Elder Derek Breinholt

New Photos Sent From Derek March 22, 2010

2010-04-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

April 12, 2010

2010-04-15T18:53:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!
Its good to hear that not too much is new at home. That’s better than bad news. I would say I’m jealous of the weather there but that would be a lie. The weather here has been gorgeous. Short sleeve shirts in the 60's-70's. It’s a nice change, and I never thought it would come. Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Teixiera and I are staying together another one. I'm pretty excited, he's awesome. He has been here all together a year now and would like to go to another area but we're having success, so its perfectly fine with him that he stays. We struggle a little with the zone cuz most of the guys in our house are doing stupid things lately and we're trying to lead by example and its just not enough. Its hard to help missionaries when they don’t have a desire to work. I don’t know why people come on missions if they aren't going to work, it doesn’t make sense to me but whatever.We had an incredible week. My companion was sick all week but I pulled him out of bed each night so we could work. He's a trooper and pushed through it until we would get back to the pad at night and he would hit the bed immediately. He’s got some virus and is taking antibiotics. The week started off great so we decided to try and hit the mission standards of excellence. (The new mission goals). Only 1 companionship in the whole mission had hit all the goals since they came out but I am proud to say, we hit them this week! It definitely wasn’t because of us; we just received so much help from the Lord. We were able to get 2 baptismal commits for the upcoming weeks as well.We went over to teach Gabrielle and Sharma with a member this week. We went over some homework we left with Gabrielle about the atonement, and then taught a little more about it. We then asked Gabrielle if she wants to know if all of this is true. She said she didn’t really want to know right now, she doesn’t want to change her life at this moment. She is 19 and it is hard to change, but after all the lessons we've taught her and all the times the spirit was so strong, it was hard to hear that. We talk about baptism with her a lot and she always says she isn’t ready but we just tell her to pray. The member we were with was baptized a year ago and is so strong in the church. She told Gabrielle that she first met the missionaries when she was 17. She knew it was true but also didn’t want to change at that moment in her life. She then said she met the missionaries for the second time at age 22 and was quickly baptized. During the years of 17-22 were the most heart aching, sinful, painful years of her life. She said she would give up anything to go back and join the church at age 17 when she first met the missionaries. Because she didn’t, she went through so many trials and she told Gabrielle, don’t make the same mistake I did. Gabrielle then put her face in a pillow and started crying. I then committed Sharma to pray about the 18 of April for baptism. She said she would and we left. We went back last night, and Sharma said she is good to go for the 18th which is this week and Gabrielle will be coming to watch. Its sad to see her not commit to join the church at this time but its a great feeling knowing I did all I could. I fulfilled my purpose as a missionary and now it is between her and the Lord. Our frenchie Michelle was not baptized yesterday like we hoped. She didn’t get her answer yet but we're hoping she gets it this week so she can be baptized within the next coming weeks. She lives with all members and has a great support system; she’s just waiting for an answer.I had a cool experience with a recent convert named Ricardo. He’s 19 and is from the Caribbean. His mom was talking with us about how disrespectful he is to her. We could tell that she loved him very much and does a lot for him, but he has a false idea of what love is. We sat down with Ricardo and tried to teach him what true love is. We tried to tell him that his mom really loves him, and has done everything for him. I swear I saw a little bit of myself in him when I was a few years younger. It was weird teaching him everything that I have been taught by my parents for example. Dads quote," you get more with sugar than you do with salt." Oh and how true that statement is. That kid is the most thick headed person, but I think we helped him understand a little bit of why his mom does the things she does. Its all out of love. I cant tell you how grateful I am to have the greatest mom in the world. Even though I was a punk, she never stopped caring and has made every difference in my life.The work is going great and I’m looking forward to another miraculous transfer. We have 3 baptisms this transfer that are for sure, so it’ll be a blessing to help those people get on the path to true happiness.
Thanks for all you love and support.
I love you all,
Elder Breinholt

April 5, 2010

2010-04-15T18:52:00.003-07:00

Hey everyone,

I can’t believe dusty is engaged!! What the heck? I’m so happy for him though. The ring looks pretty nice as well.Sounds like you all had a great time at the cabin. It must have been nice relaxing in the movie room watching conference. It was a rather dull week but conference definitely was amazing. We started off the week well, teaching a few people on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we had zone leader’s conference which was awesome. We accomplished a lot and also learned a lot. On the way home from ZLC my comp started getting the chills and came down with a fever. We stayed home Wednesday night and all day Thursday as well. I was going crazy ha-ha. I hate staying home and not working so much. I set up 6 chairs going from one room to the other and sat in each chair for a few minutes and then moved to the next chair. I was so bored, you don’t even know. Friday morning we had combined district meeting, it was such a great time. My comp and I led the zone in a great discussion about love, unity, and obedience. Later the district leaders all gave awesome workshops on the standards of excellence for the mission. It was a really spiritual morning. That night we finally went out and visited a couple people. We had a great lesson with Gabrielle and taught her the vision of Lehi and the tree of life. We read it in the book of Mormon and showed visuals of the dream. She understood it perfectly.Saturday was sooo good. I was so excited for general conference. The Saturday sessions were better than the Sunday in my opinion, but they were all so incredible. I loved the talk by Holland about love and lust; He is one of the best speakers. His teaching is always so powerful and touching. The last 3 times he has spoken in conference have been a lot more powerful. I wonder if he was given counsel on being more bold and direct when speaking because his talks are so amazing. The priesthood session was also very spiritual. I remember looking at president Monson during the priesthood session and feeling the witness that he is a true prophet. It was a wonderful experience to look at him and know that he is the God's mouthpiece on the earth to guide his children back to him. I was able to take notes for all the sessions and learned sooo much. I’m excited to go back through my notes so I keep those teachings in my mind at all times. The prophet himself said that priesthood meeting was one of the best he had ever been in, and it truly was for me. On Sunday a couple of our investigators came. Unfortunately not as many as we wanted, but I guess that’s what happens when you don’t visit your investigators all week. I wish they all could have felt the testimonies of the special witnesses that we have been given. I wish that everyone could have seen and heard the prophets talk Sunday morning. I am so privileged to have the knowledge that I have. To know that this is the true church. The only true and living church on the whole earth. It’s a blessing to know that God has called men on the earth and given them the authority to direct the church with him. I know that if I follow the teachings that I have heard this past weekend then I will return to the presence of the father and the son. It is most definitely my goal and I pray it is all of yours as well. I hope we can always retain in remembrance the savior’s teachings and act accordingly. I love you all and hope you had the chance to listen to our prophet’s voice.
Have a great week!
Elder Breinholt

March 22, 2010

2010-04-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!
I still can’t believe it was spring break for you all last week. I’m so glad spring is officially here. It’s raining over here for the next couple of days and its made things pretty complicated. We've been trying to do the zone activity the past couple weeks and we can’t cuz it keeps raining on p -day. We went out on Saturday and bought all the hamburgers and hot dogs and everything necessary for a bbq at Coney Island, but it’s raining and we have to cancel again. The sisters are mad but what can we do? We can’t change the weather ha-ha some people are just funny but everything else has been sooo awesome. We had a really great week with 2 baptisms yesterday, and many miracles.Sounds like you all had a great time at the cabin, except for Pampa, that’s a bummer about his truck. I can only imagine everyone trying to get that thing out of the ditch, its hard working with a bunch of Breinholts ha-ha. That’s weird that it’s still snowing over there. It’s finally warming up over here. It gets in the 50s and I’m so used to the cold that 50 are hot. It'll be as rude awakening when I go back to AZ someday.This past week was so crazy. It went by fast but everyday felt so long. We had zone leader’s council on Tuesday and then I stayed in queens for exchanges with the assistants. I learned a lot from the AP's. We spent the whole day getting our appointments juked, so we taught a few crazies on the street and the rest of the day was pretty boring but its all good, got to have days like that once in a while.While I was on exchanges my comp and the other assistant went to this Lady Michelle’s house. She’s one of the frenchies, (the pretty one). They taught her the third lesson, the gospel and she asked how she one day receive eternal life. They took advantage of the great question and she is now committed for the 4th of April. She has been wanting to get baptized for a few weeks, it’s just hard to get over and teach her cuz she lives pretty far. On Tuesday we went and taught the 2 teenage girls that have been coming to church. (Gabriel and Sharma). We had one of the best lessons I’ve sat in on my mission. We went over to explain a doubt that they had 2 nights previous. They both were baptized in another church and really want to do baptisms for the dead but learned that they cant without being baptized in our church. They have a little sister who is 6. When we got to their house the little girl, Samantha was bouncing off the walls. We sat and talked for a bit and then told Samantha to sit down and chill out while we said the prayer. At the end of the prayer I looked over and Samantha was laying on the couch sucking her thumb, completely asleep. WE then taught Sharma and Gabriel the clearest lesson on the restoration that I've had and they both asked us," Does this mean that the rest of the world that’s been baptized aren’t really baptized cuz it wasn’t done the right way.?" We asked them what they thought, and at the end of the lesson Gabriel sat there and just said she was so shocked. If Samantha hadn’t fallen asleep I don’t think we would have had the spirit there so strong and the girls wouldn’t have understood as well as they did. Oh the tender mercies of the lord. Yesterday elder Teixeira and I had 2 baptisms. Erilia and Berkley. We went over there during the week to finish teaching them everything. We were teaching the word of wisdom and Erilia said the only thing she used was coffee but right then she said, “now that I know about the word of wisdom I will never drink coffee again." She has sooo much faith and has so much love for god its incredible. During her baptismal interview with the District leader she committed herself to read the book of Mormon and the bible once a year. She already reads the bible once a year but now the book of Mormon and also the doctrine and covenants. Erilia has her degrees in the study of religion and theology but is still so humble. She is 58 years old and Berkley is 12. My comp baptized Erilia and I baptized Berkley. It was so awesome. They were both so happy after their baptism and both felt this time the baptism was done right, by the right authority. It was such a great experience to be apart of.We are still working on getting the other frenchies married so they can get baptized. They said they were going to split but now they aren’t so sure. I really hope and pray we can get it worked out.I am still learning a ton about the atonement and is been the best experience. I also learned a lot about prayer and how true the scriptures are when they say, "ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Is it that simple I ask myself? The great news is YES it really is that simple. The lord sticks to his word. I’ve learned some great things on what’s called, piercing the veil. The work is so good right now and I can’t complain. We are being blessed so much and are seeing so many miracles. I love this gospel and pray that others may receive the blessings of it like I have.
I love you all,
Elder Derek Breinholt

March 15, 2010

2010-04-15T18:51:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Sounds like a lot is going on back home. I can’t believe its spring break already I had no idea. Time is going by so fast its crazy. I thought it was funny how you were saying Cory had to run in 50 degree weather and that’s cold or something? Ha-ha that’s WARM you got to be kidding me. I sweat at fifty degrees now. You guys are all at the cabin now? I’m jealous; the weather here has been terrible! It rained all week and we had the craziest storm I’ve ever been in on Saturday night. Huge 50 foot trees were falling in the road and we still walked around all night. It was funny watching everyone walking around and clinging onto poles ha-ha. The wind was so strong that when my comp and I were crossing the street we started to run cuz a car was coming and as we started to run the wind picked up our feet and we both almost fell flat on our faces.I can’t believe Ashley scow got married. That’s so crazy to me. And then Dusty is thinking about getting engaged? What the heck? What’s going on with this world?This week was so good. We actually had a slow start. I went on exchanges with the American Sign Language missionaries cuz they’re in our zone. I got to go to Manhattan with them because that’s where they have church. It was a lot of fun. We were struggling to get some lessons in the beginning of the week and I was stressing out. We started filling up our days towards the end of the week and had an OUTSTANDING day yesterday at church.We had 7 investigators at church again. I was so shocked that we had all those people at church 2 weeks in a row. It was a long day having to go to 3 hours of Spanish and then 3 hours of English church but it was so awesome. We have this lady who’s in her 50's from Haiti that we’ve been teaching. We went to pick her up for church last week and she brought her 12 yr old grandson. He loved it and was asking me during our lesson with him this week if he could go to church again. He came and we committed him and his grandma for baptism next Sunday so they’re supposed to be going down. It’ll be sweet having those 2 baptisms. We are also teaching these 2 girls from Haiti that speaks perfect English. They weren’t progressing at all at the beginning of the transfer. We thought they liked us more than church but we had such a great lesson with them during the week. We watched the restoration DVD and one of the girls starts taking notes, and she recited the whole story afterwards. She might be the best investigator I’ve had. Their names are Gabriel and Charma. Gabriel is 19 and Charma is 12. They went to church and we went to their house afterwards to eat with them. Charma told us she wanted to go to the ward temple trip for baptisms for the dead April 1st but she was so sad cuz she knows you have to be baptized to be a member and go. She said she was already baptized in another church and knows you can’t be baptized twice. We were so stoked to tell her that that’s true; you can only be baptized one time, but in the true church. We told them we would explain more and how they can go to the temple. I hope they can get baptized as well; it would be such a good transfer. We are also teaching 3 French people that came to church and are working on getting an answer from one of them to see if they’re going to get married so they can both get baptized or split up to get baptized. They want to get baptized so badly, but the lady is iffy on getting married cuz the guy hasn’t always been so faithful, but since meeting with the missionaries he’s changed. They were supposed to tell us what they are going to do yesterday but we didn’t have time to be alone with them and talk.The other French lady is so good and called us last night to make sure we were coming over this week to teach her. I think shell get baptized for sure. The work is awesome right now. It’s never been so good. We had our zone meeting on Friday with everyone and it went well. We are trying to get our zone to step it up; nobody has anyone real great right now except the ASL program. It’ll progress here as long as we have good attitudes. I love you all and thank you for all your support.
Have a great week,
Elder Breinholt

March 1, 2010

2010-04-15T18:50:00.002-07:00

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

February 22, 2010

2010-04-15T18:50:00.001-07:00

Hey!
Well I got the good news just like you all did. I’m gonna be an uncle. I’m so stoked, but I won’t be home to see the baby born or to see Katie get fat. Craig and Kristin better get to it themselves so the little kid has someone to play with ha-ha.I can’t believe Blair jacked his shoulder. How did that happen? Lets just say at least I know how he feels ha-ha I’ve been there a couple times before, it’s so much fun.This last week was pretty normal as the work goes. The office called us Wednesday morning and said they were bringing us a new car in an hour. They showed up an hour later with a 2010 Subaru. It was better than Christmas!We have just been teaching the same investigators and some aren’t doing too well anymore, but we have a couple new investigators who are progressing well.We had our restoration musical again Saturday. I made tickets and fliers a month ago and then set everything up and made programs Saturday morning. We called all the leaders in the ward and told them to call all the members. The English ward went at 5 o'clock on Saturday and only 20-25 people showed up. Unfortunately their’s, wasn’t that great. At 6:30 we started ours in Spanish and we had over 90 people that came. That’s basically everyone that comes to church on Sundays, it was incredible! We all did our parts, I taught the apostasy and sang the last song with the child prodigy Elder Call who came in to play the piano cuz he’s ridiculous. We sang “Praise to the Man” and it went really well. The members loved the fireside. I want to do it when I go home for the ward. After the fireside we had a big Spanish party with dinner and dancing. The bishop said he’s never seen so many people come to an activity in that ward, he was really impressed.In church the next day we had over 120 people which is another HUGE number at church. Lots of people came from the fireside which was lots of actives and less actives. We were able to get a couple member referrals due to people that brought their friends so hopefully we can visit them this week and help them come to church next week.I was able to confirm Melvin a member of the church and give him the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting. It was an amazing experience. He also received the priesthood later on. It was a great day at church. We got a new ward mission correlater a couple weeks ago and he’s so excited about missionary work and is going to help us SOO much. The work is gonna progress so much in this ward, I’m excited to see what happens. The bishop is ridiculous and almost impossible to get along with, all the members dislike him and I am trying really hard to love him. He makes it a little difficult for less actives to come back due to offending lots of people, but we just keep doing what we have to do I guess. This week we get transfer calls, I’m gonna be so mad if president takes my comp or I out of here. I told him to please leave us together at least one more transfer and then he can do what he wants so I guess we'll see what happens. So last night we and the sisters went to a member’s house to eat and have a little family night. There was also another family there, so about 20 people. We ate, and then had a lesson and everyone said they wanted to show us a game called muertito. Which I guess a bad translation to that word is ‘little dead person”. So everyone suggested that my comp and I were the little muertitos. They laid pillows on the floor and told us to lay on our backs. They then covered us with a sheet and about 3 blankets over our heads so we couldn’t see. They then started taking measurements of our bodies. Our hands, arms, head, feet, and leg. We had no idea what was going on and had to pretend like we were dead. They were just yelling out all sorts of measurements and lifted up our legs. All the sudden we felt water go down our whole leg and filled up our pants. They ended up lifting out legs up in the air, and pouring a whole cup of water down our suit pants ha-ha. We couldn’t believe it! We were in shock! I guess the joke was on us last night but it was funny.I hope everything’s great at home. I can’t believe Ashley is getting married, that’s so nuts. Everything’s great out here though, we're having a good time and working hard to build this place up. I’m loving the work and learning more and more everyday. I love the gospel and have learned the importance of it. My testimony of the church is stronger than ever and I just wish others could see how true the gospel is. I really don’t understand how people don’t see it. I love you all and hope you have a great week, Love Elder D. Breinholt

