First Letter From Korea

Well Hello there my cute family. So it is now almost 12 on Monday afternoon! This is probably the time I'll email everyday from now on. Well. I'm in Pyeongtek! So I am basically the furthest from the mission home you can get. My companion is Elder Atkin, he's cool. He goes home in December so I will probably be his last companion! Kinda sad haha. Anyway, yeah so the day we came down here, it took us three hours and we didn't get back until 10:30. It was exhausting. Anyways. :) Let's start back at the MTC. It's been forever since I emailed you guys! AH! I can't believe you have started school. That's so weird! Blows my mind! Anyways. Korea rocks. Okay. So the saturday after I last emailed you guys. We said goodbye to our teachers, which was like super super sad. But that's okay. They have changed my life forever! Baek and Wade. Ah I miss them. It's hard not seeing them everyday. They became my parents in a way haha. Anyway we took pictures with them that I will send you if we have time. Which I think we will. After that yeah Saturday I don't really remember. Then Sunday like I told dad we had Vai Sikahema come talk to us which was super awesome. He told us the story of how his mission changed his life. He told a story about how someone he baptized he's still friends with him and eventually his wife got baptized and they were sealed in the temple. So that was cool.

 

Okay our flight. It was super long. But it was sooo good to hear from you guys. Kinda weird though I'll be honest. Haha It's good to hear that you are doing so good. :) But yeah. So we skipped forward a day so that's weird. I feel like I got cheated. Anyway. Oh on the plane to Korea they gave us Bibimpop and Shin Ramyun haha it was like I was in Korea! I sat next to this kid who was super awesome!! I don't remember his name, but he was so cool. He just spent like a month touring South America. He went all over. So awesome. Oh while it is on my mind. Mom! Someone added me on facebook so if you'd accept their request that would be great. His name is 김용환. Anyway. He was cool and I talked to him about the book of mormon kinda haha it didn't really aspire to anything. After that we got off and we talked to our mission president for about five minutes, hopped on the subway and started talking to people. I stuck with 문호빈 and we had a great strategy. Haha I would get the conversation started by saying oh hey! Sweet shoes! Or Sweet shirt! Then he would keep the conversation going. Cool story right. One cute old man we were talking to (By the way, cute is the only way to describe about 95% of Koreans) seemed pretty interested. He's like yeah I'll definitely look up more about this church and research it. Then we walked by him later and he was telling other people to listen to us! This is why I love Korea. Heck yeah. :) But we did get rejected a few times. A lot of people will be interested because they will be like what who is this white kid talking korean to me. So that's cool. :) So many people here now at least a little english. Then we got back to the mission home and by this time it was tuesday by the way. So anyway. At the mission home we had super awesome mondu, which is korean potstickers that were really good. Oh one weird thing about Korea is the trash. So freakin weird. The separate everything out. They put the metals in one, plastic in one, cardboard in one, one kind of miscelanneous trash, and one food trash. And yeah. They recycle everything. But the food here is amazing. It's different for sure, but its so good.

 

Alright! Then Wednesday we woke up and got our trainers. We had "orientation" where they told us about our card and health things and stuff. But yeah! Oh Williamson went to Seocho the nicest area in Korea. I overheard his companion say they had a lesson with a lady and her butler. So yeah it's nicer than gangnam. Anyway, I'm not sure where everyone else went. So yeah. After we had our orientation, which was supposed to end at 4:30, but actually ended at 6, we went and ate dinner at pizza school haha that was super cool. Then we went home! And that was Wednesday. We talked to a few people on the subway. I was so tired. Haha there was one point where I almost fell asleep standing up. Anyways. Thursday was cool. Oh! Hang on haha sorry I'm all over the place. Our apartments. Super super nice. LIke nicest in the mission maybe. THeir called Lotte Castle. There's a story behind it, but I don't know how much time I have. Haha so yeah. We are on the 3rd floor of an 18 story building. So awesome. But hursday. We studied like normal, than planned our lesson for 박희정 a recent convert. She's so amazing. We just read the scriptures with her and ya know, I followed along with what we were talking about. I make ya proud. I stay with it. Haha it's hard to stay along in normal conversations though. But yeah. So it was so awesome to talk to her. She's one of those people who you talk to and just love. She's on fire. Her and her son were baptized like a few weeks ago. 4 now i think, and she loves the scriptures. We meet with her every week and go over the scriptures with her and answer her questions and also teach her the 5th lesson. Oh also. we stopped by this store to print off some pictures and this dude who speaks super good english owns the place. He's so funny. He has had a lot of history with missionaries and so he's so nice to us. Haha he speaks like a mexican and it rocks. So that could lead somewhere, but you never know. Oh fun fact about korea. Since all males have to go to military right, probably 95% of men smoke since they hand em out like candy there. So that kinda is gross, but it's alright. It's Korea! 

