July 1, 2019 The privilege and blessing of being a missionary

Karlstad

The district

The last letter. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that... I can remember clearly waking up some mornings toward the beginning of my mission feeling like two years is an eternity, and now here I am at the end of my mission and it seems like it was just a month ago I left home and put on my missionary name tag for the first time.

My mission president has emphasized the need to run through the finish line, not to it. If your goal is the finish line, you'll inevitably let up just before you reach it, but if your goal is beyond the finish line you'll finish at full speed. That has always been my goal, and I couldn't feel better about my last week in the mission field. Elder Clarke and I went to work together, and with the help and guidance of the Lord we found six new people to teach this week. Most of them are between the ages of 20-25 and all of them have incredible potential. I'm heartbroken I don't get to continue teaching them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I'm grateful that I got to be at least a small part in inviting them to come unto Christ.

One of the most incredible experiences we had finding them was on Wednesday when we were riding our bikes into town to go street contacting. We usually ride all the way into town, but we received the

Helping our Elders Quorum

 president fix a bike

prompting to stop and leave the bikes locked up a little ways outside town and then walk and talk to people the rest of the way. We left our bikes and hadn't walked more than 30 yards when we saw a guy standing just outside a nearby door. We had walked past him, but I felt strongly that we should go talk to him and as soon as we did, two of his friends came out and joined him. I've never met anyone so willing to talk to us, and all three of them had a lot of great questions for us and asked about the Book of Mormon. We taught them right then and there about Jesus Christ and shared our own personal experiences and testimonies of his reality. One of them asked us to read one of our favorite verses, so we shared Alma 36:27 with them and one of the others asked if we could mark it in the copy of the Book of Mormon we had given him so he could read it again later that night. We were able to meet one of them, Patrik, again the next day, and we'll be meeting another, Daniel, tonight to teach him more.

Another miraculous experience we had this week occurred right as we walked out our apartment door. Our next door neighbor, a 21 year old girl studying at the university here, just happened to be heading out at the same time to do some laundry, so we talked with her as we walked down the stairs. Eventually she started talking about how impressed she is with all the missionaries who have been here in Karlstad and how she always sees the missionaries exercising every morning (even during the winter), wearing nice clothes, helping neighbors, and even how our car is always super clean. She told us that she

Exchanges with Elder Beckman

doesn't have a faith in God herself, but has always been kind of curious, and she said she has a friend who is really interested in meeting us. She then said that her friend would be over in a couple days, on Friday, and asked if we would be willing to tell them more. We ended up teaching them on Friday about the restoration. They both really liked it and said they wanted to bring a third friend along next week when we meet again.

These two instances illustrate perfectly the great privilege it is to serve as a missionary and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all reality, there is very little we did to deserve the experiences we had meeting these people. Rather, it was the Lord performing his work and allowing us to observe as we offered our "hearts and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34). Many people ask what the greatest thing I've learned on my mission is, and I would say with absolute surety that it is this: "Behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land." (Mosiah 2:22) I have come to learn for myself that I am always happiest and most successful when I keep His commandments.

I love the Lord with all my heart.

Äldste Sirrine

June 24, 2019 "That was Romney time"

Elder Clarke and I

Well, here I am at the start of my last week in the mission field. It's impossible to describe the roller coaster of time experienced on the mission, with certain days and weeks feeling like an eternity and others feeling like the snap of your fingers. Regardless of all that, the overall feeling is one of pure amazement, having no idea how I am already reaching the end of two years. I'm not alone in this feeling, and will be accompanied by 21 other missionaries leaving the Sweden Stockholm mission and heading home next week. This is directly following the departure of 18 missionaries last transfer. Considering the fact that our mission only has about 100 missionaries, this is a rather large chunk of missionaries and has created some interesting challenges. Several areas in the mission won't have missionaries for the next 3 months, so to prepare for this change several missionaries had to move areas this last week. As a result of this, I got a new companion, Elder Clarke, for my last week and a half here in Sweden.

We've been together for a few days now, and have discovered that we are almost the exact same person. Our personalities, opinions, and ideas are so similar I'm starting to wonder how it's possible. Elder Clarke comes from American Fork and has been a missionary for about 11 months now. He's got incredible Swedish and loves being out among the people here and talking with them.

This week we celebrated Midsommar, a Swedish holiday almost as largely celebrated as Christmas.

The maypole we built. It might not be the best,

 but we made do with what we had...

