Elder Cameron Brooks Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission

My Last Week Was SPECIAL....

2011-03-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

Hey! This is just a quick little update on what went down this week. I love the mission! This is a great story ( pictures ) and I look forward to sharing this with you soon. Right now we are organizing everything for our transfers and I am also organizing and packing everything. I love you and I look forward to seeing you soon. This will probaly be my last email. One thing though it looks like I have taken all my money from my account and I don't have very much to travel with could you put a liltte more money in my account just in case I need it while traveling thanks. Con amor Elder Brooks.

Family....

2011-02-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Sounds like everyone is doing great and thanks for your emails and letters. I just sent you an email with my travel information please write me back and let me know if you received the email. Everything is going great here I am just trying to get everything ready and organized here. Week six of the transfer is a crazy week and we are staying very busy. Today we have the tour with my group that is leaving, its hard to believe but the time is going by really fast. I love the mission and I am very grateful to serve. I will write you another email when I get a little more time to fill you in and update you a little more. I love you and look forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

My Time Here is Short.....

2011-02-16T14:20:00.003-08:00

Dear Family, Hey! Once again i am sorry for writing back a little late. I appreciate your letters and emails sounds like everyone is doing great. Everything is going well here and we continue to stay busy. I know you would like to hear more about whats going on and how I am doing but I just have not given myself too much time to write. I hope you understand as time is passing very quick and I am trying to take advantage of every minute, trust me its not easy but its worth it. I can not wait to talk to you and fill you in on everything. I love the mission and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and help his children. This past Monday I had the opportunity to return to one of my old areas, actually my first area called Rafael Castillo and I had the opportunity to visit some of my converts, members of the ward, and also the Bishop and his family. It was a great experience and I loved seeing them. It was not easy saying goodbye. I look forward to hearing from them and also to see them continue to progress in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you have any questions for me? I am sure mom has a few questions, hah. I am pretty sure mom is trying to put together something for when I return but please tell her to take it easy, I love her. Whats Mackenzie up to? Hey just to let you know I created a new email address because I could not really remember my old email and quite a few people are asking for my email so we can stay in touch. My new email is cameron.brooks08@gmail.com. I love you and look forward to hearing from you soon. If i find some more time I will try and update you a little more. Have a great week, I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Tee Time in Argentina!!!!!

2011-02-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here are a few new pictures and a little update. So here we have Elder Thompson and myself with one of our investigators Luis. Luis just had his birthday and we decided to put our baking skills to the test. It turned out very nice and delicious, hah! Luis is a family member of a member in our ward. We have just got to know him. Luis is not a member but he knows quite a bit about the church as most of his family are members. Also Presiden Benton invited us to lunch and some golf on P-Day, he was able to give us some lessons. It was fun. Love Elder Brooks

Letter received February 3, 2011

2011-02-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

I am just writing a quick email to give everyone an update. I am sorry that i have not been able to write that much latley but things have been pretty busy here in the mission office. Being an ap ( assistant to President Benton ) and also training the new assistant Elder Thompson i have had a lot on my plate. Today we finished zone conferences for this transfer, they all turned out very well and President Benton is pretty happy. It can get pretty stressful getting everything put together but it turned out well and i feel good that its over but i am sad that its over, that means that was my last zone conference here in the mission. i have a lot of mixed feelings going on, being here in the office it helps me stay focused so i am grateful for that, there is always something to do. However things have not been going too well in our area Caseros 2 for quite a while. Let's just say that things have been going well, we are very blessed, but things just are not seeming to turn out all that well. I feel the Lord is really testing my faith and patience. We have found a lot of investigators and many have comitted to be baptized but we have been having to put back their baptismal dates several times. Many of our investigators have challenges with the commandments, with the word of wisdom and the law of chasity. I love the people and i want the best for them. I also know if i can continue with faith and patience things will work out how the Lord has planned. If i relate to how i feel right now to a baseball analogy i would say that i feel like i am swinging good and hitting the ball good but i am hitting line drives right at the other players. i am gratefull for this opportunity to serve. I love the mission. i know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and that we have his gospel. Thanks for your love and your support. i am praying for you. i look forward to hearing from you soon and also from Mackenzie i hope she received my other email. i love you. Con Amor Elder Brooks.

Another Quick Post.

2011-01-26T09:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from you glad you were able to receive the pictures i sent, I hope you liked them. Everything is going well here and we are staying really busy. This past week which happened to be the first week of the transfer was packed but everything turned out well. Transfer meeting went well and we sent some of the Elders home, one of which was my companion a little while ago by the name of Elder Gonzalez from El Salvador. Now we are trying to get everything ready for this week as we have zone conferences starting up. There is a lot to prepare for the zone conferences so we are trying to get everything prepared and organized. Elder Thompson is starting to get a hold of things here in the office, he is a great elder and we seem are getting along well. Lately we have been finding some new investigators and some have been progressing pretty well. We are trying to find some more time to be in our area so we can spend some more time with them. So that is a brief update on whats going on, there is always a lot going on and I would love to update you on everything and give you the details but we have been busy so when I get more time i will give you another update. I know it sounds like I always say that but it is true! hah. Thanks for your emails and all the updates. Mom I received your email and I think am a little confused on the whole housing situation? From what I understand I will be starting school in the fall but i am not sure if anyone else is, therefore I am not sure who I would be rooming with. Also the other day I took out some money from my account so if you would like anything special from Argentina let me know hah. I love you and I am grateful for all of your love and support. I am praying for you have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

QUICK UPDATE.

2011-01-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, I'ts great to hear from everyone and i am sorry to write to you so late but we have been really busy with transfers. I am just writing to give you a little update and when I have a little more time I will write you a bit more. We had transfers this last Monday and they went very well. I received my new companion Elder Thompson from South Jordan, Utah and we are pretty excited to get to work. Elder Thompson came into the office a week early so that Elder Palacios and I could start to train him as we will only have one transfer together and he needs to now how everything works here in the mission, the office, and in our area Caseros 2. Everything has been going well and it is staying pretty hot here in Argentina. Things have been a lillte tough in our area as we have not had much time this last transfer to work in our area as we prepared things for Christmas and New Years and transfers. We have been finding a lot of people and we are pretty excited to keep working with them and help them receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Today we are going to Chivilcoy to visit the Elders who are out there and fill them in on transfers and then do divisiones with some of the Elders. Elder Palacios is now one of the traveling assistants with Elder Aguirre so they will be traveling alot throughout the week working with the elders and teaching them. President Benton is doing great and continues to teach us everything. We are excited for this transfer as the lord is preparing many people to hear and accept our message. I appreciate your love and support. I hope you have a great week I will try and fill you in more when I get some time. I am praying for your. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

PREPARING FOR TRANSFERS.

2011-01-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from everyone, thanks for your emails and letters. Everything is going good here in Argentina and we are staying busy. This week went well and we were able to get a lot accomplished. Now we are coming into week six which is usually a big week here in the office and in the mission as it is the last week of the transfer. This week we are receiving a couple new missionaries that are arriving early, we will be going on the tour with the( pastores) which are the missionaries that are leaving this transfer, we will be planning the transfer with President Benton, and also I believe I will be receiving my new companion this week so Elder Palacios and I can get a head start and train him. This last week we finished interviews with President Benton and all the zones and we all had our interviews as well. President Benton is amazing and it was great to have the interview as we talked about a few goals and plans to finsh strong and also goals and plans for after the mission. President taught me that no matter what the goal is I should always have in mind asking myself, "Does it get me closer to the Lord?" I have been able to put down some goals but I will continue to review and check to see if they really get me closer to the Lord. Last night we participated in a fireside with President Benton and it turned out very well. This was the first time that we have done it and many investigators, members, and missionaries all from the stake were invited. Elder Palacios and myself gave short talks, we watched a video, President Benton and the Stake President spoke and then we had refreshments. We enjoyed it and we look forward to the other firesides that we have planned. So we are pretty excited for this week there is a lot of work to do! I appreciate your love and your support. Thats crazy that you already recevied my flight plans Elder Rodriguez will still be calling to confirm. Do I need to do anything for school such as sign up or pick any classes? I am thinking I will attend the spring term. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I love you have a great week I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey happy New Year! Thanks for all your emails and your letters it sounds like everyone is doing good. Sorry for writing late but we have been pretty busy here in the offices this week. This past week we have been busy in our interviews with President Benton, office work, working in our area, and a special meeting with the zone leaders in the mission home. We had a great week here in the offices and also in our area. This past Sunday we had a really great meeting and one of our recent converts Adriana shared her testimony during sacrament meeting and you could really feel and see the change that the gospel has made in her life, she has a great testimony. Also another recent convert Eduardo Aguirre has recieved the Priesthood and is now blessing the sacrament, he is a great example and he and his wife have a lot of faith and also a strong testimony. Our Bishop from our ward here in Caseros 2, his name is Bishop Obispo Cabrera came up and talked to us after sacrament to fill us in that in the year 2010 we doubled the converts that we had in 2009. In 2009 Caseros 2 had a total of 8 baptism and this year 2010 we finished with a total of 16 converts. Our Bishop is really nice and it was great to see him so excited at the progress that there has been in Caseros 2. That was some great news and thanks goes out to the other missionaries that were here before us and together we were able to achieve this success. I love New Years and I love the mission! I have put some new goals and plans down for the new year 2011 and tomorrow we have interviews with President Benton here in the offices and we will probably go over them together. This last Friday we went over to the mission home with all of the zone leaders and the staff and we reviewed our accomplishments from 2010 and set some new goals and plans for 2011. Its going to be a great year and we are pretty excited to keep working and sharing the gospel with everyone. I heard Greg received his mission call to Paraguay, Asuncion North mission congrats, thats a great mission and it is in our area. Greg will have a lot of success and he will help many come unto the waters of baptism. Also those were some nice pictures of the snow back home, that's pretty crazy but looks nice. Also mom asked about flight plans I am not sure when Elder Rodriguez will be calling you but dont worry he has the information to call you and if you miss the call he will just call you later. Everything is going well thanks for your love and support. I am praying for you. I look forward to hearing from you have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

ALL IS WELL........

2010-12-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey! It was great hearing and seeing you during the video chat! Everyone looks great and it sounds like everyone is doing good. I appreciate all of your love and support. We had a great Christmas here and now we are getting ready for the new year. I love the new year it's a great time to put down some new plans and new goals. What are some of your goals for the new year? We have a pretty busy week with interviews with President Benton and then having our combined meeting with the zone leaders and President Benton this week. I love the mission and I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve. I love you and I am praying for. Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Christmas Conference.......

2010-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is getting ready for Christmas! Sorry I have not been able to write to you sooner but we have been prettty busy with everthing that is going on this week. This last Monday we had our big mission Christmas P-Day and it turned out very well. I sent you a picture of the staff that we took during p-day I hope you like it. I am guessing you are wondering at what time I will be calling this Christmas? I am not sure, I am pretty flexible and should have the chance to call whenever is best for you. I was thinking you can talk with each other and give me a time that would be best to call you. Please send me an email and let me know. I love you and I look forward to hearing from you. I will try and prepare myself for Moms questions, hah! I appreciate all of your support and I am very grateful for this opportunity I have been given to serve. Have a great week and know that I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

ONE LAST CONTACT BEFORE WE GO HOME !!!!!!!!

2010-12-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey it sounds like everything is going well and everyone seems to be staying busy. I am not sure if I mentioned in the last letter home but I received the package from mom and a few cards from Dad, Beckie, Mackenzie, Isaac, and Nellie. I just wanted to make sure and let you know i received them and say thanks again. Last week we stayed busy and this week we have a rather busy schedule with missionary interviews with President Benton as well as preparing for our Christmas P-day that we will be having this upcoming Monday. This last week went really well as we went to Chivilcoy to have missionary interviews with President Benton and the missionaries that work in Chivilcoy which is located pretty far from the mission office, its basically considered the country part of Argentina. After the interviews Elder Palacios and I stayed to do divisiones with the zone leaders Elder Baldomero, a former companion of mine and Elder Latorre. The divisiones went very well and it was great to work with Elder Baldomero again. He is a great Elder. The highlight of this week was a baptism that we had for one of our investigators named Adriana Graciela Lezcano! A couple of weeks ago as we were ending our day Elder Palacios and I did one more contact before going home, and that is when we met Adriana. At the time Adriana did not want to talk neither did she want to listen but we set up an appointment to pass by another day. The lord was preparing Adriana to hear our message. We began to talk to her and get to know her. As we shared the gospel with her she felt that this is what she needed in her life. Adriana is a great example and has a great testimony. She was so excited for her baptism, when we visited her she always told us she was just waiting for the day. This past Saturday the day arrived and Adriana was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The baptism went very well and the spirit was very strong. I am grateful for having met Adriana and for the faith that she has and her desires to follow our Saviour Jesus Christ. I love the mission. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. I will you know with more details about Christmas and at what time I will be calling! I love you have a great week. Con amor Elder Brooks.

WE ARE LED BY A GIANT OF A MAN PRESIDENT BENTON!!

2010-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey it sounds like everything is going well back home and a thanks for all your letters, emails, and also a special thanks to mom for the package that you sent me! The package was filled with some good stuff of which the office staff and myself were able to thoroughly enjoy. Because of time constraints I was only able to briefly read your letters, since it was this week that we started a new transfer. Monday we held our transfer meeting. We have been really busy and I apologize for not writing sooner but I will try and fill you in on what we have been up to lately. This past week we have been preparing for transfers and planning it with President Benton. It's the truth that President Benton is the best of the best, he truly is an amazing man and we are very grateful to have him here leading and serving with us. This transfer as we planned with President Benton we had the opportunity to pray together and search for inspiration about what the mission needs, what the missionaries need, and what the investigators need. The spirit was very strong and we were able to understand better, as we contiuned to pray to our Heavenly Father his purpose. Monday we held our transfer meeting and I was given the opportunity to direct ( conduct ) the meeting. It was a great experience and turned out rather nice, if i may say so myself. After our transfer meeting we took the missionaries that are finishing their missions to the mission home and they had their last meal with President Benton.They then were able to share their testimonies after which we then took those missionaries to the airport and sent them home. Today, Tuesday after waking up we went to the airport to pick up the new missonaries arriving at the airport and also the new missionaries arriving from the MTC that is located here in Argentina. The new missionaries are an amazing group and they all have a really strong spirit as well as great desires to start to work and serve the Lord. This is a bit of an update on whats going on in the BAW mission. Our office staff is amazing and now we just added a new secretary of materials, Elder Bennett from Boston, Mass. We are really excited for this new transfer and especially excited to take up and accomplish the challenge that President Benton has set forth for us this transfer to all read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of this transfer. I am grateful for this opportunity to participate in the Lords work and serve those here in Argentina. Thanks for your continued love and support. I love you and I am praying for you. Have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Simply Put... A GREAT WEEK!!!!!

2010-11-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey!, sounds like everyone is doing great! Thanks for your letters, birthday packages, and pictures! The truth is this was hands down the best birthhday. On my birthday President Benton came over to the office in the morning and made breakfast! Two other missionaries Elder Hughes and Elder Quackenbush had their birthdays the same day so they came over as well and we had a big american style breakfast, pancakes, bacon, and sausage it was soooo good, probably the best breakfast I have had on my mission. All of the elders from the mission office sang happy birthday to us. I received the package from dad that had some party favor type things to celebrate my birthday which worked out well. We all got to together and had a little party. Also the Valle family from a past area Billinghurst, made me an birthday oreo cake and sent it to me via the Sister missionaries who are working there now, Sister Lopez and Sister Lewis. The Valle family is a great family, I love them. But the highlight of my birthday was a phone call I received that night. As we were getting ready to finish up everything at the office I received a call from the Sister missionaries who are working in Billinghurst. They called us updating us about a baptism that they were planning and at the end of our conversation they told me that Antonela the investigator that was preparing to get baptized asked if I could and if i would baptize her! Antonela you may remember was an investigator that we found and taught when I was in Bililnghurst about a year ago. Antonela had desires to get baptized when we were teaching her but she was not married to her husband at the time. A year has now passed and this past week Antonela and Leo got married and Antonela was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Friday the 26 of November 2010. She was confirmed a member on Sunday! I am very grateful for the faith that Antonela has shown and for the decision she has made in her life and within her family to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I am also grateful for the Sister missionaries, Sister Lopez and Sister Lewis and for their persistence, faith, and for helping and preparing Antonela for this amazing step in her life. The spirit was strong during the baptism and I felt very happy for Antonela and her family. I love them and I am grateful for their examples. This week was also special as we had the opportunity to have Thanksgiving dinner in the mission home with President and Sister Benton their family and other invited guests. Dinner was amazing as we had the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. After dinner we had the opportunity to share out testimonies and express our gratitude for that which our Heavenly Father has given us. It was a great experience and we were all very grateful. Thanks for making my birthday so special and unforgettable. I enjoyed your letters, the package, and pictures. Mackenzie tried to be funny and made me clean up a big mess from her letter that she sent me as glitter confetti flew all over when i opened it, hah!! it was a good birthday gesture and even in spanish. I'll give her credit for that one. Tell her I love her. I am not sure if there is another package on the way as mom mentioned something to the affect that there was another. Also mom had a question about my deferment at BYU, I believe I signed up for this coming spring term. I love you all and I am praying for you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great week! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Thanks.......The Birthday Package Arrived!

2010-11-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Thanks for all your letters and emails and especially for the birthday package! It's great to hear from everyone and thanks for the birthday letters and packages. The birthday package was very nice and has a lot of cool little stuff to throw a little birthday party with, so we will see what we canl do. Mackenzie even wrote a pretty nice letter. Also the Ludwig family sent me a nice card so please tell them thanks from me. Everything is going well here in Argentina and now the weather is starting to heat up. This past week went well and we had our Stake Conference with Elder Aidukaitis of the Seventy. It was a great opportunity to hear from Elder Aidukaitis. I was able to learn much and the spirit that was present was strong. Saturday during the Priesthood session went really well because he talked about the church mission plan that came down from the first presidency. The plan which will consist of working with 15 families in the ward that can be either inactive, incomplete families, and so forth. I loved as well as really enjoyed our Stake Conference because there was a big focus on missionary work and being prepared and worthy to enter into the temple at all times. I also enjoyed conference for personal reasons as I was able to see many members and converts from my old branch of Billinghurst. Everyone seems to be doing rather well and it was really great to see them. I think it has been almost a year since I served in Billinghurst, WOW! Mom mentioned in her e-mail that she saw a video from the preach my gospel dvd the district 2. I love that dvd, and we use it a lot as we have been teaching the new fundamental principles from preach my gospel. I believe she saw the movie about an investigator named Jynx which is a good one that focuses on the importance of the Book of Mormon. From what we know Jynx is still waiting to get baptized. I still have to look at my trunky papers and fill them out, I will do it this week. This week looks like it will be great week to work and we will also be celebrating Thanksgiving. We will probably be some of the only ones to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Argentina because it is not a holiday here. For Thanksgiving President and Sister Benton have invited us "the staff" to join them for dinner. President and Sister Bentons daughter and her family will be here also for Thanksgiving. I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father I love the mission. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and support. I am praying for you have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Office Report........

2010-11-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey! It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great thanks for your emails and letters. I love hearing how everyone is doing and what everyone is up to, keep staying busy and keep sending pictures. This week went well as we finished all the zone confereces, we were also able to do some divisions with several of the zone leaders. Things are also going pretty well here in the office. The Elders form Ciudadela, Elder Parker and Elder King had a baptism this past Sunday so we are pretty excited for them and they are also rather excited as would be expected. We stay busy here in the offices but we are also trying to use our time wisely and work in our areas more and more. The Lord continues to bless us. We are very grateful for what we have been able to accomplish and we look forward to working hard and effectively with the time that we are given. The Elders from Haedo, the secretaries Elder Millard and Elder Rodriguez are also doing well in their area and they stay pretty busy in the offices so we are very impressed with their examples and their service. This weekend we have Stake Conference and Elder Aidukaitis from the Seventy will be attedning so we are preparing for that this week. Now that the zone conferences are over it looks as if will have more time to work in our area and do divisions with the other missionaries. Elder Palacios and myself are doing well. He is a great companion and a great example for me. He really does a good job with explaining everything that we have to do here in the office and we are always thinking of things that we can improve on. Elder Palacios also was pretty big into sports before the mission as he was very competative with soccer. He played a lot and he was given the chance to continue and play professionaly but he decided to serve a mission. All of his family are members and his father works for the church. His dad is a architect and he was given the opportunity to design the temple in Santiago, Chile were they are from and now I believe his dad is working with the temple that is being built in Concepcion, Chile. The temple here in Argentina is still being reconstructed and I am not exactly quite sure when it should be finished but they say within a year. I love the mission and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that with faith in Jesus Christ everything is possible. Thanks for your love and support, I am praying for you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

BAPTISMS IN CASEROS 2 !!!!!!

