August 6, 2018 Apparently I Can Speak Norwegian

The Stockholm Sweden Temple

Going to the temple on Tuesday was an amazing experience! There was actually a girl from Norway going to the temple for her first time, so it was all in Norwegian! The languages are incredibly similar, but Norwegian sounds really weird, and there are also some different words, so it took my brain a bit to adjust to what I was hearing. After getting used to it, I was able to understand everything I was hearing, so now I know I'll be set to go if they ever build a temple in Norway! Going to the temple felt like a complete rejuvenation or recharging. What a wonderful time it was to sit quietly and ponder on the love our Father in Heaven has for each of his children and to feel His presence so near.


We taught a couple on Wednesday who were just baptized in January. They actually both spoke in Sacrament meeting last Sunday, and if I didn't know their story I would assume they've been

Kottlasjön on Lidingö

members their entire life because they're so spiritually mature. We've been teaching them the missionary lessons again, and on Wednesday we were able to teach them about fasting in preparation for Fast Sunday. Jeremie has already had inedible experiences with fasting and was excited to have the opportunity to receive great blessings as he fasted again, but his wife Daisy, who is 8 months pregnant is unable to do so. She shared with us her desire to fast, and then an idea that a member had suggested. Because she is unable to fast from food and water, her plan was to fast from all electronics for 24 hours instead. Now if I was 8 months pregnant, I would probably just say I had earned the right not to fast, and enjoyed whatever food was available. However, her desire to sacrifice something that was withing her ability shows an understanding that fasting is much more than just going hungry, but rather a way to receive great blessings as promised in the scriptures, and not something she would ever want to go without. I hope we can all learn from her desire that fasting each months should not be something looming in the future or something we grudgingly do. Rather, we can fast joyfully as we understand and have faith that such a simple action brings the power of heaven into our life in measure so great we cannot receive it all.

On Thursday we had district council (Last month they came out with an updated version of Preach My Gospel changing the name of District Meeting to District Council, "investigators" to "people we are teaching", and a few other changes throughout), and it was my first as a district leader. Our district is made up of 8 elders, and we do district meeting over video chat which is pretty interesting. The video has been a little buggy the last couple meetings, but we tried a new service which worked a lot better thankfully. It's still not quite the same as being in person, but it works pretty well and certainly saves a lot of time traveling. We were able to counsel with each other about setting goals, which I have come to realize are absolutely necessary to achieving our desires. How do we expect to arrive at our destination if we don't know what that destination is? Something Elder M. Russell Ballard said has impacted my view on goals greatly, "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” This means we can't just set goals, but we have to learn how to live to reach them, and I have come to know that the best way we can do so is to rely on the help and strength of our Father in Heaven.

Äldste Sirrine

 

P-day today. A bunch of missionaries from 

Stockholm and Stockholm South zones 

got together and played innebandy (floor hockey),

 soccer, and a bunch of other games! It was 

basically the sport version of zone conference. These 

are elders in my MTC group who were there.