Elder Kyle Steele: Trevlig Morsdag

Email written: 5/28/18

Hallå!!

It's been another awesome week here in Övik. Äldste Hansen and I are working so hard and having some of the coolest experiences together. We really have seen the Spirit guiding us in that we do and say each day. It doesn't matter if we're serving, teaching, or finding. The Spirit is always there to help us.

One of the things that we felt impressed to do is do something special for our friends that are mothers. Yesterday was mother's day in Sweden, and I'm not quite sure why it's different that the US, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Moms deserve more than one day to be celebrated anyways since they do so much! (s/o Momma Steele) The idea we had was we could think about a few specific people, and then swing by and give them a nice rose for Mother's Day. It seemed like something so simple, yet we were able to have some really cool experiences as we went out and delivered these flowers.

The first one I thought of goes as follows, and I typed the story up a little earlier and so that's why it might feel like it doesn't flow as well. But anyways, there is an older couple, Glenn and Carina, that we had tracted into a few weeks ago. Glenn is someone who just loves to talk about just about anything and everything, and so we were able to really hit it off with them. What helped even more was that Glenn is oddly obssessed with Texas as well and so we wanted us coming back multiple times so he could learn all about Texas haha. Well, we went by another time after that and it was Carina's birthday and the whole family was there, her parents, glenn's parents, and their closest family friends. They invited us in to celebrate with them and so we came in and had some cake together and then met everyone. We thought we would leave after only a few minutes, but then their parents really wanted us to stay and talk to everyone for a while. We're not exactly sure why they wanted us to stay, but we gladly accepted and got to know each other. Everyone had their own unique personalities, some serious, some quiet, some loud, some bubbly, and it was so much fun to become friends with all of them. We then gathered our things and then went on our way home and thought about the next time we would come back and visit them to share a little bit more about the gospel and we thought that mother's day would be the perfect occassion and we could come by and give a flower to Carina! So that's exactly what we did, and sure enough, the whole family was there again and they invited us in for cake, yet again and so we came in and Glenn's mom just started asking us a bunch of questions about the church, and really sincere questions too and all the questions that we were able to answer surprised her quite a bit since everything that we said lined up with how she had thought about things her whole life. Others around the table began to ask more questions and so here we were, Äldste Hansen and I, sitting at a table, teaching a whole family, 6 people, all about the restored gopsel and the things that matter most to us. We were then able to all say a prayer together at the end of the meeting, and we got everyone else's information to then visit them individually as well since they don't get together that frequently. Glenn was happy to talk to us and said that it was so interesting to learn about America and Texas, but then his mom was just like no what was really fun, was listening to them talk about their church. I've always been interested in learning about other churches.

Later, as we were driving on our way to another house, we passed by a kyrkogård (cemetery) and saw a woman there just sitting in front of headstone, and I thought it would be nice to give her one of the flowers that we had, but I wasn't so sure and Elder Hansen was driving and so I didn't know if he saw her, but then after we drove up a bit, Elder Hansen asked if he thought we should turn around and visit that woman, and so without even thinking I said absolutely, turn around. And so that's exactly what we did, and so we got out of the car and slowly walked towards her and we weren't exactly what we should say, but then I just said, we're not exactly sure why, but we felt impressed to come back here and give you a flower. She had been crying quite a bit and so she had to wipe away a lot of her tears. We found out that her mother had passed away 2 years ago and so she had thought to come to the grave and remember her mother for mother's day. We then were able to show her the Prince of Peace video and testify about the Plan of Salvation for her. It was something that she really needed in that moment and she was very thankful for the flower. We then went on our way and I guess we'll never really know what happened for her afterwards, but we hope that the small little act was able to help her out tremendously.

The last one of the day, was a visit to Tea's family, to give her Mom a rose, and it turned into a 45 minute conversation all about what we believe in, what they believe in, and then ended with an invitation to come back for dinner, and an offer to take us sightseeing some time with the whole family. They are truly some of the best people ever and are now some of the best friends that we have here. We really look forward to spending more time with them and helping each other come closer to Christ.

A ton more happened this week, but I guess it can all be summed up with one sentence, I'm loving life. While it might be really stressful now as district leader, and with the new technology and still relatively new to the area, it has been an absolute blast and such a fun adventure. I'm learning so much and continuing to improve daily through the help of God and Christ. Have a great week everyone! Vi hörs.

Pictures:

Hike we went on last P-Day, out in Skuleskogen

Also, since my brother is getting married soon, my parents made a cut out of me so enjoy hahha

view from kerstin and anders

--Äldste Steele