Elvis in the bathroom

I LOVE life as a missionary! As a missionary you give up your normal life for
a year and a half and serve God with all your heart, might, mind, and
strength. That is something that I am very grateful for. 

This week we went to a member's house to teach one of our investigators and I
had to use the bathroom. When I opened the door to her bathroom
Elvis was staring right back at me. Haha. That made me very happy and
got me excited to listen to my music again and reminded me about my
life before my mission. Sometimes I forget what I was even doing
before I came on my mission. This member is an older lady.
She is great.  I love her so much! We have made plans to travel together
to Graceland. Haha.


Last pday we had another adventure with a great couple in our branch.
They took us for a tour of southern Sweden. One of these photos is us visiting a
castle. We actually visited many castles with them. We have become
really good friends with them and they said that they would adopt
me so that I could stay in Sweden. Haha. I now have some
Swedish grandparents.


Now onto the spiritual side of last week. I don´t know what it is
but my weeks just seem to be getting better and better. We had a very
high teaching week this past week. We were able to accomplish
this by talking to everyone and teaching every moment we
had. We had a total of 44 teaches! And the best part of that is 25
of them were to investigators!! Thirteen of those we had a member
present helping us teach! This past week I really felt more like
God´s tool. It really is the best feeling. I am doing all I can to
find, teach, and baptize before I go home.


Every Thursday we travel down to Lund for district meeting and it is a
highlight of every week. Elder Lerimaa, our district leader from
Finland, taught us about the importance of prayer and making sure that
our prayers are sincere and how we can then help our investigators
with their prayers. After we left Lund that day we taught everyone
about prayer!  We actually had ten teaches that day after the powerful
district meeting that we had. I am so grateful for spiritual leaders
who are worthy to recieve revelation for their folds.


When you are surrounded by the Spirit every day sometimes that makes
it hard to really feel the Spirit. So, this past week I have been
paying close attention to the still small voice of the Spirit and
acting upon all the promptings I recieve. We had a miracle teach with
the Chinese student who was baptized two months ago. We had planned
to talk about service and callings, but the moment we walked into the
door I knew she needed something else. We sat down and started talking
about prayer because that is just what we had learned and that led
into one of the most amazing spirit led teaches I have ever had. We
asked her how she feels her prayers are going. She thought for a
moment and then looked up at us with her eyes watering and said, "How
does God have time to listen to me?" At that moment we realized
excatly why our district leader had been inspired to talk about prayer
that morning. For the next 30 minutes we testifed of the power of prayer
and how much God loves her and will always have time to listen to her.


Another investigator of ours is having a hard time recieving answers
to his prayers. So, we actually fasted for him yesterday that he may
be able to recongize the answers that God is sending. He came up to me
in church and saíd with a huge smile on his face, "My friends invited
me to go swimming this morning and I told them that I had something
much more important to do." AHHH. I love the Spirit and the power of
prayer! and fasting! It´s real and God does love us and hear our
prayers. Most of the time he actually answers in ways that we are not
used to. Once we are looking for answers and really listening then we
can feel of His love.


Well, there is so much more that I could write about but I think that
is good for now. I love you all and I will see you in 3 weeks! America
here I come!! My last zone conference is this Wednesday in Göteborg.
We will be traveling up there tomorrow to sleep over at Syster Jacobs
and Syster Talbots place in Alingsås. A member of the Seventy is
actually going to be there.. Elder Kearon. I am looking forward to
that. I will also be given the chance to bear my final testimony! Wow.
I never thought that day would come.


Love, Talisa!!!