2010-11-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Thanks to all for your emails and your letters as it sounds like everyone is doing great back home. Mom, thanks for the pictures as it looks like halloween turned out pretty well with all those little trick or treaters. The work is going great here in Buenos Aires and the weather is starting to warm up too. This week went really well as we started our zone conference meetings and we had a baptism as well in our area of Caseros 2! Let me just say It takes some time to prepare the zone conference but should i say they have been turning out really good. President Benton and Sister Benton have given some powerful messages for us missionaries to help motivate and keep us focused on the work at hand. The Lord continues to bless us each and everyday. As a companionship we have been pretty busy but the Lord was able to lead us to those that were ready and waiting for our message. This is what happened when we showed up to Eduardo and Noemi´s house about three weeks ago. Eduardos mother, Bilma, was baptized a few months ago but the missionaries never really got a chance to meet her son Eduardo who lives on the second floor of Bilmas house with his own family, which includes his wife Noemi, and their three boys. A few weeks ago we randomly began to speak to a boy in the street by the name of Martin. The conversation went well and he ended up telling us that his grandma, Bilma, was recently baptized and that he lives above her home with his family. The following week we were working once again in our area at night and about to wrap things up and head back home. With a little time left we decided to stop by one more house, that being the Aguirre Family. We climbed up the stairs and knocked on the door, That's when we met Eduardo and Noemi Aguire. They kindly let us in their home and we were able to get to know them. They explained to us some of the situations that they were dealing with in their lives and in their family. They then explained that they needed something to help save them. That's when we were able to share our message with them about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We explained the importance of the family as well as the importance of prayer. Eduardo and Noemi understood everything clearly and then and there commited to start praying to ask if our message was true. As they continued to pray, read, study, and attend church, Eduardo and Noemi were able to receive the answers they sought and have begun to see and feel the blessings of the gospel in their lives. But most importantly with in their own family. Every lesson there was an incredibly strong spirit as well as strong emotions. Eduardo and Noemi have faith in our Saviour and in his gospel and I am grateful for having been able to meet with them and help them to find and experience the blessings of the gospel. I love them and I love their family. They treat us very well, always trying to invite us to stay and eat, they are both very good cooks, we love their food. Eduardo and Noemi have decided to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and I know he was calling to them. Also we had the oportunity to baptize Mauro who comes from a family who is strong in the church but not all are active right now. We had the pleasure to eat lunch with Mauro and his family and that's when we were able to invite him to be baptized. Mauro recently turned 9 years old and he knows allot about the gospel and loves reading the scriptures. What a privilege it is to participate in the work of The Lord. I love this mission. I love this gospel. I know this to be the true Church of Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and your support. I love you and I am praying for you. Elder Rodriguez just handed me what they call "trunky papers" they are papers that I have to fill out and explains the process about getting everything ready to go back home. I will try and read it later and fill you in. Tell Elder Squires congratulations what a great missionary. I am still waiting for the package dad sent and I will let you know also when that arrives. Have a great week I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Halloween Not Celebrated Here.....

2010-11-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey, its great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great. Happy Halloween, unfortunately there is no Halloween here in Argentina but that's good to hear that it is still celebrated. I'm sure everyone has a bunch of halloween candy that can not be found here in Argentina. Everything is going well here and we have been able to get a little more sleep this week. I love the mission and I am grateful for the opportunity I have been given to serve here in Argentina. President Benton and Sister Benton finished their seminar this past week with Elder Andersen from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles along with some other members of the Seventy and leaders from the area. President Benton was able to share a little about what took place and what they did in the seminar and it seems like it was a great spiritual and motivating experience. He was in the seminar for a total of four days during the week, along side and seated next to an apostle of the Lord Elder Andersen, words were not enough to express the experience. He mentioned the love that Elder Andersen has for all the mission presidents and all the missionaries. President and Sister Benton were very grateful for the experience. We were not able to participate in the seminar but we are looking forward to hearing more and how it went and what we will be applying. This week we start zone conferences and we will be going around to all the zones and having conferences with the missionaries. We are in charge of getting everything set up, the program, food for the conferences, preparing our own message/ workshop as well as other tasks. We are pretty excited for the conferences and we look forward to learnig from all the missionaries. They are the best and I am grateful for them as they truly are examples too me and I continue to learn more and more from them. As far as things go in our area in Caseros 2 things are going well and we have a family and a few other investigators that are preparing to be baptized. Their faith is really strong in our Saviour Jesus Christ and I know that Heavenly Father will bless them becasue of their faith. Also I am not sure if I mentioned this but during transfers we received a new Elder in the office. Elder Angulo, secretary to President Benton finished his time in the office and was transfered out to an area called Bragado. Now we have a new secretary, Elder Rodriguez from San Antonio, Texas. When I was in Billinghurst Elder Rodriguez had just started his mission and we were in the same zone. Elder Rodriguez knows my cousin Justin Brooks and if he remembers well he said Justin served in his ward in San Antonio. Elder Rodriguez is a great Elder and we are excited to work with him here in the office. I appreciate your love and support. I am praying for you. I know that through constant prayer we can receive the guidance from our Heavenly Father. I look forward to hearing from you soon and seeing some of those pictures! Have a great week! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Transfers!!! Mother's Day????

2010-10-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey! It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great! We had a busy week and everything seemed to turn out quite well. This past week we held our transfer meeting on Wednesday and the whole mission was ableto get together here in Ramos Mejia. We were able to finish planning with President Benton, Elder Palacios, the office staff, and myself finished getting everything ready for transfers. There is shall i say, a bit of work that goes into transfers and there is not that much sleep hah. It is amazing how the Lord continues to bless us with the strength that we need each day. I am very grateful for my Heavenly Father and the strength that he gave me this past week, it truly was a blessing. This past Sunday the 17th of October was also celebrated as Mothers Day here in Argentina and together as a staff and as a mission we were able to plan a little something special for Sister Benton. Each transfer meeting we have the opportunity to go up and shake President and Sister Bentons hand and say hi. We decided that this time each missionary would bring a flower for Sister Benton and tell her happy Mothers Day. It turned out very well and Sister Benton was very suprised and also very grateful as she told us that she has never received so many flowers like this before. The transfer meeting turned our well and also the spirit was strong with the messages from President and Sister Benton. When I have more time I would like to explain more about transfer meeting and what we have to do to plan and get everything ready, I am sure mom already has questions hah so Ill try and fill you in more when I have a little more time. I sent some pictures of the tour that we went on with the missionaries that were going home and also some pictures of the transfer meeting. I appreciate your love and support. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and for the opportunity to share the gospel with those around me. I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. I am praying for you, have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Mom- I love you Dad- Ill let you know when I get the package thanks I love you

A BUSY WEEK!!

2010-10-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey! Sounds like everyone is doing great and thanks for you letters, emails, and pictures. Everything is going great here in Argentina. This past week was pretty packed and busy with all the interviews, meetings, planning the transfers with President Benton, and working in our area. This past week we were not able to work as much we would have liked to in our area but we feel good with that which we were able to do. This past Sunday Julia Herbas was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ! The confirmation went very well and the spirit was strong. Julia was very grateful and very happy. We had a very nice sacrament meeting and I also was given the opportunity to speak. I was able to talk about missionary work and the importance of sharing the gospel with everyone. I was able to share a few scriptures, experiences, and share my testimony. I received some very nice comments from our members and investigators which was nice. I love the members here and I am very grateful for the assignment to serve with them. Also during the week we had the opportunity to have a tour in the capital with the Elders who are finishing their missions this week. Every missionary has the opportunity to go on the tour before finishing their mission which gives them the priviledge to see the capital and get to know a little more of the culture and history of Argentina. I will try to send some of those pictures when I get a chance. President Benton continues to amaze me as I continue to learn from him. This week we were able to plan transfers together and the spirit was very strong and helped us as we made a few changes in the mission. We have had a very nice transfer but it has also been short as we are having our transfer meeting this coming Wednesday. We had to move our transfer meeting up a week earlier because of a mission seminar that President Benton will be attending. We are pretty excited for this transfer as we have set some new goals and plans to help us complete our purpose as representatives of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for this opportunity that I have been given to serve and represent out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I testify that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and support. Have a great week I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

10-10-10 A DAY AND BAPTISM TO REMEMBER........

2010-10-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey! It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great. Thanks for your emails and letters, I received a letter from Dad and Mackenzie and I should have time to read them today. Everything is going well here in Argentina and the work is also going well in our mission as we just had a "día de diez" which is a phrase in spanish here that means a really great day. This last Sunday was the 10th of October of 2010, 10/10/2010. In the mission we set a goal a while ago to have every area in the mission have a baptism on this unique and special day. This past week was jam packed and spiritual as well. We fasted as a mission and focused on helping our investigators prepare to be baptized. We are very grateful for what we were able to accomplish as we had a total of 56 baptism, all in our mission! Although we were not able to acheive our ultimate goal we feel very blessed and humble for the miracles we were able to see as a mission. Elder Palacios and myself were also able to see the miracle of our Heavenly Father as we prepared Julia Herbas to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ. We found Julia last Saturday, the 2nd of October as we assisted some of our investigators attending general confernce. As we were walking to one of our investigators house we saw Julia and her family entering her house and we decided to contact them and invite them to general conference. At that time we did not know Julia but as we talked and got to know her we found out that her daughter is a member of the Church. Julia is from Bolivia and she is 63 years old and has a few kids that are members of the church that live in Bolivia and also one here in Argentina. Julia has been staying with her daughter Rosaesela here as things have not been going well with Rosaesela and here family. When we met with them Saturday we were able to tell that something was amiss and that they needed to attend conference. After talking with them and testifying of the gospel Julia, Rosaesela and her boyfriend and kids came with us to watch general conference. Julia was able to feel the spirit and Rosaesela was able to recognize that she needed the gospel back in her family even though her boyfriend is not currently a member, and her two kids are not old enough to be baptized. The following week after general conference we continued to visit Julia and we invited her to prepare herself to receive the belssings of the gospel in her family by being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ on the 10 de October, 2010. Julia used to listen to the missionaries in Bolivia when her kids were preparing to be baptized but was not able to be baptized with were family at that time. Julia has a lot of faith and was able to receive and recognize her answer as she asked our Heavenly Father in prayer if this was the true Church of Jesus Christ and if she would receive the blessings of the gospel by being baptized. The 10th of October of 2010 Julia Herbas was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ! I am very grateful for Julia and the faith that she has exhibited as she has chose to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. It looks like we will be staying busy this week as we will be finishing missionary interviews with President Benton, divisions, working in the office, working in our area, and start planning for transfers with President Benton. Tonight we are going to the mission home to have dinner with President Benton, the staff, and Elder Evans and his family. Elder Evans was one of the other assistants and was a really great missionary and example for me and for the mission. His family has recently arrived and he will be spending his last week with his family here in Argentina. I am grateful for your love and support. I love the mission and I am grateful for the opportunity to represent our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Have a great week. I am praying for you, glad to her Beckie, Isaac, and Mackenzie are ok with the car accident and everyone else. Did Mackenzie receive my email that I sent a week or two ago? Tell her to write me when she gets a chance. I would like more updates and pics about Homecoming. Mom I love you thanks for your email. I was given the opportunity to write a message in "el sol" for this week and I invite you to read it when you have the chance. Have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Old Investigators Are Now New Members!!!!!!!

2010-10-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey! It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great and enjoyed General Conference. Everything is going well here in Argentina and we were also able to enjoy General Conference, I relished hearing the inspired messages of our beloved prophet President Thomas S. Monson as well as the other leaders of the church. We were able to watch General Conference here in Ramos Mejia which happens to be the Stake center for the West Stake. We were pretty excited and very grateful for the turn out that we had at General Conference as we had many investigators who were able to attend. In total we had 323 investigators in our mission that attended this years General Conferece! We know that this was a great opportunity for those investigators to hear from a living prophet, to feel the spirit, and to feel the love of our Heavenly Father. I loved conference and the many messages that were given. I was able to learn, strengthen my testimony, and feel of our Heavenly Fathers love that he has for us. I had a nice experience in conference that I would like to share with you. After we arrived to watch conference, we sat down with a few of our investigators and we prepared ourselves to watch conference. Shortly after sitting down I recognized several familiar faces of a few people sitting in the front row watching conference as well. Daniel Gomez, a convert from one of my old areas Billinghurst, was sitting up front watching and taking notes. Daniel was also accompanied with three young men, Kevin, David, and Alan. You may recall a former companion of mine Elder Garcia and I had found David and Alan in my last weeks of work in Billinghusrt, they were baptized shorty after I left Billinghurst. Daniel was with another member from Billinghurst who was inactive during the time while I was in Billinghurst but we began helping him and his family find again their faith in Jesus Christ shortly before I had left. This family also had a few members from their family who were not members but now they have recently been baptized as well into The church of Jesus Christ. It was awesome to see them and see their faith in the Lord as they attended all of general conference. I can understand better how Alma felt when he gathered with the sons of Mosiah. "Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethern, and what added more to his joy, they were still brethern in the Lord, yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth" (Alma 17:3). I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ and that we have the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel continues to bless my life and also the lives of many others. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone and that it blesses the lives of all those that live it. I appreciate your love and support. Have a great week. I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Angels Amongst US !!!!!

2010-09-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey! Thanks for your letters and your updates. It sounds like everyone is doing well. Happy birthday Nellie! Wow little Nellie just turned three years old and Mackenzie is picking out a homecoming dress. They are growing up way too fast. Everything is going well here in Argentina and the weather has been quite nice as winter has ended. This past week we stayed busy as we have been traveling to different zones during the week with President Benton. He is having interviews with the missionaries. During the Presidents interviews we have been trying to make good use of the time and have been doing lesson practices with the missonaries. Also we have been doing alot of divisions with the missionaries. Usually Elder Palacios and I go to a zone and we do divisions with the zone leaders and the traveling assistants do divisions with other missionaries of that zone. It has been a great opportunity to be around the other missionaries and learn from them as they continue to motivate me and strengthen my testimony. This past week I was able to see a miracle from our Heavenly Father as Isabel Puerta was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A few months ago you may recall Elder Aidukaitis, a member of the Seventy came to our mission to talk to us and train us in the Lords work. My companion Elder Bunn and I arrived in Ramos Mejia for the meeting and we were pretty excited. Elder Aidukaitis was still in a meeting with another group of missionaries and asked our group to go out and proselyte for a little while and then meet back in an half an hour. We paired off with our companions and we worked close to the church here in Ramos Mejia as we waited for Elder Aidukaitis to finish his meeting. We were able to contact and invite a few people to listen to our message. Just before returning back to the church in Ramos Mejia we contacted Isabel Puerta outside in the street. Isabel was outside in the street looking through a trash can/ trash dumpster. We contacted Isabel and invited her to listen to our message. We continued to teach Isabel outside and we were able to feel the spirit of The Lord as we taught her. Isabel then explained to us that she was passing through a difficult time in her life and with her family. We continued to teach her and explain more about our message of the restoration and how it would change and bless her life. Isabel was very interested, we said a prayer with and for her and gave her a little booklet to read about the restoration. Isabel gave us her contact address and invited us to pass by to continue to teach her more. Elder Bunn and I returned to the office in Ramos Mejia and gave the missionaries there her referral information. Since we lived in a different area Isabel continued to receive other missionaries at her home to learn more. Soon after, she began to attend church regularly in a city called Ciudadela. Elder King and Elder Parker were the missionaries who work in the area of Ciudadela as well as work in the office continued teaching her the lessons. When I arrived in the mission office last week Elders King and Parker told me about how they contacted the referral of Isabel that we had left a few months ago and they explained to me that she was preparing to get baptized with her two kids. I was amazed and grateful for the faith of Isabel and her family. I had the opportunity to talk to Isabel and congradulate her for the decision that her and her family have made. She gave me many thanks and the spirit was strong and testified to me that this is the Lords work and that this is his chuch. I was later informed that the day that we contacted Isabel in the street near the trash can she was looking for food for her family and she explained that when she saw us she saw two angels. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us. I am grateful for the opportunity that he has given me to serve and represent his son Jesus Christ. I know that he has a plan for each and everyone of us. Have faith. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you. Have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Angels are declaring it unto many at this time...ALMA 13:24

2010-09-23T12:35:00.001-07:00

Dear Family, Sounds like everyone is doing well and staying busy. I appreciate your love and support. We personally are working hard in our area, coupled with our work responsibilities in the mission office keeps us busy . I would like to fill you in on what is going on here in the office and what we do, and also our daily work schedule. But first I would like to share a miracle that I was able to experience the last week in my prior area of Loma Grande before being transfered into Caseros 2. The miracle began in the first week of work while in Loma Grande after our sacrament meeting. After sacrament meeting ended my companion Elder Vita and myself were checking to see if there were any other investigators that attended church that we did not know or have record of. As we were talking with the Bishop we found out that there were a few names we might check up on. One of the names he mentioned to us was Hugo Romero. The Romero Family is a rather large family that was baptized about two years ago. Their baptism two years ago consisted of Mirta Romero, who is the mother of the family along with a few of her children. The two years since they were baptized a few other children from the family have been baptized as well. However, Hugo Romero, the father was not interested but gave permission for his family to join the church. Hugo has been to church several times within the past two years but he had not expressed any interest in joining the church. Even with all the missionaries that have past by within the last two years. Also Hugo, has a few addictions and had chosen a different path in his life. As we read in the scriptures we come to know that our Heavenly Father is preparing his children to receive the gospel. "Angels are delcaring it unto many at this time in our land, and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory" (Alma 13:24). I have been blessed to see the fulfillment of this scripture in the life of Brother Hugo Romero. I mentioned earlier that many missionaries have passed by within the past two years and have invited Hugo to be baptized. But for some reason or other he would decline the invitation by the missionaries to be baptized. The following Sunday we attended church and again Hugo Romero came with his family. After the church meetings we talked to the Romero Family and set a day to pass by and visit with them. They invited us to have lunch with them in which Hugo would also be able to step out from work and eat with us as well. After our lunch we shared a message with them and watched the dvd "The Restoration". The spirit was present and strong and we were able to invite Hugo to be baptized. Hugo accepted our invitation! Hugo then explained to us why he was now ready to except the baptismal invitation. He related this to us by telling us about how he had went to church a few Sundays ago to say goodbye to his family.( permanently ) Hugo had decided that he wanted to leave or abandon his family leaving them alone. He was going to tell them when they got out of their last meeting at the church. As Hugo was waiting for the meetings to end he decided to enter and sit in the sacrament meeting and listen while he waited for his family to come out of their meeting. In that sacrament meeting Hugo heard a testimony from a member that changed his life. The spirit testified to Hugo that the church was true and that this is what he needed in his life. The following Sunday, which was a fast Sunday, Hugo had the opportunity to share his testimony and he did, expressing his willingness to follow the example of Jesus by being baptized in his church, and explained how he wished he wouldnt have waited so long to be baptized. He went on to say he now knows he is on the right path. We continued to pass by Hugo helping him prepare to be baptized. Hugo had an addicition with smoking but with his faith he was able to stop smoking in order to prepare for his baptism. We encouraged Hugo to read in the Book of Mormon and pray every day and in every moment. One night Hugo felt a prompting as he was sleeping, he heard from within "read Alma 2:30". Hugo ignored the prompting the first night but the following night he received the same prompting read "Alma 2:30". At first Hugo did not understand the prompting of the spirit as he was not very familiar with or know much concerning The Book of Mormon. But this time he listened with his spiritual ears and decided to follow the prompting. Hugo began to search from the pages of The Book of Mormon. Hugo read Alma 2:30-31 and received a testimony that The Book of Mormon is true. We continued to prepare Hugo for his baptism and Hugo Romero was baptized September 10, 2010! I am grateful for Hugo Romero and for his faith and desires to follow our Saviour Jesus Christ. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ will change our lives if we will let it. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our families as I have seen the blessings in my own family and in the lives of many other families, specifically with the Romero Family. Now to answer a few of your questions. I am currently serving in the mission office which is located in Ramos Mejia. We live in a house a few blocks away. There are two houses connected to one another. In our house the assistants along with the two secretaries live there. As of now there are four assistents, Elder Palacios, Elder Evans, Elder Ibañez, and myself. Elder Evans and Elder Ibañez are the traveling assistants in which they spend most of their time traveling and doing divisiones with the missionaries. Elder Palacios and I work in the office and we also serve in area in which we work, Caseros 2. Caseros is located close to one of my old areas, Billinghurst, it is in the same stake. Elder Palacios served as a sercretary earlier in his mission and is now serving as one of the assistants. This is his second transfer as an assistant and we both have the same time in the mission. The two sercretaries are Elder Angulo and Elder Millard. Also in the office we have Elder King, who handles the finances along with Elder Parker who is in charge of the apartments. Elder King and Elder Parker live in the house that connects to ours. During the week we stay pretty busy as we have conferences, interviews with President Benton, other meetings, and working in our area. This past week we had a baptism for a lady named Josephina Aguirre which went very well. Also President Benton and Sister Benton recently celebrated their birthdays this past week and we went to the mission home which is located in the North Mission in San Isidro. We were able to make breakfast and then we put together a video slideshow. I am very grateful for the opportunity I have been given to serve in this capacity. I appreciate your love and support, I am praying for you. Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

The Lord has called me to serve........

2010-09-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, I apologize for not being able to write to you yesterday as we had our transfer meeting. The Lord has called me to serve in another area. My time in Loma Grande was short but I am very grateful for the experiences that I was able to learn from and enjoy. The Lord has called me to serve in the mission office as one of the assistants to President Benton. I feel very humbled and at the same time grateful for this opportunity that my Heavenly Father has entrusted to me. We are quite busy here in the office, and we are also working ( proselyting ) in an area called Caseros. My companion is great. I love him, his name is Elder Palacios and he is from Santiago, Chile. I do not have much time to write at the moment but I just wanted to give you a quick update on what is going on. I appreciate your love and your support. I am grateful for our mission president, President Benton. When he called me , he told me, Elder Brooks i want you to know that this calling is not a suprise for the Lord and this is not a suprise for me, the Lord trusts in you and I trust in you. I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and I know that we have the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know our Heavenly Father loves us as I have felt his love for me. Know that I love you and I am praying for you. Have a great week I look forward to writing to you and hearing from you soon. Con amor Elder Brooks. Mom- I love you

Examples.........

