Training Week and Transfer Reports

Hola familia,

Well, we had a new missionary training last Tuesday for all the missionaries who came out with me. It was really good to see the two elders who were in my MTC district--one is in Galt (next to Lodi) and the other is in the hills of Sacramento (really wealthy, hard to find Hispanics). I made a HUGE mistake and told the APs that I could play the piano, so they asked me to play Called to Serve and We Are All Enlisted. Wow, I don't know how to play those hymns. It was humiliating and I laughed it off--a lot. President Lewis and one of the APs thanked me and told me I did a good job--don't lie? Commandment? :) The training was in Sacramento--so we had a fun little field trip up there. I guess it's about an hour north of where we are. We talked about questions we had, how we could overcome certain challenges, and heard from President Lewis and his wife. They had all the new missionaries share their testimonies and then they served us lunch. One of the elders we came with is from New Zealand and he shared with us that his mom was getting baptized on Saturday!! We were really excited to hear that. And then one of the sisters who came with us from the MTC is from Kiribasti and her dad got baptized on Saturday, too! We're seeing miracles happen every day, even if they don't happen in our mission.

That night was pretty ridiculous. We were running around trying to hit all the places we missed in the morning because we kind of forgot about the training. Then one of the coordinating sisters (the two coordinating sisters are companions and they go on exchanges with all the sisters in the mission--I think there are about 20 of us in all--because our district leaders can't go on exchanges with us like they do with the elders) was going to stay with us Tuesday night and proselyte/teach with us on Wednesday. We were pretty nervous to have her come stay with us and spend Wednesday with us because we felt like she was going to observe us the whole time. Of course she did observe us but it was a great experience. I felt like I'd kind of run into a wall because Sis Carlos hadn't really taught me much more. I learned a lot from the coordinating sister (Hermana Fernandez) about how to organize things (like our area book), how to effectively contact people, and how to plan (for member present lessons, with commitments at the end of lessons, etc.). It's amazing how much she crammed into my little head in just one day. The coordinating sister is 30 years old (but she looks like she's 24!) and she's from the Dominican Republic--she was baptized in 2008 and went on a mission just two years later.

On Thursday we had dinner at the Martinez' house. Brother Martinez is the new (I think) first counselor in the bishopric and we just got a new second counselor. Sister Carlos was surprised that they invited us over to dinner because they never invite the sisters over (even though they're in our area). I think it might have a little to do with the fact that I play the piano every Sunday in every meeting and he and his wife really appreciate that. Even though playing piano is not my favorite thing, I think it's helping the ward members recognize who I am and giving us an opportunity to know each other. It's a blessing in disguise. =

On Thursday night we got a call from some English elders in the other Stockton zone who said they found a gem of a man. His name is Jose (he's our third Jose, and we have three women named Rosa--we have a lot of Sandras too). We met with Jose on Friday--we had the most Spanglish conversation ever. Jose is an alcoholic and was in the park reading a Christian book the day that he met the missionaries on Thursday. He realized he needed to change his life and had prayed on Wednesday for help to overcome his addictions. When we taught him on Friday, I asked him to be baptized on September 24 and he accepted! We have a lot to work on before then--we haven't taught the Word of Wisdom yet or any of the other lessons for that matter, but he came to church with his daughter Jasmine and that's a huge first step. Sis Carlos and I prayed so hard this weekend that the talks on Sunday would be appropriate for him and that Priesthood and Sunday School would go okay. The talks during sacrament meeting were absolutely perfect--about eternal families--and Priesthood was about the temple. We're very excited to teach Jose (Reyes) this week and are praying that he can remain firm for baptism on Dain and Malinda's birthday. :) You like how I did that? Yeah.

We also met with a woman (one of the Rosas) named Rosy whose husband just left this last week. She has three children and doesn't really know what to do now. We were trying to teach her what the Holy Ghost is and point out a time in her life when she's felt the Holy Ghost. She said she's never really felt loved (because her parents abandoned her as a child and she grew up with her grandparents) and that she's felt peace maybe just a little bit. My heart broke for her and I know that what she needs is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the comforting words of the Book of Mormon, and the fellowship of the ward members. We're hopeful for Rosy, too, and are anxious to find her at her apartment again.

