All other letters can be read at missionsite.net/elderbritsch
Dear gajok (family), Aug. 8th, 2010
Sorry to hear dad's got a bug. Hope its just a quick one. Speaking of bugs, we've been killing roaches in our house everyday. On Sat. before getting in bed one ran across the wall and I went to kill it. Finally got the sucker but I had to lift up the mat my comp sleeps on to grab it and through it out. As soon as I lifted up a corner, 3 more ran out. I think we finally got 2 of them. Sleeping on the floor isn't so comforting. Pretty sure I've probably swallowed a few.
We're still teaching a fun family. maybe i mentioned them last week. The mom and her younger sister live in the house. The mom, su young, is maybe 35 and has 3 kids. The husband doesn't live there but we don't know more than that. She has an autistic 14 yr old son, 11yr old son, and 1.5 yr old daughter. We made them a family prayer chart with stickers to put on each day. They've been doing it. The aunt really understood lesson 1. Actually retaught it for us to the 11yr old who didn't get it all. The aunt doesn't go to church because she can't believe the creation. su young takes her kids to a Presbyterian church because they have someone assigned to watch her autistic son. However, that's really the only reason. She understands the restoration. We're meeting them tonight with our ward mission leader (25 yr old rm) and teaching about getting answers to prayers using the section in the True to the Faith book titled revelation. I recommend looking at it. Just like last time, we are teaching in a FHE style by making a worksheet/questions that correspond to the reading and then doing it in teams and adding testimony and personal experiences. last time the 11yr ld actually liked it and payed attention. So here goes round 2. all send a pic of the 2 yr old. she's my new girlfriend. holds my hand during the lessons. so cute!
On wed, we were invited to the stake single adult conference. We trained everyone on street proselyting and then divided into companionships and hit the streets. the host area actually found a great new investigator through it. About 40 people attended. all the YSA's said after was, "Wow, that's soo hard. It's soo hot." So we said, "Yep, refer your friends!"
4 kids with dates still look good but facing problems about meeting often because parents want them to study more. Kids in Corea (many coreans spell it with a c because its less related to the japanese alphabet), even though its summer vac., still go to school and academies to study. be grateful!
And, I ate cow head barbecued meat with our elderly investigator. surprisingly fatty.
we have a l.a. 20yr old who speaks english with a british accent. I've been putting on a brit accent with him. lots of fun.
I've been studying humility some more. Interesting how the scriptural definition differs from the worlds. Humility means trusting in god and following his word. it means believing in his power and not our own. I meet so many college kids who when asked if they believe in god say "NO, I believe in myself" pointing to their chest. Sad to see. The conveniences of life make it so easy to forget god.
Love you all,
Remember God gives us all we have,
Elder Britsch
Dear fam, Aug. 23rd, 2010
Lots of news. My comp. was transferred to another zone. My new comp. is Elder Caldwell. He is a new zone leader. I've been training him how handle it all. I've actually been surprised how little I've been stressed considering all that went on last week. On Thurs. we had our stake missionary work correlation meeting (spm) in one of our zones. The meeting is known to be intense. It consists of our stake presidency, mission presidency, stake mission coordinator, stake executive secretary, my comp. and I. So for 1 hr we were to present all that is happening and has happened in our zone in the last month (of course in korean). We are expected to be able to answer any question they ask, and do it well. btw- we were the only english speakers in the room. We prepared well and it went great. Mission pres. told us that we were the best and sincerely complemented us and the stake. Our stake is doing the best in the mission right now. Our stake pres. was so impressed that he volunteered to attend any lesson we or any missionary in our zone has when the male member cancels and we are meeting a women. He says as long as we call an hr before, he will come. He also asked when our next zone meeting is so that he can have food delivered to us there. He's planning on pizza. My comp. had only been in the zone for 1 day at the time so he introduced himself at the beginning and sat down without much to say. We have a lot of pressure on us to keep things strong but we can and will. Its a shame that this is my last transfer.
Sunday morning I felt the need to fast for su hwa to get an answer to her prayers and for the speakers in church to speak to our investigators needs. We had 6 investigators come. su hwas family wasn't there but the 4 kids planning to get baptized next sunday came. the stake presidency happened to be visiting and speaking in sacrament. Each on of them adjusted their talks to our investigators. I hadn't asked them too and sat there a little teary eyed next to my investigators stunned by the Lord's answer to my prayers. they spoke directly to them about how coming to church takes some adjusting and it takes time to become familiar with the culture. One compared it to his first day at tai kwon do. he hated it because everyone was wearing strange clothes and doing moves and yelling. he felt out of place. However he took his dad's advice and stuck to it. He's never regretted it. The stake pres. spoke about his experience playing a super popular computer game in korea (star craft 2). our 4 15yr old investigators ate it up.
