Tuesday, August 20, 2013

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

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