Mission Week 42

Hello everybody, hope the week went well for all of you. 

What stands out about this week for me was the more simple interactions that I had with strangers, so here are a few of them. 

At the beginning of the week I wasn't doing very good mentally, and so when we went out on Monday night I found it hard to summon the motivation to talk to people. But I had a couple positive interactions that helped me feel God was looking out for me. A Chilean guy who didn't want to talk about religion but was nice enough to ask me about myself for a couple minutes. An Eritrean guy who thanked me for giving him a "good book" when I gave him the Book of Mormon. And a Somalian teenager who is Muslim but we still sat and talked about God for probably like 20 minutes, and just seeing him smile while he was talking about his faith was fulfilling to me. But the best guy I met in that hour was this guy that I have seen before walking around town. He always wears a beret and I have tried talking with him before but he waved me off before I could even start talking (might have been a different guy but I thought it was the same one). So I figured that I couldn't stop him to talk to him but I just said "hej is it going good with you?" as I walked by and he stopped and said "hej! you look like a nice guy!" super enthusiastically. And then he asked if I could speak English and when I said yes he started telling me that he is from England. He was super super nice and positive and told me to just "brush it off" when all the Swedes don't say hej back to me. He asked me if I would want to meet up some time and talk and I said of course (maybe the first time someone has asked me to meet instead of the other way lol). And the best part is that I saw him again on Wednesday. We were walking through town to the church to get a few things done before our train left in a couple hours. I saw him and said hi, and he said "there's that gentleman" and starting telling all his friends that I was so nice the other day even though all I did was say hello haha. But he ended up asking us if we wanted to come into the coffee shop and "rub minds a little bit". We went in and started talking to one of his friends and then he told me to come sit by him so we could talk. We talked for a long time and he just told me a lot about his life, and that he is actually from Jamaica and moved to England as a teenager, and has now been in Sweden for 10 years because of work. I can't really describe with words how nice and funny he is but easily one of my favorite people I have met on my mission. He is the guy with the beret on in the picture.

On Wednesday we had splits with the Katrineholm elders and I ended up spending the day with one of my past companions Elder Larson. It felt like every person we talked to on the street we had a full conversation with which made for a lot of meaningful interactions. Easily the most meaningful interaction we had is when we were walking to go door knocking Elder Larson saw a lady with her hood on on the other side of the street that I barely noticed, but he looked at me and asked if we should talk to her. I said sure so we crossed the street and came up behind her and Elder Larson just asked how she is doing, and she replied by saying bad and that she doesn't want to live. We were both were speechless for a couple seconds and didn't really know what to say. As we began to ask her some questions, she opened up to us and told her about how hard her family life is, and she feels like no one cares about her and that she will never be able to find joy. We told her that although we don't know why life can be brutally unfair sometimes we do know that God loves her and cares about her. And I was able to tell her my recent experiences with being able to find joy by focusing on the little things God blesses us with. Though she was in tears and wouldn't even tell us her name or let us pray for her, she did thank us for the help before she went on her way. After we walked a little bit after she had walked away we stopped and said a prayer for her. This is one of those moments that makes me grateful to be a missionary, even when certain things can be frustrating.

On Saturday we had some more opportunity to just go out and talk to people (we chose the mall this time) and the first guy I talked to turned into a really cool interaction. I just went up and asked him if he believes in God, and in a irritated tone he told me that he has already talked with missionaries before. I had never met him but it must've been a not very good interaction because he seemed very annoyed when I was talking to him. He told me that he is Muslim, basically trying to get me to just walk away because I am a Christian missionary. But instead I tried to just learn more about his faith and get to know this guy. After only a couple minutes his demeanor had completely changed and he asked if he could buy me a coffee. He ended up buying me a hot chocolate and then we went and sat outside the front of the mall and talked for about 20 more minutes, just about Sweden and America, but also God and religion as well. It was a really nice interaction and I was glad to see the difference it makes in just being genuine and kind. 

On Sunday we got transfer calls and I will be moving from Linköping already to an area called Vendelsö. It is a suburb about 50 minutes south of Stockholm by public transportation, and the smallest or second smallest geographical area in our mission. I served in a neighboring area to my new companion a couple months back and he is a really nice guy and I think we will get along great. Not sure how I feel about the new area though as I've heard there's not very many options of where we can go to talk to people🙃.

