Week 55: Ask Away

Hello! This week was lovely. You also are. 

Fall is pretty much here, oh boy. 





Spiritual Thought:  

I came across a verse in D&C 103 this week that I've never noticed before. 

31 Behold, this is my will; ask and ye shall receive; but men do not always do my will.

Did you catch it? It is so simple. No fancy scripture language, no parables, just 5 words. God’s will is that we ask! 

Often, I worry about what God's will is and if I'm doing it. But how cool that in this verse God tells us exactly what He wants us to be doing. 

He wants us to ask! 

I'm working on saying better prayers, and asking questions has really help me find answers. 

It sounds silly, I know. Of course, you have to ask to get an answer, but I just haven't really ever done it before…silly Tyler moment. 

My prayers have improved a lot since asking more questions. I know that there is power in asking God in words, even though he already knows our desires. 

I'm learning that prayer is not a negotiation, but rather an investigation into God's will and how I am a part of that. 

So my invitation to you is to ask more questions when you talk to God. 

Short Version of Email: We are teaching a couple of people! Great service with members and eating food with them. President Interviews. Apartment inspections. 

 Finnish Word of the Week:    “Piipittää” is a verb that means “to peep” and how cool that there is a word in Finnish for that. I also like how it sounds. 

5 Amazing Things This Week:

1: President Interviews. If you know me, you know how much I love these. And they brought us cake. The longer I'm here, the more it's like talking to old friends. 

2: We taught one of our friends. His wife has very bad Alzheimer's. She doesn't do anything by herself anymore. He takes care of her. He “brought” her out into the kitchen for us to “meet”. It was really humbling to see. It was like watching a person with no spirit inside. I'm very grateful for all that I have, including a very functional body. My prayers go out to our friend. He also showed us his cool motorcycle.

 

3: We went to do some service for a member who has the most beautiful house. We watched the sun set from a lakeside dock. Finland is beautiful. Also, if you are wondering what the best Finnish meal is, this is it. Rye bread, traditional Finnish fish you eat whole, and potatoes with butter. 




4: We taught 3 lessons in 3 hours to 3 very different people. I'm grateful for the opportunity to teach people and meet so many extraordinary people who are so, so different from me. 

5: We were invited over to a member's house to eat with our recent convert. The branch is so welcoming to him. He enjoyed the food and friendships, even though he doesn't talk much at all. 

Tender Mercy of the Week:

God sometimes works through the little things. Through a series of events much too long to tell about here, we had apartment and car inspections at 7 AM.  We had not vacuumed our car yet, but had to go do service for a member. After doing service, the lady looks in our car and asks if we need to vacuum it. We could hardly believe it; we said yes. We were absolutely saved. Not sure what we would have done. 

Where I am/Who I'm With: I am serving in Kouvola. My companion is Elder Redd. This is the biggest flag in Finland, btw.

Fun Facts about Elder Redd

  1. He is a big fan of BYU Vocal Point

  2. Likes to go on hikes with me, yay! 

  3. He is an avid meat-eater. Lots of protein for this man. 

Scripture of the Week:  

Alma 13:1-6

(I'm only copying the first verse, but read all the way to 6) 

1 And again, my brethren [missionaries], I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children; and I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests [missionaries], after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people.

 My thoughts:  This is mostly for the missionaries out there, but it can apply to everyone. Go through these verses and replace words like priests with missionaries and the pronouns so they relate to you. Our President did this, it was really cool. 

Talk of the Week:  

Learning to Trust God with Anything

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ANoIv8xUFSk5kgtk76B8x7lMF7Shc3Zl/view?usp=drivesdk

My Thoughts: 

Shoutout Joe for this talk. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you normally don't listen to the talk, this week you should listen to this one. I promise you will love it. 

 

 -Elder Balls















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