I Love Lucia (and a Russian tjej?)

Email written: 12/18/17

God Jul vänner och familj!  

3) Hook 'Em?

Holy Moly Guacamole, where has the time gone? Christmas is only 1 week! Next week I probably won't be sending out an email since I'll be skyping my family, but just know that this next week will be just as good as the previous week (especially with all the food that we're going to eat with all the members here). 

4) Lucia i Kyrkan

Pretty early on in the week, we celebrated Lucia Dagen, which is some random Swedish holiday where girls dressed in white robes and holding candles (with the St. Lucia wearing a crown of candles) come into the church and sing a bunch of songs. Anne-Lill, one of the members in the branch, took Elder Berlin and I to the biggest church in Gävle, Heliga Trefaldighets Kyrkan, to really celebrate it the best way possible in Gävle. All the tjejer were so talented, and there was actually a talented opera singer man who really added to the whole experience, so I really enjoyed myself. Sometimes it's good to take a quick step back and enjoy the culture around you instead of stressing out about what person we're going to talk to next, or what lesson we need to go to. Elder Berlin even had a nice little nap through the whole thing, so I was a good companion and gave my bro a nice back scratch.

That same day, only earlier in the afternoon, Elder Berlin and I were on the way to a lesson with someone and realized that we had a bit of time to get there, so we were going to talk to a bunch of people on the way there, and hopefully get a potential investigator out of it. We ended up meeting a girl named Katja, who is about our same age, and was super receptive to what we had to say. We found out that she and her sister were actually adopted from Russia when she was 9 years old. Her whole life she had believed in God, but then the family in Sweden that adopted didn't believe in God, so she wasn't really sure what to do at that point. I can't even imagine what that would be like. All I know, is that i'm so thankful for my family that has strengthened my faith in God. Well, shortly after we found out that she was from Russia, I pulled out my daily planner where I had written down a simple phrase in Russian that Alanna told me to tell people who can speak Russian. The phrase is 'God loves you', and so I tried my best to pronounce it, and I guess it came out me saying 'I love you', and to my surprise, she said 'I love you too' back to me in Swedish. It was quite the awkward experience, but Elder Berlin and I were able to have a nice laugh about it afterwards. Katja was able to come to our Pizza night on Saturday and we talked a little more, and I found out that she was actually born in YEKATERINBURG. what a small world...what a small world. 

1) MY POPPA

This past week we also had our zone conference down in Handen, which is just south of Stockholm. There, I was able to see my poppa Elder Harper. I really missed that kid...we got along so well and have the same sense of humor. I was so happy to tell him about all the miracles happening in Gävle. We cracked jokes to each other the rest of the conference and just were so happy to see each other again. At zone conference, we actually ended up watching 'It's A Wonderful Life', and wow...what a classic. It made me 'trunky' (a word to describe a missionary who misses home), but it also gave me a good perspective on my life and the mission! 

On the way home from zone conference, we were waiting around for our train to come at the Handen station. A bunch of other missionaries were waiting there with us, but I wasn't really fitting in with the group, so I went out to find a new friend at the Handen station. The first thing that caught my attention was a dude wearing an American flag beanie. I immediately went up to him and started talking about his hat and how much I loved it...because USA BABY. And we just became instant bros and had an awesome conversation. Then, my companion comes out of nowhere and is just like bro, we have a message from God that you need to hear. And Ahmed could recognize immediately that we weren't lying. We found out where he lived and got him the number to the missionaries that live in his area. He ended up calling them right on the spot and said to them that he had just met us and that he wants to be a part of the church. Fast forward...and HE CAME TO CHURCH for all 3 hours and just talked about how happy he was to be in church. All it takes is just a little bit of courage to open your mouth, and miracles are sure to follow. 

Hope you all have a great week and fantastic Christmas, whether that be with friends or family, just appreciate all the amazing things you have in your lives and think about the true meaning of Christmas....the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Ha det fint! Hejdå. 

-- Äldste Steele

Pictures:

1) MY POPPA

2) one of my lil homies. one of our investigators, Alexandre, has 8 kids and this is one of them

3) Hook 'Em?

4) Lucia i Kyrkan

5) We got a special tour of the hockey arena today and got to not only watch their practice, but also meet the team! Skål för Brynäs!