We had a party with the branch here where we built a small maypole and grilled a bunch of food. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday we saw some incredible miracles and found two new people to teach. The first is a woman we found by knocking on her door a couple weeks ago but haven't really had a chance to teach her. She's had an operation on her neck recently and has had a difficult time recovering, so we asked if we could share as scripture and read Alma 7:11-13 with her. We testified of the Atonement, and as we did so she talked about how good it felt. It was really cool to hear how good it felt to her, because she describes her faith as being in a higher power, but consisting of the parts from many other faiths that feel right. She asked about our belief in the afterlife, so we asked if we could return to teach her about it and scheduled a return appointment. Before we left she thanked us for coming and said, "It might sound weird, but you guys literally shine from within. I'm not sure what it is, but I've seen it even since the first time I met you."

Last night we were going by some people the missionaries had met before and saw a house for which the only record we had was "Ask about his 32 cars." We were pretty curious, so we decided to give it a try. The man we met didn't remember ever meeting the missionaries before, but when he saw the Book of Mormon in our hands, he got really excited and told us that he had some ancestors who became members in the 1800's and emigrated to Utah. He said he wants to visit some day and do some research to learn more about them. We told him about the family history center here and hardly finished before he started asking us about the Book of Mormon. Long story short, we ended up teaching him the entire restoration while standing there in his backyard. After teaching him, we asked about his cars and he just seemed to light up. He showed us several of his cars, old American classics that he's restored, and told us how he started an American Motors club here in Karlstad. He started telling us all about George Romney, Mitt Romney's father, who was the president of American Motors and had written some sort of biography that he had read. He then showed us one of the cars he's currently working on and was proud to say "This car is one of the originals. That was Romney time." He was so excited to tell us about his love for American cars and all the connections to our church he's come across. He also asked us where he could buy our book, and you should have seen his face when we put it in his hands and told him it was free. His expression was priceless, and he told us he can't wait to start reading it.

These are just two of the incredible miracles we've seen, but I wish I could share them all! The Lord has truly blessed us, and I find it such an honor and privilege to serve Him with all my might, mind, and strength.

Elder Sirrine

The Romney era car he's working on

One of the cars

June 17, 2019 My first Swedish Sunburn

Helping at the farm. 

We were moving these stone tiles and decided to have some fun with the kids

You might be wondering, "What's a Swedish sunburn?". It's nothing more than getting sunburned while in Sweden, but the fact that it's the first time that's happened in two years makes it a pretty special occasion for me. We spent the day on Saturday helping a member at his farm, and the sun decided to dodge any wisp of white in the sky you might even dare to call a cloud, so we all got a little red. It was a lot of fun though, and it felt good to get a little muddy and help them clean up the farm a bit. They have two little girls and just had a baby a couple months ago, so it makes it a little hard for both parents to be out working, and the perfect opportunity for us to help out a little.

We also had a neat opportunity to help one of the older members in our branch cut down their hedge this week. Her neighbor was the one doing it, but we got go over and lend a helping hand. Her

Cutting down the hedge

neighbor isn't a member, but as we sat and talked afterwords he said that he wants to come to church with us sometime. We're praying he does :) It would obviously be a great blessing in his life, but it would also be a great strength and blessing in the life of the member who does everything she can to serve others and build a "Zion" where she lives.

It's been a bit of an unusual week filled with so many opportunities to serve, and I'm grateful for the each of them and the opportunity we've had to follow the Savior's example in helping and lifting others.

Here's a thought I had this week while studying. In Mosiah 24, the people of Alma are in bondage and under sever persecution. Their burdens felt almost too heavy to bear, so they poured out their hearts to God in prayer. "And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: ... I will also ease the

Helping a member move

burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." (Mosiah 24:13-16)

What stood out to me is that they acted in faith by submitting cheerfully and patiently to the will of the Lord, even if it isn't what they had expected or even wanted, because they had unshaken faith that He would truly keep his promise to make their burdens light and eventually, in his own time, deliver them from bondage. If they can't feel the burden, why would they choose to be unhappy? If we honestly believe that the Lord will strengthen us to make our burdens seem light, even so that we "cannot feel them upon [our] backs", then we will gladly submit to the will of the Lord.

Now I want to leave you with the same question that came to my mind and softened my heart this week.

"Do I have the faith to be happy?"

Äldste Sirrine

June 10, 2016 Even cats can't stop us

Exchanges in Göteborg

This last week we traveled down to Göteborg for exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Tolman, and we got to teach a guy with 7 cats. I'm not going to lie, I thought the cats all looked exactly the same, but apparently he can tell the difference with no problem. I was enjoying the cats until one of them jumped onto the table and then onto me and grabbed on with its claws. It was just trying to play, but it's no longer fun and games when you struggle to get it off and then are left with holes in your white shirt... It's all good though, we managed to avoid the cats long enough to have a good lesson and were able to teach him about the plan of salvation.