February 16, 2010

2010-04-15T18:49:00.004-07:00

2/16/10Hey everyone! Well as you know I didn’t email yesterday due to president’s day and the library being closed so I’m doing it real quick right now during our break. I’m sure mom was wondering why I didn’t email, but don’t worry I’m still alive and everything’s great. That’s cool that the movie I saw being filmed here last summer is coming out, but ill probably never see it. It’s snowing right now which stinks. We got a couple feet of snow last week, and all of it in one day. We didn’t stay inside however like we probably should. We went around and shoveled snow all day for investigators and random people on the street. A couple Elders in a different area called us and told us one of their members were talking to this little old lady at the post office and she would get baptized if we would just show up at her house to shovel her driveway. Hearing this, we flew over to her house and I knocked on the front door, as I had my shovel in my hand. I started speaking in Spanish because I thought she was Spanish but she wasn’t. She didn’t really respond too well and she started thinking I didn’t speak English. She was communicating to me in broken English like I was some little child that didn’t understand. I couldn’t tell her I spoke English cuz I would of broke her heart as she was crying and pointing to her tears and trying to communicate to me as if I were a Spanish person. It was the funniest thing. I felt bad but she was sooo appreciative of the work we did and we handed her off to the English sisters. We had a blast rallying around the good old mission car.Last Thursday we had zone conference with 2 zones and president. It was all about faith. It definitely strengthened my faith and knowledge that we can do anything according to our faith. The big thing in the mission is the 800 baptisms for the year. Doubling last years. It’s been a struggle as we obviously aren’t where we need to be. Its not just gonna change right away, but its going to take time and a lot of change in ourselves. We have progressed a lot though and we will reach our goal by next November. We have been finding some new investigators that are doing awesome. We couldn’t get anyone but Melvin to church which was a bummer but people will come. We have had a few member referrals this past week which is awesome and we're going to meet with those people this week. The members are starting to like us and help us out in the work. On Sunday Melvin was baptized and it was awesome. Elder Kerby my comp baptized him. It was his first baptism on the mission and was a great experience for the both of us. For some reason baptisms are a lot of stress. Between making the programs, assigning everyone to do things and putting everything together, but it’s more than worth it to see someone make a covenant with God to follow him and his son Jesus Christ. Melvin bore his testimony afterwards and like always the spirit had witnessed the importance of baptism. I sang the rainbow song in Spanish at the baptism. It was a last minute thing.Everything is awesome right now. The area is sweet and our pool is getting better and better. We are getting the ward more excited about missionary work as they haven’t seen baptisms for I think 8 months but we're gonna change that here. I love the work and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. The island is awesome, and I really don’t want to go back to the city ha-ha. We're just living the dream out here. I love you all and thanks for all your support. I hope you all had a happy valentines day! Love, Elder D Breinholt

February 8, 2010

2010-04-15T18:49:00.003-07:00

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

February 1, 2010

2010-04-15T18:49:00.001-07:00

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

NEW PHOTOS!

2010-01-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2010

2010-01-20T16:40:00.004-08:00

Hey!I’m so jealous you guys are up in the snow and went boarding. That's the hardest part of the winter is being in the cold and not doing the things I normally do but its been more fun here, a different kind of fun ha. I want to see some pictures though; it’s been some time since I got some. I want to see the new cabin, Sounds pretty cool.I survived this week. We had interviews on Tuesday with president, which went very well. He didn’t tell me if I was leaving or anything because he didn’t know yet. He called me Thursday night and told me I would be leaving and I would be going to Brentwood! It’s in Long Island. I’m so stoked. I finally get a car, and it’s the perfect time for that because January-march are the coldest months and I won’t have to suffer anymore ha-ha.I’m also pretty bummed though because I love this ward and the people sooo much. It was so hard saying bye to all them yesterday. They’re all like a family. It’s interesting how different English and Spanish wards are. English wards back home function so well and almost everyone fulfills their callings. The Spanish wards don’t function as well but they have their own positive side. The Spanish wards and branches are always one big family and they love missionaries. I told these 2 old ladies who are sisters that I was leaving and they both started crying and hugging me. Ha-ha it was so cute.My patience has been tested a lot this transfer with my companion. I’m proud to say we never argued or fought. I’ve learned more than ever when to bite my tongue and let stupid things go. It’s been hard but every companion teaches you something important. I also realized that as my companion thinks he’s always right, so do I. Everyone always thinks they’re right all the time so I’ve learned a lot of humility and love. We had an amazing combined district meeting on Friday. The district leaders were in charge of everything and we did workshops and put ideas together. We shared the importance of member work and how to do it. Often times we get taught things and missionaries are expected to know how to do them. We don’t, that’s why we don’t do a lot of things. We did a bunch of practices that brought the spirit really strong. We just sat down with someone we don’t know so well in the zone and talked. One person would try to get to know the other by asking questions and just listening. When the time was right and when they felt they could help the person they would share a scripture or a message that they felt the person needed. Preach my gospel says that if we talk to someone wanting to know who they are and listen, something they say will ALWAYS highlight a principle of the gospel of which you can share more. Often times we go into members homes share a scripture and ask for referrals and it doesn’t work. However, if we go in and talk to them, show love for them and interest in their lives, then share something that will meet their needs, they’ll feel trust in us and will feel the spirit and want to help out missionary work. We are still working with most of the same investigators. Someone I’ve been working with for a while named Jonathon, is from Peru and finally came to church. He loved it! He isn’t married to his girlfriend and they have a kid, but he said next week he's gonna bring her. I told him the next time I come back to the ward I want him to be a member and he said he wants to get baptized real soon. We also have the Dominican Melvin who is still the man. He will get baptized this transfer, when he quits his job cuz he doesn’t need the one where he works on Sundays. He'll get baptized for sure. He’s been living the word of wisdom since we taught him and takes the B.O.M on the train to work with him. He’s the coolest guy I’ve met on my mission and I’m bummed I’m leaving and can’t see his baptism but its all good. As long as he goes down, that’s what matters.Well I know who my new comp. is too. His name is Elder Kerby and his family lives in Tyson’s ward. They moved in like 6 months ago. He’s a good guy; we're pretty close already so it’ll be a fun transfer. I've learned a lot from Elder Lee and ready to take what I’ve learned and help out the ward where I’m going. They have about 70 people at church a week and should have almost double that. I’ve been in the good and bad wards now and will do what I can and put to practice what I’ve learned. I’m gonna have more sisters in my district and I’m not too happy about that ha-ha, but it’s all a learning experience. Being in leadership has made me have different thoughts about a lot of sister missionaries, they cause a lot of drama.I’m bummed to leave the house I’m in and all the guys. It’s been sooo much fun I can’t even tells you. I’ve become best friends with a lot of the guys here. I was able to teach the wife and kids of Angel who I baptized a couple transfers ago. We haven’t been able to teach his wife for the whole transfer but we did last week. The lesson was Amazing! We brought a member and the spirit was so strong it was an awesome lesson. We taught the plan of salvation and I know she will get baptized. She will take some time but I don’t think it’ll be too long. I’m praying that she does get baptized because Angel is one of the most humble loving guys I’ve ever met in my life. He'd give me the only shirt of his back if I asked him for it. Every time we go there he feeds us terrible Puerto Rican food and I want to puke but he is so proud to give it to us and it’s all he has. I always just tell him he should open up a restaurant cuz he’s an awesome chef. It’s not true but he loves it ha-ha. Time is flying, and I’m loving every minute of it here. I’m learning so many things that I never thought I would. The mission has really helped me to become a better person and has changed my views and outlook on a lot of things. The gospel really is true and does bring happiness. Happiness that I didn’t think I could have before the mission. This life is so short and we need to better ourselves while we're here and do all we can to continually learn and progress. Thanks for all you do I love you. Elder Breinholt

January 11, 2010

2010-01-20T16:40:00.003-08:00

Hey everyone!Man, this week flew right by. I don’t even remember what I did, it’s all a blur. The week went really well though, cold of course but got to deal with it. Complaining about the cold wont change a thing, it’s all mental anyways ha-ha. We spent a lot of time looking for new investigators and have dropped a few old ones because they have blockers that they can’t overcome. The mission is hard when it comes to dropping people. You know they need the gospel so bad and it will help them with all their problems but they just can’t see it from the point of view that we have as members. I get so frustrated because I just want people to be happy living the gospel and they will never find that happiness anywhere else.I was able to go to the temple for my year mark. I went with 16 missionaries. It was the most incredible experience. I forgot over the last 10 month the feeling in the temple. There is a spirit that is felt in the temple that is not felt ANYWHERE ELSE on earth. I have felt the spirit everyday since the MTC but it isn’t the same. I’ve had many spiritual experiences and seen miracles, but it isn’t the same. There’s just that feeling in the temple that can be felt in every temple and it’s the spirit of the lord’s house. My testimony of the gospel was strengthened even more just going and helping other people makes such great covenants with the lord. I think that we should be able to go every couple months. I think it’s weird that we are held back from doing service in the temple but twice in 2 years. It just doesn’t seem right to me. It was an awesome experience though, I enjoyed it a lot, and Manhattan was cool too ha. We are still trying to get our good investigators to church.It has been so difficult this transfer for some reason. I’m just trying to work hard and I have a companion that is negative about everything but doesn’t have ideas to change things. He’s frustrating but we have never fought. I’ve kinda learned to deal with things and people better. Its awesome being able to learn from each companion and build up who I am and who I want to become. It’s stressful not having a baptism this transfer. It kills me, but I know that I’m doing my best. This is the last week of the transfer, which I can’t believe. I just want to find some new investigators that are prepared so if incase I leave I left the place with a pool. I think I might be going to long island but I guess we will see. I hope everyone is doing well.My message to the world is just CHILL. Everyone gets so caught up in the little things and so caught up in the world and loses sight of what’s really important. Why are we here in the first place? We are here to have JOY. It’s so simple. Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have (JOY). We forget about that all the time. So the world needs to just CHILL and just live life and be happy. Don’t lose sight of what’s important. That’s all I have to say though. I love you all have an awesome week, Elder Breinholt P.S.We also had a Holland TV crew in our pad filming all of us this morning. They are following the zone leaders around today for some TV show on what 20 year olds are doing around the world and they decided to come here and film missionaries. One of the ZL’s is from Europe so that’s why they’re following them but it was weird this morning but cool.

January 4, 2009

2010-01-20T16:40:00.001-08:00

Well hey everyone!Sounds like the trip was a lot of fun. Everything except the car ride. Mom’s email explained the whole week and made me wish I was there but it’s ok. One more year right? I miss snowmobiling a lot; it’ll be cool to do it next winter. It’s freezing here, Oh man, this week was rough. It snowed a little bit but it’s been dropping in temperature. It was 18 degrees over the weekend and tons of wind which was terrible. It was a little hard walking around for a few hours with these conditions. I don’t have a binni so my ears were about to fall off. I guess ill invest in one of those. I was sick for the first part of the week. So much for the flu shot I got a couple months ago. They don’t work, it’s a fluke. I got really bad body aches, migraines, and chills for a few days but, I’m a lot better now. I tried to go out and work Monday night but was gonna pass out so I came home and got a blessing. I rested Tuesday morning but worked from then on. I feel lazy if I stay home, even if I’m sick. Our best investigator Melvin, the Dominican, can’t get baptized. He started working for Bishop and we thought he only had to work one Sunday, but he has to work every Sunday. Pretty lame to me. I have always heard church and family before everything else. Our bishop has work first and as much as I wanted to tell him how I thought, I can’t. Bishop said he will have to work for a while on Sunday and will have to get baptized in the future. I was pretty upset but got to deal with it. The Puerto Rican, Gomez, says he’s moving to Boston this week cuz his brother in law has work for him and a place to stay for free. He isn’t working here so says he’s going. We have a couple good investigators, but the problem like always is getting people to church. We try, and they say they'll come, but church now starts at 9 which made it worse. Spanish people are sometimes lazy so it’s a little more difficult to get them there now, but the prepared will make their way there. Not too much is new. We're just working and not trying to freeze out here ha-ha. I’m having a lot of fun though and trying to become more like Christ. It’s hard to change but it happens little by little. I get to go to the temple this Friday! I’m so stoked. I haven’t been since last March so I’m ready to go. I’ve been waiting for the year mark temple trip, its gonna be so awesome. Everything is great though and now I have full energy and health again we're gonna kill it this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Elder Breinholt

December 28, 2009

2010-01-20T16:39:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,I don’t have much to say ha-ha I just spoke with you all. I just want to thank everyone for the Christmas cards and for the presents. I thought Christmas on the mission would be a depressing experience but it was the opposite. It was so good. We got fed 3 times on Christmas day, watched a cool missionary DVD and talked to the family. It was nice living with 10 missionaries. It made things exciting. We met with one of our investigators on Saturday. His name is Melvin, this is a funny story. We were gonna baptize a guy named Gomez a week ago but due to some things he can’t get baptized right now. The baptism was announced in the ward and everyone knew. Melvin’s last name is Gomez also and he’s a 22 yr old Dominican, coolest guy ever too! His wife is a member but she can’t come to church due to work. He has been coming by himself to church and loves it. Two weeks ago at church everyone thought it was him that was getting baptized and going up to him at church saying congrats. He just thought to himself, isn’t this my decision? However he just went along with it. We called him last Sunday to tell him church was cancelled and he said he was so relieved cuz he thought he was getting baptized that day. He told us the story on Saturday and we were dying laughing. He totally thought he was gonna get baptized. We told him that it was another guy and everything was clear. He has been looking for a job for a while and our bishop gave him a job last week. He had to work on Sunday and couldn’t come to work. Yeah kinda weird, bishop giving a job and has to work on Sunday? Oh well. We don’t know if he has to work all Sundays, hopefully not, if so ill talk to bishop. Melvin is ready for baptism and wants to get baptized. When he doesn’t have to work he will go down. Church was really good yesterday. It’s been 2 weeks since we've been so it was nice to see everyone. We have a really cool ward. The sister had been teaching this guy named Gerardo. Every week at church I would sit with him and talk to him. I taught him a couple times me because he lives with a member in our area. We became pretty good friends. He asked me to baptize him but I told him no. I wanted his cousin to do it who is a convert of 1 year and is a 40 year old guy. Gerardo didn’t want him to do it and told me he wanted me to baptize him. I ended up baptizing him yesterday. It was a really great experience. The feeling of helping that person reach salvation is incredible. Its awesome being able to perform such a sacred ordinance; the spirit is always so strong.Not too much new is going on. We have been playing soccer in the basement of the church every morning at 6:30 for morning exercise. My comp stays in bed till late though so I go with a couple other Elders. It gets me up and ready for the day. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It is a better experience being able to focus more on Christ. Being able to enter into the houses of members and investigators and sharing a message of our savior. Focusing on Christ helped me to feel of his love more on Christmas. I was able to try and share that love with others. All you at home are pretty fortunate getting to spend time with the family together. People here don’t have that privilege. Most had to work or members of their families. It’s not as big of a deal over here to people because they can’t afford to take off work, it’s just another day. Be grateful for all you have and give thanks everyday. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Love,Elder Breinholt

December 21, 2009

2009-12-21T19:35:00.001-08:00

Hello,

I can’t believe Christmas is coming so soon. I will be calling around 1 I think but I can’t be on the phone forever so everyone’s got to be there. I want to talk to everyone and don’t want to wait for a long time. Lots of missionaries will talk for hours but we're supposed to keep it reasonable so if you can try to get everyone there at one time at least by 1:30 .Well this week has been fast, It flew right by. I honestly don’t even know what I did. Our baptismal commit Gomez didn’t go through. He was doing so well and then got all sketchy. We just had a weird feeling about him. We went over to check up on him and he had been smoking. He told us how he stopped smoking after the word of wisdom lesson but started up again due to many problems he is facing. His autistic kid in Puerto Rico is in the hospital and he has no job and no money. He can’t go back or the gangs will kill him. He’s thinking about suicide and is really depressed so he turned to smoking again; It’s terrible. We tried to help him, gave him a blessing, and did all we could. He wants to get baptized so badly but is struggling right now. It’s frustrating but its life I guess. We had the ward Christmas party on Friday, it was so cool. We had a few investigators there and they loved it. We had a huge dinner like always with Hispanics, and then the primary kids acted out the nativity scene. After that Santa came. Yeah no joke he came to our wards activity crazy huh? He had 2 snowman helpers instead of elves and they gave wrapped gifts to all the children there. Even the ones that never come to church, only the activities. I hate that by the way. There are always so many people at the activities that are never seen at church. Its only cause there's free food. So I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard about the snow here in the east. Oh boy it’s been fun to do missionary work in. Saturday it snowed all day. We got about 2 feet by Sunday morning. I got a call at 1130 Friday night from a counselor in the bishopric saying church was cancelled. Isn’t that weird? First time in my life I didn’t go to church and I wasn’t sick. It was so weird though, just another day doing missionary work. We were able to visit lots of people so it was really nice. It has been so cold and my feet have been wet for the past couple days but I’m too lazy to carry boots around and I don’t think snow storms are too frequent. It’s not bad after a couple days; most of it starts to melt. I got your package this week. The office elders drove it over to me thankfully. But thanks so much for all the gifts. I loved them; I couldn’t wait to open them. Just kidding, I haven’t opened any yet; I’m waiting till Christmas so I have something to open. We have a mission conference this Thursday which will be fun. Friday I have no idea what to do. It’ll definitely be a weird day but its ok life goes on. It’s the only holiday that I haven’t been gone for, besides new years.I’m kinda bummed out I don’t get to go snowmobiling though. I hate being in the snow now all day and not snowboarding or snowmobiling. It’s hard, but this is the last winter. I got everyone’s Christmas cards this week. Thanks so much everyone. Its nice getting mail again ha-ha. Everything is going well with the work. We're still working hard and trying to get a few of our good investigators to make the leap towards baptism. There are a couple really close ones. It stinks we didn’t have church cuz a couple investigators that needed to come were going to but its ok there’s always this week. Even though Christmas will be different not being home and all but I know I’m doing what needs to be done.I’m celebrating the real meaning of Christmas sharing the story of Christ's birth.

