January 9, 2012

So all is well. Today we played soccer and went shopping for a nice rain jacket. in the week it was really good, we did a lot of contacts we are trying really hard to find families so every family we see in the street we contact. it has gone well. there was a good quote i heard on Sunday in the elders quorum. we were learning about the teachings of George Albert Smith. there was this one story where there were a bunch of people working outside his house and they were using really bad language, so one of the neighbors got after them and starting getting mad and told them that the prophet lived there but they just kept using the foul language. then President Smith made them lemonade and went and brought it out to them and let them rest under his trees. he talked about the best weapon we have to soften the hearts of the hard hearted is kindness. it is so true. sometimes after contacting a little while and hearing so many excuses you start to lose your patience a little bit, but really the best way to soften their heart is through kindness, patience, and love. Here in Chile i dont know how but every one knows about the polygamy thing, apparently discovery channel did this show the Mormon Family or something like that and everyone knows about it now, so that has been kind of hard this last couple weeks. but that is the thing with our testimonies. a lot of times we want to know everything right now, we want to have all the answers right now, but the problem is unless you have a foundation your testimony is going to fall. it just really made me think of the basics. how important they really are. God has given us a clear way to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet through the Book of Mormon, but instead of using it to try and find out if it is true, people prefer to read a lot of negative anti Mormon garbage. so that is a little frusturating sometimes. thats really the biggest challenge we are having right now, but everything is going really well. it is kind of weird today it is raining, which is crazy because during the week it was burning hot, it is a little like the monsoons. so ya all is well, love you lots,




Elder Brimhall

January 2, 2012

this week went really well. new years is bigger here than christmas so it was fun we ate dinner with a couple that is going to married in February and get baptized so that was fun. on friday we had consejo, for all the zone leaders which was a little different this one because we just went to a volcano in the south of the mission and ate a bbq and played sports it was a little weird but fun. this week i have eaten more meat than i ever have in my whole life (well thats probably a lie, but we have eaten a lot). i went pretty much a whole year with eating no steak and then in one week i have eaten it almost everyday. today we went to a waterfall in Mulchen with the whole zone for p day which was a lot of fun. it was really good to talk to you all this week i hope that you all are well and had a good new years and christmas. it has been a little hard to bring people to church these last two weeks, even with the members so in that sense it is good that the holidays are over. it is so weird that it is christmas because it is so hot here. i think Los Angeles is one of the hottest places to be in the summer time. but being from Arizona its not as bad. all is well here. i feel really bloated just from eating so much meat, but this week i think we are going to start running. we have some good people we are teaching and everything is going really well in our sector. my new companion is cool we were in the same district in the mtc so we know each other pretty well, his name is Elder Olsen he is from Payson, Utah. so i think that is about it it was a fun week, we worked hard, so its time to start the new year. love you lots


Elder Brimhall

December 19, 2011

wow just when the mission is going too well you have to prepare yourself. my companion who was awesome the funniest guy i have even met who was an amazing worker and was really obedient and we got along amazing just got called to be an assistant so i am going to get a new companion and i dont know who. this is really weird because the cambio ends in two weeks more, but the president called him today because he needs some more time to learn all the things. so i am a little sad he really was awesome, and we were working great together and the zone was improving a lot, and we were starting to find awesome people. but the Lord knows what you need more then we do, so you have to be humble and accept whatever He throws at you. from every companion you learn something different so i guess i need to learn something new. but i know that everything will work out and the next companion i get will be inspired by the Lord. i am really happy to get to be here, i love the mission and all the things you learn. this week was really great. we had this day on Wednesday where i felt that we were going to find a great family. but in the morning it was crazy everyone was just being really mean, and it got to the point where it was almost funny how mean everyone was being, it was almost a joke. so we went to lunch and then had a meeting with our ward mission leader but he showed up really late for the meeting, and after a member called us to go give her a blessing in the hospital. so it was a really crazy day, but finally in that night the last contact we did we found this woman. we started to contact her and she was a little stand offish. it was later so we asked her if we could come by another day and she kept saying why all the churches are the same. so we just kept testifying of different principles of the gospel, (especially eternal families she lives with her husband, and 4 kids, 15, 9, 8, 2. and it was really interesting because after probably 10 minutes of standing outside her house testifying to her she opened up and invited us in. we taught the restoration to her, her husband, and the 15 year old it was really cool. she changed in the contact, and she liked the message a lot. it was so nice to be able to respond to her doubt which was that all the churches are the same, that is so false. i know with all my heart and mind that this is the only true church on the face of the earth, i know that joseph smith was a prophet of God, and i know most of all that Jesus is the Savior of the world and that this really is his church that He leads and guides through a living prophet. i hope that you all have a great christmas and have lots of fun. i still am not sure at what time i am going to call, sorry but tomorrow we have our christmas conference and there we are going to learn all the details about calling. but love you lots,


