Week 57 - Do You Believe in Miracles!?

So much has happened this week... Oh my goodness...

Last P-day we went to Stockholm and that was pretty fun. We ran into the assistants not once but twice so that was kind of funny. There was also a couple visiting from the US (he served his mission in Sweden about 30-40 years ago) so we talked to them. We also did some finding work and we showed one guy the Christmas initiative video for #LIGHTtheWORLD and he really liked it and said he would check it out along with the advent calendar. (go check it out on https://www.mormon.org/)

Tuesday I accidentally bumped our door alarm and we didn't know the code so it just kept making noise. We ended up just leaving it but our landlord turned it off for us later so that was awesome.  We went to the Senior Center again which was fun and Elder Langford even got in on a few games of pool. We also went to a member's home and did a practice lesson.  We talked about faith and repentance and we tied Ether 12:27 to repentance which is something I have never done before but it was super cool. The Spirit was super strong and when we invited them to write down 5 names of people to reach out to about the Gospel or to invite to the Christmas concert they had 10 names within about 2 minutes. It was so cool!

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders so I was here in Vendelsö with Elder Malone. We swung by a previous investigator and we talked with him about the Christmas Initiative and he really opened up to us. We managed to get inside and just talk for about 15 minutes but it was super cool. We even invited him to our ward Christmas concert and he said he might come. We also did a lot of finding with some good success.

Thursday we had district meeting and that was pretty fun. We had a good discussion on where all of our areas are at right now. We then went home and we visited a less active and read Alma 7 with him which was pretty fun.  We then went out contacting. We had been out contacting for a bit and there was a member family that lived nearby. We decided to real quick stop by, knock on there door, say hi, and then tell them we were working in the area and ask if they would pray for us. We did so and their two teenagers opened the door and gladly accepted! We then started walking again to find people and a few streets over not even 5 minutes later there is a lady and a young girl coming towards us and the woman said hello to us from about 50 meters away. It was one of our previous investigators we have been trying to reconnect with! She seemed happy to see us and even said she might come to church soon and was very interested in the upcoming Christmas Concert. It was awesome!

Friday we had a lesson with one of our recent converts and we went through the sacrament prayers in Moroni and discussed what they mean and it was a really awesome experience to see her understand more of what it talks about. We then started off Christmas initiative strong by writing thank you letters to our ward mission leader and bishopric and delivering them. We also had another practice lesson with a member family and it went super well.

Saturday we did some finding and ran into that same guy that we have run into twice now (we now know that his name is Kennith) and we talked for a little bit so that was good. We also had the adult session of Stake Conference that we attended and that was super cool. Elder Phillips of the Seventy was there and spoke along with our mission president. After we got back from stake conference, had enough time to eat dinner, and then left to go to The Book of Mormon Musical for the late night showing to pass out copies of the Book of Mormon. We were waiting at the bus stop and this lady comes up and sits down on the bench. I asked her where she was going and she said she was on her way to go salsa dancing which started a fun conversation. Pretty quickly it came up that we were missionaries and we started talking a little bit. She got onto the same bus as us although we didn't sit next to each other but she also got onto the same tunnelbana (subway) and was even headed to the same stop. We started our conversation again, this time talking about her plans for Christmas and we invited her to our upcoming Christmas concert and gave her our card with the time written on it. She asked a little bit further about what was different about our church and I pulled out a Book of Mormon and used the pictures to explain about it, we even got off in the midst of the explanation and walked out of the station with her. We offered her the book and she accepted! We didn't get her number but we were definitely there at the right time and place and we are hoping to see her at the Christmas concert! 

Sunday we had Stake Conference and we got there early to practice for the stake choir. We had a great stake conference! A topic that was brought up a lot was in reference to Elder Ballard's broadcast to Europe from about 2 months ago that encouraged us to believe in miracles and help make them happen.  We then got to go to the musical again as well and between that and travel it took up a lot of our day.

It's has been an awesome week and next week looks to be a good one too!

The pictures are of Stockholm at about 4:30pm.

--Elder Ashford