Mission Week 33

Hello hope everyone is doing well. Here are the notable things from my week:

We were able to meet with Tommy and Sabrina and they both came to church on Sunday. A reminder that Tommy is the guy that doesn't talk at all in his lessons and lives an hour away from the church. So this is his second time driving an hour each way to church and back. Sabrina is the teenage girl who also doesn't talk much in her lessons. But this week she seemed to be more enthusiastic and talkative and came to church for the first time in a while so that was great to have her and Tommy there. 

On Thursday we somehow got a lesson planned with our friend Hariet even though on the call she was saying that she doesn't know if she has time to meet with us anymore. Hariet is a lady from Tanzania that I gave a Book of Mormon to on my first day here in Borlänge like 2 months ago. We have only been able to meet with her twice since then because like I already said she is very busy. So for the lesson this week we weren't expecting anything crazy, just like a simple discussion about a Book of Mormon chapter or something like that. Well when we walked into the coffee shop we had planned to meet her at I looked in the back to see Hariet sitting there with 3 other friends that I had never seen before. We walk up and Hariet points at me and says to her friends "he is the preacher". Then we sit down and she just tells me and my companion to start preaching haha. My companion ended up teaching two of the friends who are from Congo and don't really speak much English or Swedish, and then I taught the 3rd friend who is from Kenya and speaks English so I was able to teach her the Restoration, give her a Book of Mormon, and get her phone number to meet again. Definitely a miracle for us to get more people to teach with our lack of finding people recently.

On Friday we had splits/exchanges so I went to Örebro (my companions hometown) with one of the Elders there, and then the other came up to Borlänge with Elder Diasonama (my companion) for the day. Örebro is the sixth largest city in Sweden so needless to say it was very nice to get out of Borlänge into a bigger city for a day. I was with Elder Rosenbeck who was in the MTC with me and we had a successful day together. In just 1 hour of talking to people on the streets we were able to get 5 phone numbers with people who were all genuinely interested. A little frustrating that I can go to Örebro and use the same approach I use in Borlänge and get 5 numbers in 1 hour and I get none in Borlänge🙃.

On Saturday we had a sledding activity with the ward in the morning. Gitahi (13 year old from family that's been coming to church) chose to come with us instead of an activity with his sister and their friends so that was cool. After the activity we had a pretty ineffective lesson with Anders G (guy that I talked about God's love with a couple weeks back) and then met with a guy named Johan that I met on the street about a week ago. It was pretty cool because he was telling me that the day before we met he was praying to God asking for guidance and then met me the next day. And from my perspective I almost didn't talk to him because to me he looked like someone who would not be interested but I felt like I should so I did anyway. The lesson with him was decent. He liked our message and said that he would read the Book of Mormon but was also saying a lot of stuff that doesn't really align with what we believe in so we will see what happens with him. Really nice guy though and definitely no coincidence that we met. 

On Sunday we were able to visit a family that lives about an hour away from Borlänge but are still technically in our area. They are in some way related to my companion so he got to catch up with them. They also have a 9 year old daughter who hasn't been baptized and she expressed some interest in being baptized so we were able to explain a little bit about baptism for her as well. 

As a missionary, and for anyone in life, there are always constant distractions of things that will waste your time and effort. Of course Satan is very skilled at making those things seem enticing to us, so that we forget what is really important. I feel like in more than half of conversations I have with people I end up reading them Mosiah 3:19, which talks about how "the natural man" is an enemy to God. How it is a natural part of being human that we all face temptations and distractions that will draw us away from God. I love these verses in 2 Nephi 9 that remind us where we need to put our effort and focus. "50 Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. 51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness."

I have learned more than ever on my mission that Jesus Christ and His gospel are the only thing that will "satisfy". If our focus and efforts are put into anything else, we will not find the true satisfaction and joy that we are looking for. President Nelson explained this same concept as well: "But here is the grand truth: while the world insists that power, possessions, popularity, and pleasures of the flesh bring happiness, they do not! They cannot! What they do produce is nothing but a hollow substitute for "the blessed and happy state of those [who] keep the commandments of God." The truth is that it is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it! However, when you yoke yourself to Jesus Christ and do the spiritual work required to overcome the world, He, and He alone, does have the power to lift you above the pull of this world."

