Merry Christmas from the MTC!

I hope everyone has a great time today, remembering the birth of their Savior, Jesucristo. I know He lives! He is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Friend. Through Him, we can have all of our pains taken away, every little one.

I love you all! 

Merry Christmas!

Hermana Julie Kristen Brooks

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. 

One is of me and my companion hosting. 

One is me, hmo painter, hmo avila, and hma hokanson

this one is me and Hma Mackay

Love you all! Please write me!

Beginning of Week 4 at the MTC

Wow, it's Week 4 already! Este muy loco!

The days feel like eternity, but the weeks are gone in the blink of an eye. 

My Spanish is coming so fast it's a miracle! I can read paragraphs of Spanish now and only not know a few words. It's really nothing short of a miracle. It's funny, before my mission, I never wanted to learn spanish, and I actually went out of my way to not learn spanish, but now I want to learn to speak spanish not so that I can know another language but so I can bring people to Christ, and I'm learning it faster than ever!

But you should know Spanish is the LAST thing I'm learning. If you think that becoming fluent in another language in a few short weeks is whats taking all my time, you'll be shocked to know that's my last priority! One of our teachers gave us a great lesson one day where she didn't use any words, all she did was use pictures and her smile to convey to us her love for Jesus Christ. It was amazing how much God was able to touch our hearts during that lesson and it really showed how Spanish is our last priority. One of my other teachers said that speaking the language doesn't mean being fluent in Spanish, it just means loving the people.

Most of what we're learning here is how to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that people can see and understand why they need the Savior in their lives. If we start telling someone, "We have a prophet in our day. We have the Book of Mormon, which is another Testimony of Jesus Christ." thats a history lesson and it's like, whatever. But if we tell someone, "We have a prophet in our day who gives us guidance on how to better our lives. The Book of Mormon is the word of God that will help you in every aspect of your life." Then people want to know more and start applying the gospel to their lives! 

This past week Elder Quentin L. Cook of Quorum of the Twelve spoke to us. He told us about how each of us are called on our missions: it's pretty cool, it's not a random process at all. 

I invite all of you to either invite someone to meet with the missionaries or, if you're not mormon, to invite the missionaries to your home! I promise you you won't regret it! This is the true word of God: He lives, He loves you personally and because He loves you He has a plan for you to have happiness and joy eternally, starting now, not just after this life. I know this is true! God loves all of you so much!

Merry Early Christmas!

Hermana Julie Kristen Brooks

Week Two at the MTC

Buenos Dias Amigos y Familia! (That's Spanish for good day friends and family:)

Wow, what a crazy 2 weeks it's been. I'm technically in my third week of my mission now. Last week I didn't really get a chance to email because the day I normally would've was Thanksgiving, which is why my message last week was so scatterbrained.

The MTC is incredible! I thought, before I entered the MTC, that upon entering I was leaving the real world and entering some fantasy realm, but only a few hours into the MTC I realized that this IS the real world and I had left behind a fantasy world.

Let me explain. Before entering the MTC, I was very much in my own head. If something didn't really effect me, then I didn't particularly care. But here, it isn't about you, and you can't live as though it is, it's all about helping others and identifying what people need and how you can help them.

This is still definitely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It is constant work, from waking up to going to bed, so with the exceptions of meals and gym time that's about 16 hours of work a day! I thought getting up for Seminary at 5:30 AM was hard in high school, that's nothing compared to waking up at 6:30 here because you're always working!

I wouldn't trade it for anything though. You may be wondering now what I'm working on for 16 hours a day. Spanish is honestly the smallest part of that. I would say only about 15% of the time my teachers are trying to teach us Spanish, and even then that's not really their goal.

My purpose as a missionary is to invite people to come unto Christ and receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I have learned that I don't need to know how to speak Spanish to invite people to come unto Christ, Spanish will only provide a way for me to do that.

One of my teachers said something that I really liked: he said that speaking their language doesn't mean being fluent, it means loving the person you're talking to.

What we've been working on the most lately is how to, from a small conversation, identify what they really want and need in life and how to teach the gospel in a way that it applies to them. For example, if someone is really concerned about their family, it's best to teach in a way that highlights how through Jesus Christ families can be together forever and live in eternal happiness. Or if someone feels alone, it's best to teach how after you are baptized, you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and can always have the Holy Ghost to be with you to comfort you and guide you to happiness, no matter how hopeless you feel. 

What really hit me hard about this was the first day we were practicing teaching someone who was pretending to be someone interested in the church and one sister was trying to tell him about Jesus Christ and he said to her, "You don't care about me, all you want is to share your religion." It really made me realize that these are people we're teaching, not lessons.

