Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Chinook, "Gangnam Style"
Seven Months and Counting
We don't live in seoul. We live in a city outside of it called Pyeongtaek (평택). It is just south of a city called (수원) which is what zone we are in. We are the furthest south that you can go in our mission. There is only one area that takes longer to get to the mission home, and they are in our district. So basically our mission goes from us in Pyeongtaek up to the Han river in Seoul. We are all south of the river. Incheon is part of our mission and i'm not sure how to describe how far east we go...you can look online at an outline of our mission. It is really small, but over 10 million people are in it haha. We have a dang good chunk of seoul, but not all the super super cool stuff like the capital and other fun stuff like seoul tower. So we don't get to go to that, but that's alright. :) haha not too sure what else to describe. Let me know if i need to put anything else in! :)
So our week! It was a good one! We had interviews with President and had to help the senior couple in our district move! Monday we didn't really do too much after we emailed. We just went home and had a relaxing p day for once haha. then we went to the church and tried to help one of our members on his entrance essay for BYU, but it was hard cuz he hadn't even wrote it in english yet so we just had him put it in english first haha. then we went and talked to people around our church and stuff. Pretty fun! haha tuesday we went down to 평택 and just talked to tons of people like all day haha. I see why you can be confused about where we live. Hang on. So we live in an area of 평택 called Songtan (송탄) it is further north than the actual city of pyeongtaek and is right inbetween pyeongtaek and osan. So that's why we live there haha. Osan is north and pyeongtaek is south and are both like bigger city places than where we live. We talked to a teenager about stuff and why we are here. Its so funny when we are talking to people and then we say oh we believe in christ. And they're like oh sorry i don't believe in christ and they just keep like apologizing. it's fun. We are just like oh no its fine, we just are here to bring people closer to them and teach about him, let us know if you want to learn more! Then they're like oh. okay cool! then we went back up to our church and had our korean class! Julie one of our investigators came to help out. She helps a lot haha. After it ended the other elders showed up to see how it went and then Julie was like hey I'll take you home so we all got in and instead of taking us home she took us to mcdonalds haha. she's like what do you want order whatever. I was like i want 4 nuggets please! Cuz they aren't 5 pieces here they're 4...anyway, i told her that's what i wanted. so she goes up to the counter and orders then comes back and is like "guess how many chicken nuggets i got you!" I was like um...4. She goes no! Then we kept going and she's like 20! I got you 20! Super funny. I knew she was going to. She's just a sweetheart and is way to nice to us. It's a joke haha. THen we came home cuz it was 9!
Wednesday we got up and went straight to the church for our interviews with president Morrise. Sister Morrise made cinnamon rolls! Ah so delicious. So for our interview he wanted us to share with him a scripture from the book of mormon that has changed our life. So as i was thinking baout that there were too many to choose one haha so i just started to think like...what is the greatest quality/feeling i don't really know the word for what the one thing or teaching is that has changed my life. So i chose 3 Nephi 17:6. It says, "And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you." I chose this because the compassion that we can feel every single day in our lives from Christ really has changed my life and has the power to change everyone's life. He is always there for us and wants what's best for us. He will always be there for us. I know that's true. Anyways, so i shared that with him then we had a training on like street contacting i guess you could call it...we just call it 대화 or 전도. anyway, that was good. Then we went and had lunch as a district at this super good soupish place haha. Then we had district meeting and I tried to work on that members essay again because he translated it...but itw as still just as hard haha. I mean...it was in english but it was very machine translated. haha then we had english class and a guy named Patrick came! He's a Korean that lives up in seoul and is super good at english! He's so awesome. He found the missionaries and the churhc when he was in Mozambique. Apparently he bore his testimony on the church in the english class in seoul..so hopefully we can work on him and get him to become a member^^. Then Thursday was pretty long. We went and hand lunch with Brother 홍 at AK Plaza in Pyeongtaek. That's liek the subway station and its really really nice...it's cool. I don't really know how to describe it. But we had lunch with him and told him to start reading the book of mormon and then he left. He was in a hurry. But we found out that he went to church on sunday! So awesome! Hopefully he keeps going! THen we went and talked to people literally all day haha. We talked to a lot of cool people about english class and other things. It was honestly like 4 or more hours of straight walking talking to people. Pretty aewsome. :) After a few llong hours of walking we came home and taught 김현철 (Kim Hyun Chor) about baptism and he said no to being baptised again...but that's alright. :) haha so lame. We were pretty upset about it, but i think we definitely got him thinking. I really hope something sparks within him soon.
