The subject of the email would make more sense if there were Mountains in this part of the country... But sadly there arent any. However, Elder Benson and I have been getting up every morning (with the sun at 6:30)! And running down to the seaside and we have seen some absolutely breathtaking views. If anyone has the opportunity to live in Karlskrona sometime during the spring and summer I would definitely go for it. Elder Benson and I have been getting along really well and we have been seeing a lot of miracles happen here in this city since we arrived. This last week we had Zone Training so we took a 3 hour train down to Malmö (which is on the Southern tip of the country) to have that training and it was all about the new initiative that the Church has put out on Easter. You have to Watch it and share it with everyone it is seriously cool. #hallelujah. I cannot Believe it is already easter time but there are Always new and exciting ways to share the gospel around easter and it is one of those rare times where pretty much everyone goes to Church to sing songs and have a good time together if nothing else. But we can feel the excitement building and it should be a cool experience as we try and use this video with the people that we teach and in our proselyting in the coming weeks.
Those new investigators that we had run into last week are doing amazingly. We had a lesson with them about the plan of salvation and the pre mortal Life is defintely not something that many religions... if any... Believe in and its a fun topic to start on. So we asked them the question if they feel like they had come from somewhere. They looked at eachother and told us that they had discussed this the other day and feel like we were all there in "heaven" and that God presented this Life for us and gave us the choice to accept or not and that is why we are here. He said it kind of apologetically because he didnt wnat to sound dumb but it was such a cool miracle! We told him about the pre mortal Life and he was so surprised that there was someone that actually thought in that way. They are Reading and praying and doing so well with Everything that we give them. One of them will be going to Kristianstad during the week so I hope that we can stay in good Contact with him while he is gone. He should be on phone lessons to help to translate for the others. They brought Another man to the baptism that wanted a book of Mormon and to be taught! Cool things happening in Karlskrona.
With the mention of a baptism a man named Mattias was baptized who met a member on facebook and they started talking about the gospel and she basically taught him all of the lessons and he moved to be able to be taught by other misisonaries and then moved all the way from Luleå here to Karlskrona to learn more and then was baptized and confirmed!! It was such a remarkable story and a fatastic man. We had 11 investigators at the baptism to see and the spirit there is Always so simple and pure. Its an Amazing ordinance and in my Eyes incredibly simple yet unbelievably powerful as is a confirmation. He is a great missionary and is having a friend come and visit him and we should be able to teach him on Friday!
We also had a miracle find of a new investigator this week. She investigated about a year ago and was about to be baptized but the missionaries did something that was really not super good and she decided to stop investigating. It says on the record that we should not try to Contact her so we decided not to. But we forgot about it and we had a referal in that area that wasnt home so as we were knocking on the doors around that referral she opened the door and we were able to talk with her. She has to be one of the best people that I have ever met and we felt very lead by the spirit in what to say to her and we are going to visit her this next week to start coming back to Church and thinking about baptism again! It was the coolest thing but she also commented that the thing that makes the biggest difference is just being a friend outside of the Church. Dont just be nice right Before and after meetings, reaching out means spending your time and your talents and developing friendships. Especially to you alder people (like 35 and up ;)) take time to make friends with the people that are investigating the Church it makes the World of a difference for them to be able to rely on someone with questions and with things they need.
We were finally able to meet the ward on Sunday and it felt so good! I am very excited to be serving amongst them and to be Learning from them. Elder Bensons Swedish is already better than mine was at that time and I am a Little jealous but its exciting and this ward is just ready to get going with the missionary work here. We sang on sunday and I found out that someone has a cello so elder Benson and I are going to be doing a duet of cello and piano on easter Sunday. Wish me luck I havent played for about 2 years!! No one has a cello here in Sweden.
I love this gospel and I know that it is true and by following the priciples it teaches EVERY DAY we will come closer to our Father in Heaven. For those of you who are wondering if you should go on a mission, stop wondering and just do it. It will bless your Life more than you know because it has done that for me. Thank you all for everyhing! Have a fantastic week.
Love,
Äldste Israelsen
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