Day 290 - I'm Expecting!!

Hej hej all!

Not so much to report this week. It was a weird week for us. Our progressing investigators weren't able to meet until the weekend because of school, so the week was a lot of finding and first lessons. But that is okay because working hard is still one of my favorite things to do. We are continually blessed each day as we serve the Lord. I am so grateful to be a servant in His vineyard.

In other news, I am expecting! I received a training call this week informing me that I will be going into Stockholm next week to pick up my "son". I am excited to train a new missionary! It is going to be hard but I am grateful for this opportunity and I am so excited to help him learn Swedish and teach him the Swedish culture. I will most likely double into a new area. Elder Walker will also be training this transfer here in Uppsala. Which means I'm outta here. No wait, I lied. I might stay with my greenie and Elder Walker might double in somewhere. Who knows. We will find out on Saturday.

So we had a few really hard working days this week with not too much to report from them. We were really tired at points but as we continued to work hard and pray, the Lord blessed us with strength and we were able to keep going! We picked up a few new investigators this week which is good. The tricky part is meeting with them and getting them to progress. It just seems like everyone is too busy with their lives. Like one really positive lady is having a baby in like a week. What kind of excuse is having a baby? Haha just kidding. Like that was a legit excuse but a lot of other people have some pretty lame ones. We don't stop trying to meet with them though. But I guess that just helps us know who the prepared are.

This week, the sister missionaries called us and asked if we could come with them to a little town outside of Uppsala. There is a member there (who I hadn't yet met), who wanted us to bless her house. Apparently she was getting messed around with by spirits. The sisters told us that her silverware and plates have been disappearing. We got excited cause we hadn't been to a haunted house yet. So Elder Walker and I were pretty much prepared to cast out some demons, but when we got there, it didn't feel weird at all there. It felt quite nice actually. But she started to tell us a ton of weird stuff that has been happening to her. It sounded a lot like someone was coming in her house and messing with her or something to me, not ghosts. But ya never know. So anyways, we blessed the house. The spirit was actually really strong. The power of the priesthood is amazing. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father trusts us enough to let us hold the authority and power to act in His name. I am thankful for the miracles I have seen from the priesthood and the blessings that I have received because of it. The priesthood is all about blessing others. And as I just wrote all this, I realized that we didn't even use the priesthood to bless the house because you don't have to, but I am still so grateful for the priesthood! haha. But the spirit was so strong as we finished the prayer. The feeling in the room was just so much better. It was a cool experience and a testimony builder to me. Okay now I know why I was writing about the priesthood, haha. Earlier that day, one of the sisters, Sister Irene, was at the church and she suddenly got really sick. So her companion called us and asked if we could come give her a blessing. We came right away. When we got to the church, she was laying on the floor in pain. So Elder Walker and I knelt down on the floor next to her and gave her a blessing. It was an amazing experience. The spirit was so strong. We blessed her that she would be ok. After the blessing, within minutes, the pain was gone and she was able to travel to the lady's house with us. It was literally a miracle.  I am so grateful to be able to have the Lord work through me. The priesthood is real!

So this weekend, we were finally able to meet with Fredrik! He is so awesome! He told us that he had prayed throughout the week and had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon we gave him. We were so happy. He told us that he really does know that God is there now because he has received answers to his prayers. He expressed to us how he really felt like someone was there listening. And that it means everything to him to have a Father in Heaven who is there and loves him. It was such an amazing experience. He told us that he didn't understand the chapter we gave him too well (Alma 32), but we went through it again with him and explained it to him. It made sense to him. How the seed in the chapter is like his testimony right now. And how it will continue to grow as he continues to pray and read the scriptures and come to church. We then taught him the Plan of Salvation. It went really well. He understood it and it made a lot of sense to him. It was a great lesson. It is really interesting teaching him because he basically knows nothing about religion besides what they taught him in school. He didn't know much about Jesus or anything. So it was such a cool experience explaining the Atonement to him and how Christ's sacrifice for us makes everything possible. Fredrik is doing so well. We talked a lot about baptism too because the sisters had a baptism on Sunday and they were preparing for it after we taught him so we explained a lot about it. He is making a lot of friends in the ward and was able to come to church on Sunday! He loved church. And luckily, there were like 10 theology students from the University visiting that Sunday so the bishop pretty much explained everything we do and why we do it and Fredrik was able to listen. He also came to FHE last night! He loved it and had a lot of fun.

We were also able to meet with Paul this weekend. Things are going so good with him as well. He loves the church and was able to become friends with Lloyd (the guy who was baptized this week) who is also from Africa. Paul wasn't able to make it to the baptism, which was a huge downer. It was exactly what Paul needed to experience. He wasn't able to make it to church either. But he is still doing good. In our lesson with him, we read the book of Enos together. It was such a spiritual experience and he loved the story so much! He hadn't read much of the Book of Mormon before this, and after we read Enos, he said, "wow that was good! I hope the rest of the book is this good!". Haha it was awesome. He kept expressing how he likes this church a lot and how he felt uplifted and motivated by our words. We let him know that that was the Holy Ghost testifying to him that this is true. We committed him to find out for himself. He has accepted to read the chapter we gave him and pray about the Book of Mormon. He is doing so well and we are hoping to get a baptismal date with him this week!

This week, the Sisters had a baptism. Lloyd was baptized and it was such an amazing experience. And it was a very uplifting experience for me. I felt the spirit so strong as Lloyd shared his testimony afterwords. It reminded me of the testimonies of the people that were baptized in my previous areas. I realized that that those have been the happiest moments on my mission. Seeing the people I went through this journey with bearing their testimonies and explaining how clean and amazing they feel. It is the best feeling ever. I love being a missionary! Serving a mission is the best decision I have ever made. It has changed my life and I am so grateful for everything I have been through and experienced. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! I know they live!

Well I am about out of time. I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to everyones emails. I have a huge list of people I need to answer and it never seems like I have time. I will get back to you all I promise! Just know that all the emails and prayers and greatly appreciated and make me sooo happy! I am so grateful for each and every one of you. I think you are all amazing people.

Know that I love you!

MVH,

Äldste Bailey