Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!

This last week was awesome! This transfer has been rough for our district in regards to finding people who are even interested in hearing our special message of the Savior and how He is restoring His church; however, this last week, the district meeting topic was on “How We Measure Success” and we talked about how the success really is in the invitation, not the answer they give us. Once we’ve invited them sincerely and testified, it’s up to them. This gave our district inspiration to invite more and continue in diligence, and the rest of the week was full of finding miracles! We all found more people than have been found in a long time in these areas!

One small story I wanted to talk about was from when we were out finding on some streets downtown, and we noticed a woman on her porch on the phone who seemed to be a little distraught, so we both had the feeling to approach her and ask if she was alright. As we approached she said she was on the phone, and we just asked if she was okay and if we could do anything for her, and she began to fume at us. Belittling words and phrases were thrown in our faces, and she asked us why we bother going door to door, because “all [we] do is annoy people.” After that encounter, I did indeed feel pretty discouraged, but we pressed on. The next lady we talked to was a little younger, and we had a great conversation with her and her neighbor. Her name was Chels, and by the end of our conversation, she said “You know what? Thank you. I really needed to hear that today.” Her faith had been dwindling a bit, and she says we reminded her of what matters, and that God loves her. 🙂 It’s all worth it people! It’s worth the distress, and the people who degrade, and the hardships, for those little glimpses of joy that you get to see in the eyes of others.

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween and stay safe! Thank you all for your support and prayers, it truly does matter and it truly does help. As our district finally unified in prayer for the same cause, that’s when these miracles happened!

Love,

Elder Breinholt

Hello beloved friends and family!

This last week was an awesome birthweek and I had lots of fun.

We haven’t had a car since wednesday and won’t get it back until this wednesday, but we are surviving. We had about a billion lessons fall through but that’s okay. The Fayle’s (some awesome new ward missionaries) took us out to dinner before our lesson with Angus which they were going to accompany us to. They took us out to some nice steakhouse again…goodness we don’t deserve such good food. But we headed to the lesson and, well, Angus wasn’t there. That repeated a lot of times throughout the week.

On the 24th, though, (my birthday,) we put three of our investigators on date for baptism! It just excites me so much because we have been having so much trouble searching for those who truly want to make the commitment to God but those who are truly prepared were revealed to us and we’ll do everything we can to help them get there.

The Anthony’s put together an awesome dinner for us as well, in celebration for my birthday! Danielle baked put together a huge salad dinner and baked a chocolate cake! Pictures included below.

There is so much that happened that I really could sit here and write a book about it, but I will say that one thing we learned more about this week is opposition. When people draw closer to God he inevitably draws closer to them, but there is a being out there who doesn’t like that. Satan will do everything he can to stop this progress and he’s been a huge annoyer of this wonderful work lately. But he has no power over us if we call upon God, and do what we know is right. In the end, we will be so much stronger after overcoming the opposition we face, and we all have opposition and trials in one way or another.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! It was a great week and I’m excited to no longer be a teen! 😉

Love you all! Hope you had a great week too! don’t be afraid to let me know! 🙂

Sincerely,

Elder Breinholt

P.S. Elder Wharton and Elder Lauer are growing a pepper.

Hello my beloved friends and family,

This past week has been wonderful. We had some awesome visits with people. Two investigators named Kevin and Alisha, who have met with missionaries for over a year, have finally made the decision to get married and be baptized! They wanted to before, but we finally were able to set dates with them and the ball is rolling! They’re planning on getting married April 1st… haha, so we’ll just do our best to keep them going strong till then.

A couple weeks ago, we came across a very nice lady who is a refugee from Lebanon. She invited us to come visit with her, and the thing we talked about initially was helping her overcome depression, but when we returned to teach her, she had two other refugee families staying there with her, these ones from Syria. They’ve literally been in America about a week now. Those Syrian families do not speak any English. We sat in this visit, and Michelle was basically a translator for us, and we looked upon these beautiful people who were looking right back at us, with longing eyes, waiting to hear what we can do to help them, what physical means we can provide for them. It was difficult to tell them we had naught that we could do for them in that regard, but that we could offer them an opportunity to draw closer to God through a special message we share, and that we can provide physical service and/or necessary labor. They were understanding, and the part that was greatest of all is that we were all able to smile and laugh with one another, something I think they haven’t done since their home city of Homs was utterly destroyed. We told them we would search for other associations and people who would be able to help them directly more than we can. The funniest part was in the middle of the visit when Michelle seriously left the room entirely to look for her keys and we were sitting with 8 Syrians who only spoke Arabic, so there was basically a huge invisible brick wall of language between us and we were trying to get things across to each other. By the end of the visit, I had actually learned a few Arabic words! It was a memory I will never forget.

I would challenge you as well to get involved in the cause of helping refugees who live near you. I can promise you I will become highly involved in this cause, and it’s been revealed to me that there is nothing else in this world which could bring me more happiness than serving my fellow man.

I’m so sorry I don’t have any pictures…. both Elder Laaksonen and I forgot our cameras at home… so pictures to come next week!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Ciao!!

Hello Everyone!

I’m here serving in Grand Rapids now with Elder Laaksonen! We’re having lots of fun and work very well together!

