Week 12

What's up,

Another decent week for me. A bit of a long email this week, if you don't have time at least read the last 2 sentences :)

On Wednesday we met with one of our good friends Mike that we are teaching. He is from the UK (I'm pretty sure). His wife and two young daughters are both members, but he is not (yet😁). He is basically a member though, he comes to church every single Sunday, comes to our game night every Friday, and even gave a talk a few weeks ago in church. He comes to our game nights every Friday because that is like his main thing as a person, he loves playing board games. Which he definitely is a little bit weird, but not as weird as it sounds for a middle aged man to be obsessed with board games lol. He lives 40 minutes away from us so we drove out and had a good time just talking and playing games. We had a good conversation with his stance on the church, so hopefully we can continue to progress with him. The thing that sucks with him is that he is only going to be here for one more month because he and his family are moving. His family actually already moved; he is just finishing up his last month of work here. But yeah he is a cool guy.

Just a little update on the two referrals that I've talked about. 

-Rafael (who is the one that randomly found the Book of Mormon in his apartment) is progressing super quickly and is doing really awesome. He has come to church every Sunday since we've met him except one where he was sick, and he even comes to the weekly institute (seminary) class that our ward has every week. Before the institute class this week we had a great lesson with him as well. He has fit in super well in the ward as well. We hope to put him on baptismal date within the next few weeks. 

-Jan Erik (who is the "golden" referral that we got about 2 weeks ago) has unfortunately stopped replying to any attempts at contact. We are a little confused because we had a really really good first meeting/lesson with him, and he even came to the baptism we had a few weeks ago and also to church. We expressed this in a meeting we have with ward members about missionary work, and they told us that he has been on and off for a few years so it is not unexpected; which sucks, but it is what it is.

Friday was probably my favorite part of my week. I can't remember if I've talked about Piotr, but he is a new member that got baptized a few months ago, who is just so so awesome. He is from Poland. He is always smiling and positive, and is one of the most committed members I've ever met even though he hasn't even been one for a year (He had to remind me to say a prayer before we ate with him one time haha). Anyways, we went to a lookout with him, his roomate Ioannis (the guy who's apartment I threw up at), and his brother Blazej, and had a little barbeque and just hungout, it was nice. We have heard the Piotr's brother is really against the church, so it is really good that we are able to meet with and spend time with him. It is awesome to see how committed Piotr is in trying to share the gospel with his brother and roommate. We ended up getting Ioannis to come to church on Sunday as well which was good. 

Just like in Cole's email for those of you who get his, we also got a referral of someone who filled out an online thing to get a free Book of Mormon this week. And just like in Cole's we went and his house was absolutely disgusting lol. It was a good meeting though. He said he was disappointed that we didn't show up on horses with wagons and multiple wives😂. He lives in a smaller town called Egersund which is like an hour and a half from us, so we drove out there and were only there for about 20 minutes because we had a dinner to get to, but it was still worth it. He was very receptive of what we told him about the Book of Mormon which was good, and I think also just enjoyed someone to talk to as well so I'm glad we could be that for him. After we left he posted on his facebook that he had been visited by some Mormon missionaries, with a picture of the Book of Mormon we gave him. Which is awesome, but unfortunately there were a lot of negative comments, so we hope that he is still willing to meet with us. He replied to a comment that was telling him to not get brainwashed by saying, "I am not brainwashed, I shower every day, shampoo my hair, and brush my teeth" 😂😂 so that is hopefully a good sign??

Another random thing, I met a cool 15 year old kid yesterday at our weekly basketball group who I had a really good conversation with. And he is also an identical twin so that is pretty cool. 

This week marks the end of my first transfer in Norway, and every transfer in my mission (6 weeks), our mission has a transfer focus--essentially just something for us to try and personally focus on throughout the transfer. For the last 6 weeks, our transfer focus has been: "Who is my Jesus?", just meaning, who is Jesus personally to you. It has been a great opportunity to focus more on my personal relationship with Christ and learn more how I would answer that question. One of the main things that our mission president emphasizes is to grow a personal relationship with Jesus Christ while we are on our missions; instead of learning about Him, learning to know Him. One of the great resources that we are encouraged to use to help us with this is The Living Christ document that was released by the apostles in 2000. It is a really powerful document and I encourage all of you to take the time to read it and study it. The whole document is really powerful, but I really love one of the lines in the last paragraph, "He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come." I really love the words hope and happiness used to describe Jesus and his gospel there. Those are things that I have come to know more on my mission; that through, and only through, Jesus Christ, we are able to find true happiness and hope in our trials. My testimony and relationship with Christ is far from where I want it to be, but I'm really grateful for the transfer focus that we had so that I could focus on it more. I could write out a long testimony of all I know about Christ, but I will just write out a short testimony answering the question, "Who is my Jesus?": It is hard for me to use words to describe my feelings about Jesus Christ. But-- Jesus, first and foremost, is my friend; He is my brother. He is the foundation for us to build ourselves on, and the safety net when we fall (3 Nephi 14:24-25). Through His life on earth, He gave us a blueprint on how we should live ours. Though life will never be easy, He makes the hard moments bearable, and makes life worth living (Mosiah 24:14). He is not only our advocate, but the advocate against all injustice in the world. I know that through him all injustices will be made right. And through His justice, He is equally as merciful; He provides the only true Just Mercy (Alma 42:15). Most importantly, I know Jesus Christ loves ALL (2 Nephi 26:33). For me, I have learned most that Jesus is my joy (John 15:11), my comfort (John 14:18), and my peace (Helaman 5:47). And, as many have described to me, Jesus Christ is everything. 

I think it would be really cool if each of you would be willing to reply back to this email with your answer to the question of "Who is my Jesus?". During our zone conference they got the answers from our immediate families to the question and gave them to us and it was really powerful, so I would really appreciate it if you did, even and especially to those who aren't a member of our church. 😁

-Elder Winegar