Week of December 12, 2016

Hey sorry i have sucked at getting a weekly email out the last couple of weeks. Things have been going really good though. Except for the cold... It has been really cold. On Saturday it was so cold that that we had to stay in doors cause it was below the -30 mark (mission rules are -30 and below we stay indoors) it was pretty cool to throw a boiling pot of water and see it freeze before it hit the ground though. Should taken a video ha I'm sure ill do it again and ill be sure to take a video and send it to y'all. 

Last week my companion and I were able to go to the temple with a Less Active family who has been coming back to church. It was an awesome experience and the spirit was there so strong. They are from Hanksville Utah. They have been addicted to drugs and alcohol they were able to overcome everything and go through the temple and be sealed to there kids it was so awesome. It's amazing to see how truly happy they are knowing that they will be able to be with there children forever.  

We went and got a little Christmas tree at the salvation army we got some blue lights too. We didn't have a star so i put my colts hat on it ha still reppin my team!!

We had some exchanges this week that were pretty fun! Elder Limb and I got some matching hats cause they were only $7 and there pretty dope. 

I hope that everyone has a great Christmas!! Love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Brinkerhoff

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Week of November 21,2016

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope that y'all had a great week! Our week out here has been pretty good, its always weird being away from home for holidays though. We had turducken it was awesome. Turducken is a de-boned chicken stuffed into a de-boned duck, stuffed into a de-boned turkey. Trying new things is always fun especially when it turns out to be bomb! 

This week we have had a big focus on the new church initiative. Some of you have probably heard about it ha its called #LighttheWorld its what we have been going around sharing with everyone. Its all about doing service like Christ did and how we can all live more Christ like lives if you haven't already I challenge all of you to go to Mormon.Org and check it out. Its pretty awesome. Yesterday we had an open house at the church for people to come over and check out the video it was pretty successful, we had about 200 people come, way more than I thought would come! Luckily the Sisters we more prepared so we had enough doughnuts, lol that's probably why everyone came.

I hope you all have a great week love you all!

Elder Brinkerhoff

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turducken

Week of October 31, 2016

This was a week that makes you love being a missionary! So this week was just amazing. On 

Monday we had a sweet day ballin up and havin a nerf war at the church it was awesome!!

Tuesday, We went out and did some tracting not a whole lot of success but tracting is fun none the less ha when I first came out I hated tracting now I think its so funny when people yell at us and cuss us out haha. When we were tracting this little dog started following us everywhere so and it was running through cars and stuff so we grabbed it and took it to the shelter ha it was straight up the cutest little dog. Thursday, One of the AP's came and joined us for a few days, our mission is so big that we have traveling AP's and regular AP's so one of the travelers came and joined us it was awesome we had a way good time!   We were doing some more tracting and we tracted into this guy Dan. When we knocked on his door he was speechless after a few seconds of awkward silence he told us that about 15 minutes ago he had been praying to know what to do with his life, he was told by the spirit that 2 witnesses were going to come to him and sure enough about 15 minutes we arrived at his door. He was an awesome guy and we are excited to go back and see him. We put him on date to be baptized on December 2nd! He is so excited to be baptized he still has a lot to learn but I think things are going to turn out great! It is so amazing being on a mission and being able to help people come unto Christ! There is no better feeling than helping people come unto the restored Gospel! 

I hope yall have a great week this week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of October 24, 2016

Happy Halloween Everyone! This week has been pretty good out here in Williston! The beginning of the week was kinda tough my comp was sick so we had to spend a few days in ha we ran out of things to do inside real quick but luckily we were able to have a good weekend. My companion and I have really been trying to get some new investigators since we haven't really had anyone to teach. Sunday night we went out tracting for a  few hours and had some really good success! We were able to find some pretty solid investigators! We have been working really hard and it is kinda frustrating not seeing much success but I know that hard work is the answer for everything so we'll just keep grindin!  Hopefully things will start to turn out positive. Other than that not a whole lot happened this week! 
Well that's all for this week! Hopefully Ill have more for ya next week!! Love ya!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of October 17, 2016

Hey everybody I hope that you all had a great week! Things out here have been going pretty good! We had a pretty exciting week this week! We have been trying to find new people to teach since we don't really have many investigators right now. We are trying to work with the ward and find some people to teach through them. This week​​ we had some exchanges so that was way fun while on exchanges me and Elder Warren made this rap so that was pretty fun! I'll send along some pictures.

