April 8, 2019 And thus my time in Täby comes to an end

The Vaxholm fortress, we visited today for P-day

More in Vaxholm

Well, just like that my time in Täby is over. It honestly feels like it's been about two weeks since I got here. Sometimes time on the mission is weird, but the ward was just as surprised as we were when they found out our six week was already over, so I guess it's not just me.

I'll now be transferring to Karlstad, which if translated directly to English comes out as "Karl City". That's Sweden for you... Karlstad is one of the most isolated areas in the mission. It will just be my companion and I, the next closes missionaries in the district being almost 3 hours away. The branch consists of about 20 members that come each week, and I'll be companions with Elder Olson! He replaced me and was trained by my companion Elder Radford in Stockholm, so I look forward to hearing about his experience in an area that I absolutely love. I'll definitely miss living in the office with five other elders and working here in Stockholm, but I can't wait to be in Karlstad!

General Conference was incredibly uplifting and inspiring. There are certainly a few things I know I need to work on, and I'm grateful for a living prophet and apostles who can give us the direction needed in a world of changing values. I have come to learn for myself that following their counsel brings us closer to, and helps us become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

We were able to watch a couple sessions at members homes, and we watched the Sunday morning session (which was broadcasted Sunday evening our time) at the mission home with President and

General Conference at the mission home. 

President Youngberg, Leo, Henrik, and Gabriel

Sister Youngberg as well as a few missionaries and investigators being taught. Henrik (now a member) brought Gabriel who I had also taught in Stockholm, and Leo (the guy that called us at the beginning of the transfer wanting to be baptized) was there with the other elders. It was a tender mercy of the Lord and an incredibly special occasion for me to see several of the people I care most about here in Sweden all gathered in one place to watch General Conference together.

As I had the opportunity to talk with Henrik at dinner, I asked him what difference the gospel has made in his life. He didn't know where to start, but then mentioned that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has made a difference greater than can be described. It has given him not only the desire, but also the ability to change and to see his weaknesses made strong through Christ. He also mentioned how many of his friends and people he meets seem to have everything by worldly standards, education, money, employment, a nice home, etc. and yet still feel like unhappy and that something more is missing in life. Henrik shared how he

Traveling home from 

General Conference with Leo

himself had found this, but that the gospel of Jesus Christ has given him the answers and helped him understand his purpose in life. It's made all the difference in the world, and he's not afraid to share it with all who ask him about the new light that's come into his life.

I add my testimony to Henriks in saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ contains the answers to our questions. The Lord has not only provided us a way to return to him, but also to experience the greatest joy along the way. Ours is the responsibility to follow the path he has laid before us and return to it when we have wandered off.

April1, 2019 A Taste of China

Last week we found a store that sells American 

food and other items. I found this mug and realized 

I have this thought at least a couple times each day... 

The Clouses, a senior couple in the mission, reached 

their halfway mark on the mission and took us out to

 lunch to celebrate with them!

This week our ward had the baptism of an 8 year old boy, but the bishop was out of town for the week leading up to it, so we got to help the father with preparations for the baptism. The baptism was held directly after church and went really well. The spirit that was felt there was really neat, and the boys mother (who's not a member) attended and was certainly able to feel it.

Earlier in the week we were with a part member family from China, and the father is super close to being baptized. He knows he wants to be baptized but is just waiting for the feeling that it's the right

First signs of spring.

time. They just had a baby about three weeks ago, so we got to meet little Zoe and share a message about faith with them. The father has been reading the Book of Mormon daily for the past two months, and it's incredible to see the difference it's made in his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is real power that comes into our lives as we read it.

On Friday we were with another Chinese family and they prepared a huge Chinese meal for us, some of the food being importated directly from their family in China. It was absolutely incredible. The couple is an incredible example of faith. The husband had a great job working at a finance firm in

Our authentic Chinese dinner.

China, but they felt they needed to move to Sweden. They've now been working the last few years to learn a new language and culture while the his and has been trying to find work here. They have faced SoE incredible challenges, but they are some of the happiest and most gracious people I've met because of their faith in Christ. The other elders had an investigator there at dinner who we taught afterword, and regardless of what we said, the most powerful part was the testimony of these humble members.

