Hello everybody!  How's being in New York for the Holidays?  You guys must be busy doing all sorts of fun things haha.

Well where to start... Thanks for the fun phone call home and all the wonderful gifts on Christmas! And Erin I got your package and I love it!  It's holding my keys as we speak, so thanks a lot:)

I never got to tell you all about my Christmas Eve.  One of the pics is of food on a table.  LOTS of food.  The family we ate with own a restaurant, so if you look close you'll see prime rib, crab legs, steak medium-rare, ham (my FAVORITE lol) all that jazz.  It was awesome:) 

But just not like being at home.  Nothing beats that. 

 I'm attaching a pic of me and my uke... it's a little different from Lauren's one haha;)  It's electric-acoustic with a built in tuner.  AMAZING.  

Christmas was awesome.  Started the morning with a big breakfast at Wahiawa 2nd bishop's house,  then called home (best part of the day) then we played pool the rest of the day, ate Swiss steak at a member's house and called it a day.  

Later on in the week we baptized David and Kylie.  FINALLY!!!!  I've worked so hard for this so it was nice to see it through.  David was baptized by his father and I baptized Kylie.  It went so well and their confirmations were great as well.  All in all a pretty good week I think haha.

Love,

Elder Brooksby

Temple Trip

Elders Brooksby and Mitton

Hey everybody!  First off sorry for not telling you that we were going to email today.  We had our temple trip today so that was nice.  And so guess where I am?  The BYU Hawaii Library!  It's cool I got to see a lot of the places that we went back when we were on vacation here haha.

Anywho... this has been a hard week just because of all the stressing things that have been going on. So we have an investigator who has been investigating for some time now, but we just found out on Sunday that in order to be baptized on the 29th of December, her broke off his engagement and then retreated to Maui for a couple days to relieve stress... So we're hoping he'll be back and able to make his baptismal date.  We also have a couple of other investigators who will be getting baptized - probably in January. But transfers are coming up in a week here so it's kind scary to think that I might get transferred out again before those baptisms actually happen.

I've also been really sick.  Like, "I think I have the black lung papa!"  Haha but seriously, it's been miserable to ride bikes all day feeling like the stuff you scrape from the bottom of a food disposal. 

Elder Bateman and I get along well.  Right now we're working on bolstering our faith in the things that our President asks us to do.  I know that we need to have faith and then we'll see results, not the other way around.

Well it sounds like another week has come and gone in the Brooksby Ohana.  Will everyone be home for Christmas but me?  Oh well haha there's always the future ones...

Well Hope eveything else is going well!

I LOVE YOU ALLLLLWarmest Aloha (You'll need it where it's so cold;)

Elder Brooksby

Hello Everyone! Howzit? (I keep saying howzit at the beginning because, let's be fair, when I come home, I'm not going to be saying "hello" to anyone I don't think... I think it'll mostly be "howzit" and "wassup" haha)

So I'll start by sending a few pics and go from there... Brother M. informed me that I don't send as many pictures as you would like, so I'll try and be better at that haha.

OUR THANKSGIVING MONSTROSITY!!!! THE TURDUCKEN!!!! It was pretty gnarly haha.

 
Christmas Decorations are going up!! It's just not the same without the weather changing though haha.

 

Here's a picture of something that my cousin Erica Brooksby drew and I thought was hilarious... hopefully you like it too haha.

 

I found a car that was from New York... with a BILLY FUCILLO plate cover! I never would have thought that I would've seen one of those on my mission in Hawaii hahaha.

 

Last pic - Elder Bateman is a photographer so he can take some interesting shots, unfortunately, my camera is less than capable of artistic shots, but I still liked this one.

 

Well life is good! We are teaching this family of three and they felt the Spirit, know they want to be baptized, came to our Christmas party, and to church the next day and LOVED it:) So now we're waiting for the dad of the family to get back from Afghanistan, he's deployed currently. But the mom was talking to him on the phone and she was so excited she was like "When you get back you have to meet these guys!" so I'm stoked.

We had 6 investigators at Sacrament meeting this week, so I was stoked.

So I'm serving with no regrets and I'm gonna finish hard here. But it's weird to thikn that I'll probably only have one more area, one or two more companions and I only have 4 transfers left. It's trippy to think about... so I don't think about it that much haha.

Well I love you all so much and I'll be better about sending pictures in the future:)

Mahalo nui Loa and warmest alohaaaaa Elder Brooksby

Thanksgiving

 Hey Hey Hey everybody!  Howzit?

