Week 2.5 in Portugal

OKAY!

IM here! IM happy :) and I,m tired as karn :P

Its been a crazy cool week. Already everything is getting better! Wow i have so much respect for anyone who served a mission honestly and wow these guys are cool.

First off its pretty rough out here! The streets are narrow, people short, and sun... bright! haha but all is well is Zion!

I learn a lot each week. this week was i have so many blessings. ive always been blessed to have a drive for the things i do, to better myself and others around me! but to have this also i had a family who loves and supports me! here its a little different! The World of Portugal weighs on me! So it feels like :P I need to pow! baptize and confirm and POW! be the best missionary I can! But HOLY COW its crazy! Had a day wehre EVERY single appointment fell through... and when that happends.. knock doors and talk to peopl ein the street for a good 7-8 hours! hahah okay so yeah its dissapointing and frustrating and hard and ive talked about that but..
its amazing.


number one ive never cried more in my life. hahahah i know righ?? what is this?? but no really the hours of 7-11 of study are really amazing times to get closer to our savoir and learn more of his kingdom. :) So sometimes when I get hit really hard with a freight train of spirit i got a little teary at how amazing and wonderful this gosple is. and you NEED IT. when you hit the pavement at 11:30 the people will tear everything you love away from you in a few curt words. or try too :P but they can,t take away those moments where you have come closer to your and our savoir. They cannot. 



DOnt worry about me! I just realised all i do is complain here! hahahah I LOVE MY MISSION XD So rememeber that! If you gave me a plane ticket home I would laugh at you! 
If it wasnt hard and our work was easy then I would not be having a good time! Challenge Accepted ;)

I pull a ton of streigthn out of books written by our prophets and church histories. Ive never known what a blessing they are!

So Experiance time:
Manuel.
45, we stoped him in the street and gave a 3 min lesson on baptism and repentance and asked him to be baptised after praying to know that these things are true. to which he responded yes too. This sunday after several attaempts to contact him we got to have a lesson and he came to church.

I will never forget looking down a dirt road to see him. Crutch in one hand, Book of Mormon in the other. The bisggest smile on his face as he struggled so hard to make it up the hill to attend church. Its litterally imprnted on my mind. 

You never know with people.. what they are capable of. try everything for everyone is what im learning. never give up. when the people who are most strong investigators fall out.. reach inside for moments of joy and press on! 

I need someone to write dallan vale bales and thank him for singing the best church music in the world. thanks to good music i can sleep with the spirit literally resting on my chest :)

My area is Africa! Everyone will atlk to you but your word is worth nothing :P Commitments don,t excist so its just happenstance that you get a 2nd lesson :P :) hahah but everyone is so open here. We take 10 mins of someones day that i know in Vegas would rather chew dirt then talk to us hahaha but Its so great to see.





My Companion. Really Really good missionary! He is litearally the tesxtbook contactor. He can get anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Ive knocked on a door for 10 mins because he said too and the people finally let us in the teach... :PPP hahah not something i would do but.. not it is! hahah

okay, letters here are expensive to send but im going to mail one this week (today or tomorrow) so look for it sometime in 1/2 weeks! My mailing adress is only good for 1 1/2 weeks now until we know about xfers! 

hmmmm what more...
during the week I think of stuff but i forget here.

OH! Time.
Its literally slow when our brains are being used less. so when you work and and fast. it CRUISES!
I love teaching lessons. I cant understand and say everything but its great the spirit and fun to help people pray and come to know God not just believe in him :)

I get better at portugesse a little each day and its fun to use more words. at times i dont talk much because my brain is dead but its getting better!

okay love you all!!

Elder Brooksby!

PS. Monday is P-day and im 7 hours ahead of you there :)
PPS Lov eyou all really do :)

Elder Tyson's First Week in Portugal

Welll.. Im here!

First off I am safe and sound. No deaths on the way over which is very very good :P
2nd is the keyboards here are jack haha so my emails maybe a little weird. forgiv me.

it costs 1 euro to use a computer for an hour so it takes me about 30 mins to read all the emails then respond.

okay so ill sum up this week: HARD!
Hahahahaha oh man i had no clue... its about 103 deg here and we are in the streets 24/7 stopping people and a sking them to be baptized.! Like wow! Not even teaching them more then 5 mins... Not ssure why we do it but man its pretty fun hahaha people say yes all the tie and we plan a day to go back and visit. most time they laugh at us when we go to visit them but haha tudobem.

entao. wow I know like 0 portugese during a visit with an investigator (will explain ab out him later) he spoke for a good 10 mins and I literally got maybe... 8 words. wow. portugese is spoken so fast here people dont use the full word or anything just shhhjflaskdjfhsshshhhhskasjdlfkshshhhhshhºsçljfaçslkshhshs hahahahah entao its very difficult to understand them! 

