Week 40

Hope everyone is good. Had a super good week. One of the better weeks of my mission in terms of just having fun. 

On Wednesday morning the Elder that I was with for the second half of last week left early in the morning. I was then with the senior couple here for a few hours as I waited for a companion. At 11 we went to the airport and picked up my old companion from the beginning of my mission, Elder Lyons. It was so good to see him as he is one of the companions that I really loved and we are good friends. Basically the reason he came is because his current companion got sent up to the northernmost area with both the guys that can't drive to drive for them, so because he was companionless he got put with us for a few days. My actual companion ended up arriving that night at 4, so me and Elder Lyons were together for a few hours before we were all a trio. Elder Lyons actually began his mission in the area that I currently serve in so that added another layer of excitement for him and made it fun for all of us. I have a few smaller specific funny/fun moments from the week, but the main highlight of the week was just having him with us. I already mentioned it, but just in terms of laughing and having fun it was some of the better of my mission. 

But besides that, the main focus of the week was getting Daniel prepared for his baptism. When he told us the previous week he wanted to get baptized, we still had a lot to cover in a pretty short amount of time, so we were with him a lot last week. Over the week we were with him for probably 5 hours of just teaching spread over 3 appointments. To some it may seem like overloading, but he has basically no religious background or even knowledge of Christianity, so we've had to explain everything from a really base level. I really enjoyed all the time we were with him this week though. I've been really blessed to teach multiple people before Daniel that made the choice to be baptized, but it still shocks me the faith and commitment of people when they decide to get baptized. This is my companion's first experience teaching someone like Daniel in terms of commitment, and he was telling me that it literally just feels like it's too easy😂. We had some really spiritual moments as well as some pretty fun ones with him this week.

Here are just a few smaller moments/things we did this week that were enjoyable:

-The first night Elder Lyons was there we had a member night that we have bi-monthly. The member that puts it together calls it "kosekveld" which would directly translate to cuddle night😂. It's been different every time, but it's mostly just a member get together, with the few we have, to just play some games and be together. This week the activities were a lot more hands on. We did things like racing with a potato on a spoon, racing jumping in a garbage bag, trying to kick a hat off of a raised stick???, and a few other random ones lol. With the broad spectrum of interesting members we have, it was definitely a spectacle to say the least haha. 

-1 of the 2 members that come to church every sunday (we have a few others that watch consistently online) invited us over for dinner at her house, mostly just because she really likes Elder Lyons. Not saying it's a bad thing at all, but she is definitely in the top 10 most unique people I've met in my life. She is very interesting. And she has also made us very suspect food in the past so I was pretty nervous. She made meatballs that were a mixture of ox and beans, which sounds crazy but somehow was actually pretty solid. The dinner was really funny though, Elder Lyons has a very funny way of interacting with her and even got her to sing a song for all of us lol.

-2 funny moments with Daniel that give a bit of an idea of what he is like. In our second meetup we had with his this week we figured it would be good to recover the commandments/standards our church follows after he walked into the lesson with an iced coffee. He took that one really well and is committed to stop drinking coffee. When I was explaining to him that we do not believe in or practice pre-marital sex as members of the church, he kinda just sat there and didn't say anything. I then just nervously asked him something like, "uhhh, is that going to be a problem", and he quickly replied, "oh no no, I'm really bad with girls so that isn't going to be an issue"😂. After he also said that he doesn't watch pornography or anything like that, I joked with him that he has this commandment "on locks", and he replied confidently, "oh yeah, I got this one on lockdown"😂😂. 

-Another moment with him that was really funny was in our most recent lesson with him. I was flipping through my scriptures to try and find a scripture to share with him, and I flipped one of the pages too hard and it kind of came out of the seam. I was mad and just said "nooooo". Daniel instantly got really concerned and said, "Oh no, is that a siin?!" 😂😂😂. Me and my companion got a good chuckle out of it and told him that it was not a sin. 

(I don't share these to make fun of Daniel at all, they were just funny moments that made me laugh. He's super committed and is wanting to learn as much as possible so I don't even blame him for asking some of the stuff he did, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a laugh 🙂).

