Trials

Well instead of the good news we've been praying for (and I've been fasting for), you get this news.  

One of our investigators got cold feet because he felt like he wasn't as ready as he thought and so the family is "taking a little break from things".  They didn't come to church and we don't have another lesson scheduled till much later this week.  Which stinks because his daughter is ready for baptism (she's 9 and excited about it) but we won't do anything until we can baptize them together.  

THEN our other investigator spoke to her mom (the woman that I worked REALLY HARD to get a good relationship with)  about being baptized and her Mom EXPLODED.  She was furious that she'd even ask after meeting with the missionaries for only 3 months, and I guess she was salty for days.  Which in turn got our investigator frustrated.  She still wants to be baptized but now it might not happen until Christmas because that's when she'll be back home from college.  It CRUSHED me. This was the ONE THING that I wanted to have happen in this area and I really worked for it and here we are.  

Transfers are a week from now, and I'm getting the feeling like I'm going to be transferred (partly because the Zone Leaders are asking me questions like "Elder Brooksby, if you do leave, who do you think could replace you?") which is plausible because I've never stayed in an area for more than 4.5 months and this transfer that'll be up.  Which is another thing that stinks because I feel like for once my specific personality is being utilized for something and now I'll probably be transferred. 

Oh and Back to School shopping?  I guess it doesn't take me by surprise that much because school has been "in" her in Hawaii since two weeks ago. But I know how much fun that can be and I miss it!  Haha;)

As for the Olympics...  let's just say I'm pretty miffed about missing them.  But at least it's not the World Cup.  I'd HATE to miss that.

Other than that it sounds like a pretty usual busy week for you guys, and I'm about out of time here so I guess that'll have to be all for today.  

I love you guys and if you would just keep those same people in your prayers this week too and we'll see how it ends.

Mahalo nui Loa, Elder Brooksby

Here's a photo from a ward camp out.

August Already!

Hello all,

Haha no I'm not getting trunky from hearing all the news from home.  There's been plenty to focus on here and I've been trying hard to focus on just those things.  Hearing what's going on at home is nice and it doesn't bother me.

Although I will say that it's CRAZY to think that Scott is hitting his year mark and I didn't really think about how much was left of my mission until you said 10 months just now...  That was kinda trippy haha.  It might be best not to mention how little time I have left, rather how long I've served... it might be the same in the end but rephrasing it has a different effect on my mind cause it proposes a different view of the work, i.e. focusing on keep working hard till the end rather than you're almost done... does that make sense?

In any case I was talking to a member this past week who asked how long I had been out for and I said "14 months"  and he said, "Oh, almost done then!"  and I didn't like it put that way haha I just said "Well, we won't talk about it."

Anywho, mission life has been going well!  We've been working like crazy the past few weeks here just trying to get the area started and it finally payed off this past week.  We had dinner with a part-member family (the husband and kids are nonmembers, but the wife is a member) who had been meeting with the missionaries for most of this year and in my lesson this past week Elder M. asked them what the husband thought of the temple and he said "Well, that's our goal."  So I explained what our purpose as missionaries was and I asked if there would be anything holding them back from being baptized and he said "I don't think so."  So I committed them both for baptism on August 11th and they accepted!  We were so excited this will be the first baptisms that Kealakekua has seen since March, and it would be such a big step for their family!  So then Sunday rolls around and I start to get this feeling like  we need to ask the husband the baptismal interview questions before our meeting on this Wednesday.  So after church we got to his house and start to go over the questions with him.  It turns out that the missionaries who had been meeting (numerous times according to the teaching record) with them before us, had not been teaching him any of the commandments!  So he had not known about the Law of Tithing or the Word of Wisdom.  OUCH!

So we go over both of those and he explained that he would be willing to keep the Law of Tithing and that his only problem with the Word of Wisdom was drinking coffee.  So that was a blessing in and of itself, and then he said he'd be willing to give up coffee!  Big blessing!  But the problem is that typically baptismal candidates need to be living the Word of Wisdom for three weeks prior to baptism.  So I talked to President Dalton and the only way he can be baptized this weekend or next weekend is if our Bishop gives the OK.  So we'll see what happens this week, keep praying for us please!

And then we've also been working with a girl and she's almost ready to be baptized, her only hesitancy is that she doesn't want to be baptized and then go to college and play basketball where her coach might not give her a couple hours off on Sunday:(  So we've encouraged her to talk to her coach in advance but our window of opportunity with her is coming to a close at the end of the month when her sister, who is a recent convert, also leaves to go back to college.  So basically I'm stressing out and really praying hard that these two things will go through.  

Also because I'm getting the feeling that I'm going to be transferred in two weeks...  I've never stayed in an area for more than 4.5 months (three transfers)  and in 2 weeks I will make four and a half.  So I feeling like I'm just running out of time in all sorts of contexts and it's stressing me out, but making me work harder too which is good.  My Bishop says that he wants to request President Dalton keep me here another couple transfers haha.

Well I think that's it for this week.  Sorry no new pictures yet:(  I've been trying to be better at that haha.

I Love you all sooo much.  PLEASE keep praying for our investigators here,

Talk to y'all next week;) Love, Elder Brooksby

Pictures

Hello Hello everybody!!!

Well things have been going well out here.  Being District Leader again has it's ups and downs haha.  But besides that I've been praying really hard for the Lord's help with our investigators coming to church, keeping commitments, keeping appointments all that jazz and I saw answers to those prayers this last part of last week (like when 5 investigators showed up to church!) and this week (we already have a lot of things set up for this week) so I'm extremely grateful for the Lord's help on that one and all of your prayers for me and my companion.  We're still doing great, we get along well so it's pretty refreshing for me haha!

