Elder Breinholt and Frosty!  Connor got to be his host when he came into the MTC!!  So fun!  It's like a reunion in there!

 Oh so here's the story. We were sitting in our room and decided, hey today is front curl thursday....and that's what turned out. Haha we stopped Brother Wade in the bathroom and made him join us. :) Also, check out those glasses. And also, these are the Koreans. Yang and Kang. They rock.

Elder Breinholt's MTC teacher.  Connor loves him to death.  He say's he really brings the spirit!!  Thanks for being so awesome!!

Okay so the glasses, Korean Style. The picture of the other koreans, they're hilarious. The one with glasses is Lee Jong Chae and the other is Pak I No. 

This is me and Lee Jong Chae. Actually, in Korean, Lee is just Eee. so spelled like OI, that's just english letters, but kinda korean haha. So yeah. Last picture. Love you cute guys.

Oh ha that's alright that you didn't send a package. I loved the one you sent this week. :) Also, tell Janae that I loved her package and more chilis would be much appreciated.  Haha yeah the apple juice is way delicious. Plus now we got a fridge so we can refridgerate them. :) No we aren't teaching real people. Well, we kind of are. Like we teach our teachers and they play people they taught on their missions. Brother Wade is 성복수 or Son Buck Soo. He owns a restaurant and yeah he's fun to teach. Sister Baek's girl she plays is 정애진 or Jong Aeh Jin. So it isn't real. It's like...they play people. But they play em good! Haha it is actually fun. Yesterday was our first day teaching without notes and it was good! Like honestly I was sort of surprised at how much I could actually say. Granted I hade a few words written on my hand, but that's alright. :) One thing I've learned is to make sure to relate the lesson to them and make sure to ask questions that relate to them. It's kinda funny...if we ramble on they are told just to like start falling asleep. So that's hard haha it makes it frustrating. Awe, I love cute little clayton. That is so cute. That kid is so awesome.

 

So I thought I would start what we did this week with just a quick little announcement. WE HAVE A BAPTISM! Like...a legit one. We teach TRC every Friday, which is typically just RM's or members that speak korean that come and volunteer and we teach them a message. So anyway, two companionships in our district have taught a real investigator at TRC and Brother Wade has been teaching her with the missionaries. Her name is 수빈, or Su Been and she gets baptized tomorrow. So we had to go and talk to President Hacking, one of the people in the MTC presidency to get permission to go. And we are going!!! How awesome is that?! We have a baptism with our teacher, in the MTC. That blows my mind. I'm so excited. I don't know of that ever happening. I am so excited! Alright. So that's that. Baptism tomorrow. :))

 

Alright so Saturday nothing really exciting happened, just another typical day at the MTC, but we were doing TALL with our teacher, which is basically learning Korean on the computer. And she came up to me and said, Elder Breinholt your pronunciation is really good! And then I was talking to Richard Lee and he said that my accent is better (Meaning it is not as strong) than a lot of missionaries that he talked to in Korea that had been there for a while. Isn't that awesome? Haha I thought I would brag a little bit. :) So I thought that was really cool! Sunday a few changes were made. Champion 장로님 is the district leader and Landry 장로님 is the sacrament meeting coordinator. So that's cool! The devo sunday was also really good! We sung come come ye saints at the end and the spirit just hit me. What we are here to do is hard, but we can't let that get to us. It is what is required of us as disciples of Christ. The days have really started to fly. Like it feels like yesterday I was in this room emailing, but it was a week ago! Monday we had kimchee at dinner! And it was delicious! It is kinda weird, but it is good. I'm a firm believer that Korean food is the best food in the world! Tuesday was another normal day...the days are really all the same now haha. We have got to the point in class though where we have learned all that is in the book. Now we just review and learn forms that aren't in the book. Brother Wade said we are learning things he didn't learn for months in Korea. So that's aesome! Oh we also had a devotional and after we talked about how technology can be used for good. Like sending your investigator a quick text with a link to a mormon message. How powerful would that be? So yeah. That was Tuesday. Um Wednesday I hosted Frosty!! It was so cool to see him! I hope that I helped his nerves rather than making them worse! I do service in his building so today I went in there and wrote I love Elder Frost on the board. Which is: 저는 Frost 장로님 사랑해요. :) Haha it was cool. Then I went and said hi when we finished service. He seems to be doing great! He, like I did, is teaching his first investigator today! All in Spanish! He'll be great. :) But it was so awesome to host him! We went and dropped his bags off then went back to my room and had a drink and some food. I just wanted to ease his nerves. So I hope I did. Oh oh oh. We went over Alma 5 wednesday with Brother Wade. I think every time we talk about something with him, it is like direct revelation from Heavenly Father, or 하나님 아버지. He always brings the spirit so strongly. But anyway, what went along with Alma 5 was that we want to be able to to return and say that we did our best throughout our life. We need to make a concious choice to act like the savior every day. It isn't something that we do. We have to be actually trying to do it. Any yeah! That's my week! A baptism, a few packages, and Frosty! I love that kid. :) I hope all of you are doing well! I love you all. :)

