Elder Conner Brown

Mission Intermission & A New Assignment

A little update on what Conner has been up to in the past year .....

After he came home from Japan on March 26 due to COVID, he (along with all missionaries that were sent home from international assignments) was temporarily released from missionary service on April 1, 2020.  He was then given two options and a deadline of April 30th to choose:

After much prayer, he chose Option B - Return to service within 12-18 months (with a new end date).

And so, he spent a year attending Brigham Young University

In January 2021 he began the process of being reinstated to missionary service.  

On January 25 he received a short letter signed by President Russell M. Nelson, confirming that he has been reinstated as a full-time missionary and has been assigned to the Japan Sapporo Mission. Through our Stake President we learned that he would be part of the transfer group on June 1st.

At that point he began the application process for a new Visa to Japan.  He was hopeful about his ability to return to Japan as several missionaries he has previously served with were able to return to Sapporo in December 2020.  He even received communication from the mission home in March, excited about his arrival and needing to gather some information to prepare for him to come.

As May approached we still didn't know if he was actually going to Japan.  We began to hear rumors that Japan wasn't letting missionaries in any longer due to a rapid and sharp increase in the number of COVID cases in the country.

On May 17th, Conner received the following communication from the Missionary Department along with travel plans

"I am writing to inform you that Japan is still closed to non-citizens at this time. Elder Brown has received a temporary assignment from the Apostles. He has been temporarily assigned to labor in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission. His report date is June 2nd, 2021."

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple -- Announced April 2020

Missionary Life at Home

I don't think it ever really struck me that I was home. I hadn't even been out in the field a year, so I still pretty basically remembered and recognized normal life in the Brown home. Aside from the online schooling, things seemed very much the same as they usually were before my mission. The all at home feel just made it feel like summer vacation almost. I was somewhat used to self-isolation because of the three weeks we had of it in Japan, so that wasn't too weird. Probably the weirdest thing about this experience has been how normal it feels.

Started out my first morning (Thursday, March 26) with normal scripture study at 6 with my family. Then, had a meeting with our Stake President, who was very intent on keeping us busy during this time period (major props to him). He gave us some good ideas of things we could do online to get started and said he would speak with us on a somewhat regular basis. A little afterwards, as I did some studies of my own, the jetlag started hitting me hard. I made the huge mistake of letting our dog, Cooper, sit on my lap. It was a battle to try and stay awake.  (The computer was open because we discovered a livestream of an AP Japanese class -- taking advantage of all the practice he can get!)

 

Later in the afternoon, I tried to do a weekly planning of my own to assess my options for things to do, mostly online. Had a refreshing taste of American food with hot dogs for dinner. One of the things we found out very quickly was that I had been and still was the big eater of the family.

 

A little later, my parents said the bishop wanted to chat while social distancing on our driveway, so I got suited up and headed out. After a few seconds, my mom pointed me down the road and I saw a row of cars in the distance with balloons and streamers and signs. Tons of our friends had come together to make a coming home parade! It was so sweet! I found myself instinctively Japanese bowing to them while waving as they passed by. I felt so much love and appreciation for them.

 

The next day (Friday, March 27), I started to get to work. Had another meeting with our Stake President in the morning. Later, I set up an appointment with a friend living back in Japan for a lesson, then set an appointment for Japanese practice with Chris Ballard, an awesome returned missionary from Japan, then set up an appointment with the people in my MTC district so we could chat about the changes and what has been going on in Japanese.

Saturday, March 28, those appointments happened. Chatted with my old district in the morning. Super fun to catch up with them and see how they're doing, almost all in Japanese. Big change from when each of us couldn't do much back when we started. Japanese practice with fluent Chris Ballard was super fun as well. The evening was when I had the lesson with my friend from Japan. He actually prefers English when we meet, so I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to invite my younger brother to join me. We both got dressed up in our white shirts and ties, then held a great companion study to discuss what we were going to be talking about, then took a brief brain break before entering the video chat. Also participating were my old companion from before we got sent home (Elder Ortiz) and a member friend. We had a wonderful lesson and felt the spirit throughout the meeting. Few things have brought me so great joy as being able to share that experience with my brother of teaching somebody the gospel and feeling the spirit as the Holy Ghost bears testimony of the truth.

 

Sunday, March 29 - Conner gave a fireside via Zoom to the youth of our ward.  He spoke about his experiences on his mission so far, shared some pictures, his testimony, and then did a Q&A

 

Monday, March 30 - The next day was pretty busy. Talked with various people throughout the day either in Japanese, or just practicing lessons in Japanese. I expected I would probably be going someplace English speaking in the next few weeks at the time. So, I definitely needed teaching practice in that language. On a side note, tried to post something on facebook I found that was cool, but accidentally just added it to my story. Shows how much I really know about facebook, lol. All my time in school before my mission, I never even got an account.

