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Driving to church with Erik!
Don't worry, the car was driving itself, so Erik
could spare a few moments to look at the camera.
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The highlight of the week was definitely driving to church. We asked Erik, who we've been teaching, if he would be able to make it to church, and he replied that he'd love to come and then offered us a ride. Getting a ride to church with someone we're teaching would be pretty awesome in any case, but it was made about 7 times better by the fact that he has a Tesla Model X. The ride was pretty cool, but in all seriousness, it was just amazing to have Erik in church for the second time. Interestingly enough, it happened to be testimony meeting just like the last time he came, and he even got up and bore his testimony again.
We were out tracting last Tuesday and ran into an older lady who talked to us for quite a while. She
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| Exchanges with Elder Butler |
wasn't too interested in our message, but we've been looking for more opportunities to serve, so we asked if there was anything we could do. She was a little surprised at our offer and said she didn't know if there was anything, so we told her we'd be back next Tuesday and asked her to think of something we could do. She laughed a little bit and said okay, but I don't think she's really expecting us to come back, so she's in for a surprise this Tuesday when we show up at her door. Every Swede will tell you that Swedish people are really bad at accepting help, which we have definitely noticed in our efforts to find service, so we're hoping and praying that she'll actually let us help her with something.
On Friday we had the chance to go on a hike with the young men. They're preparing for a backpacking tip, and one of the boys we've been trying to get back to church decided to go, so we were able to help him and get to know him better along the way. Before we started the hike, the young men's leader informed us that their would be a quite a few mosquitoes along the way. All knowing the pain and irritation of a mosquito bite, we all applied bug spray. About halfway through
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| The young men's hike |
the hike, I realized that I hadn't noticed any mosquitoes biting me, and became slightly disappointed that I had applied the bug spray which didn't exactly smell or feel the best. Seeking to confirm my suspicions, I payed closer attention, and I was surprised to realize that there really were mosquitoes, the bug spray was just actually doing it's job! How often do we have these thoughts about the commandments of the Lord? Just as bug spray, the commandments are designed to protect us from the pain caused by sin, but do we ever start to think, "I've been keeping this commandment, but it doesn't seem as though anything bad would happen if I didn't. It would sure be simpler if I didn't have to do this..."? It's easy to think this, we probably all have, but perhaps the reason nothing bad has happened is because the commandment is actually doing it's job! There's essentially two ways we can come to know if bug spray works. We can either go without it, get a few painful bites that annoy us to the point of submission, and apply it in frustration only to come to realize that it works and wish that we had used it the whole time, or we can trust the loving young men's leader who knows the pain and promises that we can avoid it simply by using the bug spray. So it is with the commandments. We can choose to experience the pain of sin ourselves, or we can choose to rely on the promise of our loving Father in Heaven who gives us commandments and tells us that they are the way to the greatest happiness in life.
Äldste Sirrine
