Week 95 - Where did the week go?!?

I am not sure when the last time so much has happened all in one week.

Monday was the Good ol' P-day, it was pretty relaxed and we even got fika at a bakery that one of the members owns. We then caught a train to Stockholm and stayed the night at the mission office as we had zone conference the next day.

Tuesday was zone conference. It was fantastic! No way I could put everything I learned from it in here so I won't even try but I learned a lot about seeking revelation, having and increasing faith in the work and in miracles, and even in the Restoration. We also found out that we are having a Book of Mormon initiative coming out this coming Friday so that will be really exciting! On our way home we sat down and talked with the two guys sitting next to us and one of them was also headed to Gävle so we were able to talk the whole train ride and he even asked to switch numbers with us. It was awesome!

On Wednesday we barely had a chance to breath. We had service, a few lessons, and a few meetings so it was just non-stop but it was awesome! We had an awesome church tour. One of our more recent members wanted to have her daughter meet us so we showed her around the church and talked for a while and gave her a Book of Mormon. Our Branch mission leader gave an awesome testimony of his conversion story and we added our own testimonies as well. The Spirit was super strong it was awesome. Then as we were wrapping up someone walks in and after we say goodbye to the one lady and her daughter I turn around and ask "What are you doing here?" It was the Herrey's, some members that I know from Gotland that were on a road trip and just happened to stop by when we were there. It was awesome.

Thursday we made some banana bread and took it by a few people and we had dinner with two members that come from Macedonia and they gave us Chinese food so that was awesome. Other than that it was most of the usual.

Friday after we had finished planning for the week we get a call from a member who just came last sunday after disappearing for awhile and he wanted to meet so we were able to meet him at the church later that night and got to know him better and talked about our relationship to God. He started talking about the prodigal son and I love that story, and the church's bible video for it was so good that we showed it to him. After that we headed to a member's for a kräftskiva. Apparently it is a thing in August for Swedes to throw a party and eat kräfter (otherwise known as crawfish) so that was pretty cool. I hadn't ever eaten crawfish before but it was an exciting experience.

Saturday we had innebandy in the morning, we did some finding, and then we had a branch activity with tacos and minute-to-win-it. People were laughing as we tried to move M&Ms with a straw, ping pong balls with a spoon in your mouth, and it was chaos as people attempted to keep balloons from touching the floor.

Sunday we had some great meetings in church.  That night we were out knocking doors and it didn't really feel like it was going anywhere. Äldste Balls suggested that we try saying a prayer and seeing if we were where we needed to be. We said a prayer and the thought came to mind to try going somewhere nearby where the church is but a different place from where we have already been working. A little unsure of exactly what to do we got on our bikes and started there. As we get going the feeling comes to turn around, yet at the same time continue out to where we were on our way. A little confused we stop and try to figure it out. After discussing for a bit we decided to try praying again and both feelings were still there but the feeling to head towards the church was still there. On our way we decided to turn not to far from the church and go by a less-active that we have had a hard time holding contact with. We park our bikes and as we are walking up we meet a guy who was sitting outside his tvättstuga waiting for his clothes to wash and we were able to talk with him for about 20 minutes, he had been taught by missionaries before but then stopped meeting them. He still didn't seem interested unfortunately but then we continued around the corner to the door and call the portcode and the member was home! He let us in and we were able to talk for about 10-15 minutes and say a prayer with him. He had just arrived home and actually had just seen us as we were outside talking. If we hadn't changed our plans completely, if we hadn't stopped again when we were unsure, or if we hadn't stopped to talk with the other man, we would have arrived too early. We were led without knowing beforehand where we should go but as we followed the Spirit everything worked out.

Awesome things are happening. A thought that has come to mind recently is just how much the Lord is hastening his work. Here are just a few of the things that have happened during my mission. The missionary schedule was changed right after we got into the field. We got a new mission president. There has been a renewed focus on working with members and following the Spirit. We have gotten a new prophet and 2 new apostles. We were here when an apostle visited Sweden and addressed them in Swedish for the first time ever. We were here for when Preach My Gospel was newly updated since it came out 10-15 years ago (we still haven't even gotten printed versions in English, much less Swedish), Ministering is now a thing, and the Sweden Stockholm Mission is now a technology mission with access to Facebook which is widely used by Swedes as Twitter isn't really that popular here. 

