Week...7? in the MTC

Dear Family,

Life is going well here. The weather is getting cooler, but my excitement is not. It's exciting to think that in only four more weeks I will be headed to Korea. There are definitely times when it seems like the MTC is my life, always has been and always will be, but then you get those moments when you realize that you are here only as a preparation for something grander.

Fun story from this week:
While we were teaching about Knowledge to our district this week our Branch President's counselor, Brother Shin made a comment. He was reading from a scripture in D&C that discussed how when we obtain knowledge from God we are able to better understand the way to salvation and to receive joy. As an Asian, he explained, he and his wife are very serious people and the only thing that makes them laugh is when someone farts. For some reason everyone in my district looked at me and started to laugh. I suppose the O'Bryan curse is really more of a blessing, because at least if I can't speak Korean I can make them laugh and win my way into their hearts.

The more I do it, the more I love to plan. I have always like to carry around a planner with me and schedule things, but I am learning now more how to combine my goals, like my life/spiritual goals into my plans and not just to get things done, but to really accomplish things so that I feel like I am progressing in all areas. There is more of the Why behind the What.

Our new districts are great. We have five Sisters and seven Elders who came in last Wednesday which tripled our numbers. I think we are the only zone in the MTC that is almost half and half with our Sister to Elder ratio. I am alright with that. They are all very nice and wonderful and spunky. A few of the girls have already graduated from college and had careers that they put on hold in order to go on missions. One was a teacher and the other worked as an IT analyst in Washington DC for the Federal Reserve. Neat, eh?

While reading in 2 Nephi 25 I came across verse 26 which says:
"We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophecy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of sins."

Previously we had had a fireside by Richard Heaton who discussed the importance of remembering your purpose as a missionary. He explained that we do not share the gospel for the sole purpose of baptizing people, but for the joy that comes when they realize that they can receive a remission of their sins because of Jesus Christ and his atonement. Putting it into that perspective really helped me to realize that it is all about love. God put us here on this earth so that we could become better, so that we can return to him, but in order to do that we had to have the Atonement. We had to have Christ and because we do there is no end to the potential happiness we may feel. Doesn't that just give you hope?

I hope that we can all speak of Christ, write of Christ, rejoice in Christ and that it exudes from us in a way that people cannot help but notice.

Challenge for the week, write down how have you seen the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in your life? How have you changed because of that knowledge? I'd love to hear your answers.

I love you all, I hope you are doing well.

Love,

Sister Rebecca O'Bryan