Hope you like getting pictures!  I'm trying to take more haha:)

When we had Zone Conference I saw one of my favorite missionaries, my second companion in the mission Elder D.  I LOVE this elder Soooo much he's a great guy.

And the picture of three missionaries is a picture of two other elders from my transfer, Elder B. is in the middle and also one of my favorite missionaries.  We hit it off from the MTC and now he's my Zone Leader so I spend some quality time working things out in our zone.

And when we were at the church we found this old Mormon Ad kinda thing and I thought that these pictures of Elder M. were funny haha.

Also, I found some Nerd Specs at the church building... should I wear them proselyting?  Haha just kidding;)

Love you all!  Elder Brooksby

Happy 24th of July

Waipio

Hey Hey Hey everybody:)  

So before I forget and move on to how things are going for you, I wanted to tell you guys a couple things that have happened this week.

1.  My recent convert Stephanie received her patriarchal blessing on Sunday so I'm super pumped:)

2. I HAVE been getting your postcards so thank you guys so much:)  It seemed like you guys were having way too much fun in Washington/this summer vacation in general;)

Welp today before I emailed you guys I went on a hike with our zone to a place called Waipio valley (pronounced like you'd say Y-P-O) and it was a great stress reliever, seeing as how I'm taking over an area, showing Elder M. the area, and we've had two mini-missionaries the past two weekends (priest age young men who are set apart for a weekend and stay with us for 48 hours to see what missionary work is like).  So today was nice.  Also this week we had a ward camp out and we went the second morning to see how things were.  There were a lot of less active members there so we went and talked to them.

 

I guess a congratulations are in order (well kind of) for B&B's faux graduation!  I'm glad it went well, I wish I could be there for all of these big things.

And I'm still envious that you guys are just partying it up whilst I'm away...  you guys really should consider coming out to release me, cruising the islands for a week and coming home.  Eh? Eh? Eh?

But things are well, Elder M. and I get along great so it's awesome! 

Elder Brooksby handling some chameleons at his Bishop's house 

(the bigger green one is named Paschal like out of Tangled)

Also Happy (belated... OK very belated) Birthday to Mom (yes I do remember that July 7th is your birthday.  And Melissa's birthday too right?)  Sorry I forgot, it's been kinda crazy lately haha.  And a Happy Birfday is in order for a miss Lunnette the Clown!  Oh wait it's actually for Lauren;)  Love you both, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 

A Short Letter Home

This weeks letter from Elder Brooksby was short. He said: "I wish I had cool stories for you about missionary work but I don't right now. But I'm having a blast with my new companion, Elder M. from Pocatello Idaho, and things are going very well. I love you all sooo much and hope you're all having fun with your vacation:) Love, Elder Brooksby"

But he did send these pictures.

 

Elder Brooksby and Elder A.

Elder Brooksby, his mini missionary and Elder M.

 Elder Brooksby and Elder R.

Transfers

Hello Hello everybody!  Firstly and foremostly, I did indeed get your hump day package and I thought that I already emailed home about that but if I didn't I apologize.  Thanks so much, everything has been used so far except the cake mix and frosting.  The half-dollars were really convenient because we have to pay for doing our laundry at our pad so thanks so much. I do live in Kona side, but it's pretty much as civilized as Burnt Hills, but just a little bigger. In the long run you don't have to worry if things get to me they always do, so thanks so much!

Secondly, I got called as a District Leader again, and Elder A. is getting transferred back to Oahu. So I'll be taking over Kealakekua area and being with a missionary that I don't know, but I'm thinking that things are going to be fine. I'm excited to hear how your coming trips go, I'm jealous that you're doing all these things whilst I'm abroad so you'll just have to make up for it by coming out to release me in a year so we can cruise the islands without having to come back! Eh? Eh? Eh? Hahaha. Well I love you all soooooo much and I've never missed you guys so much till I did just yesterday. But I hope all is well for you guys and I feel the answers to your prayers every. single. day.

Mahalo nui loa and Ofa Atu:) Elder Brooksby

Elder Brooksby 

There is a family that we're really close to and they had a HUGE backpack so big that you could fit their 7 year-old girl in it haha. 

The young man standing to my right, is Jordan H., we took him on splits a couple times and now he got his mission call to the Philippines!  So cool it's like the mission has come full circle haha.

Happy 4th of July!

This week has been pretty uneventful although I have gotten sick!  Yay.  And I figured out that the last time I was sick like this was, you guessed it (or maybe you didn't) a year ago almost exactly on Molokai.  MAN it's been a year since Molokai, craziness.

Things are going OK, nothing new to report. 

Today I got my haircut at an investigators' place and I resolved a lot of her concerns/worries/qualms she had with the church, and it's a funny story but I'll have to write it out next week, I'm a little pressed for time today.  It's been a weird P-day as you can tell by the time I'm writing you at haha. The haircut is nice though haha, but not as nice as Mom's haircuts:)

Other than that I had a lesson on splits with an investigator and the lesson went pretty well!  It's a part member family and the wife wants the husband to take the lessons but he's disinterested.  It's frustrating because she wants to be a forever family but he has no desire.  It's a bummer.  But we'll keep on working with him.

Welp I'm sorry it's a short email but there'll be more next week I promise.  I know you've heard that before and please know that if I could just sit here and email all P-day I would.  I miss and love you all so much!

Mahalo nui Loa, Elder Brooksby