Week 68-- A baptism!
Hallå hallå!
This has been quite an exciting week!
To start off, we went on exchanges twice. The first time I
was with Elder Petersen who's from Utah. He goes home in about 6 weeks. We had
a member meal with a guy named Jorge and at the end he said "Who weighs
the most out of you 6 elders?" We point to the biggest one, and he says
"Alright, do you believe that 4 of us can lift him only using 2
fingers". We were like no way ha ha this dude's just pullin’ our leg. He
sits Elder Ahonen down on the chair, gets 3 of the other missionaries, and
shows us that if we each put our hands hovering above his head in a tower, then
go down and lift at his knees and armpits then he'll practically float up. Sooo,
we did it and it was nuts, we lifted him like he was nothing. Apparently, it
has something to do with combining our energies. We used it the next night for
a message at a member meal and lifted up the dad of a family of 6 kids, they
went berserk.
Second exchange was with Elder Derr who is one of the
assistants to the President. It was a packed day, and I learned a bunch from
his work ethic and positivity. In the morning, we taught an English class that
we put on each Saturday and worked on the difference between the sounds w, th,
s, and d. We wrote the sentence "I went with dad with this dip" and
that was a tough one for the Swedes to say. It was said like " I went
thith dad sith wis thip", they're getting the hang of it. They asked about
the difference in saying the words with and width... makes me grateful that I
grew up speaking English.
Now onto the story of Joy. Nearly 3 weeks ago we had a
missed call and a voice message from a lady named Joy. We listened to it and
she said that the missionaries came and preached to her children about 10 years
back but just stopped coming. She wanted us to come back and begin preaching to
them again because they are teenagers and needed it. She also said she feels
like she needs it herself. So, we called her back, and 10 minutes later she is
sitting in the chapel.
Over 20 years ago, she lived in Uganda and the missionaries visited her family when she was a teenager. She listened to them but never was interested enough to do anything about the message. She didn't have "the calling" as she says. Fast forward and she's living in Sweden, has been for maybe about 15 years and the missionaries come knocking on her door. She remembers them and lets them in so that they can preach to her kids. About 5 years after that, a man from England came who was also a Latter-day Saint and rented a room out from them. Each week he came to church here in Gubbängen and brought Joy's kids yet Joy never wanted to come herself. The man moved out after a while, and the missionaries stopped coming by.
About 2 years ago she felt like she needed to find the white shirt and black tag again -- the missionaries. God pressed her over and over again to find them but she didn't see them anywhere in Stockholm. Finally, she decided to find the chapel and see if we were there. So, she drives to the chapel, gets our number, and gives us a call and that's when we met her on Wednesday September 12th.
She was like "You're gonna think I'm mad" but she went on to tell us she has felt prompted to come here, learn as much as she can, then move back to her home land in Uganda and teach the people there about the "Mormon religion". She had gone to other churches yet felt like they lacked something.
That was when we hopped right in and told her about baptism done with the authority of God, which we hold. Her focus then switched from just meeting the missionaries to then being baptized.
Over the course of 15 days, we met her nearly each day and taught her the basics of what she needed to know in order to be baptized and washed clean.
This last Thursday we had her baptismal service which went super well. After Elder Craun baptized her, she just stood there with her eyes closed just taking it all in. She was like bending over splashing more water onto herself ha ha. I asked her afterward and she said it felt like when she came out of the water that she got a rush like she had a shot of adrenaline or something. I then had the privilege of confirming her as a member in the church and giving her the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday in church.
Seeing Joy and her burning desire to learn the truth and then share it with others has helped me realize just how much the gospel within this church can bring a light into peoples' lives. We hopefully will get to go to the temple with Joy soon, but she's on fire. She has already helped her friend in Ohio get baptized and some friends in Uganda to set a date to be baptized.
I feel pretty blessed to be here when her time came. There's no doubt that God gets people ready to accept the truth, even if we can't see it or don't hear about it.
Over 20 years ago, she lived in Uganda and the missionaries visited her family when she was a teenager. She listened to them but never was interested enough to do anything about the message. She didn't have "the calling" as she says. Fast forward and she's living in Sweden, has been for maybe about 15 years and the missionaries come knocking on her door. She remembers them and lets them in so that they can preach to her kids. About 5 years after that, a man from England came who was also a Latter-day Saint and rented a room out from them. Each week he came to church here in Gubbängen and brought Joy's kids yet Joy never wanted to come herself. The man moved out after a while, and the missionaries stopped coming by.
About 2 years ago she felt like she needed to find the white shirt and black tag again -- the missionaries. God pressed her over and over again to find them but she didn't see them anywhere in Stockholm. Finally, she decided to find the chapel and see if we were there. So, she drives to the chapel, gets our number, and gives us a call and that's when we met her on Wednesday September 12th.
She was like "You're gonna think I'm mad" but she went on to tell us she has felt prompted to come here, learn as much as she can, then move back to her home land in Uganda and teach the people there about the "Mormon religion". She had gone to other churches yet felt like they lacked something.
That was when we hopped right in and told her about baptism done with the authority of God, which we hold. Her focus then switched from just meeting the missionaries to then being baptized.
Over the course of 15 days, we met her nearly each day and taught her the basics of what she needed to know in order to be baptized and washed clean.
This last Thursday we had her baptismal service which went super well. After Elder Craun baptized her, she just stood there with her eyes closed just taking it all in. She was like bending over splashing more water onto herself ha ha. I asked her afterward and she said it felt like when she came out of the water that she got a rush like she had a shot of adrenaline or something. I then had the privilege of confirming her as a member in the church and giving her the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday in church.
Seeing Joy and her burning desire to learn the truth and then share it with others has helped me realize just how much the gospel within this church can bring a light into peoples' lives. We hopefully will get to go to the temple with Joy soon, but she's on fire. She has already helped her friend in Ohio get baptized and some friends in Uganda to set a date to be baptized.
I feel pretty blessed to be here when her time came. There's no doubt that God gets people ready to accept the truth, even if we can't see it or don't hear about it.
Real solid week for sure. Love you all!
Äldste Gordon
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| Joy's Bapstism Day |
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| A Fall Swedish Sunset, getting earlier and earlier |
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| A little bird flew into our apartment. We had to catch and release. |
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