Emails from Elder Derrikk Sun

Hi guys! This is Diana, Derrikk Sun's sister. I've been really bad at getting his weekly emails distributed, but I'm going to do better! He's almost at the end of his time at the MTC, so if you just take a second to shoot him a note of encouragement I know he'll really appreciate it!

Diana

On Monday, November 24, 2014 1:47 PM, Derrikk Sun <derrikk.sun@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Mom,

I hope you're doing well. Thanks for letting me know everything that's happening over there. I'm not sure what happened regarding the ice bucket. The bucket I filled with ice ended up being dumped on me. I'm not sure how I don't fall asleep while prayed or why I'm not dead-tired at night. I'd like to think it's because I know that, especially as a missionary, the Lord gives us so much strength beyond our own - mentally and physically. The days are long and hard, but I'm always excited for the next day that we get to teach the Gospel some more. I'll probably be mailing some stuff, like full journals, home before leaving the MTC if weight is an issue.

Wow, it sounds like weather up there is crazy. It hasn't been very stormy here at all. We've been having really nice warm days here and have only had one or two that were chilly. Also, I love Elder Bednar. We've listened to several devotionals and talks by him recently and he's such an amazing speaker. Just last night he spoke on burdens and that Christ will bear us up. Thanks so much for your testimony.

I received Diana's email this week. It's so cool that she's going to a linguistics conference. On Wednesday we received a new batch of Thai-speaking missionaries in our zone. There's a solo sister in their district that just graduated college with a degree in linguistics and also in ASL, just like Diana! Coincidence, I think not! It was so cool to talk to her and get to know her because she ended up being really into linguistics and ASL.

I also received Katelyn's email from Diana. I can echo her thoughts on prayer that she shared. This Sunday's sacrament topic was on recognizing the Spirit. In PMG, there's a whole chapter on recognizing the Spirit and a section on prayer that talks all about how to better use prayer to help us receive and recognize the Spirit.

It's weird being the oldest missionaries. We're pretty much the oldest group of missionaries in the entire MTC at this point. When we first got here, all the Phii Thai's were so old to us and now that we're the oldest, we don't feel like we know as much as the old Phii Thai's did. Thinking about how we're going to be thrown into the field soon is crazy. I started studying 'Jesus the Christ'. I'm really excited to learn specifically about Christ's like and how to be a better missionary through Him. The language is, in all honestly, super hard. We've learned a ton and are now 'refining' our language such as tones. Tones are really hard. It's like singing every word you say. Eventually we'll have it down second nature, but right now it's hard to just remember the vocab but also the tones and then being able to say them right.

Sunday, like most Sundays, was really good. In priesthood meeting, Brother Lords (on of our branch counselors), shared a really cool overview of the BoM that I never realized. He talked about how, right off the bat, the first sixty pages in the BoM address all of the basics of the restoration, atonement, and prophets. The way he explained it was powerful. Even the very first verse, the most read verse of the Book of Mormon, is full of great principles. He said that if we can just get our investigators to read the beginning of the BoM, they'll be able to grow tremendously. In just the first few chapters, we learn the way God deals with His people. He sends prophets. The process was: prophet->prays->vision->sees Deity->receives a book->teaches/preaches->mocked/rejected->people try to kill. In the first 12 pages we learn about the revelatory process and how to receive revelation of truth. In the first 30 pages we learn about opposition in all things. Brother Lords lists a whole bunch of comparisons. Light dark, happiness sorrow, etc. We then learn about the Gathering of Israel. Why we're here and why we go out and teach people. In 2 Nephi 2 we have a great section on the Atonement. This is all within the first sixty pages. At the end of the time we had, Brother Lords expressed how he wished that we had more time. He didn't get through very much and there's so much great stuff to be said about the Book of Mormon. I love learning about and studying the Book of Mormon. I need to work on the larger picture though. Often times we study the scriptures verse by verse and sometimes miss other ideas. On our Sunday film yesterday, we watched a devotional address by Elder Bednar about Doctrine, Principles, and Applications. Elder Bednar's talk also made me think about how we study. Do we focus on doctrines and principles, or on applications in our lives? I've often found that finding the larger, big picture ideas we find in scriptures requires shifting our focus just slightly. Elder Bednar's address, along with other talks, have made us completely rethink how we teach. Elder Bednar said "investigators will ask a lot of application questions. Answer application questions with a principle, not an application". He shared to examples. One on home teaching and another on 'Can I eat pork?'. How can we do better on home teaching? Can I eat pork? These could have answers such as, yes you can eat pork, let's reassign, etc But Elder Bednar answered both of these questions with the response of a doctrine and principle. PMG has a great quote that Elder Bednar shared. True doctrine understood changes behavior better than a study of behavior will change behavior. If my poor explanation is confusing, let me know and I'll expound on it. I just know that this is so true. That we can help others and ourselves more, but focusing on doctrines than just applications. While applications are necessary and important, we must make sure the doctrine is understood or else any application will not create a lasting change