Friday was alright! We went to our scripture study class thing and learned about 2 nephi 25 i think haha. THen I taught her the entire 1st lesson. By myself. It was super long, but it was good. She made a lot of helpful corrections for how to best teach koreans. So that was good. Then we had weekly planning. Man i love that thing haha. then we had dinner and i made the normal 볶음밥. pretty tasty. haha then we went and talked to more people. We talked to two guys right outside a restaraunt that were just blowin smoke in our faces. That was fun. Haha it was actually pretty gross, but they were really nice and really cool. And that was our friday. Then saturday we had just tons of american food. :) it was super awesome! We got up and went to go help the riding's move. They are the senior couple in our district. We moved stuff in a members van. It was awesome. We had a mattress tied on the roof like in the movies. Luckily it was only like a mile away, so not too rough. It was fun. Then we went over to the Jensen's for lunch. THey are a member family and oh my. THe members of that ward made such a good lunch. I had chicken tortilla soup and salad. I was in heaven. And she made homemade bread...holy cow. haha it was seriously so good. Then we came home and went over to the Watts for dinner! They live on base. It was a good time. They're an awesome family. They're both from utah. He's an F-16 pilot. pretty dang cool. I was able to play beyblades with their son haha that was awesome. Then we had an awesome dinner. We had pasta and he served his mission in rome, so needless to say it was so good haha. Then we shared a message on charity. that was good! All of us can strive to have charity, and when we don't have it or when we are angry, we can pray for it and it will come. Charity never faileth. :) And yeah! That was pretty much our day! Sunday was pretty busy. We went to church with the koreans in the morning. Then right as american church was about to start the elders quorum president asked us if we could go home teaching with him, so we had to miss all of american church haha. which is fine. we went and visted some awesome members, both families the dad's are not active at all though. Pretty sad how that works. Also, both have either a son on a mission or a son who just got back. dang. we got back to the church in time to be able to say hi to all of the american members and talk with them. I'm really loving our new ward mission leader. He is really gung ho and excited about missionary work which is awesome. He has us in members homes a lot more than before, which is fantastic. also, after church we went to his house for dinner! Haha that was super fun. And that was our week! I love and miss yuo guys. It sounds like you are having a great time. I'm super jealous that you got to go to saint george this week. So cool. we are havin fun and working hard. missionary work rocks. Gotta love it. It truly is the best 2 years. I can see it already. I'm so greatful for all of your guys' support! It is so awesome! Love you!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
JANUARY 12, 2014
Haha yeah I think I'm getting better at cutting my hair so that's good. Tell Alynn to stop it. It's really starting to freak me out haha. Like honestly, if she keeps on going like this she's gonna be married in like 2 months! Which I guess is fine. But so weird. Ohhh poor little kenah. She's just too cute. Her teeth looked straight before you put the braces on! How long does she have to have them for? Also, I was just thinking. Next year for your Christmas card you should get a cardboard cutout of me and set it up when you take family pictures. :) that'd be super funny haha. Awe lil guy. What's his name again? I can never remember. I feel so bad. I still...my mind is blown at the fact that aubrey has a baby. Like what?! Oh dang! Good luck with girls camp! Is it just me or are you in charge like every other year? Wait are you in charge or are you just like an advisor. Okay so first things first, thank you so much for all of your letters and everything! I got that package with the cider and stuff. It was so dang awesome! Except for everyone spelled my name wrong. Anyway, seriously that like made my day when I got that at church yesterday. So thank you so much!!! I still need to send your packages...ㅠㅠ I'm so sorry! I'm a terrible person I know. Maybe they'll be your like valentines presents or maybe a present from me that gets therre on my birthday. ;) haha I'll try and do it this week. I promise. Oh and the ㅠㅠ is a person crying if you didn't see that. ;) clever huh? Ohhh tell kenah that the drawing of my nametag, awesome! haha I loved it.
