7/13/2009

FAMILIA,Well sounds like everything’s awesome. I got a lot of good emails today so it’s all great to hear. Yeah dad’s nuts buying a new boat but he’s always got to be buying something, it wouldn’t be dad if he didn’t. So you’re all going to Mexico again? Find me a good wife and bring her back k? It’s all about the Spanish girl’s ha-ha. Anyways, how was the temple? Barney emailed me and it sounded like a good time. It’s so good they went through the temple. I don’t have any stash of t-shirts and I haven’t received Kristin’s package unless it was the 4th of July one that I told Craig I got? I’m excited for the package you sent ill probably gets it Wednesday. Tell karlyn thanks for the email.This week was really great. I got my new companion on Tuesday. His name is Elder Vargas and he’s from Texas. He spoke Spanish before his mission because his dad is from Peru and mom from Mexico but he’s white. He’s very prideful because he already speaks and his grammar stinks but whatever ha. He is a freaking sleazy salesman ha-ha. Mission president told me he’s a smooth talker but that was an under statement. He try’s to sell people on getting baptized instead of testifying with the spirit but he does teach pretty well other than that. We all get along so it’s all good. Just a little different because I like to do things fast and rush to appointments but the others like to take their time. It takes a little longer to do things with 3 of us but we're an army it’s awesome. WE had a great week though. We taught a lot of appointments and are trying to just commit everyone no matter what first lesson. We got a commit from a lady named Dulce, which means candy in english ha and she’s from Dominican Republic. Don’t know how serious she is. She said yes to our invitation of baptism because the spirit was so strong but often times when we leave the spirit can’t stay with the people and so they go back to normal. WE have a lot of progressing investigators right now and had 4 new investigators come to church yesterday. It was so awesome.This lady named Carolina and her sister Rosa from Guatemala are way good. WE knocked into their door a couple weeks ago and only some guy was home. We shared a short a short message and asked if we could come in and share more. People never let us in but this guy did. We shared a short message and came back to see how he was a couple days later. Some lady answered the door and we told her we taught some guy there and so she let us in and we taught her. Well, a couple days later we went by to see if either of them were home and another lady answered the door, and she let us in. While we were talking about the restoration of the gospel the mother walked in and listened. The next time we went this lady Carolina had written paragraphs to some questions in the restoration pamphlet we gave her. We went over and had lunch with the family Saturday. They fried up some huge fish, with head, tail, and everything and flopped it on my plate. As you know I hate sea food let alone a fish staring me in the eye with his eye but I ate it. I also ate cow hoof soup this week at another investigators house ha-ha rough week with eating. But Carolina and her sister came to church with us. They are prepared by the lord. They have a lot of questions but they’re so good. WE have a lot of awesome things going on right now. The work is hard sometimes but we’ve been blessed this last week. It’s all because we tried to have the best attitude for the new elder and honestly that makes ALL the difference. You have success when you have a good attitude. It’s hard at times but it’s all that matters. Another really cool younger couple came to church and I think they liked it a lot, I was surprised they came. I’m excited to see what happens with our investigators this week. Geraldo, who I baptized, baptized his friend Saturday and he called me after saying it was the coolest experience ever and thanking me for everything, it was nice to hear. His mom went to watch the baptism and she said she felt the spirit so strong. She thinks our church is the devils but she has a different outlook on the church now which is really good. That kid will baptize so many people in Ecuador. Thanks for everything, all your prayers and support, I love you and pray for you daily too. Love, Elder Breinholt

7/13/2009

Hello,Hey that’s cool that Barney is going to the temple. I wrote him a letter a couple weeks ago; tell him to write me back. The rain finally stopped and its just heat but it still isn’t horrible. We’ve been lucky. There hasn’t been this much rain here in a long long time I guess so I came to New York a good year. This last week went really well. My companion and I taught a lot of lessons and got a few new investigators. A couple of them are really good so hopefully they keep progressing. We brought one of our good investigators to a family's house in the branch. The investigator is from Ecuador and has been here for a short time without his family and has been having a hard time with that. We decided to take him to this other family's house because the dad did the same thing; he came from Ecuador and was here alone for 9 years till he saved enough money to send his family. We thought he could give our investigator some good advice about how he was baptized while he was here alone and how it really helped him. It didn’t go like that, it went pretty terrible. The member was negative and tried to argue everything. We left pretty disappointed and our investigator was really frustrated, but it’s all good. Well my companion and I got home Friday night and the zone leaders told us we needed to call the Assistants to the president. We were kinda freaking out cuz it was weird that they would call and tell the zone leaders for us to call them. We called the assistants and they told us that we are getting a new companion! Some missionary from the California mission was getting sent to our mission and is going to be a 3 some with us. We get him tomorrow at zone conference and he’s gonna be with us for 3 weeks. We don’t have enough room in our apt for another bed and study desk or room for him to put his stuff. Its gonna be nuts. You don’t get sent to another mission unless you do something really, really bad. They sent one elder from this mission to Texas a year ago cuz he wouldn’t stop stealing missionary’s cameras and stuff and was lying about it. You can get in fights, kiss girls, whatever, and just get sent to another area in the mission but to get sent to another mission is nuts so its gonna be very interesting the next few weeks. I just want to know why they decided to put him with us, out of 200 missionaries why us? Church yesterday was a little weird. About 100 of the members went to a trip to Cumorah on Friday till Sunday night to see the pageant. We usually don’t even have a hundred members attend sacrament meeting so I don’t know who all went but we were worried nobody would be at church. There ended up being around 45 or so people at church which was a big surprise but the missionaries taught all the classes. Last week we had interviews with the new mission president. He’s way cool and he’s gonna try and make this mission a baptizing mission just like every new mission president but its cool, this mission needs it. He's pretty funny and his wife is the strict one who’s gonna change the mission oh, it’s gonna be interesting to see the changes they make. Everything is going great. We're working hard and are seeing some good things right now in the work. It’s good to hear everything is well at home. I love you all and thanks for the support. Have a good week, Love-Elder Breinholt

