FEBRUARY 23, 2014

Awee that makes me want to cry. Haha I flippin love Jayden. He's gonna be awesome. I miss them so much! Tell them that I love em please! Haha man they rock. Gonna be such a great missionary! Dang. I don't know if i got the picture of me and my friends cuz i have literally 99 emails to go through of pictures...;) haha that actually made my life when I saw that I have 99 emails this week rather than like 5. :) Also, Brandon? He's a boss! I miss him too. Haha just their whole family I miss. That wasn't really right english...but oh well haha. Anyways, I don't know if you've heard or not but Adamsguy got his call to Argentina too! How crazy is that?! Super awesome man. But yeah! This week was a good one.

 

Monday we partied! We went to the ice skating rink and had a grand old time. It's actually where 김연하 trained to be an ice skater! How cool is that? And yes, I've heard of her mom like every time we talk to anyone about sports their all like hey do you know Kim Yuna?! They love her. It's super awesome. I can't believe that she got second place! Like what?! That's crazy! She's soo good! Okay so when we were at the ice rink place there were like 6 year olds jumping in the air and doing spins and stuff. Not sure what those are called, but it was dang impressive! So that was a lot of fun. Basically all we did was go around in a circle, but like what else do you do? Haha so then we got dinner and stuff...it was alright. Not too filling. I actually can still remember being disappointed by that meal. So yeah. Then at night we went and talked to people. Hey so like...I don't know how you guys feel, but I feel like I just say the same thing every week haha. So I'm sorry. Cuz it really is the same every week and probably pretty boring, but like it's fine. Missionary life baby! Love it! Anyways, Tuesday we did our service activity thing right. So we put the lunches together then went to the apartments and delivered them. One of the apartments the guy like makes you get in and put everything in front of him and open it and everything haha so we like open the door and he starts yellin at us to do it, it was scary. then i went on a split with Elder Nemelka. He's the district leader serving in 목동. He's one transfer older than me so i knew him in the MTC. And fun fact for you, i actually met him one time at BYU! So that was crazy haha. But yeah. We got back to their house, planned for our lesson then we talked to people, then at night we had an appointment with a lady who has been coming to english class for forever and she's the greatest lady ever! She's seriously one of the nicest people i have ever met, if not the nicest. So she wanted to meet us at the busstop cuz she didn't want us to get lost getting to her house even though we have our maps. But it's fine haha. Then we were just talking and she fed us food. She fed us curry rice which is way good and stuff called 떡볶이 which is like...um. I don't really know how to describe it. It is 떡 which is the compressed rice cake stuff...not that good haha. But it was actually good! Then they put it in some spicy sauce stuff. Pretty decent. It was probably some of the spiciest stuff i have had on my mission though. But it was good. :) THen we were just talking and she started to tell us about her son who died of Leukemia when he was 13 i think? not too sure. But we were talking about him and she goes and gets a book about her son and gives it to elder Nemelka. You can tell that it's changed her. She really loves her son! And what mom wouldn't. So they made a book about her sons story and even want to make a movie. It was so sad. Like tears couldn't be held back haha. So her son was a make a wish child actually. So the reason she wants to learn english is so that she can talk to other make a wish child parents and tell them that their life is still good and just like help them and comfort them. Nicest lady in the world right?! Dang. She rocks. I definitely felt the spirit that night. So grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that we can be with our families forever. :) SO yeah! That was our night.

 

