Hallå! It's Äldste Steele again in another weekly email!
This week was another special one because for starters, we got to celebrate Thanksgiving at the Youngbergs. It felt like we were back at home since we had a full Thanksgiving meal with a bunch of other Americans. We were able to go around the table and all say something that we are thankful for. Obviously everyone knows that I am thankful for my family and for the gospel, and so I said that I was thankful for all of my other friends that also decided to serve missions and their example for me! I truly am thankful for the example that all of my friends have set for me.
The week started off with some zone conferences and traveling. For some reason, at the beginning of my mission, I was terrified to talk to people on airplanes, but I've overcome that fear and seen the blessings of it. I sat next to this woman on the plane ride from Malmö to Stockholm and not too long into the conversation, she told me that she wished she had a belief in her life because it would be so nice to have one. I immediately pulled out a trust Mormons Bok, testified of the way my faith has grown by reading the book, and incited her to read it. She gladly accepted and we got to have such a trevlig conversation the rest of the way to Stockholm.
Later on in the week, I was on splits with Äldste Sirrine, who is a zone leader up in Umeå and is from my same MTC group. We had about an hour to find on Saturday morning before their flight back home, and so we prayerfully thought about where we needed to be and who we needed to find. I got the impression that we needed to be in Ella Park and Elder Sirrine felt like we would meet a woman holding a child. And so, with those thoughts in mind, we went out trying to find those interested in the message. After lots of the normal no's that we get when knocking on doors, we come to this one door where a lady answers the door. I can't see her at first, but all I hear is that she wanted to speak English with us and we were like please we want to practice our Swedish and she's like I'm American though!!! And that totally took us off guard and so we told her that we also were from the land of freedom and she let us right in. After talking for a bit, we find out that this woman is from PLANO, TEXAS. What are the odds of that!? I'm in Stockholm, and I meet someone that lived just 15 mins away from me in Texas. I about lost my marbles on this one. But get this, it gets better... She was holding a dog in her hands, and while it wasn't a child, I knew exactly that was the woman Äldste Sirrine thought of in the morning. As we got to know her more, she said, guys, you won't believe this. Just this past week in school my daughter decided to study the Latter day Saints and so you'll have to come back and help her learn more!! What a miracle..
Yesterday at church, we had a million härliga upplevelser. At the end of elders quorum this week, a man by the name of Paco asked if he could have a few minutes to share his testimony. Paco is someone that the sisters contacted into this past week as they were running to catch a bus. He stayed for all 3 hours of church! But back to the story he shared.. he asked for the floor and began telling us this great story of his upbringing and where he's at in his life. He told us that he had grown up Muslim in the land of Congo, but since the rest of his family was Christian, they always would persuade him to come to church and become a follower of Christ. Finally he listened and began searching after a church to go to. The man spoke of how much he loved being in church, how welcomed he was and how we wants to keep coming. He then looked around and said, what is today? And we all told him it was the 25th and then he said that from today, the 25th for the rest of my life, I will be a part of this church. I will be here every week and serve in this church. I am here to serve God. Everyone just about fell out of their chair and tears filled my eyes. All the brothers in the elders quorum came up to meet him and welcome him in. It was so unbelievably special. Miracles continue to happen here in Sweden. We are finding those that are prepared and making sure they are taken good care of by the ward. Shortly after the meeting, we got a phone call from one of the newest baptized members of the ward, Moses, and he was literally on cloud nine. He told us how happy he was that Paco came to church and how excited he is to see someone join the church. He expressed to us further that he just loved the church so much. Yesterday was almost overwhelming because of how special it was and sorry if I can't quite explain it all that well.. Hard to convey emotions in an email.
But, life is so great. We have decorated our apartment with all our Christmas decorations and we look forward to participating in #EttLjusFörVärlden! Until next week, ha det fint!
PS, to explain the title.. There is a classic Swedish song called 'Välkommen Hem' and one of the lines in there says, Husen är höga och Världen är stor... But since I had a small world moment, thought to change the lyrics :)
Pics:
1) Äldste Sirrine!
2) Gamla Stan from last Pday
3) Happy Birthday Syster Bailey!
4) Me and Moses!!
5) God JUL
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| 1) Äldste Sirrine! |
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| 2) Gamla Stan from last Pday |
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| 3) Happy Birthday Syster Bailey! |
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| 4) Me and Moses!! |
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| 5) God JUL |
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