Mission Week 64

Hey, hope everyone doing well. Last week was very busy for me which always makes things good. 

Between Sunday-Tuesday we were back on the island that I was on a couple weeks back. The car of the Elders who live there was broken on the mainland so we took it back to them when we came on the boat and just stayed for a few days and had our pday and companion exchanges with them. This was my second time there and both times we saw so many beautiful things on pday, definitely the coolest tourist stuff I've seen on my mission. 

On Monday night while still there, me and the Elder I was companions with for the night were doing some door knocking. We hadn't really planned in advance very well where we were going to knock, so after failing to get in at one apartment building, the Elder I was with just gave me his phone with the map pulled up on it and told me to try and find somewhere we could knock. I pointed at a random place that looked like some apartments so we drove there to see. It ended up being an apartment complex of all university students, the majority being from China. We started the first few doors speaking in Swedish when they answered the door but quickly switched to English when we realized no one there could speak Swedish. We met a lot of cool people door knocking there, including a Nigerian guy who has family that is members of the church and was super interested in coming to church. But the best part was at the end when we were about to be done. We knocked the door of this Chinese guy Ryan, who seemed very uncomfortable talking with us, and even said it feels embarassing for him to talk about God because he is so unfamiliar with it. Normally when someone says something like that, I like to respect their privacy and not be super pushy so I just leave it there and tell them to have a good night. But I felt a nudging that I should push it with this guy so I just asked him to give us a chance to tell a little bit about what we believe and if he wasn't interested that's ok. After thinking about it for like 30 seconds he agreed and went and got his friend who lives with him and we all sat around a table outside. We began to teach these 2 guys about who God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are, in the most basic way possible. They were completely unfamiliar with the concept of God, and had only heard Jesus Christ's name used as a swear word. They understood everything we taught very well and even had some pretty deep insights. We ended the conversation with teaching them how to pray and saying a prayer together. This may seem like a simple moment to those of you reading, but for me this was a top experience from maybe my whole mission. The spirit was so strong as we taught these 2 guys such simple but important truths. I felt a strong sense of gratitude that I could be a missionary in that moment. 

Besides that, the rest of our exchanges on Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful. We made the travel home on Tuesday night, and before even returning home we picked up some other Elders from the train station for us to have more companion exchanges on Wednesday, but this time in our area. Most of our day on Wednesday with them ended up being talking with people on the street for hours because 4/5 of our possible lessons for the day didn't end up happening. We met some cool people on the street though, and I had a good conversation with the Elder I was with for the day.

Thursday we had a great lesson with this 18 year old guy from Congo named Basanga. We met him a couple weeks ago. In the lesson we just talked about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and he was really receptive and even texted us later thanking us that we were able to meet. After that lesson we helped the ward clean the church and then drove up to Handen to have more companion exchanges on Friday. 

Nothing super crazy happened on exchanges on Friday. We helped moved all the furniture out of the Vendelsö apartment which is now permanently closing. That is the really hard area I was in a few months ago. I was also able to have a lesson with Steven, the recent convert in the Vendelsö ward that I got to know well when I was there. Besides that not much else happened that day that is worth mentioning, but despite that it was a really enjoyable day for me because I was with an Elder that I am very good friends with. 

Saturday we had a lesson with our friend Christos from Greece. I'm not sure how much I've said about him in my emails besides the fact that he takes us out for Gyros like every other week, but he is basically a member even though he hasn't been baptized. He believes in everything 100 percent, but has waited about a year to get baptized because of certain complications. But after talking to our mission president, he is now allowed to get baptized, and we got to break that news to him on Saturday. He wasn't expecting it at all so he was was super excited and surprised. We planned his baptism for October 12, so coming up pretty soon. Looking forward to that a lot. 

Later that day we had a lesson with Michel (agnostic, Iraq, comedian). This was the first time we had met him in a couple weeks, and was coming off him being pretty rude to us and canceling last minute for a few different things. But the lesson was really good, we discussed how he has seen a lot of up and down inconsistency with his spirituality the past couple of months, and talked about how he can really commit to getting the answers he is looking for. He left seeming quite committed which was good to see. 

Right after Michel's lesson, we had a lesson with Loucine, the Syrian lady that we argued about authority with a couple of weeks ago. Last time we had given her the invitation to pray about our prophet, so at the beginning of the lesson this time I just asked her how it went praying. She said that she did pray and the answer she got was that we don't need a prophet. That was disappointing, and it felt like we should just end the lesson there. But I started to just ask her a bunch of questions about prophets and what she thinks their purpose is. After about 1hr of discussing this, she had turned completely around and said it can be possible that our church is Christ's restored church with a living prophet, but that she just doesn't currently know. So we encouraged her to keep praying. May seem simple but it's not often you see someone have a complete 180 change of heart like this in a lesson. Definitely was the power of the spirit softening her heart. 

That night we came home and did some contacting and planning. While planning, I looked at our schedule from the day before, and realized that I had forgotten to wish our member Daniel a happy birthday. This is the member from Ghana who lost his 27 year old son earlier this year that I talked about a couple months ago in my email. I called him straight away and apologized for being a day late but wished him happy birthday. He then told me that I was only the 2nd person to wish him happy birthday, and that not even his wife remembered to tell him happy birthday. I felt really bad and told him that I was sorry and that it must've been a hard day. His faith is so strong, he just replied saying that God is our loving Heavenly Father and so on. As he was saying all that, I got the idea that we should just take him a cake. After some begging, he agreed to let us come, so we went to the store and bought a cake to give him for his birthday along with a President Nelson book that I wanted to give him (he loves President Nelson books). He ended up being really happy and grateful and even made us some food even though it was his birthday (Picture included). After church on Sunday he pulled me and my companion aside and thanked us again. I was so happy we went over. This also was a top moment I have had in a very long time. 