Awww  I'm glad you ran into Emily Hoskinson.  You should tell her that I still keep the picture of her, Jordan Armstrong, Tyler Giroux and myself in front of the dinner cruise boat on my desk.  People always ask if it's my family haha.  

Well my Thanksgiving was good... it's just not the same away from family but it was good nonetheless:)  We went to our ward mission leaders' house and he had TURDUCKEN.  It was good!  It worked out really well for such an interesting concept.  It sounds like although your Thanksgiving was kinda helter-skelter it was a success!  

Haha I have to laugh about your Bon-Ton experience...  Wasn't that where I went to get Dad something specific... then when I got there they either didn't have what I wanted or they wouldn't let me get the sale on it?  I don't know I just remember swearing off ever going there again and all I walked out of there with was... a pair of wigwam socks.  Nice socks though haha:)

Well this was a strangely productive week!  Elder Bateman and I are doing just fine.  We committed a family to baptism last Saturday and they accepted!!!  The first success I've seen in quite some time, so I'm happy:)

Well I think that's about it... I Love you all and miss you all soooooo much:)

Happy Holidays!  Mahalo nui Loa, Elder Brooksby

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello Hello!  Howzit?

Well for me the time is doing the "rubber-band effect".  At the beginning of my mission it was going very slowly and now it's going very quickly.  That whole last transfer went by like a blur.  So yeah I kinda know how you feel haha.  

I have a new companion, Elder Marshall Bateman from Mesida, Utah (the West side of Utah Lake).  He's cool... and easy to get along with and he works hard so I'm happy right now haha.  

WOW I'm glad Scott's grandpa is doing alright! Hopefully he continues to mend up.

Well things are going great here now.  The Zone has really shaped up this past week, and we've got some stellar missionaries.  And they've re-arranged my District so I have the Sisters and the Senior couple in my District so that's fun, I can handle that.  We're shooting for two baptized in December with 20 baptized overall in December as a zone, so we're excited and I finally feel like we have the tools to accomplish our purpose.

So thanks for the email and the support, and Happy Thanksgiving!  I'll be going to my ward mission leader's house for Thanksgiving and he's ordering a *drum roll please*

TURDUCKEN.  The thing looks gnarly. I'm so excited haha.

Love you all have a good week!

Mahalo Nui Loa, Elder Brooksby

Staying in Mililani

 Hello everybody!  Howzit?

So I think it's going to be a short email this week, what with Veteran's Day and all.  So Elder O. is getting transferred.  I was all ready for another transfer with him because this is his last transfer... but we got transfer calls and he's going somewhere else for his last transfer.  So we'll just have to wait and see what happens this transfer and who my new companion will be.  Anywho, so I'm staying in Mililani and I've finally got some work going here, so I'm excited, we'll see what happens! 

By the way, yes they do Halloween in Hawaii... I think they just didn't want to decorate haha.  And yeah plenty people gave us candy, but it wasn't as good as the candy you sent me, you knew the exact kinds that I like haha.  And thanks for giving me a little perspective on the Lord's timing it means a lot and I feel like that's been something I've been focusing on a lot.  So thank you so much:)

Anyways I love you all and I'll write longer next week.  Happy Day off work!

Love, Elder Brooksby

Happy Halloween

Hey Hey Hey:)  How's it going?  This is our wonderfully decorated apartment thanks to the Halloween package I received:)  THANKS!  We were the most festive people out of our whole block of apartments.  Awesome:)

So it sounds like this week has been a crazy one.  How sad that you guys didn't have anytime to relax a little this week.  But you got to go to the temple so at least you had that going! I don't know when our next temple trip will be. 

So about the mystery of the two church buildings right next to each other in Mililani.  There are four wards that meet in these buildings and the larger building is the Stake Center for the Mililani stake which has 8 wards overall.  Mililani 1st ward (where I am) meets in the Stake Center.

I'm jealous of your Fast Sunday meal.  We almost didn't have one haha.  Our dinner called and said that they were all sick and weren't sure if they could feed us but they ended up making us oven pancakes and bringing them over to our apartment.  SO GOOD.  Man it's been forever since I've had one of those.

Also before I forget, yes I did get your package (the post-Halloween one)!  Thanks so much:)  It made my day haha.  It's been a long time since I tasted chocolate chip cookies like those:)  Thanks for always sending packages and letters, it makes a huge.

