Stake Conference: A Joyful Reunion

Email written: 4/23/18

Hej på er! I can't believe it's already Monday, again! The weeks really seem to be speeding up and from what I hear from all the older missionaries...it just keeps on getting faster. I really hope I can make the most of the rest of my time here. I pray every day that I can be a blessing to others and that I can enjoy each and every moment. 

6) Pizza with Pablo and Gubbängen elders 

Overall, it's been a pretty eventful week, especially with Stockholm stake conference this past weekend. Apparently they only broadcast the conference in October, and then everyone is invited to the Gubbängen chapel in April, so that meant that the Gävle branch received the invitation and anyone who could get a ride would be there at conference! I was able to see so many people that I care so much for. That branch really is my family (S/o Sjökviskt, Heikki, Norup, Jonsson, many more) :) I even got to see Gävle'a newest convert, Selma! It was such a joyful reunion and I'm glad that we all were able to feel the spirit and learn a lot from the inspired speakers at stake conference together. 

We experienced a lot of miracles this week that really made us appreciate God's hand in our lives. One of them happened early on in the week on Tuesday when we went to teach David. Ä. Baggett and I had hoped that the rest of the family would be there as well and so we prayed that we could teach the whole family. When we came to teach, it was just David and his daughter Miriam. We began teaching for a bit, but then David's son Zaya comes into the apartment. He comes and says tja and what not, and we invite him to sit down for the lesson but he said that he was too hungry and needed to eat so he left the room and went to the kitchen. Well, not even 2 minutes later, Zaya comes walking back into the room and sits on the couch and listens to the rest of the lesson very intently. At the conclusion of the lesson, Zaya asks to say a few words. He then began to tell us that when he had sit down to eat, he felt a really strong impression that he needed to go to the living room and listen to the missionaries. He wanted to eat, but the influence of the spirit was more powerful, so he followed the prompting and was so thankful that he came to listen to the listen. The message was able to strengthen the faith of the family and it was so cool to see how not only our prayer was answered, but also the family was able to experience the power of the Spirit in their lives. 

Another miracle happened later on in the week when I went on splits with Ä. Denton, a hilarious snubbe that's just one transfer younger than me on the mission. A few days prior in weekly planning, Ä. Baggett and I had discussed what Carmen needed this week, and we really felt impressed to teach the law of fasting. So, fast forward to the day of the lesson and we are frantically trying to get a member on the lesson, and the first 6 or 7 members that we had called were too busy. It would've been really easy to give up and just say oh whatever we don't really need a member on the lesson (even though we needed one to be obedient), but we kept trying and finally at the last minute, our good friend Jérémie agreed to come and helped out on another awesome lesson with Carmen. As we began teaching the law of fasting, she said "Of course, how could I have forgotten that?? I need to try that. Elder Steele, how do you always know what I need to hear?" Plain and simple, the Holy Ghost :)

I invite all of you to pray, listen, write, and act, just as President Russell M. Nelson has invited each and every one of us to do. I know that as we do so, we will be able to be more receptive to the spirit as I myself have experienced recently. 

Keep on working hard y'all! Until next week, ha det gott!

Pictures:

1) Finally found someone with the last name Ståhl!

2) The backyard of a member here in Stockholm

3) This is where we live

4) I got to see my little buddy Benjamin!! 

5) solnedgång

6) Pizza with Pablo and Gubbängen elders 

7) nordiska museet

Äldste Steele

1) Finally found someone with the last name Ståhl!

2) The backyard of a member here in Stockholm

3) This is where we live

4) I got to see my little buddy Benjamin!! 

5) solnedgång

7) nordiska museet

En Apostel Kommer till Sverige Snart

Email written: 4/16/18

3) POE baby

Kära vänner och familj! 

This week has just flown by! It feels like the week ended just as it was starting. The zone conferences have started for this transfer and that means missionaries have started receiving new phones and getting access to Facebook and a bunch of other resources not originally available to this mission. Our zone conference is a little bit later than everyone else's on the 27th of April, so we have a little bit of time, but pretty soon I'll be back on Facebook! Vad konstigt alltså! I know that these changes are really going to help the work go forward here in Sweden and prepare the way for the Second Harvest. 