Sunday was a pretty normal day besides the fact that we went to a classical music concert (in a church) that one of our members played in and invited us to come and see. It was so so good. 

I seem to talk about covenants quite a bit in my emails, but this week I was studying specifically the baptismal covenant and what is required of us. Yes there is specific requirements, but while studying different passages of scripture that talk about the baptismal covenant, they all seem to revolve around our desire, our willingness, and our humility to God. God is eager and willing to bless us, but is just waiting for us to align our desires and will with His so that He can more fully bless us. Covenants make these promises and blessings more direct, however I think this principle applies to life in general. God has blessed us with so much and gives us so many opporunties to come to Him. Ultimately the results we receive are on us. Our desire and decisions will determine what we get in return. 

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light; 

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— 

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

Ha en bra vecka 🙏

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Mission Week 64

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Mission Week 63

Hello hope everybody doing well.

This week was a slower one. 

My last companion had a teaching style where he tried to make friends with the people (which is great) but wouldn't really teach the important information that is unique to our church and doctrine. So the past couple weeks but this week especially we had a lot of lessons where we kinda just sit down with the person and ask why they are meeting with the missionaries and then teach them about the Restoration through Joseph Smith as well as the background of the Book of Mormon because basically none of them remembered anything. One was with our friend Afram (old Syrian guy) with a main focus on authority and fulness of truth. Not a lot to say about it, but Afram is just an super happy guy. I hope he gets an answer praying about the church. None of the other lessons are really worth mentioning as they were all pretty similiar.

Our Romanian member who got baptized within the last year has been stuck at home the past 6 weeks with a broken leg. Finally her leg was well enough where she could go to work (not even close to fully healed though) and her first day back at work this week she slipped and broke her other leg. Feel so bad for her. She lives on the 8th floor of her apartment and there is no elevator. So she is stuck in her apartment for the next month and can barely move around. So on Saturday we went and swept and mopped her floors and went up and down the stairs a few times getting her groceries and other things. Was the least that we could do so was glad to help. 

That's honestly everything notable to say about the week, but I did have a moment of appreciation this week for some smaller interactions I had so because I haven't written much I'll mention the ones I thought about: 

-There is a young couple in our ward that has now begun to feed us dinner every week. They decide to start with this right after we heard from another member that they are struggling with money. We feel really bad now that they are feeding us, but obviously we aren't going to deny them the opportunity to help us. We concluded that they would be blessed for sacrificing to feed us, and then this week as we were leaving town to go to their apartment for dinner there was a 29 dollars of cash just sitting on the ground. There is no shops close to the parking lot so we couldn't really turn the money in anywhere and we figured if we left it someone else would take it so we decided to take it and hide it in the apartment of this couple. Just a cool direct way that Lord prepared for us to help bless this couple for feeding us. 

-Because we use the same street to every day to go out and talk to people, I'm always running into people I have talked to before. And it is becoming more and more now that I have been in this area for nearly 4 months. In probably my first month here I met a Jehovah's Witness lady that was so nice to me that I have kept her JW.org card in my bag to remember her kindness. I have run into her 1 other time where I went out of my way to say hi to her. This week, she went out of her way to say hi to me when I was walking by and didn't see her, which may seem small but meant a lot to me. 

-There is a lady named Doreen from Ghana that I have talked to probably 3 or 4 times in my time here. She is always so so kind to me. This week when I saw her again I went up and shook her hand to greet her. She remarked that my hands are always cold but I am warm in heart. The fact that she remembered a small detail about me like my hands always being cold as well as complimenting my warm heart was meaningful to me. 

-We taught this guy Efrem from Ethiopia a few months ago, but since have stopped teaching him because he there was a language barrier and he didn't seem too interested. We always greet each other when we see each other though. This week I saw him in the distance and decided to run so that I could catch up to him. I came up from behind and put my hand on his shoulder and when he turned and saw it was me he happily exclaimed "Oh, Cole!" and gave me a hug and we talked for a few minutes. Though there is a language barrier and he is not interested I have still been able to make good friends with this guy in the few interactions that we have had. Again, something small, but to me very meaningful. 

I know I have talked about pride/humility in a few of my emails, but it is something that I think about a lot in relation to the gospel and specifically my life and the interactions I have. This week I was pondering about humility, and the more I thought about it the more I realized the different levels of humility towards God's will that are attainable. In my time as a missionary, I feel I have drastically increased in knowledge and faith to the gospel, which in turn has helped me become more humble in the sense that I trust the Lord's will and timing. But this week as I was thinking, I began to think how much pride still remains in me. Pride is manifested in so many different ways, and many of them began to run through my mind. I still have so much improvement that needs to be made. 

I think we can all feel like this sometimes. That we are inadequate and will never measure up or become the people we ought to be. I love however the encouragement that Elder Utchdorf has given. Though we are all in different places in our spiritual progression to become more like Jesus Christ, we can all "start where we are". Here's what he said: 

"Sometimes we feel discouraged because we are not 'more' of something—more spiritual, respected, intelligent, healthy, rich, friendly, or capable. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve. God created us to grow and progress. But remember, our weaknesses can help us to be humble and turn us to Christ, who will 'make weak things become strong.' Satan, on the other hand, uses our weaknesses to the point that we are discouraged from even trying. I learned in my life that we don't need to be 'more' of anything to start to become the person God intended us to become. God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work with you. All you need is a willing heart, a desire to believe, and trust in the Lord."

