This week reminded me of how much, and how indescribable, the joy is that comes from the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. And there is NOTHING better than dedicating all your time and talents to spreading that joy and hopeful message with other people.
I want to share a cool experience we had Monday night, which just like last week, served as a springboard for the rest of the week. It was 8 o'clock Monday night (again) and we were heading back from a members home to go contacting in the city with the other elders until the end. I was working with Elder Steed, an awesome young missionary from a tiny town in Utah. We were going hard, talking to everybody, being passionate and not really seeing any results. It was a little before 9 and time to go home, but the other elders were on the bench teaching somebody, so we kept going! We end up stopping this 25ish year old Norsk guy with headphones in and a hat on backwards. He tells us to wait a second while he ends his phone call and hands us his hat while we were waiting. And guess whose logo was on the hat?? BYU COUGARS. Turns out he went on a trip for school and ended up in Utah at some point. He's been wearing the hat for the last 3 years and can't wait to learn more about the church.
I found a way to play some more basketball this week as well! There is this philipino guy that we found last week and started teaching. He invited us to the rec center and we played with all his philipino friends! I was way taller than everybody haha, It was blast and we've got several of them we are hoping to start teaching soon!
A missionary motto I really like is to always have your line in the water. On Friday, I was on splits with Elder Jacobs and we were helping a part member family in the ward move. One of the professional movers there immediately caught my eye because of how much he was smiling. Over the next couple hours I talked to him quite a bit about a lot of random things including the church. As we were leaving I went to say bye to him and he said, "Where is your church? I would love to learn more!" No matter where you are or what you are doing, you can always find people to teach. We referred him over to Oslo to be taught by the elders there.
We visited B. and W. quite a bit this week and were able to teach about the plan of Salvation. We felt impressed to focus the whole lesson on the Spirit World and shared some scriptures from the bible and taught that doctrine. She was blown away. It's such a beautiful and logical truth. It all ties back to the first principle we teach people: "God is our Loving Heavenly Father." His plan is a plan of love and hope. It's not just for people born into Christian families or born into our church, but it is for every single human being that ever was or will be. As we work to prepare for the second coming here on earth, the same is happening on the other side of the veil! Everybody receives their fair chance to accept the gospel and its ordinances in their fullness. When we asked W. what it would mean if this was true she said, "I would shout from the rooftops!"
Conference was awesome! The Priesthood meeting may have been my favorite. Especially the talks by Anderson and Eyring. So much good that comes out of those talks. I know this is the "true and living church." True because the doctrine is pure and living because God is at the helm and directs a living prophet and 12 apostles. We need His church, we need His leaders, and we need each other.
Have a great week!
Love,
Eldste Parkinson
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| B. at Priesthood session! So fly! |
