Dear Mom,

This has been a great week for Elder P. and I! We found 3 new investigators! One was from tracting, one was a former investigator and the last was a member referral! We committed the last two to a baptismal date of May 16th! We were pleased with their desires to learn more and to become better people as they listened and participated in their first lessons. We have been working long and hard to find new people to teach and we have seen much success as we put forth our faith and as we strive to be obedient and change our routines. It's easy to fall into habits when studying and talking to everyone. We have tried to be better at making our approach more personal and heartfelt and by the spirit. We have seen many blessings because of it. It feels so good to reach the goals we spiritually set and feel our father's love as we aid Him in this work. We love the work and we were pleased to be moved down here from Yakima together. We are striving to help this area as best as we can. It's rough going because the area is full of well-off people, but we are going at it at full throttle regardless!

No, I haven't sent the box yet. Just found out that the city of Kennewick doesn't have a post office. We'd have to go out of the zone to Richland or Pasco... Which is not allowed!!! So, I may be able to get Elder and Sister Cain to do it for me and I'll pay them back. They go all over Tri-cities all the time for housing responsibilities. 

The picture you got and sent to me is us working on a piece of land at "The Reach Museum" here in town. It's a museum about Hanford I think. We may go back for a P-day to check it out! With me are Elders Galvez (Hawaii), Jensen (Colorado), Plehn and I. Elder Jensen is in one of those pictures you sent me in that article if you look close! 

I Promise I will send the box soon!

Love, 

Elder Brinkerhoff

Doing service at "The Reach"

Our favorite discount places--Subway and Costa Vida!

911 Memorial

Back of the new building we will be attending...it's huge!

Hi mom! 
I'm working on a letter to you today and I will have a package to send home soon with random stuff in it.

Yep! Still loving Kennewick! It's great! We just had a stake re-organization but we haven't been affected too much. We are having a short meeting today about it with our zone leaders to find out which wards we cover and stuff but I'm sure it won't affect much. Only one new ward was created. We will also be attending a new building that was recently built! We got to help load stuff into the new building and that was a neat experience! Never done that before! We are likely to be the first missionaries to serve in this new building! We found 4 new investigators this week!

I like that second caption for my photo haha  (I sent him two captions for his "Yolo St." photo from two posts ago--first was "You Only Live Once!", second was "You Only Lack Ordinances!")

We didn't do anything much on easter. It was pretty much a normal day. Mother's Day is in a few weeks though! :) I am excited for that!

Conference was great! We loved it! We watched one session with a recent convert at a member's home. "G" is our RC (recent convert) and he propagates coral and keeps clown fish in his basement. He's also got a sweet home theater system down there. I have pictures and video I will send you of that. We watched the rest of conference at the gage building next to the temple. It's cool! We live like 5 minutes away from the temple. It's nice. The only drawback is that we can't go whenever we want to... I loved the Priesthood session. Elder Ballard and President Monson's talks were my favorites. I thought it was weird that President Monson didn't speak more. Did you hear anything about that? We were worried that he was having some health issues like president Benson did. 

That's exciting to hear about the new facebook page! 

My letter will have more detail in it. Tell Nathan I love him and miss him! I'll be back next year! It will come very fast :) And I'll get to skype next month too! I love you! Have a great week!

Love Elder B

The Temple!

The people we live with are so cool!!!! :o)

Here's our car and where we live!

9 Month Mark!

Hello all! 

Things are going well here in the WKM! I hit my 9th month on April 2nd and I am absolutely blown away at how fast time is going.

It's great to be back in Tri-Cities! My new zone is all Elders here in Kennewick. I've been running into people I know from Richland and Yakima and it's really weird! My District Leader is really cool but we just got a call saying that he's going home for a medical reason... Darn. That also means we need a new Dl.....Thankfully I wasn't called... 

...my companion was :)

Anyways things are good. We have a car here. It's a 2015 Chevy Cruze. It's not a very powerful car but it gets us places. We have a small area even though it's 2 wards that we cover. It's very spread out though. We pretty much need a car to do anything. We cover the "Rancho Reata" and "Cottonwood Springs" wards. We kinda know what we're doing now, but it won't matter soon. This Sunday we will have a meeting about boundary changes for the wards in this stake! (Meaning everything will change just as we start actually figuring things out....) It's okay though! We are meeting lots of great people!

The Sisters we replaced had a baptism right before we arrived and replaced them. His name is Grant and he is a solid convert. He's a great guy. He watched all the sessions of general Conference and we were able to hang out and eat lunch with him in-between sessions!

Easter as a missionary is a lot less exciting but it's a bit more spiritual. It's pretty much a normal day except for the Easter feast we had with some members in the area. We've been sharing "Because He Lives" for dinner thoughts and it's showing a lot of good response. We love the spirit the new video brings into people's homes. 

General conference was great! We had a good time watching it this weekend. President Stapleton (one of President Ware's counselors) was released not too long ago. He is in the Rancho Reata ward and a few days ago we asked him if he was available to come to a lesson with us. He declined because he was out of town going to General conference. Well, President Eyring read his name under the new area seventies! Guess that's why he was released from the mission presidency! He is a great man. He will do well in his calling. 

General Conference was very uplifting and I greatly enjoyed it. If you missed it, please go back and watch it. Even if you did see it, go back and watch. Words of living prophets are for us in our day. We need to pay heed to their words and prepare ourselves spiritually for the trials and tribulations to come. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and I am grateful to be a missionary at this time. This world is darkening fast and we need to be ready for things to come. How grateful I am for the words of our Prophet that give us guidance and counsel in these troubled times. If we have faith, and repent and strive to keep the commandments and covenants we've made, we will be blessed. I know that this is true. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Brinkerhoff

March 30, 2015

Dear Mom, 

We didn't think that we were going to be transferred but near the time that the calls were going to come in we both started to feel that something was coming haha Elder 'P' even called it!

We replaced Sister 'A' and Sister 'M' and this area hasn't seen Elders for several years! Everyone was surprised to see us at church yesterday. It is kinda overwhelming to have 2 wards that you know nothing about but we are getting the hang of it. We go to church for 5 hours on Sunday now!! The RR Ward starts at 11am and CS Ward starts at 1pm. The sisters didn't leave us very many notes so it's been stressful to stay busy all day but we've done a lot of tracting!!! The thing to do when there's nothing else! The stake boundaries will be changing in like 3 weeks anyways so once we get the hang of these wards everything will change. We are just going with it at this point.. haha Not worrying too much about it.

Can you send me a copy of my baby blessing the next time you send a letter? 

We live with Elder and Sister Cain in Richland now.

We drive in this area!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Well Elder Plehn does..) We drive a 2015 Chevy Cruze. I'll send a picture.

It is nice being close to the mission office and temple! It's super close! Elder and Sister Cain have been getting our mail some days because they work there so it's pretty nice! haha We have p-day at  the stake center next to the temple. It's just us that live with the Cains. They are senior couple missionaries over the housing in the mission so we're pretty well taken care of with a study area and air hockey/pingpong tables and stuff. Also full access to their kitchen and laundry. 

Hope Sarah feels better soon! You guys will get a letter soon!! :)

I love you! Have a great week!

P.S. Caption this photo!!! haha