Week Twenty

Dear People,

Both of our baptize-ee's showed up! And somehow both made it into the water! I think I've just heard way too many horror stories about missionary work, so my expectations are so low. I got to baptize Baek Ji Yoon, and Elder Benefiel Baptized Jung Seung Hwan. Baek Ji Yoon gave an awesome testimony beforehand about how she doesn't know everything yet, but she is going to take a leap of faith and learn a little at a time. She is so humble. Because both of them accepted everything so readily, I've been so stressed that they haven't had enough real spiritual experiences, and may not have enough of a foundation, but throughout that day I felt a strong peace and confirmation that it's going to be ok. They are in His hands. We have done everything we can, and everything will work out. He is the perfect orchestrator. Yesterday we met with Baek Ji Yoon, she is still doing great, we talked about temples, and when we asked what she was going to do that day, she replied that she was just going to study Gospel Principles and Our Heritage all day. I don't know why I was ever worried about her.

A couple days before Seung Hwan got baptized, he still needed to be taught lesson five, but we were on companion splits so I was with a fourth transfer missionary, Elder Plata. We were both super inexperienced so it was stressful leading up to the time we would meet him, but when we did it was super peaceful, we said everything we needed to say, I understood really well, and it was a huge confidence boost.

We got a visit from Elder Yamashita of the Seventy and his wife. They are champions. He pulled me aside to talk with him while we were eating lunch, I told him that my dad served in Japan and he expressed his gratitude for all the missionaries that have served in his country. I found out he thought I looked a little sad or something, which really struck me because I have never been happier in my life. I have been waiting for this mission my whole life and it is better than anything I imagined. I feel myself being molded by His hands, becoming the person I have always wanted to be. My path of progression has consistently been: big jump - big fall - then big jump that's just a tad bit higher than before, then a big drop that's not quite as far down as the last fall. I re-read my patriarchial blessing again and noticed that two times it mentions that I will move "steadily forward" that gives me a lot of hope. That's what I want more than anything; move steadily from where I am. I am really good at noticing my weaknesses, I feel the space that needs to be filled in my mantel, but I am not discouraged. I feel fluid, I came here with an attitude that I was going to change, so now I am changing.

Time is slipping through my fingers, I feel like I just got here and there is so much left to learn. Two years is precious. I am rapidly falling madly in love with this language, people, and food. It will be so hard to leave.

My favorite scripture this week is Helaman 3:35 - "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

Yielding your heart to God. What else would you want to do?

I rub you all!

-Elder Brown​​​​

Shauna's note: He sent a video, but it was too large to include here. I will work on getting it here later.

A ward activity we organized where we did a bunch of minute to win it games. This one was pretty darn impossible. Poor Tommy was trying so hard and finally got one at the end. They had never seen minute to win it and were super into it.​