Highlights from Danny's 2nd letter from the MTC - june 9th 2009

Disclaimer: I am typing this letter as fast as I can, so there will be many spelling errors. Also the fact that I am not using English much anymore makes my grammar suffer.
Dear Family:

First P-day of my mission! It has been very relaxing. We have no class scheduled and we get to spend the whole morning and afternoon writing letters and getting our laundry done. Thank you for all the letters all of you have sent! It has been great to hear from so many people. Particularly my family. I hope and pray that you guys can stay this valiant at writing me my whole mission. :) Letters truely are the best part of the day. It is almost silly how much missionaries crave mail. At the end of the day, the district leader hands out the mail that came that day. It is funny watching the other missionary's faces as they hope and pray someone thought of them that day.

I'll just share a couple of experiences I have had:

Monday I got the opportunity to go the referral center. We call it the RC. In the referral center we take calls and make calls to a list of people that have expressed interest in learning about the church. Many Elders in my district had a lot of success, we got quite a few referrals in the short time that we were there. In the hour we were there, I got one person to agree to me sending them a Book of Mormon. There was one other later that was already sent a Book of Mormon. I was calling to make sure she received it, but the print was to small so she couldn't read it. I had her call the distribution center, I hope they helped her out there.

We have gym period every day. The first day was very disappointing. I played some 6 on 6 volleyball. Most of the people that were playing were extremely incompetent. So that was too bad. But the next day I met a bunch of Elders who were really good and we were having a really good game yesterday. It looks like the MTC is going to get me into good physical shape after all.

The Thai language is great. I really do love it. It sounds so cool! I am learning very fast and am picking up on concepts quickly. I really enjoy singing hymns in Thai, it just sounds so funny. There are some vowels in Thai that we do not have in English that just sound completely ridiculous. I am very confident that through the help of the Lord I will be able to be competent with Thai by the time I get out of the MTC.

Because of the influx of missionaries (swine flu keeping them here), they had to separate our district and place some Elders with other Districts for living quarters. Elder Holt and I got placed with the South Korean district. When we arrived we were a little bit reluctant to be with a different language. But it is quite fun learning words in Korean as well as Thai. The only bad part is one of the Elders in my room got swine flu. He came out of quarantine yesterday. But he has been coughing up a storm ALL day. Oh well! Our floor was hit pretty hard with the flu this week. Many people in quarantine and lots wearing masks. But they have been coming back the last few days. I hope it passes soon, it is very weird to not be able to shake someone’s hand.

One of my instructors is named Elder Saahka. He is a Thai native that is working on his Masters at BYU. He is a convert from Buddhism. He is such a great man! I just hope that all the people in Thailand are as loving as he is. He is very funny and is very familiar with the gospel. He served his mission in Canada, English speaking. Last night was a very meaningful experience with him. He was writing up testimony phrases on the board. Took him 5-10 minutes. As he was writing, the district got very noisy and started talking about worldly things: music, tv, etc.. After about 15 minutes he stopped us and asked us what just happened. He asked us if we really wanted to be missionaries and left for the night. As a District we then had a long, deep discussion of our personal goals and what we need to do to be able to prove to ourselves, and to Brother Saahka that we truly want to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Thailand. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, kneeling there with the 14 other members of the District, begging God to give us the strength to overcome the world and set ourselves apart as missionaries of the Lord. I hope we can all remember the promises we made in that prayer. I have high hopes for this district.

In my district we have 15 members. 12 Elders and 3 Sisters. They are all wonderful. We are truely blessed with many many talents. 15 members is HUGE for a district, especially one headed to Thailand. The last district they sent out was 4 members. Our district leader is great. He is an inspired leader. He is actually the grandson of Elder McConkie the apostle.

That is enough stories for now. I am running out of time.

I am about to head off to the temple for the first time. I am very excited for the trip up there. I have learned SO much about the Atonement this week. I'm sure my eyes will be opened to new things that I never before would have even guessed.

Keep writing me and keep praying for me, it really does help.


With all the love in the world,

-Elder Brown