November 14, 2016

We did a bunch of service this week, we volunteered at a blood drive 3 times, set up all the chairs in the temple for the dedication and we also raked a lot of leaves.... so, many, leaves. 

So, we had zone conference this week and it was so much fun to see lots of missionaries that I have served with and to learn from our mission president. The zone conference was in Groton, which was the ward building that the Westerly branch met in! It felt so weird to be back there! It was cool to see how much I’ve been able to do and learn in just 10 months! 

We got back from zone conference and had about an hour before our next appointment, I was feeling really tired and lazy from waking up early and driving 2 hours to zone conference, but we decided to go tracting anyway. We talked to a lot of people and knocked a lot of doors. In my mind I was thinking, "gosh why do people not even care what we have to say, I always hear about people that God has prepared and who are ready to hear the message but I’ve never found anyone like that" I said a little prayer as we kept walking just asking God to help us find someone who would listen and recognize what we were saying is true. Then on the last door we knocked this lady opened the door, not looking too excited to see us, and we told her that God had restored His church on the earth and all that good stuff, she told us she believed in God, but thought that the way churches are run is corrupt and everyone is just in it for money and praise. We were able to tell her that our church doesn’t have any paid clergy and that it really is run the way that God wants it to be run. She asked for the information for our church and said she would consider it. God sure got me on that one. She recognized what we said as truth and that’s what i asked for.

Key Principle:

One thing that I love about the gospel is that its so simple yet so complex, I feel like God shows this to me time and time again and this week it was through a simple primary song, that I’m sure most of you know, its cool to see that what the kids in the church learn is the same as what we are all still learning 

"Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan, i always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can."

I spoke in sacrament meeting this week on forever families, which really is the good news that we get to share with others is that God wants us to be happy, he has provided us a way that we can be and that is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Thanks for all your love and support! Have a great week!

XOXOX  Sister Brooks

 

November 7. 2016

One of the highlights from this week was teaching a class at the Westminster boarding school! It was so much fun! So one of the administrators from the school called us and asked if we would come in and teach her class because they were studying history and religion including Mormonism, they even went to the temple as a class! So we taught for three days and it was just such a neat experience, it was a class of seniors and our objective was to help the kids understand some of our beliefs and explain why in the world anyone our age would leave home, school, and family to serve God.
So the first two classes we taught we led a discussion on who we were and why we are serving missions, it was really fun we got to know the students really well and they even had us stay for lunch with them. The last day, Saturday (yes they have classes on Saturday) we were asked to teach one of our missionary discussions. The teacher said missionaries in the past had taught the Plan of Salvation so we decided to just do that, but as we were planning with the elders who we were teaching with, I had a really strong feeling that we should do the restoration. It didn’t make sense because the teacher asked us to do Plan of Salvation and she said they already knew a lot about Joseph Smith, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling so just as we were about done with planning i told the other missionaries that I felt we shouldn’t do plan of salvation and they all agreed. As we taught that next day it was clear that we were supposed to do restoration.
One of the kids, who was sort of a punk and always asked super obnoxious questions, at the end of the class said he really appreciated what we did as missionaries and he respected Mormons a lot more he said "i could never say anything bad about a Mormon". Then one of the elders asked him what his life would be like 10 years from now if he was Mormon and he said, "well i would probably have a wife and kids and my life would be really happy and put together" then he realized what he said and countered it with "what if I don’t want my life put together."
One of the other kids in the class, who seemed legitimately interested, said that he really loved learning from us and that he thought a lot more about God that week, more than he ever had before.
A girl from the class was talking to us before class started and took one of the Book of Mormons before class and was looking through it, and as we were teaching about the Restoration I said "there isn’t much proof that this restoration actually happened," then the teacher cut me off and said "there is no proof" then the girl with the Book of Mormon said "no there are witnesses in the beginning of the book!" it was just a really awesome experience to see how receptive and thought provoking the class was for everyone, it helped me to stand up for the things that I believe and reiterate the feeling.