Well not much has changed with the area.  We did find some new investigators yesterday so that was good:)  We have interviews with the mission president coming up in a few weeks, so that will be interesting.

Elder O. goes home on December 19th so I'll find out soon if we stay together until then.

Well I gotta get going,

I love you all so much and hope everything continues to go great back home:)

MAHALOHAWAII, Elder Brooksby

Happy Halloween

Well life is just chugging right along here in the Mililani 1st area. Hmmm... what happened this week... We did have a tsunami warning, it went off right during the stake trunk-or-treat haha! I have NEVER heard something so loud in my whole life. It was fantastic, we were all stoked haha in a weird sort of way. We knew that we were high enough up that it wasn't going to do any harm to us. I think the actual event was only like 17 inches of a surge. WOW. We all almost died. I think my feet might've gotten wet- oh wait that's cause I was in the shower. Woop-de-doo haha. I've heard that they really haven't gotten any bad tsunami's in recent history but it's better to be safe than sorry I guess especially on an island haha.

Well my time is up, there's not much else new to report but I'm liking the area, biking around all the time is hard here but I'm getting used to it I guess. Elder Obray goes home before Christmas.

I love you all. Thanks for your support and the great package:) I'll be sure to wear the tie on Halloween! And Dad I hope your knee is getting better and that the mower continues to "come off the conqueror" against "The Lawn":)

 Mahalo Nui Loa and warmest Aloha, Elder Brooksby

 Me and the Brooksby clan over here in the Mililani first ward.  I think the kids and I are 3rd cousins...  anyways I think that Brother Brooksby's face structure is similar to dad's, have a look!

 Just a recent picture of me... figured I haven't sent you a recent one in awhile...

After I opened my package I built the Lego set haha,

it'd been FOREVER since I had done one of those:)  Thanks!

My Costume... nah nah nah haha:)  I just found this in the pad.

October, where have you gone?

Hey Everybody!  It seems like today might actually be a productive email day today haha:)

Sooo... how am I?  Good, but SUPER tired. This area is very big and hilly, and  we have to cover it all on bike. So I sweat a ton (I was wondering what life would be like without sweat glands...  I think it would be great.) and get very sore. Hopefully at the very least I can lose more weight.

 

Mission life going as good as it can be.  I try to lead by example, teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves.  

 

Anyways it sounds like you had a BLAST with E, B, and E at the house the past week.  I'm jealous, I'm missing all of E's cute moments, but oh well I guess I'll just have to make up for them somehow when I get back.  I'm sure it'll freak me out  how big they've gotten haha.

 

WOW Elder Benedict is about to get home?  NUTS!  So he's got 2.5 more transfers.  That'll go way quick and by the time he's all pau Elder Yoshikawa will have 1.5 months, I'll have 4 Months, Elder Maughan will have 2 more months, and that'll just about wrap up the missionaries my age... did I forget anybody?

 

Also, I ate dinner with the Brooksbys this week.  How are the rest of the Brooksbys doing?  Grandma still doing ok?  Anything else noteworthy?

 

I forgot my camera today so I had a picture of me with the Brooksbys but that'll have to wait till next week.

 

Thanks for all your support!

 

I love and miss you all soooo much.

 

Take it easy, Elder Brooksby

Bike a little, walk a little!

So where to begin...  This week has been good for the most part.  A lot of biking and a lot of walking as well.  We have some potential, but it's going to take some hard work!. So we're not looking at any baptisms right now, but we'll keep working at it.

Before I forget, ask Dad if he knew an Elder Kamiya from his mission? 

 

Also, Dad it's scary how much your face looks like the face of Wayne Brooksby, the member here who is my 2nd cousin once removed I think?  Like take off all his hair, and your faces are i.d.e.n.t.i.c.a.l.  It's pretty strange.  

 

Well I think that's about all for this week.  Sorry it's been a weird email day today.  The picture I'm sending you is Me and Wynn after she gave me a haircut.

 

Anyways, until next week, I love you all and miss you all a lot.

 

 

Love, Elder Brooksby

Mililani, Oahu

Well this is a bummer, cause now that I've spent my whole time today figuring out that last week's email never sent, and getting THAT to send... I have 5 minutes left on this computer.  MAN I HATE NOT HAVING GOOD COMPUTERSSSSS!!!!

So this week.  I'm have a new companion.  His name is Elder O. from North Ogden, Utah.  He goes home in two transfers so I'll probably be the one who will finish his mission with him.  It's hard being in a new area.  I was used to knowing the area, not I don't really know what to do.  Oh and it's a biking area. 

