Letter #8 tues july 21, 2009- from danny -it is late because i have been in ecuador the last 2 weeks

(The picture is an old pic of danny and his good friends after playing soccer...)


Hanlo, loog.

After today I have two P-days left in the MTC. Scary. 3 weeks from now I will be in an airplane on a 30 hour flight to the other side of the world. The flight should be great. I hope to get a lot of studying done. I am hoping we have long-layerovers in LAX and China. That way we can try to proselate and get some Books of Mormon placed in the real world. I am pretty sure I am leaving Monday night, but things may change.

So that means any letters that do not arrive here by August 10th I will not get. The Bangkok mission office address should be posted in my blog. Feel free to send me letters there! I'm not entirely sure how international postage works. I think you just have to go to the post office and buy international stamps. I think they are 98 cents a piece, who knows. Maybe I'll be able to email more, but I'm not holding my breath.

This week we got in the new Thai district! 2 new Elders and 2 new Sisters. The Elders were assigned to room with my companion and I. Unfortunately, one of the elders decided to go home after the first day. So the other elder was left without a companion and the only Elder in his district. Now that he is a solo Elder, my companion and I take him every where. We are his escorts! It works out well though. The new Elder is Thai. His mom is Thai and his dad is Laotion. He knows Laotion really well and knows quite a bit of Thai. He was born in Utah and went to Highland High School. He is nice to have around because his pronunciation is great; he went to the Thai/Lao ward in Murray for the past 3 years... so he definitely has some experience on us.

Today I'd just like to talk about missionary work and service in general. I've been thinking about it a lot this week. Why do people serve other people? Why do we even care about anyone else? Why do some people feel the need to serve and others don't? Hopefully through my study over the past week and my insight I can answer these questions.

Service is the act of love. If you love someone, you will want to serve them. You will want to do everything in your power to help them with anything they need. Kinda sounds corny, right? The words: no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care are so true.

Human beings are the only animals capable of service. We have the choice to help someone else even if it endangers or compromises ourselves. What an amazing gift! If you look throughout nature, you will not find a monkey that paid several thousand dollars to go help people in Ecuador. You will not find some insects that give up two years of their life to go care for the needs of people in Thailand. It simply doesn't exist outside of the realm of human beings.

Missionary work and service is one of the best ways to show God how much he means to you. To roughly quote Elder Packard, "The day I gave the Lord the one thing He would never take from me, I become truly free". This quote is talking about our agency. Our ability to choose what we want and when we want it.

When we came to Earth we were given free reign to choose right and wrong, bad and worse, good and better. We were given choice because it is the only way we can learn and progress. The law of agency cannot be compromised by God.

We can only willingly give our agency to God. We can submit ourselves to him, and do the things that he would want us to do. This is particularly evident in service. When we give up and sacrifice things of our own to do things for other people, we truly show God our love for him and other people. When we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of God.

Sacrifice is such a big part of service. For it to be true service we have to sacrifice something to achieve it. Can a mission truly be sacred without sacrifice? I think not.

The word phxa in Thai is one of the words they use as the linking word "for". You can only use the word phxa when the act is self-sacrificing and altruistic. Example: Elder Brown is serving a mission phxa the people of Thailand. D&C 97:8 says it very well. We must sacrifice to truly serve.


Another thought that I have been thinking a lot about lately has become one of my main goals while on a mission:

Never miss a chance to bear my testimony, don't waste that expectation.

I really enjoy this idea. Whenever I approach somebody while in Thailand, they know who I am. The first moment they see my haircut, the long pants, and the name "Jesus Christ" across my heart on my name badge... they know who I am. I don't want to be shy about my declaration. They know from that first moment that I am going to tell them something and that I am going to ask them to change their lives. They know that; they aren't dumb.

If I go up and talk to them and I don't extend a commitment to come unto Jesus Christ; if I don't bear witness to them that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all of this world, I am wasting their expectation.

What if they would've accepted my message and I simply was too afraid or too shy to ask? All they needed was the invitation. I have made it a goal to never have any regrets about bearing my testimony. If I am prompted to share my message with a particular person, I will go talk to that person. If I get scared or get afraid that they may be too busy, I have 10 seconds to go and talk to them anyways. Missionaries must be bold! Acts 4:13


Jeffery R. Holland said during his address to the MTC that while serving a mission, you are closer to living a life similar to an Apostle then any other time in your life, he told us to use every minute of these 24 months to study and use this opportunity. (my computer just started doing weird things, it won't let me capitalize, please fix it) he told us "do not miss any chance you have to be apostalic" he literally meant it like it sounds. during this time i will have thoughts and ideas that i will never be able to have throughout the rest of my life. i better use it while i can.

well i am out of time. talk to you next week. hope all is.

love,

elder brown

Letter #7 from Danny

Hi All,

Well, my letter is going to be short this week! I just typed up a big letter, and then my computer died on me and I lost the whole thing! Now I only have 10 minutes of computer time, so I will type as fast as possible to get as much information to you as possible!

Good news/bad news! My departure date has been moved forward a week. I am now departing on August 10th. That is 3.5 weeks away! I should get my flight information in the next 2 weeks. Exciting! I feel like I am not ready yet, I am going to have to study harder in order to be prepared to leave on that date. The MTC feels I'm ready, so I'll listen to them.

Things are so good. Today I would just like to quickly talk about my teachers here in the MTC. We have two teachers that teach our district, Brother Duval and Brother Saakha. They both teach us about 3 hours a day, everyday except for Tuesday and Sunday. They are both so amazing and support each other so well.

Brother Duval is a great guy. He is in his late 20's and just graduated from BYU with a Bachelors in Biology. He is headed towards Optometry School. He took his admissions test last week and did very well! He scored in the top 99% in the entire country! He was so happy. All of his practice tests he scored much, much lower. He knows that he did so well because of his faith. A lot of people in the district didn't like him very much at first because he works us very hard. Even the first day we got here, he didn't speak any English to us. We were all very confused and had no idea how we would ever learn what he was talking about. Over the past few weeks we have really begun to appreciate him for working us so hard and expecting so much out of us. I know that his hard work will pay big dividends once we get to Thailand. His wife gave birth to his first kid yesterday. This is a great time in his life. He served his mission in Thailand so he can relate to us very well. He has taught us so much about planning.

Our other teacher is Brother Saakha. He is a convert to the church from Thailand. He grew up Buddhist and met the missionaries when he was 19 years old. He served his mission in Canada. His conversion story is absolutely amazing. Have I told you it yet? I can't remember. He is studying at BYU for his Masters in Special Education. It is very ironic that he is a special education teacher and is teaching us! We sure can use it! He is one of the most Christ-like people I have ever met in my life. He is a shining beacon of the missionary efforts in Thailand. He really teaches with the Spirit so well. I am very grateful to have a native Thai for a teacher. He can tell us so many things about the culture and about Buddhism that no one else ever could.

My district is doing so great. We are by far the best district to ever come through the MTC. We have 15 people in the district! The biggest district in the MTC right now. 12 Elders and 3 Sisters. It is amazing that we can all stay focused and dedicated. We don't have a single person in the district that is not completely focused in being the best missionary they can possible be. It is going to be a great day when we get to Thailand.

The field is white, already to harvest! We are not going there to plant seeds, we are going there to harvest. Just like the Lord has promised us. If we plant seeds on the way, so be it!

I am out of time! Too bad the computer died. I had some great RC experiences this week. I am up to 9 investigators that I am working with. One of them is being baptized on Saturday! That is exciting! Well I have 10 seconds left. Gotta go! Bye!!

Love,

Elder Brown

Letter # 6 from Danny in the MTC 07/0709

Greetings to Babylon.


I hope all is well outside the bubble I am in.

First off, I'd like to share some of the 4th of July festivities we had here at the MTC. We were surprised on Saturday to find out that we would be having a special fireside at 7:00 PM. It was very funny. The fireside was a historic look at all the parts in history that have prepared the way for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ; unfortunately, the entire thing was a fiasco.

It was pretty much two hours of non-stop laughing. It kinda made me feel bad, but we couldn't help it! The MTC presidency and other leaders acted out some of the ancient scholars such as Tyndail, Luther, etc.. Also many of the founding fathers were depicted. They "attempted" to dress-up in authentic garb of the period. They presented their message from another room with a background that was green-screened behind them.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The wig that Benjamin Franklin was wearing was quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever seen in my life. People kept forgetting their lines and way over-dramatizing everything. I wish you all could have seen it! Best comedy show I have ever been to. The green-screen went out several times, so objects would appear out of no where. At one time Thomas Jefferson's wig disappeared and then reappeared.

They should've just made it more patriotic. You know, American. Blow something up or sing really loud songs! Oh well, maybe next year!

Afterwards we went outside to watch the stadium of fire, we could see it because it was hosted at BYU. The mission president let us stay out passed curfew to watch the show. It was a mad-house. Missionaries were running around screaming and being completely ridiculous. Pretty good stuff. All-in-all it was probably the funniest day of my life.


Anyways, this week I have been thinking a lot about prayer. Last week our task in the TRC was to teach an investigator how to pray, why we pray, and what we are feeling as we pray. It was pretty difficult to do in Thai, but we got through it.

It made me think, why is prayer one of the first doctrines we teach as missionaries? Why is it so crucial? When Elder Holt and I teach the first lesson we almost always start off by teaching them about God and then teach them how to pray. This doctrine is taught even before we mention Jesus Christ. But why?

We are told in 2 Nephi 32:9 that we must always pray: But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul. (This whole chapter is great, I would suggest reading it; it is pretty short) We learn that we are to pray always and that anything we ever do should be preceded by prayer.

This really got me thinking. I pray when I wake up. I pray before every meal. I pray before and after every meeting, class, inventory, lesson, and MDT. All-in-all I probably participate in over 30-40 prayers a day.

This idea made me reflect to my early days in church, even all the way back to primary. Before we started a meeting we would always have someone offer a prayer. The prayer was always very simple, and usually repeated the same things each time. Often times kids would say ridiculous things like "bless God that he can be Ok" or "bless the food" when there wasn't any food to be eaten. But the point that I am trying to get at is by saying a prayer, we are acknowledging the existence of God or at least the possibility of there being a God.

This is monumental! For us to submit ourselves to God and to say to God by our simple gesture, "God we know you are there, please help us". I know that when we say those prayers God will complete his promise as stated in 2 Nephi 32:9. He will consecrate our performance. Everything we do, we will do better. Everything we want, will be granted to us. Everything we have ever wondered about, can and will be revealed to us.

The other crucial aspect of prayer is that it invites the Spirit. The Spirit can only be present if you do something to get it with you. Reading the scriptures, praying, thinking about Christ, etc.. Prayer is an easy way that we can access the divine companionship of the Holy Ghost at any time that we want! What a great blessing that is! If we are feeling down, overwhelmed, or simple need someone to talk to, we can pray to our Loving Heavenly Father and he will comfort us in the absolute best way possible.

Reminds me of a President James E. Faust quote a good friend gave me, "I believe the Spirit of the Holy Ghost is the greatest guarantor of inward peace in our unstable world. It can be more mind-expanding and can make us have a better sense of well-being than any chemical or other earthly substance. It will calm nerves; it will breathe peace to our souls. It can enhance our natural senses so that we can see more clearly, hear more keenly, and remember what we should remember. It is a way of maximizing our happiness."

Wow! What a wonderful apostolic promise! Through prayer we can invite the Spirit. Through the Spirit we can maximize our happiness. Sounds like a great deal, yeah?

I know that these words are true, I've tested it out. I've had days where I have forgotten to say my morning prayers, there is a HUGE difference. President Gordon B. Hinckley once said, "Every morning..., missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessing of those they will be teaching. If they will do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the Spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit."

I know that this teaching is true, and that it applies to all of us; not just missionaries. As we pray, we will feel God's presence with us. We will feel His love for us. We will gain access to his Spirit that will help us accomplish seemingly impossible things.


Just as an update. I have started doing chats in the RC. They are very fun! On mormon.org there is a button on the bottom of every page that says "ask questions" when people click on that link they are directed to me in the RC. It is amazing to talk to people! It seems that the conversations that I receive over chat are much more meaningful. I really feel like I am changing peoples lives and directing them towards Jesus Christ.

I have three new progressing investigators that I haven't told you guys about yet. I am about out of time for my email this week, so hopefully I will be able to share those experiences next week.


The Thai language is coming well. I have a vocab of around 1200 words now and am progressing very fast with reading. I can read the Book of Mormon in script now, it is very slow though. This week we will teach our first lesson entirely in Thai. That should be fun!


Well I am out of time for this week. Keep writing to me and praying for me! I love hearing from all of you. I really can feel the effect of the prayers you offer in my behalf. Keep it up!

Love,

Elder Brown!

Please Mail Danny! He loves to hear from you!

Danny's MTC mailbox is 319-0817 go to www.dearelder.com and you can mail him for free! He would love to hear from you!
If you want to write a us post letter here is his address:

Elder Daniel Elling Brown
Thailand Bangkok Mission
MTC MAILBOX #319-0817
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

Letter #5 from Danny-June 30th 2009

Hello!

It is a blistering hot day today in Provo. How is the weather up in Salt Lake? Feels like it is in the 90's down here. It is incredible to think that Thailand is going to be 20 degrees hotter and 100% humidity. Joy!

Few updates, mission presidents came in last week. Most of them left on Sunday. It was crazy seeing so many of them. Probably was around 90 mission presidents and their wives here. It was very common to be walking to a different building and run into an Apostle or into a Seventy.

The GA fireside was postponed until Friday of last week. As expected, it turned out to be a great show. I got in line about 3 hours before the doors opened. Good thing. They opened the doors 35 minutes before the devotional was set to begin. Within 5 minutes the entire gym was full. The next 30 minutes was fun. We waited in our seats as we watched general authority after general authority walk in. It was funny to see them kick people off the stand because someone higher rank came in and they didn't have enough room on the stand! In all there was seven apostles present at the fireside. Holland, Bednar, Cook, Perry, Cristophersen, Anderson, and Oaks.

Within 5 minutes of the starting time, they announced the speaker to be Elder Holland. This came as somewhat of a surprise because he had just spoken at the MTC 2 months previous. He gave a sturring sermon on the neccesity to have the Holy Ghost with us at all times. It really gave new meaning to the phrase always having the Holy Ghost with you.

His talk was entitled "The Divine Companionship". He went on to explain that this title had several meanings. 1st it talks about your relationship with your companion; if you don't get along with your companion you cannot be successful. 2nd he talked about the divine companionship being between you and your spouse.(this was mostly aimed towards the mission presidents in the audience) 3rd is the divine companionship of the Holy Ghost that all missionaries need in order to function.

He declared that missionaries should not travel two-by-two! We should be going out three-by-three; the third companion being the Holy Ghost. He told us to ask ourselves this question at the end of everyday: "Throughout today was the Holy Ghost our Senior companion, Junior companion, or was He not in our companionship at all?" This has been something that Elder Holt and I have been evaluating everyday.

Another point he made was from the scripture in the D&C where it talks about "thou shalt not teach without the spirit of the lord". I had always thought this scripture meant that if we did not have the spirit, that we would suck at teaching, or that without the Spirit we would have to rely on our own intellect, BUT that is not what it is saying at all. The word "shall" is an imperative verb. This means that the Lord is saying "I strictly forbid you from teaching without the Spirit". "Shall" is commandment language; just like "Thou shalt not kill", to a missionary "Thou shalt not teach without the spirit" is also a commandment.


The other words that he said that distinctly stuck out to me were "welcome to the work of angels, welcome to divine companionship, welcome to the greatest hour of your life". Elder Holland went on to say that we are sending out God's "bold declaration". What a bold declaration it is! This wording comes out of 3 Nephi 11:31-41.

*As a side note*
3 Nephi 11:31-41 is quite possibly the most beautiful language ever recorded in the history of the world. It far surpasses anything I've read in the Bible or elsewhere in the Book of Mormon. It surpasses any great literature I have ever read. Shakespeare eat your heart out. These ten verses are the spoken words of Jesus Christ as he first appears in America. They are so eloquent, yet so simple. So deep, yet unmistakable. Read them as scripture. Then read them as literature. Notice the double-crossing chiasmus. The inversed points between chiasmus at the peak of A and B(v. 33 and v. 38). THERE IS NO WAY A FARM BOY WROTE THIS BOOK. The verses start out by the Savior stating that He is going to declare is doctrine. The chi ends with the same word, declare, but this time, it is the Lord commanding us to declare His words.

Back to Elder Holland, he ended his talk by assuring us that if we are obedient and have the Holy Ghost that it is enough. "It is enough, He will let those missionaries and investigators feel a touch of heaven. That is when the Earth starts to tremble & the lightning strikes. Even though it is a still, small voice, it comes as thunder."

I am running out of time. So I will just have to tell you more about this talk another time.

Things are going great in the RC! I have quite a few serious investigators. This week I called back Polly and Deborah a few times. I taught their whole family a lesson about hope and how to get through hard times with faith in Jesus Christ. My lessons were mostly focused around Alma 58:10-11 and Alma 7:11-12. They are great verses, I would suggest you check them out!

I also called a guy named Brian Richardson. He is from Ohio. He is pretty much a golden investigator, if I don't get him baptized I would be surprised. I guess we will just have to see though! I am committing him to see the missionaries and to go to church this week, so I hope that goes well. He has a desire to read the Book of Mormon, and his wife has been for quite some time. He really strives to better himself through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and is super interested in the idea of Eternal Families. I'll let you know how that goes.

Today my district got to clean the temple! It was quite fun actually. We were there for about 4 hours. It is amazing to see how much effort and time they put into keeping the Lord's house as neat as possible. I spent over 2 hours cleaning small cracks in the windows with Q-tips. No joke! It was very fulfilling work and gave me a fun perspective on the temple.

This next Monday the older Thai district is leaving for Thailand! We will be the old group! The week after the younger Thai district is coming. That will be crazy to be the old, experienced veterans. The next district only has 4 Elders, so it might be a little bit different.

One last thing before my time runs out. Everyone go check out www.mormon.org . It is an amazing website!!!! I can't say enough about it. The resources on it are just so impressive. They have testimony clips of real converts and their thoughts about the church. They also have tons of full length church films that you can watch under the "media" section. Tell everyone you know about this website! It is amazing!!

I love you all and thank you all so much for all the letters, packages, and prayers I receive. Make sure to pray for the Thai people so that the Lord can prepare them to receive my message when I get there.

Love, Elder Brown

Danny's 4th Letter from the MTC - tues-June- 23 -09

This picture was taken before danny left on his mission when Pres. Monson visited our stake conference!


Hello!!!

Heading into the fourth week. I am now officially an MTC veteran. The English speaking district in my zone that came in on the same day as us left yesterday. Oh boy. It is weird to think that I will see another 3-4 English districts come and go.

Originally, I really wanted to go English speaking. I really think that there are great opportunities, especially state-side; but, I don't think it would have worked for me.

If I would have went state side, I would not have been able to realize how much I need the Lord to do this work. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a good speaker. They could've sent me out to an English mission, and through my sheer cunning words, I could've probably convinced a few people to come unto Christ with eloquent sentences and logic.

However, I am faced with a situation that is COMPLETELY impossible to accomplish by myself. Those of you who have learned another language will understand my thoughts.

Two months left. To learn a language. One of the hardest languages in the world. If I were to go to a school or university and tell them to teach me Thai in 3 months. They would laugh at me. It is completely and utterly impossible. No human can do it, regardless of their own mental capability.

Not only do I have to learn a language that is opposite and backwards from English in every way imaginable, but I have to learn the culture. The Thai language and the Thai culture are so tightly connected that without understanding how a Thai person thinks, it is impossible to predict how to structure a sentence.

On top of the culture, I will be in a completely foreign environment with completely different food. I will not know anyone. I won't run into someone I know from school; it will take about two weeks for me to even receive letters.

All of these things are great blessings to me. Stepping stones for me to grow on. Without these impossible challenges I would not need to rely on the Lord. Because he has called me to do the work, he will give me the ability to do it. Not from my own skill, but through his skill and knowledge.

I have really felt his help the last few weeks. Setting goals that are impossibly out of my reach is a very fun thing to do. When I set goals I think of what I personally could do. Then I double it. I know that the only way that I make my goals is because the Lord is granting my desire to learn the language.

The reason He is helping me learn the language is not so that I can look smart. It is not for my gain at all. The only way that he will help me is if my desires are pure. I need to learn Thai because I cannot teach the Thai people without knowing the language. I cannot bring their souls unto salvation if I cannot tell them about their loving Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ. For this purpose, He is helping me.

I can really testify that the Spirit is in this institution. It is the only way that any of this stuff is possible. We pray for the Spirit, he comes, and we learn insane amounts of material. May God bless me that I can stay worthy of his Spirit, without it, this work would be impossibly difficult.

This last week has been especially hard. Week 3 is the first slump for the 12 week schedule. It is when the reality of the work really hits you. I think I took it better than most people. I am really lucky that I have remained healthy.

The temple is closed this week and next week for cleaning. The mission presidents are arriving tomorrow. (interesting timing on closing the temple, wouldn't you think?) Feel free to write me about this subject if you think it is more than a slight coincidence.

Also, the Tuesday GA Devotional is canceled and rescheduled for Friday so that all the new mission presidents can be. Basically that meeting should be spectacular. There should be at least a couple of Apostles present, if not the Prophet himself. Except next weeks update to be very interesting.

The RC this week was very interesting. I talked to a lot of great people. I talked with a lady named RoseMarie for about 20 minutes. She has been Roman Catholic for 78 years. Her faith in Christ really impressed me, I sent her a DVD about the life of Christ and am calling her back on Monday to ask her what she thought. I plan to tell her the Joseph Smith story on Monday.

I also talked to a lady named Polly. She is an old lady, probably in her 70's. I was calling looking for her daughter, Deborah, but she was not home. I started talking to Polly. Her life really is so awful. She is 70+ years old and she is the only one in her family that even has a working body. Her daughter, Deborah, is completely crippled and can't get any medical treatments because she lost Medicaid. Her son, is in prison. Her other daughter is extremely autistic. I talked to Polly for a long time. She has great faith in Prayer. I told her that if she would pray every day for the strength to endure her trials that God would bless her. She agreed to me sending the missionaries to her house. They should be calling her today or tomorrow to set up an appointment. I'm calling her back on Monday to make sure that everything went smoothly. She desperately needs the gospel in her life.

This week I have been really thinking about the Book of Enos. It is a great book, one of the shortest in all recorded scripture. The message is very powerful and deep though. I would recommend that you reread it, it only takes a few minutes.

Enos is great. You can tell he was a great guy from the get go. First off, he thanks his parents. He acknowledges that the only reason he is in the position he is in is because of his parents. He then goes on to say that he really feels guilty for the mistakes he has made. He feels guilty because of his "conscience". The conscience lies inside everyones Spirit's. Because our spirits are created by Heavenly Father, they innately know the things that he knows. Thus, when we choose evil, we all know it.

Enos goes off into the forest. Away from the things of the world. Not only away from the things of the world, but closer to the things of God(i.e. nature). When he is there, he is very close to the presence of the Lord. He prayers for forgiveness of his sins. The word he uses to describe the situation is he "wrestles" before God. Not with God, but wrestles before God with himself. This really describes the repentance process. It is no easy thing, it really requires work and dedication from the person that wants the forgiveness.