God has given us weakness in order to humble us, as Moroni teaches in the well known Ether 12:27. We can choose to be discouraged and unmotivated by our weaknesses, or we can choose to be humbled by them and turn to the Lord. He is the way that we can improve. Of course Satan wants us to think otherwise, making us feel ashamed and discouraged because of our weaknesses, like we aren't worthy to accept Christ's help. As I felt discouraged this week about how prideful I still may be, this is a good reminder to me that Christ will always be by our side helping us improve. He was with me 14 months ago at the beginning of my mission when I was a lot more weak and prideful than I am now, and he remains with me as I continue to stumble along the path to perfection. The same goes for us all as we turn to Him in times of weakness. 

Isaiah 10:15 - "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood."

Ha en bra vecka

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Mission Week 63

Monday, September 23, 2024

Mission Week 62

Hello all, hope everyone is well and had a good week. Here is a summary of my week:

We had some pretty productive lessons this week. The first was on Tuesday with our friend Fadi (the painter with all the paintings in his office). It seems a lot of people we are teaching in this area just meet with us because they believe in Jesus Christ but don't really understand the weight/importance of our message. Well having a missionary straight from the MTC as my companion is pretty good for helping with that, as he just comes into every lesson and teaches the basics about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith (because it's all he knows haha). It was good for Fadi to get a good understanding of why the Book of Mormon is imporant and what the significance of the Restoration really is. He asks a lot of questions which is really helpful, and every time he refers to the church he just says "Mahmoni", which I'm guessing is a mix of Mormon+Moroni+his accent? Not sure haha but kinda funny. He keeps asking us if there are any painters in "Mahmoni" that he can talk to so he can promote his art in a different place. 

On Wednesday we had a lot of time in the middle of the day planned to go out on the streets and talk to people, but it was unfortunately pouring rain outside. So I decided that we would go to the place that I went to with my old companion a couple weeks ago, where the guy let us in and then got really mad when we talked about the Book of Mormon. This place is almost all Syrian people, and I think it is place the goverment sends immigrants because almost every door answered at 1 in the afternoon so I guess none of them work. With the Syrians here in Södertälje almost every single one is Orthodox Christian so the door knocking didn't go too well. However, there was a younger guy who just let us in, and we sat and asked him about his faith. He grew up Orthodox but never felt what everyone else was feeling so is now agnostic and tries every couple of months to see if he can feel something from the faith. I was trying to bear my testimony about how believing in God could help him in his life and he was just kinda grunting or saying a few sentences to my remarks. Eventually after it felt like I was talking to a wall I just asked him why he even let us in, and he replied and said he thought maybe we had a message to share or something. So we went straight in to talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and by the end he said he would read the Book of Mormon and he hopes that he would get the answer that we are promising. May seem like a regular thing for a missionary but in Sweden with an agnostic Syrian Orthodox that was a pretty big miracle for us. 

Later that night we had a lesson with Michel, but it became pretty chaotic because it was at a member's house. This younger couple in the ward invited us for dinner and said we could bring a friend which was great but the problem was that they also invited the wife's brother and his girlfriend. The brother has left the church for the Orthodox church and his girlfriend is grown up Orthodox. We taught a lesson to Eva (the girlfriend) last week and she texted us after saying she is not interested in becoming a member of our church, but then this time was asking us to teach her about specific topics in our church, but the whole time was just trying to prove us wrong saying "it doesn't say that in the Bible". A bit frustrating for me because they took the focus away from Michel and weren't actually trying to learn but Michel is doing ok. He has constant ups and downs with how he is spiritually progressing so I am praying that he, at some point, can really commit himself so that he can feel the spiritual progression he is looking for. 

On Thursday we had a lesson with this guy who referred himself online to meet with us a while ago but anytime we call him he just says that he is busy working and he is always in Stockholm. Well we had an appointment in Stockholm for my companion to get his visa picture taken, so we thought we might as well meet up with this guy (Glenn) while we were there. It was a very interesting lesson. One of the more materialistic people I have met on my mission. He works with a bunch of different restaurants, helping them with their menus on their websites and helping with economical and social media stuff. We tried to talk with him about his faith but anytime we tried to bring up anything religious he just said "how can I use this information" in a sense of like how can he use the information to help him earn more money or make it higher in the business industry. It is funny because even though he is not interested in the faith at all he for some reason thinks I am a really hard working and dedicated person with a good drive (I guess because I call him a lot trying to schedule meetings like any other missionary would?) and always just saying that he is going to make me rich one day because of my drive. 

On Friday we went out to the people who live in the forest and chopped wood and picked lingonberries with them. Later that day we had a lesson with this guy named Joy from Ghana that we met earlier in the week. He is a really wholesome guy and kept saying that he couldn't not come to our meeting because he promised us he would and he couldn't break his promise. But the lesson was really good and he left really committed to reading the Book of Mormon. 

Later than night we had a meal with our member from Romania who got baptized last year. She is a really nice lady and has a real interest in the deeper concepts of the gospel so it is always fun to teach her more. 

On Saturday we ate gyros with our Greek friend Chris again and then we had a lesson later that night with this Syrian lady who has been taught for a while. We talked about authority and the conversation kind of just went in circles because her belief/points were kind of based on a circular reasoning so it was a little frustrated but definitely increased my testimony of the importance of a living prophet and a church with full truth and authority. 

Among missionaries the concept is often brought up that if we are more obedient we will in turn get more blessings. While I think that it is truth God can bless us for our obedience because that is an act of faith, I think that the concept is a bit misconstrued. Elder Renlund has a really good talk about how blessings are obtained, here's some lines that I find interesting and instructive:

"Blessings from heaven are neither earned by frenetically accruing 'good deed coupons' nor by helplessly waiting to see if we win the blessing lottery...most blessings that God desires to give us require action on our part—action based on our faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in the Savior is a principle of action and of power. First we act in faith; then the power comes—according to God's will and timing. The sequence is crucial. The required action, though, is always tiny when compared to the blessings we ultimately receive."

