A very good week this week! Many things learned and many things
felt. Some exciting news is that I am leaving for Norway a week early in
preparation for a member of the Seventy to come and speak to us! We
shall leave on August 29th rather than September 5th. The district here
is counting blessings :]. We are all so excited to leave and just be
immersed in the language already. Nevertheless, much can and is learned
here while in the MTC!
When it comes to Norsk, how you are understood comes primarily
through your "tone of fall" - I am sure a few of you are familiar with
it. The tone of fall is basically the primary reason I am incredibly
stoked to learn Norsk. I don't know very many languages that use it. By
the way you inflect your vowels and the length of your vowels you can
make your statements and questions more clear or meaningful. It's really
interesting! and the dialects are extremely different all across
Norway. I am going to love it! I'm super excited to bear my testimony
that first Sunday. Hopefully no children will cry.
More thoughts on the baptism by fire - I've discussed this with my
teachers and my district and it is such a neat concept! Directly related
to the baptism by fire is the change of heart to "no more desire to do
evil." Thereby turning off the evil and filling the heart with desire to
do that which is good. In a small example, you can't just go up to
someone and make them desire something because you say so. Yet through
the gift of the Holy Ghost you can find within yourself the desire to
love others more sincerely than you ever have before, to read scriptures
consistently, to follow God's commandments, for we can feel the
goodness of following God through the Spirit. Another thing we have
discussed recently is obtaining revelation through Church attendance.
After going through the Temple, I really found a new appreciation for
Church and what we do there. We are there in church to learn from each
other, build each other up and discuss needs, solutions and our
gratitude for our God. By attending Church we open up our hearts to God,
and particularly through the sacrament we cleanse ourselves in order to
learn more. An amazing opportunity every week!
Our teaching has been coming along well! Eldste Knudson and I are
teaching quite well, and I am certainly learning many many things from
him. The biggest thing I have learned from him so far is how to ask
questions. Questions questions questions - the key to open our hearts
and an investigator's heart to the Spirit of revelation and edification.
Questions are precisely the way Jesus Christ taught - for through
questions the investigator teaches themselves, supplemented with
scriptures and simple statements of truth. Eldste Knudson rocks at
questions, and that is what I need to use unceasingly on my mission. The
next thing to do is listen to the answers of those questions, and seek
through the Spirit for understanding. It is a miracle what you can do
through questions and listening. I encourage everyone to go and read
"The Spirit of Revelation" by Elder Bednar. I have come to realize that
revelation comes extremely frequently, though we may not recognize it.
Everyone, please read from the Book of Mormon every day and pray for
understanding. I promise you that you will feel peace and comfort -
especially through consistent effort.
Thank you Mom for those pictures, and thank you Christiaan and Anna
Rose for the vitamins, picture (it captures your family perfectly :P)
and cookies! Thank you everyone who sent me letters - I will respond to
all who send me letters! Thank you all who have influenced my life and
prepared me and every little way to experience my mission the way I am. I
love it, and yes, it is one of the hardest things I've done - only to
get harder in Norway. To all whose lives are throwing them curve balls,
please read from the sciptures and pray for comfort (2 Nephi 4, Romans
8). God has promised us many blessings, and if we are faithful we may
receive all (D&C 82:10). I love you all!
Inntill neste uke!
-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson
