The "Wonderful" and "Refreshing" Power of The Book of Mormon.

The weeks are flying by!!!

This past week was a little slower though. Elder Day and I have been pretty busy with visiting and teaching others. 

Elder Day and I

Sadly, our church attendance this week was very low because our church got changed to online only pretty quickly which was unexpected and changed it up a lot for us. But, I wanted to share a sweet miracle that has been in the making for the past month!

So we made a FB post in January about what people loved about their families. We had one lady, Jennifer, like the post, so we sent her a message. She responded, we chatted, and ended up talking about family history. Later, she brought up the church, and she was interested in learning more. She joined on our zoom church once and this past week we had a voice call with her, talking to her more about the church. Our return call fell through sadly, but it has been a miracle to see how Facebook can be used to helping us share the gospel. We still have in person interactions every once in a while, but overall we are doing good, trying to find people in many ways.

I was able to have some exchanges this past week where I learned a lot. Especially about relaxing when it is time to relax. It has helped me so much during these busy times. 

Hachi invaded one of our meetings!

I also feel so blessed to carry such a powerful, yet simple, message to all. I love teaching with Elder Day. We have been focusing recently with the Book of Mormon with the people we teach. It is such a powerful tool and I love hearing how others describe the spirit associated with it. Some I heard this week were "wonderful" and even "refreshing." I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that when we reach out to God for help, even for just an inkling of a witness, we will get one! The small prick in our hearts from the Holy Ghost helping us to know that these things are true will change our life. 

Elder Brooks

Also, we got to go to the USS Midway today!

The Midway!

Part of the Crew, Part of the Ship

Lunch today provided by Tom!

Notes from our video call:

The lower decks of the Midway were closed but they were able to tour the upper two decks.  They found a plane that is the same model that Tom flew when he was in the Navy.

The mission is losing 15 missionaries next week but gaining 30.  They will be up to 270 missionaries in the mission.

When Four General Authorities speak to you... (don't worry, it's good this time)

Gluten Free Oreos that I used to start conversations on Facebook 😎

I can't fathom that it is P-day again (super typical missionary thing to say, but it's the truth  🤷‍♂️)

We got to see many miracles this past week. We got to start teaching another man, named Matt. He is the friend of a member and so we had a lesson all together. We taught the first lesson about the Restoration of the gospel. Later on, Matt came to church and we read from the Book of Mormon with him afterwards. And, not only that, but we had six total people come to church. We had 4 people in person, and then two watched online! One of them was a lady we had contacted and talked to through Facebook! It is truly amazing to see how the Lord works. 

But probably one of the greatest highlights of my week was being able to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. Elder Stevenson, Bishop Causée, and Elder Whiting spoke to our mission for a couple of hours on Saturday (don't worry, all good things, all good things). They spoke to us about the examples of President and Sister Gimènez, the handbook, the scriptures (especially the Book or Mormon), and PMG. Elder Stevenson said that all we need are those things to guide us in this work. 

Sometimes, I would forget that it was live and not some Missionary Devotional, but then other missionaries from our mission would come on screen and I was really confused before realizing it was live again haha. 

I really enjoyed hearing from them and being able to have that experience. 

That pretty sums up this week! I've been enjoying my time as a missionary here. Elder Stevenson told us that missionary reassignments were done in the same manner that original assignments were done, but revelation. I know that that is true, that I'm right where I am supposed to be, to help these people and serve others here in the great Granite Hills ward. I am so thankful for Christ's Atonement and the blessings that it grants us. I know that we are truly strengthened when we come unto Him and pray for strength.

Elder Brooks

Fish Tacos for dinner!

"Hark, all ye nations!"

Hello Everyone! We have had an amazing week with lots of miracles here in the service of the Lord. 

San Diego Sunset!

I love working with Elder Day. We work so hard and get lots accomplished, not matter how busy our days may be. 

Our crowded desk.

We've been really focusing on working with our members. We've been pushing them hard and asking them to invite their friends to meet with us. This past week we had the first lesson with a lady that was invited by a member! Her name is Santa and she has recently been elected to the Ugandan parliament, so that's been pretty cool to talk to her and get to know her AMAZING story. Her son is in our ward and so she has a tightknit family already in the ward. The lesson went great. We've now been able to meet with members outside their homes and so we met with her at a member's home. Later, she was able to come to church and she said she read the Book of Mormon too! It's been great to teach her. 

We also had more lessons with Trenton and Gusman. Trenton is still in high school and is beginning to love the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson yesterday just reading 1 Nephi 1 and discussing it. He has a sincere interest in it and it's fun to teach someone our own age. 

