(This picture is a group of sculptures by Carl Milles - "Five Musical Geniuses" - they are often referred to as the Angels in the Forest. He is a famous Swedish sculptor. The building across the little river is the Concert Hall - it is right behind the sculptures.)
We went on splits last week. So fun!
Wow. Mondays just seem to be coming faster and faster. This week I will hit my one year mark!!! Can you believe that? It really freaks me out to think about how fast time goes by.
Thus far on my mission I have been in six cities and seen four baptisms. Örebro, Norrköping, Göteborg, Halmstad, Karlskrona, and Gävle. I feel very blessed to be able to see so much of Sweden. One of my dreams was to be able to travel a lot and see Sweden and that dream has really come true. I have now been in all five zones and for our next zone conference I will get to travel up to Sundsvall and get to experience some of northen Sweden. Finally. Haha. Next zone conference will be in April.
This past week we got to the chance to go on splits. And because of that I have been thinking a lot about what I have learned so far on my mission and what I want to do with the time I have left. I have six months left! I got the chance to go on splits with Syster Hill who is training right now in Uppsala. She served in Gävle for the first six months of her mission and loves it here- so she came here and taught me a lot about the area. Syster Jenson went to Uppsala to be with Syster Talbot- a new missionary. We met up on Friday for district meeting here in Gävle and switched and then Sunday after church we switched back. It was a very fun weekend.
It is always fun to be with other missionaries and see what their talents are. And see how I can help them progress as well. I have come to realize that a lot of missionaries really stress themselves out for no reason at all. Life is so much better when we hand over our stress to our Savior. I have been studying the atonement a lot this week and I have been reminded about how much we are loved.
We got six new investigators this week!!! Heavenly Father really prepares His children and Syster Jenson and I have been the lucky ones to see teach many of them about the truth.
We have found two different, very strong African families that both really want to learn what we have to offer. Actually I am on the phone right now with the Dad of one of the families. He is super nice and he is saying that since we left his house last week he has felt God's love again and has been listening to worship music and he is telling me that he can feel heaven close around him. Amazing. We will be trying to meet with him and his family again this week and hopefully they will be able to come to our music night this Saturday night.
We are having a music night on Saturday with people in Borlange, Uppsala, and Gavle. We have about 15 different music numbers performing. I am very excited.
Now that we have so many new investigators we will be working really hard on getting them baptized! Our mission has a standard of excellence that we are all working towards right now and that includes:
Talking to ten people every day, finding 5 new investigators every week, and seeing 260 baptisms in Sweden for 2012! We are working on strengthening our faith as a mission and I strongly believe that we are starting to see more miracles because our faith is growing.
This past week we have used mormon.org a lot. I LOVE that website. It is easily one of my favorite tools as a missionary. I love showing people videos of people who they can relate to. It is a wonderful thing. Lately we have been getting referrals from mormon.org as well which makes me love that website even more. We have received two this past week and went and visited them. The one is a chinese girl who doesn't even know anything about God and is wanting to hear more about Him. The other we are still trying to get in touch with. Life is grand. Use mormon.org and tell people about the true church!
I have a strong testimony that God loves and prepares all of His children to hear the truth at some point in their lives. And then He gives us this wonderful gift called agency, where we get the chance to choose for ourselves what is true.
I am so grateful that I have been blessed to learn the truth and that I now get the chance share this truth with the people of Sweden.
Yesterday when Syster Jenson and I were on our way back to Gävle from Uppsala we sat across from a man who kept looking at us and smiling. We finally tried to talk to him and found out that he was deaf! Syster Jenson knows a little of american sign language and they started talking. Then he got some paper and we wrote in Swedish back and forth for about 15 minutes. It was a really neat experience and made me realize how important it is to learn Swedish in every form. Even writing because you never know when you will have the chance to teach someone about the church only through writing. I was very grateful for Syster Jenson at that moment. It was such a neat experience to "talk" with a deaf person. He goes to some deaf church in Gävle and wasn't really interested in learning more about our church.
Also this week I had the chance while Syster Hill was here to visit some members and have lunch. Kurt and Gerd Sjöqvist - who are both amazing artists! She actually went to BYU and James Christensen was her teacher. They are the mormon artists who made the really neat Tree of Life model that was in the conference center a couple of years ago. The big model with lots of color. Really breath taking. Anyways, I felt right at home when I was there.
It´s been a good week and I can tell that things are just going to keep getting better here in Gävle.
Syster Jenson goes home in 2 weeks and then I will train again. I remembered that you guys went to Syster Gotberg´s homecoming, so I thought it would be sweet if you went to Syster Jenson´s too! She is amazing and we have become really good friends! And she would love to get some good music from you.
I love you all! I am getting more and more excited about Corryn having her baby! Keep sending me pictures of her belly! Haha. 2 more months! Crazy.
Love, your Swedish daughter.
Talisa Vistaunet!
No comments:
Post a Comment