May 14, 2018 ~ My Mom (Week 44)

Hi everyone! 

Wow, it was so nice to talk to my family yesterday. Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful women out there! I feel so grateful to have examples like you in my life. 💕

Quick updates:

1. We were in a lesson with Elias (our baptism date) and I requested that we sing a hymn before the prayer. OH WOW… it was a treat. They both were singing so high and off key that I literally lost it and started laughing so hard. But they didn't let my laughter stop them. I put my head down on the table and laughed, while they continued on for 3 more verses. I guess it runs in my family to laugh uncontrollably during spiritual musical numbers (shoutout to dad and Chet 😉).

2. I clogged in the Chipotle restaurant. It's kind of a long and embarrassing story... But to make it short, one of our members was trying to convince me to dance at our upcoming ward party. I jokingly told him that I couldn't, because Latin dancing wasn't my kind of dancing...  one thing led to another and before I knew it I was clogging in Chipotle. What a sight. I've definitely been in this area too long. 😂

3. I sat in GUMMM! We went to the park last P-Day to play Spikeball as missionaries. After playing for a while, I decided to sit down and take a break. I sat on a park table with some other missionaries where we had a nice chat and ate Viet food. When I stood up and began to walk away, a 3 ft string of gum that got longer as I walked, was stuck from my butt to the bench. It was fresh and sticky! I was confused, because the only people who had been near that bench all day were missionaries. I looked around and said, "Who put their gum on the bench??" And a brand new greenie's mouth dropped open. He said, "Oh sister. I'm so sorry." and then proceeded to tell me how it fell out of his mouth onto the bench and then he forgot about it. 😂😂😂 he apologized like 30 times but I just kept laughing. It was super funny. Now he makes gum jokes every time I see him and I offered to bring him some mints since I ruined his gum. 😀😉 Good memories, for sure. 

4. We found this awesome guy named Anthony. We found him knocking doors and he is super prepared to hear the gospel. We were teaching him The Restoration and the Spirit was really strong. So, I turned to our greenie and said, "will you invite him to be baptized?" Ha. She looked at me with pure terror. But she ended up doing it, in pure Spanish, and Anthony said yes! Super cool, huh?? I was so proud of Sister Thomas! It's pretty cool when a greenie gets to extend a baptismal invitation on Day 6 in the field and the person says yes.  She is already a great missionary.

5. We are still trying to figure out the whole trio thing, but I love both of my companions so much. They are helping me in so many ways. I truly admire them as people and missionaries and hope I can take with me some of their strengths that are currently my weaknesses. 💕

6. I like being an STL.  It’s actually kind of really hard. But I have already learned so much and I serve with really awesome sisters.

7. We invited 4 people to be baptized this week and they all said, "Yes, but I'm not ready to set a date". So please pray that Danya, Elias Sr., Anthony, and Fernando will have the desires to set a date and work towards baptism! And please pray for us as missionaries to be able to know what they need in order to help them make that commitment.

8. I got another parking ticket. I don’t wanna talk about it. Parking here is literally the lake of fire and brimstone. (Hence, my thumbs down standing next to our car).

9. We did service at a 5k which was super fun. I got to spray paint hair afterwards and I definitely loved it.

I just thought the mirror pic was funny...

This cute little girl used her cute little Spanish to convince me to let her give me a tattoo... I'm weak.

(Teresa's Note: Much to my dismay, Savanna made me PROMISE that I would NOT EDIT ANY of this next part... I hate it when she does that!... [sigh]😒.)

This past week I have been thinking a lot about my amazing mother. It seems as though the older I get, the more I feel like I need her advice and love and phone calls... though I assumed when I was younger that I wouldn’t. She is literally my hero, and I hope one day to be able to be half the woman/mother/teacher/servant in the kingdom of the Lord that She is. She is strong, spiritual, kind, selfless, charitable, funny, righteous, and humble. She has taught me so much about service and love and the gospel. And anyone who was around during my teenage years could attest to the fact that she deserves some kind of award for making it through the craziness of it all.

Growing up, I struggled severely with self-esteem. I remember one particular day as a freshman in high school, when an older classman made fun of my acne in art class. I was devastated. I came home from school crying and swore to my mom that I would never go back… and I could see by the hurt in her eyes that she didn't want to make me.

She hugged me while I cried for a long time, and I'm almost positive she shed a few tears herself. She told me over and over that the hurtful comments weren’t true and did her best to console me. When I was all cried out, she looked me in the eyes and said, "Okay Sis, I know what you have to do."

My 14 year-old self hoped in that moment that she would tell me I could drop art (which I hated anyways) or maybe even say something mean back to the girl who had hurt my feelings. But instead, my kind and amazing mother said, "You have to go out of your way to be EXTRA NICE to her." 

Anyone who knows my mom can totally picture her saying that, right?? :) She then proceeded to explain how kindness is an internal beauty that shines to the exterior, just like the light of Christ. She explained that I not only should be extra kind to the girl who had hurt my feelings, but to everyone I saw in the halls or in my classes. She finished the conversation with her most cited quote, which I have had taped to my bathroom mirror every day since, which is:

"It's more important to be beautiful on the inside than on the outside".

I'm not really sure what spiritual relevance this story has, except for the underlying themes of the Divinity of Motherhood and the Christlike Character that my mother possesses. I am so grateful for her and for her example. I love her! And I thank Heavenly Father every day for blessing me with a mother that I definitely didn't deserve.

Sappy, I know. But I've always been known for being overly lovey. 🤷🏼‍♀️😚

Everyone go give my amazing mother a big hug for me!! 💕

The church is true!

Xoxo

Love, Hermana Brooks