Life of the Party

Email written: 6/4/18

Hallå!! 

Another week has passed by here in Övik and things are better than ever. It's been a really busy week, especially with our zone conference being in Umeå on Friday. It was weird not being in the Stockholm zone anymore, but I was still able to learn quite a bit, even if it was only 8 companionships of missionaries in the Norrland zone. Thankfully, one of those missionaries is my bro Äldste Lewis, who was one of my companions in Gävle!! It's always good to see him and talk about all the memories that we had together and how sad we were that our time together was so short (only 6 weeks), but I'm sure that both of us will be in this zone for a long time since I'm district leader here in Övik and he's the district leader in Skellefteå.

We learned quite a bit at the zone conference and even got to watch a clip of the Lion King (thanks President Youngberg!) The main focus was on how we can work better with members and how we can use the technology we now have to help the work move forward. When Äldste Renlund came to visit Sweden, he talked a little bit about the Second Harvest. He first said the following: 'Andra apostlar har lovat att det skulle bli en andra skörd i Sverige, i storlek och omfattning jämförbar med skörden av omvända som sågs i kyrkans tidiga dagar här i Sverige. Jag tror att de här löftena kommer att ske och sker även nu.' basically saying that many people are accepting the Gospel both here in Sweden and also on the other side for those that have passed away. He then said:  'Den här andra skörden beror på de svenska trofasta medlemmarnas trofasthet och deras villighet att stanna i båten och hjälpa i båten, dela budskapet om Frälsaren med andra.' It's all dependent on the members, and so we need to find out the best way to work with members and get the ball rolling here! 

It's a little more difficult for Äldste Hansen and I here as we only have around 12-15 active members, with this past sunday only 8 that came, but we know that little by little, this branch will grow and will continue to survive. There's several teenagers in the branch that we work closely with and hope to help one day serve missions. Plus, the Örnsköldsvik branch is about to get 2 new members, Stellan and Eva. They will be baptized in just 2 short weeks right off the coast of Övik in the sea. We look forward to that day and all the lessons that will lead up to it :)

Another thing that we talked about at zone conference, was being ourselves and finding our own personal way to do missionary work and not becoming like all the cookie-cutter missionaries. I've been able to think a lot about my own personal strengths and interests and how they can help me enjoy my time as a missionary. One thing that's really been evident for Äldste Hansen and I, is that we like to party, and yes I know that missionaries can't party, but like we can still attend events where lots of people are there and through that can meet a lot of different people. We've had a bunch of opportunites this past week to go to certain events and in turn got to meet some really awesome people interested in meeting us again. The first was a birthday party for a random guy named Jonathan right on the lake that we got invited to and so we went, ate some hot dogs and godis, sang happy birthday på engelska for the crowd, and just got to know the group there. Turns out there were 2 people there that really wanted to meet with us again, plus 2 other people that have met with missionaries in the past! The other events we went to, were Prom and then a worship song meeting, like we had went to last week. The prom here in Övik is a really big deal for all the kids graduating, and they all come up in old classic american cars, with the occasional tractor with a couch in the bucket haha. The community doesn't actually go to the dance, they just watch the kids pull up and walk down the red carpet they have, so that was a ton of fun to be there as part of the community, and we even saw one of our investigators there! The worship song meeting was just as good as last time and we even got to meet a new friend named Roger that is going to get me an African tribal shirt hand made for me and shipped here to Sweden, so I'm way excited for that!! 

Now a lot of you are probably wondering....am I even working hard?? Of course I am, when we're not at these events, we are opening our mouths and testifying as often as we can, at the door step, on the street, or wherever else we find ourselves. It's been a tough week for tracting and contacting as not very many people have been interested and even people that we have swung by told us very angrily to never come back, so we have our fair share of trials, but we are coming out on top and continuing with a smile on our faces. This is in fact the Lord's work and I know it's the best work that I can be doing. 

Hope you all have a good week! 

Pictures: 

1) Red Carpet

2) Our good friend Tea!! 

3) birthday party 

4) playing basketball on Pday 

-- Äldste Steele

4) playing basketball on Pday 

3) birthday party 

2) Our good friend Tea!!

1) Red Carpet