July 11, 2016 email

This was probably one of the most stressful weeks ever but it was evened out by some pretty neat experiences! 

So we spent most of the weekend with the youth in the area helping out at their youth conference it was missionary themed and so they wanted us there to show them what missionaries are really like and let them know that we aren’t as awkward as they may think... but I don’t know maybe we are and I just cant tell anymore. 

It was neat to be able to answer their questions and concerns about missions I think my favorite question was one of the girls asked if missionaries are allowed to wear make up which sis Demuth and i were both currently wearing.. we must have been lookin a little rough that day I guess. But it was awesome to see how willing the youth were to share the gospel and how much it meant to each of them! 

Oh also at the youth conference we got to sit and listen to Clayton Christensen it was amazing he is so nice and so knowledgeable. 

This week we also drove to Canton, CT for an event and so of course we stopped by the constructions site to the new Hartford Ct temple! its looking so good and the open house for it is coming up so soon apparently this transfer they are calling all the sisters who are going to be serving there and training them on what they will be doing and they are having some sisters from the NY visitors center come and help too!

Saturday night we went to Providence RI and it was my first time being in the actual city and it was so cool!!! It is such a hipster town tons of art everywhere and the church is at the top of an office building so we set up one the street and in the building and street contacted and there were tons of people there because there was a fire/water festival on the river near by. So we are just contacting people on the street and this little 10 year old member was hanging out with us and helping and she contacted this guy and he just kind of shooed her away and so sis Demuth and i went up to contact him and he was like "I’m catholic, so you probably know I’m all set" and so we told him how we have a ton of converts to our church who were catholic and it kind of interested him, then sister Demuth went and contacted some other guy but I stood there and i talked with Patrick about our believes in God and the meaning of life for almost an hour, but it only felt like 10 minutes it was crazy he had so many questions and somehow i was able to answer most of them  it was really cool, one of the most interesting things we talked about was he told me he had so many questions and he just couldn’t find answers so he was just content with not knowing and when I told him that I believe we can receive answers to any of our questions he was really curious, so I introduced the Book of Mormon and told him that it contains a history of people in ancient America and how the best part of the book is when Jesus visits America, which he just couldn’t believe so I told him where to find it and he said he would read it! It was also kind of funny in the course of our conversation he probably said the F word like 100 times and it was wicked awkward cause he would say it and all the missionaries around us would just look at me and laugh. But then he asked me, yup that’s right he asked me if he could give me his email (if you were ever a missionary you would understand how rare that it) so i could continue to answer his questions, and I asked if I could give it to one of our members who is a convert from Catholicism and he said sure and said he would write down his questions and come back tomorrow.

Well on Sunday I spoke in church about missionary work, pretty fitting, it was good though this other guys spoke who was going on a mission, he is from china and has only been a member of the church for 1 year and he was so nervous because it was his first talk and his farewell talk but he did so great he talked about how there are 3 different conversions to the church love, service and doctrine, he joined the church because of love for the people and gained one of the doctrine and now he is going to serve a mission thus covering all three. 

Key principle:

The best weapons are given to those on the front lines of the battle or in other words the spirit is strongest with those who are in the world sharing the gospel.

-Clayton Christensen 

I want to give you all a take 5 challenge which I extended to the ward that i spoke in this week

-take 5 minutes to share the gospel each week

-take 5 minutes this week to get to know someone a little better/serve them in a simple but meaningful way 

i promise it will help you feel better this week, love you all and I wish you the best

p.s. dad the subject line this week was one of those church signs

     XOXO

-Sister Sophie Brooks

July 11, 2016 photos

July 4, 2016 email

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Worcester Spanish sisters which is always wicked fun because I get to learn more Spanish, its funny though because i will say a few phrases that i know in lessons and then people think i speak Spanish so they just talk to me and i just nod and smile cause half the time i don’t know what they are saying.

So we got a new member of our zone this week her name is sis Lambert, she is from Massachusetts but was serving a mission in Mexico when she broke her wrist and so she came home to get surgery and now she is doing a mini mission with the Spanish sisters until she is all healed!  She has some crazy stories from Mexico its so sketchy she said that each week they had to report on how many people died in their area! 