I love you all and hope you have a great Christmas.

Elder Breinholt

December 14, 2009

2009-12-14T11:14:00.001-08:00

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

New Pictures

2009-12-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

December 7, 2009

2009-12-07T20:59:00.001-08:00

Well hello,
The winter has really come. It’s freezing now! It started snowing on us Friday night and has been raining too, but the wind is pretty rough. The week has been awesome but stressful.I heard before transfer calls who will be my next companion starting Tuesday and it has been weighing on me. He’s an Asian and he doesn’t speak Chinese and is coming from that program. He doesn’t speak Spanish too well from what I hear but will be finishing the last 2 transfers of his mission here in Midwood. From all the stories I’ve heard from everyone in the mission that’s called me, he’s probably the most disobedient missionary in the mission and will be junior companion ending his mission. It will not be easy but I guess I’ll take it as a learning experience. There are 4 missionaries that just got here last transfer that are leaving already. One of the zone leaders and I are the only ones staying. Another sign language companionship are coming in to our house with the other ASL Elders so I’m getting kicked out of my room and going in the hall of the workout room. The ASL Elders are there to stay for their whole missions so it makes sense. It will be a very interesting transfer though. We had interviews with president last week and he said he trusts me so he’s putting me with this companion to push him along. Even though I'm not in the mood to do that for another transfer as I just did that last transfer, life goes on.We have been teaching some great people lately and I think will have a baptism in 2 weeks. Not totally sure yet, but he’s the most amazing guy. Has a terrible past in Puerto Rico. He was in gangs, did every terrible thing you can imagine and watched his friends kill many people. He's the most repentant person that there is and wants to be baptized as soon as possible. His wife and daughter are members in Puerto Rico so he knows the church a little. We have a couple other people that are progressing but it’s difficult to get them to church. Most of the Spanish people struggle with the economy and it’s hard to get work being illegal. They work 7 days a week or work for the Jews which mean they work Sundays. Its rough, but the Lord does prepare people. We had the confirmation of Ashley Garcia yesterday which was awesome. I don’t have much time do to the internet conditions today. Everything is going great. I got the package mom, thanks so much, can’t wait to decorate....ha-ha it’ll be fun right? We're still working hard, or at least I'm trying and my companion follows ha-ha but I’m just gonna go into next transfer with a good attitude cuz I know at the end I’ll learn something from it. I love you all and thank you for your support. I hope everyone was able to watch the Christmas devotional yesterday. It was really good. Don’t stress out, just enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

Love, Elder Breinholt

November 30, 2009

2009-11-30T20:37:00.001-08:00

Hey,
This week has been stressful but awesome. It was thanksgiving but to tell you the truth, it was just like any other day ha-ha. We ate at a member’s home on Wednesday night and didn’t eat turkey because the majority of Hispanics don’t like it; they say it’s too dry, so we ate pork shoulder instead. It was good. We went over to a less actives house with the other elders on Thanksgiving Day and ate some spanish rice, beef, and turkey. Oh man it was awesome. We then worked the rest of the day and actually had a lot of lessons. It sounds like you all had fun at the cabin. I’m not gonna lie, it crossed my mind as I was walking around that at that moment everyone was probably riding motorcycles and razors. IT was a little depressing but no I know this is way better. We got to do a little turkey bowl Thursday morning. We played with the missionaries in our zone and a couple members from an English ward. It was all muddy and wet but way fun. The weather was really nice on thanksgiving but then became terrible the rest of the week. I have encountered the devil, the wind here. Sunday we had the baptism of Ashley Garcia. The little 10 year old girl. It went a lot better than I expected. She was really scared before the baptism cuz she’s terrified of water and didn’t want to go under. I told her shut your mouth and let’s do this ha-ha. I didn’t really say that but I wanted to. I had to dunk her twice cuz she resisted the first time and didn’t go all the way under. It was a really spiritual baptism which was great. I was also trying to help get the fireside ready that we had Sunday night. It was a musical of the restoration. The English ward did theirs right before we did ours in Spanish, so I got to see how it worked and make it a little better. It was honestly the most spiritual, short, and powerful fireside I’ve been to. Each missionary went up and read a principle from the restoration pamphlet and then the child prodigy, Elder Call who came from another area to play the piano and sing a song to each principle. I’ve never heard anyone play so well, he’s ridiculous.I was able to explain the apostasy and had to teach it not read it because it one of the most important parts to the restoration. We dimmed all the lights to begin with and turned all of them off in the chapel when I went up to the pulpit to teach tithe apostasy. The only light was on me and I taught the intro to Joseph Smith until the vision and sat down. Then the projector came down and the restoration movie came on and only showed the vision while Elder Call played the piano to it. After a Sister missionary got up and all the lights went on in the room and she taught the book of Mormon and testified of Joseph Smith as the piano was going on in the background. Then I jumped up and Elder Call and I sang praise to the man. We only practiced it once beforehand and it went really well. The fireside lasted about 40 minutes but it was so perfect. We'll probably do it again in a few months so now members know it is awesome and will tell their friends to come the second time. Transfers are next week and I think my companion is going to a car area cuz of his back problems and they will have only 4 Spanish missionaries in our area again because 6 is too much for the number of Spanish people we have in the areas. I will probably stay here for the next transfer and we have some people progressing towards baptism so it will be great. Everything is going awesome and I’m excited for the last week of the transfer. It’s gone by so fast and one more transfer and ill be at my year mark. Its so crazy how fast the time has gone by. The work is great and I love it.
I love you guys and thanks for your support,
Love,Elder Breinholt

November 16, 2009

2009-11-16T11:12:00.002-08:00

Hey!

This past week wasn’t too special. We did have zone conference which was amazing. All 4 of the zones meet together, so basically that’s half the mission. I think zone conference pushes me through each transfer to work hard. Right when I start to get tired its zone conference again and it pumps me up. It went all day long, but I learned a lot. We have been working hard everyday just trying to talk to people. We literally talk to every single Spanish person we see. We have a big area but the Spanish are in one little area so when we do see them we definitely stop them. It makes for some pretty long days and nights but it’s still good. We are getting some more investigators. We don’t really have anyone too amazing yet. We have that one guy that read the whole book of Mormon still won’t make a baptismal date. He says he isn’t prepared but he is. Our Thursday night was one of the roughest nights ha-ha it was awesome though. It builds character. Everyone we tried to talk to rejected us so hard but it was fun. I saw this kid punch his pretty little girlfriend in the street so I told him what I thought about that. It was a rough night and that just added to it. New York has made me hate people that beat their spouse and children. We had an awesome experience with a less active family. The ones I talked about who came to church last week for the first time in 5 years. We went over there again and had another amazing lesson. We talked for a while and to be honest we went over there not knowing what to teach. I usually teach most of the lessons cuz my companion still doesn’t know what to share and doesn’t feel comfortable. I just said a prayer in my heart and asked for some insight of what to share with this inactive couple. We started talking and then I decided after a while to share some of the atonement of Christ. I had them open up to Mathew in the bible and read about Christ’s suffering in the garden of Gethsemane. I told them that often time’s people only look at the suffering on the cross but don’t realize the greatness of the suffering on the Mount of Olives. We then went and read where Christ got beaten, mocked, and crowned with thorns. Something interesting about that whole deal is he was beat with 39 stripes. Well why not 40? Because if it were 40 times he would have been forgiven for whatever he had done and let go. This was the law back then because no man could endure 40 lashings without dying, but Christ could. Thus, the atonement wouldn’t have been completed. However, he was beaten with 39. We then read about when Christ was nailed on the cross in mark. He cries out to god and says why hast thou forsaken me? We talked about that and bore testimony on the power of the atonement. It was awesome. They then afterwards promised me they would be active in the church from now on. They had started reading the b.o.m again last week and are ready to come back to church. I taught a big lesson in district meeting on the atonement, so I was prepared for that lesson.We had stake conference yesterday and it was nice. It was in another part of town so no investigators were at church. This week is crucial to getting investigators at church or they can’t get baptized this transfer. I’m hoping we have some more success. My companion is having back problems so he can’t walk fast, it stinks but it’s all good. Everything sounds like its great at home. It’s getting a little cold here. I love you all and thank you for all your support.
Have a great week.

Love,Elder Breinholt

November 9, 2009

2009-11-16T11:12:00.001-08:00

Hey,How’s everyone doing? Cory got 5th in state? Haha that’s what I got my junior year. That’s funny. Tell him good job, and I bet he's glad that’s over with. Soccer would be sweet, tell him to do it, I wish I would have. Not too much happened this week. It was kind of a blur to me to tell you the truth. We work in the same area all week long, because it’s the only area that has Spanish people, and then at night time there is nobody outside except Russians. All the Spanish hate the cold and are nowhere to be found. We now know our area pretty well and are walking a ton just searching for people. I was going through the ward list trying to look up less actives we could visit in our area and found an older couple. We called them, made and appointment, and visited them Saturday night. Turns out this couple hasn’t been to church in 5 yrs or more. The husband still has a strong testimony, and says there is no reason why they don’t go. They get ready to go to church some days and then at the last minute get a bad feeling and end up not going.I shared some good scriptures in mosiah when King Benjamin is talking to his people giving his farewell speech. They mentioned they want to get sealed in the temple and they always have. They just for some reasons can’t make it to church. We had a powerful lesson and at the end they said see you tomorrow. The sister missionaries had always visited them in the past and they always said they would go to church, but never did. I told the sisters we visited them and they said yeah right, they won’t come. Ends up the older couple actually came to church. The first time in over 5 years. It was really cool to see them there and say they plan on coming back. I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I guess my bluntness comes in handy?We have a few investigators that are doing well. We were going through the area book with all former investigators a couple weeks ago and called all of them to get some appointments. We didn’t have any success, Last week a guy calls us and tells us sorry I couldn’t make it to church, I’ll come next week. I didn’t know who he was so I looked through the area book to see if his name was in there and it was, his name is Marcial.We scheduled an appt Saturday and went over with a member. We had a no show and left a message. He ended up calling us back and set another appt for last night. We went over there and he was there this time. We sat down, said a prayer, got to know him a bit, and then he pulls out the book of Mormon and the bible. He started teaching us about the book of Mormon and about all the prophets in it. He had read the entire thing and had all the verses marked and sticky notes throughout the book. He put in down and told us it goes hand in hand with the bible and supports everything it says. He had a baptismal date in July, as to what the records stated and he told us the sisters pushed him towards baptism and he didn’t even know what it was. He has been studying the book of Mormon for 5 months now and says; now I know why I need baptism. I need repentance and it’s through baptism. I will get baptized in your church. I committed him for the 29th of November but he said he doesn’t feel ready. We tried to tell him he is ready, he is more prepared than anyone I've ever seen but he said he needs a couple months. We read a lot of scriptures and our member we brought kinda ruined it for us. He’s a good member but handles things the wrong way. He would have accepted for the 29th but our member, or mission leader, killed the spirit. I tried to bring it back and then told him to pray and ask if he should be baptized the 29th. He wasn’t too excited about it but I'm praying he does it. I’m excited to see what happens with him. I guess he’s been to church in the past a few times so he can get baptized anytime, we just need him to feel more prepared which is why we're here and he will get to know that. Other than that there isn’t too much that’s new. My companion and I are getting along great. He’s a good guy and is starting to open up a little bit. He still gets home during lunch and at night and passes out when his head hits the pillow. I’m trying to work him hard, it’s pretty funny. He's already lost 10 pounds the past 2 week’s ha-ha. I love it. All is good and I’m excited for this week to see some more miracles. I’m learning allot more about the scriptures and trying to expand my knowledge of the gospel. I now have memorized over 50 scriptures in Spanish which helps a lot. The mission gave us 50 scriptures to memorize and nobody really does it but I’ve been making my district learn one a week and I’ve been trying my whole mission. Some are really long but I finally did it. My testimony is getting strengthened everyday. I never ever thought I would have such a strong testimony or even have such a close relationship with the lord. I guess that’s what happens when you go on a mission. I love you all and hope you have a great week.Elder Breinholt

November 2, 2009

2009-11-16T11:11:00.005-08:00

Hey,This week I received my new companion, straight from the good old MTC. His name is elder Tyrrell and he’s from Utah. He is completely opposite from my past two companions that had so much energy and were like me in every way. He is not but I guess ill learn a lot and learn a whole lot of the importance of charity and love. He is a great guy and I’m trying to work him hard. He is having a little trouble keeping up. I’m used to walking pretty fast and he isn’t but too bad for him ha-ha. He’s gonna get used to it I guess.We have been searching our new area this week looking for Spanish people. To our surprise we have Spanish people only in Coney Island and nowhere else. It’s going to be difficult but I guess I will get to know the area REALLY well the next few months. I think we will be together for another transfer after this one. It was a hard week with not a whole ton of lessons because there aren’t a whole lot of Hispanics but the lord blessed us. We were walking one night in an area called Brighton beach looking for Spanish apartments and walked passed a sign that sign that said, "room for rent" in Spanish. I totally didn’t realize it was in Spanish and kept on walking. Thanks to my new greeny companion he said hey that sign is in Spanish. I turned around and said; yeah you’re right ha I didn’t notice. We went to the building and knocked on the door. A guy answered and immediately said come in. I was in shock, that doesn’t happen often. Actually that never happens. We went in and taught the restoration to him and his girlfriend he lives with. They were really good and we're going back this week to teach them again. We had a couple other cool experiences this week. We started our mission commitment of 800 baptisms for the year. It’s going to be so awesome. It might take a while before all the mission gets on board. There are still a few missionaries here that shouldn’t be on missions, they just don’t have a desire to do anything but we will hit the goal no matter what. The old culture of the mission is slowly dying and being replaced with awesome missionaries. We confirmed Angel a member of the church yesterday. He is such a good guy. He lives right on the boarder of my area and elder Einerson and his new companion’s area. We flipped a coin to see who gets to teach angel and his wife and kids. Elder Einerson won. It stinks but whatever, there’s tons of people prepared that we are going to find. We had our first district meeting of the transfer. It went really well. We set goals in our district for baptisms. Our zone needs to have 11 baptisms per transfer to hit the 800 goal in the mission. There are 16 missionaries in our zone and 12 in my district so basically all those need to come from my district. The theme I chose for the transfer is, “The word is Urgency, and the time is now." I chose that because our goal for baptisms in the mission started the 1st of November, yesterday, so we need to start working and changing right now. I shared a few stories from the bible such as David and goliath and how David didn’t merely walk towards goliath or jog, but he ran towards him with faith and conquered. The time was urgent and the time to act was right then. I’m excited for this next year. Its gonna be an awesome year with allot of miracles.We don’t have a whole lot of people to teach right now because we started out with nothing, but we will have some good investigators by the end of the week and keep working hard. This is a challenge for me right now but it’ll all work out for the good. I’ll learn a lot and hopefully become a better missionary.I love you all. Thanks for your support and love,Elder Breinholt

