E-mail (Dated: 8/4/2014)

Can you believe that I will see you all in one year from yesterday!!? And tomorrow is my official 6 months on the mission! How crazy is time?!

Well this has been a week full of ups and downs. One of our investigators Farriol (73 yrs old), decided he didn't want to be baptized and to stop taking our lessons. His baptism was for next weekend :( It was devastating. We found out he has an problem with cigarettes, and we had to push his baptismal date back. When we told him this, it was like a different person came out in him. I've never seen Satan get a hold of someone so fast. In one second the lesson was going great, and the next he was giving his pamphlets and the Book of Mormon back to us and then grabbed a cigarette to smoke in front of us. We were devastated. We had a less active member with us who is very good friends with Farriol, and we all just started crying. I don't know how to explain how it was... I felt so devastated that he was turning away from his Savior. It broke my heart.

But on the bright side, yesterday we had such an amazing experience! We had a first lesson with a woman named Anabel. And I can honestly say I've never been in a more powerful first lesson in my entire lesson. The spirit was SO strong! And it was so so incredible! Hermana Carmona shared a scripture about the Holy Ghost- in Galatians 5:22-23 (Talks about the fruits of the Spirit) And after I asked Anabel if she could feel any of those fruits right now. And she started crying and said ¨Yes! I can feel ALL of them!¨Ah it was so so incredible. I am so grateful for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Because without it, I would be useless here. I know it is ONLY through the Holy Ghost that these people can know and feel the truth of this beautiful message!

Our area is slowly growing. We are trying our best. Hermana Carmona is incredible and teaching me SO much! I feel so blessed to be her companion and to be able to learn from her! My Spanish is still really rough. I'm actually still really frustrated with it. But having a Latin companion is helping me so much!
I love you all so so much! Miss and pray for all of you everyday! Have such an incredible week!
Con mucho amor, Brookie Cookie

PS: I am not aloud to chat back and forth one I get on to talk to you guys :( I can send one email to each of you personally but after that I have to wait till the next week to reply again. Hard I know, but its from the Lord, so it must be for our good. Oh and I can't figure out how to send pics on this computer this week sorry! LOVE YOU!