I think it is important to understand that blessings are not earned, but rather qualified for based on our actions of faith. We can never change God's will, so we just act in faith and keep moving forward. So we shouldn't be obedient to commandments in order to receive blessings, but instead because we have faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and Their will for us. 

I had an exchange over email with one of the most faithful people I know, and he talked about how he has learned to "live by faith"; living an obedient life and then moving forward while confidently waiting to see the Lord's hand guiding us along. I think this is spot on. We as God's children will never be able to change His will, so it is our job to live with faith in Him and the knowledge (however limited) He has revealed to us. And then we can rest with a surety knowing that whatever happens is according to God's will and timing. 

Have a blessed week

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Mission Week 62

Monday, September 16, 2024

Mission Week 61

Hello everybody, 

Hope everyone is doing well. This was a busy and eventful week for me. 

The first half of the week was some of the busiest days of my mission. Because my companion was leaving we just had a lot of appointments with people we are teaching as well as members so that he could say goodbye to them. The members in this ward are seriously so awesome, so it was great to get to spend more time with them all. As far as the lessons before my companion left, not many of them are even worth mentioning but here's a few that had something interesting: 

-On Monday night one of our members called asking if we could come over, because she had a friend with her that was asking some questions about our faith and the member thought it would be good to just invite us over and talk about it. She was pretty adamant that we had to come that night so even though it was on pday and we had done all of our proselytyzing time for the day we went over. The girl asked us basically a list of questions if you were to look up on google "What do Mormons believe in?". Just a lot of out of context claims that misrepresent our faith. We answered them all pretty easily but she was still suspicious and texted us later in the week saying she isn't interested at all. 

-On Tuesday we had a lesson with a dude I found through Facebook who is from Afghanistan. He grew up Muslim but is trying to find his way and said he wants us to teach him about Christianity. Short lesson but cool and sincere guy. 

-Later on Tuesday we had a lesson with our Syrian friends Afram and Jobram. I think I've mentioned them before but they are two older guys. Jobram can only speak Arabic so Afram translates for him in our lessons. It's hard to describe his mannerisms but he is always smiling and just repeats phrases when he is greeting or asking for something in a way that is really funny and wholesome. In the lesson we taught the Plan of Salvation which I think was interesting for them. There was a funny moment at the end where Afram was saying goodbye to my companion and just saying "hopefully we'll see each other again someday" and then I just pointed at the drawing of the Plan of Salvation on the whiteboard and said "you guys will see each other in the celestial kingdom". Afram didn't get it at first but when he did he just started smiling super big and was like "Ohhhhh yeahhh, we will, me and you Sebastian, we will wave at each other and I'll be like 'Hej Sebastian hej Sebastian' and we will be singing together with the angels we'll be singing with the angels hallelujah hallelujah I hope we will make it there hpoefully we'll see each other there". It's hard to describe how he actually says it but it was a really funny and awesome moment I couldn't stop smiling and got a good laugh. 

On Thursday was transfers, where everyone in our mission who is either moving or getting a new companion gathers at the train station in Stockholm. This time around was a bit different for me because my new companion is straight from the US so I didn't know who was going to be my companion going into Thursday. The way they do it in our mission for the new missionaries is they have all the new missionaries line up on one side of the room and then all of the people who have been chosen to train them (be their first companion) line up on the other side of a room. They give all the new missionaries a letter which contains the name of their assigned area and companion and then they go down the line and each of them take turns opening the letter. Supposed to make it exciting and suspenseful I guess. My companion's name is Elder Small and he is from Las Vegas. He is a really great missionary and honestly besides the language and few procedural things I haven't had to help him with much as he is very assertive when we talk to people or are teaching, which I definitely didn't do when I was a new missionary. 

The second half of the week with my new companion was pretty busy as well. We went to the institute class and game night in Stockholm on Friday, and on Saturday helped one of our friends who just moved to move some furniture. We had 4 lessons on Saturday as well-

One with a lady from Ghana who said she feels Jesus in our church but is unsure about the Book of Mormon. But is very sure that she can pray about it and get an answer. 

One with Michel (comedian, Iraq). Like I've mentioned in past weeks Michel has been making really good progress and it is really exciting to see. However, he works for a carpet cleaning company with his cousin and this past week the hours were really busy for him, so he was working like 16 hour days, ending anywhere between 10-12 at night. When Michel came into the lesson he told us he hadn't read the Book of Mormon at all in the last week, and when I tried to ask him why he got pretty mad and was yelling at me saying he's sick of me always asking if he has read the Book of Mormon and me saying that any person has at least 5 minutes in a day to read because he doesn't have 5 minutes and the last thing he wants to do at the end of a long work day is sit down and read the Book of Mormon. I had never really seen Michel like that so it was a little upsetting especially because I really can see the difference when he does read the Book of Mormon, and it's not like I text or call him and explicitly ask if he has read the Book of Mormon, it is usually in the flow of the conversation and one of the last things I ask him before the conversation is over. After he yelled though we talked through why reading the Book of Mormon is important and I reminded him that the reason he was reading in the first place was to find out if God exists, so if that is something that is actually important to him that's why he should keep reading. He seemed to calm down a bit after that even though he was a little irritated and then we had a really good lesson on the priesthood where he asked a lot of really good questions and by the end of the lesson he was himself again and admitted that in the beginning he was really mad at me. Not sure what will happen with him going forward, but please pray for Michel!