Speaking of the Second Harvest, look it up if you don't know what it is. Second, Äldste Dale G. Renlund, a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles, will be visiting Stockholm at the end of the month!!! Äldste Renlund is a Swede and so we're hoping when he comes to visit, he holds a talk in Swedish. It's going to be such a cool experience and we're all really excited for it. Apparently a few weeks ago, Äldste Renlund sent an email to one of President's counselors, Leif Mattson, saying something along the lines of "Prepare the members, the Second Harvest will happen" I just get chills typing that out. I've said it before and I'll say it again...It's such a blessing to be serving a mission in Sweden. #bestmissionintheworld 

We really had a great week here. Whether it was meeting the head of professional baseball in Sweden, or helping out some fellow Americans get from Stockholm to Amsterdam as part of a Red Bull competition, or spending the day in the mission office booking travel and filling orders, or the weather being nice enough to go out in short sleeves and no jacket, or even starting to teach a new investigator! 

Our new investigator, David, is actually someone who used to meet with the missionaries quite frequently but lost contact for a couple of years. His kids all ended up getting baptized, but David never was, but one of his kids started coming back to church, and so David wanted to receive visits from the missionaries again. When we came to teach him, we sat down and he pulls out all of his study materials, which was a bunch of scriptures and study manuals in both English and Arabic. He looked at us and said "before we begin, I want to let you know that I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet" We had such a great lesson about prophets and David actually ended up teaching us a lot of it since he's studied so much. There's a few roadblocks that are stopping him from making that step, but we're hopeful for the future and glad to start working with him and his family! 

That's about all I have for this week. Keep being awesome! Vi hörs om en vecka! Ciao

Pictures:

1) Vilken utsikt! 

2) David and I, as we were walking out of his apartment, I saw a Real Madrid hat and I just might a comment about how cool it was. He picked it up looked at me and said it's yours now

3) POE baby

4) Met some tourists from Russia that have met with missionaries before, so we gave them a Book of Mormon in Swedish as a souvenir 

-- Äldste Steele

1) Vilken utsikt! 

4) Met some tourists from Russia that have met with missionaries before, so we gave them a Book of Mormon in Swedish as a souvenir 

Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

Email written: 4/9/18

Tjabba Tjena Hallå! 

It's been a great week here in Stockholm and the work is continuing to move forward. It's such a blessing to be a missionary in this city! Before I get on with what happened this past week in Stockholm, I thought to give you all an update on Gävle, my training grounds. 

About 4 months ago, Äldste Berlin and I had been invited to help out at a primary activity at the church since they were going to be short on adults to help out. We were a little hesitant at first since we had some other things to accomplish, but we decided to go anyways and help out the primary. The activity originally was supposed to start in the afternoon, but due to some other conflicts, it started a lot earlier, around 11 or so. Well, Äldste Berlin and I show up to help, and it turns out they were good on adults to supervise, so we were just standing around not exactly sure what we should do. We felt like we weren't helping at all and that we were just taking up space. After standing around awkwardly for a good 15 minutes, we decided to find a room and start calling through the contacts in our phone. Well just as we were about to do that, one of the members in the branch, Karin, came up to us and said 'yo, det finns någon här som vill prata med er' och sen vi ba 'vem då??" It turned out to be a woman named Selma that wanted to come to the church and pray with the missionaries. If the activity had been a lot later in the day, we never would have met her. Selma is someone I talked quite a bit about in my final few emails that I sent while serving in Gävle. We taught her quite often and she was SO prepared, but just as we thought things were good to go, a new concern or a worry would pop up. We continued teaching and helping to resolve concerns and then it was up to Äldste Lewis and Tolman as I packed my bags and moved to Stockholm. Well, I'm here to say that those 2 Äldster in Gävle are straight up killing it and SELMA WAS BAPTIZED on Saturday! I was able to talk to Selma on the phone right after she was baptized and she was so unbelievably happy to have made that decision in her life. I hope that she continues to learn in the church and help bless the lives of all those around her. 

As far as da boyz here in Stockholm, we are seeing miracle after miracle here, one of them being that even though an apartment building caught on fire in Karlaplan (pretty near our house) no one died and the firefighters were able to save a lot of people off their balconies. 

