Day 593

Tjena familj, släkt o vänner!

Things are rolling along here in the magical country of Sweden! I am doing really well and loving my mission so much! Elder Weaver and I are getting along sooo well! He is an absolute stud!! He is an amazing missionary and such a great guy. He is going to be an amazing zone leader and I am super pumped for this transfer with him!! We worked really hard this week and definitely saw the miracles blessing from the Lord.

I don't have a lot of time but I want to talk about a couple experiences that happened this week. The first one happened to Elder Liddle and I (I guess Michael Liddle now) before he left. It almost felt like we met one of the 3 nephites or an angel or something. It was when I was still sick and we had had a really hard day. I was feeling like garbage and my head hurt and my nose was runny and dry and yeah it sucked. And on top of all of that we had had a full day of contacting and a full day of getting shut down. Just rejection after rejection. We even ran for trains and buses and missed almost all of them. Wasn't my day. So towards the end of the day there was a bus we were supposed to take that was pulling up while we were like 100 yards away so we started sprinting. It started pulling away right as we got there so I tapped on the glass window as it was driving away so the driver could hear me. He stopped the bus and opened the door and got mad at us for running for the bus from behind and for tapping on the glass. So at that point I was just done. I am usually a pretty optimistic person when it comes to sharing the gospel and it takes a lot to get me down but at this point I was just done. So we sat down on the bus and I was just kinda angry slash sad slash tired slash I don't know haha. But just a few seconds after we sat down, I saw a guy up in the front of the bus turn his head around and look back at us. I was wondering why he was staring at us and then he walked back to us and sat down by us. He was a young swede probably around 25 or something. But there was something different about this guy. He smiled a lot and asked us if we were christians. We told him yeah and he got super happy. I'm telling you there was just a light in this guy's eye. He told us he was Christian too and started asking us about our beliefs and about what makes us different. It was crazy how interested he was in what we were telling him. He kept asking question after question. We started teaching him about the BoM when his stop came. He said he had to get off and we decided that we could get off there as well. We got off the bus and we started walking with him he put his arm around my shoulder and patted me on the back and looked into my eyes and gave me on of the most loving smile I've ever seen. He didn't say it but what I felt inside was "You are doing a great work. Keep going. It's going to be alright." It was so weird that I could feel the spirit so strong from this random guy. So we started walking with him and he didn't really tell us where he was going and we walked with him for about 10 min. It seemed like we were walking in circles. As we were teaching him, he continued to ask us question after question. He then asked us what chapters in the Book of Mormon mean the most to us. He wanted us to mark the chapters so he could read them. As we were walking, we were able to tell him where our church was and that he was welcome. Haha here is the weird part. Right as we were about to ask for his number he turns around and says, "Well, there's my bus.” You've got to keep in mind that we weren't even close to a bus stop. There was kind of a little intersection thing close by but no bus stop. Then he just raises up his hand to the bus and it stops, opens the door, he gets on, and then the bus pulls away.. Then Elder Liddle and I just looked at eachother wondering what just happened. Bus drivers in Stockholm don't do that. Then Elder Liddle said to me "I hope that guy comes to church." I then told him "Nah, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up. I bet that guy was an angel or one of the 3 nephites, haha". His name was Jonas by the way. I know that God sent him as a sort of angel to strengthen us and to pick us up when we were down. He gave me a lot of strength and showed me a lot of love when I needed it. And even if he was just a regular swede, he showed me that God will give us opportunities to share the gospel and bear our testimonies if we don't give up and give him all we have. I don't know what happened to Jonas or who he is but I love him and I am grateful for the love he showed me that day. I know that God puts people in our path to help us and cheer us on. We can also be those people for others. God will use us to answer other people's prayers. That is why it is so important to stay worthy of the spirit and ACT on the promptings we receive. You never know, you might make someone's day or change someone's life. 

Well, after that really long story, I definitely don't have a lot of time. We have found a few new people that we are teaching! One of them is named Milad. He was taught a little bit before by the missionaries and lost contact for awhile. So we called him up and he said he could meet that day. So we met him at the YSA center and it happened to be institute that night so all the Stockholm YSA's were there. So he was able to meet them and mingle with them. He is a 22 year old guy from Iran by the way haha. He really liked it and then we met up with him again the next day and taught him the Restoration. He is already christain and has already been baptized so it was hard for him to understand why he needed to be baptized again. So we focused on the apostacy and the restoration and priesthood authority. He liked it and understood. He agreed to set a baptismal date for the 24th of September! So we hope he will receive an answer by then and we are excited to teach him!! He is a stud and a super good guy!

Well, That's about all I have time to report on! There was a lot of other good stuff that happened this week that I wish I could write about! But alas, I have but a few minutes left. I want you all to know that I have a testimony of this church and the gospel, that I know it is true! I love you all and thank you for all you do for me!!

Godspeed my friends.

Love

äldste Bailey