September 26, 2016

Okay get ready for a temple overload... 

First week working at the temple and wow I am so lucky/blessed!

We moved down closer to the temple and we are living with the Eberlys they are so sweet and have a daughter serving her mission in Brazil.. living with members is weird but fun.

there are twelve sets of sister missionaries working at the temple and its a blast! I pick half of them up in at 7 in the morning, yes in the big pvc van again, and we go to the temple until 9pm then we go home and do it all over again.

The first day we got there and we had a training and then we got to tour the temple! We were the first official tour of the Hartford Ct temple! It is gorgeous! i absolutely loved it! The detail inside the temple is just breathtaking! its all colonial and marble and bright and a lot of the paintings are original scenery of New England.

So we did a few VIP tours this week for the contractors who worked on the temple and for the neighbors to the temple and also for missionaries and their investigators. 

We work in the video tents where people go before the tour and then we also rotate into the reception tent the is at the end which is my favorite cause we just get to interact with people and ask them about their experience.

I think one of the coolest parts/stories of this week was when sister morris translated for a deaf investigator. She learned sign language in high school and it was so neat to watch her sign during the tour she did a great job! I learned a little sign language like how to introduce myself and the investigator even gave me a name sign!

its amazing to see how people react when they see how beautiful and special the temple is one lady said she didn't want to leave and that she is going to come do another tour. 

Tonight is a tour with all the sister missionaries from the mission! 

I am so excited to be working at the temple for the next month and cant wait to share more of the amazing miracles that temples bring. 

I can not wait for general conference we get to go back to Bloomfield which will be nice I miss it, plus we get to hear our prophet and apostles speak! 

Key principle:

God only micromanages two things

-bishops 

-temples

so much work went into this temple and so much good will come from it and God is definitely making sure it all goes well and that is so comforting

September 19, 2016

Sept. 19, 2016

Livin the dream here in Bloomfield Ct this week was good we pretty much spent hours just passing out literally 100s of temple invitations which is awesome because it’s an easy way to do missionary work and people are relatively receptive to it and some even want to know more so then we can tell them who we are/what we believe. It’s great. We taught some new people this week, we taught this one woman named LaShanda she lives down the street from our apt and she is really nice and has two young daughters who are adorable. When we went to her house for her lesson she told us that she grew up going to church but never payed attention and she had been praying for someone to help her get back to church and then we rang her doorbell! Pretty sweet, what’s unsweet is that we probably won’t be able to teach her much more because we move to the temple on Friday to work the open house which will be so awesome but we have to let the elders take over our area while we are gone.... ugh. oh well it will be fine.

So this week sister Morris had the idea of calling all the people in our phone that we didn’t know so we spent some time calling people and one woman said she "isn’t the converting material" but she wanted to know more about the temple we have. so she invited us to dinner and we taught her about temples and family history. it was so cool, her son was there as well as her husband and she was just telling them how this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and they had to go! she also told us how she lived in Utah for a while and how Salt Lake had some of the best parties she had ever been too... she was also surprised when we told her Mormons could dance haha. 

We went to a fair this week and passed out over 50 invitations in just an hour, we got all sorts of reactions some people were really interested some people already knew about the open house some people were already planning on going , some people didn’t give us the time of day, and my personal favorite were the ones who called us a cult and told us we were being brain washed haha oh man, I’m used to reactions like that but sister Morris isn’t and it really upset her, she wanted to leave but we only had like 15 more invites and I thought to myself why would we let someone like that stop us from sharing this important message, we would be doing exactly what he wanted us to do. so we stuck it out and the very next invite we passed out was to a guy who said he was a teacher and one of his students invited him already but he was glad we had all the info for him! 

key principle:

true joy is the companionship of the holy ghost and knowing God, which happens when we read our scriptures.

The scriptures are the windows to revelation. 

I love the time that i get each day to read from the scriptures i notice that i can always apply what i read that day to an experience and more often than not it helps me to get through whatever life throws my way that day.

Sister Brooks

September 12, 2016

This week has been a little rough, but still good. I hit one year and man that was weird. It definitely feels like i've been here longer than that and at the same time it feels like i just started. mission time is strange. Unfortunately that means i have to start my "6 months to sexy" haha which is just a missionary term for start exercising more and stop eating sweets so you look good when you go home.

Well Andrew texted us this week after he moved to Bloomfield and just said that he needed some time to pray about the things that he learned, then he proceeded to tell us how he knew everything he read from the Book of Mormon was true, which is awesome, but it was really hard for us to see someone who got so many answers, kind of "drop" us but it's okay, we are planning on contacting him this week and inviting him to the temple open house. Speaking of the temple open house its getting close!!!! 2 more weeks then we move! We still don't know many details as far as housing etc. and I don't think we will until we get there.