We had district council this week and part of our discussion sparked a thought in my mind that has kind of stuck. We were talking about how every missionary has their own unique way of doing missionary work, that we all have our own gifts an abilities that help us touch people in different ways. And the other side of this is that we all have certain aspects of missionary work that are more difficult or uncomfortable for us to do, but we still do them because it is part of being a missionary. I commented that at certain points in my mission (without realizing it) I have tried to fit the "typical missionary" mold, trying to do things the same way that other missionaries do, which has made it harder for me to feel joy or feel like I am successful because I have been trying to fit into a mold that I am not meant to fit into, which naturally makes me feel like I am not measuring up. Of course this applies to life in the exact same way. God has given us all unique gifts and abilities to help bless the lives of others as well as our own. We also all struggle with our own unique challenges and difficulties. And just like with missionary work, if we try and be successful in life by following what other people to do and trying to fit into the world's standards, we won't ever be able to feel as happy as we would like because we are trying to become something that we are not. We need to always remember that our differences are a blessing not a curse, and can help us connect with people rather than making us feel bad or driving us away from others. We are all divine creations of our Heavenly Father! I like this quote from Elder Phillips that explains this idea simply: "Do not misunderstand or devalue how important you are to your Father in Heaven. You are not an accidental by-product of nature, a cosmic orphan, or the result of matter plus time plus chance. Where there is design, there is a designer." Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us individually and has given us all tools to be successful and happy in this life and throughout eternity :)

Ha en fin vecka

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Mission Week 42

Monday, April 29, 2024

Mission Week 41

Tjena tjena

Hope everyone has had a good week. Mine was interesting to say the least. 

The first three days didn't consist of much interesting to be honest. My companion got asked to play the piano as accompaniment to someone else singing at zone conference, and for some reason thought it was a good idea to create a new piece because he didn't think the one she sent was good enough. I didn't realize how long it was actually going to take but I'll just say he spent a very large amount of time working on it at the start of the week so I was just doing my best to be productive and find something to do while he was working on that. 

On Thursday we had zone conference (gathering of a larger group of missionaries who are in the same geographical area). So we take the train to Stockholm and meet there. The presentations were pretty good but the main topic of discussion from zone conference is my intereview with my mission president. I'm not going to go too deep into details but basically just talked a lot about the issues that I have been dealing with concerning my companion. He talked with my companion afterwards and I am happy to report that since then my companion has been a completely changed missionary. If he were to get a brand new companion right now that companion would never be able to tell that he was struggling at all. So pretty cool I guess and I hope he can maintain it. 

We had two lessons with Miguel this week (guy from Chile who is on baptismal date), the most recent being one of the better lessons I have had in a while. He asked that we talk about "joy in the spirit" so we talked a lot about the spirit as well as the joy that come from the gospel. These are honestly the two main things that I have focused on personally on my mission so far so it felt good for me to be able to share my honest experiences. The spirit was really strong and I think we could all feel the reality of the joy that comes from Jesus Christ and His gospel. 

We met with a new friend named Pascal this week as well. He asked us to talk about how we can communicate with Jesus Christ in our daily activities. We ended up talking about the spirit with him as well, and then the Book of Mormon when he asked about it. He was really quiet but texted us after saying that he was nervous but that he felt something good which was really nice to hear. 

I thought to share a nice simple interaction that I had on Saturday to give you all a glimpse into what the social culture is like in Sweden. We as missionaries say hi to random people most of the time when we walk by them, and in Sweden it is very strange to do that so the majority of the people we say hi to don't say it back. If I was to give an estimate I would say 30% say hi back. Anyways on Saturday I walked by this older lady and just said hej to her and she happily said hej back. I kept walking but then she starting talking to me saying that it is really weird to have someone say hej to her that she doesn't know, that people don't usually do that. But that it made her feel happy that I did it. I told her that I was from the US and it's more normal there and she quickly understood haha.  

This week I was listening to some hymns and some of the lyrics really stuck with me and I think can give us all inspiration. They came from the song "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy", which compares our Heavenly Father's mercy to the light that comes from a lighthouse. I love this symbolism, that His mercy is reaching and beaming to us all, a mercy that penetrates through any darkness and can always be a beacon of hope for us to look towards. What I love most about this song is the symbolism it gives for the "lower lights", whose literal purpose is to maneuver ships safely around rocks and other unseen obstacles when it is dark. As the song describes, we, as children of Heavenly Father, act as the "lower lights" for each other. We are given the responsibility to help others find and take the path that leads to the beaming light of our Father's mercy. Here are the lyrics from the song: 

"Brightly beams our Father's mercy

From his lighthouse evermore,

But to us he gives the keeping

Of the lights along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning;

Send a gleam across the wave.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save."