On the way back from Göteborg they were doing some construction work on the train tracks between Karlstad and Göteborg, so we had to take a different train than normal. This also meant that we had to switch trains about halfway to Karlstad, and right as we got onto the next train a man came up to us

Kristinehamn, a small town 

a few of our members live in

and greeted us rather enthusiastically. He was a little too excited to just be a random person, and sure enough he turned out to be a member from the Stockholm area. The cool part is that the man we met, Bryte, was traveling with his brother in law, Michael, who is not a member, but they invited us to sit down and talk with them for the rest of the trip. Michael asked us a few questions and we ended up teaching him the entire restoration right there on the train. I was absoluetly blown away by how attentive he was and how much he understood. He was like a sponge. Towards the end of our conversation he looked at Bryte and said, "You've never made the church sound this good! I want one of these Book of Mormons so I can see for myself what it says." Bryte called the Elders in Stockholm right then and there and arranged for him to get a copy of the Book of Mormon in English as soon as they got back to Stockholm.

I've thought a lot about the power of Jesus Christ this week. He doesn't just leave us to wander alone in this life and then "save" us regardless of who we are are what we've done. To do so would

We visited a 200 year old farm and the Lady 

showed us around before we got to teach her

eliminate our agency and ultimately fail to fulfill the purpose of God. His goal is not just to take us from one place to another, but rather to help us become something. Regardless of our circumstances, He wants us to "act for ourselves, and not to be acted upon" (2 Ne 2:26). It may feel impossible to make a change, but "even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you." (Alma 32:27) Even if all you can do is want to change, seek His help and I testify he will make your "weak things become strong unto [you]". He will make it possible. I have experienced this and know with all my heart that He does so. He has all power to fulfill his promises and waits with open arms until we are ready to take the first step toward him.


Äldste Sirrine

Elder Karlsson and I by Vänern, the great lake

June 3, 2019 Flowers and moving boxes

Karlstad is built on a small archipelago, 

so bridges are everywhere you go

One of the members of our branch, a young adult named Lisa, recently moved to Florida but we're

currently teaching her mother who is not a member. This last Sunday was mother's day Sweden, so Lisa ordered flowers for her mom and we got to go pick them up and go deliver them in her place. It

Delivering flowers to Lisa's 

momfor mothers day

was neat to be a part of something so simple, but you could see how much it meant to her.

This last week we traveled down to Gothenburg for our district meeting. The vast majority (maybe 95%?) of the missionaries in Sweden come from the US, but right now our district of eight missionaries consists of missionaries from Finland, Canada, Austria, and my companion from Sweden, so we've deemed ourselves the international district.

A couple weeks ago, our elders quorum president was walking through his neighborhood and started talking with one of his neighbors, who's bound to a wheelchair. The man mentioned that he was going to move, so our elders quorum president jumped on it and asked if he could help and bring the help of the missionaries. The man was of course happy to accept the help, and on Saturday we got to help him move. It was raining pretty hard all day, but it couldn't dampen the joy of serving and meeting so many of his family and friends who all appreciated the help. They were also curious about what we do as missionaries which allowed us to share the gospel through word, in addition to deed.

I had neat experience in church yesterday. I sat listening to the testimonies of the members in the branch, but I found myself thinking and worrying about a few things that had happened throughout the week. I wasn't planning on going up and bearing my own testimony, but out of the blue an older man who was visiting from Germany came up to me and asked if I could go up with him and help him by translating. We went up together, but I was pretty shocked when he started speaking great Swedish. I only needed to help him with 3-4 words he was missing, but when he went to sat down I was prompted to stay and bear my own testimony. As I did so, an incredible peace and calm came over me and my mind was cleared. The things I had been worrying about were put into perspective as I had the opportunity to testify and remind myself of the simple truths of the gospel and the power of Jesus Christ that I have come to know for myself. I quickly realized that the man did not in reality need my help, but the Lord knew that I needed his. There is power in testimony, and I would encourage all to focus on the things you do know when life would have you doubt or worry about the things you don't.

