Week #80 Choose to act, not to be acted upon

January 23, 2019

Week #80 Choose to act, not to be acted upon

Another wonderful week of missionary work in Austria! I learned a lot how good the Lord is to us as we try to do our best to follow Him. It is not easy but it is always worth it.

A view of the mountains during finding

We have been trying to do the best we can to teach every day. Some lessons have gone really good and others not so much. One lesson we met with a girl named Sophia, who knew a lot about our church in Dornbirn and her friend will serve a mission soon in Utah. She had a lot of questions about mission life and why we do it. Sometimes people get really interested as we explain how long we do this, where we came from, and why we keep doing it. A lot respect our work but don't really want to participate. Sadly that had to be the case with Sophia but she is still great.

We met with another guy named Jonas and we talked a lot about freedom and being able to act for ourselves. That lesson made me think a lot about what I wrote as a subject line. Choose to act, not to be acted upon. We talked about being free to act for ourselves and not being controlled by people or substances is the best kind of freedom. As we choose to act and to not simply be led along by a leash, it is easier to make better decisions and to feel joy, knowing that we are choosing to do what is right.

We met again with Eric this week. He is such a cool guy. We focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the lesson went really well. He is already to 2 Nephi and we invited him to read 3 Nephi 11 so he could learn more about the necessity of baptism.

We also met this guy who is really chill but not at all religious. He is currently registered as one religion but he does not practice at all and he seems to know very little about the religion he is registered under. I mean maybe there is benefits behind it? I have seen a lot that if there is no commitment or faith behind someone's belief, it is a lot hard to live. Sadly there are a lot of cases of that out here.

We had a ward activity at Birzinger Alm. I thought it was a simple sledding hill but it was a full hiking trail that you walk up on and then you sled down. Sadly we did not get permission to sled but it was still fun to walk with members and get to know them more.

Ward activity

On Sunday, I have a talk at church about bearing our burdens. My focus went a bit with my subject line. Christ is there to help us but it requires an active effort on our part. We should always want to choose the right, and not just merely do it. As we do the small simple things, our relationship with Him grows and we realize that through Him, we can bear our burdens with ease.

A visit with Schwester Klausner

Yesterday we had zone conference in Neumarkt. I love this time to learn from the Browns and our mission leaders. We talked about finding more light in our lives, avoiding perfectionism, and having Christ be the beginning of a new journey. We watched a video of mission call openings and with pumping music in the background, it was cool to think about how that new beginning as a missionary was life changing! Zone conference is always a great time.

Today I was in Wien to take care of some visa issues. Luckily it worked out and I realized how much I have learned while serving as a missionary, particularly in Wien 5. The mission has been full of experiences that I could not have at home and I realized more so today how precious this time as a missionary can be.