What's up,
Super delayed email again this week. But in terms of what happened last week, here is a quick recap. We had some good stuff happen but nothing too crazy.
Last Tuesday we had a ward party that celebrated 3 people in our branch graduating from college. One received a degree through BYU Pathways, one just finished medical school, and the other also finished some sort of degree in the medical field. All 3 really good dudes. The one of the three that actually attends church every week is the one that lives on an island that is a 2 hour flight from our city, but is technically still in our branch and attends virtually every week. But he was there in person for the party, as were the other 2, so it was good to see all of them. We also had our friends Tony and Vedaste come too which was awesome. Tony came like an hour and a half late because he didn't get off work before then, and all that was left for him to eat from the tacos we made was literally just rice cheese and sour cream, which he happily ate😂.
The main highlights of last week were our lessons with Vedaste and Tony, once again. We met with each of them twice last week which was really good. Some cool highlights from those lessons:
-With Vedaste, in the first of the 2 lessons we had with him we discussed the last few elements of the doctrine of Christ which we have been slowly working through with him (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end). The thing that was so cool about the lesson was just his perfect understanding of them. Vedaste is often a rambler which I think I have mentioned before, but his rambling in that lesson was actually very profound and cool to see his understanding of what we were teaching. He explained the five elements better than probably any member of the church I've ever heard explain them outside of general authorities. He literally compared them to a brick wall and talked about how each element is vital and supports the others, and if you pull out one, then the whole wall falls down. We were very surprised as he explained it in the way he did😂. In the second lesson of the week we had with him, we went in with the intention to focus mostly on prophets and how they are significant in our church, but ended up also just talking a lot about the Restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith. Because of his rambling nature, I had been worried that he really understood what we had been teaching him when it came to these subjects, but this lesson he made it very clear that he understands, as well as recognizes the importance and the potential significance in his life.
-Our lessons with Tony were probably even more powerful this week. We decided to talk about the Plan of Salvation. We started the lesson by telling him that we were going to talk about 3 major questions: 1. Where were we before this life? 2. Why are we here on earth? 3. Where are we going after this life?. Right after I said that, he had kind of a puzzled look on his face, and then he paused for a second before saying something along the lines of, "But...there was nothing before this life..right?" We smiled and told him that we believed that we did indeed exist before this life. After explaining more about it, including showing a video in his language, he started to giggle. I was nervous he was giggling at the video, but then he just said, "You guys are such good friends". I was still confused and thought he was about to follow that by saying that he disagreed, but he continued by thanking us so much for sharing this information with him and that he had never been taught it before. He then paused for a second and said that Americans are great people😂. We normally only meet with him once a week, but because he liked it so much he asked us if he could stay after church so we could continue telling him about the Plan. When we did that, he still seemed a little confused (understandly), but when I asked him if he understood, he told me that he did and that he believed that it was right. One of my favorite things as a missionary is friends taking a picture of the Plan of Salvation that we have drawn out on the board after we are done😂.
We had a few other lessons and things with newer people that didn't go as well throughout the week, but the main other thing that we did last week was going out to visit a member family that lives 4 hours from the city and help them move. I doubt anyone remembers, but this is the same family that me and my previous comp drove out to a few months ago when we stayed in a tiny hotel and played basketball with their son. Well, because this city that they live in is so small (only 2000 people), they've struggled in the year that they have lived out there, and decided it would be best to move back down to Southern Norway where they previously lived, which is also where the biggest ward in Norway is located as well. The visit was really nice though. A lot of the moving had already been done, so we basically just went and just helped deep clean their house before they left. I of course got assigned to clean the ceilings, which I did not think seemed necessary, but I'm glad that we could help out😃. After we were done cleaning, we all had a little barbeque together which was really nice. Even though it is a super small city, they for sure have the best view of any house there, which is where we all ate together.