We had a meeting with President and all the other sisters who will be at the temple for the open house and received a little training it was fun to see all the sisters and meet the ones from the new york mission who will be helping out, we even got to meet their mission president which was cool, it's interesting how different missions are based on mission presidents. They went over mostly how we will be at the temple and on our feet for 12 hours and how we need to make sure we are getting sleep and eating and wearing comfortable clothes., and getting ready to have a "constant smile" ha it will be a lot of work but I'm really excited, they also announced that they will be giving training to most other sisters in our mission just in case it becomes too taxing and they need to have people fill in.

This week all of our investigators dropped us... (not cool)  and it's been super hot and we haven't had a lot of appointments and so we were tracting a lot and we passed out tons of temple invitations one lady we gave an invite to was like "oh yeah that building off route 4? man they had a hell of a time getting that little guy on the top of that building.. oops sorry I swore." ha people are so funny

So on saturday we were trying to find some productive things to do and so we were planning on having a member come out with us and it's this older lady who is super awesome and always willing to help us, I wasn't too excited to go with her because we didn't have much planned/any lessons for her to go with us to so we were just going to do stop bys and tract and I felt bad cause it was hot and she is old and I feel bad taking up people saturdays, so we almost canceled but we didn't so we were driving around and we asked her if she had anyone in mind that we could visit and right as we said it she drove by one of her old friends houses, his neighbor was out so we went and asked her if she knew him and she did but said he had moved, then she started asking who we were and so we explained we were missionaries and she told us how she is catholic but recently has been feeling like it isn't right, like something is missing and that maybe we were sent to her for a reason. It was really cool and she agreed to meet with us this week! plus she was really excited to find out about the temple and that she could go see it with her family! 

The temple is such a blessing and I can't wait to see all the miracles that come from it. 

Key Principle:

"The quality of our daily relationships with others is the best indication of what we think about Christ"

-Marlin Jensen

Matt 25:40

     XOXO

-Sister Sophie Brooks

1204 Kristins Way 

Bloomfield Ct

06002

today for pday we went with a member of our stake to see all the Wilford Woodruff sites in Ct. it was so awesome and he told us some pretty amazing stories

here are some photos, also they are having a special tour day at the temple for all decedents  of WW on Oct 15! ​

​I think one of my favorite things that i learned was that the guy, Earle Stone, was walking us around he showed us the monument that he had done for Wilford Woodruff and i asked why he picked that spot and he said because it was close to his birthplace then i asked why the park and he said because thousands of ppl go to that park every year and he wanted Wilford's missionary work to continue. 

Sister Morris wrote this on our bathroom mirror with soap.. that is a dedicated companion right there

September 5, 2016

Kim got baptized! And her husband Tino got to baptize her! It was such a good day, she is funny though she refused to wear the "gross" white jump suit before she actually got baptized so that's why it doesn't look like a baptism in the pictures haha. Also Sis Morris and I went to turn on the font and 1st off there were like massive spiders in there which was super nasty so we had to clean those out, and we may have made the water too hot haha she was worried about it being cold but it turned out being too hot to even go in so we had to wait a few minutes while we added cold water haha.

Also we are headed to the Boston temple today with Kim and Tino! So that should be fun!!!! 

We also had PVC come and set up some displays at the baptism which was so fun! I forgot how much I miss it! It was weird being on the other side of an event though, not gonna lie i kind of enjoyed it I didn't have to worry about people messing with the displays or having to carry in all the equipment.

There is this less active member who is trying to come back to church so we have been meeting with him regularly and teaching him the missionary lessons again and he loves it! He told us last time how a couple weeks ago he was planning on going to his wife's catholic preacher and telling him that he didn't want to be a "mormon" anymore but that same week we showed up at his door step and rekindled that believe that he knew he once had. It was really sweet to hear him say that and realize that it's not all about the baptisms but it's more about helping people build that relationship with God and their Savior. I then proceeded to bet (probably not very missionary-like to bet but it was for a good cause) his 15 year old son that I would make him cookies if his dad didn't come to church but he had to bake me brownies if he did.... well he didn't come this week but it's double or nothing next week. He better come! 

Key Principle:

Knowledge is not power until it is applied.
How did man obtain any knowledge of God in any age [of the] world? They obtained it upon the principle of revelation.