Wednesday we had zone conference which was pretty good! Actually it was really good. I really liked it. we talked a lot about obedience and how important that is. Not only in missionary work in life. Because when you are obedient to commandments it is easy to keep keeping the commandments. Ya know? But when you are disobedient, that disobedience generates a lack of faith and just spiral down. It really is the principle of little steps. Little steps can take you a long way if you aren't careful. So yeah! Zone conference was good. President Morrise rocks. Like honestly he's way cool. Oh hey while its on my mind! I'm going to the temple on thursday with the zone that Calea is in! How weird is that?! Like i can't believe how many people are here from AF. In the group that just came in there were like 4 or 5 people from AF. Pretty cool! I think that the only one i knew though was calea haha. But yeah! anyway, back to the week. after zone conference we had dinner than we met with the sisters investigator named 박원찬. he's a champ. Haha we helped him with his resume. That was a good time. Like for whatever reason he's applying to a korean company, but the application is in English...haha it doesn't make too much sense to me...but yeah! so we helped him with that which was way good. He speaks super good english. It's impressive. Then we taught him about faith which he said that he has none of. but we got him to like seriously commit to reading the book of mormon. So i think that if he does that his hope will and faith will grow. Afterall, reading the scriptures is showing faith! So that's good. Thursday we went to lunch with the sisters and their investigator's family. It was the people whose funeral for their grandpa that we went to. Wow i don't know if i am making any sense. So if not, i'm sorry! haha anyways, we went to that which was pretty good! They took us to like this sushi place? We had sushi which was really just 회 or raw fish on rice. oh and wasabi. so i think that's the same as america. but it was a little different...still delicious. anyway, we were able to build some jung there. jung is just like a deep friendship if i haven't talked about that yet...man i feel like i have so much to tell you. just like what only 2 more months to mothers day! so that's crazy! Haha yeah so then we went and talked to people, had dinner and then had english class. I love english class! Like seriously!! Words dont describe how awesome the youth are here. We're all like already kinda tight. Can't wait for us just to keep becoming better and better friends. Actually one of the girls kinda reminds me of megan. her name is 김나운 (Kim Na oon) haha anyways, they're so cool! And yeah! We had fun. We brought em snaks and stuff. it was a good time.

 

Friday was actually really good! We did everything like normal, then had weekly planning, nothin too special. then we talked to people for a little and then met some people who were a referall! They're awesome! THey are a couple in their mid 30's. I think they're a couple anyway. They want to learn english of course. but they asked us about when church was and stuff! So that was awesome! But yeah! We talked to them and introduced them to the english program and talked a lot about the church. which was really cool! So i think that they have some potential as long as we can understand them! Haha it's so hard man. I'll tell ya. Elder Warnick is way good, but it's still hard cuz we are so new. Then after that we went and talked to more people, had dinner, then we had our weekly correlation meeting! So that was aweosme. Our ward mission leader is so awesome. I think i say that every week. haha but anyway, so like his wife is seriously pregnant and she still works just as hard as if she wasn't pregnant. So crazy. She could have her kid on my birthday! I couldn't even imagine! They gave talks in stake conference this week actually! So that was way cool! They are so dedicated to the gospel. It's amazing. They really are a bomb couple. Saturday we walked for days! Like dead serious, i don't think i've been that tired. We walked from 12 to 4. We talked to a bunch of people and I think we are doing good work. We haven't found too many people through just talking on the street, but its when you put in that effort that miracles happen and you receive referrals. So yeah! I'm just trying to keep up the fire. :) That's probably the hardest part about missionary work is keeping that fire to just go and work. But when you do it, the miracles you see are unparalleled. It's been super good here. And I'm lovin it. :) Then we had stake conference from 4 to 9. 5 hours!  We had the like missionary leader priesthood meeting that we had to go to and then the adult session. Great korean practice!! Oh hey!!!! So you know my korean friend from byu richard lee? Probably not...but i met his dad!!! He's in our stake in the ward directly west of us called 김포. He's so cool! He works for a hotel company called Provista. He's awesome. He said he would take us out to dinner some time. I can't wait! haha so that was good to meet him. :)

 