Is it weird that I love contacting people? I love tracting. I'm sorry to say it, but white people are just not friendly like Hispanics. Americans slam the doors in our faces with no shame, but Latinos are respectful and are willing to talk and hear our message. Every time the door is slammed in our faces or people tell us that our church and the Book of Mormon is just fantasy (we had a man tell us that this week), my testimony is strengthened. I feel the Holy Ghost stronger thanks to the people who reject us--and I recognize that as a tender mercy from the Lord.

I love you!! Have a beautiful week. Dodge those hurricanes and earthquakes that are supposedly happening in the world. News to me!

Love,

kates

Tengo Fe (I have faith)

Hi beautiful family,

Thursday marks my 3-month point in the mission. Has it been fast or slow? I'll be honest--the last month has been crawling by! My spider bite has been healing and is almost gone--thank you for your prayers! Who knew that spider bites peel at the end? I didn't know that. So now I have a bite, a ring of new skin around it, and what looks like a shadow of a bruise around that. Thank goodness I'm finished taking my antibiotics--those made me feel sick and gave me headaches, so I count it as a blessing that it's over with.

This week was eventful, as always. I've had in mind three things that would describe the city of Stockton: (1) ice-cream trucks--I'm not kidding when I say that I think they follow us everywhere. I suppose we could talk to the ice-cream man to find out his selling route and then we'll find out where all the Hispanic neighborhoods are. I hear those darn ice-cream songs all day; (2) the people of Stockton love bounce houses--any and every birthday party must include a bounce house. They're on every corner and always in the parks--it's incredible. Remember my last name? Hermana Brinca Brinca? Hermana Bounce House. I'm pretty popular around here. Speaking of Brinca Brinca, I said that to two kids who couldn't say Brinkerhoff. They loved it and kept trying to get my attention during the lesson--Brinca Brinca! One of the girls is 5 years old and reminds me of sweet Kajsa Jane. Her name is Julisa and she is just the cutest, most energetic little thing. Poor thing speaks to me in Spanish all the time and I pretend like I'm paying attention to something else because I have a really hard time understanding children's Spanish; (3) yard sales--people have never-ending yard sales in their front yards, including one of our investigators. Jo and Quin, I haven't stopped by one of the yard sales, but you'd probably have a hayday here--not just on the weekends. Daily.

We've been teaching yard-sale investigator ever since I've been here--Julio--and he finally came to church!! We were so excited. I'd been praying every day last week for him to come and for the speakers to be inspired to know the message he needed to hear. Two English speakers from the stake came and spoke about service and following the gospel of Jesus Christ (bishop translated into Spanish) and it was perfect! I thought they were the exact things that Julio needed to hear--he wasn't super excited after sacrament meeting, though, which dashed my hopes, but I think he's trying to hide the fact that he knows it's true. We've invited him on a temple tour our ward is doing September 16 and hopefully he'll come to church between now and then. He's just so great and I wish I could drag him to church and to the baptismal font--agency! Oftentimes I listen to the lessons while Sister Carlos teaches and chime in when I know what I should say and can say it in Spanish. When we were teaching Julio last week I felt the Spirit so strongly when I told him that I knew with all my heart that he would be blessed if he came to church and that I know these things are true. He said he could feel the Spirit when I said that and I actually couldn't stop shaking after I told him that. It was a neat experience--very powerful.

We went to the pulga (flea market--or "free" market as Sister Carlos calls it) on Saturday. We talked to about 30 people in the parking lot--Hispanics everywhere! We didn't get anywhere with that--I figured it was going to be a worthless trip. It made me think of Canton--a Hispanic Canton. :)

One of the sets of elders in our ward had a baptism on Saturday for an 88-year old man whose children were baptized 47 years ago. I played the piano and Sister Carlos translated one of the talks (the daughter speaks only English), so we kind of took over the baptism. It was a great experience and I felt the Spirit very strongly when Alex was being baptized. I was so happy to see the faces of his children after 47 years of praying that he would be baptized--his wife died recently and he wants to be with her for eternity. He received the priesthood the next day in sacrament meeting. :)

We found the Little Mexico of Stockton! And it's running wild with dogs. Spanish is still coming along slowly but I have faith that even though I can't speak now, it'll come. I know that if I really need to say something, it will come to my mind. That's the neat thing about the Spirit--that if I really need to express myself and share my testimony, I can do it--however simple it might be. Back to dogs--one was particularly angry at us when Sister Carlos was inviting a man to be baptized--she totally forgot the question (it's a memorized question) and started throwing things out there because she was so scared and couldn't concentrate. Haha oh darn it.

