Gratitude as a Saving Principle

It's getting cold and dark

Dear Fam and friends! First off, Happy Birthday mommy!!! Hope it was a good one!  I also want to congratulate my brother for passing the bar exam!! Nice work! It got pretty dang cold at one point-4 degrees celsius (39) with a wind current that made it feel like -1 degrees celsius!!! Holy cow! It's too early for that, especially since St. George is about 80 degrees in October!! haha, but I love it!

Mån: No sightseeing today. Just laundry, groceries and stuff. I got to jam with my uke for a while, so that felt good. We had dinner with the bishop and his family -the best. He really knows how to have missionary work as the center piece of the ward. I love it. We went to teach F and had a topic to teach but it just wasn't working. Finally, we let the spirit take over and we talked about baptism and that was it! We invited her to be baptized in November and she said yeah!! Amazing!

Tis: We met with this recently activated member who wants to serve a mission. We went to teach him but turns out, he brought a friend who isn't a member and we ended up teaching her! Awesome!! Next we taught M about the purpose of life and she seemed to get it. We totally spaced a member dinner. They called us and said, "Where are you?" We were so confused, but it all worked out. After dinner we sang songs to them as compensation, ha:)

Ons: We did a lot of updating our area book and contacting on the streets. It is a goal of ours to have the area book up to date, and have a constant flow of people to teach and receiving new investigators. We had dinner with the L's and did a role play of them inviting their friends to church. It was fun, simple, and easy, and it worked! 

Tors: We had a great district meeting. Every companionship has gotten a baptismal date within the last week. We are on fire!! We met up with our american friend. He has philosophical tangents about the book of Mormon. And at the end, man this was funny, it was like he was breaking up with us. Hahaha. It was super awkward and totally cliche: "let's all learn from this...it's not you, it's me...I need some time..."etc. Hahaha. Oh well, he said he'll continue to read the book of Mormon. We went to interview our district leader's baptism candidate. He was super ready and super awesome. His first day in church, he told some members he was always gonna come back because it was His church now. 

Fre: We taught M again with a member there this time, and it went great! The member bore a solid testimony of Christ and the Book of Mormon and the spirit was strong. M is moving forward, I think we just need to meet as often as possible.  PS, we had a member dinner 6/7 nights this week ha!

Lör: We taught E for about 2 hours. It is hard with the language barrier and his many questions. But the main thing is whether the book of Mormon is true or not, and how he is going to find that out. L is doing great so we set a new date for him to go to the temple in December!! Awesome! 

Sön: We were able to meet with H before church. We are trying so hard to meet with his mom and sister-please pray that we meet with them! We were a little disappointed because we worked super hard, and had lots of people commit to coming to church but no one came:( That was sad. But we then had a great member dinner and that made us feel better ha. we had quite a few cancels after church too, but its all good.

Last week Elder L and I invited our zone to go throughout the week only saying gratitude prayers, not asking for anything. It was very hard, but very rewarding. It opened up our eyes to see all of the little things that God has given to us. We were inspired from the Liahona Sep 2013 talk called My gratitude prayers. In it, it said Gratitude inspires humility, humility leads to faith, and faith brings miracles. Wow, how powerful is that! We saw many mighty miracles this week from the gratitude prayers. I loved it. I was able to pray in a whole new way and it felt really good. Another great talk is Gratitude as a Saving Principle from James E. Faust in 1990 may. God has given us so much, it is amazing. I love this work. I love Him. Hope you all try this out, and see the miracles that come from this! Love you all,

This pic is for of all my friends serving in the Philippines.

Love Elder Johnson

Couldn't have said it better.

Hello everyone! Wow, what a great and stressful week! Seriously, lots of good things happened and there was just a lot to do; I'm surprised that my head is still on straight:) Thank you all for the emails, prayers, love and support. It truly helps a lot.