So monday after we emailed we went down to 평택 to humphrey's to go onto the base and to see the helicopters. Super awesome! LIke seriously, that was the coolest thing ever. We met a family called the Tibbets. They're super cool. They have 4 kids. I think that we have pictures to send of them. Maybe haha. Anyway, we got to see these little helicopters that were called Kiowa's. They're smallish and they do a lot of reconnisance. I think that's how you spell it not too sure. Haha we also got to see the blackhawk which brother Tibbets pilots. That was super cool. Took a seat inside and acted like I was flying. It was the bomb. We got to go inside both of those and we also saw the big helicopters with the two rotor things. Dont really remember what those guys are called. Something that starts with ah got it. Chinook's. That was dope! Then we went to Taco Bell on base. That was the bomb. Man that was the coolest P-day ever! LIke seriously haha that was so fun. Tuesday we went and visited som epeople in 오산. Almost all of them were home! Which is like unheard of. Usually you have to just leave a note at their door. But we visited a super nice less active lady who gave us some like warm apple strawberry juice stuff. Super good. we were able to teach her about how when we do the things we are supposed to, read our scriptures, pray, and go to church, that we can get strength from god. Also we visted another less active whose sone is probably 13. He was so good at english! Like unreal! My mind was blown! we were having a conversation in english and he was 13 pretty dang cool. then we came home and had Korean class at night. Elder Gable delivered a super awesome message about the atonement and how no matter how deep of a hole that we think we are in, there is always a way out.
Wednesday we got up all ready to go down to 평택 to pass out english flyers but getting all of the stuff ready took way longer than we thought it was going to...so all we could do was get it ready for sometime this week. That was sad. ㅠㅠ. haha then we went to the fried rice place again! That was super delicious. Then we had our english class at night! That was so fun! A ton of people came! Like 14 or so other than the missionaries. we got somehow on a conversation about gas and cars and stuff in the advanced class. Pretty funny. Gas is super expensive here! For one liter it is like...almost 2000 won. Super expensive. Anyways, that was a fun night. THen a kid came who said that he would come to FHE and english class so we're hoping to see him tonight! And we are hoping to see some progress there! Thursday was a good day. We went up to Suwon to go to Zone Training Meeting. THat was really good. one thing I really liked was this quote from page 151 in PMG: "The attitude you have toward your mission experience is a reflection of your love toward your Heavenly Father and His Son and your respect for the priesthood." So really, if we look back after we are done, and we can say awe yeah that was an awesome time. I have no regrets. Then that reflects how we feel about our heavenly father and the priesthood he allows us to have. Pretty powerful. Then we came home and had our lesson with 김현철. I felt like it went pretty dang good. We taught him about Alma 36 and about repentance and how everyone can become clean from their sins. I really gained a testimony as I was teaching it about how sacred repentance really is. When we repent that is something incredibly personal between us and the savior and it is something that we do on a daily basis. We are truly changing.
Friday! we did our normal thing then we went to our scripture study class. it was so good! I love that thing. i mean sure i don't understand a thing, haha well i understand a little. more than i used to that's for sure. so that's good. but i really just love spending time with 박희정 and 이혜경. they rock haha. so anyways that was good. then they had us teach them the first principle from PMG that was super good. It was really good practice to be able to do that. they really helped us learn how to teach better. then we had weekly planning that took a while. then we went out and tried to talk to people, but we didn't have too much success. no one was really even saying hi to us haha. so that was too bad. but it was alright. saturday was super awesome! we got up and went to do service over at the base. we picked up a ton of trash! haha and we talked to a lot of people. I talked to a guy named 김사랑. which if you translate that his name means love haha. super cool. he was a kid that was in 군대 or the korean military service that they all have to do. that was pretty cool. I got to know him pretty dang well! He's from the south of south korea...haha and he only has 6 months left so that's good! I don't think that anyone likes it haha. the only time they can leave the base is vacation and this service thing haha. then we talked to a few other people. we came