Week 22---All Hallows Eve...In November

Tjena tjena!! Hey, hey!

We had a solid week this week. 

Monday, we took off for Stockholm for a Zone Conference. Stayed the night in Gubbängen with a bunch of elders packed in the apartment, always a good time. 

Zone conference was great! It's cool to see other missionaries I know in the area like my MTC comp good ol' Äldste Winkle. 

btw shoutout to Erik, jag hoppas du har en bra dag kompis! Tack igen för Söndag kväll :) Translation:

I hope you have a good day mate! Thanks again for Sunday evening

I'll share a few experiences this week that stuck out to me.

On Thursday, we were asked to give a blessing to this older woman in the ward who has Alzheimer. The Elder's quorum president asked us so we assumed he'd be there, but it turns out he was in Italy so it was just me and Äldste Young to give the blessing. I had only blessed/said a prayer over a house (the lady from last week) in Swedish once so that was a bit nerve-wracking. So, this older lady, M, is married to a guy named H. He said that she should get a blessing of physical and spiritual strength and that was about all the guidance I got for it (she kept saying she doesn't need a blessing, but she also just roasts her husband a lot ha ha).

As some background for the day, I was having a rough day. Some days are good, tons of energy, stoked about the work, and other days I'm tired or worn down. I felt easily irritated for no reason. But we showed up to M's house, and as I began to give this blessing to her, I was filled with God's Spirit, and the Holy Ghost. The blessing went really well, and I left with a feeling that the blessing wasn't for her at all actually, but it was for me, and for her husband who has a lot to deal with taking care of her. That was a powerful experience for me which completely changed how I felt the rest of the week. It showed me that God has given us his power, which we call the Priesthood, to be able to bless other peoples' lives. But when we use it to help others, it makes us feel better also. Cool experience for sure.

Friday night we went over and made some burgers with Pelle, an investigator that we have. It was his birthday so we grubbed hard and he pushed like 4 burgers on us ha ha. We had a good talk about where he is on his path to God and what we can do to help him. He turned 54, whatta geezer, (sorry Dad) but he still seems like he's 25. Love the guy!

Saturday night we were invited by P and his daughter F to go to a cemetery to light some candles to honor the dead. Here in Sweden, they don't have Halloween, but instead a holiday which they call All Hallows Eve. Basically everyone buys candles, goes to the cemetery, lights the candles and places them on the graves of their loved ones. It looked way sweet to see the whole cemetery lit up with these candles. really pretty! We went in for a quick service and some singing in the svenska kyrkan (Swedish church) and ate some of the free pastries they have of course :) It was cool to be a part of the all hallows eve Swedish experience with Pelle and his daughter. 

Rest of the week, we helped a family move We have a bunch of new people that we are teaching, but it's tough to get them past the first lesson. We're just trying to find those who are prepared to hear the life-changing message we've got.

Jag älskar er! Ha en fantastik vecka!! I love you, have a fantastic week!

Äldste Gordon

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