Tuesday was extremely windy here in Skåne. To give you reference we walked down by the coast in Landskrona and my companion spat into the wind and it went about 20 feet the other direction. (a little gross I know but I don't have anything else to give for reference, still quite impressive) It was super pretty outside though and the sun was shining and it was pretty warm so it was a nice day.
Wednesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders so I stayed in Landskrona with Äldste Nelson. The man is a master contacter. In about 3 hours of street contacting throughout the day we talked to 180 people. It was awesome! One guy we talked to on the bus. It turns out he was going to make the same train as us. We started talking to him and explained a little bit about what we do and a little about what we believe. We had a 40 minute discussion with him between the bus and train ride. By the end of the ride he was willing to be baptized! We got his number and set up an appointment for Saturday before we caught another bus up to Höganäs for a lesson.
Thursday we had district meeting and it was a little crowded. The assistants were going on splits with the zone leaders right after they went on splits with us so we had an extra 4 people compared to our usual 6. It was a lot of fun though and it was cool to hear from some other people as well in our discussion. We all went out for some Kebab afterwards. Äldste Murtonen and I then had a few members to visit and then called people. We also made pancakes for dinner, because why not.
Friday we had weekly planning and some other appointments.
Saturday though was interesting. There was a funeral for a member but her whole family wasn't members so the Bishop wanted us missionaries there. We helped with what we could and were there to show support but we weren't really sure what we were doing though. At the end however, the Bishop mentioned to us that a lot of people had asked about us and why we were there so it was a really good experience for those people to have some contact with the church. We also had a lesson with our investigator and we taught the Restoration, the lesson we usually teach the first time with people because it explains about the Church as well as the Book of Mormon. It went really well. It is so exciting to meet someone so willing to learn about the Gospel. There are people ready to hear about the Gospel and he is definitely one of them. It's miraculous how we started with talking to a random guy on a bus and within a few days he has a baptismal date. It's so cool to see people who want to come closer to God and follow Jesus Christ when there are so many people in this world that either don't understand or don't want to understand the Gospel.
On Sunday we had church. One of the members brought a friend so we actually taught him during Sunday School about the basics of the Church and the Book of Mormon. After that we also taught in priesthood meeting using Elder Jefferey R. Holland's talk from October about the importance and role of home teachers. It is an amazing talk. We also had a dinner with some of the young adults in the ward at the Bishop's house and he showed us a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox from 2011. It was about grace and it really helped me understand grace better than ever before. He described grace like how children get piano lessons. Mom pays the piano teacher for the lessons for the child. The child doesn't pay the piano teacher or their mother. What the child does do, however, is that in return for the lessons they are expected to practice. They are expected to learn and improve and become better. To work through mistakes. They aren't expected to be perfect but they are expected to do something. The same applies with Christ's Atonement for us. Christ has already payed the price for our sins. We are saved by His grace. In return we try to do our best. We will stumble, we will not be perfect, but we will change as we strive to follow His example. I highly recommend you watch it. It's 20 or 30 minutes but it explains this principle so clearly.
I wish you all a wonderful week!
---Elder Ashford
---Elder Ashford
The pictures are first, all of us after getting kebab,
and then next is me next to a cannon on the coast of Landskrona.
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