Week 47 - Ja Man Han Lever!

This was quite the week I must say.

P-day was pretty relaxed. We hung out with the Handen Elders for awhile. We also got a haircut and one of the members in Handen's ward was there and he bought our haircuts for us so that was awesome!

Tuesday We had a lesson with a girl and she was pretty positive so that was cool. It turns out that she actually lives in Nynäshamn which is in Västerhaninge's ward so we will be introducing her to the missionaries there. We then had a meal with some members in the ward but they actually forgot that they were feeding us. Thankfully they had simply made Swedish pancakes (It's a little thicker than a crepe) so they just made a few more and we still got to eat. We all kind of laughed at the situation.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference. That was fun especially since it was my birthday. As far as mission birthdays go, zone conference is nothing to complain about. We got to see a whole bunch of old friends and we had some great training as well. I got a lot of answers to questions and ideas to solve things I've been trying to figure out for a while now so that was awesome. When we prepare spiritually and search for answers, God will give us what we need to know. During lunch they sang the Swedish version of happy birthday to everyone that had a birthday since last zone conference. The Swedish birthday song is so epic, I still can't get over it. The first line is either "Ja man han lever" or "Ja man han leva" if you want to try to find a clip of it on YouTube or something. After Zone Conference we got to go have dinner with a member family before going back to the church to have interviews with President Youngberg. Interviews are always a highlight. We have about 5 to ten minutes 1 on 1 with the mission president, it's great.

Mom's Note: Blog Link to the Swedish Birthday Song. These are the lyrics:

Ja, må han leva!

Ja, må han leva!

Ja, må han leva uti hundrade år!

Javisst ska han leva!

Javisst ska han leva!

Javisst ska han leva uti hundrade år!

In English:

Yes, may he live!

Yes, may he live!

Yes, may he live for a hundred years!

Of course he will live!

Of course he will live!

Of course he will live for a hundred years!

The song usually ends with four repetitions of “Hurra!” 

Thursday we had a lesson with one of our recent converts which was a lot of fun. Her testimony is super solid which is awesome to see. She loves the Gospel and just wants to know more. We also did quite a bit of finding work and we somehow we exchanged numbers with a Polish man. He could only speak a few phrases of English and Swedish so in addition to that we communicated through google translate and charades but it worked! We promised to bring him a Book of Mormon in Polish and he seemed to be looking forward to it.

Friday we had weekly planning. We also used google translate to set up a meeting with our new found Polish friend so that we could give him his copy of The Book of Mormon. Speaking of The Book of Mormon we got to go to Stockholm and we passed out copies of the Book of Mormon to people walking out of the Book of Mormon Musical there. We probably gave out 150 to 200 copies that night. We didn't go to bed until about 11:40 at night because we were passing out the books from about 10:15 to 10:35 and then had to travel home after that. It was cool though. A lot of people are impressed that we are there. At first some of them think we are with the play and then they realize we are the real deal and are amazed that we would show up on the doorstep to a play making fun of us, but there we are! 

Saturday we talked with people on the street. We also went to a ward activity. Our chapel was built about a year ago so they were celebrating. We were there for a little bit but none of the investigators we invited were there and so we left after a little bit only to find out later that one of our investigators actually came after we left. We went back to the play again that night as well to give out Book of Mormons and it went well, I think we gave out more than on Friday night. We then returned home and once again went to bed around 11:40... that was brutal.

Sunday we had church which went well. One of our members brought a friend so we taught him a little bit. That was super cool. We also had to take care of Handen's investigators because the Handen Elders were doing exchanges with the Elders on Gotland (the big island of the coast of Sweden) and they weren't getting back until that night. So we actually went to Sacrament meeting twice. We went home for lunch and then came back that night because in addition to the party the day before the ward was also celebrating with a concert. It was awesome! They had a lot of really great songs, including one that mixed some church song with the Na Na Na Hey Ya Na part from the movie Frozen. That was unexpected but it was pretty cool. Learning from our mistake on Saturday we stayed at the concert despite not seeing our investigators come and one of the members introduced us to one of her friends that came that is interested in the church so that was exciting!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! General Conference is coming up this next weekend where the Prophet and Apostles will speak to us and I can't wait to hear what guidance they have in store! 

--Elder Ashford

Pictures are of Me and Sister Hill at Zone Conference (We both started our missions in Helsingborg.)

Then there was a few of us using the party favors my mom care packaged me for my birthday.

Then there is me and Elder Anthon at the musical.

Week 46 - Gaining traction!

This week we have started to see more success than we've had so it's been pretty exciting!

