Week 43

What's good,

Finally a week that was a little bit more relaxed and normal for me. Hope everyone is doing good and had a good week.

On Wednesday I said bye to the companion I had had for the last 3 months Elder Woolley, and got a new companion Elder Nielsen. I've been blessed, for the most part, with really good companions that I get along with really well so far on my mission. Me and Elder Woolley got along really well and it was definitely sad to say bye to him. Just like Elder Woolley, Elder Nielsen was also in the MTC at the same time as me, and we get along really well. We've already been having a lot of fun together so I'm looking forward to this transfer for sure. 

This was my first week in a while where the entire week was actually in my area lol. But because of that we were actually able to schedule some appointments and we had some good meet ups with some good discussions. Quick recap of some of those:

-Met up with another dude that I found on Facebook. He is from Rwanda and has lived in Norway for about 6 years now. When I have first meetups with people, it is always different how much we talk about religion and how quickly it comes up. With him we were talking surface level about religion a few minutes in as he is Muslim but currently not really practicing, and as soon as I asked him about prophets we then started an over 2 hour deep discussion about Islam, Christianity, and our church of course. He was very interested in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and just the concept of the Restoration of the church. He even said that he would be open to praying about both things and their truthfulness. But, at the same time he was saying that he would never lose his belief in Islam. Which is obviously fair, but I can't really agree with him on the fact that you can believe in both Islam and Christianity at the same time, or at least fully😂. He said if he figures out that the Book of Mormon is true he has a problem, because then that contradicts the Muslim belief that Mohammed was the last prophet. Regardless of his beliefs, he was super nice and he wants to meet with us again so I'll be looking forward to that.

-On Saturday we had another appointment with our friend that we met with last week, who has met with missionaries for a long time. I mentioned last week, but it has been like over a year since he has met with missionaries consistently. Because my companion was different from the lesson last week, we had a similar lesson, kind of just seeing where he is at. It was super cool. We basically talked for like 15 minutes about all the obstacles in the way of baptism and becoming a member (his parents especially, coffee, alcohol, and being looked down on in the community here) where me and my companion really tried to empathize with him the best we could. It really is so hard to become a member of the church in general, but especially here in Norway so I got a lot of respect for anyone who does. But after having that discussion for a while, I just asked him if those obstacles are too large, or if he'd want to start working towards baptism, and he replied and said he wants to start working towards it! He sighed for a second and was like, "Well, looks like I'm going to need to pick up my Book of Mormon again"😂🙌. He said that he wants to start meeting with us every week again so I am super excited to start working with him.

-Earlier in the week we had some of the Elders from Alta (northernmost area) with us for a day in between moves to new areas, and one of them talked to a dude on the bus and got his number. He ended up coming to church on Sunday and sat through both hours. Afterwards he was telling me he thought it was so interesting that we have an hour of church where we are able to openly discuss as he has never seen that before. I'm not sure if he was hating on the idea of it or liking it, but he was saying it was interesting😂. I told him as missionaries we meet up with people and teach them more about Jesus Christ and therefore the Book of Mormon, and asked if he wanted to meet up sometime. He said he would love to, and he wanted to start meeting 2 times every week. When I told him we'd be out of town for a few days this week, he replied that it was okay and that we could get back on schedule with meeting 2 times a week next week. Pretty crazy for the first time meeting someone. We did try texting him yesterday and today and he hasn't replied, so I'm getting a little worried, but hoping he replies. If he does that would be a pretty significant miracle, especially this early in the transfer. 

In our area, we have a call every week with some members that live in our branch (congregation) but live very far away, discussing the Come Follow Me studies for the week. One of them is basically as close to a scriptoral scholar you can get without actually being one, so he always has a lot of really good insights for us. Despite that, when discussing the chapters this week, we spent basically the entire hour discussing one simple theme, which was esentially just giving to those that are less fortunate and focusing on that rather than the material things in life. We were discussing it from the Book of Mormon (Alma 5:53-55), but when we were reading it I thought of some verses I had read earlier in the week in Matthew 6:

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

(also 31-34)

The first and last line in this verse is powerful to me. I think if we read "Take no thought for your life" with the wrong mindset or context we could be easily confused, but the idea to not think about yourself and your own life is something that I think we could all be a little better at. Obviously it is human nature for us to be concerned about our own needs and wants, but looking outwards and caring about the needs of others is always what Christ would want of us and will always bring us more joy in our lives. I love the promise given a few verses later that "all these things shall be added unto you" as you strive to focus more on the things of God than physical wants or even needs. It's a simple principle, but once again I think it's something that we can all always be working and something that will always make us happier, as well as everyone around us :).

Lyric: "But what's really important is such a silly distortion"

-Cordae