Another week! - May 27, 2013

Hey everyone!

It's been another week here in the Trollhättan area. Last week we were able to go to this cool fortress in Bohus (it's between Trollhättan and Göteborg, uh Gothenburg I believe in English... I'm not really even sure). So you'll be seeing a few pictures of that below.










We've been fairly busy here, though it's certainly been a bit rough. Honestly we don't really have any investigators right now. We have a couple of potentials that we're working with, but we're working on finding! We have a couple of numbers for individuals we've run into that we hope will prove to be fruitful.

As for inactives, we were able to visit quite a few in the past week and most everyone invited us to come back this week as well, which we're definitely excited about. We've been working quite a bit with Christine and her daughter Emma, which we think will become a regular thing to have lessons over at her house. Emma is becoming more interested in the church, though she's not quite ready to start officially taking the lessons, she's coming closer to that point.

We've been visiting several of the older single women in the ward. The one that we've been seeing the most progress with is Vera. She's a sweet woman who loves playing her organ for us. We've been by a couple of times already and we're planning to go again tomorrow. She loves to talk about the scriptures with us and she has a huge testimony of prayer.

We've also been visiting with an older couple that spends half of the year in Sweden and the other half in Spain. It's their time in Sweden and they're definitely willing to have us over. They think that it's fun to have sisters over since they've never really had that before.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again this past week. Moroni 10 has always struck me as so full of hope. Those last few verses in the Book of Mormon carry so much weight. God's grace makes up the difference. It bridges that gap that we are unable to. We'll be able to stand tall at that "pleasing bar of the great Jehovah" and greet judgment with great happiness.

Sweden - May 20, 2013

I'm glad it seems like you all are doing well. It's been a little interesting here. It's been raining quite a bit and it's been cold so tracting/contacting hasn't necessarily been the most effective this past week. Friday though was beautiful (and I got to spend in a town called Vänersborg which is absolutely gorgeous and right on that gigantic lake in Sweden).

Vanersborg 

It's been a bit of a crazy week. We had to go down to Göteborg for a Sister missionary training session, we had zone leader consultations and sister exchanges this past week.

As for investigators, we were able to meet again with the lady we tracted into last week, Lena. We were able to teach her in extended detail that God loves her as His daughter and a brief summary of the plan of salvation focusing on the Atonement.

When I was with Syster Jacobs (she's one of the training sisters and we made the interesting connection that she was my American Heritage TA when I was at BYU back in 2009. We apparently graduated within a couple of months of each other in 2011--she was April while I was June. Small world. We contacted two people of the street that our both interested in learning more about the church. Mirko - we hope to be able to have a power-packed spiritual lesson with him to help him understand that he can know that God exists. The other is Lolo who is extremely positive! I've never seen someone so happy to receive a Book of Mormon. We were able to teach her a brief lesson at the bus stop about the Book of Mormon and we're definitely meeting her at least once this week.


We're continuing to work with Christine and her daughter. We had a practice lesson with Christine last week on the restoration and her non-member daughter sat in. We hope to be able to teach her daughter officially.

We met a man named Riaz who is actually an inactive member, but not entirely by choice. Jakobsberg had found his number and their phone and they called him to see who he was. He told them that he's definitely interested with meeting with the missionaries, but that he had moved. So we called him and set up an appointment. We come to find that he was baptized almost two years ago (he even brought a copy of his baptismal program to show us), but that he didn't know how to find our where church was after he moved, so he hasn't been able to come. We gave him the Trollhättan's chapel's address as well as information on how to sign up for Festinord and he's super interested in coming back! We hope to be able to see him next Sunday (he wasn't able to come yesterday because he was sick).

We also visited an lady in the ward named Veri who loves to play the organ and sing. She was so glad that we came by, and we hope to visit her again this week as well.

We've been learning a lot about the Restoration the past week as part of the 12 week program for Sister Land. As we've been studying preach my gospel, one thing that has been standing out for me is the Great Apostasy. We know that the Restoration needed to happen, but the harder question is "why did the Great Apostasy have to occur in the first place?" I can't say that I know all of the answers, but I think the main thing relies on the concept that we have our agency. And because of the choices of those around Christ's death, the Apostasy was the consequence. The fact that it lasted so long probably goes into the idea that the world was simply not prepared for the restoration. One thing that we don't have to worry about is that God is most definitely just and merciful; those that didn't have the chance to learn of His gospel then will still have the same opportunity for the celestial kingdom.

Sister Land 

As for scriptures that impacted me this week was 1 Timothy 6:6 which reads "But godliness with contentment is great gain." I've just been thinking about the word contentment--for it isn't a word that you often hear in the scriptures. It's about being happy with what you currently have, while still striving to improve. Being content with where I am currently at, because I know that I'm trying my best and that good things will come.

Love,

Allie

Sweden - May 13, 2013

I loved being able to talk to Mom, Dad, and Kelly yesterday!