While on exchanges we went to visit this family and their kids were crying and running all over the place and the parents were getting frustrated and then one of the sisters i was with suggested that we sing a song.. which i thought was kind of weird but we did it anyway and all of a sudden the kids stopped and just sat and listened, it was a really cool experience, music really does bring the spirit and kids are way more spiritual than we realize. 

Pretty cool thing we found out this week is that there is a member in our ward from China, Brother Chen and he told us about some of his friends from China who are famous conductors and pianists who found out about the church by hearing the Mormon tabernacle choir and have been learning a little here and there and they have decided they want to be baptized, but you cant be baptized in China and they have decided to come here to Boston! So they come July 22 and we get to teach them with the Chinese elders and they are scheduled to be baptized on July 30!!!!! I am so excited! But the only thing is transfers are coming up on July 20 and i have a very high chance of being transferred since i have been here for 4 transfers, so i may not get to teach them which would be really sad. 

We were going out to ice cream to celebrate sis Demuth's 11 month mark and we were walking down the main street and all of a sudden this guy just stops us and he was like who are you and what are you selling? (he saw our name tags) so anyway he talks to us forever we fund out he is a sales man and he gave us all these pointers on how to contact people it was pretty funny he made me pretend to contact him he said my sales skills were really good (thanks dad) and then proceeded to tell me how i could do better if i looked at his "creative eye" (whatever that means) anyway then he told us about this book called "power verse force" and told us to read it, cause it was the best book he ever read. So then we asked if because he shared his favorite book if we could share ours (the book of Mormon of course) we asked him if we could have his address to drop it off the next day and to our surprise he actually gave us his real address! so we dropped it off with brother Dowling, which he loved because he is a big sports fan and recognized bro Dowling from channel 5, had a lesson and picked up him and his girlfriend as new investigators! It was really cool he said he was super interested and was going to read the whole thing! 

I really hope I don’t leave cause this area is popping like popcorn on an apricot tree! 

We set up and open house in Cambridge with PVC which was fun then we gardened at a the Ramsays, we were just with the husband because his wife is in Utah with their daughter who found out she has cancer so she is with her for treatments, pretty sad! The ward fasted for them on Sunday

Sunday was crazy! We went to church then we took a sister to Scituate Rhode Island and picked up another sister there (she is going home) then we drove to canton Connecticut and dropped off some displays then we drove to the mission home had dinner and went to the fireworks by the mission home! They were so good! 

Monday July 4th! Woke up at 5 this morning picked up president, took the sister going home to the airport, drove president home, drove back to Boston, got on the T and went to the old state house watched the reading of the deceleration of independence (lots of confetti and lots of people), took the T to the prudential had lunch on the top of the HUB (lobster rolls  yum) , then on the T again to the north end for the famous Mikes vs. Modern pastry and tried the two best bakeries in Boston Mikes Pastries and Modern Pastries both known for their cannolis naturally we got one of each and compared the conclusion was......drum roll.... any cannoli is a good cannoli but i think I liked modern pastry just a tiny bit better. All in all it was a really fun and patriotic day! Everyone is Boston is dressed in red white and blue and what better place to be on the fourth of July then where it all began!  

Key Principle:

Ether 2:12

The improbability of America gaining independence was so incredible that there is no way that God wasn’t helping, he created the perfect climate for the restoration of His church on the earth today. God blessed America. 

"Religious freedom is woven into the soul of America" 

-Elder Christofferson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjntXYDPw44

July 4th, 2016 photos

June 27, 2016 email

This week was so fun! 

Monday was zone pday and we all tie dyed shirts together

Tuesday we did a big street contacting event in Quincy with the PVC and we helped the elders there get some really good potential investigators 

Wednesday Sister Demuth and i had the opportunity to go to the temple with the Walters... yes the Walters from my last area! They were a couple that we helped to come back to church and this past week they were married in the temple!  It was so good to see them! They kept saying how grateful they were to me and Sister Williams for helping them come back, it felt so good to see how much they had changed and how much happier they were because they had been living the gospel principles. Ruthy kept saying how much she loved the temple and how she couldn’t wait to come back and how she felt safe there like she didn’t need to have her "guard up."

