Hello all, hope everyone is well and had a good week. Here is a summary of my week:
We had some pretty productive lessons this week. The first was on Tuesday with our friend Fadi (the painter with all the paintings in his office). It seems a lot of people we are teaching in this area just meet with us because they believe in Jesus Christ but don't really understand the weight/importance of our message. Well having a missionary straight from the MTC as my companion is pretty good for helping with that, as he just comes into every lesson and teaches the basics about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith (because it's all he knows haha). It was good for Fadi to get a good understanding of why the Book of Mormon is imporant and what the significance of the Restoration really is. He asks a lot of questions which is really helpful, and every time he refers to the church he just says "Mahmoni", which I'm guessing is a mix of Mormon+Moroni+his accent? Not sure haha but kinda funny. He keeps asking us if there are any painters in "Mahmoni" that he can talk to so he can promote his art in a different place.
On Wednesday we had a lot of time in the middle of the day planned to go out on the streets and talk to people, but it was unfortunately pouring rain outside. So I decided that we would go to the place that I went to with my old companion a couple weeks ago, where the guy let us in and then got really mad when we talked about the Book of Mormon. This place is almost all Syrian people, and I think it is place the goverment sends immigrants because almost every door answered at 1 in the afternoon so I guess none of them work. With the Syrians here in Södertälje almost every single one is Orthodox Christian so the door knocking didn't go too well. However, there was a younger guy who just let us in, and we sat and asked him about his faith. He grew up Orthodox but never felt what everyone else was feeling so is now agnostic and tries every couple of months to see if he can feel something from the faith. I was trying to bear my testimony about how believing in God could help him in his life and he was just kinda grunting or saying a few sentences to my remarks. Eventually after it felt like I was talking to a wall I just asked him why he even let us in, and he replied and said he thought maybe we had a message to share or something. So we went straight in to talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and by the end he said he would read the Book of Mormon and he hopes that he would get the answer that we are promising. May seem like a regular thing for a missionary but in Sweden with an agnostic Syrian Orthodox that was a pretty big miracle for us.
Later that night we had a lesson with Michel, but it became pretty chaotic because it was at a member's house. This younger couple in the ward invited us for dinner and said we could bring a friend which was great but the problem was that they also invited the wife's brother and his girlfriend. The brother has left the church for the Orthodox church and his girlfriend is grown up Orthodox. We taught a lesson to Eva (the girlfriend) last week and she texted us after saying she is not interested in becoming a member of our church, but then this time was asking us to teach her about specific topics in our church, but the whole time was just trying to prove us wrong saying "it doesn't say that in the Bible". A bit frustrating for me because they took the focus away from Michel and weren't actually trying to learn but Michel is doing ok. He has constant ups and downs with how he is spiritually progressing so I am praying that he, at some point, can really commit himself so that he can feel the spiritual progression he is looking for.
On Thursday we had a lesson with this guy who referred himself online to meet with us a while ago but anytime we call him he just says that he is busy working and he is always in Stockholm. Well we had an appointment in Stockholm for my companion to get his visa picture taken, so we thought we might as well meet up with this guy (Glenn) while we were there. It was a very interesting lesson. One of the more materialistic people I have met on my mission. He works with a bunch of different restaurants, helping them with their menus on their websites and helping with economical and social media stuff. We tried to talk with him about his faith but anytime we tried to bring up anything religious he just said "how can I use this information" in a sense of like how can he use the information to help him earn more money or make it higher in the business industry. It is funny because even though he is not interested in the faith at all he for some reason thinks I am a really hard working and dedicated person with a good drive (I guess because I call him a lot trying to schedule meetings like any other missionary would?) and always just saying that he is going to make me rich one day because of my drive.
On Friday we went out to the people who live in the forest and chopped wood and picked lingonberries with them. Later that day we had a lesson with this guy named Joy from Ghana that we met earlier in the week. He is a really wholesome guy and kept saying that he couldn't not come to our meeting because he promised us he would and he couldn't break his promise. But the lesson was really good and he left really committed to reading the Book of Mormon.
Later than night we had a meal with our member from Romania who got baptized last year. She is a really nice lady and has a real interest in the deeper concepts of the gospel so it is always fun to teach her more.
On Saturday we ate gyros with our Greek friend Chris again and then we had a lesson later that night with this Syrian lady who has been taught for a while. We talked about authority and the conversation kind of just went in circles because her belief/points were kind of based on a circular reasoning so it was a little frustrated but definitely increased my testimony of the importance of a living prophet and a church with full truth and authority.
Among missionaries the concept is often brought up that if we are more obedient we will in turn get more blessings. While I think that it is truth God can bless us for our obedience because that is an act of faith, I think that the concept is a bit misconstrued. Elder Renlund has a really good talk about how blessings are obtained, here's some lines that I find interesting and instructive:
"Blessings from heaven are neither earned by frenetically accruing 'good deed coupons' nor by helplessly waiting to see if we win the blessing lottery...most blessings that God desires to give us require action on our part—action based on our faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in the Savior is a principle of action and of power. First we act in faith; then the power comes—according to God's will and timing. The sequence is crucial. The required action, though, is always tiny when compared to the blessings we ultimately receive."
I think it is important to understand that blessings are not earned, but rather qualified for based on our actions of faith. We can never change God's will, so we just act in faith and keep moving forward. So we shouldn't be obedient to commandments in order to receive blessings, but instead because we have faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and Their will for us.
I had an exchange over email with one of the most faithful people I know, and he talked about how he has learned to "live by faith"; living an obedient life and then moving forward while confidently waiting to see the Lord's hand guiding us along. I think this is spot on. We as God's children will never be able to change His will, so it is our job to live with faith in Him and the knowledge (however limited) He has revealed to us. And then we can rest with a surety knowing that whatever happens is according to God's will and timing.
Have a blessed week
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