Week 66, Tea Bag On Fire, Trollhättan and Miracles

The District

 Hej!!

Hope that everything is going really well for everyone it has been a good week here in Göteborg  and we have begun to see the area expand and see the growth start to happen. We have transfers coming up this week and I will be staying here in Utby for Elder Browns last transfer!! I am actually really excited that I can stay and work here because I feel like you get to a point after the first transfer that it begins to feel like home or you start to really understand what is going on and who is who and it feels really good to be here.

This last week was just super busy with everything that happened. First off, Emmanuel is doing really well!! He has been meeting with us and quit everything that has to do with the word of wisdom and he is progressing super well. Thteis week in church he couldnt believe that we would have meetings that we could discuss and talk about ideas that we have and get others input and teach by listening and by discussion he absolutely loved that. Our ward is also starting to jump in with invitations to dinners with us and him and I think that does so much for someone new to the church to be invited over by the member to their house or for dinner. It shows them more love and a feeling that they belong and honestly that is what everyone is trying to feel whether they have been a member for their whole lives or not.

In the middle of the week we had a dinner that was a little bit of a drive to get to but it ended up being on this beautiful island so we went across this big bridge and saw the sunset (because the sun has started to set earlier) and went to dinner. But while we were there we gave a lesson on faith and hope and used their daughter for an object lesson. We used the good old "tea bag onfire floats in the air" trick. She said she would be fine with it but when we lit it on her hand she decided that she did not want anything to do with that so she blew it off her hand and I had to catch it in my hand before it landed on the ground and it is a little hotter when you grab the flame part of it haha. but it went well.

On Saturday we had a day that we had planned a 3 hour block to do weekly planning and then had a bunch of lessons later on in the day. However, the Sisters in Trollhättan called because the Elder that was not going to be able to come and no one else could in their ward at short notice. (take note of the elder missing). So they asked me to perform the ordinance and we had interviewed her earlier in the week. So we drove up to Trollhättan to take part in it and it went beautifully and everyone was really happy and Alima "the lady baptized" was so thankful and everything was good. But we had gotten a call on the way up that the elder had cut himself pretty bad and couldnt just stay at a local hospital but needed surgery to repair the tendon so he was taken into the middle of Göteborg. So we needed to go down there and make sure everything was ok and see him off to surgery and then had 3 lessons that night before we could come back. When we got back he was out of surgery and so they cleared him to go home and we took them to our apartment to sleep because it was too late to take them back to their area. Everything went well in the end and everyone is alive and well. but our weekly planning didnt get done until Sunday haha.

Göteborg

Another cool thing that happened was teaching Minraj. He came to church by himself last week and we talked to him and set up a time to teach him. We taught in the middle of the city in the YSA center which is super nice and convenient to teach in. Its like a hang out place for the YSAs and they hold semenary and institute and lots of meetings there. Really cool place. But anyway we didnt have a lot of time to teach him but we taught a really simple and powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon and he was so genuine in saying that he wanted to know. He doesnt have a background in Christianity but he says there is a different feeling in our church and he wants to know if what we say is true. We are so excited to keep working with him and see where it goes.

outisde the sjukhus

The last thing was a Sunday night miracle. We had just taught a less active and had a few minutes to knock some doors so we started knocking with no one really wanting to listen. But we felt like we needed to turn and get a row of 4 houses before we started to head back (typically around about 8 o klock its just too late to knock on peoples doors) So the first three just stopped us pretty hard and we just knocked on the last one and before we could even get out who we were he just let us in the door. We were able to explain about the message of the Book of Mormon and what we did and he said that he wants to hear more and wants his wife to be there as well. SO we are going later on this week to see them!! It was an amazing reminder that the Lord is always involved in His work as long as we involve him in it even if it is just which doors to knock.

Love you all I hope you have a great week I will keep it movin here in the great white north. The work is real and the church is true!!

Med Kärlek,
Äldste Israelsen
1 the district
2 Göteborg
3 self explanitory
4 outisde the sjukhus :)