Pray For Them

Well Shoot!

Our two shining starts for this weekends baptismal service were held back! :( 

Satan got to working hard against us when he saw how excited and happy we were for these two of our sisters to be entering into a sacred promise with God to take upon them the name of His Son Jesus Christ.

xxxxx is going to Lisbon this week and we hope and pray she can return and we may continue to teach her about all the Lord has ready for her as she is ready to accept His Blessings :)

xxxxx was out of town for the whole week! :( We haven't been able to speak to her yet for two weeks now, but we know God has everything in His Power and she will be able to feel that as we do our best to get appointments with her and teach her of His Love:)

xxxxxx is just doing so well! This week was full of progress and spiritual growth for us all as we shared time each day discussing faith, repentance and forgiveness. I know that she will be such a strong leader here in this ward as she is able to move her work schedule and come to church! She is super excited to be able to come we just need to pray that her boss will have a soft heart and all will go well :) Shes been having some really powerful experiences with The Book of Mormon! We get a text about every night with a scripture she found and loves! From The Book of Mormon Or D&C!! (She LOVES D&C!)

I pray each night for every one of these children of our loving Heavenly Father, I hope they may feel the Atoning sacrifice of our Brother and Savior Jesus Christ. Sealing them His.. and Ours! :)

I have had some really big hits to the chest this week, growing a lot more then I thought possible and seeing Gods hand just keep me up as I walk.. Its pretty amazing. I literally feel and know He is with me as I open my mouth to share :)

People are hardened and rude, but its not because they don't like us or because they don't want to know Jesus Christ better... They are just afraid.. we need to be their friends and make them feel not so afraid! The Missionaries are here to teach and share how it all works out.

Reading Preach my Gospel Chapter 5 about The Book Of Mormon, There are many questions out there that people need the answer too! If you are kind enough to reach out and show your love with a simple question "Everything ok?" or "how are you doing lately?" be sensitive to the spirit and you will find something they need from you that you have :)

As missionaries only few will feel comfortable with us and to answer a question like that is very rough for them. Lets be their friends and serve first ok? :)

Well Elder Shumway and I are making Big plans for Beja, We see the potential it has to become a great ward! Youth and Young people! I am always nervous trying to teach young people, they're so lost and need our help!!

Be Examples! If you cant be an example BE QUIET! Hehe Be Smart, Be Smiling, Be Loving, Be Caring, Be Thoughtful! Be super chill ;)

Im really happy to be a missionary here in Portugal, Its no where near easy! but worth it :)

Love you all!

Elder Brooksby

Dog is on Fire?

I'm really happy :) I got done reading some really cool stuff that's happening in the mission. Our President is a really inspired man :)

Well we had a zone conference in Faro, Portugal. Its about 3 hours from where I am serving and we are going to be returning there today for interviews with the President. Im pretty happy with how the area is going out here, although all our numbers are lower then the zone we´ve been able to find some people really incredible..

Including one that was marked for baptism yesterday :) Remember xxxxx?

Well we´ve been trying to involve our members in everything we do, because if you baptise 100 people but they don't feel welcome in church by the people... they´ll leave. So we have been always bringing members and switching the members we use so when they come to church they feel at home :)

The funny thing is...

The Members are marking the baptisms of our investigators before we know they wanna be baptised.... ;P

I don't know how but the last two baptisms have been our investigators calling a member and saying... So... I got an answer to my prayers and I want you to baptise me. And we are like suffering on our knees praying for a miracle while our members are laughing about plans for the service and who will baptise who... Its crazy :D In a good way. Haha.

Elder Shumway is doing excellent. Yeah it gets a little hard a few days when we've already talked with everyone who ISN'T ready and no one who IS. You just want to give up and go to eat a cake somewhere.... But YOU DON'T! :P You got talk to 3 more people and get rejected 3 more times! THEN you go eat a cake!

That's how we do it here! We make up excuses for why people didn't want to talk to us..

