E-mail (Dated: 6/8/2015)

Hola Hola Hola!

This week in Alpuyeca was great!  We have found an amazing couple! There names are Karen and Jaime and they have a little boy named Mateo who is about a year old. We have been teaching Karen for the past two weeks, but Saturday night, we finally had the chance to meet her husband! We brought another couple with us- La familia Sicardo. And it was like all the puzzle pieces we had all just fit together. The members bore their testimonies and shared their conversion stories that happened about 8 years ago. As the hermano Sicardo cried to us, sharing his testimony, the room was filled with the spirit and brought us all so much joy. The hermano Sicardo invited them to come to church yesterday and they said yes! And the best part... Karen and Jaime ended up taking me and my compion to church!!! (And this is a big deal! Cuase just to get to our church we have to travel an hour... So its a challenge to get people to travel that far) But the whole ward was so welcoming and they fit in amazingly. And my favorite part of church that actually brought me to tears was when a young mom bore her testimony in sacrament testifying that families are eternal. And Jaimes face brightened and he turned to his wife and said "Its true!". Ah so so tender. They held hands during church the whole time and I just cant wait to teach them about eternal famlies!!

We also had 2 other investigators in church- Kenia and her sister! Kenia is progressing beautifully! But if you can keep all of these investigators in your prayers we would be so grateful!

I am so grateful for these tender moments. I am SO grateful that Heavenly Father has let me be apart of so many wonderful experiences. I love this time my Heavenly Father has given me to serve him.
I love you all! Les amo! Have a great week!

Con muchooo amor,
Hermana Chynoweth
Scrip of the week:
2 Nefi 27:23 "For behold, I am God, and I am a God of miracles."

PS The first pic is from today- I met up with Hnas Neuberger and Skinner here in Cuernavaca! And the second is from today also with my companion Hna Canales! If you look closely im pretty sure the man in the back of the bus is picking is nose haha...

E-mail (Dated: 5/25/2015)

Hola hola hola!

Its been another great week. I'm liking my new area! The ward is great, we have some awesome investigators, and my comp is a doll! Its super hot here though! The sun is a lot stronger here for some reason! Me and my comp got fried on Saturday. Oh and its funny, Alpuyeca reminds me of Mani in a strange way haha. Ill attach a pic (:

So this week not too much has happened, we had a big conference again and I had to say goodbye to my mission President and his wife. :( They end here next month. So that was crazy! Our next mission President is from Mexico! Ill only have one transfer with him though. And do you guys remember my "mission mom" ( my trainer) Hna Fernelius? Shes in my Zone! She is ended her mission this change too though. 

So anyway back to the area- not gonna lie, I don't think I've ever been rejected so rudely in an area. I have been a little surprised, but nothing a missionary cant handle (: Just helping me grow. Im always up for a challenge haha. Its been crazy. but we have found some amazing new investigators and we are really excited to work with them. Sofia is doing great and progressing. We finally met her sister too and she also has a baptismal date. They have been so receptive to the lessons, we just have to get their mom on board. 

Quote of the week:

"I am sure that if you or I held in our hands the original scrolls that Moses wrote upon or the very metal plates that Mormon had inscribed, we would fell a deep sense of reverence and awe and would treat those objects with great care. And so we should, because they are sacred objects, made so in part by the labor and sacrifice of the holy prophets who so painstakingly prepared them. 

But the greatest value of such scrolls or plates is not the objects themselves, but in the words they contain. They are sacred because they are the words of God." -D. Todd Christofferson

This week we talked a lot about the importance of the scriptures. I never took into account that it was probably so hard for the prophets to write upon the plates and not to mention how hard it must have been to carry them around everywhere. I am so grateful that these men that were called of God sacrificed so much so that today we could have the scriptures to search, receive comfort and draw us closer to our Heavenly Father. 

I love you all! Have a great week! Mwah!

Con muchooo amor, 

Hermana Chynoweth aka Brookie Cookie

E-mail (Dated: 5/11/2015)

Hey fam!!

Ahh it was so so amazing to talk to you guys yesterday!! I miss you all so much! Crazy that the next time i see you will be in the Airport!? AH!