I think we have all had moments in life where we have felt like "some poor fainting, struggling seaman", lost on our path to feel the warmth of our Father's love and mercy. The beauty of it is that our father has given us the "keeping" of the "lower lights", meaning we all have the responsibility to help each other through the tempests of life. Missionaries can help bring people out of the darkness into the light of the Father's mercy, but the reality is that those of us who have been baptized have covenanted to do this already (Mosiah 18:9). And if you haven't been baptized it is never something bad to be a reflections of God's love for the people around you. We all have opportunities every day to help the "fainting, struggling seamen" and as we help those around us, we will feel a greater sense of joy that comes from feeling God's love and mercy in our own lives.

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Mission Week 41

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Mission Week 40

Hello everybody hope everything is going good for you all.

This week was pretty good for me. Starting off we had pday in a city that's 30 minutes away with 6 other missionaries. We didn't do much but comparing it to my past couple pdays where we didn't do anything it was nice to get out. 

Monday night and Tuesday we were on splits (switching companions for the day) with our zone leaders (missionaries in charge of a larger geographical area of missionaries). My companion and the zone leader he was with put our friend Miguel from Chile on baptismal date so that was definitely the highlight of the splits. We were thinking we would maybe have to stop teaching Miguel but according to how the other elders described it he just had a change of heart mid lesson. Besides their lesson the rest of splits was just spent on the streets talking to people. Both of the zone leaders are really good at "finding" so they helped us get more phone numbers from people in 1 day than I have in probably the rest of my mission combined to be honest. Which meant we had a lot of interactions with people on the street, most of which were pretty positive. The one that stands out is this dude that we met and right when we asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ he got a big smile on his face and we sat and talked with him on the bench for probably like 20 minutes. He had some preconceived notions about our church and the Book of Mormon but we were able to explain and help him understand. He was a very passionate guy that said he struggles to find peace with how the world is today, and said that directly before he met us he was in the church praying and asking God what he should do next, and then he walked right up to us, so that was cool to see God's hand in that way. When we gave him a Book of Mormon he was very appreciative and went to give us his sandwiches his wife had made him because it was all he had to give us. We declined and said that we didn't need them but he said he wouldn't take the Book of Mormon if we didn't take the sandwiches haha. 

We've had two more lessons with Miguel since they put him on baptismal date on Tuesday and they both went very well. The only thing he isn't really set on yet it his testimony of Joseph Smith, but we've been sending him a lot of conference talks to listen to and he has watched all of them and then just started watching more on his own and seems to be just loving it. He always makes me smile because he is just naturally a funny guy. 

Me and Zach both have weekly zoom meetings in our mission that are basically just some sort of presentation led by one companionship in the mission and then the rest of them watch. Zach was in charge of the presentation in his mission this week and I was able to go on there and share a testimony and story that connected with what they were presenting on. I'm sure Zach will talk about it more in his email but it was a cool crossover episode type experience haha. 

My favorite part of the week came on Friday. We had an hour of finding (talking to people on the street) planned in our schedule, and though it was raining we didn't really have anything else to do so just went and started talking to people. Literally the first guy I talked to was this guy from Congo who had met the missionaries a couple of months ago but they never got to explain anything about our church to him. He asked if we could sit on the bench and talk, and of course I gladly accepted. We ended up having an almost 1.5 hour discussion sitting there in the rain. I was able to explain a lot about our beliefs and why we believe what we do, and he definitely was intrigued. It was a very good and respectful conversation though, with us both just sharing our thoughts with explanation, and the other listening respectfully. I was able to explain how a covenant relationship that is entered by baptism with Christ's authority can help us having a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ than anything else. Though he understood everything, he said he doesn't know if organized religion is really a thing for him, but you could just feel the mutual respect and love we had for each other as followers of Jesus Christ. He said something to me during the conversation that really stuck with me, that was along the lines of "If your purpose for what you are doing as a missionary is based entirely on Jesus Christ, you have already won." Conversations/interactions like these are what I have begun to cherish on my mission, rather than how many phone numbers I get or even putting someone on baptismal date (which is of course very important😁).

2 other simple experiences from the week that made me smile: 1. We had a lesson with a member from Liberia whose English isn't very good (speaks no Swedish), but he sat and read aloud an entire chapter of the Book of Mormon with us and then asked if he could say the closing prayer and said a very sincere and meaningful prayer 2. We have church in Norrköping (30 minutes away) once a month because our branch is so small, and there was a guy there who came for his first time, just because he had walked past the church and saw that it says Jesus Christ on it. He literally went up and bore his testimony with an introduction and a scripture, also in broken Swedish. Inspirational. 

