SOCIAL MEDIA

Mission Week 19

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Hello hope everybody has had a good week

A lot happened this week but not a bunch to write about.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of saying bye to all of my friends that I made while in Övik. Max and Andrea our awesome ward members, Suhaila an inactive member, Abraham one of the friends we were teaching, Daniel another friend we were teaching, and Idowu a lady that we met a few times but gave us back the Book of Mormon we gave when I said bye :(. Also the Curtises who are the senior missionaries serving in Övik and then my companion obviously too. It was definitely sad to say goodbye to all these people, I have grown to love them and love Övik in my time spent there.

Thursday was transfer day. How transfers work here in Sweden is that if you or your companion is switching areas you meet at the train station in Stockholm with a bunch of other missionaries. Most of my MTC district was there and it was fun to see them. Then we took the train to our new area.

The rest of the week we didn't spend much time in our actual area. Our area takes the top third of Göteborg (Gothenberg) and the other area in Göteborg is Västra Frölunda which takes the rest of it. Västra Frölunda has a trio, and two of them went to Stockholm for a baptism. So we spent Friday night and all day Saturday with Elder Belnap who is the one from the trio who stayed. Elder Belnap was in me and my companions' MTC group so it was a fun couple of days. We had a lot of lessons planned but most of them fell through so we just did a lot of finding (talking to people on the bus or on the street). If feels really weird but awesome to be in a big city now, it's like a completely different mission from my old area but I already like it much better for the most part. Probably the biggest change about being in the city is the public transportation. We take only buses/trams now and so that is where we spend a lot of our time talking to people. It is definitely out of my comfort zone to go sit next to someone on the bus when nearly the whole bus is empty, but I am working on it haha. 

Sunday was church obviously and our ward has around 50 people which also felt really really weird. It felt good to not have to do anything for church besides a prayer hahaha. 

For pday today we just played basketball in the Västra Frölunda church because they actually have a hoop (unfortunately the one in our church is only 8 feet tall but beggars can't be choosers I guess). I also got my first hair cut in Sweden which turned out pretty good but I got a little scared when I realized the dude was not cutting it how I wanted halfway through (I just showed him a picture for how to cut it). I explained to him what I wanted and he looked at me with wide eyes like he had already messed it up, but then quickly calmed down and said that he would fix it. 

Of course even with the good times comes continued discouragement and loss of motivation. When I was feeling like that today some lyrics from Kanye were stuck in my head just reciting over and over again. 
"Use this gospel for protection
It's a hard road to heaven
We call on your blessings
In the father, we put our faith"
As surprising as it may sound, some Kanye lyrics gave me comfort. It was a good reminder that faith in Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Their gospel, is what protects us from our trials in life and helps us to feel continued joy amidst them. A quote from this past conference emphasizes the same point. Elder Costa said "Faith in Jesus Christ is the feeling of peace to withstand the storm, knowing that we will not perish because He is in the ship with us."
Jesus Christ is joy and strength! As we rely on Him and His gospel we can overcome anything in life.

Have a great week❤️

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