Jesus Christ invites us all to come and feast upon the fruits of His gospel, "without price"! As we do the spiritual work required to come closer to Jesus Christ, we will find true satisfaction that nothing else can bring. 

Swedish word for the week: Sengångare 🦥(sloth)

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Mission Week 33

Monday, February 26, 2024

Mission Week 32

Tjena, 

Hope everybody doing well. Pretty good week for me. It picked up a bit after Wednesday. On Wednesdays we have a 1 hour zoom meeting with the whole mission where the mission president talks about stuff that we are focusing on or need to do better at, and then there is a 30 minute presentation of some sort. Well this week the presentation was given by two Elders in my mission who I know pretty well, and they talked about our focus for this transfer which is inviting/getting friends to church. The presentation wasn't anything special but for some reason it was what I needed to hear that day and really motivated me to find more people to invite to church, because I was thinking back to how long I have been in Borlänge and how little has changed. Hearing the presentation helped turn my frustration and disappointment into motivation.

So later that day on Wednesday we had about 40 minutes of finding (talking to people on the street). Even though there's not much I can really change in how I do finding, I tried to have a more hope and faith and positivity when I was going around talking to people. I honestly just don't know what was different, but everything just felt a lot better. I was talking to people who I don't normally talk to (ex: couples, older people) who seem more intimidating to talk to or less likely to be interested. One of these couples I was able to get their number. Near the end of the 40 minutes, I stopped, feeling proud of myself, and looked at the clock to see how much time I had left. There was 2 minutes left until we were supposed to leave, and already feeling accomplished I figured I would just stand and wait out the last 2 minutes until we had to leave. But then I got the thought "you aren't done yet you still have 2 minutes" and so I reluctantly walked behind a man that walked by I felt like I should talk to. Once I caught up to him I talked to him for a little bit and he was a really nice guy and I was able to get his number very easily (never happens). Just a cool moment that showed me the Lord will bless our efforts when we heed the promptings of the spirit. The rest of the week wasn't as successful as those 40 minutes, but was still a lot better than it normally is. I was able to get 5 numbers from people just off the street or in the mall. To those reading that may not sound like that much but that is more numbers than I have got my entire time in Borlänge (due to the uninterest of people in Sweden combined with my lackluster "finding" skills.) I am very grateful that the Lord helped guide me to people who were willing/interested to talk. 

One of the dudes whose number I got we unfortunately will not be meeting with again. After meeting him on the street we were able to set up a time to meet only a couple days later. Our conversation was mostly just about faith in general, and how we have all come to what we believe in in our lives. This guy's experience was interesting to say the least. He said that for most of his life he believed there is no God, but after he took psychedelics and had an experience when he was high it made him think there is something else out there. And also said that he believes Jesus was a person who existed because He is well documented, but that he thinks that Jesus and His apostles were also on psychedelics when they wrote about/witnessed the miracles that Jesus performed. Very strange conversation hahaha but he was a very nice guy and also asked us a lot about our faith, but just ended the conversation by saying thanks but that he wasn't going to become a member of our church. 

The couple whose number I got on Wednesday is really awesome. We met with them on Saturday at their apartment. The guy is named Daniel and is from Uganda/Congo, and his girlfriend is Grace and is from Burundi. We taught them about the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith, and they said that they liked the message. I am not sure if they understand fully the significance of what we taught them but Daniel did say he is going to read the Book of Mormon (Grace doesn't speak much English so we are planning on taking her a Book of Mormon in Swahili next time we go). Daniel also said he has two sisters in their 20s who live nearby and are very devout Christians as well and he said he will try and invite them next time we come which is great. They also fed us a huge meal of African food. Keep in mind this was literally our first time going to their place after only a 30 second conversation on the street. So so nice.

We had a lesson with our friend Liam. He is the guy from a couple weeks back who asked where he could buy a Book of Mormon after we taught him about it. He is very very busy so this is the first time we have met him since then which was almost a month ago. We taught him the Plan of Salvation this week though and he seemed to like everything we taught. He made sure to tell us that he has been carrying around the Book of Mormon with him everywhere he goes since we gave it to him, even though he is dyslexic and it is really hard for him to read. He also really wants to come to church but he lives kind of far away and the busses aren't very good on Sundays, so we are hoping by some miracle he will be able to come to church soon. 

