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