Sunday we finished the rest of stake conference. President Morrise came! Wasn't expecting that! He's the coolest. Haha he had everyone laughing. Oh also on saturday night president lee came! He's the seoul temple president and used to be the mission president in the Seoul mission. He's the bomb! He's the happiest man i think that i've ever seen in my life! He's seriously always smiling and had the people jsut dying laughing. It was cool. :) so yeah! We had church and stuff. Then we went and met a referall that the other elders used to teach. His name is 오동민. He's a big guy. Haha he's 13 and has a deeper voice than i do. We came back to the church and played ping pong with him and jsut had a  good time. So that was good. Then we went back to the house had lunch, then Elder Hakes, one of the elders that we live with was sick so I had to go with Elder Wedam to an appointment they had with their investigators. They're super awesome! I remember their english names but not their korean ones haha. So their names are Brock and Andy. They have 2 kids named James and Peter, with another on the way named John. ;) haha just kidding that's not true, but like as a missionary, those are the kinda jokes we thrive on. ^^ Haha i know i'm a weirdo but anyways, they actually took us to a restaraunt.......yeah....like...yeah. couldn't really do anything about it. But it was way good. We got 탕수육 which is like korean orange chicken and lamb. It was so good! Like that was the best stuff i've had in a long time! That was awesome. Then we had the Mini MTC which was a good time. I was amazed at how good they did. It also reinforced in me how important it is to be able to speak korean because when you can speak fluidly, the quality of the lesson goes up like 100x. So yeah. That was our week. It was a good one. We are workin hard, or at least trying. Doin the best we can. And i'm excited to look at the 99 emails of pictures. :) haha you guys are so awesome. It'll be a good day when i can see ya in person in what are we at now, only 16 months? crazy. My sisters are almost halfway!!! Dang. Time really does fly. Well, keep doing the little things in life that make a difference like reading the scriptures and praying morning and night and I know you'll see a difference and be able to feel the spirit more in your life. I've felt it in mine. Heavenly Father cares about each of us and wants to help us and will help us if we ask. Love you!

 

Love,
Elder Breinholt

Pics

Korea Rocks!

K I'll work on gettin those pictures to you. :) Actually, the grocery carts do have locks on them. You have to put a 100 won coin in them and then when you put it back and lock it back you get your coin back. Pretty smart actually! I didn't get your pictures I'm sorry haha I got alynn's though. :) Yeah so there were already Elders and Sisters so now we have 6. Almost every ward in our mission has 6. I'm pretty sure every ward has at least 4. Pretty dang awesome. I really like it. Because then you see their success and it motivates me to work to get it too. THat's cool that there are 3 sisters on the same team. How is america doing in them by the way? I know that Korea has like one medal of each. That's a crazy story that the stake president told! Like honestly that's so awesome. Wow. That's powerful. Haha so Jace's new thing is snowboarding huh? That's awesome! How's he doing? Oh hey! They got the package to the family to mail them your christmas presents on sunday. :) So when you get it...Merry Christmas!!!! I forgot to put a letter in there....I am so sorry haha I've been slacking big time. Dang Kenah is tearin it up! Sounds like she's doing really good! That's awesome! Our week was pretty good though!

 

On monday after emailing we went to this giant bookstore called 교보 kyobo. It was super cool. They sold uh lots of books haha. It was in this giant department store place with 70 story buildings. I actually got a picture of em i'll send them this week. Then we walked around in the department store tthat was way too expenisive for my taste. but it was still fun. Then we got dinner with all of em and decided to work in their area. And miracle happened! We were able to talk to a kid and set up a return appointment! Super awesome! Like that was seriously so cool. His name is 박민기 and he lived in america for 4 years so he's super good at english. That was so cool. He lived in texas area. Then tuesday we went and did service over at this old person place that was way fun. We got to deliver lunches to old people who can't really leave their apartment. So sad. :( But it was really easy. So that was fun. Then we went and just talked to people all day! For dinner we had a 식사 with the relief society president and brought our less active friend named 이혜영. He's the bomb. That was pretty good! We had some chicken stuff that was pretty good. :) I like Korean food. It's good. We'll have some good stuff if you guys come. Haha so we shared with her Moroni 7:13 which says "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." Then we talked about how sometimes we don't know if it is our thought or the spirit but if it is good, we should follow it. And yeah that was cool. :)

 

