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