Mån: For Pday we headed up to the YSA center and hung out with a bunch of missionaries. That night H made us dinner -it was so dang good! His sister was also there so we decided to teach her the Restoration. Christ tells us to be childlike -submissive, humble,etc. This sweet girl is the epitome of what Christ was talking about. We asked her to pray, she said she didn't know how to, we taught her, and she held the most sincere sweetest prayers ever. Man, that was powerful! That was fantastic!

Tis: We were finally able to watch the last session of general conference and that was amazing! I loved it all. We had a farewell lunch with some YSAs for Elders L and S leaving (transferring.) We then went about our normal day of teaching, finding and having a good time. We had a great member dinner to celebrate of Elder W's birthday. We had tons and tons of food, and tons and tons of dessert. It hurt to walk afterwards haha. 

Ons: We had to wake up early to get to T-central on time. I was there from 7.30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon helping missionaries as they were transferring and because my new comp was the last one to get in ha. I had lots of fun though seeing tons of missionaries and even the new greenies. We have 3 in our zone! I finally picked up elder L and it was a sweet reunion (he is from my mtc group.) 

On the Ferry

Gotland Island

We immediately came back and taught F. With her it sort of feels like things go in one ear and out the other. But we will work on that. We had to quickly pack up because we were going out to Gotland on exchanges with the Visby elders. Elder L served there awhile ago so it was fun for him. We took a 40 minute train ride south to Nynäshamn and then boarded the ferry that took 3.5 hours to arrive at the island. We didnt get to port until midnight. The elders picked us up and we went straight to bed.

Tors: We took some great pics on the coast and then got to work. I was with elder I on the outskirts while the other two covered the big city. We taught a couple of people and made them investigators. That was super cool. Its always fun going on exchanges with new missionaries because they have so much fire -its a good reboost. We ended the day with a bastu (sauna.)

City of Visby

Not that dangerous, really.

A little too much climbing because.....

...oh, oh- I ripped my pants but good.

Love me them kebabs!

Fre: We got up early to catch the ferry back to the mainland. We made it back time to meet up with our zone. The training was fantastic. We have 9 new people in the zone, and it just feels like a really good refresh. We talked about Prayer, and it was a discussion not us teaching -which was awesome. Everything that we wanted to be talked about was! It was amazing how strong the spirit was there! We also talked about becoming unified as a zone through prayer because President said that if we do not become a more prayerful mission, we are just gonna stay on the same level, never increase. We have already seen a great improvement and excitement with our missionaries. It feels good.

Lör: We taught several great lessons this day. C has been praying but doesn't feel a change, but feels good when he meets with us-so hopefully he makes the connection soon. We met with J and had a great philosophical discussion with him. We also showed him Patterns of Light from Elder Bednar and he loved it. We had dinner with M and as usual it is great! We were supposed to meet with D again, but she bailed ha. 

Sön: Sadly none of our investigators made it to church. We sang (in Swedish) Joseph Smiths First Prayer to the tune of Come thou Fount. Elder L did a little solo -he is super talented. We had dinner with the Ö's again - love them. We had their son who is going on a mission soon- help us teach the first vision and it was super powerful! Loved that! We then finished the day by swinging by to see T.

So, with regards to Prayer with our zone training. We decided to do a week of gratitude prayers. No prayers of asking for anything, just thanks! It's been a bit difficult but lots of fun trying to dig deeper and just thank God for the many wonderful blessings that He has blessed us with. I am grateful for all that He does for me and allowing me the sacred privilege of representing His son here in Sweden. I know this work is true. I know God hears prayers. Let Him hear yours. I love you all. Have a great week!

Love Elder Johnson

Leaves are dropping

Hej hej, Sounds like you all had a great week! Special shoutout to my cousin Jennifer with her homecoming talk. Thanks to all the Johnson family for the love and support they have given me and Jenn. Well, fall is here. The leaves are changing drastically and the mood is a little nostalgic here in Sweden as I ponder upon past years of the fall season. But this week was good. Let me tell you why...

