Day 418 - Transfer Time!

Hallå hallå mina vänner! 

It's that time again! Transfer time! This week has been crazy but also amazing! It was my last week here in Utby so I wanted to give it everything I had. We worked really hard and have been blessed so much this week because of it. 

Soooo, if you haven't already figured it out, I will be transferring! I know it doesn't mean much to a lot of you who read my emails because to you, I'm just going to another city with a weird name. But -  it's big news here! So right now, I'm serving on the west side of Sweden, a little bit south in a place called Göteborg, or Gothenburg in English. But I received a call this week from the mission president telling me that I would need to pack my bags cause I would be heading north! That's right folks, the place I've been wanting to serve for a long time! The northern part of Sweden. The whole northern part of the country is called "Norrland". So I am super excited. I am heading up to a city called Umeå (oo-mee-oh). It is supposedly a beautiful city with a great ward and it will be super fun and a great experience. I was also informed that I will be a zone leader over the Norrland zone. I am super excited and ready for the challenges and opportunities that will come. I know this will be a good way to help me stretch and grow and I'm thankful for the opportunity I have as a missionary to do that. I am nowhere near perfect and in a way I feel a little inadequate for the job. I know this will be a good and humbling experience and that the Lord will help with my weaknesses and flaws.I really look forward to helping and inspiring the missionaries in this zone. I am super excited to head up there and get to work!

So this week, we were able to go on splits with the zone leaders. I was able to spend the day with the legendary Elder Featherstone! I was able to welcome him back to the grind since he has been sitting in his cushy car for the past couple transfers hahaha jk but it was honestly such a good time and I learned so much from him! I consider him one of my closest friends and it was so fun to work with him again! We were able to just go out and hit the streets and talk to everyone! We talked to so many awesome people and taught some amazing lessons on the street. It is such an amazing privilege to be able to go out everyday and bear testimony of the restored gospel with all my heart!

Elder Featherstone and I were able to meet with one of our investigators that we've been struggling to meet with during my time here in Utby. His name is David and he is from Africa and just an overall stud. Elder Featherstone and I taught an amazing lesson and the spirit was so strong. We taught about the restoration. We put a focus on the priesthood authority that has been restored back to the earth through Joseph Smith and how it is only our church who has that authority. It was actually pretty cool because that morning, when I was studying, I read how Christ gave priesthood power to His apostles. It hit me that priesthood power and authority is something that is given. It says it right there in the bible. There are so many people and churches who claim to have power to heal and to perform ordinances, yet they haven't received that power from anyone or anywhere. So it is so important that the true priesthood power of God is given to man by the laying on of hands. We brought that up with David and he really liked it and agreed. Anyways, he loved the Book of Mormon so much and the lesson went so well. He agreed to read and to pray to ask God if it was true. The spirit hit me so strong when I recited the words from the first vision. I also invited him to be baptized with boldness and I know he felt he felt the spirit strong because he accepted. Afterwords we had a kneeling prayer together in his apartment and you could just feel the power of the spirit in the room so strong. It is such a blessing for me to be able to take part in this amazing experiences and to watch people accept and learn about the restored gospel. I am so grateful to be able to testify and bear witness of the truthfulness of our message which brings so much happiness and peace to our lives each and every day. I know that Elder Williams and his new companion will take good care of David and help lead him to the waters of baptism.

Sonyaa is doing awesome. She is very sincere about finding an answer and we are helping her along the path. She came to church and we met with her this week as well. She is definitely progressing, but slowly. I know that the spirit is working inside of her. We are just really helping her recognize her answer. She has prayed a lot about the Book of Mormon and hasn't really felt an answer. We are helping her recognize the promptings and answers that come from the Holy Ghost and how she can best understand them. I think that is the hardest thing for her. We will continue to help her out. She said that God hasn't told her that the book is not true and that this church could very well be Christ's church on the earth. She is so amazing and I know she will eventually be baptized!

Well my friends, it's time for me to bounce. Next time you tune in, I will be up in reindeer country! I am so blessed to be a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ and to be able to go out and give him my all every day and serve him with no regrets. Thank you for everything guys! Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers! 

Strength and Honor

MVH

äldste Bailey

Day 411

Hej på er!

I hope everyone is doing well! Well, time continues to fly over here! Another week has flown by and my mission is going so fast! I love my mission so much and I love serving the Lord with no regrets! 