We were able to teach Carmen twice this week, once on splits with my zone leader Äldste Craun, and the other time when Äldste Baggett and I felt impressed to swing by Carmen and read a scripture with her. I was thinking all day on what we could share with her and nothing was really coming to me, but about 15 minutes before we were going to leave, I felt impressed to share some scriptures from Enos Bok. We went over there and talked briefly, read a few scriptures, and then applied the scriptures to her life. She was completely shocked at the message we had shared because she said it was exactly what she needed that day. She had prayed and prayed to receive an answer to one of her questions and then we were able to visit her and the answer came as we sat there reading the scriptures. It's experiences like this that you just can't forget, and they happen on the daily. Life is so great as a missionary, and while it isn't easy at all and has it's fair share of "forgettable moments", I'm so thankful for the time I've spent here so far. 

We've really been focusing a lot on the invitation that President Nelson gave at the end of conference last weekend:

"I exhort you to study the messages of this conference frequently--even repeatedly--during the next six months."

We have been studying and applying the messages from conference this past week in our lessons, contacts, member meals, etc. and it has been such a success! I'd just want to invite all of you to follow the counsel of the prophet as I have done, and I know your life will be better if you do! 

Tack för allt ni gör! Ha det så gott! Ciao

Pictures:

1) Our homie Danut that hand makes chessboards

2) Hit up the Naturhistoriska Museet last P-Day

3) fire in karlaplan

4) more fire

5) Me and Äldste Craun #bro

6) Östermalm 

-- Äldste Steele

1) Our homie Danut that hand makes chessboards

2) Hit up the Naturhistoriska Museet last P-Day

3) fire in karlaplan

4) more fire

5) Me and Äldste Craun #bro

6) Östermalm 

Zlatan Gatan

Email written: 4/2/18

Tjabba!!! It's been another great week here in Stockholm and an even better Easter weekend, having the chance to listen to our prophet, Russell M. Nelson, and all the other apostles and leaders of the church. We were able to spend a lot of time with other missionaries and members in the ward this weekend and it was really awesome to get strengthened together as disciples of Christ. 

I thought to share a really cool experience that happened this past week! So this past week, several new missionaries got here straight from the MTC and the assistants sent us a text asking us if we could go greenie contacting with all the new missionaries. We said of course, and came to hit up stan with some greenies on their first day here in Sweden. It reminded me so much of my first day in Sweden 7 months ago, not knowing what was going on, tired out of my mind, and getting 'nej tack' yelled at me to everyone I tried to talk to. I decided that I wanted this new missionary to have a legendary experience for his first day, and not get wrecked like I did. So I thought a lot about it that morning and all the way leading up to contacting, on how I could help him have a good experience. And then the idea came to me!! 

1) the jerseys 

Just the day before, Elder Baggett and I had met these two guys that make super good fake soccer jerseys and actually had bought some Sweden Zlatan jerseys from him and become bros and secured a pretty nice discount for any future purchases. I decided that I could take the greenie first to the soccer jersey stand and talk to one of my friends before we jump completely into the water talking to strangers. So, I get paired up with Äldste Whitaker and we go immediately to Hötorget to talk to our soccer jersey bros. When we first get there they thought I was back to buy some more jerseys and so they pulled several out of a box, and I was like kompisar....I don't want a jersey today, I came to teach the gospel with my friend here. I already knew their background since I had asked them the day before, and they weren't really interested, but I thought to ask them who in the area would be interested in learning more. The head honcho thought for a few moments and was just like, the lady that own the stand next to me is Christian and would probably love to speak with you. 

So we walk on over and just strike up a conversation with her and pretty early on in the conversation we found out that she had just gotten in contact with missionaries down in Hägersten. She talked about how she wanted to go to church super bad the past sunday, but her son's soccer game went too late so she couldn't come, but she was so interested in the church and was so excited to learn more from the missionaries. She told us about her two sons who hadn't been baptized yet and that they probably would get baptized in the church and how also she wasn't super set in the beliefs she grew up in and she definitely saw herself getting baptized in the near future. Every question she posed was just perfect for us to give the answer to and we gave her a Book of Mormon and assured her that she was in good hands with the missionaries in Hägersten. I was so happy that I was able to follow the Holy Ghost and meet such an amazing person and one prepared for the gospel, and I'm glad that Äldste Whitaker was able to have a good first day (even though he forgot his jacket in his suitcase and about froze haha)

Keep on keeping on! Have a great week everyone. :)

Picture:

1) the jerseys 

-- Äldste Steele