Also what was awesome was the devotional we had Sunday night. It was as if the topic of the week was receiving and recognizing the Spirit. Brother Stephen B. Allen, managing director of the missionary department, spoke on receiving a witness and on spiritual self-reliance. He emphasized the need to turn to God for help and for answers. He shared, to give a brief overview, to receive a witness we must build faith, understand the revelatory process, be worthy, listen, pray, and act. For us, it's our choice what we get out of a meeting. We can choose whether or not we will receive revelation or not. God expects us to be self-reliant. We not only get to choose, we have to choose. For our investigators, Brother Allen stressed the importance to help investigators become spiritually self-reliant by introducing them to the revelatory process and getting out of the way. We must teach investigators to turn to God for their answers, not to us. If they are having struggles, have them ask of God. Ask if they are in the process of asking God. If they ask, the Spirit will begin to give them answers. I was intrigued by the phrase 'begin to give answers'. It's a process. After asking and believing, we must help others to act. A thought that he shared (that I can't quite remember) was that when we begin to act, we begin to repent. Repentance comes through action. Or something along the lines of that.

On Tuesday, we had a tremendously awesome devotional. Linda K. Burton, the Relief Society General President, and her husband spoke. Craig P. Burton gave a cool object lesson. He said the mantle of a calling is like a suit that doesn't fit. When we're set apart we are given a mantle that is much larger than we are. None of us can be missionaries on our own. Through the enabling power of the Atonement, we can grow into it over the span of two years. However, he said the key is that you don't stop. You never stop being a missionary even though we're released from full time service. After two years, you're not done. You're not able to say 'finally, I'm done'. We work to maintain and to magnify our mantle on our missions and we retain this metaphorical mantle even after a mission. It made me also think of the sacrament topic last week, baptism. I thought about how, in our baptismal covenant, we promise to serve the Lord however we can. We promise to give all that we have to Him. As missionaries, we do that too. We're set apart from the world to give all we have to Him. I thought about how we don't need to be set apart as missionaries to share the Gospel and we shouldn't limit ourselves to sharing the Gospel to only when we're missionaries. All members are missionaries. The message that I liked from Sister Burton the most was that, as missionaries, we don't need to be perfect teachers. We don't need to be anything close to a perfect teacher - there's just no way that no matter how hard we try, we'll be perfect at speaking the language or teaching lessons. The key from this was that we need to be not a perfect teacher, but a Christ-like teacher. I think that if there's anything to learn from the MTC, is to become more Christ-like. To become a more Christ-like teacher and a more Christ-like person.

I think I may have left some stuff out, but we're out of time. I'll end by sharing my testimony of the Savior. phom ruu waa phrayeesukhrid mii chiiwid yuu phom ruu waa mxa raw mii khwaamtuk panhaa rxa sing tii yaag gee raw hay rab kwaamchuaylxa caag phrakhrid day khab phom ruu waa phrayeesukhrid chodchay samrab raw day phom pen phayaan waa dooy phrayeesukhrid raw mii chiiwid niran day

I know that was a short phracag phayaan, but I'll have to have more time to collect my thoughts next time.

Elder Sun