Week 27: Sv-enter the Waters of Baptism

What's good everyone,

Hope everyone had a good week. 

On Wednesday we went to a birthday party of this random kid that I had met once or twice before. Some lady in the ward really wanted all us missionaries to be there. Not sure why we've been having all these random things that don't feel like missionary work the last few weeks, but I am not complaining. Apparently the kid was turning 17 but he literally looked like 11 so not really sure what is going on there lol. We basically and just sat there and ate snacks and talked to the other kids that were there. They also did a limbo, and because I was the tallest one there they were very adamant about me doing, which I very gladly did😃. But at the end of the party my companion talked to the kid for a while (in spanish), and he said he wants to take the lessons, so that's good. 

We were able to meet with our friend Kelvin from Malawi this week to have our first actual lesson with him. He is horrible at communicating and is really busy, so it is really hard to meet with him. So I'm really grateful for any time I get to see him because I really like him. We taught basically the whole Restoration, and he seemed to be very intrigued and receptive to most everything we talked about. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he agreed to read it. For some reason the Book of Mormon is only translated like halfway through in his native language (Chichewa), which was making me pretty upset. I don't know what the point of even having it on the gospel library app is less than halfway done. 

After that lesson we headed to a lesson with Idar (the one that Cole jumped on a call with me) to a city about 20 minutes away. If you have consistently read my emails you know that I have worked really hard with Idar, and that I care a lot about him. At our Bible Study class on Tuesday he was being weird and saying he would just see me at Bible study next week anytime I asked him when he wanted to meet or if he was coming to church (he has come to church and met with us almost every week I've been here). Well after convincing him and driving to him, which we rarely do, we were able to meet with him. As kind of expected, he doesn't want to meet with us anymore. It kind of came out of nowhere as he was reading a Book of Mormon chapter every day, coming to church, and meeting with us every week, and then all the sudden all of it crashed down. I was really disappointed afterwards as I have put in more effort with Idar than anyone else I've taught, but at the end of the day I can't control his agency. 

I'd say one of the main highlights of the week was some progress with our friend Franklin. He is a guy from Nigeria I found on facebook probably about a month ago, and we had only met up with him one time before this week. This week he came to our Bible Study class on Tuesday, our game night Friday, our soccer activity on Saturday, as well as had a lesson with us on Friday. So was really really good after not having seen him for like a month. He has kind of a standoffish personality, but I really like talking to him and spending time with him. We got him laughing a lot at game night which was good to see from him. We gave him a Book of Mormon at our lesson, and he agreed to read it even though he said he hates sitting down and reading scripture. Only thing is he can't come to church on Sundays because he currently works night shifts on Saturday nights, so I'm trying to have faith that he will somehow be able to come. 

But without doubt the best part of the week was our lesson with our friend Sven Erling we had on Sunday after church (self referral who originally wanted to talk about the Bible). I've talked in the last few emails how he has been making really fast progress, kind of unexpectedly. This week we walked into a classroom at the church to have our lesson, and before we even sat down he turned to me and my companion and said he wanted to be baptized this Wednesday. Me and my companion were pretty shocked, and confirmed that he really meant this Wednesday. We then explained to him that it is standard to have it on Saturday or Sunday, unless he really wants to, which he agreed to and said he just wants it done as soon as possible because you never know when you could die. Pretty crazy. We met with him for the first time barely over a month ago, so he has progressed insanely fast. Baptism should be happening this Sunday as long as everything goes to plan. 

Other random things that happened this week:

-Went to another Christian concert this week, this time of someone who used to be taught. Wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the last, but when we told him a few days later that we were there (we had to leave early and couldn't say hi to him after), he seemed really happy to know we were there.

-An 11 year old asked for my snapchat at our volleyball activity😂😂

-All the filipino guys we play basketball with kept yelling "RUDY GOBURTTT" anytime I shot it after I told them my favorite player was Rudy Gobert lol. Then came up and said they needed to look at my hand after I made a few shots😂.