It's a great time to be a Sweden Stockholm missionary! Have a great week!

--Elder Ashford

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

Week 93 - We have rain!

This week started a little hot but we got some rain and it has cooled down to normal temperatures now so that's nice.

Tuesday we headed out to Lingbo again and stacked some more firewood for a member. We also did quite a bit of finding work but we gave out a Book of Mormon so that was great.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Borlänge elders so we met them at the train station and then I stayed here in Gävle with Äldste Whitaker. We had our  service at RIA where we served lunch again and then we met a member and read with her for a bit. In the middle of town was the Gävle Stadsfest (city festival) and so there were some rides set up in the middle of town, the smell of deep fried food and sugar and everything reminded me of the Minnesota state fair, granted it was not nearly to the same scale. We went and knocked doors that night and it was awesome, the last house we were going to knock on the guy let us in and we were probably talking for at least 20 minutes and we gave him a Book of Mormon, it was awesome!

Thursday we got a call from President Youngberg as he was hoping to tell Äldste Balls happy birthday (it happened to be his birthday as well) but as Äldste Balls wasn't there we had to redirect him to the other phone. It was kind of funny though. We had an awesome district council and it was in person this time so it was nice to meet everyone in person. We then got lunch and got to work. We had a coordination meeting and dinner and we even helped someone with their furniture.

Friday morning was pretty exciting, we had a thunderstorm with plenty of lightning so that was cool. We had a great lesson with some members, it didn't go quite as planned but we had a great discussion on forgiveness. Honestly forgiveness is so important, it's hard but it's so much easier than holding a grudge in the long run. It allows one to move on and it's so freeing. That morning I had even read a great talk from General Conference about it titled Even as Christ Forgives you, So Also Do Ye. We had dinner at a member's before going out finding. I feel like in the week and a half I have been with Äldste Balls we have met about 5 new people named Anders. We met 2 Friday night, we were even able to give one of them a Book of Mormon.

Saturday was pretty awesome. We tried to talk to some people in town but not many were interested in talking, it was the last day of the Stadsfest so we took the opportunity to buy some churros real fast before heading out. We went by a less active member that knows a member in Vendelsö where both Äldste Balls and I have served and he let us in, gave us some water, and we were able to talk for about 10-15 minutes before heading out and he said we were welcome back anytime, it was awesome! We helped our friend Gloria fix her bike that night as well and we had some awesome conversations while we were out knocking doors.

Sunday was good, we had a good sacrament meeting, not as many guests this time. We had dinner with President Sjökvist and his family as his son is about to leave to Helsingborg for school so that was fun to talk a little about my 1st area here in Sweden.

All in all it's been a great week. I love being a missionary and sharing with others that which has given me so much joy and happiness and comfort in my life.  I am getting close to finishing the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time out here on the mission reading from start to finish and I am so grateful the truths that it teaches and for how much it has to teach about the Savior.

Wish you all a wonderful week!

pictures are of the Stadsfest including our churros, 

the district, 

 us playing Kubb (turns out it's a game that actually originates from Gotland),

 

and our Pizza when we realized that the chicken bakes 

we were planning to make required more flour than we had so we turned it into a pizza :)

--Elder Ashford

Week 92 - So much for the tripan

On Monday we took care of some stuff before Elder Tolman left later in the week and we headed over to some members for FHE and dinner which was pretty fun. We also realized we hadn't been the best about taking pictures so we just started taking a whole bunch.

Tuesday was a busy day. We went and bought a third bus card for my third companion. We also had lunch with a member, then we had met in our branch mission leader and had fika, and then we had dinner with our branch president.

