April 30, 2012

this week went by really fast. on monday we found out that the family that was inactive and we help bring them back to church and were going to baptize their 11 year old daughter wanted to do the baptism on wednesday in stead of friday because some of their family had to work on friday and wasnt able to attend. so we did an intercambio on tuesday and so we baptized on wednesday. then on thursday i had to go to an interview for 2 teenager girls that are twins. when i got their they were both really unsure and didnt want to get baptized this week and wanted to wait longer. so we talked for a little while and i asked them if they thought that God wanted them to get baptized they both answered yes. so i said that we should ask Him when he wanted them to get baptized. so we prayed and right after the prayer they both changed completely. i asked them what was the answer they had received and they both said tommorrow Friday. it was awesome so i did the interview and they both got baptized. it was amazing to see the change in them, change which obviously comes from the spirit. then on friday i did another intercambio and had to do another interview for baptism. we found several really good people as well. then on saturday i finally went back to my sector and we baptized a really good guy. we found him my first week here in arauco and challenged him to get baptized the first lesson and he said yes and has been so excited for his baptism ever since. it was great the ward mission leader baptized him. so it was a week of miracles. it was awesome to see. miracles come from the spirit and the spirit only is with us if we are humble. and realize that it is not in our power that the miracles happen. it was awesome. so everything is going really well it was a really fast week. thanks for all the letters and support. love Elder Brimhall

April 23,2012

this week once again was awesome. church was great all the people that had baptismal dates went to chruch and this week we have a baptism. it is amazing to see the miracles that happen. but to have miracles you have to do all that is in your power. i was reading in Alma 60 21 where Moroni is writing to Pahoran, and he basically says you cant just sit on your throne and think that God is going to save you. to have the help of the Lord we first have to do all we can, do everything that is in our power. to really have faith we have to know that the course of our life is in line with the commandments of God. to have faith you have to be diligently working and being obedient. arauco still has some problems with members talking bad about other members and them getting offended and then talking bad about them, and it is a constant cycle. i really liked Pres Utchdorfs talk this last conference about not gossiping or talking bad about others. it really does no one any good and just causes problems. but the branch is doing a lot better. this week was funny we were knocking doors and this evanglical guy answered the door and was telling us that our church was false and that we didnt have the Holy Ghost, so then i tried to explain to him Acts 8, but then he was like if you really have the spirit tell me of something in my life that no one else knows. then i said you do it first to give me an example, and then he said i would but i dont have time right now. it was funny pretty much everything confuses us with the Jehova Witnesses so they think that we dont believe in the Holy Ghost. this week we had a capacitation which was cool after President Martinez was talking to us and said if we could take off the veil and see before this life and see who we were and we we are to be where we are today as missionaries, we would not be able to support it. he challenged us to find out who we really are and to always remember it. a lof of the mistakes that we make in this life comes from not understanding or forgetting who we are. it was really interesting i really liked the conference. so all is well things are going great, thanks so much for the letters. love you lots Elder Brimhall

April 16, 2012

this week was great. arauco is such a great sector with such great
people. the members here are a little lazy but they are starting to
get excited and work harder and this week in church it showed the
asistance jumped and it was awesome to see. my companion is great he
is such a humble good missionary, that has so much desire to learn. it
is starting to get a little colder here but not to bad yet. the
climate is a lot different than Los Angeles where it was blazing hot
it is really nice here. this week i have really thought about the
importance of waiting and being patient. there is a mormon message
that is amazing by President Utchodorf (i have no idea how to spell
his name). that talks about patience, and another one by Elder Holland
about how good things will come. really it is so true. sometimes in
life and i know in the mission we ask why we are not receiving all the
blessings that we think we are entitled to or why things are working
out how they should, but really the key is patience, diligence, and
faith as it talks about in Alma 32. there is a phrase that is in the
Book of Mormon that i love that is repeated over and over again if you
keep my commandments you will be prospered in the land. i know that
promise is true. the blessings may not come in our time, but they
always come if we do our part. i know that God really does love us,
and truly has a plan for us. looking back over my mission every single
companion has been exactly what i needed in that time. every sector
has been exactly what i needed. every struggle, every challenge, every
hardship has been experiences that i needed to have to grow and
progress and become what the Lord wants me to be. dont ever give up,
keep going and it will be alright in the end, just keep going forward
and never back down. i still lack so much but i have grown a lot in
the mission and i am eternally thankful for the experiences that i
have had and will continue to have for the next 3 and a half months. i
love the mission i love the Lord, and i love my family thanks for your
great examples.

Elder Brimhall

April 9, 2012

this week was great. the branch has a lot of challenges still but we
are working on that. i keep having to hound the branch president to
hurry up and get home and visiting teachers because they havent had
them for a while. but he promised me that this week they will so well
see. but the members are really nice. they gave us such good lunches
this week it was so nice. i thought the lunches would go down a lot
since i was in Los Angeles and the members there were all pretty well
off and always gave us great food, but it has been awesome here
aswell. the people here are really humble but really loving and give
you all they have. this week we found a lot of really good people and
everything in our sector is going great. this week was a funny here
like in all poorer towns there are tons of Evangelical people. so
there was this pastor guy talking in the microphone in the middle of
the road and they talk so loud. so he was talking about Jesus Christ
and how we just have to have faith to be saved and stuff like that. so
we passed by him and he looks at us and started saying in the
microphone you dont have to walk the streets of Arauco looking for a
religion to be saved. it made me laugh i thought it was so funny. then
the next day we went to this house where they told us to pass by the
next day. so we went and there on the wall they had written No
MORMONS!!!! once again it made me laugh. we had an FHE with a really
awesome family and a part member family and we watched the story of
John Tanner it was so amazing to see all the sacrifices that he made
for the church and it made me think of how little we do sometimes as
members compared with what the early saints had to go through. it is
such a testimony builder to hear stories of the early pioneers just to
think all they were willing to go through. So all here is doing great.
looking at it i could not have gotten a better cambio than to be here
in Arauco with the companion that i have. the Lord always knows what
He is doing never doubt HIm and His purposes. Trust in God and
everything will work out. there was this cool quote i heard that goes
like this if you accept and live the gospel there is nothing in your
life that will be permanently bad and if you dont there is nothing
that will be permanently good. it is so true. thanks for everything
love you all

Elder Brimhall

April 2, 2012

wow this was a really busy and interesting week. i thought i said it in my email but i was transfered to Arauco, which is right in between Lebu and Lota on the beach again. I am really happy because now i should be able to go back to both of those sectors and visit some of my converts, it will be awesome. i am definetly getting repaid for never having seen the ocean before in my life, now have 3 sectors right by it. my companion is named Elder Ancco he is a new missionary. it is so much easier to train a latin than a gringo like the first time. He is from Lima, Peru and is a really humble hard working missionary that has a ton of desire to be a good missionary. we get along really well. He already knows the language so it makes it 10 times easier to train him. we are both new to Arauco so the first few days were pretty crazy. Tuesday we had a meeting for all the trainers and then we met up with the newbies and they told us who were going to be our companions. so after that we took a bus to arauco and i called a member to see if he could meet us in the chapel so he could show us where we live. we live with the ward mission leader, he doesnt have a wife or kids he is an older guy really nice. so he took us to our house its nice really small, but nice. the first few days were pretty crazy because we had no idea where anything was, and the map was really bad it didnt have any of the streets names only the centro, so i tried to look it up on google maps, but it didnt have the names either. so we had to get lost a couple of times but now we have an idea of where everything is. it is a really humble sector as well with a lot of poorer people and lots of Evangelicals. this week went by really well we found a lot of really good people in our first week. conference was a little interesting. usually in all my other wards or branches in the mission they always have the conference in the church, but here they didnt. we missed the saturday morning session, and were able to watch the saturday afternoon with a member, and in the night our branch president told us they were going to watch the priesthood session in the chapel so we went and the internet didnt work so we werent able to watch it. we watched the sunday morning session ok, but then returned for the afternnon session and the door of the chapel was locked and there was no one there. so it looks like i am going to be reading the ensign a lot again. but from what i saw the conference really was awesome. so everything is good i am excited to be here in Arauco it is a lot like my other sectors before. i am excited to be with my companion he is a great missionary as well. so everything is looking up,




love


Elder Brimhall