The allergies here are DESTROYING me hahaha I was down and out this sunday after church. Wow was I sick. I know what its about though so I work though it. I got sick on saturday morning and barely got up because i had a fever but I prayed like crazy to be able to work and all of the sudden it was 10:30 at night and i was climing back into bed!!!

This week I read "our heritage" which probably changed my life faster then any book ive read minus the BOM. Holy cow man its such a goo dbook. Sunday morning i was Dwon and out. Fever and my nose runs 24/7 but in the book i read about the missionaries that left their wifes and children to preach(cant spell in english) the word of Deus so why canºt I get over a fever? so I did. Went to ward council cold sweat like crazy and by the end of the meeting (which i understand 1/4 of hahaha) I was speaking all the portuguses that came into my mouth and commenting on everything and what we need.

WOW The church is true everywhere you go! I spend thrusda, friday and saturday working and wow it was really hard. I was like.. really struggling becuase so much was stacked against me and then some. 
But I walked into church and everything changed. Instad of the spoking cusssin people in the rua (street) there were families, friends, loved ones. Bishop here speaks funny english ahah so he always tells me I have good portugse and hugs me. After church I knew why I am here on a mission. To bring people to this happiness!Eyheyiya! God really does have it all worked out!

Gordon B. Hinkley said that our times of hardship and doubt are almost always the times God has given us to grow. Amen to that prophet. 

I have so much to learn here and I have so much to do. I need to get better and speaking the langugage and more accostomed to the weather. we walk more then 20 miles a dayhaha!

Haley: GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!! I loved the MTC and still love it! Just remember, there is a real world were people will throw a card you give them about Jesus in your face and walk away. :P 

Our ward has about 60 memebers and I canºt wait to help them grow! Its our goal :)

I had the opportunity to have a really powerful experiance this week.
We had a call saying a man needed a blessing. So we got up and ran to his house. This guy is so humble. So prepared by God. After sharing a little movie about Christ and Families I started to tear up. I can´t wait for these blessings in my life and I will do ANYTHING to help others also realize and recoginse this desire of families forever.
His wife is pregnate and he has cancer he is 28 and a really cool guy. I felt so much for him and I have so much faith that he will recover after his sergery. Thier son (8ish) is pretty chill I talked with him a little and he helps with my portugese.

I can see thier lives already changing. Thier home is becoming a house of families and love.
after the blessing he started coughing like crazy and we were all worried but then he was like..... "i feel... peace.."
his wife had tears in her eyes as we bore testimony of the power of ... everything.

as we left he said something along the lines of "thank you, thank your church... then he paused and said voces igreja é nossos igreja( your church is our church)" and we hugged him and said goodbye.

The Church is so amazing. The Word true is not good enough.

But Rememebr. It took 30 hours of dying in heat for us to have a good lesson. Haley you are going to work hard to get those times. but when you do... they wash away all your doubts and fears.

I love you all so much and love hearing about your weeks! Im sorry I cant write individiual emails back. Ill try to get small ones out at least :) 

Pray for me. Please pray for me. I am being tested to my limits right now and I can use all the prayers I can get :)

Missionaries are amazing epople. I donºt consider myself a full one jsut yet :P

Love you all
Elder Brooksby

Elder Tyson LEAVES!

So I have to apologize for taking so long to get another post done.  I have been working on getting Haley ready for her mission.  I have to say, girls are much more complicated to prepare.
Boys : 2 suits and a few ties.  Easy
Girls:  8 outfits with accessories and forget about the other girly stuff!

So that is my excuse.  Sorry.  But Haley is 49 hours from entering the MTC!

Meanwhile, Tyson left the MTC on Tuesday the 19th.  I was so excited to talk to him and find out how the last few days in the MTC were.  Then I got a letter and he said that his travel plans had changed and he would probably not be able to call.  Bummer.

I did wait patiently for a miracle on tuesday and at 1:30pm when I still hadn't gotten a call I left the house with Haley to get some things on her list and then we planned to go to the Temple.

While we were in Walmart I got a call with no one on the other line so I hung up and went on.  I was disappointed but wanted to stay happy for Haley.  We dropped by the office and I changed cars the Craig and then we were off to the Draper Temple!

We got to the temple and were just shutting off our phones when mine started to ring.

