Tjena,
This week was a grind and felt really long. But naturally there was a few interesting and good things that happened because of it.
The first 4 days of the week we basically had nothing planned as far as meetings with the people we are teaching or other activities. As I explained last week there's not really any good places to talk to people in so those first 4 days of the week were spent almost entirely talking to people in the small mall or door knocking. It was pretty exhausting just being out talking to strangers all day. Swedes are really hard and frustrating hahaha. The majority have grown up not believing in God, think that there is no afterlife, and don't really believe there is any reason for us being here on Earth. And they are not interested in the slightest to learn about it. And the rare Swede that is already Christian is usually pretty set on their own church and doesn't want to share perspectives. So the average outsider would think that we only talk to people who aren't from Sweden but the truth is that those are really the only people that will talk to us most of the time. But with all of that considered in all of the many hours of being out talking to people there was some good interactions sprinkled in and even a few with some Swedes :) -
-An interesting french lady who has three phones who initially didn't want to talk to me but after asking about nature in the surrounding area I was able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and she was really receptive
-A Colombian lady who was not interested at all until I pulled out the Book of Mormon and when I did she looked at it for a second and then told me to take her phone number and told me a day we could come by
-A Chinese guy who initially rejected me but like 30 minutes later he found me and waited while I was talking to someone else and then came up and asked me a bunch of questions about the church and being a missionary
- A younger Swede who has played professional hockey in Washington and is also super open to talking about Jesus together
Another interaction this week that gives an idea of what Swedes are like happened on the bus. I sat next to this teenager with earbuds in and just asked him if he had had a good day. He quietly said yes and then I just followed by asking where we was headed. He just avoided eye contact and after pausing for a second just said "why do you want to know". I replied by just saying I was just trying to chat with him and he quickly switched his attitude and said "ohhhhh you don't come from here do you". It could've been because my Swedish but by the way the conversation went I'm like 95% sure it was because I was just talking to someone next to me on the bus and Swedes literally just don't do that. So me and my companion got a good laugh out of that. And I ended up having a really nice conversation with the kid.
On Friday we had two different members ask us to help them with yardwork. It was a sunny day and nice to get a break from just talking to strangers the entire day. One of the places we did service at was for a super rich couple who literally had a lake and this giant hill for their backyard so that was really pretty. Directly after service we had a lesson with this guy who has been taught by the missionaries for like 3 years but just has a lot of problems with different commandments and aspects of his life. Me and my companion realized as we were walking up the stairs to his apartment that we forgot to plan his lesson (had literally been doing service all day) so we kind of just had to wing it. But it was really cool to see how the spirit just took over and guided the entire lesson, and I think we helped Helge realize the steps he needs to take and things he needs to consider if he wants to come closer to the Savior. A nice moment where God definitely knew that we intended to plan the lesson so He helped us have a better lesson than we could have planned anyways.
On Saturday we had a lesson with a guy from Uganda. He is a really deep thinker and has many many questions about pretty complicated deep doctrine things. The lesson/discussion went really long and was made more confusing for him thanks to the older member who was there with us who kept bringing up information (some true and some false) that just gave him more questions and didn't answer his original question anyways haha. Me and my companion were talking after and said that we were both thinking throughout the lesson "well this is the last time Rainmark will want to meet with us" because of how off the rails the lesson was going. But here was another example of the power of the spirit. My companion was able to tell about his conversion story and from that point on in the lesson the vibe changed from argumentative, to Rainmark honestly seeking answers to his questions and humbly listening to what we had to say. It was cool to see and really nothing but the power of God that made it happen considering the things our member was saying😂🤦♂️.
Me and my companion (mostly my companion lol) were getting caught up on some doctrinal questions this week that were making us pretty confused and I could tell it was definitely testing my companions faith. As the week progressed it seemed these questions became less of a worry to us and I was listening to a talk yesterday that reminded me of what is most important. The talk was "Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives" by President Nelson and as you can probably tell by the title focuses a lot on Jesus Christ and His atonement. President Nelson quotes Joseph Smith in the talk where he says "the fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it." This quote was a good reminder to me that though it is good to seek answers to our questions, our main focus should always remain steadfastly upon Christ. It reminded me that "because of Jesus Christ, everything can be OK" (Amy Wright).
Later in the talk President Nelson talks about how we obtain the power of Jesus Christ in our lives as it is our greatest desire to receive His help. "When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do." After reading this it made me sit and ponder if the greatest desire of my heart is to come closer to Christ and draw in His power. And if it is my greatest desire, is that reflected in my actions and thoughts? And if it isn't my greatest desire, what is? And what do I want it to be?
That's kind of a lot of my thoughts but I'm sharing those questions I thought about because I think those are good questions we can all consider whether or not you believe in Christ. Just thinking about how our actions reflect what our desires really are.
Like President Nelson explains, no it is not easy to have our focus fully on Jesus Christ, "it is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought". But as we do, "our doubts and fears will flee". I've definitely noticed a difference in my life from putting in that extra effort to do my best in truly focusing on Christ in every thought. It does make a difference and it is worth the effort required.
Ha en fin vecka😁
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