Elder Kyle Steele: Valborg and Cinco de Mayo

Email written: 5/6/19

Hey Everyone!!

Sorry that it's been a few weeks since I've written last. Last P-day was totally crazy as we first met up in the city for lunch with a member and her husband from Gävle, and then waited almost 2 hours to get our haircuts, and then we met a member in the church that really needed someone to talk to and so all that resulted in no time to write last Monday, but hopefully this email can lift your spirits and give you a sneak peak into what's going down here in Uppsala!

I am absolutely loving my time here. I can say that this past week, not only did we go to a yarn store, but we also ate some fufu with our man Valentine, and we also saw an absolute fight break out in the Subway in Gottsunda centrum. It was insane!! Elder Butler and I were on splits and since our dinner cancelled, we had to go get some subway and just as we were telling the man what we wanted on our sandwich, this huge fight breaks out right in the middle of the store!! And after the fight broke out and we got our food, we were sitting there just having a good time and then this random Taylor Swift comes on over the speakers and apparently 'The old Taylor swift is dead', so that was weird for us to hear. But, that was just the weird things that happened this week, now to get into the good stuff, the good lessons learned!!!

We got to celebrate Valborg this week and although it was a fantastic party/grillfest, we were unable to light the huge bonfire. It's been all too dry here in Sweden, and so there were no huge bonfire. Eldningsförbjud....kom igen!! But, the great thing that happened at Valborg was a member took one of her good friends there and we got to talk to him for the entire party and become good friends with him in real life and on Facebook. After the party, he told us that he was coming to church on Sunday and so that was just a testimony to me of the impact that members can have on others. We didn't even really talk much about the church, but just because of how members act, the special spirit that they have with them, others can notice that and be interested. Unfortunately, he didn't come to church because the member that would have taken him broke her hands at work and so she couldn't drive, RIP, but there's always next week!

But, there was someone else new that came to church this week and it was such a faith building experience. A few weeks ago, we went to a grill party with a few members right in the middle of the city. As we were grilling, this man came up to us and asked us where the temple was and then kept going on his way. All of the members there were kind of in shock but they were then super pumped to find out who this man was as he had been living in their building for the past few months and had never talked about the church. Randomly, but led by God, this man showed up to church yesterday and we set up a time to meet this Friday. He is from Concepcion Chile and his parents had just been in attendance of the temple dedication there. He met with missionaries in Chile but lost contact as he started studying in Sweden, but now he has contact again. His parents aren't members, but he said that his mom works at a nearby university and some of the leaders of the church visited her and gave her a book about temples and some other things! What a cool miracle!

Additionally, we set a goal this past week to find someone with the best kinds of questions. Since Äldste Butler had broken my bike, we needed to take it in to the shop to get it fixed. Well, the first person that we met at the shop was a middle aged man named Mohammed and he was very curious as to who we were and who we represented. He told us that he would love to receive a Book of Mormon and we told him that we could bring one when we pick up the bike. Well, shortly after that about a couple of days, we got a text that our bike was ready and so we went to pick it up. This time, a woman was working there, who also happened to be quite curious about who we were. We began explaining and then she said that she is deciding between Islam and Christianity right now and needs to learn all she can to make her choice and so she said it was a blessing from God that we were able to meet. She then told us that her biggest questions were, who am I? What is my purpose? How can I know the truth? How can I follow God in the best way? And many more. My jaw almost fell off because of the questions she asked. She gave us her information and told us that she would love a visit. But get this, we mentioned the man that was in the shop that we had first met and she told us that that man was her husband. And so we are going to start teaching a nice couple soon all because one of our bikes broke down!!!!

And then, in conclusion, we got to celebrate Cinco de mayo with our good friend Grisel who was baptized in October. She moved here from Mexico and she made us the best tasting quesadillas that I have ever had. We were able to be there with a man that we are teaching named Donald. The conversation at the dinner table was very spiritual and Donald told everyone how excited he was to be baptized as soon as he has received all the lessons from the missionaries. They then started talking about how big of a blessing the missionaries have been in their lives. They talked about how the missionaries were able to help them in such hard times in their lives and how that missionaries are truly miracle workers. It really hit me hard to listen to what these two people have been saying. Sometimes as a missionary, we can focus on all the people that we weren't able to teach, baptize, all the ones that were rude or didn't want to listen, and we forget about all the many people we have to bless, inspire, and lift. I then shared with both of them that just as missionaries are a blessing, are the people that we teach just as big blessings to us. These people have taught me so many amazing things and it's been a blessing to be teaching the gospel. I look forward to all that can happen in the upcoming weeks!

Well, we are off to Stockholm in a bit for zone conference. Talk to y'all next week!

Pictures:

1) Me and Björn!!!! He hosted the Valborg. I told him that he looked like a true Texan

2) Me and Äldste Norin

3) Fufu

4) grilling