What's up,
Another decent week for me here, hope it was the same for all of you.
Start of last week we were in Trondheim (city about 4 hrs north of us, 3rd/4th biggest city in Norway) to have Pday with the other missionaries in our district, as well as splits with the Elders that live there the following day. It was alright, honestly wasn't anything crazy fun or interesting but it was good to have a change of pace from our regular weeks I guess. The splits with there were very mediocre lol. Highlight of going there was for sure seeing the senior couple missionaries that serve there, that I also served with for the first 6 months of my mission. They are easily my favorite missionaries in our mission and always lift my mood.
The rest of the week was pretty average. Honestly was a bit of a frustrating week for me, but there were still some highlights. Mostly just 4 moments/lessons that stand out, so I'll just go through those..
- One of the days this week, we were about to go and knock some doors, but I thought that we may as well go and try to knock on the door of a couple that the previous missionaries in this area had told me about, but I hadn't had the chance to meet yet, even though I've been here for over 2 months now. We had tried to knock their door the previous week as well, but there was a bunch of mail in their mailbox so we figured that they were likely out of town. When we went back, the mail was indeed still there, but we thought to knock anyways. We knocked on their door and rang the doorbell twice, and were about to walk away but I just knock on the window while doing so. They then came out of a side door that looked like a storage closet😂. They had never met either of us but instantly invited us in and told us to sit down. They are a couple from Rwanda but have been here in Norway for quite a few years now. We mostly just talked with them about their lives for a long time but of course shared a message with them as well. We shared a bit about the Book of Mormon. I had been told the wife was less open, but even she was asking a bunch of questions and was very engaged. After explaining the Book of Mormon, she seemed to like it, so then said that she had heard our church had many wives. We told her not anymore, and then her husband joked with her that he was going to get multiple wives😂. They were incredibly gracious though, and told us over and over again that we are welcome in their home and are like their kids. This is the first time we'd met them...so awesome. When we asked if they'd come to church, the husband pointed at his wife and said "drive me to church at 11 on sunday", and then turned back to us and told us that if he wasn't there it was his wife's fault😂. He walked in on Sunday, and to our surprise, his wife accompanied him as well. They are awesome and I hope we can continue working with them.
- For anyone that read my last email, I talked about a lady from Eritrea who was either really crazy or just has had a really crazy life with a plethora of vastly different experiences. Well, we saw her again this week and I'm still not sure which it is haha. When I texted her Thursday morning, she didn't reply until later that night, but said she was in the hospital. When I asked if there was anything we could do to help her, she replied and said that as long as she was in the hospital we could come and visit her. So we did that on Saturday morning. It was extremely, and I mean extremely, frustrating to find her room, as the hospital she is in is being rebuilt and only part of it is just barely opening. It took us an hour of walking around and talking to different people until we finally sat down with her. We talked for a while again and as I said, she still seemed a bit crazy. But it was still really cool that we were able to go and visit her in the hospital after only one interaction on the street. When we were walking out with one of the nurses, she asked us how we even knew Hellen, to which I chuckled and replied, "Uhh we just met her on the street". The nurse was definitely very confused😂.
- Again, if you read my last email, I also talked about a group of 4 people from Tanzania that we were able to have a really awesome lesson with. We were able to meet with them all again this last week. It didn't go quite as well this week unfortunately. I could honeslty write a whole email about just that lesson, so I'm not going to go too much into it. Basically though, we decided to talk about the doctrine of Chirst (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end). We had great discussions about both faith and repentance where they all shared their thoughts. When we got to baptism, they shared they had all been baptized before. At that point it's really hard to teach our view on baptism without being very up front, which is difficult to do without being offensive. It's for sure my least favorite thing to teach as a missionary. One of the 5 (there was another one that joined this week) was pretty against our view on it, and with her background, I don't blame her at all. It was just frustrating because she rambled for a long time, which made all of the other people doubt basically everything we had taught the previous time that they all loved so much initially. Not sure what's really going to happen now. But, there were some cool parts as well. For example, right when we walked in, we were discussing Halloween with them (they had never heard of it in Tanzania). One of the guys started by asking us, "Do we celebrate Halloween in *our* church, the Church of Jesus Christ?" Something really small, but I thought that was cool. Also though, there was one of the other guys that understands our belief of Christ's church restored, and he was basically just teaching and borderline chastizing the lady that was upset with us lol.
