sea2swe: If we want Authenticity we have to Initiate it

Hey everyone!

This week Elder Scott and I felt like we needed to raise the bar so we set some ambitious goals and I'm happy to say we were able to achieve a few of them! Definitely didn't achieve all of them and that's the beauty of it, we're going to push even harder this coming week since we know what we're capable of now.

This week felt like such a blur filled with cancelled lessons, interviews with President, finding people and new investigators.

We've begun teaching Sebastian and Kade, two college age guys who were referred to us by the Sisters in Lund. We met them, toured around the church, had a good Restoration lesson and gave them Book of Mormons.

We had a good lesson with another new investigator, she's married to a super solid member with just the most powerful testimony and we were so blessed to share the message of the Restoration with her with her husband right by her side.

2 Nephi 31: 20. I've been thinking a lot about this scripture and what Neil A. Anderson said "Press forward implies something more than simply going forward. Press implies something is preventing your advancement, and you must push through it. To go forward in this life, you must press temptations aside, press through obstacles, press the doubt and the fear under your feet, and embrace the divine qualities of faith, hope, and love". Pressing forward is the whole purpose of being here on earth, it's how we learn and grow and attain those divine qualities. It's the hardest part of being a missionary for me, staying consistent and always pressing forward, it's so easy to be like a seismograph constantly moving up and down with faith, diligence, motivation and so on. There's a power that I've found in pushing through no matter what, those days you wake up and just say to yourself I don't want to talk to people today or I'm just too frustrated with all my shortcomings, then just throwing back the covers, putting your head down and going to work. Developing a "come what may and love it" attitude doesn't make a difference, it makes ALL the difference. If you haven't seen it I'd recommend watching Bearing our Burdens with Hope: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-04-001-bearing-our-burdens-with-hope?lang=eng.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Äldste Hainsworth