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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