T-Minus 15 Wo/Man Hunt and #DöpDonsö

February 10, 2019

T-Minus 15 Wo/Man Hunt and #DöpDonsö

It's been a heck of a week here! I've got two cool experiences I wanna share with you all.

1. The Man Hunt

So about 2 weeks back we met with this returning member and gave him a nice spiritual message. At the end, we asked him to write his testimony in a copy of the Book of Mormon which we would then give out. But! It gets a little more fun. This time as asked him to first ask God to help him know what to write, then when he had written the testimony, to pray for a specific description of the person who needed that very book.

About a week later, he comes up to us at church with the book and says he will send us the description. We get a word doc from him explaining what he experienced when seeking this specific inspiration from God. In the explanation, he gave us some specifics about the future receiver of his book, and they were as follows: An older lady who's age is hard to appreciate, a bit of a rushed snappy feel to her, wearing a wig, wearing something red, and he felt like her name was something with an E, like Elisa. She also had been through some rough stuff in her life.

The day after, we had a fun prep day and were coming home from a lesson when we got off at the trolley stop. While standing there, I look over at this lady with a big long wig on, a bright red running suit, about 90 years old... nah I'm just kidding. It was a normal looking woman, and we started chatting. Turns out we get on the same trolley and get to chat for about 15 mins. She recognized the church, and had even been to Utah in SLC. She opened up after a bit about some tough life experiences and that was when this description came to mind. I then, remembering the name description, asked her what her name was after noticing she was older, had a tough life, bright red lipstick, quick personality, and she replies "Elisabeth". Pretty nuts! We took out the book and gave it to her, telling her about the whole story about the member that asked God for specific guidance that led us to her.

It showed me two things: First, that we can all receive specific answers from God if we ask specific questions, and two, that God knows which of his children need help and how he can reach out to them.

2. #DöpDonsö

This story begins about 2 weeks back when us and the Kungsbacka elders took a nice day excursion out to the crusty sailor island called Styrsö on prep day. After roaming the whole place, we got to chat with some of the locals and they mentioned that Donsö, the neighboring island,was a super religious place. Turns out 2/3 of the 1500 residents there are religious, which is extremely high for Sweden being one of the most secularized countries in the world. The idea was planted in our mind that day to take a day and go knock the whole island. We figured, we've got over 700 days on the mission, we can take 1 day to go out knocking doors on an island about 45 mins from the church where missionaries haven't been in who knows how long.

This last Saturday we headed out there and began knocking around noon. We had set a goal to get let in and teach 2x and give out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon. By the days end, we got let in twice to teach and handed out 5 copies. I could probably count on my hands the number of times I've been let in while tracting on my mission, and we had just got in twice. This island was Sweden, yet felt like a totally different country with a different culture because people were so open to talk about religion. We also got to sing to two separate Moms and their children at their door.

One of the people that let us in was a man named Leif. Our good man Leif had prayed last week, the week we felt to go out to Donsö, that God would show him what to do, what the next step was. Then we came and knocked. We taught him all about God's plan and were able to answer all of his questions he had that his church couldn't answer, and we're meeting him this Thursday.

That was one of the many cool things that happened out on that island that day, not to mention the beauty of it. Old swedish looking houses, boats everywhere, snow covered roofs. Whatta day!

For sure a cool week. Thanks for the prayers!

With Love,

Elder Gordon