Monday, December 2, 2013

Scripture Covers Elder Breinholt made!

 This is me on top of a huge subway station! Also, happy thanksgiving and merry christmas from the 평택 elders. :)

                                            Elder Breinholt's Scripture covers that he made:)

DECEMBER 1, 2013


 So our week! Monday we went up to 수원 to hang out with some other missionaries. That was super fun! We played bang which was super awesome! haha I love that game. Oh we went shopping in the 역 there which was fun I guess haha Elder Atkin bought a korean book that I want to buy. Next time I see it I'm going to buy it. It's super good. Then we came home and couldn't have FHE because 박희정 was sick so it would have been pointless so we just walked around and talked to people which is always fun! haha
 
Tuesday we had zone conference in 수원 for a really long time! haha that was a good time. It was good to see president. He rocks. One thing that he said that I really liked was that when we say baptism, we mean bringing people joy and peace of mind. I love that because that's exactly what we do. :) So awesome! Then he said that we just need to lift where we stand and do the best we can. It doesn't matter how little or how much it is as long as its the best that we can. Oh! 문호빈 gave me his Korean/English PMG which is so awesome! It has the two pages of PMG in both languages back to back. Super awesome. And its mini. So that was really awesome! Then Elder Atkin had a leadership meeting so we just kinda chilled there until they were done. Then we went home! It takes a while to get home from there. Wednesday was awesome aas well. We went to the guy who speaks english like a hippie black guy its really hard to explain. But he's super funny. Anyways, we went and printed off some pictures. I made an awesome scripture case! It's for my book of mormon that i always carry around. So now I can carry one for longer without it getting ruined. I'll send a picture of it. Then that night at english class we had like 15 people there! It was awesome! There were a ton. There was a girl there who was 16 and had already graduated high school so she was studying to take a test to get into BYU. Super awesome. Super smart. Haha funny moment from it. One of the people was telling us her favorite subject and she was trying to say moral ethics, but no one could understand and all she was saying was moral so dennis said "Murder?!" Are you murderer?! It was super funy.
 
Thursday was so amazing! I love thanksgiving. :) We had pizza school for lunch, delicious. haha then we went to the church for our scripture study class so we just kinda talked to 박희정 and 이혜경 for a little. That was fun. I love them. Then we went down to the Humphrey's base for dinner with the Spillaines! We went with 6 other missionaries. Our area then two sisters from 수지 They are an awesome family. They are pretty young. Like I think they've been married for about 6 years and just havent had any kids. but they had 3 nonmembers there and 2 more members! That was so awesome! That's the definition of member missionary. They were all black to which was even cooler. Their names were Rick, Vince, and Montrice. Rick and Montrice are from america, but Vince is from some west african country. Super cool guy. Super nice. We actually had a really spiritual time. We were going around and talking about what we are grateful for like one thing, ya know, cuz it's thanksgiving. So when it was Rick's turn he said that he was grateful that we were there and that he was inspired by young people like us trying to make the world a better place. Then his friend, a member, brother Frasier told his conversion story and Rick was there listening and the spirit was super strong! Well at least I thought so. He really has a lot of potential to become a member. That would be so awesome. He is so cool! The food was really good too. Haha almost forgot all about that. Don't worry about me. :) I am eating good! Oh! I was playing montrice in chess and he beat me. Dang it. That was too bad. :( But overall a good thanksgiving!
 
Friday was good! I found a really cool scripture in 1 Nephi 18:16. Before this he is talking about all of this stuff that happens to him that gives him plenty of reason to be upset with his brothers and with God. But It says "Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions." So what I kinda took away from that was to never complain. God is in control and he knows what is best for us. Bear it well. :) Then we went to lunch at our favorite place! haha we go there so much. It was 유가네. Then Elder Atkin was sorta sick so we couldn't really do much and then we had dinner with 이태경! She is sean's fiancee if you remember him. She seemed a little down because Sean's gone, but it's alright. She's going to America soon so she'll be able to see him. But yeah! She's doin good! Then saturday we had another thanksgiving! It was awesome! We went over to the 조's right in 롯태게슬 where we live. Elder Pruner and Sanderson taught a lesson to their grandma who is a recent convert. So that was awesome. They did a really good job. They are so dang nice to us. They are such an awesome family. Then we went to David Kim's for dinner with him and his wife! They are so nice. I really like them a lot. I don't remember if I told you about him or not. but he studied in Oregon and Texas and lived in the states for a really long time so he's super good at english. Pretty awesome!
 
Then yesterday I gave a blessing! in Korean! At church this lady comes up to me and says "건강 축복 받을 수있을까요?" which means hey can you give me a blessing? And I of course was like heck yeah! Then she asked me to do it and I was like hmm. Maybe you can't. ;) Haha just kidding. In the pass off book there is a blessing for the sick and afflicted so that's what I read. I mean, it was the best I could do. Heavenly Father did help me to read it though. Like I read that thing speedy. So that was a really cool experience. My first blessing in Korean. :) Then after church we went home and studied which of course was good! Then we went to the church to meet an investigator but he didn't come. :( He punked us. He called us saturday night wanting to meet but didn't come so that was sad. But what can you do. And that was our week! How are you guys? It sounds like you had an awesome thanksgiving! Which is good! Dad, mom said that your turkey was delicious and that you did an amazing job making it! So good work! It sounds like all is well. :) I miss you and love you!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt

MAKING KIMCHI

                                                 Me and Elder Pruner at KimBap Chun Guk.                                                                   
                                     

The pile of lettuce was at one point two times the biggest picture. They filled all of those containers as full as        they could go. So cool.    Making Kimchi.                                                     

                                               
                            This is Sean. Isn't that so awesome. Haha he rocks. Given us a little Blue Steel.     
                                           

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Letter Dated November 24th


Hello Family,

We got to hang out with Sean, the other elders recent convert too, which was super cool. I'll send a picture. We saw some wigs and told him he had to put them on. I think you'll enjoy them haha. At FHE we played Bang! Which was super fun. I love that game. It gets intense. That was fun. :) Then Tuesday! I read about Enos in personal study and that was really cool. He's an awesome example I think for how we should try to live our lives. First he starts out by praying and working out his weaknesses. Then once God forgives him he prays for his people to be blessed and their prosperity. Then he prays that his enemies will be blessed and come to the light of the gospel. Here is verse 11 and a little of 12: "And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites. And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence..." He wanted even his enemies to be happy and not have to struggle through life. And when he prayed, he prayed with all diligence. Prayer is so key. It is the one time we let our Heavenly Father know what is going on in our life, and it is how he can talk to us. So when we do it, which should be focused just on that. Eliminate all other distractions and just pray to our Heavenly Father. 

So yeah. Then later that day we practiced for the song that we sang in sacrament on Sunday! I'll talk more about that later. :) So we sang Be Still My Soul. We sang and figured out what we wanted to do. That was fun. haha then we had Korean Class which as always was fun. I also shared the message in that. I talked about Alma 26:29-31. It says "And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again. And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us." The reason I shared this with them was because both of the families that come have been involved with us a lot and one family gave us a referall and the other is working really hard with a ton of people. So I just felt like even though sometimes it feels like our efforts aren't that great. That we really don't do too much, we never know how great our "fruits" are. They are so much greater than we even know. Something you say to someone could have an effect on them 20 years later. So yeah!
 
