Tuesday we went out and visited a member out in Lingbo again which was cool. We also had dinner with our branch president which was good.
On Wednesday we helped serve lunch at RIA again and then met with Ulrika at the library and read the Book of Mormon with her, she is seriously so funny it's great. That night we had dinner at a member's house to celebrate the Fourth of July, they had American flags up, hamburgers, and even root beer! (It's been awhile since I have had root beer, Swedes think it tastes like toothpaste so it isn't exactly popular here haha.)
On Thursday the Uppsala Elders came to us for district meeting as we went on Splits right afterwards. So Elder Dawson and I were back together here in good old Gävle. We got to help a member move a sofa out of his apartment and then bring up the replacement...it was 3 flights of stairs in a cramped stairwell...it was a bit of an adventure. They really appreciated the help though! We also got to do some finding and then we met with one of the people we are teaching that night. We then got to finish the night off with eating some ice cream and chocolate sauce (some members showed us how to make it from scratch... it's soooo good).
On Friday we switched back from splits, and did some planning and we had dinner with a member. They told us to meet them at 5 pm outside of a funeral home... rather odd instructions until they show up and then take us to the resteraunt next door. They are funny! We then had another lesson that night so we were cruising around town.
Saturday we played Innebandy and had a lesson with some members about following the prophet and we watched President Nelson's talk on "Seeking Revelation" (I seriously love that talk.) We then headed over to our Branch President's home because or mission president gave us permission to watch the SWEDEN VS ENGLAND GAME! So we got to watch the world cup with President Sjökvist. Sweden lost unfortunately but it was still fun to Heja Sverige.
Yesterday we had a great day in church. That great day was followed up by swinging by a less active with some banana bread, her non-member husband then said that they would maybe be able to come to church next sunday (before we even got a chance to ask), and then after we left she texted us and said to tell her ahead of time next time so she can make us food! It was more than we ever could have asked for from swinging by. We also then ate dinner with a member family and they invited their neighbor to come as well which was pretty fun.
Miracle for the week!
2 district meetings ago we talked about successfully failing and not being too scared of posting things to facebook and so we all committed to post something during the week. We decided to post something, more with a specific investigator in mind but we posted it so that others could see it too. We later saw that one of our recent converts that has gone less active saw the post and liked it. The next day she sent us a text (she initiated, not us) saying how she missed us and missed church. We texted back saying we had missed her and set up for a time to have fika (like a tea or coffee break would be the closest translation) with her (this coming thursday). Fast forward to yesterday, she came to church! We hadn't really expected her to come but she came and we were thrilled! The rest of the branch seemed pretty excited too as we haven't seen her for awhile. Facebook is such a wonderful tool and it's easy to underestimate how far reaching it is. This was not the result we had intended or expected from that post but it set off a wonderful chain of events. The Lord works through small and simple things!
Another cool thought. We had an investigator ask us some tough questions regarding the Word of Wisdom (a sort of health code for the church that includes abstaining from alcohol, coffee, tobacco, tea, and illegal drugs) but what is interesting is in the scriptures where it is explained that in the last verse it talks about how "how the destroying angel shall pass over", in reference to the Jewish Passover when the Jews marked their doorposts. God probably would have known who was righteous and who wasn't without that physical indication but it was all about obedience. So in other words the Word of Wisdom is all about obedience and being different from the world, which is why for example they drank wine in the bible but now it is excluded. It was a really cool realization and it makes a lot more sense now as to why we follow it in addition to the other benefits and blessings I have seen in my life that come from it. God loves and cares for us in all aspects of our lives whether it be spiritually or temporally.
It's been a great week and I wish you all the best!
In addition here are some pics from the Fourth of July and the world cup game
-- Elder Ashford
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