November 26, 2018 Thanksgiving Miracles

The house our branch president is renovating

Stacking firewood

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did :) We were able do some service with our branch president by stacking cut down trees into a pile for firewood. They bought a 150 year old house out in the woods to renovate, so it's only source of heat is a wood-burning stove. We also had dinner with a member family that evening, and the dad is American! They're vegetarian though, so that is probably the only time in my life I'll have a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner... It also wasn't really Thanksgiving themed, so we had soup instead! However, root bear doesn't exist here (all the Swedes that have tried it think it tastes like toothpaste for some reason...), but they got their hands on some and we made root bear floats to celebrate!

On Friday we got to fly down to Stockholm to go on exchanges. I was with Elder Steele, one of the assistants to the mission president, and we saw some amazing miracles together. We decided to go

Getting on the plane 

to Stockholm

out and visit someone the missionaries had previously taught, and the bus ride was approximately 30 minutes each way. When we went to get on the bus, we realized that we had forgotten to get a bus card for me from the mission office, so we tried to pay on the bus. The bus driver informed us that we couldn't pay on the bus, but he said I could stay on anyways. We were a bit surprised, but we decided to go for it. We were able to visit the person we had decided to go by, tract a building in the area, and talk to a few people on the street before we needed to head back to the apartment. The only problem was, I still didn't have a bus card.

While we waited at the bus stop, we said a prayer together and asked for a way home. When the bus came, we explained our situation to the bus driver, and he said we could pay via their app. We attempted to do so, but the transaction wouldn't work, so the bus driver told us not to worry about it and to enjoy the ride! Now, it may sound like the bus drivers in Stockholm are all just nice guys who don't really care too much, but it's quite the opposite. I've been on my fair share of buses there, and I can't tell you how many time I've seen people try to pay on the bus and the driver simply left them on the curb... It was truly an answer to our prayer and a miracle in every sense. The Lord needed us in that area, and while on those two bus rides, we were able to invite a total of seven people to learn more about the gospel, two of which accepted and scheduled appointments to do so. I know that the Lord truly answers our prayers.

On Saturday Elder Steele and I were able to do some tracting, and before going out to do so, I had a clear picture of a woman of a woman holding a child in her arms come to mind. We knew the Lord wanted us to find her, so we went out knowing we would. After tracting for a while, we knocked on a door and a lady opened the door holding her dog. It wasn't exactly a child, but we both knew it was the lady we were supposed to find. As we began talking to her, we found out she's American, and comes from a town just five minutes from where Elder Steele lived in Texas. She also told us it was a shame that her daughter wasn't home, because her school class is studying religion, and she had chosen to study about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They had seen the Book of Mormon Musical, and she was curious what we actually believe. We asked her if we could come back and teach them just that, and she was excited to accept our offer. They were also celebrating Thanksgiving that day, and she had made miniature pumpkin pies, so she gave us each one to try! It's an incredible privilege to be a part of the Lord's work and witness the might miracles He still performs today.


Äldste Sirrine

Decorating the mission office 

while we were there :)

We were tracting and came across 

a house where we had to climb a 

ladder to get to the front door.

November 19, 2018 Find the one

The ocean inlet right by our apartment

We had zone conference this last week which was pretty incredible, and as President Youngberg was speaking, I was filled with a deep love for him. President Youngberg got to Sweden just one transfer before I did, so I've had the privilege of seeing how much the mission has changed over the last year and a half. When I got to Sweden, the mission was incredibly hardworking, but somewhat mechanical or robotic in it's approach. Well, that's not how President Youngberg works. I still recall in my very first zone conference President was up talking and then suddenly stopped. He said that there were two different directions he could take his message, and he was trying to listen to the spirit to know which one he should take. It's a moment I've never forgotten, and now I have countless others that illustrate this overarching quality in President Youngbergs character that has now become one shared by the mission. This zone conference we received more training and focused on how we can more powerfully testify to people we meet and invite them to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Tuesday I had the chance to go on exchanges with Elder Thompson. He's in the same group as Elder Bills (there's only three in the whole group) so it was awesome to get to know him and get an idea of how Elder Bills is doing out there. We had a great day planned with three lessons and a member meal, but that morning all three lessons canceled. We figured that if three lessons had canceled, there was somebody out there the Lord really wanted us to find. We did a lot of finding work that day, and then we went to the member meal an hour early so we could tract beforehand. While we were tracting, we ended up finding a man named Tobias who said we could come back on Tuesday at 5:00 to talk about eternal families, and we also found a young couple with their son who said we could come back on Tuesday as well. We then went to the members house for dinner, and she had to reschedule as well... Literally everything we had planned that day fell through, but we have never been happier because we found the ones the Lord wanted us to find. Plus, we ended up going to back to the apartment at the end of the night and making quinoa salad together to top it all off :)

Äldste Sirrine

Doing service for our branch president. He bought his 

truck in Ireland, so the steering wheel is on the right side. 

Man, that caught me off guard the first time.

November 12, 2018 The Lord Will Provide. Sometimes With Smoothies...

It's been really foggy the past week, and the sun goes down at 

2:30 pm right now, so we haven't seen the sun in about 8-9 days. 

It has it's advantages though! We got to drive halfway to 

Skellefteå ut an hour and a half north of Umeå) for exchanges 

this week, and the drive was absolutely incredible.

