Day 275

Tjena tjena mina vänner!

We have had such a fantastic week here in Uppsala! Seriously amazing. I love it here. We are working so hard and we really have seen results and miracles this week. Miracles that we did not expect but came because of our hard work and diligence. I am truly blessed to be a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ and to be a tool in his hands. And to top this week off, I was able to be edified and upplifted from listening to apostles and prophets of God during General Conference this weekend. It was such an amazing session. I had my questions answered and I hope you all did as well. We had a great week. We did a lot of finding, teaching, and met with some investigators and less actives and went on a few home teaching visits. I will try to highlight a few things that happened this week.

We were able to meet Jose this week and teach him the restoration. He doesn't have the longest attention span, so we tried to keep it shorter and kind of fun. I don't know if any of you have seen it before, but we used plastic cups and built a pyramid out of them to represent the church when Christ set it up on the earth. Then we pulled cups out representing ordinances and doctrines that were taken away or changed. And then the whole church fell. It was really helpful. He was really engaged and had lots of questions. The lesson ended up really long because Jose doesn't really remember anything about the church at all. We had to explain really simple things. Same as an investigator I guess. But when the lesson got to the point of Joseph Smith, we showed him the little 15 minute video about the restoration. We figured it would keep his attention better. It was really good and the spirit was strong. Afterwords, we asked him how he liked it and what his thoughts were. The first thing he said was that he liked it, but he thought they put in too many little dumb things to make it more interesting (like an animal popping out of a bush, or like a deer lifting its head up or something haha) It was pretty funny. But overall he liked it and felt the spirit. He committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are going to start reading it through with him. It is a little hard for him to understand the scriptures in both Spanish and English. But things are going well for him. He came to conference which was awesome. He is really progressing!

Okay, so we had a miracle happen this week. So there was a number in the phone of a younger kid named Fredrik who was interested about learning more. So we have been trying to call him for the past few weeks. We finally set something up for Sunday. But we had to squeeze him in between the priesthood session of conference and the Saturday afternoon session. We had an hour in between these two sessions and we had to meet him at the library because he didn't have a bike or a bus card. When we got there, we saw that he was around 14 years old and so we introduced ourselves and walked in. Lately, I have been tired of meeting with people who arent really interested or who don't meet with us for the right reasons. So straight up at the beginning of the lesson, I said, "We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we are here in Sweden to share our message about him and to bring people to him. We are here to find the prepared, those who are ready to accept and act on this message." To, my suprisement, he agreed. So we continued on with the short lesson we had planned. It went a little off of the original plan when we started talking about God. I honestly felt the spirit so strong when I bore my testimony that God is there and that he loves him and cares about him. And that if he really tries, he can feel this love and influence in his life. And it will change his life. Anyways, we continued on through the lesson. He was really interested. We got to the Book of Mormon and the spirit became even stronger. He committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and to know if God is there. The spirit was so strong during this lesson. It was incredible. I was feeling the Holy Ghost so strongly. And I knew because I was feeling the Holy Ghost, I knew Fredrik was as well. And I let him know. I told him the feelings he was feeling right now is the influence of the Holy Ghost. I told him I knew he was feeling the Holy Ghost because I was feeling his influence as well. I could also see it in his eyes. And then after the lesson, we asked if we could pray together. He said okay. And we told him to pay attention to the feelings in his heart and the thoughts that would come to his mind during the prayer because he will feel the Holy Ghost. He wanted me to say the prayer. And I said the prayer as simply as I could with words and phrases that would invite the Spirit. I also prayed that Fredrik would come to the knowledge that what we were teaching about was true. I honestly don't know if I have ever felt the Spirit this strong before. It was truly amazing. I literally felt the warmest strongest feeling in my heart. After the prayer, I looked back up to Fredrik and his eyes were red. I told him "It's a good feeling, huh" and he nodded his head and said, "yeah, it is". Then I asked him if he gets an answer that all this is true, that God is there, that Jesus Christ is his Savior and that His church is restored on the earth again, if he would be baptized. And he nodded his head and said yes. It was so amazing! Fredrik ended up coming to the next session of conference with us as well! He said it was totally different, but he liked it. We are meeting again with him tomorrow. Fredrik is so awesome! I know he will be baptized. I am grateful for the opportunity to have met him and had this experience with him and Elder Walker.

