Hello dear friends and family!

It’s been a cold we here in Grand Rapids. Bitterly Cold. And the Sister Training Leaders took our car on Wednesday (as per the usual rotation) so Elder Strauss and I have been on foot. Haha, welcome to Grand Rapids Elder Strauss! Now walk back and forth for miles through the freezing cold are fluttered with snow, with the wind constantly blowing at your face no matter which direction you’re going. 🙂

Not trying to complain! It’s been fun and exciting, but Elder Strauss and I are both pretty sick today as a result of it all. But we found 13 awesome people last week! Some of which we have already taught and they want to learn more 🙂

Sarafina came to church with us on Sunday! She loved it, especially the familiarity everyone had toward each other. It really is one big family, joining many different people and personalities together in one purpose.

Sorry No pictures this week!…. Forgot the cable for my camera back at the apartment.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Enjoy this, though, my favorite song 🙂

It’s a little bit late but Happy New Year everyone!

Elder Laaksonen and I had such a marvelous Holiday Season, and I’m so grateful for everything Heavenly Father provided for us through members, investigators, and our families. What a beautiful way to end 2016. We spent New year’s eve with our investigators, Kevin and Alisha, and the Banners who help us with EVERYTHING, and the Bodens, who also had the Gleasons over from church. Many games were played. And Elder Breinholt loves games. >:)

Last week we were pondering and praying one night about where we should go to search for Someone who specifically needs this Gospel, and we were shown to a certain street on the map, so we went the next day. We had knocked almost the whole street and no one had been the least bit interested. There was a man out playing with his kids with their new Christmas go karts and things (seeing as this was the 26th). I felt the Spirit when I looked at him, and we went and talked with him. Immediately he invited us in to share our message, and laid out the problems he’s facing in life right now. He is a man of much faith in God, but has been very depressed due to problems in his marriage and family which I won’t disclose at this time. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to get back to reading in the scriptures, both the Bible and the Book of Mormon together, to help him through this. We’ll be meeting with him later today so I’ll tell you how it goes!

I’m very blessed to be serving here in Grand Rapids, and I will be for another 6 weeks! However, Elder Laaksonen is headed to Caro, Michigan, and I’ll be receiving Elder Strauss! I hear he’s awesome so I have no worries.

Have a wonderful week everyone and once again! Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Hello everyone!

This is gonna be a short one because I’m finna go home and get to bed,

but it’s been a great week of Christmas!

We had P-Day on Monday, and a Half Mission P-Day on Wednesday, and a full day P-Day on Saturday, and a Full P-Day on Christmas! It’s been fun, but I’m ready to work and we did have a great day today. We would have emailed in the morning but the libraries are still closed.

Half mission P-Day was a blast, and if you have Google Drive or at least have a google account, you can watch this video I’ll be uploading of what my former companion, Elder Liu, and I did in the talent show. x) It was awesome.

We spent the evening in the Gleasons home on Saturday and had a wonderful dinner there and a Christmas message from the mother to her kids. On Sunday we sang in the choir at church and it turned out way better than any practice we had so that was miraculous! We hung out at the Ogilvies with their kids and helped them get some of their Christmas toys working (such as drones.) And at night we ate at the Daniels with a bunch of returned missionary kids! So it’s been a blast, but I’m ready to get back to work! 🙂

Last night we were praying as to where we need to go searching today, and of course Heavenly Father led us to the exact street where we needed to find a man who has felt very depressed the last few days because of the threats of divorce happening in his marriage, due to affairs his wife has been having… And he has been pleading for prayers of others and help from God, and like he said, “Then you two show up at my door.”

Miracles do happen my friends, every single day, whether you choose to notice and accept them or not. God is working in your life and wants for you to be happy, even if it doesn’t seem like it, or you don’t know how to recognize it. I promise you that.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! I’ll likely be emailing again on Saturday but we shall see!

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Merry Christmas everyone!

First of all, if you want me to send a Christmas card to you I need you to send me your mailing address, and if you don’t do it soon (within the next few hours), I will still send it out but it might not be until next week… x)

We had a wonderful week, although I and our Sister missionaries ended up with colds for a bit. We still had lots of success, met and taught amazing people with crazy mental instabilities, and had fun in the process. Elder Laaksonen and I also pushed about a billion people’s cars out of the snow.

