The highlight of the week was the multi stake conference that we had on Sunday! It was a broadcasted meeting from Scotland and it was presided over by Elder Holland! Every single talk was incredible and Elder Holland's talk at the end literally blew me away. Not sure if I blinked for the whole 40 minutes. At first I was trying to figure out if he was using a teleprompter, because of how articulate he was, but I quickly realized that it was all just straight inspiration from the heavens. The topic was the Book of Mormon and it felt kind of like a Part 2 to the talk he gave a while ago called "Safety for the Soul." One thing that I really liked was how he talked about how the Book of Mormon was the spring board to his testimony. It reminded me of when I was in college and trying to figure out when I wanted to serve my mission. I had been a member my whole life, kept the commandments, been to seminary, and had lots of spiritual experiences, but for some reason something seemed to be holding me back. I remember feeling strongly impressed that I had to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover before I could consider sending my mission papers in. I had that two week break before Fall Semester of school started and set it as a goal to finish it during that period of time. I read up to Alma and it was the night before my interview with Bishop. I decided to finish it that night and spent the entire night reading. It was that night that I received an overwhelming confirmation of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and it was that moment that really served as the springboard for my testimony.
We have been really trying to improve the way in which we do member work. As a companionship we have been encouraging members to be agents and come up with their own commitments! Members want to do missionary work and there is really no need for us to just tell them what to do! Once they have come up with commitments (giving away a Book of Mormon, inviting an investigator into their home) we have been practicalling (role playing) the situation with them! It has been way powerful to me to see how much power there is in sharing the gospel with somebody you know. We talk to tons of people each day that we have never seen before, but when you get the invitation from a friend it has so much more power.
You may remember that I mentioned a man in Oslo that was baptized named Drago. He has moved to the Sandvika ward and we have been working with him! He is very hard to communicate with, but has a passionate testimony and comes to church every week in a suit! His family should be coming over from Croatia in a few months which is way exciting.
We are heading to Stavanger on Thursday for the first of the Zone Conferences. It will be my first time going to the western part of Norway!
Not much else to say this week. Love you all and appreciate the support!
Love,
Eldste Parkinson
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| Picture of a hike we went on with an investigator. |