Earlier in the week we were standing at the bus stop, and I felt impressed to pull out a copy of the Book of Mormon. The guy I sat down next to and started talking with was actually Christian with a strong faith, which hardly ever happens here, and I had the perfect opportunity to teach him about the Book of Mormon and its role in helping us strengthen our faith in Christ. He was interested in a book with such power and it was exactly what he needed. I may not know the people I meet or what they need, but I know the Savior knows each perfectly and is eager to reach out and lift them with loving hands through us as we follow the spirit in faith, being filled with love towards others.


Elder Sirrine

March 25, 2019 How does the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in our lives?

We had zone Conference this week, and I got to see

Elder Bills! He hits his one-year mark on Thursday. 

Pretty hard to believe it's already been that long!

This week I've been really grateful for the opportunity to teach a couple of lessons. I often ask other missionaries what their favorite part of being a missionary is, and I can say for myself that it's definitely teaching. There is no better feeling than feeling the spirit as we are able to teach and testify about gospel truths that improve and enhance all of our lives.

We also had an opportunity to serve a member this week by helping her paint her kitchen. I want to

Painting

give a shout out to my mom and dad who gave me several opportunities to practice this skill at home, enabling me to help a member in need.

Another highlight of the week was having 4 investigators in church! This was definitely the Lord's doing, because that's a significant increase from 0 we've had in church the past several weeks. On top of that, the other elders had 5 in church, so our ward had 9 investigators there in total! I've never experienced that before, so that was pretty incredible.

This week I was pondering and studying how we can truly apply the power of the Atonement in our lives. We hear regularly in church that we should "rely on the Atonement", that we should "apply the atonement", or "draw" the power of the Atonement into our lives daily, but how do we actually do that? A few insights I had have helped me feel the power of the Savior in greater measure and to understand how I can better use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life. I've come to understand that perhaps the greatest way we can draw on the atonement (although we might not consider it as such) is recognizing and following the promptings of the spirit. Why?

We learn in Alma 7:11-13 that Jesus Christ suffered our pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities so that his bowels may be filled with mercy, that he might know how to succor us according to our infirmities.

The atonement enables Christ to perfectly understand the difficulty and circumstances of our trials, which allows him to give perfect counsel in helping us overcome them, because he wants us to act and not be acted upon. "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good;" (Alma 37:37)

He's able to give perfect counsel, so we can be agents of righteousness, but how does He communicate and counsel with us? He does so through the Holy spirit. Therefore, if we seek the spirit and follow its promptings, we show we value his counsel and our faith that it will bring us the greatest happiness and lead us down the path of overcoming our weaknesses.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord." (Mosiah 3:19)
We cannot assume it is our own will power or sheer grit that helps us overcome our weaknesses. We must constantly listen for the whispering of the spirit and then be courageous and unwavering in following them, even when difficult. We cannot assume that Christ will simply take our trial or difficulty from us, but we can be absolutely certain that he will tell us what we can do to overcome them and put off the natural man.

I think many of us seek the promptings of the Holy Ghost, but we may not conscientiously realize that by so doing, we are accessing the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. An understanding of this principle helps us to better understand the matchless power of our Savior Jesus Christ and to see his hand in the details, both big and small, in our daily lives.


Äldste Sirrine

March 18, 2019 "But I'M interested!"

To give you an idea of what our area looks like, 

here's a few of the houses we knocked on this week.

This week the Lord presented us with an incredible opportunity to serve. I'll preface this by saying that it's incredibly hard to find service here in Sweden (Ward service projects? They don't exixt here...) so any opportunity is a real blessing.

As we were heading to the train station after knocking doors in an area, we saw a credit card lying on the path. We picked it up and looked around to see whose it was and saw a man 50 yards away walking the other direction, so we ran to catch up with him and asked if it was his. He said it wasn't, which left us wondering what to do. We almost just left it where we had found it so the owner could find it if they came looking, but then we had the idea to look at the name on the card and then search that name on hitta.se, a website/app here in Sweden. All you need is either a person's name, phone number, or address, and it will pull up all the rest of their information, including name and birth date. Honestly this website is incredibly nice as a missionary when you need to find people, but is really disturbing otherwise when you consider that anyone can find all that information about you so easily... We found the man, Magnus, on the app and saw that he only lived a half kilometer away, so we decided to take him the card, meaning we would miss the train back home. We knocked on the door and said we had found his card and then asked a couple questions to make sure it was his. He was incredibly grateful we had brought it to him and immediately grabbed his wallet to try to pay us. We explained that we didn't want to accept any money and then had the opportunity to talk about our volunteer service here in Sweden. As it turns out, his uncle is a member of the church, along with his wife and 10 kids, down in Västerhaninge (near the temple). Right at that time the man's wife came walking up to the house walking their dog. She had been on her way to the grocery store when she lost the card, so she had been looking all over for it and was quite worried. She couldn't believe it when Magnus reached into his pocket and produced the missing card. We were able to share our message briefly with them, and we left feeling that we had planted a great seed, feeling strongly that our service will lead to questions and conversation between him and his uncle.

