All of my friends are getting married or engaged.... No no no....Don't you guys know you are supposed to wait until I get home? You have it all wrong... I guess I am kinda sorta happy for you all......
Now that that is out of the way... This week was just grand.
I recently read a talk where someone said, “A mission is like being dipped in a big pot of love!” Whoever said that hit it right on the head. I have never felt so loved, nor have I ever had so much love for people. Love all day, errday. I have come to really love this ward. Crossing my fingers that I can spend my last months here, yes, just yes. My last wish: to die in this area. When I returned to good ole v-town people were wondering how I got so skinny.... Yeah... I didn't realize how much we didn't eat in Kissimmee until I came back here. On more than one occasion this week me and Gruber literally thought we might die from a sudden stomach expansion of Latino goodness, somehow we survived... Somehow our skirts still fit.
Mariel. White never looked so good on anybody. Have I told you how much I love this woman? She holds a very special place in my heart. Maybe we have a special place in hers too because she lets us come over almost everyday and teach her. She also seems to get everything we are saying even when the verb conjugations aren't quite how the grammar book is trying to teach us. She kept thanking Grubs and I for all that we have done for her and I wish you all could have seen the look she had when she came out of the water *priceless*. This is so missionary cliche like, but we didn't do a single thing, it was all Heavenly Father. Somehow these two little west coast girls who grew up in the whitest culture have somehow found theirselves absorbed in a new culture trying to get by with their limited Spanish vocabulary and their love for Latin food. We truly are just instruments in His hands. This is His work. We showed Mariel "Daughters of God" a Mormon message after her baptism and at the end she said ever so excitedly and a tad bit pridefully "soy una mujer Mormona." (I'm a Mormon woman) … I wish you all spoke Spanish so you could understand how certain phrases in Spanish just sound better than English...That was one.
Funeral. Part two. Yes, I attended my second funeral ever in my life. I hardly knew the family. Yes, we had to give a talk. Was it awkward? You betcha.
A scripture that stood out to me this week was in John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but … ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world”. It really hit me this week how set apart from the world we are as missionaries. As followers of Christ in general we are all so different and apart from this world. I'm so grateful to have the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and his gospel.
This week we were talking about how everyone one of us is on this ladder. A ladder leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, but you know what? It doesn't matter where we are on the ladder as long as we are moving up. Sometimes I feel like I'm on the bottom rung, other days I feel like I'm just about to reach the top. No matter I am, or
where we are, God's love for us never changes. Never.
Today is our district p-day and are going to do two of my favorite things: eat sushi and play soccer... Sarcasm on the sushi part.
#gofightwinbarf
When the general authority came to our mission a few weeks ago he said that in order to have one baptism a month, which is our goal here, we need to be finding 16 new investigators a month (4 a week) to accomplish it. Me and Grubs having been praying with so much faith and working so hard to find those people. Cool story! So Mariel, one day after we had finished teaching her a lesson... I think it might have even been about missionary work.. asked us if we could go share a message with her sister who lives in the same apartment complex. Claro que si! We went and now we are working with her. She's a single mom and has expressed to us on more than one occasion she wants to find hope and peace, since she's had a pretty rough life. Who is Mariel? And where did she come from? She is heaven sent.
Well, this transfer is just flying by. Oh man, I have once again been receiving second coming information... What's with this ward!? So naturally I have been having dreams about it. All I can say is bring it on.
Sorry this email is so random. There's a lot of things running through my head. Love you all nonetheless.
Con amor,
Hermana Brooks
Now that that is out of the way... This week was just grand.
I recently read a talk where someone said, “A mission is like being dipped in a big pot of love!” Whoever said that hit it right on the head. I have never felt so loved, nor have I ever had so much love for people. Love all day, errday. I have come to really love this ward. Crossing my fingers that I can spend my last months here, yes, just yes. My last wish: to die in this area. When I returned to good ole v-town people were wondering how I got so skinny.... Yeah... I didn't realize how much we didn't eat in Kissimmee until I came back here. On more than one occasion this week me and Gruber literally thought we might die from a sudden stomach expansion of Latino goodness, somehow we survived... Somehow our skirts still fit.
Mariel. White never looked so good on anybody. Have I told you how much I love this woman? She holds a very special place in my heart. Maybe we have a special place in hers too because she lets us come over almost everyday and teach her. She also seems to get everything we are saying even when the verb conjugations aren't quite how the grammar book is trying to teach us. She kept thanking Grubs and I for all that we have done for her and I wish you all could have seen the look she had when she came out of the water *priceless*. This is so missionary cliche like, but we didn't do a single thing, it was all Heavenly Father. Somehow these two little west coast girls who grew up in the whitest culture have somehow found theirselves absorbed in a new culture trying to get by with their limited Spanish vocabulary and their love for Latin food. We truly are just instruments in His hands. This is His work. We showed Mariel "Daughters of God" a Mormon message after her baptism and at the end she said ever so excitedly and a tad bit pridefully "soy una mujer Mormona." (I'm a Mormon woman) … I wish you all spoke Spanish so you could understand how certain phrases in Spanish just sound better than English...That was one.
Funeral. Part two. Yes, I attended my second funeral ever in my life. I hardly knew the family. Yes, we had to give a talk. Was it awkward? You betcha.
A scripture that stood out to me this week was in John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but … ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world”. It really hit me this week how set apart from the world we are as missionaries. As followers of Christ in general we are all so different and apart from this world. I'm so grateful to have the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and his gospel.
This week we were talking about how everyone one of us is on this ladder. A ladder leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, but you know what? It doesn't matter where we are on the ladder as long as we are moving up. Sometimes I feel like I'm on the bottom rung, other days I feel like I'm just about to reach the top. No matter I am, or
where we are, God's love for us never changes. Never.
Today is our district p-day and are going to do two of my favorite things: eat sushi and play soccer... Sarcasm on the sushi part.
#gofightwinbarf
When the general authority came to our mission a few weeks ago he said that in order to have one baptism a month, which is our goal here, we need to be finding 16 new investigators a month (4 a week) to accomplish it. Me and Grubs having been praying with so much faith and working so hard to find those people. Cool story! So Mariel, one day after we had finished teaching her a lesson... I think it might have even been about missionary work.. asked us if we could go share a message with her sister who lives in the same apartment complex. Claro que si! We went and now we are working with her. She's a single mom and has expressed to us on more than one occasion she wants to find hope and peace, since she's had a pretty rough life. Who is Mariel? And where did she come from? She is heaven sent.
Well, this transfer is just flying by. Oh man, I have once again been receiving second coming information... What's with this ward!? So naturally I have been having dreams about it. All I can say is bring it on.
Sorry this email is so random. There's a lot of things running through my head. Love you all nonetheless.
Con amor,
Hermana Brooks