Hey!!!

Greeting from Merthyr Tydfil! Again another glorious day!

Ummm hmmm I think today we are going to play a little bit of rugby and maybe some Frisbee as well have a District P-day! We have the Ebbw Vale Elders - Elder Davis and Elder Hooper, and then the Beacon Heights Sisters - Sister Winn and Sister Morris, and then me and Elder Forbes ;)

Well, I dare say that we travel a lot. What with going to Zone Conference and interviews! And being the DL's companion, I have to go on a lot of exchanges on the X4 bus to Ebbw Vale.

Well what else - next week we are having a baptism on Friday the 21st of August. So I'm really excited for that! Also we are going to be having another one soon that was just sorta handed to us!

Hmmm, not too much else is new! Our summer is now over and it’s getting darker at night and the weather is getting colder. And then in September the leaves will fall off in one go, and then - well it rains and is cold!.....

Well I love you and I'm glad you’re all well! Tell the family I say hello and I love and miss them!

Love Elder Brooksby!

Cymru = Wales?

Well I'm typing to you from a place called Cardiff! It was Elder Forbes's birthday yesterday so we went to his favorite area which is only a 45-minute train ride away. Don't worry we went with permission from Mission President because it was out of our area, but still within the mission!

Well in the way of money - I used about 20 POUNDS worth to buy a new set of pedals for my bike because - funny enough, my pedal snapped right off and then I was only riding on the bar. And that’s not fun when you are peddling up mountains!

I am glad to hear that you are having fun over the summer months. I am as well!

Well let's see - we have been working a 20-mile bike ride from our flat 3 days a week in a place called Treharris! It’s a nice nice town! I'm going to send some pictures home in the next email or in the post or something.....

Well my time is up! I'm working hard and the Lord is blessing us for it. And although bicycles aren’t trusty the Lord's promises are, and he promises to take care of our families while we focus on the work. So I'm just going to keep going and run my bike into the ground!

Hey look out for a post card and then a little envelope with a magnet from Wales!

Love you- Elder Brooksby

This Week has been Great!

Well this week has been great! It was a slow-fast-slow-fast week! But it was a good week! The hills are absolutely killing my legs! But that’s good for them. That means they are only going to get stronger! But with all the hills my knee is giving me a little bit of trouble sometimes, but not too much. I'll just have to keep walking and keep on strengthening my knee!

We had another baptism on Saturday, just one of a woman I got to teach for a week. And we have another we just got last night on the way! She was a member referral and she has been taught loads! She knows almost everything. Her member boyfriend who is a return missionary taught her all the commandments and has committed her to live all of them. So our work has been done so now it’s a bunch of easy review!

Member referrals are where it’s at! The prophet is pushing for them, the new mission president is pushing for them, and overall member involvement is our best ally says PMG chapter 13! So that’s where we stand with this lass.

Okay well I'm going to go to the post office to get some stamps so I can catch up on the letters I've gotta write so maybe you can expect a letter from me? Maybe with some newer pictures as well!

Well before I go I'll attach some pictures!

This one is of me with a chip.

This one is of a street sign. You can guess how to pronounce it! LLEWELLYN - the LL makes the chhhhhl sound!

Love you, Elder Brooksby

Just fine in Tywnyrodyn

Well, it’s been a fun week, where to begin? Okay, Thursday, we went e-mailing, then proceeded to climb two of the most vertical hills I have ever seen in my life!!! On my bicycle!!!! That really took it out of me. And then as if the two hills weren’t good enough we went through a path to a council estate called the Gurnos, and then up an even bigger hill to the Gulon Uchaf (pronounced gulenuhhhca). So we live in a pretty big valley and if I wasn't fit from before in my previous area things are definitely going to change! My body is already hurting from multiple fun things we have done this week!

Fun thing # 1: On the way to church we were riding our bikes with one of our projections, Brandon who is 10 years old and my tyre popped half-way there. And then the tyre came off which wouldn’t allow me to roll it any farther. So for the last 3/4 of a mile I carried my bike over my shoulders to the church on Swansea Road! Then when we got there we walked into the gym and fixed the flat. Then we went out and put the tyre back onto the bike, and started to pump it up and then all of a sudden my tyre blew out!!! It was way loud!!!! So we had to have the sister missionaries in the Beacon Heights ward help us to get home after church using their bike carrier! So we walked the rest of the day!

Then we went out yesterday and went to the bike shop to get a new tube and a funny thing happened, the bike shop gave me the wrong size tube. And since it is such a far walk we just hunted around the pile of bike parts the flat had and found a replacement tube that would work and jimmy rigged it together! So that was my bike dilemmas for the week!

