Hey everybody, hope you all had a good Thanksgiving week.
I have almost nothing to tell about this week, but let me explain why.
I think I already mentioned this, but me and my companion are whitewashing this area, which just means that we are both new to the area this transfer. Basically the Elders who were here before us just left the area in a very bad state. In the past week we have contacted every person in the area who has recently been taught, who has shown interest, or who has ever been in contact with the missionaries. So around 500-600 people. And we had a meeting with only one person after contacting all of them this week, and we have about 3 meetings planned for next week. So to sum it up we have contacted everyone possible who could be interested and got almost no one who is still interested, even tho there was supposed to be around 10 who were actively being taught, and around 15 who had expressed interest recently.
So what that meant for us this week is just spending all of our time trying to find new people to teach. Since it's cold outside, we just spent hours and hours a day at a giant mall that is right by us. Our time there literally just consists of us stopping people while they are walking and just trying to talk to them. And if I said that I enjoyed this in the slightest I would be lying, it's really uncomfortable and unenjoyable for me. I am trying to find joy in the tedious parts of missionary work like this, but haven't had much success as of late.
And even with all of our talking to people, we did not get one person interested who we tried to talk to. Of course, God loves effort and we are always blessed, and this week the blessing was easier to see than it sometimes is. All of the talking we did to people this week, and the one person interested was the one who came up to us when we weren't trying to talk to people. I was just standing on the bus earlier in the week, and this lady came up and asked for directions to where she was going. I explained that I was new here but I could pull it up on my phone and then just go with her to the place so she could find it. She was surprised, but agreed, and when we got talking and told her that we are missionaries, she instantly said that she thought God wanted us to meet that day. We went with her for like an hour to her destination, and explained the entire Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Before we even taught her anything or had a conversation, she said she wanted to have our number so we could come back. We ended up going back the next day. She is from Ivory Coast and has a friend who is from there too, so she brought him the next day so we taught him the same thing we taught her the day before. She also came to church with us on Sunday. Unfortunately the church is in between 2 bus stops so we had to walk, and the entire walk there she kept asking how much time we had left, and no matter the amount of time I responded with she would just groan and say "det är mycket" (that's a lot). But when we got to church she said the walk was worth it, and it was awesome because a lot of our ward members just scooped her up and were super nice to her.
Besides meeting that lady (Angeliné), nothing else really happened this week. We did have Thanksgiving with this older guy who is from America on Saturday, and we helped him and his wife cook for 3 hours before to get everything ready. We also had a Thanksgiving as a zone for pday so that was fun too.
Because of Thanksgiving, and also just because of current circumstances, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude this past week. When talking with Zach yesterday, we talked about how it is easy to be negative in any situation. If you choose to look for the bad things to complain about, they will always be there. Even though me and Zach aren't the most positive people, we agreed that if you have a more positive attitude, and are grateful for the things that are good, and even grateful for the things things are bad, we can experience so much more joy in our lives. Elder Uchtdorf said this in his talk "Grateful in any Circumstances".
"It might sound contrary to the wisdom of the world to suggest that one who is burdened with sorrow should give thanks to God. But those who set aside the bottle of bitterness and lift instead the goblet of gratitude can find a purifying drink of healing, peace, and understanding."
Even though Thanksgiving is over, I invite you all to join me and Zach in trying to be more grateful in our lives. Not just for specific blessings, but just a more grateful and positive attitude amidst any circumstance. I know we can find more joy and fulfillment as we do so.
Pics:
