December 20, 2010

Wow this week went by so fast! It was my second cambio, but I am going to stay in Lebu with the same companion and everything. Our old zone leader got moved down and is going to come to Lebu to train a new missionary here, so we are going to have 4 missionaries here in Lebu. This p day was really fun. Our zone won a competion to see who could bring the most people to church, and we won. It was crazy because before the competion started our zone was one of the lowest but once the competition started our zone went crazy. It was really cool the assistants came down and we ate steak and hot dogs, and played a ton of soccer, I am really tired but it was really fun. i am still not very good at soccer, but hopefully by the time i come back i can hold my own. The president of the mission couldnt come because his wife is coming back from the states today. she had to go back up there because her daughter who was pregnant was really sick so she went back up there to help out. This week went well. Its hard because a lot of people are leaving for the holidays, also because this is the summer break for the kids in Chile so a lot of people are leaving to Santiago and places like that. Also we are losing a lot of investiagtors to the new missionaries coming in, because we are going to be dividing the sector in half, so all the ones that are on the other side are going to be theres. but its ok we ll just have to find more. About christmas calls i think i ll call at 4 our time so i dont know what time it will be there. Sorry but i dont think i am going to send a package back home this time, maybe later when i find cooler stuff to send back. i have found things all right but nothing really amazing thats worth sending. the work is doing really well, it doesnt feel like christmas but its ok because we are working a lot. this week i think we ll be really fun, we have cambios tomorrow, the next day we are going to concepcion for the mission christmas party, the next day we have a bautism, the next day is christmas eve, christmas, and then sunday again. Happy Holidays to everyone and hopefully everyone has a good time, I love you all, and will be thinking of you on Saturday. Thanks for everything...

Elder brimhall

December 12, 2010

this week was really good. today we went to the beach and played futbol with some kids from our ward and an investigator who has a baptismal fecha for christmas day, which i hope happens because that would be really cool. my companion hurt his foot so we might have to go to a doctor here but we are still not sure. we have been walking a lot pretty much every day. the other day it was really funny there was this drunk guy who ran over to us, and started asking us if we were from germany. so anyway we just kept walking, but then he started bumping us with his chest, so then i told him not to do that. then he put his arm around my companion and was just like walking with him. it was so weird. so finally we were able to get rid of him, after he followed us for like 3 blocks. then right after that we were looking for a woman who gave us her address. we were on the street looking so we decided to ask this old guy sitting outside of his house. when we asked him he started yelling at us, why do you want to go to her house, i dont know who that is. we were like hey its ok were missionaries from the church of jesus christ she gave us her address, and the he just started saying the craziest things like you cant make me meet her, i dont want to meet her. so we gave up and went and asked someone else. it was a very funny 15 minutes. we have this really really cool girl we are teaching, the last week she went to church with her 4 kids, but the problem is the husband now is not letting her come, so this week she wasn´t able to go. its really frustrating to have such a cool person, who really is prepared for the gospel, but she can´t do it because of her husband. so that kind of stinks, but everything else is doing really good here. we are finding lots of cool people to teach. my companion is a really cool guy i like him a lot. so ya everything is really good. i still havent figured out what i am going to do about christmas and how i am going to call, but when i do i ll let you know.

December 6, 2010

this week went really well. we worked hard and found a lot of cool new people. my Spanish is still not that great my understanding has past my speaking. i can actually understand almost everything, except crazy people who speak ridiculously fast, or drunk people or sometimes people use words that are only in chile. but i guess the speaking will come. i am totally getting fat here. . the food here is really bad for you i guess. i just recently found out that the bread here is horrible for you, which stinks because it is way cheap and tastes pretty good. the members here are really funny, this sunday was fast sunday so we were really scared about our investigators that someone was going to say something crazy but it actually went well. the only person who said anything a little weird was the dad of the branch pres. he is really funny he always goes off for a five minute lecture in priesthood meeting. its actually kind of sad, because right when he starts talking you look around the room and no one is listening, everyone is either reading or whispering to each other, its funny. we found a crab in the beach the other p day i cant remember if i told you about it, but it was pretty funny we ate it, it really wasnt that good, it at least we can say we ate a crab. the transfer here is going to be 4 days before christmas which kind of stinks, i am not sure but i think i am going to be transfered, because that is the usual duration for a missionary 2 cambios in an area.so i am not sure, i hope i stay we have been finding a lot of really cool people, but i guess you just go wherever your called. our mission president is a really cool guy, i like him a lot, he sometimes is a little laid back on the rules but he is really nice. my companion is good, we sometimes both lose our patience with each other, but he is a good guy. you always hear about decisions and how you can choose to be angry or happy, but i dont think it really clicked for me until this week. we were having a dumb little arguement, and i was kind of annoyed and bothered by him, but then i thought about it, and realized that i wasnt getting anything out of being mad, it didnt help me or him, and i realized it was my choice whether to hold on to this feelings or just let it go. so that was definetly a good lesson to learn, hopefully i dont have to learn it again. but everything is going well, i love you all, thanks for everything. 

elder brimhall

November 29, 2010

hey everybody! jk this week went really good. things with my companion are really awesome he is a really cool guy and we are starting to finally have some success which always helps your relationship. the first two weeks with him were kind of rough we were just working really hard but we just werent getting anywhere and it was really frusturating. this week though we finally started to have some really good lessons people finally started to come to church and it was just a great week. there was still some crazy stories. on wednesday it was such a werid day. we were teaching this older lady, and i dont remember how in the world it came up but she was like i am a prophet, and saying all this werid stuff, that she had gone down to the river and had baptized herself. so then we tried to explain that she needed the authority like john the baptist and thats when she said that he had come and given her the authority and had told her to go and baptize as many people as she could, but she was hungry so first she went and ate first. no joke thats is really what she said, and she was totally serious. it was so hard to keep a straigth face during that lesson. lol. so that was really werid, also this crazy person got a microphone and was like yelling in it all wednesday moring, it was such a crazy day. they dont celebrate thanksgiving here but my companion is a gringo too so on thursday we cooked french fries, rice, this sauce stufff, and then yogurt and fruit for our thanksgiving. we didnt have all the delicious pies but we weren´t forced to eat turkey (thats the only part i don´t miss about thanksgiving) i think its a fair trade. this one place in our zone has 4 gringos in it and they actually cooked a full thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all it was crazy. it was really fun, then after that we went on splits with the zone leaders which was good. right now i am in curanilgue which is a town about 1 hour from lebu. my companion had a leader training thing in concepcion today so i had to come here with some other elders. its been fun, and it was a really good week. i realized this week the importance of charity. before i think we were just teaching and being robots, we really werent working with our hearts it was just doing it to do. i really think that is what made the difference this week, we really started loving the people. chile really is awesome i couldn´t ask for a better place. thats another thing we did differently this week was trying to be really positive about everything. so ya everything is great, thanks for everything.

 

love

 

elder brimhall

November 22, 2010

this week went really well. we worked really hard,and taught a ton of lessons. it was kind of sad at church though because none of our investigators came to church but it was still a good week.it is hard becasue there are a ton of evangelicals here, which is a church. they tell all these lies about joseph smith and all sorts of werid stuff. its still great though i really love it here. there are a ton of great people here,and i couldnt ask for a better place to be.  we went to a catholic funeral it was crazy. the mom of the branch pres in a different town died and they had the funernal here in lebu, so the mission pres asked us to go to give him support. it was so werid.they have all these crazy pictures everywhere and crosses and it was just crazy. the pastor guy was wearing a purple robe and i dont think he even mentioned the women who died it was just a normal surmon like he would give on any old sunday. they also have this band in the back ground that just starts playing at randomn parts of the surmon. it was so werid but a good experience. we had interviews with the president this week which went well. our president is a super cool guy. o ya some really good news we have warm showers now. its great it really does change your entire day. today was really fun, my old companion is in my district still so he came down for p day. we went to the beach again, it was so cool. it is really pretty and was just an awesome time. then we had a bbq with some chicken, it was fun. everything is going really well. sometimes i do get discouraged with the lack or success, or rejection, or that i cant say everything i want to in spanish. but then i try to remember the talk that elder holland gave when i was at the mtc. he talked about why the mission is hard. its hard because the atonement was hard, because salvation isnt a cheap experience. it wasnt easy for christ so why would you think it would be easy for you. in order to progress we have to face difficulties. every bad thing, trial, gives you a chance to apply christ like attributes in your life, whether it be charity, patience, or faith. i love you all thank you so much for all your letters, and prayers.  

elder brimhall

November 15, 2010

this week went really well. there is a program in chile where we visit the inactive families in chile because there are a ton of them. we have to visit at least ten every week. we never really did it with my first companion, but this week we did. it was so cool we found so many people it was awesome. now we just have to teach them and help them progress. this week started out kind of rough, it was like every contact people would just walk by or say they were busy and didnt have time it was really frusturating at the beginning of the week, it was a little discouraging. so we talked about it and decided to do something different, thats when we started to visit the inactive families it went really well, and was really successful. there are still tons of dogs here, and but now there is this nasty disease going around its like leprosy for dogs, so there fur is falling out and and it is really disgusting, their tails look like rats, i ll have to send you guys some pictures, its pretty nasty. lebu is really cool its always windy so you can pass gas any time and no one ever knows because its so windy so you cant smell it jk there was a lot of cool things that happened this week, and we found a bunch of people. love you all thanks for all the letters and support and prayers.
elder brimhall