- Lastly, the highlight of the week was visiting our friend Rashid and our family. I talked about him a few weeks ago, but he is a man from Congo that I met about a month ago, with 4 kids under the age of probably 6 or 7. His family is so awesome. We had a good first lesson with him a while ago, but hadn't really had any contact with him in a few weeks. We decided to just go and knock on their door so that we could at least just get in contact with them. He answered and invited us in instantly. Last time his kids were pretty shy (understandably), but this time they were all very playful with us which really fun. I honestly normally don't like interacting with kids so you know these kids are awesome if I like them so much😂. When we previously went, we had basically just told about the Book of Mormon and a little bit about the restoration of the Church. Well he told us that he had been reading on his phone (we gave him one in Swahili, but his best language for reading is Kinyarwanda), and that he had read "all of it". I don't think he actually read the whole Book of Mormon; it was unclear how much he actually read when we were trying to figure it out. But nonetheless, he had read a lot. He kept saying how it was a new book and how he thinks it is a "new prophecy", and the "third testament", which was pretty cool.
I briefly mentioned it earlier in the email, but there were definitely some frustrating things for me last week despite some good moments. That stemmed mostly from frustration and discouragement with how the missionary work is in my current area, and honestly just how it is in Norway. It feels at times that missionary work is near impossible here, being that we have essentially no member support, we don't have an actual congregation or building to meet in on Sundays, not to mention the natural disposition of most Norwegian people to anything religious. Obviously I'm being dramatic, but for me this week, I was grappling with those thoughts. As well as the idea of why a gospel message of Christ's Church being restored seems as if it is so incredibly difficult for others to accept or even consider, while seeming so intuitive and simple to me. I have felt similar frustrations this week, but rather with the state of the world and it's current political and social landscape. Regardless of how you feel about the results of the election, I think it is frankly wrong to look at the current division and contention in the country and world and not be concerned and disheartened. I was especially deflated while listening to other missionaries discuss certain global issues this week, as well as reading through commments in reaction to the election from spaces that are predominantly members of the church. It is both comical and baffling to me how many church members from BOTH sides of the political spectrum are so certain that their side is unequivocally correct, and is the only correct side for Christians and members of the church.
That was essentially a long way of me saying that I have been frustrated, both with aspects of missionary work, and with the world's current state. I think what is most unfortunate is that a win from either candidate in the election would not have fixed the division that currently exists in the country and world.
So, what can we do? There are obviously many things we can do to grapple with frustrations in any situation, whether it be currently, or throughout any trial in our lives. But, something that I have pondered about recently is hope. I think hope is the only true cure to discouragement. That is, hope in our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their promises and plan for us.
Recently, I have particularly found strength and inspiration in the hope expressed in a few specific songs. The main song is one called The Better Benedicition by PJ Morton (as well as the pt.2). If you've read this far, I encourage you to give it a listen, and even just listen to the lyrics or read them if you don't like the music style. The premise of the entire song is that, no matter our current state or trial, it will get better, because of God. If you believe in God or a higher power of any form, I would presume that you do so because you believe He or It can provide some sort of peace, happiness, solace, or joy; whether that be presently, or in the future. Isn't that the "Good News" that we are here to spread as missionaries? So, why then, are we so quick to forget this when faced with an issue or frustration, especially when with an issue or frustration of larger magnitude? The message of the song is very simple, but one that we all, including me, tend to forget: It will get better. I could quote any lyric from the song, but I like the principle in this one:
"I trust in God, I believe that it's gonna get (better) yeah-yeah, yeah, (better)...
Just stand in love and everything gon' be (better, better) hey"
Specifically as believers in Christ, we are grounded on the assurance that, in the end, all will be made right, and better, because of Him. As those lines say, we just need to trust in God and love others. If those two things are somewhere in our priorities, we can have the peace that our current situation will indeed get better.
The song ends by saying, "I hope you believe it." At times, as it is has been for me (and maybe you) recently, that can be hard. But, I, too, am hopeful that we can all believe in the hope that it will get better.
"As we strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, we see beyond our struggles to the blessings and promises of eternity. Like a light whose brilliance grows, hope brightens the darkened world, and we see our glorious future."
-Neil L. Andersen
Pt.2
(Sorry for lack of pictures, I'll add a bunch next email)