So big changes.. I have been changed from my sweet Palmas. I am now in an area called Porvenir. Its actually the neighboring area to my first area! Its really exciting to be so close to it! Hopefully ill fun into some people (: My new companion is Hermana Via! She is from Boliva!! She is so sweet. She only has one transfer left in the mission so it looks like i will probably be killing her off...
I'm excited to work with her though. But changes are always hard for me.. I hate change haha. So just through in an extra prayer or two for me (: I think it about killed me and Jose to find out I was leaving...

I'm excited to get to work and see how I can help the Lords work here in Porvenir.
I know many opportunities and growing experiences are ahead!
I love all of you so much! Thanks for all your support and love! Ill let you know how Porvenir is next week!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Chynoweth aka Brookie Cookiee
Pics: My new comp and My favorite pic in the world- Look how cute Jose is haha!

E-mail (Dated: 5/4/2015)

Hey hey hey!

Awesome surprise!! Guess who is now in a trio with her MTC companion!? THIS COOKIE!! Hermana Neuberger had special changes and now shes part of our companionship! Its such a good time! I love that girl! Its been so fun to see how far we have each come. And she has fit so so well in our area here in Palmas. She has such a sweet spirit and the people already love her. But I doubt our trio will last for long... changes are next monday and i think im out of here... i have almost 8 months here in Palmas! Ill let ya know what happens though (:

Our area is going great. I feel like we are really on a roll and Heavenly Father is blessing us so much. Our investigators are so so special and are fitting great into the ward. We have also been recieving so many references in this past week! Which is amazing cause its been so hard to recieve them in the past. So we are excited to contact all of them.

One hard thing we had this week was that our recent convert Maria Elena ran into Hermana Skinner while we were doing divisions. We havent been able to find her in a couple weeks (Weve passed by her house and called her family so many times). And she told Hermana Skinner that she didnt want to see us anymore. :( She said she wants to be alone and she moved to Xochitepec. So we dont know where she lives exactly to help her new ward help her and visit her. But i know that she is in the hands of God and he will take care of her. Im still going to be calling her family and passing by to get her new address from her family.

So if you guys could pray extra hard for her it would be very appreciated! Also please keep Jose in your prayers. Hes a champ but still is fightin.

But other than that everything is great!! I actually wanted to share a quote and thought with you guys from President Hinckley that i read this morning...

"Cultivate a testimony of the restoration of the gospel. You have to nourish, you have to feed your testimony by reading the scriptures, praying, and by being active and faithful in the church, by doing his will. If  you dont have a testimony, go to work to get one. The Lord told us how to do it. He said "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the Doctrine."

Ive had a lot of situations lately where ive noticed how important it is to have a FIRM testimony. We have to do all that we can to strengthen our testimonies every day. If not we can fall so so easily. We really are protected from the world if our testimonies are strong.

I love you all! Have such a great week! Cant wait to talk to you on SUNDAY!!! (:
Con todo el amor del mundo,
Hermana Chynoweth aka brookie cookie

Ps here are some fun pics for ya. FYI me and Hermana Neuberger literally did not plan to match either time haha. So funny!

E-mail (Dated: 4/27/2015)

Hey Fam!

Not much has happened this past week, I ended up getting sick. So it took me out for a couple days. :/ But me and Hermana Skinner are so ready to hop back into things! We have lots of appointments to go teach new people so were excited for that!

Annie is doing great! She has so so many questions! She is so excited to learn and just soaks it all in! She is actually really amazing because her family are all Catholics, and they are giving her a hard time about meeting with us. But she just tells them its what she wants to do and its making her happy! She is a great example of standing up for what is right.

Jose is also doing great! He got the Priesthood yesterday!! He couldn't stop smiling. He loves this church and this gospel so much and cant stop thanking Heavenly Father for sending it to him. Haha one of the Elders told me I'm like his mom cause I just get so excited for him-like i cant wait for him to pass the sacrament. And he told me too that I'm like his spiritual mom. (: We love him so much!

Also cool miracle of the week: Jose had absolutely no money this week. And so he wouldn't have money to get back from church. But he knew that God would help him. And Saturday night, he was sitting down and found 6 pesos in the dirt. Exactly what he needed to get back home the next day (:

Well i love you all! Hope your week is great!!

LES AMO!!
Con muchoo amor,
Brookie Cookie, aka Hermana Chynoweth
oh and PS: Were back to four people in our house again... the other has had a problem in their house so they had to move in with us!