On Saturday we had a member meal with this lady that is from Angola (country in Africa). She lives in Sweden because her husband is a Swedish guy who is also not a member. He is a really nice guy and I am grateful he is so willing to have the missionaries for dinner. Anyways, my companion's parents are also from Angola, so the member wanted to make a classic Angolan dish for us. Except she thought I wouldn't want to eat African food because I am a regular white Utah missionary, so she bought me a oven-cook pizza. I'm not gonna lie I felt slightly disrespected but also very appreciative that she would make an exception for me 😂. After asking I was able to eat some of the African food too though and it was pretty good. Pretty similar to what Chef Manase cooked up for me and Zach a couple years ago. 

Wanja and Gitahi came to the youth activity again this week, but unfortunately not to church. It was pretty disappointing on Sunday after spending the whole week focusing on inviting people to church and then having 0 friends show up :(. It's ok though we saw a lot of blessings and miracles this week and the work goes forward. 

We had an hour long finding session during the week where I didn't get any phone numbers, but had a few conversations that got me thinking pretty deeply. 3 of them were fairly long conversations where some people opened up a little bit about their faith and thought process that goes with it. But the conversation that got me thinking the most lasted only about 30 seconds. I asked a lady if she believes in God, and she instantly replied "why would I believe in God?". It caught me a little off guard because 90 percent of the Swedes will just say no they don't believe in God and they are not interested. But this lady wasn't nice by any means by the way she said it but it definitely wasn't trying to be rude. I kind of sat there for a couple of seconds and then just responded with another question: "Why would you not believe in God?", to which she responded "If I believed in God that means I could just believe in anything." I then said that God for me is someone to lean on when times get hard in life, someone that I can pray to and receive help from when I need it most. She just responded by saying she is already satisfied in life so she doesn't need that, so I just asked her what makes her happy in life and then thanked her for her time.

I have been thinking about that interaction on and off the rest of the week. Of course God is always someone who is there to help people who are struggling, but what about the people who are doing good in life? Who are already satisfied with how everything is going? Of course we all go through hard things, but non-believers would reason that there is plenty of healthy things in life that can get someone through a hard time, even if they don't believe in God. I talked to a different guy in the week who doesn't believe in God, and when I asked him what he relies on during hard times, he just said the knowledge that he has made it through hard things in his life before. That is a pretty good and hopeful answer to me. But of course I also know that anyone can benefit from a relationship with God. But how do those who feel like they don't need him benefit? When pondering about this, a quote from President Nelson came to mind: "...entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes everything about life easier… I reaffirm a profound teaching of President Ezra Taft Benson: 'Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, … lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace.'" I am realizing now that this was a long explanation for a pretty simple spiritual thought. But simply put, a life with belief in God is an easier life (not easy🙃). When we believe in God and live how He would like us to live, we can experience more joy, more comfort, and more peace. Yes we can feel those emotions without following God, but through following God they will "expand", "deepen", and "increase". ❤️

Thanks if you took the time to read the email:) 

Hope everybody has a great week🙏

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Mission Week 32

Monday, February 19, 2024

Mission Week 31

Hello, 

Hope everybody had a good week. Not a lot interesting happened to tell about this week. If I'm being honest the work here in Borlänge is starting to feel pretty monotonous, like the same thing every week without much progression. It is hard for me when we go out finding for hours every week and don't seem to get anything from it. But of course I am hoping that we can find new people and the ones we are teaching now can use their agency to take steps to come closer Jesus Christ.

The first half of the week was a basic transfer week if one of the companions is leaving. Just us going around to a lot of members so that Elder Larson could say bye to them. Thursday was transfer day where I got my new companion Elder Diasonoma. He is an awesome guy. Still some things that make adjustment difficult but it has been pretty good so far. 