2010-09-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey! It's good to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing well. Sounds like it's still pretty hot in Las Vegas and it's starting to get a little warmer here in Argentina as well. It rained pretty well this past week but by the end of the week it had stopped raining and it started to warm up. It is usually a pretty nice challenge when it rains here in Loma Grande because the streets get pretty muddy. This past week was very nice as we have seen a progression in some of our investigators. This past week we held a family home evening in the church for the members and for our investigators. Due to the weather conditions not everyone was able to show up but we were suprised on how many did. The day of the family home evening we were in divisions and I was with one of our district leaders Elder Gamboa, from Colombia. Elder Gamboa is a great elder and is getting ready to finish his mission this week. Elder Gamboa and I had a good time during divisions although he was a little sick. For the family home evening night in the church we taught a lesson about the importance of unity. We presented an activity that had to do with unity and they were able to identify the theme of our family home evening. We then talked about the topic of unity, read scriptures about unity, and then made a list of areas where we can improve our unity in our lives, families, and in our ward. The lesson went well as everyone participated and enjoyed. After the lesson we ate some home made pizza which was pretty nice. Also this week we had a fast and testimony meeting in church. The meeting went very well and the spirit was present. Many members, converts, inactive families, and investigators where able to attend. Everyone was wanting to share their testimony even some of the investigators were able to share their testimonies. Their testimonies humble me and strengthen my testimony. I am grateful for each one of them and for the examples they are to me. The spirit was present and strong throughout the meeting and people continued to go up and share their testimonies until we realized we went past the church schedule by fifteen minutes. It was a great experience as we were all able to enjoy the spirit. Everything is going well and Elder Vita and I are doing well and he continues to impress me as he speaks in english. He has been able to progress very well and I am very grateful for his faith and his example. We are excited for this week and we look forward to helping those we are finding and teaching strengthen their faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he lives. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ which continues to stregthen my faith. We have a few investigators that are progressing well and preparing to be baptized and confered. I know that as they strive to live the gospel of Jesus Christ they will receive the strength and blessing from our Heavenly Father. I know beacuse I have felt the strength of our Savior in my life. I pray that I may can continue to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and also to help others live the gospel as well. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you. I hope you have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor Elder Brooks.

The Gospel!

2010-09-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey it's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great. Everything seems to be going well here in Argentina and the weather started to warm up a little this past week. I am greatful for this opportunity I have been given to serve my Heavenly Father and His children. This past week went pretty well and we are working with a few investigators and trying to help them overcome their challenges and obtain a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been teaching a young girl named Yamila who is nineteen years old and has a baby girl. Yamila is starting to progress as she has been praying, reading in the Book of Mormon, and attending church. Yamila listened to the missionaries before and even knows a little bit of english. Yamila has a little challenge with smoking, she doesn't really know why but at times she finds herself smoking. We have been trying to help her stop smoking and she has been trying to quit. Yamila does not smoke that much only when she is around others and has that temptation. In the situation where she lives she is around people who smoke often. I believe Yamila does not want to smoke but with her situation, where she is living the temptation makes it hard. Yamila has a lot of faith, this psat week we taught her the law of fasting. Yamila never fasted before and she decided that she would give it a try. This past week we fasted with Yamila, it was a great experience and a lot of faith from Yamila. Yamila also has a few brother's and a sister which we are also teaching. Also Yamila´s mom is interested in our message however she is never home because she is always working and works sunday and is not able to attend church. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It gives us strength and guidance in our everyday lives. I have seen and I have felt the strength and guidance in my life. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our lives. There are many people who need the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives but do not know it. I am grateful for the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ here in Argentina, and help those receive the gospel in their lives and in their families. This past week we had the opportunity to eat lunch with some members, the Ramano Family. It was great to get to know them and we also found out they lived in Orem, Utah for two years. They are starting to lose a little of their english but I offered to help them if they wanted to continue with their english. Brother and sister Ramano got married here in Argentina before going to the US to work, Brother Ramano was not a member until they moved to Utah and Sister Ramano introduced him to the missionaries in Utah. After lunch they shared their testmonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has blessed their family. It was a pretty nice lunch and the spirit was present as they shared their testimonies with us. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you and invite you to keep living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a great week I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor Elder Brooks.

Loma Grande.

2010-08-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom, Hey! it's good to hear from you sounds like everyone is doing well. Mom thanks for the package! I received the other package that you sent this week and my companion and I love it, Elder Vita says thanks. I gave him one of the towels that you sent and we are going to be making some pb and j sandwiches this week so we are pretty excited. Things are going well in the apartment, we have a pretty nice apartment, clean, organized, and we have hot water. Elder Vita and i are getting along pretty well, he is a great companion. This week we had zone conference and we gave our workshop to our zone which went really well. We talked about finding new investigators by our own initiative and the Elders came up with some pretty nice idea, we are excited to see how that goes and see if we can find some new investigators. As for things here in Loma Grande things are going well with our investigators, we have a few that are progressing but have a few doubts and challenges. We are trying to help them as we pray and read with them. We are trying to focus and help our investigators have a true conversion in their lives and we know that as they continue to pray and read in the book of mormon they will be able to have a true conversion. Thanks mom for the pictures everyone looks great. Looks like Mackenzie went with a little change in her hair color tell her it looks nice. You look happy mom which I am glad to see. I am praying for you always I hope you have a great week. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and that as we continue with faith in his son Jesus Christ he will bless us. I love you mom! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK..............

2010-08-16T12:40:00.001-07:00

Dear Family, Hey it's great to hear from everyone and sounds like things are going well. Everything is going well here in Loma Grande. This week I received the package from Mom! Thanks Mom I love you! This week went pretty well and we stayed busy with our district meeting, leadership meeting, and our stake meeting which we had with President Benton and our stake president. In our leadership meeting we are learning new lessons from "preach my gospel" which are really going to be nice. These new lessons are helping the missionaries focus on those to whom we are teaching the gospel and meeting their needs. The meeting we had with the stake president also went well as we were able to talk about the missionary work in our stake and we were able to set goals and put plans in motion in order to continue to improve as Elders. The highlight of this week was a baptism which we were able to have for one of our investigators, Ruben Fernandez! Ruben has been investigating the church for a long time now and he has been attending church for the past few months. As Ruben has been praying, reading in the Book of Mormon, and attending church meetings he was able to make the decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized in his church this last Saturday the 14th of August. The Bishop was able to baptize Ruben and Damian who is preparing for his mission was able to confirm Ruben member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The baptismal service went very well and we received a lot of help from the members. One of the members was able to give Ruben a suit that is not being used and other members were able to make a chocolate cake for Ruben. Ruben is very grateful and enjoyed his baptism. I am grateful for my companion Elder Vita and his example. Things are going well and we are getting ready to plan our lesson/workshop for the zone conference which we have this week. I am grateful for the opportunity I have been given to serve. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ changes our lives, gives us the strength we need to continue and finish strong, and gives us hope. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the the Book of Mormon testifies that it is. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great week! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

UPDATE FROM LOMA GRANDE

2010-08-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing well and now my baby sister, Mackenzie is 16 years old! Happy Birthday Mackenzie! Everything is going well here in Argentina and i am enjoying my new area here in Loma Grande with my companion Elder Vita. The first week of every transfer can get a little crazy with the many changes and getting adjusted to your area but things are going well. I am enjoying the area here in Loma Grande which is located near a pretty big city called Merlo. Loma Grande is not located in the city but it is close enough that we can take a bus and get must of our stuff for p-day taken care of in Merlo. I love our zone, we all got together last week for district meeting and we are all pretty excited to get to work. Also there are still a few Elders in the zone from when I was in Las Heras so its good to see them. Our zone Marcos Paz basically starts at the train station in Merlo and goes to the last train station in Lobos. If you get off at the train station at 34.5 km you would be in our area, Loma Grande and our apartment as well as the church are located pretty close. My companion Elder Vita is a great elder and we are getting along well. Elder Vita is from Cusco, Peru and has seven brothers/sisters with Elder Vita as the youngest. I am not sure if I mentioned this before but Elder Vita and myself are scheduled to finish our missions at the same time. The members of Loma Grande are great as well and I have been trying to get to know all of them. The bishop is also very nice and he is from Paraguay. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to give a talk in church and talked about the importance of the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon, and how it has blessed my life. I believe it went well and it was a great opportunity to share my testimony about the Book of Mormon. After church we had lunch at the Robledo's house. Damian Robledo is one of the kids and he is preparing to serve his mission, and at times he goes out with us to teach. Damian received his mission call Sunday and he opened it before we are lunch. It was pretty exciting to be there because it reminded me when I opened my mission call. Damian is called to serve to Mexico, Mexico City West mission and he is very excited. This week we have a few meetings planned such as district meeting, leadership meeting, and also a meeting with the Stake President. I am grateful for the opportunity I have been given to serve. I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each and everyone of us. He loves us and is willing to guide and help us as we live the Gospel of his son Jesus Christ. I hope you have a great week. I love you and I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

NEW AREA - OLD ZONE!!! NEW DESIRES...

2010-08-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's good to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing well. Everything is going really well here in Argentina. Today we had transfer meeting in Ramos Mejia. This past transfer went by pretty fast and now we are ready to start a new transfer. As for me I will starting this transfer in another area as I have been transfered. I am now serving as zone leader in the Zone of Marcos Paz in a area called Loma Grande. I was in Marcos Paz a few transfers ago when I was serving in Las Heras and now I have returned to serve as Zone Leader and I am pretty excited for this transfer as well as our zone. My new companion is Elder Vita and he is from Peru. Elder Vita seems like a great Elder and we both have the same amount of time in the mission. This transfer I have a few goals but one of the goals that I want to focus on is developing the Christlike attribute of charity, the pure love of Christ. I feel that there is always room to strengthen our charity and I want to serve those around me with charity that they may be able to feel our Saviors love. I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve and I want to challenge myself to strenghten the attributes of Jesus Christ. It was a little hard leaving my last area as I spent a short time there and I had begun to love those I was serving, more and more each day. Sounds like everyone is doing well back home and that things went well with Justins wedding, I am glad to hear. Well this was a little update on what is going on here. I appreciate all your love and support. Also I recieved a package from Aunt Diane today! Thanks Aunt Diane I love the package and I am ready to try that protien shake that you sent along with all the other treats and I will be looking to put some more weight back on. I hope everyone has a great week. I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Prayer!!!!!!!

2010-07-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from you sounds like everyone is doing great. Everything is going well here in Argentina and the weather is staying pretty cool. This past week went well and we have a few investigators that we are working with. This past week I was able to study and learn a lot about the importance of prayer. Teaching our investigators and showing our investigators how to pray is very important. Although prayer is a common princilple there is always something more to learn and to better. I learned how thorugh prayer not only ourselves but also the investigators can receive revelation, their answers, guidance, and blessings from our Heavenly Father. This past week we focused many of our lessons on the importance of prayer, why and how. At the end of our lessons we had the opportunity not to just pray with our investigators but to also kneel with our investigators in their houses, in their front yards, or even in front of their house and we were able to communicate with our Heavenly Father. It was a testimony to me to see the faith of many of our investigators as the knelt and prayed with us, and with the majority of our investigators giving the closing prayer. I know that our Heavenly Father commands us to pray to him and I know he blesses us when we are obedient and obey his commandments. This past week he had four investigators in church and I believe they were there because they received their answers to their prayers or they wanted to go to church to receive their answer. Elder Gonzalez and myself look forward to continue to put this in practice and we continue to learn more about the importance and power of prayer. We have many be able to find many investigators that are interested in our message but many have challenges to overcome. I am grateful for the principle of prayer and the role that it has played in my life, I know that we truly can receive the Lords help as we pray with faith. So sounds like everyone is doing well and getting ready for Justins wedding, very nice I am happy for him. There is an Elder Rodriguez here in our mission who is from San Antonio, Texas and he mentioned that he knew Justin and if I am right he might have lived in the Rodriguez's house because they have missionaries that live there. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing great. I am praying for you. I appreciate your love and support have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Mom I will be looking for the packages thanks I love you also tell aunt Diane and the Cope Family thanks I love them!

Rain Keeps Some Away!!!!!!!!

2010-07-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from everyone sounds like everyone is doing great. Hey mom thanks for sharing your experience and story with me I appreciate it and I appreciate your testimony. Good to hear Mackenzie is back and safe and had a good time up in Utah, and from what I hear she is driving, and I dont meaning driving dad crazy. I sent some pictures I hope you recieve them let me know if you do. I sent a picture of Alejandros baptism and a few pictures of the church her in Mariló. Everything is going well here Argentina and as you know its getting pretty cold. This past week was pretty cold and the rain on sunday topped of the week. Elder Gonzalez and I we are doing great and getting along well. I love helping him with his english he as improved a lot. His favorite phrase that I have taught him so far is "go to bed. He is pretty good at saying it and when it doesnt know what to say in english he just says "go to bed", I love it. We have been working diligently together and he helps me a lot with my testimony and faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. This past week went well as we were able to find some new investigators so we are pretty excited to start and work with them. We were pretty excited going into Sunday as we had a lot of investigators and members that were also excited about going to church as well, but as we recieved the rain Sunday it kept quite a few people from attending church here in Mariló. In total we had a total of 40 people in church this past Sunday. We were a little disappointed as we felt we worked very well and felt that we had prepared many people to attend church this past Sunday. However we did not stay disappointed, as we know being and acting disappointed weakens our faith. We were grateful that one of our investigators did show up which was very impressive. I am grateful for the example of our Savior Jesus Christ and the example he has set for us. I want to be like Him. I know as we live His gospel we too can become more like Him. I know that we have the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I am praying for you and that you can continue to live His gospel. I love you and look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Speaking English In The Streets......Si !!!!

2010-07-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great. Everything is going well here in Argentina and it is starting to get a little colder. As you have mentioned Spain won the world cup but not too many people were really interested after Argentinas loss. I received a wedding invitation from my cousin, Justin Brooks he looks pretty happy tell him i'm happy for him. Also I did receive the dearelder from Aunt Pam and Sister Tyndall please tell them thank you and I will try to write them back soon. This week went very well and it was pretty busy with our interviews with President Benton and also zone conference. I really enjoyed my interview with President Benton, I love him, he is a great example for us. He gave me some great counsel to help strengthen my faith and confidence. Zone conference went well and our workshop/lesson also went very well. As a zone we are focusing on the quality of our lessons and making sure the investigators better understand our message. We have noticed that we have been finding many new investigators but few of those that we are finding are going to church and keeping their commitments. This past week Daniel, the man I contacted on the bus a few weeks ago was able to be baptized! The elders in our zone that are in an area called Trujui were able to baptize him and said that everthing turned our very well. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have met him and for the faith my Heavenly Father gave me to go and contact him. This past week the young men were able to have an activity on Saturday where they played soccer and ate chori pan. The activity went well and it was a pretty good turn out. Many members, converts, and investigators were able to show up. We had a great turn out Saturday but not as many showed up Sunday for church. I appreciate your ideas that you gave me and regarding activities, we will try and put those into practice and see how it turns out. Elder Gonzalez and I are getting along very well. He is a great elder and we are always looking for ways to improve. Elder Gonzalez wants to learn english so we have begun to say our prays at night together in english and we try and study english whenever we have time. Also sometimes to practice our english when we are walking in the streets we talk to the kids in the street in english. It is pretty funny, sometimes they look at us like we are crazy and sometimes they even try and talk back to us. I love the mission it truly is a blessing and a privilege to serve my Heavenly Father. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you. I love you. Have a great week. Con amor Elder Brooks.

Argentina's Loss Doesn't Stop Baptism.....

2010-07-08T06:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from everyone sounds like everyone is doing great. I received an email from Dad and he said he sent it from an I phone. it was also good to hear from Phe, tell him hello from me and i am praying for him. Sounds like Mackenzie is still at track camp, tell her I want an update on how it goes. So it sounds like you heard about Argentina losing to Germany in the World Cup. We were given permision to watch the game Saturday with some rules. We watched the game in the home of some recent converts where there is still a member of their family who was not baptized, Alejandro. Alejandro is fifteen years old and has attended church with his family many times but has not made the decision to be baptized. Last transfer we worked a lot with his family, the Saucedo Family and Alejandro to help him make the decision of being baptized. Alejandro is a good kid and is a pretty big soccer fan like most of the kids here in Argentina. The past week Elder Gonzalez and myself taught Alejandro and again invited him to be baptized. Alejandro accpeted our invitation and we set a baptismal date for July 3 at 3:00. Saturday we went over to their house to watch the game and prepare Alejandro for his baptism. It was rough to watch Argentina lose and also to see Alejandro disappointed, we were not sure if he would randomly change his mind about the baptism. Alejandro ended up being pretty good about the loss and was still exctied for his baptism. We had Alejandros baptism and I believe everyone felt better after. The spirit was strong as Edith, Alejandros mom bore her testimony during Alejandros baptism. Edith expressed how grateful she is to have the gospel in her life and now the gospel in her entire families life, now everyone being members. The baptism turned out very well and Alejandro was confirmed a member of the Church the following day in Church. Elder Gonzalez and myself are getting along well and working diligently. We are always looking for things to improve in our area and in our zone. This week we have interviews with President Benton and also Zone Conference. We are excited but sometimes it makes the week shorter with a little less time to work so we are going to try and be smart with our time. We have a few investigators that we are teaching right now and we are planning to continue to work with the members and set up some activities. I know we cannot match the Palo Verde Ward activities but we are going to see what we can do. We noticed that we have not had activities in the ward for a while and that the ward is just functioning on Sunday and seminary during the week for the youth. We know that the activites will help strenghten the members and also bring back some of the less active members and we would like to see some investigators as well. We will be thinking and working with that in order to help our ward and our investigators so we will see how is goes. We are accepting any ideas if you have any. I believe I received Dad's dear elder letter but maybe I just forgot to let you know that I received it. Mom I love you. Sounds like you are trying to put together a package, for now I think I am fine, I will think of anything i may need and let you know. I think the best thing as of now would be taking money out of my account to buy things that I might need, for example maybe to buy new shoes. I have not taken money out of my account yet so I believe there is money in there. I will let you know. I appreciate your love and your support. Have a great week I am praying for you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Thanks Sister Tyndall....

2010-06-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Sounds like everyone is doing great thanks for your emails. Everything is going well here in Argentina. This past week we ended our transfer. We had a good transfer but we have a lot of room for improvement in our area and also in our zone. Today we had transfer meeting in Ramos Mejia. We met together as a mission and went over the last transfer and began to prepare ourselves for this transfer. President and Sister Benton spoke to us and both of their messages were very good. Sister Benton spoke about patience and she shared a very interesting story with us. She shared a Standford study on patience. The study consisted of young children being tested with their patience. The children had the opportunity to eat a candy bar immeditately or they had the opportunity to wait 15 mins and they would be able to eat two candy bars. The results of the study showed that thirty percent of the children were willing to show patience and wait in order to receive the second candy bar. Stanford contined to study these children throught their lives and later found more information concerning those that had patience and those that did not have patience. Those children that had patience when they were younger grew up and had a very successful life. I found the story to be very interesting and I invite you to read more of the story if you have the opportunity to find it. I want to continue to strengthen my patience in order to continue to complete Heavenly Fathers will. Now we have started a new transfer. Elder Bunn my companion was transfered to another area and I received another companion, Elder González from El Salvador. Elder Gonzalez is a good Elder and we are excited to work together. Elder Gonzalez has a little more time than me and this will be his first transfer as zone leader so we are excited to get to work and help the zone. Elder Gonzalez is from El Salvador like my other companion Elder Garcia but they did not know each other before the mission. Also during transfer meeting Elder Gneighting, Elder Sheperd, Elder Hart , and myself all had the opportunity to talk and take a picture together being that we are all from the Red Rock Stake. Elder Gneighting gave his farwells today and will be heading back home. I invite you to go meet him as he will propably be giving his homecoming talk in the Town Center ward. I love the mission and I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve and participate in the Lords work here in Argentina. I appreciate your love and support. Also I want to thank Sister Tyndall for the dear elder that she sent me. It was a very nice letter tell her thank you and hi for me when you get the chance. Hope you have a great week! Con amor, Elder Brooks. NOTICE: This email message

Divisions with the Top Dog...

2010-06-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from you! Sounds like everyone is doing great, thanks for your emails. Sounds like mom and the young women had a good experience at girls camp, and dad is doing great with his girls camp as well hah, I say that because he lives in a house with all girls, except for Isaac. Everything is going well in Argentina with a little rain this week. This past weeek we had a pretty busy schedule. During the week we had the opportunity to have divisiones with President Benton! It was amazing, he came over Tuesday night and spent the night with us and then we had the opportunity to plan, study, and teach together Wednesday. Lets just say it was a great opportunity to learn. We had a great day and we were able to visit many of our investigators with President Benton. We were able to ride around to all of our appointments in his car also, that was quite a change. We had some great lessons and some great experiences during our divisiones with President and I am very grateful for the opportunity that we had to work with and learn from him. We also had a little fun as well. Due to the many dogs in the streets President carrys a can of dog treats in his car with him. At times we would be driving and we would through dog treats out at the dogs or before entering a house of an investigator we would throw some treats to the dogs. Everyone loved President Benton and the spirit was strong during our visits and lessons with those we taught. We also took some time to get on one of the buses to make an announcement to everyone. He really liked how we have started to do that and now the mission is starting to do it as well, to get on the bus and make an announcement to everyone. I have an expericene to share about the first time we did it. Elder Bunn and myself were pretty nervous our first time but we did and I was able to talk to one man in particular who was very interested. Even though he mentioned that he did not live in our area I still felt impressed to take down his name and directions to pass to the other Elders in or zone. I passed the information to the Elders this last week and they went to visit him as soon as they were able to. This mans name is Daniel, now Daniel and his wife are receiving the lessons and have a baptism date for this month! As for how things are going in our area, Mariló A, things are going well but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We have found some great investigators that we are preparing to be baptized but some have gone out of town and one family is getting ready to have a new baby. We also had an investigator planning to get baptized, Leo, this last weekend but he went out of town so we had to cancel his baptism. I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each and everyone of these people, I am going to continue to work hard and have faith. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father. I know that his son Jesus Christ is my savior and that he lives. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and your support. Mom I love you! I pray for you always. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

We are Men of God!!!!! and we have a message to share!

