Our Christmas Tree and Santa Outfits

Me and Elder Ryan. 

Me and Elder Pruner

Me and Elder Smith in our matching jackets with the christmas lights. :) haha 

HO HO HO!!! 

Our Santa Clause outfits we found. :) haha 

PICS WITH PRESENTS

Me opening my second Christmas package from home:)

Outside our house

 Outside the service center. you might be able to see 복지관. that means welfare center. 

Me at the Temple

Me and Elder Smith at the Temple

The alley we walk down everyday. 

The store we shop at. :) 

The PC  Bang where i'm emailing. 

DECEMBER 21, 2014

 I've been studyin about christmas the last few days. it's the best. haha i love it. our week. it was really good! We had another good one over here in 노량진. Can i just start by saying missionary life is weird?? Your whole life you're taught not to eat candy cuz its bad for you, and that's all that's in the packages from your parents. Then you're told not to talk to strangers your whole life and what do you do as a missionary? Talk to every stranger you see. Just a few of the funny thoughts of missionary life. :)

Monday after email it wasn't p-day so we made calls for a long time cuz it was freezing haha so that was good. pretty productive as well. got a few appointments. then we had dinner and then me and elder ryan started our split. that was super fun. we went to go visit a less active member and ended up running into a member on the way. i love when that happens. i also got your package :) The one with the twelve days of christmas x2. it's too cute. I think you're gonna like my pics this week. what i did. so i took the 12 days of christmas you sent me mom and took a pic in a different place each day. :) haha you're gonna love it. i'm excited to see waht you think. but yeah. anyway. that was our day. 

Tuesday! I was on splits with elder ryan. we had our studies, district meeting which was awesome. i love that guy. ah it was good. all about christmas and christ. man christ is the best. can i just say that? it was awesome. talked about how we need to become a christlike missionary not just do missionary things. ya know that kinda deal. so it was really good. then we went and got dinner as a district and that was awesome. then we came home and called people cuz our appointment cancelled so that was lame. :( but wednesday was awesome! We had our studies and those were awesome. then we went to do service at the welfare center which was awesome. just deliverin food to old people for a few hours. super aweosme and fun. and rewarding. there were old people there whose hat's said USS Enterprise commanding officer. like 2 or 3 of em haha it was way funny. korean lesson. the most common names from korea are Kim, Park, and Lee. Moon is also decently common. but yeah those 3 if you hear em, they're probably a korean. haha love it. anyway i don't know why i told you that. then we went home and got ready for english class then we taught 강진오 kang jeenoh about how our families can be blessed by the gospel, prophets and jesus christ. that was super good. then we went and got dinner with him. that was super fun. then we had english class and a practice lesson! So pretty busy day! but those are the best. we taught him the word of wisdom. pretty good. hope none of yall have a problem with that one. ;)

Thursday we had the temple!! So that was awesome. I love the temple. it was really good. but yeah. i felt the spirit for sure. so make sure you're goin to the temple at least once a month and you'll be blessed for sureeee. then we socialized with all the missionaries then me and elder smith went shopping. we found some sweet sweatshirts at H&M for 9 bucks. :) heck yeah. i also bought mom, alynn, and kenah some grandma pants. gonna send those guys off this week. so be ready. :) haha they're awesome. anyway, yeah that was it. we did some shopping then we came home and elder smith got his haircut which was great. then we came home, relaxed for the last part of our p-day then we went ot meet a guy named 윤광수 Yoon Gwangsoo. he's a random number we called in our phone and he wanted to meet! So we went and met him at a coffee shop! it was pretty awesome. we think he's gonna be a new investigator. we talked to him about the book of mormon but he didn't really understand so we're gonna hve to teach him it again when we meet him this week. pretty excited about it. but yeah then after that the day was over so we came home. 

Friday. we had weekly planning which was waesome. super good! just nothing more to say about it. haha sorry. then we went caroling at a subway station near our house. called 노량진역 noryangjeen station. the one bishop met us at. :) haha super funny. anyway, that was awesome! Like there were the six of us, the other elders and the sisters. not too many people stopped and watched cuz koreans are busy, you know how it is, but you can tell it made em happy and put out a good image so it was awesome! Also, a grandma stopped and started talkin to us she was super nice. said she would come to church which she didn't. but it's okay. then we got dinner and also had to do singing practice for sunday the rest of the night.

