Give Me This Mountain!!!!!

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 !!!!!!!

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!!!

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!!!!

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

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!!!!

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.