Stoeltzing Surfing Stockholm

Week 82; June 8, 2015 – iPads and Inspiration

It's been a great week! The Lord has been really good to us and he helped us move some mountains.

Stefan was a student of philosophy in college. Consequently, he had a question that has been worrying him the whole time we’ve been teaching him. It seemed simple, but it was in actuality quite complicated. I tried answering it, but my attempts weren’t all that successful. As a result, his progress came to a stand-still last week and we realized the question needed an answer. We searched our scriptures and we had no idea how we should answer such a deep question the way he needed. After extensive personal study we stumbled into a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 88). This is a chapter I knew about, but I never read it in depth. It was somewhat complicated, but it provided the answer we were looking for. As I prayed about it, I felt a very deep understanding of the words that we're revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith and I knew exactly how to explain the answer. It was a beautifully simple message that connected a lot of key points that I hadn’t thought of connecting. 

After studying this in depth with a sincere heart, I felt a great understanding of how to explain God’s justice, but I also felt another very strange prompting that the answer was too complex to share at this time. So, instead of going into great detail with an explanation, we simply taught him a lesson about understanding the gospel line-upon-line and precept-upon-precept. We made him a promise that if he were to be baptized that he would gain a greater understanding of the principals he wanted to know in due time. 

This comforted Stefan and he wholeheartedly accepted the invitation to come to church and go full steam ahead toward baptism. This brief pause may have taken a little longer than we had hoped, but he's on the right track and his baptism should happen soon. 

There is always a rainbow after the rain!

Developing a deeper knowledge of the Plan of Salvation by putting spiritual things above all else has confirmed a great truth to me this week. With this understanding came a new prospective of how deep the gospel can be, but how truly simple it still remains.

We had a great conference this week. Sister Beckstrand taught an inspiring lesson about accepting our weaknesses and turning them into strengths that really meant a lot to me. President taught about being disciples in the digital age. The theme of the talk focused on the pending arrival of the much anticipated iPads, sadly their arrival date was not announced, but it was a great message and I realized the Churches’ motive in giving us iPads is a lot deeper than the missionaries needing a digital area book, or a high-tech flip chart. 

New technology is expanding at an exponential rate, unlike anything the world has ever seen before. We now have all the knowledge the human race has ever acquired at our finger tips. We can literally learn more in an hour than our ancestors could learn in a lifetime. However, the world is adapting poorly to the potential that lies within their pockets. Although iPad's and iPhone's can lead to the greatest increases in productivity, the world has become much more distracted than edified by this technology. 

The purpose for giving missionaries iPad's is simple, it’s to prepare us to be better disciples in the digital age and to teach us how to raise righteous families that will manage their technology faithfully without becoming slaves to its’ hidden traps. This is perhaps the most resourceful generation that the world has ever seen, but no filter or app will protect us if we don’t use our agency righteously. Having a powerful testimony coupled with a gospel centered life will make the current missionaries the most digitally prepared demographic of this generation, using technology to spread the Lord’s work faster and farther than ever before. Providing missionaries with iPads is an inspired decision.   

A family portrait of all my former companions at once - My favorite moment!

Well that’s everything for the week. Never lose sight of your goals, never give up, and don't stop till you've achieved exactly what you are capable of achieving. The Lord has taught me these things for a reason. I owe everything I am to him and I hope to continue being an instrument in his hands all the days of my life. I love you guys so much! 

Yes, we do provide service in Sweden too!

Josh, good luck with your Eagle Project! I wish I could be there to help you, but I know you’re going to do a great job leading your team and adding great improvements to our park! You’re the best!

-Äldste Stoeltzing