God Jul-Week 17

Heisann,

The work was definitely a little bit slower this week because of the holidays, and probably will be this week as well, but we still had some good things happen as well. And it has also been a great opportunity to spend some more time with the members and build relationships with them.

We had a lesson with our friend Grzegorz (who brought the Book of Mormon cake to one of our activities) that went well. As a reminder, he is from Poland. Unfortunately he does not speak very good English or Norwegian, so it makes our lessons a little bit difficult. But luckily, we have a member in our ward who is from Poland, and we were able to get him to help us with the lesson. I think I've talked about him before; his name is Piotr and he is so so awesome. He was only baptized around 5 months ago and has such a strong testimony of the gospel and has completely changed his life with no hesitation. Not only was it super helpful to have him there to translate, he also shared some really strong testimony. He told us how since he has joined the church, every day people question why he is a member and tell him to leave the church, as well as send him Anti-LDS movies and material. Despite this, his faith in God and Jesus Christ is unwavering. He talked about how much better his life is in every way since he joined the church. It's always refreshing to hear from recent converts like Piotr because I think we commonly forget how life changing the gospel is.

We had our regular lesson with Rafael (who is on baptismal date) this week before institute. He normally expresses his agreement to basically everything we say, and this week he was a little more honest. Not that he was disagreeing with what we were teaching, he was just expressing some of his thoughts and things that are a little bit harder for him to process. We talked about prayer, and as we started the lesson and asked his thoughts on prayer, he expressed that he liked the idea, but that he didn't feel like he had been getting much out of it and that his prayers weren't being heard. Which I think is something that every single believer has felt before. We had Piotr in on this lesson as well, and he shared that sometimes prayers take a long time to be answered, and that if we keep praying faithfully that God will answer our prayers in time. Which is a great reminder to each of us. 

Saturday wasn't a very productive day for work, but it was a really fun day haha. The Redford's (the couple in our ward that the guy is from Scotland and the wife Sweden) had us over for like 3 hours. They made us hot chocolate and some traditional swedish buns/rolls, and then after we were finished with that we made pepperkaker ( essentially gingerbread) cookies and decorated them. Straight from there we headed to the church and this Mexican guy in our ward made tacos for everyone for his birthday. Definitely the best food I've had since I've been in Norway lol. But Rafael came to that as well which was good to talk to him and have him continue to develop relationships with the ward. 

On Monday the new Ukrainian family in our ward had us over for dinner. They made us a traditional Ukrainian soup that was pretty good. Everytime I'm around them they always make me happy with how positive they are, and I also always just feel so bad for them for their current situation. Being in their house definitely makes me feel for my mom raising twins, because as I mentioned last week they have triplet girls and their house was just crazy and there was just so much going on haha. As I said before the mom is the only one who speaks English or Norwegian so it is a little difficult to communicate with them but it makes it fun. Straight from there we went to the senior couple's apartment, where we all watched a mission wide Christmas devotional we had online. We had our friend Idar there, Rafael, Piotr, and some other young adults from our ward which was awesome. I was able to sit and talk to Idar and Rafael both for a while which I enjoyed. Since I've been on my mission one of the things I've enjoyed most is having actual conversations outside lessons with the people that we teach.

Our lesson with Rafael as well as both lessons that were accompanied by Piotr this week made me think a lot about faith. Piotr's ability to have faith and continue to be diligent despite what he hears from others about the gospel is super admirable. The ability to have strong faith makes all of our problems manageable. When we're going through a rough trial, when we feel like our prayers are one sided, when we have doubts about certain gospel teachings/principles, or even if we're just feeling discouraged for no apparent reason-faith, in time, can solve it. Diligent faithfulness makes our highs in life even higher, while also make our lows not seem so low. My friend Piotr's life is full of hard things just like the rest of us, yet there is never a moment where he isn't smiling. One time I asked him how he is always so happy, to which he simply replied that he focuses on his faith and how much the gospel has blessed his life rather than the difficult things that happen to him--which I think is a perfect formula for each of us to follow. But sometimes it is very difficult to continue in faith, obviously. I was reading some verses in Ether this week that helped remind me the reason it is important for us to have our faith tested. Verse 19 says, "19 And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, which, when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting." If we had a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ like the Brother of Jared receives here, our whole purpose of being on earth would be diminished. We are here to exercise faith in Jesus Christ and to become more like him. As we lean on God and Jesus Christ within our trials, trust in Them, and have faith in Them, our faith will grow as will our relationship with Them. And as these things grow, we will gain extra strength to continue our lives with faith and be ready for any difficulties that arise. 

