Week 2- Visiting Golkanda

This week Trey had the opportunity to visit some ancient ruins called Golkanda Fort...

 

 

Family!!
I hope you guys are doing great!! So first of all, I have some news to make you all a little jealous.. So on the 28th, there is a mission wide conference in Bangalore and I'm so excited for it!! Theres a few guest speakers who will be there. (Jeffrey R. Holland, the presiding bishop of the church, and two from the quorum of the seventy) Needless to say, it's gonna be soo freaking intense!! And then... There is a stake conference on the 2nd and they will be there for that as well and then I'll get to meet them and shake their hands!!! Ohhh man I am soo stoked, my favorite apostle!!! Haha anyways, this week wasnt too exciting. Nothing great really happened like last week haha except we have a couple more people on date to be baptized. We traveled a lot this week between appointments. We mostly travel by bus because its cheap and we can also talk to a lot of people that way. Umm so yeah today we are going to Golkanda fort and I'm way excited!! It's so cool that we get to basically just go sight seeing on P-days!! Okay now to answer some questions. Mom is first as always..

I eat a lot of biryani which is just rice with quite a bit of spice in it, but its really good. It can have chicken, pork, beef, or prawns (shrimp) in it and I actually like it a lot. I also really like the tandoori roti here which basically looks like a tortilla but just a little more dense. I eat quite a bit of american food too. There are mcdonalds, kfc, dominos, papa johns, and a bbq place all within a couple miles of where we stay. i also eat a lot of nutella haha I love that stuff. 

I do wear my sandals in the shower. The sanitation is very poor here, but we find ways to keep things clean and healthy for our living.

Church here is interesting. We dont have a piano player so we sing A Capella and this week there wasnt a chorister so I had to go up and lead the music. No one is on time to church. At 9 when it starts, theres usually about 12 people there. By 9:30 theres about 50-60 people there. Its really frustrating and no one likes to wear their shoes!! When I walked up to lead the music, I looked over and the bishop was just chilling there with his socks and shoes off. Unreal haha. 

Now for grants Q&A's... 

The work here is very different. We still proselyte but its just weird because its hard to talk and understand people because we speak two very different forms of english. We actually dont do hardly any service at all... The people here are ridiculously nice and especially receptive and the normal day consists of about 3 appointments because we always have to do a lot of traveling between appointments. For working out, I just do my normal routine. Get up and do pushups, an ab workout, curls, tricep extensions, rows, shoulder rolls, stuff like that and its all with my 35lb resistance bands.  

Thats about it for this week.. Love you guys!! I'll post a bunch of pics on dropbox next week!! I love you all so so much and I miss you like crazy!!

Elder Brimhall

Namaste! First email from India!

Namaste!! Hey everyone!! Holy cow, that was the longest 4 flights I have ever been on. Hopefully I only have to do that one more time in my life... haha but I'm glad to be here. But yeah, it's crazy here! I have so much I want to tell you guys about, but I dont know if I'll have time.. But first I'll start by answering your questions mom... any packages have to go to the mission office. Its a very poor and very rich area in Hyderabad called Madeenaguda. We travel by foot and by small taxi's. I brought everything I needed thank goodness:) We have big 5 gallons jugs of purified water that we refill our bottles with and we have eaten with members only once.

I've had more american food since I've been here than indian food haha like mcdonalds, kfc, dominos, and chili's later today. I'm wearing repellant and sunscreen every day. And when I said I kinda wish I was in the states, its because they are just lucky in the fact that they dont have to worry about water or expensive shipping or disease or bad food or the power going out every day and night. I love it here, dont get me wrong... But a mission in the US would be sooo much easier to deal with haha. Okay, so I havent seen any elephants or monkeys, but I have seen a lot of cows, stray dogs, and chickens!! You'll see some of that in my pictures.

I'm not in culture shock too bad, but there was only one experience I've had so far that really hit me hard... So we were on our way to see an investigator named Prakash Rao and we were taking a bus from a place called Hitech City, which really is hi tech and americanized, and while we were waiting for the bus, a little boy who couldnt have been older than 2 years old came up to us and started tugging on my pants begging for a couple rupees. Well since we arent allowed to give away money under any circumstances, I just had to do my best to ignore him. After a few minutes he got down on his knees and and started wiping off my shoes and then kissed my feet several times and then begged again. I felt so horrible:( All I could give him was a friendship bracelet I had with me and then he was all happy and ran off. I just couldnt believe that.. But anyways, other than that I'm doing good!

