Monday, August 30, 2010

Another great week

Hello dearest family! Thanks for keeping me in the loop of whats going on! I love your letters! Congrats to Swakeny (Swa jake and whitney) for another! Super exciting.... I'm pretty sure by the time i'll come home I will have at least 10 new faces that I have never seen before! Keep up the good work! Exciting stuff about the Mantua cabin... Congrats to Lara on her contest the picture is BEAUTIFUL (Mostly Nossa Senhora McKenna!) The Stake Conference notes are well appreciated and will be studying up on those. And about the Atonement Study plan... if you ever have that... I would love to follow along with the stake!
Another great week has FLOWN BY! Joseph from Nigeria has been given a baptismal calendar and has been reading everything which was written on it... We taught him about following the prophet and keeping the word of wisdom! At first we thought he had a problem with coffee and tea... because he went on this long tangent about being addicted to things... and then after we bore our testimonies he Said, "yeah I know... I have no problem with the Word of Wisdom... that was just an example... Of course I will follow whatever comes out of the Servant of the Lord's mouth!" We had a member with us... we had our share of laughs and moved on. He is strong and I KNOW that it's because he is reading the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY! It is amazing to see if they really do feast upon the words of christ... it will show them what to do! Uncle Ringwoods talk really has made a difference in the way I present the commandments to my investigators now... he said " A easiness and willingness to believe comes by keeping the commandments" Something like that.. SOO TRUE! As he came to church with a member he had a great time... members translated for him, welcomed him and wanted to order the Ensign already!
Alinda from Sierra Leone is doing great... still progressing in her own ways... Recently we have been going through the lessons ONE principle at a time... because she has gone throught 3 sets of missionaries... And by the time we got to her.. she didn't know that Jesus Christ visited the Americas... D´oh.. anyways... she is slowly progressing... But seeing the much opposition that comes into her life from reading the Book of Mormon... we know the Lord still wants her to be baptized... she does too... she just doesnt feel ready. Asking Inspired Questions has helped so much with her. Instead of giving her the commitments... we ask her questions so that she teaches herself on why she needs to keep the commitment.
This past week our chinese investigators have been preparing for entrance exams so this week we will be seeing how they have been doing. Michelle has been doing AWESOME. We have now been able to get her to recognize the Holy Ghost... her problem is believing that these feelings come from God and she isn't just doing it to herself. Satan is doing his best with her... but I am certain she will be baptized... just patience.
Colette our recent convert is doing great.. comes to church without us inviting her and just loves it here. Zaki and Zeina have bth recently got jobs in Göteborg (1 hour away) and work every friday saturday and sunday... (except they are working there for an internship... so they get no money). So we are just trying to help them understand the importance of renewing their covenants every week by going to church. You never realize how important Sacrament meeting is (to an extent) until you are a missionary... You are doing everything you can to get them to church.... so they can feel the spirit... feel at home.. and have the feeling of "I need to come here every sunday... what do I need to do?" BE BAPTIZED!
This week I have just really begun to have a deeper understanding of the Atonement and what that means for me, our investigators and EVERYONE that we encounter! How grateful I am for the enabling power of such a gift!
Thursday will be district meeting... then my companion and I will be going to STOCKHOLM on Friday ( Dinner with him and president) Saturday (Conference) and Sunday (Combined Stake conference) to see GRANDFATHER give a special address to 2 Zones in our mission! I can't wait...
Well this week has been exciting... This is Sweden's last semester for providing free education for EVERYONE so there have been many chinese and Indians and people from all over the world coming. (I wonder if they knew that God really had another purpose in mind for them?) With the spirit.. we'll just have to go and tell them ourselves! This Gospel is True... Onward!
Dearest family, you are great!
Love, Äldste Wad

Monday, August 23, 2010

Teaching people, Not lessons.

