November 26 2012

 

The feast is over! Nov 26, 12

It sounds like you guys had a wonderful thanksgiving and it was full of adventures. Mom thank you for the sugar cookies, I forgot how much I love those cookies. I shared them with my district because I don't think it would have been good for my weight to eat all of them. I am watching my weight well though and I only weigh 150 after the great Thanksgiving feast. Of course that is a 150 pounds of pure muscle though. My companion and I had 4 dinners for Thanksgiving and by the last meal I was soo sick of eating and of the taste of ham. It was a really neat experience to see the traditions that people have for Thanksgiving. It made me look back on all the cool things we do and how we usually go up to the cabin and play soccer in the morning with all the Breinholt. I must say that you guys better watch out because I play a lot of soccer here and my touches have been getting a lot better. ha-ha

Also grandma I loved the scarf you made me and I used it a lot this week. It was cold every single day this week with lots of wind! Our turkey bowl Thursday morning was awesome and our whole district made shirts for it. I'll put pictures up of them, but I was really surprised to see how good president McCune was! He was a animal out there and has a really good throwing arm. He played all time QB for us and he loved our shirts and said that we have to get one for him.

I can't believe that this is the last week of the transfer and after this week I will be done getting trained. I found out this Saturday if I am staying in this area or staying and getting a new companion. I am crossing my fingers that I stay in this area because it is the best and we have a lot of baptisms coming up in the next couple of weeks. We got a call from some Elders in a different area this week that told us a family they had been teaching was moving into our area Monday (which is today) and the mom just got baptized yesterday and the four kids are planning on getting baptized too. The two daughters want to get baptized this Saturday so we are going to have to put on the baptism now since there in our area and there are two sons that we are going to try and get baptized either this Saturday too if they feel ready or the following week. We have an FHE with them tonight and so were going to talk to them about it tonight and see how it goes. Also on top of that, the De La Rosa family who was the family I had my first baptism for out here in the mission, we talked with the mom this week and she said that she will let her daughter get baptized now too. So we put her on date right there for the second week of December. I want to stay in this area just to teach here and see her get baptized because we have been working so hard to make this happen.

To end it, we had a baptism for Natalie Yvette Gomez this last Saturday and it was awesome. I was able to perform my first baptism in the field and also in spanish and I won't lie being back in the baptismal font took me back to the times with Cole and Cheyenne. There is a spirit it that font that you cannot describe and I felt very honored to be a part of Natalie's baptism. She is the sweetest little girl ever and I love going over to her house to teach her because she is always so excited to see us. I am going to always check up on her throughout my whole mission to make sure that her and her siblings are still going to church. The baptism as a whole though was a great spiritual experience and just that extra boost that I needed to get more excited about this week. I just want to say that I am soo grateful for everything I have and I am so grateful for all of you! Yeah I missed you guys a ton this Thanksgiving and it was weird not being with you all but it made me that much more grateful for my family. I am so grateful for this gospel and for the opportunity that I have to just serve people for two years. I have a lot more time to go and I am happy because I'm not even close for this to be over. I am just warming up!! I love you all sooo much and hope you are all getting along.

You should all be because compared to a lot of other families that I have seen. We are soo blessed and have it a lot easier. Don't ever forgot of how blessed we are and that we only have what we have because of our heavenly father and we have amazing parents that serve the Lord and are faithful!

Thank you mom and dad, and I love you guys,

Elder Breinholt

Send A Photo Message to CORY!!!

 

Hello all!! This is Cory’s sister-in-law. I am writing because for Christmas this year Kelly had a great idea to send him a photo book with pictures of family and friends holding up a special message for him.

If you would not mind sending us a picture of yourself holding up a message we would really appreciate it and we know Cory would love it. You can get as creative as you want by having multiple photos for a long message or just one photo with a simple ‘I love you.’ Below are some examples of what we are looking for (obviously the messages are not but just so you can get the idea). Please let Kelly or I know if you have any questions.

Thanks so much!

