April 15

Que tal?

I can't believe how much is changing back home every single week. It blows my mind and I still can't get a finger around it all. I am always getting emails from people about their mission calls and then I feel like I'm not even going to recognize the house or the people that live in it when I return. The best part about it all is it's only been 9 months! I feel like since I have been out here in the mission it has changed A LOT from when I first came out as well. For example, this last Thursday we just received information on new changes that we will have.

First was about the music rule. We are now aloud to listen to any type of music that is uplifting, not just music by the church. (So that means I will be looking in the mail every day for a CD from you guys with some kind of country music and what not that is uplifting:)

The next thing was the jacket code. We no longer have to wear jackets from conference to conference all winter long. It is now whatever you and your companion decide on wearing for the day. The bad news that we received though was the new policy on gyms. We are no longer allowed to go to public gyms in the morning to work out. So right now my motivation to get up and work out is horrible, but my companion and I have been trying to just get up and go to a church nearby and shoot hoops or something in the morning.

Now it's time for the BIG news that we received. We were informed that within the next couple of months this mission will be a trail/pilot mission for the church. EVERY single missionary will received a tablet (probably a mini I pad) and those will be our new planners! We will also be able to do our area books in them and have a GPS system that we can use. Everything that has to do with paper in the mission will now be done on these tablets. I am so excited and we should receive them sometime in June or maybe sooner. Like I said in my letter last week there are just so many bonuses/blessings from serving in this mission. I still haven't used any gift cards that you guys sent me because every time I try to go to the place and use it somebody pays for us!

OK, enough with that stuff and time to talk about the work this week. I wish that I could explain the way this area was when I first got here, but the best word to use is just crap. My last companion and I did work hard to try to get it going, but we still didn't see much success. But every since Elder Isom has been here its has gotten a hundred times better. This week we put 2 people on date for May 4th, and found someone else while tracking that has a lot of potential. Even though it is a lot better, there are still times where I have no one else to teach or place to go and have ran out of ideas. It is never fun to be in that position for the day and I feel bad for my companion since he is still just so pumped up to teach and always wants to be teaching , I have been doing the best I can to keep us busy.

You might have already heard but I had to go to the MTC for my companion Wednesday and I ended up seeing pretty much everyone I knew in there. I saw Brandon Brinkerhoff, Tyler Hatch, Jason Web, and Troy Hicks! It was crazy to see all of them, and I had a great experience being able to talk with all of them especially Troy in there. That Elder is a stud like always and his Spanish is actually pretty good for just having about 7 weeks or so in the MTC.

I noticed this week especially, that now when I speak Spanish and teach in a lesson I don't even think about the words they just come out. The hardest thing with serving in the states in Spanish is trying to learn more words since I never get to order anywhere in Spanish.

Also before I forget I wanted to tell you about a game that my companion and I are playing where we are trying to always scare each other throughout the day. The other night he got me so bad after I had just finished my nightly prayer and I went to jump in bed and he had put a fake snake in it! He got it on tape and I will try to send it to you today. That is all I can remember right now about this week, but I am doing great! The only thing that could be better is baptism right now which I am trying so hard to make happen. But like always the Lord has a time for it all and I hope that time is soon.

Love you all and try not to refurbish or buy too many crazy things this week. ha-ha I hope you guys are all working on that commitment I left you with too:)

Love,

Elder Cory Breinholt