One of the things I am enjoying the most is how we do our best to talk to everyone we see. When we talk with people, it’s not always a matter of pushing the book of Mormon on them or trying to get them to church, but we are here to simply bring people closer to Christ. Some people are ready to take steps toward baptism, and some are not. So, sometimes all we can or should do for people at certain times is to teach them how they can pray and get answers, or overcome depression through Christ’s Atonement, etc.

Grand Rapids is a great place, and I’m enjoying many of the tender mercies of the Lord! For example, we had church yesterday, and who was there? Two of the Karn sisters from the Oscoda branch! I spoke with them after sacrament and asked about Rob (the guy I baptized back in Oscoda) and it turns out he is still doing great! He bears his testimony each month, and his wife has started coming to church with him! It’s so wonderful, and I’m grateful to have been able to take a part in seeing his conversion. All it takes for people to progress immensely, is to connect them to heaven. Not necessarily to the scriptures, not to us, not to anything in or of the world, but to God. If you, or I, or anyone make that connection, there’s no stopping from achieving that which you wish to accomplish.

I’m going to miss all the wonderful people in Battle Creek! It was a short chapter of my life but I learned much and I’ll miss my “son” Elder Whitesides but he needs to go on to bigger and better things! 🙂

Our district was super tight, but I hope this one can be, too!

Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Breinholt

Hello everyone!

Well, transfer calls came this morning! I was actually blown away, I was NOT expecting what happened to happen. I am being transferred to the Grand Rapids 2 area where I will still be a district leader, and I likely only have one other area in the district, which is a Sister area. Elder Whitesides is also coming to the Grand Rapids zone, but he’ll be serving in North Muskegon! My new companion will be Elder Lochsonen (I think that’s how you spell it) and Elder Whitesides new companion is Elder Courtney.

I’m very grateful for the short three months I’ve had to serve here in Battle Creek. I’ve really enjoyed it. The members here have been fun to get to know, and I’ll definitely miss come of them I have actually grown pretty close to. I’ll definitely also miss these wonderful people we have been teaching! I can’t believe both Elder Whitesides and I are leaving, and they will not know either of the new missionaries coming in to teach them! But, they are sister missionaries, so they’re in good hands. 😉

Elder Wharton, from my current district, used to serve in Grand Rapids 2 and he has only good things to say! So I can’t wait for this new chapter in this crazy adventure we call a mission. I just can’t believe 14 months have gone by so quickly.

This Thursday one of the quorum of the seventy, Brent H. Nielson, visited our mission and gave training. His wife did as well, and I learned a lot and I really want to apply what was taught. Sister Nielson taught us about accepting others for who they are, specifically talking about accepting companions for who they are, and not trying to change them or dictate what they should or should not do. I don’t think I’m a dictator, but I am going to more fully apply these principles with my new companion, and just try to learn as much as I can from him, and the rest of my district.

Thank you all for you love and support! It is much needed and you’ve all helped me get through my hardest trials with ease and comfort.

I know the message we share is true, and I know that it is God who has called me to serve here in Michigan, and specifically, now in Grand Rapids.

Talk with you all in two Mondays!

Love, Elder Breinholt

(Had a super fun P-Day last Monday with a bunch of missionaries in a member’s home.)

Hello wonderful friends and family!

This week has been a blast and that especially because of conference! For those who don’t know, this weekend there was a worldwide broadcast of a conference where the Prophet and apostles that are on the earth today addressed the world. Other leaders of the church addressed us as well, including some of the leaders who are women. In fact, my favorite talk that was given was by Carol F. McConkie, a counselor in the Young Women’s Presidency, who spoke on prayer and inspired me to put much more thought and fervency into my daily and nightly prayers. The conference can be found on LDS.org, just look for the 2016 October General Conference! 🙂

The District

This week was pretty great for our whole district, and although there was some time taken out for conference, we still got a lot of finding done and teaching as well. Found some really cool people–and here’s a quick, funny finding story:

The District

Elder Whitesides were taking the bus the morning of our “car fast” day this week, and I was SO proud when without being pushed to, my companion initiated a conversion with a nice black lady sitting across from him. He was just very kind and sincere and talked a little about what we do, and actually stood up and set next to her to talk more. He expressed how learning more about the Restored Gospel could bless her, and she politely declined his invitation; but, he still continued a normal conversation with her about her day. Shortly thereafter, a man got on the bus whose name was John and he ended up sitting next to me. I just said hello and he was wearing headphones and said hello back. After a minute he asked who the heck we are, noticing our attire and nametags, and I told him! Somehow in our conversation he ended up mentioning he’s about 75% native american, and that his friend’s ancestors from long ago claim Christ came to them!!! That’s exactly what the Book of Mormon is a record about, so I told him and he was extremely interested! Meanwhile, the lady who had been talking to Elder Whitesides had heard the conversation I had with John, and leaned back over to Elder Whitesides and said, “Can I have your number, just in case I change my mind?” *he gave it* “And you want my number too?”
“Sure want us to call in you a week to see if you want to learn more?”
“Yeah sure call me in a week!”

A huge preying mantis

x)

I love you all! Miracles do happen! Every. Single. Day. Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes and cards and things that were send I do so appreciate it and all the emails and support and love I have received from back home! 🙂

Some cool Elders at KZoo last week (KZoo = Kalamazoo)

Have a great week and I will be emailing again Saturday because it’s the last week of the transfer, so I’ll let you all know whether one of us is moving areas!

Elder Breinholt