Then Wendesday was a lot of fun. We did our normal thing and had our good ol' 김밥전국 for lunch. haha we go there all the time for district meeting. Then we had our district meeting where we talked about how key the members are. That was actually really good. Because they are! Both of the baptisms that we had were member referrals. So, if you can, work with the missionaries and I promise you'll see success. maybe not right away or with the first person you refer, but soon I'm sure you will! Then me and Elder Hale started a split! He's an awesome missionary. I respect him a lot. Then at our ward mission leader meeting thing I actually had to take charge and talk to him about our investigators and everything which made me actually feel really good! That was super fun to take charge! Then we had our English class which was fun as ever. We had some funny stuff happen. Elder Sanderson and Pruner taught them the song John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, and they all sung it at the end. Super fun. Then me and Elder Hale taught 박희정 the second lesson in Korean which was so cool! Haha there was one point where we asked her a question and she started talking super fast, but I just concentrated really hard and she used all words that I know so I actually understood her. It was awesome! I love it when I can understand. It makes me feel so good haha. So we taught her all about why we're here, why we need the atonement, and the three kingdoms of glory. Super cool. HSe remembered everything from the lessons before she was baptised she's so good. She took notes haha she rocks. I love her.
 
Thursday was super awesome. I really liked it actually. I read the parable of the widow and the two mites in the morning and I felt like that is applicable to missionary work. Sometimes we feel like we don't have nearly as much as others to give to our heavenly father, but all that matters is that we give Him everything. No matter how little we think it may be, as long as it is our all, its enough. Then we went and made our way slowly to the subway and talked to some people along the way. Elder Hale is really good at street conversation. So I learned a lot of skills from him that I'm gonna put to work. Then we went down to 평택 and end the split. In case anyone gets confused. Our whole area is called 평택 but where we live is actually 송탄. So it is pretty far away, like a 20 minute drive. Not bad. So yeah. Then we went to 유가네 which was delicious. I really wish that you guys could go there. If you come pick me up we'll find one and we'll go there. :) Then we walked around and talked to people! Oh haha these jr. high kids that were like 15 ish come up to us and say hi! Then keep on walking. So I catch up with them and just start talking to them in sort of english sort of Korean, they were super funny. I ask em if anyone has a girlfriend and they all point and one kid. Super super awesome. Haha so that was fun. Then we got pulled into a 부동산's office. They are like the realtors of Korea. He's like hey come here have some coffee. We were like uhh we can't. He's like oh! Green tea then! Uh...we can't. Okay well how about water! Haha it was funny. So we talked to that guy for a little bit. He was funny. It's crazy how all Koreans just see and american and assume they can't speak Korean. It actually comes in quite handy sometimes though. Like we never get anyone trying to sell anything come up to us so that's nice.
 
Friday was our weekly planning day! Same ol same ol. haha I'm sorry about that. Nothing too exciting happens. We cleaned our missionary room at the church and practiced our song some more. Then we went and got Thai food with our investigator Julie. It was so goo dto see her agian! She's been really busy with her work and everything. She works at 연새 which is one of the top 3 universities in Korea. Super awesome. I've decided I love Thai food haha it was really good. We talked with her about the priesthood and why we have it. She hears things from her friends that we have to clear up. Haha it is kinda saddening that all of these churches think things about our church that aren't true. She heard that when we use the priesthood we are trying to be God. So we explained to her, no we are simply acting as God's servant to bless the lives of people on earth. And also to perform the saving ordinances that will get us back to our Heavenly father. Then Saturday we made Kimchi! It's called 김장. 김장하다 is to make kimchi. Anyways, it was with our investigator 김현철. We went to his house and helped him make it sort of. They were almost all the way done. They offered some of it to us and I won't lie. That fresh of kimchi is super super good. There comes a point somewhere along the way of Kimchi's lifespan where it gets like pretty sour and that is when it isn't that good. But, you should eat it. Kimchi is one of the healthiest foods on the planet just so you guys know. :) Then we went around and talked to people for the rest of the night! So yeah! That was fun.
 
Sunday! We went to church and performed our song! 잠잠하라! The bishop asked us to sing in sacrament like last week or the week before. It was good! Koreans are too nice to tell us we didn't do good, but I think it went pretty decent. Elder sanderson sang the first line, then me and him sang the second. Yeah they asked me to sing basically by myself. haha so that'll give ya a little taste of how the song went. ;) Then we all sung the rest of it. And the third voice we sung acapella. That was kinda hard! haha no more piano to watch my back for me and cover up my voice. But it was good. THen for sunday school we went to the 독신 class. So since there aren't that many young adults they just do a YSA class and have like YSA advisors in the ward. So we went to their class and that was awesome. 신세개 is the main guy in charge of that and he's so cool. He's the nicest, most stylish guy ever haha. I think I've told you about him before. But yeah. That was really fun. Then we had the ward 식사 after church which was really good. Just a little rice 고기 type thing. So that was delicious. We talked to a lot of the members for a long time and we got a lot of kimchi. Yeah so remember how I said that we did 김장? It is 김장 season. So everyone is making it and it smells like kimchi all over the place haha. Super fun. So they also make kimchi with what is called 무우. It is a raddish type thing that they make a few different type of things with and one of them is kimchi. Its pretty good! So yeah! We got a lot of kimchi and stuff from members then we went home and did our studies! That was our week! Pretty good one. I saw that dad and Jace went to the Lions and BYU game! That looked like so much fun! That was so cool! Like dang! That's so fun! I'm super jealous. Hey how is Kenah's last year of elementary school? :'( If you want me to get anything and send it home let me know! I'll do that for sure! I hope you guys are lovin good ol Utah! It's getting cold here! The wind blows and that makes it really really cold. It is definitely coat season now. But yeah! I love you and pray for you! I hope you all are just lovin life! I love you!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt

Monday, November 18, 2013

LOVE:)

 We saw this thing in 신도림 station after eating at taco bell (way better here) and I thought it was kinda                        creepy so I had to take a picture with it. :) love you guys!

Hello!  With so many missionaries it's awesome! Cuz that means that more people can be found and taught. It really is super cool. Like there are only probably 2 areas in our entire mission now that don't ahve at least 4 missionaries. A lot have 6. It blows my mind. Yesterday we watched a broadcast thing that said they now have 83,000 missionaries. Super super cool. It is so exciting. Now that my companion is district leader he is a lot more busy. He has to make a bunch of calls to people each night. It's not too much busier. But yeah! Things around here are going good. I love it. Being in Korea is the biggest blessing I have ever had in my life. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Especially after this weekend. I'll talk about that later. It was just a good week. Anyway.
 
Monday. After I emailed all ya'll, we went home and had a super awesome time. Haha we just kinda hung out and had a low stress P-day. Then I made a cake for 가정의 밤! That was super good. We had some yellow cake mix lying around that we used. Then at FHE we played Mafia which was super fun with Korean's. Haha it was so fun. I was the mafia guy twice and the first game every one expected me so bad. I was like the first one killed. It was too bad haha. Then the second game I was the Mafia again and I won. :) haha I got super lucky. I had to convince elder atkin that it wasn't me and that I was a citizen. It was super funny. Everyone always expects me in those sorts of games. That was a super fun family home evening. Then Tuesday (화요일) we got up and I found something that I really liked. It was in Isaiah 42. Basically it said that God has chosen you and will lead you by the hand. And I loved that because when God calls us to anything, a calling, a mission, just an every day member, he will guide us through. But tuesday we worked on our 침례 poster thing which we finally finished. Haha that took long enough. We gave it to 박희정 on wednesday to write a little note on. Then we had our Korean class that we teach. I got to teach Elder and Sister Riding again. It was super fun. This time we went over the alphabet and reading some more. Also I taught them the Chinese numbers. It was super fun. Haha I love teaching that. It makes me feel good about the little Korean that I do know. Anyways.
 
Wednesday! We had district meeting. We went to lunch together at that 유가네 place. Something cool about Korea. people will give you free things if you are a frequent customer. Like they recognize you for coming so much and will give you like a free soup thing or soda. So they gave us some free pepsi's cuz we go there so much! Haha it was funny. Anyways that's an awesome thing about Korea. We have a new Elder in our district from Alpine! He's super cool his name is Elder Hale. Then at district meeting Elder Atkin gave the training which was weird. Haha I'm used to seeing Elder Wedam up there. But it was actually really good. One thing he talked about that I want to share with you is that we need to put all of our attention on the people who need it most. The people who are strong in the gospel don't need our help as much as those who are struggling do. So if someone is really struggling, put all your effort there to help them until they are okay. I don't really know if that made sense when I typed it out, but I hope it did. Haha anyways. Then we had english class which was super fun. Dennis brought a friend named Bob who is super cool. He's funny. We played Do you love your neighbor? It was super funny. All of them were like umm...no. And then they'd have to say something else you know and like half the time it was the exact same as the person before them. Love Koreans. Thursday in personal study I read President Uchtdorf's talk the one where he rides the bicycle up hills as a kid and it is super hard for him but later in his life it turns out that that actually healed some unknown lung disease. What I learned from that is that we need to just trust our Heavenly Father. When we are going through a hard time, trust him. Because we can't see the end from the beginning. He can. God often gives us so many blessings along the way that we can't see until it has come and gone. But later that day we made cookies and brought them up to 오산 where our bishop lives and delivered them to him and a few other people in the ward, but none of them were home. So that was too bad. We weren't able to talk to em. Then we met with 김현철. I don't know if I told you this or not. This'll make ya laugh. His english name is turtle. Haha I didn't think I heard him right when he first said it, but sure enough. His name is turtle. Super awesome. But we had a pretty good lesson with him and I was able to bear my testimony to him on the Book of Mormon. I was feeling the spirit, I just hope that he was too.
 
Friday! We read Job together in companion study which was actually really cool. That guy was super solid in the gospel. He was so perfect that satan basically had permission to take everything from him and to curse him with super bad illnesses and all this stuff that would make a lot of people turn away from God, but it doesn't even phase him. He's super awesome. So, be like Job. :) Then we had weekly planning, which was super long haha. Then we had dinner at pizza school. I had this pizza that had noodles on it. Super good actually haha it tasted like spaghetti. Then we went up to 곡반정 in 수원 with the sisters because the zone leaders set up a meeting about goals with all the district leaders and the sister training leader. It was actually really good. The main thing that I learned is that you can't expect too much from yourself. You can't set a goal to gain 50 pounds of muscle in a week and expect it to happen. Big things happen through baby steps. But saturday is where this week got really good. We had a combined mission conference with the Seoul mission so I got to see all of the people from the MTC like Elder Whitlock, Hollingshaus, Garff, 이종채, and a bunch of other peopple. It was so awesome! I miss those guys a ton. Elder Evans was the main guy who spoke to us and he did a really good job. A few of the things that I really liked were that solutions to problems come little by little and through a lot of work. We can't sit around and expect things to happen. Also, that we need to act straightway on impressions. Because when we do that's when the holy ghost can work through us. I don't know just sitting in that meeting kinda got me super super excited to be a missionary. It was awesome. Then we went down to 신풍 in 수원 for stake conference. We got to sing with our young men in the priesthood session. That was super cool. Then that night there was a session and 박희정 had to give a talk! It was so flippin good. Well. I didn't really understand a word she said but she definitely had the spirit with her! I felt the spirit so strongly. She's just amazing. Like she's stronger than a lot of members that have been members for 40 years. She's doing so good. I hope that she keeps it up. :) That was really like the highlight of the week. When she got up and gave her talk. It was so just good. Haha anyways.
 
Then yesterday we got up and I read something really good in 2 Nephi. It was chapter 5 verse 11. And when I read it i just felt like when the lord is with us we will be blessed and we will be happy and we will hvave everything that we ened in this life. Then we went to the like main stake conference thing which was a broadcast from salt lake! It was really good! One thing that someone said that I think was really cool was that we need to create zion in our hearts. It doesn't matter where we are in the world, if we have zion in our hearts we can follow God and be happy. That was cool. Then we went to our church to watch stake conference with the american branch thinking it would be different, but no it was the exact same thing haha.  so we watched that twice. But on the way home we ran into one of the members and I talked to her a little. Well I tried, but I am still new to this whole Korean thing. :) haha so that was fun. And yeah! That was our week. It was a good one. I love you guys so much. I miss ya! You're awesome. I pray for you often. We are workin hard and trying to find more people to bring closer to Christ. Honestly, Korea rocks. I love it so much. I know i've said that probably 30 times in this email, but that's because its true. I can't imagine being anywhere else. The church is true, and so is the book of mormon. Read it often! I better go, but i love you!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt

Monday, November 4, 2013

HAVING THE TIME OF HIS LIFE!!

                                                Elder Breinholt at the Seoul Korea Temple
                               Elder Breinholt with his very first package while in Korea:) Yeah!!!
                             Elder Breinholt and His First District While in Korea and All of us with Elder                  Dewey at our house Partyin!
                                                                     My new coat:)
                                        Elder Breinholt opening up his early Christmas Presents
                                           Yeah!!! Presents!!  My first ones while in Korea:)
                                     Elder Breinholt and Elder Atkin at the Halloween Party!

                This cute little guy holding one of the Eye Ball things Elder Breinholt made. HaHa
                                                               Fun games at the Party

Another one in 평택!‏


Hey my awesome family! Okay I saw the picture of all of you dressed up for halloween, holy cow. That is so awesome. I laughed so hard. Like honestly, that's one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. How the heck did all of you think to do that?! So funny. Anyways, this week I thought I would start off with saying what I'm grateful for. This week i am grateful for dad. Good ol' Brian. Because this week i realized that a lot of my humor is a lot like his. And it allows me to laugh a lot and just have a good time. Haha seriously we are havin a blast out here in 대한민국. And I think a lot of that is because of my humor that I got from Bri Bri. ;) Anyways, so we got our transfer call at like 10:30 on Saturday and me and Elder Atkin are staying together for his last transfer! I'm killing my dad. :'( So basically since he trained me I'm his "son" and he is my dad. So since he is going home after this next transfer, I'm "killing" him. :( Haha it's gonna be alright. I'm seriously so glad that three of us are staying. We have a ton of fun, and this area is the bomb.com. Oh that night we had to stay up until like 11 waiting for president to call because he calls when someone goes zone leader, and Elder Wedam is leaving to be Zone leader in 강서 zone. But Elder Pruner is staying! Anyways! This week was a good one. :)
 
Monday we emailed then we worked on 김나영 and 하유진's 침례 picture congratulations thing. So that took forever and we still aren't done haha. Then we had dinner and FHE cancelled again...so that was no fun. It keeps cancelling because we can't get a third guy there to help us out now that 용환 is gone. But that's okay. :) So really nothing happened on monday. Tuesday was coo. We went to a 고기 buffet for lunch (We are going there today too, heck yeah) with Elder Hodges and Elder Kim, then the other two in our house.They came up because there was a split that was going on so since they had to come up they thought they'd get lunch as well. Anyways, that was delicious of course. Then we went to help a lady move, which was fine. haha we made one trip into the house and had everything in, so it was super quick. Then we had Korean Class. That was so fun. I love teaching it. We taught them how to conjugate verbs! Haha it took a lot of explaining and a lot of practice, but it worked. They finally got it. Then I shared the message on Moroni 10:32. I was talking about how usually the last thing people say is the most important so this verse kinda stuck out to me seeing as it is the like second to last verse in the Book of Mormon. It says "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." And so I just think that as we come to Christ and keep trying more and more to be like Him, He will make us perfect. And so yeah. :)
 
Then Wednesday was super awesome as well. We got to go o a hospital with Elder Riding (The military relation couple guy) who by the way is super cool. He was a pilot in the Air Force for like 20 years. He has some crazy stories. Anyway, we had to help Elder Riding interpret to help a poor deaf lady get her checks from the military. She's deaf and dumb so it is hard to communicate, but we got it figured out and were able to get her her money. Then we went onto Humphrey's base and have taco bell. It was pretty dang amazing. I won't lie to ya, it was good to be in America again. :) That's definitely one of the best things about this area haha. Anyway, Then we had district meeting where I had to share the spiritual thought again! I talked about how in the last chapter of all of the Gospels, Christ says something about Missionary work. In John He says Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. In Matthew, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Then in Mark he says Go ye into the world and preach to every creature, and in Luke. He says Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations. So that was awesome. I talked about how since it is the last thing in all of the gospels, its gotta be important. Probably the most important. And that's what we are doing. We are preachin the gospel in Korea. And He wouldn't want it any other way. :) Then we had English class that night which was super awesome haha. Dinnis is this super funny 불교 guy. That is...buddhist in english. Haha we were playing a game where someone sits on a chair looking away from the board and someone writes a word on the board. So Dennis was like hey give me a really hard one. So Elder Wedam writes The Assassination of Julius Caesar. So he gets the assassination part. And then to get Julius Caesar, I say hey its a salad! And he sits there for a few seconds thinking and goes...mmmm....oh! Cabbage! Hahaha so funny. Oh hey I had to share the thought at that too. haha i was all spiritual thought'd out this week! It was on how we need to read the scriptures and that its a commandment from god. I talked about how when we read them, we find so much peace and happiness.
 
Thursday we were able to go to the temple! That was so awesome! Like seriously, I love going to the temple. :) It was definitely the highlight of my week. One thing I learned is that we can never forget God and Jesus Christ. The second we do that, temptation starts to come in and we are tried by Satan. And that's no fun. So we can never forget Him. Oh!!! I got the package!!! Thank you so much! Those scriptures are so nice! ^^ Like honestly, they rock. Haha so much nicer than the ones I have. And that tie, super awesome. I wore it to church on sunday. Hey at the temple I met a guy with the last name Breinholt! So that was cool haha. Oh hey listen to where we went for dinner. Chilis. Yeah you heard me right. So delicious. I got the Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers. Mmm so good. We went with the Dadivas' for a 식사 type deal. And they didn't order salsa. Like what? Slackin'. But that's alright, cuz it was Chilis. :) Oh haha so since it was Halloween, the base does a ton of stuff and all the Korean 여학생's or girl students all want to go and do the haunted houses and stuff so while we were waiting in line to get checked in, like 5 different groups of 여학생's come up to us and are like hey can you check us on base? It was super funny. Like no girl. We aren't even military. But anyways, it was a lot of fun.
 
Friday marked november! It wasn't a very eventful day. It was our weekly planning day, so that means nothing really happens sadly. haha. But we had spaghetti for dinner! That was pretty dang delicous! I would have felt american, except for we used chopsticks. :) haha I love asia. But in my new scriptures I was reading in D&C and read one thing that I realy liked. In D&C 6:21 Christ says "I am the light that shines in the darkness". I've shared enough about that in my emails haha but I really just like scriptures like that I don't know why. That was awesome. Really all of our appointments cancelled this week which really kinda stunk to be honest, but that's alright. I hope that we get more this week. Anyay, Saturday was our Halloween party! It was so flippin fun haha like really, I loved it. And so did the bishop.In fact he liked it so much he invited us over to his house this week and he talked about how fun it was in church yesterday. haha so that was awesome. We made some cool little eyeball things to put on the tables out of styrofoam. That was super cool. The 안성 elders (The other area in our district) made pinatas for this thing so we put candy in them. Okay that was like the funnest part of the whole night. They made them with a balloon, newspaper, and for glue they used flour and water. These things would not break. it was hilarious. Like they would bend and take a bunch of hits, but not tear. There was one that wouldn't break until the bishop went at it. He's a big guy just so ya know haha. We had a bunch of games and stuff, I'll send pictures. :) You'll like it. Haha anyways, then we went home and got our transfer calls!
 
On Sunday we went to church of course. Elder Wedam said his goodbyes, which was kinda sad haha. Then we talked to a super col kid, the only one who is over the age of like 10 haha about preparing for a mission. He's a senior in high school. So yeah! We talked to him about life haha. He's from canada and is gnna go on his mission hopefully this sumer! So that'll be awesome. Then since we were talking to him, we missed 하유진's 확인. :( But that's alright. He got confirmed! So that was awesome. :) So happy for that guy. But then nothing really else happened. So that was our week. It was a really good one. I can't believe that it has been over 4 months since I left. When Elder Atkin goes home in December it will be 6 months. Ah my mind is blown! It's goin by way too fast. If it keeps on like this, I'll be home in what feels like tomorrow. Korea is good. Super asian, and super awesome. I love it here. Last night I was just thinking about how much it rocks and how blessed I am to be here. It's amazing. Wouldn't have it any other way. :) I love and miss you guys. You're in my prayers!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt
 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

October 27, 2013



Alright so this week. :) We went down to the actual city of 평택 and i bought a sweet nike jacket for my winter thing. It's getting kinda cold here! Not too bad, but some days are pretty cold. We looked around for more winter stuff, but we couldn't really find any. So we'll probably look more next week. That's about it for monday. haha nothing too exciting. Then Tuesday we  studied and did our normal thing. Elder Atkin and Pruner were sick so we left them at the apartment and went down to 펴택역 and just kinda talked to people for a while! That was some fun. haha it was kinda hard but that's okay. But then we came back and taught Korean class! I seriously love teaching that. That's what I'm gonna miss most about this area. Oh we get transfer calls this saturday! So if I'm leaving you'll know the next time you hear from me! Anyway, we taught them the other version of numbers. I think I've told you guys that they have two number systems. But yeah. I feel super smart when I can actually teach people. Like they didn't even know how to count. So that made me feel good. :) Wednesday we had district meeting and english class. Before every district meeting we have lunch as a district. I got 치즈라면. Aka what you bought me when I was in the MTC with cheese. It's pretty delicious. I'm getting more and more used to spicy food. My nose still runs and stuff, but I've gotten used to it haha. But that was delicious. They really like us there. It's called 김밥전국. Or Kimbab Chunguk. They're everywhere. But we go to the same one all the time so they'll give us aloe drink and stuff, pretty awesome. :) But then we had the meeting thing. After it, the Quigley's, one of the american families, were moving to Oklahoma so they couldn't take any food home with them so we got to take their food! We came home with three boxes. Funny story. Right when we were getting out of the taxi, the bottom of my box gives out. Everything rolls all over the street, it was super embarassing. Haha it was pretty funny. Anyway, then we had English class which was super cool. Elder Dewey was there, he's new in our district, and he is like 6'5. haha everyone loved it. So funny. We had a new guy come. He was 16 and his name was 현대인, or modern times person. Super cool name right? So that was fun. :)
 
Thursday! We went to that 유가내 place for lunch again. So good. Haha we went there today with one of the members. He rocks. It is 김용환's brother 김용호. 김용환 is the cute big kid that i sent a picture with. :) Anyway, then we made some english flyers and posted those up every where. We talked to a cool old guy who acted pretty interested, but he told us he didn't have a phone number. But...we weren't to sure about that. Most old people have just as nice of smart phones as the kids do. Oh! It's only like 10 dollars a month here for 초등학교 (elementary) kids to have a smart phone. how crazy is that?! SO a lot of the time like 10 year olds have smart phones. Super crazy. Anyway, then we wnet to the bogg's for a 식사. If you guys remember Jennifer she's the one we teach with the Boggs. But she couldn't make it sadly. We had like white sauce noodles. Delicious. I love american food. I shared the thought at that. It was on 3 Nephi 11. About how it took 3 times before the people looked up. They hear a voice and try to look around them to find out who it came from, but can't recognize it. Same thing the 2nd time. It wasn't until the third time that they were able to understand it. And it's because they looked up. So I just shared that we need to remember to always look up. When we need answers, we have to look up or we won't receive them. Then we went to the church because Elder Atkin had to have an interview for his temple recommend before it expires. That was cool. We got to see President Morrise! He rocks.
 
