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!