What a beautiful opportunity we all have to ponder on our Savior’s life and mission this Christmas season. I bear witness that Jesus Christ truly is who he claimed to be, and is the Son of the God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I believe in this with every fiber of my being, and through the Spirit and many miracles I have seen and I continue to search more understanding of these truths, God has confirmed it to me again and again. My biggest witnesses are the Bible and the Book of Mormon, which go hand in hand to testify that Jesus is the Christ. His example of helping, serving, and loving others is one which if we all follow, we will find ourselves in complete joy and peace in this life, and in the life to come, and I therefore exhort you to do just that! Follow him (2 Nephi 31: 10)! Be examples of the believers!

Once again Merry Christmas, and I hope you all enjoy this lovely picture of my companion and I which the bishop here took of us when I was completely and utterly unprepared while calling an investigator.

Love,

Elder Breinholt 🙂

Hello precious family and friends,

yet another week here in the MLM. It’s been a good one, of course, although it included more sitting and waiting then we usually have in a week’s time.

Bundled Up 🙂

I believe I spoke a little last week about how we’d have the opportunity to teach English to refugees, and it finally happened for the first time! We went to the building and came into the class after their class coffee break, and went around the room as assistants to ensure that each person was understanding and learning! 🙂 It was one of the funnest things I have ever done in my life, and I am not exaggerating a tinge. I would not mind doing something like this for the rest of my life. The students were hilarious, and they were trying SO hard. We were assisting in the level 0 class so many of those students are brand new, and some of them have had no education in their life AT ALL. We helped in teaching numbers in English, and also the use of the word “can.” For example, “Can you drive?” “Yes, I can.” The curriculum is focused on helping refugees have the language skills they need to acquire a job, and speak well in a job interview.

The weather is officially going to stay below freezing, most likely. There is snow everywhere. Everywhere. Our are has become a winter wonderland, and it felt like it was never actually going to happen, but it’s here again.

We as well had the opportunity to start teaching a new guy named Owen, who is an awesome Hispanic 21 year old who is super legit and thinks a lot about his future and God’s plan for him. He also feels that God has been looking out for him and helping him become better, and that’s sounds a lot like spiritual preparation for the Gospel, to me. I hope we can continue with him, as well as others who we have so enjoyed teaching about God’s Plan and Gospel.

It’s Everywhere

I know it’s premature but Merry Christmas to you all! I love you! I hope you will keep enough time on hand that you can stop and help those who might be in need of some service on your way to wherever it is you go!

My Official Title

Love

Elder Breinholt

Hello Everyone!

It’s last week was a wonderful week for our district! Absolutely amazing statistics in comparison with past weeks! We found more people and taught more and had more success than I have yet seen while I’ve been here! So that’s exciting.

We had some awesome lessons with great new people last week. One of them took place in a loud hot-dog restaurant called Yesterdog. That was fun.. 🙂

Two nights ago I spent most of my night in the bathroom, vomiting all the food I’d had in the 24 hours before that, along with other abominable things. Probably one of the most horrific nights I’ve had in my life, but hey, since that’s true I really have nothing to complain about. There are others who have it much worse than that every day of their lives. :/ But anyway, I’m doing much better now, my only concern is that I had a similar circumstance come upon me two weeks prior, so I’m going to be more careful about eating the food that is given to us by members and the food I find in the apartment…

Kevin and Alisha are doing so great! We just really really really wanna get them married so they can be baptized, but it has to be on their own time and preparation.

We had an investigator rebuke us over the phone for 5 minutes because we stopped by without successfully getting a hold of her, and haven’t really heard from her since.

Like I said before, taught some awesome new people and I hope that they are willing and ready to accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives! There is nothing happier, I promise you!

Stay strong and keep pushing on. I love you all so much and I hope you know as well that God loves you, whether or not you are someone who understands what they really means quite yet.

Have a wonderful week!! 🙂

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Hello everyone!

We had a solid week. Did lots of searching for people by of course knocking on doors and talking to people on the streets of Grand Rapids. A ton of our lessons did fall through so we really only taught a couple of people this week, but that’s okay! It happens.

We’re doing our best to help the people who are investigating here to continue in their progress toward living more like the Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that it’s through exemplifying the attributes He had that we can have the most joy in this life. And when you really examine his attributes, life, and actions, you will see that he ALWAYS turned outward and did everything he could to help, serve, teach, and bless others. This Christmas season the church has an initiative to Light the World through service 🙂 Just go to http://www.mormon.org

There is a simple thing you can do each day from December 1st to December 25th to truly have the happiest Christmas season possible, by following the perfect example of the Savior.

