Brick by Brick

     Faith-- what comes to mind when one hears that word?

     My church defines it as a steadfast belief in something that you can't see, but is true-- something like that.  I believe it; it's not like it's wrong.

     When I think of faith, I can't think of anything but my relationship with religion and how much it has tied into my life.  The first time I saw it was when I attended Catholic church growing up.  I would enter the large chapel for Missal (mass) and see in front of me marble steps leading to a pure white altar, two wooden pulpits on both sides of it.  Directly above was a statue of Jesus Christ, outstretching His arms to the congregation.  From going to a holy place like that I realized that....... a bunch of Korean people believe in a giant statue of a dead guy with a beard and holes on his hands.  Honestly, I didn't understand religion at that time.  I knew that a belief in something was good, but I had a hard time swallowing the fact that a single guy died for ALL of our sins.  With some issues like that and some others I won't delve into, I saw myself leaving this church.

     Now as I grew older, middle school and beyond, I attended Presbyterian churches-- English (my friend's) and Korean (my aunt's).  There, I did actually feel for the first time, what it meant to have faith.  I remember a service when the pastor there preached about Jesus and how much He had done to cleanse us and enable us to be saved-- because He was God incarnate, he was able to do all these things.  I thought to myself, "okay, I suppose that's incredible, but it's still a bit weird to me."  I read the Bible a ton and from there built my faith.

     Now in 8th grade, in my fourth period Civics class, there was this girl that I liked named Lynn (actual name withheld).  Throughout the year, I noticed that she was different from everyone else-- she acted different from everyone else.  She was soft-spoken, never swore, never wore anything revealing, and just kept to herself for the most parts.  Now, we shared some more classes as the years went on-- up to junior year of high school.  At that time, I was going through a LOT of confusion and self-discovery.  Yet, I see Lynn-- she doesn't seem like anything's going on with her life.  She's just there.  Content.  Happy.  Now, near the end of junior year, I discovered this church in my life and let me just tell you-- it changed my life; that's why I'm here-- and I was introduced to a lot of people in school who went to this same church.  It lined up with what I believed in and I was baptized on June 16, 2012.  It might have been a month, but it was then that I realized that Lynn was a Latter-day Saint.  She came to my baptism.

     Throughout the span of high school, I saw so many people fall through the grasps of iniquity, I being one of them.  Yet, there was this one girl, Lynn, who just stood fast in her faith.  Her example, had taught me the most about the concept of faith than anything else that I have learned-- even after baptism.  Now in college, I really do hope that she can be an example to so many others-- she has for me and I am grateful every day to have someone my age to look up to be that beacon of hope-- the light-- illuminating the dreary halls in the despairs of the world.

     There's a stake (comparable to a regional Diocese in Catholic jargon) young men's president I met on my mission who left a sacrament meeting with these words: "Many can see your light-- you may not know it, but they're silently cheering you on, wanting you to succeed."

     Thanks, BT, for what you have been for me.