Week 22

What's up,

Hope that everyone is holding up okay. It was an alright week for me.

Last week we had zone conference, as well as a zone P-day. So essentially all the missionaries from our zone just came down a day early for zone conference to have P-day all together. There was literally 11 Elders sleeping in our tiny apartment which was kind of annoying but whatever. For P-day, they had planned to play soccer all together, and then Stavanger got the most snow it has gotten in many years....and we still played soccer😃. Definitely not my definition of fun, but I think most everyone else loved it so that's all that matters I guess. Zone conference itself was pretty decent, it is always very spiritual and just a good break from regular day to day missionary work.

After all of our zone conference activities were done on Wednesday, all the missionaries were still in the church, but kind of just all doing their own thing, doing studies and such. When we were doing studies, the Sisters came in and told us to come help them with some guy. Which I didn't know what that meant but we followed them. Basically this random Ukrainian guy just saw the lights on in our church and just walked in. We walked in there and greeted him, and found out quickly that he does not speak Norwegian or English, so we pulled out our phones and started talking to him through google translate. After talking with him for a few minutes, he kind of started staring at me specifically, and then types in his phone and asks if I'm from Ireland lol. And then he walks up to me, pushes back my shoulders, and motions for me to fix my posture. At this point my companion and the sisters are just dying haha. I feel like random stuff like this only happens to me lol. Anyways, we ended up calling the Ukrainian lady in the ward, and she was able to find out what was going on. So we got his phone number, and he actually ended up coming to church on Sunday so that was cool. And first thing he did when he saw me in church was motion for me to pull back my shoulders 😂.

On Thursday we had lunch with this random dude that I found on Facebook. His name is Franklin and he is from Nigeria. He was a very serious dude, and honestly seemed pretty, just, unhappy. Which was sad. It sounds like he has lived through a lot of hard things, and still isn't in a spot that he is experiencing joy, as he doesn't really like living in Norway either. We asked him if he plans to live in Norway long term, and he kind of just sat there for a second, and then said something on the lines of, "If I had the money for a ticket, I'd be on a flight to the US right now"😂. But we were able to have a really good conversation with him, a lot of it about God. He explained to us that he grew up catholic and many of the churches he went to were pretty corrupt and took a lot of money from the people who attended. Because of that, he hasn't attended church for many years, but said that he said he never lost his faith in God. He is super open to coming to our church and trying something new, so he definitely has a lot of potential and I'm hoping he can have an open mind so we can end up teaching him. He wasn't able to come to church this Sunday because of his work schedule, but he is going to try to come to our Bible Study class tonight as well as hopefully church on Sunday. 

That night we had a lesson with Rafael, which is our first since he has been baptized. He once again just seemed really happy and doing really well. He told us that when we first taught him about the gift of the Holy Ghost, he didn't really think much of it or that it could make much of an impact. But he told us that this week, since having been baptized and received the HG, that he has felt a big difference, and that he has overall just felt a lot happier and like a better person. Which that was really good to hear, and really strengthened my testimony of the Holy Ghost. It is a good reminder that the Holy Ghost is always with us, influencing the types of people we are, even if we aren't receiving promptings.

Our lesson with my guy Idar wasn't the greatest this week, but we're going to keep trying with him. He struggles to comprehend prophets, so we had a whole lesson about that. In the end he still had the same conclusion, that he understands WHY we need prophets, but doesn't really comprehend HOW we really have a prophet today. Which is fair, I can't expect our words to change his mind, I just have to have faith that whatever is meant to happen will I guess. But it is just frustrating when I care so much about him and want him to be happy. One funny and cool thing that happened during the lesson though: we handed him a Bible because we were about to read a verse from the Bible a few minutes later. He just randomly placed it down and had it opened to a random page. A few minutes later, he looked down, and the chapter heading of the page that the Bible was opened to was talking about prophets. He looked really shocked, and then just looked at me and said, "did you open it to this page" to which I said no, and then he asked my companion the same thing. He then went on about how crazy it was and how it was also scary😂. We told him it was God and he agreed. This didn't accomplish anything in terms of him receiving a confirmation that a prophet is on Earth today, but I think experiences like this are really good for Idar to show him that God is there. 