2010-06-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom and Dad, Hey thanks for your emails sounds like everyone is doing well. Mom do not worry about me not receiving the email last week I received your email this week, glad to hear you are ok. Well you are probably interested in hearing how this week went. This week was not so easy as we had many meetings to attend and little time to work. We met with all the zone leaders Thursday night in Ramos Mejia and we had a special leadership meeting with Elder Aidukaitis. The meeting went very well and the spirit was strong. The meeting focused on our faith and setting and acheiving our goals, something that I needed to hear. Later in the week we met again with Elder Aidukaitis with our zone and three other zones. The conference was amazing and it woke us up. Elder Aidukaitis told us the truth and showed us that we have a lot of work to do. We focused alot on faith and baptizing. He told us, ¨Our heavenly father is happy, but he is not satisfied." Our mission was increasing very well but recently we have lowered in baptisms over the past few transfers. I believe the transfer when we had 13 baptisms in Rafael Castillo our mission was at our peak and I believe we also set our mission record for 195 converts in one transfer. From then we have slowly lowered but now Elder Aidukaitis came to help us change our vision. He explained to us that every area and every companionship can be baptizing every week. We are now focused on that, baptizing every week. We have a new vision here in the buenos aires west mission, baptizing every week, we know that by our faith it is possible. We ended the week with another meeting. President Benton called all the zone leaders to meet in Ramos Mejia Sunday to have a meeting. No one was sure what it was about, we had an idea that it would have a little to do with our conference with Elder Aidukaitis. We met with President Sunday night and reviewed together what we had learned from Elder Aidukaitis and we received some counsels from President Benton and his assistants on how we are going to put what we learned into practice, baptize every week. It comes down to our faith and our mind set, knowing that we can baptize every week. We are all excited to get to work and bring all those unto Christ. After the meeting we had a quick dinner and then returned to our areas just in time to go to bed. These past weeks have not been easy but we continue to work hard and the Lord continues to bless us with the strength we need. Elder Bunn and I are continually trying to give it all we have, we know that through our faith we will be able to see the miracles of our Heavenly Father. Now instead of trying to talk to one or two people on the bus or trains we try and talk to everybody. Now everytime we get on the bus we ask the bus drivers permission to make an announcement in which we say something like, "ladys and gentlemen we are men of God and we have a message that will bless your life and your family, we know that there are some people here that want to hear our message, we will be passing by to ask you if you are one of these persons, thank you." I have learned many things these past weeks about myself and about my Heavenly Father. I know that he loves me and that as I show my faith unto him he will bless me. I am smiling and I am ready to start this week, to step on the field and give it all I have. I am not sure who will get baptized this week but I know we will find somebody. I love you mom and dad. I appreciate your love and prayers for me. I am praying for you. Have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

MOOOO-ve Over Here Come The Missionaries!!!!

2010-05-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great! Dad congrats on your new calling, who the Lord calls the Lord qualifies. Mom it sounds like everything is going great, thanks for your updates. This week went really well for us and the whole zone! Our zone may be pretty young but we are trying to give it all we have each and every day working diligently and serving those around us. In "the sol" both of the districts in our zone ended up in the top ten best districts for the week. We are pretty excited and very grateful for the week that we had and we are ready to start this week. Tomorrow is a pretty big holiday here in Argentina, 25 of May, it is Argentinas Independence Day. Today we are going to the church to be with the ward and celebrate a little, I think they will just have some food and be playing soccer. Our ward is doing great here in Mariló. I believe it is the first ward that I have served in. We average about 110 members every sunday and many of them are recent converts. We share our area, Mariló with two other elders, Elder Lopez, from Peru, and Elder Heddy from New Jersey. We share an apartment together, and everyone seems to be getting along well. It is starting to get colder here in Argentina. This past week our gas heater stopped working so we went a couple of days with a nice cold shower, hey its better than no water and no shower. Also this past week we had interviews with President Benton. I love President Benton, our interview went very well. I asked President Benton if I could get up a little earlier in the morning so its not too crazy in the morning with us four elders. We have enough time but I just wanted a little more time to excercise, eat, get ready, and have a little more time to study in the morning. President Benton was fine with it and has allowed me to get up at 6:00 in the morning. Its not that easy getting up, we are busy every day and come home every night exhausted, but I know that as I am obedient and diligent the Lord will continue to give me the strenght that I need. Elder Bunn is great, and he is an example to me, he has a lot of faith and patience. We are working well together and have found a few investigators. The other day we taught a family who just moved from Paraguay. They talked to the missionaries a few times when they lived in Paraguay and enjoyed going to church. They are very interested in learning more of the gospel, they our looking for our Heavenly Fathers help, they feel that our message is true and they asked us what they need to do in order to be baptized. We explained to them about prayer, reading, going to church, and also about getting married. They accepted our challenge of getting married! We will be working with them and helping them continue in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This week we have zone conference, Elder Bunn and myself will be planning a workshop/ lesson for our zone concentrating on our goals for this transfer. I appreciate your love and support, I look forward to hearing form you soon. Have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

The people are amazing!!!!!

2010-05-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's always great to hear from everyone! Also I would like to thank Desi for the card and pictures that she sent and I would also like to say happy birthday to Jaxon! So everything is going great here in Mariló A. Elder Bunn and myself are doing great and had a pretty good week even with the little time that we had to work with. This week we had our district meeting and we had the opportunity to get to know everyone in our district and we also had the opportunity to talk to the zone about what we want to focus on this transfer and what are goals for this transfer will be. Our zone is pretty young but we are excited to get to work this transfer. This transfer we are focusing on teaching lessons with members, helping our investigators attend church, and focusing on the power of prayer. As a zone we had a good week and look forward to continue working hard. Also during the week Elder Bunn and myself had the opportunity to attend a leadership meeting held in Ramos Mejia for all the zone leaders along with the assistants and President Benton. As a new zone leader I was given the opportunity to share my testimony. We were able to hear messages from President Benton and his assistants concerning our focus for this transfer as a mission. Also each zone had the opportunity to give a review of what they were able to accomplish last transfer and what they will be focusing on this transfer. After the meeting we had the opportunity to eat lunch together and we had a really solid meal! Sister Benton made taco soup and we also had chori pan, (one of my favorite meals, its like a sausage/hotdog). After lunch we then played some basketball and had ice cream. I am very grateful for the opportunity that my Heavenly Father has given me to serve and for the opportunity to work and serve with all the Elders in the zone of Moreno. I feel very humbled and I want to continue working hard in order to help all those come unto Christ. Our area Mariló A is similar to Rafael Castillo and Billinghurst. Mariló is located closer to the city, its a poorer area with dirt streets, but the people are amazing. Elder Bunn is a great elder and has a very positive attitude. We are getting along well and we are excited to work and serve all those around us. I appreciate your love and support, I am praying for you. i hope you have a great week. I look foward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Transfers!!!!! Moreno!!! and a new calling.

2010-05-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, it was great speaking with everyone and sounds like everyone is doing great! So today we went to Ramos Mejia for our transfer meeting and it went very well. We took the long drive from Las Heras to Ramos Mejia and arrived just in time. I love transfer meetings, being around everybody and hearing whats going on in past areas, especially about how the members and converts are doing. We had the opportunity to hear from President and Sister Benton and their message was great and helped us to prepare for this transfer. After their message we found out what the new transfers would be. I have been called to serve as Zone Leader for the zone of "Moreno"! Our area is called Marilo A and I am serving with Elder Bunn from Los Angeles, California. I am truly grateful for this opportunity that my Heavenly Father has given me to serve and I hope I can continue to fulfill and magnify my calling and serve with and for those around me. Elder Bunn is a great Elder and we are excited to work together. We will be thinking of goals and plans for our zone in order that we can do our best in bringing those unto Christ this transfer. As for Las Heras, two Elders have been placed there, Elder Pinzon, who was my Zone Leader when I was in Billinghurst and the other Elder is Elder Copper who is also a good Elder. I look forward to seeing Las Heras grow and strenghten and I know these Elders will work hard and continue to help the branch in Las Heras. For now I do not know very much about my area, it looks a little like my first area, Rafael Castillo and a little like Billinghurst. That is my update on transfers and I will try to continue to keep you updated. I appreciate your love and your support. I am praying for you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Reaching out to the lost Sheep!!!!!

2010-05-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey thanks for your letters sounds like everyone is doing great and getting ready for this up coming weekend, Mothers Day! I will be calling this Sunday and I will be calling around 8:00 pm Argentina time. I am not sure what time that would be in Las Vegas you might want to verify. I will call moms house first and I will use moms cell phone number and dads cell phone numbers as back ups. I will be calling from the office in our church using a calling card. Be ready with all your questions! This week went very well and we are heading into the last week of the transfer. As I was explaining to you in my last letter that the ex branch president from Lobos, who left the branch there, is now living in one of our areas, Navarro. We have had the opportunity to continue to visit and teach him and this past Sunday he came to church in Navarro. We are still not sure the exact reason of why he left Lobos but we are grateful for his faith and desires to at least start going back to church. We also have been teaching a recent convert named Monica who has many children who are not members. Monica has been a member for about a year and she was the only member from her family to get baptized. We have been able to have a few lessons with her and her kids and they have even attended church a few times. We talked to them about getting baptized and they said they dont want to get baptized. There are various kids from ages 8-20 but none of them are members. We tried talking to Monica about helping her kids make the decision to get baptized. We had a great lesson with her explaining the importance of baptism, the church, and the family. My companion and I even shared some experiences with her. For example, I explained how when I was younger, like all kids I was not a big fan of going to church, nevertheless my parents took charge and helped me attend, I didnt understand the importance of church as much as I do now, but thanks to my family and for their persistence in helping me attend church and participate in activities I am where I am today. My companion and I are even more grateful now for our parents and for their persistence in helping us attend church however we are still trying to figure out how we can help Monica and her family now. Our branch is doing well, and we are trying to help all of them participate in the missionary work. The members are great here, we just need to keep working hard and keep working in unity. Sounds like the missionary work is doing great back home, thats great to hear. Quick story, the other day we did divisions and I went to Lobos to work with Elder Chatwin. We worked hard and had a great experience. We ran into a less active member of Lobos in the street and began talking to him and we began setting another time to visit him. As we were talking with him another man came up to us and asked if he could talk to us. We were not sure if he wanted to talk to us or to the the less active member who we were talking to. It ended up that he wanted to talk to us. We were a little shocked but we dismissed ourselves for a second and began to talk to this other man. He began to tell us one of his family members is a member and that he had been studying a little about the church and about baptism. He then explained and told us that we wanted to get baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints! We were pretty excited, and pretty blessed. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and I am very grateful for my parents and all those who have helped me become a member. I look forward to hearing from you soon, have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Have Ye Inquired of The Lord?

2010-04-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from you and I hope everyone is doing great. Everything is going well here in Las Heras. This week went very well as we were able to work obediently and diligently and we were able to see the miracles of our Heavenly Father. I would like to share one experience with you that we were able to experience this past week in Navarro. There is a situation that happened about a month ago in the area of Lobos, that is where the other Elders from my district are working, where the Branch President in Lobos left his wife and the branch without advising the stake or anyone. The daughter of the Branch President lives in Navarro, she in inactive and we have been visiting her and her family. We found out that her father has moved in to live with her and her family for now. Ever since we found out this information we have been trying to meet and talk with her father to find out what happened and if there is anything that we could do to help. Since the Branch President has left Lobos the Branch has been struggling in Lobos. We have continued to pass by but we have not been able to have the chance to meet and talk with the Branch President. We have passed by at many different times during the day but still we were not able to make contact with him. This past friday we were in Navarro and decided to pass by once again to see if he was home, I was determined to talk with him. As we came close to the house I was impressed to say a prayer with my companion Elder Baudon. As I have been reading in the Book of Mormon I love the example of Nephi. As his brothers are frustrated becasue they can not understand the things which Lehi and Nephi have seen in their vision Nephi asks them a question. "Have ye inquired of the Lord?" This past Friday my companion and myself inquired of the Lord, we headed off to the side of the road and we said a pray in order to receive the guidance of our Heavenly Father, looking for his will. After we said a prayer we went and clapped in front of the house. Keeping our eyes on the windows we saw the curtain move in the front window. We waited for someone to then come out. After waiting I received the impression to pass through the gate and walk up to the door and knock. We went up to the door and began knocking, however still we received no response. We continued to knock and finally we received a response. A man told us that he would be right there, it ws the President of Lobos. We waited a short while and then the daughter came out. She came out looking really tired, since waking her up she asked us to pass by another time. We explained the importance of our visit and our desires to talk with her father. She explained that he was getting ready for work and that he was about to leave and take the bus. We explained that it was ok and that we would still wait. We waited and finally he came outside. After talking a little he then invited us to come inside to talk more and he explained his side of the story. We read from the scriptures and shared our testimonies with the family. We inquired of the Lord and the Lord guided us. I am very grateful for this experience that we were able to have, it truly was a miracle. We look forward to visiting the family and helping them return to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that if we seek the Lord first and we seek his will he will guide us in our thoughts, words, actions and he will bless us with his Spirit. I appreciate your love and your support. I look forward to hearing from you soon, and I will fill you in next week more about the Mothers Day phone call and at what time I will be calling. You are in my prayers, have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Sunday....

2010-04-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's always great to hear from you! Sounds like everyone is doing great. Everything is going well here in Las Heras, Elder Baudon and I had a pretty good week and we are trying to get ready to start this week. Today during preparation day we went to Ramos Mejia. All the new elders that arrived this transfer and their traniers were called to go Ramos Mejia to have a meeting, lunch, and activities. It went well, we heard from President and Sister Benton, and reviewed and talked about the standard of our mission, after the meeting we ate lunch together, we had chinese food, it was a pretty big change from what i typically eat and it was pretty good. After lunch we played some soccer and basketball and then returned to our areas. Elder Baudon is doing great and is always trying to help me. I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve with Elder Baudon we really seem to be getting along well and we have been trying to take advantage of everyday. This Sunday was pretty crazy. During the week we were able to find some new investigators and we had made plans to take them to church. Come Sunday it started to rain in the morning. As you may know by now when it rains here sometimes even the members have trouble going to church. Especially here in the country the streets get really muddy and no one wants to leave. We had investigators in Las Heras and in Navarro so we planed out divisions in order that we were able to be in both areas. Elder Baudon stayed in Las Heras becasue he had to give a talk and I went to Navarro with a member. We took the bus to Navarro and we passed by a few investigators to take to church but no one wanted to go. We arrived at the church/house a few minutes before sacrament meeting had started. As we arrived Brother Zeballos who lives in the house was not home because he went to the stake center for a meeting. I was then informed by his wife, sister Zeballos that I would be directing the meeting and that I needed to put toegether the program. Shocked but excited I put together the program and we began the meeting. It was a great experience and it turned out very well. As soon as the meeting ended we had to leave to take the bus back to Navarro. Also during the week we had our interviews with President Benton. My interview went really well, President Benton is an amazing man. We were able to talk about my studies which are going well and we also talked about Christ like attributes. One of the attributes that I am trying to focus on now is charity, the pure love of Christ. Charity is love, and love is action, I have learned that without charity we are nothing. If we want to be more like Christ we should try and develop his love. I am grateful for the example of Jesus Christ in my life and for this opportunity to represent Him. I appreciate your love and your support and I look foward to hearing from you soon. Have a great week! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Wrong door leads to Alan's Baptism!

2010-04-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom, I believe your birthday is coming up so I wanted to write you an email and wish you happy birthday! I love you! I enjoy reading your emails and hearing how everything is going back home. Sounds like everything is going great, and sounds like the young men and young women from the red rock stake have it made. What an activity, I was very impressed. Well I thought I would take a little time to answer a few of your questions and fill you in on Alan and his baptism. I am loving Las Heras, I love the area, its a lot different from the city of Las Vegas but I am starting to adjust and the members are great and they are always there to help us. We are still a branch and have a branch president, President Miguez, we have about 50 active members attending in Las Heras and about 10 attending in Navarro. The branch is doing great and stake is very pleased with our work. We continue to try and work as much as we can with the members, sometimes its hard with only a few members, their work schedules, and other responsibilities but we are doing well. Things are going great with our district, everyone is doing well and working hard. Things are going very well with Elder Baudon. He is a great Elder and is always trying to help. I appreciate the example that you have given me throughout my life. I can see how our examples play an important part in the lives of those around us. Thanks for your example Mom as I am now able to be an example to those around me. I love you! Now I would like to tell you about the example of Alan. Alan was able to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church Saturday the 10th of April! First I would like to explain how we met Alan and his mother Mercedes. One day we were looking for some inactive members, we thought we approached the house of the less active members so we knocked on their door. Mercedes came out to attend us and to tell us that we were at the wrong house. We began to talk with Mercedes and set another day to pass by. We passed by the following week and we were able to teach her a little about the restoration and invited her to attend church. We passed by Sunday morning and we found Mercedes ready with her son Alan, dressed and waiting for us. We all went to chuch together and had a great experience, it was testimony meeting and Merceded bore her testimony, the spirit was present and strong and testified to all of us the truth of the gospel. We then continued to pass by and teach Mercedes and Alan. They were always excited to talk to us and learn more. We talked about the example of Jesus Christ and invited them to follow his example and be baptized in his church. They were excited however Mercedes would then have to wait because she is not yet married. They continue to read in the Book of Mormon and say their prayers. Alans baptism went very well and Elder Baudon was able to baptize Alan. We had the baptism at the Zeballos house, it's also where our branch meetings are held. We used a portable pool to have the baptism which was rather interesting. After having the baptism and confirmation Alan had the opportunity to share his testimony. I would like to share his testimony with you. In english he said, "I felt a change, something in my heart." It was short and powerful as he then got a little emotional. Everyone present was able to feel the spirit. Alan is a great kid and a future missionary! I am grateful for having been able to meet Alan and his family and for having been able to help them come to know of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that he is our great example. I am grateful for all that you have taught me mom especially through your example. I hope you have a happy birthday Mom! I love you, and I am always praying for you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, your son Elder Brooks.

Easter Week in BAW!!!

2010-04-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey its great to hear from you, sounds like everyone is doing great and looks like everyone is doing well and thanks for the pictures! Hey sounds like Dad and everyone had a pretty nice trip to San Francisco and Mom and the family had a pretty nice Easter! I celebrated this Easter week with my new companion, Elder Baudon! Elder Baudon is from Cordoba, Argentina a providence which is located north of Argentina. So we had the transfer meeting Monday, I stayed with another Elder, Elder Zapata until Tuesday. Tuesday morning we returned to the mission offices to receive our new companions. We waited around and received some instructions from the assistants about our new position as being trainers. I am very grateful for this opportunity and privilege to serve as a trainer. After receiving some instructions we then had the opportunity to go into the other room where the new Elders were and we spent some time getting to know one another, still without knowing which Elder was going to be our new companion. It was fun talking and getting to know the new Elders, they had a lot of questions hah. I met one elder, Elder Bush from Utah. I told him I was from Las Vegas and he mentioned that there was an Elder in his zone in the MTC from Las Vegas that he met also who is serving in Chile, Elder Naylor hah. After getting to know all the Elders we had lunch together with President and Sister Benton. After lunch we had a meeting together and they explained some of the guidelines and rules of the mission. Finally after the meeting they called all the trainers to the front and we stood in a line. President Benton then began to read off the trainers and their companions. Last but not least I was called and received my new companion, Elder Baudon! It was great, we were both excited, took some pictures and then we headed for Las Heras. We did not have much time to work this week but we ended up haveing a great week. Elder Baudon is doing great and is very excited to preach the gospel. Buenos Aires is not that big of a change for him as he comes from Cordoba. He did not have to adjust to the language or culture, well at least thats what he thought. He told me we wanted to learn english, so we have started to learn english and we take turns rotating everynight saying our prayers together in english before we go to bed. The work is going great here in Las Heras, we have a baptism date for this upcoming weekend, his name is Alan and he is ten years old. His mother Mercedes was also planning to get baptized however she is not married so she will have to wait. It was hard explaining it to her but we know Heavenly Father has a plan for her and her family. General Conferance was amazing I look forward to studying the talks, I was a fan of all of them! I appreciate your love and support. Have a great week I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

New Opportunities for Growth!!!!!!!

2010-03-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey it is great to hear from everyone sounds like everyone is doing great! Everything is going great here in Argentina. Today we just started a new transfer and there were quite a few changes made. My companion Elder Baldomero has been transfered to another area. Elder Baldomero was just starting to feel better but when we received the call saturday night that he was getting transfered he started not feeling to well, a little sad and disappointed becasue he did not want to leave. We were able to get along very well in the short time we were together and it was a little tough on both of us when we found out he was getting transfered already. I explained and we talked about how the mission or life is just like sports. You never now when it is your last game, you need to give it all you got and leave everything you got on the field each game, each day. We had a great transfer and we worked very hard and we are very grateful for what we were able to accomplish. It was a good conversation and it was also interestesing in our transfer meeting as we listened to President Bentons message as he touched on a similar topic. So now we have begun a new transfer, I am still in Las Heras and serving as district leader, and I will also be training this transfer! I am not sure who my companion is, right now I am on divisions with Elder Zapata from Panama who will also be training this transfer. Tomorrow we will report to the mission offices and meet our new companions. Also they placed new elders in our district, Elder Chatwin and Elder Rodriguez who will be serving in Lobos. The work is going well here in Las Heras. We have been working a lot with the members, converts, less active members, and investigators, trying to help all strenghten their faith in Jesus Christ. Our recent convert Joana is doing great and she is loving early morning seminary as she has not missed a day. We are excited as I am sure you are for this weekend and the opportunity to hear from our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson and from all of apostles and many leaders of the church. It is a blessing to hear and receive guidance from our Heavenly Father as he speaks through his disciples. I invite you to take advantage of this opportuinty and attend as many sessions as you can. I am grateful for all of your love and support and look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Sick Elder!!!! Young men step up,,,,,,,,

2010-03-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, It's great to hear from everyone sounds like everyone is doing great! First I want to start out by letting you know I am typing on a computer but there are no letters on the keyboard so this is going to be a little interesting to type but I'll see what I can do. This week was pretty nice, I was able to receive the package from dad and everyone and it was amazing thanks for your love and your support! Mom you mentioned about sending a package, to be honest I do not need anything for now so I think you can wait on sending a package. This week was Elder Baldomeros birthday. His birthday went pretty well, I bought him a gift, some slippers that he wanted and we had lunch with the president of our branch. However Elder Baldomero ended up getting pretty sick this week. It was a little disappointing and frustrating for the both of us as we wanted to work but Elder Baldomero had to stay in and rest. However, we were able to receive some help at the end of the week from some young men in our stake. We were able to make plans and do divisions with two young men from our stake. It truly was a blessing and we had a great experience. Doing divisions with them gave me the opportunity to go out and work wirh one while the other stayed in the apartment with Elder Baldomero. We were able to work with them Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Each day we rotated in order to give each young man the opportunity to go out and work with us. It was a great opportunity for me to be able to work with and to show them a little what the mission is like and to help them get a little excited to prepare and serve a mission. We also had the opportunity to study together in the morning. One morning we started out by sharing something that we learned from our personal studies. As it came to be one of the young mens turn he shared a scripture he had read. He said he was not sure what he wanted to study that morning so he just opened the Book of Mormon. He opened his book and began to read and came across a scripture about preaching the gospel and serving a mission. He read us the scripture and shared his testimony on how he now wants to serve a mission. We were so excited for him! It was a great experience to be there amd feel and see his desires to serve a mission. It truly is a blessing and a privelige to serve a mission. I am very grateful for all of your love and support. Everything is going great here in Argentina. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Hey sorry if the letter is short it was really hard to type and it was the only computer available, Elder Baldomero and I both had computers with no letters on the keyboards.