7/6/2009

Familia,Not a whole lot happened this week. We met our new mission president and his wife. They are really cool and already know everything about me; I guess they’ve memorized everyone’s papers for the mission. It was a hard week for all of us in Ridgewood. We worked and worked and for some reason it was so hard to hit the goals. Nobody did and for the first time since I’ve been here we didn’t have new investigators at church. Its ok we’ve got next week. All our neighbors in our building have been telling us that the cops were going around the building at 3 in the morning one night this week and were looking for us. They said 2 missionaries had disappeared and went to every door in the building. I guess they pounded on our door for a long time, but none of us heard it; ha kinda weird. We don’t know what they wanted cuz none of us were missing.We've been teaching a lot of new people this week. Walking around talking with people like crazy trying to get new investigators. We taught some really good people but they don’t have cell phones so we try and stop by and its hard because people are never home. We had a 4th of July party/barbecue at the church on Saturday. We played basket ball and stuff. It was a nice change for a couple hours. We also went on the roof when we got home later in the night and watched fireworks go off everywhere all over the city and in Manhattan. I'm glad I got to see fireworks or it would have been a lame 4th of July. It wasn’t that crazy during the day because everyone that lives here is from a different country so there’s not too much U.S pride. It was just an excuse to get drunk here and light fireworks. That’s about all I saw. It would be nice to be on the beach in Mexico lighting my own fireworks but only 2 more years! Everything’s going good here. We're just trying to find people to baptize. Geraldo who I baptized is baptizing his friend in Ecuador in a week and got the priesthood yesterday. He always calls to see how everything’s going. I hope you all have fun in Mexico. I love you and have a good week, Love Elder Breinholt

6-22-09

Hey!What’s up? Sounds like everyone’s doing well. That’s so sick about Blake. He told me 2 weeks ago he sent his papers in and told me not to tell anyone so I didn’t but I'm so excited for him. Dominicans are so flippin hard to understand. That’s good that dad got my card, I hope he wore the pin ha. Happy fathers day dad! We had an activity at the church Saturday night for father’s day. It was pretty nuts. Some of the clothes of the women wouldn’t have been approved back in AZ but it’s all good ha. The reunion sounded fun. Today we were walking and saw the same movie “A COUPLE OF DICKS” getting filmed again and this time we saw Bruce Willis. He was like 50 feet away and was filming scenes. It was so awesome. My companion got videos and pics but I’m mad, cuz I didn’t have my camera. I heard a funny rumor about Mormons that I've never heard. My companion and I were walking down the street and I heard a lady ask who we were to some man in Spanish. She didn’t think a couple white boys would understand. I heard her, turned around and started talking to her. It was funny she was surprised. We told her we were Mormons and she said, oh you guys don’t believe in gasoline, what else do you not believe it? We just busted up laughing. Its funny the things people say about our church. I thought I had heard it all until then.This week was a good one. We baptized EFREN yesterday! It was so awesome. My companion baptized him this time cuz I baptized Geraldo. It was kinda sad cuz none of his family came to support him but we had members there and youth. It went really well. He’s so humble and has so much faith. We would teach him about the word of wisdom and tithing and would commit him to live them and he always says ill do it cuz I know god wants me to. He doesn’t have a dad that lives in the house and his mom always leaves him and his sisters so he and his older sister provide for the family. They don’t have any money at all but he has so much faith to say “I will pay tithing”. Geraldo calls us from Equador like everyday. We’re gonna get in trouble cuz it costs a ton but oh well we tell him not to call and he does. He is so grateful for us and for changing his life and bringing him into the truth. It wasn’t us, it was the spirit and we are only tools in Gods hands but it is an awesome experience to help out. He is meeting with the missionaries in Equador and his brother is interested in the church. He’s also doing baptisms for the dead this week. I found out last night that I’m staying in Ridgewood. My companion is also ha-ha it’s so weird, but he’s moving to the other Elders apartment and is district leader. I’m getting a new companion in our apartment. It’s pretty cool that were in the same district and branch but different companions now.I’m excited about this next transfer we get or new mission president and we have a few people that I think can get baptized. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve already been so lucky to have had 2 baptisms this early. That’s the average per missionary per year so I’ve been blessed. I’ve seen a lot of miracles here and it goes to show this isn’t my work it’s the lords and as long as I work hard people will fall into my path. The last 2 baptisms we got were people that randomly came to English class. It’s been a good tool to teach the gospel. I will send pictures next week of the baptism. I love you all and thanks for your love and support.

Love,
Elder Breinholt