Here it is... the year mark email! I was dropped of at the MTC almost exactly a year ago from today. The time has flown!
Zone Conference was last week on Tuesday! It was wonderful. Half of the fun is seeing all of the missionaries. I looked around and realized that I knew everyone at the conference pretty well besides the newest missionaries. It is so strange to have been out a year! The conferences are always really spiritually uplifting. This one was based on the talk 'Small and Simple Things' from a recent conference. It was focused on personal conversion, making sure to do the small and simple things.We were asked to read the talk "Small and Simple Things" in preparation. So many things were discussed! I think that my two biggest takeaways, though, are that I want to be better at asking inspires questions while teaching and I want to be better at doing the "small" things. Two specific things I am working on are intentionally following the counsel of our prophet and praying.
One awesome part of this week was that we had two non member meals! The first was on Friday with Fred, from Virginia, and his wife Emma, from England. We tracted into them about a month ago. Fred works as the head researcher at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. He has done some pretty cool things in his lifetime, including discovering the oldest peach pit in Scandinavia when he was part of the crew excavating a 1600s shipwreck. The ancient seed is now housed at the Danish National Museum. His wife, Emma, is also really accomplished. She recently finished writing a book about how the Vasa was preserved after it was pulled up from the ocean floor. Fred has written a book about the Vasa as well and is currently working on two more. They are both pretty cool! We had a great dinner and were able to share the message of the Restoration afterwards. The second non member meal was with Maysa and her family.
Elder Gordon and I greet everyone as we bike to the train station each day, and one day we greeted Maysa and her son Mohammad. They caught up to us at the train station and we began talking, and since then they have attended the Tuesday night activities. Maysa invited us and the sisters to dinner last week, and we all went over on Saturday to eat with her and her family in Sollentuna. It was crazy because we were right next door to their house a few weeks ago when trying to get in contact with a referral that Elder Gordon received from someone back home. The dinner was super fun, we were able to talk to Maysa about the Book of Mormon. She said that her heart was "pounding" as we talked about it. We know what that is!! We will hopefully meet her again this Friday. After the meal, we went next door to the referral's house but they weren't home. I still can't get over the fact that we ate dinner at the referral's neighbor's house!
Sunday was crazy! I was asked to prepare a talk in case one of the speakers didn't show up, Elder Gordon and I were responsoloble for teaching Gospel Principles, and the elders quorum president asked is to lead the discussion in priesthood meeting. I didn't end up having to speak, but Elder Gordon was asked to give a talk last minute. Gospel principles went well. We found out before Sacrament meeting started that Priesthood and Relief Society would be combined, so we lead the discussion for everyone! Everything worked out in the end.
We were in Kallhäll yesterday trying to visit a member's house, but they had a portcoded apartment. One of the residents came and we were able to get into the building, but we found out that the member had moved. We felt like we had been let in for a reason though, so Elder Gordon suggested we knock some doors. Tracting in port coded buildings makes us hesitate sometimes, but Elder Gordon that we should knock four doors. The first two we tried didn't answer, but the third did! We had a great conversation with Daniel and his little brother. They thought it was so cool to be talking to two Americans. Hopefully they are able to come to the Tuesday night activity today... It is always cool when you find out that you are somewhere for a reason! Speaking of the Tuesday night activity, last week we played soccer! The weekly activity has proven to be a good way to plant seeds.
Elder Gordon and I attended a session at the temple today! Two other missionary companionships were also there, plus members from the branch in Luleå! The temple was amazing. I have been there 4 times now while I have served in Stockholm, two for participating in a session, once for cleaning the temple, and once when we planted flowers there as a zone. I feel like I have extra spiritual power after attending today. I am blessed to have been able to go while I am a missionary.
Have an awesome week! I love you all!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete