Hope everyone is good. Had a super good week. One of the better weeks of my mission in terms of just having fun.
On Wednesday morning the Elder that I was with for the second half of last week left early in the morning. I was then with the senior couple here for a few hours as I waited for a companion. At 11 we went to the airport and picked up my old companion from the beginning of my mission, Elder Lyons. It was so good to see him as he is one of the companions that I really loved and we are good friends. Basically the reason he came is because his current companion got sent up to the northernmost area with both the guys that can't drive to drive for them, so because he was companionless he got put with us for a few days. My actual companion ended up arriving that night at 4, so me and Elder Lyons were together for a few hours before we were all a trio. Elder Lyons actually began his mission in the area that I currently serve in so that added another layer of excitement for him and made it fun for all of us. I have a few smaller specific funny/fun moments from the week, but the main highlight of the week was just having him with us. I already mentioned it, but just in terms of laughing and having fun it was some of the better of my mission.
But besides that, the main focus of the week was getting Daniel prepared for his baptism. When he told us the previous week he wanted to get baptized, we still had a lot to cover in a pretty short amount of time, so we were with him a lot last week. Over the week we were with him for probably 5 hours of just teaching spread over 3 appointments. To some it may seem like overloading, but he has basically no religious background or even knowledge of Christianity, so we've had to explain everything from a really base level. I really enjoyed all the time we were with him this week though. I've been really blessed to teach multiple people before Daniel that made the choice to be baptized, but it still shocks me the faith and commitment of people when they decide to get baptized. This is my companion's first experience teaching someone like Daniel in terms of commitment, and he was telling me that it literally just feels like it's too easy😂. We had some really spiritual moments as well as some pretty fun ones with him this week.
Here are just a few smaller moments/things we did this week that were enjoyable:
-The first night Elder Lyons was there we had a member night that we have bi-monthly. The member that puts it together calls it "kosekveld" which would directly translate to cuddle night😂. It's been different every time, but it's mostly just a member get together, with the few we have, to just play some games and be together. This week the activities were a lot more hands on. We did things like racing with a potato on a spoon, racing jumping in a garbage bag, trying to kick a hat off of a raised stick???, and a few other random ones lol. With the broad spectrum of interesting members we have, it was definitely a spectacle to say the least haha.
-1 of the 2 members that come to church every sunday (we have a few others that watch consistently online) invited us over for dinner at her house, mostly just because she really likes Elder Lyons. Not saying it's a bad thing at all, but she is definitely in the top 10 most unique people I've met in my life. She is very interesting. And she has also made us very suspect food in the past so I was pretty nervous. She made meatballs that were a mixture of ox and beans, which sounds crazy but somehow was actually pretty solid. The dinner was really funny though, Elder Lyons has a very funny way of interacting with her and even got her to sing a song for all of us lol.
-2 funny moments with Daniel that give a bit of an idea of what he is like. In our second meetup we had with his this week we figured it would be good to recover the commandments/standards our church follows after he walked into the lesson with an iced coffee. He took that one really well and is committed to stop drinking coffee. When I was explaining to him that we do not believe in or practice pre-marital sex as members of the church, he kinda just sat there and didn't say anything. I then just nervously asked him something like, "uhhh, is that going to be a problem", and he quickly replied, "oh no no, I'm really bad with girls so that isn't going to be an issue"😂. After he also said that he doesn't watch pornography or anything like that, I joked with him that he has this commandment "on locks", and he replied confidently, "oh yeah, I got this one on lockdown"😂😂.
-Another moment with him that was really funny was in our most recent lesson with him. I was flipping through my scriptures to try and find a scripture to share with him, and I flipped one of the pages too hard and it kind of came out of the seam. I was mad and just said "nooooo". Daniel instantly got really concerned and said, "Oh no, is that a siin?!" 😂😂😂. Me and my companion got a good chuckle out of it and told him that it was not a sin.
(I don't share these to make fun of Daniel at all, they were just funny moments that made me laugh. He's super committed and is wanting to learn as much as possible so I don't even blame him for asking some of the stuff he did, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a laugh 🙂).
Those were some of the funnier moments of the week, but as I said, the lessons with Daniel this week also brought some very spiritual moments. The first lesson we taught him this week was just me and Elder Lyons, which was great to teach together after not being together for like 6 months, but was also great as it was one of the lessons on my mission where the spirit was the strongest. We were teaching about the Restoration of the church, which admittedly sometimes does not have enough of a focus on Christ as it should, at least in my personal experience teaching it. At one point in the lesson we were explaining who Christ's disciples were and their significance. Elder Lyons started by just asking him if he knew of the disciples and who they were. He replied no, and before explaining who they are, Elder Lyons just pointed to a painting on the wall of Jesus washing his disciples feet and told him that's who his disciples were. We all sat in silence for a few seconds just admiring the painting. After saying how much he liked the painting, Daniel asked, "wait, so is that Jesus getting his feet washed?". Me and Elder Lyons just sat and smiled at each other before replying that Jesus was actually the one who was washing the feet of His disciples. To which Daniel replied with an, "Ohhhhhhh reallyyyyyyyyyy???"😂. But the lesson then took a bit of a detour, a needed one, just talking about the nature of Christ. Daniel apologized that we got sidetracked, and we told him that talking about Christ is more important than anything else we teach. This was a really simple conversation, but it was a moment where I felt the Spirit very strongly. Daniel's assumption is a super powerful representation of who Christ is. Daniel made no wrong in making that assumption; Jesus is the literal Son of God–why would he be washing others feet? But once again, to me that is an imporant and powerful reminder who Christ is, and a reminder of the example he sets that we need to try to follow. Not one of us is above another, and none of us have an excuse to not serve our fellow man. The Come Follow Me studies from last week were also a good reminder of this as well. As members of the church, when we were baptized, each of us of course promised that we would follow God and keep his commandments, but we also promised that we would, "bear one another's burdens, that they may be light;...mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort,"(Mosiah 18:8-9). Looking out for each other and serving each other is something that everyone in the world should have the expectation to do just to be a respectable person, but as members of Christ's church we have even more of a responsibility and obligation to do so and we literally promised we would do so, and continue to do so. To me, Jesus–as the Son of God and Savior of the world–washing his disciples feet is a perfect example of how we should treat each other and fulfill our promises made at baptism.
Lyric:
"So don't look down on nobody
'Cause that's how life can turn for everybody
So remember it's love, everybody
And I'm gonna look for life, for my time"
-Loyle Carner
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