Saturday we drove for 7 hours! We drove to Cape Cod then Ct. to get some displays we had left there for a wedding and then home 2 hours. It was a little rough cause I have been kind of sick this week so the driving wasn’t too fun but the cape was awesome! We were on the cape for a branch picnic they had and it was sis Demuths last area so she got to see everyone! We set up our Jesus Christ display under a pavilion in the middle of the woods by a lake, they had a bunch of non-members there who are going to start meeting with the missionaries now so it was really neat to get to know them! 

When we were on the cape we also went by a local store called the cape cat, it is owned by a member who is slightly crazy but he is so nice and loves missionaries! he gave us free cape cat shirts! We also drove by the place/boat where the movie the finest hours is based off of! 

Key Principle 

Alma 62:41 Attitude is everything 

Let your trials humble you not harden you

Much love

     XOXO

Sister Sophie Brooks

June 27, 2016 photos

June 20, 2016 email

Hello everyone!

Well another week in the life of a sister missionary!

Last Monday we picked up a new investigator, she was a referral from a less active member, her name is Clodagh, she has had a really rough life before and was heavily involved in drugs and stuff like that. We were able to teach her just out on the street because she said her mom didn’t want us in her house, but it went really well we set a baptismal date for her for July 9, which was great and she really wants to be baptized but she didn’t make it to church and its been really hard to get  ahold of her… so that is really frustrated because the gospel could help her so much!

We also went and visited Maureen this week she is still just as sassy and sarcastic as ever but she came to church again! She hadn’t been for a while but she came and loved it as usual she is such a dry Mormon!

Zone conference this week with Elder Perkins was so cool! Everyone was suppose to prepare a 4 minute talk on the Holy Ghost and a 10 minute restoration lesson and he called up some people to go in front of everyone! Luckily i did not get called on! But everyone who did, did great! It was so cool to have him there, he really is called of God! He told us about many experiences he has had while being in the 70 where he could see Gods hand in his life and in the life of the apostles. He also told us how they choose where everyone serves their mission it was really cool to hear that and realize that our calls are from God! He also attended our MLC the next day so we did like 14 hours of sitting which was rough but super spiritually uplifting! He also answered lots of questions and he did so with the scriptures he was such a scriptorian! Then we had interviews with president the next day and the STLs and ZL have to give a training during interviews so we took our zone outside, since we had been sitting so much, and we practice street contacting with each other and ended up contacting someone across the street from the mission home it was fun! Our zone is awesome!

We went to Brockton this week and did a cool presentation with the youth on Palmyra, they are going there this summer for youth conference and aren’t even excited!? Crazies! So we tried to pump them up a little. 

In Ashford we set up a booth at a street festival it was really fun! We contacted so many people and it was wicked hot! I talked to this agnostic guy for like 30 minutes it was so frustrating! He just kept saying that God isn’t necessary but if I could prove to him that there is a God without using books or prayer then he would believe, I realized that really the only way we know is through the Holy Ghost, prayer and the Book of Mormon that’s why its so important to have a testimony of them. If we truly are searching for God we will find Him. People hearts are so hard… 

On Saturday all of our plans cancelled even our event in Providence (there were shooting threats) so we got to work in our area for a whole day it was so nice! We gave out a Book of Mormon to a preacher and he said he would read it! 

Two churches are so long and tiring! But it was a good father’s day we “tie attacked” President and some people in our ward it was fun! We also made some treats for a less active guy who’s family aren’t members, it was so sad we drove up and he was sitting on his porch alone on fathers day while his family was inside. His wife doesn’t like us but we can tell he likes when we come over. 

Oh man we have so many fruit flies in our apartment they “bug” us so much! Any ideas on how to get rid of them? 

Key Principles: 

· Alma 26:12  “do your duty that is best, to the Lord leave the rest”

                                    -Longfellow

· “Work like its all up to you, pray like its all up to Him” 

· Faith(Action+Trust+Patience)=Miracles 

June 20, 2016 photos

June 13, 2016 email

This week we had a lot of fun and got a lot done! 