Love you all! I pray for you all the time! Thank you for your prayers. We pray for miracles every day and I love the scripture in 2 Nephi that I read this morning--2 Nephi 27:23. Sorry I have only my Spanish scriptures with me, but it's wonderful. "I am God and am a God of miracles... I work only according to man's faith."

Love,

Kates

Pico De Arana

Hi beautiful family,

Well, you're probably all wondering what the subject line means. Quin? Stace? Who knows if I even spelled that right, but that's all I've been hearing this week. Remember spider alley where we tracted last Sunday during the Zone Blitz? It's possible that one of those nasty things bit me because I noticed on Monday that I had yet another bite on my leg (my mysterious bites from the MTC are starting to go away--hopefully the scarring disappears soon) but this one seemed a little more red. On Tuesday morning I noticed it'd gotten bigger, so I drew a circle around it--I ended up drawing three more circles as the day went on, so after talking to the mission nurse, we decided to go to the "immediate" care. After waiting around for 3 hours, we spent 3 minutes with the doctor who prescribed me an antibiotic and told me to put a warm washcloth on my bite 3 times in the morning and 3 times at night. Well, I think it's beginning to go away now--after a week. The antibiotic (or the bite) makes me feel shaky at times and my arms feel weak (makes it tough to play the piano), and I have constant headaches after taking the medicine. Momma, you forgot there are still spiders in the US. :) And bugs (including bed bugs) love my legs!

Last Monday we moved our whole apartment--it took about 4 hours to move everything, and we had 4 generous elders helping us with the furniture. We moved into a 2-bed, 2-bathroom apartment. It's a nice setup--we're still in the same apartment complex (2 sets of elders live there, too). We have SO MUCH Tupperware, it's ridiculous. Mom, I will return members' Tupperware if we ever take food home. :) But we rarely have dinners with the members so I haven't had to worry about that. The elders in the English ward have dinners all the time and members give them plums and peaches and pears. The sisters in our apartment are English-speaking (1 was called Sign Language and the other is from Samoa) and they bring home cookies all the time. Mom--only the two of them lived in the member's home.

On Wednesday the mission nurse told me to rest and "stay in if we could." Okay... My companion's stomach had been hurting for about a week (she had a stomach bacteria or something), so we were given permission to take a nap. We didn't get any teaching done that day and the next day my companion had a leadership training so I went on splits with the Samoan missionary. Sister Carlos and I had two appointments set up for that day and so I was prepared to make a fool of myself trying to teach two lessons in Spanish by myself. The appointments fell through (tender mercy--bad to say?) and we ended up tracting for about 3.5 hours. We met a few Indian men (both believe in Sikhism) who were interested in learning about Jesus Christ. One of the men, from Punjab, pointed to the picture of Christ on the pass-along card and said, "I love Him. Christianity is beautiful." I showed him a pamphlet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ--he didn't know what baptism looked like--and on the cover of the pamphlet is another picture of Christ. He pointed to the picture again, took the pamphlet, and held it to his heart. I was really touched by this experience--that he realizes that there's something different about Christianity and that he has that much appreciation for someone he's just now learning about. He told us a couple times that he has two copies of the Book of Mormon in his shop (but maybe he meant the Bible).

While we were tracting that day, we also met a man from Jerusalem who told us ALL about the center of Jerusalem and where the roads lead and I don't even know. It was interesting... I knew we weren't going to get anywhere with him because he would talk for 10 minutes after we said anything, so I bore my testimony. He grew quiet, started talking again, and mentioned that our faces were shining. And he pointed out that my face was shining when I bore my testimony. The Holy Ghost really does manifest itself to people when we testify of truths and what we know.

