Yo what's up hope everyone is doing good. This last week was for sure the best week that I've had in the last couple of months. We had a few bigger highlights, but honestly some of the main highlights of the week were just interactions with cool people on the street. So here's some of the highlights:
I'm not sure if I'v mentioned it before, but my current area covers many other surrounding cities; a bunch of smaller cities, and then 2 other main "big" cities besides our own. The original reason that the area I am in was even opened up earlier this year was for the purpose of being able to cover all 3 that we do since we don't have enough missionaries for there to be missionaries in each area. But, that was our previous mission president who opened it with that purpose. Our new mission president doesn't like us spending much time in those for some reason, so we are told to not spend too much time in them. The only reason for me explaining this is because this week we ended up going to both of them, Ålesund and Kristiansund, because we had messaged people on Facebook who were interested in meeting up, so we had a reason to go.
- Wednesday we were in Kristiansund, which was for sure the highlight of the week. We had 3 people that we had met on facebook who wanted to meet up. All three meetups actually ended up happening (a lot crazier than you'd think), and all went pretty well. The first was a super short guy from the Congo named Bahati, who kept saying "Hi zach welcome Zach" for a minute or so after we met each other😂. We didn't have too long of a conversation with him because he literally just met us at a bus stop between his 2 work shifts, but we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and have a good conversation about his life. The second was a guy named Aime, also from Congo, but a lot closeor to our age. He thought it was really cool that we speak English and is excited about the possibility of learning English through meeting with us. We met him at the library and after he "approved' of us I guess, he said we could then go over to the cafe and talk for longer😂. He was just a super kind and wholesome guy though, and we were also able to give him a Book of Mormon. The last was probably the best, which was a girl that is around our age as well from Congo/Uganda. We met her at a resturant, and it felt pretty casual for most of the meetup and I was unsure if she was at all interested in our message. But when we asked if we could share with her more about our church, she quickly said yes. We explained the idea that Jesus Christ's church needed to be restored, and we believe it has been through Joseph Smith. When we asked her if she thought that could be possible, she said, "yeah, probably like 99%." So that was pretty cool. In many aspects the work has been slow for us, so to have 3 lessons all happen and all go well in our half of a day in this city, it was pretty exciting.
- On Thursday I was on splits with one of my former companions which was fun. But we went to the other of the 2 cities I was talking about, Ålesund (which I think is one of, if not the coolest city I've seen in Norway). The highlight of that day was a meeting we had with someone else that we met via facebook. She was also from Congo/Uganda. Over messages she had told me she was wanting a Bible, which we gave to her. But I was a little nervous how open she would be to our message and the Book of Mormon. But she gladly accepted a Book of Mormon and seemed to like the message that we shared with her. She was also just a super super nice lady though and asked to take a picture with us as we were leaving. The other thing we did while in Ålesund was meet with a couple from France, and their 2 week old baby, who have only been in Norway for a month or so. They are Muslim and we helped them to learn some basic Norwegian, which they requested. They were also incredibly gracious and kind to us, and were super thankful for the help that we gave them.
As I said, the rest of the highlights of the week were mostly just little interactions on the street with cool people, so here's a few of those:
- I stopped a lady from the Phillipines who was very nice. As I began to explain the Book of Mormon, I told her I unfortunately had just given out the 2 that I had with me, which she seemed surprisingly dissappointed about. But I got her number and told her that I could give her one another time. Well a few minutes after I tallked to her, I went up to my companion (we were talking to seperate people) and asked if he had a Book of Mormon with him. He gave me one that he had, but by this time the lady I talked to was long gone. But for some reason I just decided to start running in the direction that she was walking to give it to her. After running for a few minutes I caught up to her and was able to give it to her. She hasn't replied since this interaction, but was still a cool interaction nonetheless.
- On Saturday, right when we walked out on the street I passed these 2 girls and felt like I should talk to them, but didn't. So when I saw them again about 30 minutes later I went out of my way to talk to them. They were definitely younger than I thought they were before I started talking to them, but I still had a short conversation with them and gave them a Book of Mormon. I got one of their facebook's, but after walking away realized that it didn't work. Since I had already ran into them twice, the rest of the time on the street I was hoping to run into them again. Well, probably about an hour later, I ended up talking to a lady that ended up being there mom, which was crazy. And apparently I had actually already talked to her a few weeks earlier but didn't remember initially. She seemed a lot more interested than her daughters, and gratefully took a Book of Mormon. And when I got her number she made me call her so she could save her number too (that never happens). We haven't met up with them left but I am hoping we will be able to soon.
- That same day when we were out talking to people, I started talking and walking with this lady, and ended up walking with her pretty far all the way over to the ferry station. She is from the same country as one of my favorite people I've taught on my mission from my last area (burundi). She was super super nice and was very gracious in the text reply that she sent us the night after I talked to her. We also haven't met with her again yet but I am hopeful we will be able to soon as well.
As of late I have been a bit frustrated with myself and my inability to complete goals that I have set for myself and just in my overall lack of discipline as of late. But with that being said, the peace that I have felt from certain gospel principles, scriptures, hymn lyrics, and conference talks has been a different type of comfort that I haven't really felt before. When we are frustrated in our failures, I think it is easy to continue in that direction and lose motivation to brush it off and try again. Because ultimately, that would be what is easiest; that is what Satan wants us to do. One thing that I feel has been impressed upon me as I have thought about this, is that that peace, comfort, and inspiration that I mentioned is always available to us. It comes from Jesus Chist, and it is the antidote to the frustration and lack of motivation that I also mentioned. BUT, we need to make the concious decision to include that inspiration in some aspect of our days and lives, especially when we feel discouraged. When we make the conscious decision to invite the spirit into our days, we allow ourselves to bounce back from our sins and pains, and to feel Christ's power in our lives. I love this representation of such from the Book of Mormon:
Alma 43:48 And it came to pass that when the men of Moroni saw the fierceness and the anger of the Lamanites, they were about to shrink and flee from them. And Moroni, perceiving their intent, sent forth and inspired their hearts with these thoughts—yea, the thoughts of their lands, their liberty, yea, their freedom from bondage.
Just as we often have the tendency to, the men in Moroni's army felt the temptation to "shrink" and "flee" from their trial. Moroni gave them "thoughts" that he knew would "inspir[e] their hearts". I think we all know the specific thoughts and things that give our own hearts and minds inspiration and peace, it is just up to us to turn to those things in our difficult moments, especially when we don't have someone like Moroni looking out for us.
"Yes we stray
From the light that is paving our way
They say there's no going back
I'm reaching out
To the arms of a Savior"
-Emma Nissen
