Week 20

Yo,

Hope that everything is going well with all of you. I finally got a couple of funny stories to tell today so stay tuned.

At the start of this week, I was getting worried about Rafael (the one who we're teaching that is on baptismal date). He hadn't came to church that previous Sunday, and he hadn't replied to our texts in a few days. Sister Purcell, our senior Sister missionary, suggested that we invite him over to dinner to their place, since the regular institute class+dinner we have was not going to happen. I prayed that all would be okay with him and that he would reply to us. Literally as I was typing out the text to him, he replied to our previous text. In that text he said he was pretty busy, and that we could try and meet after church on Sunday. I told him that worked for us, but that the Purcells invited him to dinner. He then accepted. As Sister Purcell said, "the power of food", lol. The lesson we had with him was good and productive though. The dinner was also great and I was very appreciative of the Purcells. All is in line for him to be baptized this Sunday.

 

Last week, me and my companion were going through the ward list here in Stavanger in attempt to try and visit some of the inactive members. One of the people we reached out to accepted, so we went and visited him this week. He is a member, but as I mentioned isn't very active. He lives with his wife and 3 month old baby as well. Most of the time we were there, he was joking around a lot, and wasn't being super serious, so I wasn't expecting to get much out of the spiritual thought we had prepared. We decided to read the Living Christ together. I was reading it off my phone, so as we were reading it I didn't really look up at all. But out of my peripherals I noticed that he was wiping his eyes a bit. And when he went to read the last paragraph he choked up. There was a really strong spirit there and I'm super glad that we were able to visit him, I hope and think that it was beneficial for him. 

That night we had our weekly game night. We had a decent turnout, but it was a pretty average night. There was a guy there that is a little bit interesting that has been taught by missionaries within the last few months but I personally have never taught him. When the night was coming to an end, he shook my hand an said bye to me, it was kind of an awkward interaction though. One of the sister missionaries was standing there laughing, and I just told her that he's always weird like that. But then she told me that he had brought shrooms and was trying to pass them out to everyone at the game night, including some of the teenagers from the ward that were there😭. Thankfully nobody took any, and we were all joking about it on Sunday. But pretty crazy lol.

On Saturday we drove out to Egersund again (city about 1 hour away), to visit our friend Ove (who previously had a drinking problem) as well as Jan. The lesson with Jan was pretty unproductive, as our lessons normally are with him. It's like he has a skill of redirecting our gospel questions into another subject while simultaneously actually answering them. Not sure we will continue teaching him long term but he at least gives for some entertaining conversations. The lesson with Ove was pretty good though. The next day we actually drove out there again to give Ove the sacrament because my companion thought that would be beneficial for him, which I think/hope that it was. But while we were on the way to his house, I had the random thought to text a lady in the ward that is somewhat inactive, and has a 9 year old son that is unbaptized. I was aware of their situation and had tried reaching out before but had never met them before. She replied quickly and said that she was pretty busy this week but that we could go over right then. So straight from Ove's house we went to her place. When we were almost there, she texted and said that she had visitors over as well. Which we thought would make the dynamic a little weird but didn't think much of it. When we knocked on the door, another filipino member of the ward opened the door (she is filipino) which was really surprising. And then we walk in and there was probably like 15 little kids jammed in this tiny apartment, along with a few of the other filipino ward members (some non members as well). So we didn't really get to share any spiritual thought or anything, but it was still good to get to know them a bit and have them aware of who we are. She also gave us food, which I was hesitant to except because we had a dinner appointment right after, but we ended up eating because it was fast sunday and we were really hungry. 

