Elder Brennan Baer: Singapore Mission: MTC Report

Dear Family,

Wow, my time at the MTC is flying by! Every night, I lie on my bed to write in my journal, and I think, "...Wait, what just happened?" because it seems like no time elapsed since last I wrote. My days are filled, however. the hours are long, but the days fly. So much has happened this week. On Tuesday, Neil L. Andersen spoke to all the MTC's from the Marriott Center. I got a second-hand hand shake (Elder Simmons shook his hand, and I shook Elder Simmons'.) The mass exodus from the devotional was delayed by a lightning storm. I didn't mind that we sang a few extra hymns at the end. When it had "calmed," we walked back top the MTC in a torrential downpour. It was actually refreshing, but I hope my suit recovers soon. After that, we sang "Zhu a, Kuang feng zheng zai nu hao" ("Master, the Tempest is Raging") in our district meeting.

Dueling over pie

Other than that, things have been pretty normal. Elder Fletcher and I race Elders Simmons and Murray to clean toilets on service day. We learn from prophets through Mormon Messages at Saturday night FHE. We have lightsaber duels over who gets the last piece of pie. I meet all sorts of people I knew from a previous life at Mountain Crest (Dad, Sarah Smedley says hi!) I sing in the choir with Elders Joel Fronk, Daniel Spencer, and Cody Smith. Wow, choir is one of the places my testimony grows the most. Our director, Brother (to be given, when I remember his name) , is very passionate about the music we sing, and always bears testimony of the truth contained in the songs. I remember Dad asked me what music we sing - I wrote down the information about the songs we've performed so far, but I can only find the record of one of them. I recommend looking it up: "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer," arr. Brett Stewart. (the part where we sing "Curb the winds..." is really cool with a thousand voices.) We also sang an arrangement of Lead, Kindly light, but I can't remember who arranged it.

Farewell to Bi Laoshi

This week, I lost both of my Chinese teachers, and got two new ones. Here is a picture of our district's farewell to Bi Laoshi (Peterson Teacher). We loved our teachers a lot, and I will have to adjust a little to the new teachers' style.

I get to teach all sorts of "investigators." This week at TRC, I met another native Chinese speaker. Her name is Ya YaWong. She's returned from a Mandarin-speaking mission in Washington DC. Whe is nice and funny, and studying food science at BYU. She reminded me a little of aunt Shelley, and I wished Shelley could have met her. I think they would make good friends.

Sincere thanks, and love to all,

Brennan

P.S. Oh yeah, Elder Fletcher and I are Zone Leaders now. It means we have to interview people a lot, and quit breaking the rules. :)
{Please correct and gramar or spelling you find strange in my letters - I'm in a hury. :) and thanks for sending me letters from my friends' blogs.}