We got into a "heated" discussion with a baptist this week while we were street contacting and the member we was with us (so awesome she would just go up to anyone and everyone and talk about the gospel) but she starting talking about how we can get personal revelation when we pray and this guy was like "no way the only knowledge and direction we have is the bible and that's all we need" as I have thought about this I've come to a conclusion that a loving God would want for us to keep learning and to have a relationship with Him that's why he still talks to us!
Plus if personal revelation wasn't for everyone "only prophets" then why would God want "ordinary people" to read about it in the scriptures?

Love you all thanks for the continual love and support! 

August 29, 2016

This week was very back and forth but it definitely went the way it was suppose to ups and downs included. Alright quick updates on the people we are working with....

Kim: She is planning on getting baptized this saturday! after a whole year of investigating the church! We went with her to a baptism in Avon Ct yesterday so she could see what it would be like and we planned out her baptismal program, she said she is still super nervous but she knows its right. It's amazing how someone can go from not even believing in God to having a desire to be baptized. So she was most nervous about telling her mom and she finally got the courage to call her one day and she told her that she doesn't want to disappoint her but that she has been going to church and wants to be baptized, her mom kind of laughed and said wow I thought you were going to tell me something tragic, she then told her how she wouldn't have picked the "mormon" religion but she was just so happy to hear that her daughter believed in God. Kim also had her bachelorette party this weekend and she said it was really hard cause all her friends were drinking, not that she likes to drink but it is such a social thing she said it was really hard but she has been able to see the blessings from not drinking especially because her dad was an alcoholic, then she said how she is happy to never drink again in her life! Before we left her last night we asked her to pray and it was one of the most beautiful prayers i had ever heard, she thanked God for helping her get courage to talk to her mom and to make the choices she has and it was just so sincere and so real. I am so excited for her!

Andrew: He is the one we have been teaching over facetime because he is currently living in Washington state, but we facetimed him 3 times this week and they went so well! We taught him about the restoration of the gospel and God's plan for us and he just loved it all! It's been so neat to have members at those lessons they just love it and even though it's through facetime you can still feel the spirit! We read from Alma 32 with him and he totally got it and loved it and in the middle of reading he stopped and said how he just felt so good and he just said i feel so good that must mean that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this book is true. I have never seen anyone react to the gospel this way i've only ever heard about it. Sometimes it hard to believe that someone could be this ready to hear the gospel. He wants to be baptized Sept 17 and he moves here on Sept 6. It has been such a testimony builder that God is preparing people for us to teach and that he is helping them find the way.

So this saturday we went to do service for this old lad in return for blueberry pancakes, she just wanted us to wash her windows- no big deal right? Wrong. We spent four straight hours cleaning her windows and of course she lives in an old new england style house so the windows were all stiff and had like 5 layers to them so we take them all out and scrub them down and somehow put them back in without breaking any, then this old lady comes out and takes a look and says oh you missed a few spots, so we wipe them again and then she made us take them all out again and redo them even though some of the spots were permanent then she made us go climb on a ladder in her bushes and wash the outside haha. it was brutal but she is possibly going to offer to let one of our investigators rent a room for her so hopefully by us doing this it will all work out. 

Also Sister Morris officially became a real missionary this week, how you ask? Well after a long day of teaching we go to bed and around 3 in the morning i wake up to someone talking so i listen closer and it turns out sister Morris was sleep teaching.. she literally was teaching a lesson in her sleep and it actually made sense it was so funny the next morning we go for a run and we always talk about what we dreaming about and so i asked her who she was teaching, she was so confused it was hilarious!

Key Principle: 

a woman is in the airport waiting for her flight so she decides to go get a snack and a book to read so she gets a book and a sleeve of oreos (best choice ever) then she goes and sits to wait for her flight to be called so she whips out her book and starts to read, then she takes an oreo and eats it, then all of a sudden this guy sitting next to her takes an oreo and eats it... she is so weirded out but just ignores it, she keeps reading and takes another oreo, then the guy next to her takes another oreo by this point she is just appalled that someone would do this! she takes the next to last oreo eats it and this guy eats the last one and walks away! by this point she is just shocked. Still bugged by what just happened, her flight gets called and she gets all settled in for the long flight she reaches in her bag to get her book and to her surprise she pulls out her pack of oreo cookies.... 

sometimes we mess up, sometimes we have trouble seeing the big picture we make assumptions and judgments that we shouldn't, sometimes we are wronged and sometimes we are the ones who are wrong. This is why we need to be quick to forgive because we are not perfect.. far from it actually. When we forgive and forget we are much happier and nothing can hold us back from becoming who God wants us to. 

