Husen är låga och Världen är liten

Email written: 11/26/18

Hallå! It's Äldste Steele again in another weekly email!

This week was another special one because for starters, we got to celebrate Thanksgiving at the Youngbergs. It felt like we were back at home since we had a full Thanksgiving meal with a bunch of other Americans. We were able to go around the table and all say something that we are thankful for. Obviously everyone knows that I am thankful for my family and for the gospel, and so I said that I was thankful for all of my other friends that also decided to serve missions and their example for me! I truly am thankful for the example that all of my friends have set for me.

The week started off with some zone conferences and traveling. For some reason, at the beginning of my mission, I was terrified to talk to people on airplanes, but I've overcome that fear and seen the blessings of it. I sat next to this woman on the plane ride from Malmö to Stockholm and not too long into the conversation, she told me that she wished she had a belief in her life because it would be so nice to have one. I immediately pulled out a trust Mormons Bok, testified of the way my faith has grown by reading the book, and incited her to read it. She gladly accepted and we got to have such a trevlig conversation the rest of the way to Stockholm.

Later on in the week, I was on splits with Äldste Sirrine, who is a zone leader up in Umeå and is from my same MTC group. We had about an hour to find on Saturday morning before their flight back home, and so we prayerfully thought about where we needed to be and who we needed to find. I got the impression that we needed to be in Ella Park and Elder Sirrine felt like we would meet a woman holding a child. And so, with those thoughts in mind, we went out trying to find those interested in the message. After lots of the normal no's that we get when knocking on doors, we come to this one door where a lady answers the door. I can't see her at first, but all I hear is that she wanted to speak English with us and we were like please we want to practice our Swedish and she's like I'm American though!!! And that totally took us off guard and so we told her that we also were from the land of freedom and she let us right in. After talking for a bit, we find out that this woman is from PLANO, TEXAS. What are the odds of that!? I'm in Stockholm, and I meet someone that lived just 15 mins away from me in Texas. I about lost my marbles on this one. But get this, it gets better... She was holding a dog in her hands, and while it wasn't a child, I knew exactly that was the woman Äldste Sirrine thought of in the morning. As we got to know her more, she said, guys, you won't believe this. Just this past week in school my daughter decided to study the Latter day Saints and so you'll have to come back and help her learn more!! What a miracle..

Yesterday at church, we had a million härliga upplevelser. At the end of elders quorum this week, a man by the name of Paco asked if he could have a few minutes to share his testimony. Paco is someone that the sisters contacted into this past week as they were running to catch a bus. He stayed for all 3 hours of church! But back to the story he shared.. he asked for the floor and began telling us this great story of his upbringing and where he's at in his life. He told us that he had grown up Muslim in the land of Congo, but since the rest of his family was Christian, they always would persuade him to come to church and become a follower of Christ. Finally he listened and began searching after a church to go to. The man spoke of how much he loved being in church, how welcomed he was and how we wants to keep coming. He then looked around and said, what is today? And we all told him it was the 25th and then he said that from today, the 25th for the rest of my life, I will be a part of this church. I will be here every week and serve in this church. I am here to serve God. Everyone just about fell out of their chair and tears filled my eyes. All the brothers in the elders quorum came up to meet him and welcome him in. It was so unbelievably special. Miracles continue to happen here in Sweden. We are finding those that are prepared and making sure they are taken good care of by the ward. Shortly after the meeting, we got a phone call from one of the newest baptized members of the ward, Moses, and he was literally on cloud nine. He told us how happy he was that Paco came to church and how excited he is to see someone join the church. He expressed to us further that he just loved the church so much. Yesterday was almost overwhelming because of how special it was and sorry if I can't quite explain it all that well.. Hard to convey emotions in an email.

But, life is so great. We have decorated our apartment with all our Christmas decorations and we look forward to participating in #EttLjusFörVärlden! Until next week, ha det fint!

PS, to explain the title.. There is a classic Swedish song called 'Välkommen Hem' and one of the lines in there says, Husen är höga och Världen är stor... But since I had a small world moment, thought to change the lyrics :)

Pics:

1) Äldste Sirrine!

2) Gamla Stan from last Pday

3) Happy Birthday Syster Bailey!

4) Me and Moses!!

5) God JUL

1) Äldste Sirrine!

2) Gamla Stan from last Pday

3) Happy Birthday Syster Bailey!

4) Me and Moses!!

5) God JUL

First Round of Zone Conferences

Email written: 11/19/18

1) our office

Hej ni fina!

This week has been absolutely incredible with all the different zone conferences that we had this week. It's really interesting to see how all the zone conferences differ and the different impressions President Youngberg gets for each individual zone.