6) We were able to do that, thanks to SAM THE MAN, one of the members of the branch who worked for the hockey team

7) A dog of an investigator that unfortunately dropped us this week

2) one of my lil homies. one of our investigators, Alexandre, has 8 kids and this is one of them

5) We got a special tour of the hockey arena today and got to not only watch their practice, but also meet the team!
Skål för Brynäs!

6) We were able to do that, thanks to SAM THE MAN, one of the members of the branch who worked for the hockey team

7) A dog of an investigator that unfortunately dropped us this week

Hit the Quan

Email written: 12/11/17

Hallå! 

Wow, another week out here i det utvalda landet! With only 2 weeks left till Christmas, 2 days till St. Lucia, and Zone Conference this week as well, the time is just going by so fast as we anticipate all the amazing celebrations members have in store for us this Christmas season.

This week was a pretty random week I would say, so there isn't really an overarching story that I can tell that links the days together, but I can share some really awesome experiences in finding, but also experiences I would say that have turned me from a boy to man. 

1) Our man Erik

The week started off with our normal trek across the street to Willy's for our weekly grocery run (mom, don't worry, im eating lots of fruits and veggies). As we were walking into the store, a sweet, old woman said that we looked like some nice boys and asked for help to put a giant bag of dog food into her car. We agreed enthusiastically, as we love to give unplanned service throughout the day! After getting the job done, we began to talk about the church as it was right across the street. She had always seen the building, but never went in. We were able to switch numbers and she actually gave us her address too for us to come by one time. Later in the week, we went over to her apartment with an elderly couple in the branch, and we have an amazing lesson about God and Christ and how we can learn about them in the Book of Mormon. She straight up told us that she doesn't believe God helps people because she's gone through a divorce, she battled breast cancer last year, and so many other hard things in her life, but we were able to promise her so many blessings as she started to seek the truth and find out more about God's plan. Her name is Maöd, and I still don't exactly know how to say it, but we are super hopeful for the future with her!

Another cool experience was when we hopped onto a bus from the church back into downtown. I saw an Asian woman sitting alone reading a book, so I decided to go sit next to her. For all of you that are wondering, yes her name is Quan, hence the subject line. I politely asked what book she was reading and it was In Cold Blood, a book I read for summer reading before my junior year. We were able to talk a lot about the book and I was able to promise her it gets good, the beginning is just a little slow. Well, her bus stop came way too fast, and we had to cut the conversation short, but I quickly mentioned another book that we have that she could read (aka Mormons Bok). We switched numbers in lightning speed, and then she was on her way. A few days later, we were able to meet again, give her a Book of Mormon, and answer some questions she's had about life. She is so fantastic, and isn't afraid to ask questions! 

Now, to the tough parts of the week.....take a seat and grab some popcorn, because it's about to get real.

On Wednesday, we had so many lessons planned in the evening, that we were slowly beginning to realize that there was no time for dinner. As we thought about it, and thought about the needs of our investigators, we decided to have a fast from food and water for 24 hours for that extra spiritual boost our investigators needed. Since we now have bikes in our area, it is the most common form of transportation. So we biked all Wednesday, on top of us not eating or drinking that day. After all was said and done, and many lessons had been taught, it was time to go home, but we were all the way at the church and it was 9pm. We were just completely exhausted and I really just wanted to crash, but we had to bike 6km (that turned into about 8-9 since we got lost) back to our apartment, with a huge chunk of it uphill. It was one of the hardest things physically that I've had to do, biking all the way back in the cold after a long day of missionary work. As we biked back and I was fighting up the hill, I just began to cry, both with tears and in a prayer to God, asking why I had to go through this. Why, why, why. I didn't receive an answer then for why, but we finally made it back to the apartment and I just crashed on the bed and didn't move until the alarm went off 8 hours later. 

