In Korea! With my Family :D

 

 

Hi  Everyone!

It's Sister Brooksby again, just catching up on everything :)

My family is here in Korea with me and its the greatest blessing in the world to be with them as we travel around this beautiful country.

This is  Na Young, daughter of one of our members :) Her mom is incredible, three daughters adn helps them all get to church and activities alone.

After the after church lunch; picture time is the best :D

My sweet Onyang!

 

More will be coming later :)

Stay happy and well! We'll be in Korea until the 19th of this month. Then it's home to North Carolina and my family. ^^

 

Picture Time!!!!

Oct 14th Letter

Hi Everyone I love!!

How are you all doing? Wasn't conference awesome! I feel like, especially for missionaries, it's Christmas time :)

We had another split where Sister Deus and her MTC dongie got to stay in Naju while I went with their senior in the other area. I love splits-I learn so much. And it's such a blessing to be able to rely 100% on Sister Deus -The language doesn't scare her, having the phone doesn't scare her, and she's just ready to be a senior :) She's also one of the funnest people to be with in the world and has TONS of faith! So her and her split companion always see miracles :D

The neatest thing about this one was that we got to be with our MTC companions again! She with hers, and I with mine, how neat/not common is that? 

Since I've been in the north of Daejeon for most of my mission and Sister Roueche's been in the south, there's been no opportunity to meet and really see how we've been doing until now. And it's so powerful to see how much we've changed since the MTC :)

We're still us! But we're different too. And we filled each other in on everything that's been going on and our hopes and dreams for after the mission. It was just a nice time.

We were also able to visit one of our members who's been taking medicine for cancer (he used to be a senior missionary with his wife) for the past while. He's felt so bad that he hasn't been able to help us. Since he's lived in Naju over 45 years, he knows where everyone lives and who they are! Just last week we got an invitation to come over and visit them-He's just finished his medicine last Sunday. 

We were a tiny bit concerned, because their home is 40 minutes by bus to get to, and then we never know when the next bus is coming when we're finished. But we went! And we ended up being a little early. Hahha funny side note, I tried to get off WAY to early *(this is a habit I have) and then got an urgent phone call from one of our sisters, and so it was all up to Sister Deus to get us off of the right stop....She was concerned too. But at that point I was of no use, on the phone. She even hit the button to stop the bus and then realized it wasn't the right stop. We kept going and going, and she told me later she didn't recognize where we were. It was getting intense, when all of the sudden she hit the button again, JUST before we passed the place for the bus to stop, and he jerked to a halt. We disembarked. I got off the phone. And we looked around.

RIGHT BUS STOP! Thank goodness! The Lord was listening to Sister Deus's silent prayer :) 

(there are miracles like this all the time. The Lord just needs us in the right place, so He helps us get there :) 

I felt so much love for this faithful couple. They have dedicated their lives to the Lord and Brother Jeong really wants to serve another mission. Because of his health he may serve another as a service or temporary missionary, but He just reminded me of Dad when he said "I've done farming, I've worked at an office, here and there; but there's no work better than missionary work. He also said, looking at our family pictures (the one with all of us in pile in the blocks outside) that my father was really rich. Rich in children. The best kind. :)

Sister Deus and I visited a couple that we got a all-of-the-sudden ride from a couple nights ago at their home. They weren't there when we went (we'd wanted to bring them banana bread, an american treat :) for helping us out that night, even through they didn't know us at all. They were so sweet! Showed them our family pictures and they asked my parents age (a lot of the times Koreans do because they marry older) and I had a funny moment. This is all in Korean. "How old is your mother?"

"She's 94!"

Shocked looks.

"94? 94! OH! I mean She's 49! Actually 47!" (mom are you really 47??)

Relief. And a lot of laughter :)

We talked about life and religeon and found out they were both Buddhist. they were some of the kindest people I've ever met in my life. They didn't let us leave without giving us a heavy bag of 10 huge Naju pears, Kimchee, and some hardened rice things I've never seen in my mission :) We walked home with arms full of love. We can't wait to visit again-and it's neat that they've met the Sister Missionaries now :) Maybe it's planting seeds! 

Finally, we got to visit the mother of  one of our members who came with her daughter to church for the first time in her life this Saturday afternoon. She's so adorable!  We talked a lot about families. She just lost her husband three months ago. She lives alone but she's still so happy and kind. We just got to know her and I can tell you she's an angel!! When she met us she said "Wow. I haven't worn a skirt my whole life! Expect for hanbok (traditional Korean clothing)." She chuckled to herself. "I guess if I'm going to start coming to church, I gotta start wearing a skirt huh?

Then she came with her daughter to the Sunday morning session of Conference with her daughter!!!! I really feel like she's ready to get baptized. We haven't done any lessons or anything, but she's so ready to go with her daughter-to feel the Spirit of this church-And I hope she can feel the love the Savior has for her and her daughter and family especially at this hard time. There's nothing she and they need more than to know He's there.

Also! Our investigator came to Conference! He stayed for two talks-Elders Russel M Nelson's and the general authority before him. Then we did English and I asked him again how he felt about God-just to clarify. Before when we asked, he said he didn't believe in God or have a religion. But this time, something must have touched him. 

He just sat thoughtfully and said "I'm not sure."

This Gospel pulls people to be better-to realize that there is something more than themselves. That there is a Loving Heavenly Father-and that His is their father.

I'm so so so grateful for the opportunity I have to bear witness of God's love to His children. I am not a perfect missionary by any means. In fact I wonder how God works sometimes :) How can He use me? But He knows. And He does :) He's amazing and I'm so glad He lives.

I love you all! I pray you can feel His love for you what ever situation you're in. Keep going! It's all worth it!

I feel it in my heart.

Sister Brooksby

Pictures are from our amazing hike last week-Grandma King's going to love it here!

Sept 30th Letter

안녕하세요 여러분!

 

I've decided that I need to be more like my dilligent companion and write in my journal more. That way things stick out to me that I can tell you!

 

It's Sister Dues' 20th birthday today! :D We're all wearing harmonie (grandma) pants (or mom bae pajis as they're known here), eating Pizza School (wich cheese crust!) and playing Korean board games and Pokemon at the church in honor of her birth :D

 

The attatched picutres are of Sister Deus and her very first pair of harmonie pants, of her again on her birthday. The first one is an awesome sign we found when we got lost in Nampyung! Had to take a picture and send it for you all. It's Konglish for "Happiness" :) Tell you the story behind it later.