Key Principle:
Keep your line in the water
“None of us should be like the fisherman who thinks he has been fishing all day when in reality he has spent most of his time getting to and from the water, eating lunch, and fussing with his equipment. Fishing success is related to how long you have your line in the water, not to how long you are away from the apartment. Some fishermen are away from home for twelve hours and have their line in the water for ten hours. Other fishermen are away from home for twelve hours and have their line in the water for only two hours. This last type may wonder why they do not have the same success as others. “The same principle applies to missionaries, whom the Master called ‘fishers of men.’ A missionary’s line should drop into the fishing water the moment he or she leaves the apartment”
Daylight savings is awesome in the morning when its already light out and you get that extra hour of sleep but its not very fun when its dark at like 5pm and so everyone thinks its time to go to bed and ignore the missionaries  who are standing in the cold on your door step.... lets just say it was cold and dark and we were feeling a little discouraged but sister Morris and I were really trying to keep "our line in the water"  so we decided to contact a few more people and it worked! We were able to contact a couple of our investigators who had gone MIA while we were at the temple and it was such a blessing! #fishersofmen
I think that this can apply to anything we do in life, sports, school, relationships, the more effort and time you put into something the more success you will see. So keep your line in the water.
Love you all have a good week!

-Sister Sophie Brooks

1204 Kristins Way
Bloomfield Ct
06002

October 31, 2016

Oct. 31, 2016

Happy Halloween everyone!

It was a fun week back in the area, we got a lot of work done and even picked up some new investigators, we got to visit with a lot of less active members who are so sweet and are working on coming back to church. 

This week it snowed. I don’t know why, but it did.

We have been visiting with Tricia the one who came to church last week and went to the temple open house. She really likes learning about the church and she is trying it out before she gets her family involved, she is even reading the Book of Mormon! I really hope that she prays about it to know if it really is true. 

We also had one of our members bring a friend to church because he showed him just a picture of the temple and he said he felt that it was a source of power and he wanted to learn more so we are going to hopefully get to teach him!

Another one of our members brought a friend to the temple and then we met with him this past week his name is Arturo and we got to teach him and he loved it... unfortunately he doesn’t live in our area but i think we will still get to teach him for a while. 

So a few months ago we were on exchanges and we tracted into a young girl who we gave the Book of Mormon to and she started to cry because she felt like God really wanted her to hear what we had to say. We hadn’t seen her for a while but we went back this week and taught her and she said she read the Book of Mormon, part of it, but she said she didn’t like it, and we figured out she was reading it out of context and that some of her friends told her it was a bad book and to burn it :( she didn’t. so we challenged her to read it in order this time and i think she really will we also challenged her to pray about it.

Love you all hope you have a great week!

Key Principle:

This week i have learned a lot about the value of being humble. 

I truly do believe that God loves each one of us so much He wants us to be happy and He wants to help us in whatever way He can, we simply have to ask. 

I have recently seen a lot of prayers be answered that i had sort of forgotten about, He definitely has His own timing but i know He knows best. 

  XOXO

-Sister Sophie Brooks

1204 Kristins Way 

Bloomfield Ct

06002​

October 24, 2016

October 24, 2016

Well the temple open house is over..... I’m so happy to be back in our area but it was sad that it went by so fast! The last few days were so fun. It rained a lot and was freezing on Saturday but that didn’t stop the crowds from coming we had over 6000 people come and 51,000+ overall! 

It was so much fun to see people from my old areas and also some family friends from PA. I got to see Maureen this week one of my investigators from Weston and it was so good to see her!

This Sunday we were supposed to go to the Avon ward and do a musical number with all the temple sisters we were all set to go and then that morning I had a strong impression that we should go to our ward in Bloomfield I talked to sister Morris about it and she agreed so we went to the Bloomfield ward and it was a good thing we did because one of our less active members was sitting in his car debating whether or not to come in and we just so happened to pull up right next to him! Then we walk into gospel principles class and there is someone we didn’t recognize. So we introduce ourselves to her and turns out she had gone to the temple open house a few weeks before and she filled out a comment card and had been talking with missionaries in SLC who encouraged her to go to church, and there she was! We got her phone number and hopefully we will be able to start teaching her! I’m so excited to start teaching people again and see all the miracles that will come from this open house. 

One thing i am going to miss a lot is being able to sit in the celestial room at the end of the day and just relax. I will also miss the members we stayed with! They were so awesome and took such good care of us they even invited one of their coworkers to the temple who will be coming to our ward next Sunday! 

After church on Sunday we had to take the PVC van back up to Weston so we spent 5 hours in the car.... driving up and back but we did get a new car and its wicked nice! 

key principle:

"if we wait until we are ready, we will be waiting the rest of our lives."

this week I’ve really learned how to live in the moment and to just enjoy what I’m doing and who I’m with the temple open house was such an amazing experience and I’m excited for this next transfer! 

Love you all! 

-- 

     XOXO

-Sister Sophie Brooks