Week 27 - 6 Months!

Tuesday I hit my 6 month mark! That's crazy! It was a pretty busy day we met with several investigators and we had a really good member meal. We were biking everywhere and Elder Olson guesses we probably went about 10 km by the end. We were out all day but it was awesome. We didn't really have time to celebrate much though.

Wednesday we visited some members out in Nyköping which was fun. One family had their cousin there so we taught the Restoration to him. He wasn't super interested but we invited him to try reading the Book of Mormon and he agreed to it.

Thursday we had Zone Training in Eskilstuna which was great! We focused a lot on trying to set baptismal dates with our investigators, but specifically making sure that they are serious about them and that we make those invitations out of love. Those invitations aren't very meaningful if we or our investigators can't feel that they are important and that we do it because we really do want them to be able to come closer to their Heavenly Father.

 The Sister Training Leaders also did a segment about the traps and snares in our missionary work. The idea was for everyone to think about what is it that they do that holds them back in their missionary work. Maybe it's their attitude about the area, maybe it's their way of thinking, there are things for all of us that we trip ourselves up with. So we had a really good discussion as a zone as to what some of those were and the benefits of trying to overcome them. It was a really good thing to think about. 

As we were on our way back a lot of us had trains that left roughly the same time so we all went to the station together. We watched the Västeros elders get on a train and then someone noticed it was the wrong one. It was funny as we got them off the train and then saw them run to go catch their actual one. Thankfully they made it. 

We got home and we went to go meet with one of our investigators but he ended up not coming. Elder Olson felt like we should maybe try to swing by a less active member. We went and as we finished unlocking our bikes he actually walked by on his way home. He invited us in and we met with him for a while. It went pretty well. As we were biking home me and Elder Olson both agreed that God must of had a hand in this because it seemed coincidental that we were at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately the man didn't seem to interested to come back to church right now but for whatever reason we were meant to be there that night.

Friday we helped a lady in the ward with her computer, she is older and technology is a little complicated but she really wants to be able to do family history so we found a way to make it easier for her to get to familysearch.org. We then went and contacted out on the street for a while. We met with an investigator and did some weekly planning for the night.

Saturday we contacted in the morning and then had lunch and tried to call people and set up meetings for this week. We then had dinner with a member so that was nice.

Sunday was awesome. Our investigator with a baptismal date came to church and we were able to start planning some stuff for that. We also had a really good Fast and Testimony meeting as well. They had kind of a short talk about home and visiting teaching and that kind of set the tone for when everyone else bore their testimonies. A lot of people talked about the blessings they have received or seen in others' lives as they did their visits. It great that in the church we have a system where we can look after each other in the ward to make sure everyone is taken care of temporally and spiritually. We then had an investigator come right after sacrament meeting. He had thought that church started an hour later but it was awesome to see him there anyways and he stayed for Sunday School. We then had 3rd hour and in priesthood we talked about home teaching again. It was a really good discussion. 

Afterwards we went and visited one of the members and we talked about missionary work. It was amazing! We talked about the blessings that all of us have received from the Gospel and then we talked about how we can then help others find those same blessing by talking about the Gospel with others. Sharing the Gospel doesn't have to be scary. You don't have to go out and share a lesson with a stranger on the street. It could be as simple as saying you went to church when someone asks you about your weekend. Or if someone asks what you've been up to you can share something that you read from your scriptures that day that you've been thinking about. He is kind of a quiet guy but he seemed to light up a bit when he realized that it doesn't have to be such a big deal to share the Gospel with others.

Today was P-day and uh... We bought a pump organ! We went shopping at a second hand store and we walked by this pump organ. It works almost perfectly and the price was 100 crowns which is a little bit more than 10 dollars. Elder Olson got super excited and decided we were getting it. We went and did some grocery shopping and called some other missionaries for help and then came back later and bought it. We then carried it a few hundred feet to out apartment and got it in. So yeah... instead of the usual guitar or piano you find in a missionary apartment we have a pump organ.

It's been an awesome week and I hope you all have a wonderful week. Happy Mother's Day this week!

(First two pictures are with the pump organ and then the last is a picture of an upcoming music festival that is coming to Norrköping next month. We will likely be rocking out to Mormon Tabernacle Choir and our new organ instead)