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 :)
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