Sorry I didn't get to finish my Email the Sister's are kicking us off the computers. Have a great week everyone Love you all!! 

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of October 3, 2016

Things out here in Williston have been going great so far! It has been super cold things week but not even half as bad is it will be in about a month or so! Ha not looking forward to winter at all!! I have only been here for a few days but it has been full of excitement so far!! It is so nice being in a bigger city for once! The first thing there is when you pull into town is a Buffalo Wild Wings. I turned to my companion and I was like "Elder that's where were going for dinner tonight. I haven't been there for 8 months so thats where were going!" ha luckily my companion was cool with it or we might have had some problems right out the gate haha just playin!

 On Friday we had district meeting it was awesome my district is awesome one of them is from beaver Utah and knows my buddy Tristin so that was pretty dope.

Saturday was an awesome day! We went out tracting Saturday morning and got ourselves a new investigator that was awesome she said we could come back the next day and so we did and we had a great lesson on the restoration we gave her a book of Mormon and she said she would read it and that she would come to church this week. Her name is Kristina and she is from Jamaica. On Saturday we also went out and did some service on a members farm they had some pigs. Ha me being me asked if i could wrestle one of them and he said yeah for sure so when we were done working we went down not the pen and I did some "Hog Wrestlin" as they call it out here. Ha it was awesome and yes I was able to pin it!! 

It was also sad saying bye to some of my good friend's in Winner last week but am exctied to be here to work in Williston! 

To any of you I gave my Address to last week I sent along the wrong one. The correct Mailing Address is 705 East Highland Drive Apt 106 Williston North Dakota 58801

Hope you all have a great week love you All!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff 

Week of September 26, 2016

Well transfer calls came this week and I will be getting transferred to Williston North Dakota. It's up in the North West corner of North Dakota, so into the Tundra I go. Last winter was super mild even though it was still freezing ha everyone says this is going to be a super cold winter so ill guess we'll see how that goes. 

I have loved being here in Winner, I have been able to meet so many awesome people and have have been able to learn so much! It will be super hard to leave but I know that the Lord has need of me in Williston I am excited for the opportunity's that I will have ahead of me. It will also be super awesome to have a Walmart in my area! I'm pretty pumped about that and to be in a bigger town. I have been in small little towns my whole mission so it will be interesting being some place with more people

This last week here in Winner was a good one. Watching conference was awesome I was able to learn so much! Its crazy how much being on a mission has changed how much I like watching conference! 

I hope y'all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff 

Week of September 19, 2016

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a great week! This week was awesome! We have transfer calls coming up this week I'm pretty excited to hear what is going ot happen I have been here in winner for almost 7 1/2 months! Its been a long time and I have loved every minute of it, I'm pretty sure that I will be getting a call usually were only in areas about 3 months I will be pretty sad to leave I have been able to meet so many awesome people in this area!

This week we had a mission goal to hand out as many copies of the Book of Mormon as possible. Elder Mangum and I made a goal to hand out 30 copies which was the highest goal in the Zone and probably the highest or close to the highest in the mission. We spent a lot of time tracting and handing out books. We received lots of rejection but I can also gladly say that we reached our goal of 30! Ha we actually ran out of books and had to go steal some from other missionaries. It was an awesome week! There's no better feeling than looking back on your week and looking at how hard you have worked to accomplish your goals!

I hope that you all have a great week love you all!!