Friday was another normal day as a missionary! But I read Uchtdorf's talk...again. haha we need the new liahona's so that I can read the new conference talks. Anyway, it was the Of Regrets and Resolutions one. So something that stuck out to me that time was when he talks about finding something good--something to cherish--in each day. I sort of extended that to people and I think that that made it powerful. That we need to always try to find good in others because it is super easy to find the bad. Anyway, I thought that was cool. So then we had weekly planning after we went to Pizza School! Gotta love that party. haha it's really not that bad. Anyway, then we went over to the Hernandez's for dinner. Theey are seriously so awesome. The perfect example of a member missionary. She's like yeah I was talking to my friend and I bore my testimony to her and now she wants a book of mormon so do you guys think that you can get me one in Thai? Also, I just got here, so I'm gonna need some more Korean and English and spanish book of mormons. Keep in mind that we gave her like 5 of each earlier. Haha it never is going to end with that lady. She's awesome. Then we come home and we got a call from a guy named 김영호. He's like hey so...I want to learn from you guys do you think you could meet? Do you think you could meet tomorrow at 10 AM? Haha we were like heck yeah! He used to be an investigator but got too busy with work, so he had to drop. But. Now he's out of that and wants to learn! So we do english and gospel with him. Get this. We go to meet him. And this baptism that had been put off and put off happened to be at 10 AM that saturday. So we were in a room talking to him and we were like oh they are all going to watch a baptism! He's like hey oh can I watch?? We were like of course! Haha it was so awesome. So, that could have been why it was put off for so long. For that one moment. The lord is in control guys.
 
But saturday! So we met 김영호 like I told you. We taught him english for a while and asked him to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon which he said he would. So we'll see how it goes! :) After we met him we went the that 김밥전국 place again. So delicious. Haha then we had our 경전공부 반! Or scripture study class. That was a lot of fun! I'm gonna be honest, I can understand about 10% of what is said, but I can keep up. haha it's hard. Love it though. Just gotta keep studying. It's really hard to push myself to study here though. Just because we have all of our American members, and we only have lessons every once in a while, like 3 times a week that I have to study for...but just gotta stay motivated. :) Then we had the American Branch's halloween party! That was so cool! Jace will like this. One kid dressed up as a minecraft guy. It was actually super cool. He looked like just like a person from minecraft. I wish I would have gotten a picture. But he just put a box on his head that was designed perfectly to look like a minecraft guy. Cool. Anyway. That was a lot of fun. Those members are super cool.
 
Sunday! We were pretty dang busy in the Military Branch! That's never happened in there before haha. They asked us to teach a gospel principles class to some new people because the Ward Mission leader typically teaches it but he wasn't there. Anyway that was fun. Then haha coolest thing ever. We got to teach the primary kids I am a child of god in Korean. So cool. 난하나님의 자녀. That was intense. Haha it was a lot of fun. Those kids are loud. Oh it was the primary program! So flippin cute. Dang primary kids. Then we went to the Korean ward where 김나영 got confirmed! I got to stand in on the circle thing...yeah didnt understand a word that was said haha. Like...dang. Well I understood her name. That's about it. 하유진 didn't come for some reason. So I've learned that sometimes students have to go to school on sundays. Like it's required. How terrible is that?! Dang. Anyway, but that was awesome. So we went through church and then we had the 식사 with all of the members since it was the 4th sunday. That was delicious. Some curry stuff. It was really good. Anyway, then we went back and made up studies for like an hour before we had to get down to 평택 to meet Ted! He's 김나영's uncle. He's been inactive for like 20 years, same with his mom. But the mom said that after the baptism she wants to come back to church. It's just so far, which it is, also she's busy. So we are going to stop by there some more and just check up on em. But ted is like the coolest guy ever. He's super good at english and super stylish. He's way cool. So we talked to them and had some dinner. It was super fun. :)
 
That was our week! Pretty dang awesome! We have a lot of cool people here. I really don't want to leave. But if I do, it'll be okay. It'll be what the lord wants. :) I love all of you! Keepin on keepin on!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Baptism!!

                                                     Elder Breinholt and a Bonsai Plant.
                                                  Young Men's President at the baptism
                                                                     Sunset in Korea:)

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Two Baptisms This Week!


Well hello there cute family! We had the two baptisms this week! Which was really a miracle. I'll be sure to tell you about it. The next transfer day is November 9th, a saturday, because of a combined mission president something haha I'm not really sure. So this transfer is only 5 weeks. That BYU game seriously sounds so crazy! Haha that's amazing! I'm just glad they won. :) That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm so jealous that you get to go to like every single one. I won't even be able to see a football game on tv for two years hah, but that's okay. Yeah Jayden turned in his papers! :) Seriously, so glad! Proud of that kid. I want to talk to him super bad. But I'm in Korea... Anyway. Super excited  for him. That's exciting! I heard Brandon got his call to Georgia! THat's so cool! He's gonna be awesome. I'm not sure about Adamsguy, I keep forgetting his email at home, so I'm gonna put it in my journal tonight. Give Jayden a call or something to see if you can get to his opening! I'll tell him to let you know. I hope he does. :)
 
So this week! Tuesday we had interviews with President. You're gonna like what I say next. So after it was over he comes up to me and asks me, how do you feel about training Elder Breinholt? I was like...hmm well sure! I mean we won't be able to communicate with anyone, but we'll do our best. So, it could happen soon. I doubt it will happen this next transfer, but it definitely could happen soon! That's pretty dang stressful! Haha but it's okay. IF that's what the lord wants me to do, I'll do it. We went to this super delicious restaraunt. I thought Kenah would like to hear about our food haha. The restaraunt is called YooGaNe, and what we order is called 떡갈비. It's basically fried rice with 떡, which is like compressed rice stuff, fried rice, kim (seaweed), some 고추장, which is spicy red sauce, then cheese. It's so good. And yeah! THen we taught the 한국어 반 which is basically Korean class. You've heard about it. Super fun to teach. Haha i just hope we aren't teaching them wrong.
 
Wednesday we got up and did our normal thing. But I was just studying about light and what a light Christ is and I came across this verse in Ecclesiastes I think...haha it's chapter 11, verse 7. It says: Truly the light is sweet. And I just loved that because following Christ and keeping the commandments truly is sweet. It is so much better and happier than not doing what we are supposed to I guess. We had district meeting, which took up a ton of time haha. Then me and Elder Pruner did like a mini split. He had to go to get money and we just wanted to do some 전도 while they were planning our halloween party. So we were just walking around right. Trying to talk to people. Then some guy stops us and is saying something in english, but i couldn't understand him. He's like come with me! So we follow him up some stairs into this room. I'm pretty dang sure it was a gambling ring. It smelled like a casino, and there were like some sort of games set up. Yeah it was intense. THen we were like, uhhh we gotta go! So we just left haha. Pretty dang cool/a little bit scary. Then we met with our..what's the word in english...ward mission leader. So we did that and then we had english class! I love that thing! It is so awesome haha. A bunch of cool people came. But! 하유진 had his baptismal interview and passed! So awesome! I was super excited. But 박희정 who is the lady who brings him to church and her son is his friend, took the baptismal record to his mom to sign for permission ya know. But she wasn't going to. So apparently the parents are probably going to get divorced so she wasn't sure and wasn't going to sign it. But a lot of prayers and begging by 박희정, she signed it and he could get baptised. Ah so awesome.
 