home and changed then tried to talk to people but not really too much sucess either. then we had dinner with Julie. She took us to a suepr good Thai place that I've been before. super good. we were able to teach her a little bit more about our church and about missionaries cuz she has a few questions. then we went to baskin robbins! she bought us a super expensive cake. gosh that thing was so expensive haha. like it was a joke. baskin robbins is super expensive here. for a single scoop it's like 3.50 or something like that i think. but while we were there we happened to run into the Spillaines who were the family that had us over for thanksgiving! they're awesome. they instantly befriended her. they said hey, if you go to english class we'll be there in an instant. so cool. I would love to see Julie come to know the church is true. it's just taking a little longer. Sunday! last day of the week! we got up and went to church! that was awesome. i love church haha. i mean sure 6 hours is a long time, but english church is awesome. I actually felt the spirit a lot in it. Hey is it just over here, or is there like a talk about hastening the work of salvation every week? It's crazy! Like seriously there is such a big push on it. so cool. Miracles are happening. I have a testimony that god puts us in people's paths for a reason. we are supposed to influence someone in some way to help them find their way back to him. so always be nice to others! haha anyway, then we came home and had dinner and then went out and talkeed to people! Really the only successful day for talking to people was saturday morning and that's because we were at the service activity. little hard but that's alright. haha so yeah! That was our week! I'm putting the pictures on dropbox! I hope you like them! I love you and miss you!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Some Pics
Some Pics
Monday, January 6, 2014
December 22, 2013
Holy cow! I can't believe that about david! That is wow. That's super scary. What do the doctors tell him about his cancer? They think he's gonna beat her? I think he will. Holy cow. I can't believe that. I haven't sent the presents yet....it's already christmas I know...I'm sorry. :( I'll send them this week! Probably not until like thursday or friday though... Korean is comin alright. I think I'm doing okay for how long I've been out here. Haha I'll take a picture of my ties eventually. :) I'm rackin up a few! I got my new suit this week by the way! It is pretty dang awesome. I love it actually. Oh so my new companion Elder Gamble! He's from washington state. From Vancouver, right by portland, Oregon. He has been in Korea for 9 weeks longer than me. So 2 months longer. We struggle at korean together and its a great time. :) Ah I'm so excited for Jayden! You should film his farewell talk and send it to me. ;) Dang it sounds like you guys are having a good time but also a really crazy time back in good ol' Utah! I don't think that I'm going to be as detailed in this email as I have been in my past ones since I'm going to talk to you on wednesday. :) Super excited for that by the way! Skype baby! I'm so glad we get to skype. It's gonna be awesome.
Alright the highlights of the week! Monday we went up to Suwon and went up on top of the wall that surrounds it! There is a wall that surrounds the ancient city of Suwon and now its just like a huge tourist spot! And that's what all those pictures are of by the way. I'll describe them later. We could see all of Suwon from up there! So that's what we did. Then that night was super sad. :( We all went to a 고기 buffet with 박희정 and 심우진 for like a last little party with Elder Atkin. That really was super sad. Once the presents came out ah man. It was all tears from there. For them at least. I'm so grateful that I have 6 more weeks here. I seriously love it. It is probably the best thing that I've ever done in my life. Ah. Man. So that was that! Then Tuesday I had to say goodbye to my dad! :( I met Elder Gamble and came home! We talked to quite a few people, but nothing too exciting to report there. Wednesday I read the football anouncers talk from General Conference. It was pretty dang good! One thing I learned from it was that the way to our father in Heaven doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that we get there. Everyone will go through different things, and choose different ways. But we all should be working together to make it. :) We had distrit meeting and one lil highlight from that is that we need people to be able to feel Christ's love through us. And that's so true. Becuase that really is probably the biggest reason people will listen to us. Then we had english class and after we got 쪽발 or pigs feet with some investigators and people from English class! That was super fun. And the pig feet is actually pretty decent believe it or not! I'm tellin ya, they don't really eat gross food here.