Everyone is so nice and treats us as if we were kings. This is definitely a very high baptizing mission.. Now we have to find quality and not quantity... Haha I did a confirmation for the first time yesterday and we already have set 3 people on date to be baptized within the next month. Oh I forgot!! My companion is Elder Stevens and he is from Ephraim and he is a total stud. ...what else to tell you... Oh, the food isnt nearly as spicy as I was expecting!! And its way better than that trash I had with Grant and Allie... Sorry fellas but Taste of Punjab is awful haha ...this place is easily the most polluted place on the planet. When you are in an airplane and you reach altitude, you can only see like a mile and then it just looks like thick white smoke. nasty.. haha oh I'm learning some words here in Telegu! Thats what they speak in Hyderabad. Also, I'm learning to speak in broken english, which is an entirely new language in itself. So weird. Haha well thats about it for this week! Just please keep paraying for me cuz I need it!! Love you guys so much!!

Elder Brimhall

 

 Trey and Elder Weatherford on their way...

 

 We were thinking this was London??

 Flying into Bangalore...

 Taking a taxi in Hyderabad to meet up with Elder Stevens...

 Trey was SO excited to see American food!

 Ummm... That doesn't look to safe!

 We're guessing this is the view from Elder Brimhall's apartment...

 

 

He Made It!

We received a wonderful, and much anticipated letter from President Berrett letting us know that our precious son had arrived and was doing well.

 

Brother and Sister Brimhall:

We are grateful for the safe arrival of your son in the India Bangalore Mission. He arrived safe and in good spirits. We have great need for him as our missionary numbers are getting low. He comes with good missionary experience, and will be very helpful in the work in this area of the world. We felt the strength of his testimony as he shared with us his feelings for missionary work.

Your son has been assigned to work in the city of Hyderabad, in one of the Madinaguda Wards, serving with Elder Stevens, another US Missionary. Hyderabad is the city with the first stake in India. His companion is a good missionary and will be able to help Elder Brimhall adjust to the culture quickly.

Thank you for your help in his preparation and your support of him as he serves. We are grateful he is now here. The people of India are so grateful for the truth and knowledge the missionaries share. I know he will come to love them as we have.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

President and Sister Berrett

India Bangalore Mission

 

Elder Brimhall will be serving in the Hyderabad area :)



 



Jan. 21, 2014

 

Hey fam! So again theres not much to write about.. This week was really slow and it wasnt extremely successful. The adversary is really working hard on me lately as I prepare to leave for India.. Everyone we come in contact with seems to reject us.. And the very few appointments we had pretty much all fell through. Haha I'm doing my very best though! I am, however, very excited for Saturday!! My first baptism!! I will make sure to send plenty of pictures!! Oh man, so I took a bunch of pictures or geese this week, make sure you look at them on dropbox. There is one that is sooooo cool!! Its the one of the goose coming in to land on the ice!! Sounds like things are going pretty well at home though!! Today is the last time I will get to shoot hoops on the mish!! ...ugh haha the weather here is sooo retarded!! Yesterday it was 57 degrees and today its 12 degrees.. I dont get it! I'm excited for that 90 degrees in India! :) Hahaha I'm a bit nervous about losing weight over there though!! I'm gonna do my best to retain my weight and tone. But, we'll see what happens. I'm just excited to get over there. I'm excited to get those new journals and that other package!! Thanks again mom!! Idk if I will be able to email next week, but I will be able to call... And I have no idea when I will be getting there or anything about the flight plans.. I will let you know if I find out though!! I'll talk to y'all next week!! Love you guys!!

Elder Brimhall

 

We've decided that Trey has some awesome photography skills...

AND that Missouri has the most amazing sunsets ever!!!

 

 

Jan. 21, 2014

Is that the craziest news or what?!?! I cant even believe that I'm already going to India, but at the same time its really cool because there were so many times that I would pray for comfort and peace of mind about the whole thing and every single time that I prayed, I just had a feeling that I would be getting my visa soon after new years... So that was cool!! Our two scheduled baptisms are still on that same date!! I'm excited that I will be around for Chris's baptism!!  Only 12 more days and I'm gonna be gettin' out of here!! I have been studying up on all my paperwork for Indian customs in the airport and I'm like really stressed and nervous about it. Theres just a couple things on there that I'm not so sure about... Like I'm supposed to write out the mission office address which is a HUGE address but on the arrival card, there are like 25 total character spaces.. so I have no idea what to do. But I'll figure it out. So I've gotten a ton of emails from my MTC district saying that they all got their visas, but I havent heard from Elder Cluff yet... I sure hope he got his... Anyways, I have been busy packing when I can and just preparing myself for India. I have been putting my whole heart and soul into Harrisonville though. I dont have like anything else to really tell you guys!! Man, my mind is just going a billion miles per hour :) Love you guys!! Keep praying that I wont get deported or something for screwing up in customs hahahaha have a great week!!

