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