Mån: We did some shopping around Stockholm and ate some kebab, of course. Later we had dinner with the Jonnsons (related? could be, way back). We went on splits to do some tracting. Elder W and I had a great conversation with 20 year old female. It was awesome -hopefully we see her again.

Tis: We swungby a former investigator to show that we still care and are willing to help them out, and to see if they are ready for our message. We then met with our new investigator F. We spent a huge time talking about our Heavenly Father. She has no basic background of who God is- but once someone discovers that truth, things become smooth. So pray that she will be able to discover that relationship.

The sisters and the Tolleys at MLC

Ons: Mission Leadership Council! Wow, that was great! I got to see a lot of familiar faces and be spiritually uplifted. We talked about being a more prayerful mission. I love how the Bible Dictionary says the so-called difficulties of prayer arise when we don't understand the true relationship of God as our Father and we as His children. Prayer is powerful. It shouldnt be just a checklist. It should be well thought out, a spiritual experience every time. We also talked about PUSH -pray until something happens. I'll let you interpret that wherever you will. Sister Beckstrand brought up some health stuff and then spoke about how once you master charity it becomes second nature, and you feel gods love for you as you love His children.

District meeting with Skype

Tors: We had district meeting again with skype (because we have visby (gotland) in our district). We later taught 4 lessons with some good people. G was someone we tracted into earlier so we brought a YSA with us to teach him. He is american and was super open and the spirit was strong. Then out of the blue he said he didnt want to meet again. But after some time we were able to schedule another meeting. To close the night, we taught a new move-in couple from Norway who live just right below us. They have been less active recently but want to come back -its perfect!

Fre: We taught a guy on the street who said "Freak Yeah, I'll take the Book of Mormon" (except he didn't say freak) hahaha that's the spirit:) It was funny. Later on, we met as a district to go out on a Blitz of contacting and informing people about the music fireside we've been planning. We found a long lost less-active who said he'd come! Wow! Cool.

Saying bye to W

Lör: We had a ward party Olympiad of doing games and activities and all sorts of things. We received our transfer calls and though my comp will be leaving, I will be receiving elder L, who is from my MTC group. I am beyond excited right now. It is going to be such a blast. I love this kid!!! Our zone is getting a lot of new people which will mix things up. We met with W and she told us she was moving back home for 8 months. I was sad at first, but this will be the best for her. She was excited to find out that she could keep her Book of Mormon!

Brother G, me, J, Elder M - one year later

Later on, we went to the YSA Center in Stockholm for J G's missionfarewell party -my favorite guy from my first area. He had a lot of his non-member friends there and it was a great opportunity for him to tell them what he is doing for 2 years and have us missionaries there to explain. It was awesome. A lot of them are super interested! 

Nice note with my burger: "Spread some love."

We stopped by Burger King on the way home and the cashier was super sweet and left me a nice message in my burger box:) "spread some love."

Sön: Church went great. Later we set up for our music night. It was titled "Han Lever" or He lives. We had a great turnout. Lots of YSAs, lots of Less Actives and even lots of non members came! It was super. The spirit was so strong, Oh I loved it!!! Lots of songs and testimonies of Christ, and boy was it amazing! I wish you all could have been there.

I couldn't help but just cry and cry during the fireside because I know that My Redeemer Lives. He sacrificed His life for me and for you. He suffered and died, and then rose again. And because He lives, so can we. If we but follow Him. Come unto Christ and partake of His goodness. He is the way the truth and the life. I know He is my savior. It is because of Him that I am where I am today- in Sweden serving a mission to represent Him and invite all of Gods children back to HIm. That means so much. I invite you all to come unto christ. I know He lives. I love Him. I am forever His. I love you all, have a great week

Love Elder Johnson

HELLO! Hi everyone! Wow, what a week! Conference is just the best thing ever!!! I love it! It's nice to know that all around the world, we are all listening to our beloved prophet. How amazing that is! 