He's going to India!

Namaste! We just received an unexpected but wonderful phone call from Trey, saying that his visa has arrived and that he'll be heading to India with a group of missionaries on Feb. 3rd!

 

 

He is over-the-moon excited, especially since these visas tend to take a long time to process. In emailing some of the missionary moms who have sons currently serving there, they said that the whole mission has been fasting for the visas to be approved, because the work is progressing quickly and there aren't enough missionaries to fulfill the need. It's humbling to know that our son is part of this small miracle, and we are praying for those who are still waiting to go.

Here's an excerpt from President Berrett's blog in India, about the experience:

 

"Shortly before the first of the year I invited all of our missionaries as well as the members of the Church across the mission to join together on Fast Sunday in prayers for the issuance of the remaining visas and for calls to be extended to more foreign missionaries.

When I awoke this morning, I opened an email from Missionary Travel advising me that all pending visas applications, save one, had been granted. The one missing visa appears to be a simple oversight caused by the fact that we received so many in one group. Then, shortly after I arrived in the office, I received notice from the Missionary Department of the call of a new missionary to our mission. I expect other calls to follow shortly.

Just a few days after our united fast and prayers, the doors of the government opened and pending visa applications were granted.

Coincidence? I certainly do not think so."

 

                               

(Pres. & Sister Berrett) 

 

Good luck Elder B! Our thoughts and prayers are with you always! 





 

 

 

January 13, 2014

Trey and his fav buddy from the MTC, Elder Cluff!

 

 

Whats up guys?? It's so crazy, it feels like I was just writing home a few days ago... Time is starting to fly out here! So theres not too much going on out here other than having Chris commit to be baptized, which you already know the story about so I dont need to really tell you again. It was just so awesome though. Haha he's what we like to call a golden investigator.. We asked him if he was gonna be able to make it to church and he was just like, "Well I have work... but I'm gonna call in sick so I can go." Hahaha he is so gung-ho and for me, that is SUCH a breath of fresh air.. I feel like I'm actually doing good out here!! Hahaha well, the spirit is doing good, I'm just kinda there to witness it;) I cant hardly wait till the 1st!!

So one thing that I was reading in the Book of Mormon really hit me so hard and inspired me soo so much.. So in Alma chapter 13 it talks about those in heaven who were valiant before we came to earth. It talks about how some were more valiant because of their faith and good works. So what does that mean exactly and who were those "more valiant" beings? Weren't we all valiant in the testimony of Christ and that's why we were able to come to Earth? Well... Yes and no... I was reading in Jesus the Christ and it was talking about how Lucifer battled in heaven with 1/3 of the heavenly host against the army of Michael the Arch Angel. That doesn't necessarily mean though, that the other 2/3 of heaven fought against Lucifer. It means that some fought and some stood by and watched because they didn't want to be a part of the war. Those who were MORE valiant were those such as the prophets and those who were given the Priesthood in the premortal life. They were the ones who fought. Why does Satan hate US so much and tempt US wayyyyy more than those who dont have the priesthood or the gospel in their lives?? Because WE WERE THE ONES FIGHTING AND DEFEATING HIM AND HIS ARMY!! He wants to see us fail so bad and fall into his hands of evil temptation!! That inspired me. Anyone of us could have been a general or captain in that holy army of Michael the Arch Angel. Stay strong and dont let him defeat us after we already beat him!!! I dont know about you guys, but I want to continue to be valiant and fight satan stronger and harder than ever before... I want to be that bad to the bone captain that defeats and overcomes the weapons of temptation used by Satan and his angels. WE were a chosen people. It is OUR responsibility to stand as that beacon of light.

I dont have a ton left to tell you guys!! Thats about it for this week.. Well I'll talk to you all next week!! Love you!!
Elder Trey Brimhall

 

 

 Being the outdoorsman that he is, Trey can't resist taking pictures of antlers & birds!!

 

 

Woah baby...someone's been working out!! Looking good there Elder B!