So after that session of conference, Fredrik asked us, "when are we going to meet up again?". We were excited and said Tuesday. Then he left, and we waited for another girl named Kelly we had met on the street about a week ago. We were wondering if she was going to show up. It was the first lesson with her. But she did! When she walked into the church, I know she felt the spirit because I did. Conference was being projected in the chapel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing. It was awesome. Luckily, there were a few members still hanging around from the session earlier. We were able to introduce her to all of them. Then we went into a classroom to begin the lesson. It turns out she was really interested. She doesn't believe in God but was interested in our message. I could see the spirit was touching her heart as we discussed. I told her God was really there and that he was aware of her. That he is waiting for her to turn to him and let him into her life. The spirit was so strong. During the lesson something kind of funny happened. There is a member named Fredrrick who is a little different and super funny. So we were teaching Kelly and the spirit was strong and then all of a sudden Fredrrick opens the door and pokes his head in and says "do you want me to bear my testimony?" hahaha it was super funny and we said "sure! come on in!". So Fredrrick joined in on the lesson. Even though he brought up polygamy (haha), he was actually a big help. He had some awesome insights and a powerful testimony. When we got to the Book of Mormon is when I felt the spirit the strongest. I told her that she didn't meet us for no reason and that she needs this gospel in her life and that there is a reason she is here in the church right now and that she is meeting with us. And I said that I know this because I have felt the same feelings she was feeling right then and that this gospel has really changed my life and I know it can change hers if she turns to the Lord and lets his spirit work on her. She wanted a Book of Mormon and said she would pray and read. It was an amazing lesson and I am so grateful to be here in Sweden sharing this wonderful gospel and watching it change people's lives! After the lesson, Kelly said she would like to stay for conference. She really liked it. I told her it might seem a little weird and different at first but that she will feel the spirit and receive any answers to questions she has if she really listens and opens up her heart. She liked conference and the best part was that she stood and sang the intermediate song with us! It was the coolest feeling ever! I don't know if I have ever sang that song so loud in my life. I want to quickly share my favorite verse in that song. It goes along with my favorite scripture Isaiah 41:10.

"Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand."

I want to quickly end with a funny experience that happened earlier this week. So basically me and another elder in our apartment (Elder Blackburn) went running early in the morning and it was super cold so i wore a ski mask thing and then when we came in I still had it on. We were super tired and breathing really hard and didn't realize that we took the elevator to the wrong floor. So then we went to the apartment ours would have been and I tried opening the door pretty hard but it was locked so I got a little mad that they locked it so I like pulled on the door harder and then pounded on the door hahaha cause no one was answering. And remember I am still wearing this ski mask with a hood over the top. And I was also kinda standing out of view of the peep hole and then an older lady answered and looked up at me and then had the most scared face I have ever seen haha and as soon as she saw us she slammed the door in my face and locked the door hahaha. It took me a second to process what just happened and why there was a lady in our apartment. And then we realized we were on a floor lower than where we were supposed to be. So we ran down the hall and got onto the elevator as fast as we could. It was super funny! I feel really bad for the lady though. We scared her so bad haha.

I want to quickly leave you guys with a quote from Elder Anderson that I really liked.

"Using our mind without our heart will bring no answers."

Also I want to give a HUGE shout out to one of my best friends Elder Brandon Hill for signing with Southern Virginia University yesterday!! How cool is that? Congrats man! I love you and am proud of you! Maybe after playing with the knights you might be able to finally beat me one on one!

I hope you all have an amazing week! I want to say thank you for all the emails and thoughts and prayers. I really do appreciate all your love and support for me. I want you all to know that I am doing great and I love being a missionary. I am working hard and am happy! Remember that life is good :) "God didn't design us to be sad. He created us to have joy!" - President Uchtdorf

Know that I love you!

MVH

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