 

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Breinholt 장로

So today marks exactly a month! I can't believe we have been out here that long! That blows my mind! We got new Hanguk Saram this week, which was way cool (Koreans from Korea). They are hilarious and really nice. So lets see what happened this week. Friday after I emailed we didn't really do much. We kinda just had a nice chill P-Day and got some letter writing and laundry done. So then Saturday our class with brother Wade was awesome. We had a talk about love. And that's what we are here to do. To love everyone and to invite everyone to come closer to Christ and that includes members and missionaries. But one of the scriptures he shared was 1 John 4:18-21. I would say that is up there among my favorite scriptures. I'll copy and paste it.18 There is no ^afear in ^blove; but perfect ^clove casteth out fear: because fear hath ^dtorment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.19 We ^alove him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and ^ahateth his ^bbrother, he is a ^cliar: for he that loveth not his ^dbrother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not ^eseen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who ^aloveth God love his brother also. I'm not really sure why I love this so much, but I do. I think it is because it says fear is the opposite of love. When we love like Christ did, we want to talk to everyone, the people we sit next to on the subway, bus, or whatever, and invite them to come closer to Christ. And I've been thinking about that a lot this week. Yeah I just love it. :) Oh! We also talked about how love is a triangle. With us, others, and god on each of the points. And as we love God more, we love our fellow man more, and we also love ourselves more. He said we often forget about that last point, ourselves. We need to love ourselves as well, and I just thought that was really interesting.

 

Alright! So then Sunday our district got to pass, which was really cool. We pass like koreans with your left arm holding your elbow out of respect. You do it any time you shake someone's hand along with bowing. So that was really cool! Oh! We have been hanging out a lot with Elders Yang and Kang a lot. They are 2 elders from Korea who are going to New Jersey and California, Korean Speaking, but they have to learn english so they leave with the group that is ahead of us in two weeks. They are so funny. I just love Koreans. Like its bad haha Elder Williamson says I have yellow fever...its alright. But one thing that's weird to me is that they are all about respect so some of the more traditional Koreans, especially the older ones, they intiate everything. Like you don't shake your bishops hand unless they stick out their hand. And you never ever put your arm around them unless you are really good friends with them. And that's just me. Like I just put my arm around people, but that's alright, I'll get used to it. Ohh hahaha in Korea, guys hold hands with guys right. Kinda weird, but it's just the culture. Like Korean Missionaries will hold hands and its whatever. So last night I was talkin to the new Koreans and one of the hilarious guys Elder Lee, we are talkin and he like puts his hand in mine and I was kinda weirded out, but didn't want to make him feel bad so I just kinda acted like it was nothin and just had somethin to get me away. That's gonna be weird to see. Haha but the new Elders don't speak nearly as good of english as the last guys, so they are puttin my Korean to the test. I have started to write words on my hand so I can look and say them to em. :)

 