Saturday was good. we had soccer which was fun. the sink for where you prepare the sacrament broke though so the whole like stage was soaked in water so we had to clean that up. then we came home had studies and lunch then we went and had a practice lesson which was awesome. we practiced for our investigator who we taught yesterday. we taught the restoration and the word of wisdom. then we went and made calls and had our weekly cooreleation meeting. that was great! Haha don't really know what else to say about it. but yeah!

Sunday was awesome. we got up and got ready for our lessons that day. we had two but one cancelledㅠㅠ it's okay. but yeah. then we went to the church and practiced our song which was awesome! It went really good during saccrament meeting! It was angels we have heard on high and the little drummer boy. how was your guys' christmas sacrament by the way?? The rest of church we watched the christmas devotional. wow. how about motab and the orchestra?? Too good. haha i loved them. the one song. 주 믿는 신도여 which in english is oh come all ye faithful. that hit me. i would suggest watching it. but yeah the devotional was pretty good. from what i could understand. :) haha i understood a decent amount. i can definitely tell that i've learned a lot in a year and a half. so heck yeah. :) haha then after chruch we taught kang jeenoh which was awesome. we taught him the word of wisdom which we think is gonna be super hard for him to overcome. stress. plus he has no religious background. ah stress. it's hard. but he's sitll comin to church and everything so it's good. :) haha then we went home and had our studies and then we went to meet the dude who never came so we just made calls and got ready for this week. it's gonna be a busy one. we found some santa costumes so those are what those pictures are. :) haha too funny. but yeah! That was our week. also this morning i read this and it hit me. by president monson from conference, his sunday morning address. "As we strive to place Christ at the center of our lives by learning His words, by following His teachings, and by walking in His path, He has promised to share with us the eternal life that He died to gain. There is no higher end than this, that we should choose to accept His discipline and become His disciples and do His work throughout our lives. Nothing else,no other choice we make, can make of us what He can" so basically i just really liked that when i read it. we need to put christ at the center of all we do.and we need to work on becoming his disciples. okay. that's some food for thought. :) have a great week. i love you to pieces. have a great christmas, and we'll "see" ya on thursday for me. :) haha you're the best! Love you!!!!

love,

elder breinholt

ps. from the first presidency message. dieter. love him

Think of the simple yet dignified way our Heavenly Father chose to honor the birth of His Son. On that holy night, angels appeared not to the rich but to shepherds. The Christ child was born not in a mansion but in a manger. He was wrapped not in silk but in swaddling clothes.

The simplicity of that first Christmas foreshadowed the life of the Savior.Though He had created the earth, walked in realms of majesty and glory,and stood at the right hand of the Father, He came to earth as a helpless child. His life was a model of modest nobility, and He walked among the poor, the sick, the downcast, and the heavy laden.

Though He was a king, He cared neither for the honors nor the riches of men. His life, His words, and His daily activities were monuments ofsimple yet profound dignity.

Jesus the Christ, who knew perfectly how to give, set for us the patternfor giving. To those whose hearts are heavy with loneliness and sorrow,He brings compassion and comfort. To those whose bodies and minds are afflicted with illness and suffering, He brings love and healing. To those whose souls are burdened with sin, He offers hope, forgiveness, and redemption.

If the Savior were among us today, we would find Him where He alway swas—ministering to the meek, the downcast, the humble, the distressed,and the poor in spirit. During this Christmas season and always, may we give to Him by loving as He loves. May we remember the humble dignity of His birth, gifts, and life. And may we, through simple acts of kindness,charity, and compassion, fill the world with the light of His love and healing power.

Mom's Package She Sent

Me opening those presents mom sent me. :) They were super cute. i don't know how you think of stuff like that. the GordonB Hinkley quote was too good. 

Beautiful View

The awesome view that we saw. in one of them there is a building that you can kinda see it's like shining right at the camera...it's gonna be 102 stories tall. it's in the middle of construction.

Elder Pruner

Elder Pruner had some fun during weekly planning and dressed up like that. haha crazy.

Some Delicious Food I Made/ My Stuffed Mushrooms:)

Hangin out with Bong and playin a little Catan

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Hey guys. :) How are you doing?? things are going good here! I'm really loving things here in 노량진 noryangjeen. They are lookin good! Haha i'll just start off by tellin you about our week. 