The next day we went to a pizzeria for dinner and a little Book of Mormon study session. During our study session, a lady come up to us trying to Bible bash and the two guys behind us were making Islam jokes, so that was an interesting experiences. Ms. Bible Bash became a potential investigator and the two guys are buying the pizza this week :) Well, we then went to the church with Erik (the member were with at pizzeria) to teach our investigator Selma. Pretty soon after we arrived, Selma just started crying and ended up telling us a huge chunk of her life story, how hard it's been, and how many messed up things she's gone through, details of events that I'm not going to repeat out of respect for her, and it was just a really heavy conversation. Erik, was then able to tell a bit of his life story for Selma, because his life really hasn't been that easy, and then he began to cry. Lots of tears this week people. But it was just such a tender moment. The room then got quiet, and a thought came into my head. 'It's because I'm preparing you for something greater'. The answer to my cry for help the night before. Elder Berlin and I were then able to teach with so much power about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The spiritual experiences here on the mission are unbelievable, and I know without a doubt that God does answer our prayers!

We had a nice end to the week at church yesterday, where I gave my first ever talk in Swedish! I talked for a whole 10 minutes about Christ-like love. From what the members said, it went super well! I also was able to bless the Sacrament, lead the hymns, and teach gospel principles the 2nd hour! Super super busy, but so happy that things are coming together in the branch! 7 people (plus 2 kids) came to Sacrament meeting!!!!! So many miracles :)

Life is good. Love you all! 

Pictures:

1) Our man Erik

2) Library study sesh with members Annelie and Ulrika!

3) After wednesday night #såtrött 

4/5) One of our investigators invited us over because he was going to make some food with his friends. Turned out to be an all out Arabic feast and all the guys there loved us so much and wanted us to have dinner there every night haha. 

6) Cykel grind 

-- Äldste Steele

2) Library study sesh with members Annelie and Ulrika!

4/5) One of our investigators invited us over because he was going to make some food with his friends. Turned out to be an all out Arabic feast and all the guys there loved us so much and wanted us to have dinner there every night haha. 

5

Don't Judge a Bock By It's Cover

Email written: 12/4/17

The rest are just of the giant goat. enjoy!

Tjenare Familj och Kompisar! 

It has been such a fantastic week and it was another week where so much happened, I just can't tell it all. I am so happy that it is December now and Christmas (Jul på Svenska) is in full swing, with lights, and pepparkakor, julmust, glogg, and so much more. There is so much to be thankful for the Christmas season, one of those especially being that people have been so open to talk about Christmas and their traditions, which makes it easy for us to transition into our message of Christ.

Briefly in my last email, I mentioned Selma, one of our new investigators. I thought I might want to tell a little bit more about her progress, because she is so amazing! She has now been to church two times, our monday night activity, a relief society activity, has the number of almost every member in the branch, came to dinner last night with us at a member's home, and to top it all off.....she reads the Book of Mormon every day!! Selma originally is from Iraq, but moved her back in 2001, so has been here for quite some time. She has 2 daughters here in Sweden, but unfortunately she doesn't get to see them too often, so she has expressed so much how she just loves the new family she has at church now and just cannot wait until the day she gets to wear 'vit kläder och döpa sig' 

A quick preview for the little story of the week. In Gävle, every Christmas, they have a huge straw goat in the middle of the city. It's called the JulBocken. Hence the subject line. But anyways, they had a huge dedication for the goat last night and there were fireworks and music, and pretty much the entire city of Gävle. It was so much fun and the perfect finding opportunity.

But anyways....A few weeks ago Elder Harper, Mihail, and I were waiting for a bus from the church back to Sätra where we live. As we were waiting there, a random man came up to us, saying a bunch of crazy things about drugs and members in the church using drugs and what not, and came to found out that he was a recovering meth addict as well. It was a super weird conversation and I hoped I would never seen the man again. But then fast forward to the first monday that Elder Berlin and I were together as we were waiting for the same exact bus back and the same guy came back to talk to us. Oh great...I thought, not again. But then I put aside all past thoughts and focused on the present and actually had a super fantastic conversation with him. We found out he is friends with some of the branch members and in the past has thought he's unwelcome in church because he's on certain medications to recover from his addiction. We cleared that up, switched numbers, and invited him to church. Sure enough, our man Patric walked through the church doors yesterday and had an amazing time. He asked for a Book of Mormon and wanted us to write our names and a note in the book. He also downloaded Gospel Library app and was just going crazy on it, talking about how he's going to read on the bus and send scriptures to friends and share them on faceboook. He is just all over the place and a little jittery, but has such a good heart and really wants to learn more. There's a lot of things to overcome for him, but we have faith that he will overcome it all. Don't judge a bock by it's cover!