The one notable thing from the week is that Wanja and Gitahi (teenagers from the family I found a couple weeks back) came to the young men/women activity and came to church by themselves even though their mom was out of town. I was able to talk to them for a long time after the activity and I think I have made a good connection with them which hopefully leads to us being able to teach them in the future if they are ready. 

I really have nothing else to talk about so here is a 1-2 sentence summary of all of the lessons that we taught. 

Sabrina (girl with the siblings that come sometimes): Talked about prophets for the second week in a row. She said she believes in the Book of Mormon but doesn't see how we believe in a living prophet.

Tommy (guy who lives an hour away who came to church last week): Talked about baptism and covenants with 2 Nephi 31 from the Book of Mormon. He doesn't really talk so the lessons are pretty straight forward. 

Aanu (lady who said she wouldn't read the Book of Mormon without an answer she should read it): Said she didn't want to talk about the Book of Mormon, so we taught the plan of salvation and she had a problem with just about everything we said. Asked us for Bible verses and when we gave them she said she interprets in a different way. Explained that is why we need the Book of Mormon and continuing revelation through prophets but she did not care.

Haile (inactive member from Eritrea we have been teaching every week): Talked about repentance and since my comp is Swedish he was able to have a long conversation with him about some Swedish education system stuff so that was good they were able to connect. 

Anders Nordström (haven't talked about him but basically a crazy guy who lives 3 hrs away that we do call lessons with): Tried to teach something new but he said he remembered 0 percent of what we had taught him the week before. Last week he said there is no one else on earth that knows more about Jesus than him, and this week he said that he is like Jesus. 

Arne (old guy that we have taught twice): Tried to teach him something new but he had also forgot 100 percent of what we had taught him before. I am not sure how we can teach people that literally don't remember anything we teach. 

Mikael (special needs guy who calls us 4 times a day): Invited us over for lunch and we read a simple chapter from the Book of Mormon with him. Obviously we can't teach anything complicated with him so we just read a few verses and connect it to a simple principle. 

That is the week and the state of the majority of the friends that we are teaching. The rest of them that we didn't meet with this week are really difficult to meet with because they are busy. This and the lack of us finding any new people is what is making the work here in Borlänge monotonous and a little discouraging as of late (like I already said). 

This week for the Come Follow Me reading of the Book of Mormon it was 2 Nephi 1-2. This led to me hearing a lot of discussion/lessons about the well known verse in 2 Nephi 2 :

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

As explained in the verse opposition is simply a part of life - an essential part of life in relation to Heavenly Father's plan of salvation. We all experience opposition and trials in our life. For example: difficult relationships (family, friends, significant others), loss of a loved one, loss of a job, health problems (personal or family), or financial problems. Those are 5 common but extremely difficult forms of opposition that I guarantee that anyone reading has at least 1 (if not many) of those currently going on in their life. I am not giving examples to be negative, just showing that we all go through extremely difficult things. 

Of course we have all heard many times that we have trials/opposition in our lives to help us learn and grow. But that doesn't make the hard things in our life any less hard. I heard a quote and a song lyric this week that show us how we can keep pushing through when the opposition comes in our life. 

"Now Lord don't move my mountain 

But give me the strength to climb 

And Lord, don't take away my stumbling blocks 

But lead me all around" 

- Lord, Don't Move the Mountain (Various Artists)

"As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed." - Elder Bednar

Of course Jesus Christ has the power to "move our mountain" or take away our trials in our life, but if He did that it would take away the key element of opposition that is necessary in all of our lives. That doesn't mean that he leaves us to walk through our trials alone though. As we yoke ourselves to the Savior through His atonement, He can strengthen us and "ease the burdens upon our shoulders" (Mosiah 24:14). If we submit to God's will and ask Him to give us understanding of our trials, and strength to go through them, we can experience more peace and joy in the constant opposition that we face every day. 

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Mission Week 31

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Week 30

Hejsan, 

Ok I know last week I said nothing really happened but then the email was long. Well this week there really is not much to talk about.

Most notable thing is that we got transfer news. I will be staying here in Borlänge, but getting a new companion, which continues my streak of getting a new companion every transfer so far. My new companion is a 25 year old who is a native Swede so it should be interesting. He has been out for 1.5 transfers, and is actually called to serve his mission in Zimbabwe. He is just waiting for his visa right now which means that I will probably be staying in Borlänge until at least May and probably will have 7 or 8 comps before having one for more than one transfer. Not sure how I feel about staying in Borlänge for that long but we will see how it goes I guess. 