Those were some of the funnier moments of the week, but as I said, the lessons with Daniel this week also brought some very spiritual moments. The first lesson we taught him this week was just me and Elder Lyons, which was great to teach together after not being together for like 6 months, but was also great as it was one of the lessons on my mission where the spirit was the strongest. We were teaching about the Restoration of the church, which admittedly sometimes does not have enough of a focus on Christ as it should, at least in my personal experience teaching it. At one point in the lesson we were explaining who Christ's disciples were and their significance. Elder Lyons started by just asking him if he knew of the disciples and who they were. He replied no, and before explaining who they are, Elder Lyons just pointed to a painting on the wall of Jesus washing his disciples feet and told him that's who his disciples were. We all sat in silence for a few seconds just admiring the painting. After saying how much he liked the painting, Daniel asked, "wait, so is that Jesus getting his feet washed?". Me and Elder Lyons just sat and smiled at each other before replying that Jesus was actually the one who was washing the feet of His disciples. To which Daniel replied with an, "Ohhhhhhh reallyyyyyyyyyy???"😂. But the lesson then took a bit of a detour, a needed one, just talking about the nature of Christ. Daniel apologized that we got sidetracked, and we told him that talking about Christ is more important than anything else we teach. This was a really simple conversation, but it was a moment where I felt the Spirit very strongly. Daniel's assumption is a super powerful representation of who Christ is. Daniel made no wrong in making that assumption; Jesus is the literal Son of God–why would he be washing others feet? But once again, to me that is an imporant and powerful reminder who Christ is, and a reminder of the example he sets that we need to try to follow. Not one of us is above another, and none of us have an excuse to not serve our fellow man. The Come Follow Me studies from last week were also a good reminder of this as well. As members of the church, when we were baptized, each of us of course promised that we would follow God and keep his commandments, but we also promised that we would, "bear one another's burdens, that they may be light;...mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort,"(Mosiah 18:8-9). Looking out for each other and serving each other is something that everyone in the world should have the expectation to do just to be a respectable person, but as members of Christ's church we have even more of a responsibility and obligation to do so and we literally promised we would do so, and continue to do so. To me, Jesus–as the Son of God and Savior of the world–washing his disciples feet is a perfect example of how we should treat each other and fulfill our promises made at baptism. 

Lyric: 

"So don't look down on nobody

'Cause that's how life can turn for everybody

So remember it's love, everybody

And I'm gonna look for life, for my time"

-Loyle Carner

Week 40

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Week 39

Heisann,

Another really crazy week for me. Because of some weird circumstances that I'll go into, it was just a super random week and out of the ordinary. There were also some really cool miracles that happened though. Overall was another pretty good week. 

As I've explained in the past, it is a pretty lengthy process to get your Norwegian driving license as a foreigner here. As of around a month ago, the rules changed and it is an even more lengthy process to get your license as you are now required to take a theory test in addition to the practical test that was already required. This has made the drivers license situation in our mission a lot more complicated. There are still a decent amount of areas where driving isn't very critical, but some it definitely is. A lot of those being the north areas or other more remote areas. Well, somehow it ended up that 3 out of the 4 northernmost missionaries cannot currently drive (either waiting in process to take the test or failed the test), including me. Thankfully my companion can drive so it has been fine for us, but in the northernmost area neither of the guys up there can drive, which has caused a lot of complications. Our mission President did not purposefully do it that way ,obviously, but instead of doing a last minute change of who is there, he decided he wanted to just send a different missionary up there every week to drive them around and be with them. The first to take a shift was my companion, so we basically just did a split with them for like half of the week. So I was with a guy named Elder Francis from Monday night until Friday. On Thursday night, my companion drove down with the guy he was with up there, and everyone was together on Friday, as that was Norwegian national day which I'll say more of in a second. On Saturday, they flew in another older missionary that had previously served in that area, but since everyone was with us, and so was their car, they flew him into our city and he was to drive the 2 guys that serve up there back, and then be with them for a week or so. Me and my companion basically had not been together in like 5 days, and when we were finally together for a few hours, we got a call that on the way up, this Elder that was driving them literally got pulled over and his license got taken away. He was literally 1 kph over  the point where the police legally have to take your license. So we drove up there with the senior Elder we're serving with, my companion switched the guy who got his license taken away and went up with the guys that are actually serving there, and the guy that got his license taken away came down with me. The situation was unfortunate of course, but I was honestly really happy how it turned out for me because the guy that I ended up being with is literally so funny and we had a bunch of fun together. Kinda confusing, but stated shortly, I had one companion from Monday night through Thursday, my regular companion Friday, and then a different companion Saturday through Tuesday. Made for a hectic week but it was a lot of fun too.

