I have become a literal part of the 5th article of faith!

Hi guys!
It’s great to hear from you like always! Thanks so much for your words of support dad! It means a lot.
So I recently looked at my ministral certificate with my district. It is a little card we carry in with us at all times. It has very meaningful words. it says
"Garret Steven Brendlinger, who is in full faith and fellowship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is a duly ordained minister of the gospel and as such has authority to preach the principles of the gospel and to administer the ordinances there of- we invite all people to hear his message."
That was really impressive to me. Not only am I a "minister" but I have become a literal part of the 5th article of faith! I never realized that either of those things would happen to me, but it’s really awesome.
I will do my best to live up to this responsibility. This certificate is recognized legally too. Even the non-Latter Day Saint world acknowledges that when you have this you are not "soliciting" or teaching random thoughts you have, but we have authority to preach and administer. I’m grateful for that opportunity.
I love you guys and I pray for you! I wish you the best. Talk to you later.
Love Elder Brendlinger

I love going to the Temple!

I love going to the Temple! I always have one set of questions answered and I get a whole new set of questions for next time. Ha, but I love it. I can really feel that I’m being taught by the spirit in there. Speaking of that, the spirit is very smart. In fact it knows everything. Joseph Smith said in his King Follett Sermon that he knew more than any man because he had the spirit with him. I know that being taught by the spirit is very important for mission service. It even teaches when we practice lessons with members that role play. I was talking with one instructor and the spirit helped me explain the first vision in a way that I never even thought about before. The spirit taught me as the words came out of my own mouth. That was a remarkable experience. By the way the thought was -- "God answers prayers according to our personal needs. Since Joseph was going to be the prophet of the restoration he needed to see God and His son so that he could endure persecution and testify with power. We can also pray for answers, but we probably won’t see God. But we do feel exactly what WE PERSONALLY need to feel. God will tell us everything we need to know in the way we need to hear it."
I love you all, and I wish you the best!
Elder Brendlinger

I’m learning that I alone can’t fulfill my purpose as a missionary.

I love you guys,
I am learning a lot about faith and diligence right now.
I’m learning that I alone can’t fulfill my purpose as a missionary, but when I do my best to work hard so I can be worthy of the promptings that the spirit provides, and live worthy to receive the strength to do those things THEN I can fulfill my purpose which is to invite others to come unto Christ. Under the direction of The Eternal Father the Lord Jesus Christ is the leader of this work and he is not a passive leader. He is in every part if good mission work that is done by both member missionaries and full time missionaries. The Spirit is a guide for missionaries and as the tool to reach the hearts of Gods children. Without the spirit any success in the mission field is merely coincidence.
I love you and I pray for you.
I was told to encourage my parents to serve senior missions by a president of the 70, so I know it will be an amazing experience if you guys can do it.
Love Elder Brendlinger

Those that convert without full knowledge of the Gospel are very blessed because they have great faith.

Hi every one,
I love you all! Recently as a devotional we just sang the audiences favorite hynms. it brought a great spirit. We sang families can be together forever, and I got emotional and felt really grateful that I’m able to be sealed with you all for eternity. It meant even more cuz I did sealings last week in the temple and got to hear, over and over, the covenants that hold us together. What a great gift families are to us all!
Another favorite song is a poor wayfaring man of grief (number 29). It reminds me of how involved the savior is in my life. He sees everything I do and knows all the good and bad. Every good thing that I do, I indirectly do it to him.
I’m happy to hear that you guys are setting goals for the New Year with the ward. I read a scripture that reminded me of your missionary efforts. I think it’s in Alma 32:15-16. It was talking about how those that convert without full knowledge are very blessed cuz they have great faith. I hope you find some people that will hear your message.
Oh interesting fact, I may leave for the field a week before the rest of my district cuz I’m so local. They are 3/1 and I’m 2/24(may have changed I don’t know) but yeah it’s not a huge detail. I love you! Bye

Every bit of knowledge will be used on a mission.

Hi!
If you ever wanna get a hold of me you can send a letter to dearelder.com and use my mail box number 122 and UT-Pro 0224 mission. I’ll be at the MTC till Wed. Feb. 24th. It usually gets to me the same day.
I can’t listen to music here but I can in the mission field. If you send me some talks would be cool to have on CD as well. "ldsvoices.com" and other sites have free talks that can be downloaded and burnt to CD. Don’t feel like obligated to make some for me though. ill still love you guys. As for cassettes I think so...but idk. My old comp had a tape recorder that he used at an audio journal and sent the tapes to a friend. To me that seemed ok to do during personal time, but we have a no music rule at the MTC now.
TRUST ME every missionary can benefit from more time for study and pondering and spiritual experiences. So Steph, enjoy all the prep time the Lord set out for you. Every bit of knowledge will be used. I’m really focusing on teaching people not teaching lessons. Well my time is almost up. I love you guys! Hope to hear from you soon!
Elder Brendlinger

Practicing missionary lessons for FHE was a great tool.

