February 5, 2018 The Stockholm Crusades

Zone Conference! Elders from my MTC district.

From left to right: Elder Moss, Me, Elder Strong, Elder Langford

This week was an absolute whirlwind of adventure! We had Elder Paul V. Johnson come tour our mission this week, so the highlight of the week was our zone conference on Thursday where he spoke to us. The adventures began Wednesday night when we traveled to Stockholm to spend the night before zone conference. Because it was mission tour, the zone conference was actually 3 of the 5 zones in our mission combined, which meant that a lot of missionaries needed a place to stay the night before. As a result, we had 12 elders all staying in one apartment, and after sleeping on the hardwood floor with no blanket I have a whole new appreciation for my bed...


Zone conference was absolutely incredible, and as I sat listening to Elder Johnson I couldn't help but feel the spirit confirm to me that he is truly called of God, and I marveled at the opportunity to sit at the feet of a General Authority and learn. At one point he opened it up for questions, and an Elder asked him what he has learned through his experiences working with other General Authorities and

Service! Removing nails from wood

so it can be used for firewood.

Apostles. His reply was that he has learned the most by watching their examples. The Apostles are all very successful men who have sacrificed all their time and energy to serving the Lord, and they do so in a most humble and genuine manner. The focus of our zone conference was faith and setting goals, and Elder Johnson shared with us the importance of having faith in the promises of the Lord. He recounted the story of Abraham, who was promised a son despite his old age and his wife being past the age of bearing children. Despite the impossibility of the situation, they had faith in the Lord, and Sarah conceived Isaac. In the New Testament; Paul comments on this story, saying, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." (Roman 4:19-21) Abraham was given a magnificent promise, and although it seemed impossible, he staggered not. The Lord has given us promises in relation to covenants that are just as glorious. Do we believe them? Just as the Lord did with Abraham, I testify that He will indeed fulfill all His promises, so let us do our part by acting in faith by making and keeping covenants.


Following Zone Conference we went on exchanges, so I went straight to Södertälje with Elder Pack (one of the zone leaders) while Elder Cotton and Elder Malone went to Eskilstuna. Exchanges were fast paced and full of adventure, but one of the best parts was on Friday when we went to The Book

The Book of Mormon Musical

of Mormon musical in Stockholm. Yep, we went to the musical! Well kind of... The missionaries and wards around Stockholm coordinate to get 2-3 missionary companionships and several members to go hand out copies of the Book of Mormon after every showing of the musical as those attending the show exit the building. We left Södertälje at about 9:20 pm, drove about 50 min to Stockholm (which is absolutely stunning to drive through), placed a whole bunch of Book of Mormons by each door, and waited for people to come out after the show ended at 10:15. As people poured out of the building, we would leave a copy of the

These are the boxes containing copies

of the Book of Mormon to be passed out

at The Book of Mormon musical.

What do you do when you have 35 boxes

of Book of Mormons? (That's 700 copies

total) You make a throne.

Book of Mormon in the hands of anyone we could reach. The reactions from different people were pretty good, and varied greatly. Some did not want the book at all, but there were many who were curious as to what it was and wanted to read it, while there were yet others who smiled or laughed as we gave them a copy because they thought we were just an employee and it was part of the show. After just 15-20 min everyone had left and we had handed out a grand total of 180 copies of the Book of Mormon. By the time we got back to Södertälje for the night it was about 11:45 pm, but as we missionaries do, we were back up and at it again by 6:30 ready to spread the gospel to all who will hear.


On Saturday, we had an incredible opportunity to serve the Wesemeyer family. The Wesemeyers live about an hour drive out in the countryside, so missionaries don't get to go there very often, but we had the chance to go and do two hours of service for them. Their house was built in the 1800's, but the inside has been renovated a few times, and they are in the middle of renovating a bathroom. We were able to help them remove a bunch of scrap material and load it onto trailer to be taken to the dump, as well as sort wood and remove nails from the wood so it can be used as firewood. I have to admit that when I got my call to Sweden, I imagined the quaint, colorful homes of Sweden, and going house to house out in the countryside preaching the gospel to Swedish families. Boy was I

The Wesemeyer's home.

Swedish houses are incredibly beautiful...

surprised when I discovered that we are in the city and half the people we talk to aren't Swedish and live in apartments. Serving the Wesemeyers enabled me to fulfill my dream in some measure as we were indeed out in the countryside, serving a Swedish family by helping them with their beautiful home. They also live by a lake, so they took us on a hike through the woods surrounding their home so we could see it, which was absolutely beautiful. It's been a while since I've been out in nature like that, and the beauty of God's creations were overwhelming.


This week was almost as packed as church was yesterday. We had 65 people attend, which is definitely pushing the limits of our building, and I was told that is the most people we've had attend church in over 10 years (the previous record was 59). Our Branch President, Rolf Lundkvist, was released after 6 and a half years as serving as such, and our new Branch President, David Newell was sustained. The service President Lundkvist has rendered is absolutely incredible, and I hope that I can serve with the same energy and zeal that he has shown.


Äldste Sirrine


Sorry the email is so long this week! Too much good stuff happened!

Me and Elder Pack by the lake

Our hike through the woods.

Driving to Wessmeyer's

Beautiful pictures from our hike.