March 1, 2010

Hey everyone!Well we had a great week here, it doesn’t sound like much is going on at home like usual. We were off to a good start in teaching lessons this week. It rained everyday until Friday. We woke up Friday morning to 8 or so inches of snow and a text from president saying nobody can drive the cars so we had to stay at home. We couldn’t go out and knock cuz we live 10 minutes out of our area in car so we stayed at home, played games, and rested. A member drove us over some pizza and late at night we went to the church and played basketball for a couple hours. It was indeed the ultimate p-day ha-ha. I woke up at 4 in the morning on Saturday and couldn’t get back to sleep due to bad body aches. I ended up crapping my pants like 5 times due to diarrhea or however you spell it. Yeah it wasn’t too much fun. Especially cuz we went to an Elder’s quorum breakfast at the church and played basketball, I thought I was gonna die. I didn’t want to have district meeting that was planned, but since it would be the last of the transfer I pushed through it and had it Saturday morning. It ended up being a lot of fun and it was amazing how through feeling the spirit my body felt 100 times better. So I have some bad news, I got a text from the zone leaders Thursday saying President wanted to have an interview with me Friday afternoon. Well since it snowed, President just called me to talk to me. He asked me to be ZONE LEADER! He asked how I felt about it and I said I didn’t want to do it ha-ha too much work, but he said too bad ha-ha. He told me I’m going right back to MIDWOOD where I came from 6 weeks ago to be in a zebra companionship, which means I will be teaching in English and Spanish. I will have to go to the English and Spanish wards. My companion will be Elder Teixiera who I just lived with 6 weeks ago. He’s awesome and speaks Spanish along with 4 other languages so that'll be cool. We will be teaching in French also so I will learn a little bit of French ha-ha. His dad is Elder Teixiera from the seventy. We have transfers tomorrow morning.I had to tell everyone here in Brentwood I was leaving. I couldn’t believe how mad they were. Nobody could believe that President would take me out after only 6 weeks. The ward has really changed and the attitude there has also in such a short time. We went from 80 people at church to over 120 and growing. The past missionaries here didn’t love to work so much and so the members weren’t all that excited about the work. My companion and I were able to help change that a little bit and now the ward is on fire.We had a few investigators at church yesterday, it was so awesome. We asked one of the guys, José to get baptized and he said he will very soon. He has come 3 times now, but we haven’t really been able to teach him. A member brought his niece who is older and has a kid. She came and loved it, and I’m kinda mad I won’t be here to teach her cuz she’s really good looking ha-ha. Melvin our recent convert also blessed the sacrament for the first time. He didn’t want to wear a white shirt and tie at all, but we went to bishop’s house Saturday night and he gave him a new shirt, pants, and shoes, so Melvin had no choice but to wear them. He is the funniest guy, I’m gonna miss him.I’m so mad that I have to leave this area already and go back to walking in the city, but I guess there’s something I need to still do in Midwood. I was just district leader over half the zone there, now I’m going back zone leader. I really don’t want to be zone leader, too much monkey business. I'd rather just be a normal missionary sometimes, I don’t even know why people want to be leaders ha-ha it’s not very fun. Its all good though, I’ll do what I need to do and I know I’ll learn a ton just like I have being district leader the past 4 transfers. We found a really good investigator here last week who is one of the best people I’ve found, and I hope things will be great in Midwood like they are here. Midwood is one of the hardest areas, but it can all change with attitude. I’m excited to see all those people I just left last transfer and it’ll be fun getting to know the English ward that are all black. I guess its Heavenly Father’s way of helping me love black people more right? I love you all and hope everything is well. I appreciate your letters and your support. Have a great week. Love, Elder Derek Breinholt