Some of the interesting things that happened this week that aren't worth going super in-depth into:

-On Wednesday we had a 2nd lesson with this very interesting guy. He is a big football (soccer) fan and has played his whole life, and even though he is for sure over 50, he plays on the "street team" here in the city. Anyways, that is relevant because during our lesson he kept saying how Jesus is like football because Jesus had 12 apostles and on a football field there are 11 people plus the coach. He then was repeatedly insistent that when Jesus comes back he's going to be a prolific football player, because according to him religion is the only thing bigger than football in the world. There's moments where he actually seems like he is interested in our message, but not sure where that will go haha. 

-We helped coach at the kid's basketball club again this week. There were low numbers because it was the day before they had school off, so me and the companion I was with ended up actually playing in a lot of the drills as well as in a 2v2 and 4v4, so that was kinda fun. There's some funny kids there.

-On Friday, which is the Norwegian national day, we somehow got an appointment. It is this guy I've been texting for a little while on Facebook from Nigeria who has been very busy with work, so naturally, did not have work on Friday and was actually willing to meet. He is a super super nice guy and does have some interest at least so hopefully can continue to meet with him.

-Friday itself was a really fun day celebrating the holiday. It's comparable to the 4th of July in the US but taken way more seriously and I honestly liked it better🤷. The day mostly just consists of parades through the city, or at least that's what it was here in Tromsø, but the cool thing is that everyone dresses up. So all guys are in suits, and all women are in traditional Norwegian dresses. It's the only day in the year we can walk around the city in a suit and fit in😂. The most shocking thing was just seeing the massive amount of people in the city, because normally there aren't a bunch in the city. But besides all we did was just eat breakfast with all the other missionaries, walked around the city, and then were invited to play bowling with this dude here that is good friends with the missionaries so we did that as well. 

One of the main highlights of the week was our lesson with our friend Dieume from Congo. He is the one I talked about last week or a few weeks ago where we tried to call my friend Manase to translate but it was not successful haha. Well this week we had set up to have a member from another city in Norway who speaks Swahili join the lesson via technology, but he ended up canceling at the last minute. It made the lesson once again very difficult, but we still kept trying the best we could using pamphlets and the Swahili Book of Mormon we had. We also were using a nice feature on google translate where you can just talk back and forth. It was cool to me how God just provides a way for the gospel to be taught regardless of the difficulty. Part way through the lesson the guy I was with (the first of the 2 other missionaries I was with this week) remembered that he had a friend who was serving in Tanzania speaking Swahili. We ended up calling him, and he called  back a few minutes later, and taught most of the Restoration of the church to our friend, and was asking him a bunch of questions and stuff too. It was super helpful and we were super happy about it. I asked him as he was walking out what he thought of it and if he wanted to continue learning, and he said yeah and that he did. Unfortunately he hasn't replied to anything since, which has been really frustrating, but it was still a really cool lesson. 

The main highlight of the week was our lesson with our friend Daniel. This one was also with the first of the 2 different companions I had this week. For a reminder, Daniel is our friend who is from Houston. Our first lesson with him was the one where he was asking so many super crazy and out of pocket questions about the church like "can mormons watch movies" and "can mormons be within arms length of a woman". That makes the lesson we had with him this week even more crazy. The second time we met with him, about 2 weeks ago, he had had a really hard week and was really humbly seeking answers and help from us. He came in this week saying that the last 2 weeks he has been trying to focus and rely on Christ and he has been so much happier, which was really cool to hear. So he was doing a lot better, but was still very humble in seeking answers which is literally the greatest thing ever to come across as a missionary. We decided to teach the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end), and right as we started talking about baptism and explained what it is, because he had very little idea of what it was, he instantly just asked, "So, how does one get baptized". We explained to him the requirements, and he instantly pulled out his calendar on his phone to see if it would be plausible in terms of time requirements as he is going back to the US for the summer on June 10th. He counted the Sundays and told us he thinks that it would be possible. Literally so insane, we met him for the first time barely over a month ago. So after explaining the best we could why baptism is important and what you are promising as you are baptized, we set a tentative date for June 5th. He then came to church for the first time on Sunday, and in my opinion it was a bit of a boring meeting. Not proud to admit that I was dozing off in the last talk. After the meeting I turned to him and told him that I know it may have been a bit boring, but that that was what a typical service looks like. He quickly said no, and said how he just felt at peace there, and he could clearly see how the purpose of coming to church was to grow your relationship with God and Jesus. He then turned to me and asked me how much we recommend he reads in the BOM every night. We have had him read a few chapters, but we were yet to invite him to read every day so that was pretty crazy. The last thing that was impressive to me was when I called him on Tuesday and told him we would have to meet multiple times a week the next 2 weeks in order to cover all the material, he quickly said that was totally fine and began to spout off days that would work. This is once again another thing on my mission that is just impossible for me to not say as a miracle. I'm not sure why I've been so blessed to meet multiple people that just seem instantly ready for the gospel, among the many, but I feel extremely grateful and blessed to have experienced so. 

