Kära familj och vänner,
This week flew by in retrospect. Last week we met a Brazilian lady who was super interested, and we were going to meet with her this past Tuesday. I texted to remind her, and she told us her parents didn't want her meeting with strangers. So we're inviting her and her parents to church! We'll see how things go. We had a good lesson on the ten commandments with another one of our investigators who is very interesting. He will pray before he goes drinking, but has to wait till he's sober again before he'll pray again for forgiveness, but he is good at praying.
We had a great district meeting, and on our way down there we listened to a couple of BYU devotionals. One was called Pure Religion, and the other was Four Steps on the Stairway to Heaven. They are both really good, and I suggest listening to them. I was assigned to give a closing spiritual thought at the end of the meeting about how Christ has changed my life, and remembered a question I was asked by my brother: "Why are you grateful for your baptism?" The question was the focus of my thought. Because I was baptized I had full access to the atonement when I needed it. When things got their worst, I was strengthened because I was able to receive forgiveness and be strengthened by Christ's atonement. Baptism is a wonderful gift. The joy that we are filled with and opportunities we receive by committing to serve God always are incredible blessings that God is bound to give us.
I was informed this week that many of the Norwegian Church books are online on a Norwegian site, and since it's fairly close to Swedish, I could understand it, and have found quite a bit of useful information for family history work. We are given 1 hour a week that we can do family history work, and as soon as I found that out, [I also found out that] the pace was not slackened on the great work I began back in May because of my awesome brother's invitation to join him in family history work. So if you haven't started your family history work, two things: First, It's not all done. That is a lie and myth. Second, Get on it! Who's going to do it if you don't? Do you want to sacrifice all the blessings you can receive by helping in the work of salvation? Will you keep kicking against the pricks? That may sound a little harsh, but family history work is very important, and we should all be anxiously engaged in learning about having contact with our roots so that we can be nourished by their lives and be strong branches.
We had stake conference this weekend, and that was a spiritual power punch! It started with a leadership meeting for the branch/ward councils and their missionaries. That was fun, and we talked about how to better use that time, and the Europe area's card with three goals (bring a friend, be spiritually and temporally independent, and find an ancestor). It was a great meeting, and a lot of great ideas were cycled around. That night we listened to a lot of good speakers who shared their experiences working with members on their missions, how they have been member missionaries, how we can be member missionaries, why, etc. Basically it was a conference about member missionary work. Louie Herrey spoke (for all who know who the Herrey brothers are), and talked about how we need to become dependent on God to become spiritually independent. It was kind of funny because the week before I had given a 25 min. talk about proclaiming the gospel to the world, and focused on member missionary work, then the stake drove the nail in by following up with an incredible meeting about member missionary work.
A cool thought that came from the conference was this, "Christ works from the inside out, while the world works from the outside in." If you think about the war chapters in Alma, every city that the Nephites took was by somehow getting their people in, and then they would capture the city. While the Lamanites tried brute forcing their way into every city, and eventually were able to claim some by this tactic. But before they could fight the Lamanites, Captain Moroni needed to purify the Nephites. He raised the title of liberty, and had them make a covenant to serve their God and their country. Once they were righteous they were victorious. Then they started having problems, and needed to cleanse the city of Zarahemla before driving the Lamanites out for the last time in the book of Alma. Sunday's topic for conference was from Luke: "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Again, working from the inside out. As we purify our lives we will be qualified to help those around us. That is only possible as we utilize the atonement to become a saint. Then we will want to spread the gospel, just like it says in Preach My Gospel chapter 1, just like Elder Bednar said in conference. The church is true, and our leaders are inspired and called by God. They have divine authority.
-Äldste Liddle
A "culture park" that used to be an iron mill.
"Truffula trees"
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