Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Week 2 in Jungju



Dear family,

Jungju is good and I love my two companions. Sister Copeland is from Georgia and used to be a college radio DJ as well as a social marketer, neat, huh? Sister Jung is from Incheon and has only been a member for a year, she doesn't know a lot about the church, but she knows it is true and has the kind of fire testimony that is contagious.

The church for one of our wards is absolutely humungous. 4 stories. You have to use an elevator to get from the chapel to your Sunday School class, we also get to hear from Elder Christopherson in a couple weeks as he is coming to our Stake Conference. I am not certain why he is coming, our Stake Presidency isn't changing, but I get to sing in the choir and he will speak in English, so I am pretty excited.
This past week I got to have acupuncture! Well, kind of. Sister Copeland had an aching back so while we were at a member's house she mentioned it. They quickly pulled out this needle, grabbed her hand and stabbed her pinky. It's supposed to get out all of the bad blood so they squeezed and out came the blood like a water gun. They were going to do it to all of her fingers, but she only let them do a few. Then the member took these band aids with small needles attached and stuck them in between her fingers. After watching her I should have known better than to reveal my health ailments, but I casually mentioned a cold sore on my lips and also got the needle band aids stuck in my palm. Before I thought accupuncture sounded kind of neat, but now I am more of the opinion that it is just painful. Plus I still have the cold sore....

This past week I have been reading Heleman 5. "Why has it taken me an entire week to read one chapter?" you may be wondering. Have you ever read that chapter? It is so craze! Not only is it packed with spiritual wisdom, Nephi advising his sons and admonishing them to trust in God, but also the most amazing thing happens in this chapter. Here they are, two missionaries just like me, except they are baptizing thousands, and then they get thrown in prison. Not just like taken to prison, but an entire army has to come to get them. Then while they are in prison there is this amazing heavenly visit with fire and angels and mists of darkness. Before my mission I probably just would have skimmed over this chapter, but now I read and I wonder... can that happen to me?

I'm not so certain I want to be thrown into jail, that's a little intense, but I do like the part where the less active Nephite informs all of the other Lamanites how to get out of the mist. A lot of the work in Jungju is to less actives. There are a LOT of less active members in Korea and so we spent a lot of time visiting them and loving them and encouraging them to re-activation. Sometimes we don't always see the fruits of our labors. You can't count baptisms or member lessons, and sometimes they still don't come out to church so it's not an immediate result effort. Instead you just have to hope that one day the messages and love that you share will sink into their hearts and while they are out there in the midsts of darkness that come with worldly pursuits that they will remember how they can get out. They will remember what they felt and they will return. And they will. I have faith.

Wishing you all well.

Challenge of the week-- do your visiting/home teaching. Set a goal. Do it so other people don't have to do it for you.

Sister O'Bryan
Daejeon PO Box 38
Daejeon-si
Chungcheong bukdo 300-600
South Korea







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