Love, Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of September 5, 2016

Hey Y'all, I hope that everyone had a great week! This week was crazy busy here in Winner. We had a ZTM (zone training meeting) this week and it was awesome! The mission came up with this awesome idea to do this thing called OYM (open your mouth) its where everyone in the mission goes out for 1 hour between 4-9 and either go tracting or street contacting. We have been working a lot with members and haven't been doing much personal finding so this is going to help us start finding more people to teach. We also did some work with concrete this week man lemme tell ya that is a tough job, it was kinda fun tho. The best part though is not wearing dress clothes! After wearing a tie everyday all day its feel's so nice not having to wear one for a little bit! 

This week while we were doing OYM we were tracting and we were able to get a new investigator and we were able to have a few other good lessons! I really love when things workout. Tracting in this town has been hard and not all that successful. So when we heard that we were going to have to start doing OYM we were not all that excited but after doing it for a few day's I realized that it is awesome it was definitely inspired and is something we really need to do! I feel like it is going to help the work progress so much! 

I hope that yall have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of August 29, 2016

Hey everyone I hope that ya'll had a great week! We had a good week out here in Winner. We had a pretty exciting week we have been working with a few people who are progressing pretty good.  We also did lots of service this week I love doing service and just helping people out.

The most exciting news this week is that I hit my 1 year mark! Its crazy that I have already been gone a year!  I don't feel like I have been gone that long. Time fly's when your on a mission. Over the last year there have been tons of changes. Lots of hardships but also lots of good times.  I have learned so much over the last year. One of the things I have leared about the most is that everything that we go through in life is there to help us and to make us stronger people. We would not be the people we are today if we didn't go through the hardships of life. I have also learned that we as turn our will over to the will of God miracles can happen. If you work hard anything can happen. There's only 24 hours in a day how successful we are is based upon how we use the 24, we only have so much time in what ever we do so its important to make the most out of everything we do and not waste any time.

I hope that everyone has a great week this week love all of you!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of August 15, 2016

Well I don't have too much to write about this week but we got transfer calls this week and I will be staying in winner for another 6 weeks with Elder Mangum. I was suprised we didnt get a call I have been in Winner for about 6 months, I am excited to have to opportunity to serve another transfer in this area! 

Some pictures are of my District and Zone pics! 

Hope you all have a great week love you all!

​​​​​​​​​​

Love,

Elder Brink

Week of August 8, 2016

Hey ya'll I hope that everyone had a great week! We had a really busy week out here in Winner. On a mission busy weeks are the best! Being too busy is way better than being slow. On Monday we had a sweet P-Day we went bowling, had a really good lesson, and got a new investigator, I knew it was going to be a good week after this. Tuesday we got to drive to Rapid City for zone conference which was awesome we were pumped to be able to eat out at Chilies, its funny the things that get you excited on a mission. Wednesday we had our zone conference and got to go up to Mount Rushmore, the best part was just being able to hang out with other missionaries. Were pretty far away from any anyone else so its always a good time to be able to see other missionaries. Friday to Saturday we had exchanges and were able to get a new investigator. Sunday we were able to get another new investigator. We have had a really hard time finding people to teach and haven't really been able to get a solid new investigator so it was awesome to finally find some new people. We have been trying so hard the last few weeks to find someone who will listen to us, it can be very discouraging trying all the time to find someone and just having no success, so this week was just amazing. 