Our teachers are so great here, and they care so much about us! A lot of times our teachers will pretend to be people who aren't members and we have to teach them, all in Spanish. (I joke that all our teachers actually have split personality disorder). We haven't taught one lesson in English.

It snowed about 8 inches on Tuesday and this morning in was 1 degree Fahrenheit outside. You might be jealous, but my companera and I constantly think of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies while we're outside. Also Tuesday we had a speaker come and he was AMAZING! I remember afterwards our district got together and talked about what he said and everyone had a different favorite part. It was really great. 

Some pictures are attached. The one of the guys tying their ties has a bit of a story behind it. The Elders in my Zone were really envious of the way one of our teachers ties his ties, and so the picture is him teaching them. He's the one front and center.

Also there's a picture of me and my companion in the snow ;)

I am so happy to be here! This is experience is amazing and I wouldn't change it for anything for anything! I invite you all to come unto Christ! Seguira el ejemplo de Jesucristo!

Adios,

Hermana Julie Brooks

P.S.

Please send me mail! I love getting mail! There are a few ways to write me.

My email, which you hopefully have: julie.brooks@myldsmail.net

 DearElder.com

-click on Provo West MTC and send me a letter (the unit number is 880)

- Dear Elder is completely free!

And snailmail, which is 

Hermana Julie Kristen Brooks

JAN 06 MEX-MONW

2023 N 900 E Unit 880

Provo, UT 84602

That's how to get to me until January 6.

I prefer snail mail and DearE

lders

Thanks all! Love to hear from you!

First Letter from the MTC!

Hola Amigos y Familia!

Como estan? I miss you all!

This past week has been crazy and incredible. I flew out to Utah on Tuesday, where I stayed the night with my friend Gina. Gina dropped me off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo the next day. 

Well you can only imagine my surprise when right after getting my nametag and my books, they put me on a bus! That's right, I'm at the new MTC campus, the West Campus. 

West Campus is 100% Spanish speaking, which is really nice because you can speak spanish to anyone. You can't do that on Main campus, where they're learning 50 plus languages. My district consists of eight missionaries: 4 elders and 4 sisters, myself included. Four of us are from Utah, and the rest are from California, Washington, Idaho/Minnesota, and Arlington Va (Me). One was baptized about a year and a half ago.

Mi Companera's name is Hermana Hokanson (Sister Hokanson). She's from Utah and did a year of school at Utah State. We get along great! She's awesome, and I do her hair almost every day.

The MTC is absolutely insane. I can honestly say that this experience is already the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life, and already among the most rewarding. The teachers here are so great! I can´t even begin to explain it!

Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving up at Main Campus and Elder Russell M. Nelson, one of the apostles, spoke to us! It was pretty amazing. He said that, as missionaries, our best friends should be the ward mission leader and the ward family history consultant. His wife spoke too: she said that something that really helps her is reading at least one page a day from The Infinite Atonement by Tad Callister.

Now something I know you're probably all wondering about, como esta mi espanol? Esta que bueno! Amazing! I´ll admit it, I´m not fluent, but I have learned so much Spanish since being here that it is nothing short of a miracle.

Honestly, the MTC is like bootcamp, getting ready to go out into combat (ie the mission field) and it´s so hard, but so incredibly worth it!

One Day More

My invitations to my farewell.

Today, I gave my farewell at church. I didn't say much of what I was planning to say, but I did my best to listen to the Spirit tell me what to say. I did cry, which surprised me. I cried almost the whole time.

After church, my dad gave me a father's blessing. It was amazing and empowering! I am so grateful not just for the restored priesthood, but to have a righteous priesthood holder in my home, and for that person to be my dad. I'm so grateful that he served a mission, and now I can too. I'm so happy!

I just want to make it clear that I KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE! I need to tell someone about this! That is why I'm serving a mission!

This week, I enter the Provo Missionary Training Center. I'll be a full-time missionary!

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Hola! Guess What??????

I have 4 weeks left! Count them! Uno, dos, tres, cautro!!!!

Unbelievable!

I guess it's time to update how I'm doing on my missionary goals:

Goal #1: Read all four standard works before my mission.

FINISHED!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scriptures are true! I learned so much and I'm so glad I have the scriptures! They are the word of God and of infinite worth!

Goal #2: Learn Spanish

I'll admit it, I've been slacking! I need to do so much more Spanish! I honestly thought I'd never have to learn Spanish. Boy, was I wrong!