Then, Tuesday came (March 31). It was about dinner time that we received the news. (Click to read this letter from the church). My mom had it pulled up on her phone, and I was just sitting down to Hawaiian roll pulled pork sandwiches with a side of Doritos. My mom scrolled through and said that all missionaries currently at home were getting temporarily released and there was a chart with the options we had. I politely asked for one moment, quickly said a blessing on the food, and the announcement continued. The two options we have are get called again as soon as possible with the same release date, or wait a year and serve the rest of the time we would have had if we had continued. Interesting choice, though it definitely serves a lot of people.

I was officially released Wednesday morning (April 1). Our Stake President was great and went right to business about a suggestion or two I should do now to keep the language up. I took off the nametag and came out of the room we video chatted in, but my mom immediately stopped me and said something along the lines of "Whoa, you took the nametag off? We still need to do some pictures." 🤣

 

 

Anyways, I still don't know how I feel about this whole thing. It's been crazy, but it's happening. Nothing we do changes it. We can only change how we deal with it. The very afternoon that day, I started going through the mountain of pictures I had with my mom, then presented some of them to my family that night. It really is an unprecedented and awesome time that we are living through right now. We are living through a historic moment of the world. I'm glad I'm along for the ride and I get the privilege of a front row seat for what the Lord has in store for us.

 

Since his temporary release Conner has been able to participate in

• another lesson with his investigator in Misawa.  He met online along with Elder Ortiz and the new missionaries assigned to that area so they could make introductions.
• a testimony meeting hosted by the mission president .... all missionaries currently in the mission and those sent home to the US gathered on Zoom.  They wanted to provide an opportunity for those who have been permanently released (those who went home who have served 18 months or more) to bear their testimonies. This is something that missionaries would usually get to do at their last zone conference before going home.
• and on Monday morning the home missionaries were invited to participate in a zone conference

Here is a video of Conner playing the Japan Sapporo Mission Song on the piano

---

Misawa Week 5 - Coming Home

At the zoom meeting (Sat, March 21), we didn't get a very good timeframe of when we would be leaving. All we knew was we were going soon, in a few days or so, and that we needed to leave our apartments like people wouldn't be coming back in a long while. That meant taking care of trash, expired food, and any food that could expire in the foreseeable future. With that uncertainty in mind, we decided to get right to work. We spent the rest of our day packing and cleaning out the trash out of the apartment. Another Elder came to stay with us since his Filipino companion was already heading home. The next couple days were pretty much the same amount of uncertainty and with less things to occupy our time than ever before. As I missionary, I feel physically and mentally and spiritually terrible whenever I am doing nothing, so I just tried to stay as busy as I could, whether it was messaging people, or just scrubbing the apartment.

When the day finally came (Tues, March 24), we took a train to Aomori and met the sisters in our district. From there, we took the bullet train under the ocean to Hokkaido, then a train the rest of the way to Sapporo, where we met about 40 other missionaries in the same boat.

Train station in Misawa

Message received Tuesday, 8am PDT // Wednesday, 12am in Japan right after arriving in the mission home

President McClure got all the Elders together and started talking with us about what was going to happen. He talked about how this was going to be a wonderful opportunity for missionaries to combine in other missions and share ideas around the world like cross-pollination. I really think that this COVID-19 thing has so many hidden blessings that are timed so perfectly for this day and age. If this plague had happened just a few years ago, we wouldn't be able to do missionary work like we are able to do now via devices.

Breakfast in the mission home in Sapporo -- Sister McClure outdid herself in an incredibly busy week — made breakfast casseroles for all the missionaries who were staying at the mission home.

Elder Brown and Sister Brown  :)

The next day (Wed, March 25), they were sending us all out in waves throughout the day. I learned I was in the last wave of the day, so I got to see most of everybody leave for the airport. Got to eat sushi for lunch at the same place where I first ate sushi in Japan, which was a super neat experience. When the time finally came, we took our drive over to the airport with the mission president, who talked to us all along the way about trusting the Lord in all things.

We arrived at the airport, which had a few people walking around the main mall area. Then we entered the gargantuan baggage checking section, which was eerily empty and silent. A couple staff members appeared and got us situated. We actually had to run a little ways to get to our flight so it could leave perfectly on time. There was almost nobody else on the flight anyway. We took our seats and started our long journey at 7:45 Wednesday night, a journey which would somehow end at 11:45 that same night, lol.

The flights themselves were mostly studying or sleeping, but we got off the plane in Honolulu and ran into tons of fun people. I met some missionaries who were at the MTC the same time I was, but got out a few weeks before I did. I also got to see Elder Kimball, my friend from high school, which was super fun! We got to chat a lot about our missions in Japan and our experiences so far. We were on the same flight back home to Vegas, so that was also fun. Met some nice members along the way who chatted with us.

