February 16 2015

Hey family! 

This week has been great.  

We've had A LOT of snow! 

Picture to follow ;)

Wednesday, we ate dinner with the Frost's. We were teaching the 

Plan of Salvation with cut outs.  The cut outs were laying on the 

floor..and Gabe who is like 3, started driving his car across it. Sister 

Frost grabs Gabe and says "This isn't a track for your cars. It's the 

Plan of Salvation" I lost it...it hit my funny bone so hard! 

Thursday..we got to go to the Temple this week!  It was fabulous.

Afterwards, we went over to the Visitor Center, and guess who 

we saw?  Coach Niumatalolo, from Meet the Mormons was there. 

Guess who he struck up a conversation with?  YEP. Me!

It was awesome. We shook hands...no big deal. No big deal.

This week it's been snowing like mad. 

We've been doing a lot of service! #sweepingoffcars 

We've seen so many miracles this week!

But I'm running out of time..soooo I can't think! haha. 

I love you all!

<3/Sister Brinkerhoff

MOM's NOTE:  Ok so on Friday, John had surgery on his foot and 

Cas knew about it and was planning on fasting with Wyatt and I on 

that day.  I did not want her to worry all weekend knowing she would 

because she would have no way of knowing how things went until 

Tuesday when she was able to email.  So I chose to call the mission 

office and ask if it was ok for them to get her the message that he 

was home and settled and all was well.  Elder Smith told me how 

kind I was to think of her and that he would call her immediately. 

I mentioned it in my email to make sure she had indeed received 

the call and this is her reply:  She won't mind me sharing. It made 

me laugh, she ALWAYS makes me laugh.

Elder Smith did call me! It was 3:30. We were walking around, 

finding people. I actually just had a sweet spanish street contact. 

But then Elder Smith called me. 

Convo..

ES: Your mom called..

*my heart then proceeds to drop to my butt*

Me: ...My mom called?

ES: Yeah...whats going on at home?

Me: Uuuh...well my dad is in surgery today..

ES: No he's not..

Me: What?

ES: Your mom called to say that your dad is at home resting. 

The surgery went great. 

Me: Oh...not funny Elder Smith! You scared me! haha.

ES: You scared me! I thought I called the wrong person! haha. 

You owe yourself a salad...go eat!

Me: Oh I'm going to! 

Then I turn around, BOOM, Subway! I'm sure you can guess 

what happened next. (:

Ramen for Days 2/9/15

Hey family!

This week has been awesome!

We picked up 2 more investigators.. Lynn and Erik. 

They've been taught before, but we invited them to 

take the lessons again, because they have a lot of 

concerns that can easily be solved by the commitments 

we leave them!  We'll see where it goes (:  Lynn is 

retired, I actually don't know a lot about her, but 

Erik is a musician. They're pretty cool.

We taught Viola this weekend! Sister Hanson came 

with, and it was amazing (: We invited her to pray 

about Joseph Smith being a prophet, she said she 

would!

Sister Haupt still hasn't gotten her Visa. I'm so glad 

I was called to the U.S., so I didn't have to worry 

about all of this. I can't even imagine the anxiousness! 

She is doing so great, though! She is an amazing, hard 

working, and dedicated missionary. She really understands 

the importance of exact obedience! We have so much 

fun, too. (:

Also, this week, I received the best package ever, from 

Daddy.  A whole box of Cup o' Noodles!  Photo included 

at the bottom. (:  I laughed so hard. I don't know why it 

hit my funny bone so hard! haha. 

That's about it for this week.

Love you family!

Photo 1:Best package ever. (the beauty of amazon prime 

and free shipping right to her)

Photo 2:Library selfie. I can't remember if I sent ya'll a 

pic of Sister Haupt...haha. 

One year?

Hey hey Familia!

This week...

dang! It was pretty good. Half of our appointments canceled and 

rescheduled,  but we kept a good attitude and still worked hard.

I think the best/funniest lesson this week, was when we had to 
teach the Law of Chastity to Mason..a 10 year old, recent convert.

haha. Hmm..how do we sum that up for a 10 year old?

Literally, here's the lesson...

"Alright Mason, today we're going to talk about the Law of Chastity..

do you remember what that is?"

"Nooooo?"   *in my head I think...'of course he doesn't...fantastic...'*

haha

"That's okay! So, the Law of Chastity is to respect girls, and yourself."

Aaaand that's all we had. 

Mason's dad helped out by saying "that we use nice touching, and 

don't make girls cry" haha.  Yup. Summed it up real nice. 

hahaha. Oh man....

