This week was so cool!
We were able to teach one of our friends named Heli on Monday, and we felt like we should show her the Christlike attributes video that I mentioned last week. As Heli watched it, she started crying and we were able to explain and testify for her that the feeling she had was the Holy Ghost whispering to her. It was an uplifting experience, and Heli came to church yesterday!
We were also able to meet a new friend named Jonathon this week! We had planned on meeting him at 4 pm but he was at the wrong train station. He eventually arrived but had to wait at the member's house until we were able to be there to teach him. While he was there waiting, the members were able to teach him a ton of the first and second lessons, by the time we got there we pretty much just testified of Joseph Smith and clarified what the Book of Mormon was!
On Tuesday, Elder Hansen and I served our neighbor (our landlord) by helping move a ton of branches into the back of a trailer to take to the recycling center. It was fun to talk to our landlord and her friend that was there. It was also fun for Elder Hansen and I to work and talk together, it seems like manual labor is a good conversation starter. It felt good to do yardwork in the cool September air.
Interviews with President was also on Tuesday, they are always so helpful and it is encouraging to talk to President Youngberg and to receive council from him!
Splits with the elders from Gotland was this week! Elders Wilkinson and Bills came over from the Swedish Island called Gotland and we were able to spend two days here working with them. I was with Elder Wilkinson the first day, it was awesome! Elder Wilkinson and I ran together on the Davis High School Track and Cross Country teams a few years back. It was ful to be with another Dart and to reminisce about Kaysville. We had a great time doing finding work together and had a few really good conversations. During planning at the beginning of the day, we had thought that we would be teaching someone in the library. We planned to be there to teach the person and then to study Swedish. The lesson fell through, but Elder Wilkinson and I decided to go to the library anyways so that we could complete language study. While we were looking for a place to sit, we saw a lady with a black nametag on who smiled back at us when we smiled at her. It was another missionary! Her husband came around the corner and we found out that they are the Ashbys who recently moved to Haninge to be the self reliance missionary couple. They were at the library to get wifi and I felt like we had been lead there so that we could meet them. We also ate dinner at the Blanchette's house later that evening. Sister Blanchette is from Canada and told us about how she was introduced to the church and then 13 years later was baptized. It is always so encouraging hearing stories like the one she shared, she mentioned that she wished that she had contact with those first missionaries that she talked to in Canada so that she could thank them.
I was with Elder Bills the second day of splits, he is hilarious and hard working! The beginning of the day was our one 'in person' district council of the transfer, we were able to have a great meeting with us in Haninge, the sisters in Västerhaninge, and the elders from Gotland. It was our first time being all together as a district and we had a fun time discussing missionary work! After the council, Elder Bills and I continued out splits. We had some fun experiences together and Elder Bills told me all about his year at BYU before coming here to Sweden. It feels strange to be the same age as people who have college experience! We talked to one lady at the door who told us about how missionaries from our church lived with her family 50 years ago when she was growing up! She told us all about how the missionaries would get up early, weren't allowed to swim, and had a cooking Bible! She asked if it was the same for us, and we were able to explain a little about how we roll and about the Book of Mormon. Fun conversation!
A 9 year old girl was baptized in Vendelsö's ward on Saturday and Elder Hansen was the pianist. We got to the church early so that he could practice, and I finished my personal study as he played. I decided to focus the study on baptism, and I was able to have a sweet spiritual experience as I studied about this important covenant. Part of my study was reading through The Living Christ.
One fun experience from this week happened on Thursday. Elder Hansen and I had just talked to a man on his doorstep who basically ended up making a mock of what we believe. We walked away calmly and were relieved to see that a member in the ward named Håkan was passing by the house while walking his dog right as we were walking away! We were able to talk to him and he gave us some words of encouragement and bore his testimony. It was a tender mercy for me that he was there!
GUESS WHAT? Linnea, Lennart, and Irene, the three older Swedish people that came to church last week, came again yesterday! It was a miracle! I felt bad because I wasn't really able to talk to them after the meeting last week and I wasn't sure if we would see them again. But they came again! We set up a time to meet with all three of them and a member this week. The sacrament talks they heard were so inspired, every one of them peaked Linnea's, Lennart's, and Irene's interest in the Church. Please continue to pray for them!
We have an exciting week ahead, we'll be having zone conference on Wednesday and then planting flowers with some other missionaries in the zone on Thursday!
Have a great week, I am so excited for General Conference!
Love,
Äldste Francis
We visited Gamla Stan today! I am so blessed to live in Stockholm, Sweden!!
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