 

This week has been good! And crazy!

 

We have two investigators right now. A cute 17 year old who's learning English with us and the son of some friends we made just walking on the street one day. Brother In Su. He's 33 and told us when we first met him, he's Catholic. :) We're also doing English with him. We found out that he understands Gospel vocabulary in English also. And because he asked us and we got permission to do our lesson in English this past week, we found out a lot that maybe we wouldn't have known specifically if we hadn't. It was really cool.

 

We'd taught him the entire Restoration last time and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and Sister Dues and I were thinking about how we can help him get an answer. We knew that he had been more religeous when he was younger, and felt like pray had been benificial to him at the time, but he wasn't actively worshiping currently. We weren't sure if he recognized how he'd been able to get answers to his prayers-how the Spirit felt to him personally, so we looked up a lot of scriptures about gaining a testimony and the voice of the Spirit and just went. It was hard for me to go to that lesson with nothing more than a few scriptures-I get so nervous before we meet, even when I feel prepared.  I think it's because he was older and already had a religeon.

 

So we walk up to the house and say hello to his mom, our friend, working in the garden. She looks down at us with a sad look on her face and says, "He says meeting with you is not interesting anymore. You've all run out of things to say." I looked at Sister Dues and then back to our sweet grandmother. "Really?" I questioned, my stomach dropping. "Well, he doesn't say that, but I can tell by his manner." She replied. "So, maybe he'd not like to meet anymore, huh?" After she saw the dissapointment on our faces, she tried to cheer us up. "Why don't you just go ask him yourself!" she said and shooed us into the house.

 

Slowly, and somewhat sadly, we entered. We sat down and I just asked him about it straight out in English (because he's pro). He looked at us. "I just feel like we've run out of things to talk about. So it's not as fun anymore. We've just run out of things." I sat back. Hum. What do I say to that? "We could just assign subjects for each visit to talk about for 30 minutes!" He didn't seem excited. Then he offered another idea. "Why don't you just teach me your gospel in English? That has the question/answer style that would help me." I looked at Sister Deus. We aren't allowed to teach in English if they can speak Korean. But still, we could call our district leader right there and ask for a try. So I brought it up to him and asked him if he'd like me to call. Which he did! Elder Barney (used to be a boxer but the sweetest elder!) said that was okay! But if he had questions, we'd teach him again in Korean. So we got permission and set to it! (It was so nice to be able to just teach the Gospel for the whole hour!)

 

We began to teach him about prayer and talking with God and receiving answers. We'd just turned to the book of Enos to share his experience when I all of the sudden asked him about something in the Bible and his excperience reading it. He responded that he couldn't believe the miracles of Jesus actually occured. He thinks of them as fairy tales. Hmmm... We thought. So we backed up a little bit, putting Enos aside. We started with the very basic of questions. Did he believe in God? Did he believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God?

It was the begining of a long question-and-answer session where we taught him a condensed version of the Plan of Salvation and he looked so interested/surprised that we believe in God as a person. He told us he believed in God as nature, not as a person; we asked him about prayer and then eventually he told us that he didn't believe in God at all. We asked him if there was a God, if he would want to know.

He told us that after he left his childhood faith behind, other Christians always told him how with God in their lives, they are happier. They encouraged him to pray and find out for himself. "But I didn't believe them. I was happy. Until one day, when I was in college. I wanted to know if there really was a God. So I studied lots of books. And I thought a lot. And I thought about what everyone that I'd known told me .And I prayed. Privately."

We were listening expectingly. "But I never got an answer."

Then we understood that from then on, he gave up that there was a God.

He said once in his last lesson that, like Jospeh Smith, he has searched for truth. He's wanted to know. But it's hard for him because the way we testified that he could know, wasn't through physical evidence that he could touch or smell or taste. It's through feelings, we said. He just shook his head.

He asked us then, "I have one question. When did you know there was a God?"

 

I really thought for a moment. I'd shared my experience with how I knew the Book of Mormon was true many times, and I'd read scriptures for investigators of prophets that testified of God's existence, but I hadn't ever felt like I needed to search deeply until that moment when he really wanted to know. So I told him.

"I haven't always known. In fact, there are times throughout my life and even now that I wonder. But I have received testimony after testimony and witness after witness, whether listening to another's testimony or thinking back on my day and how God's hand was in it, that I knew. God has been there for me in my saddest and most discouraging moments. I recognized Him especially then.  And those moments have pulled me through the times I doubt. I'm still not perfect. I'm so selfish and choose not to see His hand which touches my life every moment. But He's been there for me and surrounded me in a warm feeling of love many times. I can't deny to you that He does live,"

 

Then Sister Deus bore the most powerful testimony I've ever heard her express. She said that her experience is a little different from mine. She's a micro-biology major. She's a scientist. And she's wondered and felt the very things that he was feeling. She shared her personal conversion story, which is one of the most powerful I've ever heard in my life. And I could feel the Spirit in the room. "I could feel His arms of love wrapping around me in that moment," she said. "I testify that He knows me and He knows you. He does live. And He loves you."

 

I was so thankful for Sister Dues and her firm testimony. At the end, we could do nothing but invite him to try, to try again. To really find out if God is there. And we promised that an answer would come. In God's time.

 

I just want you all to know that I do know God lives! He is our Father and He loves us! And if there is anyone you know that is feeling sad today or needs a friend, go on over and sit next to them. Laugh together! Tell them that you love them. And they He does too. :)

 

Really quick-the "Happiness" sign story!

 

So Sister Dues and I were ready. We were bound for adventure into the wild blue, unexplored area of Nampyung. It was another region in our area where some of our less actives live that we'd never been to, and by golly, we were going to find them! According to the elders, there were less active members that hadn't been visited for over a year there. Definately time for a visit.

We'd planned to find and prosylte and look for houses all day, so we packed two peanut butter sandwitches and a map we'd gotten from City Hall. Then we went to the church to copy some of our English program flyers and met the elders there, heading out to explore another area-Yo Sang Po- that'd we'd also not been to before. Somehow we convinced them to come with us so we'd be safer or something (I think Elder Hall had been there once before, and it ended up being a good thing we brought him) so after a quick haircut (it'd been closed for ChuSeok) we hopped on a bus and headed out to the countryside.

