Day 233

Tjena tjena allihopa!

Hope everyone had a great week! Another week down in the small town of Katrineholm. We worked our honeybuns off this week but we didn't see so much success. But it's always nice to have the satisfaction of knowing you worked your hardest and that the Lord is proud of you. 

On Monday, we had kind of a dissapointing lesson with Jonas. We were so excited to help him follow Jeus Christ and learn about the gospel. We taught him about the sacrament and baptism. But when we asked him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, he explained how he feels like he doesn't need to be a mormon to show Christ that he wants to follow him and to go along the path God wants him to. We explained how Christ taught us his gospel during his ministry on earth. And that gospel is what we need to live by to return to live with our Father in Heaven again. We also explained about the restoration of the Priesthood. Afterwords, we gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and we are hopefully going to visit him again this week. We are going to continue working with him. He also wasn't able to make it to church. 

We met with Rashad again this week, and probably for the last time. Again, our conversation quickly turned into a Muslim/Christian bash. Well it was mostly him bashing on us and trying to prove christianity false. I don't know if I have ever defended my Savior and his apostles so vigorously before. But I also have never gotten so mad and frustrated in a lesson (if I wasn't a missionary, punches would probably have been thrown). But It was such a cool feeling to stand as a witness of Jesus Christ and defend his name as the Savior and Redeemer of the world. But it also is not our job to get in fights with muslims. For the most part the spirit was not there at all. Except for the parts when we were testifying of what we know to be true. But we have decided to not meet Rashad anymore. Even though it wasn't exactly what missionaries are supposed to be doing (arguing with muslims), it happens more often than not and sometimes you can't escape the situation because they come up to you. But I am grateful for the oppertunity I had to defend the Savior and testify of a living prophet and that we still receive revelation in our day, and that we can have our questions comfirmed through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Friday was a pretty much all tracting and contacting day. Both the people we had planned to meet cancelled on us. We were dilligent and worked really hard and we were blessed for it. We saw a lot of success on this day actually. We were tracting in a neighborhood and nobody really listened. Then we had to make our way to the bus station because we were going to go out to Flen to do some more missionary work. We were hustling because we were going to miss it if we didn't. But as we passed Urban's apartment building (one of our investigators who we have lost contact with) , I had a really strong feeling to go in and knock on his door. I knew we were probably going to miss the bus but we followed the prompting anyways. And so we knocked on his door and he didn't answer. I wondered why I had received the prompting. As we were about to go back down, I got another really strong prompting to knock on all the doors in the building again. I told God that I already had but heard a voice in my head saying "do it again". Then I thought okay maybe this is why I got the prompting to come in here. We are going to find someone who didn't answer before and is now prepared. So of course we followed that prompting. Almost nobody answered. And those who did say they were not interested. I was really disappointed walking out of the apartment building because I didn't know why I got those promptings. Elder Johanson assured me that we were going to find out why I did. So because we missed our buss, we decided to walk back to town. We both had the feeling to go tract one more apartment building. So we did. And on our way up to the top, we passed an african kid about our age. So we contacted him. We started talking to him and it turned out that he is a member of our church! We had no idea about him! He said we would love to meet up with us and come back to church. I then knew why I got those promptings. The Lord stalled us enough so we would run into him just at the right time. Then we tracted the rest of the building and ran into his family! They also said we could come back and meet with them. We were so happy to have found Herve and his family. We now have a family to work with and help come back to church. I am so grateful that I followed those promptings from the Holy Ghost. If I hadn't, we wouldn't have ever ran into Herve. I have a strong testimony of never denying promptings, no matter how big or small. I know that if we follow every prompting we receive, the Lord's trust in us will grow and we will be blessed. We will start to see miracles. 

So we ended up taking a later bus to Flen that evening. And then something super funny happened as we started tracting. We had tracted a lot of apartment buildings and now we were starting to do some houses. Elder Jonhanson led the way up the porch to the first house. And for some odd reason, he thought we were still tracting apartment buildings and he just opened the door hahaha. There was a family just chilling in their living room and two guys in white shirts and ties just opened their front door. And all doors in Sweden open outwards so when he opened the door, he was behind it and the whole family just looked over and stared at me and I just booked it and then Elder Johanson realized what he just did and then he slammed the door and we just sprinted up the street hahaha it was so funny. We were laughing really hard. But in Flen we ended up giving quite a few copies of The Book of Mormon and taught a few doorstep lessons. It was really good. We felt the spirit really strong as we testified of the Book of Mormon to everyone we could. 

Sunday night we had a pretty cool experience. Sunday morning in studies, Elder Johanson and I were talking a lot about Lehi's dream. I love Lehi's dream so much! There is so much we can learn from it. We were talking a lot about the great and spacious building. And about how those who really pressed forward holding to the Iron Rod gave no heed to the people in the building who were mocking them and laughing at them. But all those who did give heed fell away. Even those who partook of the fruit. When they gave heed to those in the building, they cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed. We talked about how we need to not give any heed to those who mock or laugh at us or persecute us because of what we believe in. Later that night, we were finishing up the day in the city center contacting people. There were not very many people out at all. So we were the only ones walking up a street as we passed an outdoor bar. There were a lot of people there and they saw that we were mormons and started pointing at us and laughing at us and saying really rude things about the church and about Jesus. I wanted with every fiber in my body to go over to them and fight them or just give them a piece of my mind haha and I was so close. But we kept walking and as we were walking away from them with our backs turned to them I remembered the great and spacious building. And I leaned over and said to Elder Johanson, "great and spacious building". Then he said "give no heed". It was such a cool feeling as we were holding to the Iron Rod and walking down this road thinking of Nephi and all those who held to the rod as we could hear these people continuing to laugh and point at us and mock us behind us. I also learned that "giving heed" could mean getting angry at someone or saying something rude back. I bet there were some people in the dream who got pretty ticked off at these people pointing and laughing at them so they probably yelled something back or something like that. But that is still giving heed. And "for as many as heeded them, had fallen away." I think there is a great difference between giving heed to those in the great and spacious building, and testifying of and defending what you know to be true. I am grateful for that lesson I learned that evening. It probably prevented me from getting in a fight with someone down the road haha. 

Well I am about out of time. Sorry this was quite a long letter. There are some other cool things that happened that I wish I had time to share but you will just have to ask me about them when I get home ;) I want you all to know that I love being a missionary and that I am working my hardest and am happy! I have a strong testimony of the gospel and I know without a doubt that it is TRUE! And it will bless the life of anyone who accepts and lives by its principles. The gospel gives me the peace, guidance, and strenth I need each day to serve the Lord. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I love you all and I hope you all have the best week!

Love your friendly neighborhood missionary,

Äldste Bailey