Hi,
It’s been great here. I’m really enjoying the frequent temple trips. I can never get too much of that. I also love the spirit here. I’m realizing how sensitive the spirit really is. It’s been my focus to strive to invite it all day. It’s very easy to offend it. I love how often it’s around though. I like the great examples of all the other elders. The group that mentored my group just left for the field and a new group just came in on Wed. They are cool. There are a lot of little things to know here, like how to do laundry and stuff.
I’m not in the laundry room typing cuz me and my new comp Elder Bice went to another building so we could print. He is neat. He grew up in a small town and has a lot of funny stories like how he took a girl on a date one time to slaughter a cow! They had a great time.
There have been a lot of good class discussions. We all get along. It’s kind of a must if we want the spirit to be there, and we know that it must be there cuz if we don’t learn with the spirit we can’t teach with the spirit and that is what really converts. Thanks for having me practice the missionary lessons on you guys. It was a great technique. It’s actually how we do it here too. We have the trc and we teach to members that are role playing as investigators in Spanish and English. You can recommend teaching for FHE to the guys in the ward.
All my district members are Elders, no sisters, and we are all learning Spanish. 6 of them are going to Guatemala and Dallas. Cory Hayden from Redmond was here. I saw him a bunch. He left though. Thanks a ton for making the blog!
love you guys talk to you soon! Elder Brendlinger

We saw Elder L. Tom Perry!

Hi!
It’s great to hear from you. I hope everything at home is still going great! its awesome to hear about Stephanie’s horse class. i know it’ll help a bunch as you prep for a mission. One thing Bishop Gardemann told me is that you will use everything you ever learned in life while on your mission. it seems very true so far. I placed my first book of Mormon already! It was over the phone in the referral center (RC) here. We call people who ordered stuff and confirm that they got it. We ask if they would like something else and if the missionaries in their area can drop it off and share a message. We do 3 basic things there "teach testify and invite". I really like it. It’s actual missionary work while on a mission! ha ha.
Elder l. Tom Perry came and spoke at a devotional here on Tuesday, it was very good. He was here to set apart 8 new MTC presidents! That seems like a lot. He talked about 5 things we much teach and testify of as missionaries. The five points that Elder Perry taught were 1mission of the savior 2 apostasy and restoration(the AUTHORITY is back(see Luke 6) ) 3 Book of Mormon 4 restoration of the priesthood 5 organization of church(same as Christ's dispensation)
Ill pray for you guys! Love you! Talk to you soon.

I want to make my time here count.

Hi guys! It’s awesome here! I go to the Provo Temple once a week. It’s right across the street from the MTC. We walk there. It’s cool I really like it. It’s my favorite day of the week. I did initiatories as a proxy for the first time. It was great! and my comp needed 2 blessings so I helped with those. That was nice. We go to the temple as a district so there are 7 of us but there are always other missionaries there too. This week is going well here. They say that time here is very distorted. "The days go like weeks and the weeks go like days" it seems to be pretty true. There are very busy days but they blend together in your memory cuz we kind of do the same few activities every day. It seems like I’ve been here maybe a few days when I look back. I hope I can change that and really make the time here count. I feel like I’m changing and I want to keep it up. I love it though. I like the time to learn about so many important things. I’m typing in the laundry room now. There are probably 100 machines and tons of elders frantically writing. We aren’t allowed much time to write but I’m glad I can talk with you. I love you guys and I hope that you recognize the Lords hand in your lives and feel of His love and tender mercies. Take care!
LOVE
Elder Garret S. Brendlinger

Welcome to the MTC

Garret loves the MTC. He's been doing lots of studying and practicing working hard ALL day. He has had two great companions so far. It does not really feel like a mission though because he's still going to mission prep and not teaching. He is grateful for the practice and for the opportunity to become a sharper tool for the Lord. He gets to go to the Provo Temple once a week and it is his favorite day of the week. He really wants to grow and make his time at the MTC count.

We gave him a hug

The whole family was able to see Garret off at the MTC after a full day of seeing the sites in Salt Lake City and going to the Salt Lake Temple as a family.

Garret Texting

Garret was texting and writing down contact information for his friends right up until we pulled up to the curb at the Mission Training Center.

Garret's Last Meal

Garret's last meal before entering the Mission Training Center was at the Creamery on the Brigham Young University Provo Campus. It was delicious.