 

Make a long story short, after finding our way to the district office and playing with their electronic map/taking videos and pictures of where our less actives live, we got off on the right stop, but kept walking past it and got lost for a coulple of ours. Walking on the side of the road, with huge semi type trucks rushing by and nearly killing our trail of four poor lost forigners. We'd eaten our sandwitches hours ago, it was 5:30pm and the elders hadn't brought anything at all. Elder Hunter kept looking for a convenience store of anykind and kept making jokes about asking for snacks. I ended up giving him our last piece of bread. We were all dying.

We asked a man if we were in the right area. We weren't.

At that point, most everyone was ready to throw in the towel. We'd been able to find our one less active. We could come back and search another day. But I pushed them. I said let's give it one more shot. So we got on the bus again, and got off again at the right stop. It's where we found the "Happiness" sign.

 

We walked down the road and 15 minutes later, we found it! God love su!

 

I just want you to know I love you :)

Sister Brooksby

 

 

Sept 1 Letter

Hi Everyone!

 

We got to farm this week! A lot of pear farming, which is what Naju is famous for :) (You know those really big, round Asian pears we used to buy? Yeah! I picked some! and they are evern MORE delicious in Korea!!! :D) A family in our branch owns a plot of trees, and they had to get them all farmed by this end of the month, so they requested some help. Which is awesome because it's our Branch President's parents, who's mother is a member, but whose father never joined the chruch. Good bonding time, among the beauties of pear picking, frog catching, and we even saw a strange, ferret-like animal that was huge! SIster Deus was scared it was going to pop out again and eat her :) I even had the opportunity of dropping an iron bar onto Sister Deus' poor head. Come to find out she's been through much worse and survived-Her ancestors are German and apparently they all have really thick skulls... She's okay! Just a bit of advil later....

 

So the referrals we ended up anticipated didn't come through, I believe due to our lack of follow up, and just because sharing the Gospel with your friends can be really scary. It's not easy! So in our district meetings, sacrament meetings, Zone conferences and everything we are focusing on how to help our members overcome their fear of doing missionary work. Because we can find, and we can even see baptizms through our own efforts. But they are very few and far between.

 

And if we are to meet the goal our mission and stake president both set for all of us of getting 10 people into the chruch (whether reactivation or baptism) we need to see more results than the 10 we've gotten this year so far.

So we need Members!

 

I'll be honest, I've never done missionary work this way before. In my whole mission we've never really focused on members and referrals this much. I was always like "Yeah! There's my awesome friend in America, working off of referals and seeing baptisms!" but I didn't think that was how it worked here. We focused a lot on less actives and finding through our own efforts. (English program, flyers, tracting, door-to-door) So I feel kind of like a new missionary again, and now I'm getting to stretch myself and our memebers in ways we've never stretched before.

It's definately a change and a challenge, but just this past Fast Sunday, we were seeing the missionary spirit stir!

 

It started with Sunday morning. We were standing in the doorway, greeting members as they came to church. The Branch president had aldready greeted us, when all of the sudden he came back. "Sister Brooksby, You will share your testimony on member missionary work today, right?" he asked. I'd had a feeling that morning that it would be a good idea to prepare to do that, so I replied with a solid
"Yes President!" then he approached one of our elders (he's been a temporary elder here from another area while Elder Kim has surgery and recovers) and told him to give his introductory talk as well. Insa Marsuem Iragoyeyyeo. (Yes, that's Korean ;)

 

So, to make a long story short, I did, and I was just praying because I wanted to be totally sincere for these members and share with them what ever was really going to help them. And then I felt Heavenly Father take over. I just testified that there is someone perpared among each of our friends that the Lord needs us to share with. And I told them that My dad was my example of missionary work, and another district leader I had once who always said "I don't want to get to the Celestial Kingdom alone!" I told them all how they touched me and inspired me, and how that I'm only 22 years old and a forienger to their culture and language and everything, but I know that the Lord works through us to touch His children and bring them to Him. And how none of us want to be alone in Heaven-we want our best friends up there with us. :)

 

The fire has been lit! I watch our ward mission leader bear her testimony about inviting a family in their neighborhood to FHE together, and even though she was scared at first, she ended up talking with them a little about the Gospel. And the result wasnt' that they were baptised or even intrested, but I was SO proud of her and so grateful that she opened her mouth. That was one of and still is the hardest things for me about my mission. But I know that if we do, only miracles can happen. Only blessings can come because when the Lord makes a promise to us, if we do our part we can see it fufilled every time.

 

My companion, Sister Deus, has an uncle that's been less active for 50 years. He went inactive as a teenager and has hated the chruch since. Everyone in his family knows that's it's not good to talk to him about the church or religeon of any kind. But she's been writing him every week or every other week since she started her mission. She talked to him about her experiences, about the Atonment, about the changes she is seeing people make and the changes in herself. He never responded. But just two weeks ago her mother emailed her to say her brother (that uncle) said he'd like to come back to church.

 

If we believe and trust God above our fear of rejection or failure or whatever, and we speak to our friends and famliy and everyone out of love, only miracles like this can happen. I have no doubt.

The rest of our Sunday meetings were testimonies just like Sister Park's. The members were lighting each other's excitement for missionary work, and I couldn't believe it. I was so thankful.

 

It's not coming all at once. There' aren't any baptisms this week. But I know that Heavenly Father is excited for Naju. He's excited for the sacrifices we make to share the Gospel. He is so rpoud of us, especially when we do teh hard things. He loves us. I know He does and I'm so thankful for this opportunity to share my testimony with everyone and to see it and everyone around me grow. We can only go up. When we follow the Lord and hold fast to His promises, we can only go up.

 

I'm so thankful for my fellow missionaries too. Just two weeks ago, at the end of Zone Conference, we were invited to stand and share our testimonies with each other. One sister, been out about half her mission, stood and with tears in her eyes shared her testimony. "I need this gospel." She said. "I just need this gospel. I don't know where I'd be without it."

 

I love you all. Keep up the missionary work! There's no greater work we can do than this one. The neatest thing-Let's go to Heaven together!

 

Sister Brooksby

August 19 Letter

Hi Everyone!

