Week 39

Heisann,

Another really crazy week for me. Because of some weird circumstances that I'll go into, it was just a super random week and out of the ordinary. There were also some really cool miracles that happened though. Overall was another pretty good week. 

As I've explained in the past, it is a pretty lengthy process to get your Norwegian driving license as a foreigner here. As of around a month ago, the rules changed and it is an even more lengthy process to get your license as you are now required to take a theory test in addition to the practical test that was already required. This has made the drivers license situation in our mission a lot more complicated. There are still a decent amount of areas where driving isn't very critical, but some it definitely is. A lot of those being the north areas or other more remote areas. Well, somehow it ended up that 3 out of the 4 northernmost missionaries cannot currently drive (either waiting in process to take the test or failed the test), including me. Thankfully my companion can drive so it has been fine for us, but in the northernmost area neither of the guys up there can drive, which has caused a lot of complications. Our mission President did not purposefully do it that way ,obviously, but instead of doing a last minute change of who is there, he decided he wanted to just send a different missionary up there every week to drive them around and be with them. The first to take a shift was my companion, so we basically just did a split with them for like half of the week. So I was with a guy named Elder Francis from Monday night until Friday. On Thursday night, my companion drove down with the guy he was with up there, and everyone was together on Friday, as that was Norwegian national day which I'll say more of in a second. On Saturday, they flew in another older missionary that had previously served in that area, but since everyone was with us, and so was their car, they flew him into our city and he was to drive the 2 guys that serve up there back, and then be with them for a week or so. Me and my companion basically had not been together in like 5 days, and when we were finally together for a few hours, we got a call that on the way up, this Elder that was driving them literally got pulled over and his license got taken away. He was literally 1 kph over  the point where the police legally have to take your license. So we drove up there with the senior Elder we're serving with, my companion switched the guy who got his license taken away and went up with the guys that are actually serving there, and the guy that got his license taken away came down with me. The situation was unfortunate of course, but I was honestly really happy how it turned out for me because the guy that I ended up being with is literally so funny and we had a bunch of fun together. Kinda confusing, but stated shortly, I had one companion from Monday night through Thursday, my regular companion Friday, and then a different companion Saturday through Tuesday. Made for a hectic week but it was a lot of fun too.

Some of the interesting things that happened this week that aren't worth going super in-depth into:

-On Wednesday we had a 2nd lesson with this very interesting guy. He is a big football (soccer) fan and has played his whole life, and even though he is for sure over 50, he plays on the "street team" here in the city. Anyways, that is relevant because during our lesson he kept saying how Jesus is like football because Jesus had 12 apostles and on a football field there are 11 people plus the coach. He then was repeatedly insistent that when Jesus comes back he's going to be a prolific football player, because according to him religion is the only thing bigger than football in the world. There's moments where he actually seems like he is interested in our message, but not sure where that will go haha. 

-We helped coach at the kid's basketball club again this week. There were low numbers because it was the day before they had school off, so me and the companion I was with ended up actually playing in a lot of the drills as well as in a 2v2 and 4v4, so that was kinda fun. There's some funny kids there.

-On Friday, which is the Norwegian national day, we somehow got an appointment. It is this guy I've been texting for a little while on Facebook from Nigeria who has been very busy with work, so naturally, did not have work on Friday and was actually willing to meet. He is a super super nice guy and does have some interest at least so hopefully can continue to meet with him.

-Friday itself was a really fun day celebrating the holiday. It's comparable to the 4th of July in the US but taken way more seriously and I honestly liked it better🤷. The day mostly just consists of parades through the city, or at least that's what it was here in Tromsø, but the cool thing is that everyone dresses up. So all guys are in suits, and all women are in traditional Norwegian dresses. It's the only day in the year we can walk around the city in a suit and fit in😂. The most shocking thing was just seeing the massive amount of people in the city, because normally there aren't a bunch in the city. But besides all we did was just eat breakfast with all the other missionaries, walked around the city, and then were invited to play bowling with this dude here that is good friends with the missionaries so we did that as well. 