Honorable Mention This Week:

-I talked to a lady on the bus briefly asking her if she liked chocolate because I had a ton of extra chocolate in my bag. She said sometimes, so I pulled out the chocolate and tried to give it to her. She then said to me 'Jag vill inte ha din choklad, och jag vill inte bli frälst' People are great.

But seriously, a billion things happened this week, but I just don't quite have the time to tell it all. Elder Berlin and I actually are about to go on a walk with a member who just became homeless and hopefully give him some spiritual strength to kämpa på.

Ha en fin vecka! Jag älskar er. 

Pictures:

1) Christmas came a little early. We got some new bikes.

The rest are just of the giant goat. enjoy!

-- Äldste Steele

1) Christmas came a little early. We got some new bikes.

The rest are just of the giant goat. enjoy!

The rest are just of the giant goat. enjoy!

Kommer ni ifrån Tyskland?

3) Elder Berlin and I 

Email written: 11/27/17

Tjena Tjena! 

It has been such an amazing week here in Gävle with my new companion Äldste Berlin. He just came from Helsingborg/Landskrona where he's been for almost 8 months! He's from Orem, Utah, and been on the mission for the same amount of time as my poppa (about a year). We get along so well and we both just work so hard. We just talk to people non-stop, whether it be on the street, on the bus, on the train, wherever, it doesn't matter. We talk to so many people every day and give so many the opportunity to listen to the gospel. We also do some wild workouts in the mornings. One morning, we did a 30 minute run with lunges/squats every few minutes. #äldsteatheletegrind

So much has happened this past week, and I truthfully can't tell it all, so I will just give some quick highlights, and then talk about our trip to Uppsala for district meeting this past week. 

• We have been showing everyone the Christmas initiative 'Light the World' to everyone, and people have been so much more willing to talk! We have gotten into several homes, have had several awesome lessons, and people committed to spread some light in the world this Christmas season!
• We got back in contact with Veronika and she has a baptismal date again!! February 12th, her birthday actually. As we talked about baptism with her, she said that she came into the world on the 12th and that she wants to be born again on the same day! It was such an awesome experience. 
• We were able to help out at a primary activity on Saturday, and helped the kids decorate things for Christmas and bake some pepparkakor....soooo yummy. When we were there, and random woman showed up trying to find the missionaries to pray and to talk. Well, we got some chairs, sat down, and began talking with her. She had met with some sister missionaries in the past, about 2 months ago, but then decided it was time to just come by the church. The spirit was so strong there and we ended up inviting her to be baptized. She said yes!!!! She is already kompisar with basically everyone in the branch and she is just the sweetest. Her name is Selma.
• Our next door neighbor (family of about 7) invited us into their home one night when we came back, and we shared the light the world video with them and invited them to church. It's a little tricky with the rules, since non members aren't really supposed to know where we live, so we are just going to take it chill, and just keep on spreading the gospel!