 

So I took a lot of my time writing to our awesome President Shin about an experience this week, and I wanted to post it here (It's in Korean but Google Translate might work..maybe... :) I'll give you the breif translation too! Anyone who can read Korean, I'm sorry about my spelling ;)

신 회장님,

구도자 많이 없어서 찾기 하고 있고 우리 (서광주 조느 포거스 때로) 회원들 도 친하게 일 하고 있어요. 듀스 자매님이 우리 회원과 저활동을 위해 카드 음정 많이 만들고 있어요! 재미있어요-그리고 우리 만날 수 없는 저활동을 위해 간증 도 쓰고 문 앞에 뿌치고 있어요. 그래서 저희 직접 방문할 수 없었지만 그분은 우리와 하나님의 사랑에 대해 기억해요 :)

이번주 우리 이웃과 (예호화 주인) 처음 인사했고 우리 종교와 몰몬경 소개 하기위해서 이 경전 구절 같이 읽었어요: 니파이 후서 25:26. 그분 (성경만 맏고 있데) 읽은 후에 "아 성경이랑 비씃해"다고 하셨고 제 몰몬경에 대한 간증 들었어요. 그 때 우리 성신을 진짜 느낄 수 있었어요. 하지만, 제 간증 듣은 후 그분 다시 "성경만 믿겠"다고 하셨어요.
그분 너무 착해요! 지금 제 마음이 실프지만 다른 받알 수 있는 기회 있겠다는 것 알아요. 하나님 우리 각각 사랑하셔서, 그렇게 압니다. :)

이복음이 하나님과 예수님 우리를 위해 주는 선물이에요. 나누는 기회 있어서 행복합니다!
다시 감사하고 사랑해요!
브룩스비 자매 선교사
And apparently I just found out (beacuse I'm back down south with most of the sisters from my dongi (MTC roomates!) that my MTC companion's blog got on the LDS news. She's famous, because her letters home are awesome. :) Haha so everyone check out Sister Anna Roueche's blog. Maybe google it? I think it's an everyone-can-acess-thing.
How are you all? Okay I thought it was cool that we're moving but I had NO IDEA that you'd be moving fast enough to move without me! If I can't lift heavy stuff with you guys how am I going to stay in shape? No but, I really thought you'd move next year in January or something so I could help. Well, I guess it happened to Mom on her mission too, right? So it's cool. Just know I'm with you lifting in spirit!!!
This week we were on the search for more people to share the Gospel with. We ended up needed to drop one of our two current ones because of unforseen and couldn't-be-helped circumstances. And we haven't met our other one in a week and a half because she doesn't have a cell phone and we don't know where she lives.
But we're totally on board with the member missionary work! Here in Naju we have a beautiful building (they call it a temple! It really looks like one!) but only 60 active members, (we're a branch). Our Stake President has visited and shared the fire of the goal which our President Shin shared with him (2,000 active members in every stake by 2016 (right now there are 600) and then the next week we had a meeting with all of the members who could come and all of the missionaries serving in the stake (where we all got pumped to do missionary work and sang "Called to Serve" to our members-all 40-60 of us :). And now this Friday we're having a "Premote to Ward Night" with all of our members and missionaries to talk about what we're going to do to build our members here!
So we're getting creative and trying to be closer with our members so that we can be right with them on the front when the referrals start coming. Stake President Oh's vision is to have all of the missionaries just sitting in the church teaching all day. No time for meals. Hahah I LOVE it! We would love nothing better :) And if everyone in our branch referred a friend, we'd be at 140 easy.
We're also searching in other ways-this week we took sometime to make cards for each of our next door neighbors (we have 5) and go say hi! I had an experience (the one I told President Shin about) with the one directly next to us-a sweet grandmother who is a Jehovah's Witness. We talked for a little bit and got to know her and her family (They live with their daughter and her family in one house-it's awesome and a lot for one apartment but Koreans are cool like that!) and introduce who we were and what we did.
She said she believed only in the Bible, but I ended up asking if I could  share with her a verse from the Book or Mormon: She said "alright." 2 Nephi 25:26 "We talk of Christ...." And she said "Wow, this is similar to the Bible." I bore my personal testimony of the witness I received that the Book of Mormon was true, and how it'd blessed my life. We felt the Spirit there strongly, and I asked her "If you knew this book was also God's word, that it was true, would you accept it?" We looked at her, holding the Book of Mormon. She just looked at us and said simply "No. I believe only in the Bible."
We were hit by a wall. Sister Deus said later that she didn't know everything that was going on, but when she heard our neighbor respond in the negative, she felt a wall come between us and the Spirit left. But even though we finished talking and walked away really sad, I know that I'm going to see her again. And I'm going to give her a big hug. I know Heavenly Father gives each one of His children an opportunity to accept His Gospel. They have truth! And I know that the truth which we have is the fullness of His plan for us. I know she will be given other chances. And I want her to know I know. Even if she doesn't believe it now.
I love you all and I want you to know that we no effort we put forth is wasted. God is with us, He is watching and guiding our actions, and He knows everything. It's in His way and timing that good things happen and people's hearts change. And we can see His miracles every day when we look for them. I love you. I'm so thankful we have something so precious as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know He lives.
Love you!!!
Sister Brooksby
PS I've also attatched some pitcures of Sister Dues going crazy with the cards! And we love cereal here :)

August 12 Letter

Hi Everyone! 

It's Sister Brooksby reporting from the tropical area of Naju, where the temperatures reach a feeling of 113 degrees ferienhieght because of the humidity, or "sup-ki" as it's known to the Koreans. It's hot!

And the neatest thing about Naju is it's tiny! We can walk everywhere we need to in about an hour and a half, and only take buses for district meeting and the occasional far-living member.

So it's awesome-and it's a blooming place for missionary work!

Because of the emphasis on member missionary work in all of our meetings recently, ever since I've got here I've been trying to make an effort like I never have before to get to know our members. This past week I've been calling a different member each night (or less active to set up an appointment to visit) and during the day we've been pounding the streets of Naju (occasionally by miracle with our elders, of whom xxx Jangronim knows everything about the area) exploring and finding potentials, members and less actives. It's so much fun opening an area, and with a new missionary too, because we both have no idea what to expect. :) But we have  a blast while we walk and insa to everyone we pass on the street. I think all of Naju is going to know us by the end of this transfer. :D

There was one morning, it was a Friday morning, and I was calling all of our planned appointments that day to see if we could meet. Sister after sister said they were in Gwangju, or too busy this week and the next week. So I was getting concerned. "Heavenly Father", I was thinking, "I know that there's things Thou needs us to do out here in Naju, and I don't think it's street proselyting all day.  What do we need to do?"

Sister Deus, my awesome NOT-trainee-trainee, said, "Why don't we heart attack them and make cookies?" 

Suddenly, my greenie transfer memories in SunCheon came back to me. 

"That's perfect!" I replied. "Let's do it!"

The only problem. No Oven. Easily overcome with!

