Tjena,
Hope everyone is doing well and had a good Easter!
I got to spend my Easter back up in Borlänge for Tommy's baptism. It was 5 hours on the train from my current area, so we went up Saturday night. It felt good to be back in Borlänge and it was great to see all of the members again. A lot of them were confused because I have only been gone a week so they thought I maybe just missed a week or something haha. Everything with the baptismal service went well and as far as I could tell Tommy liked it. The two words he used to describe how he felt afterwards were unusual and special so I would call it a success. The members were all really nice and welcoming and the spirit was definitely there.
The rest of the week went pretty well also. Here is a summary of the notable things that happened:
On Tuesday we were planning to just be out on the streets talking to people all day because we had no other plans, but thankfully one of the senior couples who live in Stockholm texted us and said they would be coming out to take all the stuff out of the old apartment (my apartment is recently moved into for this area because there was a shooting outside of the old one). So we spent the morning hauling a lot of stuff out of the apartment and then they took us for lunch at Burger King afterwards.
We had our 4th lesson with our friend Rowan, a Swede in his 20s who seems to agree with and understand everything we tell him. When we asked him about baptism, he said he knows it could bless his life, but he's just not ready yet. But that is still steps in the right direction.
I decided to try and make my approach for talking to people on the streets more personable and genuine and less of just trying to see if they are interested. I had some good conversations with people who were not even slightly interested in religion and was also able to connect with a lot more people who are interested.
Was able to eat some classic Swedish easter food. The meal was a lot of stuff but included hard boiled eggs, shrimp, beet salad, bread and cheese.
Got to play some basketball. I posted on facebook when I first got to this area if there was anyone interested in playing basketball. I was able to get in contact with someone from a group of guys who play twice a week. We went on Thursday and though I was a little rusty, it felt good to get running up and down as well as talk with some people who had an obvious common interest.
Like I said I felt like I was able to connect with a lot more people talking in public this week. There was a lot of good experiences from it but I'll share 2 that stood out the most to me.
-One happened on Friday when we had a 15 minute bus ride to a member's house. Early on the bus ride I saw a couple get on and I kept looking over at them and felt like I had to talk to them. So after a couple of minutes I got up and stood next to their seats and started talking to the guy. He and his wife are Christian and he said they would be willing to meet up sometime. After I finished talking to him we had 2 stops left until we had to get off, so I went to take my seat again when I saw another guy get on the bus and sit down with an empty seat next. I don't talk to people on the bus that often, so the fact I had already talked to someone felt good enough already. But I just thought why not so I went and sat next to this guy and had a quick conversation and he said he is also Christian and would be willing to meet. When he typed his number into my phone it said that the number already existed in my contacts. I was a little confused but just got off the bus and texted him hi. He replied saying that he already had our number, and maybe God is trying to send us to him. My companion confirmed one of the previous missionaries had met this same guy a few months ago. As we kept texting he asked us to pray for him because his wife has left him. I told him we would pray for him and that I knew God wanted us to meet that day. And he replied saying thank you, and that right when we met on the bus he felt that God wanted something. We plan to meet with him this week:).
-The other one happened on Thursday when we were on a bus to a different members house. This time though we were 1.5 hours away from the city that we actually live in and talk to people in. Again we had a 15 minute bus ride to the members house from the train station. We got on the bus and just sat in the very back and I just pulled out my Book of Mormon and started reading. The next stop a lady got on and sat in the row in front of us and I did my best to give a smile as she walked up. I went back to reading and could not focus on what I was reading at all. I knew I needed to talk to this lady and that she deserved the chance to hear about the Book of Mormon. I started talking to her by asking if she is Christian to which she replied no, so I then asked if she was religious at all to which she also replied no. I was a little confused for a second why I needed to talk to this lady so I kind of paused for a second and didn't know what to say and then she said that she was just kidding, that she is Christian but we had already met before in Linköping (my city, that is 1.5 hours away). After talking a little bit more I remembered my conversation with her and we were able to talk a bit more. I knew I had to bring up the Book of Mormon and it seemed she was about to get off at the next stop so I just asked her if she had heard of it and she said no and went to take a picture of it. I told her that it was a book about Jesus Christ and she could have my copy. She took it gladly and I got her number to talk more. There is no doubt that God wanted me to meet and talk to this lady again.
I'm not sure if it's obvious from our emails or not, but a big focus me and Zach have had on our missions is trying to find joy. Like I talked about in my email last week, at the beginning of this week I was having some frustrations. Me and Zach talked about it on our weekly call, and then he told me that we can't get to the end of our missions without having had joy throughout it. I agreed with him but we both also agreed that it is easier said than done. The next day I listened to the talk "Joy and Spiritual Survival" by President Nelson, which I have listened to many times on my mission to try and find more joy. President Nelson talks a lot about how we are here on Earth to have joy. After I listened to the talk this week, I wanted something that I could actually apply and work on to be able to experience more joy, so I read back through and underlined the things that we personally can do to experience more joy. Here's what I underlined:
-"As our Savior becomes more and more real to us and as we plead for His joy to be given to us, our joy will increase."
-"Joy is powerful, and focusing on joy brings God's power into our lives."
-"What will you and I be able to endure as we focus on the joy that is "set before" us?"
-"He (Christ) taught us how to have joy. When we choose Heavenly Father to be our God and when we can feel the Savior's Atonement working in our lives, we will be filled with joy."
After doing this, I realized that the main things outlined here that we can do to experience more joy is to 1. Ask for joy in prayer and 2.Focus on joy. But focusing on joy seems pretty broad and hard to apply on a daily basis. Something that I have been doing recently in my prayers is asking for something specific that I can improve on, and then I work on that thing for a couple of days or however long I need to get better at it, and then come back to the Lord and ask what else I can work on. That night after reading this talk, I asked that I would be able to feel more joy and asked what I can work on. I got the impression to get a journal and at the end of the day write everything down that made me happy throughout the day. So I have been doing it this week. Not only has it been a good exercise to reflect on the day and think of positive things, but I now find myself actively looking for things throughout the day that bring me joy. And when I notice something, I have been taking the time to feel and recognize the joy that comes from it. Though I had a baptism and some amazing miracles this week, the joy that I have felt from taking the time to feel joy from the little things has really been immensely greater than the joy I felt at the baptism. And it's not big things that I am writing down either, it's just taking the time to appreciate how much we are blessed. Some examples of things that I wrote down are: seeing a cute dog (many times lol), sitting on the top of a double decker bus, seeing a kid happily high five the train conductor, one of our friends reading the Book of Mormon with a magnifying glass, successfully making a new dish, seeing/making someone smile. Here is a quote from Elder Uchtdorf that sums it up perfectly: "There is enough that doesn't go right in life, so anyone can work themselves into a puddle of pessimism and a mess of melancholy. But I know people who, even when things don't work out, focus on the wonders and miracles of life. God didn't design us to be sad. He created us to have joy! So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter. No, it doesn't happen instantly, but honestly, how many good things do?" I'm not saying that specifically what I am doing will bring everyone joy, but I can promise that as we all actively seek out joy and focus on the little things that can bring us joy, we will begin to experience it more in our lives. This week was not perfect for me. Things are not going great with my companion along with other issues. But I felt more joy this week than I have in a long time. I can now back up President Nelson when he said "My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives."
Sorry for the long thought, but I thought I would share because of how much this helped me this week. If you read all that I hope you took something from it :)
Have a great week❤️🙏
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