As we have been struggling to find new people to teach, and why the people we do teach have such a hard time overcoming their trial's I have spent a lot of time thinking about why we have to go through trials or hard times. This week while I was studying I came across the scripture Ether 12:6 "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." It hit me so hard that we have to go through trials to increase our faith. Or really to increase in anything. We have to go through hard things so that we can learn to put our trust in the lord. In the book of Mormon in Helaman the people are very righteous and have complete peace in all of the land. Helman 6:12 "They did raise grain in abundance, both in the north and in the south; and they did flourish exceedingly, both in the north and in the south. And they did multiply and wax exceedingly strong in the land. And they did raise many flocks and herds, yeah, many fatlings. 13 Behold their women did toil and spin, and did make all manner of cloth, of fine twined linen and cloth of every kind, to clothe their nakedness. And thus the sixty and fourth year did pass away in peace." Everyone was happy and doing good. God gave the power to Nephi to be able to do anything. After just a few years of having peace in all the land they started to become greedy and prideful and started to become wicked again. Helman 6:16 And in the commencement of the sixty and seventh-year the people began to grow exceedingly wicked again." Nephi was given the power to do all things because the God knew that Nephi would do nothing to go against his will. Helman 10:5 "And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearying ness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will." All of the people were being so wicked and Nephi wanted them to turn again to the Lord he knew that they would have to go through a major trial before they would put there faith in God again. So he commanded a famine to be upon the land, so it happened. The people began to turn again the God and they returned to peace. Helman 11:7 "And it came to pass that the people saw that they were about to perish by famine, and they began to remember the Lord their God; and they began to remember the words or Nephi.  Moral of the story is that in order to grow and to progress we have to go through hard things, we have to put our faith in God and endure to the end. Going through trial's can be the biggest blessing in our live's if we go about them the right way.

I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of July 25, 2016

Hey Yall!! I hope that y'all have had a great week! The last couple of weeks out here have been going really good. Last week was pretty crazy week for us. Last Friday and Saturday we were able to do some volunteer work at the rodeo. We worked in the concession stand I think it was a pretty good thing to get our faces out there because as we were out knocking doors and stuff a few people recognized us and said that it was nice of us to help out. Its been really awesome being in this area for a long time. When I first got to Winner it was really rough everyone was very rejecting towards us. As I have had the opportunity to do service here and help people out people have changed, As I have had the opportunity to do service here and help people out people have changed. People are much more receptive to us although they may not care what we have to say they will listen to us which is great improvement from where it was when I first got here. I also donated blood this week for the fist time that was kinda weird but It hurt way less than I thought it would.

So last Sunday as we were driving to church we got a call from a number we didn't have saved to our phone we answered and the person told us they were not a member but asked if they could come to church of course we said yes. She came to church and after the meeting we were talking to her and she told us that she was being abused locked up by her husband on Sunday he left the keys at there house and she got in her car with her 9 month old baby and she left everything behind. She asked us if we could help get her some clothes and some things and a place to stay for the next few days till she could drive back to Utah. The branch president was more than willing to help her out so we went over to Shopko and got her and her baby some clothes and some of the necessity's. When we were walking out of the store the guy that she was running from was sitting out in the parking lot by her car. So she started freaking out but she got in her car and we had her follow us and we took some back roads to the hotel cause he was trying to follow us. Because of my expertise of driving we were able to lose him and we  were able to get her to her hotel. A few hours later we were driving by the hotel after we had got out of a lesson and they guy had found her car and was going through it. So we called the branch president and he called the cops and they guy had some warrants and was a meth addict so they locked him up for the rest of the week until she was out of town. Shes now back in Utah trying to find a job. It was a crazy Sunday for us. Recently we had a conference talk about rescuing the refugee's some people think that you need to go to third world country's to do this but there are people all over the world that need help. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/i-was-a-stranger?lang=eng I challenge you to go out and help someone in need this week! 

This week while my companion was getting his hair cut I was flipping through a Sports Illustrated and I saw a quote that I really liked and want to share it. "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given that to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." 

-Muhammad Ali 

It's no secret that things in life are going to be hard. But we need to remember that nothing is impossible. Through Jesus Christ all thing's are possible. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." These are 2 of my favorite scriptures, I know that all things are possible. 

I hope y'all have a great week!!  Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of July 11, 2016

Hey y'all sorry I haven't wrote a letter the last couple weeks. We have been super busy out here. Lots has happened over the last couple weeks. We had transfers last week! Luckily I will be staying here in Winner! Elder Musacchia was transferred to Mile City, Montana. Elder Mangum is my new companion we have had a good first few days together so I'm excited for the rest of this transfer!  

