Week 16

St. Paul Temple

Boots on the Ground!

Wow this has been quite the eventful week!

We have done a lot of contacting this week and I can see such a big difference between Americans and Hispanics. We've been yelled at and have had doors slammed in our face, but the Hispanic people are so nice and just willing to talk! I love the people here and it's so awesome to meet such humble people.

This week we had two exchanges in a row on Wednesday and Thursday. I got to go to Shoreview and hang with Elder Meyer on Wednesday and take over New Brighton with my "gramps" Elder Nelson on Thursday! They are both awesome elders and Elder Nelson trained my Dad (trainer), Elder Callans, hence why he's my “grandpa” lol. He is a super cool guy and a such a solid missionary. We had a dinner with some members in our ward and their two little kids who are 3 and 1 and they were a riot! It turns out the husband is from Boise too and went to Timberline! He went on a mission to New Mexico Spanish speaking, and it was really cool to connect and talk with their family. Afterwards we went to see a new investigator we have met a few times this week named Luis. We found him while knocking on doors through a trailer park last week. He's from Puerto Rico and has lived in Colorado and Utah for several years, but recently moved over here to Minnesota for construction work. We asked him if he speaks Spanish and he said yes, but he said he prefers English which is a pretty rare find! Haha. We have been teaching him the first discussion and he likes studying the Book of Mormon with the Bible and has a strong desire to learn more, but sadly won't accept an invitation to be baptized because he said he wants to quit smoking, move back to Utah, and get his life straightened out before. Hopefully we can help him understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him change his life and be prepared for baptism.

On Friday we were blessed with the opportunity to go to the St. Paul Temple! We went with our district and a few other districts around St. Paul. It was such a spiritually uplifting experience, one of the highlights of my week. The peace that can be felt from the Holy Spirit is so strong in the temple. I love going to the temple and also seeing all the beautiful temples that are around the world. The temple truly is the house of the Lord! Since we went on a Friday we switched our P-day to that day instead of last Monday. So we did our shopping and hung out with the district at the Institute building and we played song ping pong and pool!

Saturday was a particularly eventful day! In the morning, we helped a couple move to their new apartment. There were some guys from the ward also there to help, and we moved some heavy dressers and bed frames and other furniture. While we were moving, the husband of the family moving was on the back end of carrying a dresser down the stairs and he fell and snapped his ankle! I walked into the room to get the next item and I just saw that his ankle was rotated 120 degrees out of place. It was nuts! Luckily, they rushed him to the hospital and we were able to finish helping them move.

So, for those of you who may not be familiar, our church is structured into wards, or congregations of a specific area of the city - i.e. The New Brighton Ward. And multiple wards constitute a stake, similar to how we have several districts in a zone. Our stake received the sad news that the President of our Stake here in Northeast Minneapolis suddenly passed away from a heart attack this week which was a big shock for everyone. We were able to attend his funeral on Saturday morning and it was absolutely beautiful. It was incredible to see how many peoples’ lives this man touched and how he strived so much to be like Jesus Christ. One thing that stuck with me was something that was said by one of the family members. She said "If you want to take the sorrow out of death you have to take the joy out of life." That's such a true statement, death is a necessary step in our eternal progression. We pass through grief and sorrow in this life so that our joyful reunion with our loved ones after this life will be that much sweeter. It was an awesome experience to feel the Spirit there and be inspired by President's example.

After the funeral, we helped a sister in our ward shovel some ice and slush off her walkway because all the snow is melting and flooding her porch! It's crazy how much snow Boise has and here it feels like spring has arrived already! haha.

I hope you all stay safe and warm back home! I love being a full time representative of Jesus Christ, I know that He lives and He is our Savior! Love you all!

-Elder Bolinder

New Brighton District at St. Paul Temple

New Brighton Sunset