Hey Guys!

     Well, writing at the end of a pretty hard week to say the least. But, our spirits are high and we´re doing okay. Thanks for writing as always and I always look forward to your letters. First off, I´ll start with some housekeeping...

     Send my congratulations to Zak. Its so crazy that he´s already home! Tell him hi for me. Please send the wedding announcement when it happens okay?

     Its so crazy that Matt is getting married! I would never have pictured that! But, I hope the best for him and if you get a chance, tell him to send a letter my way, and I´ll send one back to him. Even though we don´t have a lot of contact, we were still really good friends a short time ago.

     Good luck to both of you, Mom and Paige on this job that you interviewed for. I hope it comes through. 

     By the way, I just saw a movie called 17 Miracles. Its about the Martin Handcart Company (?) and all the miracles they experienced. If you can find it, watch it. It will change the way you look at the pioneers forever. I couldn´t stop crying, nay, sobbing through the whole film. Its amazing.

     Nice pictures you sent me Gav. They rock. Keep it up!

     Okay for the interesting stuff:

     Okay, when you sent me that stuff about Prof. Murphy, it almost knocked me over, I couldn´t believe it. I figure that I don´t have anybody like that who´s asking for me at BYU, so maybe I should just go to U of I. Everytime I think about it, I feel better than going to BYU. Yeah, I´ll be around all my friends in Utah, well those I made in the mission, but I need to go where I can make it, and I think U of I would be the best option. Maybe I´ll go to NIC, or if I can, I´ll go straight to U of I depending if I have money or not. I want to go home and talk with Prof. Murphy about my options for work and tuition. Maybe he could put in a good word for me in some scholarships or something. Who knows? I would have zero problems working in other churches if it would help me with some financial support. Prof. Murphy is a great guy and I look forward to working with him. Send him my appreciation and deepest gratitude for what he´s doing for me. 

     Well, our week was a little tough. We didn´t have any investigators in church this week, but we keep pressing forward in the work. The Lord called us to have success right? So, hopefully some is on it´s way. We keep hoping and working. The Lord will be with us in all that we do if we just press on. 

     Our branch is getting worse by the day. I gave a talk in church about why there are so many inactive members in our ward. I felt completely inspired to give the talk. I suggested that we do our visits more often and bring, not invite, our inactive brothers to church. I shared some scriptures and kind of brought it down hard on them. Some members came up to me afterwards and got kind of angry at me for what I said. This branch is completely unwilling to work and does not appreciate the work we do here. I´m going to have a long talk with President Carter on thursday about it. Hopefully, we can come up with an option soon, so we don´t waste anymore time in this matter. 

     On the 25th of May, the nation celebrated El Día de la Patria. Its kind of like their traditional holiday, so they all dressed up and did a parade in the city center. I sent pictures to you so you could see what they did. There were probably about 200 people on horseback. it was a lot of fun. 

     Thank you for the extra money you sent me. I also suggest that through the jobs you guys are working, that you send me some money so I can bring stuff home for you guys. I want to bring some gifts home for you, but I don´t have money for that. About 50-100 bucks each would be awesome, then I could get you some really cool stuff. But, I still have four months left. So, there is still time. 

     Dad, don´t pay the application fee for BYU, because the application fee for U of I is 50 bucks. Please go on my application and fill out any missing information that I have. I need a specific date of graduation from high school and specific date of the day I took my SAT test. Also, you need to fill out the student consent form that is found on the last option of the application under Addition UG Information. Just go through the application and make sure that its all filled out correctly, or if anything needs editing. If you could do that, it would be awesome! My username is this email address and my password is Garrett1.

     Anyway, I´ve gotta go. I love you guys and I look forward to hearing from you next week. Remember, next week, P-Day is on Wednesday, so you won´t get a letter until then. Thanks for all you do for me and I look forward to seeing you soon! I love you guys!  

Élder Garrett Brighton Rook

 Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste

        "La mejor misión de todo el mundo..."

Hey guys!

     Well, sorry first off for not having much time to write today. So, I´ll just cut to the chase. Thanks for writing me this week, as always. 

     Exciting news that you guys sent me with all the marriage going on. Its crazy! I´m going to be the only single guy when I get home! Haha

     Mom, I was looking on the NIC website. They have an entire list of jobs available at the campus. I don´t know if you need to be a student but its an option. 

     Congratulations to Gavin for the wedding gig! 500 bucks! Crazy! I wish I had 500 bucks. 