This week we were able to go to the wedding of Horatio and Jen. They are Jared's (the kid who just got baptized) parents. The wedding was at the church and it went really well.  They want to be able to go to the temple and be sealed within the next year we are excited to be able to help them get there. We are working with Horatio right now trying to help him get the priesthood. 

I am now the district leader of the Winner district. We had our first district meeting where I had to give the training. I wasn't really sure what to give the training on. So I was sitting at my desk flipping through my scriptures and through my Preach my Gospel. I couldn't really find anything so I was kinda stressin. I was looking around my desk and I saw an old ensign and started flipping through that to try and find something. I found something titled "Asking the Right Questions in the Right Way" The meeting went pretty good, but the best part is later that night I got a text from the Sister's in my district and they said what I had taught helped them a ton in a lesson that they had had that day. Receiving inspiration is amazing! And the best part is that is something we can all receive by following the commandments, prayer, and studying your scriptures. God wants to help us but to many people just ask and aren't willing to do there part. "2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a work man that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." If we do our part and do all that we can God will help us. Often people say the God wont give us trials that we cant handle, I disagree with that. God often gives us trials we cant handle but as we turn to Jesus Christ he will help us but only after we do all we can.    

We also went to a couple of baseball games with Molly and watched her kids play. They lost in the championship game which is why they are not to happy in some of the pictures. We also were invited to a baseball bbq.​​

Hope you all have a great week love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of June 20, 2016

​​​​​​Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't send an email last week we were out playing baseball and stuff!  The last couple of weeks have been so amazing! last week we spent lots of time teaching Jared and Dwayne getting them ready for the baptisms. We also have still been doing quite a bit of service, we have been teaching lots more than when we first got to Winner though so its been great!

On Saturday we were able to have the baptisms of Dwayne and Jared it went so amazing! We had a great turn out and were able to have all of there families there. Everyone was so happy and excited for them! The spirit was there so strong at the baptism it was so awesome! After the baptism we gave the parents of the two boys to give a little talk they were both pretty nervous but they both did such a did job! It has been so good working with these 2 families and helping them come back to church. Gerard who is Dwaynes dad was mad the young men's president this last week. There is no better feeling in the world than bringing people unto Christ and helping them to increase there faith.

This week we were also able to go to one of Molly's kids baseball games they were able to win the championship game it was a really good time! We also went on exchanges this week I was able to go up to Pierre I was able to learn so much. Going on exchange's is always awesome because it seems like crazy things always happen and we are able to learn so much from the other missionaries.

I hope that everyone is doing great! I hope that you all have a great week!!

Love Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of June 6, 2016

Hey everyone I hope that yall are doing great! Things out here in Winner are going awesome. It was super hot this week! I think everyday it has been over 100 degress this week so it has been super hot this week! We did a whole bunch of service this week. We went out to the Bartlets and helped them out on there ranch we had a huge fire and burned a bunch of stuff we also found some wild Marijuana so that was kinda funny, apparently there's a lot of it that grows out here in all the fields and stuff. This week I also umped a baseball game for one of our investigators it was awesome!

So we have been working really hard the last few months and haven't really been seeing any success. But this week we saw so many blessings it was amazing. We were able to put 3 people on date for baptism this week. 2 Kids named Jared and Dwayne and the third one is Kristina. We are super excited! All of our had work has finally paid off. We are really hoping and praying that everything will go as planned. Its super awesome to help people to increase there faith and it is really cool to see them change as they start to become converted to the gospel. I love being a missionary and to help people to come unto Christ. There is no better feeling in the world than brining people into the gospel.

I hope that everyone has a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of May 29, 2016

Hey yall! I  hope everyone had a great week! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! This week was a good one! Out here the weather was super nice all this week! Its really weird not being able to wear shorts all the time as most of you know I'm not a big fan of the whole pants thing.  This week had my birthday and I hit my 9 month mark its crazy how fast time fly's when your on a mission at the beginning it feels like 2 years is forever but time is flying on. 

