Whoosh! The feel of a door slamming in my face!

Frozen lake in Motala

Aloha! Oh wait, I won't be able to say that until I get to college (at BYU-H) but anywho! Hey, howzit goween? Wowee wow! Thanks to everyone who wrote this week. I love and appreciate all that you do for me, and all the prayers in my behalf. I truly feel the power of your prayers for me, and they help me go through my day with peace and with courage. 

This giant slide is fun!

Mån: I played my uke and just tåg det lugnt (took it easy) for the rest of Pday. We then got ready and set up for FHE. Not too many people showed up, but it's to be expected for the first week starting it. We had a spiritual thought, lesson, played a lot of fun games together, sang hymns, had some prayers and then had some fika (dessert/treats). It was a big success, and I feel like this activity will grow and will help the branch unify and bring less- actives back!

Tis: I have been reading in the Pearl of Great Price- or Den Kostbara Pärlan- in my personal studies, and boy, there is some deep stuff! Whew! The best thing that I get out of it is how many times and how important it is that God calls and says to Moses and Abraham, "you are My son". That's so amazing to see that God wants us to truly understand that we are literally his children. "You are my son (or daughter)" brings the most peace in this life to know that we truly have a Loving Heavenly Father who has prepared a plan for us to follow and return to Him.

Playground stuff is unique.

Two members took us out to lunch- obviously we had kebab pizza! The pizza guy was a Catholic and was very respectful to us "church people". The 2 members bore their testimony to him and it was so awesome to see haha.  We found a park nearby and decided to play around as part of our lunch break. 

We did a lot of swingbys afterwards, met up with an  investigator who does not want to change his habits but then we also ended up with 15 unplanned contacts on the day! President is really stressing that we contact as many people along our way, never plan them, because when we get at least 10 contacts a day, it will lead to 3 new investigators on the week, and 20 + qualified lessons, which will lead to baptizing monthly! So that was really cool for us to break that 10 barrier for the first time! A lot of people were coming up to us after we talked to someone who rejected us, because they heard we had something great to offer! It just goes to show, that when you are doing what the Lord has asked and go forward with faith, he will bless you!

Ons: We did some swingbys and got prepared for our exchanges with the branch presidency. I went with a brother who originally comes from Denmark and he's such a stud! He is so funny and awesome! He is always so eager and willing to help us with our work and goes out and contacts with us on the way! He gave me a lot of good advice for the mission, and for life -especially marriage! To quote him, he says, "Marriage is the best! I definitely recommend it!" hahahaha!

With one of the less actives we were going to swingby, this elderly lady opens the door and sees my nametag with the church's name on it, and grasps hold of her door and slams it shut with all of her might! WHOOOSH! I literally felt the wind blow my hair up because of how powerful she had slammed the door. I have never experienced that before, but it was very interesting to get slammed so hard -it was pretty sad. I mean sure you don't want to have contact with the church, that's your choice, but at least be civil about and respect us for trying to do our job. But, oh well. Definitely a good story, haha.

Tors: We had district meeting here in Linköping, instead of going up 40 minutes to Norrköping, so that was nice- getting more study time for me, and more sleep for the others. I actually love the schedule a lot because it helps me balance out my day and helps me do what I need to do to be most effective. I will definitely need to keep or make some sort of schedule for when I go home. The lesson was about "Pray with Faith". If we have no faith when we pray, what do we benefit from it. If we don't think God will hear us, why talk to him? If we don't think he will help us, why ask? If we don't think something good will come from it, why bother? We don't ask him for help in our lives knowing that he is not going to help us. NO! We ask him for help because WE KNOW and BELIEVE that he will help us.

On the way to Mantorp

We did some outskirt swingbys in Mjölby and Mantorp (20-40 minutes away from linköping, but still in our area) and didn't find too much stuff. We always find success, that's something that I have been trying to see more, is that anytime we do something we find success. If someone isn't home, we leave a note- success in trying to get contact with a less active, for example. Always be looking on the positive side. God is always giving us little successes here and there, we just need to open our eyes to it.

Fre: Weekly Planning! Always good stuff! Out of the blue, I asked my companion "How much faith do you have elder?" He was a little surprised, but he knew what I was talking about. There are only so many days left in the transfer, yet it was still possible to baptize someone. We knelt down and prayed whole heartedly and honestly pleading and asking God what His will is for us, and that if it is possible to baptize before the transfer. Now, I cannot begin to explain the incredible feeling that we both felt after closing the prayer and pondering. We both felt it and knew that we could do it. We don't know who, but we know it's possible! We were both so excited and just breathless because while we didn't know what to do, we just knew we needed to have faith in the Lord! I know what I felt, and cannot deny it. Though I have no clear direction with seeing someone be baptized soon, I am putting my whole heart and trust in God to let me be an instrument in his hands. The Lord can do mighty miracles in a matter of seconds!!!

I tried the ice (again) and had my shoe go in (again).  I guess I will never learn.

Lör: We were up in Motala (1 hour north) for most of the day, getting in contact with less actives and investigators-having some interesting discussions- and just having a good time. We made it back home to the H's later that night for dinner. We tried teaching a lesson but they have a lot of questions and are so awesome and happy with their lives that they don't yet see a need for our message. They still love having us over and they are interested in FHE, so we will teach that. We will just keep being a good example and build that strong relationship with them. The spirit was strong as we bore our testimonies. Oh just det, they fixed our bikes and drove us home with them! That was really awesome of them and now we have working bikes!

Sön: I made breakfast burritos- the hash browns didn't turn out so good...oops ha.* The people we were hoping for didn't show up for church yesterday so it made us begin to doubt the goal that we have. However, there was no way we could doubt that strong conviction that we had received that we can baptize before the transfer is up. We had a different investigator come to church on sunday, and it could be him. We just don't know. But we know we need to follow the Lord in complete faith. He had a very good experience and loves the spiritual unity of our church. He is very scientific and sees things in that sort of way, but he is very open and willing to prove it for himself if it is true. 

Even if we don't get a baptism this transfer that doesn't matter. We have received a conviction that we can do it, and if we work for it with all of our might mind and strength and show the Lord we have all Faith in Him, that's what really matters. It's not fair for someone to be pushed/forced into baptism, and we don't want that, but as long as we are working for that goal and progressing, that's all that we can do. So that was a really cool thought that came as I was thinking about it last night.

Press forward with faith, and trust in God, and we'll see if something miraculous happens this week! I love you all so much and pray that everything continues to go good! Brady shared with me a Mormon Message "Mountains to Climb" and it made me cry. You all should look it up. I'm grateful for the chance I have to be a missionary and get to serve God and His children. Things progressively are getting better (we had 13 lessons!) and the future looks bright! Ha det så jätte bra den här veckan! Jag älskar er!

MVH

Äldste Johnson (# IV)