Monday we had email and stuff which was great. haha after we emailed i went and got my haircut and we went shopping. then we met bong our investigator the leather guy at the church and played board games with him. that was super fun. we played catan. elder smith won. it took forever haha but it was super intense and fun. i love pdays. :) Haha anyway, so we played that w\ith him and then when p-day was almost over we showed him around the church which was great. he really liked it and the feel of it. so i am hoping we can get him there again. we'll see though. he really liked the gym that we have in our church. super fortunate cuz it's the old stake center so that's why it has a gym. super cool. I love him to death ah. he's the best man. anyway, then we invited him to family home evening and he almost came...but no dice. super sad. so then we had family home evening which was super fun. we did it at a members house. 김용! Kim yong. he's super cool. anyway, me and elder smith shared the message. it was the restoration. super good! Then we played signs. that was super super fun. haha i didn't think it was gonna be like that fun but it was way fun. mostly cuz it's asians playing signs which is just adorable haha i love it. anyway, yeah so that was super fun. and that was our night! 

Tuesday we had our studies then we went to find some less actives but none of them answered sadly... then we went and met one of our members 김영곤 kim younggon. he's super awesome. he took us out to eat at a shabu shabu restaraunt like the one i sent pics of last week. it was super good. we ate a ton. haha he ordered some sort of thing that had beef and sea food? it was super good. haha their seafood is pretty different. like they eat a lot of octopus and like... don't take the heads off the shrimp and a lot more like oyster stuff. so yeah it was good. :) Then we went bck to the church and taught him a lesson. it was super good. about the plan of salvation. then we had to retake pics for our pamphlet. oh my gosh i haven't sent you guys pictures of our ward program each week. they're like 8 pages and in color. they'd blow your mind. i'll be sure to take some this week. but yeah. so there's a picture of me and elder smith in there where he was way taller than me in it haha it was funny so we retook those then we met 김성환 kim sunghwan for a practice lesson and that also went really good! We taught him the second part of the plan of salvation. pretty awesome. then we went out to talk to some people. that was pretty darn successful! Ran into a dude who wanted us to meet his church's missionaries. haha too funny. so sick of those people. but yeah. anyway, then we had a guy buy us oranges so that was awesome. then we went to 김슬기 Kim surgi's house. that was super fun. him and his wife are too cute. we taught them about faith and it was really good. they helped a lot. but yeah! it was great! And that was pretty much it! 

Wednesday was cool. we got up and had our studies then we went to the churhc and had lunch. we just bought some kimbop on the way to the church. pretty yummy. then we had district meeting which was good. we talked about what makes a successful missioanry and the book of mormon. It was awesome. i love it. then we planned what we're going to do at the christmas party comin up. then we had dinner and then we got ready for english class and had it. only three people came though. we played a fun game where they had to come up with a word for each letter of the alphabet. our investigator put fineapple down. too cute. :) haha love koreans. anyway, then we had our weekly coorelation meeting which was awesome. love our ward mission leader. also it was elder dayley's birthday. love and miss that guy. haha

Thursday was super good too. like we woke up and did the normal thing ya know...you hear it like what 7 times each email? Haha anyway, after our studies we went to a service center and served old people lunch for like 2 hours. haha it was awesome. old people in korea are the best. they were all like surprised when we spoke korean to them. it was great.i loved it. but yeah. then we ate it and it was actually really good. it's like a place for old people. old people home. that's what its called. haha anyway, it was cool. then we went to find some less actives and that was interesting. we ran into a guy who was a member of a crazy church. if you translate the name it means new world. anyways, long story short he told us that we don't believe in god, we believe in someone who tells us to believe in god and that the book of mormon wasn't true. but that's because he didn't let us talk. still angry about that situation. anyway, so yeah. then we came home and had dinner then we went to teach 박효민 park hyomin a practice lesson at the church. that was awesome. we taught him the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end.  that went super good! Plus he made me feel super good cuz he said i was good at korean. :) heck yeah! i feel good.

Friday was cool. we had weekly planning which was awesome. haha it took a long time, but was good. then we did some of our language pass off program for elder smith. it was really good. he taught me the first lesson. aka the restoration. that was awesome. he taught really well. he's a great teacher. anyway, then we went over to 김동래 kim dongnay's house for dinner. that was great. haha i love it. she made some sort of soup thing thatwas really good. then we shared a message on prophets which was great. left em with a talk on joseph smith which it just so happens that the guy had to give a talk in church that was on prophets so it was perfect! haha yeah then we came home

Saturday was good too. we got up and didn't go to soccer for teh second week in a row. just too busy... but it's okay. we had studies then we had our lesson with 강진오 kang jeenoh. he's our progressing investigator who we are hoping is gonna get baptized. prayin real hard. haha we'll see what happens though. but yeah. he asked us some questions about the plan of salvation which was perfect. cuz we were able to talk about our life on earth and how to make it through we need to pray and study the scriptures. so it was great. he knows now what to pray for and to study teh scriptures every day. we see good things for him. then we met 윤동주 yoon dongjoo for a practice lesson whree he asked me to give a talk in church on sunday so i had to give a talk yesterday haha. it was great. but yeah. that was fun we taught him about prayter. then we went to find less actives and got a ggreat view. then we met lousie for dinner which was great. then we went to the church made some calls, and did some subway proselyting. we just talked to a bunch of people on the train. it was good. except a guy started to ask me super good questions right as i had to get off. it was so sad. so i gave him my number. 

