As January Ends...

Email written: 1/28/19

Hej!

What a fantastic week it has been in Sweden. Äldste Lewis and I have been working really well together and have begun to see the blessings of hard work coupled with faith. So many miracles and so many people to be taught! This next week is going to be even crazier because not only do we have a lot more lessons to teach, but we also have 2 mission conferences, one of them being in Göteborg, and a mission leadership council at the end of the week and so things are going to be crazy as we try to juggle the million things that we need to do. Elder Massimo De Feo, one of the general leaders of the church, is coming to visit the mission and so I look forward to learning a lot from him this week at the various conferences and other meetings.

The week started off super well when we met a good friend of ours that we are teaching. He had first been taught by the sisters starting in October, but when the sisters doubled out, we started teach him. His older brother is married to a member and is also someone we are teaching! But, we met with him on Monday and had such a powerful and spiritual lesson. Lots of questions were answered and when it came down to the invitation, Elder Lewis said, "Just know that with this invitation, we only do it out of love and we do this because we want the best for you. Will you be baptized on the 9th of February?" At first he was thrown off because he thought it would be a nice simple invitation to do something, but then as he thought about it a little more and trusted in the promptings of the Holy Ghost, he told us that he would absolutely love to be baptized and that the Holy Ghost told him to say yes. And so, in just a few short weeks, there will be a baptism in Täby!! 

On Tuesday, we then flew to Utby to do some splits with the zone leaders. I had the privilege of being with Elder Wayment, one of my good friends from my MTC group. We have both grown so much and it was great to see who Elder Wayment has become over these past 18 months. I actually have been wanting to be companions with Elder Wayment since the MTC and so I finally had the chance this week.

As we were out tracting on Friday evening, Elder Lewis and i were having just a simple conversation about the work and then he asked me, 'when was the last time a missionary actually found a family?', to which I gladly was able to respond to him that there were a few families in övik that we had found, but that it had been a while since those kinds of things had happened. I decided in that moment to hold a prayer in my heart and pray for more faith to find a family, and so then we knock on the next door. The person who answered was a woman that was clearly pretty sick and she didn't feel like talking but she said that we could come back in 30 mins when her husband was home, and so we continued to tract (one of the houses we knocked into turned out to be a member so we got some free smoothies along the way :) and we came back 30 minutes later. When we knocked, they were gathered around the dinner table, but the man answered the door and said come in! And he let us in, gave us watermelon and we got to know each other briefly and asked them if they wanted to learn more and they invited us back the following week and so we get to teach a mom, dad, and their son!! It was such a miracle and it felt so good leaving that house.

Life is great!! In a district council, someone told me that I'm really bold when we are out finding and teaching, probably because I tell people how it really is. The key is, I deepen my understanding of the gospel and then bare powerful testimony so that others can come unto Christ.

Have a good week everyone! 

1) SAS

2) Ä. Wayment!

3) views

4) hagaparken

-- Äldste Steele

1) SAS

2) Ä. Wayment!

3) views

4) hagaparken

VASA

Email written: 1/21/19

Hej!

What a day/week it has been! We had the chance to go to the Vasa today. For those of you who don't know what the Vasa is, basically what happened was Kung Gustaf Vasa in the 1600s wanted to build this huge war ship and it ended up failing miserably sinking off the coast of the harbor because of how big it was. Super interesting story, didn't catch all of it though because our tour guide spoke skånska with a German accent so it was hard to understand!

We had transfers this past week and I said goodbye to Elder Derr. His train was set to leave close to 3pm and so we had a ton of time on our hands. We were planning on waiting till he boarded the train but it turned out that another elder was there that could wait with him. So, at just the right moment we left T-centralen. Why do I say the right moment? Well, just as I walked out, I saw a very familiar face, one that was from Övik. I couldn't believe my eyes... I quickly yelled 'Ben!' and he stopped in his tracks and I got to see someone that we would do service for every Saturday in Övik. He was touring Stockholm just that dad with his mom and so the only person that could've orchestrated that kind of meeting was God, especially in such a big city as Stockholm is. I felt låter that night, that that was exactly what he needed to help him come and visit the church in Övik. I hope that he was able to do that this past Sunday!