Trust in His Plan!!

2010-03-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Hey it is good to hear from everyone sounds like everyone is doing great. Mom its good to hear your safe and that you had a good time at your young womens activity. Mackenzie nice job on your track meet keep working hard. Happy Birthday Desi and Duane! Everything is going well here in Las Heras. I have not received the package from Dad but I will let you know when it arrives. This week we did a lot of traveling which did not give us a lot of time to work but we ended up having a very successful week. We were able to end the week with a baptism! Joana Alza, sixteen years old, was able to be baptized sunday night in Marcos Paz. Joana is the daughter of an inactive member named Juanita. Joana used to go to church when she was younger with her mother and her sisters but after some time they stopped attending church. The elders started teaching Joana last transfer but it has been quite a challenge to get her baptized. Joana is a great girl and was very ready and prepared as she made the decision to be baptized. We had plans of baptizing Joana earlier in the transfer but something always came up and we were not able to put a definite date for her baptism, such as vacations or her mom not being home due to work. This last week we set the baptism date for Saturday but then we found out that the youth from the ward were going to visit the temple and do baptisms for the dead in Uruguay, and that Joana had enlisted to go with them even though it being that she would not be able to enter the temple, what an example! We then decided to change the baptism date to friday giving her the opportunity to be baptized and maybe the chance to enter in the temple. However, we were then informed that they would be leaving friday in the afternoon for Uruguay so now we were not able to have the baptism friday either. After praying and dicussing it over we decided to have the baptism Sunday in the afternoon, becasue we could not keep pushing off her baptism. The baptism went very well and we traveld to another area called Marcos Paz where there is a chapel and a baptism faunt. Joana was very excited and is now waiting to be confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Also this week we had the opportunity to have interviews with President Benton. He is a great example, as he continues to demonstrate his love for me and the other missionaries. The interviews went well and he is very proud of all that I am doing and says that my parents would be proud, thats for you mom I am sure you are proud but I hope that makes you feel better. Now changing the subject, I received a call last night from the other elders in my district and unfortunately it looks like they will be leaving the district for a while. I am not exactly sure on the details but both of the elders have been asked to bring their suitcases to the office today. I am praying that they are alright and that they will be able to return with us. In life there are many challenges, obstacles, distractions. We need to continue with faith and put our trust in our Heavenly Father and in His plan. I am grateful for your love and your support. I know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us. I know that if we trust in His plan we will receive His help and His blessings. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Serving......

2010-03-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey sounds like everyone is doing great, it's great to hear from you. We had quite a week here in Las Heras so let me try to fill you in. This past week we had our district meeting and I had the opportunity to prepare a lesson/talk for my district. It went very well and I talked about "finding as we teach, teach as we find." Our district is doing well but we can improve in a few areas such as finding those who are ready to accept the gospel in their lives. I talked about the importance of talking and inviting all those we can to listen to our message, even though there may not be as many people out in the streets in our areas we can try and take advantage of all our opportunites. I also mentioned that not only do we know that we need to teach with and by the spirit but we should also work on finding with the spirit in order that we can be guided to those who are prepared. So thats a little update on last weeks district meeting, now I am preparing and thinking on what I should address this week in district meeting. This week we had a great opportunity to preform some service in one of our areas, Navarro. The service project went very well, and was very well organized by some of the couple missionaries from the area office here in Argentina. We had the opportunity to paint a local community facility in Navarro that treats and takes care of people with special needs. We had a nice turn out, the elders from the mission office came, the elders from my district, local church members, local community members, and President and Sister Benton. It was also a great opportunity to share the gospel through our service and we were able to talk to many that were present about the church of Jesus Christ. There is a picture in this weeks paper "The Sol." Also they told us that we might show up in the Liahona, in the local section so we will have to see how that turns out. Elder Baldomero and I are during very well, and we are eating well, today Elder Baldomero threw out an idea of eating rice with gravy and hamburgers so we are looking forward to that. The weather has been very nice here in Las Heras and continues to rain here and there. The other day we were in Navarro and it started to pour again, I finally decided to buy some rain boats, I think mom will be proud hah. I am gald to hear everyone is doing well, I love hearing your updates. I am going to try and send some pictures today through email. I love you and I am praying for you. Thanks for your love and support, have a great week I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

The rain helps things to grow.... Even Elders!!!

2010-03-01T06:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey it is great to hear from you sounds like everyone is doing great back home. I would like to thank the Cope Family for the valentine cards they sent me and also the 8th ward for the valentine cards I received from them as well. Well to fill you in everything is good here in Argentina and for now we are pretty safe. We heard about the earthquake in Chile and the Tsunami in Hawaii. Everyone is ok here, I do not believe the earthquake reached Buenos Aires, however we have quite a few missionaries from Chile so we are concerned for them and their families and we will be praying for them. My companion Elder Baldomero says his family should be ok and safe back home in Hawaii so thats good to hear. The work is going good in Las Heras and sometimes the weather is nice as well. We received a lot of rain the other week, I have never seen it rain so hard like I have seen it rain here in Argentina. One day we went to Navarro to work and it rained almost the whole day. We left in the morning and it was perfect outside but as it got around mid day it started to rain and did not stop. We were not too prepared so Elder Baldomero and myself we got pretty soaked as we did not have our jackets our umbrellas with us. We made the best out of the situation and were able to continue working and serving those around us. Some of the streets were completly flooded and the water reached up to our knees. We arrived to one of our investigators house, a family who does not have much, they are suffering spiritually and physically. We arrived to their home and everything inside was completly flooded. They were very suprised to see us becasue they were thinking that we were not going to come because of the rain and everything was flooded. As we arrived we were able to help them save a few things from the flood, their refrigerator, tv, and stereo. It was a very humbling experience for Elder Baldomero and myself. We were not able to relate to what they were experiencing and what they were going through, however we know someone who does know what they are experiencing and what they are going through, our Savior Jesus Christ. Elder Baldomero and I are doing well and he is helping me with one of my goals that I set for this year which is to gain a little more weight. We usually cook or order dinner everynight. Elder Baldomero is good about staying on me and making sure I am eating, kind of reminds me of someone back home. Elder Baldomero played football in high school, linebacker, and he red shirted at sacramento state his freshmen year in college. We have a few investigators that we are working with and are looking forwarding to setting some baptism dates with some of them this week. The country here in Las Heras is pretty nice even though it is quite different than my other areas and from where I grew up, I love it! Sorry I was not able to send pictures today I will try and send some next week becasue this computer was not able to send pictures.I appreciate your love and support and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Transfers and a Calling!!!

2010-02-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, It's always great to hear from everyone! Looks like I have a few questions to answer so lets see where this goes. First this is my new email------. It was not an easy process signing up but I think it is set up correctly. I believe my username and my password are the same, thanks for all your help. A little update on Las Heras. So I am not exactly sure where it is located but I believe we are rather far from Ramos Mejia where the mission office is located. After our transfer meeting Elder Baldomero my new companion and I took a remis/taxi to our apartment in Las Heras. The drive took about an hour and a half from Ramos Mejia to Las Heras. The taxi ride was amazing as we drove through country fields here in Argentina. Las Heras is a small city surrounded by a lot of country. We live right next to the train station. Everything we need is within the block which we live on, which is pretty nice. There are a few paved streets and then as you start to head out to the rural areas you start to find the dirt roads. Las Heras is a small and quiet town and is known to be on the safe side ( that was for Mom ). The Sister missionaries have been working here for many years but last transfer they took them out and put in the Elders. Las Heras is pretty calm, the people are not as busy, and during the middle of the day everything is closed and you can find no one out and about. Everyone goes home during the middle of the day to take the (siesta) or in english you can say nap. Elder Baldomero is great and has been doing all that he can to help me get comfortable with the area. This is Elder Baldomeros second transfer here in Argentina and he seems to be getting comfortable as well. In Las Heras we have a branch. We do not have enough members or active members to build a church so for now we meet in a house. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to give a talk and it went well. Also Elder Baldomero and myself have the opportunity to work with two other small branches. One of the other branches is Navarro which is about a 40 min bus ride from Las Heras. We usually travel there two times during the week to work with the investigators and members there. Also I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve as District Leader. Tomorrow we will hold a district meeting and will meet in an area called Mariano Acosta which is about an hour by train. There is only one other companionship in my district and they live in an area called Lobos, Elder Barraza and Elder Marshall who I will get to meet tomorrow. I would like to share a quick story from this last week. We just happened to run into a Sister from our branch and she told us about a family who needed a blessing, the Garcia Family. We called them that night and arranged a time to pass by the next day. They ended up living farther than we thought. We traveled by train to the next train station called Hornos. When we got off we met Brother Garcia. He then walked us over to this tractor, which just so happened to be his farm tractor and after climbing on board he drove us to his house/farm. We drove about 2km. We where in the middle of nowhere nothing but country. It was an amazing experience and the spirit was present as we were able to give the Garcia family a blessing. I hope everyone has a great week! I appreciate your love and support, I am praying for you. I look forward from hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Miracles!!!

2010-02-17T08:46:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Happy Valentines Day to everyone! Honestly I forgot about that holiday also, it is one of those holidays that is not very big here in Argentina. Sounds like Mackenzie had a Valentine who went all out and now Dad is ready to go all out as well hah. Well I have a lot to fill you in on so lets see how this goes. Well this past week in Billinghurst we had some miracles. To start out we went to the church this Saturday to help clean. We went with expectations of being more than there usually are but when we showed up there were only three of us. We entered the church and to our suprise the whole church was perfectly cleaned. We were in shock . We are not sure who cleaned the church or when but it was perfectly clean and we were very grateful. That went well that the church was nice and clean because that same day we ended up haveing a baptismo for one of our investigators named Dálida! It was a miracle! We were able to find Dálida a few weeks ago in a house of a member who lives around the corner from us. When we met Dálida that day we were able to share a message of the plan of salvation. We invited her to go to church with us that Sunday and she ended up going. We contiued teaching her, inviting her to read in the Book of Mormon, pray, and go to church with us. Dálida was able to keep all of her commitments and in result was able to receive the blessings. Dálida has a disease in her leg which makes it very hard to walk. With the strength of the Lord Dálida was able to attend three Sundays in a row and was able to be baptized right before the end of the transfer! It truly was a miracle. We were worried with the short time span to teach her that she would not be prepared in time for the baptism date we had set. After she was able to have her baptism interview it was confirmed to us that she was prepared and ready. The baptism went very well and Daniel, who we baptized with Elder Grant was able to perform the bautismal ordinance. I know that our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles and that we were able to relieve this miracle as we continued to work diligently throughout the transfer. Elder Garcia and I were very grateful for this experience as it has strengthened our testimonies. I was able to learn a lot this past transfer and I am grateful for the opportunity to be companions with Elder Garcia in Billinghurst. Now switching subjects. Today we had transfers and Saturday night I recieved the call that I would be getting transfered and that I would need to bring all my luggage to the transfer meeting. Usually when the elders have to bring their luggage to the transfer meeting it usually means that they will be sent pretty far which we call campo or you could say country. So I ended up getting transfered. I am now serving in the zone called Marcos Paz in an area called Las Heras. I have been called to be the District Leader. My companion is Elder Baldomero who is from Hawaii. Elder Baldomero seems like a great elder and is excited to start his second transfer in the mission field. That is a little update on what is going on here. I look forward to keeping you updated. I appreciate your love and support. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

And then there was TWO !!!!!

2010-02-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey sounds like everyone is doing great! Everything is going well here in Argentina. Elder Garcia and myself have continued to work obediently and diligently each and everyday and we are grateful for the strength that our Heavenly Father continues to give us each and everyday. This past weekend we had the opportunity to help clean the church again. This time there was a total of three of us. This includes Elder Garcia, mylself, and another member from our branch. We noticed that each time we clean the church, less people have ended showing up. If this is true this can mean that Elder Garcia and myself will be cleaning the church by ourselves this week hah! This week we had the opportunity to teach and talk with Antonella and Leonel. We were pretty excited to finally meet with them but it turns out that Antonella will not be able to reach her goal to get married and baptized this week. It turns out that had some troubles with their paper work. It was a little disappointing but we understand it is all part of the Lords plan. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be part of this great work and help those around me come to know of our Heavenly Fathers plan. Also, our other investigator Oscar has decided that he does not want to attend church anymore as he is looking for something different. We have been able to continue to find new investigators and we look forward to helping them progress in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Today we had a zone activity and it went pretty well. We ended up playing some volleyball, soccer, made some tacos, and ended with a water balloon fight. This week is the last week of this transfer, I am not sure if I will be staying or if I will be called to another area but I will try and keep you updated. I am grateful for all of your love and your support and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

If your refrigerator is running.... Go catch it!

2010-02-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey it is good to hear from you, sounds like everyone is doing great! I received a few letters this week so I would like to say thanks to those, Dad, Cody Collins, and Connor McKenna. Everything is going well here in Argentina. The weather here has been pretty nice and at times rather hot. This week we faced a pretty big challenge as our refrigerator stopped working and the light in our study area stopped working as well. They took our refrigerator to work on it and they should be sending someone to come and fix the light. As for now we have been fine as we have another area to study and the Valle Family has been sharing their refrigerator with us. This past week we also had our interviews with President Benton. He is amazing! The interview went very well, I am very grateful for President Benton and his example. We had a pretty good week here in Billinghurst. A few of the members have left for vacations but the branch continues to grow. This week we were able to bring two of our investigators to church, Oscar and Dálida. We have been teaching Oscar for a little while, and he has a good attitude and desires to learn more. We have put a baptism date for the 13th of February and we look forward to helping Oscar with this opportunity and blessing in his life. Also, we were able to meet Dálida in the home of some recent converts. Dálida has spoken with the missionaries before and is interested in continuing to learn more. Dálida also has a baptism date for the 13th of February. The challenge that they both have for now would be to continue gaining a testimony of the gospel. We believe as they continue to keep their commitments by reading in the Book of Mormon and by praying for guidance they will receive the faith and strength to continue in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, our other investigator Antonella has not been able to make it to church and we have not been able to communicate with her. We know she has the desires to learn and the desires to be baptized but it seems that she is very busy with work. We will continue to try and call and pass by this week in order to help her prepare herself for her wedding and baptism date the 10th of February. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and that we have the opportunity to receive His guidance through daily prayer. I am grateful for the guidance I have received in my life through daily prayer. I know that our Heaven Father listens to our prayers and will give us the guidance we need according to our faith which is in His Son Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and support. I am praying for you always. I hope you have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Give Me This Mountain!!!!!

2010-01-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

ear Family, Hey sounds like everyone is doing great and you received my package! Very nice I hope you enjoy the pictures and your letters. Well everything is going well here in Argentina. Elder Garcia and myself, we had a good week as we were able to help a few of our investigators progress this week and also bring a few new investigators to church. Some of the situations with our investigators are still pretty tough but we know that the Lord will provide a way. We were able to meet with Antonella and Leonel Saturday and teach them but they were not able to attend church Sunday. Every investigator has there own problems but it seems like they all have the same goal, to receive the help of our Heavenly Father. Many are faced with challenges spiritually, physically, and emotionally, and we know the aide for all of these is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel gives us the help and guidance in each and everyone of our lives. I was able to read an article in the new Liahona for this month which I really liked and it really made me think. The article is about a mountain tour guide in Tawian that gives us some good advice about reaching the top of the mountain. I invite you to read it this week if you are able to find and get a hold of this article. He explains how everyone wants to get to the top of the mountain, the majority want to take the easiest way to get to the top of the mountain. We can easily relate that situation in our lives, it is the truth, sometimes we look for the easy way. The article then continues and explains that there is another way to reach the top of the mountain. I am grateful for the many challenges in my life that I have been able to overcome with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that we can reach the top of the mountain as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is the only true way that we can reach the top of the mountain. I appreciate your love and support. I encourage all of you to live the gospel of Jesus Christ each and everyday, each and every moment. I look forward from hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Mom- I love you! Dad- thanks for your updates! Mackenzie- thanks for your email and props on your goal! Isaac- thanks for you email good luck with your goals!

Elder's Love Mail From Home !!!!!!!

2010-01-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey! It is great to hear from you! Sounds like everyone is doing well I'm glad to hear. It sounds like you have not received my package that I sent, keep looking for it and let me know when you receive it. I hope it gets there soon. Everything is going well here in Argentina. Today is our preparation day, this morning Elder Garcia and I went to the chapel to play some soccer and ate some lunch with our zone leaders Elder Pinzón and Elder Evans. We had a good week here in Billinghurst. We were able to find and teach some new investigators and bring them to church! We had seven investigators in our sacrament meeting it was truly a blessing. We have been able to find two families who are looking for the help of their heavenly father. These families are not married but we are planning to talk to them this week and we hope they will understand the importance. We have had some very spiritual lessons with them and we look forward to continue to bring the spirit into their homes and into their lives through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were not able to teach Antonella this past week due to their schedule but they were able to attend church which was very nice. Also this week Elder Garcia and I had the opportunity to help clean the chapel again. This week we had a total of four which is including Elder Garcia and myself. We are grateful the opportunity we have to serve in this new branch here in Billinghurst it truly is a blessing and there are always opportunities to help and serve those in our branch. This past week I received a few nice letters, and a nice little package from the young men and young women from the Palo Verde Ward which was very nice! I really appreciate all of your love and support, you are all in my prayers. This transfer we have a focus of increasing the spirituality. There are many things we can and should be doing to increase the spirit in our daily lives. I invite each any everyone of you to look for these opportunities this week. I know our Heavenly Father is willing to bless us as we continue to obey His commandments and live the gospel of His son Jesus Christ. Have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Stay Positive!!!

2010-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey sounds like everyone is doing well! To start out I would like to let you know that the package has been sent off and should be going to Dads house. I included a cd that has pictures from my camera and I also added a few letters. The new year is going well here in Argentina. Once again, thanks to those packages and letters I received during the holidays (Mom and Family, Aunt Diane, Cope Family,…) Elder Garcia and I are able to keep working hard! The weather here is starting to heat up! I love it! To sum it all up I wake up sweating and go to bed sweating. So this week went well as we where able to achieve some of our goals that we had set. We were able to find and teach some new investigators and we were also able to visit some less active members. We where also able to visit with Antonella and Leonel and we set a baptism date for Antonella for the 8th of February! Antonella has the desires to get baptized and is pretty excited but she has been working a lot including Sundays, which might hold her back if she is not able to continue going to church and receiving the lessons. We are trying to help her the best we can so that she can receive these blessings in her life and in her family, but their work schedule is a little complicated. So the week was looking good as we were able to find new investigators, visit some less active members, and set a baptism date for Antonella. Also Saturday we were assigned to help clean the church in the morning along with three other members which gave us the opportunity to perform some service and help take care of our chapel. It was not easy cleaning the whole church with only five people but after a few hours we were able to finish. I think they will be assigning more members to help next week in order that it will make it a little easier and faster to clean. Sunday came and we were pretty excited to look for some of our investigators but none ended up making it to church. I was a little disappointed, working all week, teaching and visiting our investigators and less active members and none of them made it to church. I then tried to look at the positive side which was two of our converts Susana and Daniel gave talks in church! After hearing their talks I started to feel better. I started to feel more grateful. Their talks were amazing and the spirit was strong and testified to me that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that it can change our lives, as I have seen it change the lives of Susana and Daniel. I am very grateful for this opportunity I have been given to serve. I appreciate your love and support. I invite you to look at the positive side of things this week, and continue to walk with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Happy New Year!!!!

2010-01-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey happy new year! Sounds like everyone enjoyed this last year and that you are ready to start this new year. I am pretty excited myself to start the new year. This last week our zone had our interviews with President Benton. He is amazing, our interview went very well. We had the opportunity to talk about goals and how to set them, it was perfect for the new year. Setting goals are very important and it is something I have learned during my time serving and continue learning. We talked about setting my goals high. He explained how to set goals and gave me some good suggestions. President Benton also mentioned something that I really liked. He said when you do not reach or achieve one of your goals do not change your goal, but change your actions. I really enjoyed our interview and look forward to applying what I was able to learn through this new year. Were you able to set any goals for the new year? Also today we had our transfer meeting in Ramos Mejia. A few changes were made but Elder Garcia and I will continue working together and we are pretty excited. Right now in Billinghurst things are going well. We have found many investigators but very few are progressing. I mentioned one of our invstigators, Antonella the other week but we have not been able to keep contact with her and have not talked to her for a while. Leonel her boyfriend who is a member was able to make it to church this last week but Antonella was not. They have been pretty busy working and their schedules do not give us much time to visit. However, we look forward to visiting them and to continue to help them progress. This past Sunday was fast Sunday, which was quite a test for Elder Garcia and myself. It was a little tough with the weather conditions which gave us some thirst but we were able to hang in there. Well sounds like everyone is doing well. I hope you can start out the new year with faith in our lord and savior Jesus Christ. I know that we are never alone, he is always there for us, and he is willing to give us the strength we need. I know that a person who has the faith to kneel and pray before our Heavenly Father, can receive the strength to stand in front of anyone. I appreciate your love and support, I pray for you always. Take care, look forward to hearing form you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Sorry there are no pictures, not enough time. Also, I have the package ready, I just need to find time to send it, I will let you know when it is sent.