FHE spin chart (like home)

Mån: We had another sports afternoon for pday and that was a lot of fun. It feels good getting nice and sweaty every once in awhile, you know? I have played sports all my life and it feels weird going a long time without really sweating ha. That night we had Family Home Evening with a great member family and it was a blast! They know how to do it right. Gosh, family home evening is such a great tool to help strengthen our family relationships -please don't take it for granted.

Tis: We got to do a huge service project of planting all of the new temple flowers!! Over 6,000 flowers were put in by us missionaries for 6+ hours!!! It was a ton of fun and we have gotten a lot of nice compliments. It feels good taking care of the Lord's house and the surroundings leading up to the Lord's house. Man, I just love being near the temple! 


So after that great excursion (it was back breaking, but worth it), we came home to get all cleaned up and then go help out with a primary activity. Kids are crazy!! Hahaha, not all the time. But it was good. We had a spiritual thought with them and then played some games like Heads up 7 Up and Four Corners -the kids were getting really intense about it ha.

Ons: We had lunch and did service with members. We taught a guy who came to church last week, and it was disappointing. He says it's too late for him. If it was 20 years ago he would be baptized. But now that he is old, he just wants to enjoy nature...? Yeah, so we will see what happens. We had a funny experience tracting. This guy was a bit drunk, he showed us his airplane collection, joked around with us -he thought I was an Arab, and then we left. Of course there is a lot more to it than that, but you get the jist. We tracted more and got return appointment out of it so all was not lost.

Tors: District meeting, then taught a new investigator. We had O (the YSA)  with us and he bore his testimony and did great. The spirit was strong! We went back to that lady we tracted into yesterday and taught her.  Things look hopeful.

Fre: It was my companions birthday so I made him pancakes. Not my best ones, but hey its the thought that counts right? Am i right? (Brady knows the voice) We taught H the Restoration in steps so he could help teach and testify to his mom and sister. We had a member dinner where we sang to my comp and had cake! We shared a thought about the Title of Liberty: what are we willing to fight for and defend? If we do not stand for what we believe in, we will fall.

Lör: We taught C. He has a lot of deep questions -which is amazing. I havent seen any investigator do as much personal studying -smart studying like from the BoM, pamphlets, etc.- as he does. I think he knows its true, he just wants to be really sure. The rest of the day we seemed to get blåsted one right after the other. But its all good. We tracted into an American will be meeting him later this week. We then went over to M's place to watch conference (Sat morning session) and have dinner, yummy:)

Sön: Watched conference: priesthood, saturday afternoon, and then sunday morning session. Lots of people came to the church, but most like to stream it live from their homes. We had T and his son come to one of the sessions and liked it. C had to work, he was really sad he missed it.

I LOVE CONFERENCE!!! Let me just share some notes, quotes, thoughts I had from it...
*It doesn't matter how big the church gets, each individual is needed.

*Which way do you face?

*Understanding the sacrament should be our weekly goal. It is a renewal of the soul.

*Do your part to find or strengthen a testimony, it will come, and it will be GLORIOUS.
*Decisions determine destiny. It's not so much the big decisions we make in life -though they are important- it's the day to day decisions that are the key to success and happiness.

*Is it I Lord? Don't look to blame others when you are imperfect yourself. Take responsibility.
*Show me how to live the gospel, don't just tell me.

*Nothing will give us greater happiness or success than by living the Gospel.

*KINDNESS IS POWERFUL.

*Spiritual questions deserve spiritual answers FROM GOD.

*Though Christ was homeless, we are not homeless if we live in his light and love.

*Following the Prophet is ALWAYS right -amen.

*Make Christ the center of your life. You'll always know where to go, what to do, and how to do it.

