Bags & Bags of Chips

Hello family and friends, so much to say, so little time to say everything. 

Let me just say that this week was incredibly busy. This past week has been a lot of fun too. The oldest district left for Korea... that makes the elders in my district the oldest. Anyways, because my companion is zone leader, he had to stay up until they had checked everything off their departure sheets, this meant we had to stay up with him. So when 10:30 (lights out) rolls around, we go and check on them. We found them sitting around a garbage bag table with bags and bags of chips. Yay, chip party! When we saw them they invited us to eat chips with them. My companion probably ate chips for 15 min. I didn't feel to comfortable to I only ate chips for about 5 min. After our run in with the chip party, we went back to our room. It was at this point that as a companionship we decided to ask the older district if they could finish packing so we could go to bed. Umm, I think they ended up going to bed aroundmidnight. I probably feel asleep around 12:15. Then we woke up to see them off, 5:30. That was fun. We climbed the stairs back to our floor (4 floor) and looked into their rooms. Ya, we spent the next 30 min cleaning up their rooms. At 6:00 we decided to try and sleep for the next 30 min. I ended up laying in bed thinking with my eyes closed. 

So Monday was kind of rough. I think I ran out of candy around 10:30. Then I was on my own to stay awake. We came up with some interesting tactics. Another fun Story. Yesterday was my teacher, Brother Sung's birthday. The sisters found this out in a ... creative way? While the elders were teaching Levi (Brother Sung) the sisters wanted to know his first name. Lets just say that Brother Sung might have left his wallet in the classroom. Anyways, back to his party. We found out his favorite candy and grabbed a pair of jeans we inherited from the Koreans and grabbed a shirt we received as well. Then we left dinner early so we could wait in the classroom and surprise him. We wrapped all of his presents in saran wrap, also inherited. and waited for him. When he opened the door, he went to turn on the light and saw Sister Blum. Yes, lets say he was scared. Then we had him open his present. It was a lot of fun! For our last surprise, we told him we found him a girlfriend and set him up for a date in the middle of class. His 'Girlfriend' was a tiny paper cut out of Anna from Frozen. So after we told him this and watched his reaction, we had someone from another class leave his 'Girlfriend' with a bunch of Chocolate kisses in front of the door. Then we had this person knock on the door in the frozen knock. HAHA, Best class time ever!! I can not wait for his 1 year teaching anniversary, yes we did figure that out too.

Our investigators are doing well. Another funny story. We started TRC, basically it is a simulation were you teach people who are members of the church who volunteer to help you. they act as themselves so it is really cool. It really helps with the language. So we are informed that we will be teaching members on Friday night. We go into our first teaching assignment and it is going pretty well. Halfway through the lesson we find out that two of the people we are teaching are not members! Yes it was super exciting. Then we went to our next appointment and we had the same thing happen to us. We were not to happy with our teacher for giving us the wrong information. Kimsulbin is getting baptized on May 22! We are so happy with the way that she is progressing. You can totally feel the love that God has for her. It is really awesome to watch her testimony grow. Levi is progressing as well, he such a cool person. I am glad that we get to teach him. Tuesday we also started teaching a new investigator. Her name is Katie, Sister Callister, and she is super awesome as well. We were not told we were teaching her. So we had about 10 min. to prepare a whole lesson in Korean, the lesson was about 20 min. long. I can totally tell that we are learning the language. 

This last week we also had a lot of really good devotionals. I can not wait to go out into the field. It is going to be so much fun helping other people come unto Christ. I can really feel the love God has for everyone. As I read the scriptures, I feel like I draw closer to Him as well. Please, study the Book of Mormon everyday! you have no idea how often it will answer a question that you have.

Love Elder Brown

You MUST Speak in all Korean! Impossible!

What a week I have had full of surprises!

To start, I got to go to the real world (real world means outside the MTC). It was so weird. My companion needed to fill a prescription so we went to the pharmacy. Haha, we saw real trees and met people who were not missionaries. It was great. 

Anyways, back to surprises. Kimsumi (the person they were teaching) is not actually Kimsumi. Her name is actually Kimsulbin. Our teacher told us the wrong name... oops. 

Then our teacher was talking about this half Korean teacher who had red hair here at the MTC. We started looking for him, but we couldn't see him anywhere. We started to think our teacher made up this Brother Garlic (yes, that is his name). So we asked another teacher who Brother Garlic was. Brother Garlic doesn't have red hair he has black hair! This bit of information was lost in translation I guess. OH the struggle...