I don't have so much time this week and not so much happened. So I will give you a quick update. I feel like we have been doing a lot of finding work this week. Probably because we have haha. I would say our area is in "building up mode". When I got here, we didn't really have anyone to teach. So Elder Williams and I have really been building up the teaching pool. Over the last month, we have found a lot of interested people on the streets and gotten a lot of numbers. This week, I think we are meeting with around 4 or 5 new people which is super good. We have investigators that we regularly meet with as well, but we are trying to leave this area better than we found it and build up the teaching pool as much as possible. 

This week we were able to meet with Sonyaa. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a super good lesson and she learned a lot and asked a lot of questions. We taught about the importance and significance of Faith and Repentance and the role they play in the conversion process. In order to be truly converted, we must have a fast faith in Jesus Christ. That he is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that faith must lead us to act. As our faith in Jesus Christ grows and as we learn more about him, we will develop the desire to obey his commandments and we will want to become like him. And we do this through repentance. Those who truly repent become truly converted. Repentance is making the necessary changes in our life and living in harmony with God's will. We talked a lot about repentance with Sonyaa because that is something we have been focusing on as a mission. Not rushing too fast through teaching repentance. Because those who truly repent and make the necessary changes in their live to become more like the Savior and those who do everything they can to follow his commandments will become truly converted. And those are the members who are faithful for the rest of their lives. Not the converts who are baptized and go less active after a few months. Sonyaa is doing great. She is progressing, but slowly. She has said how she doesn't want to rush this, and how she wants to make sure this is something she really believes in and really wants to do before she does it. We are continuing to help her along this journey. She still comes to church every week and we are going to meet her on Wednesday this week.

Last Wednesday, we were able to go on splits with the Elders in a city called Alingsås. It was super good! Alingsås has been struggling a little bit recently so it felt good to go pump them up! We talked to a ton of people and taught a bunch of lessons on the street. We found some people who were interested which was great! It was super fun to go work with those guys! They are studs!

On Thursday, something kinda scary happened haha. Elder Williams and I were out contacting in this mountainy forresty area and so there were a bunch of cliffs and hills and stuff and there was a random elevator that can take you up to the top of the cliff were the path continued. It looked pretty ghetto and we heard some banging on the top but we weren't sure what it was so we decided to go up. Well like we were going to go that way anyways. When we got to the top and the elevator door opened, we stepped out and saw four half drunk middle eastern guys turn around with pipes in their hands and as we walked out of the elevator towards them, on of the guys said "well, look what we got here!" and the other guys laughed and started to surround us and then I knew for sure it was about to go down and I was ready to fight haha. (btw we were in a really sketchy area of the city).  And then they started asking us who we were and where we came from. I started talking to them and joking around with them a little bit. I asked them where they are from and all this stuff and I let them know what I am doing here and when I told them we help people come closer to God they began to loosen up. And when I told them we were from America they absolutely loved us. They tried offering us the weed and cocaine they had as well haha and they tried speaking English with us. I had them teach me a little more Arabic and I just tried to be nice to these guys. The whole time I was making my way around to the other side of them so we could get outta there. We were all standing on a super high bridge so there was only one way out. That was why it was pretty scary at first. But I am like 95% sure that these guys intended on fighting us when we walked out of that elevator. As we walked towards them, I didn't know if I was going to have to fight or not but I knew God would protect us. It was really cool that the Lord delivered us out of these guys' hands. I am glad we were able to get out of there unhurt, even though I maybe wanted to fight just a little bit ;)

On Saturday, we were able to go to the baptism of a man named Joakim in a nearby city called Trollhättan. He was the Sister's investigator and has an amazing story. He was a hardcore atheist when they started meeting. He has an amazing conversion story and I was able to interview him last week for his baptism. It was so amazing and the spirit was so strong in that room with him. The baptism was so awesome and Joakim was so happy afterwords. I love being at baptisms and I love feeling the spirit that is always present. Things are starting to happen in Sweden and everyone can feel it. 