Elder Derr and I had the chance to lead a training on enriching our personal studies. We came up with our one-liner to end the whole presentation and it was 'When you read, you'll count the pages. But if you study, you'll make the pages count.' It's gotten a lot of good responses from the missionaries and we have heard from a few missionaries that their personal studies have become so much better over the past few days! Studying the gospel is so amazing and I've been able to learn and understand so much since being a missionary. It was kind of cool to talk to Elder Derr about it as he complimented my scriptural knowledge and understanding, and it's honestly just come from the past year and half.

After the Stockholm south zone conference on Wednesday evening, we were all just socializing in the foyer, when this man just walks into the church. I just assumed that the missionaries in the area had set up a lesson with someone and so we didn't really know what to think of it. But no one was coming to talk to him and he's just like um could someone show me around? And my mouth about dropped...a 23 year old Swedish man just randomly walking into a church to learn more. The elders in the area hopped on it immediately and we went out to the car to load up before we headed home. We got in the car but Elder Derr felt we should go back in and introduce ourselves to this man and make him feel more welcome in the church. And so, we came back in and joined the Haninge Äldster right there in the chapel.

We found out that the man's name was Tony and that he had met missionaries once or twice a few months back but had been too busy to meet but he felt like he needed to check out the church that evening. What a miracle it was that the exact evening he wanted to go there, we had just finished zone conference. Also, a big topic of our zone conference was short and powerful statements as well as the Book of Mormon. And as we were standing in the chapel teaching Tony, he asked each of us to give one powerful sentence about the importance of the Book of Mormon and so it was cool to see things come in full circle. To top it all off, we taught him how to pray and before we left, he said a prayer with us and it was a special moment for all of us there! I'll never forget it.

We also had the chance to have stake conference yesterday. 3 of the wards that I have/currently are serving in were there: Gävle, Stockholm, Täby. I felt so much joy to see my good friends from all the wards, gathered together for an uplifting conference this past weekend. One of the speakers at stake conference, was someone that was baptized into the Stockholm at the beginning of the year....a Swedish mom that has 4 very young kids. She shared such a powerful testimony and everyone at the conference was touched, including our mission president that had the chance to interview them for baptism and now he gets to see them prepare for the temple. Miracles continue to happen even here in Sweden people! 

Other than that, the work continues to move forward. The Lord is hastening His work and giving us the opportunity to see big changes happen in the lives of the Swedish people. Doesn't get any better than this. We'll be catching a plane this evening and heading back to Göteborg to continue our zone conferences there. There honestly never is down time here in Täby. Makes life interesting :D 

Pictures:

1) our office

2) I've been on way too many flights in sweden...

3) the sun came out in Stockholm this week

4) Dessert at a member's yesterday

5) MTC companion

6) BONUS PICTURES from other missionary mommas!

-- Äldste Steele

2) I've been on way too many flights in sweden...

3) the sun came out in Stockholm this week

4) Dessert at a member's yesterday

5) MTC companion (Äldste Butler)

6) Äldste Bills

6) Äldste Baggett

Reunions

Email written: 11/12/18

Kära läsare!

2) happy halloween from Drottninggatan 

What a week it has been. Just when I thought life couldn't get any crazier since moving back to Stockholm. Äldste Derr and I decided to go on 3 splits this past week with 3 of the zone leaders that we have in mission. I was able to learn so much from all the splits, but one of the biggest things that I learned was that we shouldn't do that many splits again in one week. It makes it feel like you're not even companions anymore with your companion and that's not good especially in prepariton for zone conferences this week and the following week! 

But, one of the greatest things about the splits was I got to fly down to Göteborg to my old area. I teamed up with Äldste Lee, who i actually knew back in my BYU days. We got to visit some of the people that I taught and we even got to have a good Swedish lesson with my swedish grandpa, Lennart. It was a lot of fun to be there and realize that, even thought I'm not there anymore, life continues to go forward for everyone there. It felt as if so much had changed in the 3 weeks that I had moved here to Stockholm. 

The very next day, I got to be with Äldste Gordon, someone who I also knew back at BYU and so it was like a big ol' BYU reunion this week! Äldste Gordon and I put in some serious work and on the last door that we knocked, we met a Swedish family that was totally interested in hearing the message!! It all started when we swung by a member and asked them to pray for us before we went out knocking on doors and sure enough, prayers were answered, and we got a return appointment with a Swedish family. Blessings on blessings...

And then, to top all the reunions off, I got to be back with Äldste Butler, my MTC comp!! It was crazy for us to talk swedish to each other all day and see how much progress that we have made. We got to visit one of our good friends Wuang who is trying to learn a song on the piano and we were there to help him out with the song. We looked at the music and listened to the recording and I knew he wouldn't be able to play it. And so I said, with all due respect Wuang, how in the world do you think you are going to play this song?? And we all just started laughing, he gave up on the song, and then we got to talk about the gospel so that was fun. A nice bonus was a gourmet salmon dish for dinner. 