Finally, got back home to Vegas. My mom gave me a hug. My dad gave me one next. On the way home from the airport, we saw my sister T-posing in the back of our truck next to the house. My brother met me with our dog inside.

It's interesting being home. I've only been gone about 8 or 9 months, so I haven't forgotten life in the Brown home. And with plenty of time already in self isolation, I'm more used to that situation. I have already seen plenty of blessings come from this experience already, and I expect more to come.

 

I would like to quote a small section or two from the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. In this section, the Lord guides the people of the Jaredites to a land choice above all the Earth, and the circumstances of their journey are described.

Ether 2:24-25

24 For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.

25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come.

 

Ether 6:8

8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

 

Three interesting things I found about the waves and storms that beat upon them are:

 

1. They are sent by the Lord.

2. They always blow his people towards their destination.

3. The Lord always prepares a way through them.

 

When we have confidence in the storms of life that the Lord has prepared the way and we are always going where we need to go, we can stand back and behold the salvation of God as he works miracles in our lives, no matter the circumstances.

a letter to my siblings

(Photo taken during our video chat on Friday, March 20th when Conner shared the news that he -- along with all non-Japanese missionaries -- will be leaving Japan)

From:  Conner Brown

To: Payton and Anna

Subject:  To the people I will literally see in a few days

 

Yeah, I considered not writing this because we'll be face to face in a bit, but why not, right?

 

Also, I would like to talk a bit about my experience when I did get the notice that we were leaving. Before we had the big meeting about what was going to happen, I honestly expected that we in sanitary Japan would just wait this thing out.

 

When the Mission President told us in the zoom meeting that we were leaving, I can't remember my initial reaction. I just know it didn't effect me emotionally very much. As in every single experience of my life, my thoughts are "Well, this is happening", and thats it. We are a pretty chill family, good at rolling with the punches. But, there's another reason I am really so calm with these things.

 

Throughout all my life I have recognized that whenever I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, everything always works out in the end. That is one of the things I love most about the gospel. The Lord's blessings are limited only by our personal worthiness, actions, and faith. If we trust him and are doing all things in our power to be faithful, we literally don't have to worry about what is to come. What will happen will happen, and it will always be for our benefit. 

 

Gotta finish quick while we have church wifi, but

愛しています！

Elder Brown

Misawa Week 4

Hello there!

Rather uneventful week this week.

 

Monday, March 16: had FFEP with a lady we've been trying to get in touch with for weeks. It is really hard explaining simple things just like God to Japanese people, because their beliefs are so varied. Had a nice FHE with a ward family.

 

Tuesday, March 17: had a super busy day of contacting people and planning on how we were gonna contact people. Lots of members, mostly. We've been giving some good family home evening lessons via facebook messenger. Helping people get ready for conference with lessons on the blessings of the restoration. Today, also had another meeting with the Japanese sisters, then tried online eikaiwa that night. There was literally one person who attended. The Larsons brought us pizza, though. Absolutely delicious!

 

Wednesday, March 18: had FFEP in the morning with a young girl who is super good at english. She won't understand gospel to well, so we are teaching her principles of the gospel with the intent to maybe attract her mom's interest to what we are teaching. For instance, we taught her about being a peacemaker (cheesemaker, cough, cough). We tried something new with the sisters, where they had a conversation between themselves and I listened. Afterwards, I summarized what was said, then they asked questions about it. It went pretty well. Learned some new words. Good listening practice. 

 

Thursday, March 19: had DKK in the morning and how to help our people progress. Had a zoom meeting a little later on where they told us we would be in self-isolation at least until April, at most August. They gave us a few more scheduled district/zone activities to do to keep us genki. Oh, side note, Sister Justinianos is one of the coolest members I have ever met. We were having trouble setting a meeting up with another member, so she put us all in a group chat, suggested we meet, then dropped. That was great. 

 

The one real low note on the day was walking 25 minutes or so back to the apartment, then realizing nobody turned off the heater in the church. So, we took the 50 minute walk of shame.

 

 

Friday, March 20: today, I had those cinnamon rolls for breakfast. They were absolutely wonderful!

This was a big moment.  Conner found this tube of cinnamon rolls hanging out in the fridge, a bit past their expiration date.  The Japanese sisters gave him tips on how to use the microwave as an oven (which is something he has been trying to figure out for months) and so the cinnamon rolls came to be.  

 

Later in the morning, a super nice member came over and gave us enough food for the next two transfers. Super nice! So much American stuff! Later on, we had a meeting where our district met with another and talked about our miracles for the week. Then did a self introduction thing with two truths and a lie. 

