Week 24 - Transfers and Easter!

Glad Påsk på er! (Happy Easter everyone!)

This has been an awesome week!  Not too much happened on Tuesday but on Wednesday we had exchanges so Äldste Groberg from Halmstad so we had a lot of fun trying to contact people.

Thursday we had our last district meeting of the transfer.  For the study suggestions before hand we were told to read D Todd Christofferson's "Why the Church" from October 2015 and it was super good.  The District meeting went well and we talked a lot about helping people understand the importance of church.  We also had a member meal that night that was really good.  It was a classic Swedish meal called "Flyggande Jakob" (Flying Jacob) for those of you reading my emails looking for Swedish Cuisine.

On Friday Äldste Stapley and I got to go the Copenhagen Temple in Denmark!  A member took us and it was amazing.  We also went and saw the Kristus statue with all of the Apostles because it's only about ten minutes away.  It was super cool!  

Copenhagen, Denmark Temple

Copenhagen's Cathedral - The Church of Our Lady
Christus Statue and Statues of the 12 Apostles
were created by Danish Sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen

On Saturday we had transfer calls!  Elder Stapley will be heading back to the mission office and I will be going up to Norrköping!  They will have 2 other Elders coming in to Helsingborg but I will be companions with Elder Olson.  It's kind of cool because he's only a group (6 weeks) ahead of me and we met in the MTC so I am really looking forward to it.  We went out and did some work the rest of the day and had dinner at the Bishop's house and it was super fun.

Äldste Ashford is moving North to the area of Norrköping

Sunday was Easter and it was super great.  I gave a talk on Jesus Christ and His role before He began His Earthly Ministry.  I started by recapping the Plan of Salvation and I realized just how central Christ is to it.  Think through every step of the Plan and think about if Christ wasn't a part of it.  Without Christ volunteering to be our Savior in the Pre-Earth life, without Him creating the Earth, without Him instructing the Prophets of what to teach, without Him atoning for us, without Him dying and living again so that we could too, the Plan would not work.  Christ is central to the Plan and everything He does is to fulfill Heavenly Father's plan and help us.

Today for P-day we went to the Sofiero again which is the Royal summer house here in Helsingborg and it was a lot of fun.

--Elder Ashford

The first picture is a selfie of us with the Helsingborg sisters and the Halmstad Elders.

Then there is the picture of Sister Pullins with all us Elders pretending to look cool in the back and failing.

The third is us (Äldste Ashford and Äldste Stapley) outside of the temple.

Then there is the Kristus Statue.

The last two is me "holding" Syster Pullins' coat

Week 23 - Spring!

To start with for those of you who were worried, yes, I am okay.

No missionaries were hurt last week in Stockholm and I was on the other side of the country.  It's sad what happened but at the very least I know that all the missionaries are fine.

Now that we got that out of the way we can talk about the rest of the week.

We watched the last session of General Conference on Tuesday and it was amazing!  We hadn't gotten to see it yet so we had to watch it online and I loved it.  There was a really strong connection to missionary work and I kept feeling like a lot of what they were talking about was applicable to me and what we do in inviting others to come closer to Christ.

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Halmstad Elders so I went up to Halmstad for the day and it was a lot of fun.  We had about 4 lessons that day so we were busy.

Thursday I came back to Helsingborg and Äldste Stapley and I started our weekly planning.  I had kind of been struggling for a while because I felt like nothing was happening in the work and I didn't know what to do and I was frustrated.  In the mission a big phrase is Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts.  I talked with Elder Stapley and realized that I was too focused on results and Elder Stapley reminded me that the missionary purpose begins with "Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ".  Unfortunately we can't decide for others and our job is simply to invite and teach as much as we can.  I felt better and it was a much needed change in perspective.  There are things we can't control and so our job is simply to do what is within our control and accept that we did our part.  We can't take credit or blame ourselves that which we don't control or understand.  As I realized this I felt like a big weight was taken off my shoulders and I felt a lot better.  Later that night we then traveled to Göteborg and spent the night with the Zone leaders.  It was a lot of fun and one of them, Äldste Benson, was the one who trained my MTC companion, Aldste Beveridge!  So that was fun.

Friday we had the zone conference all day and it was a lot of fun and we talked a lot about seizing the day!  We only have so much time or so many opportunities so we need to grab them while we can.

Proof he was safe on the day of the attack in Stockholm sent by a local member.

Saturday we had a lesson in the morning but Äldste Stapley got sick.  We stayed in the apartment most of the day so that he could get over it but we made the most of it, trying to call people and organize paperwork. 

Sunday Elder Stapley was feeling better and I managed to not get sick so we had a great day at church.  We had dinner with the Bishop's family which was fun and we had a great time with them.  We watched the Easter initiative video and talked about peace and how we can find it through Christ and how we can share it with others it was great!

Overall it's been a great week and I love this mission and the opportunity I have to share the Joy of the Gospel with others.  Have a great week and happy Easter!

PS the pictures are of the spring here in Sweden.  There are flowers everywhere and it's awesome!

Week 22 - Back to Basics

Last week was a little short but I promised pictures and they are down below!

We went to Nimis which is basically this great big driftwood castle.  You can climb up on it and it's super cool!

Tuesday we had a an interesting day.  The Easter Initiative is up and there's a video for it that we can show people. [Mom's edit: Found on https://www.mormon.org/ theme is Prince of Peace] The problem was that our speaker in our phone wasn't working which makes it kind of difficult to show people.  So we took it in to get fixed and pick it up the next day.  We made sure to call people and everything ahead of time.

Wednesday we picked up our phone again so that was great. It works!  That night when we were at home for the night we had a companionship movie night by watching the Addiction Recovery Program videos on gospel library.  We had popcorn and everything.  Those videos are amazing and they are really show how the Atonement can be applied in our lives.  [Mom's Edit: Gospel Library is an app that can access LDS videos, scriptures, etc.  The Addiction Recovery Videos can also be found at https://www.mormonchannel.org/12steps ]

Thursday was district meeting which is always great.  We had a lesson after and we also had interviews with President but they were pretty short because he had to do a lot of them.  We also had a first lesson with someone which went really well.

Friday we had a few lessons and invited people to General Conference. [Mom's Note: General Conference is held twice a year and it is two days, multiple sessions filled with talks given by church leaders.]

Saturday morning we got to skype into a baptism for one of Äldste Stapley's investigators in Vendelsö which was really cool.  We came back to Landskrona afterwards for a member meal and did some weekly planning.  Apparently the missionaries here in Sweden have a tradition of buying "godis" for general conference which is basically you go to a candy store with a bag and scoop a whole bunch of candy and then you pay for it by the weight.  So we went with the sisters to the local Hemmakväl to buy some for conference before going home to cook dinner.  We then got to watch the Saturday morning session of conference live, but for us it started at 6 pm.

Sunday we just had general conference the whole day.  The priesthood session and Saturday afternoon we watched the recording of and then we watched the Sunday morning session live.  I love the opportunity to listen to our prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak to us.  There were so many things to take away from this conference that I felt like I needed to hear and apply in my life.  I feel like a lot of the talks brought us back to the basics.  We need to focus on the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We need to read the Book of Mormon and listen to the Spirit.  These are all things we have heard before and yet almost all of the talks came back to these simple exercises in faith that we are all familiar with already.  Some times we need that reminder in life to get back to the basics.  Sometimes when we get too caught up in the intricacies of life we forget how simple it can be and the perspective and peace that come from remembering to do the little things.  By small and simple means shall great things come to pass.

Have a wonderful week everyone and go back to the basics!

- Elder Ashford