Week 26- It's Been 6 Months, Big Change in Language and My Understanding and Showing "He is the Gift" to as Many People as We Can!

Before Service

Hej!

It is officially 6 months that I have been out on a mission... well in 3 Days but its been 26 weeks... That is absolutly crazy but I have been loving it out here on Gotland. One thing that I have noticed is that the Lord is willing to qualify the people that He has called. I know this a Little bit more now because I wasn't completely sure if I would be able to take over this kind of role in an area and basically talk to everyone by myself but I have seen a big change in the language and in my understanding and I am so grateful for that because otherwise I would be all sorts of

After Service!  If you can't see a difference then it was Elder Jones who mowed!

lost haha.

We have seen a ton of miracles this week and we are definitely excited to see where it takes us in the coming weeks. It was a Little bit slower of a week because our senior couple left the Island and we have very few members that are left on the Island right now and only our recent convert and less Actives in the actual city. Its been kind of a lonely week haha but we have had plenty of time to talk and find and teach so we have plenty of people that are now looking to investigate the Church. We are really hoping to have some more seriously interested people because this branch needs to grow to help it continue.

Äldste Jones is a really good missionary and it has been super good to get all of his feedback on how we are doing missionary work because he is right out of the MTC so he doesn't have a biased view on things which is actually really nice. We have been trying to show the "He is the Gift" video to as many people as we can because it really brings the spirit into our Contacts and our first lessons that we have. There was one Contact on the street when we showed it on our phone and I bent over to chow it to their Little daughter too. We had two cats come up (because we are in Sweden and no one keeps their cats inside) and they just jumped onto my shoulders... I was a cat tree as I sat still and showed them the rest of the video. So imagine Jake on the streets of Sweden talking to this lady and her daughter about the gospel with a cat on my shoulder... yes. its pretty awesome.

One of the hardest things in this area is probably trying to get things started for the less actives because usually they have some reason why they arent coming anymore and actually some of them are because of what missionaries have done here in the past. Are there any ideas about how we could get our foot in the door with less actives? We have made this "elf" thing kind of like when you get ghosted for halloween and we have given them to all of the members to give to their friends but we will also be looking to give them to less actives and some investigators too. Another way to get that initiative out with the movie and new website which I think is super cool. We have been doing really well this week and we are thankful for all of the prayers that are on our behalf and the behalf of our investigators and recent converts. 

This is the coolest time of year to be a missionary and to be able to tell everyone about the good news about Christ and how he can play a huge role in our lives. That he actually came to earth and that he lived and that he lives and still cares about us now as much as he did 2000 years ago. It is a really powerful message that we are allowed to share with these people and I couldnt think of a better thing to do than that :)

Jag älskar er!! Har en underbar vecka och glömmer inte vad era frälsare har gjort för er!! ( google translate was not used in the making of the last sentence)

Äldste Israelsen
the pictures are of service before and after... just on the lawn if you cant see a difference that was elder jones who mowed haha