On Thursday morning we got ready to go to district meeting in Uppsala. We went out to wait for the bus that would get us to the station on time, but it never came. We started freaking out, not knowing what to do, since we were almost definitely miss the train. Everyone we asked said, japp, ni hinner inte. #rip well then, the bus finally came. And we were stressed out, I called our district leader saying we were going to miss the train as Elder Berlin started talking to a man on the bus. As I was very frustrated, I saw my comp just bearing a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and it was so awesome. The man gratefully accepted the book and we will meet with him sometime next month. We then sprinted to the train station, and actually made the train with only but a few seconds to spare. The train was almost completely filled so it was nästan impossible to find a place to sit. Well, we finally found 2 places next to a man with a Beatles type haircut, and immediately began talking to him. We had planned to do a personal study, but the Lord had different plans. We talked to him for the entire hour train ride down to Uppsala. Pretty early on in the conversation, he asked us 'Kommer ni ifrån Tyskland?' No, sir, we do not come from Germany, but I'm glad that we don't sound American anymore when we speak Swedish! Elder Wayment, you're not alone on this one now haha. We found out that he is a guitar player for a band and he travels all around Sweden playing in different places. We gave him a Mormons Bok, taught the restoration, a lil of Plan of Salvation, and then we were on our way. We then had an amazing district meeting with a super awesome district. There's a sister who came to Sweden just 2 days prior, and her Swedish was lowkey better than most people I've heard, so there's a lot of great missionaries coming into this mission. Well, just when you thought this day couldn't get any better, we went to eat at a Chinese buffet called China Garden. So good, so filling, and definitely not good for the health, especially not before our huge thanksgiving meal that night. But, as we were leaving, a man came to clear all our glasses and plates, and so I started talked to him super quickly. I found out that he is from Guatemala and so I naturally started talking about my friend Tylene Ama from Myrtle Beach, SC majoring in exercise science. I said that she's in the Quetzaltenango area, and turns out the guy had been to church there one or two times in his life!!!! He said that he really wanted to meet with missionaries here. I quickly got his info, gave it to the Uppsala elders, and then sprinted to catch the next train back to Gävle. There are so many amazing miracles that happen every day on the mission, and these are just a few examples of them. 

1)the church and some snow

Well, that was only a small portion of the week, and I would love to share more, but time is limited, and I gotta get back to work! Love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week. Hejdå!

Pics:

1)the church and some snow

2)elder harper, Blessing, and I 

3) Elder Berlin and I 

4) me being hilarious

5) our friend on the train

6) thanksgiving dinner with Familjen Norup!! Dan is our branch mission leader and they have a little son named Joshua. such an awesome family

--Äldste Steele

2)elder harper, Blessing, and I 

4) me being hilarious

5) our friend on the train

6) thanksgiving dinner with Familjen Norup!!
Dan is our branch mission leader and they have a little son named Joshua. such an awesome family

7 More Weeks in Gävle

2) shaved my head again

Email written: 11/20/17

Hejsan familj och vänner!! I am officially no longer a Greenie! #graduated

Last night we received transfer calls and we found out that Äldste Harper will be transferring down to Stockholm to be a proselyting office elder. So he'll be filling book orders, and taking care of travel, and whole bunch of other things that the mission president will need. I'm really going to miss him, especially since we both thought we would be staying 3 transfers together, including Thanksgiving, St. Lucia, Christmas, and New Years' together, but the Lord knows better! 

For this next transfer, I will be companions with the one and only, Äldste Berlin, who just got done training my boy Äldste Bird down in Helsingborg. I am so pumped to be companions with him because he is one of the most outgoing in the mission and that really is what the area needs. Also, funny story, I met Äldste Berlin's family at the MTC during tours, so what a small world! The transfers will go into effect Tuesday night when Äldste Berlin arrives in Gävle and it will actually be a 7 week transfer, so it will end early January!

After writing my email last week, and just feeling really sad about pretty much everything, I knew that I would have a lot better attitude this week, and sure enough, the week turned out to be pretty good! While we didn't teach a whole lot, and while we froze quite a bit in this pre-winter chill, I did it all with a smile on my face. I thought back a lot to the reasons why I came on the mission and why I'm still here. Coming into the mission, I was doing this for me. I was doing this because I knew it was what I should do and that it would be a blessing to me in the future. But as the months have gone on (4 months to be exact!), I've come to realize that I've stayed on the mission because I actually care about other people. I do all I can to help other people learn about this amazing gospel and I really am happy doing it....I just had to think about it and change my attitude! I'm so glad to be here in Sweden doing this amazing work and it will only get better from here. 

Probably the highlight of the week was when we taught a man named Alexander. Alexander is a preacher from the Congo, so that made things a little interesting, but we had our bro Mihail (currently my best friend in Sweden and best member ever) there to help. During one point in the lesson, he told Alexander how missionaries give up everything to come out here and share the gospel. And then Mihail said how much he admires us and looks up to us for all that we do. Here I am thinking about how inadequate I am and how many weaknesses I have, but then Mihail said that he admired us. It really gave me an insight on how our Heavenly Father and Christ feel about us. A lot of times we are self-critical, and focus on our weaknesses, but in reality, Christ just sees us for the good we have. And in the end, Christ will be able to make all of our weaknesses strengths. (Ether 12:27)

Hope all of you are doing well! Have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

1) We got some snow finally! It snowed 4 of the past 7 days,
but it also rained in that time frame so a lot of it melted.

