This week has been totally PITKUMAINEN!!! That is Finnish for Tubular hahaha
Anyway I thought I would do my email a little differently this week. I do the same thing all the time. This week I have been thrown into a spiritual pool hahah. So I'm going to share the things that I have learned and things that I have thought about this week.
Sunday: Today is Sunday, pretty clear day with a good view of the fire. It's funny here at the MTC cause you have no idea what is going on in the outside world. The stories you hear that people come up with are pretty funny and we have a good time. Anyway, it is my 5th Sunday here and for the past month I have been District Leader and today I was released. They switch you halfway through your time here. Its weird, I read what I wrote when I was first called. I told myself that I would give it my best. I personally don't like callings, I have always said I just want to be left alone ahah. I can honestly say that I did give it my all. I feel like I did everything to help my district and did my best to help them when they were struggling. My district has really helped me in what I have been asked to do. Yeah we have had issues but doesn't everyone? I have loved how open they have been with me cause I have been able to get to know them. You really have to look at them through Christ's eyes. You have to genuinely love them. Sometimes all people need is someone to listen. They just need to talk about whatever is going on. I feel I have gotten better at listening to people. Surprisingly you will always learn something. Something good comes out on both ends, for them and for you. I have learned so much from the people that I served and served with. I think they have done more for me that I ever could have done for them. I am thankful for the chance to be DL and I am excited to be able to help people the same way they have helped me.
Now we had a Ponder Review and that is something we do every Sunday and this is what I had.
ACTS 9:6- "What wilt thou have me do?"
It is an interesting question. At this time Paul is speaking against and persecuting the Lord. He meets Jesus Christ and immediately asks "What wilt thou have me do?" Are we, as disciples of Christ, ready to come unto him in repentance and want to change? It all depends on our attitude and our true intentions. Paul trembled when he was confronted by Christ but, he had a desire and he had faith. We have to have the faith that we can be helped. If we never have the desire to change and have the faith that we will be helped and can change, we never will. Without the ACTION we will always remain in the same state and we can never progress. James 1:22 " Be ye doers of the word, not only hearers" We can listen all we want but without that ACTION it is completely pointless. It is similar to Faith without works is dead.
Think of it this way, Lets say I am wanting to change the color of a wall in my house. I can think all I want about the supplies I need and the color I want to paint it. But that wall will never change unless I go buy the supplies and paint the wall. The Desire was there but no action. You have to ACT! You can't change unless you act. Now sometimes that action to change is hard. Well guess what? We have an extra painter to help us paint that wall and his name is Jesus Christ. He is always there to help us. We may not have him directly in front of us like Paul, but he is always there. All we got to do is ask for help. "What wilt thou have me do?"
We watched the talk "One by One" by Elder Bednar that night. This is what I got. 1) "You go out two by two, to teach one by one" We are out teaching the one. Like the Parable of the lost sheep, we go out to find that one lost sheep. How great will be be the joy if you bring but one soul back. Sometimes that one soul is us, and that is great in the sight of God. 2) There is no such thing as a coincidence when you are on the Lords errand. The Lord puts people in places at specific times for us. He has been working on people way before we get there and way before we ever meet them. We are on the Lords errand, He is not going to leave us alone in his work. He wants this work to progress as much, even more than we do. It would be dumb if He left us alone in his work. That just doesn't make sense.
Monday: 2 Nephi 7:11- "Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled." Now I thought that this was a way cool saying. I took it as the Fire represents your testimony and the sparks are the little bits that strengthen your testimony. But also what we do can give people their sparks and we can receive sparks that we kindle and grow to be part of our fire. So then by walking in the Light of your fire you live by what you know. As long as you stay in the light of your fire you can never get lost. Now with the more you grow your fire its going to get bigger and your light source will be stronger. And maybe someone who is lost in the dark may stumble upon your light. Your light can be what saves someone from and endless darkness. That is what missionary work is. We are the Flint sending sparks starting fires. Then one day nobody will be lost in the dark. 3 Nephi 12:16 "Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven." Embrace that light. Let it shine, continually grow it so that it may shine brighter so that men may see your good works. We as missionaries are to use our light to find those in the dark. Don't hide your light cause that could be the deciding factor on whether or not they stay lost.
Tuesday: I have read a lot about light the last 2 days. 2 Nephi 12:5 "Come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord" From what I have taken out of it Light, can represent truth, testimony, and Christ. It doesn't matter where you are in your life. If you are lost in darkness find LIGHT. Start with the light of Christ, or someone else's light. You are safe in the Light. Cause the light you are in could spark and start a fire of your own (2 Nephi 7:11). It all comes down to you kindling your fire. Kindle what you know to be true to build a fire from it. Something small can become something big and bring you out of darkness. 2 Nephi 19:2 "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Now that is interesting. Those who walk in darkness HAVE seen the light, they have been in the light. "Upon them hath the light shined" You had the light? What made you leave the light? What made you walk away? Come back to the light cause that is where you are safe. If you are lost find the light, or else you could wander in darkness for life.
Wednesday: FUNNY STORY: Me and my companion planning a lesson.
My companion: " Wanna see the pus that came from the zit I just popped?" Geeze it was a good one, it was juicy"
Me: "No, I do not want to see it but I am going to write this down ahahah"
My companion: " Here let me put it on the paper in your journal, It will be funny! you can keep it forever ahaha"
As you can see we we're struggling just a little bit ahaha
But we had TRC today and it was our last one before we go to Skype TRC next week. So me and my companion planned our lesson all focused on Baptism. So what we do to plan our lessons..we write it out in English and take those notes in with us so we force ourselves to translate to Finnish. We try not to even use the paper. So we went into our first lesson and IT WAS BOMB! We barely used our notes and said what we wanted to say. So we had an amazing lesson and we still had one more to go. So we taught this guy and he was so COOL! He reminded me of a former "investigator" who we taught our first TRC. But our lesson with him was amazing. SO GOOD! He was so chill and I felt like I could relate to him cause I kinda have that laid back surfer mentality ahaha. So I loved that because I always wondered how my personality would work in Finland because that is the total opposite of the beach ahah. But to see other people just like me and they also served in Finland. Plus the language is still a pain in the butt but they said we were doing great. You just gotta have the faith!!
Finnish words for this week:
Pitkumainen- Tubualar
Radikaali- Radical
Funny huh? ahaha
#1-2 View from his classroom
#3-11 volleyball Friday night
#12-14...he didn't say who they are....I'm guessing from his district:)
#15 His bed:))
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