October 27, 2009

2009-11-16T11:11:00.003-08:00

Familia,Well this week was pretty awesome and lots of things happened. We had a lot of lessons and had some good things happen. Angel got baptized yesterday! We got him down baby! We called him last Sunday to schedule an apt but he didn’t answer. We had some time before interviews with president and went over to where Angel works. He works at a huge apartment building and we walked up to the front, and knew we couldn’t get in so we wanted to try to go around back. We were walking away and heard someone yell at us. We turned around and our member was waiving us down with Angel. They work together and just happened to be by the door. They asked if we had time to teach Angel, so we did of course. Angel first asked, “I’m still getting baptized Sunday right?" It was pretty relieving. We had an awesome lesson and then went to interviews with president. They went really well, as always. I love interviews, they always pump me up. President called me Wednesday and asked me if I would train again! I do not want to train again to be honest, but I told him I’d do whatever he wants me to do. I just work here, I don’t make the calls. Training is cool and everything, but I would love a companion who can speak Spanish. It makes everything so much easier, but it'll be a good experience. We found out president added a companionship to our area. We spent Friday morning redesigning the areas for 3 Spanish companionships. I am now getting blinded in, meaning I don’t know the area and will start from scratch. It's going to be a stressful transfer. I also now have 12 people in my district. It'll be awesome. We gave the sisters the best of the 3 areas and then I got the 2nd best and we left the other area which isn’t the best to the new companionship coming in.I received transfer calls last night. Basically the whole zone is staying except for the zone leaders because one of the zone leaders goes back home to Hong Kong. He’s the coolest guy ever by the way. My companion Elder Einerson, who helped with the areas has been here for 4 transfers. This is his first area and was looking forward to leaving. He is staying and going to the crap area! Ha-ha I couldn’t believe it, but its cool cuz we get along great and we'll keep each other from going insane. We workout together pretty hard every night, he was a body builder, so at least I wont get fat. We had to put some beds together this morning and add some new desks and dressers to the house to fit in 2 new Elders. It'll be fun for Halloween though.The baptism was awesome yesterday. Angel is the man. We had our member Julio Vasquez baptize him. It was the coolest experience. He’s kinda a big Puerto Rican guy and so when Julio baptized him he couldn’t lift him back up; Angel fell backwards and nailed his head against the wall so hard. It was so sad but hilarious. He was fine and just laughed but it was interesting.I get my new kid tomorrow and am excited and hoping he is a native. That would be nice. We'll see though. Everything is going well. It'll be a hard week starting with nothing but we'll just talk to everyone we can and I'll be on my knees a whole lot I think ha. I love you all, take care,Elder Breinholt

October 19, 2009

2009-11-16T11:11:00.001-08:00

10-19-09 Hola familia,This past week was awesome. IT is FREEZING Here! Winter has come my friends. The temp is cold but the wind in the city is what kills me. It gets so cold and is getting colder. I’m gonna die this winter! I need you to send me some money so I can buy some winter clothes please. Send small 50/50 garments not medium, but if you already did oh well.I forgot to tell you last week, well I did but it was on the email the got erased but I spoke to Daniel 2 weeks ago. I talked to president at zone conference 2 weeks ago because Daniel got midnight to another area, so he wasn’t in our zone anymore. I called him 2 nights later just to see how he was doing. He told me whats been going on and how he doesn’t want to be on a mission. He got accepted to a school and wants to leave and go there. He got pressured into the Mormon thinking that everyone needed to go on a mission. I just bore him my testimony of how important the mission is and how I don’t know where I would be later in life if I didn’t serve a mission. It will change my life forever. It’s not easy, but we learn by the challenges that face us in life. I told him I know he knows this work is what he needs to do and kept talking for 15 or so minutes. I told him to pray and ask god if he wants him on the mission and if he gets an answer then stay, if not, go home. He then said, "Derek, why did you just call?" I told him I felt the need to call him and see how he was doing. He said he had just got done praying and asking that exact thing. Does god want me here? He then fell asleep and I woke him up by calling. He said he doesn’t think it was any coincidence that I called. It was pretty cool, and I hope he turns his attitude around and stays. I wanted to go home when everything happened with Tay, but I’m sure glad I didn’t. I would have regretted it forever. It still is hard at times but I definitely will be blessed.It is a little more difficult to do missionary work when it’s so cold outside, especially with Hispanics. They do not like the cold, that's for sure. Anyways, earlier in the week, Elder Einerson and I prepared the plan of salvation for our investigator Angel, and practiced the commit for baptism. We went to teach him Tuesday and then member that was supposed to let us into the building to teach and he ditched us so we wasted 1 1/2 hrs. We went back on Thursday and had an awesome lesson. The spirit was so strong and told me commit him, so I did. I testified, promised blessings, and invited him to be baptized the 25th. Right away he says, why not. I feel really good right now and that this is good. I want to go to church so why not? It was an awesome answer. He couldn’t come to church yesterday cuz his family was all sick but we're gonna meet with him this week a couple times and praying he goes down on Sunday. Its last week of the transfer, I think my companion is leaving. He’s been here for 4 transfers but I don’t want him to go. I'm staying in this area for a while I think. President is changing some things around and has put a big load on the district leaders. We have longer district meetings and more to do, but its ok, it’ll be good. He did make a rule that we can do baptisms for the dead with our recent converts.This past Saturday morning we went with a couple members and a recent convert to the Manhattan temple! It was sooo sick! Manhattan is so much cooler than Brooklyn and queens ha-ha. I always wondered why people would want to live in New York, but after going there I know why. I would live in Manhattan. We only walked from the subway and few blocks to the temple, but it was awesome. We were witnesses in the temple for a while. My companion got baptized a few times. I went and did confirmations and then I baptized the recent convert 10 times and then a couple other people. It was all in Spanish which was pretty cool. It was such a good experience. We are allowed to go with recent converts once a transfer so its gonna help people gain that desire to baptize more. Last week before sacrament one of the counselors of the bishopric came up to me and asked if I could give a talk. It was 30 min. before sacrament started. I told him sure I can, on what subject? He told me on the pre-mortal life. Ha-ha kinda a weak subject right? It’s hard to give a talk on the pre earth life, but I got up there and did it. I don’t know how long it was, ten minutes or a little more but it was good Spanish practice.We also got a new bishop yesterday which was good. The ward here is good but needs a lot of help, just as all Spanish wards or branches. Always just a bunch of drama and crap, it will be nice to go back to Gilbert someday. Everything is going great. All the days are just starting to blend together. I’m just hoping and praying angel gets baptized this week and maybe after that his family will follow. He's awesome and prepared, so I’m not too worried. We still don’t have too many investigators but we are literally talking to every Hispanic person that walks by on the streets. The work is always good. It’s a little more difficult to get lessons here than in Ridgewood but we're doing the best we can. I love you all and thanks for your support, love Elder Breinholt

October 12, 2009

2009-11-16T11:10:00.002-08:00

Well I'm mad, I just wrote an entire email and sent it and the computer shut off so it didn’t send. This email is gonna stink cuz I’m too lazy to write a whole other one like I just did, Mom, Sorry it’s so short I just wrote all this. This past week was really interesting. We have been working so hard and having practically no success. I have recently been praying for a miracle for our hard work. My prayers were answered this week. A member brought a friend who is Puerto Rican to conference last week. He loved it and said he will come to church every week. The member lives in our area but the investigator lives in the sister’s area. They were supposed to go teach the guy, his name is Angel, and the member called and said he wants us to teach him, it would be more convenient. So, we went over there and taught a good lesson on the restoration. The guy loved it. We talked about baptism and I’m pretty sure he's going down real soon. He’s so prepared. He came to church and even brought his 9yr old daughter who also loved it. We are meeting again with him tomorrow, hopefully to set a baptismal date. We also have some good investigators that we're gonna visit this week so I’m excited. We had a cool activity Saturday night at the church. Dia de hispanidad. They had dances from each Hispanic country and tons of food from each. It was so amazing. Zone conference was this last week also. We all committed to reach our goal of 800 baptisms, almost double of what were doing now and we are going to hit it or surpass it, no doubt. I’m so excited. The president pumped us all up and read one of my president’s letters to everyone there but didn’t say my name. It was pretty cool, he thanked me after. We also had an awesome district meeting. I gave a talk on love. Every commandment hangs on the principle of love. If missionaries are disobedient, they need more love for God and for the people. I’ve been trying to have more love for everyone and it’s made a big difference. When we pray for love it makes the weaknesses of others insignificant and we aren’t bothered by stupid things. This past week we went to Coney Island, the beach. We played beach volleyball as a zone and my companion and I relearned back flips on the ground ha-ha, mom don’t say anything its ok. This past week something happened. Its just one of those things you can’t write home about, so you'll have to wait a year. It was pretty terrible though, It killed me for a couple days, but I’m good now. We also had a black guy chase us out of a neighborhood. He started yelling in our faces and cussing at us. It was a bad neighborhood and he said we are racist and wanted to kill us. We just ran ha-ha, it was very interesting. I just love New York. An Indian went crazy on us too. It was the craziest week of my mission. Everything is going great. I’m excited for this next week and our investigators. I love you all thanks for everything, Elder Breinholt

October 5, 2009

2009-11-16T11:10:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,How’s it going? The companion I had in the baptismal picture is Elder Oaks and the other red hair guy is not a companion just in my zone. I need to start taking more pictures. I haven’t been taking much. So how was the birthday? What’d you get? I cant believe Josh Brimhall is coming here? Are you kidding me? This last week was a good week. Our numbers weren't too great but we talked to people like crazy. We have been talking to every Hispanic person we find, it’s just difficult to get a lot of lessons because we have to travel so far to get to the Spanish people. They’re in little pockets in the city so we're trying to find the pockets of Spanish people. We found a few new investigators that I hope will be really good and a good part member family so we'll see how that goes this week. It's starting to get pretty cold here. The fall definitely started a couple weeks ago but it’s not too bad. Usually in the 60's during the day, but the wind stinks. I don’t need snow boots at all or anything really. Please send me my grey jeans in a bit if you can because the jeans I have are getting tight ha-ha. Not too much is going on new.Conference was freaking amazing. I don’t know why but I was so pumped for conference this year. Probably has something to do with me being on a mission but, I don’t know? Saturday morning session was awesome. They spoke about love and the spirit. We need to always ask for the spirit and listen to its promptings. Elder Bednar spoke about expressing more love to others and letting them know it. So, I love you all. It's amazing how much love the apostles and leaders of the church have and they are definitely guided solely by the spirit. The priesthood session was sooo good. Ballard started off by talking about the relationship between father and son. I’m so appreciative of having the best father who is a perfect example to me. I learned a lot of how I can be a better son and a future father. The one that I think was directed towards me was the prophet’s talk in priesthood. Guess what he spoke about, Anger ha-ha, it was sooo beautiful. Anger doesn’t solve anything but it destroys everything, It’s so true. Anger is a lack of self control and is not of God. Contention is of the devil. I like the Joseph Smith translation that Peter said, in the book of Acts that says, can we be angry and not sin? man I felt like piece of crap. I need to do a lot of repenting then. The prophet spoke with such power but in such a loving way. He made you want to change by using the power of the spirit and testifying of the truth of what he spoke. My favorite talk of all conference has to be the one by Holland. It was So Powerful. He never seizes to amaze me when he speaks. He destroyed people that say anything false about the Book of Mormon. I like how He asked if Joseph Smith and his brethren blasphemed God before their death in cartage? Would they give up their lives for a fictitious book? Would they leave their wives widowed and have their children’s bloody feet walk across frozen rivers? Would they do all this if it wasn’t true? THEY WOULD NOT! That talk was so powerful and strengthened my testimony of the book of Mormon even more. I Enjoyed conference this time more than I ever have for some reason. If you don’t take notes than you don’t get as much out of it. It helped me to learn a lot more by taking notes. I am so pumped up now to go and share the gospel even more. I know that this church is the only true church on the earth and really is directed by living prophet’s seers and revelators. I hope that everyone had the chance to watch all the sessions of conference and am grateful for the blessing of having these leaders on the earth. I always took advantage of it but I guess its time to change who I am. I love the gospel and grateful for it in my life and the great example of my parents and family. Have an awesome week and thanks for everything, love Elder Breinholt

September 28, 2009

2009-09-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,This past week I honestly don’t even remember. It went too fast. We played soccer p-day on a full field with goals and tons of people. It was probably the best soccer game on the mission. Tuesday I went on exchanges with an english companionship in my district. It was a long day because the elder I was with is a weird kid and we had a crazy experience. We visited a less active they had from Haiti. Right away he tells us he wants us to take his name off the records of the church. We started to remind him why our church is important and true. I was going through the bible and trying to answer some of his dumb comments for example: he said you can’t add to the bible, therefore the book of Mormon can’t be true. (He has been going to 7th day Adventist church and they told him all this.) I showed I’m in revelations where it says that and also in Deuteronomy. I tried to explain that it is talking about the literal book. Bible means many books. The book of revelations was written by john the revelator and the book of john was written after revelations. SO if what he’s saying is true, then the book of john is added on. People without knowledge, who say things without studying them bothers me a little. We simply tried to help the guy and he couldn’t grasp it. His heart was too cold. He started putting words in our mouths and saying a lot of offensive words. I told him to shut up in a nice way so that I could talk and then bore my testimony. After the other elder did the same. Immediately after the man breaks down and apologizes. He's really confused still but it was upsetting that someone would want to take their name off the records of the church. I had a leaders meeting with all the leaders and president for a few hours. We talked about a lot of changes that need to happen. Ideas were thrown out for 2 1/2 hours but no solutions and no plans to carry them out. It was good but kinda frustrating. I gave a workshop out our combined district meeting on our purpose as missionaries. It went really well. I gave a 30 minute lesson and activity for 2 groups of the missionaries in the zone. It helped me out a lot. We had to let one of our really good investigators go this week. We met with him twice and talked about baptism. He has already received an answer and knows it’s true but just was being weird about baptism and we couldn’t figure it out. We met with him again Saturday morning and told him our purpose. We love him and we have a very important work to do. We are here to baptize him and help him persevere but if he doesn’t want that then we can’t meet with him. He finally told us why he doesn’t want to get baptized. He’s gonna go back to Mexico in a year and doesn’t want to be the only member and fall. We told him to fast and pray about it and get back to us. He is such a good guy and I don’t understand why he doesn’t want to get baptized if he knows its true 100 percent. IT was hard but I’m praying he comes around and this makes him realize he needs to be baptized. Saturday was an interesting day. We had an activity with the missionaries and the english and spanish wards. They changed the location 30 minutes before the activity started so basically nobody showed up. We went around and fearlessed in the park. It’s called Prospect Park, best park in New York, way better than central park. We got stopped by an orthodox Jew and he tried to make us feel stupid. In a few minutes we helped him realize he was wrong and just bore testimony and destroyed him with it ha-ha it was awesome. We decided to not take a break since we had a bbq at the park and walked for the next 6 hours straight and had no success. It was a very long night but I need those days to make the good days even better so it’s ok. Sunday we had some awesome investigators come to church. One of which is named Edgar and said he will get baptized before October ends. He is dating a girl in the ward and is 18. He has met with the missionaries before and didn’t like it. His girlfriend’s mom called us 2 weeks ago to go teach him. We did and had a great lesson. He has been reading and praying. She told the sister missionaries that he loves us and didn’t get baptized the last time cuz he didn’t like the missionaries. One of which is AP but is a serious elder so that’s why. We'll have that baptism here within the next couple of weeks and hopefully some others. My companion is awesome. He likes to be obedient and work hard so it makes everything better. Everything is going great. We actually fearlessed some acidic Jews going to their synagogue last night. It was hilarious. We figured they need to hear the gospel too. everyone is so afraid of them. We got destroyed by a Jewish lady and just started laughing. It’s all good though, maybe we'll have better luck next time. Well thanks for everything and for all your support. Have a great week.
MOTHER, HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU.
Elder Breinholt

"The Lord prepares people according to our faith" September 21, 2009

2009-09-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hola!I am now in Brooklyn and our area is basically all of Brooklyn. It’s huge and we get to walk it all. I think the first whole day we walked for 7 straight hours to see the area. It was nuts. We have some awesome parks and one of the best parks in New York that people say is better than Central Park. It’s called Prospect Park. My companions name is Elder Einerson and he’s from Utah. He's an awesome guy. He is a transfer younger than I and we get along really well. I live with only 8 Elders and they’re all English. There are 10 missionaries in the district, 4 sisters and 6 elders. Our ward starts at 1 on Sundays and it’s only us and a sister missionary couple who are awesome. The ward is sooo much more of a help than my last area but I loved the people in Ridgewood more. We'll see how it goes; there are some really good people here. My whole area is basically Jews! Not just Adam Sandler Jews but Orthodox who looks like they would drive a horse and buggy. They all have huge families and think they’re better than anyone who isn’t a Jew so they’re jerks ha but they really are funny looking people. There aren’t a whole lot of Hispanics, so we have to travel pretty far to find them, when we do they’re from every part of the world. The house we live in his really old but its awesome. We live directly next to the church. We share a whole floor with 2 sign language elders (no they aren't deaf) and the ZL's live up stairs. On the other side of the house are English speaking missionaries. It’s a pretty sweet place, I’ll send some pics. So I was pretty nervous about giving a good district meeting Friday but I think it went well. The focus I came up with is being a living witness of the living Christ. We made a lot of awesome goals and it went really well. We don’t have a whole lot of investigators right now so we have to fearless on the streets and knock a lot of buildings. We have one investigator that has the strongest testimony and is more faithful than most of the members but he works occasionally on Sundays and doesn’t want to get baptized and not be able to come every week. He is looking for a new job and we're praying he finds one. We have another 18 yr old who said he wanted to get baptized last week when we met with him but he didn’t show for church so well see how that goes. Everything’s going good and I think this week is going to go really well. We are working hard and are excited to baptize. The president set a new goal for baptisms for the next year. Right now we are set to hit 470 baptisms for the year. President has fasted prayed and spent a lot of time on a new goal. He has come up with 800 baptisms for the next 12 months. There are 8 million people that live in our mission. It’s pretty sad to see the number of baptisms happening. We are trying to change ourselves and the mission. 30 percent of the missionaries are doing all the work while the other 70 percent are going through the motions. We are trying to get the 70 to do their part and pump them up for this goal.I have fasted and prayed about the goals as president asked us too and I think it will be achievable if we increase our faith and have a desire to baptize. The lord prepares people according to our faith. We need to sanctify ourselves and then we are endowed with power as the scriptures say. That’s why I’m having the district focus on Christ. Through improving our Christ like attributes and becoming more like him we can accomplish anything. It’s gonna be awesome to see what happens.I love you all and appreciate your support. Have a good week!Sounds like you guys struggle with unloading jet skis? I’m sorry about dad but I’m not gonna lie it sounds pretty funny. I just pictured it happening and had to laugh. That’s good that someone came and helped though. What else is new? I hear Robby is changing a little?

