Hello Family!!!
I hope you are all doing well! Last week was another great one! I love being a missionary. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. We are His Children and He loves us. Oh what a good message! .The gospel gives a true purpose to life. We all have divine potential. There is no end because of Christ!
On Tuesday, we were able to teach our new investigator Nancy! It was so great! This was the first time I met Nancy because last time we were on companion exchanges. Nancy is a really nice Norwegian Lady in her 30's. She has been searching for God but has not known where to find him. For the lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon and Prayer. She is awesome! She kept her commitment by reading Alma 32 and she even started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. It is so important that we all come to know the Book of Mormon is true. It is evidence of the Restoration and it contains the fullness of the Gospel. We had Karl Frederik, a priest in the ward, join us for the lesson. He is a cool guy. He loves skiing and music. It was sweet having him there with us. He shared some experiences he has had with the Book of Mormon. The lesson ended up being very open and everyone was sharing experiences. It was great! Our goal is to have her come to Church next Sunday.
On Wednesday, we had our last district meeting of this transfer because this week we are going to Oslo again for Zone leader training. It was a great meeting. We talked about desire/passion, and becoming passionate about our purpose as missionaries. Several things stood out to me.
First, apply the missionary purpose to yourself first.
1)Invite your own self to come unto Christ.
2)Receive the Gospel by study and by hearing the Word.
3)Desire to obtain faith, have faith and act on it.
4)Make the necessary changes in your life and use the gift of repentance, strive to become better everyday.
5)Partake of the Sacrament weekly to renew your baptismal covenant and lastly, 6)Seek guidance from the Holy Ghost and follow it.
By doing this we will deepen our conversion to Jesus Christ. When we are converted we can strengthen those around us.
Second, Fulfilling our missionary purpose starts every time with an invite. One thing I've learned is that we succeed in the invite. It is a principle that everyone can apply. We can all be missionaries and invite those around us to come unto Christ.
On Thursday, we went to Sweden!! We went to familien Isaksen's house and helped brother Isaksen build the upstairs of his house. We put in insulation, and and put in wooden beams. It was really fun! I love the Isaksen family. They have 3 cute little boys and always feed us really well. They are so great. After that, a recent convert Beatrice, had us over for dinner because it was Elder Phipps 1 year mark in the mission. He is the Elder that taught Beatrice. He's been in Fredrikstad for 6 months. She made us bacon cheeseburgeers. It was so good. Bacon is rare here in Norway. First time I have had it here.
On Sunday, Elder Nelson and I taught the Gospel principles class at Church. We taught about the Scriptures. We went organized it into several questions. What are the Scriptures? What is their purpose? Why are they important? How can we use them? What are the blessings of studying from them? We tried to keep it really simple. We shared the story of Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life. We compared two groups of travelers on the way to the tree. One group tried to go without the rod of iron and got lost in the mist of Darkness. Another group continually held fast to the Rod of iron and was able to make it to the Tree of Life. The Rod of Iron that leads to the tree is the Word of God. The Scriptures are the word of God. I love this simple analogy because it is true. The scriptures give us guidance and direction in our life. They fill our life with the spirit when we read from them. I shared my testimony and how they changed my life. I talked about how Bishop Shield's always stressed, Even if you only read 1 verse, make sure you are in the scriptures everyday. That is how it was for me. It built from 1 verse to chapters everyday because I noticed that those days I don't read the scriptures, there is something missing and I am not as happy. Daily Scripture study is crucial to following our Savior and living the Gospel.
One last thought, This week I "ponderized" the scripture: 3 Nephi 13: 4. It says "That thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret, himself shall reward the openly." Sometimes it is the little things that are most important. There are many different small acts of kindness we can do throughout the day. It could be a smile, or it could be a kind text or note. It's okay if our service goes unnoticed or is not recognized because our Heavenly Father knows all. He recognizes our efforts to be good and do good. He will bless you as you try to serve his Children. I would encourage all of you to pray for opportunities to serve and look for the little things you can do to help other.
Thanks for all your love and support!
Have a great Week!
Elder Witt
Standing in two Countries! Norway and Sweden!
The river is the border between the two countries.
Another view at the border!
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