July 9, 2018 Heja Sverige!

Watching the World Cup

Last week we got one of the most surprising texts I have received on my mission. The text came from our mission president, and he was giving all the missionaries permission to watch the Sweden vs England match in the World Cup! It was the World Cup quarter finals, and literally everyone who wasn't working would be watching it, so we were allowed to view it with members as way to participate in a major cultural activity and develop relationships with ward members as well. Unfortunately Sweden lost, but it was still a great experience and a lot of fun.

Despite living in Sweden, we managed to have not just one, but two fourth of July celebrations! The first came in the form of a red, white, and blue cake a member made for us after we helped paint

Our Fourth of July cake

some chairs for them, and the second was dinner with an American family. The mom works at the American embassy, so it's hard to get more American than that! There were no fireworks, but otherwise it was just as good as the real thing back home!

This week we have witnessed the hand of the Lord in many different aspects of the work, including finding a new investigator. On Sunday, July 1st, we were on the train to go to a members house for dinner, and we met a guy named Gabriel. As we talked with him, he said he had read the Bible about two weeks ago, but he thought it was all made up, so he put it to the side. He then continued to say that since reading the Bible, a bunch of things have happened that have made him start to think that God is trying to find him, and then all of a sudden we show up. He was definitely shocked by our appearance, and when we asked if he believed in God, he said that he believes in God, because a bunch of crazy things have happened recently, but he doesn't know too much. We told him that we had a message for him, and he was curious to hear it, but his stop was coming up so we had to exchange phone numbers quite literally as he was running out the door. We went to dinner, and the members would have given us a ride home afterword, but their car had gotten a flat tire, so we had to take the train. We hadn't been on the train too long when suddenly Gabriel got on as well, and his face when he saw us was absolutely priceless. He came directly over to us and we continued our conversation, this time getting his address and setting up a meeting for Tuesday at 11. Excited for the opportunity to teach him, we gave him a text on Tuesday morning to confirm the appointment, but we received no answer. Hopeful he just hadn't seen the message we traveled to his apartment and were there at the appointed time. Naturally there was a port code, quite possilbly my least favorite device ever created, so we gave him a call, but got no answer. There wasn't much we could do, and then suddenly a Postnord man (mailman) showed up and let us into the building. The people that work at Postnord are seriously angels in disguise. They only go to a building one time per day, but it seems to always happen when we're locked out and need to get inside a building. We got inside the building, and had a list of all the residents, but it was by last name, which we didn't have... Suddenly we had the idea to try finding him on Facebook by searching the name Gabriel with every last name on the list. There were a lot of names on the list, and it seemed unlikely, but it was worth a try. After some time, I offered a prayer that we might be guided to the right name on the list so we wouldn't have to try every single one, and after trying just two more names we heard someone coming down the stairs who turned out to be our man Gabriel. He was excited to see us, and explained that he had lost his phone, so there was no way to contact us, but he had come down the stairs in the hope of finding us. He also added that he never gives his address out, but was glad he had, otherwise we would not have been able to come. As we began to teach him, he said there was no doubt in his mind that God exists after everything that had happened, and he wanted to know why God had sent us. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and how to pray, the means of communication God has provided for us to find such an answer for ourselves. The way Gabriel put it, he wants to find the truth and will look under every stone to find it, and it's my testimony that such a sincere seeker will surely find.

Gabriel also came on Saturday morning to play soccer with the ward, and then later to the Karlssons house with us to watch the World Cup match Saturday afternoon. We got a text from him before the World Cup match asking if he could bring his older brother, Kim, and we replied that we'd love to

Sanding/painting chairs for some members

have him along as well. They both really enjoyed watching the game with us, and Gabriel told us the next day at church the reason he had invited his brother. He said, "I was just going to come, but then a thought out of nowhere hit me that I should invite my brother. He's been having a really tough time, and doesn't think anyone cares about him, so I wanted to show him that people do in fact love him and care for him." The love of Jesus Christ is made manifest through our actions, and although we may not think anyone notices, they do. Gabriel certainly noticed the love that comes from the ward members, or he would not have thought to invite his brother to feel of it. I'm grateful that Gabriel could feel our love for him, and that the members treated him with the same love the Savior has for each of us. We learn in Mosiah 2:17 that "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Sometimes the best way to do missionary work is to simply to live our faith and follow the example of Jesus Christ by loving others.

