Kjære familie og venner
Trondheim is the biggest city in the zone since we are a part of the North zone where only the eskimos live. Just kidding, there are no eskimos in Norway. But there ARE reindeer. Unfortunately, I'm too far south to see those. Anyways, because we're the biggest city (with 6 missionaries), zone conference was held right here in our chapel. So that was nice and convenient. Some of the missionaries had to get on flights at like 6:30am to get here on time. But not me =)
President Johansen talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how that can make us better missionaries. He started out by asking us what it was that Jesus Christ's atonement and grace does for us. I thought I was gonna get some brownie points so I answered:
"He made it possible for us to receive grace so long as we do everything we can do to follow him. He'll make up the difference for us."
And he replied:
"That is absolutely, 100%....wrong."
Bummer.
He said something interesting though. No matter what we do in this life, no matter how closely we follow the commandments, we will never begin paying Jesus Christ back for what he did for us. The gospel and the commandments and this life will never be about doing everything we can to follow him. We do everything we can to follow him....in order to change ourselves. That's what this life is about. It's about becoming the person we have the potential to be. The Atonement and the Gospel is what enables us to do that.
So no matter what my problems are, no matter what I've done wrong, I can always change...because of the Atonement. We shouldn't follow the commandments so we can pay Christ back or to show him that we can be perfect, because we will never be able to do that. We should follow the commandments because we love Him and we want to become like Him. Because he is our ultimate example of who we can be. The Atonement, ultimately, is about change.
President later said he did like my answer, though. So that was a little comforting =P
Being district leader is fun. Stressful. There are only 8 missionaries in my district (6 in Trondheim, including 2 zone leaders, and 2 in Ålesund), but it's actually the largest missionary district in Norway. We're a tiny mission haha. It always crazy to hear stories from other missions, things are SO different. One of my previous companions received a letter from a missionary in Bolivia who was complaining about how they had ONLY gotten 183 baptisms as a mission that month. In 2011, the Norway Oslo mission had 128. All year. And that is the highest number of baptisms, EVER. Our goal as a mission is to have 100 baptisms by June 30th. Some members think President Johansen is nuts. He is, but in a good way haha. He's got a lot of faith, and he's lifted Norway much higher than anyone ever believed it could be.
Another exciting thing which happened at zone conference: President Johansen told me he is planning on making me a zone leader right here in Trondheim next transfer. That would put me with my MTC companion Elder Bekker, for the second time. He is currently zone leader right now, so it's been fun having him in the district, and now we're both pretty stoked to be working together in a little over 3 weeks. He and I had some pretty good times in the MTC, and every time I go on splits with him we have a nice little reminiscing session haha. The best part of it all is, I wouldn't have to move apartments!
Anyways, in other news, Elder Strange and I got a baptismal date this week with a girl named Inara. I can't remember if I've talked about her before. But, her father is not a huge fan of religion. So he's been a huge roadblock, because he's got a huge personality. So even though Inara is in her 30's, he has been keeping her from coming to church since we started meeting with her. But he has only been on visit here in Norway, and he is going back home next week. Inara has said that she wants to come to church after that, and that she wants to be baptized. So we set a date for March 10th. It was pretty exciting. So we'll be working with her more this week and next, getting her prepared for baptism.
I got a letter from a good friend Alexa this past week. She was married since I've been on my mission. So I look at the envelope and it says "Alexa Staples" I'm just like, who the flip is Alexa Staples? I don't know an Alexa Staples....then it clicked. Used to be Alexa Levesque haha. So it just makes me wonder, how many of my other friends are gonna have different last names by the time I get home!? Just found out another one of my cousins has been engaged, but his name won't change, so more power to him. He goes by the same name as me too, so go get 'em Dave! At least I was able to be there for Heather's wedding...heck, I opened my mission call at it. Lysa can just wait until my homecoming weekend and I'll steal the spotlight from her too. =P Haha ok ferdig med det... <---- norwegian.
Well, Elder Strange is done getting his head shaved, so we're outta here. Look forward to hearing from ya'll next week =)
Elder Sessions
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