Saturday night we drove into the forest down a dirt road which led to a bunch of isolated houses and barns with a lot of farm area. We went there to visit a guy named Nitai, who me and my previous companion met a couple of weeks ago at the culture festival that was in our city. Our time spent with Nitai consisted of following him around as he worked with his cows. He has a about 10 of them. He first moved them from outside to their barn, then made them food, which was a mixture of 2 different hay types, and then after they ate he milked them, which me and my companion got to test out as well which was interesting. The whole time we were with him though we were talking about religion, and it was really interesting to hear his perspective. He grew up as a typical Swede, believing in no God and no purpose in life, which he said felt pretty hopeless and pointless for him to the extent that he was going to kill himself because he thought there was no point in living if he didnt enjoy his life especially if there was nothing coming afterwards that he had to live for. Around this time he found an old Indian scriptural book, which quickly got him into the Hare Krishna faith which he has now completely devoted his life to. He has spent several years being a monk and now is married and lives out on the farmland with his wife, surrounded by a community of other Hare Krishnas. If you don't know what Hare Krishan is, it's a branch of Hinduism with many unique beliefs I had never heard of, among them being the belief that every person is a soul that is a part of God, that God is 1 being but in heaven split in many souls that work in a community similar to how we do here on earth, as well as a belief in reincarnation. To be honest as I was asking questions I couldn't really notice any "holes" or flaws in the theology, it is just very very unique compared to a Christian belief. It was a cool experience with the cows and being able to hear a new perspective. 

I listened to a 2014 talk from President Nelson this week called "Let Your Faith Show" that had a lot of ideas that I think are applicable to all who believe in Jesus Christ. He talks mainly about how we need to put our faith first, and not compromise it in specific settings like in our professional or social life. That God's truth is always truth, and our knowledge of that truth should show through our actions, and not influenced by other people.

"Whether truth emerges from a scientific laboratory or through revelation, all truth emanates from God. All truth is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Danger lurks when we try to divide ourselves with expressions such as 'my private life' or even 'my best behavior.' If one tries to segment his or her life into such separate compartments, one will never rise to the full stature of one's personal integrity—never to become all that his or her true self could be."

This can be hard to always have our faith in mind and not be afraid to show/tell others about it. Even as a missionary it can be easy to slip into not being completely open and direct about the faith because of lack of motivation or attempt to avoid a harsh rejection. Having a companion fresh from the MTC, he is very direct and down to the basics of how we can share our message. This has been a good reminder for me and an opportunity for me to reflect if I am going around talking to people with the intent to help them find truth, or just trying to be nice and talk about our similarities so that I won't get rejected and can maybe get a chance to talk again. I think for us all this is something that we can evaluate. Though everyone is not a missionary, we can all think about where our faith in Jesus Christ lies on our priority list, and then what we are willing to do to make it our number one priority and also show others that it is our number one priority. Being open and straightforward about our faith with others isn't always the easy thing to do and won't always result in something positive, but it shows Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we love Them, believe in Them, and are completely committed to Them. The importance of earthly opinions and ideas will fade throughout eternity, while the importance and need for a faith in Jesus Christ will only increase. 

"The temptation to be popular may prioritize public opinion above the word of God...Even if 'everyone is doing it,' wrong is never right. Evil, error, and darkness will never be truth, even if popular". 

Put Jesus Christ first. Let your faith show!

Mark 8:35 - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

Isaiah 5:20 - Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Matthew 6:19-20 - Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Have a good week❤️🫡

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Mission Week 61

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Mission Week 60

Hejsan, 

Hope you all doing well. Another busy week for me, here's a recap:

Like I mentioned in my email last week we took a boat to an island (Gotland) to spend a couple days with some other missionaries. It is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Sweden, so it was really cool to be able to go there. We got to go around and see some cool rocks by the ocean and then we walked around the main city on the island called Visby, where there is a castle, a bunch of old church ruins, and the streets are all cobblestone. It was probably my favorite pday of my mission so far. 

As far as missionary work goes, life on Gotland isn't too great, they don't see much success in their work there. So besides sightseeing most of our time was spent door knocking or talking to people on the streets when we were there. 

On Thursday we were back with those people in the forest and helped them chop some wood. That night we had a member meal with some other members where they fed us a classic Swedish dish that is eaten mostly in Norrland (the north of Sweden). It is called palt. It is potatoes mixed with flour that turns into almost like a play dough texture, served with butter, ligon berry jam, and diced pork and a glass of milk. Picture included. Sorry if you don't care about Swedish food but anytime I get letters from home people ask about the food. 

On Friday our car was at the shop getting serviced so we had to take an hour bus ride to the city for a lesson we were going to have. Right when we arrived outside of the man's apartment, he texted us saying he couldn't meet anymore, so we had basically traveled all the way there for nothing. My companion suggested we door knock in the area even though it was noon, so we started knocking some apartments. On the second door we knocked the man who lived there swung open the door and told us to come in before we even said anything (never happens here). He proceeded to show us around his apartment, pointing out all of the crosses and pictures of Jesus he had up, and then we sat down and he told us about certain Bible chapters he has memorized that he recites every day when he prays for 5 hours. After he talked for a good amount of time it went quiet so I asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon. He just put his head in his hands and started shaking his head, and then got all mad saying that our church is the worst Christian church of them all, that we are even worse than Jehovah's Witnesses, and that he won't talk to us until we put crosses on our church. We tried to explain a bit but then he just kept interrupting so I told him we could just leave and he said sure. Interesting experience for sure haha. 

Friday and Saturday we had quite a few other lessons, but I won't talk about them all because most of them weren't that interesting. But one of them was with our friend Christos (Greek guy who is basically a member but can't get baptized yet for a few reasons) while eating Greek gyros for lunch. He is such an awesome guy, and we even encouraged him to bear his testimony on Sunday, which he did for the first time ever. It was so inspirational, I couldn't stop smiling. 

We also had another lesson with Michel (Iraq, funny) where we answered more questions from his reading and then had a really deep lesson about temples and many other things that stem from that. He is continuing to do great. 

