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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