The only other thing we did this week was have a lesson with our guy Grzegorz. He is the guy from Poland that brought a Book of Mormon cake to our language cafe a while ago. We had a really good lesson with him. We had our good friend Piotr from the ward to also help on the lesson, because he is also from Poland and there is a bit of a language barrier. He translated a lot of stuff for us so we were able to teach a lot to him. He was at Rafael's baptism last week, and he said that he thought it was really cool, and that he wants to do it in the future he just wants to learn more. So that is really exciting. It's honestly just a matter of time for him he is awesome. 

Sorry if that was all a bit boring, we haven't really been doing anything exciting outside of teaching so that's all I really have to talk about. 

We've been teaching a lot this week, but it was honestly still a pretty frustrating week for me. Me and my companion have still been struggling to unite. We disagree on almost everything, whether it be something small like what a certain emoji means, or just like the way we would go about teaching. Not that we are always contentious when we disagree, but it is just difficult. During the second hour of church this week, a lady in the ward came up to me and asked me something, and because she speaks with very very thick dialect, I didn't really understand what she said. She was asking for something, and I went to go hand her something else, and then she repeated herself, and I was able to understand her. When I went to go hand her the wrong thing, these two dudes in the ward sitting next to me were just laughing and giggling at me because I couldn't understand. I was already in a pretty bad mood, and this just piled on my frustration. I ended up just standing up and going to sit in another room by myself for a second. I just sat and prayed, asking how I could/can overcome my frustration. The thought, "get up and keep going" just popped in my head. It felt like it was just my own thoughts but I trust that it was from God. So after a few minutes I did get up and went back into the class. That thought has been in my mind over the last few days since that happened. Sometimes we go through things, and feel things, that just seem like they don't change no matter what you try to do or what advice you get. I think sometimes the only thing we really can do is keep going. I stumbled on this quote from the great Harriet Tubman today that I really like, ""If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." Obviously Harriet Tubman experienced things and accomplished things far beyond what any of us have or will. But I think it is a great reminder to us to keep going within any circumstance. You can sub in any word for freedom in that quote, and it can be applied to our own lives. Anything we are striving after, whether that be joy, peace, happiness, etc, can be received as we faithfully press forward. As the Come Follow Me was focused on Lehi's vision of the tree of life this week, I also really liked this lyric in relation to this. "And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree (1Ne8:24)" As we press forward through the darkness in our lives, we too can receive the joy that can come from the end goal. 

Lyric: 

"Now I got back up man every time I slipped

Never ever quit, I just kept on pursuing"

-Danny Brown

Ha det bra

-Eldste Winegar

Week 22

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Week 21- Rafael Baptism🥳

What's good,

This week didn't have a lot of highs for me, but Rafael was baptized so that makes up for everything else :). We honestly didn't have a whole lot of things that we did this week outside of the baptism, so I'll just tell about some of the good lessons we had this week. No that that is much different from my normal emails lol.

On Friday was our only kind of funny thing that happened this week. We were downtown and we were walking to the bus stop, and then a guy that walked past us said hi to us and told us to have a good day (in English), in a way that was pretty clear that he knew who we were. So we stopped and asked what his name was and such. And then I probably had the weirdest conversation of my whole mission 😂. It is hard to describe, but he was basically just rambling about really weird stuff for literally 30 minutes. At one point he was saying that the "ahhhh-mmmm" sound in Hinduism is the same as amen in Christianity. And at one point he was literally making karate poses and imitating someone who is on drugs. Can't really describe how weird he was but definitely an interesting experience haha.

Later that night we had a good lesson with our friend Idar who I've talked about a lot, probably one of the better lessons we've had with him. Before our lesson my companion was trying to ask me why Idar won't be baptized, which I was honestly pretty annoyed by because I have literally explained Idar's situation like 100 times to my companion. So I basically just told him, and said we could ask him about it later because we had already planned what we were going to teach. When we were in the beginning of the lesson I had a thought/prompting that I should ask him about baptism, but we were talking about something completely different and it would've been weird to just randomly bring up. A few minutes later, we somehow got talking about Rafael's baptism on Sunday, and it was easy to ask. Pretty cool how that worked out. I ended up asking him his thoughts about baptism, and we got a lot of things cleared up. We read through the baptismal covenant in Mosiah 18:9, and he told us that he thinks that he tries to do all those things. He said the only issue is that he isn't to the point where he has a knowledge of why prophets exist after Jesus Christ. But he also did say that if he gets that knowledge, then he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true church. So we plan to keep working with him on prophets and hopefully he can receive some answers on his own as well. 