Elder Sirrine

Here in Sweden they cut these trees into squares. For anyone familiar with the game Minecraft, it's pretty much a real-life version. (Fun fact: Minecraft was actually created in Sweden)

May 27, 2019 Karl's son in Karl's city

with Elder Karlsson

Elder Karlsson arrived here in Karlstad on Wednesday, and it's been a great week getting him up to speed here! It's been really neat to be with a native Swedish speaker and I feel like I've already learned things in the last 4 days that I've been trying to understand for quite some time now.

A spirit of missionary work has really come over the branch in the last week here and has taken form in us receiving three referrals from them. They've introduced us to some of their friends and in every case their friends have enjoyed meeting us and have asked us to teach them more about what we believe. The vast majority of people that say no to us as we speak to them on the street or at their door only do so because they are unsure of what listening to us would imply for them and find it much easier to say no then to worry about it. When we've had the chance to meet people in normal settings, introduced by trusted friends, there has been nothing uncomfortable or unnatural about speaking with them and the gospel conversation is driven by their curiosity of what makes us so happy and why we do what we do.

This last Tuesday we had a really neat opportunity with our Elder's quorum president. He works at a high school here and invited us to join him there for lunch. The purpose was not to proselyte, but as

Our Elders Quorum president

we sat at lunch one of his colleagues sat down with us to eat. It didn't take long for her to notice our name tags, and then it was pretty fun to watch the confusion on her face until she finally asked, "How can your name tag say that you are the oldest (Äldste in Swedish literally translates to "Oldest") when you're like 20 years old? It provided a perfect opportunity to tell her how we've come here to Sweden as representatives of Jesus Christ which she found very fascinating. She doesn't have a belief herself, but she really enjoyed talking with us and invited us to come visit her at home and teach her more along with our Elder's quorum president.

Äldste Sirrine

The last day with Elder Olson

Cool building in town

May 20, 2019 "You can't beat the Mormons"

Swedish forest

We went up to a members farm to help 

out and the daughters made us a bouquet!

Things are going really well here in Karlstad and it's been a busy week! We have transfers this week, and Elder Olson will be transferring. We've had so much fun together and I'll be sad to see him go, but I'm looking forward to my new companion, Elder Karlsson! Elder Karlsson actually comes from Stockholm, so I've served in his home ward for 6 months and his family is one of my all time favorites! I remember being at his house before he was a missionary and getting help with Swedish from him and his brother, so I'm looking forward to having a walking dictionary beside me and being able to speak Swedish 24/7 with a native. Elder Karlsson is one of two native Swedes in the whole mission, and everyone wants to be his companion to help improve their Swedish, so I feel incredibly blessed to be with him.

On Friday we had an entire school class come tour our church. The class consisted of about 28 high school seniors, which I have to admit was a little intimidating. First off, Swedes are surprisingly tall, so although I was a year or two earlier than the students, I felt kind of small. Second, they're all my age and native Swedes, so all of a sudden I was somewhat self conscious of my Swedish and hoping they understood. Lastly, over the last two years I've gotten used to speaking with 1-3 people at a time, so speaking to a class of 28 was kinda new. The tour went really well, and we were surprised by how attentive and interested everybody was. Swedes are happy to tell you that Sweden is the most secular country in the world (something I hear on a regular basis...), but interestingly enough all high school students are required to take a religion course, so we didn't really expect them to be incredibly enthused or excited to be there. However, at the end of the tour we offered free copies of the Book of Mormon, and 16 of them eagerly came up to get a copy for themselves. They were all talking about how much they liked it as they filed out of the church, and their teacher came up to us and said, "You guys do such a great job! I love coming here because you just can't beat the Mormons." Amazingly, Elder Olson actually tracted into her a couple months ago when there was snow on the ground, and after she expressed strong disinterest they decided to shovel her driveway as an act of kindness. She remembered that occasion and took the opportunity to thank us for doing so and showing true Christlike kindness.

The tour was their last class of the day so everyone went directly home afterwords, but one of the students, Samuel, stayed and talked with us for another 15 minutes. He expressed his belief in God and described how he's visited a few different churches in search of the truth, but doesn't feel like he's found it yet. He was excited to have a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he asked if he could come to church with us and learn more. Unfortunately he had a soccer tournament this last Sunday, so he was unable to come, but we look forward to seeing him in the future!

Äldste Sirrine

Remember when we had about 4 hours of total daylight 

here in Sweden during the winter? Well, now we're to 

the time of the year when it pretty much never gets dark. 

Here's what it looks like when we go to bed at 10:30.

Here's a political campaign poster. 

"Lagom" is a word that means "just right" 

(not too much and not too little) in Swedish.

 Only in Sweden would that be a positive 

thing to campaign for.