Pics:

1) We got some snow finally! It snowed 4 of the past 7 days, but it also rained in that time frame so a lot of it melted.

2) shaved my head again

--Äldste Steele

DISCLAIMER: Missions are Hard

Email written: 11/13/17

4) caught my boy harper mid yawn

Tjena!! It's so crazy to think that another week has gone by. I only have one more week left of training and then I am officially no longer a greenie!! This past week as part of training, I was the senior companion and took the lead in (mostly) all planning and teaching situation. I really learned a lot from the whole experience and gained a lot more confidence as a missionary, and I'm glad that Äldste Harper was there to save the day when I didn't exactly know what to say. 

Looking back on the week, there were probably 3 big highlights that happened (other than the fact that Blessing is still coming to church and doing awesome!) The first thing that happened this week is we went out to an ex-members house to do some service since several of the members in the branch are still friends with them and suggested we reach out to them and do some service. So turns out, they live in a mansion and they have a huge yard and we ended up raking leaves for 2 and a half hours in the cold rain. While it would've been easy to complain about it all, I really had no desire to complain. I really enjoyed serving them and would've gladly done it for 2 more hours. 

The next thing that happened was a crazy sequence of events. We originally had planned to go street contacting in the afternoon, but I had a very strong feeling that we should not be contacting at that time. So, we decided to start going through our area books trying to find someone we want to get into contact with. I came across a part member family teaching record where the dad was a member and the wife was not. It looked very promising so we tried all the numbers we had for them, but then none of them worked. They were all out of service. Well, I wouldn't give up that easily, so we called the branch know-it-all Veikko Heikki to see if he had any information on them. Well, he pretty much told me to 'låt de vara' let them be, and then we ended the call. Well, not even 5 minutes later, Veikko calls back and says hey we're meeting the dad at the church in one hour. So, we got everything together, Veikko picked us up, and we went to meet the dad. When we met with him, he talked to Veikko about a lot of family problems he was having and had come to Gävle for some legal help. He told us multiple times that us calling him must've been inspiration, because he really needed help and advice. That was super amazing to see how we were guided by the spirit that day and helped someone who was truly in need. 

The last big thing that happened this week, is a new family just moved into the Gävle branch!! The mom is from the Philippines and the dad is originally from Gävle, but the dad is not a member yet. We don't exactly know how interested the dad is in learning about the church and making the steps to baptism, but he was at church there supporting his wife and his 3 kids, so we really have hope for the future with them! Such a miracle!

Now....to the subject line. The mission is truly the hardest thing I've ever had to do. It is so tough, especially mentally. The sun has been setting around 3pm, so the darkness isn't really helping a whole lot with morale. We don't see other missionaries very often due to video call district meetings, past investigators block our number, people don't show up to lessons after planning them the day before or even the day of, and people just aren't down to talk. It really is difficult and it can really start to wear on you. It's been a real tough week.

When all is said and done, however, I want everyone to know that I still have a very strong testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. It continues to grow every day as I study from the scriptures and the words of living prophets. Also, my super cool awesome best friend (aka Alanna Buth) continues to be an awesome example to me and continues to strengthen my testimony. In a letter she wrote me this week she said "Every time I turn the Book of Mormon's pages, I am overwhelmed with the assurity that God lives and loves us and that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer." I couldn't agree more with that! There truly is power in the Book of Mormon and I invite all of you reading this email, whether you're Mormon or not, to read it. I promise it will change your life. 

I hope all of you have a great week. I will continue to work hard and I just hope that all of you continue to do the same in school, work, or to all my homies out there serving missions. Love you all! 

Pics:

1,2,3) We went by a church today just outside of the main city

4) caught my boy harper mid yawn

1,2,3) We went by a church today just outside of the main city

1,2,3) We went by a church today just outside of the main city

1,2,3) We went by a church today just outside of the main city

That's What We Call...A Game-Changer

Email written: 11/6/17

2) So this is Äldste Jarman, turns out his older brother

was my EFY counselor when I was 14...small world

Hallå där! This week was another fantastic one here in Gävle and I'm loving it more and more as the days go by. As weird as this sounds, this place really feels like home to me now and I'm kind of sad that I could be moving in two weeks. But only time will tell if I'm staying here in Gävle through Christmas, or moving elsewhere. 