Thursday we went to Pizza School for lunch! It was delicious. It is 5 bucks for a Pepperoni, but not pre made...so almost as good as little caesars. Haha but after that we met with 김현철. Or Kim Hyun Chor. He's super cool. He's like 66 I think. Actually he was a referall from Elder Champion. So that was good to talk to him again! I miss that guy. But he's interested in english. So we got to know him, spoke english with him. Which like no 66 year olds are as good as him. He's super super good. And he's totally fine with the message part. So that was good as well. We think he will make some progress. :) Then we went over to our branch president's house for a 식사! That was super good. We had lasagna and american grapes. Dang it was super super good haha. But yeah! That was about all that happened.
 
Friday, oh hey you'll like to hear this. We've been going to the gym every morning. Heck yeah. I'm gonna be ripped! Just kidding all I do is ride the bike cuz it's like a leg work out, plus cardio, plus I'm not sore the next day. Haha so that's a plus. Anyway, we had our scripture study class. I'm discovering I can understand a decent amount. Haha I just can't speak. It's hard for me. But that's okay it'll come. Then we went to 김밥전국 for lunch! We love that place. That Translates to Kim Bop Heaven by the way. Haha so we get like some sushi type things, but korean style, and like bibimbop, and donkkas which is a pork cutlet type thing. THen we met with 정우채! He's super cool. I think I talked to you about him last week. Anyway, he's super cool. He wants to improve his english which is super cool, but also he just wants some help. He wants to be better and he's coming to the right place to do it. I'm really proud of him. He came to church sunday! But I've never seen someone so nervous in my life. Haha he seriously. Dang. It was bad. He walked in and we talked to him for a little bit, but he left before sacrament. So that was too bad. Hopefully we can get him to stay next week.
 
Saturday was awesome! It was a "Senior Day" for me. Which basically means that I have the phone and stuff. But luckily! No one called haha and we didn't ahve to call anyone. So..it was kinda just a normal thing. Anyway, oh yeah mom I saw that you wanted to know if we have a cell phone. The answer is yes! We do. So we went and put up 광고's (english flyers) in the downtown area. I'm gonna have you guys knowing some Korean by the time I come home. ;)  THen we met 이천수! We went down there and they took us to a super cool garden type place! They are so nice. I have some pictures. It was really cool. Anyway, that place was cool. And it was super good to talk to them and see them again.
 
Sunday! The 침례!!! Seriously, that baptism was awesome. It was my first one and it was a double one. But before I got to that sorry one second. So In the english branch a guy was giving a talk and said something that I raelly liked. He said "I believe in a God who is in the salvation business, not the damnation business." I loved that. Like seriously, God wants us all to return to Him and He loves all of us so much. But yeah so we had the baptism! Ah. I could feel the spirit so strongly. 김나 영 is the girls name and 하유진 is the boys name. They rock. 김나영's uncle invited us to dinner next sunday! He's the one that I met at the 식사 forever ago. He's awesome. His english name is Ted. :) Anyway, we're hoping we are going to see him more often than once a transfer. But he's wy cool. But the baptism. Elder atkin baptzed 하유진. And the young mens president baptised 김나영. So that was cool. Both of her parents came and her grandma! So that was super exciting. I hope they felt something. But you nver know. THen we talked with the other elders investigator for a while and came back to the apartment! And that was our week! Pretty dang crazy! I love it here. This place is amazing. It's getting kinda cold, but with suits today is kinda hot. Anyways, I love you guys. Keep beeing awesome. Let me know if there's anything I should be aware of, like aubrey having her baby. That blows my mind. SHe's going to have a two year old child by the time I come home. What the heck. I'll be sure to send Janae some baby clothes too so that when she has it, it will have something to wear already. :) I'll have it say: I love my south korean uncle. It'll be awesome. Love you a lot! Have a great week.
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt
 

Friday, October 18, 2013

General Conference! Plus 2 Baptisms comin up!‏


Hey my awesome family! How are you doing? This week was super cool. We got to watch General Conference yesterday and the day before which was so good. Like seriously. Ah. You'll here more about it. :) Anyway! I bought you guys some 마이쮸's! They are like Hi chews just korean. I'm gonna buy more and when I have enough I'll send it. I got your letters on thursday at the combined district meeting thing! So that was cool! It was so goot to hear from you. :) By the way! They took a month! Haha unless you sent them after the date on the letter. Anyway, it was good to read them. :) Monday we went to FHE and to 가정의 밤. That was super cool. We watched the Thomas S. Monson video movie thing "On the Lord's Errand". It is seriously so good. Love it. Then we talked to them about General conference and that they should watch it. Pretty dang awesome. I could really feel the spirit. I know that he is the right man to lead the church. I realized that he has been an apostle longer than mom and dad have been alive. Like dang. That's a long time. Haha seriously. He rocks.
 
Tuesday we made cookies for our recent convert and one of our investigators. We basically prepared for our Korean class we were teaching all night because that was the first time we were teaching it so we had to figure out what we wanted to do. So we teach americans Korean! How cool is that. I don't know Korean...but I'm teaching it. :) haha so that's cool. It actually makes me feel smart. Like they can't even read....but oh well. It's funny. So we taught them how to read, how the characters are organized and stuff. Then we ran out of time! Oh we also got to go on base and eat at the food court! That was delicious! I had Charley's! We had a sandwich and fries. Like heck yeah. It was so good. haha dang.
 
Wednesday we left as soon as we woke up! It was a Korean Holiday, not really sure which, so the members threw a party. We went down to 평택호 which is like a super cool area. There is a lake and a park and we hung out with the ward. We played 초구 which is like...volleyball and soccer mixed. Like you're on a court and kick the ball over a net, but it can bounce a few times, you have three hits to get it over. It's awesome haha. It was super super fun. I'm gonna always remember the bishop after each serve. haha so funny. He would be like oh "Nice Suhbuh!" For nice serve. Since they don't have v's, but that's the korean word for serve. So freakin funny. Hahaha oh my gosh. I laughed every time. But eh reason we went to that is because we wanted to hang out with the members and get to know them better so they will give us referrals. Because that's the best way to do missionary work. Plus two of our investigators were there, the two that are being baptized, so that's awesome. After that we went back and had english class! It was cool! but because of the holiday, not too many people came. Like 5 I think. Haha anyway, it was awesome. We wnt over a story with them because they are all pretty good.
 
Thursday was prtty dang busy! We woke up and did our normal thing. We had to go up to 수원, 곡반장 for the combined district meeting which is where I got their letters. :) Thank you so much for them! They were super aweosme! We got some good advice on talking to as many people as possible and seeing it as, every person you talk to is an offer to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then after that was over we planned our sweet Halloween party as a district. Haha it's gonna be cool. but it's on November 2nd, kinda weird. I'll let ya know more about that when I know more about that haha. Anyway, then we had to come home super fast cuz that place is like an hour and a half away and get to a 식사 with the boggs! They are the people we teach jennifer with, for kenah, she's the one who has the husky. :) So we ate with them and just talked to her. She really loves to talk haha. She doesn't really get a chance to talk to people other than at school, so she loves talking when she gets a chance. :) Then we went to the church to do some Korean Clas stuff when in walks in 정우채. He's a Less active who we tried to visit, but he walks in and tells us he wants to meet with us and practice english, even though he's already really good. And he wants to talk to the guy who used to be the bishop. So that was a miracle! As a missionary, my testimony of the spirit's influence has really grown. He is able to touch people in amazing ways that are incredibly personal to each of us. So cool. The spirit never stops workin. That's for sure.
 
Friday! In personal study I read the talk "Your Sacred Duty to Minister" by David A Beck or something like that haha. Anyway one thing he said that I liked was how priesthood holders have the duty to serve others, to serve the one. And it doesn't have to be just physically. It can be spiritually and emotionally as well. Then we worked on more Korean class stuff and did weekly planning. That was really our day. haha weekly planning takes forever.
 
