What's good everyone, Merry Christmas to you all. Hope you all have a good Christmas day.
First, we got transfer calls on Saturday night. To my surprise I will be leaving Utby already, after only 6 weeks here. I will be going to Borlänge, which has been closed for 6 weeks and is the area that my current companion Elder Steffen came from before we were in Utby together. Elder Steffen loved the area, especially the members, so I think it should be good. I will be whitewashing (both missionaries new to the area) and greenie breaking (somebody's first companion out of training) again, so back to back transfers for both of those things which is pretty crazy. I am sad to leave Utby, mostly because I don't feel like I have made many strong connections with a lot of people because of the fact that we whitewashed the area and I was only here for 6 weeks. I am grateful for my time and experiences I have had here though.
Interesting things from the week:
Somehow this is already the second time on my mission getting interviewed by people from the local newspaper. Basically some of the Elders in our district had some people from the newspaper reach out and ask if they could follow them around for the day, and the day that they chose was the day we had in-person district council. As a reminder we only have in-person district council together once a transfer because the areas are farther apart in Sweden. And if you don't know what district council is, it is basically just a group of 4-8 missionaries who are in neighboring areas getting together and talking about things we have studied and how we can improve our areas. This was easily the best district council of my mission so far. We talked about many things, the Book of Mormon being one of them, and the spirit was super strong when we started talking about it, which was really cool because we had the news reporters with us. All that the news reporters did was interview everyone together before we started district council, and then just take pictures of us the entire time. They also followed with us to lunch afterwards as well.
We went caroling again, this time with the young men and young women in the ward. We went around to people who live alone or just need a little more light this Christmas so that was nice.
We gave the sacrament and a blessing to this 88 year old lady named Taimi from Finland. Her husband died 40 years ago and she is a convert. Super strong testimony even though none of her family or friends are members. One of my favorite people I have met here, she is so sweet.
We had a dude request a Book of Mormon that is like a 2 hours bus ride north of us. We went up there, and taught him the Restoration, and when we went to have him read Moroni 10:3-5, he said that he would not read it. We were really surprised and kind of startled by it, and then he proceeded to say that he wants to read the entire Book of Mormon in the next couple weeks so doesn't want to start at the end. Pretty interesting but also cool.
We had a lot of member meals this week because a lot of our friends that we are teaching were busy with Christmas stuff. The members we visited were great and a lot of them gave us food to take home also so that was awesome.
We worked on putting in the floor for the same lady again. Within the first 20 minutes we cut a piece incorrectly so I tried to make a small change to the cut but we were using a hand saw which is not very precise and it slipped off and cut my finger. We left soon after that so we did not make much progress this week.
In Sweden Christmas Eve is the big day they celebrate. That is when they open the presents and when Santa comes and all that good stuff. It was a pretty good day for us. After church, we went with a member to visit his mom and eat food with them. Pretty regular and bland food if I am being honest, but of course very nice of them to feed us I am very grateful. After that we went and took some cinnamon rolls to Taimi because she was celebrating Christmas by herself. And then we went to a member meal in Västra Frölunda's area. They are from India and had 8 missionaries over which was super nice.
Today for Christmas we just played basketball and chilled which is a good day by my definition. It doesn't really feel like Christmas at all though.
With all of the surprise changes that I have had on my mission so far I was thinking about how crazy missions are with how much change there is. I started thinking more about it and that is basically life I guess. There is always constant change in all of our lives whether it be jobs, friends, seasons, school, age, weather, all of the people around us, and even ourselves. Of course the one thing that doesn't change is Jesus Christ. 1 Nephi 10:18- " For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him." I feel like this is a pretty common scripture or theme, but if we really think about it it can bring a lot of comfort. With all of the crazy changes that constantly take place in our lives, Jesus Christ remains there. He is always there for us, no matter what is happening. Mormon 9:19 - "And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles". God and Jesus Christ are unchanging! They always have power to perform miracles in our life if we have the patience and humility to submit to their will. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the light. I hope you take some time to remember Him today:)
God Jul!❤️🎄
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