This is our walk to the church.

Hey howzitgoween? Sounds like things are starting to settle down now that school is here. What's really cool is to hear that Makenzie Lewis is doing a lot better [serious ATV accident] and I actually got to communicate with her via email earlier. Its been a good week. 

A great day!

Mån:  H's baptism! We had a great big turnout, it was fantastic. His mom was working but his 2 sisters and little brother made it. A was there to do the baptizing. It was all so perfect. When H went into the water his little brother said "I wannna do it too!" hahaha you can, just give it 5 years:) I talked about how Elder L and A found H, being guided by the Spirit to knock one more door. The rest is history. Now as a constant companion, the Holy Ghost will be able to warn, guide, direct and bless H's life. A gave a short testimony that brought everyone to tears. He had his mission call and was supposed to leave at the beginning of July. However, his visa did not come in time and he was devastated because he had to wait until the next transfer to go out. But, had he gone out at that time, he would have never found H, and he wouldn't be here, now baptized. God is overall. He knows where we need to be to bless his children. That is such a strong testimony to me. This work is absolutely amazing.

Tis: So we taught a lesson to a 16 year old Jehovah Witness. He baked us an apple pie before we had our lesson. Wow, that's really nice!  *fyi, when I am home, if ever there is anybody from another faith that knocks on my door, I will gladly welcome them in, feed them, let them talk and share their beleifs. I have gotten the full circle of responses when I knock doors. I wanna be the person who I wish I would've knocked into on my mission*  The lesson didn't really go anywhere, but the pie tasted good:) We had a member dinner with the G's. Both are returned missionaries and super awesome. What we have started doing when we have these dinner appointments is ask them what they expect of us missionaries, instead of us trying to squeeze out a referral. The typical response is, "we expect you to teach and do your work, but I guess we need to help you find some people" It is really cool! We then met with our recent convert -I, who got his 3rd "no" with his migration paperwork to stay in Sweden. We talked about how Faith in Christ can help us in whatever situation we are in. As long as God and Christ are first, everything will work out.

Ons: Zone Training! This was my first zone training being on the opposite side - teaching. It was different but I liked it. We focused on ACCOUNTABILITY and the principle of Return and Report. Every night in our prayers we are returning to the Lord and reporting. It helps us see what we have done in the day and what we can do better the next day. We also talked about how success is being accountable to the Lord for what He has given to us to do. It is about being obedient to the commandments and mission rules. Our purpose is to INVITE, not choose for people to act, to come unto Christ. If we invite we are successful. If we are obedient and accountable, we are successful. The zone had a good discussion about it.

Later on in the day, we met up with the Södertälje zone leaders to meet with the stake president -President Karlsson! It was really cool to talk with him again and see how Eskilstuna is doing. B found a place to live near the elders apartment! And his wife was able to get an internship at his work place! Miracle!!!!  

Tors: We met with U along with our ward mission leader who is awesome and had a fantastic lesson. He said she was already on the right path, she already had her answer to be baptized. It was when she started to doubt that everything fell apart. It was powerful. We will continue to work and pray for her.

Fre: We had exchanges, I was with Elder O in Handen. A lot of people cancelled on us but he is pretty good at quoting movies so you can imagine that we had a good time. We taught S who afterwards brought up the concern that he has already been baptized before, why does he need it again? That set up Elder O perfectly for another visit.

Lör: For some reason my insomnia has been acting up over the summer so I felt like i was in the process of getting sick (which would prove to be true later.) We contacted a lady outside of her building smoking and looking very upset at life. It was cool to see the change in her from being very stand offish to agreeing to meet with us again. The spirit was able to work within her as we taught her about eternal truths that God is our loving Heavenly Father and has a plan for each one of us to be happy with him.  I love seeing the spirit

N's house - she loves plants

work! It is so cool! We had dinner with N and her son and they had us sing some karaoke. It was a lot of fun. Later we met up with U. It was her birthday so made her some cookies. She seemed a lot happier. She has several job interviews near the city which is a lot closer than where she works so she is hoping to find a new job soon.

Sön: Sure enough, I became sick. I had "ont i halsen" -evil in the throat, or a sore throat. It was sad. I didnt have a lot of energy and I didnt have any medicine. I usually am always prepared for any circumstance, including being sick, and have medicine on hand, but in Eskilstuna I used it up to the end and I forgot to restock. Plus it was sunday and i couldnt go out and buy anything. So I was pretty miserable but I made it through the day.

Our church building

We had several meetings in the morning, correlation meeting with our mission leader and ward council. Man that was so cool to be apart of. The bishop and the council are on the ball. They know what to do and how to help the missionaries and each other. It is fantastic! I love it! H's confirmation was amazing. The spirit was super strong.

After church I tried going back out to work but I just couldn't so we went home and I took a bath, ate some soup and went to bed. Let me tell you, being sick on a mission isn't fun. I don't think there's more of a time where you miss your mom than when you are sick. Throughout my mission I have learned to appreciate all of the things my mom has done for me throughout my life. My eyes are opened constantly to the daily sacrifices she did for me. I don't express it enough but special shout-out to you mom.

I love you.

I love this work so much with all of my heart. I love being here. I love seeing people accept the gospel and see it change their lives. This truly is amazing. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love

Elder Johnson