Great day at church on sunday. but i had to give a talk...ah stress. so that's what i did for personal study. i love how i was able to do it in one hour. thank the heavens for being a missionary. haha anyway, then we went to the church and got ready for everyone to come, cleaned up. then we had church! Kang Jeenoh came so that was awesome. he's come to church two weeks in a row! SO yeah! Then my talk in sacrament meeting! It was about how through following the prophets we can be blessed. so i just talked about how gordon b hinkley said that if we read the bom we would have the spirit and then talked about my experience and also about joseph smith teaching us about eternal families and how that's blessed my life. which is pretty obvious as of late! haha so yeah! then we had a meal with the ward which was awesome. so yeah. a lady told me my korean pronunciation was good. heck yeah. ;) haha made me feel good. but yeah. then we had choir practice which was great, came home had studies dinner then we went out and found some less actives. we were able to find that 3 people had moved so not too bad! haha then we came home and that was our week! So all in all, a progressing investigator who came to church, and a ton of practice lessons. pretty aweosme. i've been really happy lately and it's great. :) haha i hope that your christmas is awesome. i'm missin ya guys. have a great week! This is the last week of school right?! Super nice. :) keep stayin strong in the gospel. it's the most important thing ever! 

love,

elder breinholt

Me and Elder Smith findin some less actives/talkin to people

At Gangnam. Pretty Cool. Hey, actually it sounds more like Kangnam with the Korean pronunciation....anyway. that was fun.

The buffet place. It's called 샤브샤브 Shabu Shabu

Krispy Kreme…So YUM!!!!!

My Cool Scriptures

Pics of the Nike Store

Pics in front of our dirty mirror. Haha

Me and Elder Pruner Partyin:)

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Hey guys. This week was pretty darn awesome! we saw a few miracles and had an investigator at church finally! Things are really starting to pick up and it's really exciting. :) I'm really excited about the work goin on here in 노량진. monday after emailing you cool cats we went to gangnam!! so awesome. haha just as awesome the second time. :) so that was awesome. we of course went to taco bell and took some cool pics by the gangnam style sign then we went to the book store there that's super huge. that was pretty awesome. i bought a cookbook that's huge! haha it has tons of stuff. then we went and taught Louis. the guy who lived in brazil for like 25 years. that was kinda hard but good. he definitley felt the spirit. you could see him kinda change because of it after we bore our testimonies on the book of mormon so that was super cool. but yeah! That was our monday. after that we went home and made calls for the rest of the night! 

Tuesday was good! we had our studies which were awesome and lunch the we went to a hospital to go to a funeral for a lady in our ward. her husband died in a car accident suddenly. super sad. i guess he was a member but went less active soon after he was baptized but she's super solid. we got to carry the casket to the bus but couldn't go to the place they were gonna bury (cremate) him cuz it was across the river. but that's okay. then we went and met bong! the man. he's so cool. we talked to him for a while elder smith was able to get to know him. then we shared a intro of the book of mormon and asked him to read 3 nephi eleven. so we'll see if he did! We are gonna meet him for p-day today and play board games with im. should be super fun. :) haha then we went to find less actives which was decent. not too successful but like we found out a little information. anyway, after that we went home had dinner then we went to talk to some cool people by the college in our area that's pretty aweosme. that was good! Pretty successful then we went to krispy kreme and had some much missed donughts. wow those things are so good. haha i love em. it was delicious! but yeah! After that we came home.

wednesday we got up and had our stuies that were good. then we went out to talk to people! we went from our house to the edge of our area haha it was good. talked to a bunch of people. then we found a super awesome restaraunt that was like a buffet so we had to eat there. there was lemonade! It was awesome! Hhaha so good. but yeah we ate that then we hit the streets again and then we started talking to people, ended up talking to a filipino guy named maynard. he's pretty awesome. had tons of lds friends before coming here in the philippines and saw the missionaries all the time. so yeah we have been contactin him a lot and hopefully are gonna meet him but he's just super busy all the time...:( but it's okay. we're gonna meet him. :) haha then we had english class and our weekly coordination meeting which both were super good. nothin too special to report though.

