Kära familj och vänner,
WOW, what a week it has been. Life just continues to get better and better here on the mission. Also, in other news, I hit my 10 month mark on Saturday. It's hard to figure out exactly where the time has gone, but I know that I'll use the time that I do have left dedicated to helping others as best I can. Äldste Hansen and I have had a ton of service opportunities this week and it's been quite a wild ride.
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| 6) chopping wood with Carlos |
On Tuesday, we went out and stacked wood and polished windows all morning for a nice elderly couple that gives the missionaries free haircuts. I had never really stacked wood before, but thankfully Äldste Hansen knew what he was doing and made sure I didn't mess it all up. During our service, the couple, Kerstin and Anders, not only prepared a fika for us, but also a lunch. Apparently in Sweden, you take a break every few hours to sit around, drink juice, eat some crackers and cheese, and then you get back to work. Sounds like we're hardly working, instead of working hard if you ask me, but I'm not going to say no to free food! At the end of our visit, we asked if we could come back and actually teach them, as they have had so much contact with the missionaries over the years, and they agreed!
The very next day on Wednesday, we traveled about an hour and half away to Junsele to work all day on a farm with 2 members in our branch, the Karlssons! Yes I come from Dallas, Texas, but no I have never worked on a farm or done any kind of that work really, so let's just say it was quite the experience. We got to chop up some trees, milk some cows, take apart farm equipment, fika (as usual haha), all in work boots and jumpsuits. Pictures to be attached :) It was so cool to spend time with the Karlssons and get to know them and have some spiritual experiences together as we read from the Book of Mormon together and sang a psalm as well.
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| 3) playing with the new borns |
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| 4) hay is for horses |
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| 5) the farm |
So, some of you might have seen my Facebook post, but for those of you who didn't and for those that are on missions without Facebook, I made a post with me and Äldste Hansen cooking pancakes. Last week, I had sent a picture of us with pancakes and our friend Tea. Well, last week when we had gotten the pancakes from her, we asked if we could help out this week and cook up some of the pancakes for the city. The organization that takes care of the event every week is called Pannkaks Kyrkan (pancake church) and it's simply just an organization made up of different christian churches that make pancakes for the community once a week. Tea and the other people that were there told us that we were more than welcome to come and so that's exactly what we did! We showed up and cooked pancakes for a HUGE line right in the middle of the city. We made so many awesome friends there and we even saw some of our potential investigators in line and we had a lot of good conversations. Not to brag or anything, but my pancakes were definitely better than Äldste Hansens haha just kidding. But at the end of the event, after making a lot of new friends, and becoming even better friends with Tea, we said our goodbyes and let them know we would try and help out as much as we could going forward in the future. Later that night, Tea then invited us to attend a worship/song/concert thing at a church building in the city the next day. We looked at our schedule, and saw that we had time, and so we decided to visit it and see what it was all about. It reminded me a lot of Vacation Bible School, if that kind of paints a picture of what the songs/concert was like. It was definitely cool to see other people worshiping God in their own way. What was so cool though, was we saw one of our old investigators there and talked to her for a while, and then one of our new friends Emil was there and he just asked me questions the whole time all about the church, and in the end, he asked us for a Book of Mormon to read on his own! What a bro! We wished we could have stayed the whole night, and gotten to know everyone there and find teaching opportunities, but we looked down at our clock and saw we had only a few minutes to get home, so we quickly had to rush out, but just as we were leaving, Debbie (the old investigator) stopped us and asked if we could all pray together before Äldste Hansen and I got home. We gladly agreed, because well, praying is awesome and highly recommend all of you do it. But we prayed together and then for the final words Debbie just told us "You know, Steele and Hansen, there's been a lot of good missionaries here, but there's something special about you two, I hope you know that" It was such a touching moment and it just put the cherry on top of the night.
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| picture from Facebook post |
I'm so thankful for this opportunity to go out and meet new people and see how God and Jesus Christ can help them in their lives. We have a lot of investigators that have some big mountains to climb, but I know that all is possible through our Savior, if we just believe, follow, trust in Him. Never forget that no mountain is too hard to climb and that there is always help. Have a great week everyone! Jag älskar er!!
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| 1) out hiking last P-day |
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| 2) view from the top of the hike |
Pictures:
1) out hiking last P-day
2) view from the top of the hike
3) playing with the new borns
4) hay is for horses
5) the farm
6) chopping wood with Carlos
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