Love,Elder Breinholt

"he asked me to be DISTRICT LEADER" September 14, 2009

2009-09-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well familia,

This week was freaking awesome. That’s awesome Cameron is home. Blake, Jeff and Kale are all leaving. Kaitlyn is getting married? That’s so weird I can’t believe it. This past Monday I met with our investigator Andy. I have known him since I came to the mission 6 months ago. He is the boyfriend of a recent convert girl Karla, he is 17 from the Dominican Republic. I have met with him every Monday for the past few months and he has always had so many doubts and it was very frustrating at times, but I learned a lot trying to research answers to his questions. Anyways, this Monday we met up at the church like always with a youth member Josue. We started the lesson by watching a couple of the special witnesses of Christ which brought the spirit. Afterwards we started talking about the atonement. I started pulling out all kinds of scriptures about the atonement of Christ and told him the importance of repentance. I asked him how we fully take on the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. What do we need to do to receive complete forgiveness of our sins? He said we need to be baptized. That was the exact answer I was looking for. Then I opened up all my favorite scriptures on repentance unto baptism. We read all those and I testified that we can only receive the remission of our sins through baptism and making a covenant with God. We have to do our part in order for the atonement to take place in our lives. I then asked, "Andy, what is stopping you from being baptized?" He said after a long pause, "an answer." He told me he really wanted to know if this was the true church. We all testified that the lord would give him an answer. Something hit me hard and said “set a date for baptism”. I explained and testified that the only way to receive an answer is if we ask with real intent which means showing the Lord what you're gonna do if he gives you an answer. Every time a date is set for baptism, the answer comes right away. Our member Josue shared his testimony and shared why Andy needs to be baptized. I then said Andy, will you be baptized this Sunday if you get an answer? I know you will get an answer tomorrow if we set this day. Will you do it? He sat there and during all of this was more serious than he had ever been. The spirit was so strong. He sat for about 5 minutes in complete silence as we waited. Then he said almost in tears, "I'll do it." We met with him a few more times during the week and prepared him for baptism. He did get his answer the very next day like I had promised. All he said was I prayed and I feel really good about it. He had asked me to baptize him because I’m a good friend of his now and yesterday he was baptized. It was the most amazing experience. The difference in Andy was miraculous after he had received a witness of the truth. He had to stop drinking and all of the other things that come along with being a youth in New York, but he has made a promise with the Lord. He shared his testimony after the baptism with all of us there and told us the real answer he got. He said that he used to go to church because of his girlfriend. He said, but recently I have been meeting with the missionaries without her because I really was interested and wanted to know if it was true. He said that when he prayed and asked if it were true his heart started to race and he felt this excitement, happiness that filled his entire body and knew it was true. He didn’t tell his girlfriend he was getting baptized till Saturday night, a night before, it was pretty funny. But, I know that miracles happen. We have worked hard; I have fasted and prayed lately for a miracle. The Lord always pulls through. We have 2 more baptismal commits for the upcoming weeks but I WONT BE IN RIDGEWOOD. Zone leaders told me Wednesday night that I had an interview with president Friday morning. I went to the interview and he asked me to be DISTRICT LEADER! I’m freaking going to MIDWOOD, which is South/Downtown Brooklyn to be district leader. I’m going to live in a 3 story rundown house with 10 elders. It’s a ward not a branch and it’s a huge District. I’m only starting my 5th transfer which will make me the youngest district leader. I was so humbled and am humbled because I’m still so young and now I have so much responsibility and have no idea what to do ha-ha. It'll be a good experience. President Nelson gave me a few compliments that were extremely nice and has a lot of trust and confidence in me. I have to pack all my bags today and leave tomorrow morning. Church was kinda sad yesterday because I had to tell all the members I was leaving. I have grown to love all them. An awesome family threw a BBQ at their house for me Saturday night, it was amazing. I have come close to all the youth here and they all wrote me letters and are we're having another get together tonight. I have made a lot of friends here and it has been great. I hope you have a great week.

I love you all, Elder Breinholt

September 7, 2009

2009-09-28T11:40:00.001-07:00

Hola familia,

Well I hope you're all having fun up at the cabin. This past week wasn't the best week. We were all sick in our pad for the first part of the week. We rested Tuesday morning and then fought through the sickness and worked while the Zone Leaders basically slept all week and bummed it. It’s all good though. We're all better now, it was just some sickness everyone’s been getting around here.Well the week went pretty well besides that. We had an activity Wednesday night at the church with the branch and some investigators and watched the Testaments on the projector. Mauricio came and loved it. We visited him on Saturday again with a recent convert who is awesome and about the same age. He helped us teach the Word of Wisdom and it was rough at first and didn’t think it was bad to once in a while have a beer but it’s just bad to drink excessively. We talked for a while and I bore my testimony as well as I could so that he could feel the spirit testifying of the truthfulness of keeping the word of wisdom. It was cool cuz after that he went silent and said that makes sense. He told us he would come to church Sunday, as he had to in order to get baptized next week. He had work at midnight and we waited in church for him. He never came, and called later and said he got out late. I’m so bummed cuz now I can’t baptize him cuz I think I’m getting transferred next week. Its ok he'll get baptized the week after. We had 4 investigators at church though and some really good people progressing. We are trying to find more people and talk to everyone. We had a lady stop us on the street and ask us to come over which was something new, so we're going over there today, hopefully that goes well. My companion and I are getting along great. I’m gonna miss him and scared to get someone I’m gonna dislike. Missionary work is depressing sometimes, not gonna lie. We work so hard, follow all the rules and sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to but it’s ok because the Lord knows what he's doing. 3 years ago this mission was something you couldn’t believe. Missionaries weren't missionaries. My last president came in and did all the dirty work and turned the mission around. All the useless missionaries are basically cleared out a couple transfers ago. The new mission president is gonna take the mission to a new level. He's excited and turning things around, changing a lot of things. Its gonna be cool to see what happens over the next year and a half. Even though we have hard weeks sometimes its ok, we just have to keep going forward. I got up and bore my testimony at church. The branch is a good branch and has the potential to grow; it’s just that everyone blames each other for not doing stuff instead of just buckling up and doing it themselves. It’s frustrating because the missionaries do everything here and coming from home it’s different, because everyone in the ward would offer to help with everything. I’ve grown pretty close with everyone in the branch.I’m the choir director after church on Sundays. It’s so funny because nobody can stay on tune. They split up into different parts and don’t even know how to sing different parts. We are singing for a district conference in a couple weeks, it'll be interesting. Not too much is new though. Just working as hard as I can and trying to stay positive. I hope you all have a great week and a good labor day. Love Elder Breinholt

August 31, 2009

2009-09-03T09:13:00.001-07:00

Hey family,

It was a good week this last week. I didn’t sleep a whole lot so I’m sick now. My companion sleeps on the top bunk and moves a lot when he sleeps and the bed creaks like crazy. It has been rough in that area but other than that it’s been awesome. We meet our goals for the week and taught a lot of good lessons. Our investigator Mauricio is going down (getting wet baby). We taught him an awesome lesson about the atonement and baptism. Our mission president told us all to focus on the atonement in our personal study and with our investigators, so I've been trying to do that more. It has been awesome because it has strengthened my testimony and brought more power to the lessons. When you think of Christ the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is, he died for our sins. Yeah, that's correct he did, he died for everyone’s sins. The thing people forget is that our salvation isn't free. Christ’s atonement isn't free. We have to do our part first for his atonement to take place in our lives. Well what is our part? We need to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ which is done through baptism. In the scriptures it always talks about the repentance and then baptism. We need to teach faith unto repentance which leads us to be baptized. If I could only help people feel the need to repent they would ask to be baptized. That's how it was done in the scriptures and that's how it should be done today. Anyways, we taught the atonement linked to baptism to Mauricio and committed him for the 6th of September. He kinda gave us an answer of yeah he wants to but has fear. We just told him pray and ask the lord if he wants you baptized this date and I promise you he'll give you an answer. We went back 2 days later to see how he was doing. He had just bought a little DVD player so I pulled out my DVDs’ and asked which one he wanted to watch. He pulled out the restoration, we watched it. He then pulled out finding faith in Christ and we watched that. We talked after shared our testimonies and asked if he had prayed. He told us he had, and he told his wife who is in Ecuador the night before he was going to get baptized and she gave him the ok. He had received an answer to his prayers. He had to come to Church yesterday in order to be baptized the 6th because you have to come 3 times before baptism. He worked from midnight Saturday to 11am Sunday and couldn’t make it to our 10 o'clock church. We went over last night and rescheduled the date to the 13th. The last Sunday of the transfer. He said he will come to church this week for sure and I’m praying it all works out. One thing that I have noticed is that when an investigator has a date for baptism before receiving an answer that it’s true, they pray and always receive an instant answer. We receive no witness till after the trial of our faith. We also taught a less actives boyfriend Rommel again last night and taught a very powerful lesson on the plan of Salvation. It was amazing. We need him to receive and answer and hopefully can get him baptized the 13th with the less actives 9 year old daughter. We'll see how the week goes with them. He came to church a couple weeks ago and didn’t like sacrament meeting. Said it wasn’t very reverent which at times it’s not because most Spanish people here don’t discipline their kids. We're trying to get him to give it another shot. Everything has been going great. The weather is good because of some hurricane so no complaints there. We're all going to play football right now as a zone. I love missionary work right now. It’s always hard at times but there's nowhere else I’d rather be. You learn so many things on a mission that you can't learn anywhere else. I know that this is the Lords work. It's not easy because it was never easy for him so why should it be easy for me. I can't complain I have no reason to. I love you all and thanks for everything.

Love, Elder Breinholt

August 24, 2009

2009-09-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hola familia,

Como estan? Sounds like you all had a good week. The weather is freakening killing me. I’m used to heat but the humidity is pretty rough. It’s all right though I’ll live I hope. I got the letter from all the missionaries in the ward. Sounds like everyone’s doing good ya? I can’t believe Max and Ali are getting married already that’s nuts! Courtney Casper’s is probably gonna get married soon also. This last week was pretty good. We had someone from the quorum of the seventy come and we had a fireside. Elder Pace from the Seventy. We brought one of our investigators Thursday night, Carolina and stuck a translator on her head and she was good to go. It was a good night. She's gonna stop working on Sundays we think so we can get her wet in the font. Mauricio, quit his job so that he can come to church and we're gonna commit him either today or tomorrow and I think he's good to go. We have a lot of investigators right now that are so ready to be baptized and are being held back by little things. I’m praying that this week we can get rid of those little things and get some people ready for baptism. It was a very interesting week for me. I had one investigator Rosa, the sister of Carolina from Guatemala tell me she wants to marry me. She asked me if I would marry her and take her 4 month old baby in as my own. I just did a few of those awkward laughs and tried to ignore her a few times. I never responded ha-ha. Then after that we started teaching and she starts feeding her baby, yes right in front of us. It was just a wild visit. There’s also this little 8 year old girl in the branch who is the cutest little girl who made me a bracelet with my name on it and wrote me a love letter and gave it to me at church. It was so cute. I’m gonna miss this branch here a lot. I'm so close to everyone here, its gonna be hard. On Friday we had zone conference and Elder Pace talked to us for 3 hours straight. He's a funny guy. He's been a general authority for 26 years or something. He talked about humility. He said we suffer more from an unhealthy self image than a lack of humility. We are denying ourselves the blessings we have already earned because we wallow in our weakness. He talked a lot about the faith to find new people and the power of testimony. We have the ability to have a lot more baptisms in the mission and lots of missionaries wait around for members to help with missionary work instead of going out and finding ourselves and then bringing members in to teach. That’s the way it needs to be done here in New York. His talk was very powerful and pumped us all up.I think our new mission president is gonna change this mission and help make it a lot more successful. He's awesome and he's all about baptizing. I know Elder Oakes and I can get a few baptisms this transfer. We have so many that can do it maybe we just need a little more faith. We fasted last week and saw the blessing from that. Mauricio quit his job and a few of our other investigators are doing great. We just need to do all we can do and the Lord with come through and help us with our goals. The Lord is bound when we do what he says. He is literally tied up to bless us as we do what he says. I'm just trying to be obedient and work hard so I can have success which brings happiness. I love this work and I’m learning a ton about lots of different things. Thanks for everything. By the way I bought a new suit last week ha-ha cuz one of my suits is for handicap people. The crotch goes to my knees and it’s just messed up. It was only 100 for the new one so when you get the chance send me a Benjamin ha-ha thanks a lot I love you guys.

Love Elder Breinholt

August 17, 2009

2009-08-17T16:03:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

I can’t even believe school started. I thought about that this week. Elder Oakes and I were talking about how bad that stinks for everyone that has to go back to school. I’ve been here since school ended and it feels like that just happened. This last week was awesome but a little harder than the week before. It seems like every time I have a great week the next week is completely opposite. It helps having a companion that I get a long with. I’ve been trying to serve him more than anything, like make him breakfast every morning and it’s helped our companionship a lot, he's a cool kid. So all of us missionaries sang called to serve in church yesterday, and I lead the music for the branch ha-ha man I don’t know what’s going on. I also sang for a baptism we had yesterday for a girl in the branch. About 50 people were there and Elder Oakes and I sang accapella Oh My Father in Spanish with the tune of Come Thou Fount. It turned out pretty well for not having music, only the words and we had good harmony. It was fun. So our baptismal commit dropped last week Adrian, we don’t know what’s going on. It was a hard week but its ok it just makes you appreciate the good weeks. We had a good experience this week. I have been teaching and helping out a guy named Mauricio from Ecuador for a couple months now. He's the coolest guy and he's working so that he can earn 36 grand to bring his wife and 2 kids here in a couple years. I’ve helped him with a lot of things as he has struggled and the last few visits with him we told him to look for a new job so that he can come to church. As you know the economy is terrible and especially hard for Hispanics without papers to get a job. This past week we stopped by and we talk for a while instead of go in to teach and leave to show him we care about him. Before going over Elder Oakes said we should tell him to quit working but I said he knows what he needs to do and just felt like we shouldn’t bring it up. We shared our testimonies and the importance of the gospel. The spirit was so strong it was crazy. Mauricio then shared a couple experiences he had in his life. We closed with a prayer and as we stood up Mauricio tells us out of nowhere that he’s going to quit his job so he can come to church. He said he knows how hard it is to find a new job but he has enough faith that he'll get one if he does this. We couldn’t even believe it. All I’ve done for this guy is helping him out with a few things, done some service and showed we care. It made all the difference and he'll definitely get baptized, hopefully while I’m still here. This week will be really good. We fasted yesterday so that we can meet some goals we’ve set. My testimony strengthens so much every week no matter if it’s hard or if it’s an awesome week. There are always little miracles that happen in this work. I’m trying to focus on teaching with only the spirit and not myself. We have someone from the 70 coming this week to talk to us and of course I have to lead the music, ha somehow I became the musician director. It’s lame.