On Friday we met a woman in a parking lot who told us her life story--boy does she have a life story to share. And she said we were the third person she's told about one thing and the first she's told about something else. I don't know what it is but people just open up to us and spill their souls. She told us that she usually checks the mail earlier (that's what she was doing when we met her) but for some reason she chose to go later and she thinks it was to meet us. A lot of people actually recognize the timing of meeting us, but they don't always do something about it even though we teach and testify and invite them to be baptized. Sometimes I just really don't like that people have agency. :) In the MTC we read a quote that goes something like, "I'm tired of walking on 3 feet of seeds and want to start harvesting!" I feel like that sometimes--people mention that we're planting seeds in the hearts of those we come into contact with. Well I don't want to walk on those seeds that we've thrown down but want to find those who are truly ready.

I'm reading the Book of Mormon right now and highlighting everything about Christ (his attributes, words, Atonement) in red and gospel principles and doctines in yellow. I highlight pretty much every page, but that's just how it goes. I've read the beginning of the Book of Mormon so many times, and start over again and read the beginning... :) that I usually tell myself that I'll hit the good parts starting in Mosiah. Wrong--highlighting has helped me slow down and think about the doctrines and principles and Christ in each verse. President gave the books to us to read the first six months of our missions and I read in 2 Nephi 9 today. If you want to learn more about the resurrection and judgment and all of that good stuff, I recommend reading that chapter. When I'm reading the Book of Mormon, the things that stand out the most to me are verses on repentance and baptism which confirms to me that what I'm doing every day is what Heavenly Father wants me to do--declare the first principles and ordinances of the gospel.

In our ward, a lot of the members have never read the Book of Mormon. We started a Book of Mormon Challenge for the month of August to read 30,000 minutes (as a whole). The promised blessings include more peace and tranquility in the home, more love in the family, an added measure of the Spirit and last week during testimony meeting everyone was testifying that the promise was true! Even a recent convert/less active has been reading for 30 minutes each day, even though the goal was 5 minutes (pretty low) each day. I wish our investigators could have been there for that fast and testimony meeting--the Spirit was very strong (even when you can't understand the full message). :)

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. Thank you, Erin and Malinda, for reminding me that you pray for me every day. I know they're answered!

Kates

Hermana Brinkerhoff and her companion in the MTC - at the Provo Temple

Hermana Brinkerhoff and Elder Hutchinson at the Provo Temple

Sacramento, California Temple

Hermana Brinkerhoff and her trainer, Hermana Carlos on her very first day in California

Hermana Brinkerhoff with a spider bite (Pico de arana)

Saving Souls in Stockton

Hola mi familia!

Thank you for your emails this week! I'm just so happy it's P-day so I have a little time to regroup. I haven't decided yet whether or not the days are really long or really short. For now, I think time is going by rather slowly, but I know it'll pick up as I learn more and have a better feel for what's going on. We do weekly planning each Thursday morning and boy are those planning sessions tedious--I thought my head was going to burst the first week we did it because we talk about less actives, recent converts, investigators, and potentials and I didn't know anyone and what was going on, but I'm learning gradually.

I just got here two weeks ago and we're already moving! We're moving in with the English-speaking sisters who are living in a member's home right now. The good news is that we'll now have a washer and dryer and won't have to pay $6 every P-day doing laundry. So we get to pack up today and clean and then hopefully some elders in our zone will help us move.

On Sunday evenings we go on "Blitz" which means our zone (14 missionaries) chooses any area and the elders in that area choose a street from each companionship (hopefully that makes sense). So we all focus on one area--dominate it with missionaries. Last night they gave us a random street so we started knocking doors. I chose the first door and we actually ended up teaching the first lesson about the Restoration and said a prayer at the end. The man was semi-interested--I just felt like I needed to keep talking even though he was hesitant about change because he and his wife are Catholic. We left him with a pass-along card, so I hope he visits Mormon.org or calls for the DVD on Christ. Anyway, we knocked other doors and the whole street was INFESTED with spiders. I just got the goosebumps thinking about it. Every house had spiderwebs in all the trees, at their doorsteps, on the garage. It was no bueno. Sister Carlos and I were ducking under webs--and these spiders were not messing around. They were ginormous. We looked like crazy ladies running all over lawns and jumping. I couldn't believe it--I took a picture of a tree where there are at least 100 huge spiders. Sick. Why did they choose that street.