Other main thing that happened in the week was zone conference. Even though Borlänge is in the middle of nowhere basically we are in the Stockholm zone. Stockholm is a 3 hour train ride away so we got to go down the night before and stay with the APs, Social Media Leaders, and some other Elders in our district that live by us. So that was a fun time and zone conference was good to see everyone as well. And the chapel we have zone conference in actually has a basketball hoop so we all played in our dress clothes afterwards which was nice. First time playing in a decent amount of time. 

On Sunday our friend Tommy came to church for the first time. He lives an hour away so that's a pretty big commitment for him to come, especially considering the fact that we have only taught him 3 times and he had never met any of the members before. This is my first time talking about him in one of my emails because he is a really quiet and awkward guy so the lessons are usually pretty straight forward. So far he has read all the chapters we have given him to read and seems to be enjoying what we are teaching from what I can tell. We can't really get him to say much but he did say one of the lessons that he feels like he has more of a relationship with God since meeting us which is awesome. 

Tuesday we had another lesson with our friend Sabrina. If you remember her brother has randomly showed up to 2 of the lessons we have had with her, and this week her sister Heran showed up by surprise. Heran has been taught a decent amount by the missionaries in the past, she just currently lives by herself about 30 minutes away and her phone has been broken so we have not been able to have contact with her. It was awesome that she came though, she definitely added more discussion to the lesson, and we were able to gage where she and Sabrina are at right now (Sabrina doesn't really talk lol). Heran mentioned at one point that she feels like there is something different with our church and she feels like it could be the true church. Big steps for sure.

Only other notable thing to talk about from the week is just the awesome members in Borlänge. Many had us over for dinner and others we have weekly lessons with because they haven't been members that long. All of them are so nice and do so much to help us, honestly they are what make this area haha. The specific member meal I wanted to talk about has nothing to do with the members though, but what they served us. On Sunday for our meal to break our fast we were fed smörgåstårta, which translates to "sandwich cake". It is a pretty classic Swedish dish and simply it's disgusting. It is literally like a layered cake but the layers are just bread, mayo, bread, eggs, bread, mayo. Then the outside is covered in just a frosting layer of mayo, with vegetables like onions and peppers mixed in. And then it is topped off with a bunch of vegetables, cheese, and sandwich meat. Sometimes they have shrimp in them too and I honestly could not tell if this one did there is just too much going on. But yeah definitely one of my more interesting meals. (Picture included)

A talk that I really love by Elder Uchtdorf called "It Works Wonderfully!" talks about the struggle of how some people seem to find more satisfaction and joy from living the gospel of Jesus Christ than others. He gives 2 things we can work on to try and help us find the joy and fulfillment that the gospel promises everyone. One of the suggestions is to "simplify". "This beautiful gospel is so simple a child can grasp it, yet so profound and complex that it will take a lifetime—even an eternity—of study and discovery to fully understand it. But sometimes we take the beautiful lily of God's truth and gild it with layer upon layer of man-made good ideas, programs, and expectations. Each one, by itself, might be helpful and appropriate for a certain time and circumstance, but when they are laid on top of each other, they can create a mountain of sediment that becomes so thick and heavy that we risk losing sight of that precious flower we once loved so dearly." I also love this well known scripture from the Book of Mormon that, to me, goes along with this topic perfectly. Helaman 5:12 - "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." It can be so easy to get caught up on the things that don't matter, or even smaller things that do matter to a certain extent but are not the most important. If we find ourselves feeling burnt out, or not experiencing joy and peace from the gospel, we can take a step back and remember what our faith is based upon. Jesus Christ is central to His gospel, and central to our utter existence. When we diligently and steadfastly turn our focus and trust to Him, everything else will fall into place in due time. I have seen this in my short 7 months as a missionary. There are always ups and downs, but Jesus Christ is always there as a constant. He is the rock that gets us through the good and the bad. He is the solution!

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Week 30

Tuesday, February 6, 2024