 

Friday it was raining so we couldn't do much proselyting. It's so blazing hot here. Like you walk outside and begin to sweat. And there is no escape. No where has air conditioning except the church and businesses, so we try to spend as much time there as possible. The thermostat in our room said 32 farenheit and usually is around there all night. So that's fun. :) Haha it reallly is kinda gross but it's fine. It has started to cool off a lot from what I hear. So I am super greatful for that! Friday was pretty boring haha. The Groesbek's who are the senior office missionaries came down to go apartment hunting with a Korean man and since they don't speak Korean they had to have Atkin 장로님  translate. So we were doing that from 10 until like 5:30. Haha I literally sat there all day and didn't say a word since I don't understand Korean. But that's okay because we saw some pretty dang nice apartments! The one they chose is brand new, never been lived in so the sisters that come down here are going to have a super nice apartment! And that was Friday. :) 

 

I guess I should talk about the area. So there are 4 missionaries in our area. There is us who cover Songtan (where we live) and Pyeongtek. Then there is Elders Wedam (the district leader) and Elder Pruner (MTC oldest group) who cover Songtan and Osan.  We have 6 hours of church because we have the military branch in our area. So that's awesome. THat's what I wanted actually. I wanted to serve in the military area. So I thought that was a cool blessing. :) But we didn't have military branch this sunday because they had a meeting thing. like stake conference. Lets see. What else. Our area is absolutely massive. Haha it really is so big. It's two whole cities! Anyway, ummm I don't really know too much about it. As I said we are the furthest area from the mission home. 3 hours. There is only one area that is about the same distance as us, maybe further. So I am in the very south of Seoul South. :) Haha

 