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We saw this car right outside our apartment

(the door in the background is ours). The 

look on Elder Bills face accurately 

describes our reaction :)

Elder Bills gave his first talk

 in Swedish, so I was helping

 him correct the Swedish

July 2, 2018 Teslas and Bug Spray

Driving to church with Erik! 

Don't worry, the car was driving itself, so Erik 

could spare a few moments to look at the camera.

The highlight of the week was definitely driving to church. We asked Erik, who we've been teaching, if he would be able to make it to church, and he replied that he'd love to come and then offered us a ride. Getting a ride to church with someone we're teaching would be pretty awesome in any case, but it was made about 7 times better by the fact that he has a Tesla Model X. The ride was pretty cool, but in all seriousness, it was just amazing to have Erik in church for the second time. Interestingly enough, it happened to be testimony meeting just like the last time he came, and he even got up and bore his testimony again.

We were out tracting last Tuesday and ran into an older lady who talked to us for quite a while. She

Exchanges with Elder Butler

wasn't too interested in our message, but we've been looking for more opportunities to serve, so we asked if there was anything we could do. She was a little surprised at our offer and said she didn't know if there was anything, so we told her we'd be back next Tuesday and asked her to think of something we could do. She laughed a little bit and said okay, but I don't think she's really expecting us to come back, so she's in for a surprise this Tuesday when we show up at her door. Every Swede will tell you that Swedish people are really bad at accepting help, which we have definitely noticed in our efforts to find service, so we're hoping and praying that she'll actually let us help her with something.

On Friday we had the chance to go on a hike with the young men. They're preparing for a backpacking tip, and one of the boys we've been trying to get back to church decided to go, so we were able to help him and get to know him better along the way. Before we started the hike, the young men's leader informed us that their would be a quite a few mosquitoes along the way. All knowing the pain and irritation of a mosquito bite, we all applied bug spray. About halfway through

The young men's hike

the hike, I realized that I hadn't noticed any mosquitoes biting me, and became slightly disappointed that I had applied the bug spray which didn't exactly smell or feel the best. Seeking to confirm my suspicions, I payed closer attention, and I was surprised to realize that there really were mosquitoes, the bug spray was just actually doing it's job! How often do we have these thoughts about the commandments of the Lord? Just as bug spray, the commandments are designed to protect us from the pain caused by sin, but do we ever start to think, "I've been keeping this commandment, but it doesn't seem as though anything bad would happen if I didn't. It would sure be simpler if I didn't have to do this..."? It's easy to think this, we probably all have, but perhaps the reason nothing bad has happened is because the commandment is actually doing it's job! There's essentially two ways we can come to know if bug spray works. We can either go without it, get a few painful bites that annoy us to the point of submission, and apply it in frustration only to come to realize that it works and wish that we had used it the whole time, or we can trust the loving young men's leader who knows the pain and promises that we can avoid it simply by using the bug spray. So it is with the commandments. We can choose to experience the pain of sin ourselves, or we can choose to rely on the promise of our loving Father in Heaven who gives us commandments and tells us that they are the way to the greatest happiness in life.

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June 25, 2018 Midsommar!

Making the maypole

Elder Bills and I 

in front of the maypole

Well this week I got my new companion, Elder Bills, who I'll be training! He comes from Peoria, Arizona, and before the mission he attended BYU for a year where he actually competed in swimming. He had to wait for his visa, so after finishing at the MTC he served in the Yakima Washington mission for a transfer. Despite any sort of jet lag, he's got a lot of energy and works harder than just about any missionary I've met, so we haven't slowed down a bit. It's been a lot of fun to share some Swedish traditions with him and get to show him around the beautiful city of Stockholm.

