Quarantine²

Bonjour tout le monde!

Tom bought us Christmas suits!

We got transfer news this past Sunday. Elder Norris and I will be staying here in the area together. And, we will be serving as the Zone Leaders for the El Cajon Zone. I feel very humbled for this opportunity to serve these other missionaries here. Elder Ostheimer from our apartment will be leaving us though to go work in San Diego. We're going to make the change this Saturday. Why not today you ask?

Well, let me write a little story.

So, last Wednesday morning, we got a call from some Elders in our district. They had been exposed to someone who had been exposed to COVID. Thankfully, Elder Norris and I weren't in contact with them. BUT, the Elders we live with were and they had a hand to hand contact giving them mail and such. So we were put in quarantine until today. But wait, there's more. On Tuesday, we met with Steve and his family again. He hadn't read the Book of Mormon which was a real bummer. Anyways, technically we exposed them by like sixth contact, so we thought it best to let them know. We were following up with them and seeing how they were doing on Saturday when we learned that his wife was feeling symptoms... she's also a nurse that works on the COVID floor... so we got put into a quarantine while already in quarantine. So quarantine². Now it lasts until this weekend and we will do the transfer then. Thankfully, no one is feeling any symptoms on our end. Oh, and the governor of California is going to lock down the state again which will be pretty rough again as well. 

So, we have been holding down the fort here with Tom. Thankfully, Tom's backyard is nice, so we'll do studies out there sometimes to clear our head. We also have a ping pong table that we play a little bit on to take breaks as well. So, it definitely could be much worse. That being said, it's still be pretty hard on me and very dark at times. I'm doing much better now, but I found lots of comfort through being grateful and even studying about the creation and how much God has created for us to show His love. I've been trying to replace my "Facebook scrolling" time with "Book of Mormon scrolling" time. It seems to work pretty well :)

What everyone didn't see from the What Child is This video

During quarantine, it has been a little bit more peaceful and so I get to hear the voice of the Lord more often. Also, being called on to be a Zone Leader has been interesting. I already feel so much love for these Elders and Sisters in our Zone and I know that it comes from God and Jesus Christ and that they have given me a little part of their love for their children here.

The district

In other news, I got my first bloody nose ever in my life! I got pretty dehydrated on Sunday and then dinner was a tad spicy. It was such a weird experience having blood come from my nostril.

Me pointing to my bloody nose

Staying sane with God on my side,

Elder Brooks