No bake cookies, no oven necessary :)

So we stopped by our local mart to get all the ingredients. But there was no oatmeal. So we went to a slightly bigger mart called Emart express. Still no oatmeal. But we heard from our friendly cashier lady there that there was a Lotte Mart in Naju, (which surprised me, it's so small here!) which would most likely have it. It also happened to be next to the City Hall, where we needed to go to get a map so we could find places. :) We made a trip out of it! And the 15 minute walk took over 45 minutes and we were both sweating an embarrassing amount of liquid and laughing all the way there. It was around 12 Where we found City Hall and a lot of local tourist attraction maps!  But the staff were all out for lunch, so we couldn't ask for a big one, so we decided to fill up our water bottle again and head over to the Lotte Mart. When all of the sudden this woman who worked there approached us. She asked if we;d eaten. We said no, but when she motioned us over, which I couldn't believe, I said we were okay. She finally grabbed my arm and took us down the hall and some stairs later we were in a cafeteria. I had no money to pay for the food there, but when I said that she just said she'd take care of it. We asked her if she'd eaten, and she said she's already had. Then, once she knew we were taken care of by the local cafeteria ajoomas she left. We both stood dumbfounded. We didn't even know her name. And here we were enjoying an amazing meal and yogurt with no way to thank her. 

 

We just couldnt' believe what had happened. Then we made it over to Lotte Mart after some awesome guys helped us find a great map of Naju (we just need to buy a magnifying glass from Daiso to be able to read it) for FREE! And then we got there and met a Korean Family that lives in Provo and the husband works at the MTC as a investigator. They met us and had three of their 6 little girls with them last two were twins! But then they bought us ice cream and said good bye and we were blown away again. And then we went into the store to find oatmeal and had at least three of the workers there running around looking for oatmeal only to find that they had none. 

So we've decided that there's no oatmeal in Korea. But I have a testimony that God watches out for and feeds his starving, sweaty missionaries. :)

Send you pictures next time.

I love you all!!

This church is true!!

Sister Brooksby and Sister Dues :) (Her name means "God" in Portugese. How cool is that. My companion is Sister God. ;)

August 5th Letter

To my beloved Family and Friends,

 

(This keyboard tends to leave out lettes so it's taking a bit of a struggle...;)

 

I'm in Naju!! back in the very south part of Korea and its AWESOME! President Shin called me to train one of the new 9 sisters coming in this transfer and re-open Naju for sisters. So I said "Sure!" :D And I'm loving it :)

Sister Deus is her name and she's from South Jordan Utah. And I swear shes already been here for months! People don't believe me when I say she's been here since Thursday...

The Elders here are our life line and our members are our angels! The member missionary work here in Naju, according to President Shin's thoughts, will be headed by our litte branch here! And we can feel it! We've already received a referral for a family :) and EVERYONE is helping us!! It's so incredible to have this much support out here in the field!!!

 

And we figured out how to get hot water  to our apartment on the 3rd day... :D

 

The mission is exploding!!! There are 4 Sisters like us both opening and training and yeah!! We are seeing miracles!!!

 

Love you all! This work is so true! Dad, family I want you to know I'm gonna give these last few months my all!!

 

Sister Brooksby

July 28 Letter

Hi everyone!!

 

Love from Onyang! Wanted to tell you about our miracles this week:

 

Zone focus has been on improving  our street prosyliting and using the Book of Mormon. President SHin also wnats us to be Book of Mormon preaching missionaries! We had the goal as a zone to give out 40 Books of Mormon before the next combined district meeting, about a month of time. Sister Anderson and I were along with the rest of our district, giving about 7 or 8 a week, Until this week. Sister ANderson got the spirit (and the Cheonan Elders were willing to compete) and we have been giving 5 or 6 or 8 a day! SO this week we reported 31 Book of Mormons given, I was shocked! And so was our district leader :)

 

Even when Sister Anderson was feeling awful, we still went to all our appointments and prosylited, and with her enthusiasm behind us, we just kept giving, and at the very end, a woman we'd just talked to (whose friends told us to go away) came up behind us andased if she could have one  of our books. She said she wants to read it! :D It was so cool, because we had to get up the courage to talk with them, we were going to pass them. BUt then we turned back. So thankful Sister Anderson was willing to try!

 

Also! Our baptismal date kajin xxxxx is doing well, keeping the commandments. This week we watched the Restoration and during planning her lesson, I felt like inviting her to pray about Joseph Smith wasn't the right commitment, but having the knowledge that God answers her prayers just as he answered Josephs.

Turned out to be the right thing. She was feeling doubtful of getting answers to her prayers.

 

We also met a new investigator! She was a referral from a member close to Seoul. And she accepted the invitation to be baptized!!

 

I love you all!

Take care :)

Sister Brooksby

July 21 Letter

HI there everyone!

 

I feel like I've been slacking in the email TO you department because I'm so absorbed with reading your emails to me!

 

Most recent awesome news is that we invited our SIster xxxx to set her own baptismal date and she came back the next week with August 18th! It's a hile a way which is a tiny worry, but as soon as she told us the date, I felt peace. This was important for her to set her own date and now the whole branch is excited!

 

Other world-0shifting news is that President Shin has greenie Mission President fire! His first day with all of us he told us that he'd been praying to Heavenly Father for a Mission Goal to accomplish before he is released( in three years) and he just received revelation the week before he came-2,000 active members in every stake in Korea! We have maybe 200-300 currently. Is it impossible? No!! We have faith that we can do it, but we need the help of the members. So We're totally focusing on member missionary work-having them come with us to visit less actives, every time we visit less actives to ask for 3 referrals, and on and on! With the new announcement from the First Presidency on member missionary work, we're fighting with them to 1. find the lost and bring them back, and to 2. find those who don't know about the Gospel.

It's so true that with our members, we can do SO much more than we ever could without!

 

We also got to have our first interview with him! He and his wife are SO awesome and sweet. There is an apartment in our mission that is really really small. Because of the growth in missionaries, a lot of 2 areas (like Cheonan/ONyang) are splitting and they just add two more sisters in the one apartment. It's crazy how they're living. So President had us all conference in for a phone call today and said they had a conract for another apartment in process now for those sisters.

He also asked me if I was ready to train again (I'm just in my frist transfer with Sister Anderson!)

And he asked Sister Anderson, who is in her very first transfer, if she'd be ready to train at the end of her second!!!! THis is crazy-We have 25 missionaries coming in this transfer and 9 sisters. If there were ever a need for awesome fast-learning missionaries it's now! And whats cool is that they are !! Sister Spencer, in her 2nd transfer is speaking like a native already. She's incredible.

