Thursday, March 18, 2010

More from up North




Dear family,
Life has been really wonderful, I love being a missionary, if I haven't told you before I thought I would tell you now.
Some things I have been thinking about lately:
Trials and hardship.
It is interesting how God gives us trials, sometimes we think it is because he wants us to do well, to come out of life being what we think of as perfection or to gain lots of confidence or scriptural knowledge or baptize thousands on our missions or other such thoughts of perfection. But I think we have to make the most of what we are given in the now it's not so much about the destination as it is about the journey. God knows that we are not perfect, but he also knows how much we can grow from our trials, even when we don't realize that we are growing. He knows how much what we do today effects what we become tomorrow. My district leader gave us this quote to think about (he's French Canadian so it is originally in French):
"Les fleurs de demain sont dans les semances d'aujourd'hui" or "The flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today".
I was thinking about, about how life is lived in the now, not the then or the maybes or the some days. We don't always know our potential or think that what we have is important, but when we realize that not only is it all we have, but it is wonderful and it is all that God wants from us, then it is easier to give it all and let God fill in the rest. That's one reason why I think I have trials, to see now in the eternal perspective.
As it says in D&C 122:7
And if thou shouldst be cast into the apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee eexperience, and shall be for thy good.
When I read this passage I decided to give it a try and I started to think about some of the hardest times of my life and then just list all of the things that I felt I had learned and gained from those times. It was amazing. My challenge to you this week is to pick one of the hardest times of your life and list at least 10 things that you learned from it. Then you can either email it to me or paste it in your journal or whateve you want to.
Other things:
The church is still true in Korea. Korea is not the U.S., but once you get over that then you can see a lot of the wonderful things. We had some extra time before one of our appointments this week and so we asked the member we were teaching to tell us about her conversion story. It was really amazing to hear about how hard it was for her and how her family was really against her decision to be baptized. In Korea they don't really have anything besides their families a lot of times and they live at home until they are married, so when her brother asked her to choose between her family and the church it was a hard decision, but she chose the church. Eventually her family came to terms and although they didn't agree with the decision they lived with it and have seen how much of a difference it has made in her life. It's amazing, but not unique, I think in everyone's lives they have to have their own conversion story.
It snowed yesterday. It's beautiful, except when you have to walk around in it a lot.
Heidi is engaged?!!! How do I miss these things? I guess that's what happens when you live half the world away. Congradulations!
If any of you have any other life changing events, please feel free to fill me in.
Love,
Sister O'Bryan

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