Week 8, Roof Cleaning Service, Africa, Thanks For the Servants We Had Today, Some Things Get Lost in Translation

This is the Swedish word for speed!

tjena tjena!!!!

How is everyone?!?!?! This week has been a pretty great week in Sweden. It's nice to get into the swing of things and really have a full week where it's more planned and we can go for goals that we have felt like we can accomplish. We just go from place to place teaching a bunch of people and finding when we can. The Swedish is going really well I just kinda go for it so when I say things wrong the people in the ward will correct me (because I asked them to) and then my Swedish gets better. I actually had a full blown conversation this Sunday with a member who's actually leaving for a mission in a month to Germany. It was super cool that I could understand him and say things back that made sense! I just don't want to be the quiet greenie that sits there so I speak some sort of language and I hope some of it comes out as Swedish haha. Although sometimes I am depending on who we talk to. If they are old or just talk super randomly I have no idea what they're saying so Elder Held kinda takes over after that. My contacting has become more effective too. It's actually really cool when we are able to talk to people on the street and they are receptive.

On Tuesday we did service for the church and we cleaned their super old cool roof and there's a picture below that we took and we probably have to do that this week too. We also taught a bunch of people on Tuesday and we teach people from all over the world. We taught this man with a translator this week and he's from Syria so he can speak English but not that well. We also taught a man from Africa which was way cool. Most of them can speak Swedish and English a little bit but not that great so, when we can, we get a translator for them so that they can really feel the spirit instead of just try to understand what we say. We went to teach this part member family and two of them are preparing to be baptized! They are doing amazing and we learned so much from them . I realized that I really don't know very much I have lived for 19 years and I haven't experienced all these hard things in my life. That's why it's so essential to have the Spirit when we teach so that we can know what to say that will help them. We also taught a 7 year old so that he will be ready for his baptism which is super cool because he knows so much and I love playing with him too. He actually said a prayer in Swedish in a batman voice which pretty much made my day haha. Oh also, in a prayer I tried to say thank you for the service today instead I said thanks for the servants we had today... hmmm.

My Companion got a new juicer.

We had a bunch of adventures this week because we are on bikes so sometimes we find ourselves in random places that we have no idea where we are. Luckily we have our trusty iPhones so we won't get lost haha. I'm starting to get a testimony that God will really help us out when we put ourselves out there. On wednesday we went out contacting and no one wanted to talk to us and we talked to a bunch of people in a park. We doubled our goal that day and no one wanted to say anything... well anything nice. So the next day we were contacting in the centrum and talking about how we didn't want to really because it was so crowded and no one has anything good to say so we almost let the next girl go past. But we finally stopped her and she talked to us for about 15 minutes about the gospel and how she wanted a Book of Mormon and wanted to know more. We talk a lot about teaching the elect but we just have to be able to find them. God knows exactly where they are and he will lead us to them if he knows taht we are willing to open our mouths. So I think that even when we feel inspired to go to an area that people won't talk to us we are showing God that he can trust us with the people that he has prepared because we will open our mouths regardless of if they will talk to us back.

The work is awesome in Sweden and it is progressing really fast even though people might think it's a hard area.

Spiral Staircases are Everywhere and I May Slip And Die

So to explain the pictures, Sweden has a ton of spiral staircases everywhere that I am sure I will slip and die on one of these days. Also the word for speed is fart in Sweden so that's a sign for a speed bump so I was really amused by that sign. My companion got a juicer that he is just ecstatic about so we'll see how that goes.

This gospel is amazing and we are promised to have help if we are going to share it with other people. I've been reading and memorizing this scripture because it's becoming so prevalent in my mission right now. Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 "and whoso recieveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and My Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you to bear you up." As long as we slow down and really think we can see how Heavenly Father really does go before us and we have His spirit to lift us up as we go and do His work.

Love you all!!!
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