love


elder Brimhall

December 12, 2011

this week was really good. we worked really hard, i remember there were two or three days that we came to the house completed wasted we were almost crawling up the stairs. we made a new goal to find a family of 5, so to do that we contact every family we see in the street which is a lot, so we have been doing a lot of contacts. this week we found some really cool people and sunday night, we found a mom with kids of 15, 12, 10 i was so happy so now we just have to go by the house and teach them. so everything is going really good. today we played soccer and basketball it was a lot of fun. so in the week we were contacting and we got in a house. so we start talking to this really old couple, and then out of nowhere this man comes down the stairs. i guess he was a pastor of this church that started in the usa from a prophet names David Brandam or something like that. so we started talking and then another pastor came down, and then 4 minutes later another pastor came down. they were bringing up all this dumb stuff like p how there cant be anymore scripture outside the bible. so i just told them that we believe that God talks to men today, you believe that God talked to men. there are so many other scriptures that are outside the bible the dead sea scrolls which have been found in the last 20 years and so many other things that the bible doesn't have. it is really sad when people just close there ears and hearts and don't want to listen or understand. because the gospel really does make so much sense, the restoration makes so much sense. here in Chile there is a really really popular believe that it doesn't matter which church you belong to if you are a good person you will be with God, which really makes no sense. it doesn't make sense that God would have different paths. it doesn't make sense that two churches do completely opposite things and are both of God, like it says in the Scriptures God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and doesn't change. but it was really interesting to talk to them, because everytime i talk to other churches it just convinces me more that this is the only true church. thanks for everything love you lots


love,


Elder Brimhall

December 5, 2011

everything is still going really well. my companion is a really funny guy and we get a long really well. I dont remember if i told you guys already but his dad is the person that wrote Forever Strong the movie, which is kind of cool. he is from Alpine Utah and his name is Elder Pliler. this week went by really fast. i had to do 2 intercambios this week and both were a lot of fun. it is always great to go to different sectors and get to know other missionaries. this week was a little hard just because we worked really hard and challenged a ton of people to get baptized and pretty much they all told us no, but it was good, i feel content with the work we did and know that good things are coming. i was reading about the sons of mosiah and everyone also talks about Alma 17 2 and 3 but verse 4 is really good. it talks about after they went through a lot of affliction, trials, and after a lot of hard work they had a lot of success. success doesnt come free, there is always a price that has to be paid. a lot of times in life we want the miracle before the faith but that isnt how it works. we have to prove ourselves and our faith before we see the blessings. every sector so far has always been kind of hard at the beginning but by the end it always is really good, the key is good attitude, hard work, and obedience, and enjoying yourself. the key in life is perseverance. there is a cool quote by winston churchill when he came back to his old high school to give a talk. all he did was stand up and say never never never give up and then sat back down. that really is the key never giving up no matter what happens. if you keep working at it eventually you will break through. i am so grateful for challenges and the chance i have to progress and get better. i really do love the mission and all i have learned and am learning and all i will learn. there really is no better time in the life. its not just the best two years of your life but the best two years for you life. thanks for all the support, hope all is well and that all are happy. love you lots.




Elder Brimhall

November 28, 2011

this week was amazing. i feel really spoiled with my cambio. my companion is awesome he is so funny and cracks me up so much and is a really hard worker. the sector is awesome, it is in the city of Los Angeles and there are a lot of richer people but they are pretty nice for the most part. the ward is great and really loves the missionaries. the lunches here are the best i have had in my whole mission, this week for desert we had ice cream everyday. it is a little hot but being from arizona you get used to the heat. the only thing is that the ozone layer here is really thin and so you get sun burnt pretty bad if you dont use sunscreen. but everything is awesome, i couldnt be more happy. we live in a house of 4 which is also cool because in the morning you can go and play basketball which is pretty cool as well. so everything is great. today we played soccer on a full size field it was fun i am still not the greatest but it was a lot of fun. then we went and ate some huge hot dogs. i dont remember if i have already told you about chilean hotdogs or not, but they call them completos and they are really prideful about them. they put avocado and tomato on them and a ton of mayonesa and they think they are the greatest things in the world. they are pretty good, its kind of an interesting idea who would have thought to put tomates on a hot dog but it works out pretty well. its crazy that christmas is coming up, i totally forgot about thanksgiving until it was over, so we ended up not doing anything for christmas but it will be a lot of fun for christmas here. this week went by really fast, the time here changed so now it doesnt get dark until 9 so it messes me up because i always think it is earlier and they changed the schedule of the mission so now we have to get in the house a half an hour earlier. so all is well it was an awesome week, and we are going to try to make this one even better.

love

Elder Brimhall

November 21, 2011

this week was really good, we ended the cambio really good and worked really well. we got cambios this week and i am leaving to San Martin which is a ward in Los Angeles which is a pretty big city. i am really excited. when i first got my cambio President Martinez called me and told me i was going to Pitrufquen which is the very bottom of the mission, and told me i was going to zone leader there. i was a little nervous because i still havent been in the south of the mission yet and apparentlly it is a lot harder there, at least that is what i have heard, and they baptize a lot less. so i was getting myself all excited about goign to the south and working hard, and then the zone leaders called me to tell me i am going to san martin to still be a zone leader but of Los Angeles south. i am really excited i think it will be a great chance to grew and progress more. in all my cambios so far it has been exactly what i have needed to progress and get better. my last companion was a little harder but i really did learn so much from him and am really grateful that i was able to be his companion. the Lord really does know the beginning from the end and knows exactly where He needs you and with who. i am going to be with Elder Plier who is awesome i have always wanted to be his companion, we are good friends, so i am really excited to work with him. i feel really blessed. the mission is the best. you go through hard times and struggles but afterward you really do receive more blessings than you have room for. something that i have been doing this week that has helped me this week is talking more about joseph smith, a lot of times people here in chile think that we worship him and that he is our god, so sometimes we avoid talking of him and talk more of christ, but this week i made a point to bear my testimony in every contact about joseph smith and it really does make so much of a difference. you really do feel the spirit as you bear your testimony no matter how simple your testimony is, but even more so when you bear it of the Restoration of the Gospel. i am really excited and feel really blessed. everything is going awesome. I love the mission so much and couldnt imagine being anywhere else.

love you all

Elder Brimhall