Midsommar

Email written: 6/24/19

Hej!

My mission is coming to a close, with only one full week left in Sweden, before I start making preparations to fly back to the US. There's just so much to do here in Uppsala, it'll be hard to leave! But I know that Äldste Johnston will continue to work hard and help everyone here. Speaking of my companions, we got a call mid-week that Äldste Mathias was moving to Skövde, and so we are back to the normal 2 missionaries in a companionship. I kind of miss being in a tripan, there really never was a dull moment.

We had the chance to celebrate Midsommar this week! This year, we went out to a member's house just on the countryside and had a nice lunch with a lot of the other members. That which was a little unfortunate, was the average age of the people at the party was about 70, and so Elder Johnston and I felt slightly out of place. But, we had a good time! Lots of good food. I was even able to avoid all the pickled herring that they were trying to serve. 

Well, the party ended quite early and we were at home around 6pm. We had about 3 hours left in the day and we didn't know that we would do but we definitely knew that we weren't about to just sit around the house for a few hours not doing anything, and so we went back out to the streets. Well sort of. We decided to go out to Gamla Uppsala and see if they were still having some kind of celebration there. When we got there, we found out that the celebrations ended at 4pm and so there really weren't many people there, and they even had locked the gate that led to the midsommar pole. But, the craziest thing happened when we were there! We ended up running to a man that used to be a member of the church. He told us all about what has happened in his life and what led him to stop being a member of the church. We had the chance to bear testimony for him about the existence of God and the Restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith, that it was something that truly happened. He then told us that he said as we said that, it felt good for him in his heart. He recognized those good feelings that comes from the gospel. I hope that he can come back. It really wasn't a coincidence that we had that conversation with him. I'm thankful that we went out again and that we felt the day wasn't over yet. I hope that we can have that same attitude even to the end. 

I think I had mentioned something a member named Odd the other week. Odd and I have become great friends over the past few weeks and I hope to get some of the pictures that he took in his career. I never thought that I could become friends with a 75 year old. But anyways! We met up Odd in the church on Sunday and he told us that we could come by later in the day to give a Book of Mormon to his neighbor. We came over to his house that evening and he first showed us around his apartment a bit, and then he put on his huge fluffy slippers and we went next door to knock on his neighbors door.  We were let in almost instantly and had the chance to teach the Restoration and present a Book of Mormon! It was so awesome. Odd pretty much taught the whole thing and you could see how much he cared about the message and how much he cared about his neighbor. It was such an exciting experience, and it's just one of the many things that are happening with the members here! 

Hope y'all have a good week! Thanks for the support over the past 2 years!

Triforce, Tricity

Email written: 6/17/19

Hey everyone! It's been another great week here in Uppsala. Well, kind of Uppsala. I was outside of my area about half the week and so I guess I'll have to say it was a great week in Stockholm, Gävle, and Uppsala! Also, I was talking to my parents recently and they told me that this email is the 100th email I've sent out since entering the MTC.

On Monday night, we went out to Stockholm for my last zone conference. At the close of every zone conference, all the missionaries that are going home are asked to come up and give their 'dying testimony', because in mission lingo, the act of going home from your mission is called dying. Well, I got up and made sure everyone knew that my testimony was a LIVING testimony. I spoke of how my experiences on my mission have allowed to me to grow and develop into the person that I needed to become. I spoke of the change that happened in my heart and compared how I felt and acted in the MTC, to how I felt now. Through Jesus Christs, our hearts truly can be changed. 

Right after zone conference, we headed to a ward activity where one of the older members in the ward was going to be talking about his life. We had no idea what to expect but it turned out that this member, Odd, was actually a very successful photographer and so he showed us all of his projects, some in Palestine, Ghana, and even in some mines from Northern Sweden. It was fascinating! We had no idea that our man Odd was so talented and had such an interesting back story. We talked to him a little bit more about it afterwards and we became great friends with him and then all of a sudden he started talking about people that he knows that need the gospel and so we are going to be working more closely with him on that one! 

Later on in the week, we had the chance to go on splits, and I had the great privilege of going out to Gävle. Man I love that place! We did so many things that day and we were pretty much out from the start of the day to the end of the day. I am just filled with so much joy and just appreciation for having this unique opportunity to see the members that I had become such good friends with, and now this time, at the end of my mission. I even got to see Veronika, and her new baby when I was there! Words can't describe the joy I felt. So many times I felt the overwhelming feeling that the work I did in Gävle, as well as the rest of Sweden was impactful and meaningful. 

The rest of the week has just been going on one visit to the other and were not slowing down! Something that was a little tough was the majority of the people we were going to visit, ended up cancelling last minute, and because of that, there's not much else to report, but this upcoming week will be midsommar, and so we will be celebrating with a few members at their house out in the country side. We'll definitely be eating some potatoes and herring, mmmm. 

Ta hand om er! Vi hörs!

Member Missionary Work

Email written: 6/10/19

This week has been amazing! I don't have much time left in Sweden, but I'm making the most of every moment and every day that God gives to me. It's so cool to see that even after 2 years, I can still learn new things about the work and I can still get excited about those small little successes that happen daily. This past week we got quite a surprising text.

So, we went throughout the day and as we were standing around at bus stop, this one man caught my attention and so I started talking with him. Turned out to be a man from the Netherlands who's dating a girl from Pennsylvania. He was way nice and we talked about everything possible and he ended up being way interested and was going to talk about the church with his girlfriend! Well, as all this was going on, we apparently got a really good text but because I was so invested in the contact, my companions waited until the end of the day to tell me.

Well, you're probably wondering what the text was about. I'll get to that.

We had a nice dinner that evening and then after we walk out, my companions turn to me and say, "hey by the way, Johanna (name has been changed) wants to be baptized." Yeah right guys, very funny. Then they showed me the phone and sure enough we had a text from the friend of a member that basically said that she wanted to be baptized. The text said that she had spoken with her member friend and the conclusion was that she needed to be baptized. And then she wished all of us a great weekend. Things are happening in Uppsala!! The members and the missionaries are coming together in a unity that can't be rivaled in any other country. Elder Clouse, one of the older couple missionaries always jokes with me that there's too much work in Uppsala, I won't be able to go home. 

Not much else to report though. Just the same work as always, but so many things to be grateful for. I'm happy that I chose to serve a mission. Talk to y'all next week! Kram

One Month Left

Email written: 6/3/19

Hej!

Life is still great! Only a month left and we keep working hard. It'll be hard to leave hard to leave this place because of all the wonderful people I've met. 

I don't have a ton of time today, but I thought to share a cool experience that happened this past week. I don't want to give any credit to myself, it was by D grace of God this miracle happened. 

So, this past week one of our dear members in the ward ended up in the hospital and so we had the chance to go and visit him and give him a little bit of support and it seemed like things were going to be okay for him. He was released from the hospital and returned home on Thursday. After Thursday, no other members could get a hold of this member and so we all started to get a little worried. 

The days went by and we got pretty busy with about a million things to do and then elder Mathias got a thought that we should give this member a call. Well when we called, he picked up immediately and we quickly found out that it was not going good for him at all and that he needed to get back into the hospital ASAP. We quickly ran over to his house and he had almost no energy at all and hadn't eaten food in 3 days. We called the hospital and ordered an ambulance to come pick him up. They came with a taxi instead.

But, the whole miracle of this whole thing, was that this man's phone did not work. People would call but the call would drop before it even started. Our call was the only call that went through that week. We got a hold of him just at the right moment. I just love how good God is and how aware he is of all of us. 

Hope y'all have a good week!