Saturday night, we sacrificed a little bit of our P-day time to go to a hockey game with a member and some less active YSAs! We went to one of Gothenburg's professional team's games. Their are called the Frölunda Indians. It was a super fun game!! I have grown a new love for hockey! The four of us went super hard and screamed as loud as we could the whole entire game! Everyone around us was laughing and calling us crazy Americans :) Swedes are super super reserved people so it seemed like the most they would do was clap or occasionally cheer when someone scored. So we stood out a ton. We tried our hardest to get on the jumbo tron thing but never succeeded. We also tried to give a mormon.org card to one of the players after the game but that didn't work either. But yeah the game was super fun and I completely lost my voice the next day! 

Well folks, I gotta jet. Thank you for everything you do for me! Thank you for the emails and the prayers and thoughts. They mean so much more than you know! Have a good week everyone! Know that I love you and am praying for you! Remember that the church is true and nothing is going to change that. Now everyone go out there a work hard and serve with no regrets!

Med många kramar,

äldste Bailey

Day 404

Hello my friends!

We have passed day 400! So crazy! This week will be my one year mark in Sweden! What the heck?? Super weird.. Time flies! I am loving my time here in Sweden. I love my mission! 

This week was super good! Elder Williams and I worked really hard and have found some new people to teach! We met with some new people this week and did a lot of finding work. We got a bunch of new numbers and had a lot of fun meeting new people! 

So Tuesday morning, we met with a few of these new people. We met with two ladies from Africa named Hanna and Mary. We had called them both beforehand and only Hanna was interested. Mary told us that she was content with her own church and didn't really want to know about the Book of Mormon or anything. We taught both of these girls a couple weeks ago on the street. We taught them the restoration and they gave us their numbers and took copies of the Book of Mormon. So we finally set up a meeting with Hanna this Tuesday. When we met Hanna, we saw that she brought Mary with her. We could tell that Mary didn't really want to be there. Like that Hanna just dragged her along. Hanna is from Ethiopia and Mary is from Nigeria. They are both members of some baptist church or something I can't really remember. But we started off the lesson by asking them what their beliefs were and what kind of a role religion played in their lives. Mary started talking about her relationship with God and the Bible and they help her in her life. How they help her overcome challenges or help her with her weaknesses and all that jazz. I can't really remember everything she said, but what she said reminded me of Ether 12:27. So I pulled out the Book of Mormon and shared this scripture that means a lot to me, hoping that the spirit would touch her heart. Afterwords, she said that was nice, but that the Book of Mormon wasn't the Bible. When I pulled out the Book of Mormon and read from it, boom. It set of a spark that ignited the rest of our discussion. It was basically Mary who talked the whole entire time. We just went back and forth about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. This lady was the most stubborn person ever haha. It was so cool cause we kept our cool and she was getting kind of worked up. So every time we talked, the spirit could be felt. And every time she talked, it just felt like contention. So Mary hit us with every single Bible supporting point you could think of, and every time we came back with a scripture or fact to disprove it or show that the Book of Mormon is also the word of God and completes the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mary would just not accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God. They also thought that we were talking to much about the BOM and not the Bible. I just didn't understand because how can they know that The Book of Mormon is not the word of God if they have never read it? If someone testified and told you there was more scripture, more of God's word and teachings of Jesus Christ that could bless your life, why would you not read it? Even just test it? She was not even willing to just try. Just try and see if it wouldn't bless or change her life in some way. It came down our testimonies. The whole time the spirit was just burning in my heart and this scripture came to my mind that I love and that has had a strong influence on my throughout my life. 2 Nephi 33:

  "10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.

 11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.

 12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.

 13 And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come.

 14 And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the Jews, and also my words, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God, behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day.

