Tjabba Tjena Hallå!
Earlier today this woman reached out to try to feel my biceps but then I just took off running (Genesis 39:12)
Well, summer is now on the decline, people are starting to come back home from their 2 month semesters, and the cold is on the way back. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to the cold again. I'm tired of sweating so much in this white shirt and tie haha! This summer has just absolutely flown by and a lot of the people that we talk with ask us if we had any time for our own semester (trip). We tell them, nope, it's 2 full years of serving, and then we can get our semester and it just absolutely blows people's minds that we don't get a break. I'm just thankful to be out here serving and learning and improving every day.
I was able to go on splits this past week in Umeå with one of my zone leaders, Äldste Simmons. He's the first ever person that I've met that comes from Wyoming. He taught me a lot of great things that I can apply in my leadership calling as district leader and we put some good work in Umeå that day!
This past week, we were out visiting this one member that is going to start helping us with arabic translation in certain lessons we plan to have in the future. At the end of the visit, we asked him if he had any suggestions of people we should meet and he then pulled up his Facebook and was like visit these 2 people, and so he then gave us the address of one of them, and went to go knock on her door. After we knocked on the door, this small kid, that looks a lot like Terio, opens up the door, and just starts talking with us. He's such a sweet little kid and he starts telling us about all the movies he likes and then he asks us to come inside to watch the movies with him. We then ask him if his mom is home and he just said no, and so we just said that we could come back some other time. We then find out that the kid is 5 years old......I'm pretty sure when I was 5 years old we all knew never open the door for strangers, so I am just shocked at this point, but we let our little friend know that we'll back tomorrow, but just as we leave the apartment building, we run into his mom, that invites us right back in and told us of how much she missed the missionaries and she started showing pictures with missionaries.....and as we look at them a little closer, we realize they are baptism pictures, and we have just run into a member that kind of had fallen off the radar! So happy to begin helping her and her family come to church and take part in all the blessings of the gospel.
This past week, we also had a youth activity for the youth of the branch, and we decided to play monopoly after talking about the doctrine and covenants in preparation for seminary next school year. I learned something really interesting when we played Monopoly, because in the end, I teamed up with one of the youth, Poominh, and we owned both Park Place (centrum) and Boardwalk (norrmalmstorg) and had built hotells on both properties, but no one ever landed on them, and we ended up losing the game. I feel like so many times in life, we are focused on the wrong thing and we end up missing the mark. We were so focused on the most expensive property that we stopped caring about everything else. We need to take time in our lives to find out the things that actually matter and then set our focus on that-which is Jesus Christ and our familes.
I look forward to all the miracles and laughs to come this next week, including another day on the farm! Miss you all, but I'm happy out here. Life is good. Take care everyone!
Pictures:
1) det nya distriktet
2) the new whip
3) a bench where you can meet someone
4) from last week's p day
--Äldste Steele
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| 3) a bench where you can meet someone |
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| 1) det nya distriktet |
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| 2) the new whip |
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| 4) from last week's p day |
Belief is the reason we go on a mission. It is the motive for preaching about Christ and sharing/Proclaiming his love. Faith is understanding we are children of God and our Heavenly Father. May the definition of faith bless you in life Faith is defined again and because faith has an inherent joy it gives us a solid foundation that we finally have the peace we have been searching for.
ReplyDelete"Many believer's feed themselves on what God hasn't done. When I dwell on what hasn't happened, I create the atmosphere for the spirit of offense to arise and to thrive. When I dwell on what hasn't happened, I legitimize unbelief. I live with a sense of justification, for not believing God.
Faith in the purest sense is the ceasing of resistance. even when there's no physical evidence, when the other evidence is present. Not feeding ourselves on what God hasn't done Faith in it's purest form is the absence of resistance
Heaven is a place where everyone is celebrated, some are more honored but everyone is celebrated. All men and all women shall be judged on the light which they have received. Heaven is a permissible culture. God's nature is eternally permissible. These statements protect us from credit.
Faith in the purest sense is the ceasing of resistance, even when there's no physical evidence, when the other evidence is present. Not feeding ourselves on what God hasn't done. Faith in it's purest form is the absence of resistance. Faith doesn't deny a problems existence, it denies it's influence. He or she was someone whom aridity and desolation never disturbed for he or she had a deeply rooted, and a vigorous faith.
Now we can act as we have always dreamed. Now we can act as we have always been. Now we can step into the light and gather the sunlight instead of blocking out our possibilities. Instead of blocking out our joy. Variety will bloom in/under the sun. We can show off our best, we can enjoy other people's gifts. We can blossom where we stand upon the joy that faith provides us. Upon the joy that faith inherently has, which blossoms the entire field of flowers"
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYaxabUfkA - The Definition of Faith