On Friday we celebrated the Swedish holiday Midsommar Eve. It's by far the most celebrated holiday in Sweden, and unique to the Nordic countries, so it was a lot of fun to participate in. The church started a yearly Midsommar celebration a few years back in Tyresta By, a national park about an hour south of Stockholm, which has grown into one of the

biggest celebrations in Sweden, and all the missionaries in the Stockholm area were in attendance, about 30 in total. Throughout the morning they have little games and activities the kids can do, and the adults make the Maypole. We actually got to assist in the making of the Maypole, which including stripping green branches off of trees they had cut down and tying them to the frame of the Maypole. After wrapping branches around the Maypole everybody goes into the meadows, picks flowers, and weaves them onto the pole. Around 2:30, they raise the maypole, after which everyone gathers around it and dances to traditional Swedish songs. After the dancing, they have a few more activities, the

Tug of War

highlight being a tug of war competition (or "dragkamp" in Swedish). You were allowed to make teams of ten, so naturally the missionaries assembled the dream team to represent. We had a good run, and made it to the semi-finals where we finally lost to a team that broke the rules by having 21 people on it... Let's just say they were determined to beat us. Although we put up a good fight, we ended up barely losing, which I'm convinced was actually caused by the bad footing created by wearing dress shoes.

Midsommar is in coordination with the Summer Solstice, June 21, the day with the most amount of sunlight for the year. June 21 was on Thursday, and being so far North, the sun rose at 3:31 and set at 10:08. Missionary work is pretty fun when the sun is always up.

Dancing around the maypole

On the way to church yesterday we had a pretty cool experience. We showed up at Stockholms Östrastation and were waiting for the train by track 4 when a member showed up. I was so focused on our conversation that I missed the fact that the train came in on the other track. It had said that it would come in on track 4, but it switched to track 5, and I had no idea. By the time I realized, we went to get on the train and the doors shut right as we got there and the train left.... I was kinda disappointed, but the next train would get us there just in time for Sacrament Meeting, so it would all work out. The amazing part is that when we got on the train, we told we told the member we were going to go talk with someone, so we sat down next to a girl and started a conversation. Her name is Cassandra, and it turns out that she lived in Thailand for 6 months and is now Buddhist. We asked a lot about her faith, and told her a lot about ours as well. We told her about the Book of Mormon, and she was interested, so we gave her a copy and a card. I know without a doubt that God wanted us to talk with her, and he truly directed our path, even though it may have seemed like an inconvenience at the time. I'm grateful that as we were willing to open our mouths, he truly filled them and made us His messengers.

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Hiking to the coast to fish with a member

Fishing

We were getting off the bus when we 

heard the driver announce, "If you 

look to the right, you'll see a dog sitting

 on a motorcycle." He wasn't wrong.

June 18, 2018 It's an Elder!

The view from one of our member's apartment... 

They live on the 16th floor, right above Central Station in the heart of Stockholm.

I found out this past week that I'll be training a new elder these next two transfers! He will be one of three new missionaries coming into the mission this transfer, and I'll pick him up on Wednesday. We had a meeting last Thursday for the three of us who will be training new missionaries, and it was the first time this meeting has ever been held over Skype. Normally, all the missionaries travel into

On Thursday, the missionaries in the 

Stockholm and Stockholm South Zones 

planted  3500 flowers at the temple!

Stockholm to receive such training, but in order to save time and money our mission president decided to start doing it over Skype. God has one purpose, "To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39), and this was just one example of how the Lord has given us technology to further his work and achieve His purpose. The other two trainers, Elder Jarman and Elder Steele, are both currently serving in Norrland (northern Sweden) so both would have had to take a plan to Stockholm in order to attend the training. Being able to hold the training over Skype enabled them to stay in their areas, and gave them more time to proselyte and serve others there. In addition to this training, starting this transfer, all of our weekly district meetings will be held over Skype as well. This change will significantly impact the mission, as many companionships had to travel an hour or more each way to attend such meetings.