E-mail (Dated: 4/20/15)

Hey fam... BIG NEWS!!!!

My favorite little old man walked into the waters of Baptism on Friday night!!!! Ahhh I wish i could express how happy I am for him!! The service was BEAUTIFUL. He had sooo many ward members there supporting him. And guess who baptized him... My mission President- PRESIDENT KUSCH! We had interviews last wednesday and I asked him and he said yes... (: This is a big deal... like this never happens! Jose loves him though. He had the opportunity to listen to him talk in a stake conference (cause Im in Presidents ward) and after he was just like wow... that man is amazing. So when I told Jose, his head fell into his hands and he almost started crying.

We actually didnt find out that Jose was going to be baptized this week until the night before. He wanted to wait until next weekend because he wanted to have an interview with our Bishop before. And miracously we ran into the bishops wife wednesday to move his interview to Thursday instead of Friday night. And afterwards, I got a call saying he wanted to go through with the baptism the next day!! So me and Hna Skinner hurried and put the whole program together in one night! And i was shocked how amazing it went. The spirit was so so strong. And he even gave his testimony at the end was just the cherry on top. He expressed his love and appreciation for everyone. He said "I dont have any family. But here, I have you all. You are all now my family." There was not one dry eye in the room. I dont think ive ever cried so hard since i left on my misison.. I was just so happy for him and tears wouldnt stop... Haha he even gave me a hard time about it but he told me the next day that he knew they were tears from my heart.

As i went home that night, I was in awe about how Heavenly Father let me be apart of that incredible moment. I cant believe Heavenly Father let me walk by Jose step by step and see his conversion... I feel really spoiled! That little man will be my friend for the eternities.
Seriously the best moment in my whole misison. Aww soo soo happy (: And ive never seen a little old man smile so so big. (:

Oh and uhhh soo i finally got my first "called up on the spot" talk in church... Lets just say that Heavenly Father guided me SO much.. It was cool thought cause I never thought i would be able to do anything like that! And somehow I gave a 10 minute talk in spanish!!

Oh and Annie is doing amazing!! She came to church along with 5 others on Sunday and it was just the best (:

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!
LES AMO!!

Con muchooo amor,
Brookie Cookie, aka Hermana Chynoweth

PS Here are some pics from the baptism! My comp snuck the second one while i was talking to Jose after the baptismal service.

E-mail (Dated: 4/13/2015)

Hola Hola Hola! First things first.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAIGENNN (on Friday)!!!! Love you so so much!! Hope your birthday is amazingggg!!! So this week was Amazing! Me and Hermana Skinner have seen sooo many tender mercies and blessings! This week I think its fair to say neither of us have worked so hard in our entire missions. We both just passed out on the floor each time we walked through the door each night! At the end of this week, we ended up finding 15 new investigators and 8 of them accepted a baptismal date! It was so so exciting!! But i want to tell you guys about my favorite miracle this week. We were just heading back to our house one night, when someone behind us said "Excuse me, are you guys Mormons?" We told her yes and she smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen and said "I've been looking for you guys!" As we got to know her she told us that the past two Sundays she had attended our church. She has so so many questions that she wants us to answer like how she can know which church is true! She has a guy friend that invited her to church and she kept going even without him!! We returned the next day and she was SO excited. She had been practicing how to pray and is just the cutest thing ever. Oh her name is Annie and shes like 22 by the way (: Biggest miracle. We love her! Another huge miracle we had was that Jose (Our little old man) let us into his house for the first time. And he let us clean his house!! We have been trying to help him ever since we first met him. It was actually really hard to see what he was living in though. He had old food in his sink, dirt, and ants everywhere. I remember being a little worried to open up the fridge cause i thought i was going to find rotten food, but when i opened it up, there was nothing but a bottle of ketchup. I couldn't believe it. Ah it broke my heart. Some of these people live in such sad circumstances. We really are so blessed back home. Never ever doubt that. But anyway after hours of cleaning, we got it all sparkling clean and we even had brought lots of pictures of Christ to put up in his house after (: The difference of the spirit was CRAZY! It was so special for me to be able to serve him. Well i love you all so so much! Have a great week!! MWAH!! LES AMO!! Con muchooo amor, Brookie Cookie, aka Hermana Chynoweth