Send your photos to me at ckbreinholt@gmail.com by December 1 so that we can get the book put together.

 

November 12

Dear family, Nov 12,12

I would be lying if I said that this wasn't the craziest week on my mission. Mom and dad I got your letter with the money and thank you so much. I am going to go buy some boots and gloves today. I had one of our investigators make me a scarf so I don't need to buy one of those anymore. Also I got to drive a car this week because one of the English Elders in our district got hurt so I was the only one eligible to drive him to the hospital so it was nice to get behind the wheel for a little after four months. The snow here is awesome and I couldn't believe how much came in just one day. I'll try to put some pictures up if I have time. But I don't really want to waste time on my message today so I am going to get straight down to it. I saw a lot of miracle's this week and have heard a lot of information.

Ok so first I want to talk about my companion. He is a great guy and really funny but is one of those really, really manly guys who is too good to ever show emotion. For instance he has only cried twice before in his life and never on his mission he said. Well I won't lie I have been praying since I have been his companion for his heart to soften up in some areas and this week he just broke down in one of our lessons while giving his testimony. It was with Brother Cordero who has just gone downhill after he went on the Internet to look up things about the church and in our lesson this week he pretty much just called us liars and how the church isn't true. But after Elder Cebreros gave his testimony the guy had nothing else to say and said that he is going to just try to pray and come to church once and if he doesn't like it then he is done with us.

Well I am really hoping that he feels the spirit at church when he goes and likes it because yesterday at church didn't go so well. It's funny cause sometimes you have the mindset that all you have to do is take them to church and they will feel the spirit and have a good time but it's never like that. Yesterday we brought two families to church, one that has been on date for baptism and the other this lady who we have been working with since day one I have been in this area and we finally got her to come to church. Well this lady Adriana told us once sacrament was over that she wasn't liking the way church is going and she wanted to go home so she just took her kids and walked out. Anyway so that was a little hard nut then on top of it this girl Maria Angeles who is suppose to get baptized in 2 weeks told us after the seconded period that she didn't like her class and she actually didn't want to get baptized anymore. I won't lie after she said that I felt like a train hit me and I was just soo down. But we found out that in her class that none of the young women said a word to her and didn't try to make friends with her at all and then on top of it I guess she was asking the teacher if he could teach in Spanish and he just kept teaching in English and she doesn't really know english. Well we had a lot of fun in the third hour of church talking to the young women in the ward and the teacher. It is important that members realize that our responsibility as missionaries we are suppose to teach them and bring them to church and once they are at church it is the members sole and responsibility to take them in and make them feel included. That was probably one of the most frustrating/disappointing Church's I have ever had and I just hope that all of you back home are going out of your way when you see a non member at church. So this week we are really going to try and focus on helping these people see the good in the church and that we don't go to church for the people that are there but for our heavenly father and to partake of the sacrament. hopefully everything works out ok.

I really want to talk to you about this week with the elections and Elder Bednar though. First of Elder Bednar is just a stud and man he is the best teacher in the world. I just wish you all could have been in that room and felt his spirit. He talked to us about faith but we focused a lot on how we need to treat others as agents and not objects. It was really fascinating to learn and realize how much the opposite happens though. For example we should never tell people what to do but just invite them to do something and extend the invitation. That is how he taught us the whole night where he never called on anyone to answer a question, but simply would ask a question and call on us if we wanted to give a answer. It was pretty cool too cause I stood up to answer one of his questions and me and him ended up having a little conversation about the issue so I can definitely say that I have had a conversation with a apostle. ha-ha Anyway it was really cool cause I got to open the door of the church for him and shake his hand before and after the meeting. It is experiences like that mission conference that helps you realize with your own eyes that these really are apostles of the Lord and are the most perfect examples we have here on the earth today and they receive direct revelation from the Lord.