A New Year with Faith Centered in Christ

2010-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey I am very glad we had the opportunity to talk what a blessing! Sounds like everyone is doing great, I hope I was able to answer all of your questions. Well things are going well here in Argentina. This past week was a little different with all the Christmas activities. This week we have our interviews with President Benton and also New Years Day. Elder Garcia and I are doing well. Things seem to be going a little slow but we are still working hard. Right now we do not have too many investigators. However one of our investigators, Antonella, who is a girlfriend of an inactive member named Leonel. Antonella is friends with Veronica who got baptized last transfer. Leonel is related to Veronica so that is how they met each other. Antonella was present during some of the lessons we taught Veronica last transfer and has seen and felt the change in Veronicas life. Leonel was also present in some of the lessons which helped as he added his testimony. Now Antonella has the desire to get baptize. However Antonella and Leonel live together and have a little daughter. In order to get baptized Antonella and Leonel need to make the decision to get married. This past week they made the decision and they decided to get married and have a wedding date for the 9th of Febuaray! We are very excited for the both of them. Antonella and Leonel are both making the changes in their lives to receive the blessings of the gospel. This week we are planning to set a baptism date for Antonella. We also have been teaching a boy named Sergio who is a friend of some members. Sergio is twelve years old. However we found out that Sergio lives outside of our area. He lives in the first house on the other side of our area . Its ok, we are going to work with the other elders to help Sergio continue to progress because he wants to get baptized. The branch here in Billinghurst in growing and it is a blessing to be a part in the Lords work here in Billinghurst. Elder Garcia and I were looking over the Branch list and noticed that there are quite a few members, however many of them a not attending or maybe do not know about the new branch. We decided to focus on some of these members this week so we are excited to see how it goes. I appreciate your love and support. I hope you have a great week, and that you and I can start the new year strong with faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. mom- I love you.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2010-01-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey sounds like everyone is doing great! Today we got together as a mission and celebrated Christmas, this wonderful holiday of the birth of our Savior. The activity went a little late but we have a little time to get a quick email out so I am going to try to fill you in on everything with the time that we have. Before I forget I have a few people to thank. I received many letters and packages today and I am very grateful for your love and support. I received a very nice dear elder from Dad and Uncle Jim, a very nice letter from the Ludwig family, a package from Aunt Diane, and also two packages from Mom! Wow what a Christmas! I have not had time to open the packages yet, but I look forward to filling you in more with more details this Friday. This Friday I will be calling home, I do not have an exact time, we are thinking sometime around 3-5pm here in Argentina. I will be calling Moms house and I will be using a phone card that I purchased. It worked out pretty well the last time I called home for Mothers Day but I have heard that sometimes the phone cards do not work, but for a back up plan the Valle family offered that we can use their phone. We only have 40 mins. to talk so Mom be ready with your questions . Also mom, from reading your email you mentioned something about sending a book. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness but however we are not able to read other materials or books on the mission so my advice is to not send it because I will not able to read it. I feel very humbled and very loved with the many letters and packages I received and I want to thank everyone for your love and support. Also, you mentioned that you did not receive the pictures that I sent from Mauro´s baptism and from The Copes package I received. I did not bring my memory card today so unfortunately you will have to wait. I am thinking about putting my pictures on a cd again and send it to you. Also I have a few letters written to some family members(one being my wonderful sister Mackenzie who I am sure is craving a letter from her brother ) so I am thinking I will just put a package together and send it to you. So today the Christmas activity went well. Some elders are leaving tomorrow so they can make it home for Christmas and the next semester for school. Elder Lloyd my trainer is one of the elders and also one of my zone leaders Elder Zollinger. We were able to hear their testimonies, a Christmas message from President and Sister Benton, and also we were able to watch and listen to the Christmas message from the First Presidency. We also did a Christmas skit as a zone, ate lunch, and had a gift exchange. I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father and His children her in Argentina, the mission is amazing. I thank you for your love and support and look forward to talking to you this Friday! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Mauro's Baptism

2009-12-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Hey it is good to hear from you! First I would like to thank the Cope Family for the very nice package! It is filled with some very good stuff, thanks! The pictures were nice, everyone is looking great and those kids are growing up fast! Also, I was able to receive a dear elder from Aunt Diane and Justin Brooks. Everything is going well here in Argentina, yes it is starting to heat up here. Mom, thanks for the updates in your email. Sounds like you had a little missionary week as you were able to have dinner with my last companion, Cameron Grant as well as attend Shane Palmers homecoming, that is pretty nice! This week we had a baptism for Mauro who is eleven years old. Mauro comes from a family who are also members but have been in-active. As we have been teaching Mauro we have been able to not only see the change in Mauro, but also in his family. Mauro is awesome! Mauro loves when we come over to teach. Mauro has been an example to me since I have met him. Every time we come over he is ready. Also, he makes sure we have something to drink so he usually makes us some juice, and when we finish a glass he is right there to refill your glass with more juice. The baptism went well. Not many members were able to attend but we had enough and Mauro had great support from his family. One of Mauro´s family members was able to baptize Mauro. The next day Mauro was confirmed a member of the Church and was able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Also Sunday I had the opportunity to give a talk in church. I was given the topic of the Restoration. I tried tying the message of the restoration with the baptism of Mauro. I felt like my talk went well and received a few compliments. So Christmas is coming up soon and as you know we have the chance to call home. I believe I will be calling home on the 25th of December and I will try and let you know a time around which I will be calling this next week in my e-mail. I am going to buy a phone card like I did with our call on mothers day. What number should I call? Please email the information such as the number. Remember we only have 40 minutes to talk so if you have questions right them down. For Christmas I am not exactly sure what we will be doing but on the 21st we will be meeting together as a mission to eat and celebrate. Thanks for all of your support. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Thanks to all our Mother's!!!!

2009-12-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hi mom and thanks for your wonderful letter it is always good hearing form you! Sounds as if you had a pretty enjoyabe Thanksgiving. Tell Aunt Diane Happy Birthday / Feliz Cumpleaños! Sounds like the new ward is hanging in there. Are we still known as the Palo Verde Ward? I enjoy that you share the activities you have in the young womens program with me. I remember the activities i had when I was in the young mens program, they were always amazing. Thanks go out to the leaders i had as they also were able to have great activities which brought great experiences, and most importantly the spirit. Its fun to think that you are now one of those leaders. I know you are a great example to those young women and am sure you are having fun as well. I know it can be stressful at times with everything going on but if you continue making your to-do lists, yes you know those lists you used to always give me, things will get done. One thing that I have seen while on my mission is the importance of being organized and having plans. In the mission there is always something for us to do, even when we feel like we are just walking around tracting all day. I believe the better we are organized, the more we give ourselves to be guided by the spirit. It may be hard to understand the young women at times, and not just because they are girls with all that comes with those teenage years, but as you have been set apart for this calling the spirit will guide you to their needs. Also, looking back on youth activities I can see how greatly blessed I have been. In the area I am serving now, as a new branch, there are not many members which does not give the youth, which also there are not many, many opportunities to have activities. However, I have been very impressed with the faith of the youth here because although they do not have many of the same opportunities i had, they still make the most of what they have and continue to attend church as much as possible. Mom I am very grateful for all that you have given to me and also all that you have taught me, it has really helped me during this time I have been serving. Everything is going well here in Billinghurst. Elder Garcia and I, we are getting along well and working hard. We are pretty excited for Mauro´s baptism this Saturday. Tomorrow we have a zone conference, so we are also looking forward to that. I will let you know when I receive those packages and also I will let you know when I will be calling home for Christmas. Tell dad thanks for the updates and I will be looking for his dear elder letter. Have a great week, look forward to hearing from you soon! Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Music To Our Ears.

2009-12-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends, It is always good to hear from everyone and sounds as if you enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday! I am glad to hear you were able to attend Cameron Grants homecoming and sounds like he did a fine job. If you get the chance to speak with him tell him thanks for the shout out and also thanks for the picture! So this past transfer we were blessed and ended with five baptisms, and so far we have one planned for this transfer. His name is Mauro, he is about 11 years old and is a child from a less active family. However, as we have been teaching Mauro his family has been getting more involved and have also been attending church with him. Unfortunately this past Sunday he and his family did not make it to church along with many other investigators and members due to the rain. Elder Garcia and I left the apartment early Sunday morning to go look for some of our investigators we invited during the week to go to church with us. We passed by a few of our investigators homes but no one answered. We then decided to start walking towards the church in order that we would make it there on time. Due to the rainstorm some of the streets were rivers and we had no choice but to walk through them. Maybe if Elder Grant was here I could have used him and kept myself a little drier. We ended up paying for a remise (taxi) to take us to the church. Although we were soaked we arrived just in time for church. Elder Garcia and I had a pretty productive week. Working with a new branch and just a few members keeps us quite busy. Although there are not many members they are always willing in trying to help in any way they can so we are very grateful. Right now we are searching diligently to find some new investigators to teach. We have been fortunate enough to find a few investigators, so we are looking forward to see how they will progress. The other day Elder Garcia and I were walking and passing by the people we planned the night before to visit. We went through our list of visits pretty fast, no one was home or no one wanted to listen. We decided to walk to towards a different area in our zone. After quite a bit of walking, a kid from the street shouted, “hey elders.” Music to our ears! We went over and began to talk and came to realize that he and his mother are members of the church but it has been a while since they have been to church. What a blessing! We look forward to helping them and bring the gospel back into their home. Thanks for all of your support, it is always great to hear from you. I am still working on writing letters so I will try and get some out soon. I hope you have a great week, i look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Special Visitors.........What a great gift for my B-Day!!!!

2009-11-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends, Hey thanks for all your letters! Unfortunately I was only able to read a few of them, basically from mom and dad. The other emails i was not able to be read, I think one was sent from a blog and with this email its unable to be read, also I believe you sent pictures too but for some reason I was not able to see them through the email. So I had a pretty good birthday here in Argentina. This morning Elder Grant finished his packing to go home. I received a call from President Benton and Sister Benton, wishing me a happy birthday which was very nice. President Benton is amazing but during our conversation he told me who my new companion was going to be, so it kind of ruined the surprise. It was ok, as I love President Benton. Also during our transfer meeting we went up to shake President and Sister Bentons hand and when I went up to shake President Benton's hand everyone began to sing happy birthday to me while I was up there! So today Elder Grant is on his way home, we had some good times, I am very grateful for the opportunity we had to work together. Are you going to go to Elder Grants homecoming this Sunday? I think you should go. I was not able to send any letters with him but I am getting ready to send a few, I just have to finish writing them. Also, I received my new companion at our transfer meeting, Elder Garcia from Salvador. It is pretty interesting because Elder Grant trained Elder Garcia, then Elder Garcia was companions with Elder Gneighting, two missionaries from Las Vegas. After which he had two other Elders; Elders Kirkham and Peterson. Elder Garcia has about six months in the mission. I have been called to be senior companion, but we are both young in the mission and excited to get to work. Also this past week we had the opportunity to see and hear from Elder Bednar and Elder Snow, with a special guest Elder Ludwig and Elder Olds! It was amazing! Elder Bednar and Elder Snow along with their wives spoke to us and we were taught by the Spirit. It really was a blessing to have that opportunity and I can not express how grateful I am. Instead of just giving us a talk, Elder Bednar first explained how to ask good questions. Elder Bednar has a great personality and a pretty good sense of humor. After explaining how to ask questions we had the opportunity to ask questions to Elder Bednar. At the end of the conference Elder Bednar left us with a blessing. I am truly grateful for this opportunity I have been given. I appreciate your love and support. I look forward from hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Sometimes getting WET....... is a good thing!

2009-11-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends, It was great to hear from you! Everything is going very well here in Billinghurst as we had the baptism for Daniel this past Saturday! Saturday we also had an Elders quorum activity for our branch and had a great turn out even with not having many members in our Elders quorum. For our activity we cooked some Argentine food (asado and chori pan) which are two types of meat that are very popular here in Argentina, I am a fan of them both ! After we ate, they ( the members ) played some soccer. We as missionaries have a mission rule that we can only play soccer with other missionaries, so Elder Grant and I just ended up watching. It was pretty funny though because as we were watching I was secretly cheering for Daniel and hoping that they would let him score a goal. You know what I am trying to say…so that he would feel good and get even more excited for his baptism! Anyway he played like a champ, so I was content. Also this week we had interviews with President Benton. He is amazing! I had a good interview, he is very happy with the success we are having here in Billinghurst. Just before we were leaving our interviews to head back to our area it started to rain again, like I have never seen before. Within minutes the streets were flooded. We tried waiting for a while but it was not looking like it was going to stop any time soon, so we left and headed for the bus stop were we waited an hour for the next bus to arrive. It was late due to the rain. We finally arrived in our area and the streets there were even worse. All the water flows downhill into our area, the side walks were covered with water, and even some houses had water enter them as well. We tried taking different streets but there was no way we were able to make it to our apartment without walking through the river in the middle of the streets. We decided to go for it, I was able to make it to the apartment a little dryer than Elder Grant, you will have to ask him why. I know I still have quite a few people on my list of those to write and I am going to try and write some letters and give them to Elder Grant and he can give them to you. I will let you know how that goes, it all depends on if I have any time. Elder Bednar and Elder Snow this Thursday! Thanks for all your love and support, I am going to try and send a few pictures so I hope you get them. Take care, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Mom- sounds as if your talk was awesome, glad to hear that. Thanks for your suggestion as to items that i may need , but looks like I am good with everything, I have enough clothes for P-days, and I have a hand gripper, just some things like crest toothpaste, Listerine, visine, pictures, thanks mom love you!

The Book of Mormon, a Powerful Blessing!!!!

2009-11-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends, It sounds like eveything is going well. We also had a good week here in Billinghurst as we were able to have the baptism for Veronica and her two children, Nahuel and Belen! The baptism went really well and I was privlidged to baptize Nahuel, he is awesome, he is 11 years old and about to turn 12. It is amazing to see the change in the lives of those that we are teaching, they are definitely examples to me! We also have another baptism planned for this Saturday for an investigator named Daniel! Daniel is in his fifties, and has a burning desire to learn about the gospel like I have never seen before. The first few weeks we were teaching him he did not come to church but now he is coming to church every week, participating in all the classes, attending baptisms, and most importantly reading in the Book of Mormon. He is anxiously waiting for his baptism this Saturday along with us. Also some more good news from this week is that I received a package from Mom! I received the package Tuesday at our district meeting which was also the day of Veronica, Nahuel, and Belen´s baptism, lets just say Tuesday was a really good day! I will admit that night after the baptism we went home to open the package and celebrate. It definitely was a package from my mother, it was perfect, she knows me too well! Thanks mom. Mom- I love you! It sounds like you have your talk for conference ready, that’s awesome. I am sure it is stressful with everything going on but hang in there mom, you were called to give the talk for a reason, someone needs to hear your message. The only advice I have for your talk is share something from the Book of Mormon (scripture or story) and bear your testimony. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and testifies of Jesus Christ, it is very powerful and a blessing in our lives. Do not worry mom you are going to do great! Alright so last suggestions for the Christmas package: Crest toothpaste ( they have toothpaste here but not Crest) any kind or flavor, Listerine ( they have it here but its an item I use a lot, and pictures ( maybe some of the pictures we took from the MTC or whenever, I still do not have pictures of my family and people always ask) I appreciate the pictures from the emails but there is not really a way to print them off I think it would be easier if you sent some. Well mom thanks for everything look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Dad- Hey dad thanks for the dear elder I received one this last Tuesday. I was thinking if you could send one dear elder every month or so of a story, maybe from something that you have read or heard (sports, church,…) that can be applied to the gospel, and then I can use it in my lessons and such. I think it would help and make some of the lessons a little more interesting. I appreciate all you have done for me dad, your continual support and love. Take care, and have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Still Raining, or rather i should say " Pouring Blessings" !!!!

2009-11-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends, Hey sounds like everyone is doing well and had a pretty good Halloween. Honestly I forgot all about Halloween, we have been busy working here in Billinghurst and also they just do not celebrate Halloween here. Well the baptism was very nice! Susana, well here actual name is Mercedes, was able to get baptized this week, receive the Holy Ghost, share her testimony in church, and complete her first fast as this past Sunday was fast Sunday!! She does it all hah! She really has a lot of faith and is a great example. She is our newest member in the Billinghurst Branch and she is going to be a very strong member. Like I have mentioned she fasted this past weekend and bore her testimony during the sacrament meeting. The weather has been changing on us pretty good here in Buenos Aires, it has been pretty humid and rainy. This past week was the last week to go to the temple here in Buenos Aires as they well be closing it for quite some time as I think they are looking to expand and add more to it. The members were trying to go as much as possible, trying to go and visit one last time. I got thinking of how sometimes we do not really realize our blessings until they are taken away. Everyone knew that the temple was going to close so everyone tried to make it their priority to go. What if they did not know that the temple was going to close, would it have still been their priority? What are our priorities? I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve and for those who have given me this opportunity. This transfer we have the opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar, as he will be coming to our mission and will speak to us in Ramos Mejia, November 19th! Things are going pretty well here in Billinghurst. Elder Grant and I continue to work hard and find those who are ready here in Billinghurst. We have a baptism planned for tomorrow. A mother, Veronica, and her two children, Nahuel and Belen. They are pretty excited for their baptism just as we are. We have also been able to find a few more investigators so we are interested to return and help them get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and support and look forward to hearing form you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Mom- speaking in stake conference? That is pretty nice. Christmas, I am not sure what to ask for, still looking for the birthday package. I know that I do not need music , maybe some peanut butter since its been a while since I had a PB& J sandwich. I love you.

Rain Delay.

2009-10-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, Hey, what do you know the weather in Argentina is warming up. This past week we had a baptism planned for one of our investigators named Susana but unfortunately we had to postpone the baptism for this Saturday. There is actually quite an interesting story to why we had to postpone the baptism I will try and fill you in. Susana had a baptism interview Thursday with our district leader and then we had to plan another for Friday with one of President Benton´s counselors. The interview was planned for Friday night at the church. Friday morning was one of the hottest days since I have been here in Argentina. However, the temperature can change rather quickly here in Argentina. Well,it began to rain later in the afternoon. Our plan was to go to Susanas´house, which is close to where we live, call a “remise”- which is basically a taxi and go to the interview together with Susana. It was raining pretty good when we were on our way to Susanas´ house and it did not stop raining. The interview was set for eigth o´clock. We arrived at our apartment to call Susana to see if she was ready to go but she was not home yet. After a little while she arrived and we called for a remise. Unfortunately there were no remises available, it was about a forty five minute wait. We were not able to think of any way to get to the church, it was stilling raining pretty good and there was no remises available. We decided to call the counselor to see if he could come to Susanas´ house for her interview, unfortunately he does not have a cell phone, the number that we have was his house phone. We thought we could try and have the interview Saturday morning but Susana already had plans and was not going to get back to her house till around five o'clock. We could have tried and planned the interview right around five or six o´clock but that would have been pretty close and a lot for Susana. Therefore, we decided to plan the baptism for the following Saturday. Susana handled the situation very well. Elder Grant and I were able to finish the week strong. We were behind with some of the goals we planned for the week because Thursday we had our zone conference but we were able bounce back and finish strong. Zone conference was really good. Our zone, “Oeste”, and another zone from the mission, “Castelar” met in Ramos Mejia for zone conference. As Elder Grant and I arrived to the stake center/mission offices in Ramos most of the elders were already there. There was a couple of elders standing together and started yelling my name, Elder Brooks. I went over to see what they had to say, two of them were the zone leaders from the zone Castelar. One of the zone leaders is Elder Gneighting from Las Vegas, Red Rock Stake. Elder Gneighting and his companion Elder Grange called me over to ask me about some of my high school baseball records! I did not know they knew hah! Well that is my update for this week. Thanks for your love and support, I looking forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Taxi Man Beware !!!!!!

2009-10-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, It was good to hear from everyone and sounds like everyone is doing great. Well Elder Grant and I started off the transfer very well this past week. After the transfer meeting we went to Rafael Castillo to pick up all my bags and then we left for Billinghurst. Before we even got to our area we had taught our first lesson, we ended up teaching the driver who drove us to Billinghurst the first lesson! We took down his name and information and will pass it off to the Elders in his area. So as I mentioned Billinghurst is a new area, just opened last transfer. Our apartment as well is pretty new, and I must admit pretty nice, we live in an apartment attached to a house of one of the members in our branch, the Valle family, its kind of set up like the room attached to dads house. The Valle family is amazing, they help us out a lot, always making sure we are well taken care of. They also have a son serving a mission, the Argentina Salta mission. Elder Grant and I are basically bringing Las Vegas to Billinghurst this transfer hah! We are excited to work hard this transfer, we would like to work 24/7 like Vegas but according to the mission rules we are not allowed. Elder Grant and Elder MacKay, the Elder who finished his mission last transfer have been teaching a lady named Susana and we are continuing to teach her. Susana has a good understanding of the gospel, however she is passing through a difficult time right now and we know the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless her life and give her the help she needs. This pass week we set a baptism date with Susana for this Saturday, it is pretty quick but we feel she is ready. We do not have many other investigators but we are working hard to find them. This Sunday we had a total of around fifty members who attend church. It being a new branch there are not that many members, but from all those I have met they seem to all be great and are willing to help us out. I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve in Billinghurst and to help get this branch started, with faith in Jesus Christ everything is possible! Today Elder Grant and I went to the Capital because he had to go to the dentist. Capital was pretty sweet and pretty big, it was good to be in the city and to get a different look at Argentina. However, I am glad to be back in Billinghurst, we have a lot of work to do or you can say a lot of people waiting for us. The mission is amazing, this is the church of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for all of your love and support. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Mom, I love you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

It was raining cats and dog bites

2009-10-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, It is great to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing great. I appreciate all of your emails and letters. I apologize if I do not comment on everything you ask me but with the limited time I do have it is hard to do so, plus I have a lot to write about today. Elder Tate and I finished this past transfer strong and it was not that easy. Saturday we went to go pick up lunch and as we passed by a house a dog jumped out and bit my leg. Lucky for me it was only a bite to my pants but he was able to rip a pretty big hole, if there is time I will send you a picture. Mom, I was able to get my pants sewn so do not worry and as for my leg, it is fine. Also, this past Saturday for most of the day the temperature was really nice , but all that changed really fast during the evening as it rained harder than I have ever seen it rain. We did not have the right clothing or I should i say we did not have anything to keep us from getting soaked but we enjoyed it hah! Elder Tate and I and also the other elders Elder Brown and Elder Unker all arrived to the apartment soaked. If I have time I will also send some of these rain pictures. Saturday night Elder Brown and I received a call that we would be leaving and we were able to say our goodbyes Sunday. It was tough leaving the members, converts, and investigators, you truly come to love those you serve. Today we all went to the transfer meeting. Elder Tate, Brown, Unker, and I all sat together with great anticipation. My transfer was one of the last to be announced. My new area will be the town of Billinghurst, andt is located in a city called San Martin. Billinghurst is a new area that our mission president just opened up last transfer prior to this transfer. It is located in more of the city, where there are no dirt streets. The apartment is brand new and very nice, I feel very humbled. Also I have received a new companion, Elder Grant. After the transfer meeting we met and came to realize that we are from the same hometown, Las Vegas! We went crazy as we were both very surprised. Elder Grant attended Bonanza High School and has been serving in the mission for quite a while, he will be leaving after this next transfer. We are very excited to get to work and continue to develop this new area, Billinghurst. Also, not too far from Billinghurst is the Buenos Aires North Mission, it is actually across the street from where we are typing our e-mails. Well that is my update on what is going on here, the mission is amazing I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve and for all of your support, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Dad thanks for the dear elder Mom I do not really need much for my birthday the only suggestions I have are ties, deodorant (right guard), plastic disposable razors to shave, or candy. Thanks mom love you!