 

Saturday, March 21: had a zoom meeting in the morning where they broke the news to us that we weren't gonna be in japan much longer. We didn't scroll through everybody's faces on the zoom meeting, but I'm sure there were many tears shed. We had a zone testimony meeting in the afternoon. Thankfully, Elder Ortiz was the most senior missionary in the zone, so he went first, then as his companion I went next. We got ours out of the way before the waterworks really turned on in the zone.

 

Here is the official announcement from the church regarding adjustments to missionary work.

 

That evening, we cleared out lots of stuff. Was a little embarrassed to give all that food back to the nice member who gave it to us, but orders from Honbu were to take out everything perishable. We got more help getting the rest of the stuff out. 

 

We packed and and bunked with Elder Bradford, who's Philippino companion needed to go to honbu to be sent home ahead of everyone else.

 

excerpt from an email to parents from President McClure:

We announced that we received word in the last 2 hours that all non-Japanese missionaries will return home. Even though the Coronavirus is less prevalent in Japan than in most of the world, the Brethren are concerned about countries closing airports and borders and they don’t want missionaries to be blocked from returning to their families, should the need arise. Those returning home will isolate at home for 14 days. Then, they will be re-assigned to a mission in their home country. Our two American missionaries whose parents live in Japan will be allowed to stay in the mission.  All Japanese missionaries will remain and continue to work from their apartments and from the church building.  Those who return home and who have only 2 or 3 months remaining on their mission will probably be released and will not be reassigned.

This information is so new, we do not yet know exactly when missionaries will depart, but we hope to have them on a plane headed home within 3 or 4 days, but it is a massive operation. Missionaries from the Philippines will be sent first since the airports in the Philippines will close very soon. They are our first priority.

........ our priority is communicating with missionaries and helping them through this challenging time. We want them to see the positives and the potential in this. We believe the Lord will turn our challenges into great blessings if we trust Him.

 

Sunday, March 22: last night, they told us to get ready to leave in the morning. We were ready to leave for home by 8. Then, the hours started ticking by. As a missionary, I don't know if this is everybody or just me, but as a missionary, if I'm just sitting doing nothing, I feel like an absolute pile of trash. I started the day doing everything that needed doing, then winded down eventually when everybody else didn't seem in the clean up (or do anything) kind of mood, so I sat for a bit and socialized. I quickly just felt horrible and lethargic. Finally I threw open the fridge and started scrubbing it.

 

Got some info at night that we would probably leave Tuesday. The Larsons brought us a delicious dinner of corn, mashed potatoes, pork, and cheesecake. Delicious! They are so nice!

 

(also, bags of snacks for travel)

 

 

Monday, March 23:  Conner did not write about this in his letter, but I'll fill in some details from our chat on his P-day. 

• They were still waiting for information on when they might go to Sapporo and begin travel.  Misawa is on the northern part of Tohoku which requires travel by plane or on the Shinkensen (bullet) train through an undersea tunnel to get to Sapporo. To help ease this first leg of travel they each set out one suitcase to be picked up today and shipped to the mission home in Sapporo.
• Yes, they removed ALL of the food from their apartment.  The senior missionaries were bringing them some Taco Bell from the base for lunch.  And they planned to buy some food for dinner. Breakfast was pancakes that Conner made from some Bisquick mix still hanging around.

• We got this update from the mission president
  • Days have been very busy. Church Missionary Travel and the Asia North Area Office personnel have been working so hard to arrange over 600 flights. We finally have 6 missionaries departing on Tuesday, tomorrow. Tuesday afternoon, the 8 Philippine missionaries will also leave for home.  We have been told that forty more missionaries will depart on Wednesday and Thursday. It is a huge task.

Misawa Week 3

Hello there!

 

I guess you are all on a mini isolation of your own right? Well, I'll tell you a little bit about mine:

 

Monday, March 9: normal preparation day stuff. We had a great chat with Sister Justinianos. She is super into communications and things like that so we've been chatting with her about how to spread the word about our english program.

 

Tuesday, March 10: tried out a new thing with the Japanese sisters in our district. Basically, we teach them English for 30 minutes, then they help us role play and answer our questions about Japanese. It's funny, so many times I say stuff in Japanese and ask about it, people say, "Oh, that's great. It's correct Japanese. It just doesn't sound native," to which I respond "but that's where I want to get." So now the sisters know what I'm looking for.

 

Wednesday, March 11: had a mogi lesson early in the morning with a member who is Japanese, but speaks fluent English. Had a mission-wide zoom meeting later with Todd R Budge, who gave us good information about the situation and things we can do to keep working effectively and with focus. Later on, we did mogi stuff with "the District" with our district (I let you guys figure that one out, lol). 

