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 :)

Interviews

Well things are going well.  It just took some time to get back into the swing of things.  You know what they say, the greater the anticipation the greater the let-down right?  So now I'm on the rebound, and we had a pretty good week.  No baptisms, but a good week all the same. 

We had President interviews the other day, which went well.  I always love interviewing with President Dalton, some missionaries don't like them as much, but my idea is that if you've got nothing to hide from him, then you can have a great interview and leave it more motivated to work. 

Then something weird happened... Sister Dalton talked to me about making sure I had all of my school stuff in line.  WOW.  That was unexpected...  I guess the enrollment for classes is coming up but that was a weird conversation to have.  It makes me feel like I've been out for a long time.  She gave me permission to go onto my BYU profile anytime to make sure I was up on what is going on with my standing and everything like that, so today for a couple minutes I just cruised through my profile again and just re-familiarized myself with everything. THAT was weird... the next step is actually choosing classes that I'm going to take.

Anyways I think that's all that's gone on this week.  Just a lot of work.  Having two areas is nuts haha.

Well I love you all and thanks so much for all the support:)

Love you all!  Elder Brooksby 

Our area is HUGE!

Hello Family,

I'm jealous that you guys went to yet another band performance without me.  I'm dying here from the lack of music choice haha.  I mean you know I like classical and you know I like MOTAB  but after the fourth time of "This is the Christ" album and the fifth time around on the "Tchaikovsky" album... you start to get a little sick of it.  The mission president said that until he can establish a standard for our music, we have to abide perfectly by the missionary handbook rules, which knocks out everything except for the Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and MOTAB albums I have... oh well.

Anyways to answer your questions from the beginning of your email, Elder Moore and I get along well which is good.  However, we don't have too many promising investigators anymore which, again, is frustrating especially with covering two areas.  We have the Kealakekua Ward.  But we are also in chrge of the Ke'ei Ward because they took missionaries out of that ward.  So now (if you were to Google Map it) our area covers everything South and East of Henry street in Kailua all the way down to Milalii.  It's HUGE!  And it keeps us busy.

I got your package the other day, thanks so much Mom:)  I liked the tie a lot, enjoyed munching on some gummy bears, pistachios, and Cap'n Crunch (not at the same time don't worry) and enjoyed your card.  Thanks.  It felt nice to get a package.  

Well I think that's about all I've got for this week.  Hopefully some good things happen and I'll have more to report next time.

I love you all so much and thanks for all your prayers.

Love, Elder Brooksby

A Trip to the Temple

Well today we went to the temple which was great.  I really needed a chance to relax and feel the Spirit and the temple is the perfect place to do it (of course).  We'll have to do some family temple trips when I get back. 

In other news, Saturday I also got to blow off some steam (whether it was constructive or destructive is really a matter of "point-of-view") cause Elder Moore and I went to brand cattle with a less active member...  that was the most interesting/exciting/fun thing I've done in quite some time haha.  I don't know there was just something about roping a calf, tackling it to the ground and holding it there while one of the older guys would castrate them and brand them and give them an de-worming shot.  It was quite the experience.

Things have been going OK I guess.  Still no improvement on any of the situations with investigators, but I did send a letter to a previous investigator and got a letter back from her where she said that she wasn't going to give up because it was something that she knew was true.  She's still meeting with the missionaries on Hilo side so at least I've got that going for me. 

Thanks for the quotes and talks, it helped a lot, especially when you quoted D&C 64 because I had been studying that scripture earlier so when I got your email it helped.  It makes me feel like me and my parents are on the same page through the Spirit or something haha.  Or maybe we just know where to look, but I'll take the first thought.   I can only do that which I can do.  I'll leave the rest up to the Lord.

I love you all soo much, thanks for all your encouragement over the past 5 months.  Your letters and words of advice mean a lot to me.

Mahalo nui loa and stay on the Keala Ke Kua;)

Elder Brooksby

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