Pictures from MTC

Austin's District

 The elder on the left is seriously tall!

 Austin and his companion.

 Elder B and I after "Pass-Downs," which you can only understand if you've been to the mtc for a long period of time. Elder B's gone now, he was the bomb though. We also got a minifridge at the time of pass-downs, which has been mega-cool! 

This is where Austin spends most of his days...in the classroom!

Austin's 3rd Letter...for real!

**OK this may be a little confusing. I messed up and posted his 4th week letter before I even posted his 3rd week! So now we have the real letter from week 3 and everything is in order now! Whoops! :)

Our older group left on Monday. It's been really odd with them gone... It was just the 9 Elders (four from my District; B, and five from District C) but then on Wednesday we received our new group! ...which turned out to be two Elders strong. Having spent a total of ten minutes in their presence, I'm not exactly sure what to think of them. 

In other news, we committed our first investigator to baptism, after getting them to commit to go to church! It felt incredible, even though it was a 'fake' investigator. The Spirit was real regardless. Our other investigator, who we're nearing double digits in terms of lessons (our investigator being baptized is 4 lessons in) is much more difficult. He doesn't feel, doesn't believe, and isn't happy. It's difficult to communicate through the language barrier that the gospel can bring him happiness, and he just has to push through and have faith to believe. 

Today I started working on "Personal Scripture Mastery." Ten scriptures that have great personal meaning to me. The first, and my current favorite, is Alma 5:26:

26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? 

Do you remember when you were baptized?

"Can ye feel so now?"

Do you remember when you were married?

"Can ye feel so now?"

Do you remember how you felt when your first child was born?

"Can ye feel so now?"

Do you remember how it feels to abide in Christ?

"Can ye feel so now?"

I've also been playing around with switching hymn tunes and lyrics. "How Firm a Foundation," and "Away in a Manger" are legitimate examples of this, but I've been enjoying "Praise to the Man," and "The Spirit of God." I've been practicing piano a lot during personal study, because there's literally two other pianists who are male in our branch, and one can't read sheet music, and the other has no interest in playing, so I'm the only one available to play in Priesthood meetings. So, that's been an experience. I've been going to choir practice, and that's AWESOME! We sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace?" last Tuesday, and I realized just how powerful that song it. The first two verses are pleading, questioning, and the final verse is a powerful and true answer to all of life's questions. We watched this video during the devotional last Tuesday with Bradley D. Foster (of the 70) and I almost started crying. The Spirit was just so powerful that night. 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-129-the-joseph-millett-story?lang=eng

In Doctrine and Covenants, God says more than a few times, "What I say unto one, I say unto all." Thus, when He speaks to one person, you really can replace their name with your own. 

Elder Lynn

Austin's 2nd letter

Here is Austin's letter from last week hopefully, I can start sending these out when I get them instead of a week later! :)  Thanks for helping support our missionary. 

Technically, we're in our third week at the MTC! Isn't that crazy?! I still haven't figured out how to upload pictures, but I'll give it another go next week. We got our first investigator last Friday, and taught him about 4 lessons, before we had an evaluation. We loved him so much. It turns out, that he's our second teacher (you get a second teacher two weeks in)! Now we're teaching him (Brother Campbell) role-playing as a different investigator, and our first teacher, Sister Allen, as another. They speak only Korean, so lessons were very, very basic (God, father. Jesus, brother. Book of Mormon, true. Feel happy? Feel Spirit of God), but now we can teach more complex (but still basic) lessons. We're always learning new grammar and increasing our dano (vocabulary). During our first lesson with Sister Allen (as Yusoyang) I felt prompted to speak about prayer and the Holy Ghost. We taught her how to recognize the Holy Ghost, and we prayed with her at the end! It's incredible how excited you get over the progress of a 'fake' investigator. Let Brother Wofford know that we use the phrase "God is our father. We are His children. He loves us." ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the time! He'll get a real kick out of that. I sang in the choir for our Tuesday Night Devotional (the ones that always have a general authority (usually a 70, which it was that night)) and everybody's telling me I ended up on the big screen, like at Conference! That was cool, and we sang this incredible song titled "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." It had some extremely high notes for the baritone section in the last section, but I was blessed and I hit them! 

In other news, I've become really good at 4-Square. I'm probably close to reaching "Master." (This is really funny because anyone who knows Austin knows that he isn't the most sporty kid out there) It's so exhilarating, but it can also be really frustrating. When I get back, I will take on ANYBODY in a game of 4-Square. 

Funny language incident: 

In class, Elder Ely (he's in the other companionship in my district) dropped something, so I said "Trouble Cause Hapshida?" The thing is, I meant to say "Hamnida!" "Hamnida" means to do, and hapshida means "lets"! Instead of saying something that basically amounts to, "are you causing trouble?" I said, "Let's cause trouble!" The teacher, Sister Allen, just deadpanned, "What." I just started cracking up right after, because I immediately realized what I said. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I felt really good afterwards. It was very cleansing. It snowed Tuesday morning, and even though it all melted in the afternoon, it was beautiful. 