Elder Brooksby: She looked like she was in a hurry maybe..

Elder Shumway: She got a call and her dog is on fire at home.

Elder Brooksby: Yeah! That's probably what it was.

Elder Shumway: Yeah. I'm pretty sure it was...

Hahahahaha

Then we keep rolling.

So were getting some good stuff going. Its not always hard.

I saw one of the saddest things I think Ive seen to this day. I can only say that It was the work of Lucifer. The Enemy Of All Righteousness.

One of our investigator families split up. They have 3 Children 17, 10, 4. The Mother and Father are not married so they couldn't get baptised. Then this weekend at an activity the kids all showed up looking like skeletons. xxxx (10 year old) just said... "My parents are separating..." the older girl didn't say anything and they just walked in a started playing with us.

I was overwhelmed with the feeling that My Loving Heavenly Father was crying in the moment that tears sprung to my eyes. I know that Marriage is ordained of God and that a Family can only be happy when founded upon the principles of righteousness. As The Savior commanded "Pray Always". Please remain firm in your prayers for Our Mother and Father to always be guided by The Lord and His Spirit. I know that its the only way Ive gotten as far in this life as I have until now.

I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit and for My Lord and Savior. For My Heavenly Father who when I am worthy communicates His thoughts and desires through me. 

This week one of our investigators got a call from his father as we were there. he talked for a few mins and then hung up and said sorry. I saw the happiness that came from a short conversation with a father who loves and cares. How much more is it when we talk to the Father of our Souls? We must never forgot this :)
I can´t.

So this week will be good I hope :)

Oh A new change for All missions, We are allowed to email all friends family and everything! The First Presidency JUST changed the rule (two days after I sent the email saying I couldn't.. haha trail of faith.) So we can talk to Trevar and all the other missionary friends we have and I had a really strong spirit telling me that we need to encourage our friends at home to remain faithfully and prepare to serve Him.

Well I wrote a ton today! Ill send pics someday :)

Love You All

Elder Brooksby

Elder Brooksby-Training first Greene from MTC!

Its been pretty good week! :)

Well, what can I say?

We gad a division with the Zone leaders this week, they helped us work on the things we can better so that our investigators, will progress better.

It was pretty interesting how the Lord gave us the day away from each other so that My comp could see the difference in the way that I work and the way other missionaries work. At the end of the division a stronger connection was there between us :) Its good to be able too see what you like in others! :)

After finding a bunch of new people this last week, a few of them made it through the hurdle of the first contact to an actual lesson. Speaking of which! We have some new friends here that I wanna tell you all about!

1. xxxxx: Really cool guy from Africa who is smart and has like.... 0 teeth.

2. xxxxx: A 26 year old who on our first contact asked all about the church and had questions like crazy! We had the opportunity to meet with her last night and with our branch president and his wife, it was a really good time and she basically asked for a book of Mormon before we had even started talking about it! :) It was really cool to see the Lord was preparing people for us to teach as we do our best and work hard!

Some really good new training for us as well... Its stuff I wish I had been doing and understanding since day 1! But I know God reveals everything in His own due time. Patience and Humility are two things I'm going to be working on.

I wish someone had come up to me in the street and said this to me in the first day:

"Elder Brooksby, If you are humble you will have the spirit." 

I'm sure someone did though.,... but I was just plugging my ears and running around in a circle screaming nonsense.».«

Ive got a WHOLE lot more too learn... Wow. Sometimes it´s scary to think Ive got this far and Im still a babbling fool at times :D

Lots of yelling at us this week, even the first time Elder Shumway used the phone an older woman yelled at him, then gave the phone to her husban and he yelled at him. The funny part... He didnt understand a word :P

Pray for us, I know someone is because in the moments that are about to be difficult I get this força to keep going.

"When we have faith in Christ, we accept and apply His Atonement and His teachings. We trust Him and what He says. We know that He has the power to keep His promises."

Preach My Gospel.

Love you all! Elder Brooksby