Howdy Errybody!

Wow, sounds like my family is having so much fun in the sun this summer! We have been having one of the coldest summers in Sweden (and we had the warmest winters earlier...) so thats been quite weird. Oh well. Special shoutout to Carter saturday for his 2nd bday and today for Stacy and her 18th!!! WHOOOO!!!! Thats so weird that my baby sister is an adult now...Be smart;) It was a good week this week, we got to celebrate Midsommar, the longest day of the year! 

The sun had been up for 5 1/2 hours already by 6:38 am!

I took a picture right when I woke up to capture all the light, I shouldve gotten up at 1 in the morning to capture the SUNRISE, yes, I said sunrise. 12 am was the SUNSET. Very interesting. Well, it looks like everything is back downhill going to the darkest day of the year. No more light, darn. haha anyway, let me tell you about the week...

Mån: After emailing we came home to do a lot of cleaning. We defrosted the freezer and boy did that take a lot of time! Sheesh! I got some pictures and videos commemorating my struggles...but now I know how to do that all on my own, and the freezer looks so much better now. Later we went to the train station to wait for N, someone Elder A contacted on his way to Eskilstuna his first day of transfer. I thought he was just making her up, but I was very wrong. I have never been more happy to be proved wrong in all my life because she is so prepared. She was piecing things together so fast, it was amazing! The spirit was so strong when we were testifying to her that this was what she has been searching for. We had her say a prayer and boy, that was so strong. Seriously one of the greatest lessons/ feelings I have ever been a part of.

Tis: Taught 3 of our regulars then helped set up a funeral program for a member's father.

Ons: We met N again early on, with a member there to help us out and befriend her. Again, such a sweet spirit and so strong feeling that this is what she needs. We set up a baptismal date for her as well! Funny story: She had read the scriptures that we gave her last time, then she asked us if she was only allowed to read the certain few we gave, or if she could start from the beginning and read the whole thing! Hahaha of course you can read the whole thing!  We then helped out with the funeral service. It was interesting because I never knew the man but I felt a calm peace that said everything was gonna be ok for their family. 

Tors: District meeting (btw, do all of you have a PMG now that Elder Ballard has challenged us to have one!!!). We went over how important the spirit is, especially teaching. Without the spirit bearing witness of truth, nothing you say will ever mean anything to anyone. The spirit is the real teacher, and if you think you are better than the spirit, well you are wrong. I ended by telling one of my favorite stories ever -"the kings son" about King Louie's son getting tortured, beaten, submitted to all sorts of cruel/vile things and not caving in. When his enemies asked why he wouldn't cave in, he responded " I cannot do what you ask, for I was born to be a king." That has hit me so hard, and still does every time I hear that. He knew his potential, and nothing stood in the way of that. He was meant to become a king. All of us are meant to become kings and queens. We are sons and daughters of a heavenly king with the potential to become like him. If we understand this, nothing in life can stand in the way of us achieving that. Becoming who God needs us to be. Who we are is not who we can become. It was pretty powerful. I love that story.  

Fre: MIDSOMMARS AFTON celebration.

The whole day is a non proselyting day so we could go celebrate somewhere, but with our personal money. We decided to go to Tyresta By, a big gathering put together by the Stake. Seriously about 1/3 of the missionaries in the mission there at Tyresta By. It was really cool, minus the rainy weather. I hung out missionaries from my MTC group and I got to catch up with a lot of friends/members from Stockholm -the G's!!

They had little festivities going on around the whole time we were there. We got to wear normal clothes, and I honestly did not feel like a missionary. It was really scary and I didnt like it ha. But I had fun.

So The main thing is raising the may pole and singing and dancing around the pole! So I got to hold a random pretty girls hand for the first time in a long time, hahahaha. It was nice to say the least;) Dont worry, Im still focused on the mission. It's kind of hard to explain the whole midsommar thing, because I dont really know it all ha. But, we made it home safe and sound, very tired but happy and ready to go back to work.

Lör: So we had a random transfer go on and we picked up a new companion for Elder C. We sadly had 2 people cancel on us, but we went out to contact people and ended up teaching 2 strangers on the street.

Sön: A lot of people were gone for the holiday weekend, so we had very few members here at church. However, I was very happily surprised when I saw the T family enter (they've been investigating for a time and we had stopped by last Monday)! Then D and K showed up! We had more investigators than members at church haha. Also a Finnish family visiting, and a former missionary Elder Rowley and his parents visiting. It was quite nice. After church we stopped by a less active and she was really nice and warm with us. She was joking around and having a good time showing us her watch collection! Well we finished off with a scripture and prayer before heading home to pack up for the bastu:)

Gods means "goods" in Swedish

I have had a chance to do a lot of personal reflection this last week and it has been very good for me. I fasted all day tuesday and received some answers that I have been looking for. I asked my bros and bro-in-law for some advice and they have been very helpful with that. I've learned a lot about charity. In the Book of Mormon, Mormon prays without much faith or hope for his people because of how wicked they are, yet he prays still because he loves them. Everything will fail, but charity wont. It is everlasting. It is so strong, it causes miracles. By expressing and showing love, we can help people around us back on the path home to our Heavenly Father. Correction is needed from time to time, but an increase of love needs to be there as well. I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who corrects me from time to time, but shows forth his love in numerous ways that I cannot even fully fathom. I know because He loves me, I can and want to be better. I know that by trusting in His son, we can overcome our individual weaknesses and make them our strengths. I love this work. I love being able to testify of these truths that I hold dear to me. It is so rewarding, I love it! I love you all, have a great week!

I love Brady's gifts from Cambodia

Med Kärlek

Äldste Johnson