Week 40 -- A Gathering to Norrland Zone and a new friend

Hej Allihopa!

Solid week. Here are the highlights:

On Wednesday we were out contacting and I felt like we should cross over the street and talk to this guy. We walk over and ask him how he's doing and he said not good at all actually. He opened up to us about how he got in a car accident last year and had health problems because of that which caused him to lose his job. On top of that, his housing contract ran out a few days back so he's on the street now. We promised him that God can help him, set a time to meet him later that day, and now he's set to be baptized on April 7th! By the way, this is a rare occurrence here in Sweden.  

We've met him every day since Wednesday and he came to church yesterday and even came last night to help out with some language study. He's a Swede, 38 years old, and really smart guy. He's opened up more and more to us. It's cool to see our relationship with him grow through spending time with him, and also to feel my genuine for love him grow as well; I just wanna help the guy out so what better way to do that than to show him how to get help from the Man above. It has been a cool experience for me to see how God prepared him for our message, and then led us to him. 

We got to drive down 2 hours to Umeå on Friday and meet with the missionaries in the Norrland Zone (northern Sweden). There were only about 18 missionaries which is small compared to the other zones, but it's always good to get out and talk with other missionaries because we're a bit isolated up here in Skellefteå ha ha. I also enjoy the long drives, nature up here is unlike anywhere I've seen. It was a good chance to have a few hours chatting with Äldste Strong too, get to know each other even better. He's a solid dude.

Church yesterday was a funny experience. So, because there are only about 5 active members here, we have to Skype into Sundsvall's sacrament meetings (a city with a larger congregation) about every other week. That was the plan for yesterday until the servers didn't work. So, we, the missionaries and Kjell (the branch president) had to throw a sacrament meeting together. We quickly pulled out some CD's for the hymns (we usually go with CD's and just sing along because no one plays the piano) and watched a few general conference talks. 

I felt bad so I offered to play the closing song on the piano, one that I'd practiced a few months back, and it was definitely rusty but I think the branch appreciated the change of sound. They aren't really much of a singing group anyways, ha ha. Thanks for the piano lessons mom, sorry I didn't stick with it. But that's a little taste of what it's like to be a missionary in one of the smallest congregations in Europe. While the church is one of organization, sometimes that goes out the door when the servers don't work!

My spiritual thought this week comes from something I've heard many times in my life, yet it really stuck with me when I heard it this week. At our conference, we talked about better ways to approach people on the street and talk to them. One of the missionaries said that most often than not, people don't remember what you said to them but rather how you made them feel. It made me think about my life. When I die, people won't remember what I had said to them specifically, but they will remember how I made them feel. Christ taught to love one another as he loves us (Matt 13:34). Christ ministered to the one, focusing on making people feel loved personally. So that's something for you all to think about. How do you make others feel? Because that's how you'll be remembered. 

Thanks for the support you give me, and for reading these emails. If there's anything you want me to write more about just shoot me an email! 

mycket kärlek, ( Much Love)

Äldste Gordon

My address: 

Enebyergsvägen 38

182 46 Enebyberg 

Sweden

Companion selfies (Me and Aldste Strong)

A beautiful Swedish day