Hej!!
I am just so excited to write about what has happened this past week. It was just such a great week and I can't believe that we have already made it to the last week in the transfer. Äldste Norin really has been a great companion to me so far and I've learned so much more about the culture and the language from him since he's from Umeå :D
So, the week started off with a zone conference! We took a train down to Gubbängen and got to spend the night with the ZL's and the Örebro elders. Since zone conference was usually on week 4 of the transfer, by week 5 rolled around we were just so ready to be at zone conference and learn a lot and get together with some other missionaries. The entire conference was just amazing and one of the comments that President Youngberg mentioned as he was preaching was, if this work we do as missionaries was only about baptizing, then they wouldn't send so many missionaries to Sweden. If it was about baptisms only, they would be sending a lot more missionaries to places where they are baptizing tons every week. But you see, this work is about helping people become converted to Jesus Christ. Conversion is a process. Conversion must precede baptism and for some people, the conversion process takes several years. The couple we baptized in Övik about a year ago, Stellan and Eva, took them 50 years! That's longer than I have been alive x2! And so, in our teaching and in our efforts, we need to be sure to helping people learn for themselves and become converted, that way, when the storms and the winds come, they will not fall away.
Well after getting just about the best pump up ever at zone conference, and shedding a few tears by saying goodbye to my really good friend, Elder Lewis, we boarded a tunnelbana and were on our way back to Uppsala. We first came onto the train and there were no spots to sit down, so we were just standing there kind of awkwardly, and then, a seat opened up and I felt prompted to go take the seat. I strike up a conversation with the first lady. Before long, she asks, now what in the world is the difference between your church and all the other choices, and before I could answer, the train stopped and she got off. NOOOOO, but don't worry, it's not over yet. The second man comes to sit down. Wasn't interested. He gets off a stop later, and then the lady that was sitting next to him, slides over and we are now facing each other. The third lady then turns her phone around and shows me that she was watching Master Chef and we start having the best conversation ever! She was such a sweet lady and she was on her way home to go cook food for her son and so she was watching master chef for some food inspiration haha. But, before long, the conversation came into the gospel and she had seen the church before but wasn't really familiar with it, and so I asked if she wanted to learn more and she said that it would be SUPER INTERESTING!! And so, after the third attempt on the tunnelbana, we found someone interested and we were able to send her on over to the assistants in Täby for them to take care of. What a great lesson that was for me about not giving up!! You never know how many times it is going to take to achieve success, but in the end, I would even make the assumption that there was success in the process, as the two other people got to learn a bit more as well as all the tjuvlyssnare on the tunnelbana and so just in those 20 minutes and with enthusiasm from zone conference, we were able to do a lot of good on the tunnelbana.
A lot more things are happening here in Uppsala as well!! We started teaching the man that came up to us at our grillfest and when we started the lesson, he told us that he likes asking really deep theological questions and that he really likes discussing, but after getting to know each other and teaching about the Restoration, he didn't really have a lot of those questions to ask and it seemed to all make sense to me. The message we share is powerful!! The message we have can even heal broken hearts, as we witnessed, as a friend of a member we recently started teaching, stopped feeling God's love as she had been going on a different path for the past 13 years. After our lesson with her, she said that we gave her hope and that was really special for me to see! And then, she came to church, and all the speakers spoke about a love for God and a love for others and so everything was perfect for her as she begins to feel the joy in the gospel.
Well, that's about it! Vi hörs!
Pictures:
Domkyrkan
Party in Gubbängen
Our students
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| Domkyrkan |
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| Domkyrkan |
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| Domkyrkan |
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| Party in Gubbängen |
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| Our students |
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