Week 23...It's Getting Chilly and Dark Here

November 17, 2017

Week 23...It's Getting Chilly and Dark Here

Tjena tjena!!

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