     I was thinking the same thing about working. I would have submitted my application for NIC, but they only have appliactions going on for as far as fall of this year. I need to wait a few months before applying. I do want to work up there in Post Falls. Maybe the city could put me up for something. I would work with Daniel in a minute, you guys know that. Plus, I speak Spanish, I´m sure I could find something up there. I´m getting really excited to study. Not trunky though. haha Speaking of trunky, I was in the offices last sunday and i saw that my last day in the mission is the 12th of October. Oh man! I have a date! I should be getting an iternerary soon, about a few weeks. 

     Paige, did you know that Michael Buble is married to an Argentine? Little fun fact...haha

     Gavin, please send me the picture with the cheerleader and we´ll see if Camille has anything to complain about haha. She´s just jealous. Next time you see Josh, say Hi to him for me okay? Tell him he´s my favorite boss. 

     I almost finished my application to U of I. Dad, if you could go on and make sure that everything is correct, that would be awesome. There is no fee for application. I´m just applying everywhere to see what options I have. I could even work with Prof. Mendez during my study in NIC. He´s a way cool guy and he knows me really well. I accompanied probably 80% of the competing basses during solo & ensemble. Maybe, we´ll see...

     Nothing much happening here in Argentina. Nothing really interesting. I had a really bad cold this last week that knocked my on my butt. I was so sick, but now I´m 110% better. Sorry, but I´ve gotta go. I sent some of my pictures from the Capital Trip last week like I promised. It was pretty cool. Saw a lot of cool stuff. Ate Subway for the first time in 20 months. Amazing...haha

     Anyway, I love you guys and I´ll talk to you next week. BTW, could you guys put one more dollar in my checking account so I can withdraw 300 pesos instead of 250? Because the machine won´t let me take out 300 pesos, because there´s not enough coinage on top of the main fund to pay the withraw fee. Understand? I know I don´t make much sense. Sorry. But, one or two dollars would be much appreciated. Thanks! 

     By the way Gavin! Could you send me some music from Beowulf when you get a chance? Also some more music from gears of war would be sick if you get some time. Thanks bud! 

Love you guys!

Élder Garrett Brighton Rook

 Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste

        "La mejor misión de todo el mundo..."

Weekly Letter May 5, 2012

Hola familia!

     Thanks again for always writing me every week. I always look forward to receiving your letters! Thanks for the picture of you guys with Kim and Dwight, tell them that I said that I love them so much and look forward to seeing them soon!

     Well, writing after an interesting week. I´ll start with housekeeping first:

     Yeah, I know the Terells. They´re a sweet family. Jeremy´s a stud. I´m glad to hear that they´re doing well. Tell them I said hi.

     Congrats to gavin on his placement in the competition. 3rd Place! So crazy! I remember when I went to Boise. It was a sweet trip. I think I placed 6th in the tenor division. I can´t wait until we can sing something together. Like in the Ward Christmas Party. Haha

     I sent a note to Drew, so that´s already done. Tell him I said hi if you see him. 

     I guess we´ll talk more about whats going on when we call each other.

     Okay, with the branch, to satisfy all of your curiosity. It all started with the Quorum President. He has been behaving terribly because he always had talked bad about our Branch President to other members. So, we said enough and called the councelor to our mission president in charge of our district. He said he would take care of it. So, they spoke the following sunday and our qp left angrily. Then, our Branch President started talking badly about our investigators and then refusing to work with us. So, we were working without support whatsoever from our branch. Our investigators started to stop coming to church. The level of success that we were having started to go through the floor. Our branch was having almost thirty people every week. Then this happened, and the attendance went from almost thirty people to fifteen people from one sunday to the other. It rippled through the organizations and caused a great effect on the members here. Luckily, no investigators were hurt by it, so our rep with the non-members wasn´t effected. The leaders have had interview after interview, and even talking about making an elder...hint hint...the branch president here until all this passed over. But, we still haven´t seen a change, nor verdict from the leaders. Hopefully something changes soon, or this branch is going to, frankly, die. So, thats whats going on right now in Chacabuco. Hopefully it ends soon. 

     On sunday, I´ll probably call you guys at about one or two o´clock. Earlier no. So, be ready for a call at about that time. Sorry for the short letter, but I frankly do not know what to write about, given we´re going to talk to each other in less than a week. I look forward to our conversation. Mom and Dad, 20.00-25.00 would be perfect. I really appreciate all you do for me and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the great parents who raised me. Thanks for everything and we´ll talk to you soon!