December 14, 2009

Hey everyone,
This week has flown right by, we had transfers Tuesday morning and I received my Nuevo companero, Elder Lee. He’s Chinese but is actually from Washington State and speaks only a little Chinese. The Spanish people marvel at how he’s Chinese and speaks Spanish. They can’t believe it but its funny how they react. He has 3 months left, so it’s nice having a companion for once who is older than me that can help do the work. It’s nice to have, especially after training.He has had an interesting mission. Is very open to tell me all the stupid things he’s done on the mish but we agreed on working hard this transfer. It’s been great so far.We might have a baptism this Sunday; Gomez. He’s the guy from Puerto Rico that wants to change his life. We just have to get him an interview with president so I don’t know if he'll be going down this Sunday or the next. We helped him this week get some food. We got the bishop to fill out a food order from the bishop’s storehouse so he’s got food for a couple weeks. He came from Puerto Rico a month ago. He can’t go back or he'll get killed. He came here trying to get away from his old life and old ways. He looked for the church but couldn’t find it so he went to another church and was confessing his sins to the pastor. Ends up the pastor falls asleep on him so he gets mad and walks out. When he walks outside he sees the missionaries pass by. It also happens to be the only other Puerto Rican missionary we have that walked by. He stopped them and told them everything. They called me and he started to be taught. He has told us everything of his past and it is crazy. He’s got 18 tattoos, and all of which are satanic. He has 666 engraven on his back and lots of other bad things. He’s been shot a couple times and also stabbed. Rough life I’d say. He reads the book of Mormon everyday and wants to go to the temple to get sealed with his family. He’s looking for a steady job so that his family can come here soon. He keeps telling us he’s going first class to the celestial kingdom. He knows the only way is to get baptized and go to the temple; he’s a funny guy.We have a few other really good investigators. One of them is Dominican and the coolest guy ever. He’s in his 20's and his wife is a member but she works on Sundays so he comes by himself now. We just started teaching him but hopefully we can set a date with him this week or something. He’s so good and needs to be a member. The elder’s quorum president brought a guy to church yesterday. He just moved from Chicago and is Mexican. He loved church and I can see him getting baptized. Only problem is he starts working this week at a restaurant and doesn’t know if he has to work on Sundays yet. Most cases at a restaurant he will have to, but I’m praying that he doesn’t. We can have a lot of success this transfer but, most of it is out of our hands. I guess it lies on faith and prayers. This week we had a great district meeting. Almost everyone is new in the district; it’s nice to have a changeup. We are focusing on the fourfold endeavor that Gordon B. Hinckley spoke about. We need to find, teach by the spirit, baptize worthy converts, and strengthen converts and less actives. I split each category in the 6 weeks of the transfer and we read lots of scriptures and stuff to support each point. It went really well. I then taught some things about the book of Mormon and did a Preach my Gospel practice.We read the talk from Elder Holland that he gave in conference about the book of Mormon, and it strengthened my testimony once again of the power of the book. If only I can get people to read they will get baptized. If people only get the desire to read the book of Mormon then that will lead them to pray and they will receive an answer.I’m going to focus on the B.O.M more this transfer and push people to read it. It’s so important and since I’ve been out here the words of Joseph have become truer. He states that in the introduction that the book of Mormon is more correct than any other book on the earth. I try to explain to people that the bible is the word of God. However, it’s not sufficient. We can see that almost every church reads the bible but every church teaches something different. It’s frustrating when people object it when they haven’t even attempted to read it. My comp and I were walking Friday night and an acidic Jew stops us. (The ones with the curls and the big fur hats and gowns). He told us it was the Sabbath and asked us for some help. We went into his building and Jews were everywhere. It was a Jew only building and you could tell everyone was wondering why there were a couple gentiles walking around. We went into the guy’s house and he had us turn heaters on in every room and move them around. They can’t use electronics on the Sabbath. I don’t really understand why they think they have to keep the Sabbath but other people can do things for them? It doesn’t make sense.It was the first day of Hanukah and they had all the candles lit and like 15 Jew kids looking up at us like they’ve never seen normal people ha-ha. It was so cool though. Jews are never nice to us non-Jew people, but this guy was really nice.It has been really cold lately. I busted out the thermals under my pros. It’s in the 20's usually with lots of wind. There’s never a day without wind and It’s hard to find Spanish people when it’s freezing, but we're doing great right now. I was a little stressed and down at the start of the transfer but I read proverbs 3:5. Trust in the lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. It’s helped me out a lot and I’m actually excited about the transfer and my comp is a good guy.I can’t believe Christmas is coming up. It’s so weird, you would never know it if you lived here. Ha-ha nobody decorates or puts up lights but then again everyone hates their lives here ha-ha jk but seriously. Well I hope you all have a great week.

I love you.
Elder Breinholt