Thursday some highlights. In the morning when I was studying I learned that it doesn't take too much for people to be able to feel the spirit. the holy ghost can penetrate by small and simple means. And yeah! We went to lunch with 이태경 because she's going to America, well i guess she's in america now! Also, it was my 6 month mark on my mission! There goes 1/4 of it! Can you believe it? It's flyin by. I hate it! Really haha it scares me. But we went to this cool blace and she bought me a Cars cake cuz she heard that it was my 6 month mark. She rocks. She's so nice. :) Then that night we had a lesson with 김현철! It went decent. We didn't have a chance to actually get a lesson in with him, so we just shared a sripture real fast and asked him to keep reading! Hopefully he keeps making progress. Friday we had weekly planning, no highlights there. :) Haha no big highlights from that whole day actually. Saturday we went down to 평택 and walked for a while just talking to people. Then we were talking to this one lady and she is like oh hey come with me. I'll buy ya some 붕어빵. Which is this delicious little winter snack thing here that's in the shape of a fish. So we are like okay! Then she buys it and before she pays she goes, Okay! Before I pay...leave! Me and elder Gamble looked at each other and were like...uh what? Haha what the heck is going on? So that was a little adventure. I don't know why she didn't just tell us she didn't want to talk to us haha. But anyways. Yeah. That was fun. Then we went to the Christmas party with the Kroean ward! I'm sure you saw our jingle bell performance. :) That was super fun! Then we had a singing fight that you may have seen on facebookk as well. Not too sure. :) Haha me and Sister Bassett had to see who could go higher. It was super funny.
Yesterday we had the crazy lady come to church! i'm not sure how much I've told you about her. She scares me a lot haha. Anyways that was fun Then we had another Christmas Party that night where we got to sing! All the missionaries sung Oh, Come All Ye Faithful. That was super fun. Haha I've been asked to sing more times on my mission than I thought I ever would have in my life. So that's a little weird. ;) But yeah! That was our week. It was a fun one. I can't wait for Christmas!! The tree looks so good! Also, you got a new rug in the living room! nice! It looks good. And the picture above the fireplace! Nice touch momma. :) haha I love you and hope you guys have an awesome week! I love you!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
December 15, 2013
Holy cow! Sounds like you guys had a crazy week! I can't belive that about david! That seriously blows my mind! That's intense! At least the doctor got most of it and he's already goin back to work! That's fast! By the way, yeah that scar was awesome! Haha I love it! Geez! Haha yeah walking down the street sometimes is definitely a self esteem booster, except now in seoul there are so many foreigners they're used to it sadly haha. I bought presents for you guys this week! I am going to send a picture of them before I do...I'm going to try and send it through one of our members, but if not, I'll just send it through the normal mail. I think you guys will like them. :) I'm sure I'll get the package on Christmas eve when we have our mission activity thing! It'll be way fun! Alright. Christmas eve 8 PM. Gotcha. I'll try to make it work! I'll talk to some people and get it worked out! Wow I can't believe that its already christmas. Yeah we actually got our transfer calls on saturday night and I'm staying of course, because Elder Atkin is going home, and my new companion is Elder Gamble! He's in the same zone right now so I've talked to him a few times and he's pretty cool! So I think that it will be super fun! He's only two transfers ahead of me so he's been here for 7 months now. I know i need to get better at taking pictures. We actually took a lot yesterday so I'll get some to you! Yeah as a neurologist you study the whole nervous system so really the brain and spine and other stuff, but you're a brain and spine surgeon. Pretty crazy! I still can't believe that he had a brain tumor! Wow! At least you caught it early! That's awesome! Also, it has snowed a few times now so its getting nice and cold! Alright so this week.
Monday was good. It is so good to read all of your emails and be able to see how you are doing each week. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun with alynn home this week. :) But yeah. You basically know what we did monday! It's the same every week. :) We didn't really have time to do too much in between FHE and emailing. So, at FHE we played mafia again. That game gets super intense. haha 허건 is super good at english and he was convincing Elder Pruner that he wasn't mafia so bad. Like so it was between Elder Atkin and 허건(ho gun) for who was mafia, and elder pruner obviously wasn't. So, they each had to convince him, but they couldn't haha it was super funny. Elder Pruner had no idea who to choose and was so nervious! But he ended up choosing right. SO that was good. Elder Atkin lived and 허건 was mafia. Yeah! Then tuesday was good. I read a really good talk by Neil L. Andersen on Power in the Priesthood. He talks about how priesthood blessings aren't limited just to those who have it. Women benifit just as much as men by being able to be baptized, going to the temple, and having home teachers who can look over them. And I thought that was really cool. Then me and Elder Dewey went on a split! It was a lot of fun. He's 6'5 and from logan. I love the kid. haha we went to visit the picture man. He played some awesome tunes for us then we left and had dinner at McDonalds. Honestly, it kinda blows my mind how good McDonalds and Taco bell are here. So good. But that could just be because I miss them so much. :) Then we had Korean Class...but no one came sadly. But that's alright. Then we decided to go visit some people so we visited David Kim! He's awesome. I'm gonna be sad when I have to leave this place and him. And yeah! That was our day.
