E-mail (Dated: 7/7/2014)

Holaaa!

First off- HAPPY FORTH OF JULY! Me and Hermana Young missed celebrating the fourth of July! Obviously they don't do anything here in Mexico for the 4th of July haha. But we made the best out of it and celebrated with pancakes (in honor of our annual family bike ride to IHOP).

Second off- I HIT 5 MONTHS IN THE MISSION!!! Can you believe it? Its blowing my mind!
So not gonna lie it was a harder week for us. Hermana Young got sick first and Monday it hit me. It was hard to be stuck in the house all day and not see our investigators. We don't know what hit us, but it was ugly. Finally on Thursday we were able to jump back into the work! I missed it!

So I wanted to share a experience we had this week. Her name is Perla and she is an investigator. We walked to her house and when we got there, a Testigo was there (jehovas witness).. Perla invited us in and we sat down at her table. Before we knew it, the old lady was bashing on us, the Book of Mormon and our religion. She said the Bible is the only word of God. The spirit immediately testified to me that everything she was saying was SO FALSE! We left very quickly after she started, but what was cool to me was that our investigator Perla started backing us up. I know the spirit was testifying to Perla that the Book of Mormon really is ANOTHER testimony of Jesus Christ. The testigo wouldn't let us get in a word when we tried, but we left her saying that we knew the Book of Mormon was true. This was such a testimony builder to me. I've never got so defensive about the Book of Mormon in my life! I know it is true with ALL my heart. I know without a doubt it is the word of God. We have both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to guide us! And I will NEVER deny the truth that book holds.

I love you all so much! Know im praying for all of you. If any of you ever need ANYTHING, Im here for you(:

LES AMO!
-Brookie Cookie your missionary

P.S. funny story of the week: So we have 2 dogs outside our house cause we live with a member. And they would not stop barking. So Hermana Young thought it would be smart to throw them cookies... Later that day she told me about it and she had thrown them Chocolate cookies! She had no idea dogs couldn't eat chocolate! And we didn't see one of the dogs for 2 days so we had thought she killed the dog! hahaha so funny.

P.S.x2 this pic is from us on the fourth of July and the second is my 5th month mark!
P.S.x3 Samuel from our ward (25) got his mission call!!! He is going to Monterey Mexico and leaves Sep. 2nd!!! Ahhhh SO excited! it was crazy to see that white envelope again haha!

E-mail (Dated: 6/30/2014)

Hey Amigos!

So me and Hermana Young are sick. It hit Hermana Young sat night. We had to stay in all yesterday :( It was so amazing though, Hermano Bueno and Osvaldo brought us over the sacrament and it about melted my heart! We also got out of giving talks haha (: I was fine yesterday, but it just hit me today. But its all good! This week was full of miracles. I wanna hurry and share one real quick.

Her name is Maria. She is 45 years old and we had our first lesson with her on Wednesday. Within the first 5 min of our lesson, she stops us and says, "I want to be baptized!" We hadnt even brought up baptism yet.. Me and Hermana Young were speechless. It through me off so much! I was stunned! Hermana Young said my face was priceless! The spirit was so so strong in the room! She wanted to be baptised this weekend, but we told her she had to finish her 5 times at church. She was bummed, but she cant wait for her day to come! At the end of the lesson she was like "What time can you both come back tomorrow!?" It was such a tender mercie for us. I am so grateful for these tender experiences that keep me going! 

Well fam, all is well besides the fact that were sick! Our area is doing very well! And we have some very special investiators! Our area is continually growing! I have seen the Lords hand in my life SO much this week. 

I love you all so so much! Sorry this is so short.Take care! MWAH! Les amo!

Ps this pic is of us yesterday haha your welcome.

Not Feeling Well Today!

Members that Brought Us the Sacrament

E-mail (Dated: 6/23/2014)

Hey hey hey!

The past two weeks have been great! I am loving my new companion!! Our area is continually growing- little by little! The ward members are so so cute to us! A member brought us over 6 boxes of cookies this week... but no worries we've been bringing them to lessons so we don't eat them all! We have some great investigators with so much potential! The past two weeks Bobby has been working on quiting coffee. He was able to have a Priesthood Blessing from a ward member! He stopped cold turkey and went a week without coffee! He has only had one little relapse! How incredible!!! He went from having coffee multiple times a day to nothing! Ah these people amaze me! 

Haha so funny story of the week- Adriana (new convert) had a refrence for us. So we went a day this week and it was a old man named Lorenzo. He is probably like 80 haha. And he cant hear anything.. and when he can, he cant understand me and Hermana Young because of our accents! So basically it was us talking, and then Adriana would say it again haha! But the funny part is that he had this fly swatter.. and there are so many flies right now cause of the weather. So he kept swatting himselft when a fly landed on him. And so many times he would smack himslef in the face! And finally we just couldnt take it anymore.. We all just started busting up laughing. And it was one of those moments when your not supposed to laugh so its makes it worse.. ahh heck it was so bad! And Adriana tried to cover it up by saying its better to laugh in situations then to be mad, that Heavenly Father gave us the gift to laugh.. I dont even know what she was trying to say! 