Welp, it's official--I get headaches every day and I think it might be from trying to learn what's going on, but I think the real reason is because I'm focusing so hard on trying to understand Spanish. It's been a difficult first few weeks just thinking about whether or not I'm really going to learn this language, seeing as how I speak English the majority of the time at people's doors. I love speaking English so I can truly express myself. One girl--Ramona--was outside her car when I just talked to her for about 5 minutes. She was really sincere in thanking us for our kind words--all I had to tell her is that God loves her and has a plan for her and wants her to feel his love and that she can repent and come unto him and feel peace and joy. I am understanding Spanish more, which is a tender mercy. I get the gist of what people are saying but am still working on speaking. Hopefully my tongue will be loosed soon. :) I get all tongue-tied when I open my mouth. I'll work on that.

We have a lot of work to do here! Mom, you asked about visiting and home teachers. Funny that you mentioned that. We actually don't have any of those. Zilch. They're working on putting together a list of visiting teachers in Relief Society as we speak, so we're going to start visiting members with their respective teachers to get the work started with a bang. Somehow the bishop needs to organize the home teaching efforts but I guess I need to go through our district leader to do anything in the ward and that it's the bishop's responsibility so I can't really say anything?? Well, yeah... that's not going to stop me. I talk to the bishop every Sunday because I play the piano during sacrament meeting--I might mention something and see how we're progressing with that. Visiting and home teachers are essential. As missionaries, we're pulling a lot of the weight of the ward right now and we can't keep doing that if we expect investigators and recent converts to be strengthened after we leave. Please please help the missionaries--be willing to go to lessons so they can have member-present lessons where you can simply bear your testimony and answers missionaries' questions. Missionaries are the teachers so don't take over the lesson, but be willing to go. We need you--investigators need you!!

We have been trying so hard to get investigators to come to church but it seems like the harder we try, the less that comes out of it. But we're not giving up. I'm determined to witness miracles in Stockton. We're hoping to have 7 baptisms as a zone this month. I know that by faith and diligence and obedience miracles will happen. I've been reading and studying about faith for the past two weeks and love what's in the Bible Dictionary, True to the Faith, and Preach My Gospel about faith. Faith leads to repentance and keeping the commandments. We have faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement and that's the message we're sharing with the world. It's all about coming unto Christ and finding happiness through having our sins washed away and being free from the guilt and shame that we feel through our everyday actions. I'm so happy to be sharing this message. We've been promised that God has prepared people in our area and I'm determined to find them. A lot of people tell us they know Jesus already--like the man who told us he's been to the Mt. of Transfiguration and the woman who told us that she's married to Jesus and her front door was so big for when he comes home. Through it all, we're looking for those who have been prepared to hear about the Restoration of Christ's church on the earth today. I don't know how many times I've repeated that. :) Just reminding myself of my purpose.

Love you all!! Thank you for your prayers. I have felt them. All is well. Did I mention my favorite hymn is now Come, Come Ye Saints? Look up the words--so beautiful and very motivating for me as a missionary and for all of us.

Love,

kates

(The elders told me to tell people my last name is brincabrinca. I guess that means bounce house and since Hispanics can't pronounce my last name, we can just resort to brinca brinca, however you spell it.) :)

First Area, Drum Roll Please

Hi family!

My Pdays are Monday now. We check our emails at a member's home, so hopefully I'll get to bring my camera hookup so I can send pictures sometime--we'll see. My companion checks and writes her emails pretty quickly so I don't want to lag.

On Tuesday we got off the plane, went to the mission office on Deseret Avenue in Fair Oaks :) and met all the wonderful office missionaries there, grabbed a sack lunch and headed over to the Sacramento temple where we got to eat lunch, walk around the temple, and hear from President and Sister Lewis. It was weird getting to listen to music in the car--haven't gotten to listen to music for the last 2 months. The APs are great, we were the first transfer that President and Sister Lewis, and everyone was really excited to see us. I came in a group of about 7 white people, 2 Samoans, 1 Vietnamese, 2 from Kiribasti (sp?), and I'm blanking on the last one, oh yes he's Tongan from Australia. My new zone is really diverse, too. We have 3 Tongans, 3 Hispanics (one of which is albino so he wears these big sunglasses everywhere and doesn't speak much--he's English speaking but is still learning English. I try to talk to him all the time in Spanish. I think he's really sensitive about being albino--he gets a lot of attention from everyone and no one believes he's from Mexico.), and then there are like 7 white people. Oh yeah, I'm in Stockton, by the way. Supposedly this is every missionary's favorite place to come in the mission. It is very culturally diverse, and I love it. :)