Now I want to tell you what my mission president told me when he was with Elder Nelson from the quorum of the twelve Saturday morning before our thing with Elder Bednar. This has to do with this past election and also that now in America we have more states that are for gay marriage and abortion than ever before. President McCune told me that Elder Nelson stood up in the middle of the meeting they were having that morning and said that this week and had received Revelation from God that he is not happy with this country right now. With the path that this country is heading down that God is not happy at all and he will soon have to take force into his own hands because of the corruption of man. Well with that said you wonder why these things disasters have been happening on the east coast and I just found out yesterday that a 7.0 earthquake is predicted to hit Utah within the end of this year. But the important thing is that Elder Nelson said what has been said again if you are on the right side you need not worry.

It is true, we are in the last days now, and before the apostles and the prophet have told us to prepare and prepare but now all they say is to strengthen your faith repent and share this message so that we can help has many people as we can before it's too late. I know though that what we are doing right now and by following the teachings of this church we are doing what we need to do and we shall not fear if we are on the Lords side.

So do not let all this news that has been going around bring you down but help it motivate you and let you know that we have been saved for these times because the lord knows that we can be those instruments that he needs and that we can overcome anything's with his help. The church is true and man am I grateful to be a part of it. I love you all so much and I hope you are really preparing yourselves showing that this church brings happiness even when things get bad. Thank you for your support and prayers.

with love,

Elder Breinholt

October 22, 2012

Family and Friends first transfer done, Oct 22, 12

It sounds like you guys are getting all ready for Halloween and have some pretty cool costumes made. I better see some pictures of you all in your Halloween costumes I will be waiting for those. ha-ha! I can't believe Jake and Ryan are already home from their missions! Man I wish I could see them and see how much they have changed. I saw Tallen again this week at the gym. Sorry I didn't tell you I saw him last week I just forgot, I will try to right down things during the week that I want to share. I am a little jealous that you guys went to the mountains and got to ride the razors. I haven't touched a steering wheel of any kind in like 3 1/2 months and still counting, ha-ha I am happy though that I get to live in the mountains everyday though.

So this week was the end of the transfer and Saturday we found out that we are still staying in this area and I am keeping my trainer. I am really happy that I still get to teach these people because we are about to have some great success during this next transfer. Also I get to work with the best Spanish ward in Provo and live with the Embrey's, who are so nice and feed us very well. This week was tons of fun and full of different events. Last Monday for p-day we got our whole zone together and went Lazar tagging at Nickel city. That was a blast and just one of those extra things we are blessed with serving in Provo. We also got some new bikes this week from some members. They are good bikes for being purchased at Wal-Mart, but with that super soft seat that mom sent me it rides like it was bought at a mountain bike convention, ha. I just need to take it easy on it because I already pop the tire once trying to do some cool jumps!

I feel like this week we started to receive all the blessings that we have been trying to work for the past 5 weeks. We put two people on date for baptism on the 17 of November. The first one was Noel Gomez. He is a single dad about the age of 50 and is wife passed away about a year ago. We started out teaching him about the plan of salvation and it was weird because it didn't really catch much of his attention. But the more we started teaching him the restoration the more he started asking questions. He would start arguing with us about the Catholic church, but every time he asked us a question we would answer it with a scripture or testify and it would just make sense to him. Then this week we met with him and he just totally shocked us. He said how that he is starting not to believe in the Catholic church and doesn't really like it. Well, we jumped right on this opening and in the lesson asked him to be baptized and he said yes!...

The next person we put on date is the Cordero Family. This story is just the best because when we first met him, he opened the door and said sorry I'm Catholic and I am not changing my mind at all. Well after meeting with them a lot and just being friends with them, the dad started opening up and was asking us a lot of questions. (It is the best when investigators have questions) The great thing I have come to realize in Hispanic homes is if you usually convert the dad you convert the whole family. Well there are 7 people in the Cordero family with five boys that are all baptismal age. So we worked really hard and patiently with brother Cordero and he has just absorbed everything. We asked him and his wife to be baptized and he said yes, but she said she isn't ready which was a little shocking because she was almost more interested than the husband but we were just SO happy that we had gotten to the dad. I can't even tell you how much I love this family too. Besides the Alberto De la Rosa that we baptized I this family is my favorite. Some of people that we teach I feel right at home with them. You can tell by the spirit which family's the Lord has been preparing for our message.

