July 1, 2019 The privilege and blessing of being a missionary

Karlstad

The district

The last letter. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that... I can remember clearly waking up some mornings toward the beginning of my mission feeling like two years is an eternity, and now here I am at the end of my mission and it seems like it was just a month ago I left home and put on my missionary name tag for the first time.

My mission president has emphasized the need to run through the finish line, not to it. If your goal is the finish line, you'll inevitably let up just before you reach it, but if your goal is beyond the finish line you'll finish at full speed. That has always been my goal, and I couldn't feel better about my last week in the mission field. Elder Clarke and I went to work together, and with the help and guidance of the Lord we found six new people to teach this week. Most of them are between the ages of 20-25 and all of them have incredible potential. I'm heartbroken I don't get to continue teaching them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I'm grateful that I got to be at least a small part in inviting them to come unto Christ.

One of the most incredible experiences we had finding them was on Wednesday when we were riding our bikes into town to go street contacting. We usually ride all the way into town, but we received the

Helping our Elders Quorum

 president fix a bike

prompting to stop and leave the bikes locked up a little ways outside town and then walk and talk to people the rest of the way. We left our bikes and hadn't walked more than 30 yards when we saw a guy standing just outside a nearby door. We had walked past him, but I felt strongly that we should go talk to him and as soon as we did, two of his friends came out and joined him. I've never met anyone so willing to talk to us, and all three of them had a lot of great questions for us and asked about the Book of Mormon. We taught them right then and there about Jesus Christ and shared our own personal experiences and testimonies of his reality. One of them asked us to read one of our favorite verses, so we shared Alma 36:27 with them and one of the others asked if we could mark it in the copy of the Book of Mormon we had given him so he could read it again later that night. We were able to meet one of them, Patrik, again the next day, and we'll be meeting another, Daniel, tonight to teach him more.

Another miraculous experience we had this week occurred right as we walked out our apartment door. Our next door neighbor, a 21 year old girl studying at the university here, just happened to be heading out at the same time to do some laundry, so we talked with her as we walked down the stairs. Eventually she started talking about how impressed she is with all the missionaries who have been here in Karlstad and how she always sees the missionaries exercising every morning (even during the winter), wearing nice clothes, helping neighbors, and even how our car is always super clean. She told us that she

Exchanges with Elder Beckman

doesn't have a faith in God herself, but has always been kind of curious, and she said she has a friend who is really interested in meeting us. She then said that her friend would be over in a couple days, on Friday, and asked if we would be willing to tell them more. We ended up teaching them on Friday about the restoration. They both really liked it and said they wanted to bring a third friend along next week when we meet again.

These two instances illustrate perfectly the great privilege it is to serve as a missionary and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all reality, there is very little we did to deserve the experiences we had meeting these people. Rather, it was the Lord performing his work and allowing us to observe as we offered our "hearts and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34). Many people ask what the greatest thing I've learned on my mission is, and I would say with absolute surety that it is this: "Behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land." (Mosiah 2:22) I have come to learn for myself that I am always happiest and most successful when I keep His commandments.

I love the Lord with all my heart.

Äldste Sirrine