Saturday was General Conference baby! Okay, seriously. They talked about marriage atleast twice each session. And how the world is going to end. haha seriously it's scaring me. But its true. Because the world is moving further and further away from God's standards, and that's not good! Anyway, I think I'll just start tellin ya what i liked! From Saturday Morning: Robert D. Hales - We all have to help each other through this life, no one can do it alone. I felt that in a lot of talks throughout conference. We are here to help each other. From Ulisses Soares that all things are possible with the lord's help. From Edward Dube (How freakin awesome was he by the way?) that we need to trust our leaders and take their counsel into consideration. Also, the lord wants our heart. Then David A. Bednar. Love that man. But one thing I learned from his tithing talk was that we often can't see our blessings without careful examination of our lives. And often times they aren't physical. Also, that we need to be grateful. It allows us to be happy and content in our current circumstances. Then President Uchtdorf. Okay how awesome were both of his talks? Seriously he is hilarious. I love him so much. But from him I learned that the church gives greater healing than any other source in the world. Also, that there isn't just one reason people leave the church. We can never assume, we should jsut help them. Also, Just because you have doubts doesn't mean you stop believeing. Everyone has doubts at certain times in their lives. Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. Saturday Afternoon! Boyd K. Packer. Righteousness will always conquer wickedness. I love that man. he's so cool. Then D. Todd Christofferson. How good was his talk? I learned that mothers can teach powerful lessons no other relationship can. Also, that marriage needs to be valued. Men and women complete each other in marriage. They are equal. I love that. Value women, and value marriage. Then from S. Gifford Nielson. He sounded like a game announcer haha. He taught me that no matter our circumstances that everyone can do good. We all can be a positive influence when we stop worrying about ourselves. From Arnulfo Venuzlo that miracles don't ahve to be big. When we are humble, they will come. Remember, small and simple is how the lord works. Then Timothy J. Dykes. It takes effort to find Christ. Also, one really good thing, is that when we forgive, we must forget. Then it was Holland! Oh my goodness. He always rocks it. He gives the best talks and didn't disappoint with this one. seriously. So good. But I learned that because He trusts us, because He knows we can do it, He gives us trials and he gives them to us often. Also, that no matter what we do, His love for us never changes. He will always love us. Always keep in mind that there are happier days ahead. Be greateful for even the smallest of victories. Cherish everyday, have charity because it will never fail. Find something good in each day, and always be kind. That was the best talk. man. Then it was M. Russell Ballard! When we reach out with love, we have no need to be fearful, people may not accept the gospel or you, but they will never forget the love they felt. When we are seeking to do our best, we will not fail. And the Lord truly does hear our prayers, each one. Then that was it! Dang. I love conference. There's Christmas. Anyway, then we went over to the Hernandez' house because they wanted us to come over. They were having a birthday party for their daughter. They invited all of their friends and we got to meet a bunch of people! They truly understand how missionary work should happen. It doesn't happen just by saying sit down with the missionaries. It happens by building relationships, then seeing if they will listen to us. Like mom said, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." So we had some super good Peruvian food. Anyways, then we went to priesthood session! Ah so good. Love it! Haha dang. I'm sorry. The first speaker wa L. Tom Perry. I learned that we need to live what we learn. And everyone has their own spiritual gifts, we should seek to develop them. THen was Gerald Causse. He taught that Christ never would turn anyone away, so how can I? We need to accept everyone and be a friend to all. Especially those who are maybe a little different than us. THen Robert D. Funk tuaght that we need to be humble, obedient and able to feel the spirit to succeed in misisonary work. Then Dieter F. Uchtdorf again. So funny. He made a reference to the "I've fallen and I can't get up!" Thing. I'm sure you all have seen it. Anyway, I learned that people can do it. Just sometimes they need a little motivation. Then they're in for life. They just need someone to reach out to them. So never give up on people. Then also that we allways need to try to be a little better. Rise up each time we fal and never give into temptation. Also to never lose hope. Anyway, next was cute little Henry B. Eyring. He said that a great priesthood holder is the good samaritan. Who stops and helps those in need until they are well taken care of. The whole purpose of the church is to serve others. Then a talk by president monson! Love that man too. mmm conference. haha. But i learned that whatever we do, we should do it with a smile. Live with no regrets and lift all those around us. Also, Christ never gives up on anyone, so I can't either. Dang. That was just saturday. :) haha I seriously love it. I'm so sorry. Anyway.
 
Sunday! Whoo! More conference baby. We went to the church greeted some of the members and started it. I'm just gonna do the major highlights after all of that from yesterday. Haha anyways, from Henry B. Eyring, Life is about loving people even when its hard and seems like thy don't deserve it. JJoy is guaranteed to the faithful. Then Dallin H Oaks gave an awesome talk. He talked about how ultimate happiness is within our families. And that marriage is crucial to that. And marriage in god's way. They seriously talked about that like 20 times. Also, we nee dto remember that our challenges are temporary, and we must have courage to stand up for what we blieve no matter what. Then from Richard J. Maynes: This life is about dedication, perserverance and endurance. From Richard G. Scott. No matter how long trials stay, endure it well. Follow the prophet, it will give you great protection. Then from the Prophet. :) Ansers don't come immediately, we have to be patient. Keep the faith He will never leave us alone. Be greatful. We can always be better than we were when we have Him lighing ou path. Then the Afternoon: So I heard there was a fly on some dudes nose, but I never saw it. :( Haha anyways, Quintin L. Cook was first. I learned that we need to stop wasting our time on things that don't matter so much like video games, TV, facebook, twitter and spend it on things that actually matter like spending time with family and loved ones. Also, again that children need mothers in thier lives. Then Neil L. Andersen. The priesthood enriches our lives and women give insight that no man could. From Adrian Ochoa, to stay focesed, look at warning signs, and remember to always look up. Then from Terence M. Vinson that we need to love God and have hHim as a close friend. Then it was Russell M. Nelson's turn! I like him too. Really all of the apostles rock. Anyway I learend that we need to remember that we are all children of God. We can learn to build up resistance against temptation. All things in this life are gifts, including death. We were each chosen to come to earth at this exact time for a reason. It is important and one of our main purposes to receive a body, but it is far more important to develop our spirital gifts while we are here. Also again, that Mariage is the key to eternal life and happiness. Like dang. I love conference. Oh hey. Inbetween the sessions we had our last lesson with 하유진! His baptismal interview is on wednesday! Whoo! So we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. haha kinda funny to teach that to a 10 year old. but it was awesome. :) Then 김나영 finally had her baptismal interview! She's gonna finally get baptized! So awesome! I'm so excited for both of them. :) So that happened on Sunday as well. I don't have too many pictures to send this week...aka like 1 or two. I'll try to be better about it, it's just hard sometimes. Haha anyway. I love you guys! I hope you had a good week! So good to hear that BYU won again! Seriously that's awesome. Haha I'm so proud of em. :) Love you all! Have an awesome week!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt

Monday, October 7, 2013

October 7th, 2013

                                                                       My cool hat!!

                                                         Some cool tombs and statues
                                                                    Downtown area

October 7th, 2013

                      This is the apartment complex where the less active lived who wasn't home:(
   Check us out!  Me and Elder Pruner on some exercise machines just havin  the time of our life!HaHa
 So. Jehovah's witness headquarters are literally right next to our apartment. The brown building with white trim is the JW's headquarters. The tall apartments is our apartment complex. Haha so crazy. They gave us a pamphlet. Also they've stopped by our apartment a few times.     
                                      
                                                  Downtown area where Connor Serves

Basic Rice field and a Tomb (I think it has Chinese writing on it)


One Transfer Down!