On Saturday we got to teach a couple, Therese and Thommy, who have three kids. Elder Simmons tracted into them about 2 months ago, which was a complete miracle. Due to some strange circumstances, that was the only door they knocked on that evening in the whole neighborhood, yet it happened to be Therese who was interested in learning more about the church because her husband's parents are members in the branch. As we taught them about the restoration of the church, their youngest daughter, who's five years old, had quite a bit of energy which made it difficult for them to give full attention to the message. However, right as we were about to teach about the first vision, their daughter found something to do, which allowed the parents to focus fully on what we were teaching, and the spirit was highlighted by the peace and calm that had entered the room. They could clearly feel the spirit as we spoke, and they eagerly accepted the invitation to pray for a knowledge of the truth for themselves.

Yesterday morning I made a smoothie for breakfast, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) it turned out to be a lot more than I had expected, so it couldn't all fit in one glass and I had to grab a second. As I later washed my two smoothie glasses, the scripture Malachi 3:10 came into my mind, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." While this scripture specifically talks about tithing, the principle is extended to each commandment the Lord gives us. As I thought on this, I was immediately filled with gratitude as I realized the great blessings the Lord is eager to bestow upon us, yet our inability to receive them all, just as my glass was unable to hold the smoothie I had prepared.

Just a few minutes after this experience, I got a text from a counselor in the branch presidency asking me to give a talk in sacrament meeting that day, and telling me that I could choose the topic. As I prayed about what I would speak on, the spirit brought the smoothie to my mind, and I became aware that the Lord had already prepared me for what I would speak on.

I spoke of the blessings God has in store for us and the gratitude that should fill our souls, but I also thought to share the key God gives us to expanding our spiritual glasses. He tells us in D&C 130:20-21, "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." When we keep the commandments of God, the blessings no longer stream past us, but we are able to obtain each one He would give us.

Äldste Sirrine

The cheese slicer. Fun Sweden fact, people love their 

cheese here, and everybody has a cheese slicer. It 

should honestly be the national symbol of Sweden.

November 5, 2018 Sirrine. The Mystery Continues...

Umeå from the tower

The past week or two has brought to my attention a rather interesting cultural difference I'm not sure I've ever mentioned. With moving to a new branch comes the opportunity to introduce myself to new people, and every time I meet someone new I have the same experience. As I shake their hand they say, "Welcome to Umeå, Elder.... Uh, how do you pronounce your name?" The funny part is that they know Sirrine isn't Swedish, so they don't even try to pronounce it with Swedish pronunciation, but then they don't know how else to try, so they just ask instead. I usually end up repeating my name two or three times until they get it down, and a member explained to me that he remembers how to pronounce it because it rhymes with "divine", so I've been using that explanation ever since. The best part is that after they figure out how to pronounce it, the follow up question is always, without fail, "Where does that name come from?" I have to explain that despite much family history work, we have no idea, and I'm usually told that I should do some more.

In America, people may think it's an unusual name, but it's a rare occasion that someone asks where it's from because everybody has such a mix of ancestry that it's hard to say where someone is "from" when referring to roots that far back. However, here in Sweden, you get names like Svensson or Eriksson that are 100% Swedish, or other names that come purely from France, Germany, Norway, the middle east, etc. People here are used to having names tied directly with a land, so almost every person I meet, member or not, asks the question, and my companions get to hear the same explanation every time...

Today we went to a tower that stands atop a hill near our apartment. The view from the tower is absolutely incredible, and amazingly, you can even see Finland on a clear day. I took some pictures, but unfortunately it was a little too cloudy see it on the pictures...

We also got to go to a cemetery on Saturday for Alla helgons dag (All Saints Day). It's the first

weekend in November, and is pretty much the Swedish equivalent of Memorial day except instead of

Kyrkogården (the cemetery)

flags and flowers, everybody visits the graves of their relatives and lights candles. The pictures just can't do it justice, but the sight of literally thousands of candles flickering is absolutely incredible.

On Wednesday we got to teach Mikael, and as we entered the house we noticed his wife in the other room watching TV. We had just come from another appointment, so I had to use the bathroom, so I asked if I could do so and he directed me down the hallway. While in the bathroom, I thought of a line from Preach My Gospel so clearly and perfectly it was as if I was looking at the book in front of me. The line which came to my mind was "Before you begin, ask all who are present to join with you in the lesson." (pg 176) The thought almost came and went without any consideration, but then I realized that such a thought was directly from the spirit. I knew it was a prompting from the spirit, but the wife has never been interested in our message, so I have to admit that my next thought was "Oh no, if it's from the spirit, that means I have to do it..." The wife had already gone into the other room, and I thought it would be awkward to walk in there and invite her to join, but I knew I had to do so. I came into the kitchen and told Mikael that she was welcome to join us, but he replied, "Ah, I think she just wants to watch TV." I felt a little bad that I hadn't just gone directly and asked her myself, but then she came into the kitchen to grab their dog, so I seized the moment to invite her to join. A little to my surprise, she immediately sat down, forgetting the TV in the other room, and participated fully in the lesson as we taught the Plan of Salvation. Finding new people to teach isn't the easiest task in the world, but this was a manifestation that there are people being prepared to receive the gospel and the Lord will lead us to them.

Äldste Sirrine

Our studded tires we have for winter. It's a law here

 that you have to have them on by Dec 1. Our car

 also has a block/cabin heater to keep it warm, and 

parking lots here all have outlets to plug them into.