 

*On Wednesdays they can watch an episode of The District as part of their learning/training

 

After that did mogis (role play) and English with the sisters. They've been giving me some really helpful comments and suggestions and answers to my questions. We made a name for the program, the:

 

Muryou (japanese for free) 

English 

Mogi

Exchange

 

You know what that spells. The Japanese sisters also know, but have no clue what it means.

 

Their District.  Top left (Phillipino & American).  Top Right (Elder Ortiz & Elder Brown). Bottom Left (both native Japanese sisters). Bottom Right (American senior couple serving as military relations on the base).  Video or phone meetings with the District are now built into their daily schedule. They do their meetings in both Japanese and English.  The Japanese sisters don't speak English. And the senior couple does not speak Japanese.

 

Then, later that night we did a mogi with our zone leaders about the Restoration. Also, on Facebook let everyone in the ward know when we were available the rest of the week for FHE or Come Follow Me studies. Made a flyer for teaching English and talked with Sister Justinianos about it.

 

Thursday: DKK in the morning. Did another meeting with the sisters. Talked with a member over the phone. Later had FHE with the Justinianos family. Talked about the restoration. The Larsons came over later and brought us frozen pizzas and Mexican chips and stuff.

 

 

Friday: lol, today was interesting. I considered messaging Haru, the one person who hasn't responded in a week. Elder Ortiz was adamantly against it because he didn't want her image of missionaries to be desperate people. Finally, we talked to Elder Ortiz's old companion. His line account got deleted, so he had an excuse to message her. He did, and seconds after, she messaged both of us. Long story short, we're gonna teach her English. Also the Larsons brought us turkey and vegetables.

 

Saturday: had DCS with the Branch President, then watched the new Book of Mormon video during lunch. A nice sister from the ward gave us lots of instant soup which will be great for lunches. The McLaughlins gave us a Pizza Hut meat lovers pizza. We are so spoiled. We were able to share a message with them later about the Restoration.

 

Sunday: super busy day. And busy is great! Had a lesson with Chen in the morning. He seems to have such a great desire to learn about Jesus Christ and the gospel. He isn't sure if this is true, but we're helping him learn and find out. Later had a meeting with the sisters. Then after that was a mini sacrament meeting with the district. Had an after baptism lesson with a recent convert. Those are much more informal and so much easier than lessons to nonmembers because we can actually go a little more in depth and talk about interesting specifics. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and why we need it and his atonement.

 

Later, we had an awesome FHE with the Hatfields. They are a super nice family and we talked a lot about the blessings of the Restoration. After the FHE was a lesson with Caleb. He read the Book of Mormon passage we asked him to read last time. So, throughout the entire lesson, I was thinking, "how can we emphasize more how awesome it is that you are keeping commitments?" It really was a great lesson. Can't wait to keep meeting with him.

 

Hope you all have a great time in your mini isolation period! The trick is to always have food on hand.

 

愛しています！

Elder Brown

Misawa Week 2

Hello there!

 

First full week in isolation and probably the longest week of my entire mission. I'll be interested to see where it goes from here.

 

Here's my report for the week:

 

 

Tuesday, March 3: had DCM in the morning with a short zone meeting at the beginning. Also did a mogi with a member later in the day. Mogis just between us have been a pretty good way to use our time, whether it's actual lessons or contacts or follow-ups. We had an FFEP scheduled, but the person couldn't make it. On the bright side, the Larson's brought us pizza, so that was awesome!

 

**FFEP is a mode of teaching where the missionaries do a 30 minute lesson in Japanese and 30 minutes in English.  It appeals to Japanese people who are wanting to learn/improve their English

 

 

Wednesday, March 4: had a district mogi today. Like I said earlier, something a little dumb happened during it, so to be funny, I did a face palm. The two Japanese sisters thought it was so funny and started mimicking it. 

 

Later that night, had a super fun time teaching an FHE with the Justinianos Family. They have four super cute kids who were fun to watch during the meeting. Doing this gave me such a respect for parenthood and the work that goes into it.

 

*This was a remote FHE using video calling.  The family put the missionaries up on their tv screen for the kids to watch and listen to while they taught.

 

Thursday, March 5: today was a phone mogi with a "random" person in the zone. This transfer, a fresh set of beans filed in and one of the beans headed south was named Sister Brown. Naturally, the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leader couldn't resist. Sister Brown and I had a fun time doing a street contact mogi, something she's never done before. Snow fell in buckets today pretty randomly. Later that night, the Larsons brought us stuff to make BLTs. We ate a little too much bacon that night, lol.

 

Friday, March 6: Elder Ortiz recommended an awesome app that converts kanji so that Japanese is readable. So, now I can finally read general conference talks in Japanese. Super cool! Had mabudofu for lunch. Greased the pan with bacon grease from the night before. Found some mold in our drain, so that was something to fix.

