Day 268

Hej hej everybody!

Another awesome week down in Uppsala. We worked really hard this week and are definitely seeing results! I absolutely love and am so grateful for the opportunity I have to represent my Savior and to be a soldier in his army and fight for his side each and every day. I really have changed. We have had some amazing, spiritual, and funny experiences this week that I will never forget! I don't have that much time this week, so I will try to hit as much as I can.

This week we helped a lady in the ward move a bunch of her stuff out of her house. She is from America and married a swede. She has been living here in Sweden for 30 years. Sadly, her husband passed away a couple of months ago. Now she wants to move back to America. Her husband was an inventor and had SO much stuff. So we literally spent the whole day in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere helping her clean out her house and moving a bunch of stuff. It was actually really fun. We also got a bunch of her food she wasn't going to take with her to the states so that was a plus! But also, it was really sad to she her cleaning out her husbands stuff and hearing her say how much she loves him. It really strengthened my testimony to hear hers about eternal families. That she knows she will see him again. I am thankful for the plan of happiness that makes it possible for us to live with our families forever in happiness.

This week, we were walking in the forest after dark and there was no one around. As we came a little farther up the path, we saw a Swedish man just standing there next to the path and he was smoking. He looked a little bit shady so I decided it was probably best that we just let him be. But I don't usually let people pass me without talking to them. So I was thinking that it was going to feel weird to just walk by him without sharing the gospel with him, because you never know who is going to accept our message. But I also had the strongest feeling that I need to just talk to him. My dad actually came into my head as I was walking up to this man because on my Dad's mission, he talked to a man that was all alone on a bench, and he was eventually baptized. I saw this man up ahead all alone and thought of my dad's experience. I knew I needed to talk to this man. So when I gave my little contacting approach and told him we were out to talk to people about the Book of Mormon, he said, "Oh, you mean the book about the Lamanites?" It kinda caught me off guard, then I said, "Yeah, actually! Have you heard of the book before?" Anyways, turns out he had been contacted by the sisters only a few weeks earlier and had looked into the church a little bit. He told us that he came to the conclusion that Joseph Smith was a "bedragare", which is like a scoundrel or a deceiver or a fraud. The first feeling that came over me was that I wanted to deck this guy in the face for calling a prophet of God that. But suddenly a feeling of peace came over me and I took a deep breath and asked him if he has even read the book. He said no. Then I was able to bear a strong testimony of the Prophet and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was definitely there. I love the feeling I get every time as the spirit comes over me and I look in these peoples' eyes and tell them that I know it is true with my whole heart. Long story short, we discussed with him a little farther and talked to him about God and answers to prayers. We gave him a Mormons Bok and he promised to ask God if it was true. We were able to get his number and he was interested in meeting with us again. I love testifying of the reality of God and is Son Jesus Christ. I am looking forward to meeting Jakob again. And I am happy I didn't punch him.

On Saturday, we visited a less active member whose name is Jose. He is 14 years old and is from Spain. He was born into the church but has not been in a long time. He can't really remember anything about the church actually. He said he remembers his baptism as just getting dunked in the water and coming up and people clapping haha. He doesn't know what the Book of Mormon is either so we have a lot of work to do. Anyways, we came in contact with him because Elder Walker, is really into this card game called Magic. And Jose's life is Magic. So he was super excited when he heard that Elder Walker played it. So we went over there and played with him. It was my first time playing and I won (for some reason I always win ;)) But we taught him afterwords and it was actually a really good lesson about prayer. We also told him we would come and pick him up for church on Sunday. He told us how he thinks church is really boring and not fun. I told him he is going with the wrong mind set. That he needs to go in thinking that he is worshiping God and that he wants to learn something. So on Sunday we picked him up and he actually really liked church! He asked a lot of questions in the gospel principles class we taught. He said that he actually liked it this time because he paid attention. Crazy how that works! We decided with him that we are going to go through all the missionary lessons with him. He is really excited. When a member asked him how long he has been a member, he said "I was born into the church, so my whole life. But you can say from today." It was so awesome! I am excited to work with him.

I am so sorry this is so short. I had like no time at all and now I have to run and catch a bus. Next weeks will be better I promise! I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week! The church is true!

MVH

Äldste Bailey

Äldste Bailey