Week #75 Choose ye this day

December 19, 2018

Week #75 Choose ye this day

Hello again!

One cool thing about writing a weekly is being able to see how much the Lord was merciful during the week. Sometimes looking back helps me remember how wonderful this experience to be a missionary here has been.

We did a lot of finding like we always try to do. Yesterday we were able to talk to a few people about the Book of Mormon. One guy told us that he already tried the book but could not get interested. Another guy told us how much he loved the musical but never had read the book. A third guy was studying theology and was thrilled to have his own copy of the Book of Mormon. The reactions of so many people can be quite interesting and a lot of the time is just that people do not know enough right now to really know what we, the missionaries, are doing.

We met with a few cool people this week. We met up with Erik again and he is starting to read the Book of Mormon. We met a guy named Danijel who met the missionaries a few months ago in Graz. During the lesson, he told us how he wanted to change and to be better than he was now. We led a discussion about Jesus Christ and how He makes us help that change. We also met our friend Nikolas again this week. He has such a good spirit around him. He really believes in Christ; sometimes remembering to do the small things can be difficult.

Our friend Nikolas and us

We did our normal session by the Ausstellung as well. Our GML wanted us to try to hand out Books of Mormon as Christmas gifts so we wrapped a few with him Wednesday night. The next day we took them out and we did splits with members. We were able to give away 9 Books of Mormon in the time we had. It was fun to work with Jacob, a YSA who just returned from his mission. He was very good in the field so I learned some good things from him.

I met a guy from Monterrey, Mexico the other day and he was happy to hear my Dad was a missionary in Monterrey so we took a friendly picture together

We also had our yearly Christmas party. Our GML cooked a lot of food and it was so tasty! We had a good time. Weird to think that was my last Christmas party here but so it goes :)

At our Christmas party, our GML cooked and he is a professional chef.

Here are some of the trays he put out.

We also met with an exchange student yesterday. We met on the street while both of us were doing our surveys. We took hers and she found interest in how we got here. We thought that would be the subject for the meeting but soon the discussion went towards forgiveness and second chances. Everyone wants to be clean from sin, regret, and guilt. Luckily the Atonement gives us that chance to change. We also talked about how we choose where we want to go, how we want to feel, what we want to do.

The pink church we pass as we go finding

It made me think of Elder Renlund's talk about how we cannot be forced to do anything but we can choose to do what is right. It has to be our own choice in order for us to become like God. A gift we can give to God all year round is our own agency, choose to take part in His work and to follow His will. I love agency. Sometimes 😉 Sometimes it can be frustrating but I know the Lord wants us to choose to be with Him. Like He says in the scriptures, "Come unto me" or "Follow me." There is no forcing but the path to joy is made clear.

Love you all. Really I do :) Have a wonderful week!

Elder Evans

More food pictures from this week:
1-Schneeball- Snowball. It was like a ball of pie crust covered with powdered sugar. Yummy but messy :)
2-A member gives us free fish from a restaurant he works at. Here is our catch from one night ago