November 8, 2010

everything is going good, i got a new companion for my first cambio. he is from the united states utah, but he has been out for  a year so he can understand everything and is really helpful. its been good because he corrects me when i say a word wrong and stuff which i actually like, because i can already see a difference in my spanish. my other companion would never say anything, even when i asked him to so ya its been really good. his name is elder elder which is crazy. i am already tired of him having to explain why his name is elder elder and weve only been together for like 2 days, i wonder how he feels. but he is a really cool guy and i think were going to have a lot of success together. so the first day he came we went to visit this guy who we had a lesson with like a week earlier. so we started talking and this guy was crazy, we could not get him on track. we would ask him a question and he would just start talking about something completly oppostite. it was so crazy. then he just started off on this crazy story, that i had no idea what he was saying. in the middle of the story my companion stood up and was like ok were going to leave what you said was really offensive. then the guy started yelling at him, and was pointing to me saying that i didnt mind his story and that i was his friend, i just stood there with a dumb look on my face because i still had no idea what was going on. so anyway my companion walked out the door, and i followed but the guy tried to shut the door in front of me to keep me in, but i grabbed the door and pulled it open. so anyway when we got out of the house i asked him what the heck just happened, and he told me i guess the guy was using like every swear word there was. it was such a crazy experience. so ya that was funny. church here is funny, there is time, mormon time, chilean time, and then there is mormon chilean time. people are always late here its crazy. my first sunday i was freaking out because no one was here, and then after sacrament everyone comes in, in  a huge wave. this week was good, my companion is really good and i am happy to have him. lebu is great. the food is really good but i not sure if it is or i am just really hungry. so ya everything is great, i love it here in chile. my spanish is getting a lot better which has been really good. so ya love you thanks for the letters and all.

with love
Elder Brimhall

November 1, 2010

this week went really well. it was really fast, its crazy to think that in one more week i ll have already had my first transfer. its also crazy to think that i ve already been out for 3 months its crazy. the mission is really really great i love it so much. the language is still hard but it keeps getting better. i can talk to everyone but drunks and really little kids. drunks are kind of jerks a lot of times. the other day we were walking and one stopped us in the street and asked for money. i said we didn´t have any, and he was like what did you say, you don´t speak spanish i cant understand anything your saying, and just a bunch of stuff. i really wanted to punch him, but then i had to remember i am a representative of Jesus Christ so i just tried to ignore it. so i was a little disappointed after that, and feeling a little sad. so after that we were looking for a family, but we couldn´t find there house, the way chilean houses are numbered here are really weird so sometimes its really hard to find them. but anyway we couldnt find it, so we knocked on their door and a lady answered, and she was really nice. so anyway we talked to her for a little bit and found out that her nephew had just died. it was really sad but that is the way the Lord prepares people to accept the gospel, so on one hand its really sad, we get to teach her how she can live with him again and live with her entire family again in a state of never ending happiness, so its cool too. so that got me thinking ya that guy was a jerk, but when you are persecuted for Christs sake you receive blessings, so it all works out in the end. it was the day of the dead here or something like that but it was crazy, EVERYONE was at the cemetry yesterday, it was crazy, there were so many people. also they have halloween here so the last night all these kids kept knocking on our door, but we didn´t have anything, not even pennies, or walnuts to give them so we just didnt answer i felt kind of bad but hey what can you do. yesterday we walked so much it was crazy no one was home so we were walking all over i was so tired. so ya everything is going really well, i love it here. also i need a picture of everyone and your families if you can, so ya thanks again for everything.

October 25, 2010

everything is going well. this week was good, its a struggle with my companion of balancing patience and working hard, because he doesnt really work hard but i am learning patience and a lot of other good lessons. so i love letters and dear elders but i only get them like every 3 weeks at a big reunion or something like that so don´t be mad at me if i dont´ reply, the way mom does it i get an email and the dear elder so that is the best and would that so ya ask mom how she does that. we ran out of money so the last few weeks were fun. the money i brought is all dollar bills and there isnt any place to change it here only in concepcion so next big meeting i ll have to change it. but anyway my first month i really didnt know what was going on so when my companion spent money so did i, like we took cabs all over, because i thought he knew what he was doing and we would have enough, but boy was i wrong... jk its been good though. the mission is really good chile is great. lebu is good but there are a ton on evangelica people who are the people who raise their hands in the air and say i am saved. its tough because this people don´t listen really good, they meet together and have meeting every single day. there church is pretty much a party so its been tough. the other day i was walking wondering in my mind how can we compete with this chuch who is pretty much a party place, and then i felt this really strong feeling, it was like a punch in the face. it was like are you kidding me you are a representative of the only true church on the earth, the only church that has the principles and ordinances that we need, the only one that has the book of  mormon. it was a really strong experience. the members are really good here, and all love the members, too much sometimes jk. i still think we spend too much time just talking to them, but its been good they are all super nice. my spanish is still not very good. its really funny whenever i think that i doing good, the very next person i talk to just looks at me werid and turns to my companion and asks him what i was trying to say. its really funny and is a constant reminder that i need to be humble and always remember Christ in any success or progress. Chile is good we work hard to reactive families, chile has a ton of inactive people all for different reasons, from being offended, to the church being too early its at 10 (THATS impressive). so thats good to try to help people come back to church. i think the key is you just have to keep doing the little things every day like reading and praying. every day you don´t its just harder the next day, and then you get in a habit of not doing it and then its hard to get back in the groove so just do it every day. thanks for all your letters and support. you are all awesome and i love you all. i will also accept any food that you want to send, chilean food is good but nothin beats the good ole usa. we eat with members so its always a risk everyday to eat breakfast or not, because some people just load up your plate and if you don´t eat it all you are the devil, but sometimes they don´t and its not the best so you are dying by the time we return home, becuase in our mission we don´t eat dinner. so its a gamble everyday. so thanks again love you and continually need your prayers.

