February 8, 2010

2-8-10 Hey guys!,This week was pretty awesome. We were supposed to get a couple feet of snow on Saturday, but the storm stopped right before us. Everyone else got a couple feet, but it only snowed half an inch but we did end up getting the cold. I’m glad it didn’t snow, I hate the snow now.Doesn’t sound like too much is going on there. Everyone went up snowmobiling? Life must be good, but I'm sorry to say life’s better here right? Ha. Our week started out slow. We went to Fire Island for p-day. Oh man it was so sick! There’s a huge lighthouse, nude beach, and DEER! I got pics of the lighthouse and some deer but don’t worry the old man didn’t come out to the beach, it’s a little too cold for that ha-ha. We were driving on this tiny island and we saw deer 5 feet off the road so I told my comp to get out and tell Bambi to come over to us. He did so, and Bambi actually started coming so he jumped back in. Bambi decides to try and get in with him! Can you believe that? His whole head and neck was in the window in the car and he was kissing and licking my comp in the face. I was trying to get it on camera but I was laughing too hard and only got a couple pics but it was so funny. We found some new investigators that are pretty good. We had some great lessons with other investigators and came up with some awesome object lessons. Maybe one day I’ll show you all. We had 3 investigators at church yesterday. One of them is named Isaiah. We've been teaching him for a few weeks and he was interested but never too much. We went over and taught a bomb lesson on the plan of salvation and he was just dumb founded. The spirit was super strong and so he said he was gonna come to church for sure. We called a less active couple and had they go over at 8:30 Sunday morning to pick up Isaiah and bring him to church. Killing 2 birds with one stone. Anyways, I asked Isaiah what he thought about sacrament meeting and he told me he didn’t think too much of it. He said he was just feeling this weird feeling the whole time that he's never felt before and didn’t know what it was. I just told him we would discuss it more the next time we would visit him. It’s amazing that a 50 year old man has never felt the strong spirit that’s in sacrament meeting. The other 2 guys that came are Melvin, who is our commit for this Sunday and Jose. Jose came for the 2nd time with a member and we tried to have a family night with him and the member family last Monday but he didn’t show so we forgot about him. He ended up coming again so we're gonna try and teach him this week again. Melvin is awesome though. He’s so funny but is getting super scared about baptism. He starts having doubts and wants more time but we're trying to tell him to forget those bad thoughts because they don’t come from God. I was going over the baptismal questions with him yesterday and he told me he had killed 15-20 people in Honduras. He said he was a police officer and had to do it so I’m gonna talk to president and he should be fine, so he should be getting baptized this Sunday; we’re praying for that. My comp hasn’t had a baptism yet in 9 months so this will be awesome when we get him down.We were supposed to have a few other people at church and had members set up to pick them up, but they called us last minute and said they couldn’t come, so hopefully this Sunday they’ll make it. We're starting to make this dead area grow again, and help the ward also. We have a couple who the bishop of my last area works with. He told me to visit them cuz they are inactive and need to return to church. I looked them up and they haven’t been to church in 5 years but have now come the past 3 weeks in a row. We also have Melvin’s relatives the Trochez family who are still coming; the dad and his 3 sons. They’re the coolest family and I’ve never seen grown men have more respect for someone than for their dad. It could be cuz he’s 500 plus pounds and will eat them if they talk back, but they really are awesome.Not too much is new. We're working hard and trying to help this ward grow again and get the less actives back. I’m putting together the restoration fireside I did in Brooklyn. We're doing it the 20th of this month. This week my comp and I made tickets and fliers and handed them out in church. I think it’s gonna be a great success. Everything’s going well except I have to get a root canal maybe. I talked to mom already this week cuz I have a tooth that’s messed up and the doctor says it looks like I hit it or something so its dying and they’ll do a root canal. I’m not looking forward to that but everything else is great ha-ha. I love you all and hope you have a great week.Elder Derek Breinholt