And then the weather got warmer

Dear family,

In Korea they have what are called the 40 hottest days of summer, and then it gets progressively hotter and hotter, they are

• 초박- Cho Back- begins July 19
• 중박- Joong Back- begins July 29
• 말박- Mar Back- Begins August 8

In other words, I thought it was hot before, but I had no idea. It's an interesting experience to have sweat constantly streaming down your face and to be a permanent shade of pink, but it's worth it. Also, Korea has cicadas and this is the year that they are out and about.

This week has been good, the usual, visiting members and less actives and investigators and wondering the streets in the rain with our large umbrellas talking to people at bus stops.

This morning with my companion we talked together about testimony. How a testimony is something that you can't just have, but that you have to constantly nourish and care for. I think it's because I was thinking about prophets and apostles and how they got to be that way, so stalwart and so strong and unwavering. But really the secret to success, to happiness, is not in the miracles and the grand occurences, but in the everyday things we do to remember who we are, remind ourselves of what is imporant and try to follow Christ.

One thing that I really liked to do before my mission was to go to the church website, lds.org and watch the various videos they have online. It was like a small spiritual snack whenever I felt down or unmotivated. So of course keep reading your scriptures, praying, all the other things you already do, but the challenge for this week is to take a look at LDS. org and let me know one thing that you really enjoy from it.

Also, what's up with everyone? Things I know (you can fill in the rest and send it to me):

• Anna is going to Russia in the fall
• Sara had twins (but I don't know how they are now, are they healthy? Still in the hospital? Are there more pictures? How are Sara/Ethan/Elise/Brett?)
• Heidi is getting married.. in August?
• Jon- graduated? In California? Getting his PhD?
• Susan- moved? Visiting in Utah?
• Lealani- In New York
• Daddy/Natasha/Kentucky family- still in Kentucky... 열심히 waiting for me to finish so they can come visit Asia...
• Josh- has a new job.. considering going to Cali? Katie?
• Mom- doing well, I think...
• Louis- taking classes in Utah, organizing brilliant math groups, working? preparing for college?

If there is anything else happening in anyone's life, feel free to let me know. I kind of have no access to that sort of information except through you, my lovely family.

--

Sister O'Bryan

Daejeon PO Box 38

Daejeon-si

Chungcheong bukdo 300-600

South Korea

Words from a Nephite

Dear family,

This past week my companion, Sister Copeland, returned home. (Technically she is staying with her mom's family in Gwangju for a few weeks and then headed back to Atlanta, but for all practical purposes she has returned). Which means I got a new companion, Sister Nam (남윤회)! She went to BYU for a few years before her mission as well and her home is up in Seoul right next to the temple, neat huh? We also have a new face, Elder Stephenson, who came to Korea last week. But I haven't really seen him because he has been in the hospital with an ulcer. Getting an endoscopy is not fun in America, but in Korea where they don't really use anesthetics, it's really not fun. Poor kid.

Last week we met with Moon Un Sook (문은숙 )and her children. A few weeks ago we gave the children the Book of Mormon story books to read and they have since read the entire thing. It was funny because as we began teaching the daughter, You Me (오유미) looked at me and asked "Are you a Nephite?" I was a little taken aback and began to try to explain that I was actually European when she said "You're skin is white. The Nephites had white skin. Am I a Lamanite?" Then she asked how you say that in English. It's hard to explain that usually that kind of thing is not really kosher in America, but she and her brother just kept going back and forth making fun of each other's skin color and then she looked at me and said "How do you say you have red skin, because your face is really red!" Oh... kids.

One of the other Elders who finished his mission came by with his parents to see the traditional folk village in Jeonju and later stopped by while we were having English class. It was really weird to see Americans. I guess I see myself every day in the mirror and I see Elders, but it's different, because they know Korean. But these fresh-off-the-plane foreigners from Springville, Utah just seemed so out of place. In Korea when you are not Korean people usually point at you and talk about you-- because most foreigners don't understand Korean. I'm used to it because I've been here for a while, and usually I just talk back in Korean and they get really shocked. It's the funniest with little kids because they will point and tug at their mom's shirts saying "mom, look at the weird foreigner" so then I will say hi and they will get big eyes and look at their mom and say "they speak Korean!"

Other things I will probably have to become re-accustom to when I get back to the US:

• Being politically correct (things like calling people fat, asking your age, job, salary, telling people to remove the unsightly moles on their face, and other socially acceptable things in Korea are a little rude in America)
• Eating with a fork/ eating only from my own plate
• Not recycling everything/ throwing my food in the regular trashcan/ not having to buy special trash bags
• Having to bum rides from people (since there aren't any good bus systems or taxis)
• Being normal, no one calling me beautiful and patting my back the first time we meet

This weeks challenge is from the Lord. I was reading an article from the July Liahona by Elder Oaks which talked about sharing the gospel. He mentioned the fact that most people view Mormons as being shy about their religion and kind of defensive, like we expect people to reject it. But really, this is the best thing I have to offer other people. I don't have money, I can't solve all their problems myself, I can't give them candy or food or shelter, but I have the gospel and it has helped me more than anything in my life to overcome trials, to feel happiness, to meet other people, the feel fulfilled. It's the only thing I have. It's the best I have. So let's share it.

D&C 19: 37

" 37 And ^aspeak freely to all; yea, preach, exhort, declare the ^btruth, even with a loud voice, with a sound of rejoicing, crying—Hosanna, hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord God! "

Sister O'Bryan

Daejeon PO Box 38

Daejeon-si

Chungcheong bukdo 300-600

South Korea

The humidity as thick as my sweat

Dear family,

We received a new mission president this week which is pretty exciting, he seems really humbled at the opportunity and a little bit overwhelmed, but I suppose that's to be expected.