Lyric: 

Trained up my body and soul, you can't derail me

Trust, between God and myself, they'll never fail me

-Denzel Curry

God Jul!! Hope everyone has a good Christmas :)

-Eldste Winegar

God Jul-Week 17

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Week 16

What's up,

Our week was a little bit slower, probably partially because of the holidays, but we still had some good things happen. 

On Thursday night and Friday during the day we had zone conference. On Thursday night we had a few smaller activities and then the actual zone conference stuff was on Friday. We had a white elephant style gift exchange, but the gifts were supposed to actually be good. So I have no idea why they were calling it a white elephant but whatever. I got last pick which meant I had my choose over any of the gifts and I literally didn't want any of them lol. Anyways, the main reason I wanted to mention Thursday night was because we got our friend Rafael (the one on baptismal date) to come and do a language workshop with all the missionaries, and he also joined for the gift exchange and testimony meeting we had which was super awesome; we're really happy how involved he is. Zone conference was alright, a bit boring but that is expected. One of my good friends from my MTC district is now in my zone so it was good to see him and talk to him.

On Saturday we had our weekly sports activity. Despite it being really cold outside, we played soccer this week. I'm really horrible at soccer and have always hated playing it (and still mostly do), but for some reason this was the most fun I've ever had playing soccer haha. Afterwards we were able to have a really good conversation with some of the people that came. The picture I included is of a guy named Ridvan, who is from Turkey. He comes to our sports and game night every week and is really cool. Not sure if it will happen but hopefully missionaries can teach him in the future. 

On Saturday night we had our ward Christmas concert, which made me really embarrassed for the wards in Utah haha. It was really good. It is partly because we have multiple guys in the ward that are in a band, but it was also just really well put together. We were able to get probably around 15 people that we are teaching or in contact with to come which was super cool. Even cooler, Rafael was asked by a ward member to do a skit with him, and he did. So just him and one ward member did a skit together. So he performed in our ward concert and he's not even a member yet :). Our ward has been really good in fellowshipping him, and it is also great how involved he has been in everything.

For P-day we went to a beach here in Stavanger and ate lunch and just relaxed. It was a really pretty view and a chill activity to do compared to some of the hiking we have done the last few P-days, but it we still stayed a little bit too long for my liking lol. It still is the middle of the winter even if there isn't snow on the ground right now, so it was pretty cold. 

On Tuesday night we had our weekly Bible study that I talked about last week, and we studied Jesus's baptism this week. That was good because we had Idar (someone we're teaching that I talked about a lot last week) and Grzegorz (Book of mormon cake guy) both there, so that was a good thing to talk about so they can understand baptism better and why it is important. Another cool thing that I wanted to share from this: we had someone there from 5 different countries (Venezuela, Norway, US, Cameroon, Poland), and we like those to come to feel comfortable reading so we tell them to read in their native language. So at one point we went around the table reading from person to person, and everyone read in their native language. It was just a cool moment to me, probably one of my favorite parts of my week. It is just a reminder that the gospel and being a follower of Christ is for all people from all backgrounds and walks of life. 

Being that it is Christmas time, we have been talking about Light the World almost every time that we meet with a member. In my studies I also recently read the famous scripture that the campaign comes from, Matthew 5:16- "16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." After reading this verse and talking so much about Light the World, I have been pondering on what it really means to let your light shine. I think another scripture that answers this question is Acts 10:38 (one of my favorite books in scripture)- "38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." I think the way that this verse simplifies/summarizes Jesus Christ's work is powerful; if we can simply strive to go "about doing good", we will quickly become better versions of ourselves, and surely let our light shine. President Monson said the same better than I can: "Our opportunities to shine are limitless. They surround us each day. As we follow the example of the Savior, we will be a light in the lives of those around us—whether they be our own family members, our friends, or total strangers." I believe shining our light really is as simple as doing the unsimple task of trying to be Christlike, trying to do good. I think sometimes we get caught up in the cookie cutter way we may have been taught to 'be Christlike', but the thing that encourages me, is that it doesn't have to be like that. God created us all uniquely, the way we shine our lights should definitely not be uniform; we can all shine our lights in our own personal way. 

Lyric- "Any darkness that tries to penetrate, my light is ample" -Cordae

Ha det godt,

Eldste Winegar

Week 16

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Week 15- Good Guys

Hope everyone's week was good. Another busy week for me.