For starters, we traveled to Stockholm on Monday night for our zone conference on Tuesday. We got to spend the night with some other missionaries near the Gubbängen chapel and that was super fun, because we barely get to see other missionaries up here in Gävle. Nothing beats a Monday night with the boys. 

We then went to zone conference the next day where we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how we can work with members. Both topics were super awesome and got everyone fired up again to do missionary work. A few weeks ago, Elder M. Russell Ballard gave a talk to all of Europe where he mentioned that missionaries cannot perform miracles by themselves anymore. They can only happen if the missionaries and the members work together. This instruction was both a blessing and a curse, because he said that miracles will happen, but the curse was we can't do them on our own. We really have been seeing this week, that he is exactly right. Contacting has not been super effective, and we're just not having much success with personal efforts. So the question is, how in the world are we going to start seeing more success here in Sweden?

Well, one of the answers to that questions, is technology. At zone conference, President Youngberg dropped it on us that we were approved to be a technology mission. This means that every single missionary is going to get a Samsung smartphone and we will be using social media, like Facebook and Twitter. This is something that will take a lot of adjusting, since I swore that stuff off for 2 years, but I know it will really help in progressing the work. It will really help us reach out to the generation that is more open and willing to change, i.e the 18-30 year olds, who are trying to figure out life and what not. 

I'm really excited for what the future has to hold and the different things we will start doing to find and teach people. Also, cool story really quick. So you all remember how we were working with Veronika and we just fell out of contact the past 3 weeks? Well, yesterday she showed up to church, and not only did she come to church, but she shared her testimony on how much prayer has impacted her life and how she knows that God exists. It was so powerful and we are going to start working with her again, alongside the members who are just really making her feel at home. 

1) We went by our pumpkin that we carved.
It looks so awesome! Happy Halloween everyone

Well other than that, hope you all have a great week! If any of you have any questions about what I'm doing here in Sweden, or about the church, always feel free to email me. Love you all!

Pics:

1) We went by our pumpkin that we carved. It looks so awesome! Happy Halloween everyone

2) So this is Äldste Jarman, turns out his older brother was my EFY counselor when I was 14...small world

-- Äldste Steele

Two Greenies and the Streets of Borlänge

Email written: 10/30/17

Hur är läget?? Wow, another fantastic week here in the beautiful country of Sweden. The first snow has hit several parts of Sweden already, and so snow in Gävle is just right around the corner. It's also started to drop into the negatives (Celsius) so vintern kommer.....

1)We helped a member put up Christmas lights before it gets too cold

Quick update on Blessing: Blessing came to church this past week and I was able to translate for him again! It's such a cool experience to translate, especially when I've only been in this country for 2 months. My translation isn't perfect, but I get the point across to him and he is uplifted nonetheless. As we were sitting there talking after sacrament meeting and I asked him how he has been feeling since he started coming to church. He told me that he really loves coming to church and that he actually has felt a lot happier since he started coming. We are working with him to be baptized at the end of next month so we will see how things continue to progress with him!

2/3) Me and Ä. Ahonen

Now, to the the highlight of the week. We went on splits this past Friday and I was companions with an elder who has been in Sweden for only 3 weeks. His name is Äldste Ahonen, and he actually comes from Finland. He's a little bit older than most (21), because military service is required in Finland. As much as Ä. Ahonen and Liljenquist tried to get things set up for us to do, they came up with nothing, so we were left to hit the streets and contact all afternoon. I really was terrified since I've only been here 9 weeks, and him 3 weeks, and we are both still pretty rocky at Swedish, especially when understanding people. Well, in the end, that day with Ä. Ahonen, a man I would definitely call my own brother, turned out to be the best day of my mission this far. During the entire contacting stund, I understood every single person we talked to, except for one, and I only had a hard time with Swedish in one of the people we talked to. We testified with power and we knew exactly what needed to be said in exactly the right moments. The help that we received from God was incredible and we got 10 potential investigators (basically people who switch numbers and want to meet to learn more). It was such a remarkable day and I'm never going to forget it! 

