Week 12....Go Thor!

September 03, 2017

Week 12....Go Thor!

Hello everyone!

A TON happened this week.

Monday was preparation day, called by missionaries “P-day” so we went to the Viking Graveyard here in Västerås with the other elders. That was pretty sweet! It's out in the countryside. Each grave is just marked with a huge rock, and all the rocks form an infinite sign (see pictures).

Tuesday we went over to the members David and Ida's house and had a super Swedish meal. They fed us something called a Smörgås torta which means sandwich cake in English. I cut out a big slice and started eating it and thought it was pretty good. One of them told us halfway in it was made out of liver paste so it was a bit harder to finish the rest ha ha, then for dessert they gave us a ton of different kinds of black licorice which was the cherry on top of the whole meal ;)

Wednesday we went and did service, cleaning out farm grounds and a stable and taking stuff to the dump (just like old times ha ha). It was hard work but super fun to work with the members and help them out.

Thursday at district meeting we tried something called Surströmming which is a Swedish "delicacy" if you call it that. They take fish and put it in a can and then leave it until it rots and the can swells up. Then you have to take the can and open it underwater because the smell is so bad. Anyways, we busted one open and some of the other elders downed a whole fish but I gave it a shot and ate some of it... super salty and definitely gets your gag reflexes goin. haha

Besides that, we had a ton of missionary lessons this week which felt way good because I felt like the first month of my mission here we were just trying to find people to teach. But we had a few really good lessons and hopefully a baptism or two coming up in the next few months.

The other two Seattle missionaries are leaving on Wednesday, to a new area. Every 6 weeks missionaries get transferred to a different area of the mission. Those Sammamish missionaries will be replaced by 2 sister missionaries in the area which is crazy because Västerås has always been an Elder's area. Should be fun! (The guy missionaries are called Elders…i.e., Elder Gordon and the girl missionaries are called Sister…. i.e., Sister Smith.

If you have time, read 1 John 4 and specifically verses 7-9. This week I've been focusing on love. Those verses talk about how much God and Love are the same thing. Learning about love has helped me feel God's love for people I meet and hardly know.

Thanks for all your letters and updates!

Äldste Gordon

Added comments from our Google chat last Sunday: (the real story ha,ha)

We met with a guy named Hashim. He came a month or so to church with some friends who were investigating the church. He's 17 years old and is from Afghanistan, but is good at speaking Swedish. His buddies stopped coming to church but he comes alone now. We taught him the 2^nd missionary lesson this week and it went super well. It was on the plan of salvation. Interest to know what the Plan of Salvation is: quick video:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/plan-of-salvation?lang=eng

He believed what we were teaching him and says that he knows it’s the truth. He wants to finish reading the Book of Mormon. He’s read half of it in Swedish, so we got him a Persian Book of Mormon.

He’d like to get baptized, but he doesn't have tollsån tillstånd or citizenship here so he could get sent back eventually. The church encourages people to have citizenship to be baptized. He’s super cool and feels like a good friend to me.

We taught a lesson to a new convert’s son in the park this week, it went for 2 hrs and 15 mins

taught the plan of salvation.

We started a member meal calendar and have had a ton of people sign up to feed us dinner.

Friday we did weekly planning at a Chinese buffet and ate a ton of food with the other elders

then that night we had a church activity and had a TON of more food. I yakked Friday night in the middle of the night ha ha. I need to pace myself . Ha-ha.