Gusman is progressing little by little. We've taught recently about faith and using James 2 and Alma 32 to discuss it and it has gone well, but we hope to see better progress in the future. 

We had a great week, but our Zone had a rough one. We had multiple people who wanted to be baptized push back their date or stop meeting with us altogether. So we've been trying to put our faith and trust in God and in Jesus Christ. Ironically enough, I actually got asked to give a talk on Sunday about that very topic.

Here's a fun story. On church on Sunday we had a man come to church, named Cesar. He is African and speaks French. He is also a pastor for his own church, but came to our sacrament meeting. He asked to bear his testimony in French. I am the only one who speaks French, so I translated for him! He bore a beautiful testimony about trusting in God and ... the gift of tongues is real. 

The missionaries with Santa, Cesar, and Bob (Santa's son).

Our outdoor church!

I have really loved this work. Especially working closer with the ward and the members has helped to grow my roots here. It makes transfers hard, but it also makes the joy of friends that much better. One of the added benefits of serving here is that I can come back almost anytime! In comparison, a weekend trip to Western Africa is a little more difficult in some ways. 

I know that God helps to qualify those He calls. I have seen many of my weaknesses this past week, but I have also learned more about how to overcome them by trusting and seeking counsel from God. One song that I've been loving recently is:

"Hark, all ye nations!"

Elder Brooks

Notes from our video call:

A lot of missionaries are going home or going back to their original assignments.  The San Diego Mission usually has 180 missionaries.  There were 250 at the peak last summer.

California is allowing church meetings to be held inside again!

He found Gluten Free Oreos!  They will actually help with the missionary work.  He is in some local gluten free groups on facebook and now he can post about it and start conversations.

Je fus sidéré!

(I was flabbergasted!)

This past week I found the new word "sidéré" in my language study and thought it was pretty fun, so I decided to include it here!

That being said, I am still pretty blown away from this past week. We were so busy and I got stressed out from time to time, but somehow we were able to get everything done and get it all figured out. I really think it amazing how when we do what the Lord asks, things just work out and we get the privilege of seeing His hand in these little miracles.

A view of part of our area.

You may ask why we are so busy, so I thought it might be cool just to let you know what our days look like. We of course do our studies every day (usually takes three hours, one for personal, one for companionship, and one for our language). As Zone Leaders, we also get mail from the mission office and take it to our missionaries each Wednesday and it takes some time to track everyone down, at least a couple of hours. On Thursdays, we volunteer at the Salvation Army for two hours and then have our weekly planning in the afternoon, but we had to work around a Zone Council all together that day as well. We got to give a training to the Zone about how we can receive personal revelation and the Spirit was very strong with us then. On Friday, we have District Councils to attend. We have two districts in our Zone and so we get to attend both since they are both virtual and President has asked the us to do both too! On Saturday, we got to make and deliver cookies to our members. We have been really trying to build our relationship with them and build trust between us. On Sunday, we have lots of meetings to attend to, including Ward Council, Sacrament Meeting, extra meetings, and even a weekly MLC video call. Sorry if that's a lot, but I thought it could be interesting to see what our days are like during COVID. Oh yeah, and we also teach our lessons and teach members every night over zoom or now in person outside!!

This past Monday was also Zone Conference. We had an absolutely wonderful time. We aren't really allowed to get together in person often, so Zone Conference has always been one of my favorite days of the transfer while being here. We are socially uplifted, spiritually uplifted, and temporally uplifted with food :) We also had the opportunity to do a musical number as well. Our mission has a mission song, so we got together a Zone choir of sorts to do it! I got to play the piano, despite the wind blowing the music away haha. It's a song called a Marvelous Work, using words and phrases from D&C 4. For the last verse, the Spirit of God is sung over it and its pretty powerful. I have loved being able to grow my piano playing abilities while on my mission.

The Zone of El Cajon at Zone Conference!

For me, I really enjoy being a missionary. I'm not perfect at all, but I enjoy growing and learning with Elder Day and the other Elders here too. I feel so full of joy because of the gospel. The world is such a crazy place, but the gospel and specifically the Atonement of Jesus Christ can make it all fair. One of my questions this past week was between the difference of repentance and the remission of sins. It was insightful to learn about how repentance and living the gospel of Jesus Christ makes it possible to receive a remission for our sins and bring in that lasting happiness that Alma the younger felt when he repented and covenanted with God to do good and serve Jesus Christ. We can of course do the same in our own lives.

Elder Brooks

More pictures from Zone Conference:

Zone Conference outside in multiple tents.
Elder Brooks is in the back center in the gray suit.