Despite having Sven tell us he wants to get baptized this week, it was a bit of frustrating week for me; mainly because we are no longer teaching Idar anymore. As I already said, I have put in so much effort to try and help Idar, and feel like I have received revelation on how to best help him many times. After my time teaching him came to an end this week, I couldn't help but have the thought that all the effort I had put in was for nothing, and question why I received the revelation I did for him. We also had a few other lessons get canceled that I felt like I was prompted in planning for, which produced similar thoughts. When driving back home from Idar's lesson, I had a lot of thoughts circulating. When I got home, I continued to have thoughts wondering why I was prompted so many times to help him in the way that I did just for it all to so ubruptly come to an end. Within those thoughts, this scripture came to my mind, "7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good (D&C 122:7)". It's pretty simple, but it was a good reminder to me that no matter what we experience, if nothing else, we gain experience from it. Both my brothers gave good advice as I discussed this with them as well. One simply said, "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). The other reminded me that we can only do all we can, as we cannot control the agency of others, which brought to mind this scripture, "17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed (D&C 123:17)". That is kind of a lot of scattered thoughts, but the point is I was reminded that, even if it's hard for us to see, we can have peace knowing that God has a purpose in all things that He allows to take place. In hindsight, I didn't really have much of a testimony of anything in the gospel before my mission, but I do remember having a conversation with my mom telling her that I had faith in God's timing. Even though it's tough when things change in frustrating ways, I think it's one of the most important things for us to remember. 

Lyric- "They say, 'If it happened, then it's meant to be', guess we'll see"

-Vince Staples

Week 27: Sv-enter the Waters of Baptism

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Week 26

Heisann,

Pretty busy week for me.

We started off our week in Bergen (city 4 hours north). Last P-day we spent our day driving up there for a mission conference we had on Wednesday. When we first got there on Tuesday I got to play some basketball with some of the other missionaries because Bergen has a hoop, so that was fun even though I was in my dress clothes. The rest of Tuesday was mostly just spent walking around downtown in Bergen. Which I really like Bergen so it was good. So basically the whole reason we made the trip is because we had a mission conference as I mentioned, which was because we had Elder Phillips of the Seventy visiting. He spoke in last conference; I recommend everyone go watch his talk even if you've seen it, called "God Knows and Loves You". He spoke to us for probably 3 hours, which probably sounds really boring but it was actually really enjoyable; it is probably one of my favorite experiences of my mission so far. He is just a super down to earth and funny guy, to the point where he just seems like a regular guy rather than someone in the Seventy. 

On Friday we met with the old guy that walked into our zone conference a few weeks ago. He is the one who is Ukrainian and doesn't speak any English or Norwegian but was telling me to fix my posture haha. We met with him to help him sign up for an English class that our senior missionaries have been volunteering at. He taught me an my companion some Ukrainian handshake that he said young people do in Ukrain that starts with a regular handshake and then ends with making a butterfly with you hands up to the sky lol.

Saturday was probably the busiest day of my whole mission thus far but it was a really good day. We started with our regular soccer activity, and then quickly changed and headed to the church for a family history activity that a lady in the ward put together. They asked us to help the old people in the ward sign into an app, which I have seasoned experience in after helping my grandparents haha. I felt bad because the lady put a lot into the day and didn't get a great turnout, but it was still good. We then went straight from that to a Christian concert that some guy that came to our game night invited us to, called "Norway for Jesus". We were expecting it to be a Norwegian concert, but we went and it was a concert of all African people and it was awesome. I'll try and include a video, but it was definitely another highlight of the last few months at least. The most I've smiled in a while haha. We had to leave that early to make another lesson with our friend from Peru, which overlapped with our lesson with Rafael (just baptized), but Rafael has been learning Spanish so we had him join in on the lesson as well and it went really well. 

We had a lesson with our recent friend Sven after church on Sunday. I talked about him a lot last week, but he is the one that started as someone we were going to meet with to talk about the Bible. He has been progressing crazy fast. Some of the stuff he says in our lessons reminds me of the process when we were teaching Rafael a few months ago. But basically this week we slightly mentioned baptism, and then he literally just asked us what he needs to do to get baptized in this church, which was really surprising. We just explained to him the nessecary steps, and then he said that he is going to start thinking and praying about it. We also offered to show him the baptismal font which he was very interested to see. He could very well be on baptismal date very soon, but I also said that about Grzegorz and then things seemed to slow down a bit so we'll see what happens. 