I had an incredible spiritual experience last Sunday. On Thursday, while I was working on this poem, I prayed, asking for revelation, essentially "challenging God," or "testing Him." I wrote down a few thoughts that came to me, then went to sleep. Then, on Friday, during personal study, I was reading the Bible Dictionary (which has taught me SO much! It's incredible), and I came across Nicodemus. He's the man who, in John 3, asks Christ about baptism. It said that he defended him to the Sanhedrin, and gave spices when he was buried. The poem I've been working on is about how those whom the Savior healed/taught/changed their life in a massive way must've felt as they watched him be taken by the mobs, condemned before Pilate, try to carry his cross down the roads of Jerusalem, and be crucified. One of the thoughts I'd written down was, "Nicodemus tried to defend Christ to the Jews, and did so in vain." God truly answered my prayer, and I'm making an effort to be more conscious and faithful of that, rather than that attribute it to my own errant thoughts. 

I suggest watching "The Other Prodigal Son." It's a Mormon Message about the other son mentioned in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Having always been curious about that, it was really interesting to me. It bears a powerful message. 

Sometimes I feel like Dallin, in the sense that it can be a struggle to stay awake sometimes, when things are slow. It can be tough, and it happens to all of us.

I bear testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is a real, powerful thing that changes lives. The Spirit of God strives among the children of men, and it is there, ready to testify of truth. I testify of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the rest of the apostles. I testify of the restoration of the gospel. Heavenly Father truly does answer prayers, and he answered Joseph Smith's. I know that God is the literal father of my spirit, and that Jesus died, and lives once more. I stake my family's name and reputation on them. 

Love, 

Elder Lynn. 

MTC Week 1 (Feb. 26-March 6)

I had this massive insight regarding the first few chapters of 1 Nephi. If you think of it like a parable, it represents people's quest for the gospel, or truth. Nephi and his brothers are sent to retrieve the Brass Plates (scriptures, which represent the gospel). They try to ask Laban (who represents the world, or the Natural Man) for them, but almost die (spiritual death). They try to buy the Brass Plates, but they almost die (you cannot buy truth). They're discouraged, and some (Laman and Lemuel) are bitter and angry about their failure to retrieve the gospel. It isn't until they receive a message from the Lord (an angel, symbolizing the Holy Ghost) that they get back up and try again. Nephi, following the Spirit, slays Laban, despite his reluctance to do so (he purged himself of the Natural Man, or Worldliness), and is now able to receive the Brass Plates. 

I've also heard some fantastic new scriptures, like D & C 121: 9 (my friends stand by me!). I don't have the time to quote all of them, but I have them in my journal. I forgot it, so you can expect more next week. 

I was reading my Patriarchal Blessing one night, and I realized that it said I will be blessed with the Gift of Tongues! It specifically says I'll have that gift so that I can share my testimony! That's something I want to do really badly. It's hard to believe I've only been here 8 days... we've already learned so much Korean. My district can pretty much read and write it, and we can teach very simple lessons. Our Elders were right; we started teaching (in Korean) on Friday! It's incredible how blessed we've been. My head constantly feels like it's going to explode because we're learning so much. I'll have to write some Korean sentences in my handwritten letter home so Brother Chun can read it for you. I'm loving the MTC. There's such a strong spirit here, it's no wonder we're being blessed so powerfully. We're all so united in purpose. I cannot thank Mission Prep enough; I must think back to those lessons everyday. I have a strong testimony of that class now -- stronger than before. They really know what they're doing. It's given me such a leg up on everything. It's hard to not get discouraged about your Korean, but we have to remember the advice of our teachers -- don't compare to others, but to your past ability. And when I think back a week, I couldn't do virtually anything in Korean. I've been so blessed. All of us have been. We say prayers before class, before lessons, before meals, in Korean! They're basic sure, but we're learning. Did you know, we spend over 12 hours in class most days? My first day here, they got me my language materials, processed me, then BOOM! I was in class. In the MTC we "SYL" meaning Speak Your Language. Whenever we know the Korean for something, we say it in Korean. It really helps us get a handle for the language. Our teacher, Sister Allen, speaks almost exclusively in Korean. That was difficult at first, but has since become a blessing to our district. Something we had to learn early on is that we're not learning Korean -- we're learning the gospel in Korean. We're not learning Korean so that we can speak the language, we're learning Korean so that we can share the gospel. I don't know the word for car, or house, but I already know Holy Ghost and Fullness of the Gospel. My studies in Japanese have also helped me, because they use the same Subject Object Verb sentence structure, and the particle markers. I love all of you, and want you to know I am thriving in the MTC. My testimony and conversion process has progressed in leaps and bounds. I pray for all of you (in Korean!), and love you so dearly. 

Until next week, 

Elder Austin Lynn