The question is NOW WHAT? Well, I'll tell you what. Conference means nothing if we don't do anything about it. The things we learn are vain if we don't apply it. So my challenge is thus, ACT UPON that which you have received for inspiration. Act on the impressions of your heart. Act. Live the Gospel. I know that as you do so, you will see an increase of understanding and enlightenment in your life. God will bless you as you move forward. This is His kingdom once again established on the earth. It will carry forward no matter what. I love you, have a great week!

Love Äldste Johnson

Hungry Hungry Hippo found me!

Hallå family and friends!! Wowee! Things have been quite cold this week -it got down to 1 degree celsius [33 F]!!! But now it is warming up again. It was a good week. I turned 20, no more teenage life, but best of all I heard from my good friends in Eskilstuna that B's 2 daughters were baptized last week. That was great news. Elder S and I found that family, and now they are taking that step in following their savior. It is an indescribable feeling. 

Mån: So, I did some early bday shopping and got myself a laundry basket, my previous one broke. We played sports at Gubbängen with a couple of missionaries and came back to teach a new investigator, G.

Tis: We planned to teach H about family history and when we got there he had already created an account on his own! It was like he knew what we were gonna talk about and was super prepared! We went back to G's later on and he just got super anti with us. He was so positive to begin with, but then didn't want to try it anymore. It was really strange.

Happy birthday to me

Ons: Hey, it's my birthday!! I don't know what it was but I was just feeling sad and down in the dumps this day. It was a really good day, but just mentally I was not all there. All is better now. We had our district meeting (breakfast) then went to a different district for exchanges. We taught W -we have a cycle every time we meet with her: she is confused, things are hard, we

Klad kakka- sticky chocolate cake

teach and testify and promise blessings, and she is pumped to go out and try it all, then she slips and forgets and we start over again. We are working really hard with her. So we read 3 nephi 13 talking about consider the lilies, see how they grow...and yeah. Continue on the chapter and it says God knows what we need. But if we just put him first in our lives everything else will fall into place in the place where we need them, not always where we want. We had a member dinner and it was fantastic soup! I got sung to in Swedish 3 times during the day, so that was pretty fun. I also made myself a klad kakka (sticky chocolate cake) -super good!

Tors: We had another district meeting to attend. I was tech support trying to skype some members in our district who work out on Visby-Gotland. On our way back home we taught some guy on the street. The assistants came to do exchanges with us. I was with my papa again -elder m!!! It was a lot of fun. We went up to Täby to work in their area. And I also got to drive the car the whole time! I haven't driven a car in over 15 months, so needless to say, it was a good reunion with me behind the wheel. Whoo! I miss that! I hope Leo is doing good. [Leo is Brock's truck here at home.]

Me and my pappa, Elder M.  He loves anything country!

Fre: I had a really good day with Elder M. It has been a year since I was with him, so it was a great time together. We worked really hard a year ago, and it was just like we picked up on the same beat again. I loved it! he took me to lunch at a Texas restaurant where they played lots of country stuff -he was in heaven hahaha. I think now that country music is growin on me...we will see;) We taught a new convert from Gabon who is a genius. Then we taught a teenager and set a baptismal date with him!! That was really cool. All too soon we had to go back home but it was a great day. We had a good heart to heart while we were together and i needed and was grateful for that.

Lör: When we were teaching H, his mom came in and asked us some questions. We were able to teach and testify to her that we are here to help people come closer to Christ. H bore his testimony of the difference it has been in his life, and she began to cry. It was so spiritual, man, it was the best! Mind you, this was all in spanish too, but I understood it all!!! That was so great! We taught several other new investigators -hopefully they will keep progressing.

Sour herring.  Now I'm a real Swede!

The second highlight of the day was the member dinner with the N's. We had SUR-STRÖMMING! Sour herring. Holy cow, I cant even begin to describe to you how AWFUL that smell is. The actual taste is ok, but the smell is seriously like a sewer. I almost threw up just taking a whiff of that. WHEW!!! I survived! I ate it, and now I am a real Swede:)

Sweet Aston Martin

Sön: One of our new investigators made it to church! He had been before a while ago and knew some members so he fit right in! After church, we had dinner with the Ö family again, and it was so good! They are so awesome!