 15 For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen."

I didn't read this scripture to them, but it came to my head. And maybe it was a little bold, but I testified so strongly about the Book of Mormon and I told her that it is up to her to accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God, but that I have done my part as a representative of Jesus Christ, and now it is up to her whether or not she wants to find out for herself if it is true. I told her that if she denies the Book of Mormon, that one day after this life, her and I would stand face to face at the judgement bar of God, and she will know and tell me that the Book of Mormon was true. Maybe a little bold, but I didn't regret saying it one bit. I knew the Spirit prompted me to say it and sometimes, people of this "Bible only and nothing else"  magnitude need to hear a higher magnitude testimony. The spirit was strong and the room was silent for awhile. But I said something else during that lesson that changed me and has increased my testimony so much in the Book of Mormon. Somewhere during that lesson, when they were ridiculing and questioning the BoM, I picked up a Book of Mormon off of the table in front of me and held up the book and looked them in the eyes and said "This book is true. And I will continue to say that until the day I die." Later on I said, "I would die for the Bible, and I would die for The Book of Mormon." When I said that I would die for this book, this feeling came over me that I can't describe. A warm feeling of peace and assurance. That what I was saying was true. All I could think to myself was, "wow, this really is true". And it is! Although these two ladies were not very interested, I believe that lesson was key for my testimony. During that lesson, my testimony of the Book of Mormon grew tremendously. I know it is true! I know it is the word of God and that it changes lives. I have received so much happiness and peace and comfort and strength from that book. It is true and it has brought me so close to my Savior. I know it's true otherwise I wouldn't have left home for 2 years to tell people about some fairy-tale. It actually happened and that is something to be excited about!  I am grateful for the testimony I have of the Book of Mormon and I will never be able to deny it. I am thankful for that lesson and how pivotal it was for my testimony. Sorry that was a super long experience, but you guys know I get carried away sometimes ;)

On Wednesday, we were able to meet a lady named Carla. She is in her mid thirties and she is originally from Peru so she spoke spanish but has luckily lived in Sweden long enough to be able to speak Swedish. We contacted her a couple weeks ago and she has been super busy so it has been hard to set up a time with her. We finally were able to meet her for about 45 min in a McDonalds. It was a really good lesson and she was very interested! She explained how since she has been here in Sweden, church and religion have kind of fallen out of her life and that she has noticed the difference. She also explained how she has been searching for the truth for awhile now and is totally willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She was really positive and I am hoping to continue teaching her. She is awesome and the Spirit was so strong in that lesson as we testified about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, even in a McDonalds. ;)

Thursday we had a zone training with all the missionaries in the Göteborg zone! It was fun to see everyone and to see President and the Assistants! It was a super good training and I learned a lot. Later that night, we had a FHE at our ward mission leader's home. His name is Kirk and he is from Utah! He has the biggest heart and is super nice. It was a good time and the lesson was really good. There were some less active members and some investigators there. Prince was there, who is living with Kirk and is from Nigeria. Funniest guy you will ever meet! All he says is, "my brother" at the beginning or ending of every sentence hahaha. And sorry Elder Hemmingsen, Prince is coming home with me ;) We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Organisation of our church. Elder Alberstsen brought up this talk that I have never heard of before, but if you read it, you will know the church is true hahaha it just makes sense. And like after reading it, if our church isn't true, then no church is true. It is definitely a testimony builder! It  is called "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?" It just talks about the organizations and teachings and doctrines of our church now compared with the church in Christ's time. Give it a read!  https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng 

On Friday, we had a crazy experience that was super cool! Elder Williams and I were running for a bus that was about to leave. I was sprinting in front of Elder Williams and the bus doors were closing and I barely caught them and forced them open. Then as I got on the bus, I looked behind me and the doors shut and Elder Williams was on the outside hahaha. So then the bus left and I was completely alone! Elder Williams had the phone and so on the bus, I asked to borrow someone's phone and gave him a call. I told him to stay there and that I would get off at the next stop and get on the next bus coming back. So I continued to talk to the guy that I borrowed the phone from and it turned out that I had talked to him before so that was funny. But then when I got off the bus, It was just me and some other Persian lady alone at the bus stop. Then it hit me, I am alone at this bus stop with some lady. No companion, no other missionaries or members watching me. If I didn't want to talk to this lady, I didn't have to. no one would know. Well except the Lord I guess haha. And that is kind of what drove me and made me ask myself the question, "what kind of a missionary am I when no one is watching?". Do I really care about what the Lord thinks of me? Do I care about this lady standing next to me? Also, a line from this motivational speech this I heard one time popped in my head that says "A real man in the dark, when nobody's watching, puts in work.". When nobody is watching? Am I still serving the Lord and putting in work? So of course I talked to this Lady. She wasn't interested, but it made me happy to know that I did what I was supposed to even when nobody was watching. But that isn't the best part. When the bus came, I got on and sat down next to a woman. The same thought came into my head again and so I started a conversation. Long story short, we walked off the bus together and she had a Book of Mormon in her hand and I was teaching her about the Restoration of the Gospel. It was so cool. This woman was super interested and she took a Book of Mormon and said she would like to meet sometime. She said she would visit the church as well. I am glad that I listened to the spirit and talked to these two women. This was also a huge growing point for me in my mission. I found out that I care more about what the Lord thinks of me and wants me to do than what I want to do. It was a super cool experience and we know that it was supposed to happen because afterwords we found out that bus was the wrong one anyways! ;)

Well I've got to bounce! I love you all so much and want you to know that I love you! Thank you for all the emails and thoughts and prayers! The church is true and nothing is going to change that!