This last week I went on splits twice, one of them being with the office elders, in the mission office. As part of the work that day, we went through and organized records in the attic of the office, and we

While in the office on splits,  we had to unload

 a crate of boxes containing copies of the Book 

of Mormon. Unfortunately, it had gotten wet in

transport, so we were tasked with drying them.

 I never thought I would use a blow dryer on a 

Book of Mormon...

found some pretty interesting records that went back quite a ways. The church in Sweden has a long history itself, and the mission here was established in 1905, so there were many records to accompany such a rich history. One of the interesting records I found was actually a letter from 1963 announcing the addition of Thomas S. Monson to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I was informed by Elder Lee that the oldest record he's seen in the office dates back to 1890, and it was fascinating to see glimpses of the history of the church in Sweden since then.

Our investigator Erik has taught himself yoga for the past six years, and is incredibly good at it, so we had him teach us a little this week. Not going to lie, it was probably one of the more painful experiences I've had in a while, but they say it's good for you, so I guess I just need to do it more? All pain is good pain coach... Anyways, as we did yoga, Erik asked us a few questions about missionary life, and he was both surprised and impressed by our "strict" lifestyle. I told him that for me, it all comes down to the Atonement of Jesus Christ which was performed for all people regardless of who they are or what they've done. Such a miraculous act of love enables Him to fulfill the

Doing yoga with Erik

marvelous promise we read in Mosiah 2:22, "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; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you." He desires to bless us, and all we must do to receive His blessings is keep his commandments. There is therefore no greater work to be engaged in than to make His commandments known to all, so that they might also experience the richness of blessings I have experienced.

Äldste Sirrine

Exploring Gamla Stan

 

We visited the Army Museum for P-day today

June 11, 2018 "Are you guys playing today?"

Wednesday was Sweden's National Day, so we baked a whole

bunch of cinnamon rolls with a member family and then

took them to people in the area.

Delivering the cinnamon rolls with our ward mission leader, Jerry.

"Playing what?" That was the question that ran through my mind when a man wearing nothing but a bath robe walked up to us in the middle of Central Station and asked me if we were playing.

Just the night before, we had promised to give the guitar in our apartment to the zone leaders, seeing as how neither Elder Baggett or I can play the guitar, and had decided to meet at Central Station where they would be transferring trains that morning. We were waiting for them in the middle of Central Station when suddenly we saw a man dressed only in a bath robe and a pair of flip flops walk by. Elder Baggett and I turned to each other and began speculating on what the cause of such an outfit could be, and determined that he probably lived in one of the apartments above the station and had come down to get a morning coffee or something similar. Right as we reached this conclusion, the man showed up right behind us and asked, "Are you guys playing today?" I was really confused, wondering what we were supposed to be playing, when I realized that Elder Baggett was holding the guitar in his hand. We began to explain that we couldn't play, that we were just giving it to a friend, when the zone leaders appeared. As it happens, Elder Strong can play the guitar really well, so the man asked if he could play a church song. He played and sang"I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus", after which the man suggested he play it again and we could all sing this time. Without skipping a beat, Elder Strong started playing again and there we were, four missionaries and a man wearing a bath robe, playing the guitar and singing "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" in the middle of Central Station. Looks like I can check that off the bucket list!

The Stockholm temple is closed for the month of June for deep cleaning and renovation, so all the

Sweden Stockholm Temple

missionaries with and SL card (Stockholm Transportation card) were assigned different shifts to help clean. It was my first time going to the temple in Sweden, and it was pretty amazing. As we walked to the temple from the train stop, I realized that it has been about 10 months since I have even seen a temple, and coming from Utah that's not something I'm used to. It's hard to describe the feeling I had just by seeing the temple, and then to go in and serve within its walls, even while under construction. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity we had to serve there, the beauty and peace that comes from the temple is truly a blessing.