I have been super impressed by our members lately. They have really been stepping up. We had dinner with the 1st councilor and his referal on sunday night and lunch with 2 of our investigators and 5 members on monday. they all volunteered. I spent today at the temple just thanking the lord for all of the blessings. in the end if they all drop this week it was sweet just to experience the spirit that comes from the members following the spirit.
oh, and after church on sunday we commited a 14 yr old kid who has come to church of and on for a while to be baptized next week. He said yes. we went over all the questions with him and he's totally ready. His mom has given permission in the past so we hope she doesn't object suddenly.
to make the week busier, i did 2 baptismal interviews for the district leaders investigators. Cool story- on friday night i got a call from elder chidester. he told me that the stake presidents dad (76) wanted to be baptized on sunday. they have been teaching him for a while and he's been to church more than 10 times but didn't want to be baptized. However on friday some members shared their testimonies with him and he felt the spirit. So I did the interview at the only possible time we had on saturday, 8:30 at night, and he got baptised on sunday. He was so kind. He was truly sincere about everything and jokingly told us after that he'll probably die in a week . stake pres payed for us to take a taxi home so we could arrive by 9:30. we were still late.
We've been teaching our investigators our purpose on the 1st meeting. we tell them on the first time that we are teaching them to prepare them for baptism and commitment them to be baptized when they feel it is true. sometimes we give them a date then too. its nothing new but we've been doing it better and our investigators have been prepared people.
Dad mentioned how he spoke on obedience. I've come to realize a lot about it on the mission. obedience is the connector between all the christlike attributes. humility, diligence, patience, knowledge, charity, they are all influenced by our obedience. if we are obedient they will all come. obedience means trust. the timing of the lord is usually different than ours.
as for mom's new calling, good luck, congrats, and seek revelation from the lord. I've been studying revelation along with our investigators and been finding many ideas and promptings about how to teach them as I've prayed over their needs. the trick is us ally in the asking. we often just forget to ask and try.
I love you all. I hope this didn't sound boastful. I mean to boast in the Lord. I wish to express the joy I've felt in his out pouring of love. I fear i will let it go to my head and all will fall.
Please remember that lows and highs are natural and that highs do follow lows.
the skill in it is to allow our obedience to stake climbing regardless of the roller coasters of life.
Love you,
Elder Britsch
Dear Family, Aug. 29th, 2010
Well the saga continues. Last week was a week I will remember. None of our baptisms went through. All of them suddenly punked. Let me explain.
So the 4 kids were acting a little less friendly on the phone during the week and had to cancel our appointment on Weds. because of school. However they said they'd be at the church at 2 on Sat. for their interviews. I called the morning of and reminded one of them but the other 3 didn't answer. The one I talked to said they were coming. As for the 5th (the one who accepted a date last sunday), I had called his mom on weds. to make sure everything was okay and she said "Yep, I'll send him to the church on Sat. at 2 for his interview." However, when I called to remind them she told me that they were going to visit family. I reminded her of the importance of the interview and that it would take just 20 minutes. She said lets just do it another week. However, I felt there was more to it. So I asked a member who knows her to call and find out the truth. She did and relayed to us that the mom wants to try the Catholic church for a bit before she lets him get baptized. So he's up in the air still. All along she said everything was good and he had permission and he's been coming to church for over 8 weeks but suddenly she changed her mind and wouldn't even tell us directly. It seems to be korean culture for people to make lots of excuses and not be honest about canceling. Of course not everyone is this way but it's common.
Knowing that we had 5 kids getting interviews we had to pull in both of our zone's district leaders to do them. Both live over 45 minutes away. I canceled one after the call.
However, by 2:30 none of the kids had showed and weren't answering the phone. I finally surprised one when I called on the bishop's office phone. He preceded to make excuses of why they couldn't make the appointment which I knew were lies and then finally after 10mins of talking and me telling him to be honest, told me that they had met earlier in the week and decided they weren't going to contact us anymore or get baptized because they don't want the responsibility of going to church and so forth. Basically they just want to go play on sundays. They seem to figure that the whole thing would just disappear if they didn't accept contact or tell us. Needless to say, we sent our district leader home.
That all done, we went out and talked to people and went to our next appointment in the rain. It's rained everyday for the last month. Preparing me for Washington right?
We had another investigator (jae ho lee) come to church and had a great time.
We did 3 interviews in different areas in our zone. One of the ones I did was a 35yr old Nigerian man named Vitus. Cool story. Elder Rodrigues and I had found him on the train a month ago. He later called us and we referred him to elders in his area. They met him and when they taught him the restoration he stood up and raised his hands and said "hallelujah praise the Lord!!" They asked him to be baptized they second meeting and he said yes and yesterday he was baptized. When he came out of the water he put his hands up again and sincerely thanked the lord for making him clean. One of the happiest people I've seen. His wife and daughter live in nigera. He had to come here to escape and start a new business because his neighbor tried to kill him and burned down his house after the neighbor lost a land dispute in court.
