Companionship Study

Letter - September 9, 2013

Hi all,

It was nice to hear about Bear Lake and the poisonberry pie, and the Parade of Homes.  As much as I liked the Parade of Homes, I always thought that my home had something better than any of those.  I think it was the love that was always felt there.  I realize just how much strength I have gained from the testimony that was constantly shared in our home - thank you, Mom and Dad, and keep sharing love and testimony with Noelle and Lauren and Erin and Evan, because they will benefit from it so much more than I think you may realize.  I know I have, and I can't thank you enough.

Candy stash

The wealth/burden of candy in my room increases with every departing district.  We can barely hold all of it in our shelves/closets/drawers/pockets.  I still love getting packages on "free Fridays," though, so don't stop! 

Learning to fly indoors

This week has been great, but unpredictable.  The weather has been awesome - rain every day, and thunder most days.  The downside is that I haven't been allowed to play Paiqiu (volleyball) for days - I can see the effects of this deprivation taking toll on everyone in my residence.  We had to resort to learning how to fly indoors (see pictures) and two-on-two basketball in the room, using Elder Simmons' new Nerf basketball hoop.  It is just like Evan's, and it has provided us with a lot of fun and several bruises.

Two-on-two Nerf basketball

This Saturday, for district FHE, we watched "Johnny Lingo" and "The Phone Call."  Wow.  Mostly we just laughed the whole time.  I would recommend watching those to the kids, and then Noelle and Lauren can send me their reviews via dear elder.  Watching these movies brought back fond memories of watching old films with Mom, like "Cypher in the Snow" and "The Mailbox."  Those really left a strong impression on me when I was young, about paying attention and being kind to everyone.

Oh, earlier that day, BYU played Texas, and I could hear the roar of the stadium, and the trumpets and snares from my residence.  I've never really had a desire to go to games other than my own school's, but at that time, I felt a real sense of longing for the life I left behind.  Until that day, I had never considered what kinds of things I was actually giving up to serve a mission, and I had actually never considered it a sacrifice, but now I realize it is a bigger sacrifice than anything else I've ever done.  I guess I knew that, but I never really felt it until two days ago.

 with Elder Sessions

with Elder Wagner

Hey, this week I met Elder Neil Sessions and Sister Dorothy Petersen (although I didn't get a picture with her, darn!)  I also said a final farewell to Elder Caleb Wagner, who has just left the MTC for Daejon Korea.  Also, I ran into a Megan Wengreen, who I sadly cannot remember, but who graduated a year before me, and sends her regards to Dad.

We've gone through three teachers so far.  First, Bi Laoshi left us (I think I wrote about him last week).  This week, Shi Laoshi, our "yoked" (he is a personal trainer) half-Taiwanese teacher left, and we've already driven away his replacement, Bai Laoshi.  Bai Laoshi played a very difficult investigator - it took him 6 months in the field to help him be baptized - but was a great Zhongwen grammar scholar, and taught us powerfully how to focus on the needs of people, not just teaching lessons.  But, he's gone, too.  Now we have Jiang Laoshi, who I really like because she helps us plan effectively, and she helps us feel love for our investigators.  We now have Jin Laoshi.  He and I demonstrated teaching in a role-play, in which I was the investigator.  He taught with real power, because he related every principle he taught back to my interests, and he based it all on one broken sentence I said at the very beginning!  Wow, I'm learning so many lessons from all my teachers.  Teaching is getting harder, as we go into more detail, and use new Chinese, but I've been getting so much help at the same time.

I've always felt a little lacking in the "character" department, and so I was hoping that a mission, begun with the words of Elder Bednar in mind, could help me gain some much-needed "Character: deeply developed, strikingly displayed, and consistently practiced."  I've been looking for ways to develop, display, and practice Character.  This week, I learned, from "The Life of Thomas S. Monson," that an important step in developing character is acting on a prompting, setting to work immediately.  I'm reminded of President Monson's dedication to never postpone a prompting, and as a result, of how many people were blessed personally and immeasurably by his humility and trust in the Lord.  That's the kind of character I'd like to have, and the kind the world really needs.

Well, I'll keep working on it here, and I hope that similar good things are happening at home.  I'm doing fantastic, as always, and I pray always that the family is well.  (I really love to hear it from you, though, and not just trust. :)

Y Mountain

Love,

Brennan

Oh hey, I can see the "Y" through the window I'm sitting at.

Elder Grievous

Party -- shh! don't tell

Learning the Language with Elder Evan & Elder Rex

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.}

Wet Elders

Ruined!

"Zhu a, kuang feng zheng zai nu hao" (Master the Tempest IS Raging)

Lightsaber

New companion  (Thanks, Burton family!)

Rainbow drinks

Earlier this week, we received a handwritten letter dated August 22.   Enjoy!

