Thank You! And you, and you and you...

Happy Thanksgiving lovely people! I hope you have a magical day and a lovely holiday season. I am certainly grateful for the MTC. Our teachers are experienced and loving and dedicated to our success. There are people here to feed us every single day with edible and satisfying food. The huge media team makes sure all the enlightening meetings run smoothly and with really awesome touches. Our Branch Presidencies and their wives make sure we are spiritually cared for and loved, our companions are patient and willing to grow with us. It has been an honor to learn here. I loved my nine weeks and yes... you make it out! Monday morning I board the airplane to Nagoya, Japan! Hooray!

This morning Elder David A. Bednar came and gave us a exciting devotionals. At the beginning of his talk, he had all these people pass out a large quantity of cell phones. After we shook our heads a little and answered each other's "Wait, what's a cell phone?" inquiries, Elder Bednar asked us to pass the phones around and text him questions we wanted the answers to. And he also gave an e-mail address the other missionaries international MTCs could send questions to. Unchanging in the Lord's church, the prophets and apostles care personally for God's children. The advancements of the Latter-Days increasingly allow us to hasten the work access testimony and knowledge more often and efficiently. The testimonies of Elder and Sister Bednar were so motivating! Elder Bednar is truly a witness of Christ, and magnifies his calling as servant of the Lord very well. 

He explained to us that our missions are comparable to "boot camp" to gear up for the rest of our lives. It's true, every member has been called as a missionary. I am thankful for my Savior, I love Him and thanks be to God for the love He pours upon us in thousands of daily ways. What better way to show thanks than to share it? Elder Bednar iterated that we are free agents. We are to act, not be acted upon. We we are baptized we make covenants, one of them is to take the Savior's name upon us. This is a lifetime commitment to bear our testimonies. A favorite motto here at the MTC applies to each of us in each calling throughout our lives: "Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." We are as the army of Helaman. And what a sacred blessing that is.

I love you and I love missionary work. Please, join the fun! 

Sincerely,

Sister Brooklyn Brewer

*squints eyes and sees Japan emerging from the fog*

What! It's P-Day already?

The last two weeks are flying by! We only have ten days to be para para AAAAAAAHHH. Ha ha It's okay. We have been receiving e-mails from our senpai who have been in Nihon for two weeks. It made us realize we actually get to go and it's going to be fantastic! Barbosa Shimai has alas departed from us. She is in fabulous and beautiful Japan being a very well-trained missionary. We took her to the travel office at 3:35 Tuesday morning and waved to her riding away on the bus after a tearful goodbye. I thought I wouldn't see the sky at 3:00 AM again until after my mission but PSA and reminder: IT IS SENSATIONAL. One of my favorite things. Wilkinson Shimai and I love each other sooo much. Demo....it has certainly been harder to get used to being only a companionship. There is too much room to breathe in our room and our drawers our much too organized with only our belongings in them. Not to mention our lessons and study sessions sans her testimony. So sad for us. But SO happy for her. THANK YOU times 4.923 for sending her that package. Kate she LOVED your beautiful scarf and letter. Parents you are a miracle, how was I so blessed? Heavenly Father loves me. 

We were blessed with some very special speakers this week! In Relief Society the General Primary President Rosemary M. Wixom spoke. I love her simple testimony and love she brings. I hope to exude it like she does. This church is led, advised, and blessed by some incredible women.

So this Tuesday's devotional was given by the one and only LINDA K. BURTON. It was broadcast to the other MTCs so I hope Jordan got to see it as well. She is fantastic. I love her testimony and conviction. She knows the Savior, she testifies consistently of His love and has made her life dedicated to declaring his word. She and her husband motivated us very well to take on the mantle we have been given, and do everything we can to be worthy representatives of Christ. I am so blessed and not ready to be trusted with this work. I promise to work as hard as I can to accomplish these things! She also taught about the Christlike example of Mary Williams. It touched my heart to be reminded of a woman I want to be just like on my mission. She is selfless, loving, helpful, and completely dedicated to the will of the Father. 

So on Wednesday for TRC we get to SKYPE a REAL LIFE JAPANESE CHURCH MEMBERS. It's the scariest most happy thing ever. The members are so nice and faithful and willing to listen to the testimonies we can muster and share theirs. They make me very excited to come to Japan! I know Heavenly Father has called me to there to hasten His work and love His children in Japan. Trust me, loving Japanese people will certainly not be the hard part. Being a missionary is the happiest moment of my life so far. How could I possibly be so blessed?