Sister Alger one of the senior missionaries gave everyone in our district a clicker... what is a clicker? Well its a concept that her friend Hillary Weeks came up with, she heard that on average we have over 300 negative thoughts a day so she decided to count them and what she realized was she started to feel depressed and it was really taking a toll on her, so she decided to start counting her happy thoughts and she felt so much more confident, happier and just had a positive, glass half full attitude. So we got clickers and started clicking away, since we spend so much time in the car it was a really fun way to stay positive and have happy thoughts, every time sis Demuth clicked hers i wanted to click mine so I thought a happy thought and boom i had like 200 happy thoughts counted by the end of the day! Find something to "click" about this week. 

We got some new missionaries this week and so we spent a lot of time helping out at the mission home with the departing missionaries and the new ones too! it was so fun to welcome the new missionaries they are so excited to serve! Whenever there are new missionaries part of their "orientation" is we take them tracking in Boston Commons or Harvard square, we basically just take them and drop them on the side of the road with some pass along cards and say we will pick them up in 20 minutes.... its pretty rough but it really breaks em in. I remember doing it and it was hard people weren't nice and it is such a shock coming from the MTC but they were all troopers. On the drive back one of them asked how do you deal with all the rejection, and its hard it took me a long time to learn to just brush it off and move on but if we know our purpose and we understand the value of our message then we will be happy to move on to the next person who comes our way and share it with someone who is ready to hear the message of the restoration. Its so fun that i know so many missionaries now and to think that i am on the second half of my mission it really is flying by!

This summer we are doing a series of open houses in the Longfellow chapel in Cambridge every Thursday and Friday! We set up a bunch of displays and walk up and down the streets asking people if they want a tour, and a lot of people are curious because it is a historic building, its fun but it makes for a long day hopefully we can get it to the point where we set up and the local missionaries can take over so we can be doing other work, its been really hard balancing our proselyting area and PVC and STL something always lacks, but its teaching me how to prioritize. 

On Saturday we woke up at like 4 am and went to a parade in Warwick RI, it was the Gaspee parade, apparently it was a British boat that Americans sunk and they claim that was the start of the American Revolution, it was really fun the parade went right by the church building so they open it up for people to use the restrooms and walk around, we set up an open house and everyone was coming in a checking it out. On our way out of RI we stopped by Gillette stadium in Foxboro MA where the Patriots play! It was so neat!

Then we drove to Marlborough for their Brazilian party! Brazilian food is so yummy, they danced and sang it was so fun, and there were a ton of nonmembers there which was really good. 

Sunday there was a huge event in Cambridge along the Charles River it was the annual Chinese Dragon Boat Festival! Every year around 30,000 people go to watch the races. We worked with the Chinese elders and branch president and some members we set up a booth and passed out over 200 English and Chinese Book of Mormons it was so much fun! We met so many interesting people and learned some Chinese too. Its crazy to see just how many people don’t know about the Book of Mormon or how distorted their view of the Church is.  Unfortunately we couldn’t set up any banners because it was SO windy so we just set up some ipads. We were out there most of the day and I got a little sun burnt but its okay i could use some color even if it is red its better than how white i was before. We had to miss church because the event was all day, which stinks because we actually had an investigator at church, but after we went back to the Cambridge stake center and the Chinese elders blessed and passed the sacrament to us. It was cool they said the prayer in Chinese. 

Nothing too exciting this pday except for washing the Mormon mobile, which takes like 3 hours and all our quarters.  

Key Principle:

This week I have been focusing a lot on prayer, it has always been a time for me to thank my Heavenly Father and ask Him for things but this week I realized another very important reason we pray is to just pause from our hectic lives, just be still and recognize our Father in Heaven. 

Another crazy fun and busy week ahead of us with zone conf, MLC, and interviews and then lots of events for PVC this weekend.

Love you all thanks for your prayers and support!

 XOXO

-Sister Sophie Brooks

Mission Office 

182 West Central Street suite 203

Natick Mass 01760