Anyways thanks for the emails I love you all,
Elder Breinholt

August 1, 2009

2009-08-10T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hey!I can't believe school starts for you guy this week ha-ha bummer. Everyone here still has a month or more but the summer FLEW by its crazy. We haven’t even had too many terrible heat days. It’s humid and stuff but we had more rain than New York has ever had. I couldn’t imagine 115, I think I would die, but the camelback you sent me has saved my life. I started drinking a lot of water and have so much more energy and sleep perfectly. Hook Robby up with some good clothes so he gets some friends in Jr. High ha that kid cracks me up. So who the heck is Sean Toolson marrying? That was fast. I'll talk to my mission president to see, but he won’t know cuz he's new to the mission. His name is President Nelson, he's so awesome. He was CEO of inter mountain health care which is a huge health care company, so he's loaded and knows how to run things. He's changing a lot of things in the future I heard, some of them being awesome. My Spanish is pretty good, I've been working hard so I can understand everything just about and I can say almost everything I want to but I still need to improve a lot of course. One of the New Zone leaders that I live with is awesome. He's the strongest person I’ve ever seen. He played football at Utah State and will go to the NFL. He has the second best world record for bench press next to Matt Liner for quarterbacks. This guy is 230 pure muscle, his workouts in the mornings are insane. So I’m training Corwin (Corey) Oakes! A lot of my friends know him he used to hangout with Taylors sister and Taylor. I met him at EFY 4 years ago and have been friends with him since. He went to Mountain View. I heard he was coming into the mission from a couple people and then president called me to train. He asked the assistants if he knew me when he got to New York and they looked at him like what the heck! You know elder Breinholt?! I asked them the morning of transfers if they knew Elder Oakes and they just started laughing. So he is my kid (Greenie). He's an awesome guy, we get along so good and we're killing it with the work. We had an awesome week, and have a lot of good investigators right now. I moved up the baptismal date for ADRIAN for the 23rd so imp praying he goes down that date. We also have a couple other people that should be getting baptized but one of them Carolina, just got a new job and might be working Sundays. It stinks so bad because she received an answer to her prayers and everything. I had also been teaching this guy Byron who had smoked. He’s in his 20's and his dad told him helps him to stop smoking. We taught him the word of wisdom and he hasn’t smoked in over 15 days. He was doing so good, but then had some friends that have been saying stuff about our church so we're trying to work with him. We were supposed to pick up a few investigators to go to church yesterday but then had to go an hour early for a meeting. We called all our investigators that usually come and they couldn’t come this Sunday. My companion and I went into a room and decided to pray. I said a prayer and just asked that someone would show up to church. We were sitting in sacrament meeting and I looked back and saw some guy that comes to our English class. He stayed for all church. I asked him why he came to church randomly, he said he didn’t have to work and it just popped in his head that he should come to our church so he did. We gave him a book of Mormon and we're gonna teach him this week. It was an awesome experience. My companion and I are alike in everyway which makes it a lot more fun.I’m excited for this transfer. I feel like we're gonna have a lot of success. His Spanish isn't very good but that’s because he's only got 2 months out. I struggled too my first transfer but idk it just depends on how hard you work to learn the language and I worked really hard in the MTC but idk its all good. Tell Cory he doesn’t need to have a girlfriend, just be a player ha-ha jk but that’s cool he broke up with his girlfriend. Everything’s good here, we got a lot of freaking cockroaches, every night I go crazy with the raid but we're gonna get stuff from the office so don’t send anything. I hate cockroaches, they don’t even have purpose in this life, but have a great week, thanks for the email, hope everything goes well this week. By the way, I want the same face wash please. Thanks send lots of pics of everything.I love you, Elder Breinholt

Photos from Derek's Mission!!

2009-08-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

ladies who feed him in the mission
Hanging off the bridge.

Derek and Elder Childs on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Derek's first baptism Geraldo

Derek's distric

Queens, New York shipping out of the MTC

Derek's 2nd baptism Efron

Geraldo and Derek

August 3, 2009

2009-08-06T10:21:00.002-07:00

Well freak!Sounds like Mexico were fun and leave it up to Craig to sink the car ha-ha oh man that’s funny.Well this week went well. It wasn't as great as last week but no complaints, except I have a huge wound on my hand. We had district meeting Friday and we made baleadas afterwards which are basically thick tortillas from Honduras. We were opening cans of beans and they wouldn’t come out. One of the elders had the idea of hitting the top of a can with a knife, puncturing it and then blow and the beans come out. He did and it worked. So I had a 12 inch knife and tried it. You hold the handle and with the other hand bang the top of the handle. It didn’t work the first try so my companion Elder Vargas said hold the handle and I’ll hit it. I held the handle of the knife super tight and he hit the top with both his hands. Problem was, as he came down from hitting he bought my hands along which ran down the entire blade. My hand started gushing blood, it was pretty cool. Luckily we were in the church kitchen and they had first aid so we sprayed it with blood clot spray and wrapped it. It was freaking wide and definitely needed stitches so we later went back to the pad and super glued it shut ha. It worked for a while until the blood underneath pulled off the super glue. I’ve been using butterfly bandages though so it’s all good. Anyways last week was the last week in the transfer. We had two investigators at church. A lady named Carolina from Guatemala who has been twice and she brought her husband this time. I’m praying I can baptize her this transfer cuz I’m STAYING!Thursday night the zone leaders came in and said Elder Haggard, my companion and I had interviews with President Nelson Saturday morning. We had no idea what was going on, but the zone leaders said he has made some decisions about some things and wants to personally interview us. Well we went to the interviews and President told me I’m going to be training this transfer. I’m having a Kid! I’m freaking training a new missionary in the area I was trained in and it’s only the start of my 4th transfer. It’s the youngest anyone has ever heard of for this mission for Spanish Elder. I’m way excited and so nervous. I just want to have success this transfer cuz it makes all the difference if a young missionary has success or not, cuz he can’t think that the mission doesn’t baptize. President told me the importance of training and wants us to baptize. I’ve been fasting and praying that this will be an awesome transfer. I find out who my kid is tomorrow morning. Other than that not much is new. I’m not really ready for this but it will be a good experience. Sounds like you're all having fun. Have a good week.Thanks for everything I love you,Elder Breinholt

7-20-09

2009-08-06T10:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-20T16:02:00.003-07:00

7/13/2009

2009-07-20T16:02:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

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

"I'm living the dream" 6-15-2009

2009-06-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I think I might be getting transferred next week so this might be my last week here. My companion and I are just gonna live the dream, cuz one of us is leaving so we went out and bought a gallon of ice cream and tons of things to make shakes. Its gonna be a good week ha. Did you get my pictures I put on the internet last week?This last week was great, but not too much happened. It was some Puerto Rican holiday yesterday which was Nuts! All of Brooklyn was parading in the streets with girls only wearing puertican flags and people going nuts. I was surprised we were allowed out. It was pretty cool to see and in a few weeks is Dominican holiday which is supposed to be just as crazy if not worse. My companion and I built a huge closet for a member that needed our help. Sometimes I think the members here don’t think missionaries do anything. They don’t know how busy we are, but I guess service is good. Not too much of anything else has happened. We've been teaching the 19 yr old kid still, Efren. He’s getting baptized on Sunday we hope. His mom left him and his sisters like a month ago with her boyfriend and then decided to show up last week. She’s been taught before and wanted to get baptized but couldn’t cuz she has a boyfriend and doesn’t want to get married. She likes the church but said she hates baptism. She’s mad cuz she couldn’t get baptized cuz she wants to keep sinning. Kinda retarded? Ya... She doesn’t want him to get baptized but we asked him what he’s gonna do and he said I'm 19, I’m getting baptized. He's hilarious.We had another new investigator come to church that we met on the street. We don’t know what’s up with him yet though. We've been working hard and same with the other Elders in our area but none of us have the greatest pools right now. We have been working a lot with less actives. We're trying to help the old branch president come back to church. He’s been inactive for 6 years now. The work is going good though and we just got to keep working hard. It’s difficult at times it’s all good I love it. I’m starting to put on some weight ha-ha I’m kinda scared cuz I've only been out 3 months and I’m not gonna tell you how much I’ve gained but like I said, I’m just not gonna worry about it, I’m living the dream.We have a zone activity right now so I got to go. Thanks for everything love you, Elder Breinholt

The Book of Mormon has the power to change lives 6-8-09

2009-06-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

Familia,

How are all you. Cory happy birthday!
Here is an explination of the pictures, the one with writing on our faces were from games we played at family nights. It’s a good way to get inactive back in the church or recent converts so we have them a lot. Mom send me a lot of pictures of stuff I have no pictures and its boring.I’m not worried about the bed bugs I haven’t been bit yet so who cares ha the other elders have them so as long as they stay on their mattresses I'm fine. Our apartment has always been pretty clean. We had the maggots for no reason it was crazy. I just sent some more pictures on the website so look at them. The parrots were just outside someone’s house so we started playing with them ha-ha it was really weird some guy was just chilling outside with them and the pictures of the city and stuff is around our house and from on the train which is right next to our house. This week was a rollercoaster ha it was nuts. I got beat up by a girl! Ha-ha not really but my companion and I were playing soccer on pday and we were kicking the ball back and forth. My ball was behind me and some kid was like hey that girls stealing your ball. Some crazy Dominican girl was in the street holding it. I yelled at her to give it back and she took off so I took off after her. One of her friends pushed me into a railing and they started cussing me out. There were 3 girls and one guy about 17 or 18. I simply said, give me my ball back and then she hit me in the face ha and took off so I chased her and I told the kid they better give it back or he'll be the one that gets hit ha-ha, I was pretty mad. We weren’t wearing nametags or anything so nobody knew I was a missionary and my companion was gonna fights them too ha. He started getting scared and yelled at the girls to give it back and finally they did. It sounds stupid, but you had to have been there. It was nuts ha-ha, I got hit by a girl! So that started the week. Some crazy guy in the middle of the week yelled at my companion and I as we walked by and said “JOHN SMITH WAS JUST A MAN.” I started busting up laughing and was like ya bro I know. He said john smith was just a man. He wasn’t Jesus Christ. We kept walking laughing and he came after us. Some nutty guy spent thirty minutes trying to tell us that he was basically Jesus Christ and we decided he was basically possessed. It was so crazy but one of the funniest things.Geraldo the kid from Equador that had been coming to church a ton and we dropped cuz he just didn’t want to get baptized. My companion had told him to pray about the church when we were talking on the phone one day about a week ago and we would pray for him and when he got an answer call us back. He called us back and told us he got a peaceful feeling and wanted to get baptized. We couldn’t believe it like I told you. He needed the permission of his mom like I said and he could get baptized. We met with him everyday and he asked his mom who lives in Equador twice if he could get baptized. She’s really strong in her church and so she told him he was crazy no way. He was Catholic for 4 years then Jehovah witness for 2 then Evangelista then his senti church for a year. We prayed so hard for his mom and fasted the she would let him make his own decision and be baptized cuz we needed the ok from her to baptize him. My companion and I taught him all week and had the district leader interview Geraldo Wednesday night. He had a testimony of the doctrine and covenants but still didn’t believe the book of Mormon was true. He doesn’t like to read chapters we ask him to read, he just likes to open the scriptures and where ever it opens he thinks that’s what god wants him to read. On Monday he did this and opened up to Alma chapter 5, I was stoked when he told us this cuz it’s a good chapter. We asked if he had verses he liked or had questions. He read verse 26 to us and said that when he had read it earlier that day he received a witness that the book of Mormon is true. It talks about having a change of heart and if you have can you feel it? He said he felt his heart change right then and there and testified of the book of Mormon. This was the biggest miracle, you have no idea what we went through to help him believe in the book of Mormon, he was so against it. Then Thursday morning my companion and I were planning on ways he could get the ok from his mom so Geraldo could be baptized Sunday. He called us and said his mom moved his flight from the 30th of June to this Tuesday morning. We were so depressed, we had prayed so hard and had planned so many things and met with him all week, so much work. Here you baptize one week and have to confirm the next. He couldn’t get confirmed cuz he would be gone and so he couldn’t get baptized. We told him to just get baptized in Equador but he said no way. You guys taught me for the last 3 months I won’t let anyone else baptize me, I only trust you guys. We made a plan to baptize him Saturday and see if we could confirm him Sunday. Just after we thought we could do this he calls us back and says his mom moved the flight up to Sunday morning! There goes all hope we thought! We had an appointment with Geraldo at the church at 7 and until then we walked around depressed because we had worked, prayed, seen all these miracles with him that you can’t believe and then he couldn’t get baptized. I prayed and said God, you gave us all these miracles and now he can’t get baptized. If it’s meant to be then it’s in your hands but if its not meant to be then it’s your will. We went to the church at 7 to meet Geraldo and he was upstairs in the church in a room with the district leader and we didn’t know why. We waited for him and then the president of the mission comes out with him and the district leader. We were like what the heck?! President says, 'well brethren I've interview this young man and he’s getting baptized Saturday night and confirmed right after! We couldn’t believe it! He told us he didn’t need the approval of his mom, it’s not a requirement. This was the biggest miracle ever. We made plans and had the baptism. I baptized him at 2 on Saturday, It was the coolest experience. My companion confirmed him and gave him the Holy Ghost right after. Geraldo then shared his testimony and it was the strongest experience ever he said he wants to serve a mission but his first mission is to convert his family. When he came out of the water and told me he felt so clean and was the happiest he's ever been. He was so thankful for my companion and me. He told us in his testimony how he received his answer that the church was true and we had never heard it. He said he was praying and saying the church wasn’t true, that Joseph smith wasn’t a prophet and the book of Mormon isn’t true. He said he heard a voice so loud and so clear that said incredulo (unbeliever). Then his heart started racing and he said he knew so strongly that this church was true. He has the strongest testimony and it was sad saying bye to him Saturday night. He was crying because he said we changed his life and he has to leave, he was so grateful. It strengthened my testimony so much that after all we can do the lord will step in and do the rest. I know the lord has a special work for this kid. You guys can’t even imagine the change in this kid, if you only had the slightest idea. I never thought I would see him get baptized but we were able to do it. I gave him a triple that I had for the first person I baptized. He said he'll read it all and was so excited to get it. Its crazy cuz as before he hated the book of Mormon and now he can’t put it down. It really has power to change lives. I’ve seen it and I know it’s true. Thanks for everything; I hope you have a good week. Love,Elder Breinholt

P.S. by the way it was really lucky i already witnessed (was a part of) a baptism. I guess the total baptisms a year in the mission is almost 500 so that means every missionary has 2 baptisms a year on average. Some go their whole missions without any. I'd heard the mission was high baptizing, but the statistics came in and its pretty terrible. 2 people a year. its really tough here so I was lucky to have had a baptism and we have another planned in 2 weeks so hopefully that goes through as planned. I'd just forgot to tell you. And I cant believe cory is driving and is a priest thats nuts !

Chinches, Bed Bugs!! 6-1-09

2009-06-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hola,

Well its summer for all you! That’s freaking nuts I still can’t believe it. Everyone in New York graduates in a couple weeks its weird. That’s awesome that an apostle came to Blair's ward. Yeah my companion has been rough to deal with lately. He's a know it all and bugs the crap out of me but surprisingly I haven’t let it get to me too bad. I’ve learned patience with him and learned to bite my tongue. This past week was pretty good. I ate some cow guts with some investigators which was pretty cool. They weren't bad. We had our last interview with president. He leaves in 3 weeks and we get a new one which will be interesting to see what he does with the mission. He's the CEO of Intermountain Health care so I’m guessing he's pretty well off. They were filming a movie today 4 blocks away where we do laundry. It was in some diner and Bruce Willis is in it. Some comedy called a couple of dicks? They’re cops or something but it was cool. MOM, did you get the pictures I put on that website? You never said anything and I did it 2 weeks ago?..... By the way, WE HAVE CHINCHES!!!BED BUGS! It freaking sucks! They’re impossible to get rid of. The other 2 elders are getting their blood sucked like crazy at night and they have these huge bumps all over them. My companion and I don’t have them yet but it’s only a matter of time. Got to love New York ha-ha.This week we found a couple of good investigators and we're trying to tell people we're there from the beginning to baptize them so we don’t have a lot of people waste our time teaching and not wanting to be baptized. We have less people to teach but better ones. We dropped the kid from Equator last week Geraldo cuz he just wouldn’t except our teachings and was moving back to his country. He kept calling us in the beginning of the week but my companion didn’t want to talk to him cuz it was a waste of time. I said we needed to talk to him just so he doesn’t think we were his friends to baptize him and then get a bad view of the church. I decided to keep calling him everyday and show him we're friends. He told us Friday that his leader from his church had come to his house to visit him cuz he hadn’t been to church in 5 weeks cuz he'd been coming to ours. He told his leader everything and his leader showed him a couple ridiculous scriptures fighting our church and said pray. Geraldo called us and told us this and we said our church is the only church that has the authority on the earth. We talked about authority and bore testimony and then he went silent and got sad. He said he was confused again. We told him to forget EVERYTHING he had ever learned and been told from his leaders at his church and forget EVERYTHING we have taught him and just pray and call us back. We got off the phone and my companion and I pray that he would receive an answer. He called us back about an hour later and said he received a peaceful feeling and wants to get baptized. This was seriously a miracle. We didn’t believe it cuz he had always fought us and been ridiculous to deal with. We set a date for next Sunday and came to church yesterday for the 6th time. He's only 17 and has to get approval from his mom to be baptized who lives in Equador and is really involved in his old church. He called her and she said he couldn’t get baptized. My companion and I fasted all day yesterday and we're hoping that she has a change of heart so he can be baptized. He goes back to his country in 3 weeks so we're gonna prepare him as much as we can this week to see if we can baptize him and get his moms permission but if not he'll get baptized in Equador which kinda stinks but its better than nothing. We also had a kid come with us to church for the second week in a row. He’s 19, and his name is Efren. He's a funny little Hispanic. He said he knows the book of Mormon is true and wants to get baptized but wants to be prepared more so we're gonna try to help him prepare as well. It’s going to be a good week. I’m excited to see what happens with Geraldo. Sounds like you guys are all pretty busy at home having a lot of fun. Thanks for everything.