 

So the work is going forward! I love you all and pray for you every day!!

Sister Brooksby

We got a new mission president! He's SO awesome! His name is President Shin, and he and his adorable wife are helping us set the mission on fire :)

 

SIster xxxx, our amazing miracle investigator, went to church this week and we had her third lesson today after church-We talked about her baptism date and expressed our assurity that even thougth she doesn't feel prepared, she is! We gave her a date for this month, she said she'd think about it and get back to us. But I can't tell you the spirit and feeling of love that I felt so strong as we shared with her the power and miracle of baptism. She read through all of the baptizmal interview questions and said "yes' to every one of them. She didn't even pray about the Book of Mormon, she know's it's true. She accepts everything so quickly. She has such a big heart-this Sunday I told her she looked like she was going to the Prom with such a gorgeous dress, and then she asked if she could give it to me!!  

 

Also our branch complement-jangie (someone who complemets all teh time) stood up and bore her testimony on the happiness we get when we lift other people. She made the whole branch laugh with he teasing her husband with how handsome he was via the pulpit-we have such fun loving warm members!!

 

Sister Anderson is also so happy all the time-I've never had this much fun in a 4 man-house!

More latre! LOTS OF LOVE!! Hope all is well with you!

Sister Brooskby

July 1st Letter

We found a family!!!

Actually, they found us. Well, ACTUALLY actually, they found the Cheonan Elders first. And then the Cheonan Elders gave them our phone number. But the neat thing is-We're teaching a family! And they came to church!

Right now they are preparing to go to Canada, so they are meeting with us mainly for English. Their daughter is really cute (Around 10 I think-she ran to the store right before we left to get us her favorite kind of popsicles. :)  The mom is super sweet and comfortable to talk to, and what I love about her is she's super open. She told us straight up that she would listen well to our lessons, but she doesn't easily accept anything. She said her husband was the same.

 But despite that, we know that if they feel the Spirit, they'll feel something different from any other church. There is something here that no other church can help her feel. We know that she can know personally that anything we teach is true. That's the most incredible thing about this Gospel-It is true! And we can ask Him directly and He'll tell us it is. I know it. :)

Keep you updated there.

Love you so much! This work is true! Sister Anderson rocks :) 

Sister Brooksby

JUNE 23 Letter to the President

 

Our Investigator that lived in America for 11 or so years and heard about the Mormons is XXXX  the woman with a baptizmal date. One and the same. It ws so cool-this week we taught her the Restoration and I loved that the thing that stuck out to her is James 1:5-That she could ask personally about anything and God would give her an answer. It was so neat to see that realization come into her eyes.

 

This work is so so so cool! And it's not us at all, we just testify of the truth He already gave us and see miracles happen as lives are touched and changed. We couldn't stop talking about what a miracle it was that we met XXXX at this time, that she found us! She told us yesterday that if she had met the missionaries in America, because she was so busy earning money and other things (she had two full time jobs there, in Chicago, and New Jersey) she wouldn't have met with them. So because the problem came up with her permissionto live in America, she had to return to Korea,, where she met us a few years later. There are so many other neat things that are truly miracles that prepared her to meet the missionaries-I can't write them all. But I just know that this is His work for sure! He's leading those prepared to His worthy missionaries-and I know that He will continue to do that, for any of us. As long as we are trying to do our best, He shows us miracles. He puts us in the right path :)

 

This week we also got a phone call Saturday night from a father who was preparing his wife and daughter and himself to move to Canada, and wanted them to take the English lessons. But that wasn't the point of the call it seemed, because after he asked for the name of our church,  he asked what time worship started. Somewhat surprised (that normally doesn't happen!) I let him know what time it was and he said he'd talk with his wife and see if they could go.

 

That next morning I got a reply to my text that said they could come-And they Did!! They stayed through gospel doctrine (word of wisdom) and Sacrament meeting, but had to go before they could eat with us. But we'lll set up an appointment this week :)

 

We found out that he'd met with the missionaries for a very brief time about ten years ago, and when he saw the Cheonan Elders on the street Saturday night, he approached them and got our phone number. He says he does want to know more about the church,and we could see that his wife really liked the word of wisdom, so we will keep you updated!

 

Stats: I forgot to bring my old planner with me- I will get them to you next week for sure. (Or do you get them through Elder Hansen too?) We  had 4 people at church!! WOAH!

 

We love you! We are so lucky to have you :)

Love from Onyang,

 

Sister Brooksby

 

Sorry I am so far Behind in Posting Haley's Letters

Ok, so we decided to move to North Carolina.  Enough said...

Enjoy the old letters and get ready to welcome her home SOON!

Letter from June 16th 2013

Hi everyone! 

I wanted to forward Sister Musselman's account of our miracle investigator this week/ :) She tells it all!

Also, transfer calls came, Sister Musselman is transferring to Daejeon to serve with the sister who trained my MTC companion-Seo Nari Jamaenim, and she'll end up being with her for her last transter, so she'll get to introduce the area. Also I've heard that down there the missionaries need a boost -I know Sister Musselman will totally be there! :)

I also have been so so so blessed to be able to train again! I didn't think it was likely this time, as we have only 3 or 4 new sisters, but I secretly was hoping I would be able to-God gave me another miracle! I am so excited to meet her :):):) We don't know who it will be until the day we pick them up-though they know who we are :) Fun, huh? 

Tyson-fighting-Get better!!!!! I'm keeping you in my prayers-Stay strong He's with you all the way; I love you!!!

Trey I'm so excited to be your next-door neighbor!! Come on over and lets head to the front of the field!!! :D I haven't read all of your emails yet but I know you're doing really good because you are you. LOVE YOU TONS!!

Mary! I want to email you more next week-YOU GOT YOUR CALL?? Wow!!!! We've got to keep in touch via letter-what's your address cutie!? I'm so excited for you! You are going to be amazing, don't let satan let you think you are not going to be amazing and help SO many people come unto Christ-There is no experience to help us grow closer to Heavenly Father than a mission. I'm so happy for you!! You are an angel, Mary!

I'll email again next week-Stay happy and know how much I love you! I know you have got anything Heavenly Father gives you, because you are His special child, and HE's right next to you. I love you This Gospel changes and brightens lives for the better! It's true, I know it is! 

Sister Brooksby

Farming?

Hi Everyone!