Listening to a prayer in church got me thinking. We ask for things: please bless the spirit will stay with us the rest of the day, please bless that we will have a good week, please bless those that couldn't come today that they can come next week, etc. Now, what good does that prayer do if we don't act on it? Why do we just ask for those types of things and not do anything about. It is something that Elder Bednar talked about, and it is ringing through my head. Faith is not just praying really hard that something happens. Faith is praying for eyes to see the opportunities, and then acting. So if we pray that we may feel the spirit the rest of the day, what do we do to make sure that we can feel the spirit?? Are we reading our scriptures, listening to uplifting music, spending quality time with our family, other various activities that INVITE the spirit to stay throughout the day. What about if we pray to have a good week? Are we acting for ourselves to put things in our path that will make sure that we do have a good week, if not, change that! And what about when we pray for the people who couldn't make it to church that they can come next week? Are we just gonna expect people to be healed and come to church by themselves, sure its possible. But why not go out and visit these people? Check up on how they are doing? Invite them over to your place, offer a ride to church, do something so that your prayer is an ACTION. Pray for the opportunities and then act on them. God trusts us, so lets act now.

We have a perfect opportunity in front of us, General conference, to take in a question, or even pray that you may be able to find a question from general conference in which you can then act for yourself and find the answer by studying, fasting, and pondering. Dont just pray and not do anything. Pray and act! That is my invitation to you all. I know that as you do so you will see the Lord open new paths of understanding and direction for you. You will know what to do, and receive the strength to do it. This is the only true church on the earth. Are we acting like it? I love you all. I love this work. God and Christ are at the head. Have a wonderful week and a great experience with conference!

With love

Elder Johnson

The Lord's Wind

Dear family and friends, How are you? It sounds like you all had a fantastic week! Well, as y'all know, I turn 20 this week. It's kind of weird thinking about it. So, I'm not gonna think about it ha.

Mån: We met up with a lot of missionaries to play some sports and that was lots of fun. Later we met with M. She had met the missionaries before the summer, didn't really get into the lessons, but now after summer, she is very positive and looking for some answers. So we taught her and things look promising here.

Tis: O, a ysa who is preparing to leave for his mission, came with us to go teach some people. They cancelled on us so we did contacts instead. We had O talk to people on the street. He was really nervous the first time, but he actually did really good. We did a role play to get him comfortable and that was hilarious!! Hahah, it just reminded me that life as a role play missionary isn't all like real life. We had member dinner with an awesome family -but let's just face it, all the members here are super awesome!!

Removing mountains 

Ons: So we had our zone training! Removing mountains through faith. President Be wants us to memorize Mark 11:22-23, and that is what we based the training on. Mountains are things that hold us back from reaching our full potential. They stop us and hinder the work. We had a good discussion with the whole zone, not just us talking, and it went really well. Mountains could be expectations, laziness, tiredness, comparing, pride, fear, etc. We then went into how we can break down those mountains with faith. Faith is not just praying really really hard, but faith comes after the amen. We have to actively do something to remove our mountains. We also tied in the fact that we are yoked with Christ and he can help us remove our mountains. 

So we got blåsted a lot right after that, but we went out and started digging at our "mountain" -talking to everyone in our path. It's really fun actually, not letting a person pass you by who you could reach out your hand to help. Things aren't immediately picking up, but I can tell you my comp and I are more unified than ever. When we put aside our pride and put the Lord first it is amazing!

Trains are great

Tors: We swungby B in the morning and taught her briefly on the doorstep. Then met with M again and helped her understand Gods plan of happiness. We had a great member dinner and then met up with G to go to sports night in Gubbängen. Elder M and Elder S (former comp) were there and we had a soccer game and it was super intense and sooooo much fun!!! I loved it! I got my megs in and got some goals, it felt really good:)

Fre: We listened to a conference talk with L, continuing to help him on his plan to get to the temple. When we met G and his sister eventually made her way in and we were able to give her her own copy of the Book of Mormon. We want to teach her but we gotta go through the mom, so pray that we will be able to.

