Week 22: Prophets and Fishers of Men

April 03, 2023

Week 22: Prophets and Fishers of Men

Hey ya'll! Well here we are again. Another Monday! Weeks feel so short out here. Anyways, this was a bit of a weird week being transfers and all. To start off though, my new companion Elder Fisher is fantastic and I'm super excited to serve with him! Wants to work, sings, super friendly, and smarter than me! While that last one isn't REALLY saying all that much, I can tell this will be a good 6 weeks or more.

To start the week off, we had the opportunity to do our semiannual "Conference Clean" which is like spring cleaning...yeah it's basically spring cleaning. We set aside a solid 4 hours to only deep clean our entire apartment and get it absolutely sparkling. It's a very therapeutic and I thoroughly enjoyed it hahah. The list of tasks to do was pretty long, but wow it makes a difference doing the little things.

Wednesday was transfers. Definitely a bittersweet experience. It's the start to a new chapter, but it's also the end for some. I had a handful of missionaries I was close to (including both of my trainers) reach the end of their missions and start the NEXT chapter of their lives and I couldn't be more happy for them. Definitely wild though. Two years always seemed so long until I came on my mission!

Also I suppose now I'm the Mission Bike Mechanic now! I basically just go to transfers and people will bring me their broken bikes and I'll fix them. Pretty straight forward! Fortunately there are two of us so I'm not alone ahah

The next day we had a couple lessons and go to visit with the Stricklands to introduce the new missionaries! We are trying to meet with all the members of the ward council to introduce Elder Fisher and Sister Roberts to build up that good ol ward trust.

Hawaiian haystacks: Something I'd never heard of nor had before the mission. Now I've had it three times! The verdict? Well it's an odd combination, but it's pretty good. What makes it Hawaiian? Pineapple chunks...checks out I guess! Seems about as Hawaiian as Hawaiian pizza.

General Conference!!! Conference was fantastic and I am super excited to re-read and study the talks again. So super good. It took up most of our days Saturday and Sunday, so there isn't much to tell except that we did service between sessions on Saturday helping someone move. Walking down stairs with a giant mattress in a white shirt and slacks is definitely an experience!

The spiritual though this week obviously has to do with general conference. (sorry this one's a little scatterbrained) I've loved how the conference talks always revolve around Christ (naturally). Development of Christ like attributes is a takeaway that stood out to me. Having faith, hope, charity, love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, and obedience are all important but two of my favorites are faith and charity. Having charity does often requires faith. Even when it is hard or doesn't make sense, when we have the faith to be charitable and be Christ like we receive blessings.

A man once asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus replied: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” In essence, truly love God and have charity! When we have that pure love of Christ (charity) within us, we will want to strive to keep God's commandments and develop those other attributes of Christ and again, we will receive blessings. I know that to be true because I have seen it in my life.

(Also a super strong quote from President Nelson, "Charity is the antidote to contention.")

Well, that's all she wrote folks! I hope ya'll have had/have a fantastic week and that you enjoyed general conference as much as I did! Follow the prophet and be a peacemaker! (And crush your plastic water bottles)

Med venlig hilsen,

Ældste DeWitt

(Danish because why not?)