Later in the week, we received a video from Kimsulbin. I think I understood half of it because it was in all Korean, but probably not. Brother Sung, my teacher said that if we got a video from our investigator it means that the investigator was dropping us (which means they don't want to learn more). I was devastated! How could she be dropping us, she was progressing so well? My teacher told our class that we would be meeting with her tomorrow. The next day Kimsulbin (a.k.a my other teacher I didn't know I had) Sister Wynn taught our class. At the end of class we asked why Kimsulbin dropped us. She just laughed. She said that Kimsulbin hadn't dropped us. I am beginning to think Brother Sung likes to mess with us. I am just hoping that he is still teaching us Korean. 

So an update on our investigators, yes we have two now!

Kimsulbin is progressing super fast! I was able to commit her to read the Book of Mormon this week, all in Korean! She has also accepted the invitation to be baptized and plans to be baptized in about a week and a half. 

Our other investigator is progressing as well. Ijanghyan (who knows how to pronounce that!) also know as Brother Sung recently experienced the death of his mother. We felt we should teach him about how God is his loving Heavenly Father. Halfway through the lesson he told us all of his problems, he has a lot! Then he asked where God was. That is a hard question to answer, but when you must speak in Korean, it seemed impossible. I wanted to say that we could not imagine what he was thinking or feeling right now. But there is someone who knows what he is thinking. Someone who knows how he feels. Jesus Christ suffered for him and felt all the pain he was experiencing. He could find comfort and answers to his questions through prayer. But I do not speak enough Korean yet. But I am working on it! So instead we told him we would try to answer his questions tomorrow. The next day, we tried our best to answer his questions. At the end of the lesson, I said " You will see your mother again! Tomorrow we will talk about this." Which was a miracle because I hadn't planned on saying that. The Spirit was so strong and I knew right then (even in this simulated activity where the person we are teaching is acting) that God had a huge amount of love for this person. He has a huge amount of love for all of us! 

In class this week we also did a simulation about a boy who had a lot of concerns as well. The last thing that was written on the board was "He feels that God will only love him if he killed himself." Then we were asked what we would say to him. As soon as I read that on the board, my heart broke. I felt like he was my best friend and I had known him my whole life. All I wanted to do was comfort him and let him know that God is there for him. That God loves him. I am so grateful I have the opportunity of seeing others the way God see's them.

Oh ya, we also received 5 Koreans. they are so funny and I cannot help but laugh at them sometimes. They eat everything with a fork or spoon. You should see them eat their french fries. They are also really funny when they play volleyball. But they are amazing at kickball! Thank you for your support and all your love. I can feel it!

Love Elder Brown

P.S. My teacher told us of all the foods that will hospitalize me while I am on my mission. There is this soup that they sell on the streets that sends about 1% of the people who eat it to the hospital and plenty of people die from it every year.

He also said that if I get sick, I will probably eat dog soup! It is supposed to support your immune system. Oh and there is this sea pineapple that when you cook it, it changes from a gelatin mass, kind of like a brain, and slowly dissolves and falls apart as the yellow seeps into everything else in the soup. He said that one tastes awful and will make you want to not eat anything for 6 months. Sounds like an adventure to me!

First Word from Elder Brown

This has been an amazing week and full of excitement and fun!

I will start with my companions:

Elder Diamante is from the Philippians. He is 24 and has a lot of experience. He is an amazing elder and has a awesome testimony. 

Elder Peterson is from North Carolina. He is 18, I am younger, and is also amazing. They are great to be around. 

I was called as a district leader so that's new! 

Starting on day two of being here we also started teaching Kimsumi, in Korean. That is a story. We went into teach her and couldn't understand her. We spoke very slowly and she probably didn't understand us. We didn't know how to say good bye or how to say we are done or can we come back tomorrow. There was just this very awkward pause. When she closed the door after we left, we couldn't help but laugh. It was definitely a learning experience. 

Korean is ... hard! Haha, I have had a ton of fun here, and I'm learning a lot. 

The food is getting old, but that's ok, I have a secret stash of snacks :). 

Sunday we had an amazing devotional. I also had to teach the district meeting. That was very interesting. We also got to walk around the temple. I woke up to an amazing seen of the mountains. They were covered in snow and clouds. They looked amazing. 

I forgot to bring my journal with me . . . so I am trying to remember everything. 

Tuesday we had another fantastic devotional. It was on the kind of missionary we want to become. 

I love my teacher. His name is Brother Sung and he is awesome. He believes in teaching through... torture? He calls it positive reinforcement. He wants us to be able to withstand the pain that the North Koreans will inflict on use if they capture us. I will send some pictures if I can.

Love Elder Brown