Me and Hermana Young have also had some other growing experiences. My testimony has grown so much. We had the opportunity to watch the Restuaration this week with our recent coverts (Adriana, Adriana, and Paola), a ward member (Samuel), and a investigator (Perla). The spirit was so strong the entire movie and it touched me so much.. to the point where I was in tears multiple times throughout the movie. My testimony was so strengthened on Joseph Smith. He was ridiculed, beaten, yelled at, tared and feathered, and murdered for this church.  He never denied what he knew. And I have thought a lot about that lately... sounds a lot like our Savior huh? Me and Hermana Young had quite an interesting contact the other week. We contacted a old couple. And all the sudden the old man started yelling at us. He called us evil, evil, people. As we walked away, I started crying. All we were doing was inviting him to come closer to Christ. We wanted him to have more happiness and joy in his life. And he called us evil, evil people? I was so hurt. But that night the Spirit whispered something to me. He told me that Heavenly Father allowed me and Hermana Young to feel just a tiny portion of how our Savior felt. And now I am grateful for that experience. I cant imagine how our Savior feels when his own brothers and sisters dont accept this wonderful gift that he has paid the price for. 

I love our Savior so much. I will never turn away from the wonderful gift he has given me. 

I love you all so so much! Thanks for all your prayers and support! 

Brookie Cookie (:

E-mail (Dated: 6/16/2014)

Hey YALL! (Hermana Young says it ALL the time hahaha (: )

What a growing experience this past week has been for me! It was such a big change to going from my training to showing Hermana Young our area! It was hard to be the only one who knew the area! I was a really worried at first, but I have found that as I put my trust in the Lord, I don't need to worry. If I trust my Savior and Heavenly Father, I don't have any reason to worry or stress! They know exactly what is best for me. And they have blessed me with just enough knowledge to show Hermana Young the area. I have found that I know more Spanish than I thought! Its amazing to see how Heavenly Father meets our needs. He always blesses us with what we need at the exact moment we need it. I have learned that the Lord has PERFECT timing for EVERYTHING. It continues to blow my mind!

I absolutely love Hermana Young! She has brought such a special spirit to our area and the ward already loves her! She fits in so perfectly here! Her testimony is so strong and I love learning from her! She has so much to offer.

Our area is continually growing! One of our ward members who was just re activated a couple months ago, finally submitted his mission papers this week! His name is Samuel, hes 25 and I could not be more excited for him! I have been SO grateful for my mission. It has changed my whole eternity. And it will never be something I regret.

We also had a really tender experience with one of our investigators Bobby. We were able to watch the Jospeh Smith video with him at a ward members house. The spirit was SO strong the entire movie...During the part where Joseph was tarred and feathered, Bobby said I can relate to that... and he explained to Hermana Young about the night he got beat up and mugged right after our first lesson with him. Ah he has such a special spirit and he has SO much faith. I cannot wait for his baptism here in about a month!!!

Familyyyy: I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!(: THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!! You have no idea how much they mean to me!! Thank you for everything! You guys are SO thoughtful! I LOVE YOU!

Oh and the rain is nuts! We love it!

Hope yall have a truckin good week (:

Love your Brookie Cookie (:

E-mail (Dated: 6/9/2014)

UWhat a fantastic week! Adriana was able to be baptized this week!!!!! It was such a HUGE miracle! She had her interview with President Kusch on thursday and he said she was ready to be baptized as soon as we could get a program ready! The timing was absolutely perfect! We hurried and put it together that night! It was so incredble to be able to have her baptism before changes. Aww It was so beautiful. The spirit was so powerful. Every person that got up cried! Her two daughters, Hermana Fernelius and I were able to sing "Cuando me bautice" (I like to look for rainbows) for Adriana. It was so tender for me because that was the song I sang at my baptism!! When we got up to sing, that memory hit me hard! It was so tender! And her daughter bore testimony afterwards! The whole experience was just beautiful! Ive never been to a baptism where the spirit was that strong.

SOoooo Changes!!!! I am staying in Chapultepec!!!! Fernelius left for Cualta! And my new companion is Hermana Young. She is 23 and is from Texas so she speaks English :) She is graduated with a degree in Psychology! Shes cute. Not gonna lie, changes are hard. I dont like change haha. But I know that this change came from our Father in Heaven. I am excited to learn from her! I have so much to learn! I am so grateful I get to work in this area a little longer. The people here have such a special place in my heart. 

Theres also a man named Leonardo (Gpa that gave me the Jose Jose cd) And he came up to us this week and pulled out his notebook. And on one of his pages were some letters and numbers.. me and Fern were super confused at first and after a little bit we put it together- He saw us get into a taxi one day and wrote down the number of the taxi in case anything happened. How stinking cute is that?!! Ahh it just about melted my heart! These people are incredible!