Thursday was cool! We had zone training meeting so we had to go to that! We talked about area books the hole time and how we need to keep them organized and basically just chapter 8 of PMG. we're focusing on how to use time effectively in order to find prepared investigators now. so that should be awesome. i'm stoked. but yeah! That was good! Then we came back and met our investigator who has been sick forever 신재직 sheen jayjeek. he's awesome. but he's not progressing so that's lame. but yeah! The spirit was really strong we couldn't get him to come to church though. he's still too ruooted in his church. :( but it's okay. after that we watched the restoration and had pizza with the other elders and their investigator for like dinner ish. but yeah it was way good. i felt the spirit for sure. i would suggest that movie. :) haha it was way funny. after we watched it, their investigator goes wow like is there a part 2 or 3? Haha super cool. but yeah. then we met 안상철 형제님 ahn sahngchor. he's awesome. we had a practice lesson and taught him all about how the gospel blesses families and god. so yeah! Super good!

Friday was good! haha it was normal. anyway, we had our studies and those were good. the christmas liahona? Highly recommend it. it's sooo good. anyway, we had weekly planning and that was fine. took a while, but it was super good so it's okay. :) haha then we had dinner and went out to visit some less active person and then talk to people. it was freeeezing cold. the less active wouldn't let us in sadly. so lame. no one was in the mood to talk to us though. the wind was blowing, it was just super super cold. but it was okay. just a lot of normal rejection. haha then we made it home and made calls. 

Saturday was interesting. super weird. but yeah it was good. we got5 up and had our studies. we couldn't go to soccer cuz we had two appointments that we had to plan for. so that was cool. we got ready to leave and then we went and met 강진오 Kang Jeenoh. he's super awesome. he's progressing! He came to church yesterday! And yeah! We met him and invited him to be baptized but he said no because he doesn't think that he can endure to the end. :( So we have a sick plan. yesterday in church i had some revelation on how to get him through that. we are going to read the tree of life story with him in the book of mormon and compare it to enduring to the end by holding onto the rod. anyway, super cool. so yeah we taught him and the spirit was really strong. then we went to the park to meet another guy. this is where all the weird stuff happened. haha so i got off at the right bus stop and elder smith tried to but two ladies stood in his way and wouldn't move so he couldn't get off in time haha suepr funny. so we were separated for about 5 minutes and it was super weird and lonely. anyway, after that we got back together and then a girl yelled out Missionaries! in english and so we turn and she goes "I'm from utah!" and then she says okay bye and drives off haha that was super cool. then again on the way to meet him we ran into a less active kid who is super cute. he just doesn't come to church for some reason. i don't know. but yeah. that was good. then we met our investigator Mr. Park from a few months ago, who's wife opposes him meeting us...so he gave us back the book of mormon...super sad but it's whatever. haha then we spent some time trying to find some less actives, but yeah! Then we came home, had dinner, and made calls the rest of the night!

Sunday. great way to end the week. we got up and had companion study cuz we needed to do a little prep for church. so we did that then we went to church where our investigator came which was awesome then we yeah! Church was good! Our investigator seemed to like it and said things that sounded like he was intending on coming again! So heck yeah! THen we had choir practice after church. would you guys have ever thought i'd sing in a choir? Yeah me either. haha nayway, we did that then we came home and had our studies. those were super good. i read the Quentin L. cook talk and wow. it's way good. the one from this conference. i would recommend it. it's all about how we need to make good choices and make ones that are in line with our goals. heck yeah. anyway, yeah! Then we had dinner and went out to talk to people. now that it's colder people aren't really wanting to talk as much. so that's sad. but it's okay cuz when we came home and made calls we were able to get like 5 appointments with members so heck yeah. :) haha anyway, that was our week! THings are takin off! Heck yeah. :) I love you guys so much and can't believe that it's already been a year and a half. you rock. lets make these last 6 months count huh? 

Love,

elder breinholt.

TRANSFERS

 Me and Elder Hodges

Elder Hakes and me.  He went home.

Me and Elder Dayley. So sad. ㅠㅠ

Me and Elder Dayley and Sister Hong. She is way cool!! haha

The Gogi Buffet

Cleaning/ Christmas Tree

We spent the rest off the night moving stuff back into the gym cuz they took everything out to paint it. 

We had to do a lot of cleaning at the church!

Me with a package:)

Our beautiful Christmas tree.