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!)

Week 43 - So Train Me Maybe?!?

This week has been quite the roller coaster so here we go!

Monday we were eating dinner when a potential investigator we had wanted to meet but had never confirmed texted us and asked if we were meeting, after a little confusion we established that we were meeting and rushed out the door to get to the church to meet with him. The lesson went pretty well so that was good after our little adventure of cutting dinner short to rush out there but it all worked out in the end.

Tuesday we did a little bit finding. We were out tracting in Brandbergen when we got a call from President Youngberg. We stop and find a slightly secluded spot and he tells us that we're both training! We were both super excited! The rest of the day we continued knocking doors other than a brief break for a member meal.

Wednesday we had district meeting a day early so that the assistants could some and join us so that was fun. We all had lunch together at the church and then Elder Wilson and I went on splits back in Vendelsö. We met with a recent convert so that was fun. We then went tracting and accidentally tracted into one of our member families! It was super funny, we laughed and they invited us in and we got to practice for our member meal at another family's house right afterward.

Thursday we switched back and we had a great lesson with one of our investigators at a member's house and it was fun because we were reading from the Book of Mormon in 3 languages, English, Swedish, Amharic.(Mom's Note: Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia. Thank you Google!) 

Friday we went to Train the Trainers in Täby! It was a big party. there were 19 trainers there, 7 of us were from my group and 3 more have been my companions at some point so that was pretty cool. We had some awesome training before heading home. We had a great member meal and knocked some more doors.

Saturday we did more finding, We usually trade off every time someone answers a door for who is the one to start talking and I must have had a spree of at least 20 doors in a row that didn't answer so that was interesting.

Sunday morning, we were halfway through planning for our day when we get a call from President... 2 Elders and a Sister had to wait for their visas and won't be coming in on time and Elder Anthon and I will be the trainers waiting for those missionaries. President said we find out Monday night if they even make it at all this transfer or if we get to stay together for another 6 weeks. So we shall see what happens next week! We had church after planning and Sacrament meeting was about Personal revelation. One of the speakers mentioned something interesting which was that we have to be humble enough to receive revelation.  We need to be humble enough to follow the Lord's council and guidance and do things His way instead of ours. I really like that thought.  We had a great day in church and we had a fun member meal with a Nigerian family as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and we'll see what happens next week!

Pictures are of us elders coming back from splits.

--Elder Ashford

Week 42 - Interviews

We've had a number of fun encounters this week so here we go.

Monday after P-day we went out contacting for a little while and we ran into these guys who believe in this thing which I believe is called "The Book of Knowledge". It's interesting because it essentially blends all of the major religions in the world and yet they believe in something very similar to the Plan of Salvation. They believe that we are here on earth to go through experiences and trials so that we we can learn and improve and that we receive a heaven after this life according to our actions.  There were a number of other things too that were interesting about it.  For me it actually just testified more of the Restoration of the Gospel. When different groups split off from being God's people they still had small pieces of truth that then warped over time, yet somehow when someone tried to kind of combine all of these they were able to get some ideas pretty close, yet they still didn't have God's priesthood authority and so they weren't able to establish truth in it's fullness.  It was still a very interesting conversation and we got one of their numbers so we'll so what else I can find out when we meet with him.

Tuesday was wild. We went contacting in Brandbergen for awhile with no luck but then we came across this one man that we had kind of walked past a few times. We were both headed into the mall there and I said hi and then he stopped and started talking to us, we sat down because he was curious because we kept running into each other so he wanted to know more about what we were out doing. We talked for about an hour and taught the basics of most of the Restoration. He then invited us to his place for lunch so we went with him, and he started making us lunch. As we were eating one of our members walked into the kitchen... We were all quite surprised. Apparently the member and the man we met share the apartment with a few other people but we had no idea when we got there. After lunch we walked outside and were going to make our way to the bus home to do companionship study when this other guy calls us over. He says he sees us all the time and doesn't usually have time to listen but that day he did and was curious as to what we were out doing. He was walking his dog so we walked with him for about an hour and a half and talked about who we were what we did, and explained about the church by teaching the restoration to him. We even gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. At this point the schedule we had planned was completely shot and the Mission President had texted us to see if we could do interviews that night so we headed back to the apartment, did studies and dinner, and then went to the church to call some people while we waited for our turn for interviews. It's always nice to have interviews. For ten minutes you get to have a one on one with the Mission president, it's great!