Dear Family,

Nĭ mĕn hăo!  How are things at home?  Is everyone going crazy getting ready for school yet?  If I were you, I would wait until the last possible minute, then run around in a panic trying to prepare. ;)  I bet Dad has already been working at school for several days, right?  Well, I’m excited for all of you.  Noelle gets to be the (2^nd) oldest Baer at MC, Lauren will join her, escaping from South Cache, Erin will be the best author at Spring Creek, and Evan will be a big bad 3^rd grader!  Good luck to everyone, especially Mom, in trying to keep up with things this year! 

Thank you again for sending me mail, especially that package of goodies and razors.  Oh . . . . someone was just waiting until I asked you to send me a hymnbook, I know it.  Today someone came in and gave everyone in our district a Mandarin-Pinyin-English hymnbook, so I guess I don’t actually need you to ship me one.  Sorry.  The bookstore hasn’t had those for months, the other Elders say, but I swear the pile of Cantonese hymnbooks gets bigger each day, and nobody buys them.  Anyway, thanks again for the Virgil’s – my companions were happy I got that package, too.

I’m including with this letter the beginning of Evan’s Mercedes fund.  I found it in the ceiling of my residence.  It was left by some past missionary, as part of a secret treasure hunt that would direct the current residents to unscrew all the little metal lightswitch coverings and vents, and basically anything that unscrews from the wall.  Also, can you use the Dear Elder voucher and send me cookies for free?  That would be nice.  If it’s not free, or if you have to send a full package or something inconvenient (you know what I mean) it’s not worth it.

Lately, I’ve been reading a tiny Book of Mormon, and looking for answers to a specific question, as Elder Bednar advised in his “Character of Christ” devotional.  He said, “For each of your questions, read the Book of Mormon and write down your insights and impressions about the subject.  When you finish, write a summary of what you learned in the front, and then catalog it.  When you are my age, you should have a bookshelf of 400-500 copies of the Book of Mormon.”  I have been writing in and marking up that copy like crazy, and have been getting a flood of brand new, exciting insights – and I’m only in 1 Nephi 5!  I had to buy these fantastic pens to write because I write so much and the margins are so small.

Again, I love you all, and pray for you every day!

Love,

Brennan

P.S. To answer Evan’s question, the MTC has 28 cereal towers!  We tried to finish a whole one as a district, but no fun is allowed at breakfast, and “they” shut us down. :(

Elder Evan & Elder Rex: Gettin' Down with Gettin' Up

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P-Day 3: Beams of Energy

Hi Family,

Well, I'm probably behind the times already when I say this, but I'm glad that boat racing was fun, and that the parent night was endured.  Thanks for sending me pictures!  (By the way, do the Fronks really not get pictures?  Should I send some more with Joel if I get the chance?)  I run into friends more often than I expect, but not as much as I hope to.  I'm finding more people I know all the time.  It's exciting to see so many friends united in doing the Lord's work.

MTC Outdoor walkways

More outdoor walkways

MTC Hallway

To Noelle, thanks for the "Elder Evan and Elder Rex" Cartoon, it always makes me and my district laugh!  I took a few pictures, but I don't really know how well they capture the essence of the MTC.  I can't take pictures in the cafeteria or the main meetinghouse, but it's not hard to imagine what that's like.  The rest of the MTC all looks the same: Outside, a lot of covered walkways between 4-story orange-brick buildings.  Inside, it's just long, straight hallways between whitewashed classrooms.  I like outside better because sometimes, if I smile and wave, one of the guards in the towers will put down his gun and wave back at me through the barbed wire.  Just kidding.  There are flowers along the paths and flocks of little birds just hopping all over the place.  I'm glad I'll be out before winter, though.  Hopefully this is at least slightly inspiring of more EE&R cartoons.

Well, I'm not sure exactly what to tell you about at this point, so I’ll just dump some thoughts out onto paper.  The highlight of my week is...  that's hard actually, because it seems each day is better than the one before it.  I love learning Chinese, and I feel like my progress is speeding up.  I love teaching my Mudaoyou (investigators) about God's plan for them.  I feel a real love for them, even though I know they are just role-playing.  Wait!  Actually, I taught a genuine investigator on Saturday.  Her name is Juli.  She is from Mainland China, but now lives in Salt Lake City with her daughter and son-in-law, who brought her to the MTC to be taught at TRC - I don't know, it's code for something that happens on Saturdays, in which missionaries teach volunteer "investigators," mostly BYU students.  My companion and I are the only ones I know who've actually taught a real investigator here.  

Brennan and Steve Durtschi

I love the devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday nights.  I love choir especially, because I get to sing. (I'm really missing playing music.)   Oh, yesterday I met Steve Durtschi at the organ after devotional!  He sends his best wishes to the family.  I also love walking around the temple on Sundays, and sleeping through sessions on Mondays.  I'm really glad they are able to fit all the missionaries into the temple schedule.  I love all my classes, I love the food, I love conjuring beams of pure energy (see my pictures), I love my companion, and I really love you.  Thanks for your mail and your thoughts and prayers - it really makes a big difference!

Love,Brennan

 

Beams of Pure Energy!

 

 At the Big Map

Residence (Carpet Cleaning/Laundry Day)

Brennan with his district

Laundry room door to Narnia!

Narnia?