Alright Saturday. We studied like normal, then we finished this project we were working on for one of the members before he goes on his mission. Oh by the way, I say we studied because since I'm a greenie we have an extra hour of study time in the mornings for training. So because of that, we don't leave the house until like 1, after lunch. So that's why. We have forever in the mornings. But we proselyted a little. Just to people we passed. Then we had to go down to the actual city of Pyeongtek for a district dinner which was super cool and we just spent the night with our district. We have a military couple who help out on Osan Air Base, which I think is awesome. That's their mission. They are awesome. The Ridings. The other two Elders in our district are the ones that are maybe further away than us and their names are Elder Hodges and Elder Kim. They are cool. Elder Hodges is from west valley and went to granger! if that's the right one. It might be hunter. Dad would know that's why I through that in there. :) And yeah. We went to this place called 김밥 전국 aka Kimbob Heaven. Haha it was pretty good! I got this bibimpop which was a pretty decent size like I got full off of it and I only payed 3000 won! Or 3 dollars. So that's how cheap some places can be. Which is so cool! Have I mentioned that Korea rocks? Because it does. Oh gosh. We had the coolest experience yesterday. But before that I have to tell you about sunday. Alright! Well! Sunday. I got up, studied then we went to church and greeted the members. We are really working on our relationship with the members here because they can get us the best contacts and best everything haha. Anyway. Then I gave my introduction talk. Hahaha so I said yeah I came to Korea on Sunday and I was just talking and this cute korean old lady in the middle of sacrament gives me a thumbs up. Haha it was so awesome. So yeah, my talk went good. I just talked about my family, what I like to do, and my testimony. Easy. :) Then after church, since it was the fourth sunday, we had lunch with all of the members which was pretty spicy but it was good. :) Then we taught a lesson. Oh!! That's what i should have mentioned. This investigator. She's 14, her name is  김나영, (Kim Na Yeong) Sorry I forget you can't read that haha. She's a guaranteed baptism. She was supposed to be baptized last sunday, but her dad wouldn't let her because he is kinda anti religion but she's guaranteed we just need to get that. So yeah we taught her that lesson about the law of chastity and word of wisdom haha i couldn't remember either of those in english. This is getting bad. Anyway. During our lesson, Elder atkin got pulled out into the hallway for like 1 minute, but while he was out there there was a miracle. The other elders investigator was talking to our recent convert (박희정) about baptism. And out of no where she was like yeah I really need to be baptized! So then they hopped on that and set a date for her the same day as our investigator the 15th. We are going to have a double baptism hopefully! :) Wouldn't that be so great?! And that wasn't even the best miracle that happened yesterday! After that we went to a 식사 (you can ask alynn how to pronounce that after the lesson I gave her ;) ) with Kim Na yeong and her family. Her mom used to be a member but doesn't go since her husband doesn't really like religion. Which is totally understandable here because all of the Christian churches are super corrupt and keep all the money they get given to them for themselves. So anyway. We pull up to her apartment and she pushes floor 18. Top floor. We walk in, just absolutely massive apartment. So incredibly nice. Like granite or marble floors, ah just gorgeous. And then we go out onto their balcony and have dinner just on the balcony of the 18th story penthouse. So amazing. haha. Anyway we were eating and her dad was super nice but he was only there half the time which actually gave us a chance to talk to the wife about the whole situation. She said she really wants to go to church, but since he doesn't like it at all she doesn't go. She says she wants the end result to be him being baptized. How awesome would that be?! Miracle number 2. So hopefully, he'll come to his daughter's baptism and feel something and want lessons or something. We will see. :) But yeah we were talking and Kim Na Yeong's uncle comes in he's 30 years old. His American Name is Ted. Haha people do that all the time they have an American name. They just choose a random one. So funny. And he tells us how much he loves missionaries and how much they helped him out when he was young and how he wants to repay us. So he's like hey will you give me your number, I want to call you when I have time and set up a time where we can eat and play ping pong or something. He's this total inactive guy. Who hasn't been to church probably since he was baptized at 8 years old. So amazing. Like when the heck does stuff like this ever happen?! Hopefully all the time as a missionary. :) So our goal is that the next time he calls us we talk to him about the church and gauge his interest in coming back. So that was the 3rd and greatest miracle of the night. :) I hope you see why Korea is so amazing. I haven't had the chance to take many pictures, really I haven't taken any except for some quick ones today. :/ I'm sorry! I will do better this week! :) So yeah. That was my week. :) It's so good to hear from you guys! Keep the emails coming! I still don't know what the address is haha if yuo see it on the mission facebook page please post it on the blog, but I didn't find that out. I will do my best haha I'm sorry. It's just since it's so new, we don't really have anyone who's been here long enough to know. Everyone down here is from Taejon mission. Anyway! I love you guys a lot! :) THank you for the pictures! Keep em coming!

 

Love you so much!

Elder Breinholt :)

                         Elder Moon. He´s cool haha i love him. All of the Koreans are             going to our mission. 

                                            The white kid is Elder Skinner. He´s awesome. The Asian is Elder Lee. 

                                                                                            Me and Elder Lee. 

Last letter from the MTC

Well everyone, this is the last letter you'll get from me at the MTC! The rest of them will be from the good ol' land of 대한민국! Also known as South Korea. I leave in 3 days! At 2:30 AM! So stoked! Seriously, I don't think I've been so excited for something in my life. it will be so amazing to get to Korea, not understand a thing, but just love the Koreans with my whole heart. I know they might not understand a word of what I say, but that's alright as long as they can feel the spirit behind it. That's what it's all about. The spirit behind what we say and do. And Korean's especially can feel that. They know if you love them. They can just feel it. I hope that I am able to make them feel how much I love them already. And I haven't even gotten there! So we'll see! So first things first! The week. 