In both conversations with my parents this week we ended up talking about some more difficult topics within the church and trying to discuss why some things are the way they are in relation to God's plan for us here on Earth. Both conversations were different but what I said to both of them was that I'm not sure why certain things are the way they are, but I do have a sure confidence that because Christ will be a perfectly just and merciful judge, everyone will get a fair chance and perfect judgment after this life. I think often times in the gospel we want or feel like we need all of the answers to every question. While I think it is good to seek answers to questions we have, I think sometimes Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to just trust Them. A well known scripture that I think encapsulates this idea in just a few words is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still, and know that I am God". Elder Bednar gave a great talk on this scripture in conference last week, here's a quote that I think explains the scripture well : "I believe the Lord's admonition to 'be still' entails much more than simply not talking or not moving. Perhaps His intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power 'at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in.' Thus, 'be still' may be a way of reminding us to focus upon the Savior unfailingly as the ultimate source of the spiritual stillness of the soul that strengthens us to do and overcome hard things." We definitely don't have all the answers and the reality is that during this life we never will. But I know that as we trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as much as we can, we can feel a peace even without the answers that we are seeking. 

❤️

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Mission Week 40

Monday, April 15, 2024

Mission Week 39

Hejsan, 

Hope everyone is doing well. Not much to say about this week for me but here is a few things that happened. 

All of the snow here was melted (at least where I am located in Sweden) and the weather was in the 40-50s but then on Tuesday it was basically a snowstorm all day so needless to say it felt like December again.

Also on Tuesday we had a meeting planned to meet with an inactive member, (he asked us to come). We asked him what he was wanting with us coming, and he just said "we'll see". Well when he let us into the apartment complex he turned around and just starting sprinting up the stairs to his apartment and when we follow him and got to his floor we just start getting yelled out to help lift stuff. So we helped him move but had no idea that's what we were going to be doing lol, I guess some sort of miscommunication with past missionaries but it was definitely interesting especially with the snow. 

The theme with this week was definitely lessons getting canceled. Looking back we had 3 lessons that we actually taught and then 11 that got canceled. Only 2 that canceled actually let us know beforehand so definitely very frustrating and disappointing. The lessons we had all went really well though. The Swede Rowan we have been teaching just keeps perfectly understanding everything we teach. We also taught another Swede that comes to our game night about the Book of Mormon. And then a girl from Sri Lanka also about the Book of Mormon. It has honestly been a struggle to teach with my companion because he doesn't let me say much but all of the people we taught were very receptive so that was good. Things not going great with my companion though. Won't say too much be he doesn't really participate in much and is not disciplined with basic and important things. 

I have nothing else to say about the week so I'll talk about something that has been going on for a while now that some of you might think is funny. Basically 2 areas and 5 months ago where I lived there was 2 teenage girls who lived across from the apartment that just think it's really funny to mess with the missionaries. Since I left that area they have still been trying to mess with me through facebook (I have their regular profiles blocked). But they have now created two profiles on facebook using my pictures and just doing weird random edits with me and sometimes some other missionaries included as well. They also baked a cake with my name on it and made a pillow case with my face on it. I know a lot of people who get my emails just scroll down and look at the pictures so I will not include the pictures of the cake and pillow case for that reason but if anyone is curious I can send them to you lol. Pretty weird and thought I would add because not much else interesting going on. 

Highlight of my week was definitely watching general conference though. We just watched at home because our branch is very small so they don't play it in the church. Very inspiring and it amazes me to go in with an entire page full of questions that apply to my life and every single one of them gets answered in one way or another. I encourage all of you to watch whether you are a member of the church or not:)

I would love to quote some of the talks but as the transcripts are not posted yet I would have to go back onto the livestream and write what the people said. But I will say that one of my favorite talks was Elder Renlunds. He talked about spiritual momentum, and how as we continually apply the doctrine of Christ into our lives (faith, repentance, baptism/sacrament, holy ghost, enduring to the end) and don't slow down or stop, it becomes easier to resist temptation and overcome the obstacles that are in our path. Spiritual momentum is definitely something I've thought a lot about, with this same topic of being able to hold on to, and remember the good spiritual experiences when temptation or trials come. President Nelson gave a great talk on spiritual momentum a couple years back. He gave 5 specific suggestions for how we can maintain positive spiritual momentum, but here is a quote I like that talks about the importance of spiritual momentum itself "We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now, to counteract the speed with which evil and the darker signs of the times are intensifying. Positive spiritual momentum will keep us moving forward amid the fear and uncertainty created by pandemics, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and armed hostilities. Spiritual momentum can help us withstand the relentless, wicked attacks of the adversary and thwart his efforts to erode our personal spiritual foundation." Simply put, powerful spiritual momentum comes from focusing on Jesus Christ. Through him, we can receive the strength to overcome our temptations and trials as well as find peace and joy amidst them. 

Ha det bra

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Mission Week 39

Sunday, April 7, 2024