Elder Phillips talked about a lot of things, but the overarching theme was 2 things: the truth that God loves ALL of His children, and how essential it is to build our foundation on faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Additionally, how important it is to know Jesus Christ on a personal level and have a relationship with him. I left the conference with a strong motivation to come to know Jesus Christ, but also unsure how to actually do that. Having a personal relationship with Jesus is a big focus in my mission, so it is something that I've already thought about, but after hearing from Elder Phillips I have pondered on it more and felt more of an urgency to do so. Coming to know Jesus is a difficult thing--we don't physically see Him or physically talk to Him, so how can we come to know Him? The main answer is an obvious one-- to meaningfully study Him, His teachings, and stories of Him. But I've pondered a lot on other things we can do to come to know the Savior. Right away I thought of what Jesus Christ said to Joseph Smith in the First Vision when referring to other churches: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." It's essential that rather than just speaking of Christ, we draw our hearts near to Him. I think the way we do that is by seeking Him. This scripture is powerful in relation to that, "And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written (Ether 12:41)". The footnote on "seek" in that scripture takes you to D&C 88:63, which says, "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me..." So, I think seeking Him is being diligent in our efforts to draw near unto Him, which again brings the question of how we do that. Ultimately, I think that we do that through trying to be like Him. I really like what it says in Preach My Gospel about trying to become like Christ: "Becoming more like the Savior is a gradual, lifelong process...improve one decision at a time...As you strive to become like Christ...You will experience joy, peace, and spiritual growth as His attributes become part of your character. You will establish a foundation...to follow Him throughout your life." The foundation that quote talks about is the reason we strive to be like Christ and come to know him. Elder Phillips spoke much of that foundation. He spent a lot of time on the famous verse in the Book of Mormon,

"12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall (Helaman 5:12)".

One of the last things Elder Phillips said was, "This is your time to build that sure foundation". That really stood out to me. Obviously while I'm on a mission, it's a great opportunity to build my testimony of Christ and my foundation on Him, but now is the perfect time for each of us to build our foundation. 

Lyric-"Embrace the Saviour, they're thinking of ways to slay the king"

-Kofi Stone

Week 26

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Week 25

What's good,

Hope you are all doing well. Bit of a long email...sorry

Wednesday was probably one of the most unenjoyable experience so far on my mission. Basically, when you come to Norway as a missionary, it is a pretty long and annoying process to get your drivers license. After waiting for a lot of processing of documentation, you eventually trade in your American license, permanently, and then are given a temporary license. Which that is where I'm at right now. After you get your temporary license, you finally can get your license. You just have to do one practice drive, and then take your driving test. Wednesday was my practice. I won't go too much into depth, but I was basically just told that my driving skills were not where they needed to be, and he wouldn't schedule my driving test because of it. Which, I would consider myself a pretty solid driver. I got really unlucky and it dumped snow the day before (which is not common in Stavanger), so that just made everything more difficult. Norway has some slight differences in the way you drive here, so I would have been perfectly fine if he just corrected the things I needed to change in a polite way--that is what a practice should be for. But he was pretty demeaning the whole time. It was pretty infuriating and affected my mood for some time. I am able to do the practice again, so I *should* be able to re-do that and get my license, just pretty frustrating.

That night we had a lesson with Grzegorz again (polish guy who needs translation in our lessons), and retaught him the Restoration because the first time we taught it Piotr (member) was not there to translate for us. It went alright. It is just hard to know how much is being understood because we obviously have no idea what is being said in the translation. Grzegorz has expressed to us that he wants to get baptized, but he thinks he is not yet ready, multiple times. When the lesson was coming to the close, my companion invited him to be baptized, which completely caught me off guard. I'm not upset that he made that decision, because he very well could have been guided by the spirit to do that, but it is just frustrating that we aren't on the same page at all. Grzegorz once again told us that he doesn't feel quite ready, and said he wants to go to a LDS church in Poland before he makes that decision, and he has a trip planned later this month. So still good progression with him.