Friday after i emailed you we went and cleaned the temple which was super awesome. it was different than I thought it would be, that's for sure. They are pretty relaxed and aren't in a big hurry really at all. And what we were all so jealous of was that the sisters got to clean the chandeliers. Each glass piece cleaned off with a glove and put back. So cool. Haha we really were all so jealous. But that's alright. We put a room back together and dusted walls. Haha never thought I would dust a wall in my life but we did! It's the temple. It needs to be that clean. After, they took us on a tour which was amazing. They showed us the 4,000 some odd piece chandelier in the celestial room, and then what was really cool was they showed us the brides room oddly enough. A bunch of elders in the brides room. Haha it was a good experience. They told us a story which I thought was amazing. They just got a new chandelier the last time they closed to put in there and when they got it and went to put it together they were either missing or a few pieces had broken. They tried and tried to put it together in a way that would look good, and ordered new pieces, but they wouldn't get there until after they had to open. So the night before they were to open, the lady was going through the instruction manual they had gone over with a fine comb so to speak, and out fall the pieces. The exact ones they need. No more, no less. So amazing. 

Ohh Saturday was super awesome as well. haha seriously every day is as you can tell. We're missionaries. But that night we went outside with Brother Wade to a place where really no one goes unless they are running around the road and we just prayed then read our scriptures on our own for about 15 minutes. It was super spiritual and the spirit was really strong. Something that I felt was that in order to succeed as a missionary we have to love, have charity, and hope. Without that, we will have very little to no success. After that we all got in a circle and kind of talked about what we had learned. Then Williamson 장로님 shared a scripture that really touched me. It was John 15:15. It says, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." And I think that is so amazing that our Heavenly Father and Savior think of us as friends. He treats us and loves us like a friend loves his friend. That's just a beautiful thought I feel like. Also on Saturday. I was just doing personal study listening to President Eyring's talk "Mountains to Climb". It is an amazing talk first of all. They made a mormon message out of it. Anyway, Something that he said that touched me and I think can apply to all of us is that "With faith in Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest of times can be a blessing." We all have trials. We all have hardship. But with Christ and prayer, and our heavenly Father's love, we can make it through. He will always be there to lift us up. Always. 

Sunday. Haha Sunday I gave a talk. So the speakers are random right. And I was thinking oh, I'm leading the music and I prayed in priesthood, I'm totally not going to have to give a talk. Ha good joke. They called me anyway. It was fine haha it was on repentance. I didn't say much because I tried to do it all in Korean. It was good though! It was a great experience. Oh and sunday was our last temple walk! I have pictures to send, but I don't have my camera so hopefully I can send some later! But yeah, nothing too exciting happened on Sunday. Monday was good! I noticed on Monday that when someone says something in English I will try to say it in Korean in my mind. So that's something that's cool. I mean a lot of the time it isn't right, or probably is wrong words who knows haha but yeah I thought that waws awesome. Ohhh Tuesday. Man tuesday was amazing. So for the devotional, our last Marriott Center Devotional, Richard G. Scott came a spoke to us. The spirit of an apostle is so strong. From the moment he stepped into the room, there was the strongest spirit in the entire Marriott Center. it is literally impossible not to feel when you are in the presence of an Apostle. He talked about prayer and something he said that really touched me was that "Prayer is a gift it is a sacred privilege." I love that. because it is so easy to think oh I'm super tired let me say a quick prayer and call it good. Or I'm super hungry say a really fast prayer, and move on. But if we slow down, and actually talk to our Father, we will feel the spirit and we can grow a stronger testimony much faster. Also, he said, "Let Him tell you He is near." That's beautiful. Our heavenly Father loves us so much, He is always close to us if we just let Him be. The only time He isn't, is when we push Him away. And that is so incredibly easy to do. Soo easy. We have to constantly work on our relationship with Him in order to stay on the path and to stay strong. Oh he also gave us an Apostolic Blessing to learn our language and to be blessed, which was super awesome. 