This week was a great one! We have still been doing lots of service with the weather getting good we have been doing lots of yard work for people and working out on the farms and stuff which has been good. It has also allowed us to meet lots of new people service is our main way of finding. It has been working pretty good and has opened up lots of doors for us in the community. 

We have been teaching a less active family and there 9 year old son is wanting to be baptized so we have been teaching them and they have been coming back to church and we are teaching the rest of the lessons to this kid. and he will most likely be baptized by the end of the month which is super exciting!

I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!

Love Elder Brinkerhoff!

May 12, 2016

Week of May 16, 2016

Hey y'all! I hope that you made this week a great week! Weeks and days really are what you make them. That's really something that I have learned since being on a mission so if you don't like where your at right now change it.

We had a super awesome week out here in South Dakota! This week we were super busy on Tuesday night we went out to Rapid City which is about 3 hours away. We spent the night with some of the Rapid City Elders and the next morning we had our Zone Conference it was really cool because we had the Elder Martino who is part of the Seventy come and he talked to us. He talked mostly about how we need to unite the Members of the church in missionary work and how we need to use the members of the church to find people for us to teach. So that was super awesome!

We had two awesome things happen this week. (1) On Tuesday before we headed out to Rapid City we had a few minutes so we decided to make the best of our time and we went tracking. Which is something we don't have much success with in this area, we tracked 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, and 6th street with 0% success. Then we got to 5th street and apparently that's where all the magic happens in this area. Anyways when we were tracking on Tuesday and we knocked on this girls door name Star, she let us in and we taught her the restoration and it went great!  And she told us we could come back this week! We are super excited to go back and teach her some more this week. (2) On Sunday we took one of the Youth in the ward out with us he is 16 and is planning on going on a mission in a couple years. Anyways we took him to see some less active members and it went really good. After we saw the two less active members we decided to take him tracking so we started where we had finished off on 5th street and we were able to teach 5 more people and hand out 5 Books of Mormon it was super awesome!! Also last week some people from the Methodist Church called us and they want us to go teach them about our church so we are super excited for that. 

We had a crazy awesome lightning storm last night it was super cool!! I guess they had some pretty bad tornado in Valentine Which is like 30 or so minutes from here. I was hoping that we could see it but it never came this way.

I hope y'all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of May 9, 2016

Hey I hope that everyone had a great week the last couple of weeks! Things out here in Winner have been going great! We have been doing tons of service... This week we are going to help the baptist church pour cement on by there church... We want to put a Book of Mormon in the cement so when were done we can tell them that the foundation of there church is built on the Book of Mormon.  Being on a mission really gives you a weird sense of humor lol. 

So this week we had a super awesome lesson about the restoration of the church. Its crazy how much things have changed over the last 9 months. I remember the first time that I was able to teach the restoration ha that lesson was all over the place. I've gotten much better at being able to teach people. Anyways we had the lesson in a Members home and he was a huge help in the lesson! It went really good the investigator (Shandra) was really interested and was asking tons of questions. Lessons where the people are asking questions and participating are the best ones! The Spirit was super strong during the lesson!

This week we have Zone Conference. It is going to be in Rapid City which is awesome because we are going to be able to make a quick trip out to Mount Rushmore. 

I hope that yall have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Brinkerhoff! 

Week of April 11, 2016

Hey Yall!! I hope that everyone had a great week!! Sorry I missed yall last week! We didn't spend very much time emailing because we were fishing again! We caught 33 fish so it was super awesome!! Today we are going to go play golf so I'm super excited for that! 

This week we had a really great week!! We are starting to get some pretty good movement in the area! We got a couple of new investigators this last week! Things are really starting to move along in the area and I am loving it! 

