June 24, 2014

Dear fam,

   Hi! Nice prank you bums!! Haha it was fun though to see and talk to you for just a minute haha, and yes we did enjoy the treats very much, so thank you! Grant pulled a prank like that my first transfer haha, so I guess it makes sense to do another prank near the end! This week has been good! We have talked to a lot of people who are not interested and seem to be having very little success, but this week we got a referral who is very interested and says he can just feel the truthfulness of the church, and so we think he will be baptized very soon!! So that is a huge miracle and i know the Lord is blessing us for our diligence, he always does :) One thing that has sucked this week is i've had a big ol' cold sore on my face for a week haha it stings pretty bad, but it's starting to get smaller so that's good! Hey I had a good idea about how to use technology for good in the home, including video games, cell phones, and computers. You'll have to remind me to tell you about it when i get home, cause it's kinda hard to explain over email. Man I'll tell you what, the Gospel is definitely true! It's amazing how living the standards of the Lord helps with life's every day challenges. I had a couple of really cool personal experiences this week with prayer and revelation. I was laying in bed one night just thinking about the Law of chastity and all that it entails, but wondering why such a good thing is so addictive in it's corrupted form. I think the Lord was waiting for just that kind of moment, because all of the sudden inspiration flooded my mind and everything that I've been taught about the Law of Chastity in my life made sense. Everything clicked and i understood things that I've never understood that way before. i won't give details yet, maybe when i get home, but it was a huge testimony builder to me that when we are trying our best to do the things the lord wants us to, then he helps us to do them and to understand why we do them. Another experience i had, is that when Elder Carpenter was in the shower, i decided to kneel down and say a vocal prayer. I've done it in the past and i knew that it a more spiritual experience when you pray personally out loud, but this time the Lord just wrapped his arms around me tight and i felt the love of the Lord. I couldn't see his body or feel the physical touch of his arms, but it was as real as anything i've ever felt. If we give ourselves to God, then he will give himself to us and we will feel the embrace of infinite friendship and love. If you have not done this lately, please do. Find somewhere that you can be alone, and talk to the Lord vocally as if he was physically present before you. It's a great experience! That was my week! The Church is true! God lives, and Jesus is the Christ!! Hope you have a good week guys! Love you!

Love, Elder Bailey Brimhall :)

June 8, 2014

Hola Familia!

   So this week was pretty good! We had small miracles all throughout the week that kept our heads up and helped us to feel the power and support of the Lord. I've been really focusing lately (the last couple of weeks or so) on trying to purify and sanctify myself. It has proven to be a remarkable experience. I would say that my knowledge and discernment of the spirit has increased by double or even triple since I started this little purification exercise I've been doing. Pretty much all it consists of is me praying every morning for strength to focus and determination, then I keep my eye out for everything that seems out of place in my life, or things that don't seem Christlike that i'm doing, and then i change them. It's simple to think about, hard to do, and worth every ounce of effort.

   This week is Father's day!! Are you doing anything cool for dad?? I hope you get to have a good week/father's day dad! I sent a card in the mail this morning so it will probably get to you late this week haha so it will be a few days early but that's better than a few days late I figured. We're not doing too much today. We might go meet up with a couple kids in the ward and play ball if we're lucky.. But if not then it's fine. 

   Our investigators are kinda dragging their feet right now and not really progressing and fast as they need to, so that's a little frustrating, but like I said, the Lord has been showing us little miracles all week to help us keep our heads up. One of those miracles being a nice lady who talked to us for a while during tracting hours. Her name was Kristi, and she is a young mom who has a couple kids and a husband, and they go to the local baptist church, but she has a book of mormon that a friend gave her. We offered her a chapter to read and then after that she kind of vented and said that she's really looking for clarity in her life. So we testified that this is the message that she needs to give her clarity, and invited her to church. She didn't come this week, but we had a very good spiritual feeling about this lady and I think large miracles will stem from that conversation :)

   Well that's all for this week! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!! Remember, the church is true, the book is Blue, and Moroni is always on the ball! ;)

Love, Elder Brimhall :)

  P.S. Good luck in that championship game Bryce!!! And be careful river rafting!

May 20, 2012

Howdy family!!!