Our bishop after hearing about our investigator family with the autistic son, decided to train the ward on how to handle the situation if it arises. Last Sunday the combined for 3rd hr and talked about it and missionary work. I'm very thankful for his promptness and concern.
Despite the ups and downs of the week, I've been happy. This morning in my personal study I cam across a scripture that had special relevance. Alma 8:8-16. Our situations vary in intensity but it was comforting to read verses 15 and 16. Knowing that I am following the Lord's command is enough. I'm not returning to the city of Ammonihah but I am returning to the work and teaching others in this area. I love the examples that can be found in the scriptures.
I remember in the temple last week telling the Lord that even if none of these baptisms went through that I would still be happy because I've been able to see his guidance and hand in the work. I hold to that promise. I am still happy because I know that they have agency and that the Lord did all in his power to help us and them. He must respect agency too. Its a lesson that will surely help me through life. I'm grateful to experience it.
Hope you are doing well. We all have these weeks in one ways or another. I pray we can see the blessings in the refining and keep the eternal perspective in mind.
loves,
Elder Britsch
Dear Family, Sept. 5th, 2010
We've got some good news. Last Thurs. we met with song jayho (23) and lee jay ho(22). We planned to watch the Finding Faith in Christ DVD with them but we're directed otherwise. That day both of us were feeling very tired doing an exchange with the elders who live by the dmz.(i was with a new missionary). We decided that they both needed faith and due to our exhaustion, the movie was best. However, after we set our plan, I had a prayer in my heart that if the Lord wanted us to teach something else then we would and asked that he give us the strength to do so. When they came they told us that they had both been reading the Book of Mormon. We asked about their reading and it led us into a lesson that we felt was meant to be taught. The movie was set with chairs turned ready to go but the spirit directed us otherwise. song jayho had some great questions about the overall story of the Book of Mormon and Lee jayho had read 2nephi 2 5times to understand it while at home. We shared parts of 3 nephi 11 and it led song jayho to ask why the bible doesn't mention these ancient america people. We told him it does and we would share one example of it. I turned to John 10:16 and he read that "there are sheep not of this fold..." My companion had 3 nephi 15:13-24 open before I could even reference it. After he read the spirit enlightened his mind and all he could say was "Wow!" "That's so cool!" "It's right there!" "Wow!". He just kept reading it. We explained how most churches thing this verse in John is talking about the gentiles. we told him that through the book of mormon we understand the bible and know that god loves all of his sheep. The discussion led on and continue to be amazed. He kept saying to him self that he needed to study the book of mormon. He kpet repeating "so this is why we have the book of mormom"... We talked about baptism verses sprinkling and turned with him to Matthew 3 and read how Jesus was baptized in the river jordan and came up out of the water. We cross referenced it with 3 nephi 11. He was sprinkled in the catholic church but as he read it in the bible he said "wow, that's right. Jesus was baptized." The lights had turned on. We testified of the restored gospel and the book of mormon and discussed the importance of baptism the way god commanded. While testifying the spirit was strong. I felt to tell him that I knew what he was feeling was the spirit. I told him that the feeling of new understanding he was experiencing and the feeling in his body of energy was a product of the spirit. I told him straight forward that God had just given him revelation to answer his prayers. He nodded his head and agreed. I told them I had had the same feeling myself and it come again as we follow the commandments and studying god's word. they both agreed. I told them to never forget this experience and to thank god for giving it to them in prayer. we asked him to pray to close and his words were different then those we've heard him speak in the past. He told god how he desired to follow him and get close to him. It was special.
The next day he came to church for all 3 hrs and heard a great testimony meeting. Later that day the member who referred him to us told us that he had spoken to her about the experience and when she asked him when he would get baptized he said on Sept. 26th. He texted us at 11:30pm last night and said "I want to be baptized on the 26th." We had asked him in previous meetings and he had said he needs more time. Wonderful news. Lee jayho wants more time but is deeply considering. Both have to quit smoking first. Both said they can do it.
So that's the big miracle of the week. Other news is that a typhoon hit and knocked down about 5 big trees outside our building on Wed night. Our windows shook so loud that night that we couldn't sleep. All seems to have been fine besides debree everywhere and some temporarily down trains
I hope everything goes well for jae ho but if not I will always remember the hand of the Lord that led our lesson and gave us the strength to do what he desired for his sons.
When we have done all we can do, and we rely on the Lord, He will take care of the rest.
Loves,
Elder Britsch