We had a really good lesson with our friend Enoch on Friday. For anyone who remembers, we visited a family of 6 from Congo a few weeks ago, one of which is a 16 year old boy. We are co-teaching the family with the sisters, so we all went over together. When we got there just the mom was sitting there, and we asked if Enoch was going to be joining us. She said she didn't know, and we got the impression he wasn't home. For some reason she wanted us to call him, so we did, and he answered even though we'd never texted or called him before. When he answered, we said it was the missionaries, that we were at his house, and asked if he was going to be home soon. He sounded surprised, and after pausing for a minute he said he would be. It was a pretty vague reply. But then a few minutes later after some yelling from the mom and her finally going upstairs, he came walking down the stairs haha. We taught him on one side of the room while the sisters taught the mom on the other. The lesson went really well. We were able to just talk about sports and life for a long time. When transitioning over to the gospel stuff, you'd expect him to get a little less enthusiastic, but he got even more into it. He already has such a strong testimony of Jesus. When teaching doctrine specific to our church, we would start by asking him his thoughts on whatever principle we were teaching, and every time he replied something like, "I haven't thought about that much before, but it would make sense that it would be _____", and then would go on to literally say exactly what we ourselves teach and believe. It was really cool and I'm excited to see where he goes. 

On Sunday after church, we had our first really organized lesson with Sven Erling. He is the one who started as an uninterested self-referall that wanted to talk about the Bible, and then told us last week that he feels like he's been guided to our church. After staying for both hours of church, he had a lot of questions that we ourselves overlook as things that are normal for us. He started just by asking questions for like 15 minutes, and by the tone of his voice, I think that's what he thought "the lessons" meant haha. We then taught him the Plan of Salvation, which is a pretty complex lesson but he was really curious the whole time, and overall receptive. It has been crazy how much different he has been since we met him and since he has started his journey with us. The first time we met him, he would barely look us in the eye, was very quiet and serious, and would only give very short answers to our questions. This week he showed up to church in a full suit (he came in jeans and cowboy boots last week(which there is no issue with)), was talking and greeting everyone, and was just smiling almost the whole time. He brought his Book of Mormon to our Bible study this week, and literally told us he has been reading two pages from the Book of Mormon, and two pages from the Bible each night, which we did not even ask him to do. He, in a very short time, has been a really strong example to me that the Lord prepares people.

Other things that we did this week:

-Had another lesson in all Spanish with our friend Helard. I was almost falling asleep the whole time. Based off what my companion says he is doing great though.

-Went and helped a guy that hasn't been taught in a long time clean his new apartment as well as move some furniture around. Me and my companion watched a kids show in Norwegian with his daughter while he was on the phone lol.

-Helped a lady in the ward move. Literally lifted probably the heaviest dresser I have ever felt in my entire life. IKEA is huge here I don't know why they don't stick to the light IKEA furniture😂.                                                       

As I have had some struggles with my current companion, unity has been on my mind a lot recently. While thinking about it, I have realized the irony in my struggles to unify with my companion as someone who feels very strongly in the unity of all people despite differences of race, nationality, ethnicity, political views, sexuality, age, gender, social class....and the list goes on. Why is it difficult for me to practice what I try to preach? It has made me take a step back and ponder on the unity of smaller realtionships (my companionship, my district/zone/mission, my family, my friends) rather than the unity of an entire global church or human race. It can't get any more cliche, but I have been able to try and relate and learn from scripture stories. All throughout the Book of Mormon you have groups of people growing in unity or turning away from each other. I know it's something that is said a lot (for reason), but I really think we can learn by looking at these people in the Book of Mormon or other scripture. I personally was reading in 4 Nephi this week, and I think it is one of the best examples of a unified group of people in all of scripture. Literally the entire chapter repeats again and again how unified they are, but verses 2 and 3 set it up well: 

"2 the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. 3 And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift."

As they were ALL converted to Christ, contention lessened, and unity increased. As the chapter goes along, there are numerous specific effects that came as a result: peace (verse 4), all manner of miracles (5), prosper (7), blessed (11), no contention..mighty miracles (13), happi[ness] (16). I think if we were all personally promised these blessings we wouldn't hesitate to try and have increased unity in our relationships. It is motivating to read, but it is still unclear how to attain that unity. I really really love verses 15-17 as they describe why these people had unity, and the results of it. 

