Elder Kyle Steele: Hay is for Horses

Email written: 7/2/18

Hejsan! Wow, another great week has gone by here in Sweden and I am just loving life. It's crazy to think that it's already July, when it feels like June just started, but it is what it is! (så är det)

We continue to see miracles all the time here in Örnsköldsvik and I am loving every minute of training my new missionary, Äldste Thompson. We get along super well and teach and work in unity and it in turn blesses all the people that we meet and teach.

This past week, we got to go back out to the farm and help out the Karlssons. Apparently, it's haying season, and so our job was to take a pitch fork and shovel all the hay from off the truck into a giant sucking machine that then transported it into their big ol' hay barn. After the first load of hay came in, the sucking machine broke and so they had to call a repair man, so while we waited, we just milked some cows and heard a bunch of stories from Sis. Karlsson. It was such a crazy day and one thing after the other kept not going according to plan, but we all had a great time in the end. The Karlssons even have someone named Nadia that is working on the farm and Nadia is someone that Elder Hansen and I had the chance to meet when they came into town and took us out to eat some burgers at Max. Apparently when we went out to eat, Nadia really noticed how happy we were and how we were good examples and so it got her interested in going to church down in Dresden, Germany when she went back. She had a few weeks break to go back to Dresden before we helped out this past week, and she did end up going to church there and has started taking the missionary lessons from the missionaries in Germany over skype, and so we were able then at the end of a long day, give a great spiritual message about faith and miracles and what we can accomplish because of our faith. What a blessing it was to go out to the farm, help them out, but also teach Nadia as she continues to meet with other missionaries in Germany. In the own words of Sister Karlsson, "Who would've thought that you would help someone from Germany after getting your mission call to Sweden?" And she's exactly right, who would've thought!

A little bit later in the week, we decided to stop by one of our investigators that has been sick the past 2 weeks and couldn't meet with us. But, we felt like today was finally the day we could go back and see if they were feeling alright and hopefully have a lesson with them. Well, we traveled on out there and knocked on the door and first our investigator's boyfriend opened the door and we talk for just a little bit but he's just like sorry guys, but we're still sick, you're going to have to come back some other time. So, we were a little discouraged since it had been a few weeks and they still weren't getting better, but we decided we could just come back next week. Well, as we are pulling away and on the road to a different area to go tracting in, Elder Thompson just says 'I know what she needs...a priesthood blessing!' We hadn't even traveled 100m yet and I knew that was exactly what she needed to flipped the car right around and came right back up to the door and knocked again. The boyfriend came to the peephole and was just like 'oh it's THEM again...' but our investigator opened the door and we began telling her why we came back. We said that because of the restoration through Joseph Smith, we now had the priesthood, which makes it possible for those with faith to receive priesthood blessings. We knew that she had been sick for a solid 2 weeks and knew that a blessing would be something that would speed up the recovery. She was so grateful that we offered the blessing and wanted us to come in right at that moment and give it, but her boyfriend said the house was too messy and we would have to come back the next day, so we set up a time for the next day and went back out there after our interviews with our mission president.

We came back the next day, and sat down and just chatted a bit before giving the blessing. As we talked, we thought to follow up on her book of Mormon reading and her prayers. She had read a few pages here and there, but then she said that she had been praying quite a bit since we last taught. Instead of just leaving it at the surface, we decided to have a deeper follow up to see how her prayers had been helping her come closer to Christ, instead of just treating it like a check list item. She then opened up to us as she shared an experience of just the previous night after we had traveled home. She said that after we left, and after her boyfriend had gone to bed, she was just by herself and she thought to pray. She said that she prayed to God, asking Him if this was the truth. As she prayed, she just began to feel something that was really hard to describe, but all she could say was it felt like a giant burden had been lifted off of her shoulders and that it was such a powerful feeling that it caused her to just start crying. We testified to her that she had felt the spirit confirming the truth to her and that she would even feel those same feelings as we gave her the blessing that day. We gave the blessing and the Spirit was stronger than ever as the words that God wanted her to hear just came flowing.

This week just made me really thankful for the testimony I have of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in it's entirety, including the gift of the Holy Ghost, the priesthood of God, and temple ordinances (s/o to my older bro Austin that is getting married on Saturday!). I know all these things to be huge blessings in my life and that's why I'm out here...to share it with others and help others find that same joy that I, and all those that have gone before me, have felt.

Hope you all have a great week! Until next time...ha det så bra!

Pictures:

1) hay

2) the hay truck

3) the farm squad

4) me and the cows

5) old church in Själevad

6) övik country side

-- Äldste Steele