Mabudofu - the one and only way to eat tofu

 

Saved bacon grease

 

Saturday, March 7: two lessons today. One was FFEP with a nice Japanese man who's little daughter played around during it. The other was an American who works on base. Both lessons went fairly good. Nice Zone Meeting in the afternoon where we talked about working effectively in this circumstance. The Larson's brought us dinner again. This time was pulled pork, coleslaw, and Hawaiian rolls. What is this, America? Absolutely delicious!

 

Sunday, March 8: had another lesson with an investigator in the morning named Chen who seems to be going pretty well. We introduced baptism, but he felt he wasn't ready. However, now that he knows that's a goal, all we have to do is get him ready. Had a little Sunday meeting with our district. The rest of the day we worked on contacting people the ward council gave us, so pretty good. 

 

 

Something cool from this week was about our friend Chen. He's been learning a lot about Christianity and studies the Bible diligently and recently started on the book of mormon. When we asked him what he thinks he needs to do to be saved, he didn't know. Later, we were easily able to answer that question with one chapter from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31. Sometimes, we probably take for granted just how simply we have the gospel before us and just how much knowledge we truly have. Sometimes, if we have questions we are unsure of, maybe it would help to take a step back and see how much we know and the true importance of what we know. As we prepare for the 200th First Vision anniversary, it's nice to think just how much knowledge we've received because one 15-year old boy sought for knowledge.

 

 

愛しています！

Elder Brown

 

 

While eikawa classes are cancelled, Elder Brown and his companion will make short videos of common phrases to send to their eikawa classes via LINE chats.

We also received an update from the mission president.  Here are a few excerpts:

• All are healthy!  Missionaries are learning new ways of working effectively. They are finding success. This makes them happy. 
•  I just sent them an email suggesting that they get outside today in the sunshine and fresh air. It is beautiful here today.  More exercise will feel good. Tomorrow will be rain and snow. People are very safe outside if they stay away from other people. There are not very many people outside
• This Wednesday morning at 10:00 we will have a mission-wide Zoom meeting. We have invited Elder Todd Budge (Area Presidency) to join us with a spiritual thought and to answer general questions. It will be a treat for our missionaries.
• Thank you for your prayers and for your faith. We trust in the Lord to help us. He is guiding this sacred work. We feel His power and we see His hand in all things. We feel safe in the arms of His love.

Conner was also happy to share with us that no missionaries will be going home.  In other areas closer to China (Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia) they were sending senior (elderly) missionaries home as well as all missionaries who had less than 3 months remaining on their missions.

Misawa Week 1

Hello there!

Alright, you all know about Coronavirus so I'll give you the experience as my week went.

 

Tuesday, February 25: started off as a normal day, when we got transfer calls during personal study. Kaga 長老 went first, but I overheard cause I was sitting right next to him "you're staying here, but you're getting a new companion." Spoiler alert, lol. Anyways, I took the call next and was informed I'm headed to Misawa, in the used-to-be-called-Sendai mission. My companion was to be Elder Ortiz! He was Minegishi 長老's companion right before me. He's fifteenth transfer, what we call in this mission ojiichan (japanese for grandpa).

 

Did some dendo in the morning, and the rest of the day was packing. At one point, I called Ortiz 長老 to see what the weather was like down there and whether or not I should bring my bike. When I called, I first asked him if he had received his transfer call, cause I didn't want to spoil it. He said he hadn't, so I tried to figure out something to say and stuttered through asking what the weather was like down there. Finally, he said he was messing me and already got the call. That night, we took a train up to Shiroishi and camped there for the night.

 

Wednesday, February 26: Well...I was supposed to have a flight in the morning to take me down south, but that got canceled. So, Kaga 長老 and I dendoed throughout the day and met up with his new companion in the afternoon. They headed off to Muroran, and I spent the rest of the night with one of the Shiroishi elders and his new bean. It was a super fun time seeing the first few hours of a bean's life from the sidelines. We had a great night of dendoing together, and actually met a guy who had a Book of Mormon already and committed to read it. 

 

Thursday, February 27: I and another elder heading south finally figured out a couple things as to what was happening. We headed over to honbu because our flight was in the morning, but before it was a mission wide zoom meeting. We actually got ushered into President McClure's office to be present for it just as the event was starting.

 

(Cue the dramatic Beethoven music) Japan mission is following South Korea and confining all missionaries to their apartments and/or the church. We still have online tools, but that's about it. Church is also canceled. Pretty much everything is canceled. 

 

So, after that fun stuff, I piled into a van with two transferring elders and four beans and headed over to the airport. Ate a quick lunch, then took a plane down to Misawa airport. That was when we realized the beans had no idea where they were going. They had no travel plans. Finally, we got over to the train station where some other missionaries were waiting to help them out. I met Ortiz 長老, then we headed back to the apartment and did DKK. 

