A photo of Jared

I received an e-mail from a sister in Hawaii.  She sent this picture and said:  "Here is ur missionary at his best. Doing well and has a great spirit.  Aloha, Sister C."  I'm always so grateful to the members and others who send me pictures of Jared.  It's great to hear that he's doing well.

Oh, how quickly June is passing

Well hello hello everybody:)
It sounds like a very exciting week for you guys, and another very exciting week coming up too!  I wish I could be there for all of the excitement.

This week we (again) we're on splits and I went with the same member as last week to go teach the Catholic woman and her family.  The member I went with is Brother G. and he himself is a convert to the church.  In fact he was studying to be a Catholic priest until he married a less active member, studied the church for SEVEN years, then he was baptized.  So he offered to go teach the woman.  Her daughter is a member who got baptized when she went to school in Utah... (go figure huh?) with us which worked out well because we had more lessons than we could handle.  So Brother G. and I taught she and her children about the restoration and Bro. G. explained why the great apostasy made sense in his eyes.  I shared Amos 8:11 and then shared the Joseph Smith story with them.  Bro. G. gave his testimony about the restored gospel and as we were leaving she was beaming and saying "Now I understand!"  So things are going great here, as far as that is concerned.

Anywho...I hope all is well at home, please keep praying for me.  I love you all and miss you all soooo much:)

Ofa Lahi Atu:)  Elder Brooksby

Here are some pictures from Kona.

 P.S. the picture of me and the girls is a family that we helped get to the temple.  OK follow this chain:  All in the same day those girls I am with were sealed to their parents, who were sealed together after the wife was sealed to her parents who just barely had been sealed that day as well.  So grandparents sealed together, then sealed to their daughter, who was then sealed to her husband, who were then sealed to their kids.  One big chain woot woot!!!

Happy Belated Father's Day

Thing one:
Well well, it sounds like it's been a pretty BIG week out in the East haha. 
I'm sad I've missed yet another big thing for our family but I'm glad everything went well.  Your were certainly in my prayers Erin:)

My sister with her new baby girl!

Good luck with all of your Regents, Lauren!  It's not going to be fun, but if you're half as smart as it sounds like you are then these will be a breeze.

This week I successfully taught a Catholic woman that we're not a cult  and that she and her kids should be baptized by the proper priesthood authority and she liked it, so we'll see how that goes.  Other than that nothing big happened.

Oh on last Monday we found some caves and went exploring and then the member we were with went swimming in the fresh water cave RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES.  It was torture. 

Thing two:
HAPPY *belated* FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!! 

Well I love you all, but I have to go now:(  I love you and just keep praying for me please!  I feel it each and every day:)
Love Elder Brooksby

P.S.  The reason why I'm emailing today is cause we went to the temple today so our P-day was today.  I'll tell you more about it next week cause I'm out of time!
Love you byeeeee!

One Year!!!

This week has been good for the most part and I'm trying really hard to develop some new habits here on the mission for my last half (gasp!).

 

I've been writing in my journal every night (nothing substantial just a page or so... some days it's about all I can manage) and then read a little of the Book of Mormon.  Alma 5 is a pretty amazing chapter, it's what I've been studying for the past few nights here.

 

Well over the past few weeks some pretty interesting things have happened here.  So this girl just got back to Hawaii from college in Utah.  While she was in Utah she took the discussions and was baptized.  She came home and talked to her brother about the whole experience and he decided that he wanted to take the discussions.  So we set up and appointment with him and when we came to teach him we had been invited to have the lesson at their auntie's house. So we went and started to teach him and his older sister also starts listening in.  Just before then end of the lesson their auntie bears her testimony about how she is a convert and how throughout all these years of inactivity she has never attended another church because she prayed about the Book of Mormon and she KNEW that the church was true.  Then we committed all of them to attend church over the next few weeks and they all committed and all came.  Even the auntie came with some of her children.  The young man was in Japan for a week and the sisters didn't want to have another lesson without him so we decided to wait a week for another lesson but still everyone came to church that week.  Then the following week at church everyone was there so we set up another lesson, but this time they want to have it at their mom's place.  Their mom is a VERY strong Catholic, but she got curious I guess and wants to hear how we are different and what we are teaching her kids.  The young woman who went to school in Utah is getting very excited, she wants to convert her whole family!  

 

That's what happened with my roommate at college, so I'm hoping and praying that the same thing will happen here.  We have the appointment set up for this Wednesday so we'll see how it goes!

 

Well I love you all, thanks for all of your support!

Muchos Mahalos and Aloha!

Love,

Elder Brooksby

Happy Hump Day!!!!

Man this weeks one was LONG and unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write today, we've been playing taxi for the Zone Leaders all day today so that's kept us busy:)

Well this week has been eventful.

1. We have two investigators, a father and daughter, who are out of town.  They went to Oregon for the father to get married to his girlfriend.  So that's a good thing, we're happy for them.

2. We got 4 new investigators this week.  Woot!  I'll write more next week, hopefully I'll have more time then, but we're so pumped about that.  It's the first investigators we've found in 7 weeks haha.

3. I got asked to perform a musical number this week because the choir director likes my voice haha. So I'll be singing Michael R. Hick's arrangement of I Stand All Amazed this week:)

4. Last P-day we went to a place called "The end of the world" because it's where the Hawaiians thought the world ended.  We hit golf balls off the cliff.  It was pretty fun:)

Sorry it's so short, but I have to go run a few errands now.

I love you all and thank you sooo much for your prayers and for your fast, it means the world to me and I can feel the effects of it!

Mahalo Nui loa and choke aloha!

Elder Brooksby

Pictures:

1. The scripture case that was given to me by a recent convert

2. Sea Cliff Golfing.  A Must-Do in Hawaii if I do say so myself haha.

3. The End of the world!  Didn't you know the world is flat?

4. Tagalog Nametage (a philipino dialect)