Week of August 21, 2017

Love you all!!

Week of August 14, 2017

Have a great week love you all!!

Week of July 24, 2017

New Address:

2411 36th St S APT #102 Moorhead MN 56560

Have a great week love you all!!

Week of July 10, 2017

Week of June 26, 2017

Week of June 19, 2017

Hey everyone! So this week was pretty good! We had to go down to my old area in Winner this week to clean out my old apartment because that area is getting shut down. It was pretty weird to be down there again but it was cool to be able to say hi to some of the people that I met while I was down there. We also went out to church in Chamberlain this week so that was pretty fun it had been awhile since I had been in a church that was so small there was 11 people that showed up and they said that was the most they had had in a long time so that was pretty awesome! It was funny so when we left to go down there we had to pack all of our stuff for the rest of the weekend and we wore our service clothes down there and so when we got there and we were putting our church clothes back on I realized I forgot my dress shoes so I had to wear my Nike Free Runs all weekend to church and everything lol I looked like a goon but hey my feet were a lot more comfy. Other than that not a whole lot happened this week. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about sacrifice and what it takes to be an effective missionary. We all have things in our life that are holding us back from being able to reach our full potential. This week I have made some goals about things that I want to sacrifice to be able to finish the last 3 months of my mission the best I can. My invitation to all of you is to give up something that is holding you back from reaching your full potential.  I know it might not be easy but I know that you can all do it!!

Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of June 12, 2017

Hey I was going to write up a weekly letter but we ran out of time and are just about to leave the computers.. This week was a good one we had transfers and I am in Pierre SD! My new address is 1702 Abbey Rd Apt 112 Pierre SD 57501 

Hope you all have a great week!! 

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff!

Week of May 29, 2017

Hey so we don't have too much time to email so I just want to share a quick little experience that me and my comp  had this week so we have been teaching this Less Active named Staci. This week we sent her a text to see if we could come by and have a lesson. She said yes so later that night we went over there and had a really good lesson we showed the Mormon Message "Where Love, Justice, and Mercy Meet" its one of my favorite ones. Anyways after the video she was telling us that earlier that day she had been having a really rough time and so she was praying on what she needed to do and was told that she needed to come back to church. She said not a minute later we sent her the text about asking if we could come over. She told us that she would be at church this Sunday so that was pretty awesome. Its really cool how the Lord can work through you if you will let him. Getting out of the way and letting him do his work can be the hard part.

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

Week of April 23, 2017

Hey everyone sorry I haven't wrote a letter for the last few weeks! I hope that everything is going good with all of you! Things out here in Rapid Valley are going great! Today we got transfer calls I will be staying here in the Rapid Valley area my companion Elder Pease is getting transferred and they are taking the sisters out of our ward, which I think is a good thing ha gives us more room to work and doubles the size of the area we cover so that should be good. This week we had a lot of fun doing some exchanges. I was with Elder Whitaker and we met up with some of the other Elders and went out to Texas Roadhouse so that was fun ha funny story we actually took a  mini fridge in our apartment to the Pawn Shop so that we would have some money to go out Elder Swensen also sold his camera ha so it was a goodnight. 

On Saturday we had an awesome day we had 2 girls that we have been teaching get baptized it was so awesome we have been teaching them since i first got here. They were a less active family that we have helped to reactivate it was amazing because we were able to have there Dad be the one to baptize them. It is an awesome experience to be on a mission and to help people come closer to Christ.  We have also been teaching this guy Calvin Cox he is 90 and he is like one of the funniest guys in the world ha I love teaching him Im hoping that we will be able to get him dunked here in the next month or so!! Things area going so good out here and I love being on a mission!! 

Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff 

Week of April 3, 2017

Hey Everyone! This week out here in Box Elder has been a good one!! Elder Pease and I have been getting at it trying to get some stuff in this area rollin it has been pretty slow but we are going to turn it into the promise land! This week was pretty exciting the weather here has been so nice we have been out riding bikes ha this is like the first time on my whole mission where we have rode bikes so that's pretty fun! Also we went on exchanges this week I went to Hot Springs it was super awesome! While on our exchange

we went to a lake to do some comp study so it was pretty cool! Ill send some pics!  We have been teaching a returning member family but they have two unbaptized children so we have been teaching the kids and we have there baptism coming up this weekend so that should be pretty exciting! 

This week our main focus has been to show the new Easter video that the church put out. It is called the prince of peace it is an awesome video! If you haven't seen it yet go to mormon.org and watch it! As we have been going around tracting to show this video ha we had 2 funny things happen the first was there was this old Catholic lady who was like "oh im not interested im catholic but ill watch your video" she then talked our ears off for about an hour so ha so much for not being interested sadly she dosn't wasn't us to come back haha. Second there was another super old guy who was like "You out here sellin religion? DISGUSTING!!" then he slammed the door me and my comp looked at each other and just started dying  ha it was kinda funny its interesting how at the beginning  of your mission rejection is hard to deal with sometimes and now its just super funny! Anyways I invite all of you to watch the video it is super awesome!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff​​​​​​

Week of March 13, 2017

Hey Yall!! This week things here in Williston were awesome! This was my companions last week on his mission so it was awesome we were able to end on a high note. It also turns out that it was my last week in Williston, transfer calls came this morning and I will be going to sunny side Rapid City! It will be a nice change its always sad to leave an area but its also good to have some change every now and then. 