Wednesday was good. In personal study i read some really good stuff. I read Bind Up Their Wounds by Henry B. Eyring. I loved one thing in particular. He said as priesthood holders it is our duty to be the good samaritan. We need to be the person who goes out of their way to help others--even if we might not be the biggest fan of that person. Then we had district meeting and we did a cool lil activity where everyone goes around and writes an attribute from the attribute activity in PMG that someone has on a piece of paper with that persons name on it. So that was a nice lil boosting activity. Oh gosh. So Elder Dewey and Hale stayed in 평택 because we had the temple on thursday so they might as well stay with us because we are an hour closer. So we went down to 평택 and met up with the Ridings and we went to a little asian picture booth. So cool. Haha in these things we took pictures and had a real good time. It was so funny. Just 8 americans. And the pictures you get turn into stickers. It's awesome. I'll send a picture. So yeah that was super fun! Then we had english class which as always rocked. We played this drawing picture game where someone draws and you have to guess what it was. Pictionary! That's the one haha. That was fun. And that was really our day! Thursday we had the temple and P-Day. That was super awesome. I love going to the temple. The spirit is always so strong. So if you need to feel the spirit, go to the temple. :) I got to see elder Garff from the MTC! I love him. He's serving in seoul mission, but his area is the temple area and so he just happened to be there when we came out! It was awesome. I miss him. At the temple though Elder Atkin gave his 마지막 말씀 or his "Last words". That was good. I also got to see elder Hodges! I miss him so much! Haha then me and elder Atkin went to a place over by the mission home and bought some ties! It was 3 for 10 dollars! heck of a deal. I love korea. :) haha and yeah! That was our P-day. We didn't have anything happen at night that was too exciting to report.
Friday was fun! We had weekly planning which is always super fun of course. Haha it was weird because Elder Atkin was only going to be there for one of the days...anyway. That was fun. Then we went down around the base and visited our suit friend. Elder Atkin wanted to buy a suit so he did. Then I got sucked into it. It was 150 for an entirely custom tailored suit. so yeah I had to go for it. I get it this week sometime. Then we went over to the souvenir shop where we saw tons of miracles! The owner of the place happen to be another missionary's nonmember aunt and uncle! Pretty awesoem! That was so cool! So we talked to them about how he is our friend. And then they loved us! it was awesome. I hope that it goes somewhere. Because tons of missionaries always go there. Also, we met some other nonmembers that were from utah and talked to them as well as a less active guy! Then on our way home our taxi driver guy had a ton of english interest! So hopefully he comes to english class! Tons of miracles in a little amount of time. Then we went to the 고기buffet with our Ward Mission Leader. That was delicous. Dang I loved it haha. It was so good. That's gonna be one of the things I miss most when I come home here in a year and a half. By the way! This thursday is my 6 month mark. What the heck. Time seriously flies. But yeah! That was friday.
Saturday was awesome as well! We got up and went over to 오산 air base to do some service. They have troops for trash every 2nd saturday and it was so fun. We got to talk to tons of people and just do service. I talked to a guy from new york, and a few koreans and some other people. It was fun. Then that night we went to a super nice restaraunt with Julie called Applebee. Nothing like Applebees though. Don't be fooled. Haha it was super good! It was a buffet style place. Oh gosh. Listen to this story. I was getting food from the buffet table and a kid who was just old enough to be potty trained comes running by with his pants all the way down. Shoot it was so funny. So also, there were two 1st birthday parties while we were there. The 1st birthday is a big deal to Koreans. It's just tradition now, but back when they were poor if a baby made it to one it was a big deal. So now they celebrate it for tradition. And because of those that place was super busy! But it was fine. Then after that we ran over to 오산역 to meet a lady named 김윤미 (Kim Yoon Me) who wanted to learn abuot the church. So we talked to her for a little bit, got to know her, answered some of her questions, and gave her some of the pamphlets. That was so cool. She really wants to learn about the church. It has been around her her whole life and now she's decided to see what we are about. I'm super excited about this one. After meeting with us she said that oh we felt different and that we became friends really fast. So that was awesome. Gosh she's so cool. Then we came home and got our transfer call! I already told you about that. So I'll be here for one more! I'm thinking this will be my last transfer here, but that's alright.
