Week 37-- Hej da Aldste Callor, Hej Hej Aldste Strong

March 04, 2018

Week 37-- Hej da Aldste Callor, Hej Hej Aldste Strong

Tjena allihopa!

This week was transfer week so I drove Elder Callor down to the Umeå airport and gave him a big hug goodbye then picked up my new companion Elder Strong. It was tough saying goodbye to Callor because we'd gotten pretty close, but Elder Strong and I have had a good time these last few days, I can tell we're gonna have a good next few transfers.

Elder Strong is from Chandler, AZ so he’s my first companion not from Utah. Everyone here on the street thinks they know the Mormon type and say "oh you guys come from Utah huh?" and all my Utah comps have liked having me to say "nope I'm from Seattle" but now neither of us are from Utah, which feels good to prove them wrong ha ha. He's a great guy though, very personable when talking to people on the street and knocking doors, so we just go out and have fun while doing it and we've seen some success already.

This week they had an event here in Skellefteå called Vintersimning or the winter swim. Since all the water is frozen including the river that runs through stan, they cut the ice the size of a swimming pool and then people come from all over the world to compete in this swim race in the freezing cold water. Elder Strong and I wandered over to the bridge above it and contacted people, while watching for a while, which was fun. We met a dude from Estonia who came to swim in it. It's specific to Skellefteå too, pretty cool, not cool enough to do, I was cold enough watching from outside ha ha.

It can be hard to get people to church here in Skellefteå because there aren't many members, but this week we had Mattias and Henrik in church! Henrik showed up unexpectedly (we haven't had contact with him for a while) and then our new investigator Mattias came too and participated in the lesson and everything. It felt way good to have them there.

My spiritual thought this week comes from an experience I had one night during dinner hour. We made some quick pytt i panna (look it up, classic missionary meal) for dinner then headed into stan (town square) for Elder Strong to pick up a pull-up bar.

On the way back, I saw this older man, rough looking, heavier guy, and the thought came to me to ask him about his mom. It would be weird if I go up to this random gubbe (old man in Swedish) and ask about his mom, so we kept walking. I felt again like we needed to talk to him, so I turned around and went up to him and asked how he was doing, I told him that me and my companion are going around with a question, and I asked something like, “what do your parents mean to you?”. He answered right off that his mom had died when he was 5 and he grew up with a foster family.

After a 5 minute conversation with him about what happens after this life and being with families forever, he took a pamphlet which talks more about it and a card with our number. While nothing crazy happened from this experience, and Elder Strong and I understood like half of what he said (he had super sing-songy Swedish like all Americans think Swedish sounds like, I think he was speaking Bonska which is a northern dialect), it showed me that God does speak to us today through our thoughts and feelings.

It's through us that God reaches his other children. I thought of a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 8:2 which says "I will tell you in your mind and in your heart by the Holy Ghost which shall come upon you". I experienced this. There's no way I could've known about this about a random elderly man’s mom, it is so apparent that God is leading the missionary work here in Sweden and I'm grateful I can be a part of it.

I hope you all have a great week and can take some time to pray for God to give you an opportunity to serve someone around you.

love,

Äldste Gordon