Week 33

What's up,

Hope everyone had a good week. Things are starting to slightly pick up here; we actually had some cool stuff happen this week. 

Firstly a quick update on Franklin (who's on baptismal date in my last area) for anyone who cares, also just because it is a crazy story. After not replying for a few weeks, he has been replying more consistently over the last week or so. I have been trying to get a chance to get on a call with him to see what happened and what is going on, but we haven't been able to get a time to talk. With that being said, I called the Elders who are down in that area and they gave me the run down. Basically there were some guys that lived with Franklin in his apartment complex that just randomly left, without paying rent or giving any notice. For some reason the landlord put the blame on Franklin, and he was expected to cover for their rent. He made plans to move into a different place, but the landlord didn't think that he'd pay the rent before leaving, so wanted collateral, and took his phone as the collateral...for 8 days. Not sure how that even happened or how true all of that is, but all that matter is that Franklin is all good now. He also is recommitted to doing what is needed for his baptism. 

A few weeks ago we had this guy from Romania come to our language cafe (which we hold in the same place we have church). It really naturally came up that he believed in God, and he told us that he actually came to our church a few months ago, but ended up leaving right as he walked in the doors because he felt a little timid. Anyways, he ended up coming to church last week, and this week we were able to meet with him before the language cafe and talk about the church service, as well as the Book of Mormon. When we explained what the Book of Mormon was, he wasn't skeptical or hesitant at all, his only question being if he could get it in his language on his phone (we didn't have copy in his language then). So that was pretty cool. His english isn't great though, as he kept using 'she' instead of 'he'. He was telling us how he had two boys, and then kept saying 'she', so we asked if he actually has a daughter. He got kind of mad and said that he has 2 boys. Then when we asked him how God has helped his life, he said, "Ohhh, she has helped me so much", so we finally realized his english just isn't great😂.

On Friday we were able to get an appointment with a guy in one of the weirder ways I've got an appointment on my mission. I do a lot of Facebook work where I'm basically just messaging random people, getting conversations going, and then eventually seeing if they'd be willing to meetup. I had only sent like one or two messsages to this guy when I then just asked him what he likes to do. He replied by saying he likes cycling and being with his dog, and then sent a picture of his dog. I of course said that his dog was very cute, and then starting asking about his dog. After a few questions about his dog, I asked if I could meet him and his dog sometime, which he agreed to😂. When we met with him we explained what we do as missionaries, and he said he's not interested as he already believes in Christ. Despite that, he repeatedly asked what the Church of Jesus Christ really is. We eventually explained the restoration of the church, and were able to give him a Book of Mormon. He was definitely an interesting guy as his pants literally fell almost all the way down when he was trying to pull off a branch for his dog lol. He seemed interested to meet again, but hasn't been super responsive since so not sure if we'll meet with him again. But nonethless was a funny way to meet someone. 

For general conference, we played it in our church building for members to watch together. Well, as it's been lately, only one member showed up. The senior missionaries were sick, and the sister missionaries were out of the area, so it was literally just us and this one member. Which I honestly didn't mind for conference. Well about halfway in a guy who is also from our language cafe walked in. We explained how it was a bit of different service, and he then just sat down and watched. His English is even worse than the Romanian guy, so not sure how much of it he caught. But afterwards we asked him what his questions were, and he of course asked what the Book of Mormon is. We explained, and we were also able to have the member that was there share her testimony of the Book of Mormon. That member had also totally randomly had 2 seperate occasions where she had talked to this guy on the bus. It's cool to see how the Lord works. So we are planning to drop off the Book of Mormon to him tomorrow, as we did not have the Polish copy that we have with us at the time. The cool part about him coming, the member being there, and us setting up the meeting to give him the Book of Mormon, is that in one way or another, all of those things filled in and completed all of our goals for the week with the exact amount. It was a cool testament to me that the Lord provides as we do what we can. 

I think I've maybe already talked about this in a spiritual thought on here, but I've been thinking a lot this week about what diligence means and how I can be a more diligent missionary and follower of Christ. I've been reading more than usual in the Book of Mormon these last few weeks, and the word diligent is used very often to describe efforts and people in the stories, which is what caused me to further ponder and think about what diligence really is. Flipping back through my scriptures, here are a few that stood out to me:

Jacob 5:75-"And blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard,...behold ye shall have joy with me..."

Enos 1:12-"...after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith."

Mosiah 4:27: "...And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize;

I feel like these verses do a very good job at explaining what comes as a result of being diligent--joy, fulfillment of your desires, "the prize"--but it doesn't give a lot of explanation of what diligence means. The surrounding verses of some of these give a pretty good idea, but nothing that is super clear. Because I've been thinking a lot about this, one of the many questions I wrote down in preparation for conference was how I can be more diligent. The word diligent/diligence, as far as I wrote down, was only mentioned 2 or 3 times, but I still got a lot of thoughts about what it means to be diligent. Elder Holland's description of how he felt after his health miraculously improved gives a pretty good definition of what I see diligence to be: "I received an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the savior, more faith in His word." I think urgency, consecration, faith, and focus on the savior are all diligent actions. One thing President Eyring said when speaking of temple covenants also stood out to me, "...is not a one time effort, but a lifetime pattern. The lord has said, it will take our full heart, might, mind, and strength." Keeping promises with God throughout our lives, in that manner, is also a good example of diligence to me. There were a few other things that gave examples of what diligence is throughout conference, but I still didn't feel like my question was fully answered. A few hours after watching one of the sessions, I went to put a conference talk on while I got ready, and didn't really know what to listen to. I just clicked general conference in the gospel library app, and then saw President Eyring's picture, and thought to relisten to one of my favorite talks from him. I didn't remember the name but remembered when it was, so I scrolled down to 2010 when it was given. The name of the talk, which I somehow forgot, is "Act in All Diligence". I thought it was cool how God directed me to this talk as I had some inadequate feelings of the answers I got in this years conference. He gives many examples of diligent service, but I really like this part of the talk as he relates diligence to Christ, "We are to learn our duty from the Lord, and then we are to act in all diligence, never being lazy or slothful. The pattern is simple but not easy to follow. We are so easily distracted. Studying the daily news can appear more interesting than the priesthood lesson manual. Sitting down to rest can be more attractive than making appointments to visit those who need our priesthood service. When I find myself drawn away from my priesthood duties by other interests and when my body begs for rest, I give to myself this rallying cry: "Remember Him." The Lord is our perfect example of diligence in priesthood service."

Ultimately, diligence boils down to choosing the things of God over the things of the world and choosing to effortlessly try to be like Jesus. When stated like that, it seems like an undoable task, which I think is when those examples in the scriptures, and in the modern day, of people being diligent in following God can be helpful to make Christlike diligence seem more attainable. Which as we try to attain, only makes us better people and brings us closer to the Savior. 

Lyric-"Not perfect, persistent, keep it more pure than the purest" -Nas