 

A thing or two about Misawa. This is one of the places that every missionary wants to go to. I'll explain why in a sec. We're right next to the U.S. Airforce base, so we have a 200 person ward of English speakers, then a branch of about 20 Japanese speakers. I probably won't be able to meet very many of them, but I've met a few and they seem super nice. Here's the big point to Misawa...food. The members give us so much food and it's American!

 

Friday, February 28: dawn of the first day. Indeterminate number of hours remaining.

Actually pretty good day. Took care of some basic stuff, like putting me into chats, and meeting people online. Got a phone call from zone leaders saying please do enough shopping for two weeks either tonight or tomorrow morning, so we went and did some of that.

 

Saturday, February 29: did a tiny bit of shopping in the morning. After lunch, we headed over to the church and did some online dendo. I posted something on the English ward facebook page. I'll attach a pic. We messaged a lot of people, got some appointments set, and made some videos. Lol, some of the people in the mission are already getting so bored, a couple of them crazy. There are hundreds of music videos made by missionaries swirling around the internet. Also, some members brought us cookies and...pretzels! Lol I had no clue how to talk to that American family.

 

Sunday, March 1: no church, but made sacrament in the morning. Had no bread, so we used cookies. Met with a guy in the morning named Chen. He seems like a super cool guy who really wants to draw closer to god. Later on called a member about a mogi lesson. That night, we met another guy who works on base. Not sure exactly how much interest he has. Note, all of these things were in English, almost. Tonight, we had the most epic break your fast dinner ever. An awesome family called the Larsons brought us home made fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes in a container with butter, and a lemon cheesecake. *pics at the bottom

 

So in short, we're doing good.

 

Here's the message I sent to the Misawa chat:

 

Hello everybody! 

 

As many of you know, we have recently been grounded by our mission president.😢

 

In spite of the situation, we are determined to do everything with the tools we have to fulfill our missionary purpose! 

 

When the people of Ammon were converted, the remainder of the Lamanites came against them to battle. However, the people of Ammon had faith in the Lord and his perfect plan and submitted themselves to his will. The Lamanites came against them, but many soon stopped and joined their brethren. 

 

Alma 24:27

27 And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people.

 

We testify that everything happens in the wisdom of him who knows all things. We may not be able to go out and talk to people, but we will working diligently via online messaging and video chats to bring people closer to christ. We would love to work with everyone to find more people to teach and improve our skills, whether through gospel messages, English lessons, or Come Follow Me studies. If you know somebody who could use the gospel of Jesus Christ, English lessons, or just a simple pick me up, we would love to work with you to serve and bring the light of Christ into their lives!

 

Thanks so much for all of your love and support!

 

Elder Brown and Elder Ortiz.

 

 

Have a great week!

愛しています！

Elder Brown

 

************

Today we received an unexpected email.  It was from Sister Larson, mentioned above, who brought dinner to Elder Brown and his companion on Sunday evening.  We love that the members there are taking such good care of the missionaries!  She included a picture her husband snapped when he dropped off the food.  And the second photo is one that they sent back to the Larson family with a thank you message.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and ketchup ..... Conner was in heaven!

 

Mabudofu - the one and only way to eat tofu

 

******

A little about Misawa ...... It is located on Tohoku.  Tohoku is the northern tip of Honshu Island which used to be part of the Sendai mission.

Quick facts

• population 38,877
• location for a large military base -- 10,000 Americans
• flat, rural land between Lake Ogawara and the Pacific Ocean.

***********

Update from the mission president today!  Here are a few bullet points

• No missionaries have the Coronavirus.  One elder has the flu and one has a cold.
• This is not a quarantine.  They are in a state of isolation
• Hokkaido has had a lot of cases of Coronavirus - more than most of Japan. The governor of Hokkaido declared a state of emergency on Friday.  Basically, he is asking people to stay inside, especially on weekends.  People are trying to do that. Japanese culture is one of obedience and compliance.
• Tohoku (the prefecture where Conner is) has NO cases of Coronavirus
• Missionaries can go outside for exercise each morning. This is encouraged -- the brisk air and sunshine can help with mood.
• Missionaries spend their day in their apartment or in the Church. The travel between these locations is safe as long as they don't get close to other people.
• Missionaries will wear their N-95 masks when they are shopping because they are physically closer to people.
• The missionaries have been given a new weekly schedule.  It provides for daily contact with other missionaries using their devices or phones to help them be happy, engaged, and more focused on their purpose. 
• They hope the spread of the virus will decline and their isolation will end in a few weeks.

Coronavirus Update Feb 26

On February 26 the church issued the below letter to all members in Japan.  It lists additional coronavirus precautionary measures that affect both members and missionaries serving in Japan.