Funny Story of the week comes from our contacting stund in Borlänge. We came across a man who talked in a super high pitched voice. Ä. Ahonen knew immediately that he didn't come from Sweden and then we found out that he was from Finland, so the two had a nice conversation in Finnish, and I just stood back and listened, not having any clue what was going on. After the conversation, Ä. Ahonen looked at me and said that guy was crazy. I had him translate for me, and apparently the guy was talking about crazy little monsters that he sees that climb over him and do bad stuff to him. He also talked about how they broke into the hospital and stole drugs to put into his coffee. Stay away from drugs kids.

2/3) Me and Ä. Ahonen

Other than that, this week was just absolutely crazy, with one thing planned after another. We are getting fed all the time by the members here in Gävle, and I'll be honest...I've put on a few pounds. I'll lose it later and enjoy the food while I can haha! We are doing a lot of good here in Gävle and things are just going to keep on getting better as we work hard and work alongside the awesome members here.

Tonight, we will be travelling to Stockholm for zone conference tomorrow and I am super excited to go back to Stockholm! It's going to be the perfect start to the week ahead. 

Well, have a great week everyone! Until next week...frid ut Älskar er.

Pictures:

1)We helped a member put up Christmas lights before it gets too cold

2/3) Me and Ä. Ahonen

-- Äldste Steele

Du har kommit till....

Email written: 10/23/17

2) me and the pump

Hejsan! Another week has gone by here in Gävle, and as of this past Thursday, I have been on the mission for exactly 3 months! When you compare it to my trainer, Elder Harper, who hits his year mark next week, it doesn't really seem like much. I still have a long way to go, but I've come a long way already and I am going to keep on progressing!

This week was a little bit of a tough one. The subject line references something I heard way too often this week. It's what usually happens when someone doesn't answer the phone (You have come to.... på engelska). Most of our investigators didn't answer their phones this week and we had absolutely no contact with them. So we really have no idea if they are making any personal progress and if they will still continue to prepare for baptism in the coming weeks. It was really hard to go through this week with not much after the week that we had last week. 

Nevertheless, the week ended on a high note! On Saturday, we went to a member's house for lunch and to share a little message (budskap) with them. Well, when we got there, they thought it would be fun if we carved a pumpkin in preparation for Halloween. Yes, Halloween is a thing here in Sweden! The family has an exchange student from Germany staying with them, so we all carved together and had a really great time. The pumpkin turned out super well! But what was more important, was the impact that the pumpkin carving had on the exchange student, Louise. After finishing the pumpkin, as Louise did most of the carving since she's an artist, she talked about when she was younger how she could never carve a pumpkin perfectly and her mom would always get mad at her for it. Well, this time she made it perfect and expressed how she wished she could tell her mom about it, but then we found out that her mom died a few years ago due to cancer. I was able to share with her that she would be able to see her Mom again because death is not the end. It was a super cool moment, and it really made an impact on Louise's life.

The other awesome thing that happened, was Blessing came to church again. Blessing is really making awesome progress and loves how he feels when he comes to church. We are going to meet him tomorrow to begin teaching the commandments to make the next steps for baptism! I took Blessing over to meet the branch president and our branch president just said to him, so you want to be baptized? and then Blessing lit up and said yes! So things are going super well with Blessing and we are super excited to continue working with him. 

We have so many things already planned for this upcoming week, so we are going to be staying extra busy and working hard. Also, the first snow is just around the corner, and I'm quite terrified. Anyone have any good tips on how to stay warm in the winter? Advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Also, one final thought....an issue that is brought up in almost every contacting stund is that people can't seem to believe in God with things like war that go on in the world. I'm hoping to start building a good library of scriptures/talks that help answer this question, so if any of you have insights or thoughts on this topic, please send me an email and let me know! Tack!

Ha det fint mina käre vänner! 

--Äldste Steele

1) Just got done going ham (skinka) in Innebandy..
basically floor hockey

Pictures

1) Just got done going ham (skinka) in Innebandy...basically floor hockey

2) me and the pump

3) the pumpkin

3) the pumpkin