Probably the best thing that happened this week though started on Tuesday when we were on the 4 hour boat ride back from Gotland. The boat is like as big as a cruise ship so there are restaurants on it and stuff, so me and my companion got up to get dinner a couple hours into the ride. My companion ordered a sandwich that had to get warmed up in the oven, and we were the only ones there at the specific cafe he ordered it from. The woman working seemed to be staring at our badges and eventually asked about them, so we got into a conversation and figured out she has recently become Christian, and that she lives in our same city. Which is very unlikely considering Gotland is one of the biggest tourist destinations and not close to our city (which doesn't have too many people). So the fact that she lives in our same city is crazy. Anyways she ended up coming to church on Sunday and we had a lesson with her after church where she told us her crazy story of becoming a believer. It would take too long to explain but basically God has repeatedly shown her a lot of different signs as she has been increasing in her faith. After the lesson she came with us to our member meal that we had right after, where we got to answer a lot more of her questions and get to know her better. Her name is Donia and she is from Syria. Was definitely a miracle the way that we met her. 

Besides her we also had quite a few other friends come to church as well, including a lady with a 5 year old boy who was crawling all over me during the meeting and running around the chapel haha. It was a great Sunday though overall. 

Almost forgot to mention as well that transfers will be this coming week. I will be staying in this area and getting a greenie (new missionary straight from the states). I don't know which one yet though, they assign them on Thursday after they have met them all. 

This week I was having a conversation with some other missionaries and I was telling them that I feel like often missionaries seem to forget about really important aspects of missionary work, just because those aspects aren't the ones that directly generate "success", or don't produce results that will make them look better in other people's eyes. Going along with what I said last week, this is definitely a form of pride, but when I was having this conversation I thought about something Elder Uchtdorf said in a talk that I had listened to earlier in the week, where he was actually quoting Albert Einstein. He said "many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count." I think the quote speaks for itself but this is something that I have thought a lot about my whole mission and I think the quote sums it up perfectly. There is a lot of things in life that we can't measure or count, that are still of great importance and meaning. Though our intentions and desires can't be seen by other people, they are seen and understood by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Elder Uchtdorf continued - "My dear friends, if Jesus Christ were to sit down with us and ask for an accounting of our stewardship, I am not sure He would focus much on programs and statistics. What the Savior would want to know is the condition of our heart. He would want to know how we love and minister to those in our care…the Savior would want to know how you and I grow closer to Him and to our Heavenly Father." It is important for us to think about our own intentions for the things that we do, as it can be easy for us all to begin going through the motions in all aspects of our lives without actually doing things for the right reasons. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want to see us loving and serving other people. That comes before anything. Our love for God and others should motivate everything we do, rather than being motivated by how other people will praise or condemn our actions. 

1 Samuel 16:7 - "...for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

Pics:

Mission Week 60

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Mission Week 59

Tjenare, 

Hope everybody is doing good. This week was another busy one for me and flew by. Here's some of the highlights:

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference (gathering of about 20-30 missionaries from the same larger geographical area) in Stockholm. All the presentations were pretty good, especially the one from our mission president who talked about being the "baller" instead of the "ball" (act rather than being acted upon) and also gave a metaphor that at the beginning of our missions all of us missionaries get a metaphorical suitcase, and everything we do throughout the 2 years is like putting stuff in the suitcase, and then at the end when we open it up, that's what we are left with from the 2 years. So basically just put good things into the suitcase during the limited time we have as missionaries. Besides the presentation always good to see some of my other missionary friends. 

That night we had a lesson with a lady who in the past was really close to baptism but now has had a lot of other life circumstances that have distanced her from meeting with us. I won't say too much because it's pretty personal stuff but simply said she is hyper focused on only herself in every aspect of her life, and her pride is noticeably limiting her ability to progress spiritually. Pride is very powerful (in a negative way). 

On Wednesday we met with a lady from Cameroon that I met on the street a few weeks ago but she has been busy in the recent weeks but finally had some free space in her schedule to meet with us. Most of the time we were talking was her just telling us her life story, which is one of the hardest lives that I have personally heard about. It would take a while to explain it all, but shortly said she lost both her parents and an older sister by 12 and then in her adult years has dealt with an extremely neglective and abusive marriage. Experiences like this make me very humbled to be a missionary. There wasn't much we could say after she told her story, but I felt we should give her a Book of Mormon. Me and my companion had a conversation (not argument) afterwards, where he expressed he didn't feel good about just listening to all her struggles and then giving her a book that we believe in and she doesn't. Like it doesn't really seem very emphathetic and kind of just forcing our beliefs on her problems. I reminded him that we came here to Sweden with a unique message of hope that we shouldn't be shy about sharing, a message that can bring a lot more consolation and peace than anything we say can. I am grateful for the faith and confidence I have in the Book of Mormon, that I really can give it to people in their lowest moments and promise them peace. 

After that we had a lesson with a guy named Fadi who is from Armenia/Syria. Some other Elders in Stockholm met him and sent us his number the night before and we quickly scheduled a time to meet Wednesday. They didn't tell us other than that he is a painter and he wants a Book of Mormon in Arabic. Me and my companion were quite surprised when we walked into his office (he requested to meet there) and saw the walls covered with bright pop art paintings (picture included). We thought he was a painter who painted houses and stuff but he is an artist. He was a really nice guy who asked us a lot about ourselves and gave us some hot chocolate after we said we don't drink coffee or tee. He had researched a bit about our church and liked everything he had read (except polygamy lol) and we just gave him short explanation of the Book of Mormon along with his requested Arabic copy, because that was all we had time for after talking about other stuff for a while. 

