Yo what's good hope everybody had a good week.
Decently eventful week with some pretty good stuff for me:
On Tuesday we had splits (switching companions for a day) with some Elders. They came to our area so we tried to schedule a bunch of lessons so the day was eventful. Last week I met a really cool guy on the street who is from Sierra Leone, plays basketball, and was interested in the Book of Mormon. Me and the Elder I was with for the day were able to teach him on Tuesday. The lesson started off surprisingly with him telling me that he is Muslim which he did not say when we met haha, but then he proceeded to say that he believes Jesus is the Son of God and died for our sins (which Muslims do not believe). We had a pretty chill conversation about faith and it seemed like he probably just considers himself Muslim cuz his family is but his faith reflects a Christian from what I could tell. He was really open to everything we talked about and seems interested in reading the Book of Mormon which is great. After the lesson we shot around on the church basketball hoop a little as well and he is actually pretty good for only having played 2 years. Also side note but the Elder I was with for the day went to high school with me (Connor Walton for those who know) so that was kinda cool to think that we are both here all the way from home.
On Wednesday we gave a church tour to this dude from Nigeria and he was really intrigued asking a lot of questions and then we taught about the Book of Mormon and though he was slightly skeptical he had a lot of interest to read it and kept asking for chapters on specific topics that he could read. Was a little hard to find a chapter with a theme of prosperity haha but he definitely seemed excited to read all the chapters we gave him.
Despite having a good amount of lessons we still had quite a bit of street contacting this week. I met a lot of really cool people that I have high hopes for, but I don't think it's worth mentioning any of them until something else happens. But there are 2 notable people I can talk about.
One is an African lady that I met early in the week on Wednesday I think who had just gotten back from 3 months of missionary service in Peru for her church. After a good conversation about missionary work, she asked if there was anything she could do to help out in our missionary work, and I just said we are sharing a unique message if she wanted to hear and she agreed so I told her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and such and she seemed pretty skeptical but it seemed like if I had more time to explain I could have helped her understand because she was pretty open. Unfortunately we had a lesson planned in like 5 minutes so I told her I had to go but asked if I could get her number and we could talk more another time. She said no, and that if God wanted it to happen the Holy Spirit would guide us to meet again (A lot of people say this to us as missionaries and we never meet them again lol). She said that she takes the same route every day so I was looking out for her the rest of the week and didn't see her any of the days. But finally on Sunday when there was like no one on the street to talk to I ran into her and she reluctantly gave me her number haha so that was a simple cool moment.
The other is a teenage girl that I met on Tuesday who is originally from Peru but comes directly from living in Virginia for 7 years. She had only been in Sweden like 2 days when we met so after she said she was Christian I just invited her to church assuming she didn't have one yet. She ended up coming for a church tour on Saturday night and we had a member with us that connected with her really well and she seemed to really like church the next day despite a bunch of the young kids going crazy during the service. Not everyday that we meet someone that new to Sweden who doesn't have a church so that was awesome.
This transfer as a mission we are focusing on studying about the Holy Ghost and have been studying a couple of scriptures a day from this long list of scriptures that talk about different ways the Holy Ghost can help us. So I have been able to read many scriptures that talk about how - through the power of the Holy Ghost - we can know "all things" or be told what to do in the moment that we need it. While I have no doubt that these scriptural promises are true, we definitely all have moments where we feel that following a prompting didn't lead us to a good result, or lack to even feel help from the Holy Ghost at all. It can easy to become doubtful or frustrated when we beg for guidance and feel like we don't receive anything. Or when we follow what we felt like was a strong prompting and then end up in an even worse situation. Elder Pieper shared such an experience this past general conference, where he prayed for guidance of where to work and after following the guidance they received, everything seemed to become a lot worse. He describes the trial it was for him "I began to question the decision we had made and its accompanying confirmation. We had trusted in the Lord, and things were supposed to work out. I had fallen backward, and it now appeared that no one was going to catch me." He goes on to explain that when praying about his challenges, he got the impression "Don't ask why; ask what I want you to learn". Though it takes a lot of mental strength and faith, we should try and see our trials as opportunities for growth. Whether we receive a prompting that later feels wrong, or think we received no prompting at all, we can always choose to trust in God and in His intricate plan for us. If we are seeking guidance from God we are always being guided, whether or it feels like it. And of course sometimes we will be guided into things that are difficult, because difficult experiences are what stretch our faith and engender growth. I have definitely seen this principle on my mission as I am now on the other side of some difficult experiences and can look back and see how much I need them to help me grow. God is always with us and He always knows what is best for us.
🙏❤️
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