Yesterday, in Gospel Principles class, we learned about spiritual 

gifts. And, it never occurred to me, but we can work to receive any 

gift we want, as long as we will use it for good, obviously (: 

I thought that was so cool!  For example, I sing..  well I haven't 

always been able to, but I really wanted it, and I worked really hard

for it.. and now I can!  So. I've made a goal. I'm going to learn Spanish! 

I'm going to pray for the gift of tongues, and read the Book of Mormon 

in Spanish, and ask the Hermanas and the Spanish Elders for a lot of 

help..haha.  I figure, we have to do Language study for Sister Haupt, 

so I might as well use that time to my advantage ;)

We'll see how this goes! 

Crazy I've been out a year, huh? It feels like I was just in Charles Town, 

West Virginia! Oh, speaking of which...I might be coming home in June,

the transfer before August.  Because I really need to figure out all of this 

school stuff.  I still feel so good about my choice! I'm really excited. 

(MOM"S NOTE: She's been thinking of going to BYU Idaho but will need 

to do a semester at DSU first)

I can't believe Shellz is coming home this week! Give her a huge hug 

for me!! (:  (Sister Shelby Hornback is returning with honor from her mission 

to Norway this Thursday)

Tell Wy Wy I love him! 

Give him a hug...a pat on the head for me (: haha.  

(He's been very sick this weekend and the pat on the head would be so

 I (MOM) don't get it as well)

Well..that's about it for this week! 

I know the church is true.

I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration!

I know that Thomas S. Monson is the chosen prophet of God today! 

This Gospel...I live it. I love it. I want some more of it! 

I love you!  

<3/Sister Casidee Ann Brinkerhoff

1/26/15 THIS. WEEK. HAS. BEEN. AWESOME.

THIS. WEEK. HAS. BEEN. AWESOME. 

We now have 2 investigators!

Jude and his family.

And Viola!

We are going to Jude's tonight at 6:30.  We'll be reteaching the 

Holy Ghost, and then going into the Restoration.  We are so 

excited! We expect it to go very well!

Viola, is the wife a returning less active member, John.  They are 

amazing! John is actually from Saint George, and he plays guitar.

Obviously, we bonded.  Viola is from Albania, which is a 

communist country, therefore, no Christianity.  When her family 

settled in America, they ended up in Boise, Idaho. Of all places, 

right? She would always see Mormons, and wonder what the heck 

we were all about, but no one reached out to her.  She finally came 

out east for school, and met John, who moved out here for a job, 

at a BBQ. When she found out he was LDS, she asked a ton of 

questions.  Brother Feagin, is their Home Teacher, and one of the 

first things she said to him was  "What's the Priesthood? And who 

is Joseph Smith?" UM. That like...doesn't happen.

This all was about a year ago, but with Viola not having a Christian

background, and John, at the time, not wanting anything to do with 

the church, it was a slow process. WELL. Now, we fast forward to 

yesterday.  Brother Feagin called us at about 8:30pm, telling us that

he went Home Teaching to them, and that John had said that his 

goals for 2015 were to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, to be 

Endowed, and be sealed!   UM...That like...doesn't happen.

So, as you can imagine, we were a little more than ecstatic when 

we hung up the phone. Currenlty, we're trying to set up a time to 

go over, we might give up on that, and just show up! haha.  The 

work is progressing in the Columbia 2nd ward! Thank you all for 

your prayers. Prayers work. The church is true! 

A few funny moments this week.. 

We were wanting to make brownies and rice crispy treats for 

Jude and his family. The brownies turned out wonderful, but the 

rice crispies...Well. Neither of us have ever made rice crispies...

So to sum it up, there was a lot of guess work, and me trying to 

channel in to Grandpa Tanner, because he made the best rice 

crispies! No such luck...it ended up tasting like a stick of butter. 

NOTE: You melt the butter IN the marshmallows. NOT separate. 

Lesson learned. 

2nd funny...

So, we live close to an airport..the BWI to be specific, therefore we 

see a lot of airplanes. A couple of nights ago, we're sitting in the 

car, I'm playing around on the GPS, and Sister Haupt is looking up 

at the sky, and then says, "Why do airplanes have headlights, anyway?"

I just started to laugh...Because what do you say to that? Um..so they 

don't run into other airplanes? hahaha. We asked Elder Howells, he 

said the same thing. haha. It still remains a mystery as to why

airplanes have headlights. 

Thank you again, for all of your prayers!  I love you all, so much!

