Well, another fantastic week here in Sweden has gone by! Every week has bright shiney moments and every week has less shiney moments... But Elder Harris and I are doing great overall and we are both learning and growing so much! My comfort zone is stretching and my Swedish is progressing and the Gospel has been true the whole time! I am so grateful to be a missionary at this time in my life!
Tuesday was the only full day that Elder Harris and I had in our area! We had a lesson with a man named Gunsalo in the evening. He and his wife have two little daughters, and Gunsalo is such a great dad! When we walked in to the apartment with him, his two daughters were hiding. When he found them, they said, 'Boo!' and gave him a big hug! They were dressed in their halloween masks and seemed so happy to see their dad coming home from work! The lesson with Gunsalo went really well and Elder Harris and I look forward to teaching him and his wife again!
Apartment checks! The apartment couple, Elder and Syster Anderson, came up from Stockholm and checked our apartment on Wednesday! We passed! We just have to defrost the freezer and clean the ceiling in one of the bathrooms. It was so cool to have other missionaries come to Boden to see us, a little reminder that there are people who care! I am so grateful for the senior couples in the mission! The Andersons are so nice and it reminded me of my Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker who were the apartment couple on one of their missions!
The Andersons drove Elder Harris and I down to Luleå where we had lunch together and with the Luleå systers. Then, Elder Harris and I took took the 4 hour long bus ride to Umeå for splits with the Zone Leaders! I had the privilege of working with Elder Bringhurst from Pocatello, ID. He was previously companions with Elder Harris in a place called Katrineholm! Elder Bringhurst is just awesome. I learned so much from being on exchanges with him. He is really great at getting people to open up and just being a friendly guy!
On Thursday during splits, we were contacting in the Umeå stan and Elder Bringhurst and I were getting a lot of, 'Inte intresserad, jag har mycket bråttom!!' but then we found Martin! He is a super friendly older man that lived in the US for 16 years and was very interested in Mormons Bok. He said he would come to church in Umeå the next Sunday. I'm not sure if he did, but it was cool to see that we were able to find someone who was ready and willing to talk about the Gospel among so many others who weren't.
Zone Conference was in Umeå, the day after exchanges. It was wonderful. The theme of the conference was the Book of Mormon, and we talked a ton about how we can share it with the people we talk to. President Youngberg shared excerpts from Elder Callister's talk as part of the meeting, and it was great to remember that great talk! There is so much that supports the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, yet for a person to know it is true they must read it and pray about it with real intent! It was great to see all of the missionaries in the zone again! I am not the youngest anymore! It is so strange that I have been to 2 zone conferences now!
Saturday was so beautiful. Ming and Lin Lin, the Chinese couple who walked into church a few months ago, were baptized. The systers in Luleå have been teaching them and the whole branch has become very good friends with them. Now they are members of Jesus Kristi Kyrka av Sista Dagars Heliga!! The baptism was wonderful and Elder Harris and I had the great opportunity to perform, 'Families Can Be Together Forever.' There were at least 3 old Swedish ladies crying when we sang. The spirit from the baptism was so strong!I will never forget the sweet spirit in the room that everyone felt as this great Chinese family covenanted to follow Jesus Christ.
This week was very eventful!
Sweden also had allehelgensdag, (All saints day) Where people go out and put candles on graves. We walked around the graveyard and talked to people about it, it was a really good lead in to the Plan o Salvation. I hope that everyone had a happy Halloween!
Love,
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