Ka-Baptism, Swedish Countryside, and Refugee Camp

Photos from Week 8

A Swedish Haircut :-)

My apartment...gotta have Teva time

Me and My Companion

Waiting at the train station...one of the forms of transportation.

"Seattle" me and the two other missionaries are from Sammamish

Hello everyone! 

This has been quite the week.

Early in the week, my comp and I were in the city contacting people and we saw a guy sitting down with an old guitar. ..We thought we'd try a different technique with him besides the usual "Hey we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ". So, we went up and asked him about his guitar and I told him I play a little, so I sat down and tuned it for him and played for nearly a half hour while we talked to this man. It was super cool, he's a Persian guy. Persians are super giving, he offered me his guitar when we left ha-ha didn't take it though, but it was a cool experience to get to know a random guy and connect through music.

Here in Sweden they have a type of food called Kabob. It's like a big thing of meat that's mostly cooked which is on a huge skewer. They slice off pieces of the meat and put it on pretty much any food. But! It's illegal in the states, I think just because the meat is sketchy. But they make Kabob pizza here. Every missionary has to have their "Kabaptism" so this week was my turn. Basically, it's a pizza with a salad, kabob meat, sauce, and a bunch of fries on top. Way good, but it's massive. Definitely one of the best pizzas I've had.

We were going through our old contacts and found a guy who was contacted in Stan (downtown) a few months back named Shariff. So, we gave him a call and he wanted us to meet up with him in a city called Surahammer, which is a 45 min bus ride away. So, we went out there and realized at the bus stop that we had to walk an hour to Shariff’s house. We'd already gone that far so we thought we might as well make the trek. After like 15 mins, we were on a random road in the middle of the countryside. It was one of those moments where I thought to myself "How did I get to be here in my life?" It was beautiful though, I'll send some of the pics. Anyways, we kept walking and when we got there, it was a refugee camp. 

Here in Sweden, the Middle Eastern refugees are placed in camps away from the big cities, in the middle of nowhere in a large camp. Me and my comp headed into this camp looking for our guy Shariff who said he had a bunch of buddies that wanted to learn about Christianity. After 15 mins or so we found him, and all of his buddies came out crowded around us. I have never felt more out of place with 10-15 weathered, tough, Persian dudes all around me. They looked sketchy, so my comp and I were hesitant. 

We went into one of the buildings in a rec room and began to teach them the basics of the gospel. One of the guys translated for us, but it was a cool experience to teach these guys who had never heard of Christianity. While we taught in basic Swedish, they were all dead quiet listening to us. The Lord’s spirit was definitely there. We gave out a Book of Mormon to pretty much all of them and the church address so they could try and attend on Sunday.  Definitely a random, but cool experience.

This week I have realized the power that comes with the basics of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just telling someone that God loves them, or that Christ knows what they’re going through, or that God has a plan for each of us,  brings such a strong Spirit. 

It's been a great week, time is flying by. Today marks 2 months on the mission! I love and appreciate all of your letters. Feel free to put them in a word document then I can print them out and read them all during the week.

Hej då!! Aldste Gordon