Hey Ho! Well well. Another week has gone and Christmas is just that much more closer! Seriously, I am stoked for Christmas and being able to skype home to family. Thanks everyone for all the emails and letters and love and support and prayers you send. It really means a lot.

Mån: We just finished doing our laundry when our neighbor stopped us outside. He is super positive and has wanted to meet us but has always been so busy. He is a super cool guy. It seriously felt like we were part of an Indiana Jones movie because of the things he was telling us ha. It was awesome! We had dinner with the bishop's family -I love them! 

Tis: Exchanges with the Vendelsö elders -I was with a greeny Swede, Elder S and we had a great day! We spoke Swedish the whole day -it's weird that we don't normally do that ha. He is quiet, but we had fun and taught several lessons. I was amazed at how well he taught for only being out for so little. But then I think how much easier it would be if I was teaching in English 24/7. 

Ons: First we helped clean the church. Later on it was raining pretty hard -and it was like Ice rain. We decided to go tracting. First door -Let us in!!! Wow, amazing! It was a Finnish woman with her 3 little children. There was an incredible feeling when we walked in and knew that this family was special. The husband was asleep but we shared "He is the Gift" with them and they loved it. They are very devoted members in the local church here and you could tell that Christ means so much to them. 

Practicing our epic skit for next week.

Tors: We had District meeting. This is God's work that we are doing. He knows whats going on but until we pray -until we get connection with God, it's not going to be as effective. Prayer aligns our will with His. It makes a lot more sense to do His work in His way. We then practiced a skit that we will perform in the upcoming zone Christmas conference. Let me tell you, it is going to be epic!!!:) Later on, we met up with the finnish lady again and her husband. We had an awesome discussion with them and testified of the Restoration. They had lots of questions and we answered them calmly and boldly. There was an amazing spirit there. You could tell, again, that Christ is the center of their lives. They are helping their friends find faith in Him and doing their own missionary efforts-amazing! Unfortunately, they can't meet again until January and they don't sound interested in our church, but my comp and I felt peace as we left. They probably won't accept our message now, but we feel very strongly that they will in the future. A seed has been planted very deeply and it will nourish and grow, and somewhere down the line, they will be ready. It was an incredible feeling of peace. I can't describe it. We also met with H and his sister and they are doing good. She is heavily involved with the YW so thats great!

Santa Lucia Holiday program

Fre: Our investigator M invited us to her daughter's holiday concert. Santa Lucia is a holiday here in Sweden. It basically is people with candles singing Christmas music. It was a lot of fun being there and showing our interest in this family. We ate dinner with Sister O. She is so awesome. Seriously like the nicest sweetest person.

At the temple with L for his first time.

Superman gingerbread
heart cookie

Lör: My comp had some back pains, so I took Elder L to the temple with L. We had a nice group of people there to celebrate his first time doing baptisms. And boy did he love it!!! It was awesome. The spirit was there so strong and he was so happy that he made it! What a journey he has had! I feel so grateful to be a part of that journey. Funny, I was at the temple this time exactly last year with J R to go do baptisms for his first time! 

More Santa Lucia

We watched another Lucia concert and passed out some pepparkakor (gingerbread) to spread some good cheer. We then did some knocking and taught F. 

Sön: I was beginning to feel sick Saturday and for sure got the ont i halsen (sore throat) on Sunday. Its not too bad. I'm just super exhausted and tired. But church was really good. 3 of our investigators came and had a great time. Oh yeah, guess who was there! S Q (the guy that knows Brady.) Geez, he's been here 3 times now. I'm gonna eat dinner with him later this week. We ate double dinner with the B's and the R's. I'm so full!!!!! hahaha but I love it:)

Something that we talked about Sunday was something I read in the conference Ensign. The sacrament is a spiritual renewal. It is the most important thing about sunday, and about church. The more I thought about it, the more I came to this conclusion. It may sound bold, but this is how I feel. Just taking the Sacrament isn't the most important thing. Feeling the Spirit of it is. It is the spirit that renews our covenants, that refreshes us, that gives us the feeling of peace, the forgiveness of sins and the desire to try harder the next week. The sacrament is pointless if we do not feel the spirit cleanse us. And that is the promise that God gives us -to always feel His spirit. I am so grateful for the ability to feel the spirit as I partake of the Sacrament. It truly is a renewal of the spirit. I love it. I love this work. And I love you all. Have a great week.

Love Elder Johnson