Last week after emailing we met with one of the members in the ward, he was baptized last August. We had a great lesson about missionary work. We ended up watching Elder Bednar's talk "Come and See" from October 2014 General Conference and it is actually addressed to people who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The talk is about why our church does so much missionary work. It is fantastic! I highly recommend it to everyone, it's quite funny and explains beautifully why go out and try to talk to everyone about our church.
Tuesday we met with a few investigators including Nils-Erik, we had a great lesson with him and prepared a little more for his baptism.
Wednesday we had splits so Elder Dawson and I were here in Norrköping. It was a lot of fun, we were in the same group in the MTC so that was kind of exciting. We visited a few members and helped one of them move some things around her house. We also had a lesson with a man that I contacted last week with one of the Assistants when they stopped by. We then went out home teaching with one of the members and got dinner out of it too! We talked about the blessings of the Restoration and everything that we can benefit from now because of it. Such things as the Book of Mormon, the Priesthood, temples, and more. As we were leaving we the husband also asked us to teach him how to tie a tie which was pretty fun. (He had his tie tied on Sunday and it looked great! He was quite pleased with himself
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Thursday we had a district meeting about "knowing your story". Whether that story be your own personal experiences with the Gospel or knowing the story of the Gospel. It was a great time to remember why we teach what we do and what is our own personal experiences with what we teach. After district meeting we met with Nils-Erik one last time before the baptism on Saturday. We then called one of the people that we had recently contacted on the street but hadn't met with yet. We got a hold of him and agreed to meet a half hour later. We actually met him on the spårvagn (A tram essentially) on the way to his house. We sat down outside and taught the Restoration, applying some of what we had talked about in district meeting. We felt the Spirit pretty strongly as we testified of the beginning of the Church. At the end he said that "some of the things you said really touched me". He had felt the Spirit too! It was really cool to see that he could feel that. The Holy Ghost is there as we testify of truth and speaks to people through their thoughts and in their heart. It was awesome to see that in the lesson.
Friday we had a lesson with a member and then had a member meal. The member we ate with was actually a missionary under Elder Rasband in the New York, New York South Mission so that was really cool.
Saturday was the baptism! We had a great turnout and it went super smoothly, there were virtually no problems during the entire process. It was awesome! We then had a lesson with an investigator before meeting a member. We watched Elder Holland's talk from this most recent General Conference. It's a really great talk and one of my favorite quotes from conference comes from this talk. “Come as you are,” a loving F
I love this quote so much. Heavenly Father will always love us no matter what, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't want us to grow or progress. He helps us to reach our own greater potential.
Sunday was great! We had a really full sacrament meeting and even had 4 investigators there! It was crazy! Nils-Erik was also confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost which was awesome! After church we had 'dinner' with a member family at around 2 o'clock because it was right after church. It was a lot of fun. We then went home and called some people. Then we went out and knocked some doors.
This week has been super amazing. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to learn and grow as we get to know all of these wonderful people. It is inspiring to meet remarkable people and to see how the Gospel works in their lives. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Enjoy the sunshine (although you probably don't have as much as we have all the way up here)!
-- Elder Ashford
The first picture is us biking at about 9 o'clock at night. Then is our picture at Nils-Erik's baptism. The last picture was our bikes in the morning. The trees have been releasing this yellow stuff that is apparently not pollen but it gets literally everywhere. Our bikes our in a little courtyard without a tree in sight and they were still covered.
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