Septermber 24, 2018: The Book of Mormon is True

Dear People,

Yesterday was Korea's equivalent of Thanksgiving-day called Chuseok. Bishop Jung invited us and the Thompsons to his house for a traditional lunch. The Thompsons couldn't make it so it was going to be just Bishop, his wife, Elder Buxton, and me. We got there to find a table with enough food to easily feed the six people that were originally going to come. We started eating and realized that they had both already eaten so they only took a couple bites and then sat and carefully watched us eat the food that was all prepared just for us. It was really high pressure. Especially in our stomachs.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner with the Thompsons and Hye-ran that night. Don't tell anyone in my MTC group though or they will be jealous. Sister Thompson made pumpkin pie. Hye-ran was fascinated with the turkey and cranberry sauce combination, she is either a really good actress or she loved it.

We got a call from Elder Heap in Daejeon who had sent out a mass "Happy Chuseok" text. One of the many responses they got was someone in Gunsan who had time to meet that day so they called us to refer him. We decided to do the same thing and sent a simple message to all of our Kakao Talk contacts. One of the many people to respond to us was Tommy, one of the very first people I taught on my mission when I first served here. He had since moved away but in his text he said that he was in town because he's visiting his parents. We are going to meet tomorrow. That was such a tender mercy. I love Tommy so much and am so excited to see him again.

We've been reading the Book of Mormon over the phone almost every day with Hye-ran. It's so exciting to be able to understand and explain the confusing parts to her and hear her interesting comments. Nephi reminds her of Joseph of Egypt because they both seemed to be the favorite child and their brothers tried to kill them. When people read and understand the Book of Mormon, there is little that can stop their progress. The Book of Mormon is true. 

I'm so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Just before starting emailing we were eating lunch and something felt really wrong. Like I was carrying some burden I couldn't identify. I started praying and immediately remembered that I forgot to invite Hye-ran to a dinner appointment with a member tonight. I called her. She can come. I felt completely fine afterwards.

I'm in happy denial that anything special is going to happen next Wednesday. I'm just going to not think about it and probably regret not buying presents for people.

-Elder Brown

Today we went to a "Cat Cafe". You pay to hang out with some cats. 

Delicious pig feet.