On Saturday my companion woke up pretty sick, so we were stuck in the house for a majority of the day. As a missionary I should say that I hated sitting around all day and felt guilty that we weren't working, but it was honestly really nice to have a break from the regular stuff that I do. And I was able to hit our apartment with a deep clean. After he was feeling okay, we joined the Sister missionaries for a lesson with a new family that they found. They are from Congo and later moved to Uganda, before moving to Norway. They are really really cool. Their 16 year old son has already expressed interest in wanting to get baptized and we haven't even taught anything so that is super cool. He ended up coming to church the next day as well, stayed for the second hour, and seemed like he really enjoyed it. The mom and Dad also seemed really interested as well, but there is a bit of a language barrier with them, as they don't speak any English and little Norwegian. And they also can't come to church if the 16 year old comes to church because they need someone at home to watch their young kid, so that's a little tough. But overall I'm super hopeful about them. Meeting them made me really want to stay here for another transfer after this one.

Sunday was Rafael's baptism!! It was definitely one of the better days of my mission. It has been a little bit difficult for me to find joy through day to day missionary work so to have a day like that was just super refreshing and really cool. The other baptism I had was cool, but to have a baptism of someone that was met while I was here, and who I got to see make all that progress was really awesome. Rafael was really prepared from the day that we met him, but to finally have the baptism was a very good feeling. The baptism itself was performed by a guy in our ward which was good, and then I had the opportunity to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. That was my first time doing that, so I was pretty nervous and it was definitely cool and a very spiritual experience. The day overall just had a very strong spirit about it. I'm not one to exaggerate or sugarcoat, but he just looked happier than I have ever seen him. He is always a really happy and smiley guy, but there was just something about him that I can't describe that was just super powerful. Regardless of anything else, Rafael has been someone that I've grown to really love, so to see him take that step made me really happy. 

Besides those few things, our week did not consist of a lot else besides just contacting people and doing studies. 

I think it is really interesting how God uses things that we are familiar with to communicate with us through the Spirit. Multiple times this week, I had a lyric from one of my favorite songs pop into my head while I was doing regular missionary work. One of the times was when we were in Bible study. We were having a discussion about prayer. When we asked the question, "why do we need to pray when God already knows everything we need?", someone replied by saying that as we show our faith to God, He draws nearer to us; He is always with us no matter what. The second time came at a dinner that we were at on Sunday. A similar topic was being discussed, but this time it was with an 18 year old who is not a member (his mom is) and who has been starting to come to church. He was explaining to us that he likes coming to church, but he isn't ready to make that full commitment in his life. In my head I was thinking that it is good that he likes to come to church, but we know that we have to put in effort and show faith in order to receive blessings in this life. The lyric that came to my mind in both of these experiences was a lyric from Nas that says, "Take one step toward him, he takes two toward  you, Even when all else fail, God support you", which I actually shared during the Bible study. In terms of showing faith and being blessed in return, I really like how this lyric reminds us that as we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us. That point was discussed multiple times in my week. But my favorite part of that lyric is the second part, that God will always be there to support you, no matter what. I think it's interesting to note that part comes after the first, which I take as meaning that if we show faith in God, He will always be there for us. In relation to this lyric, D&C 84:88, which is actually talking about missionary work and sharing the gospel, came to mind. It says, "And whoso receiveth you, there will I be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand, and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." Going on a mission and being a missionary is an act of faith in and of itself. Just like this lyric tells us, if we take that step of faith (or any other), God will be with us and support us. That is something that has given me great comfort this week. 

Glad i dere!!

-Eldste Winegar

Week 21- Rafael Baptism🥳

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Week 20

Yo,

Hope that everything is going well with all of you. I finally got a couple of funny stories to tell today so stay tuned.

At the start of this week, I was getting worried about Rafael (the one who we're teaching that is on baptismal date). He hadn't came to church that previous Sunday, and he hadn't replied to our texts in a few days. Sister Purcell, our senior Sister missionary, suggested that we invite him over to dinner to their place, since the regular institute class+dinner we have was not going to happen. I prayed that all would be okay with him and that he would reply to us. Literally as I was typing out the text to him, he replied to our previous text. In that text he said he was pretty busy, and that we could try and meet after church on Sunday. I told him that worked for us, but that the Purcells invited him to dinner. He then accepted. As Sister Purcell said, "the power of food", lol. The lesson we had with him was good and productive though. The dinner was also great and I was very appreciative of the Purcells. All is in line for him to be baptized this Sunday.