Ah monday night was good. The day was pretty much the same as always. Study, breakfast, study, gym, lunch, class, study, dinner, class, sleep. Every day. Anyway, Monday night we had a sauna in the shower. Hahaha it was so awesome. We did it because we all have had a cough and Elder Williamson has been pretty dang sick. So we put a sheet up and turned all the showers on all the way hot, and just sat in there. It was so awesome. I could actually breathe! Haha it rocked. Tuesday was the same pretty much. Here's your korean lesson for the week. So when you think about it, adjectives are verbs used to describe a noun. Kinda confusing. But in korean, it makes sense sort of. So the adjectives are verbs with a special ending, so you can have past, future, and present adjectives. boom. Mind blown. I don't even get it haha. But yeah! Yesterday we taught our best lesson yet! This will blow your mind as well. It was on the law of chastity. Heck yeah. Haha we taught her about it before, but we needed to talk more about it because she was living with her boyfriend and we didn't think we taught it too clearly. But it was good because we had it written all in english. Little to no Korean helps. And we did it. Seriously, so freakin awesome. Spirit was super strong, and she even said it was good. Then tuesday devotional was pretty good. The think that stuck out to me was when he said, "The worst feeling a missionary can feel is regret. We have two years to serve the Lord, and en eternity to think about it." Like dang. That is strong. I hope that I can look back on my mission and be able to say, I'm glad I did, rather than I wish I would have. Because that really would be the worst feeling ever. Who knows if the guy you're sitting next to is going to be your next baptism until you talk to em! So they have really drilled it into us to talk to every single person we see, which in Seoul Nam is a little difficult since there are a million people everywhere. But I hope I can do it. :) Oh oh oh! So you probably heard this by now, but Wednesday, I hosted and I got to host Jason Nebeker! It was so freakin cool to see him! Haha I hope I didn't overwhelm him and that he's doin good. But yeah it was so cool to see him and to be able to talk to someone I know! And Frosty comes in on Wednesday so we will see if I get to host him. I don't know if I will because like they don't let you just sit there and wait for the one person you want. But that would be so cool. Then yesterday we talked about baptism a lot and how we can't be afraid to ask people. Something that threw me off was that she said it was normal and that you should invite them to be baptised even on a street contact. Like first lesson, okay yeah that makes sense you want them to see your goal for them. It's no secret we are there to get them to join our church, that's obvious, we are missionaries. But the first time you talk to em?! I guess I could do that. :) Haha yeah that was my week. I don't really have any exciting news or pictures for you........But, remember what President McKay (I think...) said: Every member a missionary. I think I was too scared in high school to talk about it. Which is weird living in Utah. But I wish I wouldn't have been. You never know what kind of impact you cna have on someone's life. And if you do it out of love, and they can feel your love, even if they don't want to hear it, they will understand and want to be your friend. But yeah, I wish I wouldn't have been so scared in high school. Anyway. I love you guys and will try to write everyone back. It's just hard because we have a lot to do in this place. But I have dedicated like 3 hours today to letter writing. :)

 

Love,

Elder Breinholt

 

PS. Mother and Father. You never told me what you though about that Abraham thing. Also, no package this week. Kinda disappointed. Also, I don't think I want you to buy me new scriptures. I was thinking about it, and the ones I have now have a lot of really good scriptures highlighted and they are fine. Plus, if I really feel like I need them, I can buy them here for like 20% off. So I will let you know. :) Mom, spend more time with your mother. She wrote me and tells me she wishes you had less work so you could spend more time with her. I feel so bad! She's like 87 and is sending me money. She has sent me 30$ already! So spend more time with her. She is the woman who birthed you. ;)

 

Alynn: I love you. And am gonna write you back today. Also, start tonight. I expect a letter next week. 1 chapter a night and if you want we can bump it up because that will take a long time to read. But let's start slow with one chapter a night. Don't forget to pray before and actually try to learn. Because then, reading the scriptures is no different than reading like the hunger games. I love you cutie. :)

 

Jace: Trek sounded so fun haha. I will write you back today. :)

 

Kenah: I love you cutie. You're so awesome. Was girls camp so fun?! I'm gonna write you back today as welllll. Also, I love your letters. :) Everyone's letters really, so keep them all coming.

 

Janice and Stan: No letters from you. Thanks for the love, I'm sure your house is cute, and I miss you too!

 

Tater: Keep on keepin on. You're a cool pup.

 

Snappy: I hope they haven't put you in any sort of turtle stew yet. You're a cute turtle.

 

Package Sender: I would love some apple juice. Also, whatever goodies yuo want. Also, don't forget my abercrombie khaki chinos. Thanks, you're my favorite person.

 

Dear Elder writers: I haven't forgotten about your letters, I will try and write you back today.

