Today is the 1/3 mark on my mission here in the Washington Kennewick mission. I am currently serving in my second area (Yakima) with my fourth companion Elder Plehn. He is 18 years old and straight out of high school. Brings a good spirit into lessons and overall is a great Elder!
This week has been great! We had a hastening the Work fireside last Sunday in Selah. It was great to help the members there feel the spirit of missionary work. I loved it when President Ware said that no effort is wasted when you choose to extend even the smallest act of love. I can definitely bear testimony of that. We are trying to do all in our power to help those we meet find joy as we serve our fellow brothers and sisters here in our area.
We enjoyed Zone conference on Tuesday and got teased with i-pads and a new pass along card for the new Easter video that should both be coming in the near future!
We have seen so many blessings and miracles as we've shown forth our faith and we've been striving to do all we can in this short time as the Lord's full time representatives. We have received several referrals and they have seemingly come out of nowhere! Pretty much unheard of in this area! One day we even decided to contact a semi-recent convert that fell off the map lately and she wasn't at the address we had for her. Later that night, she called us out of the blue! Completely unrelated occurrence! Turns out she moved to a new address and she was wondering if we would come over! The Lord wanted her to re-establish something for sure!
I'm finally feeling confident and comfortable with my teaching. "B" is super close to baptism and will be inviting his family to church with him! Last week he brought a friend who was baptized as an 8 year old but has been inactive for many years. "J" is his name and he is very interested in coming back into activity. "A" is helping her husband "R" with his understanding of the gospel and we've now begun teaching him! Once he is ready and once they are legally married they will be able to be baptized! "I" (9 years old) is now on date for baptism and her less active family has agreed to start coming back to church! Turns out she is a marble state champion and she is going to new Jersey to compete against other state champion kids in marbles! How cool is that??
We had a very spiritual experience with our bishop and his family at dinner. His daughter just returned from a mission on temple square and she told us of many special experiences she had there. We then shared a scripture about the Holy Ghost with them to really bring the spirit in. We asked them afterwards about who they know who could benefit from the spirit they felt tonight. Each family member was prompted by the spirit and had someone's name come to their mind. We challenged them to extend an invite to each of those friends and they agreed. We will follow up with them in a few days to see how it went! It was powerful to see the spirit work in the lives of this family. Our Bishop was very gracious to us and said many complimentary things about how he hadn't seen missionaries like us in the ward for a long time. We are now striving to have that powerful of a spirit in each lesson and dinner appt. we have.
My mission has been amazing so far. I know that the gospel of Christ is real and that the spirit of God is vital in our everyday missionary work. There's so many more things I wish I could tell about but gotta get back to work! ;) Everyday is amazing as a missionary and I look forward to the next 2/3rd I have left to go. It's going so fast! Stay strong and remember that Jesus Christ lives and knows you personally. He will always be there. What joy this sentence gives: "I know that my Redeemer lives". In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
-Elder Brinkerhoff
Elder Plehn and I in Ellensburg at the end of our zone hike
Found this when we went up to Ellensburg for a hike last p-day:
Saying goodbye to Elder Rasmussen at Zone conference
Here's a huge burger we ate this week. "Famous burgers and teryaki noodles" is what the place is called. Elder "C" and I ate there once and you can draw on a napkin. Mine got accepted into the table hall of fame or whatever it is haha. You can see it next to my plate!
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