Week 56

Hallo,

Not much happened for me last week, but I will give a quick recap of my week last week. Hope everyone else had a good week and is doing good.

I wrote in my previous email that my week 2 weeks ago was one of the worse of my mission. Well last week was not much better. Basically the entire week was filled with multiple hours of door knocking and talking to people on the streets every day. Door knocking in Norway is very frustrating because we knocked doors multiple hours each day for all of last week, as well as some the week before that, and out of all of that time we only had 2 people even say that we could come back, and we don't even know if they are even very interested or not. Honestly the only reason we've even been doing it is because the city I'm in is so small that we don't really have the option to go out and talk to people on the streets. The city center here is literally one street. So yeah, it was a pretty frustrating week. Multiple of the days we had other things planned but literally everything fell through on every day lol. Here are the highlights I can think of from the week:

-On Tuesday we were able to go to a free Norwegian language cafe that they have at the library here. The missionaries hadn't been able to go to it in the past because our Pdays were on Tuesdays until recently. It wasn't anything crazy, but it was just a small enjoyable thing. It is ran by 4 or 5 old Norwegian ladies that have been running it for 10 years. They basically just split us into groups and one lady went with each group and the assignment for the day was discussing differences in Norwegian society compared to others. There were people from many different countries there, but honestly it was most enjoyable to be able to sit and talk to an old Norwegian lady because that's a demographic that we are basically never able to interact with otherwise.

-On Saturday there were actually a lot of people out in the city because it was a sunny day, so we were able to spend more time talking to people there rather than door knocking. In the few hours we were out there, I had a few long conversations, many of which were with Muslim people. Being able to connect with people from other faiths because of our common belief in a higher power is one of my favorite things as a missionary. For example, one Muslim guy after telling me about his own faith, and me listening, asked if I was Christian, to which I obviously replied yes. He just smiled at me and put out his hand and introduced himself. Another guy who was also Muslim asked me if I'd sit with him and we just sat and talked about difficulties with living in Norway for a long time. Obviously experiences like this don't baptize anyone, but they are always so enjoyable for me and make my heart happy.

-The only other main highlight was something simple but meant a lot after a long week. After cancelling on us 2 days in a row, one of the members here felt bad and ordered us a takeout pizza. Like I said, simple, but was very nice and was a high of the week. 

Other than those few little things that we did/happenend throughout the week, the main thing that made the week significant for me was the divine help that I clearly felt throughout the week. You often hear stories within faith circles, both in and out of our church, where people talk about how they felt God's hand in their lives, giving them strength through a difficult time. I have obviously clearly seen God's hand in my life before, but I don't know if I've ever felt help from God to the extent that I did this last week. Towards the end of the week, I saw a post on the church's facebook of some members discussing Alma 26:12 and how they've seen the verse's application first hand in their lives. 

      12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

     I honestly didn't even think the video was that great; it wasn't anything super profound. But, watching it and being reminded of that verse and truth made me reflect back on my own week and realize the help I'd personally felt from God. This week I personally felt the words of that scripture to be true. Towards the beginning of the week, I said a prayer asking for extra help during the upcoming week, both with patience with my companion and simply just being able to get through the week. The next morning, I woke up and everything just felt slightly more bearable. I can't fully describe it but I could feel help from something beyond my own power. I honestly think that what we actually did this week was wor se than the previous, but with the added measure of help from God it felt more manageable. 

"Though I'm not sure what's 'bout to happen next

I asked for strength from the Lord up above

Cause I've been strong so far

But I feel my grip loosening"

-J. Cole