Week 10 Swedish Acrobat

Hej hej!

This week has been great! Here are some of the highlights:

Every Tuesday, the 4 elders in my area go over to a member’s house named David and Ida. David is a total bro, he's awesome. His wife isn't a member. She is such a sweet, fun lady, and an amazing cook. They're both in their 20's probably, no kids. Anyways, every Tuesday from 7 to 9 they have us over to give a spiritual message, chow down on Ida's big dinners and dessert, and then play a game. They like doing it so that we have one time in the week to just relax. It's a blast though!

We were also invited over to a member's house (David's parents) so we went over Saturday and there was the whole Holmdahl family there. We chatted for a while, messed around in the front yard with hoverboards and acrobatic stunts (I attached a pic of David holding me up). We had a nice Swedish brunch and then they planned games and stuff for all of us to do. It was a ton of fun, it also felt nice to be around a big family and kids. We don't get that scene often as missionaries. 

I taught Gospel Principles class yesterday, på svenska! It's like a Sunday school that the missionaries go to as well as the new converts and investigators. Went super well! I'm speaking in church next week too haha we'll see how that goes. 

So, you are all probably wondering about how the misisonary work is going! It's a bit tough here. Me and my comp doubled into the area, so we were both new to Västerås. We had a ton of people left for us from the last elders, but none of them really turned out positive. We've made hundreds of calls trying to get in contact with people and set up lessons but a lot of them fall through. But! One guy they left is super positive. His name's Abdull. He's an 18 yr old Persian guy. We meet him and teach him once a week and he has a baptism date for next month, but... we found out that he lives just outside of our area so we'll be passing him over to the other elders in that area which is a total bummer. 

We do a bunch of finding work. Every morning we get up at 6:30 and work out and eat and study then go into stan (main town square) and contact people for a few hours. We go back and eat lunch and study then go back out and contact more, or teach a lesson if we have one. Then we come back for dinner then head out for the last 3 or so hours of the night to knock doors. Contacting people on the street was at first pretty nerve-wracking, but now it's a ton of fun. You encounter people from all over the world here. 

This week I came across a scripture that really stuck out to me. It's in Doctrine & Covenants,  Section 58:42 (this is Mormon scripture, received by Prophets of God since 1830) it says "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, The Lord, remember them no more" This week we've been working with some people who have been struggling with things and it's made me realize that all of us have been there or will be there at one point. We can repent and God will always forgive us, but often we don't forgive ourselves. It's important that we remember that we are just required to do our best, and Christ pays the difference. We gotta forgive ourselves.

Sorry I don't have any crazy experiences this week to share. But things are going great here, I appreciate all of your letters and emails. I love you guys so much! 

Hej do! ( Jenn note....don't know how to add Swedish characters to Word docs :/)

Äldste Gordon