So we also learned how to Salsa dance last night.. And it was hilarious! I cant wait to show you guys the videos! Theyre so embarassing! And can you guys believe I officially hit my 4 month mark.. blows my mind.

Well I hope all is well! I love you all SO much! And miss you every day! Have a fantastic week! 

love your cookie (:

E-mail (Dated: 6/2/2014)

Hey hey hey! This week has been SO much better. Honestly, Hermana Fernelius has been doing a lot better! It was such a relief! I felt all of your prayers headed our way. It really was a miracle. I am so grateful!
So we had Paolas baptism on Saturday!!! We actually found out that at her sisters baptism last week (Adriana), Poala asked Heavenly Father if he wanted her to be baptized too when her sister was going into the water. And of course he told her YES!! Everything went beautifully! Me and Fernelius gave a lesson on baptism and then I said the closing prayer. The hard thing was that her mom was not able to be baptized this week. She has to be interviewed with President Kusch first. It was really hard for her to be happy for Paola. But we reassured her that Heavenly Father has a plan for her. And her own day would come!

This week we prayed and prayed and prayed to meet our zone goal of putting 15 people with fecha (baptism date), but we still didnt meet our goal. We did everything we could to meet it, and it still didnt happen. This was a very good learning experience for me. I learned that Heavenly Father had a different plan in mind. He put so many people in our path this week! Every corner we took, someone we knew or that was a potential investigator was waiting for us. We were able to have an incredible lesson with a man named Miguel. Miguel is 26 and even speaks English! He told us that he feels God has abandoned him. And that this could possibly be the last chance he gives God to show him that he is really is there. The spirit was so strong the entire lesson and completely guided me and Hermana Fernelius. It was incredible! By the end of the lesson, he told us that if he doesnt follow this path, it isnt on us, but it is from his own choice. I pray that everything will work out... kinda super stressful haha. But it is all good! I know that Heavenly Father will take care of him!

I am also so grateful for the beautiful gift of the Holy Ghost. I know without a doubt he guided us and kept us safe this week. There were some moments during the week where he pressed on me so hard and clearly. And I am so grateful I was able to listen to those promptings!

We also have a mission goal of reading the Book of Mormon in 72 days!! So its 10 pages a day (IN SPANISH)... We started yesterday! So if any of you want to do it with me I would be SO excited!! It takes me a long time to read in Spanish, but I know it will push me and help me so much! And when I say a long time I mean like an hour and a half for 10 pages... its hard haha!

So fun facts of the week:
1. We conctacted a Mariache Band this week!!!
2. We found out that when the Vocanoe looks like it has smoke coming from it, it IS smoke haha not clouds (:
3. Someone told me I looked like Britney Spears this week (: (: hahahahaha.

I love you all so so much! Have another spankin week (: mwah!

E-mail (Dated: 5/26/2014)

Hey hey hey mis amores!

We finally were able to have Adrianas (daughter) baptism!!(: It was incredible!! Everything went so beautiful! Ive never seen anyone so excited for their baptism! She was counting down the days and everything! The entire time she was just glowing and smiling! She had so much support from the ward! It was so so amazing!! Listen to this though- we were about to start the baptism, and all the sudden we see someone open the font a little bit and we saw Adriana and Brother Issac in the font! We were like uhhh whats going on hahah! It was actually hilarious! Luckily someone from the ward grabbed her and got her a new white jumper and then we were able to start! And Hermano Issac waited in the font the whole program hahaha! 

Yesterday in church she was confirmed, and I just pictured the entire room filled with angels that were rejoicing for her! Its so special! The entire experience was so beautiful for their family. The mom was crying the entire time! It went so beautifully that this next Saturday, Adriana (mom) and Paola (sister) want to be baptized!! They set it in stone and announced it in church (:

I also had a really amazing personal experience this week during contacting! Me and Fern split up and I went on the other side of the street to contact. I contacted a couple walking down the street, and without realizing it, I understood what they were saying.. I was also talking in Spanish without having to focus on each word! It just flowed out and afterward I was like NO WAY! The couple was Christian and didnt really want anything to do with the church, but they were friends with a ward member. They even commented how amazing my spanish was and how well I could understand! Even though they didnt want anything to do with church, I was so excited to finally feel the gift of tongues! The woman even gave me a "cheek kiss handshake" (not sure what its called) by the end of our conversation! I was so so grateful Heavenly Father allowed me to have that amazing experience! Earilier this week I had been feeling like my spanish wasnt progressing and just straight out stunk. So it was incredible to have help from Heavenly Father and for him to reasure me! It really is a gift though.. cause I wouldnt have been able to talk and understand them without his help! 

Its also finally starting to rain!! It downpours! Its so fun! And the nights are so much cooler so its easier to sleep! Such a blessing! 

Also another fun short story- We were eating comida at a members house and after we finished, her little girl Alizee came up to us and painted our nails haha! She is 3 and looks like shes 6. I was so impressed! She actually did a really good job! She even put orange polka dots haha (:

The people here are so cute! I love them!

Hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you! Te amo!

-your brookie cookie (: