November 14, 2011

this week went well. on thursday we had our conference, which was good. it started at 8 10 in the morning so we had to wake up at 5 in the morning to get ready. it is kind of sad but we didnt get to hear the apostole which ended up being Elder Cook, but it was still really good, and they didnt come down to start the temple so i really dont know when they are going to start it, hopefully before i go home, so i can be here. we got to hear Elder Zeballos from the 1 st quorum of 70, he was actually the mission president of this mission right before President Swenson, and President McMullan from the presiding bishopric. Elder Cook went to the other mission the mission Chile Concepcion, but everything happens for a reason, and i still really liked the talks of the people we heard. it was worth it to wake up at 5. i really liked the talk of President McMullan he talked about you can have 2 sorts of testimonies, one that you know from reading and studying the scriptures, and the other that you feel in your bones and that burns within you. he talked about his son who wasnt sure if the church was true and so for that wasnt sure if you was going to serve a mission. so he asked him if he know that the church wasnt true, and his son said no. so he responded of course not because it is, and the way your going to get your testimony is going on a mission and testifying of it, you arent going to get your testimony walking around the campus of byu. and so the son left and developed his testimony. i really liked the conference. this week i have learned the importance of having a good attitude. no matter what is happening around us, it is so important to have a good attitude. a lot of times we cant control a lot of things that happen but you can always control your attitude. today for p day we went with our zone to el salto del laja which is a big waterfall, that was really fun. it is really pretty and has this mist which was really nice today because it was really hot. in one more week there are cambios, and have been with my companion for 2 cambios. he is good, it was a little tough with him at times but that is always the catch because with companions like that you learn and grow so much more. he really has helped me learn a lot and grow a lot so i am really grateful for my time with him. so we will see what happens with cambios.

love you all

Elder Brimhall

November 7, 2011

this week was really fast. like i said last week we went and had a whole mission activity which was really fun. tuesday we had our district zone conference which we have every week. wednesday a companionship came to sleep in our house because thursday we had another conference in concepcion. thursday we went to concepcion for the conference. friday i had to do an intercambio in los angeles. saturday i returned from the intercambio, and today monday i had to go to concepcion again to do some paperwork for my visa. so it was a really crazy week lots of travel. last thursday we had a conference just for the leaders of the mission it was really good. Elder Richards who is from the 2 nd quorom of 70 spoke to us. i learned a lot. he shared with us DC 138 where it talks about many spirits that were chosen before this life to come here in this time. in verse 56 it says that many other spirits were chosen along with people such as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. he turned to us and told us that we are the many others that this verse refers to. it was really powerful. he talked about the importance of the spirit and obedience. it was really really good. this thursday we have another conference with one of the twelve apostoles who is going to talk to our whole mission i have heard rumors about almost every apostle so really i have no idea who is coming but it will be really cool, i am really excited. it is always awesome to get to hear a general authority speak they really do have a special spirit with them, and they always know so much, especial the scriptures. today on the bus to concepcion i read in the last conference the talk by Elder Oaks about desires. i really liked it. he says that to become a celestial being we have to develop the attributes of celestial beings. that is what i have realized on my mission, it really matters the person we are, our nature. its not just about doing the right thing, its about changing, and doing the right thing for the right reason because we love God and want to please Hiim. everything here in the sector is really good, there are cambios in 2 weeks and i think sadly i am going to leave but we are going to just keep working hard and make sure we finish strong. thanks for everything, love you lots

with love

Elder Brimhall

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