October 18, 2010

everything is going really good. this week was good we found a lot of people that are so ready for the gospel. chile is really cool. we were just walking down the street the other day and this guy stops us and was like i want to change my life, and become better. it was so awesome. then on wednesday night there was this guy lying on the side of the road, he was drunk really bad. so we offered to help him because he lived up on the hill and had to go up a ton of stairs to get to his home so we carried him up the hill, it was really sad because the guy was crying and you could tell he was really sad. so anyway we went back to his house like three days later to see if he was doing alright, and his grandaughter answered the door and we talked with her and she was so awesome and we are going to start teaching her. so ya we have been having a lot of really cool experiences. i still don´t really teach a lot which is hard my companion does most of the talking, but i am improving and getting better everyday and understanding a little more so ya its been good. spanish is still hard but i can understand a lot more now, i can actually hear words, before the sentences were just one long slured word. i broke a rule which i felt so bad about. we are not suppose to eat dinner with anyone. well one of our investigators has three kids and they are all awesome and cool, well the other day i cut wood for them and we always help them with stuff. so we went over yesterday and they had made completos which are like really good hot dogs, for us because i had told them that was my favorite food. so ya sadly i ate it, but really it was a lose lose situation. i really love my mission it is awesome something crazy happens everyday, but its starting to slow down a little bit and i am starting to get a handle on things. one thing that is still kind of hard is that we give our laundry to a lady in the ward and she does it for us, we pay her though. but like every week when you open the bag you get a strong wiff of like pond water. i think she just goes down in the crick as john wayne would say and washes them. but ya i am grateful i don´t have to do it but ya my clothes all kind of smell like the creek at the ranch. i don´t want to sound fairy mary but lebu is the most beautiful place i have every seen. it has like everything, forest, grassy meadows, a river, ocean, beach, rolling hills. i ll have to send you guys some pictures because it is awesome. today we went to the beach and just walked around it was so pretty and picked up sea shells. they were all over the place it was crazy, the chileans all look at you weird because i was all excited. its kind of like when some one from a foreign state comes to arizona and is all excited to see a cactus. but ya it was my first time going to the beach or even seeing the ocean so ya that was really cool. another funny thing about lebu is every day at 12 they sound this ridiculously loud alarm. i feel like i am in great britain and the nazis are coming, no joke. so ya i am doing really well, its still hard, but i am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel when i will finally know what is going on and will be able to understand everyone. thanks for all your letters and prayers. i really do appreciate them all. i love you all.

