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.

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!