Here's some pictures!

The cherry blossoms are on a street in downtown Stockholm. So pretty!

I'm now serving in Trollhättan!

Sweden - May 6, 2013

I don't have much time this week because we have a lot to do today, but I'm being transferred and I am going to be a trainer already!  Which is a little scary when I think about it too much, but that's okay.  I wouldn't being doing it if I wasn't supposed to =).  I am now headed to a place called Trollhättan which is on the West side of Sweden.  I don't know if it dampens my chances of being able to see President Monson, because the big conference is for the northern stakes specifically (which does not include my new stake)... maybe President Newell will make an exception so that the missionaries can come up? I'll let you know once I hear something definite.

We've been working hard this last week or so and for the first time as a companionship we were able to reach the mission goal of 20 lessons a week by actually getting 25!  Our zone was the first for 2013 to have reached that standard of excellence by having a 20.8 average per companionship this past week so that's fun and exciting.  It means that Syster Lowe (the only syster who's staying) will be plenty busy since they are cutting Västerhaninge area from 2 companionships to only 1 (and in the area we had 54 lessons this week, crazy isn't it?).

We haven't been able to get any baptisms during this transfer, but we have a mission wide goal for every companionship to baptize in May so that we can honestly tell President Monson that we've worked our hardest to help his prophecy concerning Sweden to come to pass.

I love you all!  I'll talk to next week in Trollhättan!

Love,

Allie

Hey all! - May 1, 2013

Happy Valborg!  My first official Swedish national holiday!  They have a huge bonfire to celebrate the coming of spring.

I had the chance to plant flowers myself in the last week (we were doing some service for an inactive couple in our ward, who the husband is actually from the states haha) so I definitely know how that goes.

We got 3 new investigators within the last few days!  Arne is a referral from a member in our ward (Linda who is amazing!  She really takes care of the missionaries and she is just awesome!).  He came to church on Sunday and we had a sort of Gospel Principles class that he (and that inactive we've been working with, Magnus, came to Church and this class too which was awesome!) was able to attend and we were able to teach him a bit about the Plan of Salvation.  We made plans to meet him on Tuesday, which we were able to teach him about the Restoration and set up an appointment to meet him tomorrow, so hopefully all will go well!

We also were able to finally meet with some potential investigators that have been really busy and sick the last few weeks.  We were able to meet with them on Monday and talk to them a bit about the restoration and the Family Proclamation and they invited us back tomorrow for dinner and to learn more!  They were super positive and we hope to see them progressing.

A cool experience I had this week was when my companion and I were trying to figure out whom we wanted to attempt to drop-by last Saturday.   We had the ward list in one hand and a list of old investigators in the other as we prayed about which direction to go.  I got the thought that we should try to go to an area where an inactive and a member with a non-member daughter lived.  Both the inactive and active members were actually home.  We had a lesson with the inactive, Illona, and she told us that she felt like we were an answer to her prayers.  We had a really good discussion of the Atonement and she asked us if we could come by every Monday and have FHE with her and her two(?) year old daughter.  She even was able to come to church last Sunday!  As for the active member we got to talking with him and he thinks that it might be time to have the missionaries to meet with his daughter, so we're trying to set an appointment with the two of them sometime this week.  

Something that I learned this week was about the different blessings Priesthoodbearers can give and how blessings for the naming of children is actually clearly laid out in D&C 20:70.  I've been thinking about the importance of names (which includes their implication in church records, the temple, and different titles of respect) and this just emphasizes the point that we need to be proper with name usage.  

I've been learning more about Christlike attributes for teaching our investigators/members we’ve worked with and I've been using Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel quite a bit.  In the beginning of the chapter it references 3 Nephi 27:27, which asks what manner of person, ought we to be to which Christ answers, "Even as I am."  I've just been thinking about how important it is that we do all that we can to become more like Christ in everything that we do.  It can be difficult to remember at times, but it just helps to know that even if we cannot achieve perfectedness (I don't know if that is actually a word, but I'm going with it) in this life, we can do our all to make it happen and Christ will make up the difference.  It's the same with putting my effort forward here in the work.

As for my scripture study this week, I've been learning about Christ (I started reading Jesus the Christ so I'm on like chapter 14 there and I'm in the middle of 3 Nephi) and one thing that really struck me is how Mary, the mother of Christ, must have felt in all of this.  In Luke 2, Joseph and Mary take Christ to the temple and while there they run in Simeon, a faithful servant of the Lord who knew that he would have the opportunity to meet Christ before the end of his life.  Simeon is able to recognize Baby Jesus for who He really is, and Simeon blesses the family.  But one thing he said to Mary in verse 35 was "Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also." I can't imagine completely how it must be, living in her situation, but she saw her own son, brought by such miraculous means, crucified on the cross (John 19) and that it was as if a sword had pierced her to center.  That's a very vivid description.

Love you all!

Allie