My Special Experience

I just wanted to write down something very special that happened to me this past week. I am not a very good writer so I'll probably make this sound really cheesy and not so important but I need to write it down so I don't forget.

So last year, when I went back to Korea with Sean and Matt, I contacted my long lost friend named Sun. She was my best friend when I became a new member of the church. It's really interesting how we became best friends, too. I mean, we were like totally different - our personalities, our likes and dislikes, our backgrounds, etc. She thought I was just a quiet girl who came to church every Sunday and to me, she was a loud and outgoing girl who would never want to associate with someone like me. Well... about a year after I became a member of the church, we were inseparable. We were always together, planning fun activities for YSA activities and other cool stuff. We had so much fun together. She made me laugh! And I wasn't so quiet anymore. I loved her!! Well, but then somehow after my mission, when I came back to America for college, we just kind of lost touch. Then our friendship wasn't the same anymore. I know. It's sad. Really sad.

When I was visiting my dad in Nonsan, I felt prompted to call her. So I did. (Always follow the promptings of the Spirit by the way. It will lead you to good things. Most of the time. Not always.) She sounded a little gloomy. And I wasn't sure why. I thought she was going to be all really excited to hear from her old friend. But she did sound like she wanted to see me. But not with everyone else around. She wanted to come see me at the hotel that we were staying at, one on one. So I said okay.

She came over with a delicious looking cake and met Sean and Matt. After we talked for a while about how we have been doing and all, she finally opened to me and told me that she was surprised by my call. She said she's been sad about not being able to be real friends while I was away. She said she had missed me and that she was a little upset about things that happened right before I left for BYU-Idaho. There were some misunderstandings and they were never resolved. I never knew about this. And I was so glad that she brought it up because I always wanted to make things right with her even though we were now living thousands of miles away from each other. Well, we totally made up that night. We talked about all kinds of things until 1 in the morning. She also told me about some other members of Nonsan Branch that had similar misunderstandings about me. The thing was I also had hard feelings about those members as well. She suggested that I contact them while I was visiting but I said no. I guess I was too prideful to do so. How foolish of me!

It was heartbreaking though to find out that she hadn't been attending church for a few years. She told me many things about how she felt about the church and the members within. I listened to what she said. I didn't push her to go back to church right away. I knew she was going to go back someday. She is one of the people with the strongest faith. She had inspired me so much to stay strong in the church. But I just tried to be empathetic. And I told her about the many great blessings I'd been given for keeping my faith in God. She listened, too. We had a very good talk.

Since then, we have been emailing back and forth as often as we can. Then about a month and a half ago, I got an email from her. She said she's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it once more. She said she's been "studying" it because she didn't want to miss anything and that she wanted to be able to be sure whether or not the Book of Mormon was true. I was doing the same thing at the time and I thought it was really interesting that we were both taking the same step. But I was way excited for her.

Then about 2 weeks ago, I got another email from her and it said she was back at church. She said she was a little scared to go back at first but she went anyway because she knew that if there is one thing that she should be most scared of, it is God. She said the branch is in a very good place. Everyone in the branch is doing better. There are more people. They are all very pleasant to be around. She has been going to all the activities, too. She even called a few less-active members to see how they were doing.

Well.... then I got another email from her about a week ago.... This letter wasn't really entertaining to read, really... Because she had a request. She wanted me to do something. Not for her because I would've done anything for her, really. But for me. She wanted me to contact the two members that I had hard feelings for. She bore her testimony of forgiveness and love and how she thought that I deserved to be free of any grudge against anyone and that I needed to be the one who lets go of it first. I wasn't so sure about it. How about my pride. It's their fault, too. But then maybe they didn't really know why I never called or talked to them. Maybe it's partly my fault, too. I am much younger than these ladies. They did help me in so many ways with no questions asked. They were like my family. I prayed about it and I decided to write them a letter.

So I did. I emailed them my apologies. And I told Sun that if they ignored my apologies, I wouldn't bother to try again. She said that was fine.

Well, today, I turned on my computer and saw that I had an email message from one of the ladies that I emailed to. She wrote that there were some misunderstandings and told me what exactly those were. I understood why she had been upset about me. And she said she understood my part, too, and that she wanted to keep in touch with me.

I learned so many things from this experience. One, it doesn't matter how far away you are. It really doesn't matter how often you see them. Things that go unresolved really bother you through the rest of your life. I made up with my other friend that used to be my best friend a few months ago, too. That was a great feeling. I guess God doesn't want me to have any hard feelings against anyone. Because in the end it really doesn't matter. We are all children of God and everyone deserves to be loved and forgiven. Just like I want people to forgive me for my mistakes and love me for who I am.

I was able to talk to Sun on the phone for an hour the other night and it was so great. I am grateful that she has such strong faith to help me become a better person, or I guess a happier person. I am also grateful that I was able to help her through her conversion process. But really, I think she helped me way more with my conversion process - which is still ongoing.