Haninge Weeks 15 and 16 - December 24th and 31st, 2018

These past two weeks have been huge! 

Do you remember Nathalie from Jakobsberg? She is a lady that Elder Gordon and I talked to on his last day there. We met her at a bus station and set up a time to give her a church tour. Elder Barney replaced Elder Gordon and we gave Nathalie the church tour on one of our first days together. I wrote this about the church tour in my weekly email home in August: "We tried to make it interesting, one of the things we did was play a hymn on the piano for her and and her two kids. At District Council right before the tour we had talked a lot about being bold, and Elder Barney and I had decided to ask Nathalie to be baptized during the tour as an act of boldness! We asked her, and while she didn't say 'yes' we were able to get a better grasp on the things we can teach her to help her progress. We met with her again on Saturday and have another lesson for tomorrow. Miracles happening here!" Elder Barney and I taught Nathalie at least twice a week during our transfer in Jakobsberg together, and she came to church every week. Nathalie has continued to progress over the past few months, and guess what happened?? She was baptized!! She became a member of the church on the Saturday before Christmas. 

Elder Burns and I have been praying for new people to teach, and we are seeing some miracles! One of them is named Reza. We met him on the way home from a member meal and he was so happy to talk to us! He came to church and seemed excited to become a part of the ward. He has lived in Sweden for 10 years but just recently got a job here in Stockholm so he says that he hasn't really found any friends yet. The church community is just what he needs! Another person that has been an answer to our prayers is Roman. He has been attending church for about the past two months but hasn't shown interest in anything other than coming to sacrament meeting. On Friday, Elder Burns and I had a lesson at the church but the man we were hoping to meet didn't show up. Roman texted us right then and said that he was close to the church and wondered if we could meet him. Of course, Roman! We ended up having a really good conversation and Roman asked a ton of questions that show his growing curiosity and interest. It was awesome. To top it off, he gave us a ride home in his cool Range Rover so that we didn't have to wait for the bus.

The week before Christmas, I was on splits with Elder Bills! We have developed a great friendship, this is our third transfer of being in the same district. Elder Bill is a hilarious, hard working missionary. We had two lessons set up for the splits and even had members coming to both lessons. Both of the members came to the lessons, and both of the people we were hoping to teach didn't show up. It was disappointing, but Elder Bills had a great idea! We ended up doing "role plays" with the members instead. It was great because we were able to get helpful Swedish tips, practice teaching, and build stronger member relationships. One of the members even posted a picture of us on SnapChat and invited his friends to call us if they wanted to learn more about God! See screenshot below.

Haninge Week 14 - December 17, 2018

God Jul!

Christmas is upon us! I absolutely love this time of year in Sweden. Some snow came during the week, and that made it seem like the season was here for real. One difference between Christmas here and Christmas in America is that everyone seems to like white lights. In America, there are so many houses with colorful Christmas lights. Here, most people have white lights and stars and candles in the windows, So so beautiful! Sometimes I feel like I'm walking around in an Ikea magazine.

One of these is of a wooden bird. It is a fairly common door knocker here, you pull the string at the bottom and the woodpecker knocks on the door.

On Tuesday evening, we had dinner with the bishop in the Handen ward. During planning, Elder Burns and I had planned to be near his house before the dinner so that we could do some finding work there. As we were there in what we thought was the area of his house, we looked up the travel to his house so that we would know how long we had to find. To our surprise, Google Maps said that his house was a half hour away. We were confused but didn't know the area very well so we trusted Google. On the bus ride to the dinner, we met the coolest guy! His name is Daniel. 

Haninge Week 13 - December 10, 2018

 Hello!

This week was so good. Here are a few quick highlights!

Amir was baptized on Saturday! He was extremely happy to "äntligen bli medlem," and I've never seem him smile so much. Amir was contacted by my MTC companion, Elder Wayment, and Elder Burns' MTC companion, Elder Youngberg, sometime in June. A few months ago! He has had a long, patient journey and was finally able to enter the waters of baptism on Saturday. I'm not sure I've ever loved someone I've taught more than I love Amir! He is so pure and has so much faith. His baptism was well attended and it seems like the ward will take good care of him.

About two months ago on splits, Elder Bills and I tracted into a young adult named Cody. We talked with him for a few minutes and ended up inviting him to read the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. I had unfortunately forgotten about Cody until Elder Bills asked about him on our most recent splits. During this last week, we were in Cody's area and I had the thought that we could invite him to the ward Christmas concert. We had been inviting people we talked to. We invited him, and guess what? He came!!!!! He had a great experience and even reconnected with some member friends. He told us that before Elder Bills and I had come and knocked on his door two months ago he had prayed for guidance from God. He became "more spiritual" a few years ago and claims that out of all of the religions he know, his friends who are members of this church actually practice what they preach. He says that in high school he always felt good going to their houses because it was "relaxing. They weren't trying to sell me anything." Cody says that he wants to learn more about the church! It's a miracle!

Well, this ended up being kind of short but I'll close with a thought. Lately, I have been having the thought "look for the good." When I have that thought, I try to think back to the things that have happened during the day and remember all of the good experiences. There are good things everyday! People that we were able to meet because we were somewhere at just the right time, members that we were able to lift, funny things that happened. 

There are good things every single day! It's been good for me to recognize that. Unfortunately, it's too easy to forget that good happens if we don't make a conscious effort to remember it. I know that the Lord Jesus Christ directs His work. There are many things from this week that are recorded in my journal, and I will share them with you someday, but I'm sorry we are short on time! Miracles are happening! Have a great week of December!

Love,

Äldste Francis

Haninge Week 12 - December 3, 2018

-Elder Butler! (Elder Olaveson's companion right now). Just det! Transfer calls came. I'll be staying here in Haninge (yay!) which means that I'll be in splits with Elder Butler sometime in the next transfer. 

Happy December!

I'm hoping hard for a white Christmas here in Stockholm, we'll see what happens! So far, we've had a few snow showers but they end up turning into rain showers... It's a little different from Boden last year, I read in my journal a few days ago that it was -23C at this time of year! Haninge is so awesome, though, the snow hasn't come yet but it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! 

On splits with Elder Olaveson

I was on splits with one of the zone leaders, Elder Olaveson, on Tuesday of this week! We had a great time together. During planning, we set up some creative goals for the day. We decided to try and find two specifically looking people as we were out finding: a lady in her 50s who was wearing pink and a man in his late 20s with longer dark hair. We found both of them! Hopefully the lady will begin learning more about the church. We were able to get her contact information, and it sounds like there is a member in Elder Olaveson's area that could be a great fellowshipper.