I love you, Elder Breinholt

May 25, 2009

2009-06-11T17:34:00.002-07:00

Hello,

Well sounds pretty nuts at home right now with a lot going on. I can’t believe everyone’s graduated especially Taylor, that’s so weird. The summer is definitely here now.It’s Super humid and our apartment is rough on the 3rd floor and a little AC in the window ha. This morning was awesome, there are 4 elders in our pad and 2 phones that wake us up every morning. Both our phones were on silent from church yesterday so we ended up waking up at 730 instead of 630. We walk Into the kitchen and me and my companions study area and there’s like a million maggots all over the ground. We spent a long time vacuuming maggots and cleaning up the place. It was pretty terrible. Then we did our Laundry, shopping and went to the place where we email and it’s closed. Then we tried the library and it’s closed too because of the holiday, but finally we found a place to email.We’re going to the Brooklyn Bridge after I’m done to take pictures I think. It should be real cool.The thing that happened last week wasn’t anything to stress over just terrible. I woke up at 2 am with my companion and we listened to our neighbor under us beat his wife half to death for over an hour. Throwing things, both of them were screaming and there was nothing we could do. It was really sad but that’s life here it’s ridiculous. This past week was a hard one, probably the hardest but I’ll stay positive ha. We had so many appointments with solid investigators and all week almost all of them cancelled so we walked around fear Lessing a TON. We had to drop Geraldo the kid from Equador that we’ve spent so much time working with. He is moving back to Equador in 4 weeks and is just too hard hearted. We’ve been meeting with him every other day for five weeks, he's been to church 5 times but is so set in the ways of his church. We had a member comes with us who is probably the strongest member of the branch to teach with Geraldo. He explained the book of Mormon so well cuz Geraldo still has problems thinking it’s of God because the bible says you can’t add to it,but only an educated person knows that in the bible it says you can’t add to that certain book. He bore the strongest testimony and the spirit was there so strong and Geraldo just says, “the book of Mormon isn’t true". After that we all were in shock. The member later told us it felt like he had stabbed him in the heart with a dagger. It was hard to drop Geraldo because we worked so hard with him and its like we didn’t get our paycheck. He still came to church though which was kinda weird. We had 4 investigators at church with us. We're working with a couple guys my age who are way sweet. One of them already believes in our church after one visit. He has been researching the church online and knew more about Joseph smith than I do, just kidding, but his parents hate all other religions so we'll see what happens. We had a lot of good investigators drop last week but I guess it’s not their time to come into the church. My companion and I are trying to work with the less actives. We’re trying to work with the ex-branch president who has been inactive for 5 years since the last president were called. His wife who isn’t a member wants him to go back to church. Less actives are hard to work with because they juke us more than the investigators even if we call them the day of and remind them we're coming. The other elders had a baptism yesterday which was awesome. The kid is 20 and bore the strongest testimony afterwards. There’s been 2 baptisms since I've been here and both were in their 20's so Elder Childs and I are gonna focus on working with the youth in the branch and their friends. The problem is there’s not very members in our split off area and it’s hard to work with them, but usually success here is thru members. Its good to hear everything is well at home. I love you and thanks for all the support.

Love, Elder Breinholt

Blessed with PATIENCE 5-11-09

2009-06-11T17:34:00.001-07:00

Well hey,It was good talking to all you yesterday. I'm glad you had a good mother’s day. Last week was a good week as you know.I've been spending a lot of time with this 17 yr old Geraldo from Equador. We meet with him almost everyday. He was strong catholic for 4 years and then was baptized in the Centi and was a leader for 2 years. It’s been hard to change his beliefs. He told us 2 nights ago that he wants to be able to bear his testimony of this church, and he wants to be able to say he knows Joseph Smith is a true prophet. He said he knows it was no coincidence that he saw a paper on the church when walking by 3 weeks ago for english class. He came to english class and we started talking to him about the gospel. He knows he was sent to us for a reason. He’s praying constantly and having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon cuz he’s so into the bible but he’s really looking for an answer. We had a lesson on receiving answers to prayers yesterday so I'm praying he receives one soon. He might move to Equador in a month but I hope not. Maybe he'll receive an answer and get baptized before then? He’s been to church 3 times and goes to all the activities.On Friday we had a mother’s day activity at the church. This branch has a HUGE problem with starting anything on time so they’re trying to change that. They said we would start at 7 Friday night. Me and my companion show up with 3 different investigators and we had a few less actives also show up at 7. The party didn’t end up starting till 840. It was so ridiculous. I was so frustrated cuz by around 730 we had 7 investigators there and they all waited. We had to leave at 915 cuz our curfew at 930 and a couple the investigators that came with us left with us. It was frustrating and I was embarrassed but there’s nothing I can do. One of our new investigators Carlos that we contacted on the train is awesome. He’s a young guy and we left him with a chapter to read last week. He came to the activity on Friday and said he read 10 chapters and promised us he'd read the whole book in a week. He's so sweet. We also have been teaching this one guy Rodriguez. He's struggling in life and needs the gospel bad. We taught him a lesson in an apartment he was living in and as we left he had to leave the keys inside take his laundry bag with all his belongings and we walked him to his car where he is now living. Pretty nuts. It’s hard to find work. We committed him for baptism and he said yes but I don’t think it’s gonna work out cuz he’s a freaking bum ha.Our district leader who is going to be a future apostle leaves home tomorrow and on Friday at district meeting he taught us the most amazing lesson on Your Calling and Election made sure. It was ridiculous. I have a different outlook on life. Anyone who wants to read talks on how to make your calling and election made sure. It’s basically ways to eventually receive a witness in this life that you will go to the celestial kingdom. It’s not easy but it’s a lifelong journey. Nothing too crazy happened this past week. No crazy stories. I’m staying here for another transfer at least with my companion. He’s cool but I really hope a switch next transfer cuz he’s starting to drive me nuts. Great missionary but I want to be with a companion that knows what he’s doing and that can teach me everything he knows so I can be a better missionary. I have to teach my companion a lot and he’s really difficult in many ways but I’m being blessed with PATIENCE Ha-ha it’s all good I love him. Thanks for everything and I love you all.

Love elder Breinholt

May 4, 2009

2009-06-11T17:33:00.001-07:00

Familia,

Well mom sounds like your pretty crazy about this swine flu thing. I don’t really care about it. That’s crazy they closed a school in chandler. I guess we don’t really see the news so it doesn’t affect us. I saw it on in an investigators house and they closed the school that’s about 200 meters from our house? Basically the distance from our house to Greenfield elementary. Ha-ha it’s really close but president hasn’t said anything to us so it’ll be fine.I would like if you could buy some good arch supports and send them in a few weeks or next time you can. I don’t have a bunch of money or even time for that. And the magic tricks whenever too. Not books just easy cool little tricks is all.But I was planning on calling around 7 here next Sunday cuz I figured dad would be at church and all that stuff so ill try 730 which is 430 your time I believe. I’m pretty excited to call I’ve just got to figure out how I'm gonna do it and make sure there’s money on the account cuz I know I have to use a calling card. That’s awesome Robby bore his testimony. I was gonna yesterday but we ran out of time. My Spanish isn’t quite there yet anyway so I guess next month. Cory buzzed his head too? Ha-ha I did again today cuz it was getting too long. It’s a 3 on the sides and 4 on top so you know how it looks. I love it. Any Ways this past week was sweet. The Millers sent me a big package with tons of good stuff. It made my week.Not really any crazy stories. The supervisor of our apartment lives on the first floor and she got in a huge fight with her sons girlfriend. They were ripping out each others hair and saying a lot of colorful words which is normal. All they do is sit outside and smoke weed. We get high every time we walk into our building basically jk, but its nuts.We're teaching a lot of people right now. Not sure if anyone’s too close yet. Its hard cuz everyone’s catholic so they feel they need to be prepared to get baptized. We have a couple people that want to be baptized but just more preparation so we'll see. As for our other commit she has cancer and is getting surgery next week so we're not sure what’s going on with her. We have different investigators that have been coming to church with us but they just won’t commit to baptism. One girl is really shy but comes every week and she reads and progresses but every time we commit her for baptism she says she’s not ready. We read scriptures to help her out and testify, but I think it’s because her mom can’t get baptized cuz she works on Sundays or else she would and she’s really close to her mom and doesn’t want to do it with out her. The other kid is really strong in his other church and is really confused cuz of our different beliefs. He knows the bible front to back and it makes it hard to teach people like that but he loves us cuz we're the same age. Hopefully he humbles out.My testimony has grown so much being out here. I’m learning a lot of patience with my companion. Trying to not let the little things bother me. He just does a lot of things different but I just have to learn to deal with it. Transfers are next week but I think ill be staying in the same area. I’m starting to get to know the members a little more which are helping cuz we're starting to get their trust and they’re starting to give us referrals which are like gold. The mission is awesome and there’s no place else that would be better for me. It’s difficult at times but it’s so worth it when you can bear testimony of the truthfulness of the things we teach and feel the spirit teach through you. It’s really an awesome thing. I'll talk to you guys next Sunday around 4-430 your time, I’m so excited. I love you and thanks for all the updates.

Love Elder Breinholt

April 27, 2009

2009-06-11T17:32:00.002-07:00

Hola,
Well I can’t believe kirstin is engaged! I knew she would but that’s nuts. She owes me a hundred bucks cuz I bet her she would be before summer. So we definitely skipped over spring here. It’s been raining since I've been here and freezing and then all the sudden the last couple days it got hot. I'm used to the cold and now so its 85 degrees here and I'm dying with the humidity. This last week went by so fast.I just heard about that swine epidemic today it sounds kinda crazy. I guess it’s in our area cuz we work in queens but whatever I’m not worried. I was sick Friday morning and threw up and stuff but I went out and got better. There’s always something crazy I see during the week and the crazy thing this week was pretty crazy. Me and Elder Childs were just walking along the road yesterday minding our own business and this car stops at a stop light, blocks the intersection with his car turned sideways and gets out of his car with another guy, goes to a BMW behind them and starts yelling. I’m standing there 15 feet away wondering what’s going on, then I’m looking for my companion and he’s halfway down the street. I’m like what the heck is going on and I looked at the guy again and he’s got this Huge glock out and so I decided I'd better get out of there too ha-ha it was pretty crazy we thought we were gonna witness a murder from a little road rage or something but nobody got shot. That’s about all I got for stories. But we’ve been really busy this past week.One of our commits dropped cuz she didn’t come to church but the other is still good to go. We've been getting fed like crazy by members. I’m gonna gain weight, I know it. The food is always the same. arroz con pollo. I’ve eaten some weird looking stuff but nothing too bad yet. We had a couple investigators at church. One girl comes every week she just doesn’t feel ready to be baptized she’s super shy it’s hard but were trying to get her to commit. We also had this kid that met with us 4 days in a row last week. He’s fresh from Equador just like everyone else but he was a leader in his church in Equador called the sent. It’s like a knock off of our church from what it sounds like. He wakes up every morning at 5 to read the bible. He says he feels the same spirit in our church that he felt in his. He loves meeting with us and is way interested but it’ll be hard to have him forget about his church and show him that this is the true church. He’s way sweet and we have a couple appointments with him this week. Its hard cuz most people here came here to work and all of them say they’re catholic so we leave them alone but we don’t give up. Most people think all religions are good and we're saved by faith and doing good things. It’s hard to explain there’s more to life and more things that are necessary to return back to god. We're teaching a lot of awesome people.I also have a sweet quarter trick that I do for little kids on the street. Magic is good to use cuz the people love when you’re good with their kids and then we share a message. It works out pretty good. A lot of the missionaries use magic in their lessons which is way cool cuz it keeps everyone’s attention. All I can say about church is be grateful for your wards and the members. It’s a whole other church out here. Nobody wants to serve and basically the missionaries run the branch. People get offended and leave the church for the littlest things. The branch President is an idiot but there’s nobody that can replace him. Just be grateful for your wards and the people cuz you don’t know how good you have it. I love it here and can’t believe it’s already been a month. It went by so fast. 21 more ha-ha I’m not even thinking about that it’s forever away.We're staying busy and learning a ton. I wish I would have studied more before I came out. It would have helped so much.Thanks for everything.
Love, Elder Breinholt

April 20, 2009

2009-06-11T17:32:00.001-07:00

Hello,

Well it’s been a busy week. Sounds like everyone’s doing well at home. That’s crazy prom is this week I just realized school is almost over ha I have lost track of time. Well we have had a really busy week with a full schedule everyday. I got your package this week Thanks so much packages here are the best cuz we need food ha-ha that package was perfect thanks a lot everyone’s pretty jealous. Dad also sent me a card so thanks dad. The weather is ridiculous; it rains a ton and is always windy. But anyways, this week we found more new investigators than anyone did it was pretty crazy. I went on an exchange with the zone leader and we had to teach English class we brought an investigator, with us 30 minutes before class starts at the church and started teaching her the plan of salvation. When class started only one other lady showed up so we decided to keep teaching the plan of salvation. We drew it all up on the board and it was so good. My companion made it easy to understand using analogies and at the end a couple youth came in and bore their testimony cuz they were in the hall. We committed them both for baptism and they both said yes. I’m in the area of Ridgewood and there are 6 Spanish missionaries here so we have it split in 3 different areas. Luckily my companion I was on exchange with is getting the baptism for the investigator he brought and the other is in my area so she’s set for the 10th of May. We might have problems though cuz they have to go to church 3 times before getting baptized and she works on Sundays so we'll figure something out. Shell get baptized some time she’s golden. I and my companion got all our goals this week and more it was awesome. All our handwork the first 2 weeks and no success started to pay off this last week. Opportunities to serve were everywhere. I helped a lady on the street with a big box and she brought us into her appt where there were 3 older ladies. We thought to ourselves CRAP old ladies hate us cuz their all catholic and so set in their ways. We sat down and started talking to them. The lady we helped, her apartment burnt down Christmas Eve and she had it paid off so in New York when it’s paid off they stop paying insurance. She lost everything. She’s been struggling and so I think we can help her. The other 3 ladies ended up loving us for some reason and invited us to come over yesterday to eat it was awesome.I had a lot of cool experiences this week. We gave a couple blessings of comfort which were really cool. A couple weeks ago me and Elder Childs were coming home at night and our neighbors door was open which is right in front of our door about 2 feet and we had never talked to her. We felt prompted to say hi and share a short message. She had us look inside and on her wall was a huge portrait of her son. She told us 2 and half years ago he was thrown off a 5 story building. He was 19 and she doesn’t know how he died other than he was thrown off a building. She was crying and we testified she would see her son again. We have been visiting with her and shared with her family’s forever video and that was 2 weeks ago. This last week we came for an apt and she told us it was the only week she hadn’t cried in 2 years. She felt so at peace and comforted because we shared with her the plan of salvation. It was an awesome experience. We committed her yesterday and she’s gonna get baptized the 17th of May, She would the 10th but is getting surgery. I hope everything goes through with her she’s awesome. We also had a couple investigators at church. One of them is a 14 yr old girl whose sister my companion baptized and we confirmed she comes every week but is sooo shy, were trying to baptize her so we'll see. We also brought a really less active guy to church with us. He has the strongest testimony but fell away for some reason. We did some service for him for a couple hours Saturday and he can help out the branch so much. We also had a less active family come because we helped them move and they appreciated it so much they promised they’d come and they loved it. It’s really cool to see people come back to the church. The church here is like another country. People we talk to on the streets are constantly telling us, I was a member of your church before but the branch Pres. was taking the tithing money and tons of stuff like that. A few months ago someone from the 70 came and talked to our branch because little things that someone thinks turns into doctrine to them and then if you try to change it people get offended and leave the church. In our branch they said you can’t take the sacrament if you’re not a member. The guy from the 70 came and laid it on them I heard but in a loving way. The branch Pres doesn’t give new converts callings and doesn’t really do his job. The counselors don’t even know what they’re doing it’s so crazy. Things are starting to turn around though. I heard a little bit ago the church was so bad here but it’s completely headed back to where it’s supposed to be. The youth are awesome here. There’s only a few but they’re so sweet. They come on exchanges with us all the time and with out them we'd be in trouble. We’ve been doing family nights with investigators it’s been pretty sweet they love it. I get to call in 3 weeks I'm pretty excited it’s only been 3 weeks but there’s always a lot to talk about. My companion is a good guy but he’s only been out 4 more months than me so there’s not a whole lot to learn from him. Were both learning. He likes to teach most of the lessons so I’m starting to get frustrated cuz I need to learn Spanish so hopefully this week is better. Thanks again for the package. Everything is good here I love it. It’s not easy but it’s fun and interesting. I’m learning a lot that’s for sure. We got done playing soccer Saturday with investigators and members and we leave the park and there’s a brand new BMW M5 on the street totally ruined. The tires were popped, windows bashed, backseat full of gasoline, hood with holes in it. It made me sick I guess a drug deal gone bad. I’m learning a lot of patience with the black kids that have mouths. I wanted to kill one so bad but that’s probably why I came to New York for patience. Its non stop cussing everywhere we go its crazy nobody cares and there’s no modest dressing that’s for sure lots of things you don’t want to see that you do. Everyday is interesting. The other day we were walking along and this guy is sitting outside with these huge Parrots on his fence ill send pictures if I can. People are crazy man this place is wild but it’s awesome. I’m still having bad arch pains so if you can in a few weeks send some good arch supports cuz the ones I've been using are worn down. Thanks for everything have a good week.