  This week did indeed fly by as usual. It's the start of my last two transfers! Weird. Neither of us got transferred, so elder Carpenter and I are still together! I'm glad cause we get along really well and work and teach together in unity so it's a good companionship. Thanks for checking out all those options for pale grants and stuff for me mom! I'm gonna need them! yes i got my temporary drivers licence, which i have some info about by the way. So on that form it asked me if i have reoccuring athsma or respiratory issues that i have to have an inhaler for, and I put no, but i bought an inhaler a couple months ago because a doctor gave me the prescription because a mixture of springtime allergies and illness left my throat a little tight, so he just said go get an inhaler. So if the DMV calls you and asks why i bought an inhaler but told them i don't have respiratory issues, now you know and can explain to them that i don't, but it was just a one time thing. :)

   We have some good things going on right now with our investigator bob. We've been having a hard time with him and his less active wife, but we talked to him yesterday and he said that his marriage is going to be broken up unless his wife agrees to do four things with him which include marriage counseling, quit drinking, quit smoking, and start going to church. It's going to be a rough road for just a week or two, but it's a huge step and we think that he will be baptized this transfer.

   That's about all I have for you right now! But I'll include pictures, including one from Diana's baptism two weeks ago, going to do service, and district pics.

May 12, 2014

Hi fam! 

I was so happy to talk to all of you yesterday!! So my mission President gave me permission to start looking online at different college classes and stuff so i can think about what i want to take and stuff this fall. As for work mom, i am definitely planning to do tables and cabinets and stuff with you when i get home, but i was also thinking about just doing something else on the side for a few extra bucks. That's super cool that Lumiere is doing that tv broadcast thing!! Good Luck! Today should be fun. I'm planning to go play basketball with the priest's quorum this afternoon haha so that will be good cause I haven't gotten to play basketball for a little while. Well, It's official now. less than 3 months before the plane ride. Crazy. The mission is the fastest and slowest experience in the world, i swear. But i love it so much! I'm so excited for all of us to talk about our mission experiences in the not so distant future, especially mom and dad if you guys get to serve a couples mission later on. that would be way cool. But anyways, Diana is doing well. We were super excited for her. And it was a pretty big relief for me, because i had been working hard for so long and haven't had a baptism in like 9 or 10 months, so it was nice to finally see the fruits of hard labor :) Well I don't have a whole ton to update you on since I just talked to you yesterday haha but just know that I love you all and hope you have a great week!! 

Love, Elder Bailey Brimhall :)

Birthday Week!

Howdy family!!! 

Sounds like things are going well at home right now so that's really good to hear! Things here are going good too! haha I don't care if you would rather wait to send my birthday gift then wait, or if you would rather send it now then send it now! :) I am just fine either way. Holy crap, it looks like you guys tore it up turkey hunting! Trey didn't have to do any of the work! He just walked into a good hunting day haha! Hey speaking of my birthday, it shouldn't be the focus on sunday, Mother's Day is WAY more important than my birthday haha, so let's just focus on that. Happy cinco de mayo! haha I think we celebrate that more here than the mexicans do:) Just another reason to party!!! So as for the work, yes we are still working hard and the Lord is really blessing us! We have been teaching a lot of lessons lately and we found four new investigators last week alone, which is more than i have found in one week in a long time, so that was super nice :) Hopefully some of them don't drop us! Too bad you guys have to miss grant for his birthday too! Bummer, but I'll give him a quick call even though it'll be like 11 or 12 for him in florida haha. Oh yeah, i'll most likely be calling in the mid evening. for you guys like 6 or 7 or 8 ish. most likely the 7 or 8 ish. I'll try to let you know. And I think it will most likely be facetime, so mom or dad, watch your phones, i'll be calling! And we will be having a baptism hopefully this weekend! I'm not getting my hopes up too much because last time she failed her interview, so hopefully this time she passes. Oh trey, I forgot to tell you I think, practice the piano. A lot. Like if you have the choice between call of duty and piano, choose piano. The spirit will help you to think and to relax as you do so. Oh hey mom, i got that paper all filled out and notarized at the bank and i sent it back to you on friday, so hopefully it will get there today or tomorrow. I also sent some fun pictures :) well I love you lots and hope you have a great week! Have  fun with the spirit!!!

Love, Elder Bailey Brimhall :)