Day 467 - A new transfer begins

Hello my friends!

Hope you are all doing well! Again, another week has flown by! Things are going great here in Umeå! I absolutely love it here and we are working hard and having fun! We are really seeing the hand of the Lord in our work. That is something I have been working on recently. Seeing His hand in the work and in my life. And it's something you have to actively look for. When you try, you will be able to recognize his hand in your life. As I reflect back on this week, I can think of so many times that the Lord has helped us and strengthened us and helped us carry out his work here in Umeå.

I don't have a lot of time at all but I will quickly run through this week!

Monday night, we had another fire pit gathering thing with the YSA's. It was so awesome. They invited a lot of their friends so there were more nonmembers than members there! They got to taste a little bit of how we live as members of the church. None of them were really interested but they had a fun time and the spirit was there. Planting seeds!

Tuesday was pretty good! We taught a young couple named Robert and Hanna. I think I have written about them before. They are both like 20 years old so it is kind of like a bunch of kids in an apartment which is a little weird but whatever, it was spiritual, haha. We chatted with them and then watched a talk from conference because they we not able to watch it. We watched the Jeffrey R Holland talk and it was super good. The spirit was there and we all shared what we learned from it afterwords. We are trying to get them to come to church. Hanna works some weekends in Skellefteå which makes it hard, but Robert doesn't work and we tried getting him to church but he didn't come. They are both so awesome and it is always a blast going over there. After that, we went to Tistou's and we answered all of his questions. He has a million and he always has some problem. He has been coming to church the past three weeks which is good. When he comes, the members really take care of him. He is so awesome. He is really trying to figure life out and trying to understand God and his plan for him. When he came to church, I asked him how he was doing and for the first time he said that he was doing good. He said his only problem was that he had too few problems hahaha. I told him that was a good thing and that God doesn't want us to have trials and problems 100% of the time. We contacted for awhile after that. And then, we had dinner at the Iguaran family's house. They are from Columbia and probably the most loving family in the world!! They just absolutely love the missionaries. They had us over because Elder Loertscher left Wednesday morning. It was a fun time.

On Wednesday, we met with Niels and Zezka who are having a really hard time. They are just going through so much. They are trying to get out of Sweden because it just doesn't work for them here. We have been praying a lot for them this week and Friday afternoon we got a call from Niels and he told us that he got a job in Ireland! We were so happy! Ireland will be so good for them! I love Ireland! I even did my 6th grade report on that country! Anyways, they are moving there next month. So that will be good for them! That night, we got to play innebandy (floor hockey) with the young men in the branch! I absolutely love these guys! They are so cool and such good friends to us! It was a ton of fun and we were playing super hard and then I ran across the court and all of a sudden I was just hit in the face by someone's stick. It was a kid named Simon who swung his stick at the ball super hand and it hit me right in the nose on the follow´-through. I stopped for a sec and then kept playing only to find out that the blood faucet in my nose was turned on and blood was just running down face and got all over the floor haha so I went and washed it off and yeah it hurt pretty bad. I just stuffed some paper towels in my nose and kept playing. I felt like Nevil Shed on the movie Glory Road when he breaks his nose in a basketball practice and then runs and puts on a baseball catcher mask and runs back on the court. haha good times.

Thursday morning we had district meeting. We have a new senior couple here in Norrland named the Mitchells. They are so cool! They are brand new to Sweden so we had to show them how everything worked. It was fun to help them pay for parking downtown and help them order their food when we went out to lunch. They are just awesome. They remind me of my grandparents. And yeah District meeting was really good! Elder Jones did a good job. After that, Elder Luke and I did some yard work for one of our investigators named Louise. She is like 75 years old and she had us come and work in her yard for a few hours. Then she fed us a ridiculous amount of waffles. Then after that we went to another member dinner and had a Norrland food called palt. Its like a super dense potato/bread ball with ham on the inside. They eat it with butter and jam. It is pretty gross if you ask me. At the member meal, there were a few non members there and we were able to share a spiritual message out of the Book of Mormon. It was pretty short because we had to catch a plane to stockholm. The other guys stayed and taught them about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. Elder Luke and I then flew to Stockholm that night and we stayed in the mission office with the Assistants and the Office Elders. It was a blast! I love all those guys so much.

Missionary leadership council took up most of the next day. It was super good to see all my friends! We have some amazing missionaries in this mission! I was also able to see a bunch of missionaries from my MTC group which was awesome!! It was a very uplifting and motivating training. We have a new assistant, and I was proud of the effect he had in being bold and motivating the leadership of the mission. I agree and relate very strongly for his vision and plans for the mission, and am so excited for what's going to be coming about in the near future. My entire mission I've been doing what I can to raise the passion that the missionaries have for this work, and that's exactly what this training was on, as well as being combined with being bold in teaching the commandments. Great things are going to be happening, and I can't wait to give zone training with elder Luke this Thursday! After MLC, we hung out in the mission home for a while chatting with President and Sister Beckstrand which was awesome. They are so amazing and do so much for this mission. I love them both so much!

On Saturday, we taught Rita again. This lesson went so well! She asked a lot of questions and we focused on her feelings when we used to meet the missionaries two years ago with her father. We had her ponder the feelings that she had in church when she used to come. She said it felt very calm. We told her that was the Holy Ghost testifying to her. She asked a lot of questions and we were able to answer them. We tried setting up a baptismal date but she said she wanted to read a little bit more in Mormons Bok and come to church first. She said that she would come but ended up not showing. It was a very spiritual lesson and I could feel the spirit working and testifying through me and what I was saying.

Later that day we met with a couple new investigators. We met with a 23 year old named Adam who is such a bro! It was a super good lesson and he even made us brownies! He is very active in the Pentecostal Church which makes it hard for him to come to ours. He is interested in continuing to meet though!

 In church the next day, Elder Luke and I taught a last minute lesson in priesthood and it went really well! It was about missionary work. I shared a quote in the lesson that I want to share with you all to end this email. It is one of my all time favorites. It is from Joseph Smith himself:

“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 clime, 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 LOVE missionary work! I am so incredibly grateful for the chance I have to be a tool in the hands of the Lord and to hasten His work! I love you all and am so grateful for all you do for me! Have the best week ever!

Godspeed

MVH

Äldste Bailey