One of the main highlights of the week was our lesson with our friend Dieume from Congo. He is the one I talked about last week or a few weeks ago where we tried to call my friend Manase to translate but it was not successful haha. Well this week we had set up to have a member from another city in Norway who speaks Swahili join the lesson via technology, but he ended up canceling at the last minute. It made the lesson once again very difficult, but we still kept trying the best we could using pamphlets and the Swahili Book of Mormon we had. We also were using a nice feature on google translate where you can just talk back and forth. It was cool to me how God just provides a way for the gospel to be taught regardless of the difficulty. Part way through the lesson the guy I was with (the first of the 2 other missionaries I was with this week) remembered that he had a friend who was serving in Tanzania speaking Swahili. We ended up calling him, and he called  back a few minutes later, and taught most of the Restoration of the church to our friend, and was asking him a bunch of questions and stuff too. It was super helpful and we were super happy about it. I asked him as he was walking out what he thought of it and if he wanted to continue learning, and he said yeah and that he did. Unfortunately he hasn't replied to anything since, which has been really frustrating, but it was still a really cool lesson. 

The main highlight of the week was our lesson with our friend Daniel. This one was also with the first of the 2 different companions I had this week. For a reminder, Daniel is our friend who is from Houston. Our first lesson with him was the one where he was asking so many super crazy and out of pocket questions about the church like "can mormons watch movies" and "can mormons be within arms length of a woman". That makes the lesson we had with him this week even more crazy. The second time we met with him, about 2 weeks ago, he had had a really hard week and was really humbly seeking answers and help from us. He came in this week saying that the last 2 weeks he has been trying to focus and rely on Christ and he has been so much happier, which was really cool to hear. So he was doing a lot better, but was still very humble in seeking answers which is literally the greatest thing ever to come across as a missionary. We decided to teach the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end), and right as we started talking about baptism and explained what it is, because he had very little idea of what it was, he instantly just asked, "So, how does one get baptized". We explained to him the requirements, and he instantly pulled out his calendar on his phone to see if it would be plausible in terms of time requirements as he is going back to the US for the summer on June 10th. He counted the Sundays and told us he thinks that it would be possible. Literally so insane, we met him for the first time barely over a month ago. So after explaining the best we could why baptism is important and what you are promising as you are baptized, we set a tentative date for June 5th. He then came to church for the first time on Sunday, and in my opinion it was a bit of a boring meeting. Not proud to admit that I was dozing off in the last talk. After the meeting I turned to him and told him that I know it may have been a bit boring, but that that was what a typical service looks like. He quickly said no, and said how he just felt at peace there, and he could clearly see how the purpose of coming to church was to grow your relationship with God and Jesus. He then turned to me and asked me how much we recommend he reads in the BOM every night. We have had him read a few chapters, but we were yet to invite him to read every day so that was pretty crazy. The last thing that was impressive to me was when I called him on Tuesday and told him we would have to meet multiple times a week the next 2 weeks in order to cover all the material, he quickly said that was totally fine and began to spout off days that would work. This is once again another thing on my mission that is just impossible for me to not say as a miracle. I'm not sure why I've been so blessed to meet multiple people that just seem instantly ready for the gospel, among the many, but I feel extremely grateful and blessed to have experienced so. 

Those 2 last experiences I shared, and honestly just looking at the week as a whole, reminded me a lot of this scripture from Mormon 8:

"22 For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled."

Our week could not really have been more out of the ordinary in terms of being in our area and being together as a companionship. And being honest, it did make it difficult to have any sort of momentum in the work, in the area as a whole, and as a companionship. BUT--despite that, we saw some super cool miracles. When we were sitting and using google translate to talk back and worth with our friend Dieume I sat there and was just grateful for how the Lord always allows his work to be pushed forward no matter our circumstances and weaknesses as people. Christ has promised that Israel will be gathered, among countless other things, and the reassurance in this scripture that the work will continue to push forward--without stop or delay from outside factors--until that and all of his promises are fulfilled is comforting and powerful to me. Like all of us, there are many areas where I feel I fall short as a person and missionary, but it's so powerful to me how insignificant our weaknesses are in the Lord's work. There is literally nothing that is going to stop it from moving forward, even if at times it seems like it. And in terms of Daniel wanting to be baptized, I repeat myself in saying that it is again just one of those moments on my mission where I question why the Lord is so generous in the miracles that I see. It really is difficult for me to comprehend. This lyric I heard this week sums up my feelings considering Daniel: 

"Miracle after miracle somehow

So many falling, I just can't keep count

I see blessings, falling out of nowhere

I'm thinking (aint' that just like God?)"