Stay strong!

MVH

äldste Bailey

Day 397

Hälsningar!

Hope everyone is doing well! I'm doing just dandy! It was a hard but good week here in rainy Gothenburg. It rained pretty much the whole week. We didn't have that much set up this week so it was basically all finding work. We did teach a fair amount of sit down lessons, but not as much as usual. But that's okay. I love going out and working hard. It felt like we just got rejected all week and people were especially mean to us this week. It was okay, though, because that is exactly what Christ said would happen. We would be hated by all men for his name's sake. Despite all the rejection, we found a fair amount of people this week and have an awesome week set up for this coming week! Sorry I don't have very much time at all, so this might be ridiculously short. But just remember that not so much happened this week. 

We had a pretty cool experience with a less active member named Susanne this week. She called us up one day while we were tracting and asked if we could give her a visit. We weren't really sure who she even was. We had heard her named before but we had never visited her or seen her in church or anything. Anyways, Elder Williams and I took a couple from the ward with us to go visit her the next day. Turns out Susanne has had a really hard live with lots of trials. Her best friend had recently died which took a toll on her, and she also has PTSD. Turns out that she was in Washington DC on 9/11 when one of the planes hit the Pentagon. Like she literally saw the plane crash into the building. That was super hard for her. A lot of other things happened over the past 15-20 years as well that have just built up and taken a toll on her. Anyways, so with the PTSD, she has suffered some memory loss and can't remember so much about the church. So we were able to teach her the restoration and teach her all about the Book of Mormon. It was so cool to watch things come back to her remembrance as we would explain something. It was a cool experience.

This week, I had a very spiritual experience on the bus with a man from Syria. He had come here to Sweden and left his wife and kids there. He expressed how much he missed them and how dangerous it was there. He said how there are just bodies in the streets and how you can't go outside without worrying about bombs and snipers. It is insane. I was talking through the google translate on the phone and we talked a lot about God and how he will help him through all this. I would say something in English and then it would pop up in Arabic and then he would say something in Arabic and it would pop up in English. It was such a cool experience and my heart just hurt for this man. I bore testimony that God is our father and that he loves us and wants to help us if we let him. It was a cool experience and the spirit was strong. I absolutely love the middle-eastern people. They are the most kind, loving, caring people I have ever met in my life. It is crazy what they escaped and what they are running from. I feel it a blessing to be able to help them find peace and comfort in the gospel. 

On Sunday, I had to teach the Elders quorum lesson in church. They asked the missionaries to teach one Sunday every month. And Elder Williams had to teach Gospel Principles class, so I was all alone! I was super nervous. I felt really inadequate teaching all these well polished gospel learned Melchizedek priesthood holders anything about the gospel, especially in another language that they were way better than me at. Anyways, it started off really well. I taught out of a chapter of Preach My Gospel. Ch 4, learning to recognize the Spirit. We are teaching them how PMG is not only for missionaries, but for members. It was an awesome lesson and just about 15 min in, the stake president walks in and sits down and I was just like "awesome...". I got super nervous but as I kept teaching, the words I needed to say just kept coming to my mouth. It was so cool. I was able to teach powerfully and clearly. And I know it was the Lord who was leading me. In fact, about 60% of the way in, I felt really prompted to talk about member missionary work. I ended up hitting member missionary work really hard and got them all really pumped up. It was a super good lesson and everyone thanked me after. I know it wasn't me, but the Lord who taught those Elders. 

Well, I am out of time. I love you all and am thankful for all you do for me! Have a good week and remember that the church is true and that nothing is going to change that! 

MVH

Äldste Bailey  

Day 390

Hello there my good friends! 

This week was great! This week was filled with amazing experiences and such! I don't have very much time this week so this is probably going to be really short haha. I know I usually say I don't have a lot of time and still write a long one, but this time I really don't have too much time at all. I am doing great overall and Elder Williams and I are working hard and having fun! We are definitely being blessed as we are going out and giving the Lord our all! 