By the way it had been raining the whole morning and we had been out it and were soaked through! Our church, the Merthyr Tidfil ward starts at 2pm and goes until 5pm because our chapel is also the meeting place for the Beacon Heights ward and the Heads of the Valley ward.

I also have good news! There is a member in this ward who owns a barbershop and the missionaries get free haircuts! I haven’t had a proper haircut in sooo long! I cannot wait! Unfortunately they aren’t open today so I'll go tomorrow because I desperately need one!


I'm sending you a picture of Elder Forbes in the new mission car! jk


I've also included some pictures of what it looks like from around here.




And a picture of a piece of a painting on my own changing room wall!!

Also, I have met President Ogden and I think he's going to be a good mission president!

I love you all. Have a good week! Enjoy the pictures!

Love and cheers, Elder Brooksby!

How would YOU say Twynyrodyn?

Well I haven't quite figured that one out yet either, but suffice it to say I'm in Wales! I got transferred out of Wolverhampton to a place called Merthyr Tydfil (another mouthful).

That’s that! That is where you can send the post! Into the rainy valley with the largest hills I have ever seen in my entire life! It’s like hiking a mountain to even get to our flat from the train station! But the best part about where we live is the huge Tesco Extra at the bottom of our cliff/road. It’s way cool! I've never been this close to a Tesco this huge before! You should Google Earth it!

My new companion is Elder Forbes. He has two transfers left and he is the DL. He is from a place called Syracuse, Utah! I think he and I will get on really good!

Well I live in a forest now! It’s quite nice. If I had a picture for you I'd send you one, but I haven’t been here that long yet! It took about 5 hours by coach to make it to Cardiff Central train station, then it was another hour and a half by train into Merthyr Tydfil. And then the hike up the cliff to the flat, the road really is about a 40-degree grade! No joke! I haven't tried it on my bike yet, but I'm sure it will be way fun going down and then it will destroy my legs going back up! (I may have to get off and walk!) Anyway, so I didn’t get to go grocery shopping until last night at 8 o'clock, and now I'm just e-mailing you this morning!

SO Herbert's back! Ohhh man! That’s way cool. Well tell him hello for me and ask him to drop me a line so I can get back in touch with him and his life and his mission and things!

Well I had my first Polish baptism! It was great he loved every minute of it and he was just beaming afterwards! Now I'm in an area with two more scheduled baptisms so I'm excited to work on that!

Well I'm glad to see that Glenville Ward is still baptizing even though they are kids. Those kids will grow up in the gospel and will bring up their families in the church and will help the church to grow in the New York region!

Well I love you and I'm thankful for your sacrifices! Next week I'll send some pictures (I've been trying to carry my camera with me more in my back pack so I'll get more pictures)! I'll tell you how much weight I've dropped already, and I'll have some more to tell you about the area! I love you, have a nice day!

No letter from Brett this week

We didn't get an e-mail from Brett Tuesday morning, so we waited until this morning hoping one would still come. But it didn't happen. That probably means that either he or his companion were involved in transfers. I guess we'll just have to be patient and wait to hear what is up.

We’ve Had Two Weeks of Sun Already!

We got a long e-mail from Brett. It was good to hear from him. He said that they've had two weeks of sun and that he's not only burning, but dying. He said that it makes him sweat a lot more when it’s humid and he's peddling his bike! He also said that the food isn't as rich there in the summer and that he's a lot more active in the summer time. He also said that he thinks all the vitamin D he's getting helps him be happier and healthier.

Brett also said that he and his companion get up at 6:00 a.m. to go and play football (soccer) with four other missionaries. He said that they usually play a good game to wake them up. He mentioned that he's loosing weight because he's getting so much exercise. We thought that was great. He said that being on a bike since the beginning of his mission has really helped him get more fit. He said that he'd like to continue riding a bike when he gets home. We'll see how he feels about that in the winter!

We asked Brett how he'd feel if we were able to come pick him up from his mission. He said that he thought that would be great because all the other missionaries that are leaving at the same time as him have a direct flight from Paris to SLC. He on the other hand would be the only missionary flying from Paris to JFK. It's kind of sad - he left by himself and he flies home by himself. We'll have to see how his new mission president feels about us coming to pick him up. Then if it's OK with him, we'll have to see if we can do it financially. Who knows what will happen - but it's fun to think about going over.

It's always great to hear how Brett's doing. I can see the growth in him and am so glad he's having this opportunity.