October11, 2010

this week was really good, it definitely had its ups and downs but overall it was good. the mission conference was really awesome and i learned a lot, it was mostly in spanish but i understood most of it and the president would say the important things in english so ya it was good. spanish is still really rough but every day i am getting better understanding a little more its slowing down a little more everyday. the members here are really nice sometimes a little too nice they like you to come over and talk to you for ever so its hard because my companion like to talk to so we end up spending over an hour at there house just talking about different things, so thats been hard but we talked about it and hopefully we don´t spend as much time this week. thats really my only two problems spanish and sometimes i don´t think we work very hard but other than that its really good. my companion is really nice and a cool guy not the hardest worker ever but is a good guy and i am grateful to have him as my trainer, i am learning a lot from him. the food is definetly different but its good (sometimes) jk lol. i am grateful but ya its crazy because they just load your plate up and if you don´t eat it all your prettty much the devil, so you just have to shove it down your throat. but in our mission we don´t eat dinner so it usually works out because your not hungry for the rest of the day after lunch and you don´t eat very much for breakfast knowing for lunch your going to have to force yourself to eat so ya its been good. our shower and our toilet flooded this week it was crazy. the water wouldnt drain in any thing, the sinks, toilet, or the shower. it was crazy and then it started leaking out and our kitchen was flooded. it was so nasty because the toilet wouldn´t flush so it pretty much looked like the one in the ranch house with poo smears all over, it was awful but its all good becasue now its all fixed. this week was pretty cool and there were definetly miracles. one that was insane was this we were going to visit this inactive member so my companion wrote down her address and we left. we were walking all over the street trying to find the house but we couldn´t find it. there this other house in the background behind this other house and we couldn´t see the number so we thought maybe that was it. in chile they just yell hello in the persons front yard so thats what we did. this guy came out with his little daughter and we talked to him for a little bit, and then he invited us in. we taught him and it was a really good lesson the best we have taught so far. so the crazy thing was that when my companion wrote down the wrong address it was 247 and he wrote 240. CRAZY!!!!!! so ya that was awesome i don´t know what will happen with that guy hopefully it all works out but he seemed so ready for the gospel and listened and really opened up to us so ya that was awesome and was a totally miracle that we found him. one crazy thing in chile is that there are drunks all over the place. we always say hi to everyone and when we do they start following us and its crazy. one time we were contacting this kid and the drunk came up and started to hug us. thats pretty much the test if someone is drunk here if they randomly come up and hug you out of nowhere when you are walking down the street. you be nice and let them but it is definitely werid and not to be mean but they smell really bad so after you smell bad too so its just crazy. also being an american drunk people love you no clue why but they do. yesterday we were walking down the street and this drunk guy with like 4 guys yelled for us to come over. i felt like the guy in the movie a christmas story where that guy is yelling hey you ya you get over here. so ya my companion went and i followed. they were nice not dangerous or anything just talked to us but it is crazy becasue they are drunk. so ya that was interesting. it just depends being an american some people really love you for it and some people hate you it just depends. also a funny sad story we talked to this older couple. the wife was really intersted in our message it was about eternal families, but the husband was catholic so he was like no thats not true when we die were not going to be married and stuff like that it was kind of sad, just to see someone really want our message but the other didn´t i wonder what his wife was thinking. todays p day was really fun we played soccer gringos versus the natives 3 on 3 with our zone and the gringos won it was crazy. the natives are all way better but they show off a lot so we just steal the ball and go down and score it was awesome. but ya everything is going well its starting to warm up the weathers nice. its really windy here i found out this week that they call it the ciudad del viento which in engligh pretty much means the windy city. , also yesterday we had to change our clocks to be an hour faster it still makes no sense why people do that but ya that was interesting. but ya there is so much to say sorry for this lengthy letter. the mission is really good i am having a great time. love you lots keep praying for me i need all the help i can get. lol. thanks for all your letters, love, and support. love you lots

October 4, 2010

also i almost forgot miracle of the week both my bags coming here were 49.5 lbs crazy right?? and they ended up not checking my carryon which i am sure was more than they said it could be so ya that really was a miracle. becasue they said that the carryon could only be 17 lbs. also last fact about chile is the drivers here are horrible the bus drivers weave in and out of traffic it is so scary. everyone rides their horns and are honking constantly it is kind of annoying. so ya tommorrow we have a mission conference which i heard are usually really really good so i have high hopes for that. well thats all thanks again for everything love you lots.

