Hello Everyone!

A few different awesome things happened this week:
Hung out with some fainting goats.
Found a bunch of super excited people who want to learn the gospel in Colon.
A man who hates talking to missionaries gave us $20 on the doorstep.
Another man who we were worried was a drug dealer called to us to stop and came over and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon.
Bought a Guitar with two strings missing for $1.00.
Elder Liu fell out of a member’s house.

A lot of the previous investigators Elder Yadon and I had have fallen completely out of contact. They won’t pick up calls and they are never home when we come by. These past two weeks, many different lessons fell through, whether they called us in advance or we showed up with a member and they were not home. It’s frustrated when people get all flaky on us, after showing a desire to learn about the gospel and setting up a specific appointment with us. But it’s something that happens all around the world. Don’t be flaky, my friends. Don’t be flaky.

Jason the Brony has been doing well and has been able to come to church three times. It’s been difficult securing rides for him because he doesn’t drive and lives about 25 minutes south of the the church, along the south edge of the mission boundaries. He’s doing great though and we keep pushing his baptismal date because he wants to have a sure answer before he commits to baptism.

We were referred to a man named Isaiah, who basically looks like a mixture of Chris and Liam Hemsworth, but he’s 19 years old. The guy is built. Lives on a farm. I thought he was maybe 25 or 30. He is interested in hearing more, and he knows that his cousin Josh has been having the discussions from the Sister Missionaries in Three Rivers, and he says that his family will be interested in hearing the message as well! We’ll be seeing them on Tuesday.

A man named Josh who is a pastor took us to Lunch on Friday, and paid for us, and gave us a ride to the street we needed to go to afterwards. We had never talked to him before, we had only knocked into his wife one day and gave her our number to give to her husband, and we have an awesome lesson with him over a delicious meal. (Steak and Potatoes.) We’ll be seeing him again this week, and he wants to take us to lunch again. What a great guy!

There are a lot of other people we are teaching right now, but for the sake of time I cannot talk about them all! Thank you for your prayers and support, both friends and family, and I love you all.

Lastly, to explain the whole $20 situation, this guy opened the door and started asking where we were from and got into a little bit of an argument with Elder Liu. I tried to just ease the whole situation by just talking about where I am from and just general stuff about missionaries, and this man, Bryan, after refusing to allow us to rake his yard, pulled a 20 out of his wallet and extended it to me. I didn’t know what to do so I kept telling him we couldn’t take it! But Elder Liu took it and later explained that Bryan will get blessings for it, which is true. There are SO many crazy experiences that happen throughout mission-life. For example, the Sisters in Three Rivers after a miraculous experience, confiscated cigarettes and tobacco from one of their investigators, who gave it willingly and wants to change their life. I’m so glad to be a missionary, and to have an effect on people’s lives, or rather, to be a vessel to allow the Lord to come into the lives of the people who are prepared and willing to receive us.

Didn’t mean to but this email became long. Have a great week everyone. I love you all dearly! I promise, I really do. Because YOU are awesome.

Elder Breinholt