On Thursday we had splits/exchanges with the Zone leaders. Last transfer we did splits with them in Bergen so this time they came down to Stavanger with us. Between the 4 of us, we had 6 lessons in the day which was awesome. After the senior missionaries had us all over for lunch, we had a lesson with our most progressing friend Rafael. Which as a reminder, he is the one who found the Book of Mormon in his apartment and we've been meeting with him since. The lesson was a little bit different than normal because I was doing it with a different missionary, but it went really well. He is working through some things that he said he thinks he should have handled by January, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to set a baptismal date. We asked him if he wanted to, and he accepted 😁. So as long as everything goes to plan, Rafael should be baptized on the 14th of January!! Super exciting stuff. After that lesson we had a short lesson with our friend Jan over the phone because he lives far, which also went pretty well. After those two lessons we went to a new basketball group we were invited to. The competition was actually good, so that was a lot of fun and we should be able to continue to go to that once or twice a week. 

On Saturday we had a really good lesson with our friend Idar. Idar has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, and has already been taught all of the content in the missionary lessons. So normally when we meet with him, we just discuss a scripture chapter or have a short discussion; which is good, but isn't super productive. But we continue to meet with him because he keeps all of our commitments and comes to church almost every week. We think he may have some high functioning mental disabilities, which makes it very difficult for him to receive answers to prayers. Anyways the lesson we had with him this time was really good. I personally for some reason feel really strongly to need to help him progress. We dug a little deeper on why he likes meeting with us and if he thinks the church could be true, and it he's ever thought about baptism before. Despite our lesson being in a mall, he said multiple times that he felt the spirit which was a really big step for him. We gave him Mosiah 18 (about baptism) to read and pray about. Although he said he didn't receive an answer a few days later, he said he is going to keep having patience and he felt the spirit again when we met yesterday. It may not sound like much but it's really big progress for Idar. 

We started a new weekly Bible study group to try and meet more Christian people. It isn't growing super fast, but it is still awesome to have it and dig deeper into the New Testament. Idar came to that as well, and told us afterward that he felt the spirit so that was good. But the senior missionaries brought homemade caramel popcorn, which I didn't realize is an American thing, and Idar thought it was the best thing ever haha.

On Monday night we had a dinner with an American couple who lives here, who also had over a new Ukrainian family that just moved into our ward, I think I may have mentioned them briefly before. They have triplet daughters who probably around 9 or so, they're pretty funny. But the tough thing is that none of them know Norwegian and only the mom knows English, so they are really going to struggle for a while. But one positive thing is that the way refugees work in Norway, they get all of their furniture and house supplies for free, which is crazy but I'm happy that they could have some nice things to come to after they had to leave home in Ukranian. 

One other small interaction that I had this week was when we were downtown one of the nights. We were just walking between destinations, and this guy came up to us and asked (in English) if we were from Norway. For some reason my companion said yes lol, so the guy asked us if we could help him find something. We replied that we could and that we could walk him to the restaurant he was looking for. As we were talking to him, he saw my companion's tag and then said, "Ahhhh, you are the good guys", and then shook both of our hands. We ended up walking with him and figuring out he was from Poland, and we invited him to our wars Christmas party. Anyways, the point of me telling this was that this really helped remind me that being a member of this church, and being a missionary is the right thing. As followers of Christ we are all the good guys. I think we often get caught in the monotony of church membership and what that consists of, and we forget the righteousness of the path we're on. Me and my brothers are studying mentions of Jesus in the scriptures right now, which so far has been predominantly the New Testament. One of the stories that I read this morning that reminded me of the interaction I had with this guy: the story of when Jesus came into Jerusalem with His disciples. John 12:12-13 tells of the reaction of the people on Jerusalem when Jesus arrived: "12 ¶ On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." As I pondered on what it may have been like for those people, these verses brought a lot more meaning. It's unlikely any of those people had ever met Jesus, yet "much people" came to see Him, and not only see him but praise Him. Just like this story, right when this man saw Jesus Christ's name on our badges, he instantly said we were the good guys and became happy, even though he had never met us before. That truly is a testament to Jesus's glory and perfection. Jesus Christ brought happiness to those around Him. I know as we follow Him and be like Him, we can feel that happiness and make those around us happy as well. 

Comparisons.

Lyric:

"I'ma try to get 'em to see the right path

'Cause I think I'm on the right path"

-Nas

(I apologize that there aren't any funny or exciting things to tell stories about, progression of people I'm teaching is the only exciting thing right now, but I know that's not always entertaining to read.)

Hope everyone's week is good😁

-Eldste Winegar

Week 15- Good Guys

Wednesday, December 6, 2023