 

We got to farm this week! A lot of pear farming, which is what Naju is famous for :) (You know those really big, round Asian pears we used to buy? Yeah! I picked some! and they are evern MORE delicious in Korea!!! :D) A family in our branch owns a plot of trees, and they had to get them all farmed by this end of the month, so they requested some help. Which is awesome because it's our Branch President's parents, who's mother is a member, but whose father never joined the chruch. Good bonding time, among the beauties of pear picking, frog catching, and we even saw a strange, ferret-like animal that was huge! SIster Deus was scared it was going to pop out again and eat her :) I even had the opportunity of dropping an iron bar onto Sister Deus' poor head. Come to find out she's been through much worse and survived-Her ancestors are German and apparently they all have really thick skulls... She's okay! Just a bit of advil later....

 

So the referrals we ended up anticipated didn't come through, I believe due to our lack of follow up, and just because sharing the Gospel with your friends can be really scary. It's not easy! So in our district meetings, sacrament meetings, Zone conferences and everything we are focusing on how to help our members overcome their fear of doing missionary work. Because we can find, and we can even see baptizms through our own efforts. But they are very few and far between.

 

And if we are to meet the goal our mission and stake president both set for all of us of getting 10 people into the chruch (whether reactivation or baptism) we need to see more results than the 10 we've gotten this year so far.

So we need Members!

 

I'll be honest, I've never done missionary work this way before. In my whole mission we've never really focused on members and referrals this much. I was always like "Yeah! There's my awesome friend in America, working off of referals and seeing baptisms!" but I didn't think that was how it worked here. We focused a lot on less actives and finding through our own efforts. (English program, flyers, tracting, door-to-door) So I feel kind of like a new missionary again, and now I'm getting to stretch myself and our memebers in ways we've never stretched before.

It's definately a change and a challenge, but just this past Fast Sunday, we were seeing the missionary spirit stir!

 

It started with Sunday morning. We were standing in the doorway, greeting members as they came to church. The Branch president had aldready greeted us, when all of the sudden he came back. "Sister Brooksby, You will share your testimony on member missionary work today, right?" he asked. I'd had a feeling that morning that it would be a good idea to prepare to do that, so I replied with a solid
"Yes President!" then he approached one of our elders (he's been a temporary elder here from another area while Elder Kim has surgery and recovers) and told him to give his introductory talk as well. Insa Marsuem Iragoyeyyeo. (Yes, that's Korean ;)

 

So, to make a long story short, I did, and I was just praying because I wanted to be totally sincere for these members and share with them what ever was really going to help them. And then I felt Heavenly Father take over. I just testified that there is someone perpared among each of our friends that the Lord needs us to share with. And I told them that My dad was my example of missionary work, and another district leader I had once who always said "I don't want to get to the Celestial Kingdom alone!" I told them all how they touched me and inspired me, and how that I'm only 22 years old and a forienger to their culture and language and everything, but I know that the Lord works through us to touch His children and bring them to Him. And how none of us want to be alone in Heaven-we want our best friends up there with us. :)

 

The fire has been lit! I watch our ward mission leader bear her testimony about inviting a family in their neighborhood to FHE together, and even though she was scared at first, she ended up talking with them a little about the Gospel. And the result wasnt' that they were baptised or even intrested, but I was SO proud of her and so grateful that she opened her mouth. That was one of and still is the hardest things for me about my mission. But I know that if we do, only miracles can happen. Only blessings can come because when the Lord makes a promise to us, if we do our part we can see it fufilled every time.

 

My companion, Sister Deus, has an uncle that's been less active for 50 years. He went inactive as a teenager and has hated the chruch since. Everyone in his family knows that's it's not good to talk to him about the church or religeon of any kind. But she's been writing him every week or every other week since she started her mission. She talked to him about her experiences, about the Atonment, about the changes she is seeing people make and the changes in herself. He never responded. But just two weeks ago her mother emailed her to say her brother (that uncle) said he'd like to come back to church.

 

If we believe and trust God above our fear of rejection or failure or whatever, and we speak to our friends and famliy and everyone out of love, only miracles like this can happen. I have no doubt.

The rest of our Sunday meetings were testimonies just like Sister Park's. The members were lighting each other's excitement for missionary work, and I couldn't believe it. I was so thankful.

 

It's not coming all at once. There' aren't any baptisms this week. But I know that Heavenly Father is excited for Naju. He's excited for the sacrifices we make to share the Gospel. He is so rpoud of us, especially when we do teh hard things. He loves us. I know He does and I'm so thankful for this opportunity to share my testimony with everyone and to see it and everyone around me grow. We can only go up. When we follow the Lord and hold fast to His promises, we can only go up.

 

I'm so thankful for my fellow missionaries too. Just two weeks ago, at the end of Zone Conference, we were invited to stand and share our testimonies with each other. One sister, been out about half her mission, stood and with tears in her eyes shared her testimony. "I need this gospel." She said. "I just need this gospel. I don't know where I'd be without it."

 

I love you all. Keep up the missionary work! There's no greater work we can do than this one. The neatest thing-Let's go to Heaven together!

 

Sister Brooksby

Je Gachok wa Chinguyo!

This week our goal was to visit our members! we've been working diligently with our less actives, and we've been able to visit xxxx Jamaenim at least once a week, with the others as often as possible. We want to warm up their hearts with love! :D

Also xxx Jamaenim, whose son got baptized at the end of March, has been coming to church more since his baptism! And today, while we were emailing, she just gave us a call and invited us to dinner tomorrow! Wow!!

We weren't able to visit as much as we planned-many of our members weren't home or didn't respond to our texts, but we were able to do a big District Hwarl dong! And we got 9 phone numbers and two potential investigators this week! One of them is a sweet haraboji that wants to learn English (he came to English class! Our very first non-member!!) The other is a mom of an 8 month old baby (at first, I thought she wanted us to teach her child... ;) and she wants to do the 30/30 program. (We found some old 30/30 Program Explanation forms that Onyang Elders from years ago used- That's what we jundoed with and it helps for people to know who we are and why we teach English and sets out all of the rules ((including the Sungin rule :)) so it's just wonderful. If there's a pair of missionaries that are needing a good form to get potential investigator's contact info and give them the lowdown, we've got it!) 

Then, just out of the blue one day, we got a phone call from a woman who kapchagi thought about learning English again and remember our missionaries teach it for free. So she called the Deajeon Mission Office and got our phone number. So we're meeting with her this week too! WOW!