God answers him and grants his forgiveness. Immediately he feels love for his brethren, the Nephites. This is great! True repentance causes a person to act; act in charity. As our understanding of the Atonement increases, our desire to share the Gospel will increase. Further in the chapter Enos prayers for the forgiveness of his enemies, the Lamanites! Not only is he concerned about his own soul, not only is he concerned about his friends, but he asks the Lord to help his enemies! This is amazing that Enos could have that much love.

I think this is is the key to ALL good missionary work. You cannot teach someone effectively until you are free from sin. Furthermore, you cannot teach someone effectively if you don't love them through the power of charity. People will not care about my message if they can't tell that I am honestly and earnestly trying to help them. If they can see the love I have for them and the desire I have for them to come unto Christ, they will listen to the message the Spirit brings them. People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.


Random Thai-Fact of the week: everyone in Thailand receives a nickname from their parents at birth. This nickname is the name that they go by for their whole life. They only reveal their true name to people that they love and trust. I thought that this was incredibly interesting in light of the temple. I am convinced that the people of Thailand had the gospel in ancient times. There are way too many cultural "oddities" for me to think otherwise. Wonder where the three wise men came from? Thailand? Probably!

Well, I am just about out of time. Sorry I rambled a lot today. I couldn't think of what to write. Ask me more questions! Tell me what you want to know! Any questions about missionary work or the MTC? Also any gospel/doctrinal thoughts, I'd love to communicate a message that is interesting and inspiring to you.

Thank you for all your letters this week, I truly am blessed with a great family. I get so many letters. It is great, it really keeps me going through the day.

Love,

Elder Brown

Letter #3 -week 3 in the MTC - June 16, 2009

These pics were taken at Nathen's farewell a few days before many of the boys left on their missions!


So.

The most common question I have received from everyone that has written me. That question is "What is the hardest thing in the MTC?" Although many of you might think the answer to this question is: waking up early, bad food, no dates, studying all day, etc.. It is not. The hardest thing in the MTC is avoiding the Swine Flu! My district is dropping like flies, it seems like every morning another Elder or two is down for the count. My entire zone is now on TamiFlu, so it is unlikely that I will get it now. The church found some secret supply of vaccines so now they are handing them out like candy. Unfortunately, I read the side effects of the drug. 70% of the control group experienced violent diarrhea. That is kind of a bummer. The doctor who gave us the pills (I'm quite convinced he wasn't even a real doctor) told us not to read the instructions because it would make us scared! Quite funny, oh well. I'll take that over being quarantined for a week. I can't afford being out of the classroom for that long, I will fall behind way too fast.

In Thai I can now pray, bear testimony, ask questions, get to know someone, and tell people about my family. We started the alphabet this week. I already learned most of it before I came, so I am ahead. Right now my goal is to learn 200 words a week. It is hard, but I think I can do it with the help of the Lord. It really is amazing how the Holy Ghost helps the learning process. Yesterday in evening class, we started the class with learning some teaching skills and after an hour we went into learning language. Before we started he told us to have 50 seconds to say a personal prayer to ask the Holy Ghost to help us learn the words. It really is surprising how strong the spirit is, not only during gospel discussions, but during language training. I know it is because I desire to teach the Thai people about Christ. Only through selfless service does the Spirit help.

