Last week and then I'm in Korea

Dear Family,

Time has flown past and now I am about to go to KOREA! I received my flight plans and it looks like my schedule will be similar to:
Dec. 7
4AM- leave the MTC
7AM- leave SLC
8-11AM (California time)- be in the LAX airport. I will probably make a short phone call to both Mom and Dad during this time, so if you have a preference during these hours that you want me to call, somehow let me know before then.
11AM-5pm Dec. 8- FLY TO KOREA
Dec 8- Dec 10 (Korean time)-I will be in the Mission President's home and get oriented to Korea until I am assigned a companion. I will also be sending emails to Mom and Dad to let them know that I made it alive and love Korea.

So what has the past week held for me? All sorts of excitement. Last Tuesday we heard from Elder Oaks who spoke with his wife and then on Thanksgiving morning we heard from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife and did service for the rest of the day. There really is no better place to be than the MTC during the holidays (except maybe with family or in Korea on a mission).

I leave in less than a week, so if you were inclined to mail me anything it needs to get here by this Saturday. No pressure, just a reminder.

I know you are very curious as to what apostles of the Lord had to say when they came to speak to missionaries, so I will share some of my favorites. They spoke a lot about what we can do to be better missionaries and Jeffrey R. Holland spent time answering questions that missionaries had asked earlier. I really loved when he was talking about us at the MTC and he said that he would hope we would all feel a little bit homesick. That homesickness, he reminded us, is what makes all the other holidays when we get back so great. That homesickness is also what God feels over us. As his children, God wants us to return to him and while we are here on this earth he feels that same desire to see us again and to have us with him in his Heavenly home. That analogy really clicked in my mind and I felt a great need to share with others his love and how they can return to him. I have such a great love for the Korean people already and I can only imagine what it will be like when I actually get there.

A couple of Saturdays ago while we were teaching in the TRC my companion and I got a referral from the man who came in for us to teach. We called up his friend who is from China and it was amazing. The first thing that happened after we introduced ourselves was he got excited and said he had been waiting for us to call. I guess he has already been meeting with some missionaries and he loves the Book of Mormon, but he has difficulty understanding it in Chinese because the translation is a little odd and the English version is of course in older English so he wanted to speak with some missionaries who speak Mandarin Chinese and he wanted to know how he too could come and volunteer at the TRC. So we got him in contact with some Chinese native speaking missionaries who will be helping to teach him.

I love being a missionary and seeing the Lord's hand in everything. I love serving others and I love you all. Tell me your plans for service this Christmas season.

Love,

Sister Rebecca O'Bryan