Hello, family! May 17, 2010

It is nice to know that mothers day went well. It is great to start a garden. A lot of people here talk about it but some say that the garden will fry and wither because of the heat and humidity. Well be thankful for mowing the lawn it rains so much that we mow the lawn every p-day. It is crazy. I am getting very annoyed with this "tiwi" mechanizim attached to the truck. I just got yet another aggressive driving. I did not mean to but apparently, acording to the tiwi, I am an aggressive driver. Things are still going well here in Ashtabula and with Elder Pickett. Our mission president and all the zone leaders have taught us missionaries to try a different tactic on regards to extending baptismal commitments. Lets say that in the past 2 weeks baptismal dates have climbed to 50% over the entire mission. As for me and Elder Pickett we still have our one baptismal date to work with. It is getting very hard to contact out investigators around the spring time. We had a lot of appointments drop on us. We ended up doing a lot of tracking. Which means according to what other missionaries said that, "The more you tract the hotter your wife will be!" I still have a hard time believing that statement. This past week we tracked 4 1/2 hours. That is a lot of tracking. Luckily my shoes are still intact. There still going strong and I'm loving it. Thank you for the quote from Elder Jeffery R. Holland. I may not have a quote from an apostle but I do have this. I do not know where it is from since it is off of one of Elder Pickett's cd collection when we were sitting in the truck driving. The quote that stood out to me is this, "A Ship is safe in the harbor but it is not what a ship is made for. Take your love to your loved ones and take your frustrations to the Lord." What that is saying is that we are here on Earth to experience what we need to experience to gain our privilege to return back to our heavenly father. We may be safe in our "harbors" regarding our comfort zone and stuff like that but that is not what we are suppose to do. We are suppose to move on through life and experience the storms of our lives. It makes the destination worth the journey. Also instead of taking our frustration and anger on our loved ones that we hold so dearly let us turn to the Lord with our problems that through him we will overcome our difficulties. So when ever we hit a stormy part in our lives let us not blame and get frustrated with each other rather let us turn to the Lord in our most difficult times that we may be able to overcome what we need to overcome. I love you guys and hope you have a great week. Hope to hear from you guys next week!

Love Elder Brennon Behrmann

Dear Family, April 19, 2010
Thank you for the emails. It seems that a lot is happening over back at home. I have to admit that spring time over here in Ohio is better than the spring over in Colorado HA HA!!!! I am getting along with my companion a little bit better. Our investigators are doing fine. Hopefully we can extend a baptismal commitment this Friday or next Friday with one of our investigators. Every missionary in Ohio says you will gain weight. I say to that, "We shall see." After all we are given 30 min. every morning to exercise so do not worry. Thanks also for that analogy. I remembered that analogy with the black dot. To tell the members back at home just say the Elder Behrmann is doing great and he is listening to the mission president and the rules and so on and so forth. I will probably drive this coming transfer on April 28. I have to admit that Ohio has a lot of churches and I mean A LOT!!!!! We even have a mason temple in Ashtabula. A MASON, like the free masons, temple!!! I cannot go inside but I thought of that to be rare. I also have received the privilege of speaking in church yesterday. I spoke on member missionary work and how we are all one fold looking toward one shepherd. Anyway that is all that I have on my end. Keep me posted on everything! Hope to hear from you all soon.
Love
Elder Behrmann

Dear Family, April 12, 2010
I am thoroughly enjoying the spring weather in Ohio. I hope everything is going well for you guys at home. Not much is happening down on my end. Even though I got sick this past Friday and Saturday. I do not know what caused it I was fine all day until our dinner appointment and I just puked my guts. My first sick day great! I am doing fine right now. I realized that missionaries are such pack rats and previous missionaries leave too much junk behind. Well, I should let you know in advance that transfers are coming up on April 28. Just to close this email I would like to say this poem to you guys:

Trees and Man

The tree that didn't have to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But lived out on the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a "Forest King,"
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man that never had to toil,
The man who never tasted spoil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man.
But lived and died where he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease
The stronger the winds the tougher the trees,
The further the sky the greater the length
The more the storms the more the strength,
By sun and cold and rain and snow
In "trees or man" good timbers grow.

Where thickest stands the "Forest Growth,"
We find the "Patriarchs" of both,
Who hold a converse with the stars
Whose broken branches show many scars
Of many winds and much of strife,
This is the common law of life.

That is it the author is anonymous sorry. I hope everything is going well and hope to hear from you next week.

Love,

Elder Behrmann

Dear Family, April 27, 2010

Wow it seems that you guys have had a busy week. So have I. For tomorrow is transfers and do not fear for I will stay in Ashtabula and my address is still the same 1636 E 29th St

My companion, Elder Jensen, on the other hand will be transfered. So that means a new companion. So we thought that it would be fun to have a fun picture together before he was transferred. I have kept me weight at 135.6 lbs. Do not worry the ward members are feeding us well. I have been receiving great weather over in Ohio. Even though it rained for the past 2-3 days. Right now is glorious sunshine. I love it! There is flowers and everything is turning green. Who knew that Ohio does look pretty after all. Next week I will let you all know how transfers went and who my companion is and so on and so forth. Our investigators are doing great. Some are lazy and do not keep commitments very well but some do. The challenge is to keep in daily contact with them or at least keep in contact with them twice a week. My district is great. I simply love my district leader. His name is Elder Love. I love Elder Love! He has been my district leader ever since I have got into the mission field. I have looked into a hymn book that was from the 1948! 1948!!! There is a lot of hymns that do not exist anymore. They took a lot out and condensed it. It was a good Idea but I haven't even heard of half of the hymns in the old book. I was so amazed. It's interesting how the ward/stake has set up an emergency broadcast system over the Radio. That's cool. Twelve families to contact in case of emergency. That's a lot. Imagine trying to keep track of like 15-20 for there spiritual well being. That is difficult. Well hope everything goes well for you and hope to hear from all soon.

Love

Elder Brennon Behrmann