 

Last week, me and my companion were going through the ward list here in Stavanger in attempt to try and visit some of the inactive members. One of the people we reached out to accepted, so we went and visited him this week. He is a member, but as I mentioned isn't very active. He lives with his wife and 3 month old baby as well. Most of the time we were there, he was joking around a lot, and wasn't being super serious, so I wasn't expecting to get much out of the spiritual thought we had prepared. We decided to read the Living Christ together. I was reading it off my phone, so as we were reading it I didn't really look up at all. But out of my peripherals I noticed that he was wiping his eyes a bit. And when he went to read the last paragraph he choked up. There was a really strong spirit there and I'm super glad that we were able to visit him, I hope and think that it was beneficial for him. 

That night we had our weekly game night. We had a decent turnout, but it was a pretty average night. There was a guy there that is a little bit interesting that has been taught by missionaries within the last few months but I personally have never taught him. When the night was coming to an end, he shook my hand an said bye to me, it was kind of an awkward interaction though. One of the sister missionaries was standing there laughing, and I just told her that he's always weird like that. But then she told me that he had brought shrooms and was trying to pass them out to everyone at the game night, including some of the teenagers from the ward that were there😭. Thankfully nobody took any, and we were all joking about it on Sunday. But pretty crazy lol.

On Saturday we drove out to Egersund again (city about 1 hour away), to visit our friend Ove (who previously had a drinking problem) as well as Jan. The lesson with Jan was pretty unproductive, as our lessons normally are with him. It's like he has a skill of redirecting our gospel questions into another subject while simultaneously actually answering them. Not sure we will continue teaching him long term but he at least gives for some entertaining conversations. The lesson with Ove was pretty good though. The next day we actually drove out there again to give Ove the sacrament because my companion thought that would be beneficial for him, which I think/hope that it was. But while we were on the way to his house, I had the random thought to text a lady in the ward that is somewhat inactive, and has a 9 year old son that is unbaptized. I was aware of their situation and had tried reaching out before but had never met them before. She replied quickly and said that she was pretty busy this week but that we could go over right then. So straight from Ove's house we went to her place. When we were almost there, she texted and said that she had visitors over as well. Which we thought would make the dynamic a little weird but didn't think much of it. When we knocked on the door, another filipino member of the ward opened the door (she is filipino) which was really surprising. And then we walk in and there was probably like 15 little kids jammed in this tiny apartment, along with a few of the other filipino ward members (some non members as well). So we didn't really get to share any spiritual thought or anything, but it was still good to get to know them a bit and have them aware of who we are. She also gave us food, which I was hesitant to except because we had a dinner appointment right after, but we ended up eating because it was fast sunday and we were really hungry. 

So yeah, literally straight from there we went to our dinner appointment. First of all, I've talked a little about this couple before, but essentially they are just very interesting people and I have had some really weird dinners at their house. So I already knew it was about to be a night. But anyways, I went to serve myself food, and served myself very little portions because I had absolutely no appetite since we had just barely eaten, even though I tried not to eat much. After everyone was served, I went to put some soy sauce on my rice, and it came out wayyy too fast, and my rice was basically dark brown. Sara (the member) said to me, "Elder, you put too much soy sauce", obviously lol. But I just replied that it was an accident. Then my companion and the sister missionaries went to pass me the bowl of rice and told me to just mix it in. But keep in mind, I really really did not want any more food. Then Sara said that I would get sick if I eat that, and assured me that I could throw it away. I think God moved her to say that 😂. When I went to throw away my rice, I snuck a little bit of my other food in the garbage but not enough that it was obvious. I then sat back down, took one bite, and instantly felt really sick. I had to excuse myself and went back into the bathroom and threw up. That puts me up to 2 throw ups in under 6 months haha. To make the night even weirder, when the sisters were sharing a spiritual thought at the end, they asked my companion to read a general conference quote about the Book of Mormon, and he accidentally read past the highlighted part, said, "sorry I read too far, but I'm going to keep reading this is fire" (😭), and then the quote ended with something saying that the BOM helps against the plagues of pornography. Which doesn't seem bad but for some reason the sisters were acting like middle school boys and laughed at the word pornography😂🤦‍♂️. The whole dinner was just such a weird experience.