Week 4

Cute Family,

  Haha we sleep on mats in korea because that's how they do it! And also, because that's awesome. Like...who wouldn't want to sleep on a mat? Haha class yeah everyone has cried, including me. There are parts that just hit ya! We dont' go to the temple because they are just like super deep cleaning it. We might even get to clean it, but who knows! They might bus us to Timpanogas, but I don't know. That would be so crazy. Like 2 minutes from home! Ah I am so jealous of your guys' fourth of July! But ours was cool too. :)That sounds like so much fun! I loved that slip 'n' slide we did last year! It rocked!I probably will get it on time. Korea is like the easiest country in the world for us to get passports to. Like Brazil, no one is getting them and they are all getting reassigned. So that kinda stinks, but rocks for us! :) Oh dang girl! good luck planning girls camp! You can do it. :)

 

So the sentence structure of Korean. Subject object verb. So if you were to say, Christ performed the atonement, you would say Christ Atonement Performed. Something cool happened yesterday. We were teaching our progressing investigator and after I was talking to a kid and I replied in Korean because I was in that mindset. So awesome! Haha when I said it, I was like...whoa. But our dongi (group/district) is doing so well! We learned inderect questions on monday, which are sentences like do you know why Christ performed the atonement. A question in a question. And all of the older groups were like dang...we learned that on Saturday. So that was really rewarding to hear! The language is coming easier because we can say more stuff and because we know enough now where we can put sentences together easily. Plus our teachers are amazing. Brother Wade always gives us "Wade Specials" which are cool things they don't teach here that took him like 2 or 3 transfers to figure out and that is really useful too! Oh hey! While I am thinking about it. Mom can you send me my khaki abercrombie chino pant things? Khaki's are cool now and I will just buy brown shoes in Korea. Brother Wade told us that we can get a super nice winter coat in Korea for like 50 bucks so it's a good thing we waited! Anyways, back to the language. So Korean is seriously so beautiful. The Hanguk Saram, or the actual koreans came in and I may have said this in my last email....but oh well. But they came in a spoke and taught our teacher. Dang. Listening to them speak made me love it so much more. Everything about it is so pretty. Also, since all the sentences end in verbs, they all end the same way so it sounds really cool. Let's see what else. They forms for everything. Like before and after, when, because, since, things like that. And they come in the middle of the sentence...i dont' know if that makes sense. So let me give you an example. So if I were to say...After church we eat quesadillas. It would be We church after quesadilllas eat. So that's cool. This will throw ya for a loop. We feel the spirit after we read the book of mormon would be: We Book of Mormon Read After Spirit Feel. Yeah. Korean's cool. But also, Japanese is the same structure, but korean is harder because if you don't prounounce it just right, they won't understand. So yeah. Whoever is saying Chinese and Japanese are easier, good joke! Haha it is so funny to see people try and count in like spanish and they are like dang what was 15?! Well in Korean, there are two counting systems. And it is kinda a guess as to which you use. Like in time...you use both. Korean numbers for hours and Chinese numbers for minutes. So that's confusing. But hey, it's cool.

 

 The oldest group left monday night! So weird that we aren't the youngest anymore! Just a few more days and we've been here for a month! That's crazy. I miss the old people a lot. But I knew one of the kids that came in wednesday from BYU so that was cool to see him again. They live right next door to us. Yeah you did tell me that you can send those packages for free. Keep em comin. :) Williamson chong no nim get's at least one everyday. It's ridiculous haha. Um down in raintree...I have no idea who is down there. It just depends on the mission. I know for sure the Madagscar guys are. But other than that I don't know. It isn't very many I dont' think. They need to send more though because K-Town is getting overrun by all of the english speakers! K-town is like three or four tables that we always sit at for meals haha so yeah that's that.

