Week 94 - My Eye!

On Monday it was really weird, I felt like I had something stuck in my eye and I couldn't get it out. We swung by an apotek (pharmacy) and got some kind of rinse fluid and this little eye cup thing which helped but didn't quite solve the problem but we went out and did some finding anyways. We gave out 2 Book of Mormons that night and we even talked to this one guy for awhile. He speaks Vietnamese as his first language so we offered to come back with one later and it was awesome. He had been working on his house I think trying to insulate around the foundation of his house or something. He had dug by hand this hole that was seriously 7-8 feet deep, 15 feet long, and 3 feet wide, and cleared all the rocks and lifted them out by hand. Seriously legendary.

Tuesday we had a lesson with a member that went pretty well and then we had a little bit of time, we decided to maybe try contacting so we started biking through this park and then stop to decide if we want to try there when this one man comes by and we start talking to him, we hadn't even had a chance to fully dismount from our bikes yet. He was visiting Gävle on a business trip from Shanghai and we talked with him for like 15 minutes or so and he even took our picture so that was really cool! Later we went out knocking doors again but ran into our friend from Monday night and thankfully we remembered to put a Vietnamese Book of Mormon in our bag just in case so that was awesome. 

On Wednesday I finally managed to get whatever it was in my eye out, what a relief! We did some service at RIA again and met with Ulrika. We had a pretty busy day planned with coordination meeting and two lessons for that night however one of the lessons fell through and the other we had to cut short because the kids were kind of tired.

Thursday we had  a great district meeting.We focused on getting to know the people we talk to which was great. We also swung by a few people who live near the church and ran into a few that have met with missionaries before so that was awesome. 

Friday we went on a ministering visit with our branch mission leader and he showed us President Nelson's recent announcement to focus on using the name of the Church more, that we are in fact The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have since been trying to put extra emphasis on it the last few days, but it's a little tricky when everyone that knows anything about us simply knows us as "the Mormons", I guess we have a little work to do haha.

Saturday we had interviews with President Youngberg which were great. I can't believe I only have on more before my final interview at the end of next transfer, WHAT!! Time goes by way too fast.  We went by several people to invite them to an upcoming branch activity and we had some great success. We swung by someone who was taught before and while she couldn't come she appreciated that we came by and hopefully we can try to keep in contact. We also went by a less-active member and his daughter answered the door and said she might come! We were kind of excited. We also had an awesome lesson with Juhani and we were able to really read quite a bit from the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon so much and how much I learn from it. It's so cool that I can receive answers and guidance from people that lived 2000 years ago and yet is still relevant to me today. It's fantastic!

Sunday we had an awesome day in church. We taught the third hour lesson to Priesthood and Relief Society and we talked about the talks "With One Accord" and "Ministering as the Savior Does" and we had an awesome discussion about what it means to be unified and act in unity, what it means to minister, and then how we can minister as the Savior does in unity. It was really awesome and definitely something I feel like we can all ponder about.

Sorry no pictures this week but I we are heading to zone conference tonight so I will try to do a little better.

--Elder Ashford