Our investigator Erik came to church yesterday! He had gotten back from a road trip Sunday morning at 5 AM after driving all night, but we invited him to come if he was feeling up for it, and he told us he would love to. We had testimony meeting because they reorganized our bishopric last week, so I had the opportunity to bear testimony along with many others. Just before the meeting ended, Erik stood up and walked to the front to bear his testimony. He expressed gratitude for the witnesses that had been borne, and encouraged the members to continue pressing forward in faith. It was exactly the message we all needed to hear, and I was amazed that he had shared it. Honestly, if I attended another church's services, I would listen and appreciate, but I probably wouldn't get up and talk in front of everybody... His participation didn't stop there though, he stayed for the next two hours and contributed several comments in class as well, helping to strengthen and uplift others.

The greatest blessing of being a missionary is the privilege of seeing the Atonement of Jesus Christ work miracles in the lives of so many. He truly has the ability to make weak things strong unto us, to turn mistakes that might consume us with pain and guilt into sacred moments of instruction and strength. I have seen this power change and empower the lives of those who are willing to humbly follow Him, and I have felt it in my own life as well.


Äldste Sirrine

A car outside our apartment

Studenten. This is the Swedish tradition that accompanies 

graduation from high school. Everybody gets in the back 

of trucks with loud speakers playing music and more beer 

than they know what to do with. They then proceed to drive 

around the city drinking and spraying beer everywhere...

June 4, 2018 Livin' the summer life of Stockholm

Playing Kubb (a Swedish game) at the picnic

The Beach

This week we got to spend a lot of time serving and being with members. We helped two members move, and then we had a ward picnic at the beach! There were a lot of people at the beach, and everybody was in a swimsuit, so we felt pretty out of place in our white shirts and ties... The funny thing is that I have gotten so used to being out of place that I didn't even notice how weird we looked until one of the other missionaries said something about it. The good news is that we made it pretty easy for all those who came to find the ward because we were the only group with five guys in white shirts (the other companionship in the area is a trio). We were blessed with great weather, which I have been told is very unusual for this time of year. We have had the warmest May on record (it's been about 84 degrees) and yesterday was the first time it's rained since I got to Stockholm, so it's been about a

Hiking to the ward picnic

month. Apparently it's actually been warmer here in Sweden than anywhere else in Europe, including the popular vacation destination of Spain. We've definitely been enjoying the nice weather and sun while we have it! Currently the sun goes down at 10 pm and comes back up at 3:50 am, which is pretty crazy. Sometimes it makes it tough to keep track of time when you're out working at 8:30 and the sun is still up and bright...

Yesterday at church our bishopric was reorganized. We have fantastic members in the ward, and the new bishopric is absolutely amazing. The only way I can accurately describe how excited I am to be working with them is to say that they are truly the "Dream Team". I know without a doubt that the Lord has called each one of them at this time for a specific reason, and each of them has a love for missionary work that will truly help to build the kingdom of God here in Stockholm.

We had Zone Conference this week, and the highlight was definitely watching The Lion King. Yes, we watched the Lion King. To be fair, it was only a five minute segment, the part where Simba sees Mufasa in the sky, but we were asked to identify every gospel principle we saw and then to think how it applies to us. It was actually an incredible activity that taught me a surprising amount about the gospel, and I would highly recommend it to all.

Apparently Erik owns 

a samurai sword

Last week we got to teach a new investigator, Erik. We met him while contacting, which was a miracle in it's truest sense. We had gone out that day doing our very best to follow the guidance of the spirit, and were about to talk to someone else when we saw him sitting on a bench and felt the prompting to talk with him instead. We did so, and our conversation led to an opportunity to teach him this past week. We met him at his apartment, and it turns out he really likes yoga (he's taught himself for the past six years) so he taught us proper posture and we sat on the floor as we taught him. We were pretty surprised to find out he had already read the first two chapters of the Book of Mormon and said he had "complete faith in the book". He really liked our lesson, and yesterday we got a text from him saying he would appreciate to meet us again, so we're teaching him again tonight.

Äldste Sirrine

Grilling at one of the member's house

Fjällräven backpacks at Naturkompaniet. 

Fjällräven is a super nice Swedish brand 

that makes outdoor products...

The Stockholm Marathon that went right 

past our apartment on Saturday!

A few days ago this yacht equipped with a helicopter 

showed up in the harbor. We're still debating what

 it's used for...