Elder Kyle Steele: We're Halfway There

Email written: 7/16/18

Hej hej!

What a week it has been! It feels like I just came to Övik and now I'm already a month into training Elder Thompson. Each week continues to help me learn and grow as I fail, succeed, laugh, cry, etc.

We had zone conference this past week and it was such a great time! We talked a lot about planning for people instead of filling time, finding people to teach, and asking inspired questions. I was really feeling the spirit strongly and it got me pumped for the next 6 weeks until next zone conference.

Chris Steele, Elder Richards, Äldste Lance, & Petrina Steele
lunch at Subway in Herriman, Utah

Syster Youngberg shared a few closing remarks at the end, reflecting about the things that she has learned the past year since the Youngbergs have now been in Sweden for a full year. One of the things that she has come to know 100% is that the Lord watches over our families as we are here in Sweden serving. Then to my surprise, she displayed a picture of my parents in Subway with Äldste Lance, an elder who is visa waiting before he comes to Sweden. She told the whole story of how my family ran into him, and as she did so, I just started crying uncontrollably. I tried to hold it back and be a man, but it didn't really go so well haha. It's been a solid year since I've had a good cry like that, the last time being when I had to say goodbye at the airport, but it just reminded to me how special my family is to me and how much I care for them as I perform the Lord's work in Sweden. I really needed that, as I felt I was getting into a routine telling people on the street this has blessed my family. The spirit was able to confirm to me in a time of need that the gospel truly has blessed my family!

I left zone conference so energized and ready to just get to work. As we were halfway into the drive back home, I got an impression that we needed to stop by a specific member. We had talked about visiting that member on Saturday but I felt really strongly we needed to go by that night. So once we got back to övik, we set down our belongings. Before we were going to visit that member, I wanted to pick up a package that had just recently come in. So, as we walked to the store to pick it up, we ran into one of our neighbors, who usually isn't even close to being sober, but we had a quick conversation and had a chance to testify powerfully of the Book of Mormon... But the rest of that story comes later.

On our way to visit the member we came across a man who was staggering back and forth on the road, having difficulty walking. We immediately thought we need to help this man and so I got out of the car and asked if everything was okay. The man clearly was not okay as he had one too many drinks that day. But we knew he was on his way home and we offered to walk him there. As we walked home he began to open up and told us all about his life. He talked about how hard his life has been and how we just recently got out of prison. We then begin to talk more about God and I thought to pull up my phone and start playing the song 'blott en dag' for him. Thankfully I had the song downloaded and so I just started playing for him and he recognized the song immediately and started singing along. We all just stood there in the middle of the road singing and it was a touching experience. I'm no singer, and neither was this man, but the spirit was definitely felt as we sung. We got him home safely and he had was appreciative that we were there to help him. We're not sure how much he remembers about event but we were glad to have been put in his path to help him out. Immediately after that, we visited the member who had just come home, and if we had come any earlier or later, we would have missed him, so the timing was all so perfect and we had a great visit with him that was much needed.

But then, back to the other lady that we met on the way to Stan. The conversation hadn't necessarily ended that well as she doesn't really like the Book of Mormon but it was okay because she has her belief and we have ours. We'll, the next morning, as we are about to go out to a nearby city, we hear a voice calling from the courtyard saying 'HALLÅ' and so I quickly peak out and I see it's our neighbor just standing there trying to get our attention. And I'm just like oh no, now what? But she kept saying hallå and the she said 'HALLÅ JESU KRISTI KYRKA JAG VILL PRATA MED ER' so I just stick my head out the window and start talking to her and she wanted us to visit her and her husband and so we threw on our shoes and walked right down to visit them and gave both of them the Book of Mormon and they look forward to coming to church in the future! You never know what can happen, especially with your neighbors!

But yeah, one year. It's been one great year and I can't wait to see what the next one has in store for me. I don't have any plans of slowing down or giving up, in fact I have plans to try even harder, talk to more people, learn more Swedish, and most of all, grow my love for the people. These people that I get to serve are my family, and I'll do anything for them, including teach them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Until next Monday, ha det fint!

Pictures:

1) Elder Thompson and I are obsessed with Opels...so far we have seen 35 on the road this past week

2) Another ostrich picture

3/4) just me and my son

-- Äldste Steele