Can you believe I've been in Korea for 6 weeks? Because I can't. If time keeps going this fast I am going to be home in what will feel like next week. I'm glad you liked the pics because I got a lot this week! We went hiking and took some good ones. :) So I got some for ya! So good to hear that the Cougars are rockin in football. :) Love it. Well at least against Utah State. By the way! We don't get to watch conference until this weekend because they have to translate it and stuff! So that really stinks. I'm so jealous of all of you! Seriously, like I wish so bad I could watch it. So tempted to get on right now. Ah. Sorry that it wasn't the same poppy. :) When we do watch it, we will watch it at the church. By the way, what candy did you want again? I am going there today so if you respond quickly, it can happen. :) Okay so this week! It rocked! We finally got our two baptisms solidified so at least one is going to happen for sure and I'm pretty sure they both will. They're scheduled for the same day on the 20th! So pray for them! 하유진 and 김나영! Gonna be awesome! Our area is really on fire right now. Like seriously. Alright!
 
So Monday. after I emailed you we went up to 수원 to get some baskin robbins with some other elders and sisters in our zone. I was licking it on the cone right? And then...the cone shatters and my ice cream is about to fall on the ground but hey I've got skills so I caught it in my hand. It rocked. I saved my ice cream. except for the fact that I had melting ice cream all over my hand. Haha but I could still eat it. Oh I also bought Harry Potter 2 in korean. It's super cool. But I can't read it....haha strugglin. Then we came back and played bang! At FHE, but everyone ganged up on me first. So I lost first in both games we were playing. It was rough. Haha that game reminds me of the Banks. Because they love that game I think. Either that or one time I was over there and they were playing it.
 
Tuesday started the 4th month of my mission! What the heck. We went down to 안성, the furthest area away from the mission home which is an hour ish away from us. Haha so we went down there because we got to help the elders down there serve a less active lady on her farm. We went to town! We pulled out all of these sesame/poppyseed things out and weeded that whole area. Then we pulled corn out and weeded. Dang. I was so sore. Today is actually the first day I'm like not sore from that. Haha I know. Baby right. Then we went to lunch at Noodle tree. It was delicious. I'm so sorry they don't have that in 미국. Then we made the trek home. And since we didn't get any studies we finished the day with the three hours of studies we had to make up. Forever right. But one thing that I really liked. I reread Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk on Regrets and Resolutions because I felt like there was a lot to learn from it. Something that I really liked this time was when he was talking about enjoying the journey.We need to stop looking forward to when something will happen because we think we will be happy then and just let ourselves be happy now. Life is not meant to be enjoyed in retrospect. 
 
Wednesday rocked too. Obviously, I'm a missionary so everyday does. But I read more talks too. haha I'm sorry I need conference to be here. I'm going to literally cry of joy when I get to watch it this weekend. I read "trial of Your Faith" by Neil L. Andersen again. Haha I learned that we need to treasure, strengthen, pray for more, and proctect and defen\d our faith. It isn't something we can be passive about. ALso i learned that it is our imperfections that help us to become perfect. Super awesome. Like we have imperfections for a reason. So that we can learn and grow. Without them, why come to earth? After that we went around and tried to visit a less active, but she wasn't there. :( Then we just put up fliers for forever! Haha partyin missionary life. Then we did some area book work stuff and had English class! I shared the thought with Elder Pruner on faith! It was so aweome. THen I asked 심우진 to pray. He is the kid who is going to be baptised, its his friend. So when he prayed he was like "And please bless 하유진 that he will be baptised. So freakein cute. I almost started crying. But also! I learned that in Korea, parents don't name their children. Cna you belive that?! They have someone do it for them. Blows my mind. But its because everyone's name has meaning.
 
Thursday I read a talk on Marriage by L. Whitney Clayton. It was freakin good! The points of it were: In the happiest marriages, both husband and wife consider their relationship to be beyond a pearl of great price. Next, they are built on faith in the Lord Jesus Chirst. THird, repentance and humility. Next, Respect, transparency and loyalty. Last, love. All of these things are seriously all important. You take out one and it is probably going to fall apart.Then we went to a 고기 buffet! So delicious. I love those things. I always eat my eyes out. IS that a saying? Probably not. But I eat a lot. We went because it was 용환's last week in 평택 before he becomes a missionary. :( I'm so sad. He's a missionary now! Cute little yong hwan. :( He's seriously going to be the best missionary. Cutest guy ever. Then we went hiking with 박희정, 심우진, and 김종하. She's the other Elders investigator so we went to build a relationship with her and because they needed a third man and we count! So heck yeah. We hiked and there are these just excercise machines at the top of this "mountain". So awesome. Mostly old people doing it. There are old people exercise machines everywhere. They just hang out and exercise. PRetty sure the old people here are in better shape than most 20 year olds in america. haha so cool. But onething that stuck out to me is that it's not about getting and racing to the top to enjoy the view. It's about the journey. If we were just racing to the top we would have missed a lot of fun along the way. Most of the exercise things were on the way up rather than right at the top. ANd that was super fun. We saaw some small tombs and stuff so that was super cool. But if we wanted to get straaight to the top we totally would have missed all of those things.
 
Friday! I read Dallin H. Oaks talk "Protecting the Children" That's a good one. Read it. He talked about how we need our children to grow iup in homes solidified in the bond of marriage. Parents should rarely get divorced. He saied that divorce now is an easy thing that you rarely think twice about. And when children are involved, they are rarely brought into the picture. It was good. I can't summarize it. Just read itl Then we went to our scripture study class. It was awesome! I had what is called by missionaries "the Black noodle" It's basically korean spaghetti. The food that is super common that everyone loves. It's pretty good! I liked it a lot! Then the rest of friday was taken up by weekly planning and making up the study that we missed. That's president morrise's thing. He always wants us to make sure we get all the study time. And honestly I'm so glad. It's worth it.
 
Saturday was super busy and awesome! We went over to the Hernandez's home. They are an amazing family. The dad isn't a member though. Listen to this. We gave her a bunch of book of mormons on sunday and saturday she had already placed two. Like whhat? So awesome. And he had oil for members to use if they ever didn't have any and needed to give a blessing! What the heck! We gave their daughter a blessing and it just made me so grateful for the priesthood and to have a dad who has it. Because I could get a blessing anytime i needed one. Then I blessed their home! That was super cool. The first time! Then we went to the church to plan our lessons because that was at like 10 that we had to go do that. o we were planning and a kid just comes walking into the church. We start talking to him and we sit down with him then he just starts telling us how we shouldn't believe in the Book of Mormon and all this random stuff. It was crazy. He was crazy! Haha Elder Atkind said he couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying. Gotta love that. It was weird. Then we taught 하유진! It was awesome! W etaught him all of the 2nd lesson that day! Then we went down to 평택 because we were meeting 이천수 and her family. We taught them english and then about God, families and prophets! We gave her and her cute little daughter a book of Mormon and they said they would read it! Super awesome! Ohh haha then we went to this place. It was a little tent restaraunt thing. I was gonna cry. But wasn't about to show it. There were spiders in the ceiling and comin down. Oh so gross. But it was actually pretty good food! Haha Ahh. Then on our way home at the 역 a guy came up to us and we started teaching him about the three kingdoms! So awesome! Seriously, like that was super cool. Things like that make you glad to be a missionary.
 
Sunday was the last day of the transfer! Nothing too big happened. We taught the two that are going to be baptised! That was awesome. We reviewed baptismal interview questions with 김나영 and taught 하유진 lesson three, or the Gospel. It was awesome. I got to ask a few questions and talk about faith and some other stuff. It was good. :) But yeah! That was our week! It was awesome! I hope you are doing well! From the sound of it, you're doing great! I hope conference was amazing, I'm sure it was it always is! Haha I miss you guys! Can't wait to see you in about 20 months! But at the same time, Korea is home. And its going to be hard to leave. You're awesome. Love you!
 
Love,
Elder Breinholt