Wednesday we had district meeting which was awesome! we talked about hope and how it can help us in our everyday missionary work. Hope is awesome. I really like it. We can hope that we will find people to teach and let that hope drive us to work hard. So yeah. It was good. :) Then we went and talked to people. That was super fun. :) We were able to talk to this super crazy man. Like we were kinda messin with him cuz he was drunk too a little bit. So I was with Elder Hakes on a like 대화 split. So we were talking to this guy and Elder hakes goes oh my friend he's kinda dumb. And the dude is like oh you don't ever say that! You need to apologize! Give him a hug! So we hugged. Then we kept talking and elder Hakes is talking and said something that kinda made him mad and got him goin a little bit so he hit elder hakes in the stomach with the book of mormon that we gave him. Oh man. It was so funny. He was just one of the old korean men that just ramble and ramble so then after one of his rambles i was like hey man you wanna see my family picture?! So i showed it to him and he took it and kissed it!! Like what?! I literally laughed out loud. So funny. Then right before we were about to leave He turned to elder hakes and hit him on the head and was like hey, you need to get smarter my friend. Oh man. That was literally the best conversation of my mission. THen we had dinner with Brother Hong! He's such a boss! He took us to this pork place that was way good! I miss him already. He's so cool. I can't wait to see him this week. :) it'll be good. So we talked with him for a while. That was good. Then we went back and just talked to people again!

 

Thursday was awesome! We did our normal stuff in the morning and then we went to meet our friend 박민기 for lunch. We went to Han's Deli. It was pretty good. 박민기 (Pak Meen Gee) is such a boss. We told him about the book of mormon and he was like whoa. LIke that's a big deal. Wouldn't everyone want to know about more of god's words for people? And we were like yeah! That's why we are here, to tell people about it! So awesome. Then we told him about how families can be together forever and he's like well yeah...I would think so haha. So he accepted everything we taught him. He doesn't have a really strong religious background, but hopefully we will make him have one. :) haha i really want him to know that it is true. So yeah! That was awesome. Then we went and met another guy who we found off of a old record. His name is 정기용 (Jung Gi Yong) He's a litle bit slow...So it might not go too far. I just kinda feel awkward. But he accepts everything! SO that's awesome! We taught him the restoration. Then we went to english class. That was so fun. I love those kids. A family just moved back to korea from Budapest and they're all super good at english. It blows my mind! Like it's super cool. I think they went to english schools while they were there. They were there for 4 years. So that was cool. Then we just played games with em and went home! Friday we had our normal thing in the morning, but the sisters investigator's grandpa died so they wanted us to go to the funeral with them. That was good! It was really kinda different, but it was good. This investigator has a baptismal date so I think that made it easier on her, knowing that she'd see him again. But the funeral was so cool. You go in and you put a flower on the like almost shrine but not really, hard to describe. Then you pray for them, then you bow to the family members. Super cool! Then you go and just have a meal that is like you're eating with them or something. I missed that part. :/ but yeah! That was super cool! The investigator is super cute. She's this little like not even 5 foot tall korean. Haha so awesome. Then we had weekly planning, talking to people and dinner. After dinner we went and tried to visit a less active, but his mom told us to leave them alone...super sad actually. Then we had weekly coordination meeting. That was awesome. I love our ward mission leader. I've already told you that haha. But yeah! That was super good. The other missionaries in our area are on fire.

 

Saturday was awesome. WE got up and did our normal thing of course. Then we tried to memorize some of the members names. Names are so hard haha. Mostly cuz they aren't the names that we are used to like in america. But that's okay. Then we went to a member's restaraunt. They sell what's called 삼계탕. It is literally and entire chicken in a soup. Pretty sweet! Haha they stuff it with rice and ginger. Pretty cool! ANd also really good! We took a less active and another member. That was fun. They leave like the lungs and stuff in the chicken and apparently they're delicious, but I didn't eat them haha. So that was fun. THen we came back home and called/ went and talked to people and then had dinner, then we went and talked to people again! haha we really have nothing else to do! But that's okay. Then yesterday was awesome. We had church that was really good. Then we had lunch with the ward. Like I'm amazed that they do these meals. It's seriously a meal for 140 people. So cool. Then we had an hour of studies then we went and talked to people. That was so cool. Then we had the mini mtc which was good. I got to bear my testimony on Joseph smith and the restoration. That was good! Just know that I know the church is true. :) And that joseph smith was a prophet! Then we talked to one of the members who collects beatles. He's so cooL!  his name is 이승규. Like honestly he is the coolest ever. he's like 14 i think? Don't really know. but he had a shirt with a beatle on it!!! So dang cool. Not much time today. SO i gotta get going but love you!

