Day 153

Hej Hej allihopa! 

As far as lessons and numbers go, this was probably the worst week of my mission. Almost all of our lessons fell through. Plus, It rained the whole week and there weren't even anyone out on the streets to talk to. But despite all that, it was still a really good week. 

On Tuesday we were able to teach Majeed. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. Reza wasn't there so it was a little hard to teach. He doesn't understand that much English. But we drew out the plan on a piece of paper and explained each step to him and he understood as we drew it out. He has a strong testimony and I love the smile on his face every time he comes to the church to be taught. I feel the spirit radiate off of him so much. After Majeed, we taught Alex. He has committed to stop smoking (again). We had a really good lesson about faith and about commandments. We have been calling him periodically throughout the week and reading scriptures with him over the phone and checking up on how he did with smoking that day. We are going to meet with him tomorrow and hopefully make some more progress. 

Wednesday was a really bad day haha. EVERYTHING we had planned fell through. It was planned to be the most busy day of the week but it just ended up not working out. We were able to talk to a lot of people on the streets which was good and always fun. We also made a lot of appointments with less active members in the ward for this week. Hopefully they can all meet this week. 

Thursday was a bit better. We met Fardin at the church in the morning. He has started to learn Swedish the past couple months. It is really amazing because he is learning as fast as a missionary. He has been living here in sweden for a couple years so he can understand most Swedish, but he wasn't able to speak. But now, he can already hold conversations with us. So we met him at the church and taught him some swedish. Then we taught him the Restoration in Swedish. It was one of the times I felt the spirit the strongest while teaching the restoration in swedish. Im not sure why. I think I was just really comfortable around Fardin so I was not worried about messing up or saying anything wrong. When I felt that calm, I was able to convey the feelings I had in my heart and say what the spirit influenced me to say. The lesson flowed so much better and the spirit was definitely there. It helped me realize how I need to feel with everyone else I teach. How I just need to feel calm and confident and let the spirit guide. A lot of the time when I am teaching swedes, I get self conscious and worry about the language. Teaching Fardin helped me to see how it should feel every time I teach in Swedish. After Fardin, we were able to teach Reza. He came to the church and we taught him the Plan of Salvation as well. It started really well and as we started to explain to him what we were going to teach, he said, "that's easy!! I will teach you!". hahaha. He got up and went to the front of the classroom we were in and started drawing the Plan of Salvation on the board. He had it down almost 100%. We had to explain to him the Saviors role and how the whole plan is possible because of him. We went into a lot more depth on the Atonement. The Atonement is something I have gained so much more appreciation for since I have been on my mission. I love my Savior and what he has done for me. After Reza, we were able to go teach an American man and his daughter. It was the first time we met with them, (we contacted them on the street a couple months ago) and the lesson went really well. His daughter kept asking a lot of questions, and we were able to answer and bear our testimonies on the truthfulness of our message. I am not sure how interested they were in the first place, but it still felt so amazing to tell the story of the Restoration to someone who has never heard it. And to have the opportunity to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is the most amazing feeling ever. Now we just have to wait for the spirit to work inside of them. 

Friday we had zone conference. It was in Gothenburg. We were combined with the Gothenburg zone. It was so nice to see all the missionaries that I havent seen in 3 months. The conference was really uplifting and motivating as well. We first listened to the assistants talk about the power and authority of our calls to be missionaries. The spirit really hit me hard as I was reminded that I am a literal representative of Jesus Christ. I am inviting everyone around me to accept the message of the restored gospel in Jesus Christ's place, as if it was him walking the streets of Sweden. It helped me realize that I need to do everything in my power to do what Christ would do. It helped me realize the importance of having the spirit with me always. After the assistants, we were able to here from President and Sister Beckstrand. They talked about "Being Disciples in the Digital Age". Apparantly, we are going to be receiving iPads. I am super excited! It is going to be a great tool in sharing the gospel throughout the country of Sweden. They talked about how the General Authorities trust us in using the technology and they taught us how to be responsible and wise with the devices. It was a great conference. Afterwords, we missed our train to Malmö. So we got to stay in Gothenburg for an extra 2.5 hours. It is such a pretty city!

Saturday was also a good day. We got to meet a new man whose number was in our phone from a while ago, named Afrim. He was interested in reading the Book of Mormon, but he needed it in Albanian. He was never able to find one. But we gave him one on Saturday and taught him the Restoration. He was a super nice guy. He was really excited that we brought him a Book of Mormon. He really wanted to read it. He told us not to tell him anything about the contents of the book because he didn't want us to spoil it. Afrim asked many questions as we taught him. He was really happy to hear that we believe we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and listens to our prayers. I felt the spirit so much as we sat outside on a park bench and talked about the Book of Mormon and how it came to be. He also shared a really spiritual experience of how God took care of him when he prayed to him for the first time. He was an atheist before. He said when he prayed he literally felt like he was in God's hands. It was amazing to listen to and I was really touched. We read Moroni's promise together and he promised to read and maybe pray about it. He was very accepting of everything we taught. But there was something I really liked. The whole time we were teaching him, he had a pack of cigarettes in his hand, and the Albanian Book of Mormon in the other. And sometimes both of them in the same hand. I dont know why I liked it so much, it was just the coolest sight to see how the Book of Mormon is really flooding the earth to every person in every language. I really felt the spirit as I watched him accept the Book of Mormon and walk away with his cigerettes and the scriptures. I love this gospel and I love the Book of Mormon and the message it contains. It can help anyone improve their live and come closer to God. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and share the Gospel. 

On Sunday, we were able to go to a special stake conference that was being broadcasted from Scotland to the Northern Europe area. It was President Holland. And his talk was by far the most spiritual and absolutely powerful talk I have ever heard in my life. If you think he gets fired up in General Conference, you should have seen this. It was that, x20. He talked about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. After just listening to that, I will never be able to deny the Book of Mormon, even if I wanted to. I absolutely know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. Gosh, I wish you could all hear the talk. He said stuff like "There are things I am not even permitted to tell you!!" and "If you ever have the privilege to be at my funeral and look over my casket, with my last breath, I would utter the words that this IS the truth." And he also just gave a million facts why this book could only be written of God. He gave the quote again that "No wicked man could write this book, and no good man would, unless it was by the authority and through the power of God." or something like that. It was really really good. Then that night we were able to visit a less active member named Margarita who hasnt been to church in 5 years. She was happy to let us in and we talked about Jesus Christ and we left her a chapter to read before we come back and she said she would do it!

Today we went to an old viking village! It was soooo awesome! I absolutely loved it - that's why there are so many pictures. There were so many cool old viking things to look at. I really like that kind of stuff! It was a really fun day!

Anyways, I am about out of time. Thank you for all the letters. I love you all and pray for you every day! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! I really can feel them and they give me strength every day. I love being a missionary and having the experiences that come with it. I love this gospel and I love my Savior. I know that this Church is true. I promise you it is. And It can bring peace, comfort, guidance, direction, strength, and whatever else we may need. I know this gospel is true. 

I hope you all have an amazing week! 

MVH

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