Week 33 -- Frozen the Sequel

Great week! Flew by which is good, means we're staying busy ;)

I have just two stories that I want to tell this week. 

It's been snowing here for 5 days straight and stays below freezing all the time, sometimes down to 0*F which is niipppyyy. Anyways, the weather makes it tough to go out talking to people on the street, so this week we've had more time and have gone out serving. 

We were out front of our little house/apartment shoveling the driveway we share with the neighbors.  We finished up with that and there were like 4 parking spots next to each other, one of which had a huge dip in the middle. So Aldste Callor and I thought to shovel them out, then Callor had the idea to fill in the dip with snow. So we shoveled it in with snow so the whole spot was level (but it had about 8" of fluffy, unpacked snow in it). I stepped into it and my boot sunk down pretty far.We both just looked at each other and laughed like dweebs because of how deep it was. We keep going and this guy comes from around the corner and starts talking with Aldste Callor. He said that he felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to come talk to us. He had some questions about what we believe, so we gave him a quick 1-min run down and he said he feels like he needs to find out more about the Book of Mormon. I was so happy, it felt really cool like God had directly sent this guy John to us. We'll see where it goes. 

But! At the end of the conversation, this lady goes to pull into the spot we filled in and her tired sinks in to the snow in the divet we shoveled in and she gets stuck. Aldste Callor and I were kinda chuckling because of course that would happen, we just didn't even think about that (leave it to two 19 yo boys). We rush over and help shovel and push her out. She was super grateful we helped her, and it felt good to help, even though we had laid the trap accidentally ha ha just goes to show that God must have his hand in the missionary work here, because if it was just us two boys running the show, there's no way we'd make any progress ha ha. We've got someone much smarter guiding everything :)

Second story. Callor and I drove out to this little town called Kåge to do some service for the day. It had been dumping snow so we grabbed our shovels and drove out there to the countryside. We went door to door asking people if we could shovel their driveways. The first bunch of people all said no and responded with the classic swedish answer when you try to offer help of "I can handle myself". Anyways, we knocked on this house and got no answer. Went across the street and a man said we should go back to that house and ask her. He said she's an old lady and can't do it herself. So we went back to that house again, knocked, no answer. We decided to do it anyways. About 5 mins in, she opens the door and we talked to her. She had to be like 70 or 80, she had cancer in her legs and her husband had passed away so she lives alone. She asked what we were doing, and we said going around to serve people today. She asked why and we said just to brightens someone's day. She started crying she was so grateful, that's when she opened up about her life and lonely situation. We were able to tell her she'll see her husband again after this life and tell her a bit about God's plan for her. Aldste Callor and I were both getting choked up seeing her cry, it was a touching experience (and we're babies with this kinda stuff). We were also able to help a bunch more people that day. It felt good to be out serving God's children. 

My spiritual thought for the week is from Mosiah 2:17 in the Book of Mormon,  and something my mother wrote to me. Mosiah 2:17 reads, " " And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

My mother signed off a letter with something like "Remember service is the way to people's hearts". 

Both of those were on my mind this week, and I saw first-hand how that is true. When we serve, we not only serve God, but we are able to make others' days, weeks, and maybe lives better. So try and think of someone who isn't able to do something for themselves, or doesn't have time to, and jump in and help. Everyone walks away feeling better.

I love God and the good feelings I get each time I teach people about him and try to be a light for others. 

Jag älskar er och är så väldigt tacksam för stödet ni har varit :) ( I love you and am so thankful for the support you give me!

Äldste Gordon

Some photos and answered questions below:

Mom's question answered, "What do you eat? Are you eating healthy?

Reply from Rylan:

Since we don't have a lot of church members to invite us to dinner...here's our basic diet: 

breakfast: banana, apple, crunchy cereal, or hardboiled egg

Lunch and dinner are the same: pytt i panna (frozen diced potato and sausage mix we heat up and add eggs then throw in a burrito with salsa), egg sandwich, PB toast with bananas, rice and korv (sausage) burritos, chicken and vegetables, and we've started making Flygande Jakob which is a chicken dish. We make a bunch of it, then save the whole week and eat it. It's like chili sauce and cream poured over chicken and cooked, then there's bacon bits and peanuts on it, serve with rice :) 

Companion selfie

Parking lot cleared

Karinne's driveway before

Diggin' our way in. (Rylan took a video of the finished product,
but Mom doesn't know how to get a video
to work on blogspot. :-/)

What is your Sunday meeting like with only 5 people in the congregation?

A typical Sunday: we plan and then head to church at 9 to do personal study there. We open up the church, get the sacrament prepped (which is filling 16 little cups of the regular tray with water,even though only 6 or 7 or used, then defrost 1 slice of bread). Ulla ( an 80ish woman, that likes to boss us around) comes around 10 and we help her in with her bags. Aldste Callor practices piano because he plays for the branch. 

Alvin (a new convert from Liberia that speaks English, no Swedish) and Tjell come and we chat with them and translate conversations when Alvin and Tjell talk to each other. Ivar (60ish man, with some physical challenges) rolls in in his old white Volvo, with his assistant and so we have to help him up the steps and carry his wheelchair up. 

Once everyone is there, Tjell gets up and starts the meeting. We either Skype in and watch Sundsvall's sacrament meeting (a bigger congregation down south from us) or like yesterday we had the district president Håkan Stegby come and speak for the entire meeting and then teach 2nd hour.

 But usually we'll have some people talk (not many to choose from), Skype in to another place, and then second hour is Sunday school. We take a little break between them, and then start it up and the lesson is taught by us every other week and the other weeks Tjell and Ulla switch off. 

After that we're all done with church, just 2 hrs, then we help Ivar out and Ulla and chat with them. They all take off then we keep going on with our day. Aldste Callor and I bless and pass the sacrament. One blesses both, and the other passes. It takes about 4 mins total for the sacrament , not even enough time to pray. Breaking the bread takes about 10 seconds because i break like 10 pieces and then call it good. It's a different experience here, it honestly would be weird for me to go back to a ward in America, that has so many people, and sacrament prep takes longer than 1 min ha ha I've gotten used to small branches being about 30 in Västerås and 6 members here.