August 22, 2016

August 22, 2016

This week.... wow just wow. I know last week I said it was a week of miracles but I’m gonna have to say it again! Week of miracles! This is why...
So this week was really kind of mixed up, we had what’s called return and report where all the new missionaries and their trainers get to go to the mission home and do trainings with president and the assistants we also got to go to the temple which was so nice! It was fun to be with all the other trainers! I got to see sister Black,  which was fun! So that took up all of Tuesday, then Wednesday we went to a blood drive for most of the morning and something really cool happened. So sister Morris was working at the snack table and I was working the check in desk and this lady comes to donate blood and after she is done she was eating her snack and sister Morris and I just started talking to her and we aren’t allowed to proselyte at service unless people ask, so this lady looked at our name tags and was like "oh are you Mormons?" we said yes then she started to go off about how much she loved Mormons and how she had never met a mean Mormon and how all her favorite you tubers and bloggers were LDS. so we asked her is we could maybe meet up sometime and discuss our believes, and she was like oh no I’m catholic. so then she leaves and like 20 minutes later she comes down again and came up to us and was like "I thought about it and I don’t think it was chance that i met you today here is my info you can contact me sometime" crazy uh! We are planning on meeting with her this week!

So then Thursday we had zone conference, it was really good but it took up all day pretty much so we didn’t get to work a lot that day, then Friday we had district meeting and planning... so yet again not a lot of work.
I was getting nervous the week was almost over and we hadn’t reached any of our goals , we had been doing so well this transfer with our numbers and this week was going to be a dud for our numbers. I was feeling a bit discouraged because everyone was canceling on us and everyone we invited to church bailed Sunday morning! So we get to church and this less active who we invited to our class came, and loved church! his mom was so happy! Kim and Tino came too! (she is scheduled to be baptized Sept 3)

Then we had ward council and we come out of ward council and we had a voicemail so we listen to it and its this guy who found our phone number online and wanted to learn more about our church. So we call him back and turns out he is living in Washington but he is moving to Bloomfield in two weeks and he was raised Baptist but he had so many questions that he couldn’t find answers to and he didn’t feel any support from his church, he told us how he was diagnosed with cancer last year and since then he had been wondering about God and where he goes after this life... it was insane i honestly thought it was a prank call it was too perfect, he said he was searching for the truth and he just wanted to know, then he asked us how we knew it was true so we told him all you have to do is desire and read and pray and he loved it! he asked if we could call him again so we told set up a Skype with him for today! It was insane I’m still not sure if it actually happened!
After we got off the phone with him we went with our relief society president, she is this awesome Jamaican woman, who is a convert, so we went with her to a lesson and it went so well! the woman we taught said she gave the pamphlet to a friend and work and she brought her sister and daughter to the lesson with her! it was great she does more missionary work than some of our members!
Its so fun doing missionary work with our members though, they really enjoy it and sis Owen (rs president) always says that when she was baptized all she wanted to do was share the gospel then it faded and she said we helped her get her fire to share it back and she has "missionary moments in rs now its so awesome!
Somehow even though we had a crazy week we still managed to meet all our goals it was such a tender mercy!

Key Principle:
 We invite people to come unto Christ not to go.
We are not suppose to be perfect but we are expected to try and we will always be blessed for doing so. I learned that a lot this past week.
Alma 26:22

Love you all have a fantastic week! Good luck to everyone starting school soon!

little side story we went over to our investigators house this week and we are working on family history with her and she told us this super funny story about her grandma. She said when her gma was younger she had a friend who had a thick Bostonian accent and her friend came over to play and her mom was like oh just wait a little bit she is at the potty and her friend goes "what I wasn’t invited to any pawty!" haha oh man Bostonians and their accent.

August 15, 2016

August 15, 2016

Hey everyone! This week was full of miracles! 

We went on exchanges with the Avon sisters and it was so fun! 

They are the sisters who are in charge of the Hartford temple open house and they were telling us all about it and i am beyond excited we will be working at the temple open house for 3 straight weeks and we will be there everyday from 7am-9pm so that means we wont even proselyte at all!

I cant wait! 

So this week we found this lady at rite-aid she was checking us out at the register and she said how much she liked our name tags then she asked if we had a church and we invited her to come and take lessons, so when we were on exchanges sis Morris got to teach her a lesson at the church and she asked if she could be baptized! So they set a date for Sept 10! 

This Sunday we had a lesson with Kim, she was the one who had been taking the lessons forever with the elders and we set a date with her for Sept 3! She was a little uneasy about it and then we met with her last night and she is ready!!! It was so amazing just a really good week! 

Key Principle:

Obedience brings blessings 

sometimes you just have to be patient 

"no matter where you stand in your relationship to God, I invite you to draw nearer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ"

-Dale G. Renlund

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/the-mediator?lang=eng

p.s. I learned how to juggle this week.. or last I don’t know all the weeks mush together