Those 2 last experiences I shared, and honestly just looking at the week as a whole, reminded me a lot of this scripture from Mormon 8:

"22 For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled."

Our week could not really have been more out of the ordinary in terms of being in our area and being together as a companionship. And being honest, it did make it difficult to have any sort of momentum in the work, in the area as a whole, and as a companionship. BUT--despite that, we saw some super cool miracles. When we were sitting and using google translate to talk back and worth with our friend Dieume I sat there and was just grateful for how the Lord always allows his work to be pushed forward no matter our circumstances and weaknesses as people. Christ has promised that Israel will be gathered, among countless other things, and the reassurance in this scripture that the work will continue to push forward--without stop or delay from outside factors--until that and all of his promises are fulfilled is comforting and powerful to me. Like all of us, there are many areas where I feel I fall short as a person and missionary, but it's so powerful to me how insignificant our weaknesses are in the Lord's work. There is literally nothing that is going to stop it from moving forward, even if at times it seems like it. And in terms of Daniel wanting to be baptized, I repeat myself in saying that it is again just one of those moments on my mission where I question why the Lord is so generous in the miracles that I see. It really is difficult for me to comprehend. This lyric I heard this week sums up my feelings considering Daniel: 

"Miracle after miracle somehow

So many falling, I just can't keep count

I see blessings, falling out of nowhere

I'm thinking (aint' that just like God?)"

Week 39

Saturday, May 25, 2024

Week 38

What's good,

Hope everyone is good. Pretty insane week for me. Basically everything we did was super out of the ordinary, which made for a great change of pace and probably one of the better weeks of my whole mission. 

One of the few members in our branch out here lives on a farm that she recently purchased within the last few years. We try to get out there and help her out for a few hours as much as possible. This week when we went out there she had us change the tires on both of her cars from winter to summer. Her and her son are definitely very interesting people, but it is good to get some switch up in our schedule and I'm glad to help her in any way we can as they are struggling in many aspects. One of the guys we are teaching also lives on a farm--of mostly sheep--that is out in the same direction as her (about an hour away), so anytime we go to visit one of them we try to visit both. We did visit him as well this week. He has been a challenge, in a good way, to teach. He really likes everything about the church and the Book of Mormon, but struggles to say he "believes" in it or "knows" it is true. Well, this week we had a member from the branch join the lesson via zoom, and it was awesome. This member is kinda a goofy guy, but it was so cool to see him in the lesson. Apparently he almost left the church a few months ago, but you never would've been able to tell that during the lesson. When Torbjørn (the guy we're teaching) began to ramble about his doubts, the member just interrupted him and bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and told Torbjørn to read what it says in Moroni 10:3-5 (pray openly about the BOM), and promised him that he would receive an answer as it says. It was really powerful; definitely one of the best member involved lessons I've had. 