 

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Baptismal goal: 50 people

The new area is awesome! I'm lovin it. Like really, I'm super sad that I had to leave everyone behind, but when we got here it felt like it was just an alive area. I don't really know how to describe it. Lets put it this way. The ward's baptismal goal is 50 people this year. Like what?! That is soo many. 평택's was only 12. It really makes me want to work hard. Plus our ward mission leader is awesome. He went to BYU Hawaii and is super good at english, although he won't let on to that. But like he's so cool. He really wants us to work hard and would do anything for us. We are going to do good things here. I have a feeling. It really isn't like either of us are senior because he is better at Korean than I am. Like Elder Warnick is super good. In his talk on sunday when he said he had only been here for like 4 months the people freaked out. It was super funny. Yeah we set goals each week! We have key indicators and set goals for things like baptismal dates, baptisms, investigators at sacrament meeting, lessons, less active lessons, referrals, yeah! It really helps to push us. We also set a goal for conversations and that really helps to push us as well. I can't believe you bought an 80 inch tv. Like what?! That's gonna be awesome. I'm so ready for the pics! Dang tell Jace nice work!! That's so awesome! I can't believe that! Haha gotta love church ball reffing. That's the bomb. I don't have any pictures to send you of the area, but I'll get some this week. It's a lot bigger and we are right on the river. It's probably a 45 minute walk from our house.

 

Alright so this week. Monday we went to lunch with 박희정. I miss her so much! Like honestly she rocks so much. Her and Julie were the hardest part about leaving 평택. But this mexican place we went to was called La Casa and it was super good. A mexican dude works there, super awesome. It was way good. Then we went home and I packed all day. That was not really too fun. It was so weird to see my desk just like completely empty. It made me realize what I did when I came to country. Just totally booted someone out and I came it. Super sad. Haha I really don't like moving. Our new house...definitely not Lotte Castle. It used to be the sister's apartment like...a few weeks ago but now it's the elders. Then we had FHE which was crazy but fun. :) 허건 came! He's the other elders investigator who is super cool. He really loves us. So we hung out with him and had FHE. We played a Korean traditional game...don't know what it's called haha but it was fun. YOu like toss 4 sticks up in the air and go around a board....not really sure haha. Then for the message I just shared my testimony. I've learned so much from 평택. It really is my home! I miss it man. Haha like I've grown and learned a lot. But I'm learning just as much here in Seoul. Tuesday was a good last day in 평택. We had our studies then we had lunch with Brother HOng. He's so awesome. He took us to a 부대찌개 place. If you guys come pick me up...we are totally going to eat it. So get ready. It's spicy so hope ya like that. :) We also got him to read 3 nephi about going to church. Then we went and mailed off all my packages. Who woulda known that you can send luggage through the mail?! Yeah so awesome. Makes transfers way easy. I sent literally everything I own except for stuff that I needed for a day. So all I took to transfers was my backpack. THen we had Korean class that night, but no one came...so Julie called and we were able to go to dinner with her. She's so awesome. She bought me a super awesome tie. Like it is pretty dang beautiful. Haha she rocks. I'm going to miss her so much!

 

