started to think of Code 33 and then, as I realized this, I saw that I was reading verse 33 of the section and I was on page 33 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Look it up, it's a pretty clear warning.
But if I had to break code33, i'm pretty happy it was with Elder Clooney. 



I'm so happy to be going to mexico soon! I don't know how ready I am, but I'm so excited.

Well I invite all of you to read the scriptures every night for at least 10 minutes! In the words of one of my teachers, if you are not enjoying your scripture study, it's because you're doing it wrong. Ask yourself, what do I want/need or what does someone else I know want/need and read with the intent to satisfy that desire! I know that when we invite the Lord into our studies, our minds will be opened and edified.

I love the Lord! I know that my mission is a time I can consecrate myself to Him and serve. I invite you all to listen to the Spirit of the Lord. With the Spirit, all things are possible. I've learned that a lot this week.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

I love this so much! I know I have been called of God, and now I need to fulfill my calling.

Love,

Julie

Week 5 at the MTC



WOW

This week has been absolutely amazing! 

I have TONS of pictures to send, and I'm going to tell about my week along with the pictures

The first picture is of my zone at lunch time. It's not with all the Missionaries in my zone, but a lot of them. 



The picture with the older couple and me in it is my Zone with Brother and Sister Dowdle. They're in my branch presidency. Brother Dowdle is a semi-famous guitarist, like all he does for a living is play guitar, which is neat. One of the elders in my district semi-adores him.



The picture with the missionary with the bubble wrap on his head is Elder Goold. He and his companion are such gentlemen, they NEVER let the sisters take their own trays at the cafeteria, but they're still 18 year olds and we still goof off if bubblewrap is involved and I love that picture of him.



The first picture is of when we locked Hermana Jeffery outside in the snow for about 2 minutes. Elder Jones thought it was pretty funny.




The next two are from when we found a snowman and put a tie and a nametag and other accessories on it. Someone who worked at the MTC, Jason, who is kissing the snowman, helped us out a bit. 





The drawings on the board are us having some fun. Elder Thomson is in my district, and it's not a bad drawing of him.



The picture I'm next to is a portrait Elder Richey drew of me, pretty profound.



The picture of me and my companion sitting down is us waiting for Choir to start. We were in the MTC Choir on Christmas Eve. We sang Far Far Away on Judea's Plains and one of the 70 spoke.






These are my Christmas Pictures! We spent Christmas on main campus, and the first picture is me and Hermana Hokanson in front of a Christmas tree in the main lobby. It was so much fun.
Christmas was mostly music, but there was a bit of talent show with things like people playing the piano upside down and yiddish bottle dancing. There was a magic show starring a mongolian missionary, and I couldn't help but think of my Mongolian friends back in Arlington.




The picture of the missionary with the sunglasses is Elder Buchholz. With the exception of Hna Hokanson and Hna Burnett, he's probably my best friend in the MTC. He's going to Argentina on his mission. I feel like that picture describes his personality perfectly. By the way, those are my sunglasses.



The picture of me with the brazilian missionary is me with one of my friends I met on the way down to the MTC. She's serving her mission in temple square, and when we met she spoke spanish and portuguese but no english, and I spoke no spanish. We could barely comunicate, but when we saw each other on Christmas we were able to have a real conversation in Spanglish! Pretty awesome!




Yesterday, Hna Burnett and I, along with a few other missionaries, had to go to Vegas to get our Visas at the mexican consulate. That was absolutely amazing!

In the salt lake airport, we talked to a woman named Maria and long story short she accepted the inivitation to be baptized if she came to know the church was true and she gave us her phone number and address so we could send missionaries to her house! And that was ALL in Spanish too, she didn't speak English!

Other missionaries did fabulous too with sharing the gospel. One of the Elders was talking to this one guy and by the end of the conversation the guy was like, "Can I give you my email? I want to keep in contact with you!" and he gives him a Book of Mormon and the guy was like, "I can keep this? Are you sure? Thanks! I'm definitely going to read it!" Like it was the greatest thing in the world, which it is, of course.

The picture of me in front of the Womens Room is in the Las Vegas Airport, and that is the greatest smelling restroom I have ever smelled in my life. As we were walking towards it, we were like, What is that awesome smell? Turns out it was the bathroom.




The rabbit is also from the airport.



The skyline is Vegas from the airport.



For dinner yesterday, we had dinner in the airport and we got to talking to the waitress, a woman named Valerie. We gave her a Book of Mormon and left her a note, along with an adorably folded up tip, with some scriptures on it about charity and love. We told her the Book of Mormon would make her happy, and she said, "But I already am happy" and Hna Burnett, who was recently baptized, was like, "Honey, you haven't read this book!" Hna Burnett and another Hna went back to talk to her later and she was on her break and she was crying she was so happy and touched by our gift! My only regret is that we didn't get her information so we could send her missionaries and we didn't invite her to baptism, but she said she was definitely going to read the Book of Mormon! Yay!

We also talked to an Iranian woman who was having a hard time learning English and so Hna Burnett gave her a Book of Mormon and was like, "I'm really struggling to learn another language too and when I read this book in that language it helps me so much and I know if you read this Book it will help you to learn English."

Also random people would pay for our food, once without telling us! One person stopped us so he could bear his testimony to us! One of the people who worked at the LV airport took time on her break to take pictures of us all send them to our moms. It was so nice! So much fun!


I forgot! Elder Bednar spoke to us on Christmas, but it was not just any devotional.

First his wife spoke. Then when he got up, he says, "We're going to do a question and answer session, but not the normal way. I have a magic ipad up here and you are going to text me your questions and I'm going to pick and choose which ones to answer. Now I know you all don't have cell phones, and so we're going to pass out 200 cell phones and give you the number to text, and don't you dare text your parents or I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."

He literally did say "I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."

And so a few thousand missionaries from every missionary training center in the world except for 2 started texting an apostle. Absolutely amazing!!!!

I remember the first question was "Why do I feel so inadequate?"

He said, "Because you have some sense of what you have been called to do"

He also said, "Get over yourself! Your mission is not about you!" He also said that the BEST protection from temptation is a correct understanding of who you are. We asked about how to get prayers answered and his wife said that you're more likely to get your prayers answered when you're praying for someone else.

It was just absolutely amazing. Sorry no pictures, but you can't take pictures in that setting.