5/26/09 Email to Papa

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

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

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

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

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.