Wednesday was the day! We transferred. So our mission is super cool. Everyone lives close enough to the subway system that we all meet at a stop right in the heart of Seoul. Then from there we go to our areas. Lucky for us our new area is like...8 subway stops from that station. so nice. So we went to transfers, I met elder Warnick and we went to 화곡! The area is huge man. Like everywhere you go there is people. It is what you think of when you think of Asia with power lines crossing over tight streets that are wide enough for one car. It's pretty hilly. So yeah. THat's kinda some info about 화곡. We met the other Elders at 화곡역 and went to our house! It is like a 10 minute walk from the subway station and only like 5 from our church. Way nice. We got to our house and had lunch, then they introduced us a little bit to our area. WE went and visitied our WML's wife just to say hi and then we went and met the bishop! Our bishop is super cool. He's kinda a quiet guy. But he drives a sweet Jeep and also puts in stereo systems for people. Super cool! Then me and elder Warnick went out and talked to people. We walked to the han river. Not as big in our area as it is over by the temple. THen we had dinner, tried to talk to more people and went to the church to meet the sisters because they had our phone. Usually they give it to the opening people at transfers...but they just gave it to our sisters because she was training so she had to go to the mission home. It's a grandma phone. Pretty awesome. OUr sisters here rock. THen we talked to our ward mission leader. His name is 변창기. That was cool. THen Thursday! Oh Happy BIrthday Janae! :) I hope it was a good one. :) You're super old! LIke what the! But thursday  in personal study i was reading the story about when Christ fed the 4000 people with just 7 loves of bread. and i just was thinking that, when we have faith in Christ, all things are possible. Even when they seem like they are impossible, we can do it. :) we had a zone training meeting which was good. We learned about how to give people commitments to get them to progress toward baptism. Pretty good. THen we started to walk around to talk to people and a 전도사, or a different churche's missionary who really just yells at you and tells you to believe and stuff came up to us and started talking to us. Didn't really understand a word he said other than him telling us to believe haha. Pretty intense. Then we talked to a guy who told us that we were a cult and so we were going to go to hell but he was funny about it. He's like come on man you need to just believe in the normal churches! like catholic. I'm tellin ya man don't go to hell. It was good. Then we did some more walking. THen we had dinner and English class! It is members only here which is kinda cool. All the kids who came are such bosses! Like honestly they rock. Like there's one who collects bugs and some other just funny kids. We played some games that actually helped us with Korean as well as them with English so that was super cool.

 

Friday was good! We had lunch with Brother Hong. He's still the same cool guy! He took us to this 김치찌개 place. I know that means nothing to you guys. But it was like a small restaraunt and he's super loud. So a lot of people were starin at us. Elder Warnick was all embarrassed. It was super funny. So we got him to commit to go to church this sunday which he did! He didn't stay for all of it but at least he went. Then we had weekly planning which didn't take too long because we don't have any investigators or appointments really. Then we went and talked to people again! That was fun. WE got a pamphlet from a Jehonvah's witness. THey're pretty dang strong member missionaries! like if our members were like them...well. People would probably hate our church, but we might have a ton mor members! Haha they're so upfront about it. But it might be just because we are missionaries. Then we went and taught a lesson with the sisters to a guy named 박원찬 (Pak Won Chan) he's a boss. We taught him why baptism is imporatant. Well sister Kang did. SHe's super awesome missionary. Like I saw how being able to speak korean can really improve your lesson teaching skills and that made me want to learn super bad. Man. I hope i can get this thing. THen we had our 선교협의 모임. Which i think is weekly coordination meeting? somethin like that. That was really good. All of the ward missionaries were there and it was just a good meeting. They really want to reach the 50 goal and it makes us want to work. It's awesome. Saturday was truly just a day of walking. Haha we got up and studied of course then we went and talked to people for like 4 hours. That was a party. WE talked to 2 cool kids that were really good at english! LIke I was suepr impressed! Then 허건 from 평택 came up and we hung out with him. he's seriously the coolest. Man i love him. We also hung out with a less active guy named 이혜영 (Lee Hey Young). They both rock. We talked and caught up for a while, then we went and got Pizza and Chicken. Yeah I know, we eat pretty healthy over here. No need to worry about us. :) Then we went and talked to more people! No one found yet, but i think this week we'll get it rollin.