Switching gears a bit😂. This week was again filled with a decent amount of frustration for me. I'm sure like many of you, it is really hard for me to snap out of a negative attitude when I get into one. Which causes issues for me because I would consider myself at least a little bit of a pessimist. There was a specific night this week where I just felt absolutely zero motivation to do anything, and felt pretty frustrated with everything that was happening around me. I was just sitting in our Bible study feeling so angry for no apparent reason. Those of you who have spent a lot of time around me know that I tend to be a pretty passionate person and in turn get frustrated pretty easily at times. As I've been on my mission, I've experienced something a few times that I had never experiened before within my frustration. As I was sitting there in Bible Study, my thoughts were all of the sudden directed towards Jesus, and I just felt the spirit super strong. This didn't make my frustrations instantly go away, but it reminded me that Jesus is by my side helping me, even when I don't realize. Another experience from today: after we finished eating lunch, I realized that I had left my backpack in a mall that we studied at earlier that morning, which had my camera in it. Once again, I'm positive that those of you who know me closely can envision exactly what my reaction was like  when we went back and my bag wasn't there anymore. My companion tried to calm me down and went and asked a worker where we could find security. As I was standing there, in frustration, I decided to say a quick prayer. I once again just felt the spirit really strong. I wasn't directed to where my backpack was, or even given the confirmation that I was going to find it, but I was again reminded that all was okay and that I was being helped. As I reflected on these experiences, I thought of the story of Jesus' ressurection. When Jesus showed his ressurected self to Mary Magdalene, she didn't even recognize that it was Him: "And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus" (John 20:14). Then, later that day, Jesus showed himself unto his disciples, who were in a state of fear, and He comforted them: "19 ¶ Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." Both these verses read in conjuction are really powerful to me. Jesus walks beside us; stands in front of us as He did with Mary; and stands in the midst of us, and of our lives, as he did for the disciples. He brings peace to us within our fears, and all our struggles-- I think you can plug in any emotion for the word fear in the scripture and it stands true. All we have to do is make the decision to look for Him. It is so often that we are looking right at the ways that He has blessed us, and fail to recognize His hand, as Mary failed to recognize Him. Or, to "look beyond the mark" as Elder Renlund articulates nicely: "...we too can be prone to look beyond the mark. We need to guard against this tendency lest we miss Jesus Christ in our lives and fail to recognize the many blessings He offers us." As we remember that Jesus Christ is right beside us, we can feel the peace that he brings us. I personally felt that this week. 

Lyric:

"No, I can't feel pain

but I can see the stars

I ain't leave in vain but

I know we with God

There's heaven all around me"

-Saba

Ha det bra,

Eldste Winegar

Week 20

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Week 19

What's up everyone,

Godt nytt år. Hope everyone had a good new years and is doing well. 

Last week was the start of a new transfer for us. I will be in Stavanger for another 6 weeks, which I am really happy about. But I did get new companion here with me. His name is Elder Stoltz. He is from Minnesota/Arizona, which continues my streak of no Utah companions 😁. He has only been in Norway for 6 weeks, and I only have for 3 months so we are both definitely going to be pushed for the next little bit, especially with the language. He is pretty different from me and we have basically opposite personalities so this week has been pretty interesting to say the least.

Wednesday was my last full day with Elder Lyons, so we tried to cram in as many lessons with the people we are teaching as possible. 

-Our first was with Rafael (who is on baptismal date for the 14th) and it went pretty well. We finished up the last few small things that we needed to make sure we covered so that we could leave the next two weeks of lessons to get everything in order for the baptism. There are a few little things that worry me, but overall I think he is more than ready and am hopeful that it won't get pushed back. I need to remind myself that he is getting baptized, he should not be expected to be perfect or to perfectly grasp everything. 

-Our next was with Idar. It was definitely a bit of a sad lesson. Me and Elder Lyons have put in so much effort and have tried to help Idar progress so much more than I think any missionaries have. The lesson itself was good though. We talked about the uniqueness of being able to trace the priesthood all the way back to Joseph Smith (and consequently Jesus Christ) in our Church. My companion drew up an example with random names on a whiteboard and Idar was very interested, he kept getting up and stepping closer and farther away to examine it, even though I don't know how that would change a list of names written down haha. At the end of the lesson we were joking with him a lot and asking him who his favorite missionaries he's had teach him. My companion joked said, "Du vet svaret Idar" (you know the answer Idar), to which he was very confused by haha, but then he said, "Ok, ja... det er dere" (it is you guys). After that he typed a phrase into google translate (he doesn't know much English and sometimes thinks we won't be able to understand certain stuff I think??) in his phone that said: "Challenging in a good way", which he was using to describe how we have been for him. Which made me really happy to see that the effort that me and Elder Lyons put in with him made a difference. Definitely sad that Elder Lyons won't be with me on those lessons anymore to challenge and laugh with Idar. 