Outside of the lessons with Tony and Vedaste, I would say that the highlight of my week was an experience I had with this Ukranian guy I bumped into on the street. Basically a few weeks ago I was out talking to people on the street, and while I was in conversation with someone else, this guy came up to me and just interrupted the conversation I was having and just asked me if I was from Utah😂. Which, getting approached first by someone else on the street basically never happens so I wasn't that upset about it. That day we ended up talking for probably like 10 minutes through google translate when he asked if we could go into a cafe a talk more, but we were short on time and I asked him if we could meet another time. He agreed, but since that day he had not replied to any of the messages that I had sent him. Fast forward to this week, we were walking on the street one day, and I was walking with my head down as I was in a bad mood and mad about something that I can't remember, and as we were walking I noticed out of my peripherals that a guy we walked past just stopped walking. I looked back and it was this same Ukranian guy I talked to a few weeks ago. I asked him how he was doing, and then asked him if he would still want to meet another time. He doesn't speak barely any English, so he just looked at me and just said, "Now?"😂and I told him sure because we weren't doing anything that urgent. We were like 20 feet away from our church building so we just went in there and talked in there for a while. We were just communicating over google translate because he doesn't speak great English as I said. I basically just ended up teaching him all about how we believe our church is Jesus Christ's own church restored through Joseph Smith. Throughout this whole thing my companion was literally completely asleep (picture included🤦♂️). He seemed a little bothered by the idea, and asked me if I believed Christ was in other churches too. I told him that of course I did, I just believed that our was the only one that acted under and through His authority. He told me that he knew that Christ was in his church because his church had helped him get through a difficult divorce. I told him once again that I agreed, and that I thought that was awesome, but that I personally believed ours was the only church with authority from God. He stil seemed a little bothered, so I just typed into the Google translate, "But I 100% respect your church and your faith in Jesus Christ". When he read that off my phone, his entire demeanour switched, he got a huge smile on his face, and he put his arm around me and said "Thank you brother", and then shook my hand.
This may seem like a small experience, but to me it was a great example to me how much Christlike respect and kindness matters, and how much it means to others. I am not at all saying that I am a good example of this, because I'm definitely not, but being respectful to people of other faiths has been something that I have made an intentional effort to do while I've been on my mission, partly because I've seen how other missionaries are unfortunately often bad examples of this. And I honestly think that as a whole, we as a church can do a lot better in being respectful to different peole, no matter if those differences are in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. This specific experience that I had reminded me of the call from President Nelson to, "work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of segregation." I think something as simple as just telling people we respect their beliefs and opinions goes a long way in making an effort to fulfill this call from President Nelson. I gave a presentation on this same subject in our Zone conference earlier this week, and as a studied, it was so encouraging to see how much Church leaders have talked about and emphasized this topic, especially but not exclusively within the last few years. I genuinely think that most of you would be surprised to see a compiled list of all of the different church leaders that have talked about the need for respect and unity, including repeated calls for such from many of them. It's hard to choose just one, but in terms of what it means to "build bridges of understanding", I think this quote from Elder Oaks sums up what that means really well: "The commandment to love one another surely includes love and respect across religious lines and also across racial, cultural, and economic lines." Our love and respect for other people should not have limits and contraints on it. As much as it was very encouraging, and honestly exciting, so see all of these calls from church leaders, it was also quite frustrating to see how little their words have been taken into account or implemented within the church body. There shouldn't need to be an incentive to follow the first and second great commandments, but I think if we look to the example in 4 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, we can be encouraged. As they showed respect for each other and were unified, the description of them was that, "surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God." As we refuse to love all of God's children, we are deliberately denying the ultimate measure of happiness in our lives. My invitation at the end of my presentation was for each person to humbly reasses their own prejudices, as well as assessing how they personally can build unity in the church--and in their lives--and show more respect for all people. I invite each of you to do the same!
"It's obvious don't nobody know their neighbor,
It's obvious people on their best behavior,
Until it's time to do your enemy a favor,...
And I ain't perfect I ain't doing nothing either,
Hello Neighbor How Are You?
Really wanna Challenge you,
To love"
-Beleaf