October 4, 2010

<hey hows it going so much has happened since i last wrote. My trip went well it was really long but i made it. the nine hour flight was crazy. sorry i wasn´t able to call but my calling card died which was weird because i only called dad and it said i was out of minutes so ya that was disappointing but your right christmas isn´t too far way. so ya sorry about that. it was so weird to go from the<mtc to the real world. there was all this bad music playing and all these bad pictures of girls and it was just horrible, you don´t realize how much evil is in the world until you leave for a little bit and then come back. so ya that was crazy coming here.... So n< let me start by naming the similarities between the usa and chile-------- ????ok thats the end of that list. jk but seriously it is so different here. The airport as very misleading, they have all these signs but they had the english translation under it and everyone speaks to you slowly. so i was like hey this won´t be bad at all and then you leave the airport and everyone is speaking like 200 miles an hour. When they say you won´t know what the heck is going on for the first 3 months i used to think they were exaggerating but now i am pretty sure they are serious. people talk so fast i cant even describe it. you really have to just here it because it is insane. the members in the ward don´t even talk to you because your an american and they know you don´t know whats going on.  its pretty frustrating because i don´t know what in the world is going on. but it is getting better i ve improved a little bit every day which is good, but i still have no clue what people are saying. any pride i may have carried with me into the mission field is now definitely gone. i have become aware of my own nothingness and as King Benjamin would say I am an unworthy creature jk, but seriously it has been hard. but i´ve been reading the scriptures alot which has helped and the second verse of the hymn come come ye saints which has helped me a lot. Also the talk that elder holland gave when he came to the mtc, he talked about why the mission is hard. he said it was becasue salvation is not a cheap experience. the life of christ wasnt easy, the atonement wasn´t easy and his crucifixion wasnt easy. if you want to be his disciple you have to go through a little bit of that pain. so ya that has helped me carry on and just keep working hard, knowing and trusting in God that one day i will be able to understand this language, even though right now it seems impossible.   i feel like the guy on the best two years. where he goes to buy bread and just has that dumb look on his face and has no clue what is going on. my companion is good but is not the hardest worker which has been tough, because i don´t know exactly what we are suppose to do or how to do them or the language for that matter. but we talked about it and hopefully that gets better. his name is elder orellana and is from bolivia so he knows a lot of spanish which has been helpful. The showers here are freezing and they don´t have hot water which has been horrible. i dread taking showers in the morning. i am going to become the smelly kid in class jk. <um so every monday i will be writing you guys, an every tuesday i will receive the letters so it is probably a better idea if you do as mom did and just email me back on this website and then i ll be able to write you back or else i will not be able to respond for a week. also i am now allowed to email other family members so if anyone wants me to email them just send me your email address. i will probably just send a generic to everyone and then  respond to everyone else individually. Sorry bridgette but i just got all your dear elders the day i arrived at the mission home so ya sorry i never wrote you back but i never got your letters. Que mas. um its good here, its been hard but so was the uofa and the mtc at the beginning and i ended up loving both of those so i just need to stick it out keep working hard. love you all o ya also a funny story we were having our study in the morning and this street vendor guy knocked on our door, so my companion was outside with him talking so i went out to see what was going on and when i went out the door shut behind me so we were locked out. we went to our land lord lady but she didn´t have another key so we were trying to open the window and other things but nothing was working. then the street vendor guy got this plastic soda bottle and cut it up and slid it in the door and unlocked it. <i was like i can tell youve done this before. it was good that he opened it so we could get in but not really because that means he could do it anytime he wants so ya i am kind of worried now i put all my valuable away and hid everything. so ya that was kind of funny. the people here are really good and are usually really nice. the kids are usually really cool but every once in a while there are some punks.but hey what can you do. i am in the city lebu which is freezing because it is right by the ocean and it is windy everyday. i wear that wool coat of jons like every day. by the way how do you wash that? Sorry for any mistakes i may have made typing this its on a spanish keyboard which is a little different so it is kind of hard. But ya i like it here a lot. o ya conference not gonna lie i didn´t understand very much, or for that matter really anything i was able to get little bit and pieces here and there but ya overal not very much. you´ll have to send it to me in english when the ensign comes out. the food here is ok, not as much fruit as i thought, and it is pretty much just as expensive as the food in the us. they do have this completo which is way good its a hot dog with mayo and avocado and tomatoe it is so good. <my mission president is really cool i like him a lot. also another funny thing was on the plane to chile they had like this 10 minute video about how chile was awesome and you shouldnt liter to preserve the beauty o Chile and it just kept going on and on so i thought chile was going to be all nice and clean boy was i wrong. there is trash everywhere. everyone pretty much lives in the ranch house but a smaller version no joke it looks so much like the ranch house its not even funny. if times ever get rough and we have to go out and live in the ranch house it will be all good with me becasue i ll have already spent two years living in something like it jk but seriously. it is good though becasue these people are humble and ready to accept the gospel. i think we ll have a lot of success here. so ya sorry i am kind of rambling on here there is just so much to talk about, but ya <i love you guys a lot keep praying for me i need all the help i can get :)Final funny thing of the day chilean don´t sell soda by the ounce like americans they sell it by the liter. it cracked me up when we went shopping for the 1 st time and i saw there soda they are so huge it was awesome. So ya thats all sorry this letter is so long just a lot of info so ya love you lots!!!!! 

Arriving in Chile

Dear Family of Elder Ammon Brimhall:

We want to let you know your son arrived Tuesday safe and sound and smiling. We picked him and 17 other missionaries up at the airport, came to the mission home for lunch and an orientation, then to a chapel where they met their trainers. Elder Ammon Brimhall will be working with the amazing Elder Orellana (from Santa Cruz, Bolivia) in the city of Lebu.

This mission extends from Talcahuano in the north to Loncoche in the south, about 5 hours by car. There are 180 missionaries, a 50/50 mix of Latinos and Northamericans, plus a few from Europe and other areas of the world. Missionaries teach an average of 30 lessons a week and each companionship visits 10 inactive families each week, so they stay busy. The food and water are safe and the countryside magnificent.