We don't have a lot to work with right now, so this week we did a lot of knocking doors and talking to people on the street. Our area is a really rich part of Stockholm, so it's been interesting to meet a lot

P-day today. We hiked out into the woods

 and made a fire! It was raining pretty good, 

but don't worry, we're all eagle scouts 

so we got that fire going first try :)

of different people and see some beautiful neighborhoods. Not a single person we met this week was interested in learning more, but that hasn't stopped us from experiencing great miracles and joy. I love the words of King Benjamin as he teaches his people about the greatness of The Lord. "And 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; 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." (Mosiah 2:22) I can't say I entirely understand the full impact of every conversation we had this week, but I can say from experience that I know without a doubt that the Lord fulfills every promise and blesses us for our efforts to keep his commandments.

Here's one of my favorite experiences from the week I'll leave you with. We knocked on a door and a little a young couple opened the door along with a 4 or five year old girl. The dad said they were just about to put the kids to bed, so it wasn't a good time. The little girl then said, "Yeah, it's not a good time. Maybe try again tomorrow, but a little earlier." We then asked the dad if there was another time we could come and share our message and he replied that they weren't interested. The little girl then looked up at her father in great indignation, and with hands on her hip, said, "But, I'M interested!" I couldn't help but think of Christ's command to become as little children and it definitely made me smile.


Äldste Sirrine

March 11, 2019 Another great week:)

The first church building in Stockholm

We had a great week here! Today for P-day we went to the best (and pretty much only) Mexican restaurant in Stockholm with a member! On the way there, we just happened to walk by the the very first church building our church had in Sweden. It's no longer owned by the church, but it still has a beehive above the door and says The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! After lunch we went to the biggest cemetery in Sweden, called Skågskyrkogården, which is apparently on the list of "world heritages". It was pretty neat!

We had a lesson with Leo on Tuesday along with the Office Elders, so they will now be teaching him because he actually lives in their area. They taught him 2 more times this week, and he went to institute along with a few other young single adults, and he absolutely loves all of it! On Tuesday we invited him to pray to know if Joseph

At the cemetery.

Smith is a prophet of God, and later that night he texted us telling he had done so and that he had gotten an incredible feeling and knows that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God. Everything is going well for his baptism on March 23 :)

Yesterday I had the chance to speak in church! It was interesting to think back to the first time I gave a talk in Swedish and compare it to yesterday's talk. Man, the Lord has truly blessed me with an ability to speak the language.

We also had a neat experience this week standing at a bus stop. We asked a girl there for some help with Swedish, and ended up having a really great conversation with her. As it turns out, she knows a couple members of the church who had served missions in England! She didn't know too much about the church herself, so we now have contact to tell her some more!

Another experience we had was also at a bus stop talking to a young man. He straight up told us that he likes learning about other religions so we told him it was his lucky day because we like to teach people about just that! We hope to be able to meet him this week, so we're praying that his schedule aligns!

As said, it's been a great week! We see miracles every day and can't help but enjoy every day!


Äldste Sirrine

Elder Bjornn and I

I believe in a God of Miracles

Back in Stockholm!

This week has been quite the adventure! Elder Bjornn and I arrived in our new area, Täby, to absolutely no Area Book (all we had was a piece of paper with one name and a corresponding phone number on it), and we didn't even have SIM card for the phone or bus cards for the first day. So it was pretty much as blank as it could be.