 

Sunday was super good! The ward is awesome. They're all super nice. We got invited to a meal appointment for tuesday which was so nice. She's the relief society president. Like, I'm lovin it. The ward was so happy to have 6 missionaries now rather than just 4. It was so good. :) Everyone was so nice. We had a fun time in gospel principles class. We were talking about our talents/abilities that we all have and i was like oh i don't know mine. So then Elder Hakes and Wedam (the other two elders) said that I was a jokester or somethin like that. So then they had me tell a joke! Luckily I have one that Koreans can understand. :) So in the scriptures in Korean when God talks he always says 보라 (Po ra) And a word for purple i think is 보라색. So the joke as you can imagine goes like this. What is God's favorite color? 보라색!! Haha super funny. :) Oh also in sacrament meeting the bishop was like sustaining all the quroums and young women people so only the people in young womens i guess are supposed to raise their hand to support them or whatever it is haha. So when the bishop asked them to sustain the young women me and elder warnick raised our hand with a few other people and the bishop called us out on it. It was super funny. Then after church we had to give a blessing! THen we came home and tried to talk to people and then we had the Mini MTC! So like since they went to BYU Hawaii they got tons of good ideas and this is one of them. THey're doing a mini mtc for the youth and people getting ready to go. There was a pretty good turnout! We didn't have to do anything, but next week i think we will. 변창기 prepared super well for it. Then we came home! And that was our week! If there's any questions that you have about anything let me know and I'll answer them! Or anyhting you want me to take pictures of I'll do that! I love you guys but i better go! You rock!

 

Love,
Elder Breinholt

From 평택 to 서울 (From Pyeongtaek to Seoul)‏

새해 복 많이 받으세요!! That means like...um receive lots of new years blessings. And they say it to each other all the time since it is the new year now. haha anyways... this week we got our transfer calls! And I've been here for a while so i figured it was time for me to go. I am going to open a new set of elders in an area called 화곡 (Hwagok) It is up in seoul. It is super close to richard Lee's hometown called 김포. He's my korean friend from BYU. He's the bomb. In fact that area is in our district. So I'm gonna talk to him and try to meet up with his dad! Super cool. Anyway, yeah I'm leaving my greenie area! So weird! I really don't wanna go. I've made a lot of really good friends here. It's gonna be super hard to go. I can understand now why people don't really want to get that close to missionaries. Because you get close to them and then they just up and leave ya! It is hard. But it's okay. It's what I'm here to do. Now to go change some lives in 화곡. It is right on the river and actually, Elder Wedam who I used to live with down in pyeongtaek lives there now. So i will be living with him again. My companion will be Elder Warnick. He is one transfer younger than me. Mom you'll be happy to know that i got the pictures you sent this week...but they are out of our mission darn it. Well at least I think they are. Because that province I haven't heard of before haha. Most of our mission is Seoul or Gyeonggi province I think. 

 

So for our week. Monday we had family night and went to a members house and partied with her family. So that was awesome. We played lots of fun games and just talked. Also, we had strawberrries. Man let me tell ya. I've never had such juicy strawberries in my life. Super good. Dang. Then we shared a message about how God speaks to us. I know He does. Whether its obvious to us that he's speaking or subtle, he is always there to guide us and will give us the amount of guidance that we need. and we can trust that and have faith in that.  He knows that's best for us in each and every single moment. It rocks. And as we listen to the guidance he gives us we are going to be blessed. Tuesday we did the normal thing. We went to teh church and i got to teach about the atonement. It was good! It wasn't like an investigator lesson, i just taught it. Pretty cool. Then Elder Gamble taught the whole first lesson. That was good for him. They really tried to help him and sound more like a Korean. He's gettin good! Then we started to head over towards the base to talk to people and on our way there we talked to a guy named sam for a long time. He's in the middle of a divorce and his kids all live in America. He lived there for 30 years. Which, he wasn't that good at english haha so it was kinda hard to believe. But we gave him an english flyer and invited him to come to our class and he came! Super awesome! Then we just kinda walked around the area around the base and talked to people. Then we went to subway on base with the Dadivas'. They are super cool. In fact, their son is coming to our mission! Super weird! But subway, man i miss it i'll be honest. It was so good haha. Then we had Korean class and that was fun as always. A new member came so we  taught her the alphabet. Then we came home and our investigator Julie bought us Oranges. Which, like fruit here is ridiculously expensive. For a box of probably 12 apples, like pretty good quality ones, it's over 20 dollars. And those oranges are like 30 dollars for 9. Pretty dang expensive. So that was super nice of her. She's so awesome. I'm really gonna miss her.