On Thursday we had gone through a pretty much average day up until 3 oclock, when the Sister missionaries told us that there was someone that they were in contact with that wanted a priesthood blessing. We obviously agreed. They then told us that she had been in the hospital a few days prior, so we'd need to go to her house. We were fine with that, but then asked where she lived and they said 3 hours away. That means that if we were to leave right then at around 3:30, the 6 hours of driving (3 each way) would already put us getting home late.  We would've gone the next day as it wasn't incredibly urgent, but we were leaving the next day and were not going to be in the area for a few days. We called our mission President to see what he thought we should do, and he said we had no choice. So we quickly ran back to our apartment to grab some food to eat on the way, and then headed out. It was obviously a lot of driving and we got home really late, but it ended up being a really really cool experience. This lady is a lady that was recently baptized down in the south of Norway, but is up visiting her husband up here--who is a priest in the state church here, and we had heard had been very supportive of her getting baptized in our church. Our mission president, as well as us, was very excited about the opportunity to talk to him. Upon arriving we quickly remembered that they are Swedish, which we had been told but forgotten. The conversations I have had with Cole where he speaks Swedish and I speak Norwegian actually came in handy because there were some words that I was able to pick out that were different. But right as we arrived, they were both incredibly nice and warm towards us. We had brought her a Swedish Book of Mormon because she didn't have one, and one we gave it to her she started crying and thanking us over and over. She then asked if we could sit down and read together, which we obviously agreed to. They have 2 cats and 3 chihuahuas so it was a little hectic to try and stay focused haha. They insisted on giving us food, but because the stores were closed that day in Norway due to it being a holiday, the only food they had to give us was mashed potatoes and vegetarian hot dogs haha. They were completely fine though besides a few cat hairs I had to pick out which was probably just my fault for petting them. Her husband is honestly like top 3 nicest people I've met on my entire mission. During the dinner he was so excited to talk to us about all he knows about our church, and kept apologizing that he was talking too much haha. After the dinner we had already been there for way too long so we then gave her the priesthood blessing, which we explained to her before because she is recent convert as I mentioned. After giving the blessing, she sat and was motioning with her hands around her face and trying to describe how she was feeling, and was struggling to do so. She called over her husband to ask him how to say the words in norwegian. She began to just say that she was feeling so much peace and calm all over and asking us what was happening. We told her that that is what a priesthood blessing is meant to do, and that it was from God. Some minutes later she was walking around, and straightened our her back and stretched her arms in the air and said that she felt strength that she hadn't felt in a long time. Anyways, when we were leaving, they were insisting to send us home with a bunch of food and stuff, including a ceramic water pitcher lol, which we declined. When we walked out the door she shook each of our hands for multiple minutes and just thanked us over and over, as well as her husband. I apologize for the very long explanation of the experience, but it was just a super cool experience. I feel like you always hear about stories like that in terms of the reality of the priesthood, but I had never personally experienced anything like that before. It was really cool and a strong testament to me that God's power really is on the on the earth today and has been restored to Christ's church. 

As I said, the next day we left out of our area. We flew to Bergen, a city on the west coast of Norway, to attend a baptism of someone that my companion had taught while he served there. My companion was the one who performed the baptism so that is why we were able to go. It was a super super fun weekend. Probably shouldn't be proud to admit but much of the weekend felt like I was not a missionary, at least not to the extent that I normally am haha. There are a lot of missionaries that serve in Bergen so I think most of all it was just really fun to be around the other missionaries there. The baptism itself was also really cool. It is probably the most that I have felt the spirit at any baptism I have ever attended, and I had only met this lady 1 time before this weekend. I won't go into details, but she had some incredibly difficult things happen in the last few weeks, so it was really cool to see her faith to continue with the baptism and how awesome of a service it was. 

I've been reading President Nelson's relatively new book "Heart of the Matter" recently. Many things that he says in the book are things he has also taught in general conference. One of the things I read in the book this week that really stood out to me is referring to President Nelson's call for each of us to become "peacemakers". His message in the book about it is very similar to his conference talk about it. More specifically, this is the quote that stood out to me: "Charity is the spiritual gift that helps us to cast off the natural man, who is selfish, defensive, prideful, and jealous...Charity defines a peacemaker". Even more specifically, when I read this sentence, the words prideful and jealous stood out to me. I think when we think of someone that is not a peacemaker, we quickly think of someone that is openly unkind or contenious, but I think much of being a peacemaker is how we think about those around us. Even if we aren't actually harming them, if we have negative feelings towards them that is not fostering peace. Me and my current companion get a long really well, but in the moments when we aren't feeling super connected I've noticed it's because either one of pride or jealousy is present. I'm probably (hopefully) not actually saying anything harmful, but when I have hateful or negative thoughts towards him or things he does, that builds contention rather than peace. I think pride and jealousy are things that are hard because if you are acting with either of them, it's unlikely you are humble enough to see it and try and be better. I also think it is difficult because literally everything that the media and the world teaches us today promotes those things: "And now we call the proud happy;...(3 Nephi 24:15)". Despite that, we learn from President Nelson and also just from Christ himself that we need to strive to eliminate those things in our lives. President Nelson references it in his talk, but I, too, find the description of charity in Moroni 7 very useful and applicable, especially when talking about jealousy, pride, and being a peacemaker. Verse 45:

"45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

All in all, I think if we can all try to eliminate pride and jealousy, among other things, that could bring more peace in each of our lives, which I think we all want. I really like President Nelson's call to do so: "At this point you may be thinking that this message would really help someone you know... I also hope that you will look deeply into your heart to see if there are shards of pride or jealousy that prevent you from becoming a peacemaker." 