Elder Laaksonen and I are hoping this week to be able to do service for refugees through Bethany Christian Services, but we are just waiting for our background checks to be finished! So if it happens this week I’ll let you all know how it went, but I am SO excited. We’ll be helping to teach refugees who know almost NO English, and they are from all over the world and collectively as a class they speak 7 different languages, so wish us luck. Or rather, pray for us and them x)

Also, for those who would like to learn a little bit more about this church and our beliefs, this is a sweet website to check out with awesome, short videos that explain everything:
discover.mormon.org

I know that our Savior lives and loves us. I know that He looks out for us in our roughest trials, and in our happiest moments. I’m so grateful for this Gospel and for the love I feel from God, and His guidance throughout each and every day I am out here trying to serve others. I couldn’t do any of this without divine help, because inherently, I am weak. If we can all work together, we are strong, and with the help of God, anything is possible.

Have a wonderful week everyone and continue to enjoy this season. 🙂

Love

Elder Breinholt

Enjoy this video of me eating sardines for the first time.

Tyler Eating Sardines

Hello Everyone!

There is seriously no time.

Yesterday I was super duper sick but I am doing lots better now. Don’t know what happened, but I know God provided some tender mercies which allowed me to be able to rest without pushing myself too hard.

We taught some awesome new people this week! Also had some people disappear from us… but that happens sometimes. I just hope and pray they are well and that they can be taught in the future by others sharing Christ’s message.

Happy Thanksgiving I love you all! 30 seconds left no pictures sorry bye!

Elder Breinholt

Hello friends and family!

Well this week was great. Just great. As you can probably see in the title of this email, Elder Laaksonen and I went to the temple this week! It was a wonderful experience. For those of you who don’t know, the temple is a sacred building dedicated to God where you can feel peace and joy, and where you make further covenants, or promises, with God to keep your life in harmony with His commandments. There are 150 operating temples throughout the world! On thursday we attended the Detroit Michigan temple, which must be one of the smallest in the world, I’m assuming. Brother Banner took us all the way down there and back and I slept during both car trips.

We are on a car rotation, meaning that we get to have a car for two weeks, then give it to another set of missionaries, go without a car for a week, and then another set of missionaries passes us their car which we keep for two weeks, and so on. Unfortunately, the last Elders of the rotation got in a wreck. So even though we have now been given the car as per the regular roatation, we will have to take the car in sometime this week and it will take four days to repair. Here we go! 😉

This week is also going to be very different for another reason. Transfers are happening this wednesday instead of a week from today, because of thanksgiving coming up. Elder Laaksonen is very likely to be leaving, seeing as he has been here for about 6 months. It’s been a great companionship so if he does leave, then hey, that’s okay. I just hope I don’t also end up getting suddenly moved as well.

We talked to a lot of people downtown this week. 11 people accepted our invitation to learn, which was awesome. People downtown are cool, especially the college kids. We don’t try to force our invitation on anyone, but it’s nice to at least have a good conversation with people! Don’t be afraid to just converse with people out and about!

I love you all, it’s time for us to get going. Have a wonderful week, stay safe, stay warm, and my God be with you in your endeavors in work, schooling, family, and anything else.

Elder Breinholt 🙂

(Also, we got haircuts the other day so we don’t look as bad now as we do in these pictures.)

Hello loved ones!

Had a great week! Not to judge, but it was pretty great. After district meeting on Wednesday, dropped the car off to the Sister Training Leaders, and now we are without a car until this Wednesday…. hopefully…. Turns out the Elders who will be giving us their car for the week got in a wreck on Saturday… So we’ll see if it is able to be repaired by then.

Me (Indeed it was a strike)

Elder Laaksonen

Elder Laaksonen and I are doing trying harder and harder each day to rely more on the Spirit instead of on our own understanding or “skills” as missionaries. We’ve had great conversations with people, and you know, as we go around talking with everyone we can, sometimes we choose NOT to be too persistent because all that will do for some of them is push them away or upset them. Just let the Spirit guide your words, and you will know what to say, and what to ask. A verse I love from the Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi chapter 4, verse 6 – “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.”

Messing around at Guitar Center

God blessed us with great miracles throughout the week, and we picked up 5 new people who want to learn more about the Restored Gospel. One of them was completely unexpected. We went to visit a member who has some family visiting from Utah. We thought they were all members of the church too, but it turns out one of them is actually Travis’s brother in law, and he seems a little rough around the edges (but he’s actually super nice), but he came in and sat in on the lesson and asked questions as we spoke of the Apostasy and the Restoration. It all made sense to him, and he told us he believes it and he feels God has been leading him to these truths and to this church his whole life! He wants to be baptized, so we are going to do everything we can to keep him safe from the opposition Satan will try to throw at him. His name is Dane.

#TheDistrict

Please pray for protection for:

Dane
Kevin and Alisha
Maurice
Chels

I love you all! I hope you had a wonderful week and a happy Halloween, I know we did! 🙂