We want to put your mind at ease. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly at this email swensonjneil@aol.com

There has never been a better time or place to serve a mission than right here, right now. Following the earthquake and the announcement of a temple here, the people and the land have been prepared for the Gospel message brought to their door by your handsome son. It’s a privilege to serve with him in this wonderful work of the Lord. Thanks for your support and prayers.


Sincerely,

President & Hermana Swenson

Elder Brimhall with President & Hermana Swenson

Los hermanos y hermanas serving with Elder Brimhall

Hey hows it going? So talked to some people and they said that Dear Elder did work in Chile but I am not sure if thats right or not. I only heard that from missionaries so I haven't got that confirmed yet. So ya I am not sure. I am probably going to be sending home a package with some stuff, so hopefully i am not over in my bags going to chile so i have to pay some ridiculous 300 dollar fine. So ya it probably just have some books and that bath robe and stuff. So my knee is doing well, there is nothing new to report its back to normal. It was actually a really awesome blessing from the Lord to have the basketball courts closed. They closed them 2 weeks before we came and are opening them 2 days after we leave. That is a true example of the Lord not testing you more than you can bare jk. but ya thats been cool, during gym i ve been playing four square which is fun and not really that physically demanding so ya its all good with my knee. this last fireside was ok, not the greatest but still good. I dont remember the guys name but he was a released member of the second quorum of 70. He of course talked about obedience. I am pretty sure that we have not had one speaker who hasn't talked about it, but that is a really good thing because it is so important. Obedience really is such a huge deal, you really can see a difference in the elders who are exactly obedient and the ones that aren't. So ya I am working on being diligent and obedient. Those are the two most important things you can do along with faith. With these three things you are then worthy to have the spirit with you, which is what actually does all the work, you just have to be worthy of it and then ride the wave jk. I really like the mission, its so awesome, right now its kind of hard learning Spanish but I know in the end its going to be so much better that I learned a language. Its also really humbling which I think I definitely needed. So ya not a whole lot new to report, doing well excited and scared that I only have less than two weeks and then I am going to Chile. I feel ready to go, but so unprepared. but i guess I' ll learn trial by fire. I ve been working really hard and Spanish is starting to come, which is really exciting. Unfortunately I am going to Chile where they speak a crazy Spanish and add weird endings on words just for the hay of it like po, at least thats what some of the guys who served in Chile said. So ya I am excited healthy happy. Hope everything is going well back home. Love you all!!!

Hey mom, hows it going? I usually email you around 3-5 o clock on Wednesday. Also ya its a mission rule that you can only email your parents. I am pretty sure its a grand scheme between the United States post office and the church. haha jk. I think missionaries are the only thing keeping the post office in business. So ya just wanted to clear that up. Its going really well here. Yesterday we got to go to a fireside by Elder Snow who is in the second quorum of 70. He talked about the importance of choices and they make you who you are. It was pretty good, but after hearing from Elder Holland there is really nothing that can compare. jk. Also yesterday we got to teach in the TRC, to a nice Mexican lady. The lesson was in Spanish, so its still hard because you can't say everything you would say how you would say it, so you have to come up with different ways of saying it, but most of the time i can get my point across. The lesson went well and she committed to be baptized and read and all that good stuff. She was Jewish and didn't believe in Jesus which was a good change, because every other single time the person has been Catholic so this was a good change. In the first 2 weeks here i learned more than I did in my cochise college class the whole year. I am learning a lot both in spanish and in the gospel. Everyday you just learn so much. Its kind of crazy because one day I will look at a sentence or a word and won't be able to remember it or pronounce it and the next day i ll come back and be able to say it perfectly, well maybe not perfectly but pretty good. I can definitely feel the Spirit helping me. The gift of tongues is real. I still won't probably understand a thing when i get to Chile because there spanish is crazy, and they speak ridiculously fast and add werid ending on the words like po and crazy stuff like that. So ya my goal is to be able to speak well before i leave, and then hope the listening comes. Most missionaries i talk to say it takes about 3 months in the field to really know whats going on, so I imagine it will be the same, so I'll just work hard and do the best i can. I got a hair cut today which was cool, because there free so ya it feels really nice. We went to the temple today which was really cool, i can almost complete the whole thing on my own. Tell Jon good luck on his job and hopefully everything works out. Um theres really not a whole lot to say, except that I love you. Thanks again for your package and all your letters. Its always nice to end the day by reading a letter. So ya thanks again for everything. I love being a missionary. I swear i know the scriptures so much better now. There are things in 2nd Nephi that i swear ive never read before and new ideas just come to your head. The spirit is so strong and teaches you so much. So ya I just close with that I love you and love being out here, its going by way to fast I only have 2 and half weeks left at the MTC, it feels like i just got here. Love you lots