Wednesday was interesting, we got Elder Tolman all ready to go and then headed down to the train station where we picked up Äldste Balls, and we were with a member who drove us back to the apartment with the luggage, from there we then loaded all of Elder Tolman's luggage into the car and brought it back to the train station. We then waited about 45 minutes or so for Äldste Young to arrive and then we finally saw his train pull in and we were all ready to help him with his bags... And he wasn't there. We went and checked another train that came in at the same time, he wasn't there either. Now all of us are very confused so we send a message over messenger and then the Uppsala missionaries call us and it's Äldste Young! Apparently some missionaries that had been stuck in the states waiting for their visas finally got them and were on their way so there were some last minute changes and Elder Young ended up going to Uppsala instead of coming up to Gävle with us... But somehow no one ever told us. So much for my dreams of a tripan. 
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Anyways, the two of us later had an appointment soon after and we even had another lesson that night so we got off to a quick start.

Thursday was district meeting which was great, we got to see our would-be companion Elder Young on the other side of the screen so that was good. We later went out to go knock some doors and we dropped some food off for a less active, while we were nearby we thought to try to swing by another less active nearby named Niklas that we have been trying to get a hold of for a while but it has been a struggle to get a hold of him. We swung by and called on his portcode and we got a hold of him! He wasn't home right then but said he would be soon and that we could call him. In the meantime we went and started knocking on some doors in this new area. At the very first door we start talking with this guy and he offers us water. We talk for awhile and he talked about how while he didn't believe in God he has a ton of respect for us and what we do. We shared a message and the Spirit was there but he still turned down the offer of a Book of Mormon. He said if we ever needed anything though we could come to him, even a place to sleep haha. In the meantime Niklas called us back and so we got to go get to know him real quick for 5-10 minutes and leave with a prayer, it was an awesome evening!

Friday had the good ol' weekly planning, first one of the transfer with a new companion is always a good one. Elder Balls wanted to start setting some goals for the transfer and it turned into this full-on grid with color coordination and everything. We also had a member meal and went and knocking and ran into our friend Anders, the guy we had met the day before. He introduced us to his brother and then we left. He told us to knock on his neighbor and say that "Anders says hi" but they weren't home so we continued on. On our way back we see the neighbor out playing guitar and singing and so we start talking with him and then Anders joins us too. We chatted for about 10 minutes or so, neither of them are really interested but maybe one day, who knows.

Saturday we rocked the usual innebandy in the morning. Something else happened that has never happened before on my mission.  We were just wrapping up dinner when we get this call from this young woman asking us details of how to get to the church. She wasn't a member, had just moved here 2 days before, and found our number through mormon.org and then called us! After we sort of recovered from the shock of what just happened we pulled ourselves together and went out again.

Sunday was an awesome day in church. The missionary that baptized one of the older members of the branch who has a number of kids and grandkids in the branch was there and the man he baptized bore a powerful testimony, and that got everything started. We also had visitors from the US, the wife grew up here and then married and moved to Utah but they were there visiting. People were bearing the testimonies about how they came to the church as well and the Spirit was super strong. It might have been one of the most powerful fast and testimony meetings I have ever been too. There was just a feeling of love and peace in the room.  In the midst of this the woman that had called us the day before was there and we were able to meet with her during sunday school. It was really funny because a lot of the members didn't realize this was her first time at one of our chapels because she seemed to fit right in.  After church we had dinner with the Sjökvists and then met with Juhani that night. We shared a thought from Alma 32. I just love Alma's analogy of a seed. Faith has to be fostered and allowed to grow before you can really see the result. You have to be willing to try and be patient enough to let it grow before you see the result.

This week has been fantastic with several miracles and the Lord's work is going forward here in Sweden! Love you all!

--Elder Ashford

Week 91 - Goodbye Elder Tolman :'( Hello Tripan! :)

This week was busy and exciting as usual.

Tuesday we helped out a member stacking some firewood, for a bit which was fun. We also got our bikes back from the repair shop, what a relief!

Wednesday started off a little rough, it had been so warm in our apartment all night that it was hard to sleep. (Yay! No air conditioning) We pulled ourselves together though and got to work. We went and helped out at RIA again which was fun. We met Ulrika at the library but we got there early and ran into someone else that Elder Tolman had taught before so we talked with him for a bit which was fun. We had our coordination meeting with our branch mission leader and it was funny because his little 2 year old son somehow ended up wearing both Elder Tolman's watch and nametag, haha.