Lyric:

"And if you're wrong, and you're too proud to hear correction

Walk into the whole you dug yourself, f--- a projection"

-Lauryn Hill

Week 38

Friday, May 17, 2024

Week 37

Hei,

Hope everyone is well. This week started off with a lot of things that were pretty frustrating, in terms of cancelled lessons, people not replying, people being no longer interested, etc. Classic missionary struggles I guess, but doesn't make it not frustrating. We had some highs in the latter half of the week though that made the week a lot better. If I think back to my first week in this area, it is actually crazy how much more we are teaching lessons and how much busier we have been; we've been extremely fortunate and blessed. 

As I said, towards the beginning of the week there were some frustrating things that happened. I would say that the most frustrating of those was with our friend Florin and our friend Joel. Florin is our friend who previously read 160 pages in the Book of Mormon in one week. Since then he hasn't been able to meet, and when we asked him if he could meet this week he basically just said he doesn't know if this is the right time for him as he has way too much to do. With Joel--last Sunday we texted him if he wanted to watch church on zoom (he had the week before). He didn't end up replying until 8 that night, and just said he was sorry he didn't see the message until then. But then he also left the groupchat..and unadded us on Facebook. So the whole week we didn't have any contact with him. Later in the week we remembered that we had gotten his phone number when we first met with him, so we gave him a call. When he answered we were just asking him how he was doing and stuff and he was giving us really short answers, and then just said he was going to get back to us in 10 minutes. A few hours later he sent us a text saying that he was sorry he removed us on facebook, that his parents told him to stay away from us because our religion is a cult. Both of these things that happened with both of these guys are just average stuff that happens as a missionary, which Cole made sure to tell me when we talked this week😂, but it just hurt extra bad because we don't really have a lot of other people we are teaching, and both of them seemed like they had a lot of potential. 

On the other hand though, we had some pretty good highs of the week. On Thursday we had a lesson with our friend from Houston, who is the one that had all the really absurd questions about Mormonism the first time we met with him. That first meeting was good, but we weren't really sure how interested he actually was, so we were looking forward to figuring that out in this lesson. He had had a pretty bad week, and he kinda just opened up to us about a lot of his problems and asked how God could help him to gain more confidence in himself and help his problems. We talked to him about prayer and repentance, and read a few verses in Enos (about prayer and repentance) which he really really enjoyed. At the end of the lesson he just looked up at us and said, "Can we keep meeting like this", to which we of course gladly replied yes. He kept saying how much he needed the meetup and how great it was for him, and also asked to give us a hug at the end. Looking forward to continuing to teach him. 

The other main high from the week was a meetup we had with this kid from Congo who we found on Facebook. He said he was 18 but looked more like 15 lol. He speaks no English and his Norwegian is very subpar, but he was super nice when we first met him. We were trying to ask him questions about his own personal faith, and he couldn't really explain anything in Norwegian. He finally just asked us "when we thrive", which was not the correct way to ask it at all lol, but he was meaning when we had church, and when I told him Sunday at 11 he just instantly said he would be there. On Sunday about 15 minutes before the meeting started he just texted me the address to the church for some reason, so I just asked him if he was almost there and he just said soon. He unfortunately didn't end up coming, but he texted me later that he ended up coming but couldn't find it (our meeting place is on the 3rd floor of a business building), and his phone was out of data so he couldn't text. Which was unfortunate, but I still thought it was really cool he tried to come considering how little we talked about. The next day I already asked him if he was able to meet. He replied he had school, I asked if he could after school, he said what time, I said 4, and then he just said "yes" lol. He ended up coming, and we actually called my best friend Manase who many of you know, and he tried to help us with the translation. Unfortunately Manase and this kid each speak 1 of the 2 main languages spoken in the Congo, but not the same one. We still tried to explain some stuff, mostly the Book of Mormon, and when we asked him his thoughts on it he just said that he likes God and he likes Jesus so it was good😂. It's going to be a little bit difficult to teach him considering the language barrier but I already got a lot of love for him and I'm excited to spend some more time with him. Also today when I texted him that we were able to find a Book of Mormon in Swahili for him, he just texted back, "serious"😂. 