Monday we had a pretty relaxed P-day, we then had a member meal and got to be with them for their family home evening which was fun.  On our way home we ran into a kid from Gubbängens ward and his dad, we had met the son last P-day on our way back from the Vasa so that was pretty fun.

Tuesday we did some contacting without much luck in the morning but we went tracting later and found one lady that was super positive! We taught her the restoration on her doorstep in 5-10 minutes and by the end she was happy to take a Book of Mormon! It was awesome. We tracted a little bit further and before going to a member meal.  In the middle of it I get a call from our investigator we had scheduled for 6:30 (It was then 5:30) saying he was at the church. He had remembered the time wrong but he said it was fine and he would come back at our appointed time. Meanwhile Elder Anthon finished our meal and then the husband drove us to the church so that we could make it for our lesson with our investigator. It was a little crazy but everything worked out.  We had an awesome lesson about the restoration. He has actually investigated a little bit in the past and he wants to be baptized but he knows he needs to stop smoking first. We assured we could help him with that. It was so awesome to see someone so ready for the Gospel.

Wednesday we had success as well! We went out hoping to find 2 potential investigators (TUs as we like to call them which stands for "tänkbara undersökare"). We prayed that morning that we would be able to find them and then went out contacting. We got our first TU of the day in that first time that we spent contacting. We kept working throughout the day and we still hadn't found our second TU. We were out contacting late at night and decided to start heading towards home to make our 9 o'clock curfew. The thought crossed that mind that we hadn't quite reached our goal and we were almost home when we see these two young men coming our way. We stopped them and talked to them real quick and got their number. TU! We prayed and put in the work and the Lord delivered!

Thursday we had correlation meeting with our ward mission leader and a large chunk of it was about the The Book of Mormon  Musical that is starting up again. Last year there were missionaries there to every showing when it started last year. They would wait outside for the ending of the show and then when the people came out of the theater they were met by several missionaries with arms full of Book of Mormons. Within 15 minutes all of the books would be gone. Last year they went through around 6000 before they ran out.  This year we are doing the same and since we are in Vendelsö we get to go every other week to hand out copies. The office already ordered 10,000 copies this year in advance. We discussed that a bit in our meeting and I'll keep you updated when we go to the theater this week. We also did some weekly planning and then met a TU from a few weeks ago. It turned out he was some sort of lesser Imam and he invited us to the local mosque so we went and got to ask some questions and sit in on a prayer service which was pretty cool.

Friday we had district meeting and did some more finding work. We had a really good discussion on charity though during District meeting and how we need to have charity for those we serve and work with.

Saturday we swung by a bunch of people that said we could come back again but they either didn't answer or were busy. There was one guy that we visited though. He told us he wasn't interested but he had us in and we talked and he gave us a glass of water. He apparently always lets the missionaries in because he knows our job isn't easy but he appreciates that we are always nice and polite and that we give up so much to come here on a mission so that was cool. We were able to leave him with a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it.

Sunday we had church which went really well. We had one investigator come which was awesome and then we had another lady come but she went to Handen's ward instead... She is super positive though so that is a minor detail that we can work out.  What's funny is that there is only one other chapel in all of Sweden that has more than 1 ward that meets there so this problem isn't exactly common here.

It's been a super good week and this week should be a lot of fun between zone conference and the musical so I'll keep you updated!

--Elder Ashford

Photos this week:

The first two were of the sky a few days ago cause it was pretty nice outside 

 

and then the last one is  a funny sign we saw while knocking doors. 

It reads: Warning for the dog! Small, but cocky.

Week 45

So last Monday was pretty fun.  We went to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm which was super cool. The Vasa is this roughly 375 year old ship that was super fancy, it was meant to be the highlight of the Swedish Navy back in the day, but it was poorly designed and sank before it could even make it out to the ocean. They recovered it awhile ago and it is now in the museum. It was super interesting to read about it and to see it there.

On Tuesday we showed a group of people around the church. They seemed to have more of an academic interest but we were able to explain a lot about the church so that was cool.

On Wednesday we had splits so I went to Handen with Elder Wilson. We went contacting on the streets and it was the best contacting I have had in a long time. Somehow we got 4 or 5 people's numbers so that was awesome! We had a great time and I definitely learned a few things.

Thursday we had district meeting. That went really well. We had some good discussion on how to try to help keep those we teach active in the church and that was super good. Elder Anthon and I went home afterwards, did some studies before having a senior couple come and inspect our apartment. It was Elder and Sister Petit and they are pretty cool. Their focus is on Self-reliance and they actually started their mission in Scotland and then after a year were reassigned to Sweden so that's pretty wild.

