Baptism and Midsommers

Midsommers!

 Awesome Dop (Baptism)!

Eating Seal. Yucky.






Hello one and all!

This past week has been crazy. We had a baptism for a student from China who is so
sweet and prepared. On Tuesday we had the challenge of teaching her
all of the commandments and asking her if she would keep them. We were
a little nervous about how that would all work out.  She listened and agreed with
everything we had to say. Awesome. When we brought up that we don´t swear and
don´t take the name of God in vain..she paused and said, "Oh, my lady
gaga!" Haha. I almost died laughing. Then we went on to talk about
stealing and she paused yet again, making us nervous and she said, "I
used to steal..." And at this point Syster Jacobs was comforting her
and saying "oh that´s alright,  just as long as you won´t do it again".
Then she finished her sentence... "Hearts". Haha. As you can tell our
teach about commandments went just fine.


She was baptized on Wednesday night, the day before she flew back to
China for a month. We did it! She got baptized before she went back to
China so now she can go to church in China and understand more! We
will also be setting up a time to Skype with her later this week. We had
about 15 people show up for her baptism and everything pulled together
just wonderfully. A great member here baptized and confirmed
her the same night. She was glowing the entire night and you
could tell that she was very happy about her decision to be baptized.
Bonnie Jameson, the American lady who lives here, really helped us with
the teaching process and she gave a wonderful talk about using the Holy Ghost
at the baptism. I spoke on baptism and the lovely Syster Jacobs
played the paino while the Strandberg daughters sang a baptism song.


Then we had midsommers! Which actually turned out a little stressful.
We decided to go to the Branch party in Åhus but it was raining the
entire time we were there and so we didn't even get to see the beach.
Bummer. But, Marie Jacobsson did manage to get me to eat seal! Yuck.
Marie and Henrick Jacobsson are some of the best members here and have
helped us so much lately with our work. I am so grateful for them.
After the wet Branch party a few of us headed down to
Lund for a YSA midsommers. Fun.


The miracle of the week: We have been trying to get bikes for the past
couple of weeks and the store has been sold out. Then we called and
they said they had them in! So we ordered them and then went to
pick them up the next day. While we were there we were trying to
figure out how we could get baskets on the bikes but for some reason
the man could not understand what we were saying. So, then all of the
sudden a young guy jumps in and starts helping us... acting as a
translator. He was there with his mother getting a car part for her
and one thing led to another and we starting talking about forever
families and how God exists. Before they left we got his phone number
and prayed that it would be the right number. The next day we called
the phone and he answered! We then invited him to come with us to the
YSA midsommers and he said yes! So, we ended up going to the YSA
midsommers with a member, new convert, and a new investigator. It was
a great little trip. The only thing that made me sad was that I didn´t
get to dance around a maypole because it was raining all day long.
Blah. It was a strange midsommers but, it was just where Heavenly
Father wanted us to be. We even met some really nice friends of a
member at our Branch midsommers and got phone numbers and
became instant friends. They invited us to come over next week. And
the story doesn´t end there.. because yesterday the young man came to
church! Syster Jacobs and I both spoke in church and he came to see
us. He had such a great experience and said he felt something special.
He is a twenty year old Swede who is prepared for this
message. We met him the same day of the baptism. Heavenly Father is
always leading us to the next person who is ready.


Like I said earlier Syster Jacobs and I spoke in church and that was
another amazing experience. I had prayed long and hard for Heavenly
Father´s help to be able to speak Swedish and from the moment I stood
up it was not me who was talking. The words just seemed to roll right
out of my mouth and I had almost no problems at all speaking. WOW. The
gift of tongues is real. Syster Jacobs has wonderful Swedish as well
and we both spoke for a good amount of time. In fact the Branch
President was the last speaker and he thanked us for taking so much
time to speak and being so prepared. It felt really good and I really
felt like Heavenly Father really helped us at that moment. I LOVE life!


Keep looking for daily miracles and remember that you are never
forgotten. 


I love you all! Be good and enjoy that summer heat.
It is rainy and cold here. Haha.


Love, Talisa!
Aka: Syster Vistaunet