For anyone who remembers the guy that I found on facebook through talking about his dog a few weeks ago, we were finally able to get an appointment with him. Just like the last it was very interesting to say the least. When we walked up to what we thought was his house, he called us over to what looked like a shed beside the house, and that is where he lives. We walked in and it was just absolutely disgusting, trash and junk everywhere, smelling like smoke. Since we last saw him he purchased another puppy, so now he has one 8 month old puppy and one 12 week old puppy. Both were so cute and just being able to be around them was definitely a highlight of my week. We were pretty unsure how interested he even was, so pretty shortly after being in there we asked him if he had read at all in the Book of Mormon because we didn't want to waste any time. He surprisingly said he had--which if you had seen him and his living arrangements, you would be just as surprised as me, he is literally a slob--but he didn't remember anything he read. After sitting in silence for a second, he actually told us we could read through some together, doing our job for us haha. We read through the introduction together, and then after asked a bunch of questions. All the literally golden questions like: "What is different about your church compared to other churches" and "Why do we need the Book of Mormon and not just the Bible". I think he might have some mental slowness because we explained the answers, and then he kinda just sat there and then would ask the exact same question again. At that point we didn't think it was looking great, but then he went on to tell a 20 minute story about how he had experienced God and knew he was real, that happened some years ago, and he literally started crying when he was telling it. From there it went downhill though lol. Shortly after that he said he needed to grab something and then was totally tweaking out rummaging through stuff, and then finally just grabbed a pipe and asked if it was okay if he smoked it. A few minutes after that, we hear a knock at the door of the shed house, and he quickly sits up and just shuts all the windows and tries to see who it is. The person then just walks in the door, and he just starts screaming for her to leave and get out. This absolutely disgusting lady walks in. Her hair was filthy and knotted, and she literally smiled at us and her teeth all looked wrotted bruh. He yells and says he has visitors, and she was like, "yeah they are really young"😂. She then was just trying to be touchy with him and get all up on him, and he was just kicking her off, and then just said to us in English "this is my ex" lol. We took all of this as our sign to leave haha. I randomly ran into him on the street yesterday, and I just asked if everything worked out, and he just replied yeah and that he was able to throw her out😂. So so random.

I have been thinking about the concept and application of repentance a lot the last little bit. Explaining it in a very basic way to Daniel (houston guy) this week made me reflect a lot on what repentance really is. I feel like from an outside perspective, repentance is a really strange concept. Why did we need someone else to experience all of our pains in order for us to receive forgiveness for our sins? But at the same time, the gift of repentance--made possible through Christ's atonement--is the very center of God's entire plan for us and allows justice and mercy to coexist (Alma 42:15). I am far far from a full comprehension of the Savior's atonement or even of the full capacity of the gift of repentance, but this week especially I have felt extremely grateful for it as I have pondered on it more. One thing that stands out to me is the consistency of repentance being linked to joy in the scriptures. I don't doubt that each of us wants more joy in our life, so I then wonder why repentance often has a negative connotation and is something that we sometimes hesitate to do or procrastinate. I especially liked this scripture in relation to joy and repentance being connected, which was also in the Come Follow Me studies last week. 

Mosiah 4:2-3

...And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ,... 3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them

To me, that alone should be enough for each of us to begin repenting, or repenting more frequently. Why would we not want to be "filled with joy", or not be willing to do the things that allow that to happen? An additional thing that is powerful to me about repentance is just how merciful Jesus Christ really is, and how quickly God is to forgive. In the words of Nephi, we are all "wretched" in that we are always making mistakes, and can truly never come close to perfection, that is without Christ's atonement. Just like many other things I've mentioned, I think the extent of Christ's mercy is also really hard to comprehend. Anytime I have felt a calm sense of forgiveness, I am always humbled by God's mercy. I really really love this quote from President Eyring about Christ's atonement, "If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as a sweet evidence that the Atonement is working in your life." As of late, each time I feel the spirit, or feel the sense of forgiveness I mentioned, this quote quickly comes to mind. It is hard for us to comprehend Christ's atonement, his mercy, or even the gift of repentance, but I love the reminder that each time we feel the Spirit, that is our "sweet evidence" of the reality of those things. 

Sorry for the longer email. Means things are actually happening which is good haha.

Lyric-

"When it's hard to keep your eyes on the road

And you feel your backs on the ropes

You gotta take the highs with the lows 

(the highs with the lows)"

-Chance the rapper

Week 37

Friday, May 10, 2024

Week 36

What's up,

We had a somewhat busy week again last week but for some reason nothing that happened seems very interesting or quality, not sure why. Like the previous week, we were able to actually get some appointments last week, but a lot of them didn't go as perfectly as they did the week before, so that's probably why it doesn't feel like a lot happened. 