This week we had an awesome experience with a less active member named Dan Prescott. We were going through our ward list this week trying to find some people that we didn't know or if we felt like we needed to go see someone. We came across Prescott's and we didn't know them and felt like we needed to go and visit them. So we went over to there house. Dan opened the door and was like why are you guys here? Like why did you decide to come here. My companion and I  kinda looked at each other and were like we just felt like we need too why is everything OK? And he said that he was going through a super hard time in life and the night before he was praying and asked God if he still loved him and to show him that he loved him.  It was awesome we were able to have a super good lesson with him and I was able to give him a blessing before we left. It is the most amazing thing when you are able to listen to the promptings of the spirit and act upon them. 

I hope all is good with yall love ya!!

Love Elder Brinkerhoff

 Also since i'm getting transferred here's my new address 643 Northern Lights Blvd #1203 Box Elder SD, 57719

Week of February 26, 2017

Hey Everyone so this week was an awesome week! So last week we dropped a lot of our investigators because they just weren't progressing and nothing was moving forward. So this week we put a lot of time into trying to find some  new investigators to teach and we had so much success we were able to find 3 new people to teach. It was super awesome my companion and I had been praying all week that we would be able to find some new people who would be ready to hear the message of the Restored Gospel and sure enough our prayers were answered. We started teaching this guy named Muckal or something like that haha he is from Brazil he moved here a few years ago. He is super awesome it was kinda funny when we were talking to him he was like are you single me and my comp were both like yeah... he was like you need to come to Brazil the women are all hot no ugly girls allowed in Brazil he says. It was pretty funny but we had a pretty good lesson about the Book of Mormon and he was very accepting we are hoping that lessons will continue to be good with him.

This week I have been thinking lots about how the Book of Mormon can change lives there is a guy in our ward who was a super bad drug addict,  he was raised a member of the church and new the gospel was true but he decide not to live by it and his live went down hill from there. One of the times he was in jail his wife decided to send the missionaries over and to give him a Book of Mormon. He sat down in his cell and read it from cover to cover for the first time in his life. He said that was the moment when his life started to change. He got out of Jail and went to rehab for 3 months. He came home and got his family active in the church again. He is one of the most awesome dudes I have ever met.  I know that the Book of Mormon if read with a sincere heart with real intent can and will change your life if you let it. If you havent read it or havent read it in a while I challange you to pick it up and read it. I promise that your life will start to change if you put in the effort to read the Book of Mormon daily. 

Sorry I forgot my camera ill have pics for ya next week!

Love you all!

Love Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of February 8, 2017

Hey everybody sorry I dont have time to write up a letter but here's some pictures for ya!

#1 We got a BBQ this week so we had a good time and grilled up some steaks ha they call me the grill master

#2 I want to get a bike so bad haha 

#3 We went out and did some ice fishing today so that was fun we didn't catch any but hey that's why they call it fishing not catching

#4 We helped serve dinner for a valentines party for the ward!! 

Love you all have a great week!!

Week of January 29, 2017

Hey, Everyone!!

This week we were able to have a super awesome week!! I went on exchanges twice this week so it was kinda different not being in my area for a few days but change is always good too.  Last week for P-Day we had a big snow ball fight so that was fun!! 

We had some fun out on a farm this week helping a guy with some pigs so that was a pretty good time. I love doing service and getting out of a shirt and tie for a couple of hours is pretty nice too. 

Sunday was an awesome day. Back in my first area (Stanley)  my companion and I were working with a less active named Hunter. Well a couple of weeks ago he moved here to Williston and he came to church and I saw him and went over and talked to him, he has been very active in the church and is planning on going on a mission in about a month. It was awesome to see him ha when I was in Stanley he didn't have any ties so I gave him a tie and when I saw him and walked up to him he was like hey man hows it going and showed me that he was still wearing the tie that I gave him and thanked me for what we had done and what we had taught him. He also got up in church and bore his testimony for the first time. The spirit was so strong it was such and awesome meeting. It is awesome when you see the fruits of your labors and know that you are doing some good.   

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

Love,

Elder Brinkerhoff

Week of January 8, 2017

Hey I hope that everyone had a great week this week! It has been a good week up here in North Dakota! Ha the weather hasn't been to bad the last couple days either. Ha anything in positive degrees isn't too bad though. This week were were super busy working on our ward list. Up here in the oil field people come and go all the time so its pretty hard to keep it all up to date. We weren't able to teach a ton of lessons this week because we spent most of our time working on that. Other than that things have been going good. 

Something that I have been thinking about a lot the last week and something I have been studying is this passage of scripture in Alma its Chapter 50 1-6   "1 And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites; for he caused that his armies should commence in the commencement of the twentieth year of the reign of the judges, that they should commence in digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites. 2 And upon the top of these ridges of earth he caused that there should be timbers, yea, works of timbers built up to the height of a man, round about the cities. 3 And he caused that upon those works of timbers there should be a frame of pickets built upon the timbers round about; and they were strong and high. 4 And he caused towers to be erected that overlooked those works of pickets, and he caused places of security to be built upon those towers, that the stones and the arrows of the Lamanites could not hurt them. 5 And they were prepared that they could cast stones from the top thereof, according to their pleasure and their strength, and slay him who should attempt to approach near the walls of the city. 6 Thus Moroni did prepare strongholds against the coming of their enemies, round about every city in all the land."  So pretty much they were busy preparing for war even when there was no war going on at the time. I've been thinking about how we can apply this to our lives and prepare for what is coming. We all have things that we can improve on and do better some simple things would be like going to church, daily scripture study and prayer. I challenge all of you to pick something that you can do better at and to work on it this week! 

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

Elder Brinkerhoff

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