That night we had dinner with a Gambian guy Maka that we taught several weeks back but he stopped replying so we hadn't messaged in a couple weeks. I ran into him in town and he said we could come over that night. He is a very devout Muslim, so our conversation with him is usually just comparing our beliefs and finding similarities. Again I felt humbled and grateful to be a missionary, this time after seeing the hospitality, friendship, and love that this man was showing us, despite the many differences that we have in age, belief, race, nationality, etc. He fed us some Gambian food: a lamb dish with some spices as well as peanut butter in the sauce, and then a desert of couscous mixed with a yogurt type sauce. Very good. 

Thursday morning we left the apartment early to have a lesson with Daniel, our Peruvian friend who only speaks Spanish. His wife wasn't there this time, but we had a member come with us to translate and we had a pretty good lesson. We taught the plan of salvation, but because he rambles so much and tells random stories we just got through the first half (premortal life, creation, Adam+Eve). He has been liking everything we've been teaching so far. Really nice guy with a positive and happy personaltiy. 

After that we had our in-person district council (meeting with 6-8 missionaries who are in the same smaller geographical area). In Sweden we only have these in person once every 6 weeks (rest of the weeks online) because our areas are so far apart so it's always a fun time to see everyone in the district and then get lunch afterwards. This transfer we've been focusing on Christlike attributes as a mission and we've had some good discussions as a district. It's been cool to see the way a lot of the attributes connect with each other, and how often the worldy definition of the attribute is different than the way Christ exemplified it. 

That night we had a meeting with some of the members of the ward and after the meeting ended at 8pm me and my companion looked at our phones to see a missed call from some of the Elders in our district that live on an island off the coast of Sweden. They came onto mainland for Zone Conference and in-person district council and were going to leave that night, but as they were driving onto the ferry their car broke down. Since we are the closest people with a car to where the ferry leaves from they asked us to pick them up. It is still a 1 hr drive to get there though so we spent the rest of that night driving them, and then the next morning as well because they just slept with us and took the ferry without their car the next day. 

On Saturday morning we had a lesson with this guy who referred himself to meet missionaries through facebook. He is from Nigeria and moved here 3 months ago. He is really busy with work so asked us to come before 10am, so we went the next day at 9. I don't think he was expecting us to actually come because when we called him saying we were outside of his apartment building he seemed pretty surprised haha. He came down and opened the door for us but said his family was sleeping so asked if we could just stand right in the entrance of the apartment building and just talk there. We agreed and just started getting to know him when a couple of minutes later another African guy me and my companion have previously met while just sitting on a bench walked by and greeted us and then when he walked out the door he just said "Book of Mormon!". Idk what his intentions were with saying that but I thought it was pretty funny and naturally led to some curiosity from Andrew so we got to explain about the Book of Mormon a bit which was good. 

After that we came home and right when we got there a member asked us for help with some moving stuff, so we helped him and then after that we headed to a culture festival that was happening in the town we live in (we live in a small town like 15 minutes away from the city we actually serve in). The members who we always pick fruit with were there selling some fruit and the painter Fadi was also there selling some paintings. It was a cool festival with just a bunch of stands up the street as well as multiple bands playing music and stuff. 

Later that day we had a lesson with our friend Michel (Iraq, comedian). If you read my emails you know this guy has problems believing in God so we've been trying to get him to actually commit to reading the Book of Mormon and praying. This lesson was so awesome. He came in with a list of questions that he had gotten from his reading during the past week and then when we gave him the answers he asked follow up questions and wrote down the answers we were giving him. And then at the end of the lesson we asked him to say the closing prayer. He almost always just prays for his grandma and that's the whole prayer because he says he can't think of anything else (we try to give examples of stuff) but this time he said 4 or 5 things in a pretty sincere way. And then to top it all off when he came to church on Sunday he walked straight to the front row and sat there by himself even though he was 30 minutes late (he always says he can't hear cuz the kids in the back are noisy). All of this stuff may seem simple to you guys reading, but this is him doing this being someone who is super blunt and sarcastic and doesn't really take things seriously, and who only a few weeks ago said there is nothing in the Book of Mormon he can apply to his life and said that he wants God to just give him a sign for him to believe. His whole demeanor is changing and it is so cool to see. Please pray that he will keep moving in a positive direction! 

Sunday night we took the 3 hour boat ride to spend Monday and Tuesday with the Elders that live on the island that I mentioned above. I will include pictures and tell more about it in next week's email. 

Something that seemed to be in my thoughts a lot this week has been pride. It has seemed to come up in a lot conversations this past week, as well as encountering prideful people. When I talk with people about pride I tell them that I strongly believe every bad thing or problem in the world comes from pride in one way or another. Of course pride can be manifested in someone being self centered and talking about how great they are, but it can also be manifested in many suttle ways, that to me seem to be a lot more harmful if not addressed. For our district council this week the Christlike attribute we focused on was humility, the opposite of pride. A big part of our discussion was focused on the difference between the dictionary or "worldy" defintion of humility vs the Christlike definition of humility. Both definitions are positive things, but the Christlike attribute emphasizes recognizing our dependence on God and submitting to His will. Both defintions involve us putting someone else before ourself, whether it be other people, God, or both. These past 11 weeks I have been with a companion who, in my opinion, is prideful in a variety of ways. The biggest thing I've noticed is that while I have spent a lot of the time thinking in my head that he is prideful and being frustrated with it, this has only made me more prideful in return. Me in my head "looking down" upon his pride is just me being prideful. As well as me thinking in my own head that I am doing better at being humble. All it does is engender more pride, making things worse on both sides. So what is the solution then? From what we discussed as a district and from what I've learned myself these past weeks, it's simply about trying to be more humble. Making a concious effort to put others first, like Jesus Christ would do. Humility, combined with love, can cure any conflict or issue. But it takes "look[ing] deeply into your heart to see if there are shards of pride or jealousy that prevent you from becoming a peacemaker." President Nelson has taught how we can receive this charity and humility that cures the wounds of pride. "When we humble ourselves before God and pray with all the energy of our hearts, God will grant us charity." All it takes making the effort, and asking God for help. Just like small acts and shards of pride can build to create conflict and issues, small efforts of love and humility can build to resolve/prevent conflict and strengthen relationships. These past couple weeks, I have made small efforts to talk in a nicer tone with my companion, and choosing to not get frustrated about things he does that might frustrate me, but are ultimately out of my control. In just these small efforts I have felt my love for him greatly increase, as well as our ability to work to work together in a positive way. And through all this helping me feel more joy. Realistically, pride is something we all need to work on. Jesus Christ set the example, and as we turn to Him for help, He will show us the way and mold us into more humble, loving people. 

