Hope everyone's week was good. Another busy week for me.
On Thursday we had splits/exchanges with the Zone leaders. Last transfer we did splits with them in Bergen so this time they came down to Stavanger with us. Between the 4 of us, we had 6 lessons in the day which was awesome. After the senior missionaries had us all over for lunch, we had a lesson with our most progressing friend Rafael. Which as a reminder, he is the one who found the Book of Mormon in his apartment and we've been meeting with him since. The lesson was a little bit different than normal because I was doing it with a different missionary, but it went really well. He is working through some things that he said he thinks he should have handled by January, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to set a baptismal date. We asked him if he wanted to, and he accepted 😁. So as long as everything goes to plan, Rafael should be baptized on the 14th of January!! Super exciting stuff. After that lesson we had a short lesson with our friend Jan over the phone because he lives far, which also went pretty well. After those two lessons we went to a new basketball group we were invited to. The competition was actually good, so that was a lot of fun and we should be able to continue to go to that once or twice a week.
On Saturday we had a really good lesson with our friend Idar. Idar has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, and has already been taught all of the content in the missionary lessons. So normally when we meet with him, we just discuss a scripture chapter or have a short discussion; which is good, but isn't super productive. But we continue to meet with him because he keeps all of our commitments and comes to church almost every week. We think he may have some high functioning mental disabilities, which makes it very difficult for him to receive answers to prayers. Anyways the lesson we had with him this time was really good. I personally for some reason feel really strongly to need to help him progress. We dug a little deeper on why he likes meeting with us and if he thinks the church could be true, and it he's ever thought about baptism before. Despite our lesson being in a mall, he said multiple times that he felt the spirit which was a really big step for him. We gave him Mosiah 18 (about baptism) to read and pray about. Although he said he didn't receive an answer a few days later, he said he is going to keep having patience and he felt the spirit again when we met yesterday. It may not sound like much but it's really big progress for Idar.
We started a new weekly Bible study group to try and meet more Christian people. It isn't growing super fast, but it is still awesome to have it and dig deeper into the New Testament. Idar came to that as well, and told us afterward that he felt the spirit so that was good. But the senior missionaries brought homemade caramel popcorn, which I didn't realize is an American thing, and Idar thought it was the best thing ever haha.
On Monday night we had a dinner with an American couple who lives here, who also had over a new Ukrainian family that just moved into our ward, I think I may have mentioned them briefly before. They have triplet daughters who probably around 9 or so, they're pretty funny. But the tough thing is that none of them know Norwegian and only the mom knows English, so they are really going to struggle for a while. But one positive thing is that the way refugees work in Norway, they get all of their furniture and house supplies for free, which is crazy but I'm happy that they could have some nice things to come to after they had to leave home in Ukranian.
One other small interaction that I had this week was when we were downtown one of the nights. We were just walking between destinations, and this guy came up to us and asked (in English) if we were from Norway. For some reason my companion said yes lol, so the guy asked us if we could help him find something. We replied that we could and that we could walk him to the restaurant he was looking for. As we were talking to him, he saw my companion's tag and then said, "Ahhhh, you are the good guys", and then shook both of our hands. We ended up walking with him and figuring out he was from Poland, and we invited him to our wars Christmas party. Anyways, the point of me telling this was that this really helped remind me that being a member of this church, and being a missionary is the right thing. As followers of Christ we are all the good guys. I think we often get caught in the monotony of church membership and what that consists of, and we forget the righteousness of the path we're on. Me and my brothers are studying mentions of Jesus in the scriptures right now, which so far has been predominantly the New Testament. One of the stories that I read this morning that reminded me of the interaction I had with this guy: the story of when Jesus came into Jerusalem with His disciples. John 12:12-13 tells of the reaction of the people on Jerusalem when Jesus arrived: "12 ¶ On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." As I pondered on what it may have been like for those people, these verses brought a lot more meaning. It's unlikely any of those people had ever met Jesus, yet "much people" came to see Him, and not only see him but praise Him. Just like this story, right when this man saw Jesus Christ's name on our badges, he instantly said we were the good guys and became happy, even though he had never met us before. That truly is a testament to Jesus's glory and perfection. Jesus Christ brought happiness to those around Him. I know as we follow Him and be like Him, we can feel that happiness and make those around us happy as well.
Comparisons.
Lyric:
"I'ma try to get 'em to see the right path
'Cause I think I'm on the right path"
-Nas
(I apologize that there aren't any funny or exciting things to tell stories about, progression of people I'm teaching is the only exciting thing right now, but I know that's not always entertaining to read.)
Hope everyone's week is good😁
-Eldste Winegar
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