This week I wanted to share a couple of conversion stories from people in our wards, I thought they were pretty amazing so I thought you might as well.

Joebell is one of our members from the Phillipines. Two years ago, before she came to Korea to get married, she lived and worked in Hong Kong for a period of time. One day while she was on her way to cast her vote for the Philipine presidential elections she was stopped by an Elder. He asked her if she had some time where they could talk. She informed him that no, she was very busy and in fact had to rush before the election place closed. She continued to keep walking, but he followed her, begging for just 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes. She kept thinking about how annoying this kid was who wouldn't stop following her and then she looked back and realized that he was crying. She was so touched that she stopped and asked him for his phone number, she said she had no time but would call him later. He said in order for him to give her his phone number he would have to get hers in return. She quickly responded that she didn't have one. Being very persistent he said that she must at least have an address that he could come visit her at. He then started to tell her what she later realized were the first five articles of faith. She was really touched and intrigued so finally admitted that she did have a phone number and gave it to him.

Three days later he finally called her. By this time she says she had almost completely forgotten who he was, but from that ponit forward they started to meet and the missionaries would call her every day, two or more times every day. After about a week they would call at night and ask if they could sing her a song. She was baptized in a month.

I thought it was intense, I have never been quite as forward as that Elder or as persistent, but since then now every now and then my companion and I will call people and sing to them at night, members and investigators. It's actually really fun.

Another member in our ward told us about how when he was in High School he was walking home from school one day when these two boys in bikes and suits pulled up and asked him in a really disrespectful manner (in pan-mal) where he was going. He told them and then they literally threw a Book of Mormon at him, commanded him to read it, and rode off. He was really offended, but also really intrigued so he started to read it. He took it with him everywhere and read it on the bus and at school and all his friends were really interested to know what it was. He didn't really even know what it was, but later he ended up meeting with a different set of missionaries. They were really surprised to find out that he had already read the entire thing and had a testimony of it.

I have not yet instituted the Book of Mormon throwing into my proselyting approach...

For the Fourth of July at our English class we all celebrated by having human wheelbarrow races, guessing the 50 states contest (the most they could get was 20, most of them were actually cities, not states), water balloon throwing contest, and s'mores making. It was fun. What were some of the things you did to celebrate this year?

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

A Promise

Dear Family,

Last Saturday I was teaching a lady and I began to really think about promises. She is brilliant, three degrees, does research on the side, knows three languages, studied in Switzerland for 10 years, and is currently doing social research that is published in all sorts of science journals and on the weekends goes into the country and gives medical care to old farmers. She is very accomplished, but she also lives at home alone with just her dog and her turtle (I swear if I don't have children and I get to be that old I will just adopt or something). She mentioned that about 20 years ago she got a copy of the Book of Mormon while her brother was taking the discussions and at the same read the entire thing. So while we were discussing it she asked why God would give it to us. Although she couldn't remember all of it, she did remember that it was veyr similar to the Bible in a lot of ways and so she wanted to know why we couldn't just have the Bible. We began to explain to her why we need the Book of Mormon and then promised to come back next week and discuss more about the priesthood.

The next morning while I was reading in Doctrine & Covenants I came across D&C 3:19 which basically says that the Book of Mormon was brought to forth in order to fulfill God's promises to his children:

"And for this very purpose are these plates preserved, which contain these records that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to his people; "

I thought a lot about that, how important it is to God that he fulfills his promises. I thought about how he says that we are his promise generation, we are the "coming for of His church out of the wilderness-- clear as the moon, and fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners" (D&C 5:14). We are a generation that has to make promises and keep promises and that has had many promises given to us.

While teaching another lesson last night I noticed that bit about "clear as the moon, and fair as the sun". On Sunday nights we teach a group of older people who work at a furniture store. They have a lot of desire to learn English and listen to our gospel message with varying degrees of interest. We brought a member with us to teach and there was this very remarkable difference that I noticed- he shone. He is not rich, in fact he recently quite his job as a business man so that he can spend more time studying and currently he is a janitor at a school while he has to support his family and fulfill his many callings. He is not rich, he is not amazingly educated, he doesn't own his own furniture store, but in the midst of those people his countenance shone and his happiness was visible.

I thought a lot about some of the other blessings the Lord has given me personally and how I have seen them fulfilled. I flipped back through my journal and found some of the things that I wrote from the blessing I received when I was set apart to be a missionary and made a short list of promises I have seen fulfilled:

• Gift of tongues--although it is not how I had imagined, I can now speak Korean. This was one thing that took a lot more effort than I had ever imagined (aren't gifts supposed to be free?), however, I have realized that although I do not speak like a native Korean I can carry on a conversation and every day I am able to memorize more grammer forms and vocubularly than I ever did before my mission. Things just begin to make sense and I can understand the majority of things spoken to me.
• Patience with members-- I didn't understand this one at the time, why would I need patience with members who I didn't think were progressing? Wouldn't I be working just with investigators? Oh how much I needed to learn.
• Safety-- Korea isn't actually dangerous by any means, so it's not a big worry, however, I have feel protected nonetheless.

This week's challenge-- tell me some promises that you have seen fulfilled in your life.

--

Sister O'Bryan

Daejeon PO Box 38

Daejeon-si

Chungcheong bukdo 300-600

South Korea