T-minus 9 days...but who's counting? I'm gonna miss this place.

Just about every week when I sit down to write my weekly I feel like nothing big has happened, just regular missionary life of teaching lessons and finding new people to teach. But these last two weeks have had some bigger events:

1) Valborg - Valborg is a holiday in Sweden largely recognized for the sake of going out and drinking the night before a red day (a day with no work). The real meaning of it is to bring in the summer season by gathering all of the old branches and twigs from the winter and spring and then have a massive bonfire. Tuesday night we headed to the big park downtown called Slottskogen (The Castle Forest) and were there with some members our age and several hundred other people at a huge brasa (bonfire). They start by having these creepy looking witches and warlocks  come down with a torch and circle around the bonfire, beating a drum, before they light the fire to the bundle. After about 20 minutes the fire dies down and that's when the drinking picked up, police and ambulance rolled in, rap concert started and us missionaries went home ha ha 

2) Zone Conference - This week I had my last zone conference (a conference where all of the missionaries in the greater Gothenburg area come together and receive training and share ideas). It was great to see some of the guys I came to Sweden with, and I look forward to seeing them when we take off in a few weeks together. I got to share my final "testimony", or reflection on how my belief in God and Christ has grown. I heard someone explain the mission like this, "The mission is like a roll of toilet paper. At the beginning it seems like there is a ton left, but as you get closer and closer to the end, it disappears even quicker." ha ha naw but it was a good reflection of how serving a mission these last 2 years has been the best thing I could've done for my life and future family.

3) Sunday Success - this week on the spårvagn (trolley) we walked on and I had the distinct thought "there is someone on this spårvagn you need to talk to". So walking through the språvagn we looked around at different people to see if I could feel some sort of pull to someone specific, but didn't really get anything. We sat across from this girl with headphones on and we start shooting off some texts we had to get out. Half-way through the ride, the first feeling I got repeated in my mind so I thought "well at this point the best I can do is to talk to this girl here". So we start chatting and about 10 mins later we got off at the same stop, ended our conversation about the Book of Mormon by switching Facebooks and that was that. She said she's looking for a church in the area. We sent her a message or two during the week but it never showed that she saw them. Sunday rolls around and 10 minutes to 11am she comes walking into the church. She said that she, for some reason, woke up earlier than usual without an alarm and the thought came to her to come to our church. She took it as a sign from God and so she looked up the address and time from the card and came using google maps. Her, as well as a few other people we teach, came to church for their first time and the members of the congregation welcomed them and they loved it. 

What is cool to see though is that God is like a magician that works his magic with slight of hand... and we are His hands. If we aren't careful, or don't pay attention to the thoughts we get to help others or even just reflect back on the day, we'll miss the trick and won't get the "awww!" that follows His miracle. The only difference is that God is a magician that reveals how He does it whether it be through the scriptures, promptings of the Holy Spirit, other people, etc. 

If we keep our eyes out and minds open, He'll use us to reach others. And if we take time to look back at the day, we can catch how God worked his magic.

The countdown sits at 10 days remaining before I touch down back home in beautiful, green Seattle. 

This Week's email: only one more left...

The week was filled with teaching people that we found/met through miraculous ways. One experience I'd like to share was from a few days back. We had just left the church building and were walking to a dinner when this guy passed us on the road. I usually say hi as I walk past people, partly because it's funny to see some people's reactions because it's uncommon to do that in Sweden. I say "hej" to him and he stops and says "hej" back and then proceeds to talk about how that small point of contact is lacked so much in Sweden. We started chatting and he's a super cool dude, has had a rough life, and feels it's time for him to start sharing all of the love he's got with other people. After struggling with anxiety for 30 years, he turned his stress into a focus on golf and ball sports for the last 7 years. He's trying to soon go pro, but in the last week he has felt like his life lacks meaning. So he reached out to different churches, and groups, anywhere he can get some social contact and find something more to life. Then we met him. 

We taught him the next morning and started talking about what we do -- we teach people how to find a deeper purpose in life, help them find out if there is a God, and learn about what brings true happiness. He smiled as we taught and said he just had a "magkänsla" (gut feeling) that us coming over was right. We helped him identify that that feeling was the Holy Spirit, and after we said that he just looked up was like "woahhh, den helige anden" ha ha like it was a magic name or something. It was a cool experience that showed me that God knows what's goin on in our lives, when we are searching for more, because not everyone is always ready for the next step. 

Another less spiritual experience happened today, our free day. For the last 4 months I've seen this funny looking building that looks like a tall, scientist lab building, or as Elder Thompson and I say, a building from Pokemon where you'd find the gym trainer at the top ha ha Elder Thompson for a few weeks has suggested trying to go to the top because it is right on the harbor and would have a beautiful lookout. Today we thought "hey why not" and walked into this funny grey and red tower. There were a few people at the receptionist, nicely dressed, who asked "Can we help you with anything?" We told him we were curious to see if we could go to the top. He then told us that the three people there at the receptionist were the 3 owners of the big building and that he'd send us up for free (bc you normally have to pay). Pretty sweet timing! So we caught a 360 view of the harbor and Gothenburg city, and met these two nice girls from Netherlands and Germany at the top and were able to give them a book of Mormon. It was a nice surprise! Because God knows we wouldn't have gone up to the top if we had to pay lol I guess one of those girls needed that book then 😂

VALBORG celebration

Playing Swedish games at the park

Service....helping a member move. Found a groovy coat.

Almost outta here....I'm going to miss this place!