Thursday we had our last district meeting of the transfer which was great. We met one of our recent converts and talked about the Plan of Salvation, she's doing great! We went over and visited some other members for lunch and then we went and swung by another less active member. It was a pretty good day. One thing that kept coming up though was how with all of the heat and fires here in Sweden and across the rest of Europe that it is bringing more people together that otherwise share a number of disagreements but in a time of crisis people reach out in another's time of need which is great to see.

Friday we had an awesome lesson with someone we had never met before. We had called him earlier in the week and we gave him a tour of the church. We got to the primary room (primary is the church's program for children ages 11 and under, more or less) and it was awesome because they had posters for their themes for each month of the year with titles like "I am a child of God" or "My Heavenly Father loves me" It gave a great start for our lesson and we taught about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and he seemed to really get it. He has been really looking for something more in his life recently. It was awesome. It's experiences like this that keep missionaries going.

Saturday we had Innebandy and we also went to a family history activity that night.

Sunday we had a great day in church.  Before we got there we were waiting at a bus stop and this guy sat down next to us so we started talking to him. He was heading in the same direction and actually got off one stop before us. We talked about his life and it came up that we were Americans and that we were missionaries and we explained a little about what we do. He himself believed there was something more, that this world functions too well to have been created by chance and I paraphrased on of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon and that led to a great discussion, we were able to teach and testify and even gave him a Book of Mormon and traded facebooks, it was super awesome! (see scripture down below)

At church Elder Tolman gave a talk along with a few others. I ended up translating for some Americans who were visiting while they were on a business trip. We had a great lesson in Sunday school and then the Sjökvists, for 3rd hour, which was essentially one of their devotionals on learning to listen to and recognize the Spirit that they gave at FSY(The church's equivalent of EFY here (EFY or Especially for Youth, and FSY are 6 day spiritual summer camps for youth ages 14 - 18.) They had been the couple in charge. It was really awesome. We then ate dinner with the Sjökvists and then headed home for some work we still had to do. We also got Transfer calls! I am having to say goodbye to Elder Tolman which is too bad... We were rocking it together here. But to keep me company I have Äldste Ball... and Äldste Young! We are going to be a tripan! (triple companionship -> tripanionship -> tripan) It should be great!

"40 And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only.

41 But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true; and will ye deny them? Believest thou that these things are true?" - Alma 30:40-41 

Everything that has been created is so wonderful and intricate and for me shows that there is a guiding hand in everything. I am so grateful for that and that his hand is everywhere and in our lives. It's all because of His great love for us. Have a wonderful week!

pictures: 

This is us on our way to church, it finally rained!

Elevator Selfie on our way back from doing laundry.

--Elder Ashford

Week 90 - Splits in Uppsala

This was a pretty busy week I have to say, which always feels good.

Tuesday we had splits with the Uppsala Elders so they came up to Gävle and Elder Tolman and Elder Dawson immediately caught a train to the edge of our area while Elder Jordan and I headed back on down to the good ol' Uppsala. It's a pretty city that's definitely a college town and is extremely bike friendly (some of the roundabouts straight up have a bike lane). We got to Uppsala and Elder Jordan and I had a good time running an English class at the church with the sister missionaries in Uppsala and then we went out and did some good finding work and had a great time.

Wednesday we went to the Uppsala trainstation and met up with our companions again and then Elder Tolman and I had another busy day ahead of us. We helped serve lunch at RIA again which is fun as always and then we went right after to the library to meet Ulrika and ran into 3 other members too. The library was pretty busy, probably because it is one of the few buildings in Sweden with air conditioning and it has been one of the hottest summers Sweden has seen.  After our time at the library we brought our bikes into the shop to get worked on... not having bikes and having to use only buses has been a bit of a transition haha. We have been using those things a ton.

Thursday was the good old district meeting and we did some follow up on zone conference about commandments and someone mentioned something which I thought was awesome. God gives us commandments because He loves us, and how do we show our love for him? Keep his commandments (John 14:15). We also had coordination meeting with our branch mission leader and we knocked on his door and his family had all just gotten home from vacation about 10 minutes before haha. But we had a great meeting. 

Friday we had an awesome lesson. We have been teaching this one man for the last few months, ever since I got to Gävle, and we had a quick lesson with him that went super well. At the end he even said the prayer! We have been asking him every lesson and he has never felt ready or comfortable enough to do it with us, although he does it on his own, but he finally said one and it was awesome! The Spirit was definitely there.