4 Nephi 1:15-16 - " And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people ... there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God." 

Sorry for the long one this week, appreciate all who read the whole thing🙏❤️

Pics:

Mission Week 59

Monday, August 26, 2024

Mission Week 58

Yo, 

Hope everyone had a nice week. 

Mine was pretty busy. Did the least amount of street contacting and door knocking than probably any other week on my mission, which was nice in a way but those are definitely needed parts of missionary work so it will be good to get back at it this week. 

On Tuesday we had splits (switch companions for a day) again, this week in Handen. If any of you remember the area Vendelsö that I was in before I came to my current area, Handen and Vendelsö are literally right next to each other, share a ward building, and now are sharing the Handen missionaries. So it was nice to go back to a familiar area and see some people that I knew during my time there. 

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Afram and Jobram, the older Syrian guys that I mentioned a couple weeks back. We were finally able to get some Arabic Book of Mormons to give to them, which they were pretty excited about. The lesson was mostly just them asking a bunch of questions about the Book of Mormon, as well as helping them talk to an insurance company on the phone midway through the lesson haha. 

 Thursday morning the Elders who are in charge of Social Media/Technology in the mission texted and asked if they could come to our area and we would go to a cool place to film some videos that the church uses as facebook "ads". Basically just us saying a couple sentences about how the Book of Mormon or church has helped us in our lives and then telling the viewer to reach out if they are interested. It was a bit of a struggle for me to put on a smile and be enthusiastic haha, but besides that it was pretty chill and the place we filmed it at had some really pretty areas (pictures included). 

That night, we had a lesson with Michel, the funny guy from Iraq. Like I mentioned in my email last week our member Philip who just got back from his mission helped Michel get more committed, so the lesson was more of a follow up to see how things had been going. He unfortunately had not done any reading or praying, but after talking to him we helped him realize that it is just about priorities and that in order for him to get the answers he is looking for he needs to actually do these things. It sounds like a negative lesson, but I actually left feeling really positive. Michel is starting to recognize things for himself, especially the positive impact that meeting with us has made on his life. And the increased spirit he felt when he used to actually come to church, read, and pray. He admits that in his mind he wants to rationalize that these positive feelings aren't the spirit, but the more we talked about it the more sure he seemed to be, and he started pointing out things in his life that connected to what we were talking about, which seems small but was a really big step for him and made me happy to see. He came to church again this Sunday as well, which makes 2 weeks in a row after not coming for over 2 months.  

Friday we had 2 hours of helping an older member move, then 2 hours of picking and sorting blueberries with the members that live in the middle of the forest. You can see in the pictures but basically to pick blueberries you use this plastic tool that catches the berries and not a lot of leaves. But if you are imagining bushes just full of blueberries, it was not like that, which made it a little tedious. It was nice to be in nature though and they sent us home with some blueberries as well. That night we went to Stockholm for the game night there because our friend Adriana (Peruvian/American girl) wanted to go. 

Saturday there was a ward barbecue for anyone who wanted to come. It was at this nice place by a lake with some activities in the beginning and then some grilling afterwards. It was pretty nice and there was a pretty good turnout. Adriana came to the barbecue as well in addition to Daniel and Rania, the Peruvian couple who only speaks Spanish. They brought there son also and he (and them) seemed to really enjoy it which was awesome. 

On Sunday someone in the bishopric texted and asked me or my companion to speak in church 10 minutes before we left home so I threw together some thoughts of things that I have been studying/thinking about as of late. I talked about how in our church we focus a lot on the things that are unique, like the Book of Mormon, or the fact that we have a living prophet. Which are amazing wonderful things but in my opinion the most important thing that we have unique in our church is our ability to make covenants with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. President Nelson has talked about covenants a lot but he says pretty simply here what covenants can do for us: "entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes everything about life easier." It's pretty simple. Covenants bring us closer to God, which makes our life easier. But, in order to gain the power from our covenants, we need to actually keep them. I listen to church related podcasts a lot while I am eating or cooking, and I was listening to one this week where the woman says she feels like there is 2 types of members in the church: "covenant makers" and "covenant keepers". How it seems there are a lot of members who enter into covenant through baptism, and then kind of forget about that covenant, or don't really focus on it. When we are baptized, we all covenant to be willing to take upon us Christ's name, always remember Him, keep His commandments, and bear one another burdens that they may be light. All of these things require a conscious effort if we want to fulfill them in a good way. We shouldn't be going through the motions, but rather following President Nelson's counsel to "Cherish and honor your covenants above all other commitments."

Sorry if that seemed like a bunch of spewed thoughts. Simply put, our holy covenants with God are important. Important enough that we should prioritize them and do our best to continually improve in how we keep them. And as we do that, everything about life will be easier. 

Pics (My haircut went a bit wrong so my hair is only slightly longer than a buzz cut. I honestly don't mind it just quite different):

Mission Week 58

Sunday, August 18, 2024