 

Wednesday we had district meeting down in 안성 like an hour and a half away. That took a while to get there. But it was really good. WE talked about how you can't convert past your own conversion, so we need to work on it every single day. I thought that was good. Then me and elder Hale went on a split! We explored down in 안성 for a little bit, then came back to where we live. Cool thing that happened on our way home we met a cool guy who was super nice and met with missionaries 10 years ago. Crazy how stuff like this happens. Anyways, we talked with him and invited him to english class...he didn't come but it was still a cool little experience. Then we had english class which was super fun. We got to know our friend Sam a little more and Dennis was on fire. He was tellin jokes left and right. Super funny. I'm gonna miss that guy. :) Thursday was awesome too. Me and elder Hale decided to go explore and have a good time. We talked with seriously everyone. Tons of people. We talked to this one guy for an hour about how Koreans and Americans think differently. Haha it was super funny. He compared it to squares circles and triangles. So weird. Haha but that was fun. Then we just continued to talk to people until we ended our split. After that we went over to the Hernandez's to see how they are doing. They are so awesome. She's a super strong member. So we visted them and that was our day.

 

Friday was cool because we had a mission conference with everyone. We took the fast train up to Seoul. Super awesome!! Haha like seriously, it rocked. Super comfy and got us there in like 45 minutes rather than the 2 hours it would normally take. So nice. It was called 누리로. It only stops at the busiest places along the route. But our conference was awesome! So it is a holiday called 설날, or solar. It is the lunar new year. And it's one of the two giant holidays. So there was seriously no one walking around in downtown seoul. It was crazy. We saw like 3 people. Haha so they wanted us to streetboard using the new stuff they gave us which is actually really cool. We tried talking to people but not too many people were out. Then we got back together and had more training which was super good. I love President Morrise. He's so funny and super caring. Then after the conference we had dinner with Julie. She took us to the Thai place again. So good. So we talked to her and just got to know her. We told her that I might be leaving and she was pretty sad about it. But i talked to her last night and I think I kinda made her less sad about it. Told her we could have dinner in seoul somewhere. :) But after dinner she bought us more baskin robbins. The biggest cake haha. Then on the way home we talked about the origins of satan. Haha weird question but she wanted to know so we answered it! Basically talked about the premortal life. Pretty cool. I really want her to get baptized. Saturday we had weekly planning since we didn't have time on Friday. That was fun. Took a while since I won't be there. Had to give him the rundown of all he needs to remember haha. THen since it was transfer night we had chicken for dinner with the other elders. Super good. Korean chicken rocks. Haha then we went up to 오산 and talked to people. It was raining pretty hard so we didn't have too much success...but yeah. Then we came home and Elder Gamble threw up because the chicken made him sick haha. I felt super bad for him. But yeah. We got our transfer call in the middle of a game of bang. I was so nervous, but now I think that I'm okay. Elder Gamble is training by the way! So he's gonna have fun doing that.

 

Sunday was super sad actually haha. It was my last time in the 평택 ward. I gave my like last words during testimony meeting. It was good. I think. Haha one of the members in our ward, 신세계 came up to me and said ah man why are you leaving that's a big loss. I love him. He's seriously the best. That gave me a really good feeling. I think you've seen the pictures on facebook. They're on there. So look for em. :) A few other members came up to me and said ah man you did good. It'll be sad to see ya go. But it's alright. Man I hate leaving. Oh hey! My new ward in 화곡 are in a ton of the pamphlet pictures that we use in lessons and stuff haha. Then I did the same thing in the Osan Branch. It was sad. I'm gonna miss america. I'll be honest it's been so nice. And I'm super depressed about that little fact. But yeah! Then we went to the unaccompanied dinner because our WML asked us to go. That was fun and really good. We saw a sweet flying video that a few pilots threw together. It was so dang cool. Like I can see why people want to be pilots. That is so cool. dang. but yeah. Then we came home and I packed! And that was our week! Next time I email I'm gonna be in a new area! So weird! I can't believe it. Man. It really is over. :( BUt yeah! I love you guys and miss you a lot. You rock.

 

Love,

Elder Breinholt