Wednesday and Thursday. Well wednesday was super good! We had a sub at night and talked a lot about Korea. Haha I am so excited to go! That's all I think about now is just leaving. Just getting there and teaching. Eating rice for breakfast and becoming a true asian. Haha what could be better? I seriously...I'm so ready to go. This place is cool, but it's time to move on. And they days are flying by, so I know I'll be there before I know it. Love you guys. :) Thursday oh dang. Haha Thursday aka yesterday or 오제 rocked. We talked about how too often in the church and in life, but especially in the church, people think of life like a ladder. Always having to do the next thing, getting better and better, and top those around us. Oh you're a bishop, oh you're a stake president, oh you're young women's president, oh your son was the AP, wow you're awesome. No that's not what it's about. It's about serving others. We are all here for the same reason. To get back to our Heavenly Father. Rather than seeing it as a ladder, we should see it as a horizontal line, and everyone is at different points, and that's okay. That's the beauty of the Gospel. It doesn't matter where we are. All that matters is that we're trying to get better from the point we are at. We should be helping others along the way. And just because you have been a bishop, doesn't mean you have any stronger of a testimony than someone who was baptized yesterday. Heavenly Father loves us all the same. Something I think that is really powerful to think about is that Heavenly father loves President Monson just as much as he loves me, my companion, my brother, all of us. We all are in the same place. We all make the same mistakes. Christ is always there to pick us up when we fall. We all make mistakes. We all mess up. Every day! But listen to this scripture. It is when Christ is walking on the water and He invites Peter to walk too. It is Matthew 14:30-31. "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" The moment Peter began to sink Christ Immediately strectched out his hand. He is always there for us. He will always lift us up. 

I love you guys so much! I hope that you guys are all doing well. It seems like you are. Thank you so much for everything you have done and for always supporting me. I am so greatful for it. really it means so much to get your emails and letters and packages each week. Thank you. :) Remember, Every member a missionary. You guys are awesome. Until Seoul.

Love you lots,

Elder Breinholt

안녕하새요 재 아룸다운 가족! 사랑해요! (That says hello beautiful family!)

How are you guys?! I miss you guys a lot! I really loved that quote from Jared! It's super true though! Because who is going to believe what you have to say if they think you're just there to convert them and not there because you actually sincerely care about them. That's what it's about. Caring and loving people so that they know it is something that will bless their lives. I know I wouldn't want anything to do with someone who came up to me and was like my church is right! Believe it! But didn't take the time to get to know me or do things for me. If they were my friend and I knew they cared, then I would listen to them. So that is super true! We got our flight plans yesterday! Much to dad's (and my) dismay, we are going on American Airlines and flying to Dallas then to Incheon. We leave the MTC at 2:30 AM on the 19th. So the 18th...that night. You know what I mean. Anyway, yeah I would love that iPod if you guys loaded it up with some sweet motab! And yeah, I would need a charger, but I'm sure I can buy one in Korea. So that's no big deal. Haha I don't know why I haven't taken one with my companions. We will next sunday when we all are leaving haha. Anyway, what do you want me to take pictures of on my way? If I have a window seat I'll try to take pics. :) Oh and since I have flight plans to Korea, I'm assuming that means I have my visa so no worries there...but I wasn't really worried haha korea is like the easiest place in the world to get visas to. I haven't heard anything about shots so no I haven't gotten them yet...they said they would let me know! so hopefully they do haha.

 

Yeah so we leave in a week and a half and that's super exciting! I can't wait to actually get to Korea and start talking to real people! Not that the people here aren't real...just real people that aren't already LDS. :) So saturday we were talking about Moroni 7, which is like one of the best chapters in the Book of Mormon. Anyway. We were talking about it and Wade 형제님 said something that I really liked. He said that we need to make the attributes of charity, hope, and obedience a part of us. And as these attributes become who we are they will naturally come out of us. We will naturally talk to everyone and have charity for everyone. Earlier I was listening to a talk by Elder Holland during personal study and he said something that was super strong as well. He said, "The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue. It is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know." I love that because it doesn't matter where we are. We are all at different points in our relationship with our Heavenly Father, but we all have to do the same thing. we have to stand true to what we know and what we believe. Oh also on saturday we had like the most powerful lesson we have had in the MTC. We had Baek 자매님 bear her testimony because she was getting baptized the next day haha so we thought it was important for her to do that and the spirit just was really strong. So that was amazing. Ah listen to Elder Holland's talk. It's called, Lord, I believe. It is so good. I have like a thousand quotes from it written down.