I testify that being on a mission is important. I am called to serve because e v e r y o n e needs our Savior Jesus Christ. We have all already partaken in His mercy. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is given so we can access the Atonement he performed for us. In heaven, Heavenly Father wanted us to experience the joy and love He had, so he gave us the opportunity to come have bodies, love each other and LEARN our whole lives long. We knew we would be separated from Him, and that we would sin because we're humans. We need a way back. The Savior satisfied that necessity for justice by performing the Atonement. Access to the Atonement requires repentance, baptism and other covenants, reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Each of those three things are a miracle and gift. Through them we can reach this marvelous potential we have to become farther more than the natural man we are now. There is an eternal, completely fulfilling joy awaiting us as we return to Heavenly Father. It requires some work on our part, and thank goodness. I testify that as we do our best to follow the example of Jesus Christ and keep His commandments, the blessings, joy, and person we become are gifts we will hardly have the capacity to receive. I love you. Your Heavenly Father, your Savior Jesus Christ loves you. I know it. The goodness of Christ's love and mercy is demonstrated in Alma chapter 42 in the Book of Mormon. Don't go taking my word for it, read and find out for yourself. I testify that as when we kneel to pray, that act of willingness and humility allows our Heavenly Father to love and listen and understand us. Trust me, if He can understand and answer my prayers I say in "Japanese," He is most certainly awaiting your prayer. 

Much love! Letters are always welcome!

Sister Brooklyn Brewer

DEC01 JPN-NAG

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 53

Provo, UT 84602

Week Seven, We're in Heaven!

There's an attemptively artistic photo for you.

This week new kohai came in! Our first group of sisters as STLs! Whoo. They seem pretty cool and hopefully they will adjust well and love it here. I hope we can be good STLs. We are stiiiillll waiting for Barabosa Shimai's visa. Oh man. She goes to the Travel Office every day to ask about it. They don't have any answers for us...seems odd. I am honestly going to be really sad when she leaves our companionship. She has brought so much light and learning to my life. But I know Japan needs her and she wants to be there so so much! Our district iswonderful of course. I admire their courage and testimonies and I am blessed to have them shared with me. Missions are truly incredible! Also necessary, a blessing and a miracle. All the senior missionaries here are so sweet too. 

This week we had more wonderful devotionals and a really uplifting district lesson. The Atonement is REAL and an expression of love from Jesus Christ to all His father's children. The Atonement allows us to repent, which I always thought sounded a little scary and hard. But I have come to learn that repentance is for LEARNING. We are given the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Book of Mormon, and when we make a mistake, we just need to let Heavenly Father know we did, we're sorry, and He will strengthen us, so we can learn and become marvelous people. He gave us incredible potential. Ether 12:27 testifies of the truthfulness of our potential to grow. Pretty cool, we can learn and grow our whole lives long! 

Much love to all you fellow children of God, have a happy week! Whatever is is, you can do it!

Aishiteimasu,

Sister Brooklyn Brewer

Tripanionship Power!

Greetings Readers!

This week was extremely dramatic, so I'd sit down for this one.

Extremely dramatic means something slightly out of the ordinary occurred. 

Because MTC is Groundhog Day. Awesome day, but Groundhog Day.

So Friday was Halloween! My favorite! We didn't do a ton, as missionary work requires all the focus, which is good! But Wilkinson Shimai and I dressed up as each other. So clever, right? The elders in the older district dressed up with decorated swim goggles as masks and came around "trick or treating," which was giving all of us a pack of cereal they had stockpiled from sack lunches.We ate way much candy from everyone's family all day. Fun times! Cavities for life!

So that district left for Tokyo and Sendai on Monday, so sad but we are so excited for them to finally get to Japan! However, when they checked in at the travel office at 3:30 a.m.,They did not have Barbosa Shimai's visa yet, so she had to stay. It was so shocking and pretty sad. She came to our room at about 4:00 and stayed the night and she had been reassigned as our companion until her visa comes. Which should be very soon! Although we have heard a lot of should be's from the Travel Office this week. We really love having her in our companionship but we hope she can go soon! Ten weeks in the MTC is a bit too long! 

This week I would love for you to read Helaman chapter 5, it's about his sons recounting what their father taught them. Helaman named his sons Nephi and Lehi in hopes that they would follow the example of their forefathers in taking on their name. I love that concept, because when we can do the same thing! When we are baptized we take on the name of Jesus Christ, promising Heavenly Father to do our best to follow His example. Jesus Christ is our friend, brother, Savior and main support. Through Him we can be clean and happy. I love my Savior, and I love you!  I would invite you to pray to Heavenly Father this week and thank Him for loving you. If you're not sure about that yet, ask Him! He loves questions, and that's how we learn. 

Letters and DearElder.com's and e-mails are the best so don't be shy to say hello! Have a wonderful week. :)

Sister Brewer

DEC01 JPN-NAG 

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 53

Provo, UT 84602