 

Okay so this week! After we emailed...we studied, I got a haircut, and we had TRC. That was awesome because it is members who come in and we teach them for like 20 minutes. That was a good experience because there isn't any pressure so it is a lot more comfortable. The first guy's Korean wasn't the best haha like it had been a while since he had been on his mission so that made me feel more comfortable for sure. Something that I learned from that was how different people connect better with different people. That made no sense. So the first guy, I felt like I really connected with him when we taught him. Then the second guy seemed really interested in what Champion Chong no nim was saying. So that was cool to see that we all have different strengths that people connect with. Then Saturday was pretty common. All the days are becoming the same and that makes time go faster. So that's good. The days don't seem nearly as long any more. Sunday we just studied, then we had Mission Conference since it was fast sunday. My favorite thing that was said was said by the MTC President's wife, Kaye Nally. She said "We should always be asking ourselves, what more can I do?" that just hit me becuase it is easy to feel like oh I've done my part, I've done enough, but we should always be seeking to do mroe, and to influence mroe people for good. Then we had the devotional, which I'm sure was good...but that was a long time ago so it is hard to remember haha. Then we watched the Joseph Smith movie and thatwas ofcourse good! Monday was another typical day, nothing too exciting. Tuesday we had TALL time, which is where we study Kroean on the computer but that always turns into like 10 minutes of mormon messages time. So one that I watched that day was one by Jeffrey R. Holland. He said, (of the ones we love) to assume the good and doubt the bad. That is so true. We need to assume the good and expect the best of people we love. Know and expect them to act their best and we will. WHen we are constantly expecting them to make mistakes, that's not love. That's...I dont' know what that is haha, but it is far to easy to do that. At least for me. Then we went to class and I really loved it tuesday. We talked about Elder Bednar's light mormon messages the like 3 clip series. Watch em if you haven't. Anyways. We talked about how all we need is enough light to take a few steps. And as we take those few steps with the light our heavenly father gives us, he continues to give us light. Then something that stood out to me that he said was that God trusts us. We always hear oh we need to trust god and put our will in line with his, but he said that God trusts us. In the same way that we should trust god, god trusts us. I love that. God trusts us and that's why he gave us agency, and the plan of salvation. It is going to take a long time to figure out all the ways god trusts us, but I just love thinking that way. And yeah wednesday and thursday were just normal days! I have some pictures that I will send. And I love the ones you guys sent me. :) They are so awesome and so cute. :) I love you guys so much! Ohhh hahaha yesterday we taught our progressing investigator about the law of chastity. That was cool. It really isn't even awkward or weird. Maybe that's because I don't understand what I said really...but it really wasn't even bad! Haha so yeah guys be chaste. We have taught about the restoration, the plan of salvation, and now chastity! Haha we move fast here baby.

 

I love you guys so much! And don't really know what else to say! But I am sending at least one picture this week!

 

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Connor Celebrates the 4th of July

Hey homies thanks for emailing me back! JK I got your dear elders though Mom and Alynn. They are awesome. :) Ummm lets see. So Friday we did laundry and P-Day stuff. Went to the temple for maybe the last time while we are here. But we have two and a half weeks down! 7 left! So the guys in our zone got their flight plans and they are going to Dallas and then to Korea and are on American Airlines. I thought dad would be interested in that one. What else. On Saturday we just had a normal day. Which is Breakfast, study time, TALL (Which is like computer language study stuff, kinda boring), anyways. Next we went to class for 3 hours and then diner, then class for 3 more hours, and then bed time. During Sacrament meeting they randomly call people up to give talks and no one from our group got chosen! Whoo which was so nice! Haha mine was like 6 sentences long since it is supposed to be in all korean. Um we had priesthood and a lot of down time on Sunday which was pretty nice. The Devotional that night was good...although I don't remember who spoke...and i don't have my journal. But! After that we watched a video devotional thing from when Elder Bednar spoke in like 2005 on becoming missionaries and dang. It was so good! He said not to come back a return missionary, but a returned missionary. And that if we are back to normal in a week or two, then we didn't work hard enough. He said if we think it is weird to be home 3 months after we get back, that's a good sign. Also, some missionaries came over to his house when he lived in like illinois or somewhere like that and they hung out with his family for like an hour and asked him for a referral. You'll never guess what he said. He said that he would never give a referral to missionaries like them. Then he said, you guys probably slept in this morning, and I doubt you had companionship study. Come back in a few weeks, share a short message, have somewhere to go, ask me as the patriarch to ask someone to pray, and if I pick one of you guys, leave a blessing on the home and leave. Dang dude. That hit me pretty hard. People can tell if missionaries aren't giving it their all and I don't want that to be me! I would seriously feel like such a failure! 