Wednesday we had correlation with our mission leader which is always great. It's nice to talk with a member of the ward for how we can work with the ward members.  We did a lot of tracting throughout the day. We also had an interesting member meal. They had planned to feed us but most of the family was sick so the dad just bought us pizza and drove us home so that we could eat it while he brought more pizza home for the family.

Thursday was district meeting and we talked about acting as missionaries with power and authority. Our authority comes from our calling as missionaries and our power is evident when we act. It was super good.  We then had a member meal and they took us out to a lunch buffet which was fun.

Friday we spent the morning planning and then knocked doors for most of the day but we texted one of our investigators and asked if she had time to meet over the weekend. She texted back saying that she could do Saturday evening and we looked and saw that we had a member meal, after confirming with the family we then texted her back and invited her and her two sons to come with us. It worked out perfectly!

The missionary that I replaced here in Vendelsö had told us that he kept thinking about this one family out in Söderby and suggested that we swing by so on Saturday morning we went out there. We knocked on the door, they answered and... they weren't interested.  We tried another door that said to come back later... they weren't interested either.  We had tracted in the area before so we decided to pick up where we left off. After knocking on doors for a while we came across a lady who went to school as a kid with a member, we talked a little bit about the apostasy and restoration and explained about the Book of Mormon. We asked if she was interested and she said sure and even said that we could come back later when her husband was also home. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and traded phone numbers. We walked away super excited, while we had been hoping to meet with a different family, we were in the right area at the right time to meet this woman and now we have a family we can potentially teach! Later that day we had our member meal and it went super well. The two boys were very energetic but the family we were with did a great job of keeping them busy. After the meal we were able to teach our investigator about the Plan of Salvation there in the members' home. The Spirit was there and it was great! 

Sunday we had two investigators come to church. After Sacrament meeting we met with them in a spare classroom with a member and taught them the Plan of Salvation. It went pretty well! The member did a great job of testifying of the Plan and the Spirit was definitely there. We had a great rest of church and went out knocking doors again in the afternoon. We also had a member meal for dinner. 

It's been a great week and I am so grateful for the opportunities I have to teach people about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation all the time.  They really do fill me with joy with the knowledge that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and has restored the fulness of the gospel here to the Earth today!

Have a great week!

Pictures are of a highly advanced security system we came across, 

a massive snail we saw 

and us (Äldste Anthon and Äldste Ashford) on the way to church.

Week 41 - Zone Conference!

This week we started off great by trying to do our laundry on P-day only to find out that the "Flood Protection" had activated so it didn't work, so that was great. We went out tracting that night though and ran into a guy from Lithuania that took a Book of Mormon so that was cool.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference! President and Syster Youngberg were going through some house keeping and Syster Youngberg's segment was on Health and Safety and she went over the 10 points listed on the missionary portal. She got to step 6 "Protection from animals and insects"... I laughed, the story of my dog incident has apparently spread across the mission. We had some great training from the Assistants though based on the theme "Being an Example of the Believers" based on 1 Timothy 4:12. There is also a general conference talk by Russell M. Nelson titled "Be Thou an Example of the Believers" that is also super good and tied into our discussion. We talked about how we as missionaries could be an example of all of the attributes listed in the verse from Timothy. We also had the Stake President come as a guest speaker to discuss member missionary work and it was great!

Wednesday our determined that our washing machine was clearly past our capacity to fix. Our land lady was super nice though and said that we could borrow their washing machine until we got everything sorted out so we were in fact able to wash our clothes for the week. We also had one of the Senior couples come because we had some bike locks on our bikes that we don't actually have the keys for so they came with an angle grinder and cut them off and gave us new bike locks. It was a very entertaining image seeing a 65 year old man in a nice suit go to town with an angle grinder with sparks flying everywhere.  We also started tracting in a little bit different area of town which was fun.

Thursday we did a lot of finding work but we had dinner with one of the members of our bishopric which was a lot of fun. [Mom's note: a bishopric is the presiding leadership of a congregation. Is consists of a Bishop, the leader of the ward (congregation) and 2 Counselors.]

Friday we did more finding and had a couple of conversations with people and were able to give out a Book of Mormon. 