On Thursday, we got to experience a tripan with Elder Fuller because of a bunch of travel problems and a snow storm that hit. Knocking on doors with 3 people can be quite interesting haha, but we had a great day! We've started to take busses a opt more instead of raking the car and we gave had about 4-5x as many people to talk to and it's been a great way for us to spread the good word!

I feel the past few weeks have been pretty tough for me, and I'm really not quite sure why, but it just seems like the Lord continues to show my weaknesses to me and I'm really seeing how I react when I'm stressed. I tend to forget things and get lost everywhere I go, and i see so many things that need improving, but it's helping me become the person I'm meant to be and I'm grateful for it.

Have a good week everyone! Hejdå  

Pictures:

1) kontoret crew!

2) hejdå äldste derr

3) stadshuset

4) Vasaskeppet

-- Äldste Steele

1) kontoret crew!

2) hejdå äldste derr

3) stadshuset

4) Vasaskeppet

Another Reunion

Email written: 1/14/19

Hej!

Sorry for not emailing last week, my companion had to go and dislocate his finger as we were out playing basketball in Gubbängen and so we spent the majority of our P-day in a hospital getting everything popped back into place and x-rayed. A cool experience that happened at the hospital though was whenever Elder Derr had to get his x-ray. The nurse told us that I wasn't allowed to go into the room when elder derr got his x ray, but then I was like no can you find a way for me to get in there because we are companions and she was like no you're not allowed, but then I said just give me a protective vest can I please be with him, we have a rule where we need to stay together. And then the lady saw our name badge and then immediately said that I could come in and when she let us in, she asked us a ton of questions about the church and we had a great missionary opportunity right there as äldste Derr got his x ray! Even though it probably would have been okay if Elder Derr got the x ray by himself, I was able to witness that obedience truly does bring blessings.

Transfers just happened and Elder Derr is going to Borlääääääääänge! My new companion is going to be äldste Lewis, who I was companions with a year ago in Gävle. It is so awesome to be with a previous companion and that we can see how much we have learned over the past year. 

Elder Derr and I baked a cake this past week for the cake competion ward activity. While there weren't that many people that showed up, we still took the prize for the best tasting cake. It was a chocolate/gingerbread double layer cake with homemade frosting and strawberries and raspberries. I'm learning some great skills out here in Sweden! 

At our ward council this past week, we were getting all the ward leaders absolutely fired up because of the millions of miracles that we experience on a daily basis here in Täby. The people that we are teaching are super prepared as well and not too far from baptism, just need a little bit more time to study and pray. But one of the coolest things, was the young men's president started talking about how he really wants to help the young men in their testimony and in their ability to answer questions and so they are going to spend time in their classes studying from the scriptures and out of preach my gospel to answer people's questions about the church. This was so cool for us to hear because about 6 weeks ago, we had set a goal of getting more swedes to church and one of the plans was to work closely with the young men. How? We had no idea, but now we had our answer and so we are on board with the whole ward, especially the young men's president to get the ball rolling even faster! It's so great to be here in Täby and to experience so many miracles.

Well, time to get prepared for the new missionaries that are coming in this week! Talk to you later everyone! Ha det bra!

Pictures:

1) me and äldste bjornn

2) vår tårta

3) tårtävling 

4) eld

-- Äldste Steele

1) me and äldste bjornn

2) vår tårta

3) tårtävling 

4) eld

Paging Dr. Steele

Email written: 1/7/19

Äldste Steele did not have time to write a general email, but at least sent a quick note:

Thanks for the email! I'm actually writing to you from the x ray department at the local hospital. We were out playing basketball and a ball came and jammed Äldste Derr's finger and the finger actually popped out of place and so we are just waiting here for him to get an x ray. It's going to be a while just because it's free health care and everyone has to wait around here unless you're dying. :)