Elder Brimhall

Hey mom love you lots. I am doing really well, hopefully everything is going better back home. Thank you so much for your package, that was exactly what i needed. My mission is going really well, it is really flying by, the longer i am here the more i love it. spanish is starting to come around its still slow but i can speak a lot better and am starting to understand better as well. We had to teach our first lesson in spanish yesterday, which was good but a little crazy. The guy was asking if everyone had the priestood, and we were trying to explain that it is the power to act in gods name, so he was asking if it was the same thing as keeping the commandments, but it was really hard to understand him, so i have a bad habit of saying yes anytime they start rambling off and i have no idea what they are talking about. so he asked if every one had the priesthood and i said yes, which i knew was wrong because right when i said it his eyebrows went up, so i had him repeat the question like 3 times, so ya that was crazy, but eventually i was able to understand what he was looking for and answer him. They say make as many mistakes as you can while your in the mtc so i guess it is good in a strange way. Last night was awesome cause i got to hear from Elder Hinkley who it the son of Gordon B Hinkely. He just talked about always being cheerful and having a postive attitude. It was a really good talk. I cant believe i ve already been here for over a month time is flying by. I am loving it here. There isnt any really exciting stories to say you pretty much do the same thing everyday in the MTC but I am learning so much and am really excited to get out in the mission field. I am also a little scared about the language but i am working really hard so i know the lord will help me. my testimony is getting a lot stronger. i thought it was pretty strong when i left and i think it was but it has gotten so much more so, i guess that what happens when you study the gospel everyday for 6 hours. jk. So ya its really good i love both of my teachers, i have a little mexican and a really nice girl. The mexican guy is so hillarious, our class room was really messy so when he walked in he was like this place stinks like mexico everyone in the class was like rolling on the ground. It may not sound funny but it was hilarous, but I guess you had to have been there or I ve been in the MTC for too long lol. also he says jolly rancher so funny, holly rrrancher. So ya he is awesome. My branch pres is pretty cool, kindof an interesting guy but really nice. My disticit is cool, they kindof mess around a little too much but hey what can you do, I just do my thing and don't really worry about what they do. So ya I love you lots, and thanks again for everything. My companion is a pretty cool guy, he is a little interesting sometimes but he is nice and really patient which are two things i need to work on so ya it works out well. today in the temple i did inititories

ammon letter August 25,2010

Hey mom love you lots and miss you but I am glad to be where I am at. The MTC is awesome and I am learning alot even though it is really hard work and you really have to push yourself. The year at U of A really did help me, because I know how to study which is really useful. So ya this week has been really cool. Tons has happened. So on Sunday our whole district has to prepare a talk on a subject and the branch president calls two people from the zone to give their talks. So this last sunday two of the guys in our district got really sick so they couldn't go to church, so we hurried and brought them lunch before we went to Sacrament meeting, we were in such a rush that I forgot my notebook which had my talk in it. You don't know who is going to be talking in church until the president gets up right there in the meeting and announces it. Well sure enough he called my name. I was freaking out, I had no idea what to do. So I asked the guy next to me to let me use his talk but he didn't even right one. So i had to use my companions talk. The talk is suppose to be 5 minutes long and his was at max 2 and half minutes. Then i had to cross out the whole middle of his talk because it was a personal story about his dad being a non member. Crazy!!! So I went up and gave the talk, needless to say it was horrible but I learned so much from that talk, I truly believe that Heavenly Father teaches us way more through our failures than our successes, so ya that was an awesome learning experience. Dont bring guys lunch when they are sick jk. So ya my branch president probably hates me now, but whatever. Yesterday was also the most amazing spirtual experience ever!!!!!!! Elder Holland came and talked to us yesterday. He is such an awesome speaker, I learned so much and it got me so pumped up. It was just about you can't settle for being a good missionary, you need to be great. You have to be perfect all the time to have the spirit all the time. He also said that you should give the performance of a lifetime everytime you teach a lesson and don't settle for giving an ok lesson, or fall into a routine. He also said that a mission has to be hard because if we want to be disciples of Christ we have to go through some of the pain that Christ went through. The Atonement wasn't easy so why would our mission be easy. Salvation is not a cheap experience, it is hard but it is so worth it. So ya it was definetly a spirtual high. I am a little scared because next week we have to start teaching in spanish which is going to be crazy. I know that the Lord will help though and it will be ok. So ya that Eileen thing is kinda crazy and I have no idea how the heck that happened that is seriously one of those freakiest things I have ever heard, so ya I am sorry for her, you, her kids, and the whole family. So much for your family being blessed when you go on a mission haha jk. I probably shouldn't joke about that. So ya sorry again. I will be praying for you all. Well ya I love you lots and am doing really well. Thanks for helping me prepare because all that preparation is really starting to pay off. I love you lots and enjoy your letters so thanks again for all your love and support. Also you are the only one i can email so let every one know that but you can forward my emails to anyone you want just so you know.
Love
Elder Brimhall