Dear Fam, August 13th, 2009
Thank you very much for your letters. I really liked the words on faith that you shared. Faith is so important. I have been diving into everything I can about faith during my personal study time for the last few days. (read the bible dictionary and true to the faith on faith) I have realized a lot about faith. I don’t have my notes with me now but I want to briefly mention an experience that helped me learn more about faith. As you know, our college age investigator is still trying to find faith. Yesterday, we continued reading the book of mormon with him. This time in mormon 9. After he explained that if he tells him self to believe enough times that he will believe but he doesn’t want to believe that way. We told him we don’t want him to brainwash himself into belief either. Nor do we want to do that to him. He then asked some good questions about desire. We ended up doing a scripture chase of answering his questions. During the discussion I realized some things about my faith while answering his concerns. Helping people find a desire is one of the hardest things I’ve tried to figure out as a missionary. I don’t have it solved but I compared it to finding the desire to become a pilot. He wants to be one but he’s flown on a plane. I don’t have time to explain but the comparison seemed to help him. Anyway, last week we had many people drop but we’ve seen good things with the new family we are teaching. I’ve realized attitude is so important. “you think, therefore you are”. Overcoming life’s challenges, like loosing 5 investigators in a week and having it rain hard all day for 3 days, is about faith within and part of it – attitude. The weather is hot and humid, it has rained record amounts this month, and people punk us but there is always a silver lining. Our recent training included a commitment to write down our blessings every night. It has helped all of us see the light. The spirit guides us in ways we don’t often notice. I looked back at the past month and realized that the spirit has guided our work even though we aren’t having huge outward successes. Much of a mission is just learning to trust the Lord through thick and thin. We learn line upon line. Thanks for studying faith with me. Reading scriptures as a family can be such a strengthening thing. It will be. I would love to go home and just spend hours with the fam discussing scriptures. Hear dad and mom’s insights. To hear the kids share with me the scriptures they love and those they don’t understand. To see hunter and karysn tell me their favorite stories. Hunter comparing himself to moroni. I have come to love the scriptures and wish I had more knowledge of them, especially before the mission. They really can answer our questions. In a hard day, in a difficult question, go to the scriptures. Thanks for reading them. Hunter is at an age where can find a strong testimony of them that will carry him through the hard teen years. Court can go to them in college everyday. Karsyn can share them with her friends and read them instead of….watching hannah Montana? Maybe to much to suggest but I wish I had watched less tv and more reading the book of mormon and ensign talks. Quiz each other make it fun. I love you and know that you are already amazing. The sun is shining today and I just finished passing off the next step of our Korean program – 715 vocab and 50 grammar – 40 scriptures, and reading ch.3 of pmg in Korean. It was hard but I passed. Feels good. I will start trying to read the book of mormon all the way through in Korean now. Enjoy it in English while you can. Korean is hard…Love you. I cherish and pray for you.
You are my life.
Elder Britsch
Dear fam, Aug. 19th, 2009
I'm very excited to here about the fellowshipping and new family in the ward. I felt the spirit reading the letter. Bishop leflers letter was great. I have been trying to get that sort of fellowshipping and leadership going in both wards I've served in. Thank you for loving and welcoming them. I can tell they are a special family. It is such a blessing. Those kinds of miracles don't happen often. Cherish it. Recognize it like you already have. This week we taught the family for another time. We ate together at their house. The little girl (9yrs old) reminds me lots of Karsyn. I was joking around with the son and daughter during dinner and having a good time and the mom said in korean something to the effect of "you must have younger siblings, you seem like their brother." The family is very sincere and loves us. They invited us to come back tonight - last time was tuesday. I arranged for the bishop to meet them at English class on Sat and invite them over for dinner. the dad drinks and smokes but the rest of the family wants him to stop. I left feeling very blessed. I can't believe I could speak/understand enough korean to keep the converstation with them for so long. We also met the middle school kid and he said he really wants to get baptized but his parents won't allow it. He said he will in college. We met the college kid (cuber) with the bishop and the bishop told him to meet with him on sunday during church one on one for an hour and discuss 3nephi 11-20 that he assigned him for hwk. It was great. He leaves for college next week but will be home on weekends. We had a strange experience walking home. A college age guy pulled up to us in his car and asked if we needed a ride. I told him it was only a 10 min more walk. He then said that he wanted to talk to us about religion. My companion said lets get in and we did. He drove us home and then we talked to him in his car for 30 mins outside our complex. He is a member of a infamous church in korea that is considered a colt (same as us) and has some very different beliefs - like Christ being resurrected as a korean and the heavenly mother living in their hq's in korea. However, he said that he is looking for truth and considering going to theology school. He simply said tell me what is truth. So we taught him the 1st lesson briefly and he pulled out scriptures on us but was not contentious but inquisitive. We will meet him again on sat. We have to since my comp left his english scriptures in his car. A wild experience. I wish Court the best at college and hope the kids have a great year of school. Court has nothing to worry about but I think 2 chems classes is crazy. iI don't have any idea if I will study design anymore. but ill think about that later. thanks.
I love u.
My family is the best thing in my life.
love elder britsch
Dear fam, Aug. 26th, 2009
Thanks. I understand. In the past week I have learned many things. Last Sunday, we had 손창환 (our investigator who had a baptismal date but had it postponed due to not having belief appear) come to church again. He was warmly welcomed and fellowshipped (much better this time than the past times). At the Bishop’s request, 손창환 met with the Bishop alone for an hour during church and discussed 3 Nephi 11-20 which he been given as a reading assignment. Nothing remarkable occurred during this time but he built a vital relationship with the bishop. On exhanges, elder 최 met him and gave him a new baptismal date and promised him that if he diligiently reads and prays everyday he will know its true by sept. 6th. We have promised him the same or similar thing in the past but he has not had an open enough heart. We hope that this time it will be better. The family we are meeting canceled due to the wife taking her husband to the hospital but we will see them on Sat. for English class. Last Saturday, we arranged for the bishop and his family to come to english class and meet them and invite them over for dinner. Unfortunately, the fam. suddenly canceled 10 mins before the class. The Bishop’s fam came anyway. We will try it again. We found some other new people last week but all ended up dropping by the end of the week. One was a 하나님의 교회 member (a very interesting lesson). Through zone conference and the exhanges that followed I saw many of my prayers answered. It was sweet. I’ve been think a lot lately about increasing my love for the people and doing the work out of a love for them and my savior. Teaching people is so important. I love when I get to really answer someone’s concern or question. I hope Court is loving college life. Sounds fun. Orientation week was a blast. make lots of new friends. How is her roommate?Mom, thanks for the words on faith. I really like those scriptures. Very true. Patience is hard. I've learned that prayer is so important. I went on an exchange with my zone leader and we had a number wise bad day. However, we had very spiritual experience closing the night in which we shared our concerns and counted our blessings. The Lord really does know our lives. The hard thing about our day is that we have so many things that make its hard to see and easy to doubt. The day of miracle has not ceased its just that we don't notice them or ask for them as much. The a.c. and the cars and the busy lives make it hard for us to see. The meals we have are still a blessing even when we buy them at wendys. we juit don't always see it that way because we didn't have to go kill a buffalo. I want to better count the little blessings in life and see that the Lord is in everything. When I do I am happier. I have started a blessing journal. we have been committed to do it for 30 days. I would recommend it. U could do it as family each night for 30 days. seeing and appreciating things is so important to start doing young. we have so much to be grateful for. You are all alls tars. I lov u. I can't wait to spend lots of time with u. For now, I must share this time with the people of Korea who need families like ours. They need the security and peace of a heavenly home.
I love giving them that.
love elder britsch
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