Saturday we had innebandy again and it rained a little bit and dropped down to 19 degrees celsius for the day so that felt really nice. We also had our Chill Kväll activity and we made spaghetti and we had about 15 people there and we played some games. Somehow I managed to win the cookie face race in about 5 seconds, how I don't know, whether it was skill or good luck I don't know either but it happened.

Sunday we had a great day in church. We had a great sacrament meeting and then it was funny because in sunday school we started with an object activity trying to describe the importance of good leadership. Elder Tolman and I were asked to stand back to back, each with an identical set of legos on the table in front of us. Elder Tolman was then to construct something and describe it and I was to try to replicate. I did my best but let's just say we didn't get the same result.

I read a really great talk by the way this week from 2014 by Elder Holland titled "The Cost—and Blessings—of Discipleship" https://www.lds.org/languages/eng/content/general-conference/2014/04/the-cost-and-blessings-of-discipleship. It really enjoyed it. He talks about how being a disciple of Christ is not and has never been easy or convenient, but the joy and blessings that come from it are so numerous. I really liked it a lot.

I wish you all a wonderful week! 

Here is a picture of a "weather station" we found while tracting. It is a remarkably technical and highly accurate apparatus with such indicators as "if rock is wet - it's raining" or "If rock is white - it's snowing" or even "if rock is gone - tornado."

-- Elder Ashford

Week 89 - Zone Conference

What a week, wow!

Monday was P-day of course and as soon as that was over we headed to the train station and caught a train to Stockholm for zone conference. We got to stay at the office and I got to see my MTC companion Elder Beveridge again! That was pretty awesome.

Tuesday was zone conference. We had a great training from our zone leaders and sister training leaders on asking inspired questions and then listening. They really do make such a difference. The Youngberg's talked about President Oaks' talk "Small and Simple Things" and about how that applies to both us as missionaries as well as those we teach. He asked the question that I think everyone should think about "Is there something small and simple in your life that you can change that will have a big impact in 20 years?" food for thought.  On our way home from zone conference we had some cool experiences as well. We were in T-central (Stockholm's main train station) and we ran into a couple members on vacation from Japan so that was pretty cool. We also got on the train home then afterwards and a member from Sundsvall sat next to us and chatted with us the whole way home.

On Wednesday we helped out serving lunch at RIA again and then met with Ulrika and read the Book of Mormon with her. We also had a lesson that night with this guy that met with the missionaries on and off for the past 3 years. He loves the branch but just never got a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We had an amazing lesson with him and really got his attention when we mentioned Ezekiel 37:15-17 and then in 1 Nephi 5 how the Book of Mormon is a fulfillment of this prophecy. People always seem to mistake the Book of Mormon for a replacement for the Bible... It's not. It is another testament and witness of Christ that goes hand in hand with the Bible. They testify of each other. Anyways, the lesson went really well and then on the bus ride home we ran into the daughter of one of the people we teach and we chatted with her on the whole bus ride home and it was really fun.

On Thursday we met with a member at the library which went well, but then we saw someone else we have taught and were able to real quick chat with him. We also have been calling people that have met with missionaries before and we have had some great success setting up some meetings.

Friday was not noteworthy but on Saturday we visited some members and had a great lesson, swung by some people and talked with some of their neighbors even, we also had an apartment inspection, we had the apartment looking nice and they gave us some ice cream! It's definitely needed as the weather has been hanging around just shy of 30 C which is about 85 F with around 50% humidity... H O T and that spells HOT!

Sunday we had a great meeting in sacrament meeting and we had dinner with the Sjökvists and even got some time to knock some doors. Missionary life is great!

Today a member took us out to Limö for P-day so that was cool. Sadly we forgot to take hardly any pictures.

I love being a missionary here in Sweden. The country is beautiful, the people are wonderful and the Gospel is true!

Pictures include from our boat ride to Limö, 

getting our apartment inspected, 

being reunited with Äldste Beveridge, 

 and we also tried a recipe recommended by the Youngbergs, we like it so much we made it twice!

--Elder Ashford