Porvoo is holding up well, despite my interfering! We are just about as busy as we normally are, which is to say, not much, with one shining exception.
We have been meeting with that investigator that I talked about a bit. He initially referred himself to the church website because he kept encountering the church after he prayed to feel closer to God, and to find him in his life. He says that he hasn't seen any lightning bolts lately, so he's taking that as a good sign.
He is just SO awesome, I think that he will be one of the people that I stay with in contact the most after my mission. He is 19, just about 2 years older than me, and is soaking up the Gospel like a sponge. We have met with him, wait for it, for the last 6 days. All of them. We have had 4 lessons, one Sunday where he came to church again, and then he also showed up to a baptism that was happening in Haaga. (side note: it was actually really cool to go to Haaga for that, because I recognized the person getting baptized! She is a relative to people in Tampere, so quite a few people were there that I knew and got to see again! So cool.) Yeah, so, we've met with him a lot. He is worried that we're gonna get sick of him, and we are worried the other way around, but we all just laugh it off and keep meeting. We are also meeting with him today and tomorrow, so that will be a week and a day straight meeting with him consecutively. He's REALLY cool.
That's about all the happenings in Porvoo right now, so, on to the Qs!
Have you heard if you are being transferred? I am holding your mail... :)
I haven't heard, yet. I will be finding out this Friday/Saturday, so it'll be in my next letter. I hope that I am staying 1 more change, so that I can see our investigator accept the gospel in its fullness through the covenant of baptism. Elder Saunders, however, is predicting (or cursing me) that I will be training someone in Porvoo next change, especially when he heard that I knew someone coming out in the next group due to them sending an email after reading my blog. So, we'll see how it all goes down!
How are you doing?
I'm doing well. The hardest thing I'm facing right now is (since I've overcome all of the walking, I'm just trucking on all the time) retaining weight. I managed to gain weight in the MTC just in case due to the efforts of several concerned missionaries (thanks, guys, for the 3+ rounds of ice cream each day and the exercise routine), but I have kinda just been hovering around 125 lbs thereafter. They got me up to 128, so that's not so much a loss, but I don't want to lose back to what I used to be... So, that's the biggest trial.
I am LOVING being out here, though! It is just so great to be with Elder Saunders, and I am a bit worried as to how I will potentially have to change and adapt to another companion after clicking so well with the one I have.
What did you learn this week?
I have mostly been reading from Jesus the Christ, still, but our investigator asked for us yesterday to talk about Miracles and Faith. The Bible Dictionary definitions for both of those are just really good, so I ended up doing a whole study based off of following those references.
What did you share this week?
When we shared that lesson with him yesterday, he entirely opened up to us about how it is that he is feeling this choice to be the right one in his life. He talked about his past, and certain trials that he's overcome to feel that he has grown to be able to accept God in his life, and a bunch of other things that just made it really cool to hear his testimony. I hope that I can stay in good contact with him.
After he opened up like that, I felt prompted to give him a few of my favorite scriptures that kind of have to do with enduring to the end, a concept that he really likes. I said that from what he's said, it sounds like he already knows how trials are for our good, and that I just wanted to give him a few references that testify of it. He graciously listened to my words, and one particular scripture he interrupted me on and asked if that was in context of a certain situation. I replied yes, and then he bore testimony on how true it all was. It was a great thing for me to hear, that someone can be so prepared to know the truth as soon as it is given unto them.
He also, in the space of less than a week, has managed to finish off from 2nd Nephi to all of Alma. He's a voracious reader, and he says it's easier to read so much since he likes all of what it is saying. He talked about how he thinks that each part must be in there because it is directly important for our day, and that was really cool to hear!
Did you do anything silly this week?
Hmm... I can't really think of anything... There has been no walking-on-(frozen-)water lately, mostly due to the warming temperatures, but who knows? There's still time left to do something crazy if we search for it! ;)
Well, that's about it for today, so I think that'll wrap all of this up! I hope that you all are doing well, and I wish you all a happy upcoming March!
Vanhin David Milligan
No comments:
Post a Comment