But, I'm loving life here in Täby. It's great to see the successes of all the missionaries here in Sweden and to see the efforts of all of us trying to help others come to Christ. We will have 3 zone conferences this week, including one in Norrland, where I get to see my dear son, Äldste Thompson again. It will be a great reunion...same thing with Stake conference when the Gävle branch members will be making their way down to Stockholm and so I get to see them this week as well. Aren't reunions the greatest?? Well everyone, have a great week! 

HEJDÅÅÅ

Pictures:

1) Åhlens building decorated for christmas

2) happy halloween from Drottninggatan 

3) äldste lee!!

4) äldste gordon hahaha

5) saturday morning fotboll

-- Äldste Steele

1) Åhlens building decorated for christmas

3) äldste lee!!

4) äldste gordon hahaha

5) saturday morning fotboll

Following the Spirit and Learning About Radios

Email written: 11/5/18

5) Äldste Lewis!

Tjena! 

Wow, what a week it has been my friends. Being an assistant really has been a huge adjustment from just me and my companion putting in work in our area. It's now, putting in work in our own area, as well as going on splits with zone leaders in the mission, and not to mention a lot more meetings, but it's a blast here in the office and I love having this opportunity to serve with Äldste Derr, along with our mission president, President Youngberg. 

To start the week off, we traveled all the way down to Malmö with splits with the zone leaders. On our way to the airport, we hit some really heavy traffic, and so we ended up missing our flight there, but thankfully we were able to book a new flight that night that was WAY CHEAP. That being said, we almost died coming in to land in Malmö. I've never been in such bad turbulence in my life. The plane literally got thrown side to side, so that was pretty fun, since we made it safely. As were all freaking out on the plane, I said a little prayer and I really felt at peace. This lady turned over and looked at me terrified, and I just gave her a nice smile and it made her feel at peace too. 

But anyways, I was able to work with Äldste Lewis (past companion) the whole day and words can't describe how awesome it was to be back with him for the day. One thing that we really focused on in our contacts, was having the spirit with us so that we could teach and invite according to that specific person's needs. It's so true that we need the guidance of the Holy Ghost in order to know what to say. So many conversations would end and Äldste lewis would be like dang äldste, where did you get that idea from? And I would just give him a little smirk and say 'Anden', which means the spirit for those that don't know swedish. 

Right after that split, we had district council and I got to go on another split with my district leader, Äldste Barney, who actually is from my MTC group. It was the first time that I actually got to go on splits with an elder from my group and it was so much fun. We got to see how much we've both grown in the past year or so in Sweden. When we were out tracting, we got let in twice so that was pretty amazing, usually doesn't happen that often here in Sweden. One of the old guys that let us in had a ginormous radio tower just in the middle of his yard and so I started asking him about it and he started giving me this whole lecture on radios and then I asked him if he could show me his equipment and then he just let us right in. We got to share a quick message with them and prayed with them as well. I totally pulled a President Nelson on this man...the following quote taken from the April general conference:

'I gazed about the room with wonderment and said, “Brother [Sven Svensson], I have always wanted to learn more about amateur radio work. Would you be willing to teach me about it? I’m sorry I can’t stay any longer tonight, but could I come back another time?”  

The very next morning, we had another great experience that involved following the spirit in the work. As we were planning for the morning, Elder Barney and I tried to set a goal for our train/ stan contacting. We set the goal for one, but I was like äldste we need to get more specific. And so, we thought about who the person would be, and I got the impression that it was going to be someone very very quiet. And then Äldste barney added, and probably around 5'6, 5'7, and so then we prayed over our plans, and as Äldste Barney was praying, he said henne without even thinking and so we knew that it would also be a woman. And so they we were, trying hard to find the one. We tried our hardest and invited quite a few people, but no one was interested. Then, as we come to the last contact, we stop this girl in stan. We start talking to hear and she just stands there listening to what we have to say. About half way through the conversation, I'm like, wait a minute, this girl is very very quiet. And she is also about 5'6.....She said that our message sounded 'helt underbart' and that she would want to hear more about it. That experience was so amazing and quite the miracle!

I'm loving the work and I'm loving all the great things that we are experiencing as members of Christ's church in the latter days. I thought to end my email with another great quote from our prophet, Russell M. Nelson. About the coming days and about all the changes that have happened in the church recently, he said, "If you think the Church has been fully restored, you're just seeing the beginning. There is much more to come. … Wait till next year. And then the next year. Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest. It's going to be exciting." We truly are living in some exciting times and i'm thankful to be a missionary at this time. 

Until next week, ha det så bra! 

Pictures:

1) äldste barney!!

2) flying for splits 

3) jakobsberg chapel 

4) more nature in sweden 

5) Äldste Lewis!

-- Äldste Steele

1) äldste barney!!

2) flying for splits 

3) jakobsberg chapel  

4) more nature in sweden