April 23, 2018

Yep the email worked this time. And I guess its time to answer some more questions!

1. Highlights of this week? We had 3 scheduled appointments yesterday which seemed really solid except at the end of it all they all fell through and no a single one was home unfortunately. Little disappointing but nothing you can do about it.

2. Yep kind of. Me, Elder Clawson, and the assistants to the President will be using the smartphones and working out the kinks and fancy dancy tools to help give trainings for when we roll them all out to the other missionaries in the mission. Which will happen in like 3-4ish weeks. 

3. Is it going to be a crazy week? Definitely a couple of crazy weeks because we realized we have to charge EVERYONE's phones and get them all ready for the Zone Conference which is week 2 of next transfer and as of now it is week 5 of this current transfer. And we have to port all of our AT&T cards to T-Mobile because its better coverage for our mission so we have to get that ALL ready. And we have to do things for transfers coming up so its gonna be a little bit of a pain.

4. Elder Clawson can play a little bit of piano and one of the assistants can play a little bit as well. We are not very good at music... But oh whale.

5. Its a pretty fun place. Its on a member's property so they just rent it out to the church for missionaries since they don't use it all.

Holy cow though, I knew the school system in Arizona wasn't the best but I did not expect that to be happening I guess. Bryson was telling me a little bit about it but honestly I don't blame the teachers. A lot of them have to deal with not only teaching kids, teenagers, young adults, etc but they also have to deal with all the drama, emotional problems, tempers, and its honestly more than what they signed up for when they went to schooling to become a teacher. And they don't get paid enough for what they can accomplish. The spotlight is given so much to celebrities or just people on the "popularity" scale and you have people who are raising a generation that aren't appreciated as much unfortunately. But that's why we have families, to teach each other and be with one another.

A LifeVantage trip? To the Bahamas? Holy moley that must be quite the adventure. I'm more than likely you'll take a thousand pictures to show me later. Before you know it it'll be Mother's Day, which honestly came up pretty quickly, (I gotta find some sort of gift for Bryson, Savannah, and Grant or something... I'll scavenge something).

Things have been pretty interesting here in Rancho Cucamonga honestly. Me and Elder Clawson have been struggling to find people to teach especially trying to find really anyone who wants to learn more about God and the plan He has for each and everyone for us. The members who have us over for dinner are the ones we are teaching I suppose, we are trying though. Something that came up for me that has been a pretty good motivator is "Love can conquer anything, because there is no defense to Love". Even if they aren't interested if they notice the LOVE or the dedication that we have for them, that metaphorical mountain that blocks them from seeing the gospel and how it can help them that light will touch them eventually. Because everyone is given a chance, whether its in this life or the next LOVE will be taught and accepted. Its pretty fun. But besides from that I gotta go write some more emails. LOVE YOU MOMMA!! I forgot to take pictures (kidding I am just lazy apparently) but hopefully with this phone maybe I'll start taking pictures for you. OTHERWISE UNTIL NEXT WEEK!!!

- Elder Brimhall (contemplating his new haircut)

Question Answering Time:

1. Yeah I got your email last week, I'm pretty sure I responded to it as well. But if that didn't work oh well. (Checked my email and it said it sent but I have no idea).

2. Things are going interestingly that is to say for sure. For the entire past week me and Elder Clawson have been having trouble trying to teach people here in our area. It doesn't help that its pretty darn small and we have ward mates. And the ward pities us because we work in the office but we get out as much as possible and when we do we do everything we can.

3. With implementing phones I am actually holding mine right now and its kind of weird. We already downloaded a program called MAAS360 to put restrictions and what not on it and its just a cooler looking tool. Me and Elder Clawson are going to be the "genie pigs" for this whole shpleel but we are going to be the ones to help everyone out so that'll be cool.

4. It goes live in about 3-4 weeks from now with everyone so we gotta make sure everything is ready for EVERYONE. We just realized we have to charge everyone's phones and get them set up and with new SIM cards with numbers in the time we have along with everything else creeping up on us... FUN STUFF

5. When it comes to getting time to go out. If we are lucky we'll get about 3 hours on the Weekdays and a full day on Saturday and Sunday. So its a lot less than that even but we are trying our best.

6. Excited about anyone... We are teaching this one family that has been struggling to progress but they are the only family we are really teaching so we have been doing a LOT of finding. But it'll pick up, I know it will.

7. Its a little funny working around the senior couple we have. Elder and Sister Newbury are the vehicle coordinators and medical nurse and they are just some funny old people. And actually I think around May 4th or something we finally get another pair of senior couples for the office coming around so that might help us get out of the office more but we'll see.

Dang its already around that time for Hunter to get going on his mission. Crazy how time has flown out here I guess. Recently I've come to a realization that has got me going like how I started at the beginning of my mission. When I first started it was hard and discouraging and when I switched perspectives it help me out a lot and kept me rolling like a snowball continuing to work and right now honestly I felt like I've been "unsuccessful" in my efforts out here serving in this ward. Sometimes questioning about was I assigned to be in the office and just this ward because I'm meant for the office or was I sent to this ward for a reason. And recently during church just yesterday I got my perspectives SWITCHED in a complete 180 and I need to focus more on loving those around me and when I feel that charity for people and keep consistently working then I know before the judgement bar that I am successful in my terms of a servant of the lord. Its going to be pretty interesting this upcoming week with some maybe off appointments but I'm praying the people we see will be ready for the gospel. And on that note I gotta go write some more emails. I bet Mom is freaking out that Mother's Day is coming up and she'll get to call me again... That'll be weird but I'm ok with that. ENJOY THE BAHAMAS!!! LOVE YOU DAD!!!!

- Elder Brimhall (Thinking about his new haircut)