 

Oh Sunday was super good as well! I loved it! I blessed the sacrament in 한국말! So that was an awesome experience. It still sounds weird not in English haha but I love it. OH. Listen to THIS story from Sunday. So like we went to that baptism right? So the President of the MTC, President Nally was like hey I want you guys to sit on the front row and be recognized. He was talking about baptism so the 5 that taught her stood up and the whole MTC saw them, then Subeen got up and talked about her TRC experience. It was so cute. She talked in Korean and Brother Wade translated. It was so amazing. Like who the heck has these kind of experiences in the MTC?! Her spirit as a new convert was super strong. She's amazing. I don't know if I would be able to be baptized one week then bear my testimony infront of 3500 missionaries the next sunday. She's awesome. That night we watched David A. Bednar's talk "Character of Christ". Dang that one is a good one too. The character of Christ is to turn out when the natrual man wants to turn in. After fasting for 40 days, and after being tempted by satan, Christ had angels come to support him. But rather than supporting Him, Christ sent them to John, because He knew he was in prison. There are tons of stories like that about Christ. He talked about how a testimony is not enough. He said if we all come back from our missions and all we have is a testimony, we will be inactive within 5 years. The gospel has to become a part of who we are. We need to choose every day to serve others. That was just a super powerful talk. And if you can find it, I would invite you to listen to it or read it. So good. And that was Sunday. :)

 

Monday was good as well! Haha everyday is good here. Brother Wade had us do this activity where we closed our eyes and imagined ourselves in Korea. Just walking the streets, teaching lessons, whatever we do as missionaries. I pictured what I wanted to become and do while I am there. I think that is somthing that is super powerful that we can all apply to our lives. Whatever we want to be or do after a certain amount of time, picture it. Then write it down and see how we are doing on that. Oh also! This week I have been learning 40 단어 a day and sometimes 50! (That's vocab words) So that is awesome! I feel like I have really started to learn a lot more Korean. :) Tuesday was day 49! We got new Koreans! And they are all super cool. Don't speak very much english though haha but that's alright. :) We practiced phone calls and that was pretty cool! We just talked through the door haha but it was still a good thing to practice. We also talked abuot how a bad day as a missionary can often times mean that something great lies ahead and satan is trying to discourage you. Wednesday was good! Yeah see, everyday is good haha. The days ahve really started to fly though. Like when I go to bed, I feel like I just woke up. So that's kinda a good thing, but kind of bad. Probably because we have a lot more to do now that we have barely any time left. Oh we hosted on wednesday and that was super fun! Haha I love hosting. It's a blast. but it is kinda tiring caring people's bags up 4 flights of stairs. Haha I swear everyone I host lives on the top floor for some reason. But yeah, nothing to exciting happened wednesday! Thursday aka yesterday I memorized the first vision! It's rough still, but you have to start somewhere haha. So I can get through it, it just takes me forever. Yeah yesterday was good! We had a sub and learned a few korean sayings. Oh! One of our branch presidency members lives in alpine, so if you ever meet Brother Lee, a cool Korean man, he knows me. :) Yeah that was our week! I don't have any pictures....sorry. Haha nothing exciting really happened. Oh we are cleaning the temple here in 2 hours! We have a busy P-Day today! Know that I love you and you guys are in my prayers! I pray you are all doing well, and I love you lots! Oh! The cheesecake was super good tell grandma I love her and it. :)

 

Love,

Breinholt 장로

 

Elder Kidman is in the back of this one! Then some more with my korean buddies. Seriously, we cried                          together haha I will let you know more when I send the weekly one. 