We had 3 or 4 meetings with people that were really enjoyable because they were with cool people, but weren't very successful in terms of missionary work. One with a guy from the UK that is here because he married a Norwegian lady, one with a 19 year old from Eritrea who we've played volleyball with, one with a super cool Muslim guy who's from Oslo (Norway) but parents are from Bangledesh, and one with a really weird sports psycologist who basically just rambled to us for 40 minutes about random stuff. For some reason it feels like a large majority of the people that I've met here are really weird, so it was refreshing to have some conversations with some very cool and normal people, for the most part.

Outside of a birthday party for cats, the other main thing that happened last week was a really really interesting lesson that we had with these guys that actually reached out to us and asked if we wanted to meet. The guy who reached out to us is actually American, and he asked if we wanted to go and sauna with another american dude that we actually started teaching last week, and then a Norwegian guy as well. We replied saying that we weren't sure that was an effective use of our time as missionaries, to which he replied that the main motive in meeting was to ask us about our beliefs. We asked our mission President, and he surprisingly approved as long as it didn't also include jumping in the ocean (which a lot of people do when they sauna here). Even just walking up and shaking this dude's hand, he has to be one of the interesting guys I've ever met in my life. Which I feel like I've said that about so many people I've met here in Tromsø lol. For some reason he likes to try and speak Norwegian with us when he is American as well (he's only been here since 2019), and let's just say that his Norwegian gives me quite the confidence boost in my Norwegian. This was actually my first time saunaing, so I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was definitely not what happened haha. After we all waited for the sauna to heat up, we all went to go get in, and the other two dudes just completely stripped down right in front of us, and I just turned to my companion and mumbled that there was no way I was doing that. Once again, not sure what I was expecting. But yeah, I think that's enough explanation for how the experience was. The main dude was for some reason sitting right next to me, and felt the need to literally have his leg completely up...with no clothes😃. Brotha also really needs to invest in a razor. Definitely did not think that I'd be teaching the Restoration of the church with male genetilia exposed, that of a weird American guy, but the people in Tromsø just keep surprising me. Definitely a lesson I won't be forgetting lol. 

On a more serious note. A talk from general conference a few weeks ago really stood out to me and has been on my mind a lot, the past week especially. That talk being: "Integrity: A Christlike Attribute" by Elder Gerard. Towards the beginning of the talk he shared an experience he had with Elder Uchtdorf, 

"A number of years ago, Elder Uchtdorf was assigned to reorganize our stake. During our interview, he asked me a question I have not forgotten: "Has there been anything in your life that, if brought to the attention of the public, would be an embarrassment to you or the Church?""

He went on to explain how much this question made him think, and after listening to this talk again, it made me do the same. I consider myself a pretty conservative person in terms of my actions, but there are still things that I've done that I would definitely not be proud of if they were made public. Maybe not to the point of "be[ing] an embarassment" as Elder Uchtdorf said, but I think we've all done things that, to a certain extent, we are ashamed of. That makes the gift of repentance invaluable. But, looking forward, this question is a great wake up call to strive for integrity in all we do. I really like Elder Gerard's simple explanation of integrity: 

"Living a life of integrity requires us to be true to God, to each other, and to our divine identity. Integrity flows from the first great commandment to love God. Because you love God, you are true to Him at all times... Integrity means we do not lower our standards or behavior to impress or to be accepted by others. You "do what is right" and "let the consequence follow."

As a missionary, this has made me specifically think about how I act depending on the situations I'm in and the people I'm around. Do I act the same, and follow all the rules the same, whether I'm by myself or whether I'm around the Mission President? I think the same goes for each of us. Would we have to quickly change our actions if we were around someone we look up to, a church leader, or even Jesus Christ? To me, that is what integrity comes down to. God is intimately aware of everything we do, so why should our actions, and commitment to Him, change if we are around different people or in different scenarios? I believe that if we are striving to always live in a way that represents our commitment to God, and does so clearly, that is when we have integrity. Elder Gerard said similar, "Exercising integrity in our choices is an outward expression of an inner commitment to follow the Savior Jesus Christ."

Lyric-"Integrity matters the most, I gave the hood hope" -Nas

Week 36

Friday, May 3, 2024