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. 

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