"Hermana Brooks, Predicad Mi Evangelio": Week 4 at the MTC

Hola!

This past week has been amazing! I don't know where to begin!

Monday, my whole district except for one other hermana, Hermana Burnett, went to Vegas to get their visas, so Hma Burnett and I had one on ones or two on ones the whole day with our teachers and it was amazing! I learned a lot about Charity. I expressed to one of my teachers how much I just wanted to love people after having barely met them, and not just love them, but genuinely love them. He then asked me:

"What is Charity?"

"The pure love of Christ." (Book of Mormon, Moroni 7. Also New Testament 1st Corinthians 13)

"Yes, but what is charity?"

I wasn't quite sure what answer he was fishing for, but then he asked me.

"What is the first and greatest commandment?"

"To love the Lord your God with all your might, mind, and strength."

"Exactly! So what is charity?"

It was then that I realized that that charity is not only Christ's pure love, but purely loving Jesus Christ. He then explained to me that the way to obtain a pure love for others is by coming to love Christ purely and as you come to love Christ He will fill with with a perfect love for others. That was so amazing!

Yesterday, it was two of our teachers last days permanantly. All of our teachers are BYU students, and a lot of them are leaving after this week for Christmas break and some of them are leaving permanantly because they're graduating or something else. Here's some pictures of my teachers and us.

The blond hermano is Hermano Painter. The one with dark hair is Hermano Avila. The hermana is Hermana Mackay. They're all amazing. Hmo Painter has a really soothing voice and we call him the voice of the Spirit and Hmo Avila has a super deep voice and we call him the voice of God. Hmo Avila is the one we convinced to write a book, which I'm already highly recommending to all of you. Unfortunately, Hmo Painter's last day was yesterday and now Hmo Avila has his own district so we need to try to kidnap him. Hermana Mackay is getting married this weekend and then starts student teaching next semester so has to quit.

Hermana Mackay taught us a lot about how the Spirit needs to be the teacher yesterday. Another of our teachers, Hermano Snyder, taught us about how important pauses are.

Also yesterday we did hosting, which is the picture of me and my companion with the "HOST" nametags. Basically, as missionaries enter the MTC, we help them get to their rooms and classrooms, and it was really fun to see all the new missionaries coming in. I had one hermana from Hawaii who was not dressed for cold weather.

Tuesday night we had a devotional where Ronald Rasband from the Presidency of the 70 came and spoke to us. My companion and I snagged seats in the second row. At one point, he asked a question about the song Far Far Away on Judea's Plains and I nodded because I knew the answer and he saw and points to me and says, "What was it Sister?" I said, "It was Music" So I was pretty elated about that.

I love being the MTC! This is greatest thing ever! I can't wait to get to Mexico and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone there! It's so amazing!

Hermana Brooks.

PS explanation on the pictures.

One is of an elder eating apple pie with ranch on it. His companion challenged him to it.