Week 54...Splits Magic+Korv Stand+Flower Planting

June 21, 2018

Week 54...Splits Magic+Korv Stand+Flower Planting

Tja!

To start, we had transfer calls yesterday and I'm staying here in Jakobsberg another 6 weeks with the one and only Elder Francis. I'm stoked to see what work we can get done in the next transfer.

There's a running joke in the mission about "splits magic". Splits are when you switch companions for 24 hours so you can learn new things from someone new. We say splits magic because usually crazy stuff happens on splits, or at least it gets talked the most about when missionaries gather haha So this week I went on splits with Elder Berlin, who is one of the assistants to the President. He's a beast, I learned a ton from him. One thing I loved was how bold he was about what we had to say, he steered the conversation to the gospel, helped people feel the truth of what he was saying, then found a reason to get invited in and most people let us in! (not common here). We got to teach a Swedish couple that has 2 little boys about a how we have a prophet today and about why God lets us make mistakes. We chatted with this man who let us into an apartment building that had a code to get in, set up a time to come back, went back 20 mins later to ask for his number to let us in next time, and he invited us in for some good Kurdish food (lamb meat soup). We got a few new investigators and a couple TU's all in one day. Splits magic for sure ;) + Berlin's skills.

We've been asking around about what there is to do here in Stockholm, and someone said to go to Gunter's Korv, a nappy hot dog stand in Stockholm. So today Francis and I made the trek there and this place had the best and spiciest korv (sausage) that I've had yet. While Costco hotdogs are ol' reliable, this place wins.

As a zone, we got to all go to the temple on Thursday to help plant flowers. It was fun to be on the temple grounds and to see other missionaries from the area.

Something the mission has slowly been implementing is the use of Skype for meetings. So starting this transfer, all district meetings (weekly meetings among missionaries from 6-10 people) are held over skype except for one week each transfer. President is all about efficiency.

For my spiritual thought this week, I wanna share 2 experiences I had that both taught me the same lesson. While on splits, things got delayed with the schedule so we took our language study later than planned. We went to this building where a less active lived but it was portcoded. The guy mentioned above^^ came and let us in the building and that led us to teaching him that night as well meeting another person later that happened to be coming home right when we were on her floor. If we hadn't have taken studies, we wouldn't have been there at the right time. I thought back to the day and the small things that impacted the schedule down to me having the thought to get water before we left the church to head to this area. It may sound silly, but if I hadn't have gotten water, and taken the extra 1 minute, we wouldn't have been at the door at the right time.

Second experience was yesterday. We were in an area called Märsta and taught a lesson then went to old investigators and potential investigators in the area. I felt like we could get to one more old investigator before catching the train, so we went there but it turns out it took longer than planned and we missed the train. When we got to their building, there was a portcode. So we prayed and asked God to help us get in the building if we were supposed to meet someone there. 10 seconds later someone lets us in. We get in and realize that the people we planned to visit don't live there so we left. 30 seconds into the walk back to the station I had the thought, naww we were at the building for a reason. So we went back and knocked on some doors there until it was time to head back, yet we hadn't found anyone. I was a bit confused because I felt so clearly guided to go back. Fast forward, we are on the train home and there's this lady next to me with a bunch of flowers so I ask her about them and it leads to a conversation the whole ride back about her life story moving from Latvia to Sweden, her journey to find herself, belief in God, search for peace. We added each other on FB and will contact her this week, but both of these experiences showed me that God is involved in the details of things. The smallest thoughts or promptings can lead to something bigger happening hours later.

It's cool to realize that and feel that God is aware of what we do in our lives, even down to the minute things. Everything happens for a reason.

I hope you all can recognize God's involvement in your lives looking back!

Love,

Elder Gordon