February 1, 2010

2/1/10Hey everyone!Well not too much is new here or there. This past week has been another fast one. The time gets faster and faster, it’s crazy. Elder Kerby and I are starting to find our way around these cities. Our area is just so big we get lost all the time but we're doing better. We were in the house of a less active eating yesterday and her ex husband was there. We got lost on the way to their house again and so he went to his car and came back with a GPS and is letting us use it till we leave the area. We used it last night and looked up a bunch of members a lot faster. It was amazing, the first night without getting lost haha. It’s been a lot of fun though, elder Kerby is awesome. Well happy birthday dad! I’m not gonna lie, your kinda an old man now, its sad. Ha-ha but seriously hope you had a great b-day.Well I think I’m coming home 1 transfer early which will be December 22 so I can get right into school. It looks like that’s what other missionaries are doing and to get home for Christmas so I really have only 10 1/2 months left so I got to keep working hard cuz the time goes sooo fast.My companion and I were lifting last week and he tore the whole side of his chest. Its pretty bad so now we don’t exercise too much and I’m gonna get fat. We had a pretty good week. We got a lot of new investigators who are pretty good. I’m getting spoiled out here in a car. Its funny, we go and knock doors and then run in the car and turn the heater on full blast. I forget that I used to walk around in this weather 8 hrs a day. We have one referral we got from someone calling in to the church for a book of Mormon and they sent us a text with the guy’s info. We went and looked him up and taught him. His names Heber. He found a pass along card on the side of the road and called to learn more. We taught him the restoration and gave him a book of Mormon like always. We went back 2 days later and he had read 60 pages and the chapter we left him with twice. He’s an awesome guy. We committed him for baptism but he said he wants to learn more still so that was a bummer but he will definitely go down if he keeps reading. We still have our baptismal commit for the 14th, Melvin. The family he lives with are my favorite. He lives with his uncle who weighs over 500lbs and his 3 sons. They’re all so cool. We go over there a couple times a week and we got them all to come back to church so bishop loves us now. Melvin didn’t come to church with the family however because he got home too late on Saturday and couldn’t wake up at 8 to leave to church ha-ha but I’m praying everything will be good when we visit him this week.District meeting went really well on Friday. Our focus this transfer is member work and some other stuff. We did a practice where we all split up with another missionary and one person asked questions and tried to get to know the other person and learn about them. When we learn about someone, something they say will ALWAYS highlight a truth of the gospel from which we can then share more. When the time was right the one missionary would share a scripture or something to help the other person and its such a great experience and helps us to really go to the members and let them feel the spirit and feel that we care about them, not just to go there and think they’re a referral vending machine. Lots of times missionaries go to member’s homes and share a spiritual thought, and then ask for a referral. It’s lame when members won’t give up their friends unless they feel the spirit. So yesterday was a good day at church and a random guy come? We're gonna go do a family night with him and a member family tonight, so hopefully that goes well. I had to sing and give a talk in sacrament meeting. I didn’t want to prepare a written talk cuz I know I hate listening to people when they get up and read something for 15 minutes, it’s boring. I thought a lot about what I was going to say. The bishop asked us to speak on missionary work. A sister spoke first for 10 minutes and then my comp for 15. Then I sang nearer my god to thee. I then spoke for 15-20 minutes to close up the meeting. I got up and just shared personal experiences I’ve had in mission and how they’ve blessed my life. Missionary work is the most important thing we can do in our lives. The time ran out a lot quicker than I wanted it to and of course because I was nervous I forgot to say a lot of things I wanted to but it was a good experience. The bishop hasn’t liked missionaries for a while due to a bunch of previous lazy ones. He’s starting to like us a lot though and we're trying to get him excited about missionary work again. They haven’t had a baptism here in over 6 months so he’s excited about the one we have soon. We're working with him to strengthen the ward and less actives and we're doing another musical of the restoration the 20th of this month. The island (Long Island) is a lot different than the city. We have to work a lot differently and we're trying to find where all the members live so we can visit them, strengthen them, and hopefully they can help us with our work and to fulfill our purpose. I’m hoping for another great week and for another commit for this transfer. We're working hard and trying to do all we can to have success. We're going to an island right now called fire island to pet some deer and check out a lighthouse so I got to go but thanks for all your love and support, I love you, Elder Breinholt