World - Wide Church

2009-10-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, Sounds like you enjoyed general conference, it truly was amazing. I do not have much time to write so I am apologizing early for the rush. We were writing our emails in a place but the computers were just not working, I had my email almost done but I just was not able to send so we had to find another place to write and now we are short on time. I was able to watch most of the conference in English, however the Saturday morning and afternoon I had to watch in Spanish, but I was able to watch priesthood in English. Due to the time change priesthood ended a little late here, we arrived back to the apartment from the stake center at midnight, and we were pretty tired. We went right to bed and then woke right back up. Sunday was a big opportunity to bring some of our investigators to the conference and we clutched up and were able to bring ten of our investigators. During the sessions members brought food and we relaxed and went outside to eat. The mission is amazing, I know I might say that a lot but it is true. I can see and feel the gospel of Jesus Christ change my life. I am grateful for your love and support. I am grateful for a prophet that lives today, President Thomas S. Monson, who also loves us. This transfer is coming to a end this next week, so it looks like this could be my last week in Rafael Castillo. I have truly come to love those I have been serving, it might be a little hard to leave. I hope we can remember the feelings we felt this conference and continue to better ourselves and those around us as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

CHANGE UP YOUR ROUTE....SHE PRAYED FOR THE MISSIONARIES

2009-09-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, Sorry that I was not able to update you and let you know the President moved P-Day this week, but the reason he changed our P -Day this week was so that we could go to the temple today. Our P-Days are still on Monday. It’s a little sad but this was probably the last opportunity for the Elder's to go to the temple here in Argentina as they will be closing the temple for quite awhile ( between one and two years), but I am grateful for the several opportunities provided me to attend the BAW temple. It sounds like everyone is doing great, it also sounds as if mom had a enjoyable trip with her family to Ohio. Everything is going great here in Argentina. I had the opportunity to speak in church this past Sunday and it went really well. I was able to talk about the importance of missionary work and the blessings we receive as we share the gospel. As I have been sending pictures home I try to include who is in the pictures with me in the email I send. Mom often asks who are the other individuals in the pictures, i am not sure if you have been receiving this information when I send the pictures, if not let me know. I will try and send some more pictures today. This past week for Elder Tate and I was rather productive, including quite a few spiritual experiences.There is one experience in particular that I would like to share with you.This past saturday night as we were leaving one of our appointments and heading out to our next appointment, we for " some reason or OTHER " ended up taking some different streets than we usually do to our next appointment. As we were getting ready to turn a corner we faintly heard someone calling out to us, so we stopped and turned around, it was a member from our ward calling to us. The member is an elderly lady and a convert to the church. We came up to her house and she quickly invited us in. She explained how earlier she had cut her foot, as we looked we were able to see it was pretty bad. She explained how she had been trying to get a hold of some of the members in the ward all day but nobody was answering. We came to find out later that most of the members were at the temple all day with the youth doing baptisms for the dead. She told us she had said a prayer that the missionaries would pass by her house ( i soon came to realize that this answer to her prayer was the" for some reason or OTHER ", that Elder Tate and I took a different route to our intended appiontment ). Her prayer had been answered and she began to break down into tears. The spirit was very strong and we were privledged to give her a priesthood blessing. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father and his children here in Buenos Aires. Thanks to everyone for your love and support. I look forward to hearing from you soon, con amor Elder Brooks. We were not able to receive pouch mail this week but I will let you know when we do receive it. Also I was able to write E. Ludwig back.

Everything is awesome...2 more!

2009-09-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
It"s good to hear from everyone sounds like everyone is staying busy. Mom, sounds like your class reunion went well. That's pretty exciting that you, uncle Steve, and aunt Diane will be heading to Ohio to visit family; I'm sure you will have some good experiences. Happy birthday to Nellie; she is growing fast. I wasn't able to see the video you sent and I am not sure if it’s the computer or our email system. I do not really know, but I think just pictures are good enough. Dad mentioned something about someone writing, but I don't think I have received the letter. I will try and let you know what emails I receive and when I receive them from now on. So this week in Rafael Castillo we had two more baptisms! Deniss who is fourteen years old and her boyfriend Lucas who is seventeen. Deniss has a lot of family who are members, but a few are inactive. The baptism went great, no problems, and it was really good because maybe it can get Deniss´s family back to church so we'll see. Lucas is a really good kid, he works in the army here and basically provides for his family. He has desires to serve a mission. Also, this week we were at the Celle Family´s house and E. Tate and I learned how to make empanadas. We look forward to trying it on our own soon. Tomorrow we have interviews with Pres. Benton. I guess you heard what happen, but I'm sure everything is alright so do not worry. The weather has been changing a lot and not sure when winter will officially end, hopefully soon. Other than that everything is going great, the mission is amazing and I am grateful for all those who have played a part in giving me this opportunity to serve. Thanks for all your love and support; I hope you have a great week. I look forwarding to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks

Grateful to Serve.......

2009-09-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Dad, Its good to hear from you, sounds like everything is going great and your still trying to lose weight!hah that’s what I like to hear. As for me and my weight I am doing alright. I do not think I am losing weight I think I am filling in. The weather is getting better here so I am pretty excited, it seems like winter as lasted forever. Today we are getting together as a district and we are going to the church to play some fútbol/soccer and handball. With the weather is getting better I think I will be able to get out and exercise a little more like go running because lately I have just been doing exercises in the apartment, push ups, sit ups, arm exercises, and stretching. The mission is amazing and it looks like we will be having two more baptisms this Saturday. I really am grateful for this opportunity to serve and represent our saviour Jesus Christ. I appreciate your love and support. Hope you have a great week, continue reading in The Book of Mormon as a family thats really important and can really bring the family together, also continue to do things as a family that invite the Spirit. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks. Tell Beckie thanks for sending the pictures and for all her support

It's a dirty job...but someone's gotta do it!

2009-09-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Hey sounds like everyone is doing great. Also, it sounds like you have received the pictures I sent through the mail and also the ones I emailed that’s great. I did not realize I wrote the address wrong but I am glad you were still able to receive it. Of course you have questions about the pictures with the mud, that was quite a story. I will try and describe what went down….me hah. The streets were covered in mud due to the rain and we were going to our appointments as normal. As we headed to our last appointment we reached a street covered in mud. Long story short I tried to jump to a different area of the street. However, the part I was jumping from was also muddy. I took a step back to get some momentum. Then I took about two good steps forward and planted my foot to jump. As I pushed off to jump, my right foot totally slipped out from under me and I clearly was not able to make to the area I desired. I ended up covered in mud but I was able to clean the clothes later, so mom do not worry. So as you know we changed our preparation day to Monday. Due to the temple closing soon is the reason for the change. I was able to attend the temple last transfer and we are scheduled to go again this transfer before it closes. I will still be sending the weekly newspaper but you will be getting it a week later because they send it to us on Thursdays now. Thanks for emailing more pictures, I have not looked at them yet but will when I get the time. Dad thanks for the BYU update that’s pretty impressive. Elder Brown one of the other Elders in our apartment from the last transfer received a new missionary straight from the MTC, and made me think about when I arrived here for the first time. We are doing our best to help him get adjusted. It seems like we have not had a regular p-day forever. We had a zone activity one day, we went to the temple another day, and now transfers meetings which are on Mondays take up half our p-days as well, but it's ok. Short story, usually we went to transfer meetings, not knowing who is going to change areas. I was thinking I was going to leave Castillo this past transfer because I have been serving for about four months. We told some of the recent converts and members so I could have them write in my journal and such, because usually you would find out in the transfer meeting on Monday and have to leave to your new area Tuesday. As I told the Celle family, they were a little sad because they did not want me to leave yet, and neither did I. It was an amazing experience to hear them say in their prayers, Please let Elder Brooks stay. It was also an amazing experience to have them receive their answer when I went to this past transfer to find I would be staying here in Castillo for this transfer. This mission is amazing, I am very grateful for all your love and support. I look forward to hearing from you soon, con amor Elder Brooks.

Mission Records !!!!!!!!!

2009-09-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
We just finished the end of another transfer. We had a lot of success as a mission and set a few new records! The biggest record was a total of 192 conversions this transfer, it was the most we have ever had here in the Buenos Aires West mission. My companion and I worked very hard this transfer, and we were greatly blessed with results. We ended up with 13 conversions, which I believe is also a new record for the mission! We were able to have three more baptisms this past Saturday, which gave us the total of 13 conversions for this last transfers. I am so greatful for the opportunity to particípate in this work, it truly is the work of the Lord. Elder Tate and I were able to participate in the transfer meeting that took place yesterday by speaking to all the missionaries about the success we've had. The spirit was strong as we explained and testified to them. After we concluded our message, Pres. Benton came up and stopped us before we could leave. He expressed his love and told us how proud he was for our work this past transfer. He mentioned how I only have 6 months in my mission, and used me as an example that anything is posible. It was a really humbiling experience and I am very greatful for it. We truly worked hard and received the help of the Lord. Almost everyday this past transfer I came home physically and spiritually tired, but becasue of our obedience the Lord blessed me with the strength to continue each day.
So now it is a new transfer but Elder Tate and I our still companions here in Rafael Castillo. Elder Rivas got transfered, and Elder Brown is recieving a new missionary today. Also there were some changes made. Our preparation day has been moved to Monday, so please write your emails before Monday if you want me to read them. Also I would like to know if Brother Bulloch has received any of my cards I have sent him so if you find out please let me know because its hard to send and recieve mail here. I am trying to write everyone but its been hard lately because I hardly have any free time, the work is just too important. Also please send Elder Ludwig my address or send me his. I appreciate your love and support. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Take care and have a great week, con amor Elder Brooks.

August 25, 2009

2009-08-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
First I want to say thanks for sending pictures and the information where my aunts and uncles served. I think I forgot to say thanks. As I informed you, this last week was pretty crazy planning and organize a baptism for 12. However, I loved it! Unfortunately 3 of the 12 did not end up getting baptized. One of the investigators had to go out of town and two other boys we are teaching backed out. We are planning to have a baptism this Saturday for the 3 that were not able to get baptized. The baptism ended up being just for the Celle Family which consisted of 9 people including the grandmother and aunt! It was an amazing baptism and President Benton and his assistants were able to attend. I baptized 4 members of the family, my companion baptized 3, and a member baptized 2. The day of the baptism was quite an adventure. We went to the grandmother's house first, her name is Juana. She is quite old and is not able to walk so we usually call a remise or “taxi” for her because they live pretty far from the church. We went by to make sure she was almost ready to go. Juana was excited and ready. We then left to make sure they rest other the family was almost ready (they just live a block away from each other). As we were leaving her house, two other missionaries from a different church arrived and were in front of her house. They told us they were friends of Juana. We invited them to the baptism but they did not seem too excited. We quickly went to the Celle´s house which is just one block away from Juana´s house. We arrived at the Celle´s house hoping they were all ready to go. Everyone was ready to go, that is everyone that was there. The four youngest kids were across the street at a birthday party. We explained how we had to arrive early with them in order to change into the baptismal clothes and take pictures. They understood and went to gather their children. As we were waiting, we decided to call for the remise to come pick up Juana, however her cell phone did not have service. We went back to Juana´s house where the aunt who also lives there had a cell phone. We returned back to Juana´s house and the missionaries from the other church had left. We were able to use the cell phone and call for some remises. After all of this we finally arrived at the church. The baptism turned out perfect, even the water for the font was ready to go this time. As I explained, Juana is not able to walk. Elder Tate and I carried her into the baptism font, I said the prayer and we baptized her. It was amazing. The rest of the baptisms went well and the Spirit was present and strong. We had a lot of help and participation from the members and had refreshments after the baptism. Pres. Benton called us the next morning and told us it was one of the best baptisms he had seen. The Celle Family is amazing and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to teach them and bring the gospel into their lives. This mission is amazing and I am truly grateful for this opportunity to serve. I am grateful for all of your support. Take care, I look forward from hearing from you soon. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

El Sol 8-18-09 (Double-click to read article)

2009-08-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is a Google version of an English translation. For those Spanish speakers who read this, if you have corrections, please email it to me and I will repost with a more correct translation. Thanks!
The spirit has the power to change people's hearts. The chosen of the Lord be willing to make the changes necessary to join the Church of Jesus Christ. We saw this in the life of Julia, a single mother with a small daughter. She had several obstacles. One obstacle was big enough that she doubted everything or always had questions and doubts at the beginning of each lesson. However, we testify to the truth and challenge in each lesson to make changes and although they did not understand everything, followed our advice in faith. While working on Sundays, changing her schedule to attend church was a pretty big sacrifice for being a single mother. I still had doubts and with the pressure of her brothers who did not want to compromise. She read Alma 32 and was shocked his soul left him. She decided she needed to follow her feelings and accept a baptismal date. The spirit acted within her hears and although still in doubt, went ahead with faith. It was to our surprise when we learned that she had quit smoking after our first visit, which was not easy. It is true that the elected voice of the Lord was recognized and approached no matter what the cost.

August 18, 2009

2009-08-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

Dear family and friends,
Everything is going well and we have a big week planned. I appreciate everyone's support. To answer questions about letters, I have received a few dear elders from Mackenzie, Uncle Ben, Aunt Diane, and Justin-I think that covers most of them. There might be a few others. I know I told you I would be sending a CD of pictures but turns out I needed my passport to send a letter of that size so I did not end up sending it. However, you do have the opportunity to see a picture of me. I have been sending our weekly newspaper which is called El Sol to dad every week. If you check out this weeks newspaper I will be sending, you will find a picture and an article about the baptism of Julia! It is quite an impressive story, but yes it is in spanish so you will need someone to translate it for you so that you will be able to understand it. Let me know if you receive it and what you think about it. Also, I would like to know if you have been saving the others I have been sending? This past week we had three baptisms planned, Cristian and Frances, and Omar, but we unfortunately had to postpone them for this Saturday. We also have planned this Saturday the baptism for the Celle family. As you can see we have been blessed by our heavenly father with these amazing investigators. Elder Tate and I have to make sure everything is planned and organized perfect for their baptism because they definately deserve it. We also had the privilege to have our interviews with President Benton this past week. I am very grateful to have Pres. Benton as my mission president. His example, personality, and love for us is incredible. He has also planned to attend our baptismal service this Saturday with the assistants. The mission is amazing! I am truly grateful for all of you and your support. I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that he loves us. I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Take care and have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

August 11, 2009

2009-08-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Seems like everyone is doing well. Everything is going well here in Argentina. I want to thank mom again for the package I received as everything turned out perfect, thanks a lot. I also want to thank dad and beckie for sending some photos and would like to know if you can send some more next week, maybe some of my farewell or the mtc. The memory card reader however does not read my memory card so I am not able to send any photos through the internet. However I stopped by a photo shop and loaded all my pictures from the memory card onto a cd and I will be sending the cd today when I stop by the post office. I will be sending it to dads house, let me know when you receive the cd that way we can tract how long it takes to send mail from Argentina. The photos are from the day I left the mtc until this baptism we had this last weekend. I hope you receive the cd and I think you will enjoy it and also have more questions, hah. So as I mentioned this past Saturday we had a baptism for Julia. The baptism went really well and I was able to perform the baptism. Julia has a lot of faith, and I am very grateful she chose me to perform the baptism. Getting the baptism to start was a different story. We stopped by the chapel Saturday afternoon to start to fill up the baptismal font which was scheduled for 7:30. We then left the chapel because we had some appointments and returned around 6:30-45 and the font was perfectly filled and heated. Everything was organized, all we had left to do was wait for Julia and the members from the ward to show up. Now this is when it starts to get a little interesting. My companion E. Tate suggested that we empty the font a little and refill it with hot water so that it would be perfect by the time the baptism starts. I was not too sure of the idea but we did have about 45 mins until the baptism was supposed to start. E. Tate began to drain the font and set his watch for 10 mins. We came back to the font after the timer went off and found that almost all of the water was gone. I was shocked, E. Tate quickly began to refill the font. It was now past 7 o' clock and Julia still had not arrived. We tried calling and received no answer. Then came 7:30 and Julia still had not arrived and the font still had a ways to go. The members began to arrive. Finally around 7:45 Julia arrived. The rest of the baptism went perfect, it was just getting it to start that was interesting. The font was filled back up just in time and I was able to baptize Julia. It was an amazing experience, hard to describe with words, but the spirit was strong. The next day was Julia´s confirmation. Here we have another interesting story. Before church we went and walked to our investigators houses to wake them up and bring them to church. We passed by The Celle Family, which is the family we have been teaching. Not all of them were awake so we told them we were going to stop by some other investigators and return to pick them up. When we returned back to the Celle´s house some of the kids and also the dad were still asleep. We did not have much time until church started so I suggested we go in an wake them up. Long story short we went in the house, woke everyone up, and got them ready. Unfortunately we showed up to church a little late and ended up missing Julia´s confirmation. I felt bad we were not able to make it for her confirmation but Julia was ok and understood. Well this was just a little of what took place this last week. This week we have interviews with President Benton this Friday and also three more baptisms planned for Saturday. I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve and appreciate for love and support. Take care and have a great week, con amor Elder Brooks.
Reminders, if you can please continue to send those other pictures and I would also like to know where Uncle Jim, Uncle Ben, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Amy served their missions. I know the country but would like to know the cities as well. Mom, I received packages B and C and everything listed in them, package A is the one that we were told that got sent back.