We're living at the mission office along with the Assistants and office elders which has been a lot of

fun. Our mission has gotten rid of all the 4 man apartments we had, so having six missionaries in one

apartment is definitely unusual. On Saturday we ran to a nearby soccer field and were able to play

Us and the assistants on the 

subway. From left to right: 

Elder Lewis, me, 

Elder Bjornn (my companion),

 and Elder Steele.

soccer for our morning exercise with just missionaries which was pretty fun. We also work in the same area as the Assistants, and together we're able to accomplish a lot here with the ward's help.

As mentioned earlier, we didn't have a phone number for the new area, so we got the phone number that the sister missionaries used to have here in Täby. The good news is that we have a phone number. The bad news is that literally all the members and missionaries we call have our phone number saved as "Sister Missionaries" in their phone contacts... BUT, after having this number activitated for just four days, we got a call from a random number. It was Saturday afternoon and when we answered the phone, and the guy on the other end said, "Um... are you the guys I talk with to become a member in your church?" Well, the only thing we could really think to say in reply was, "Yeah". After talking to him and getting some more details, we met him at the church just an hour later and had a lesson with him. He's an 18 year old named Leo who is looking for a "more Christian" church than the one he used to belong to, and he wants it to feel right. He has a cousin who lives in Finland who is a member of the church and has told him a lot about it, so Leo decided to do some research online and said it somehow felt right, so he decided to call us. The number he found was ours, so if we hadn't opened up the area and reactivated the number, he wouldn't have been able to contact the missionaries. We had a great lesson with him at the church, and as we taught him and asked questions, he showed that he is sincere and has a strong desire to be baptized, so he accepted the invitation to be baptized on March 23.

This has been one of the most incredible experiences of my mission. That just doesn't happen here in Sweden, and we now know exactly why we needed to open an area here in Täby.

Here's another cool part of the story. We found out that Leo actually lives in the Stockholm ward, two streets outside of our area. As a result, we got to accompany him to the Stockholm ward for church on

Sunday, and I got to see all the members, including Henrik there! They were surprised to see that I

was back, but even more surprised when they met Leo. He got a great welcome from the ward and

The view from my desk in the apartment

felt right at home with members who really went out of their way to help him feel comfortable there. The young adults even reached out to him and invited him to a dinner that night for all the young adults in the Stockholm area, which he attended and really enjoyed.

Leo will actually be taught by the office elders, but he lives just a 5 min walk from our apartment and will be in the Stockholm ward, so we'll stay in good contact with him. I feel incredibly blessed to have been placed in an area where the Lord needed us. By small and simple means are great things brought to pass.

Äldste Sirrine  

Eriks Baptism (I forgot to send this last week) 

Feb 25, 2019 Back to Stockholm?

We made a fire and roasted hotdogs with a member for P-day.

Last night we got our transfer calls, and I found out that I'll be going back to Stockholm! The news of transfers was expected, but President Youngberg got me by surprise when he told me I'll be opening a new area. The number of missionaires, particularly elders, has been dropping in our mission from 150 to 105, so elder areas have been closing and the ratios of sisters will soon be nearly 50/50. In the light of such events, opening a new area was the last thing on my mind. However, because of the number of elders we have this transfer, we need to open a new area for one transfer and then close it again. I was fully expecting to only have one area left on my mission, but it looks like I'll have at least two! Maybe more?? My new are will be Täby, which borders the area of my old area of Stockholm inner

This is how you extinguish fires in Sweden, 

or at least how the missionaries do...

city. We also meet in the same church building as the Stockholm ward, so I'll get to see the members again! Including Henrik, who was baptized a couple months ago, and Erik, who was baptized by Henrik just two weeks ago! (picture attached). I can't wait :)

This week we had a really neat experience while we were out tracting. We tried to swing by a returning member, but he wasn't home, so we decided to knock the whole building. Only one person was home in the entire building (what are the odds of that?), but that one person was interested and said we can come back, so we'll be going to teach him tonight. It's incredible how the Lord leads us to those he's prepeared.

Other than that, it's been a lot of talking to people in town and knocking on doors! We've met a lot of really neat people recently, and have been enjoying the festive spirit of winter here. They've built a playground out of snow for the kids along with an entire maze right in the middle of town. We even took the opportunity to talk to people in the maze which was pretty fun.


Äldste Sirrine

The playground made out of snow

The maze made out of snow. The walls were a lot hire but have melted.