So yeah, literally straight from there we went to our dinner appointment. First of all, I've talked a little about this couple before, but essentially they are just very interesting people and I have had some really weird dinners at their house. So I already knew it was about to be a night. But anyways, I went to serve myself food, and served myself very little portions because I had absolutely no appetite since we had just barely eaten, even though I tried not to eat much. After everyone was served, I went to put some soy sauce on my rice, and it came out wayyy too fast, and my rice was basically dark brown. Sara (the member) said to me, "Elder, you put too much soy sauce", obviously lol. But I just replied that it was an accident. Then my companion and the sister missionaries went to pass me the bowl of rice and told me to just mix it in. But keep in mind, I really really did not want any more food. Then Sara said that I would get sick if I eat that, and assured me that I could throw it away. I think God moved her to say that 😂. When I went to throw away my rice, I snuck a little bit of my other food in the garbage but not enough that it was obvious. I then sat back down, took one bite, and instantly felt really sick. I had to excuse myself and went back into the bathroom and threw up. That puts me up to 2 throw ups in under 6 months haha. To make the night even weirder, when the sisters were sharing a spiritual thought at the end, they asked my companion to read a general conference quote about the Book of Mormon, and he accidentally read past the highlighted part, said, "sorry I read too far, but I'm going to keep reading this is fire" (😭), and then the quote ended with something saying that the BOM helps against the plagues of pornography. Which doesn't seem bad but for some reason the sisters were acting like middle school boys and laughed at the word pornography😂🤦‍♂️. The whole dinner was just such a weird experience.

Switching gears a bit😂. This week was again filled with a decent amount of frustration for me. I'm sure like many of you, it is really hard for me to snap out of a negative attitude when I get into one. Which causes issues for me because I would consider myself at least a little bit of a pessimist. There was a specific night this week where I just felt absolutely zero motivation to do anything, and felt pretty frustrated with everything that was happening around me. I was just sitting in our Bible study feeling so angry for no apparent reason. Those of you who have spent a lot of time around me know that I tend to be a pretty passionate person and in turn get frustrated pretty easily at times. As I've been on my mission, I've experienced something a few times that I had never experiened before within my frustration. As I was sitting there in Bible Study, my thoughts were all of the sudden directed towards Jesus, and I just felt the spirit super strong. This didn't make my frustrations instantly go away, but it reminded me that Jesus is by my side helping me, even when I don't realize. Another experience from today: after we finished eating lunch, I realized that I had left my backpack in a mall that we studied at earlier that morning, which had my camera in it. Once again, I'm positive that those of you who know me closely can envision exactly what my reaction was like  when we went back and my bag wasn't there anymore. My companion tried to calm me down and went and asked a worker where we could find security. As I was standing there, in frustration, I decided to say a quick prayer. I once again just felt the spirit really strong. I wasn't directed to where my backpack was, or even given the confirmation that I was going to find it, but I was again reminded that all was okay and that I was being helped. As I reflected on these experiences, I thought of the story of Jesus' ressurection. When Jesus showed his ressurected self to Mary Magdalene, she didn't even recognize that it was Him: "And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus" (John 20:14). Then, later that day, Jesus showed himself unto his disciples, who were in a state of fear, and He comforted them: "19 ¶ Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." Both these verses read in conjuction are really powerful to me. Jesus walks beside us; stands in front of us as He did with Mary; and stands in the midst of us, and of our lives, as he did for the disciples. He brings peace to us within our fears, and all our struggles-- I think you can plug in any emotion for the word fear in the scripture and it stands true. All we have to do is make the decision to look for Him. It is so often that we are looking right at the ways that He has blessed us, and fail to recognize His hand, as Mary failed to recognize Him. Or, to "look beyond the mark" as Elder Renlund articulates nicely: "...we too can be prone to look beyond the mark. We need to guard against this tendency lest we miss Jesus Christ in our lives and fail to recognize the many blessings He offers us." As we remember that Jesus Christ is right beside us, we can feel the peace that he brings us. I personally felt that this week. 

Lyric:

"No, I can't feel pain

but I can see the stars

I ain't leave in vain but

I know we with God

There's heaven all around me"

-Saba

Ha det bra,

Eldste Winegar