Week 12 - Joy Despite Challenges

This week was a good week.

Tuesday we helped a member.  He is older and had some things in storage that needed to be moved to his apartment so we helped him out.  We then had a great lesson with him.  He shared with us his conversion story which was awesome!  We also shared some thoughts on prayer using Alma 37: 35 - 37.  We actually used those verses a lot in our appointments this week but they are really good description of the power of prayer and why it is important to pray to our Heavenly Father every day.  We had a lesson with an investigator fall through when he didn't show up ( missionaries here even have the term 'getting blåsted' for that situation (sounds like boasted)).  We ended up contacting for awhile and then calling some ward members and potential investigators.  

Wednesday we had a lot of good lessons on the street and we had a great lesson with an older lady in the ward that really brought the Spirit into our day, so that was awesome.

Thursday we had district meeting.  We had a really good discussion on what blessings do we receive from the other topics for this month which were setting goals, learning from opposition, and serving our companion.  It was also Äldste White's last district meeting so we had a funeral which was really funny.  We got him a pineapple instead of flowers which made it even funnier.  Just imagine a 20 year old guy laying on a table with a pineapple on his chest while we give our remarks as if he's dead.  It was hard to keep a straight face.

These are from the funeral, and the last 2 are pictures of our district.

I wasn't kidding about the pineapple.

Note from Mom: Mormon Missionaries often have their own unusual customs that are common in areas all over - where ever they may be serving. One of the admittedly stranger traditions is "funerals."  When Missionaries are near the end of their mission, they often have a "funeral."  It is a time when the missionaries they are serving with will say nice things about them as though they had already passed on (to a life beyond their mission) and as you see, they have fun with it.

Friday we did some service and raked leaves outside of the church.  We also did a lot of contacting because we got blåsted again... by the same guy.  Let's just say we are learning patience this week.  We had fun though contacting, we walked all the way to the edge of Landskrona, about 15 to 20 minutes away from our apartment, and then we waited for about 5 minutes for a bus back and right as it is about to pull up, my companion realized he left his bus card at the apartment... so we got to walk back instead.  It was rather amusing.  

Saturday we did another stand outside the church but no one was really interested.  We then had a member dinner.  We had weekly planning after that so that took up the rest of our day.

Sunday I gave a talk in Swedish!  It was only 5 minutes and I had to write the entire thing out ahead of time but it went really well.  A lot of the members said they liked it which was good.  The subject was how to experience joy despite life's challenges.  I ended up using the talk from this last October General Conference titled "Joy and Spiritual Survival" by Russell M Nelson.  It is a really good talk about how joy comes not from what happens to us but what we focus, especially if we focus on the Plan of Salvation, Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  I also shared Doctrine and Covenants 122:7 about how we have difficulty in this life to give us experiences for our good.  I then went back to the talk and shared the story that Elder Nelson talks about from Eliza R Snow about the saints in a freezing winter huddled in a cabin with wind blowing through the cracks and then he quotes 

Eliza recorded: “Not a complaint was heard—all were cheerful, and judging from appearances, strangers would have taken us to be pleasure excursionists rather than a band of gubernatorial exiles.” 

Eliza’s report of that exhausting, bone-chilling evening was strikingly optimistic. She declared: “That was a very merry night. None but saints can be happy under every circumstance.”

I really loved this great example of how they were able to find joy despite the unpleasantness of their situation because of their focus on the Gospel.  If we have an Eternal Perspective, or God's perspective, we can always find joy.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and find the joy in life.

--Elder Ashford

Old Water Tower in Landskrona designed by Frederick Sundbärg in 1903-4.