Last night we went to Molly's and helped her with some things and then we played some games with her little boys! They are all the same ages as my three brothers so I love going over there! Anyways last night we were able to the her and her family about the restoration.  It went really good they were very interested in what we had to say. They are a super awesome family and we are hoping that we will be able to continue teaching them! 

We have still been doing lots of service at the long term care center which has been really good. We have been getting some other investigators form doing that so that has been great!!

I hope everyone has a great week!! Love you all!!

Love,

 Elder Brinkerhoff!

Week of April 4, 2016

Hey Ya'll!! How was everyone's week?? I hope that you were all able to go give some service to someone this week! This week we did lots of service again. We worked at the Long Term Care Center a lot this week again. We also spent some time on the Bartlett's Ranch. (they are members of our ward) They are super cool! They have a whole bunch of horses. We got to shovel poop for about six hours so it was a great time lol! I got super sunburned but hey at least now I don't look like an albino... This week we also went to the Nashville Tribute Concert it was super awesome it was a great time to be around a bunch of other missionary's and to just have a good time. It was really weird not wearing our tags or dress clothes. It was nice to actually feel comfortable for a couple hours haha. 

This week we had transfer calls and I will be staying in Winner for at least another 6 weeks! Elder Hobson is getting transferred to Newtown so I will be here with Elder Musacchia

This week we had the opportunity to speak in church. My talk was about fasting. I based it off of the Mormon Message "The Hope of Gods Light" In the video a guy who was going to end his life decided to fast to know if God was there. After the fast he hadn't received an answer that God was there but he no longer wanted to end his life. Slowly the gospel started coming into his life. At the end of the video he says that he is happy and know that God is there for him. Anyways the talk went pretty good. 

I hope ya'll have a great week!! Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of March 27, 2016

Hey Yall! I hope that everyone had a good week and did something exciting this week! This week has been good. On Friday we had ZTM (zone training meeting). Which means we got to go to Pierre! Which also means we were able to hit up a Walmart so we were able to get some shopping in. Its hard to shop here cause everything is like triple the price so its a huge pain. 

I really enjoyed the ZTM that we had this last week. Some one said "God must be up to something good or Satan wouldnt be working this Hard" I really like that. I challange you all to ponder over that this week! 

Also this week while we were volunteering at the Long Term Care Center I was taking this guy back to his room and when we got to his room he had a few pictures of Tiger Woods on his wall in a couple of pictures he was playing with Tiger.  I asked him about the pictures, he couldn't talk very well due to having a stroke but I was able to get that him and Tiger were buddy's when Tiger  was in college at Stanford and they played together a few times. I told him that I played golf in High School and he got the biggest smile on his face. I told him that the Masters tournament was on Friday he told me that he had been to the masters to watch a few times. He showed me some pictures of when he was there. It made him so happy to be able to talk to someone about golf for a couple mins and he said I could come back and talk golf anytime I wanted too.  Later that night one of the nurses told me that I made his whole week by just talking to him for a few minutes.  It feels so good to be able to help people out even if its just something small like this. I challenge all of you to go out and give service to someone, you may even make there week!

Today for P-Day we went fishing at the Curt & Molly Calhoon ranch. One of the other voulnteers from the long term care place invited us to go out to there ranch and go fishing in a pond that they have. We caught 19 fish all together I caught 11 including a 7 lb 26 inch monster! I'll send pics for proof lol. We are trying to build a good relationship with Molly and her family so that we will be able to teach her and her family! So far we are off to a pretty good start!

Also this week we are going to go to Minot to see a concert! Its Nashville Tribute so it should be pretty fun! Minus the 8 hour drive to Minot from here. Presidnet Hess is taking all the missionaries in the mission were not supposed to wear our tags or are mission clothes so its going to be a little different but its going to be awesome!! The reason for this is cause we dont want to scare anyone by having 142 missionaries there haha. 

I hope you all have an exciting week! Love you all!! 

Love, 

Elder Brinkerhoff