Bear, Goat, Venison, Fish and Salad!

Hey hey hey!
Well actually, contrary to popular belief, salad has become one of my favorite parts to every meal. I actually find myself eating salad for lunch some days. And with all the dang candy, cookies, toffee and fudge we have in the apartment, I've resorted to munching on peeled carrots... which I have learned to love as well! (maybe my eyesight will improve! ;) ) Well, I do that so I don't find myself in the same predicament I found myself in Virginia, not fitting into my clothes. I just was able to fit into my old jeans today! Still don't fit like they used to, but oh well, LA fitness will wait for me!

Haha cold there huh? I'm willing to bet the temperature in our apartment is how cold it is in Arizona!!! Our apartment is anywhere from 55-65 degrees, depending on the time of day. It's cold! I sleep with a shirt and pants and under 2 sheets and 2 blankets! Brrr!  Well, it has been about 10 below at the coldest this week. That's... cold. My bike needs to get oiled up a little, because I find myself having problems with some of the internal mechanisms freezing, not cool.
So, today is a special day, Elder Peterson and I are going to go ice fishing! We're going with Andy Singleton, I'm sure I've told you about him before. He's a less active, the same Andy whose girlfriend is Brandy. So yeah, we're going to drill a hole in the ice, and fish out on a lake! I think it sounds pretty fun, and he has an ice house, so we won't be freezing our toucas off all day. Mmm boy, he makes some great fish too! I'm not a huge fan of fish, but he made some salmon and like put some sort of brown sugar glaze on it, and Elder Wardle and I ate the whole thing in a night. He is a great cook. Makes us venison stew all the time, and it's excellent! Hmmm, we did just have bear jerky last night! So now I've had bear meat and goat meat... weird.

Ahhh, so you got a Wii huh? Sweet! I love how you break down every year and buy a new gaming system. "Now kids, this is going to be the last one, so enjoy it..." haha, I'm sorry, I gotta give you a hard time. ;) Glad to hear you are exited for your new calling! That’s also cool that you can go see dad teach. Aww man, got trunky thinking about having Brig run up and spit on me telling me "Ee-ohs" or something. Haha. Well, in the words of Alma, "[trunkiness] never was happiness."

Well, I'm glad that you like Preach My Gospel, cause I love how it's not just for missionaries, a lot of people don't realize it, but it's for members too! Sure, it's very basic, but it won't ever hurt to review the basics! Boy, I like the new gospel principles book too, that's great stuff. I'm trying to lose myself more in the work. I still want to be more outgoing. I'm working on a lot of things, patience is the key, cause I know that the Lord will help me develop those things. Oh, and I've been studying the commandments in depth A LOT lately, and I REALLY REALLY like what I'm learning. :)

So to let you know what has gone on this week, I'll start with Larry. All I can really say is that he is going through the trial of his faith. He had a breakdown last time we went over and told us that he didn't know if God was there, he wondered why he can't get an answer to his prayers, and he was overwhelmed by the idea of giving up smoking, coffee, 10% of his meager income, also fast offerings as well. The thing was, he was feeling sorry for himself, he has some major self worth issues, and so, as he kept talking, he kept finding more things to be disgruntled about. I recognized that pattern of thinking, a lot actually, because it sounded a lot like I used to, though not necessarily on the subject of religion. So I believe that what we need him to do is to keep reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon with him and keep having him come to church. I think of the scripture Ether 12:6 "therefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." Recently someone said that there would have to be a point like this in every investigators life while we are teaching them. We will continue to encourage them, but what they do will determine how they will progress. I can only hope we are doing everything we can for Larry and that we are not missing something.

Melissa is doing well, still reading the scriptures and coming to church. She still hasn't prayed about smoking, and it's cause she is afraid to. She likes it too much and she is afraid of the answer she is going to get. Kinda frustrates me, but not too much. I mean, she's a nurse too! She knows what smoking does to you! Plus, she really needs the blessings. She is out of a job, and she's strapped for money... we'll keep encouraging her to do that. We still have to teach her tithing and fast offerings too, and we'll see how that goes over.

Ahhh... well that's life right now. It's hard to find new people to teach because we can't get out to the outlying areas cause it's too dang cold to be outside for that long, and St. Cloud has been tracted over so many times... I guess it wouldn't be fruitless, but there has to be something more effective... Well, I'm glad to hear everything is going well for all ya's.

Love you
ELDER BROOKS