Finally at the Square!

Wow. So much to cover in such little time!

I got here just under a week ago and I have learned so much already. The most important thing I learned is that even though we're at Temple Square, our purpose doesn't change as missionaries. We are here to help others come unto Christ, whether they be members, less actives, or non members. We all can still improve on coming unto Christ!

So my companion&trainer is Sister Gudiel. She is AWESOME! She is from Honduras and is a little firecracker. She has so much energy and so much love for this Gospel! I love how she always pushes me to be the best missionary I can be. She has taught me so much in this past week, and I am excited to be with her for at least 5 more weeks. We are currently serving in the Humanitarian center every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning/afternoon! It's seriously one of the best areas on our mission. We get to teach a lot of people who just come for the facts, but they definitely leave with our testimony of how this church follows the teachings of the Savior. We often share the story of the Pool of Bethesda. And how he first healed the man who was unable to do so himself, told him  "rise take up thy bed and walk." Because our 3 main purposes for Humanitarian services are to  1. Care for the poor and needy 2. Help foster self reliance 3. Encourage service to others. And the Savior is a PERFECT example of that! Especially in the story the Pool of Bethesda. In the HC (Humanitarian center) we also get fed free lunch! So mom, don't worry, I'm not starving. It's seriously so great! The food is so good and the portions are hugggge! In  between tours(lessons in disguise) we are able to go to the production room and help sew, put together school kits and food kits! I loveee serving in the HC!

But I also just love time on the Square, I love just talking to people and teaching them how the Gospel will effect their life. I often share experiences in my life where I have felt very distant from the Savior, and the difference between then and now. It's like night and day! Personal experiences are very important on a mission, because people think that missionaries are robots. And sometimes they are! But we as missionaries need to be personable, they need to know that we have problems too! And that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, everything can be made right.

It is so crazy here all the time! Even in the non-busy season. We are constantly teaching lessons, I love it! We do a lot of teaching over the phone with people we meet here at the Square and people from mormon.org chat. Right now, we have 76 investigators/progressing investigators/new members. Uhhh what?! My companion's native language is Spanish though so a lot of our phone lessons are in Spanish. I am picking it up a lot better than I thought I would! I'll share my testimony at the end in Spanish. Last night, we had the opportunity to teach an 18 year old guy with the local Elders. Here at the Square, we actually work with the surrounding mission's elders A LOT. They can set up appointments and teach with us here at Temple Square. It's so great here because, obviously, the Spirit is SO strong. And we have like a million resources. "Now lets talk about the Temple and eternal families... look to your right and see one of the Lord's Temples." Who else gets the opportunity to testify of the Gospel in the shadow of the Temple?! I feel so blessed.

Just this last Sunday we met a GOLDEN investigator! His name is Kennedy. How cool right? He was downstairs in the North Visitors center looking at the Book of Mormon exhibits. We were talking to him for about 2 minutes when he asked how to get baptized in our church. "Seriously?! Well just let me tell you..." Just kidding, I didn't really say that, but that's definitely what was going on in my mind! He also went to the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie after our 1st lesson. That movie makes me cry every time. This church is true. Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God! I encourage you all to see it if you haven't yet. 

Something that I have noticed this past week, is that miracles happen everyday. No doubt! Every single day miracles happen. We just are often looking for specific miracles, and ignore the other miracles. The way I like to think about it is that miracles are like flowers. Lets say baptism is a rose. But today I received a bundle of sunflowers, they are still beautiful! But their not roses. NO! Every flower is beautiful and should be treasured. I wouldn't throw away flowers just because they aren't roses. Always appreciate your miracles, even if they aren't the ones you're praying for. Something sister Gudiel and I do every night after planning is we write our miracles of the day on a piece of paper, and stick it up on our wall. At the end of our transfer together, we'll have a wall FULL of miracles! I'm so excited to be able to look back at all the miracles we have together.

Something really cool about our mission is that we have Explore day! We often have to tell people where things are in the surrounding blocks, so we get 1 (or 2 half days) of exploring! So a few of us went to some places around the Square. Like the Church History museum, Pioneer museum, and the Capitol! They were all so great, I loved it. I'm going to try to send home the pictures from the past week and a half if I can figure that out... haha

Our mission president lets us listen to church music as well as Disney music! So please, if you love me :), make me some CD's! Especially church music. That's what really helps me stay focused.

RIGO!! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU! I can't believe you are finally getting baptized this Saturday. You have definitely been in my prayers these past couple weeks. I am so happy for you and for having such great faith. You have to write me and tell me EVERYTHING! I miss my little Mexican brother.

I am in the Temple Square Sister Missionary choir! It's so fun. And we have a fireside for anyone in the area onNovember 12th! So Aunt Marty, Megan and Whiskers, I want to see you there! I'm going to be doing a salsa type dance too ;) it's going to be so fun.

Well my time is running down. So I'll share my simple testimony in Spanish now...

Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera. Yo se que Jesucristo vive, Y ama a cada uno de nosotros. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero Y que Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dios. Digo estas cosas en el Nombre de Jesucristo Amen. 

Te Quiero Mucho!!!

Love, Sister Brock