Week 23...It's Getting Chilly and Dark Here
It is getting chilly here in Sweden. This morning we had to
get both me and Äldste Young yanking on the bike lock to get it off the bike!
This week I was fortunate enough to be able to baptize the sister
missionaries' investigator name Jeannie! She's been taught for a few months, is
20 years old and is an awesome girl. I felt humbled to be able to baptize
someone, honored I guess is a better word... Honored that God trusts me enough
to let me do something so important for someone as baptism. In Swedish, “Dop”
means baptism (pronounced like dope) so I guess you could say it was a dop
experience ;)
This week we had some interesting interactions while
contacting!
This Swedish gubbe
(geezer) spoke to us in English the whole contact and sung American country
classics to us. Some people here like to show that they know English or try to
be American. People here love America, it's funny. But I do too! America is
great!
We saw this girl, probably 16 or 17 sitting on the park
bench crying so we went up and talked to her. She didn't say much back to us
besides yes or no answers to our questions, but as small as this experience was
it had an impact on me. We tried to comfort her, tell her about how God loves
her, even just talk about random stuff to try and cheer her up. We ended just
leaving her with our card, but as we walked away, she looked up and gave us a
small smile which made my day. Reminded me that even if people here aren't getting
baptized or converted to God, that's okay. I'm here to just help people and let
them know that someone loves them, God loves them.
While crossing the street I saw this 70 or 80 yr old man
with a hat that said the “F” word on it, so I thought hey why not, nothing to
lose ha ha! I went up and we started talking to him... He was super friendly,
not interested but took our information. This experienced showed me that
sometimes it's the people you least expect to be open to talk about God or even
just be friendly. We're all brothers and sisters here, and he was just anotha
brotha to talk with :)
We had some good lessons reading scriptures with people and
explaining/discussing what we read.
We met a man named I who speaks very little Swedish. He
comes from Tibet (or in that area) but he speaks a little Turkish, so we gave
him a Book of Mormon in Turkish and he's read half of it pretty quick and
understands it all. He cooked us up some good Chinese food and a nice cold
Pepsi max which we horked down in
like 5 mins. The language barrier is tough with him, he knows the Book of Mormon
is true and that he feels good at church but we can't really teach him much.
We're gonna try to find a translator to help us teach him.
A scripture that really helped me this week is in John 14:16
& 18. This week it's been pretty dark/bummy weather here and it got me
down. I felt a little anxiousness, not sure why, but I needed some comfort this
week. I read this scripture and it was exactly what I needed. Verse 18 reads 'I
will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you'. Jesus is always here to
comfort us. It's normal for us to feel unhappy, anxious, tired, and maybe sad
sometimes. That's part of life, happens to everyone. But there is always Christ
there for us to pick us back up and cheer us up.
I'm grateful to be here in Sweden, to be able to go out each
day and try to tell people that there's a God who loves them and a Savior that
gave his life for us. To tell people why they are here on Earth, their purpose,
where they are going, and how they can be happy.
I love you all and thank you for the support I've gotten
from everyone. Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Aldste Gordon
Jeanie's Baptism |
Jeannie and the Sister missionaries who taught her |
Chinese food at Ismar's home |
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