Day 691

Hello Ladies and Gents!

Everyone doing well? Good, good. Well, this time around I really don't have that much time to write. But things knallar och går here in Västerås! We are continuing to be blessed as we put in the work. 

This week started off with me wrestling one of my favorite members, David. He is the coolest guy ever and he is basically the hulk. (by the way He and his wife Ida invite us over for dinner every single tuesday. They are the best). And in their apartment they have a giant bean bag. So I was standing by the bean bag talking to the other Elders on the phone when David just runs over and tackles me into the bean bag which started an all out wrestling match. I was putting up a pretty good fight at the beginning but the match ended up with David picking me up and literally flipping me upside down and slamming me into the bean bag. It was crazy I don't think anyone has ever picked me up and thrown me like that since I was a lot smaller and lighter. hahaha it was super fun though. He is so awesome and always helps us out with lessons and always talks to our investigators at church. This Tuesday I'll catch him by surprise and take him down ;)

We were able to meet our brother Sorie this week. He is going trough a lot right now actually. His cousin was stabbed to death in London last weekend and it has hit him and his family pretty hard. He did say that he was so grateful for the knowledge he has learned about the gospel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ which has given him a lot of comfort in this hard time for him. Because of all the stress of this and other reasons, Sorie's baptismal date has been moved to the 7th of January. Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there, but that isn't too important for me. The coolest part of all this I have already been able to see and be apart of. The gospel has really changed him. It has been a blessing to be able to take part in Sorie's conversion process. But please keep him and his family in your prayers!

We were also able to meet Ahmedreza again! He wants to be baptized! We taught him the restoration and the plan of salvation. Both made a lot of sense to him and he loved them. When we prayed he said that he felt the spirit really strong. We are going to continue to work with him.

We had two really great lessons with a new investigator named Håkan. He is a Swedish man who has been studying with a lot of different churches over the years and has never found what he is looking for. We talked to him on the street a few weeks ago and he decided to give it a shot. We met him first on Wednesday and answered a lot of his questions. He is going through a lot of tough things in his life right now so we decided to focus on God and His plan for us and on Jesus Christ and His role in the plan and how they both can help us in our lives. We shared a lot of comforting scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon about God and Jesus Christ and the Atonement. It was a great lesson and a member randomly showed up to the church and he was able to bear his testimony about God and prayer and the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson and the Spirit was present testifying to us all that our message was true. On Saturday, we met with Håkan again and it was such an amazing lesson and the spirit was so strong the whole time. We sat in the chapel and we were the only ones in the church and it was so quiet and peaceful. He loved it and he loved the feeling inside of the church. He said that his head was so much more clear and that he could leave all his problems outside. We taught him the restoration but focused mainly on God. It was more of a discussion which was good. We asked him questions about God and his relationship to God. He was able to ponder and answer our questions. He also asked us a lot of questions which was different. He asked us about our personal relationship to God and how we receive answers. It was so cool because I had the amazing opportunity to share my personal testimony about my Heavenly Father and my relationship to Him and how I receive answers to my prayers. The spirit was so strong as I looked into Håkan's eyes and bore testimony to him. The coolest part was that I felt the spirit so strong and it seemed like I could say whatever I wanted to in Swedish. The words just flowed out of my mouth like never before. I mean, for a long time I haven't had any trouble speaking Swedish, but this was different. I noticed that words and phrases that I don't usually use just came out of my mouth and I was speaking completely fluently. It was no doubt my Father in Heaven who helped me say exactly what Håkan needed to hear. I was also prompted to ask Håkan if he felt like God loved him. He wasn't really sure how to answer. So I told him to get on his knees that night and ask God what he thought about him. I promised him that God would let Håkan know that He loves him. He smiled when he heard that. It was an all around great lesson. He also agreed to being baptized if he receives an answer. He came to church on Sunday and stayed all three hours and absolutely loved it! He is such a great man.

Anyways, I gotta go. I love you all so much. Keep working hard in whatever you do. Have a great week! The church is true!

Godspeed

äldste Bailey