 I loved conference, especially Elder D. Todd Christofferson in priesthood.  VERY good talk although Elder Hollands was amazing as well.  I have a voice recorder and I recorded conference so I've already re-listened to both those talks.

I was excited to hear about the changes in ages for missionaries.  Hopefully the new changes to when you can serve will help with keeping them obedient and dedicated.  I have no doubts this is inspiration.  Be sure to let me know who actually ends up putting their papers in, I'd be very interested to know!

Anyways, my session is about to expire so I have to go.  I'm so sorry for this weeks/last weeks mix ups.  Hopefully it wont happen again:(

By the way - I'm in the Mililani First ward, Mililani Stake, Oahu.  There are Brooksbys in this ward!  I figured out that I am 3rd cousins with Lucas Brooksby, the son of Wayne Brooksby.  Kinda ironic I think haha.  Hopefully that'll give you a little bit more info to hold you over until next week...

I Love you all soooo much!

Elder Brooksby

Hey real quick I'm attaching a few photos, the first should be 

Elder M. and I with The Gleeds, our ward mission leader and his wife.

This is Fediuk Family, they are amazing and I was sad to leave them. 

This is the Gray family,
her name is Michelle so that always made me think of you mom:) 

Transferred...

We learned that Jared is being transferred.  Unfortunately he didn't know where or who was going to be his new companion yet.  I guess we'll find out next Monday.  Stay tuned!

Seasons

It's weird to think that it's September... and that September is almost over already!  I'm starting to really miss the seasons... perpetual summer... it's not that fantastic.  Sometimes you're just too hot. Oh well, no point griping about it now haha.

I'm sorry but yet again, not much interesting has happened this week.  It's kinda like a lull in my mission right now, we're trying hard and doing everything right (I hope...)  but still nothing huge happens.  

I guess two kinda exciting things happened, one was that we contacted a referral that we got in the mail we went to his house and first thing we see is a huge gate, slightly open, but an equally formidable Rottweiler standing guard behind it.  Not wanting to put ourselves any closer to the dog than necessary we do the local thing (you call out "Hui!"  kinda like hoowee, but in your falsetto) and a kid comes to the window.  I start off "Hey we're looking for Mark is he around?"  The kid looks at me funny and says, "No there's no Mark around here... sorry" and he starts to go away, and my companion nudges me, "The name of the referral was Wayne, not Mark."  So quickly before he heads away I call out "Actually we're looking for Wayne, do you know Wayne?"  The kid comes out and asks if we are Mormons, we told him we are, joked about calling him the wrong name, taught him a lesson and set up a new appointment with him.  So we got a new investigator, which is nice.

Then we had dinner at a family who I had never formally met, which is weird since I've been in this ward for 6 months haha.  We had an awesome dinner and they were a really cool family, all converts and they said that they really liked us a lot (the husband and I really hit it off)  we left with a nice spiritual message, and they gave us referrals!!!  We haven't gotten member referrals in forever!  Later I was talking to the man's sister (who's in another ward) about our dinner and she said that we should feel blessed and that there must be something special about us because they haven't had the missionaries over to dinner in 7 years!  So I guess that's my cool little bit for this week :)

Things are going well with my companion and I and things are great!

I love you all and next week you'll know about transfers!

OK Chutes then;)  Elder Brooksby

Pololu Look-out

Howzit everybody?

Well this has been another interesting week.  We tried hard to get stuff done and do what we were supposed to do and for the most we saw some success.

Elder Moore and I have been working very hard, but I dont think I have very many cool stories this week.

I did interview a woman in the Sisters' ward for baptism the other day.  She was awesome, she was an older woman and just so sweet, so ready for the gospel in her life and I was excited to do the interview with her.  She had only been learning about the church for 4 weeks and she already had the testimony of someone who had been in the church for years.  It was a pleasure to meet with her and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it.

We get along really well with the people in the ward, so we have good ward trust.  We're really trying to utilize the members because we have a lot of potential investigators right now and I think if we get the members involved the conversion process can progress more quickly.

Thanks for everything you guys do for me, I love you all soooooo much and hope all is well.

Aloha Nui Loa and A Hui Hou!

Elder Brooksby

Yeah I hiked it in Slippahs;)

These pictures are from the Pololu Look-out

and Valley up in Hawi (pronounced Hahvee) last P-day.

Loads of fun and a good hike :)