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