               So the president of the MTC requested our pics...Haha anyway. Here is the one from the baptism

Okay fam. The one on the bench where we are all lookin off. Very right...이종채. Or Eee Jong Chae. Behind just to the left of me is 박인어. Or Pak I No. The Next left is 안광억. Ahn Gwang-Ok. The next is 이성관 or Eee Sung Kwon. And then Landry. 

me and Elder Kang.  

Elder Yang. These two freakin awesome Korean elders. Elder Yang is going to Cali and Elder Kang is going to New Jersey. They were here to learn english so they can get around. Still going to Korean Speaking mission 

though.

 

 Then the other asian in that one picture is elder Han...the one with the super tall guy is Elder Jackson and Parker Knows him.

Just two emails left from me not including this one while I'm at the MTC! Two weeks from Sunday night/monday morning we are going to leave for Korea! We get our flight plans this next friday! I can't wait! So pumped! Yeah the text thing wouldn't work...so try to get it to work for you guys and if it does just let me know how! Did the pictures I send ever work? I hope so! They were great! And if the ones I sent this week don't work I am going to be devastated! They are so awesome! Anyway. The Baptism!!! It was so awesome! The spirit was really strong and the room was completely full! She was so excited to get baptized! When we walked in she comes up to us and was like...today is my baptism!! It was so cute. :) So about the room being full! Oh gosh. So we get in and are like alright there are a decent amount of people here, sit on the back row ya know so everyone can see. Then by the time it starts we get up to take a picture and our seats are immediately taken, which is fine right. We get more chairs and set em up and think that will be enough. We ran out of chairs and had to use the little tiny primary ones! Haha the room was completely full of people and we were standing all the way in the back! There weren't enough seats or enough room for us to sit down! It was amazing. :) Anyway then it started and the spirit was super strong. I for real felt like I was in Korea. There were like 20 missionaries there though! It was really cool! They asked the full time missionaries to raise their hands and there were 11 of us from the MTC, the two missionaries that taught her to the end. And then 7 other missionaries or so. It was so awesome. Then our teacher baptized her in Korean which was really cool too. It was just an amazing experience. So it came about by our teacher teaching her right. So he's been teaching her for four months. Oh listen to how she was introduced! She got into a car accident and the guy that hit her asked her if she wanted to meet em! So you never know when you can be a missionary to someone. :) Anyway so she was being taught by Wade Hyong Jae nim. Half of our district taught her in TRC. I never did sadly. :( TRC is where members come and volunteer and we teach them a lesson in Korean. So it is really fun. Tonight we skype someone in Korea!! Freakin out so bad! And we had to get permission from President Hacking one of the MTC presidency members to be able to go haha it was so awesome.

Tell grandma that cheese cake was amazing. :) we still have some of it to eat but it was really good! And still cold! Haha anyway. Hahaha I can totally see all of you guys doing that in Costco. :) That's so funny. Ah you say Jayden's parents?! I miss them a lot. What did they have to say? I hope Jayden gets out here soon. :)  Anyway, like lately we have been getting a lot better at keeping their interest. I just ask a question as we go and something that is really important that I have figured out is to have people figure how the gospel applies to them on their own. Ask them a question that makes them think about it rather than us telling them how it applies to them. So that's awesome. :) No she just told me that my pronunciation is. And then Brother Wade told me that mine was pretty good too so that's awesome. :) Richard Lee is a kid I went to BYU with. He's awesome. :) Oh Elder Williamson had the Kimchee sent to him from his mom and we popped it in our fridge so it wouldn't go bad. PS. That Ramyun is pretty spicy heads up haha. Anyway, yeah we are learning a lot. Since we have learned everything we ask them how to say things we like would say in normal conversation and that's why they didn't learn in for months. And it is how the new system is set up. I heard that with the old 12 week korean program they would talk to you in english for the first 6 weeks then korean. But we were tossed right in. So that helps us learn way faster as well.