Love elder Breinholt

P. S. This is really important and I forgot to tell you. This is kinda a big deal for me. I SHAVED MY HEAD today ha-ha one of the zone leaders elder Rios did it. It’s a number 3. I wish I would have always done it like this it looks so sweet ill take a picture and you’ll see sometime but I love it. Ha-ha just wanted to tell you that cuz it’s pretty wild. Love ya ----

April 6, 2009

2009-06-11T17:31:00.001-07:00

Well hello,

Thanks for your messages as you know it’s been a couple weeks since I've been able to email. New York is awesome. It's sooo much better than the MTC. The first second we got off the plane we went to a place called Jamaica. You could imagine who lives there, Jamaicans. They’re all black and it’s in Queens, pretty ghetto. We started contacting in Spanish and it was so fun. We slept at the president’s house last Monday and then Tuesday had some meetings.My companions name is Elder Childs and He is from Nevada. He is Awesome, My prayers were answered ha-ha I just wanted a companion I wouldn’t want to kill and he is a cool guy and is 5 foot six instead of 6 ft. 6 like my last companion so I'm happy. He’s been out for 7 months and his Spanish is really good. He does magic tricks to entertain the kids and so they love us. I’ve learned a few already its kinda fun. The first night we went out and “fearlessed” which means just talked to people on the street. We had all these appointments but of course nobody lets us in. I thought dad walked fast, but my companion walks faster. We basically run everywhere it’s awesome. We get fed so much by the members. The church is SOO weak here but the members even if they’re less active which almost all are, will feed us a lot. The branch president doesn’t even show up to priesthood. There were maybe 10 members total at conference and that’s from 2 branches. Shows you how weak the church is here. Theyre from Equador, Mexico, and everywhere you could think of.My companion is white and we live with the zone leaders. Everyone is chill. I am in an area called Ridgewood in Brooklyn. There are no houses. Just all 4 story apartments. We live on a third story. They’re pretty crappy inside but we have hot water and were living as good as everyone else. There’s nothing but shops and apartment buildings with graffiti all over the roofs. There are churches everywhere. Every religion you can think of is in New York. There are tons of Jews and they have crazy hair and look funny, there is so much adversity it’s ridiculous. We have mice but its fun to kill them. There is no such thing as germs anymore ha-ha; we all use the same dishes. I’m learning how to cook too. The Elders I live with like to cook. We’re right across the river from Manhattan so we see the city everyday. It looks so cool but we don’t get to go there. We walk almost everywhere but we ride the train a lot which is cool cuz it’s above the roads. Me and my companion teach English classes on Thursday nights for free at the church. We share spiritual thoughts after and that’s how my companion baptized his last person. We talk to people EVERYWHERE we go. We have a lot of investigators but the thing about Spanish people is they tell you they’re interested and so you get their address and make an appointment. When you show up they NEVER answer ha. Its so frustrating cuz we spend so much time walking to their house and it’s a waste of time. We have a few people that are interested and I’m hoping we can get a baptism in the next month. They have to go to church 3 times before getting baptized but we don’t really have anyone too interested.I thought I could understand Spanish until I got here. I don’t understand hardly anything ha-ha. The Puerto Ricans are speaking a different language. I catch bits and pieces and just bear my testimony. I’m getting better. I love it here though. It’s so fun. My and my companion run every other morning and do other exercises the other mornings, I don’t want to get fat. The food from the members isn’t great but I eat whatever they give me cuz living off 40 bucks a week is rough so I take what I can get. They mostly feed us rice and chicken so it’s all good. Some of the stuff is interesting but whatever. We try to work with the less actives a lot and the hardest thing is getting into houses. Spanish people aren’t very good at keeping appointments. They just make an appointment to make you feel good and then don’t care about the rest. We had 2 really good lessons last night though. Conference was Awesome. We had a lady show up with us who hasn’t been to church in 30 years so it was awesome to see her there. Its crazy how much more appreciative I am of conference and of talks from general authorities since I’ve been on a mission. My perspective on life is totally different. I’ve learned so much and my testimony is so strong. The field is so much better than the MTC in every way ha-ha I love it. It rains a lot and is pretty ghetto where we are but it’s so fun. We're confirming someone this Sunday who my companion baptized a week ago. I wish you could all see what area I’m in its pretty sweet; nobody likes to talk to you. We basically run after people on the sidewalks to talk to them ha-ha and all the white people won’t look at you or say hi when you say hello; I just crack up. We don’t knock doors cuz there are no doors to knock. All the Apartment buildings are locked and can only be opened if you call someone on the door and they open it for you and nobody does, so we walk the streets which are full of people. It’s a whole different world here. I can’t really explain how unhappy people are and how lost they are. No matter how many people reject us or don’t let us in, its still fine because the more we show heavenly father were trying and we keep our faith up well be blessed.I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard out here but I think that’s why I love it so much. It really is all about attitude. It doesn’t get easier to wake up and at night were so tired we pass out. WE walk miles a day and are working as hard as possible. We don’t have a lunch but have PAD time from 3-5 each day which is prep time for appointments and dinner/lunch. Apartments are called Pads’ in New York. You don’t call them apartments. My Spanish is terrible, and I’m not forced to speak it so it’s hard to learn. Everyone is pretty understanding cuz they’re all learning English so they know what its like. I try to speak and if I mess up the people help out so it’s not bad. Everyone speaks a little different cuz there are so many countries so you have to learn to say certain things to people from different countries. Hopefully ill learn quickly. There is not enough time in a day to learn. Personal study, companion, and language study isn’t long enough. We only have an hour for each. We leave the pad at 11 everyday and have to be in at 9. Don’t ever send packages to our pad. They get stolen. My companion had a package sent to our pad and the landlord saw someone walking away with it and had to chase him down. Were in New York, packages on the sidewalk will be gone it 2 seconds. Always send packages to the mission home. The zone leaders will pick them up and bring them to us every week or two so try not to send food that goes bad fast but please do send food. By the way THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE. It saved me so much money and my companion and the zone leaders love you. We needed all that stuff and thanks so much. It was hard getting it to our pad from the mission home on trains and buses but it was worth it. Give names to the missionaries always, Members are the best way to find people. Always be thinking of someone that can benefit from the gospel which is EVERYONE so ALWAYS give names to the missionaries. It’s so important. I hope everything is well at home. Everything is great here. I’m loving it. It is frustrating and hard but I’m learning a lot of patience ha-ha that’s why I was sent to New York. I just let things roll of my back now. You have to learn to just keep going with a good attitude or you get stuck in the past. The mission office address is 85-69 60th drive. Elmhurst, New York 11373. Send packages there please. And send cash randomly please not on credit card cuz lots of places only take cash. Thanks for your support, love, and prayers. I love you all. Let me know if I forgot to say anything or if you have any questions ha-ha sorry for all the randomness but there’s so much to write.

Love, Elder Breinholt

March 23, 2009

2009-06-11T17:30:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sounds like last week was fun thanks for rubbing it in ha-ha just kidding it really doesn’t bother me I know that what im doing here is way more important so it’s all good. I gotten no mail for a week and a half kind of sucks but whatever. I HAVE ONE MORE WEEK HERE!! I got my flight plans I leave next Monday the 30th at 830 am. Direct flight to New York kind, I will call at the airport if I have time. This week was super hard but I’ll try to be positive ha. we had to learn lesson 2 in Spanish and teach baptism and the word of wisdom. Really stressful and hard week but it was a relief when my companion and I taught. Our teacher spoke with the lady we taught afterwards and told her she was a convert 10 yrs ago at the age of 12 and as we were teaching her she said she didn’t think she could ever feel what she did when the missionaries first taught her again, but she did. It was a cool experience. L. tom Perry from the 12 also came this week. Once again the room changed dramatically as soon as he walked in, it was so cool. He spoke about the importance of being with your companion all the time and NEVER being alone cuz the world today is corrupt. Living with and learning to deal with a companion is one of the most important things we can learn on a mission. He spoke about the importance of being willing to listen and be taught by your companion. We need to stay humble so we can do this. Learn to serve each other and develop a love for each other. I’ve noticed as I try and serve my companion we get along a lot better, however we get on each other once in a while cuz were together 24/7 which is rough being with a dude that long. In D & C 121:46, it talks about the spirit being our companion. We have a companion the rest of our lives which is the Holy Ghost. We are commanded to always be with our companion. When we have contention that constant companion leaves us. Our companions protect us and help us and when the Holy Ghost leaves us we are not protected. Make sure that as you’re at home, you’re striving to always have the companionship of the Holy Ghost with you. He’s there to protect us and guide us; take advantage of that. His testimony was like thunder it was awesome.We also were able to be a part of the draper temple dedication yesterday. A building here was an extension to the temple for the day and we all participated. It was so cool we got to hear the prophet and 2 apostles speak. We all sang the spirit of god afterwards and the building was shaking. Over 2000 missionaries singing this, try to imagine the spirit. I know the church is true and i'm so excited to finally go teach. I cant wait to get outta here, its nice and everything but I’m ready to leave ha. Thanks for your support I love you all have a good week. Hopefully I can talk to you guys. Be ready around 6-630am cuz were an hour ahead in Utah. Love elder Breinholt

March 16, 2009

2009-06-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

hey familia,

This week was really good, probably the best week at the MTC. To start off an elder in my district had his girlfriend sneak us some real cheeseburgers in. We have never been so happy in all our lives! You should have seen everyone drooling ha-ha. During service this week we also found "the pillow room". Its a huge room full of pillows 5 ft. high. me and a couple elders set up jumps and would get running starts and do flips, It's best thing I've done in 2 months fun wise. We also had zone conference on Friday and it was so awesome. I learned a lot about the atonement and it pumped us up to get in the field and work. For the fireside on Tuesday James J. Hamula spoke to us. I'm callin it right now that he's the next apostle they'll announce it in a couple weeks, it was a really good talk. He spoke about our return to God. The greatest question of our existence is whether upon our return to our presence of god, we will be able to stay or be turned away. The power of redemption of sin is for everyone but it is not free. As missionaries we are to inspire faith in the lord Jesus Christ, inspirer and motivate people to prepare to meet God. When you understand why and what our purpose is you will invite others to make commitments. If interest is in the investigator you will not only teach doctrine but invite them to live it. By being here we realize that this is the most important thing we can do, is to invite others to come closer to Christ and to look at the eternal perspective of things. Our purpose is to prepare to meet Heavenly Father, our job is to teach others this. Its not just something I can do as a missionary but for the rest of my life. The message that stood out to me the most was we will all return to God but thats why the atonement is so important. I cant imagine the feeling of being turned away from the presence of the Lord. I gave an hour talk yesterday in our zone about Christ's earthly ministry. I'm sure all of you know a lot about it but I invite you to study his life while on earth, this week. I promise you will gain or regain a better appreciation for the atonement. I love you all and am grateful for your support. I'm so excited to go to new York in 2 weeks. my Spanish still isn't great but with a few more months I'm sure ill catch on. I know that this is gonna be the best 2 years of my life. It isn't easy and I know it will get a lot harder but I'm going love it. as Leroy says its all about attitude.

I love you, Elder Breinholt

March 9, 2009

2009-06-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,

I want to start by saying thanks for all your support and for all the cousins letters. they were awesome. I think everyone thinks I'm in New York already but I'm not for 3 more weeks. I wish I were. I would love to write them all back but I cant with time so tell them how much I appreciate them. This week I got to go into Provo with my companion he might be getting back surgery, a compression fracture to vertebrae but well see. I have 3 more weeks here and its hard but with I good attitude I've learned to love it. I have grown so close to so many people. Tyler is in my zone and 2 doors down from me. I think he was put in my zone for a reason he's struggling really bad. I've been trying to help him but I don't know all I can do is pray. His companion got sent home this week and that was hard on him , pray for him and write him or something. I've learned a lot this week. We had the opportunity to hear from Yoshihiko Kikuchi from the first quorum of the seventy it was such a powerful talk , he's awesome. He spoke on repentance and as we serve the lord we get closer to him the more we serve god we will receive cleanliness , as we continually serve the lord our tears and sins can become patched together as one again. A s we read the B.O.M everyday, we are promised the spirit of the lord. He also promised us some pretty cool things. We also had a devotional on the spirit of the lord and as we try to listen to the spirit and recognize the language of the lord we will realize how much the spirit whispers to us. When we learn this the lord will speak to us more and more. I have learned I need to forget about myself cuz this is the lords work. Its been really hard with everything but I'm trying to be obedient and work hard. Yesterday in priesthood we talked for an hour on priesthood blessings our branch president is problem the most amazing guy I've ever met. He told us of all these crazy miracles because of priesthood blessings and how to speak thought the spirit , I learned sooo much. He talks to all the apostles and has received blessings from many of them. His stories are so amazing. Don't ever be scared of asking for a priesthood blessing sometimes things happen because Heavenly Father wants us to not forget about the power of priesthood blessings. Its good to hear everything is well at home. Thanks for your letters mom dad and Cory I loved them. mom, I cant read your handwriting ha-ha and I sent that memory card a few weeks ago so just send new ones? I love you all and thanks for everything.

Elder D. Breinholt -----

Feb 16, 2009

2009-06-11T17:27:00.001-07:00

hey familia,

I like the family picture it looks good thanks so much for the package. Its almost been 3 weeks, just 6 more. It seems like I've been here forever, but its only just begun. The butt pads you sent were the best thing ever my companion says thanks and he loves you. I haven't gained any weight cuz I've been running and I drink Metamucil so I have normal poops ha-ha. I don't eat junk and run everyday how's the rest of the family at home? I finally hear from Cory but no Robbie? dad, thanks for writing me it was really good and helped to hear that. I am working hard, I'm kind of bummed about being district leader cuz I have meetings now which stinks but oh well. Mom I'm sending you my 4 gig card and send me 2 2gigs. Sundays are the best days we study in the morning and prepare a talk in Spanish cuz each week we are randomly assigned to talk in sacrament so we have a subject to prepare, we then go to priesthood and sacrament, then rest for a couple hours and have a fireside at night then a movie; I love Sundays. We all took an attribute test on the computer and of course the thing I need to work on is patience. I have already been getting better with it but my goal is to be way more patient by the time I get home. I read that being grateful for what you have will help you to be more patient instead of focusing on what's going on and getting frustrated or mad I need to stop and think how grateful I am for everything I have. In doctrine and covenants 78:19 it says we received al things with thankfulness and shall be made glorious and be blessed, last night we had a great devotional and talked about our blessings serving a mission and how it will always bless our live; we heard some good stories. I love Tuesday nights the most cuz we have general authorities come and talk. I'll write a letter about it this week.
I love you all. thanks for everything
Elder D. Breinholt ....

Feb 9, 2009

2009-06-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

hello familia,

This week has gone by fast. I'm getting used to the daily routine.It's very long still class is about 12 hours a day and I don't even know how to think anymore for myself I feel like I'm in concentration camp ha but its all good. All we do is eat study and pray. I run everyday in the gym so I 'm losing weight which is good. Today is Monday, p day so we got to go to the temple again it was awesome, we also get to do laundry and email but other than that its the same as every other day. Tuesdays we have devotionals and last weeks was soo good. we got to watch the restoration of Joseph smith movie last night on Sunday and it made me feel terrible. the early saints went through so much so that we could have the gospel and I'm complaining about the MTC. don't worry I repented. I cant wait to get in the field. This is hard and I need to learn the language but its rough. we have 10 elders in our district and 4 of them leave next week to the Guatemalan MTC so there will be 3 of us going to new York including my companion and 3 going to Costa Rica. My district it cool so it helps a lot. We had someone speak at the fireside last week from the 70. the spirit was so strong. he told us stories and of what to do if we get held up at gun point, so don't worry mom I know what to do haha. I also learned that we are given mission calls directly from god to only apostles. He told us how it worked. its so good to know I'm going to New York for a certain reason.. I taught the first lesson with my companion and got reviewed. we did really good surprisingly. He is a cool kid but staying with him non stop gets annoying but we have to learn to love each other. he's just a little slow sometimes but its ok. Its good to hear everyone's doing alright. thanks for sending that package it means so much. I love you all. keep doing what your doing. write letters.

I love you....Elder Breinholt