This week I also had the opportunity to go on splits with Elder Ray who was my companion in the MTC for a little bit with Elder Jackson. I went into his area and we were really tested our Spanish not having someone that was fluent in the companionship, ha-ha. That day though I felt like the Lord help me with my Spanish more ever. We taught some pretty good lessons together especially to this one girl Christina who is 16. She runs cross country and so I really used this to relate with her and taught her a principal on faith. It is amazing how close you can grow to someone in just 20 minutes when you are feeling the spirit together. She started opening up to us a lot after not being there for too long and was like on the edge of her seat with everything we told her. She then told us something very personal to her, she can see spirits sometimes and how she can't even go into hospitals because she just gets SO scared. I didn't really know how to act at first and didn't want to get deep onto this subject at all so I just testified to her that with whatever problems she may have she can always pray to her Heavenly Father for help and he will comfort you. I asked her to kneel down with is and pray that she may feel comfort and peace. As she said the prayer you could tell that this was probably the first prayer she had ever said out loud and with such a sincere heart. It was a amazing experience to see her feel better and the power of prayer really help this girl.

I still feel so lucky to be able to invite the spirit into people's life's and see how they feel or look when the feel the spirit really strong for the first time in their lives. The Holy Ghost is the best thing that we have ever been given to help us here on this earth. It is so real and truly is the love of God. I am so happy to hear that mom is really trying to make these fiestas she is doing for Halloween and opportunities to do missionary work. You don't have to be on a mission to be a missionary and when you invite a friend to take the lessons or come to church you are just a blessing to the missionaries in your area. Like this Sunday we had a member in the ward invite a friend from work to church and we didn't even know anything about it! It was awesome to just have another investigator walk through the door like that and after meeting with him after church and having a quick lesson he told us that he has been looking for a long time for a church that he can feel a remission from his sins from. It is also a great feeling to be able to tell him with full confidence that this is that church! It is so easy to share the gospel when it is the truth! It is the true church and I know with all my heart that nothing I am teaching is false or not from the Lord. Thank you so much for your support this week and for the your prayers. I love you so much and glad that I have the last night Breinholt which no Hispanic can pronounce. ha-ha but have a good week pray for obedience in the Provo mission:) I love you again.

Elder Breinholt

(p.s.) does Pampa remember a missionary from his mission field in Mexico with the last name Hokanson? They are the same age and this guy is teaching English in our ward for a mission with his wife and thinks he remembers a elder Breinholt from back in the day in his mission in Mexico.

Photos Sent Home From Cory

October 15 2012

 

That was really scary to hear what happened to Emaree this last week. You guys keep scaring me with these little kids! I hope that they really start getting better soon. I put pictures up on snapfish last week so I don't know why you can't view them. It sounds like mom and dad are really busy back home and getting to know some really exciting people. Even though the people that I have been meeting are not has known to the world they are becoming so special to me. Things are starting to turn around in a positive way for my companion and I. We put 3 people on date for baptism on the 27th of October and we have a couple more people we want to put on date this week too. Our teaching pool has been slimming down a little bit because we are starting to see who is serious and who wants to learn more, but we are always visiting people trying to make sure we are being good friends.

This week just went by way too fast and was kind of a blur as a whole so I don't have too much to report this week. We went to a wedding for this guy that my companion baptized earlier in his mission and it was a really neat experience. Afterwards we went to go get something to eat and for the first time on my mission we had someone pay for our check when we went to leave and pay.

I have really come to find out in this mission that there a lot and almost the majority of Elders in this mission are lazy and just don't follow all the rules. It's sad and it almost comes off as you're not a cool missionary if you are 100 percent obedient. It makes me sick, because I am trying and want to be the best I can! It's not that any of these Elders are bad, but I think people just need to realize that we can have even more success in this mission and have more miracles if we are being the best we can. This is just something I really want to try and strengthen while I am serving in this mission, because this mission is going to grow even more by 1/3 of its size and needs people to have a different mindset for the new missionaries we will be getting.