Lör: So we contacted this guy C a week ago but he cant speak Swedish too well -he speaks Spanish. So we met him with a YSA to help translate for us. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and has had some really good questions. It is kind of hard with the language barrier but our ysa is a recently returned missionary and was great.  Later we went through half of our TU (potential investigator) list in our phone, which is 100 people, and about 30 of them answered and 5 of them said that we could meet again! 

Sön: C came to church and had a great experience. We had someone translating for him and then he went into the spanish speaking sunday school class. Things are looking good for him. I'm super excited. We went to a members place for dinner, and boy did they have a beautiful home. They are humble people and willing to help us out with teaches! I love it. We got caught in a rain storm on our way back but it was ok. You aren't a missionary if you havent walked through a rainstorm in a suit:)

I can honestly say my life has been changed since the conference with Elder Bednar. I feel the spirit more strongly and I am more effective in my scripture study, prayers, and coming to church. I want to share something that our ward mission leader shared with us yesterday. It is the story [a church video] about some missionaries in the Polynesian islands who received a notice that a family wanted to be taught on a different island. The companionship sets out on a boat to go teach these people. Half way out, the wind dies, and they are stuck there for a really long time. They decide to pray that the wind would carry them to the island -it was a righteous desire to go teach these people. Nothing happened. They finally started rowing themselves, a full days journey of rowing non-stop. The message is that sometimes the Lords expects us to be His wind. He needs us to do things to show him that we are really his. That we dont just pray for things to happen, but to work for them. Pray to be the lords wind and work. Man, that was super powerful. I challenge you all that instead of just praying for missionary opportunities that you pray to have your eyes opened to them, then go out and be the Lords wind and seize them! I love this work. It is true! I love you all, have a great week!

MVH

Äldste Johnson

Spiritual Growth

I'll talk to anyone who will listen

Hello family and friends! This week was spiritually uplifting and life changing. Let me tell you...

Europe's smallest street

Mån: We decided to go up to Stockholm and eat at Pizza Hut. It's not the same as it is in the states, but its decent. After that we walked around Gamla Stan for a bit. I signed my name on Europe's smallest street with hopes to come back there someday with my framtid fru- future wife;) We then came home to sleep -we were exhausted. All 4 of us just crashed for 2-3 hours, it was nuts. We had a member dinner and I shared the thought with the peacock feather-påfågel fjärder, that mom gave me. It works really well! We then swungby this potential investigator and got in, had a quick little lesson and set up a time to return. On our way home when we got hit by a downpour. Seriously,  in those 5 minutes, we were drenched head to toe. It was awesome!:)

Tis: We were able to teach B- focused on the Sabbath day. We hope she comes to church. We met with M -the guy who break dances, and had a make it or break it lesson and he broke it ha. Rats. Well, all we can do is move forward. We met with S and taught the Word of Wisdom. We had a couple of people cancel on us, but what can you do?

Sun breaking through- just like truth and light

Ons: Mission Leadership Council. What a great time. We talked about Mark 11:22-23 which says, "whosever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." That scripture is powerful. We have mountains in our path that is hindering us from something (being most effective in my missionary efforts for me.) What is it that we are gonna do to move those mountains? If I just say I Have faith to move a mountain, IT IS NOT GONNA MOVE. FAITH IS ACTION. Faith to move a mountain is getting to the base of the mountain and starting to take a backhoe, tractor, shovels whatever, starting to move it little by little, then will we see that our faith has led us to action and the mountain will then move. Wow, pretty awesome! My perspective on faith has changed.  At home, we were hosting the elders from Boden -farthest north area for missionaries, as they were here to come to the conference as well.