President, we aren't perfect missionaries. We don't have all the smarts or the connections or the money to get the word out as fast as many others can. It's like you said, if we were a company, we would be SO unprofitable. But that doesn't matter!! We're doing the Lord's work, and we can expect and rely on Him to guide us to those He's prepared. Just like Nephi told his brothers- (I paraphrase :) 

"Yeah, Laman has got fifties and hundreds to his army. And yes, there are only four of us here. But when we're working with the Lord, there's no number that can stop us when we're doing His work."

Moroni quoted Christ when he said, "If ye will have faith in me, ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." -Moroni 7:33

I think that's one of my favorite verse now. I'm really seeing that come to pass. And we can see more and more miracles happen as we're sincerely trying to be His hands-giving all of what we have to help Him!

We are doing wonderful and seeing miracles and are so happy to be here. We feel each of your love and prayers. Let's go on together!!

Love from Onyang!

Sister Brooksby

Busy week

Hi everyone!

I love hearing from you all each week! Thank you for your time to write! :D

 

We've found two investigators! We've been praying and we've set a goal to do more jund each week (Sister Musselman's idea :D) so that we can find more people. It was a few days after we set that goal that we found two new investigators in two days!!

We've lost Sister xxx though-she's said she's really busy recently and she'd contact us if she wanted to meet again later.
We know that theres another reason- we know she is looking for spiritual truth, but compared to sacrificing her relationship with her family, it's not worth it to her. We hope that later, when she feels more strongly about the descision to have God in her life, she'll find the missionaries again. Planting little seeds :)

We're also keeping up with the four less actives our branch president suggested to visit. It's neat to see these sweet mothers at home with their children, doing everything they can to help them-We know the gospel will only help them! Do any of you have any ideas with how to go from just visiting to helping them make the decision to come to church? Each of them are in their own situations; A less active husband, a non-member husband who attends another church. I was so glad for the the opportunity to help xxxx Jamaenim last week with cleaning her house-If we could do someting like that for all of them I think it would help! We're stopping by once a week or so to bring cookies or heart attack their door and remembering birthdays.

We'll keep you updated! I am so thankful for our branch-they are all just like family and going to church each Sunday is like coming home. Elder Koo gave his last talk at church last week, and that made us all sad. We can't believe he's really going.... but we'll sure welcome Elder Jeong Sae Jean!

Transfer calls came and I'm staying here with Sister Musselman. With yet 9 more sister coming this Thursday, all of the sisters areas are splitting and everyone but four seniors are training :) Rock on!

 

Really quickly: I was looking for a scripture to say thank you to our awesome District Leader, Elder Koo and when I found this one it made me think about all of the missionaries coming: Matthew 4:19-20. It's when the Savior sees His future disciples fishing and calls to them. "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." and they "straightway left their nets and followed him."

 

Aren't our amazing youth just the same? Thank you so much for dropping everything so that you can invite others to follow HIm too!!!!

LOVE YOU! This gospel is so true, and it's the happiest thing we have to share :)
Sistr Brooksby

Consider the Blessings

This week we have been looking at low numbers (trying to get our area up and rearing!) but we've been able to visit a lot! I think I may have told you that one of our highlights of the week is visiting our sweet Mongolian less-active-Nara Jamaenim. We meet with her twice a week and do the thrity-thirty program- Thirty minutes gospel and thirty of Korean :) She's learning the alphabet slowly but surely! And I just found out that she's a harmonie, close to Grandma King's age! She's so sweet-we use pictures and our white board to explain gospel principles and learn how to read and write. And anything else we just use body language and smile. She's such a sweet woman. She lives in a tiny hotel room where she also works cleaning the guest's rooms every day. Her husband passed away, and her two children are living in Mongolia and Las Vegas Nevada. She keeps in contact with them and her grandchildren (andother one in May!) via Skype from her tiny room. She doesn't have many people that she knows here in Korea, but she does have us and the branch, where she goes whenever she has a day off at work. She also goes faithfully to the Seoul Temple any day off she has, and she has pictures of temples that she keeps right with her picture of her children. She studies her scriptrues each morning before work, and now she's dilliegently studying Korean :) She just learned how to write 몰몬경 (the Book of Mormon) in Korean and we were all so excited! :D And whenever she saves up enough money, she invites us to dinner with her or orders it to her tiny room for us to eat :).

 

Oh my, I can't tell you how much meeting this one woman has brought me so much joy! I'm so glad we have a reason to meet with her twice every week :) She has this ability to make you feel so loved.

 

We also visited with our other Mongolian less active (baptized three years ago, has a husband and two little girls), her name is xxxxx

. She's fantastic at Korean because she studied so dilligently when she moved here (over 9 years ago). Her daughter is now of baptismal age, so we want to work with her to see if she can take the lessons and be baptized. Just need to be her friend for now, then little by little... :) Miracles can happen!

 

Other than these visits we've been able to interact more with the ward-4 families invited us over for dinners this week! WE've been inviting them to look for missionary opportunities, getting to know them, and sharing fun stories (everyon is blwon away that Sister Musselman has 13 kids in her family, it's a great line opener :) It's fun to get to know our members better and what they're all about! I really love Onyang Branch.

We're also getting our English conversation class started this Saturday! Our Branch President has called a couple in our branch to be the English class coordinators, so we have help too! Now we're going to be contacting everyone to come :D

 

Other than that, we're working on Jundo, Ka Ka Ho Ho (door to door) and pass off :D

 

This morning I was reading President Monson's address on Consider the Blessings. I loved his testimony! In that talk, he basically says how looking back on his life, he can see the little blessings that ended up helping someone else-answering a prayer, or recognizing the answers of someone elses prayer (the Jumbotron talk!).

Its really all His timing! And all the while, as we're looking for the blessings He's sending, we'll find them :D

 

I love you all! Trey, this will be the last email you can read until you're sending your own from the MTC! I'm SO proud of you!! Rock it out there, don't give up, know we're rooting for you and have FUN! :D:D:D

 

Elder Brooksby I'm always praying for you. I hope you keep seeing miracles in your area. I'm so so so thankful that it's not in the numbers, it's in the people. I love you and I'm so proud of you. I don't think you'll ever know.

 

Mom, Dad, you got this-Sending another one off! The blessings are going to keep coming. I love you both so much, you've taught us so well. NOw it's our time to remember, learn and grow!

 

Please always be happy and remember how much your loved! This Gospel is the fastest way to happiness-it's all been figured out by our loving Heavenly Father. All we have to do is follow Him. :)

I love you!!!!

Love Sister Brooksby