Oh umm...we got to host those first times because we just went. Haha I think you're supposed to be invited to do it, but you can just do it if you want. We got actually invited this wednesday. So that's why I've been able to do it. Yeah I got everything you sent me so no need to worry. :) And i liked all of it. Yeah I share the food haha I wouldn't be able to eat a lot of it if I didn't. Williamson Chang no nim gets a package like every single day. Monday and tuesday...3 each day. haha people in his ward just hook him up with packages haha. Anyway, I saw brother and sister sell! I hope they told you that I did! Haha that's so awesome that they are branch presidency members here! That would be such an awesome calling. 

Oh hey, how's Alynn doing with her wisdom teeth out? Ah everyone is downstairs now?! That's so weird! Mother, the doctor wrote down 20/13 vision on my form for my mission, so I'm probably fine. :) But if you want, I will get my eyes checked. Thanks for lookin out for me. :) I'm still awaitin a letter from Jace and Kenah! Alright so this week. You know about saturday. Oh in brother wade's class we listened to President Uchtdorf's talk, "You Matter to Him". So amazing. One thing he said that I loved was that we need to "Remember the Lord uses a scale very different from the world's to measure the worth of souls." Also, I loved when he said, "The most powerful being in the universe is our Father." I just think it is amazing to think that the most powerful being in the universe is my dad. That's really comforting. Sometimes I think I forget that he is my dad. It takes on a whole new meaning I feel  like to say dad rather than Father when really it is the same word. But yeah I just love that. :) Sunday I didn't talk in church so that means this next sunday I will for sure...all of the other Elders in my district have callings or have had....so that's rough. but I am blessing the sacrament on sunday! In Korean! So that will be so awesome. I've been practicing. :) Oh yeah Saturday we said goodbye to the oldest dongi and basically I cried. So I was talking to Eee Jong Chae and all of the other Koreans, but he was like hey lets go say a prayer and Breinholt you say it. So me and 4 koreans in their room saying a prayer. And i said it in English. But by the end of it little Eee Jong Chae was crying and gave me a big hug and I lost it. Ah they are all so amazing. He was like "Two weeks isn't long enough." and "I love you, thanks for being such a good friend, I love you." Ah they are so awesome. It was seriously such a sad goodbye. I mean I had known em for 14 days. And it felt like I had known them all my life. We really just connected with them.

Monday was another great day here in the MTC! It was a normal day but then at night we weree talking about how we can do anything through God. Wee talked about D&C 42:6-7, 13-16; D&C 84:88, and Alma 37:6. Then we bore all of our testimonies in Korean and it was really powerful. I love this place a lot. The spirit is so strong and my testimony has grown so much, as it will continue to do over the next 23 months. Tuesday was good as well. We had the devotional with Brother Richards and we have been talking about how no matter how much we want to, we can never give up. We need to always talk to everyone, because that is our responsibility and purpose as missionaries. Also he played a Elder Holland quote where he said, "I would say missionary work isn't easy because salvation is not a cheap experience" And how true is that?! Way true. We have to work our hardest every day for salvation! Wednesday was another good day, every day is good let's be honest. I watched two talks since we have a lot of time to study on wednesdays and I feel like listening to modern prophets is just as important if not more important than listening to old ones. So yeah. I watched M. Russell Ballard's talk about being anxiously engaged. Then President Monson's talk on seeing people for what they may become. He said, "We must not see people as they are, but what they can become. Keep in mind that people can change." I think too often I see someone and just judge them immediately. It is easy. But if we picture them as heavenly Father sees them and entering the waters of baptism we will talk to and love everyone we see. Heavenly Father didn't give up on Saul. He was one of the worst persecutors in the history of the church, yet he became one of the best missionaries to ever live. It's amazing how the Spirit can change someone's life. Then yesterday was good as well. haha. We had class with Sister Baek and we were talking about love again...common theme I know...but it's important. Probably the most important. After all it is the first and second greatest commandments. So we were talking about it and the spirit was just super strong. We need to love people as christ does. That's all. :)

I hope you guys are doing well! I love you all a whole lot! Keep the letters comin. :)

Love,

Elder Breinholt