October 31, 2011

wow today was a lot of fun. we had an activity with all the mission. we played a ton of sports and ate hamburgers. it reminded me a lot of the 4 of july where you play a ton and afterwards you are just exhausted from being out in the sun all day. i made two mistakes today i didnt use sunscreen and i didnt bring water. all they had was soda. so i am still really tired but all is well, and it was really great to see all my friends from the mission, and get to play a lot of sports. they had ultimate frisbee, football, soccer, and volleyball so pretty much every sport, and even a glove and a baseball for the two people that wanted to throw around. our mission has had two bad months in a row, and our president was a little disappointed. i thought about a scripture in 2 nephi 28 21 where it talks about the tactics of satan. a lot of times he tries to make us think that everything is ok and that all is well, when its not. when we have struggles in life its normal and its part of the growing process, but we can never get use to unsuccess. we always have to try to be better and do more. we can never become complecent and stop progressing. i think that is why goals are so important. in preach my gospel there is a quote by elder ballard that talks about goals. it goes like this if we never master the tecnic of setting goals we will look back on our life and realize that we only realized a portion of our talent. that is so true. we all have weaknesses but as it says in ether 12 27, if we come unto the Lord and humble ourselves he will make our weak things become strong. its a constant struggle to just keep getting better, but its what we have to do. i am so happy to be here in chile, on a mission, where i can dedicate 100 % of my time and talents to the Lord. when i am tired and sometimes get discouraged i always try to think if we dont win satan does. if the kingdom of God isnt progressing then his is. we are the ones responsible for making sure we do all we can so that the gospel is preached to all and that they accept it. read in Preach my Gospel chapter 1 in the last part they have a quote from everyone of the prophets of this dispensation about missionary work and it is really good. there was a quote i heard from a missionary that i liked a lot its said that i want to live my life in such a way that when i wake up in the morning satan says o no he is a awake. thanks for all the letters and the support


love


Elder Brimhall

October 24, 2011

this week was a little crazy this week in our branch. on friday our branch presidents wife had a son, and friday night one of the members of the branch passed away. he was an older man that had been sick for a while everyone knew that he didnt have a lot of time left, but it is still sad. today we went to the funeral. in chile everyone meets in the house of the person, and then as a huge group everyone walks to the grave yard, i dont remember it being like that in the states, but i thought it was a little weird. but i was really happy for our branch president. he was an investigator for 3 years, and couldnt get baptized because he wasnt married and had to get divorced but here in chile it is really complicated, and he couldnt. so he has only been a member for a year and a half. but with his wife they couldnt have children, but after they went to the temple and got selled that week she got pregnant and they just had the baby on friday. they are an amazing family. i asked him how does he serve so well, and he told me his thought process. here in chile a lot of people use the excuse that the family is the most important thing and for that dont go to church sometimes dont magnify their callings and dont do their visits. he told me that if we serve the Lord like we should and magnify our callings the Lord is going to bless our family, more then if we were with them. we have to develop a love of the Savior above all else, and then everything else will fall into place. he is a really good example of sacrifice and dedicated service. this weekend was also really crazy because friday we had to go to los angeles to do a baptismal interview. so i asked the missionaries how we could get their and he told me the taxi we had to take and the street we had to wait on. so we waited for almost a half an hour, and this taxi didnt pass by. so i started asking people how to get their and they kept telling me different things. so i decided to go to this other street and wait there, and finally the taxi that we had to take passed by (its actually called a colectivo, which is different than a taxi because it has its set route). so we got in and it turns out that it was the wrong one, but he at least took us close and we just walked the rest of the way, we finally made it to their house at 10, and i did one of the fastest interviews of my life. it was for a 9 year old girl so it wasnt too hard. so that night we had to stay in los angles. and in the morning we came back because another sector yumbel had a baptism buut they dont have a font so they had to come to our chapel. it was a mom and her 8 year old son. the son went first but the first time he didnt go all the way in and he got water in his nose and started crying and it was a little weird, and he ended up not getting baptized that day. so it was a crazy week, with lots of stuff happening, but everything is really good. thanks for all the letters and the support

Love

elder Brimhall

October 17, 2011

this week went by really fast again. on friday we had an intercambio with some other missionaries, it is kind of a hard sector so we went there and worked for the whole day. but i went with a new missionary who is on his second cambio. he is from Idaho, his name is Elder Page, his great great great grandpa was Hyrum Page one of the 8 witnesses, anyways it was really funny with him, we had a good time, and were able to find some really cool people. we were talking about their ward and he was telling me about how they only have around 5 active priesthood holders, right then this guy passed us and said hi elders. and just kept walking, and i turned to Elder Page and told him man we should have contacted that guy. so we turned down this street, and were looking for this house but couldnt find it, so we asked this girl in the street if she knew where it was, but she told us that she didnt. then this guy from the window of his house starting saying some mean stuff to us, so i started to talk to him, and he kept being a jerk, so i asked him if he knew someone else that we could teach and he pointed at this guy walking toward us, and told us his name, sure enough it was the same guy. so we started to talk to him and he was a returned missionary from Santiago, who right now is inactive but before was the elders quorum president, it was really cool, and lives with his family and none of them are members. So that was my cool story, as well as finding really cool people but just by the normal knocking doors and people letting us in, we have seen so many blessings. this week a ladyand her daughter came to church, they are a miracle how we found them. one day we went to lunch and the sister told us that lunch wasnt ready so we would have to wait. so i said we were going to do some contacts, the sister looked at me kind of werid and my companion as well. so any way we left and contacted their neighbors the first house let us in. it was a boy that had 16 years. he was cool so we started to teach him the restoration and got to the book of mormon when his sister came in so we pretty much taught all of lesson one again, and she really loved it. so we came back another day and found the mom who is amazing such a cool lady. it was a testimony for me to do a little more. sometimes we think that we are doing all we can but like it says in 2 Nephi 28 one of Satans tactics is to let us think that all is well in Sion and the Sion prospers, and cheats our soul. Thats something we always have to remember dont be satfisfied always try to do a little more, do a little better, and the results will be drastically better. thanks for everything love you all

Elder Brimhall

October 10, 2011

this week was good. it was really really fast. tuesday like always we had to go to Los Angeles like always for the district zone meeting. then when we got back it was kind of a rough day, all our visits fell through and we were just walking from house to house and no one was home, but you have to have days like that to appreciate the good ones. on Wednesday we had to go to Concepcion for a conference which was really good. President Martinez talked about all the tactics of Satan and all the things he tries to do to bind us with his cords. it was really good, he is a really smart guy. he talked about the importance of obedience. that in teh world there is a lot of problems but if we are obediente everything will work out for our good. we will be successful. that is why it is so important to be obedient in the mission because if you dont learn obedience now you never will. obedience is the key to success not only in the mission but in life. no matter what is happening in the world we should not fear if we are obedient, we can trust in the promises of the Lord. it was also really good because i got to see alot of my really good friend s in the mission and a lot of my old companions. it is always great to see them. but we got back pretty late at 8 o clock so we visited a few people and then we had to go back to the house. on thursday i had to go to yumbel another sector to do bautismal interviews and we were there waiting for a bus for an hour and a half. so once again we got back at about 8. so this was a pretty crazy week. we got our cambios and i am staying here with my companion. i am happy to stay here it is such a great sector with really good people, the branch is good, our branch president is awesome, our investigators are the best, we have amazing converts here, i think one of them is going to be the next branch president, he is such a good guy. so i am really happy to stay here another cambio. today we played soccer i am getting better still not the best and ping pong. it was fun. so everything is really good here, Cabrero is awesome, i am really happy to stay here another cambio. so i will be here until the 22 of november.

love you all

Elder Brimhall

October 3, 2011

wow this week was so fast. in chile the schedule saturday was 1 to 3 5 to 7 and 9 to 11. so it was almost pure conference in the small time we had between sessions we were running around trying to invite as many people as we could to the conference. it was so good. one talk i really liked was by Elder Callister or something like that, one of the new presidents of the 70, about the Book of Mormon. it was so true with what he said, that is what we try to explain to people all day. that is always the question i ask people if there is only one God and one Bible why are there so many churchs, because here in Chile there are so many. and they always give me the same answer that people are differnet and they worship in their own way. but we as humans cant be saved worshipping in our own way God sets the bar and we have to go meet it, we cant set our own bar for our salvation. and so how can we find the bar of God, and find HIs church, its the Book of Mormon. With only the Bible it is impossible to prove which chruch is true, because everyone has there own interpretation of the Bible but like he showed with the two testaments there is only one line that we can follow.so i really loved that talk. also in the priesthood session Elder Holland gave an amazing talk, it is a classic Holland where he is yelling and all fired up but it was really really good.But it was so awesome to hear conference and all the great talks there were. it is such a testimony builder to hear all the messages it strengths my testimony every time that this is the truth, this is the ONLY church on the face of the earth that has all the truth, that is actually guided by Jesus Christ, through a living prophet. Thanks for all the letters, and hope that everyone liked conference because it really was awesome,

Love

Elder Brimhall