Sunday was seriously awesome. We went to church and it was Elder Atkins last time at church in Korea and Elder Pruner's last time in 평택. Pretty sad, but it was alright. We hung out after church with some of the members and just talked to them. Then we had 김나영's mom sign her baptismal record and stuff before ELder Atkin leaves haha. Cuttin it close! So we talked to her for a little. Then we went over to the Bishops house for a little party thing! Our ward here is so awesome. I really love them so much. Even though I can't talk to them too well, it's alright. I'm going to miss this place when I have to go. All of the members are so cool and our bishop is one of the nicest and coolest guys I've ever met in my life. gosh. It really is so good to be in 평택. We watched part of the Christmas devotional and had dinner, which was delicious, also we talked and said some last words to elder atkin. That was weird. I can't believe he's leavin! So weird! I really am so grateful to be able to be a missionary in Korea. There isn't a better place to serve in the world. :) I love it. It's an adventure everyday and always so fun. I'm sorry I have to be havin the time of my life without you guys, but I'll be sure to tell you all about it when I get home. If that day ever comes. :) I love you and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
December 8, 2013
Hello! I hope that your week was a good one! Sounds like you got a lot of snow! It's actually raining here right now. In the middle of december! Never thought I would see that! This week was a lot of fun! We had a dinner appointment and a few other intense things happen. :) haha so on monday, it was actually our P-day even though we were supposed to go to the temple. But we are going to the temple this week, so thursday will be our P-day this week! I'm stoked! We are going to go to the toilet museum. Awesome right? And you know what makes it cooler? It's free! Heck yeah! Haha anyways, so monday after I emailed you guys we went down to Jije to do some shoppin at E-Mart. Its a little tiny town with literally nothing but big fields haha. So that was fun. Then we relaxed and walked around at night after P-day was over because no one could go to FHE. So that was too bad. :( Tuesday was really good! When I was studying in the morning I decided to look at my study journal from before the mission. That was actually really good! I had some good stuff written in there! Some good scriptures were Moroni 9:6 which says if we work hard, then we can conquer satan. He won't win. :) Then Mormon 9:19. God is a god of miracles. A lot of the time they are simple everyday acts, that we hardly recognize, but looking back they are miracles for sure. Then we went to lunch at the rice place again with 이태경. That was a lot of fun. Can you guys read that yet by the way? So weird to think that people can't read that haha. We got to talk to the other Elder's recent convert Sean on the phone which was really cool. He's in New York now. Then we went to the church to get ready for our Korean class which was as always, super fun! We taught them some of the shopping sentences and how to use them so that they can get around in stores.
Wednesday was awesome! I read some good talks in the morning. I read one by President Hinckley that said in 67 years of marriage to his wife they never once that he could remember fought. That's dang awesome. And I thought that was really inspiring. He's so awesome. i miss him haha. Then we went up to 곡반정 in 수원 for combined district meeting. We have those the first wednesday of every month. That was good! There were some good things talked about, like how important the book of mormon is when we teach. So we practiced using that and that was super fun! Then we came back and had english class. And this is where one of the intense things happened. Well really the only one. So we have this crazy lady that will just give us letters and a bunch of weird stuff and not even Koreans can understand her. She'll text us from a bunch of random phones just super weird. So anyway she came to english class for the first time since I've been here so me and Elder Atkin had to go up and deal with her. Haha we didn't want her to be around the other people that come because she almost slapped an 11 year old kid one time there I guess. Super scary right? So we told her oh yeah no one came so we are going to cancel it sorry! Jeez pretty scary and sad, but we had to do it. Haha so we did that then had English class like normal, but really like 5 people came so it wasn't too bad. We played a fun football game thing which was cool!