Tors: ELDER BEDNAR!!!! Wow, let me tell you, I know for a fact that he is an apostle. It was absolutely incredible. It was a question and answer time with him in which he taught us things so valuable. I would like to share with you. 1) In everything we do, we should act as agents not objects. For example, scripture study. We should act as agents by coming into our studies with a question in mind and then searching it out for ourselves, rather than read and hope something pops out at us like objects. The same goes for Prayer. We dont just pray really really hard for faith, and suddenly expect it, we pray with faith as agents to GO OUT AND ACT, not be acted upon. He did the q and a so that we could act as agents in finding out what it was we needed to hear and do. So that kind of leads me into my next point. 2) The spirit is the true teacher. There are things for sure that we can do to invite the spirit to be present: sing hymns, be worthy, talk about truths, but it is the spirit that ultimately comes into our hearts to testify that YES, this is true. Elder Bednar modeled for us to dig deeper, take some pauses to let the spirit come in and reteach what we have learned and help us act as agents to find out the answers for ourselves. Man it was So great. Not once did he mention the word Obedience, but every missionary there is going to be more obedient because of his teachings. That is just but a tiny portion of my thoughts and insights from the conference with elder bednar, but boy, was it life changing. I am changing the way I pray, study the scriptures and come to church. I am changing the way I write in my journal. I am changing the way I go about my missionary work. Wow. Thats, really all I can say. Wow.

We were able to teach B right after that and we applied everything that we learned, and had one of the most spiritual lessons ever. She was kind of doubting things and not really focusing too well, but we asked her a question, and then paused for a good 3 minutes, the spirit came into her heart and she was able to bear testimony that she knows this is all true. She doesn't know how, but she just knows it's true. Man, that was so powerful. The spirit was strong. SO AWESOME!!! We also got to go to the YSA meeting with Elder Bednar and it was basically the same thing, but it was so cool to get a second witness of it all. 

Fre: We taught S and unfortunately, after all that we said and tried, we decided we need to drop him. it is an act of faith, but something good will come of it. Better times with H, he told us that just a few days before Elder L and A knocked his door, he had a pretty big argument with his mother. He knelt down that night and prayed to God that He would help him on the right way. Then those 2 knocked his door and gave him his own BoM, he knew that it was Gods answer to Him. Wow, that is incredible! We had never heard that part of the story before. It just goes to show that God is truly mindful of all of his children and is preparing them little by little until they are ready for the whole truth. God really is over his work. I love it!

Lör: We were able to go to the temple to watch H do baptisms for the dead for his first time. That was so cool. Seeing someone that you taught for a long time get baptized and then continue that desire to follow God by going to the temple to do ordinances for others, that was a really spiritual moment. He absolutely loved it! A lot of people cancelled on us one right after another, but whatya do? Move on! We had a moment when we were contacting where it was straight spanish for an hour. I was able to use quite a bit, but I still need to practice and get better. I am working on my Spanish!!!

tran SWAG gon

Sön: None of our investigators came to church, too bad.  We had a great contact on the street with two guys for 40 minutes later that night. It was intense and just super great. The spirit was really driving us to work on these guys and we are going to meet them again this week. Ill let you know more about it!

Ever since the Bednar Conference, things are just different. I don't know how to explain it. I have a greater desire to do the missionary work. My attitude about it has been changed and so much better. I feel the spirit so much more and I love it. Not really anything Elder Bednar did, but the way he allowed me to find out for myself things I could change has made a huge impact. I have spiritually grown so much from this and I hope to continue this pattern of growth and learning as I continue my mission and my life. I know Elder Bednar is an apostle of the Lord. I am excited to hear his words and the words of the other 14 prophets, seers and revelators at conference. I challenge you all to take in the lessons I have learned, to be Agents not objects, and let the spirit be the true teacher. I love this work, I love you all. Have a great week!

Love Elder Johnson