This week we were able to meet with Sonya a couple times. She is doing so well and really progressing! We had such a cool lesson with her on Tuesday I think. We taught her about the Restoration a little bit more but as the lesson went on, she started asking lots of questions about the Plan of Salvation. So during the lesson, we switched to the second half of the Plan of Salvation. She was really interested about the spirit world and the kindgoms of glory. It was a great lesson and the spirit was so strong! I love helping people understand the gospel. We bore strong testimonies of the restoration of the church and about the BOM and plan of Salvation. We also extended a baptismal invitation. We invited her to be baptized on the 27th of February. We promised her that she would be able to receive an answer by then. She said she would be baptized if she gets an answer by then! It was super cool. We also taught her again on Saturday. We taught her about the first half of the Plan of Salvation. It was really good. She had lots of questions again. We somehow started talking about why bad things happen to good people. Or why God lets bad things happen in general. I had read a really good quote that morning that I was able to share with her that helped a lot. Luckily she can understand English as well haha. It is from President Kimball:

 “If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be a calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective. Is there not wisdom in his giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified? If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls. Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood” 

I could right a novel explaining my thoughts about this quote. This quote has helped me a ton on my mission. But I will let you ponder and think about it! Anyways, Sonya is doing great and I am blessed to be able to teach her! It was just a cool experience because it happens so many times that investigators will ask about something or I feel like I need to teach them something that I studied that morning. It is cool how the Lord guides us in our studies as well.

This week, we had a zone training with all the missionaries in the Gothenburg area and some other neighboring cities. It was a really good training and it helped a lot. It was centered on a worldwide missionary broadcast that we saw last week called, "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts". It was an AMAZING broadcast and I learned so much. The zone training was good as well. But the coolest moment and when the spirit hit me the strongest was at the end. As a zone, we stood up and recited "The Standard of Truth". I don't know if you have heard it before, but it is from Joseph Smith in a letter he wrote one time.

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” 

I absolutely LOVE this! As us 35 or 40 missionaries stood there and read that together, the spirit just ran through my body and it felt so cool! It felt like we were an army and that nothing will stop us from preaching the gospel and spreading the truth. It was a reassurance to me that this church is true and that this work will continue to progress no matter what happens. I am going to work as hard as I can to bring the gospel to every ear possible. Amazing things have been happening in this mission and in this zone especially. We have such a great desire to push ourselves and give the Lord everything we have and we have faith to know that he will help with the rest. This is His work in the end. I am so lucky to be a representative of Him and wear his name on my heart each day. I love missionary work with all my heart and I love the people I am serving!

Fun little side note: Elders Albertsen and Featherstone lost their phone right before zone training and it was super stressful because we couldn't find it anywhere and they needed it for zone training. After a while of looking and not finding, I asked them if they had prayed, they said no, so we said a prayer together. I knew Heavenly Father would help us find it no matter what. A little while after the prayer, we were able to get in contact with the office Elders and get the "find my iphone" up and running. Elder Featherstone and I were out by the car looking when we saw that the little icon was moving. We were like "Okay let's go catch this guy!". So we jumped in the car and basically we chased this icon around  forever. It seemed like this guy was running from us cause we were going in circles. When we got in the general area of the phone, we hopped out and started sprinting up the street. Okay so picture this in your head: Two american guys in nice suits sprinting up the street in the old european city of Gothenburg after a stolen phone ready to do whatever necessary to get it back. FBI or what? ;) haha we felt like secret agents or something haha. So we were asking everybody in the area and no one had found or taken a phone. Then we found him. Turns out it was just the security guy who gives parking tickets out. He just found it on the ground and didn't want anyone to take it. He gave the phone back without any resistance. So luckily we didn't have to use force. haha just kidding. He was a super nice guy and gave it back with a smile :) It was a fun little experience! Anyways, moral of the story is that Heavenly Father always comes through! I am grateful that He answers prayers!

Well, that's about it for this week folks. Thanks for tuning in. Remember that I love you all! Thanks for the prayers and emails and all that stuff! Have the best week ever! Remember that the church is true and that nothing will ever change that!

MVH

Äldste Bailey