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