Here to Stay

Happy New Year everyone! This week has been pretty eventful for me.

New Year's Eve with Hachi
(and Martinelli's)

On Friday, President gave me a call to let me know that I have been permanently reassigned here to San Diego and that I will not be returning to Côte d'Ivoire. I knew that it might happen and that missionaries were returning soon, but I'm glad to have some closure on it. And, I also know that this is where the Lord wanted me to be now. I find it very "coincidental" that this happened on New Year's. It's very symbolic of a new time to continue to serve the Lord in the way I didn't think I would be.

But, on Saturday, we had interviews! President and Sister Giménez came out to one of our stake centers and interviewed all of us and then they both toured all the apartments in our Zone! We started interviews at 10 AM and they weren't finished with touring the apartments until 8 PM. Anyways, both President and Sister Gimenez mentioned that they were happy to be able to have me end my mission while they are there and that they were able to keep me haha. Basically, they said that now I am officially officially a part of the great California San Diego Mission.

President and Sister Giménez visited our house with Tom and it was wonderful to be able to chat to them like good old friends. They are the best. Anyways, in our weekly MLC video call, President said that he would need to share a scripture talking about how to help our apartments. One phrase was "...a house of order..." They have also only visited two zones, one of them being ours  

Apart from that, the works been going. We keep trying to find people, but to really no avail so far. One family we have taught has said that they don't want to do zoom calls (which is basically our only way we can do lessons for the next month while we are on a stay-at-home order). We are also teaching Gusman and his family, but he is having trouble keeping his appointments and such. So we are trying to use every chance we get to find others to teach, messaging on Facebook, interacting in groups, asking members who might be interested, and so forth. We got a referral this past week, but when we texted her she said that she was looking for Christians, not those of the "Norman" faith. We told her that we DEFINITELY believe in Christ, but she never responded...

We celebrated New Year's at 9 PM and clinked some glasses of Martinelli's together haha. It was midnight, Joseph Smith's time!

I'm very grateful for my experiences in Côte d'Ivoire and I'm very grateful to be in such a wonderful mission now doing such a marvelous work. I'm excited for these last 8 months of my mission to be able to continue to serve the Lord. 

Elder Brooks

Our "biker gang" with these new bikes at the Salvation Army

From a hike we did today

Notes from our video call:

One bright spot from being on lockdown the past few weeks - they are saving lots of miles on their car (missionaries have a mileage allotment each month).

When Pres. Gimenez was touring their apartment, he saw that their room has a set of bunks and two more twins.  It's pretty tight quarters.  He told them a story of when he was a firefighter and slept in a room with 20 firefighters - and all those around him snored.  Pres. Gimenez just hit his 6 month mark as mission president.  He and Sis. Gimenez are really trying to know each missionary and where they are serving.  Elder Brooks loves serving with them!

Because Pres. Gimenez is a Seventy, he only serves as a mission president for two years.  That means that most missionaries that arrive while they are there will depart after they leave.  Jonah was one of the first missionaries that arrived after they started, and he will be one of the few that will depart while they are still there.