Always remember that the words of Christ will tell you all answers!

Have a great week!

<3/Sister Casidee Ann Brinkerhoff

Photo 1: Sister Haupt and Sister Brinkerhoff

Photo 2: Sharing a car is the absolute best!....not. But it does make Preparation Day fun..haha. 

Driver:Elder Mason, Passenger:Elder Howells, Me and Sister Haupt in back (:

Photo 3:Elder Howells thinks he's pretty funny......

Photo 4,5, 6, 7: Beginning of Snow day #2..aka Today. We almost were snowed in for our Preparation day..

Photo 8 :  Snow day!

Jaunary 20 2015

Alright family...this was a pretty big week...

You ready?

First order of business...

WE HAVE AN INVESTIGATOR!!!

My first investigator in 9 weeks!  

Here's how we found him...

It was Saturday night, we were trying to find a Less Active member

in an apartment building in our complex. Turns out, she doesn't 

exist.  BUT, we didn't have her Apartment number, so we knocked 

this building out.  We came across some pretty interesting people...

We knocked on this one door, this younger guy, probably a little

older than me, answers, and a wind of weed smoke comes puffing 

out (second hand high, anyone? haha)  We ask if 'so and so' lives 

there, and explain that she's a member from our congregation,  he 

gives this little laugh that only high people do..or surfers..but mostly 

high people, and says "naw...pretty sure there's no one here that 

belongs to a congregation.." After we walked away I had to have a 

little giggle fit. It really hit my funny bone, hard! haha. 

Anyway, back on track with the whole miracle thing...  The last stinkin' 

door in the building... We knock. No answer. We knock again. We wait. 

A man, named Jude, answers.  We ask him if he knew 'so and so', he 

didn't.  He almost closed the door, then says, "Wait..what church are 

you from?"  "Oh, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 

Saints"  He knows about the Mormons!  He says, "Oh...my wife and I 

are looking for a church. Could you come back some time and tell us 

more about the church?"  After standing there with my jaw on the 

ground, I reply "uuhh...yeah! Yes we can!"  We set up an appointment 

for Monday.   Which leads us to the second part of the miracle. We 

saw him yesterday night.  He asked a bunch of questions...about 

plural marriage, if we're family oriented, if we're a multi-cultural church, 

so many things....everything that he wanted, we have! It ended with him 

saying, "Well...I am very interested. My wife is not Christian, but she wants 

to be. But she needs something that she can agree with, first. Do you 

think she will agree with this?"  Again...I had to pick my jaw up off the 

ground..but I replied "Yeah, Jude. I know she will agree with this church". 

WHAT THE HECK?!

We left feeling so peaceful.  We called the Elders to tell them, they 

were so excited for us.  My District Leader, Elder Howells, responded 

by saying,  "This is why we do what we do! This is His work!" Which 

gave me the best feeling, ever. From head to toe. 

THIS IS HIS WORK. THIS IS HIS CHURCH!

I know it, without a doubt! I am forever grateful that I have had the 

opportunity to serve a mission..to see these miracles! I am thankful 

for the Atonement, without it, I would not be here today!

Now a funny...

On Sundays, we have Ward Council at 9:00, but church starts at 1:00. 
So, we have 3 hours between. Which means, we study and eat lunch.

Well. Sister Haupt, me, Elder Howells, and Elder Mason, put our 

lunches in the kitchen fridge..obviously, so they would stay cool. 

After studying for 2 hours, we all migrate to the kitchen..only to find 

that our lunches, except for Elder Howells', were gone. Sister Haupt 

and I had lunchables, Elder Mason had pizza, and Elder Howell's had 

Subway....WHY WOULD YOU STEAL LUNCHABLES AND PIZZA OVER 

SUBWAY?! Like, for reals? Well. As you can imagine, stealing lunch 

from 3 hungry missionaries couldn't possibly end well. haha. We went 

back into our study room, and watched Elder Howell's eat his sandwich.

Later, after church, we found our empty lunchable cases in a classroom 

garbage can. We have a plan to find out who is in that classroom, and 

have a little lesson on stealing lunches...haha. Not really ;)  Not going 

to lie, I was super peeved in the moment..but it's quite hilarious! haha

Well, that's about it family!

I love you all, so much! 

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. 

Know that you're always in mine!

<3/Sister Casidee Ann Brinkerhoff

Photo 1: My new camo sheets!

Photo 2: Andre (our car) hit 1000 miles this week! He's growing up so fast!

Photo 3: Sister Haupt and I

Photo 4: Our zone!