On a side note, you think about how Joseph Smith had to learn Ancient American to translate the plates, but did Moroni have to learn English before he visited Joseph Smith on September 21st, 1823? Would people like Alma, Daniel, Moses, or Aaron have to learn English in order to teach my ancestors in the Spirit World? I mean, I know Spanish will come in handy after my mission, but I really believe that great things await me, greater than I'll ever know.

Goal #3: Go to the temple!

I am now endowed! Yay!

Me after becoming endowed. 

And guess what? The second time I ever went to do a session, I did it in behalf of Filomena Fortannascere, my great great grandmother!!!!! I have no shortage of relatives I can do the work for!

On a side note, I've also done a session in Spanish. It was hard, but AMAZING!

Goal #4: Do More Family History

Yesterday, I was reading 1st Nephi 3. You all know it (or if you don't, I invite you to know it: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/3?lang=eng).

Remember when Nephi says "I will go and do the thing the Lord commands?" What was this thing the Lord commands? Backtrack to verses 3 and 4.

For behold, Laban hath the record of the Jews and also a genealogy of my forefathers, and they are engraven upon plates of brass.

Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness.

Seek the records! What were these records? The scriptures and his genealogy! The scripture we all love and call upon when we struggle is about being obedient to the call to seek out our genealogy (and the scriptures;)

When my dad joined the church, there were maybe two temples east of the mississippi river in the states at least. Now, temples seem to be popping up left and right! Why? 

Because it's all part of the hastening of the work! 

More people than ever are accepting the gospel on this side of the veil. 

Don't you believe that more people than ever must be accepting the gospel on the other side of the veil too? Those missionaries in the Spirit World are like ours here: their numbers are the greatest they've ever been! They're working tirelessly to bring souls to Christ! When someone accepts, they can't just "be baptized" like our investigators on our side of the veil. They have to wait for their name to reach the temple, and in many cases, they have to wait for their descendants to go and do the work for them! 

In the words of President Kimball, "It is VITAL that we serve them!"

Joseph Smith said the greatest work we could ever do was to preach the gospel. It has also been said in the church that the greatest work is to seek out our dead and bring their names to the temple! How can both of these be the greatest?

In the words of President Boyd K. Packet, "they're the same work!"

If you are despairing that you feel you can't do missionary work, you can! Talk to your friends and neighbors. In the words of Preach My Gospel, talk to everyone!

But more than that, can you imagine if you had a family member in jeopardy? What would you do to rescue them? Would you go to the ends of the earth? Would you lay down your life for them?

I think we can learn from the example of Naaman in the Old Testament. Naaman was a leper who was willing to go the ends of the earth to cleanse his leprosy. But when the prophet sent a messenger to tell him to wash in the river Jordan seven times, he was offended and he wouldn't do it. One of his servants asked him, "Naaman, if you would do something big, why won't you do something little?" Naaman was humbled and went and washed seven times in the river. He was clean.

We would often go to the ends of the earth for our children, can you imagine your ancestor wondering why you won't do a simple google search for them? Don't let them wonder.

Remember, family history work and missionary work both need to be hastened! Family History work is missionary work! There are more temples than ever because we needed to be prepared for all the people who would accept the gospel on the other side of the veil! Take your family to the temple!

Today, I had a conversation with a random stranger. His name was Carl. Carl and I are both descendants of Popke Popma and Pieterje De Beor. I found out that Carl was a convert to the church, he and his wife had served a mission, and his grandson is on a mission right now. How amazing is it that? This is the Lord's work!

Did you know that when Joseph Smith said, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause?" he was speaking in reference to baptism for the dead?

That was something I learned whilst reading all four standard works. It all fits together.

Tips From My Own Family History Research:

1. FamilySearch & Ancestry.com vs. Google: FamilySearch and Ancestry.com tend to be more general, things like censuses, whereas doing a google search you can find a lot of websites very specific to certain areas. When you do a Google Search, type in the name of the place and "genealogy" or "family history" after it. Here are a few that have really helped me:
• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~itacsnf/index.html
• http://iagenweb.org/marion/
• http://conneautohio.us/contents.htm
2. Talk to your relatives! They know a lot!
3. When you can, always try to look at the original document and not the indexed file. Many times, there are things on the original document, such as occupation, cause of death, birthplace of parents, etc, that won't be on the indexed file.
4. Many records are NOT indexed, sadly, but are online in the form of "browse images" Basically, you have to go page by page. It's tedious, but SO WORTH IT! If you are doing this, go to the back and look for an index first, many of these have some kind of index.
5. PRAY and have HOPE! Know that when someone accepts the Gospel, God prepares a way for them to receive exaltation. The more ready your ancestor is for baptism, the easier it will be to find them!

I know this Church is True! In the name of Jesus, my Lord and Master, Amen!