-The last was with Ove (who has the alcohol problem) who lives like an hour away. He is a bit of an older guy, so we thought it would be good to have our senior couple come with us this time. They did, and it was really positive for them to get to know him and fellowship him a bit. I'm hoping that we can visit him every week this transfer, help with his alcohol problem as much as possible, and hopefully get him back on baptismal date because he has such a strong 

testimony. 

On Thursday I dropped off Elder Lyons at the airport which was pretty sad, and then waited about 10 minutes and my new companion came off the plane. In Norway after you grab your bags you walk through a gate that locks when you go out. My companion walked through the gate without grabbing his bag so that was a good start to our time lol. 

On New Years Eve one of the members in the ward invited us and the sisters over, and our mission president allowed us to stay there until midnight. His name is Martin, and he has 2 young daughters. We ate dinner together, and then his wife had to go to work (she works night shifts as a nurse), so we were basically just talking with him the whole night. We talked about some controversial church topics, and he had the same views as me so he instantly moves up in my favorites 😂. In all seriousness though he is awesome and it was really good to talk to him. We played some games as well so it was fun. 

On Monday nights we have been having an innebandy (floor hockey) activity. This week only 1 guy showed up, but it ended up being really positive. He is Muslim, but we had a really deep conversation with him about our seperate and similar beliefs, and we were actually able to give him a Book of Mormon as well. He is super cool. 

For P-day we tried to go on a hike, but it was so windy and so icy when we got out of the car at the bottom that the wind was literally sliding us on the ice. So we just went to a couple of lookout points and took some pictures and did a little bit of shopping. I also had to spend an hour cleaning our garbage plastic piece of junk shower because the Sister who does our apartment checks is very strict lol 😃.

The companion switch for me this week was pretty difficult. At home if I'm not feeling someone, I normally just choose to respectfully not associate with that person in as nice of a way as possible. My inner circle at home isn't very big, but that is because I am very particular about who I choose to spend my time with and associate myself with. But obviously if someone is assigned to live with me, and even more serve Jesus Christ with me, for 6 weeks (at least), it's not an option to just go the other way. I've quickly realized that it is going to be a learning experience for me to be able to get along with someone I may have not before my mission. I found myself irritated and frustrated throughout a lot of the days this week even when my companion wasn't even doing anything, or anything specific. Last week, before I had gotten my new companion, I was in the senior couple's apartment washing my hands in the bathroom, and read a sticky note that they have up on their mirror that just simply says, "I am third". I thought about it for a second but didn't think anything of it because I didn't interperet what it meant. On Sunday, we were in an area meeting and Sister Purcell (who's not that is), explained what it meant, without me asking. It is pretty self explanatory but it essentially just means that God and Jesus Christ are our first priorty, others are the second priority, and we ourselves are the third priority. This is something that resonated with me a lot. I thought about all the times I was annoyed, bothered, or angry earlier in the week, and they were all times when I was thinking about myself and what was important to me, rather than thinking about what was important to God in the moment or what was important to my companion. If you really think about it, a large majority of the negative emotions that we feel in life, with exceptions of course, are because we are worried about what we care about rather than what God or those around us want and need. I really like these verses in Helaman chapter 3 referring to humility : "33 And in the fifty and first year of the reign of the judges there was peace also, save it were the pride which began to enter into the church—not into the church of God, but into the hearts of the people who professed to belong to the church of God— 34 And they were lifted up in pride, even to the persecution of many of their brethren. Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction. 35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, ." When looking at the causes and effects from humility and pride in these verses, the consequences, both positive and negative, are simply stated. Pride takes away peace, and makes those around us suffer. Humility brings us "joy and consolation". So what choice do we have but to think outward in humility? I'm going to try hard to focus on remembering that "I am third", especially in the next 6 weeks, and I challenge each of you to think about how you can do the same. 

Lyric:

"Someone told me when I was small 

That the pride cometh right before the fall

God Son died for us all

So for mine, I'm running through a wall"

-JID

Much love,

Eldste Winegar

Week 19

Thursday, January 4, 2024