You can also read updates from church regarding missionary service in Asia: COVID-19 and Its Impact on Latter-day Saints Around the World

 

The mission president sent a copy of this letter to parents along with a message that he had just had a ZOOM meeting with all missionaries.  Everyone is healthy and well. Missionaries will now work out of their apartments and the church.  They will not be contacting people directly, but rather they will use online methods of finding and teaching.

He also sent a document that outlines what the reduced public missionary activity should look like.  In addition to basic health practices (washing hands, avoiding close contact with others, cover nose & mouth when coughing/sneezing) it adds that the missionaries may

.... Reach out to other people through phone calls or other technology only.  Do not visit homes of people being taught or members.

.... Stay 6 feet away from other people when traveling. Do not speak to people while traveling.

.... Exercise outside while staying close-by to the apartment

.... Hold missionary meetings through phone calls or other technology.  Do not gather with other missionaries.

Muroran Week 18

Hello there!

The Lord gave us an opportunity to teach! That and a few other fun events happened throughout the week. Here's the report:

Tuesday, February 18: DCM in the morning! The night before, I got assigned a workshop on expecting baptisms for about 5 minutes. I got a little worried when the zone leaders came and joined us on the group chat, then got a little more worried when President and Sister McClure joined as well. Thankfully, they left before my workshop, so that was kind of a relief. The workshop itself went pretty well. I went a little overtime, but it's kind of hard to make a good workshop that lasts exactly five minutes. Dendoed in the afternoon until sports night.

Wednesday, February 19: lots of finding today. Had an appointment with a returning member, but he had a bad back, so he couldn't do it. Also cut my thumb while chopping carrots. That probably won't be the last time this mission. Other than that, nothing too eventful happened.

Thursday, February 20: dendo in the morning. Weekly planning in the afternoon. Eikaiwa in the evening. Nothing much to report other than that.

Friday, February 21: today, Kaga 長老's tablet died. It's got cracks all over the surface and especially in one corner. That means I'll do the majority of Area Book updates from now on, but whatever. We're not entirely sure what to do about, but I'm sure a solution will present itself. I at least was able to pirate the P90X videos off his SD card so we can work out.

Saturday, February 22: In the morning, Kaga 長老's dead tablet went off its normal alarm, and we can't urn it off, so we stuffed it under some cushions and went about our day.

Had a special Zoom Meeting with the mission about the Corona virus. They gave us some general guidelines to stay safe. Stay a certain distance from people. Don't touch people. Take 2000 something of Vitamin C every day. The mask is up to you, but they said it wasn't completely preventative, so I'd rather be able to more easily talk with people. If you do get really sick, probably get tested at a hospital. They also gave us some info like church is now one hour, eikaiwa is canceled for the time being (that means kids eikaiwa and TOIEC are done).

Had a great lesson with Kuroda-san later on. Kaga 長老 and I just need to work on shortening our lessons, which I think is a general thing in the mission. Hard to balance us teaching and involving him in the lesson. After that, we went and housed. Kaga 長老 somehow lost his glove while we dendoed, so that was interesting. We did meet a really nice old man and had a great conversation. Gave him a pamphlet, so hopefully he'll read and see. It was funny, though, cause when Kaga 長老 said he was Japanese, the man said his Japanese was bad. Must have just been the accent.

Kaga Choro is from Aomori, Japan.  This area is known to have a distinct dialect/accent that is quite different from standard Japanese speakers and can be difficult for some to understand.  Tsugara dialect

Sunday, February 23: Holy cow, we found that glove! First, it was good day at church. Kuroda san was there, so that was great! The stake president was there as well and he gave a nice talk. The wind picked up super hard in the morning and continued throughout the day. We headed back to the place we housed before, prayed, and started retracing our steps to see if we could find the glove. We found it sitting in a pile of snow next to a house we did. Talk about miracles!

Transfers this week! We'll see if my Muroran time gets cut off, or if I'm staying here for a quarter of my mission. That sure would be interesting if so.

Hope you all have a great week! Tell you where I end up next Sunday!

愛しています！

Elder Brown

 

*****************

Also, we received the following email from Conner on Friday

 

I'm alive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Corona virus. Had a zoom meeting today about and they said we could contact home and say we're safe.

愛しています！

 

Imagine our fret (well, mom's fret) when we read the words "I'm alive" with no further context.  Finally we realized we needed to scroll down to read the rest of the email.  Conner intentionally included all of that blank space as a "joke".  Ha. Ha.  The zoom meeting and the extra email were prompted by the news that Sapporo had it's first confirmed case of the coronavirus this week.  There have been a few more cases in Hokkaido since then.

 

Updates on what the church is doing about the coronavirus and missionaries in Asia - READ HERE

WHO report (2/24/20) - HERE