August 4, 2009

2009-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

This past week went really well especially yesterday when I received mom's package at our district meeting. Thank you very much for the package, I believe I received everything you listed. Everything seems to be going well between Elder Tate and I. I am not exactly sure where he is from in California. He told me but I did not recognize the city. I think its somewhere near San Bernadino. We have been working hard and trying our best to be obedient so we can make the best use out of our time. The experience without water and light was interesting. Without the water we were not able to shower, but if it would have lasted longer we would have went to a members house. Our investigators are doing well and seem to be progressing. This past Sunday just about all of them attended church with us. We have been teaching one women named Julia, and she is going to be baptized this Saturday. She is a single mom, in her thirties and has a little girl. We began teaching her a week or two before Elder Lloyd left and have continued to teach her. She has really come a long way, she has had some doubts and always has questions for us but she received the answer she was looking for the other day, as she has been reading and praying. We have also been teaching this family of ten. They came to church for the first time this past Sunday, and they all loved it. They are amazing, our biggest obstacle with them was our lesson with them yesterday. We were not sure if they were married so we had to talk to them about the law of chastity. They told us they are married and Elder Tate and I were so excited because we were not sure if they could have been baptized because we set a baptism date for the 22 of August with them the other week. Sorry to hear about Rose. I will be praying for Tom and Pam. Sounds like you are enjoying your calling, mom. I am glad to hear that. I did not receive a email from dad and I do not have enough time to write another email but tell him I am doing alright. I appreciate all your love and support mom. I look forward to hearing form you soon, take care and have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

July 28, 2009

2009-07-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Hey sounds like everyone is doing great. Everything is going well here in Argentina. Sounds like some of you are a little disappointed with the package situation, I will try to explain what I know. So I guess if a package is left in the post office for a month, it gets sent back home. The elders in the office go every two weeks to pick up the packages, from what I was told. They called and told me I received my package and they were going to pick it up the following week. However, when they went that week the post office was closed because of the flu. They went back the next week to get my package and were told that it was sent back. We should look at the bright side of this situation and see that hopefully you will be receiving the package and we will not lose any of the things that were sent. I appreciate your concern for me and know it’s a little expensive. So Elder Tate my new companion, is from California. We had a pretty impressive week. I am not sure if you read the Sol, which is our weekly mission newspaper. I send it to dad every week. It's in Spanish but you can also look at our numbers for the week. Receiving a new companion has kept me busy, and so far we have been getting along really well. I have been planning out our days and appointments myself until he gets familiar with the people and the area. However, I know it was the Lord doing most of the work this week. We did our part by being obedient and diligent with exactness and the Lord prepared the way for us. We have found some new investigators and have even set baptism dates with a few of them. I am starting to be able to enjoy the lessons more as I am able to participate and focus more on the investigator and not so much on myself and the language. I know that prayer is a gift that we all have and that we can use it at any time. I know that if we are doing are part and living the gospel, we can ask specific questions and receive specific answers. One of my favorite things to teach is prayer. To hear someone pray for their first time is an incredible experience. We are really teaching them to speak with our Heavenly Father. I was thinking about this and have thought of the many times I just went through the motions of praying like everyone has. I want to continue to not just pray to my Heavenly Father, but communicate with him. It’s like communicating with Dad, you know, how he is “usually right” hah. Our Heavenly Father knows us the best, he knows what is best for us. Another interesting thing about this week is that we have been without water and lights for the past couple days. So mom, in your next package if you could send some water and some lights that would help hah. That was a joke mom you do not really have to send another package, I am fine. They are coming today to fix our apartment so that’s some good news. You are able to send pictures through email from what I heard, just send it in a separate email than your letter. If you can find a picture of my old scion tc, please send one because there is a inactive member who is really into cars and he wants to see a picture. I am grateful for this gospel and for the light that it gives me throughout my days here in Argentina. Thanks for your support, take care and have a great week. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

July 21, 2009

2009-07-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Let's just say we have a lot to talk about. However with my horrible typing skills, broken keyboards, and trying to think in English I am a little slow but here we go! Alright so first I received some very nice letters this week: Aunt Diane, Uncle Jim (I can understand all out now), the Ludwigs, and a few others. Yesterday was the end of my second transfer and there were a lot of changes that took place. One of the assistants to the president Elder Pollock, who picked me up from the airport with his companion Elder Woodmansee and my trainer Elder Lloyd, finished his mission. Along with Elder Pollock my first zone leaders Elder Singleton and Elder Chehda finished as well. The big change was receiving a new companion, which I have not received yet…I'll get to that later. My new companions name is Elder Tate and I believe he is from California. What happens is the day after the transfer meeting all the missionaries have to leave and be in their new areas by 10am. So this morning Elder Lloyd and Elder Ranquist got called to new areas so they left this morning. Elder Rivas also received a new companion named Elder Brown, from Idaho. With the strong rain it has kept some Elders from leaving so that is why I am still waiting for Elder Tate to get here. Until then Elder Rivas, Brown, and I are still doing the normal Preperation Day routine. Also, I have some other news. I did not end up receiving the package. What happened was that one of the elders in the offices went to go pick up the packages but because my package had been there for a month the mail service sent it back. So maybe you will receive it, hah. So that means I do not have any way to send you my pictures for the story, so you are going to have to wait to hear the story. I'm sorry but you can't tell the story with out the pictures, its just not as good. So if you are wondering about how the language is going I guess I can say it's going good. I am able to carry on basic conversations and explain and teach in the lessons. I have even taught a lesson in our district meeting. The picture that dad saw where me and a few other missionaries are sitting in the cement pipe was from last transfer as we were waiting for the zone leaders to arrive for our zone activity. I have a few pictures from my camera as well. As far as the missionary work goes things are going well. We have some investigators we are teaching and we had a few investigators visit church last Sunday so that was key. Mom: Lets see if I can answer some of your questions, hah. Last week you ask me about rain boots and if I need any or if elder Ludwig should get any. We have pairs of rain boots in the apartment so we are ok. Now actually wearing them is a different story. Elder Ludwig should not need them and if he asks for them do not send them hah he will be fine. The weather changes frequently but I have everything I need to stay warm. Thanks for your love and support, I look forward to hearing from you soon, take care and have a great week. Charity- “Give a hand and touch a heart” Mackenzie sounds like your talk went well but I am sure you could have used this line hah.
Love, Elder Brooks

July 14, 2009

2009-07-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Hey it is good to hear from everyone. And it was good to hear that my package has arrived! Yes the one that mom sent a while ago. I received a call the other day from one of the elders who works in the offices and he told me that he received a notice that there is a package for me to pick up, so now I am just waiting for him to bring it to our next reunion which should be this next Monday at our transfer meeting. However it sounds like mom sent out another package already...I told you to wait, have faith hah. But it's ok, that’s mom and I love her. So as I mentioned before, this is the last week of my second transfer. It's just going by too fast. Elder Lloyd and I have been getting along grea and he has been a good trainer. Also the other two Elders, (Elder Rivas and Elder Ranquist) we have been getting along great and have really come closer as a district. We are always serving each other and just trying to enjoy everyday. Elder Ranquist has an ipod with over 300 songs of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (that's the only music our mission is allowed to listen to) and it has been a change to be restricted listening to only that because I really love music, but I have come to enjoy it. We all have a favorite song picked out and we listen to them everyday. I guess you could call it a ritual that I started. What can I say, some things just carry right over from baseball, hah. If you are interested in listening to my song it is called, “I want Jesus to Walk with Me” and I believe it is from the Mormon Tabernacle CD, Come Thou Fount. However some of us will be leaving this next transfer. I'm pretty sure Elder Lloyd will be leaving because he has been in the area for a while, so it will be interesting to see who I will be working with next. A couple days this week the lights went out in our apartment so I had the opportunity to study with a flashlight. So as you may know the flu is pretty bad here, but don’t worry I am doing just fine. Today we got together as a zone and played ping pong, soccer, and then made lunch. It is something we do every last week before the end of the transfer. I have a story that I know that you will enjoy but I am going to wait to tell it until I receive the package with the camera cord that way you can see the pictures that go along with the story. Mom, don’t worry it's more of a funny story. I appreciate your support, and mom I appreciate you resending that package, even though I told you to wait I knew that wouldn’t stop you, hah. Look forward to hearing from everyone. Con amor, Elder Brooks.

Prayers for the Elders in Argentina and around the world

2009-07-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

In regard to Elder Brooks information about people being sick in Argentina, he mentioned several of the church meetings being cancelled as well as school. We went online knowing that Elder Brooks may not want his mother to worry. We found that Argentina has now taken over as the third leading country in total deaths of the swine flu and is now approaching 100 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) said, "In the case of Argentina, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and the flu season is in full swing." The Health Minister of Argentina, Juan Manzur, said that, "the situation in the country is serious and difficult." Please remember Elder Brooks as well as the other missionaries in your prayers so they may spread the gospel, not the flu.
Sincerely, The Brooks family

July 7, 2009

2009-07-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the letter, sounds like you enjoyed your fourth of July! We celebrated by listening to American songs from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and that was about it. Everything is going great here. We have a few people we are teaching right now but nothing much. A lot of the people are sick here in Buenos Aires. They have shut down most of the schools and even some of the churches. Our area is not doing as bad as the other areas. We still are able to go to church in our area but there are no other meetings or activites throughout the week. I'm doing fine and im staying healthy. I do not really need anything right now but thanks for always asking. So I'm guessing someone else ended up with the package you sent. I have talked with some of the missionaries and I'm sorry to say but I guess that happens a lot. I think the main reason was because of the medicine in the package. Especially with a lot of people being sick someone else took it. But I will let you know next week for sure. Also I need to know the address you sent it to and the type of service you used. Sorry but I'm not able send any more pictures from my camera because I don’t have the cord. I heard there is a cord you can buy that you plug your memory card into, you might want to look for one of those. Other than that everything else is going well. Everyday I feel I'm learning and progressing in the language and also the gospel. We are getting ready to finish this transfer in 2 weeks, and I think my companion Elder Lloyd will be leaving to another area after this transfer because he has been here for quite a while. We have been getting along while and he have been able to help each other. I'm going to try and write a few letters to people such as the Bullock's when I find time. Right now when I have any free time I take the chance to study the language but I'll try and get a few letters out. Also just to let you know I had my interview with Pres. Benton this past week and it went well. He said I'm looking great so I hope that makes you happy, hah. I wasn’t able to write a general email or another letter to dad but let him know I'm doing alright. I know he might begin to worry hah. I will let you know next week for sure about the package. Con amor (with love) your son, Elder Brooks

June 30, 2009

2009-07-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, Hey it is good to hear from everyone. I received a few dear elder letters this week and sounds like everything is going well. However, I did not receive the package. Please do not resend another right away. Give it another week or two. I hope Elder Ludwig starts feeling better. I want to write to him and keep in touch but by the time the letter gets there he will probably be in Argentina so I am thinking I will wait till he gets here. But tell him to keep working hard. There are a lot of challenges in the mission and the best thing to do at times is just smile and laugh about it. Everyday there are new challenges. Right now it seems to work when I just smile and laugh about it, why not. Due to the cold weather, there are many that are sick and the work has been slow in our area. We do not have any investigators that are really progressing. Right now we are focusing on the ward, many are inactive. Those members that work, work all day so it's hard to meet with them. When things are hard, you just have to work harder. One day this past week we spent just about the whole day walking. We left our apartment at 10:30 taught two short lessons in the street and had lunch from 1-2. We had a few return appointments but none went through. We do stay pretty warm though. However we do not really wear gloves because most of the houses are fenced, so instead of knocking or ringing a door bell we have to clap in front of the house. It would have been easy to just get frustrated but I choose to just laugh and smie about it. I also kept a prayer in my heart that we could at least find someone to teach. The Lord answered that prayer in our last hour of the day. I suggested that we clap in front of a house where an inactive member lived, who just the other day, wasn’t at home. My companion was not too excited about stopping by but he didn’t refuse. We went and clapped. She was there and let us come in. It was a blessing to sit down for the first time since lunch. We had a great lesson and they asked when we could stop by again. I also have to tell you about yesterday. We got some rain which meant the streets were going to be interesting. All the streets were muddy and there was no way to get around it. But with a few jumps here and there we were able to avoid the big puddles. But later that night we were teaching a family and the power went out in the area. It was so dark I couldn't even see my companion, who was sitting right next to me. Someone found a candle and lit it and we were able to finish the lesson. We then had to leave to our next appointment and there was still no light anywhere. There was no way to avoid the big mud puddles and our shoes became covered in mud as we tried to find our way around. It was hilarious. Hope you have a great week thanks for the letters and support. Take care love Elder Brooks.

June 23, 2009

2009-06-25T11:25:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, It is good to hear from you. Everything is going well here in Buenos Aires West. It's starting to get a little cold here but we are doing just fine. I'm sorry to hear about Elder Ludwig, I hope he gets better. I will be praying for him. Actually a lot of people are sick in our area here as well. So I thought I would fill you in a little more on the type of area I am serving in this email. I am serving in Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina, but my area doesn’t cover much of the actually capital of the city - that would be the north mission. The area I am in is also heavily populated. Our streets are full of suprizes and you never know what you are going to see next. Our apartment is located in Castillo but that’s not really our area. It’s the area of the other missionaries in our apartment. We have to walk a little extra just to get into our area everyday. As you leave the apartment you start to leave the paved roads and start walking on the dirt streets. At first this was quite a change for me, I told my companion I would be able walk all day because of the shape I had to be in for baseball and I was also used to being around dirt all the time but I just needed my baseball cleats, hah. Soccer is pretty much the only sport here. They play all day every day, anywhere with anything they can use. The other day we taught a family on their porch. As we were teaching I noticed one of the kids playing on the side of the house. He was playing with his brother and they were just playing around trying to keep the ball away from one another. As I looked closer I noticed they weren’t playing with an actual ball, it was actually a plastic trash bag filled with old clothes and trash. They were still having fun, and I wanted to play with them but resisted the temptation. It made me think... how content are we with what we have? Right now having the gospel in my life is more than enough and I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I received mail last week, thanks for the Dear Elder Dad and Sister Ludwig. This week they did not bring us mail so I am not sure if I received any other mail. The package has not arrived yet so I am going to keep praying for it to come one of these days, hah. Thanks for your love, support, and prayers. Take care, love Elder Brooks. P.S. - When you send dear elder letters, please type the date at the beginning or end of the letter. Thanks.

June 16, 2009

2009-06-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

Dear family and friends, To answer the questions mom gave me in her last email, yes I am safe, comfortable, happy, eating well…and also a lot this past week, keeping warm, and yes being led to those ready for the gospel. It's good to hear Elder Ludwig has began his journey. Do you know who his branch president is or his teachers? And that is crazy Justin is back in Utah. How is Phe doing? Tell him I am praying for him. Every Monday we have a district meeting at the stake center in Catan and all the districts from our zone meet there, go over things as a zone, separate into our district, and at the end that is also where we receive our mail. However, because we have a zone conference this Wednesday we didn’t receive mail on Monday so I am thinking we will receive it on Wednesday at the conference so I'll let you know if I receive anything next week. I enjoyed the baseball update. Bryce Harper, that’s pretty impressive. Tell him congrats if you get a chance. Not everyday is easy here in Buenos Aires. Lately, we have been walking a lot trying to find new investigators and people to teach. It is easy to have a negative attitude but I haven’t reached that stage yet nor will I. I have no reason to complain. Serving a mission is a blessing and I want to take advantage of everyday. The Spanish continues to progress. The members here are amazing and are always looking out for us and making sure we are taken care of. I can't wait till I can really communicate with the people and share experiences and knowledge I want to share with them. Who would have thought being able to talk and communicate is such a blessing and weapon when used correctly with the gospel. Tell that to Isaac, being able to communicate is a blessing…but don’t say anything stupid, hah. Thanks for your prayers and support I look forward to hearing from everyone have a great week, love Elder Brooks.

June 9, 2009

2009-06-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, It is good to hear from you and read your letters. This week I received a nice dear elder from Sister Tyndal so please tell her thanks for the letter, and tell her to tell Tyler to keep “swinging for the fence.” Yesterday we began a new transfer. All the missionaries met at the chapel in Ramos Mejia where the mission offices are located. During the transfer meeting we heard talks from some of the missionaries, reviewed the mission numbers, and also heard testimonies from the missionaries that we leaving this transfer. Also, some missionaries received new companions, but not much changed in our area. Elder Lloyd and I are still companions and Elder Ranquist and Elder Rivas are still in the apartment. This last transfer we had a total of 172 conversions! It was great to get together and continue to meet the other missionaries. This last week we had divisions again with the zone leaders. This time I stayed in our area and worked with Elder Chehda who is from Cordoba. We had a experience I would like in share. As we were ending divisions we packed up Elder Chehda´s stuff and started heading to his area, Catan. At the first bus stop we were waiting for the bus and noticed this girl also waiting. We all got on the bus and headed for Catan. As we got off the bus to catch the other bus that would take us to Elder Chehda´s apartment this same girl got off and was waiting at the bus stop with us, along with many others. As we were standing waiting for the next bus we noticed she was crying. The bus pulled up and we all got on. The bus was packed, like it is most of the time, but this time it was really packed. I was the last one to get on, it was so packed they couldn’t close the door, because that’s where I was standing on the last step! This has happened a few times, hah. After some time we got in the middle of the bus and I noticed the girl again. There was no way we could have talked to her or got to her because the bus was so packed. We finally reached our stop and got off. As we walked away we noticed the girl got off at the same stop. Elder Chedha explained how we needed to talk to her. I looked at him and started walking towards her, Elder Chehda followed. She was three blocks ahead of us but we caught up with her. We introduced ourselves and explained how we felt like we needed to talk to her. She responded by telling us she felt like she needed to talk to us as well. With tears falling down her face she explained how her husband just kicked her out of the house. Her name was Noel, she is 22 years old, her husband is 44 years old. Noel is now taking the lessons. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve. I appreciate your support and prayers. I look forward to hearing from you, take care, Elder Brooks.

June 2, 2009

2009-06-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, It is good to hear from some of you and hear how everything is going. I received a dear elder from uncle Jim just yesterday. I cannot believe Justin will be coming home with in the next couple weeks. I also received emails from Mom, Dad, and Mackenzie. Thanks for sending that package off mom, I will be looking for it and let you know when I receive it. Sounds like Elder Ludwigs talk went well, I knew you would both do a great job. It is starting to get a little cold here, but so far I am doing just fine with keeping warm. It would really help if we were teaching investigators or members all day but we have been walking quite a bit lately. Now that it has gotten a little colder there are not as many people outside. We had another baptism this Saturday and it went really great. Jesica was baptized and confirmed a member. She is only seventeen but has a really strong testimony. The story of the lady sweeping her porch is not in my area, she is the area of the zone leaders so I probably will not see her again, but Elder Singleton who I did divisions keeps me updated and is trying to get her to church. One thing I have been trying to work on lately is living in the moment. Before my mission and also at times during my mission I have caught myself thinking about things I should do or things I want to do. I find my days are a lot more successful when I just focus on that specific day or that specific task. Everyday counts on your mission. As missionaries we set and have a lot of goals. I believe if you just take one day at a time, and focus your thoughts and actions on that day, your days will be more effective. I am loving my days here in Argentina, and I love serving the Lord. I also love reading in the Book of Mormon everyday. Hope everyone has a great week and I hope you try to focus on the moments. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Take care, Elder Brooks.

5/26/09 Email to Papa

2009-05-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Papa, Its good to hear from you. Everything is going well in Argentina. It has been quite a change living in another country but I love it. Thanks for those updates. Basketball is not too popular here in Argentina, its all about soccer here. Anyway, I hope you have a great week. Tell Nana I said "hi" for me. Love, Elder Brooks.

May 26, 2009

2009-05-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

It's good to hear from you and sounds like everyone is doing well. We had another baptism this week, which went well and we have another one scheduled this week. I'm pretty sure I have received all your emails. Hows your calling? Still the ward mission leader? We don’t have one in our ward yet. The Spanish is still not perfect but its coming. Take care, love Elder Brooks.

May 19, 2009

2009-05-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

It´s good to hear from you. Everything is going great in Argentina. We had two rainy days this week which makes the streets in my area an adventure to walk on, but it also slowed our work as many people stayed inside. I had my first baptism this past Saturday and it was great. Rocio has a good testimony and a good spirit. It was a great experience for me and I look forward to more. Actually we do have another baptism planned this Saturday as well. Veronica is the person getting baptized. This past week was amazing with the first baptism and other spiritual experiences. On Friday I had my first divisions. We did divisions with the zone leaders, Elder Singleton and Elder Chehda. I did divisions with Elder Singleton and we stayed in his area. Something interesting about Elder Singleton, he was born in Las Vegas but moved to Wyoming after a year old. We are interested to know if you happen to know any Singletons? Elder Singleton and I had a pretty legit day you could say. Everyone we stopped and shared our message with was very interested and we set up many return appointments. We also had many appointments with investigators which went very well. After ending one appointment and walking to the next, Elder Singleton and I were talking and getting to know each other a little more. As we were walking I saw this lady sweeping her porch and I thought we should stop and talk to her. I told Elder Singleton and he agreed. As we came closer to the house she went behind another building sweeping and we were not able to see her. I don’t know why but I really wanted to talk to her. We both thought she wouldn’t come back out. As we came up to the house she came back out. I immediately contacted her and we began to talk. After getting to know each other she let us in her gate and we shared a message of the restoration with her. The spirit was strong and we challenged her to pray to know for herself the truth of our message. She accepted. We also challenged her to say the closing prayer, and after some moments of silence and some hesitation in her voice she again accepted. As she prayed the spirit was strong and after she concluded we looked at her with smiles on our faces. It was the kind of smile you get when you hear someone say their first prayer. As we looked at her we saw tears running down her face and we knew she had received her answer right there. I was so grateful for that experience. I recognized the promptings of the spirit and acted on them. It is so important to listen for the spirit, I hope I can continue to do so. I went to the temple and it was also a great experience. I hope everyone has a great week. I received Dads dear elder on Monday, yesterday. Mom I love you, I'm doing good on supplies but if I think of anything I'll let you know. Take care, Elder Brooks.

May 12, 2009

2009-05-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, The work is going great here in the Argentina. Our misión has high standards which helps us be very successful. Unfortunately we are only able to email family. I always appreciate hearing from you so here is my address you can write to or you can use the Dear Elder. Today we were not able to attend the temple like we thought but we set up a time to go next Tuesday. Im pretty excited, its always a great opportunity to attend the temple. Its starting to get into winter but its still pretty nice weather outside. This Saturday we have a baptism scheduled. Her name is Rocio and she is 9 years olds. Everything is going well with Elder Lloyd and myself. We try and talk with everyone we walk by. For the most part everyone is excepting but there are still others that totally ignore us which is common in missionary work. I am really starting to realize I´m in a totally different country. Everything is different, and I´m trying to soak it all in. I hear the 2 years goes by fast so I´m trying to live in the moment. I am so greatful for this oppotunity to serve and represent our Savior. I have heard about the blog and it sounds pretty nice. Thanks Beckie for your help with that, I´m sure your following all of Dads directions, hah. It was good to hear from mom and the rest of the family, everyone sounds great. I think I´m pretty good with everything here but if you can send the package with those few things that would be great. I look forward to hearing from you, and I will try to write back those other family members who emailed last week. Thanks for all your support, take care, Elder Brooks.

April 29, 2009

2009-05-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone I finally made it to Buenos Aires! We got on the plane today along with some BYU perfomers from the show "Living Legends." It was pretty funny knowing that most of the people on the plane were LDS. When I was on the plane my seat was however not by anyone I knew. I sat next to a man name Ralph who was also flying to Buenos Aires for business. We began to talk and he began to ask questions. It was a good conversation that addressed our beliefs. He said he knew a little about our church because he used to work with someone who was LDS. I ended up talking to him for about 2 hours and had him read the introduction and Moroni's promise. He was really interested and I asked if he would like his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and he said "yes" so I gave him one. It was a great feeling and a good way to start out. After the 10 hour flight was over we got off and made our way to our bags after getting our passports verified. I then walked through the sliding glass doors to then be met by the assistants to the president and my trainer Elder Lloyd. They were pretty excited to meet me as I was excited to meet them as well. Elder Lloyd is from Sandy, Utah. As we were waiting in the airport my mission president, President Benton called to welcome me. He was really excited I made it and couldn't wait to meet later. We then went to the car and started to drive to the mission home. I am in a totally different country, I love it! Everything is different and everyone speaks spanish. We met with Pres. Benton at the mission home and I had my interview. The interview went really well he said he loved my resume and thinks I'll be just fine. He has a lot of energy and passion for missionary work. I can tell we will have a lot of success. We then had a little lunch which was really good. After stoping by the mission offices and signing a few papers we came to our apartment and I unpacked. We live with two other missionaries. The apartment is pretty nice for where we are located. I wouldn't consider our area upper class. Most streets are dirt. After I finished packing we picked up lunch from a members house, the people here are amazing. I hope I can start communicating with them soon, hah. We also stopped by another members house including the bishops but he wasn't there. On the way we contacted as many people as we could and set up a few appointments so we'll see how it goes. Hope everyone is doing great, look forward to hearing from you. Take care, Elder Brooks.