Hey everybody!
So Im writing this week a little earlier because I have interum tomorrow which is basically a thing where all the new missionaries go back to the mission home in Helsinki and have a 3 day training session which will be super fun! Ill get to see all the people in my MTC group again which is going to be super fun!
This week has been good,
Wednesday I went on splits with two other Elders from Jyväskyla, Elder Smith and Elder Kontinen. Elder Kontinen is a native fin, so his finnish is super good. He has an experience just like in President Monsons talk "Standing alone" that he told me about. So in Finland its required that when your 18 you have to serve a year or two in the finnish army. On sunday everyone was lined up and they were calling to see what religion everybody was. They would shout, if your catholic stand up! Then they would do that with the listed religions, and then they said all other religions stand up. 3 people stood up including him, but the two others were Jehovah Witness so he was the last one standing. They then called on him in front of the whole army crowd and asked what religion he was. Im part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was his response. I just thought that was the coolest story, and President Monson just had an exact talk like that, except he had like two other mormons behind him. Anyway just remember where you stand.
So one of our investigators from China came to church today which was super great! She had a great time even though it was hard for her to understand the translation into English. We have translators at our church because we have a few people here that only speak english so they have a translator in the back and they all have headsets which is cool.
This week I was reading in Elder Bednars talk "Our burdens made light". A passage stuck out to me, and is said "As we come to know the Enabling Power of Jesus Christ more, instead of asking God to change our circumstances according to our will, we will pray for the strength to learn from, grow, and overcome our current situation". My goal has been not to only just pray for answers to my questions, but to go out and try my best to have those questions answered. For works without faith is dead. If parents did everything for there kids, the kids would learn nothing. Sometimes we dont like to see the kids mess up and get hurt because they try on there own, but thats how they learn and grow. However, the parents are always there lovingly giving support and occasionally stepping in to help them when the kids cant help themselves. Its the same thing with ourselves and Jesus Christs Atonement. We sometimes mess up, and without his atonement we our helpless. Sometimes we ask for guidance or answers and feel like we get none, but sometimes God wants us to act first, and then he will help us. Its only through that, that we learn and grow. One of my favorite quotes is "He who never makes a mistake, misses a great many opportunities to learn and grow", or another is "The only people who dont stumble on roadblocks, are the ones sitting down". I just remember President Uchtdorfs talk about how church is a spirit hospital. We are either growing our testimony, or were not. Theres never a point where we just sitdown and it stays idle. We always have to be acting to grow it. If not then we are moving backwards instead of forwards. That is why Jesus Christ atonement is so essential, because he allows us to overcome those mistakes and to keep growing.
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