IT WAS MY SON TYSON!  I was so surprised and happy!  He was just getting ready to board the plane and some kind Angel lady had let him use her phone!  He had tried to call earlier but had a bad connection.  He called his Dad but couldn't get him to answer the phone so he left a message.  I got to talk to him for only a few minutes.  He told me that all the traveling had paid off and he was able to maneuver the 14 Elders through the maze of stuff to do at the airport!  Thanks goodness!

He told me that he loves me and that was enough for me...

While I was in the Temple an overwhelming spirit came over me.  What a blessing to have a son working so hard to share this amazing gospel to the people of Portugal!  Maybe someone that is touched through his hard work and the Holy Ghost may be sitting in the Temple feeling these blessing wash over them someday!

A sacrifice to have him so far away, but such a joy too!
Thank you Tyson...

Armies...Then and NOW!

During our district meeting this week on sunday, someone gives a lesson, I totally forgot to assign a lesson I've been so busy with trying to keep my band together! so I had to give the lesson. An hour before the meeting I prayed so hard, to know what it was that I needed to say, what the district needed to hear and what I needed to learn to become who they needed me to be. earlier in the week I fasted for this same thing (fasting is a tool that should be used much more then it is now... its amazing). Tudo Bem. Anyways as I was praying I got hit by a train of the spirit. I was on my desk and all the sudden I jumped up! I knew what I had to do. Grabbing Elder Diaz (my Companion) and running to the dorm I retrieved the Title of Liberty Flag. One of my favorite Scriptures and the one I read at the age of 12 and committed to serve a mission myself due to this scripture. Running back to the class Elder Diaz and I then made a brief outline.

 

Long story short. The lesson about our Saviors love and his example of loving others came to the point when I felt impressed to talk about another group of young men who are the best example of this Turning to Alma 53:

 

"17 And they entered into a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, yea, to protect the land unto the ^alaying down of their lives; yea, even they covenanted that they never would give up their ^bliberty, but they would fight in all cases to protect the Nephites and themselves from bondage.

18 Now behold, there were two thousand of those young men, who entered into this covenant and took their weapons of war to defend their country.

19 And now behold, as they never had hitherto been a disadvantage to the Nephites, they became now at this period of time also a great support; for they took their weapons of war, and they would that Helaman should be their leader.

20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for ^acourage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

21 Yea, they were men of truth and ^asoberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to ^bwalkuprightly before him."

I realised that these scriptures discribed the Elders sitting in front of me! It hit me again with that same train of the spirit. After testifying that I knew we are the Army of the Lord I pulled out the title of Libery Flag and The spirit was like BAM! Everyone in the room littlerally gasped. I was on the verge of balling my eyes out and all the sudden we just started singing Armies of Helaman.

 

I'm happy to say that after everyone signed the flag we went to the temple together after offering a prayer for us to be united in our Saviors love and in our mission here for him. At the temple we took a picture of the District (you have it now) and I am in the middle of my little army! EU SOU MUITO AMOR POR ISSO!!! You can't take the MTC away from my heart and I will return again someday.

 

I want everyone to know that I love them and not only is my little district part of Gods army but each of the the Boys and Girls in our Family.

Looking Back- Striving Forward

So today walking out of the temple (we did sealing with out branch prez SO AWESOME) 


there were these two young boys in suits and hair combed over (i would guess 11).

It was the most amazing thing... I saw the look in their eyes and I walked out of the temple doors. Watched them look at me and mouth the words "oh! look! A missionary!" then they bowed their heads and moved to the side of us as we walked up past them.

 

I had the most amazing feeling as I was prompted to turn to these young boys and offer them my hand, Introducing myself as a Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. The looks in their eyes reminded me in an INSTANT of the times that I myself had shaken the hands of the missionaries and a Young boy and I felt the spirit hit so strong. I asked them if they were serving missions and they both were so shocked they just shook their heads yes. I smiled and laughed and took of my name tag and placed it on the boy closer to me. Laughed again. and Said "I think that looks pretty good, how about you?" The boys shook their heads and we all laughed. shaking their hands once again we watched them walk away as we returned to the MTC.

 

I want you all to know that I know that this Gospel is one of Family. In the proclamation to the world (a great missionary tool) It states that families when founded upon the gospel of Jesus Christ, are un-breakable. I know this too be true and had the opportunity to share this with an investigator this week. The spirit resides in these words whether in Portuguese or English.

 

I love you all so much and am about to go do some laundry and write you some Individual letters :) I wish I had color paper :P ;)

 

 

Love you all sooooo much!!

Elder Brooksby

PS Love the Pics :)