Anyway it's not like I'm changing anything by talking about it oh well. I only have one week left of this transfer and I find out if I keep my trainer or get a follow up one this Saturday. President pretty much told me that I am staying in this area so if I get a new trainer I will have to take a little more action and introduce him to the area and the people we have been teaching. That is all I have time for this week I'm sorry it's not much, but I would like to leave you with a scripture that I want you all to read. Its in 3 Nephi 27:8, just remember that this church is Jesus Christ's church and we are only the wonderful tool that help run it. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a tool in the Lords hands right now 24/7. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful fall break!

Thank you for your prayers and support,

Elder Breinholt

October 8, 2012 -

Dear family,            

  I just want to get one commit out of the way since someone has been complaining about my typing (Cole) ha my typing has come a long way over the years and I try to type as fast as I can so that I can tell you everything I want, so sorry if what I say doesn't always make since. ha-ha ok, wow this week has been up and down like you wouldn't believe. Mom thank you for the package and I force those vitamin pills down everyday kind of like I would with your relieve shakes. My bike is still broken so I haven't put the seat on to use it but it looks great. Also I would still like some protein because I need to have motivation to work out every day so I don't get fat! I do get feed way to much here and a couple days this week I had to eat two dinners! ha also I am going to try the picture thing right after this hopefully I figure it out.

     Anyway This whole week we had so many lessons that just didn't go through and it was disappointing because some of them were people that we wanted to put on date. Also my companion has been having a really hard time back at home (and with his girlfriend) so he has kind of been in a bad mood this week. Can I just say man am I happy that I don't have a girl friend to worry about! ha-ha I wonder how good it feels for mom and dad to hear me say that. But seriously there is already so much to worry about out here in the field that you can't think about home and stress about it. I feel like that I was put with my companion for a reason though and that I can help him with some things that he is going through.

    Besides the down parts the week defiantly ended the best it could have. Never in my life have a learned so much from conference and felt that each session went by so quickly. On top of it I didn't even think about falling asleep like a would at home! ha-ha My heart is full though from the words I heard this weekend. When I heard them telling about the new ages for when boys and girls can leave on missions, never have I felt the goose bumps so strong. The missionary service in the church really is going to grow and we are going to see sooo many more young women serve missions. Also young men too! I feel that President Gordon B Hinckley's dream of missionary work is finally in sight. If you don't know this talk he gave about the future of missionary work I advise you to look it up its great. Yes I was a little bummed that I had just missed this cut off by a year, but then I see how much my life changed and how much I grew just in the one year out of college. I am out here now and happy so I was not down about the news personally but just so excited. My companion and I almost shook the house down we were so excited about the news. I noticed a theme though about all the talks. they seemed to all lead to one thing. Following the savior Jesus Christ. What really hit me over the last couple days is that everyone in the world needs to know, and have a relationship with out savior Jesus Christ. He is out brother, our father, and our best friend. This is why we need to do missionary work so that others can know this too. I hope that each and every one of you have a personally relationship with the savior, and if you do that you try to strengthen it every day! not just on Sundays, or in the morning when we are reading our scriptures but throughout the day.

           There is a lot that I could say about this weekend, but I just want to bare my testimony to you all. I love you so much and I carry you in my hearts everyday and on every door I knock. I have a testimony of this gospel and I know that it is true. I know that president Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and he is a man of God. He is there to help us and guide us here on this earth. I am so grateful for the opportunity that the lord gives us twice a year to learn from and grown are testimonies from the leaders of this church. This work is a marvelous work and I wonder and we are engage in a good cause. I know that we have a savior Jesus Christ and he atoned for the sins of the world, he is glorious and we should represent who he is through are actions. I love my savior and am grateful for what he has done for me. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

               Elder Breinholt