My Last Week Was SPECIAL....

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....

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.....

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!!!!!

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.