Last Tuesday was my first General Authority Fireside. We have one every Tuesday at around 6:30. We do not know who the speaker is until he walks in.(most of the time) So, on Tuesday Elder Holt and I arrived about an hour early to the devotional. The missionaries start prelude music 30 minutes before the devotional starts. 5 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, the MTC president stood up and told us "It is not policy to normally stand while singing, UNLESS someone from the quorum of the twelve were to walk in", shortly there after Elder Bednar walked in with his wife. Elder Bednar is one of my top three favorite apostles. His insight is so deep and he expects a lot out of his audience. He started his talk by asking us the question "How do you know when you are guided by the Spirit?". This is a question that a lot of missionaries ask themselves, they don't know if what they are doing is inspired or ever know if they have ever felt the Spirit. What he told us came as somewhat of a shock. His answer was "Don't worry about it." He promised us that if we are good boys(and girls), keep our covenants, and keep the commandments that ALL of our actions would be guided, whether we even knew it or not. It remind me of the story of Nephi and Laban in 1 Nephi 4. Nephi even says "I was led by the Spirit, not knowing before hand the thing which I should do". He was doing what he was told, but he had no idea that he would be doing what he was doing.(I don't want to spoil the ending for those who haven't read it :) go read it! it is a great story!)

Speaking of the stories of Nephi. There is a reason why they are at the beginning of the BoM! It is because Mormon knew that we would read the first part more than anything else. We all know how it goes, we pick up the BoM wanting to read the whole thing. Then we get the dreaded Isaiah chapters and stop! Months later... we pick it up again... only to get to the Isaiah chapters... and stop!

Funny story: there was a man walking down the street. He turned the corner and a guy shot him. He stopped, without being harmed. Reached into his coat pocket and picked out his Book of Mormon. He opened it up only to find that the bullet had stopped at the Isaiah chapters!! Nothing/no one can get through it! (that was a fake story, by the way.)

Anyways, back to my main point. Personal revelation is real, even if we don't know that the spirit is controlling our thoughts and actions. Anything that is good, comes from Christ. If you are interested in learning more about Elder Bednars experiences with being guided by the Spirit without knowing it. Look up a talk called "The 20 Mark Note" by President Packard. I think he gave it at BYU Idaho. I challenge you to try it out with any choices you make in your life. God loves you and He has promised that He will guide you in any and all choices you make. Whether or not you know it at the time! Sometime down the road, you will see that a seemingly small decision made a huge impact. Like Nephi, he didn't know what he was doing. But if he didn't make the decision to be led by the Spirit, we would not have that record.

I see all the Asian missions quite frequently. I see Nate at least five times a day. I see Ryan at least once a day, we study on the same floor. We all have all our meals and gym period together. Not to mention we live in the same building.

Things that you should send sometime, but are not urgent: ear plugs, ankle braces(the ones I use for volleyball), bleach pen.

I get to read mail every day in the evening. But like I said, I can only send out mail on Tuesdays. That might change when I get into the field. I can't wait to get into the field! It is so fun seeing missionaries leave. They look so scared, haha.

The RC was much more successful this week. I committed several people to prayer and to read the Book of Mormon. I have two people that I am calling back to night to followup on. I am trying to get some baptisms while in the MTC, that would be fun. With 12 weeks, it is QUITE possible. I wish my Spanish was better, a good majority of the people that I call can only speak Spanish. So I try to puddle through a conversation with them, but my church words are severely lacking in Spanish. Maybe I can improve! It is hard to keep my languages straight. Especially when reading in romanized Thai, it is hard to remember it is not Spanish or English.

I've been reading 2 Peter 1 the last few days. You should read that chapter. He talks about Christ-like attributes(the same that are listed in the D&C, except for one) and he then lists specific promised blessings to those who obtain those attributes in their fullness. Make sure to consult the JST towards the bottom, you might be able to make sense of it.

This week Elder Holt and I are giving a lesson on Jospeh Smith at District Conference, so if you have any cool stories and insight about Joseph Smith. Let me know!

Keep writing me lots! It really is great to hear from you guys. I'll send out some more letters today too.

One other scripture that I have really enjoyed is 1 Ne 1:1. "And I Nephi being born of goodly parents". I love how he gives credit to his parents at the very beginning of his record. Check the cross-references on that verse. Likewise, I give credit to you, my parents for serving this mission. The name is Elder Brown, I represent the whole family name. Not myself. I represent us in the name of Jesus Christ, or in Thai, nay phranaam khccng PhraYeesuKhrid.


Love eternal,

Elder Brown