So then on Monday it was basically the same...all the days blur together and that's why I can't remember who spoke on sunday. Anyway, tuesday we had another devotional at the Marriott Center and Brother Richardson from the 70 spoke, and it was dang good. He talked about how whatever we do, do it well. The whole what e'er thou art, act well thy part. So that was pretty cool to here. He said no matter your stage in life, ask yourself what your part is so that you can do it to the best of your ability. As a father, a husband, a son, a member of the church, whatever! Pretty awesome. Um wednesday class with brother Wade was so good. He always brings the spirit so strongly and I seriously love him so much. I am sending a picture with him this week hopefully if I have time! Anyway, we talked about how Christ is the breath of life and he is the light of the world. And that if we put him at the center of our lives, we cannot and will not fall. We also talked about building a relationship with Him which I thought was really cool. To have a close bestfriend relationship with Him is what we all need. Then yesterday he gave another amazing lesson. I wish I had my notes to just tell you what he said! But I don't so I will do my best. He said there will come a point in your mission where you will be tired. You won't want to talk to every single person you pass anymore. He said don't you give up. It is that moment that will make or break your mission. You can either choose the easy way out, or you can choose to be even better. He said, every transfer try to be better, to work harder than the last. If you do that, you will be the best missionary you can be. He also said that if you are sitting next to someone on the bus and decide not to talk to them when you easily could have, you could be held accountable for that person not hearing the gospel. Well he didn't really say that...but it was close. And that hit me. Because how easy is it to just sit there and not talk to anyone? But that's what we are here to do. When you accept your call you are saying that yeah, I will share the gospel of Christ with everyone I see. I just love him. He makes me want to be the best missionary I can be. And I know I can be! I think every day someone in our class cries. Haha it really is awesome. Oh! Yesterday was the fourth of July obviously so we had a special devotional thing and we watched 17 miracles. That movie rocks. Then we watched the stadium of fire fireworks until like 11! THen we had to be up this morning at 5:45 to go do service, so that rocked. Haha It really was cool. I love fireworks. We have this Korean Elder that we hung out with named Elder Im and I talked to him the whole time and he is seriously so funny. He has done his military service and goes to BYU now so he is way older than us, but he is so nice. And yeah! That's my week!

We talked more about Korea this week. So our mission is the old Seoul west mission. They were having problems between the elders in the Seoul and Seoul West missions because they would fight over who's mission was better (stupid). So the brethren just decided to combine them. So now that they got all their differences sorted out, they created our mission. I don't know if i told you this, but it is like the second smallest mission in the world just bigger than temple square. And yet it has over 10 million people. And it is the nicest area of Korea which I told you. So we are super blessed. We are going to sleep on mats on the ground which people love. I can't remember their Korean name, but that's alright. We talked more about the food in Korea, which made me even more excited. Also, in Korea they have a thing called Jung. Basically you build super super tight relationships with people and you call them family names. So some people you teach will ask you to call them mom or dad. Pretty awesome! And they are super big on respect. So if you don't have jung with someone older than you and you put your arm around them, they hate it. There are so many things that you wouldn't think about that are considered disrespectful. You have to always bow lower than the other person if they are older than you, and you never initiate a handshake. Even bouncing your leg like everyone here does at church is disrespectful if you are with old people. Also, showing the bottom of your shoe, but that is like everywhere except america. Ah Korea is seriously so awesome. Oh! That's where I was going with that Jung thing. So if you build jung with storeowners, they will give you like super huge discounts. Brother Wade said he bought 400$ suits for like 50 bucks. Also, a 400$ suit there, is like a 1500$ suit here. Like the ones i have would be probably 40 dollars. So awesome. Why is korea so cool? no one knows. I can't wait to get there. 

Tell Alynn happy birthday! I hope she got my letter! Um I love you guys and I hope you are all doing great! Let me know! I am looking forward to letters from Jace and Kenah! Also, tell Janae and Tyler to write me and tell me how their house is! I love getting your letters! Ohhh one more thing. Williamson Chong no nim is now zone leader for the rest of our time here and Miller Chang no nim is the district leader for like 2 weeks i think. Keep comin closer to Christ! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Breinholt (장로)

Connor and His District

Here are some pictures Connor sent from the MTC.