15 ...there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. 16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. 17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

That which which allowed them to be "in one, in the children or Christ" was their love for God, which dwelled in hearts. They didn't just love God, but it was something engrained in their hearts. And as a result, they are described as happier than anyone God has ever created--which I think is the very thing all of us yearn for. It makes me sad to see the world--and even my family--grow apart in the difficulties of life, rather than remembering to love God, and in turn love each other. In the last 7 weeks, I have personally experienced the difficulty in uniting despite differences or circumstances, but I'm reassured by what's said in these verses, that as I strive to love God, contention can decrease as happiness increases.

Sorry that was such a long email. I really appreciate if you read the whole thing :).

Lyric:

"Join together in unity, we're one big family!"

-West Angeles Church of God in Christ Angelic Choir

Week 25

Friday, February 16, 2024

Week 24

Hva skjer,

Since we were traveling at the start of last week, our week was super busy this week. Did a lot of stuff but don't have a ton to say about most of it.

First of all, we got transfer news this week. I will be staying in Stavanger for a 4th transfer, and will be staying with the same companion. Staying in an area for 4 transfers isn't super common, but I absolutely love Stavanger so I am really really grateful that I am getting a 4th transfer here. If you've been reading my emails you know how I feel about staying with my same companion; I'll just leave it at that. 

On Wednesday, we drove back from Bergen in the morning and got back in the afternoon. We quickly dropped our bags off and then headed to a lunch that we had with someone that my companion talked to on the bus last week. He was a talker. He is from Bulgaria and has only been in Norway for around a year. He had a lot of really strong opinions, and in the beginning we agreed with a lot of them. But he then said he is a strong supporter of a social media influencer who I personally believe opposes everything the church teaches, so it went kind of downhill from there. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon though and he agreed to read. We were on splits yesterday, so I wasn't there, but my companion and the other missionary met with him again. They said that it started off really good, as he was saying that he felt a really strong feeling when reading the Book of Mormon. But from there it went bad pretty quick, as they said that he started to talk about how Jewish people are horrible people, and that the Earth is flat😃. The gospel really is open to all, but idk how it's going to turn out with him lol.

That night we had our first lesson with this guy that we have been meeting with for a few weeks now. His name is Kelvin, and he is from Malawi which is a small country in Africa. He is pretty horrible at replying to us, so we've been trying to meet with him for a while, but we were finally able to this week. He came to our language cafe, and we met with him afterwards. We only had about 15 minutes, so it was kind of just seeing where he's at and how interested he is. We first just talked with him about his faith, and what is important to him in his life. He smiled really big as he talked about his family and the postive impact they've had on his life. I was delighted to explain to him that we have the knowledge that we can live with our families together after this life. He was pretty caught off guard, and needed me to explain it again. He said he had never heard that before, and he would love to take the lessons and learn more about what we believe. He's gonna be a bit of a struggle to meet with because he sucks at communicating, but I'm really looking forward to it. 

On Saturday night we had our weekly lesson with Idar. He is the one who struggles to believe in prophets if that helps anyone to remember. Basically, I have been discussing with other people, and praying a lot, and have came to the conclusion that only way he is going to gain a testimony of prophets is through the Book of Mormon (trust me, we've tried to discuss everything). So we had a lesson soley on the Book of Mormon. My overall feeling during this lesson was just how powerful the Book of Mormon is. If you would have told me before my mission I would have the feelings about the Book of Mormon I do now, I would of told you that you were crazy. I started off by just asking him what his thoughts are on the Book of Mormon, as he's read a little bit in it, and he said that he knows that it brings you closer to Christ, but he is not sure if it's true. Obviously we tried to assure him that is enough to know that it's true, but that's now how Idar's brain works. Anyways though, that was just super powerful to me that even someone who doesn't even believe in the Book of Mormon knows that it brings people closer to Christ. He has committed to read every day, so we are going to try and call him daily and discuss it. I have always felt really strongly about Idar, and I only have 6 more weeks to teach him, so I'm trying really hard to do everything possible to help him before I leave. I would appreciate it if you prayed for Idar to receive an answer :). Also, I called Idar on Pday to discuss a chapter, and I added Cole to the call so that was pretty fun. Idar can only speak Norwegian, so we were talking in Norwegian, but Cole was talking swedish and he was able to understand so that was cool. 