Thursday was good as well! I of course read some good talks haha I love them. I don't know why. I read Come Join with Us by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. So good. I know you heard this from general conference, but we'll see if anything different stood out to me. I learned that we can not let doubt hold us prisoner and keep us from receiving blessings from our heavenly Father. He says one thing that I really really liked. He says some people think that they can't live up to the standards, and that is all the more reason to come and join with us. We really have no better place then right here in the gospel. Then his priesthood talk You Can Do It Now. One quote is "our destiny is not determined by the number of times we fall, but by the number of times we get up." I love that. Heavenly Father doesn't care how many times we fall, as long as we are making a concious effort to do a little better each day. Also, When we keep our eyes on the eternities it will help us stay on the straight and narrow. That's cool because I don't think that I think of the eternities that often. Like how often everyday do you think, is this going to keep me from getting eternal life or help me? So that was cool. Then To My Grandchildren by Henry B. Eyring. Also super good, read it. He says, there is one way to assure happiness and that is to follow the comandments of god. The lord gives us certain trials because he knows we can handle them. Super cool right? So sometimes when I wonder why does this happen to me? Why do I have this trial? It's because our Father in Heaven knows we can make it through. Then that night we met 김현철. He came a little late so we couldn't go through with our whole lesson, but we went over a little bit of 3rd Nephi 11 with him. I've talked about that a lot haha so I don't think I'll hit on that one again. Just remember to always look up for answers. He's super cool. I love 김현철. He's the guy who took us to make kimchi and whose english name is Turtle haha. He's a boss. After our lesson he took us to get 붕어빵, which is this super good shoe cream filled bread thing. It's in the shape of a fish haha. So that was delicious. You should try it sometime if you can somehow find it in america....So here in the winter they have a lot of street vendors that will sell hot things for like really cheap. You can get three of those fish bread's for a dollar. Super awesome! So yeah! That was thursday!
Friday was cool! I read another conference talk. :) By President Monson. It's called We Never Walk Alone. It was actually given to the relief society I think haha. Anyways, He says that we can find peace if we ask for it. Our heavenly father loves us so much that a lot of the time, he just waits for us to ask. Because if we don't ask, how are we going to get anything? There is a story in there which is super good. One of the things I thought that it taught was if we heed promptings, we are often answering someone elses prayers and also help to lift those around us. It also showed that we aren't alone. Our Heavenly Father loves and cares about us. Then we had weekly planning which is always cool of course. ;) Then we walked around and talked to some people. I love talking to the high school/middle school aged kids. It's always the same conversation. Oh hello! Hello how are you! Then they say, I'm fine thank you and you? Then they say oh, you are so handsome! Haha it's so funny. Then that night we were supposed to have a lesson with 김영호, but he didn't come...again. Super lame. :( Saturday was fun! We made some cookiees and took them to some members. A lot of them weren't home, but the first counselor and his wife were home so that was good. Their names are 한상희 and the wife is 안인선. She's really good at english. It's impressive. I've found that a lot of Koreans are way better than they let on. They just aren't like confident so they don't say anything. But anyway, we shared a quick message with them, just talked to them and left. Then that night we went to dinner with Julie. She took us to that chinese place again. That was so good! I'll admit, it's way better than Panda Express. We just talked with her and then she asked us more about the priesthood so we explained that which was really good! I feel like she started to understand. We are going to dinner with her again next week and she might bring two of her students! That would be so awesome! Sunday was a good day at church! Hey I don't know if you remember or not, but someone in our ward asked me if I knew and Katie and Travis Stevenson, I don't really know who they are, but I think they were in our ward in maryland maybe, so if you remember let me know! In Sunday School we had one of those good discussions that you have when people are super like fired up about some subjects haha so that was interesting. Then oh! In the Korean Ward we had the Primary program! That was so awesome! The first song the little girls were singing 난 하나님의 자녀. Or I am A Child of God. So they were singing the first verse then the boys come in and its just super super loud once they come in so funny. I love it. Then haha in the gospel principles class the lady asked me a question about how I would feel if I saw moses part the red sea...yeah I'll be honest. Didn't understand that! Haha super funny. So I just go um............then she answers and I go oh yeah that's how I would feel. So awkward and embraassing but that's alright. :) Then we had our 식사 with the members! That was super good. It was this soup stuff...not really sure. All the food here is good. Anyway, after church we had just enough time to finish our studies! So yeah that was our week! I'm sorry it's so cold there! It's not too bad here yet. Which is super nice. So yeah! I'm stayin warm! And we get to go to the temple on thursday! I'm so excited! Love you all a lot! And I'll be talkin to ya in a few weeks!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
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