What's up, hope everything is well with everyone. We had a pretty solid week. We had a decent amount of pretty good things that happened, but honestly right now the thing that is giving me joy is 2 of the friends that we are currently teaching right now --Vedaste and Tony--that are very accepting of the gospel at the moment. I've mentioned both of them in previous emails, but I'm gonna do this email a little bit different and just tell about both of them and also add some details of what happened in each of the respective lessons we had with them this week.
Vedaste is originally from Riwanda, but lived the previous 10 or so years in the Netherlands, as he was studying there. We met him on the bus about 2 months ago. When he got on the bus he dropped all of his papers, some of which had the logo of the visa office here in Norway on them. There was a missionary from another area visiting, and he helped him pick up his papers and started to ask him how long he'd been in Norway after he saw the papers. At that point he'd only been in Norway for about 2 weeks, so he's only been in Norway for about 3 months now. He comes to our language cafe we have every week, but let's just say he's not picking up Norwegian very quickly😂. He is a smart guy (has a master's degree and is working here as researcher), and knows multiple other languages, he's just struggling to pick up Norwegian very quickly (which is actually considered easier than other languages if you speak English). In our lessons he normally rambles for long periods of time, to the point where my companion has fallen asleep multiple times in the lessons with him😭. Because of that we weren't sure how much he was actually grasping the uniqueness of our message compared to other Christian denomonations. But the last few lessons we've had with him have been very powerful and it is finally becoming clear to us that he actually is grasping our message. Ever since we met him he has always been looking at stocks, crypto, and bitcoin everytime we are with him, which has led to some money loss. Last week he lost a very substantial amount of money, but the same day he was at our language cafe and days later he was at church and had a lesson with us. It's been cool to see how he is continuing to exercise faith despite his current struggles. After one of the times he lost money he said to us, "Life is ups and downs. It's normal". As I said last week, he loves the idea of baptism but wants to take some more time to fully understand everything which is exciting.
Tony is from Burundi, which is a neighboring country to Rwanda (Vedaste's home country). Because of that, they can communicate in the each of their first languages as they are very similar. We were out street contacting one day and after we had been going for about an hour and were finished for that time, I started walking towards my companion for us to leave. Right when my companion saw me, Tony started walking past, and my companion stopped him and started talking to him. He was the last person either of us talked to that day, which was a testament to me that the Lord blesses every last one of our efforts. As I previously mentioned in an earlier email, the first meetup we had with Tony was not great as right when we started to teach, he had to leave as his lunch break was already 10 minutes past being over lol. We met with him before church last Sunday but that also got cut short. This last week we were finally able to have an actual lesson with him. Because he isn't completely fluent in either Norwegian or English (but is pretty solid in both), we played a video that the church made about the Book of Mormon and restoration of the Church for him which was in French. After the video was over, he first asked us if we believed that other churches had the spirt. After saying yes, but that we believed ours was the only with full authority from God, he just replied, "yeah, that is right". Kinda baffled because of how rare that is for us, we confirmed by asking him if he believed that this Church was God's church holding his authority, and he again said yes and that he believed that. It was definitely one of the cooler lessons of my mission. Him and Vedaste both coming to church on the same Sunday for the first time 2 weeks ago was one of the happiest moments of my whole missoin. Both of them just make me so happy to be around and instantly make my mood and day better regardless the day I've had up to that point. Tony is a very soft spoken guy with a high pitched voice, but he is always smiling and giggling. I asked him last week why he was so happy, and he told me, "Because now, God do a lot of good things for me in my life," followed by a big smile. Not sure why, but Tony's vibe makes me happier more than most people I have ever met.
Outside of like the first month here, I have had a decent amount of lessons every single week in the area that I am currently serving in. And that was even more of the case in the first area that I served in. The thing that has been different about most of the lessons that I have had in the last few months is that there have been very few that are a second or third lesson. The vast majority of them have been with new people, who then are not interested, and then we don't end up teaching them again. And if we do end up teaching them again, it's normally only been one or two other times before we figure out that they for sure are not intersted/ready for the gospel. The last few weeks of teaching Vedaste and Tony has been a huge reminder to me of the moments in the earlier months of my mission that brought me the most joy; a reminder to the reason that missionary work can be joyful, at least for me personally. I think I can best explain this joy that I have felt recently teaching Vedaste and Tony through some verses in the Book of Mormon. There are multiple that explain the same idea, but I like this one in Alma 30:
34 And now, if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth, that we may have rejoicings in the joy of our brethren?
Obviously missionaries don't receive any payment or anything material for their service. And though missionary work isn't done for the purpose of feeling self gratification or joy, this verse is a reminder on where that joy does come, and has come for me--in the last few weeks especially. We receive joy by seeing the joy of those around us, especially when we see the joy that the gospel provides for them. I'm not sure why I've been lucky to interact with many accepting people of the gospel on my mission so far, but I'm beyond grateful for the opportunity to teach Tony and Vedaste right now, and for the joy that they allow me to have.
"I know God is working so I smile
Even though I've been here for a while
I smile, smile"
-Kirk Franklin
Tony on the left, vedaste on the right 🙂
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