Directly after Idar's lesson, we had another lesson with the guy from Peru. It was fully in Spanish again. This time it ended up going for over an hour so I was really fighting to stay awake. We were talking with our ward mission leader about it the next day, and he just looked at me and just said, "so you just sat there and smiled?", hahaha. I'm pretty sure it went pretty good though; I'm looking forward to seeing his progress. 

The coolest part of the week for me was a lesson we had with this dude named Sven Erling. I might have mentioned him a few weeks ago, but I don't remember and am too lazy to look back. Basically he was a self referral, off of an ad about the Book of Mormon. When we texted him about it, he said that he was already Christian and had a Bible and didn't need a Book of Mormon. My previous companion just continued the conversation and asked what his favorite Bible story is, and then we were able to set up an appointment to talk about the Bible. When we had our first lesson with him a few weeks ago, he came and then started asking a bunch of questions about the Book of Mormon, so clearly he did send in the referral. But anyways, this week he came to church for the first time which is awesome, and we had a lesson with him during second hour. During the lesson he had a lot of questions about the legistics of how the church and priesthood was restored, but ultimately he said that he feels like he has been guided by God to this church and wants to learn more. Which is just super super cool especially considering our first contact with him. We also had Rafael (just baptized) to help, and he was super helpful in explaining how he grasped certain stuff, and also helpful for the Norwegian as well :).

On Monday we were on splits. I'm going to try really really hard not to be rude, so I'll just say that the dude I was with on splits was a very very interesting individual. But it was a cool testament to me that anyone can be a missionary, and bring their own uniqueness to it no matter who they are. We had a really interesting lesson with a guy that had previously been in contact with missionaries many years ago. It was basically the first time I had been asked about controversial church topics my whole mission, mostly because most people don't even know about the church at all here. He was really really respectful, so it didn't go too bad. It was a little bit difficult to answer questions that I don't really have a good answer for in English, in Norwegian, though. We also attempted to meet with this guy we play basketball with before we played basketball with him, but he ended up being late, so I basically just bought him a McFlurry, gave him a Book of Mormon, and then we all had to leave. We ended the night with a young lady in our ward from Venezuela making food for us which was good.

My last two or so weeks, I kept having the thought in my head to enjoy Stavanger while I'm here, because I don't know how long I'm going to be here. Fast forward a few weeks, and I'm here for another 6 weeks. Which I'm really happy about, but it still made me think about why God would give me those thoughts. As I've pondered a bit about it, I feel like it was God kind of giving me a slap in the face telling me to enjoy what I'm experiencing right now, even though there are aspects that make it difficult to do so right now. We are literally always going to have things, in every season of life, that make us yearn for better days, and look forward to time without current obstacles. Despite being crazy, that guy we met with from Bulgaria last week said something within his hour of rambling that stood out to me. I'm paraphrazing, but he said something like, "You have to live and enjoy every day, you don't know if you are going to suddenly die tomorrow." I didn't take much from that conversation, but when he said that it really stuck with me. We learn the same thing in James chapter 4: "14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." It's simple, but our lives really are small in the eternal perspective. We all have chapters in our lives that we look back on and, in retrospect, semmed to have been a "vapour" that "vanisheth away". Within the same vein, it's easy for us to agree with the, "...many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us (2 Nephi 28:7)". But as we practice "celestial thinking" while also enjoying each moment and day as it comes, I believe we will find true joy. I don't really enjoy serving with my current companion, but I'm in Norway, and in a city that I love! It's so easy for us in our imperfect human state to naturally let the negative parts of our lives overshadow the positive. To combat that thinking, I think of this President Nelson quote: "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives an everything to do with the focus of our lives!" 

Lyric:

"But it's a fact, live for today, f--- tomorrow

No tomorrow if your life's feeling borrowed"

-Loyle Carner

Week 24

Wednesday, February 7, 2024