Saturday we did some finding work and we had a lesson all set up and had a member there and everything except that then we texted the guy to see if he was coming and he said he wasn't going to make it... awkward. We went home for dinner after that and had a good conversation with our member friend on the bus ride back. We then got to drop off a Twi Book of Mormon to a lady from Ghana we met with a few weeks ago. She's pretty positive but has just been super busy so it can be hard to meet with her because of her schedule. 

Yesterday we had church and it was wonderful as always. We had a couple from the US visiting so Elder Anthon translated for them and I was the one trying to look up all the scripture references for him as best as I could.  We knocked doors for a little while as well.

I decided to study Patience as a Christlike attribute this week and found a really great example in Alma 26. It speaks of Ammon rejoicing with his brothers about the wonders they have seen during their mission among the Lamanites. They had to endure their many trials and hardships but they persevered and were able to see miracles!

- Elder Ashford

Week 40 - Still No Super Powers

My arm has just about healed by now. So that's nice.  It has been almost two weeks though and unlike Spider Man I have yet to gain any dog related super powers... so that was bit of a let down.

As for what actually happened this week, we knocked a lot of doors.

On Wednesday we managed to contact 3 different Jehovah''s Witnesses in a row walking through Brandbergen so that was interesting.  Later in the day we had a pretty cool experience though. We had planned in the morning that we were going to knock on doors somewhere and we had seen a few new places that we wanted to try but I felt like we should go through one of the areas we had been knocking on and try to go through a few streets we hadn't been through yet, there was one in particular I wanted to try. We had started by tracting in a different area but felt like it wasn't going very well and felt like we should try that one street that we had talked about before.  We got out there and then decided to start at the far end of the street and work our way back.  The first few houses were not interested but as we climbed up the hill to this next house (there were no steps) we met a young guy who was working on fixing it up. We talked for awhile and got to know him a little bit better and found that he actually had a few Mormon friends. We continued talking and explained some parts of the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. He accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. He said we were welcome to come back some other time to talk more about it but that he was normally only there on the weekends and lived in the city during the week.  As we left it struck me as well as my companion, Elder Anthon, that that meeting was not by chance. In our district meetings there has been a lot of focus on following the Spirit and we definitely felt guided by the Lord. There were so many things that directed us there at that time in that short window when that man was actually there when he normally wouldn't be. It was a really amazing experience. We then went out and got dinner with a member. Plus I hit 9 months on the mission!

On Thursday we had district meeting and the Zone Leaders were there with us. It was pretty fun and we continued talking about being led by the Spirit in our finding efforts. We got to practice with some role plays which went really well.

Friday we did some planning in the morning, knocked a bunch of doors, and then had a pretty fun member meal. The wife was one of the women who bore her testimony during the missionary work focused lesson that I talked about last week. She had had a lot of experiences with the church before but it wasn't until a friend lovingly encouraged to at least meet with the missionaries once before she really saw the truthfulness of the Gospel and how the Lord had prepared her. It was fun to be able to have dinner with her, her husband and their kids and get to know them a little better.

Saturday we tracted a bunch more and then we talked to a guy on his way to a party. We had a real quick discussion and we got his number so that we could meet again and give him a Book of Mormon. 

Sunday we had a Fast and Testimony meeting in church. We had an investigator come and we taught him about the Restoration during the second hour class and it went super well.

We have Zone Conference tomorrow and it we were told to study a little bit about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration. It was something I had already been thinking about a little bit and it was great to be able to study it a little bit more. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was twisted a lot after the death of Christ's Apostles. I love though that God restored that Gospel through Joseph Smith and through the Book of Mormon to teach us again about those beautiful, powerful, and simple truths. I love teaching people about how God loves us and has always called prophets to teach the people and how He continues to do so. I love the Book of Mormon. I know it to be true. I hope you all have a wonderful week and take some time to read it and ponder the miracle that it truly is.

The pictures are of a moose we saw while out proselyting Monday night, 

a sign to a day care playground which says 

"Welcome to Trumman -Be scared of our children, always close and lock the gate, thanks!"

Finally there is the classic warning that you see in every Swedish elevator 

warning of the danger of having objects to close to the door in an elevator... 

I swear, Swedes must have nightmares about it or something because it is everywhere.

- Elder Ashford