Week 39, Law of Tithing, Makalos Faith, MTC Group Reunion and Simple Testimony

Hejsan ni vackra människor!!

I hope everything is going well this week on the other side of the ocean and that the weather has been just as nice as it has been here!! We have had an early kick-start to spring here in Stockholm and I am definitely ok with that. We have been running around our area a little bit like mad men this week. Our area is huge and when we take the trains and buses it just takes time to get places and we live on Söder Malm so it takes at least 45 minutes or so to get to our area initially in the morning so that is always a good time :). Everything works out really well though and there aren't any problems that we have run into.

I am not entirely sure where to begin with this week but we had a mission tour this week with Elder Donaldson of the 70 there with us and we got some training from everyone for about 6 hours. It was actually really good and I was able to see a lot of people from my group there (MTC group). Everyone's MTC group is really close because the MTC I feel like is just something that you cant really describe and all of the people that are with you at that time you just get really close with them. we are having an emphasis right now in the mission to teach members the missionary lessons and almost to have a role play with the members so that they know what we teach exactly and gain more confidence in the way that we do it. Also because they can then give us feedback or things that they would do differently and it has been really beneficial to u as a mission when we have someone to practice with. Plus the spirit of the lessons are always stronger than a spiritual thought.

I went on splits this week with Elder Erikson who works n the other side f Jakobsberg an we went around and taught a couple of investigators and less actives. We had a really cool experience together a well. He has been out for 3 months and we went to teach a part member family and the kids are les actives. The mom really wants them all to be active in the church and the lesson wasn't really going as planned and I really didn't know what to do or what I could say to change the direction. Elder Ericson bore a really simple and powerful testimony in the moment about his mom and what she knows and how that has blessed his life. The spirit was super strong in the lesson and it made me realize that sometimes we try to say the right thing... or the most intelligent thing... or even to address all of those problems that people have. But in the end the most powerful tool we have is our simple testimony of the things we know to be true. That is all that we can offer but that is everything that is needed for the spirit to work and I am really grateful that he could remind me of that fact.

The Miracle we saw this week was that Johnson ( one of our baptismal dates) was not answering his phone this week and he wasn't at his house an we couldn't figure out what to do because we needed to have contact with him this week. S we fasted and prayed and even had the district praying with us and on Sunday he came to church!! His phone broke and he wasn't able to get a new one but he saw our note and really felt like he needed to come to church! His interview will be next week and so on Sunday we taught him the law of tithing. We were nervous because he works really hard and doesn't make the most money. But when we taught him the commandment he said that he had been waiting for this because he knew that it was in the Bible and as a Christian he needed to pay tithing... his faith is makalös and I am so grateful to be able to teach him.

The work is moving and we have the message to help every single person in their lives I don't care what their situation is they can be hleped through the gospel. I know t to be true and I love being out here in Sweden!! Thanks for your support everyone and if you have any ideas about little things we could do at member visits to help strengthen their trust in us let me know vi skulle uppskatta det!!!

Med Kärlek,

Äldste Israelsen
1. Släkt bild (dad, me, son)