But back to the first few days. After we went to the temple, we went to President's home and the senior couples were making dinner, we took pictures in his back yard (I look really disgusting in the pictures, if they sent those to you), we had interviews with president, ate a Thanksgiving feast (amazing), stood up and told about ourselves, and then President had 4 of us share our testimonies--you got it right, he called on me. The APs told us about our mission goals (standards of excellence) and taught us how to contact. We stayed the night at the Seamons' home. Dad, do you remember Seamons from Southern California? Anyway, he's Aunt Kris's age--he said that his mom was best friends with Grandma. They said, "Brinkerhoff... do you know..." and I was thinking, oh boy--I got that all the time at the MTC and never knew the Brinkerhoff they were talking about. "Billie Brinkerhoff?" Yes! My grandma! Bill and Jessie? Seamons. I can't remember her first name--the one who was friends with Grandma. Anyway, fun fact. We stayed the night at their house and Sister Seamons gave me a Vera Bradley curling iron cover--I knew you'd like that, Mom. It reminds me of you--it's so cute. She saw that I left my curling iron out to cool down and gave it to me. They're a great couple.

The next morning we had some training about cars, apartments, credit cards, and encourage from the Lewises. Then we went into the chapel to be sorted and I met my companion--Sister Carlos. She was born in the states, moved to Mexico when she was 6, was baptized at 12, and moved to Indiana after that. She goes to Purdue and is studying physical therapy but wants to transfer to BYU to meet her husband--yep, there you have it. She's actually been proposed to at least twice so she'll have to problem with that. We're serving in the Delta Pacific region of the Stockton area. Our area is divided into 3 regions (or whatever you call it) because it's so big. Well--three Spanish companionships make up the Spanish ward. You're gonna like this--there's not a pianist (the elder who just left played the piano), so they called me a blessing. I play in Sacrament Meeting, Primary, and Sunday School. That's right. I am THE pianist--gotta love it. My book completely closed during the last hymn in Sacrament Meeting so I was doing a magic trick trying to work with that one. The ward is pretty small--12 Melchizedek Priesthood holders. It needs a lot of work. We don't have any new investigators right now and the investigators we have didn't come to church even though we visited each of them multiple times last week.

I invited people to be baptized in Spanish on my first day and bore my testimony. Yesterday we met a Philippino guy (early 30s) who said he was Muslim and Catholic and all sorts of things and just wanted to pick a fight basically. After answering his questions (with him making comments the whole time) I said that I could do was testify--so I did. About the restoration. It was amazing--I had a bad feeling while answering his questions and it went away when I started to testify and he fell silent. I know he was touched by the Spirit. We speak in English a lot of the time because you have to find the Spanish-speakers. It's going to be harder to learn Spanish because of that and because I think my companion wants to practice her English more because she's from Mexico, called here English-speaking but she can speak English almost perfectly. I have to tell her every day that I want to speak more Spanish. I can understand what she says in Spanish but it's so hard to understand the people we met. I catch a lot of what they're saying but formulating sentences quickly in my head is what I need to work on.

I've met some really great people while contacting/tracting. I was a little discouraged last week because I just want to speak Spanish instead of standing/sitting there relying on my companion. She's good about letting me testify and setting it up for me to talk. There's a lot of work to do in strengthening the ward members and keeping the recent converts strong. We have a baptismal goal of 7 baptisms in August. We're looking for a Hispanic family to teach--that's our main goal. The biggest problems we're seeing is people either don't have jobs or they work too much. We meet a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses too, and it's hard to consistently find Spanish speakers. We drive a car, so my feet are doing just fine--the shoes I have are perfect. I think I got bed bugs (surprise!) in the MTC but I think the bites are going away. I can't google what bed bugs are all about so I'm not sure if that's what I have (sick, I know). I have my handy mattress cover now, though. The bed box arrived just fine.

I should probably go. I love you! Weather is great here. I'm learning a lot and still have a lot more to learn.

Love you,

kates