Friday we did weekly planning and a tracted for a while. We then brought an investigator with us to a member meal which was fun and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

After Splits on Wednesday I was thinking about how if we were able to get so many people's numbers in Handen's area less than 20 minutes from our own area, why shouldn't we be able to find people in ours. We had had maybe 1 potential investigator in about 3 weeks at that point. I mentioned that on Saturday morning to Elder Anthon that maybe we should focus on having the faith to find in companionship study. That day we had 2 lessons with potential investigators that both went great and we got 2 new potential investigators despite it being kind of rainy!  We also got two more potential investigators that night contacting as well which was awesome!  We also gave out a Spanish Book of Mormon while tracting and the guy gave us some South American chocolate. It's always a good day when you get chocolate while tracting. :)

Sunday we had church which was wonderful as always. We also got a referral from the Handen Elders so that was super awesome. We also had a member meal which was fun before going out and tracting.

It's been a super good week and I definitely feel like I learned a lot this week about how to have faith and act on it. If we have faith then God can guide us and as we work hard God will multiply our efforts. 

--Elder Ashford

Week 44 - It feels like September

So the answer to the big question from last week... No I am not training this transfer.  I am still here in Vendelsö with Elder Anthon but that means I should train next transfer if everything goes relatively normal... But so far my transfers have been anything but so we shall see...
(Mom's note - the the three that didn't get their visas are currently serving in Arizona.)

The title for this week comes from the weather, it's dropped down to about mid fifties in fahrenheit I think so it's been a little chilly and it's been getting windy. Basically it feels exactly like how fall comes in Minnesota, I just know it's coming.

As for this week

Monday we went to Stockholm for P-day and went to the Swedish History Museum with the Handen Elders and the Västerhaninge Sisters so that was fun.  We got a whole bunch of good pictures too.

Tuesday we got to go to Stockholm again, this time we were helping out with taking all the missionaries that had just arrived that morning have their first experience contacting in Sweden. I was with Elder Strong and we got to go around talking to people. I hadn't realized we were supposed to be back at 2:40 so Elder Strong got an extra 15 minutes on the streets but it was awesome haha.

Wednesday we met with one of our recent converts which was awesome. She has a super strong testimony and it's awesome to see! We reviewed the restoration and it went super well. We also went on a short home teaching visit with a member with about 20 minutes notice before going to a member meal so that was also pretty exciting.

Thursday we had District meeting. Our district is now huge as we added the 4 missionaries in Hägersten with the transfer so now there are 14 of us with 4 skyping in from Visby. We were tracting later that night and we tried a door that had said to come back later. We knocked and asked if we could come in. The man was super nice and said they didn't have a ton of time but asked if we could just share real quick. We explained the Restoration in about 2 or 3 minutes and then were able to give him a Book of Mormon. He said he wasn't interested in meeting right then but he said he would read the book. It was super awesome though. I think we'll try again in a month or two.

Friday we had weekly planning so that took a while but we went tracting and I had quite the surprise. We knocked on this one man's house, he was very nice and said he wasn't interested but that his wife's sister was a member in our church and upon asking a question or two we established that she was one of the members I had met in the Norrköping ward! So that was super cool!

Saturday we swung by a potential investigator that we only had the address for and he is only there on the weekends. We have been trying for a month to meet him again and this time he was home! He let us in and thus began a 2 hour discussion, it was awesome! We even taught about the Plan of Salvation and a little bit more about the Book of Mormon among other things. He was rather non-committal for a little bit but I tried to just keep testifying of the truth of our message and inviting him to learn more and to try. In the end he said he would continue reading out of the Book of Mormon that we had given him last time and then we were able to get his phone number so we could meet again! It was awesome and I was able to feel the Spirit pretty strongly as I just kept bearing my testimony of the Gospel.

Sunday we had church and it was Fast and Testimony meeting. We had a great meeting and we even had two investigators there. After Sacrament meeting we took our investigators with us and a member and taught them the Restoration during Sunday School. We were able to answer some questions that they had and the member was awesome about bearing his testimony to our investigators. It was fantastic!  We had a member meal later that day to which was fun and then we went out and knocked doors for awhile.

It's been an awesome week and I look forward to writing you all again next week!

-Elder Ashford

Pictures are of everyone from my (MTC) group last week that were at train the trainers (I didn't have the photo last week).

Then there are the awesome bathroom signs at the Swedish History Museum along with a picture of the group and my companion modeling some of the headware on display for people to try.

(Another Group Shot that Mom found and shamelessly "borrowed" on another Missionary's Blog - Thanks Elder Wilson!)