Amazing week! I just wanted to start out by thanking all of you who wrote me this week! Oh wait... It was only my lovely mother! It's a good thing there is such a thing as forgiveness HAIGH! So this past week has been an amazing eye-opener! It started out with Zone Conference where president introduced the 8 new curricula that were to be added to/ emphasized in Preach My Gospel. And most of them had to do with Teaching! Let me just tell you how many times I have fasted and prayed to become a better teacher, read through chapter 10 about 100 times and felt like no improvement was being made. I had known that without the spirit you cannot teach so I was doing my best to be 110% obedient so that the Spirit would be able to testify to the people of the truthfulness of the message that we teach. Long story short... The Zone Conference laid it all out for me... danced around in my soul... and testified that this would work! As mentioned there are about 8 different subjects they would talk about. But they will be only teaching one every month... so that by spring next year the new missionaries will be allowed to be taught it. We talked about Teaching people and not lessons. A lot of it had to do with Asking Inspired questions... Listening... and (my favorite) TRUSTING in the SPIRIT to leave what you had planned that morning and go directly to their needs´. By doing this... the spirit will be able to testify to them because as they answer our questions they teach themselves of truths. We ask them how they feel... and then follow up with a simple WHY? Which allows you perfect time to testify and allow them to recognize the Spirit in their Conversion. The assistants showed us the district 2 video which is day and night compared to the other one... and really showed our the differences that the companionships can have... if taken care of properly... can add to the Spirit and not drive it away! The Zone Leaders talked about different tools that we as missionaries could use while teaching (being many) and encouraged us to use them to spice up our teaching. Amazing.
So Later that night we came back and were able to have dinner with the ward mission leader and 1 investigator Michelle from china, and Zaki and Zeina who were recently baptized. We were able to watch the Special Witnesses of Christ video. As I asked them how they felt... they couldn't sense the reality of an apostle of Jesus Christ here on Earth. My ward mission leader had earlier that day recommended that I bare testimony of grandfather and how real he is. I had never done such a thing, I had never wanted to flaunt such a thing to complete stangers who didn't necessarily NEED to know. (Besides the fact that I don't tell anyone... everyone already knows) But I felt an impression that I should. And I did. I bore testimony of Christ and the atonement... I told them that I know that those men are inspired men of God and that God continues to reveal his secrets to these men. As I said... my grandfather is one of these men... Tears came to the eyes of my ward mission leader... Michelle nodded.. then did a double take... and they were blown away. Amongst the awkwardness of the situation... The spirit was so strong... and perhaps wanted to let me know the reality of his Holy Apostleship. How thankful I am to be born in this loving family where the gospel is so strong... and love constantly Felt. Anyways.... long tangent... but it had to be said! :)
We found a new man from India who had accepted another visit from us. We taught HIM, not a lesson! As we began to know his religious background... what he wanted to know fit perfectly in with the first lesson... As we listened and asked questions... the lesson... had seemed like it was going nowhere! But we closed and he had told us that he was VERY grateful that we listened to HIM, and answered HIS questions and did all we could to get HIM to understand our message. But we were thinking to ourselves.. yeah yeah... he's just being nice. But we told him to give the closing prayer.. and although reluctant... he offered the prayer. He closed we smiled and we walked him back to the bus stop. Then questions like.. what do I need to do once I know the Book of Mormon is true? Do I need to read the whole book? came up... andwe told him about the Authoirty being restored... again.. and then Baptism... and he changed the subject. The bus was coming... and he told us thank you again and said.. "you know.. I actually wanted to say... While I was praying... I felt this warmness in my heart that I haven't felt in a long time. Very surprised we said... YOU DID?! He said yes.. the spirit was very stong as we said thats IT! That is the spirit! He said.. Really? OK! We will definitely talk later!" And we went our separate ways. Just a testimony to me that the Lord shows his spirit in HIS time and in HIS way! Man this gospel is true.
Another teach with a man from Nigeria, Joseph has a strong desire to serve God. So we based our whole teach on that. And at the End we commited him to Baptism on the 11th of September... and he said WHAT TIME? haha Amazing! So the next teach we brought the ward mission leader.. made up a Baptismal Calender... And he came to church the next day with it all filled out with appointments... scriptures and lessons to be taught before his baptism! He is ON TRACK!
Many of our other investigators are preparing for the beginning Exams... but the Work is going forward... Michelle and Li are well on their way towards baptism... this is just very new to them... but with patience I know they will be baptized! Alinda came to church after a long time... and she loved it so she is also well on her way!
This is the lords work! Hope to hear from you all next week!
Love, your little brother... Äldste Wad

By the way... it is back to school sales going on here... and so... my camera is kinda lame... maybe you can tell from the pictures... but I am thinking about getting a new one for the rest of the mission? Let me know next week if you support my decision. But I will be getting a European collar shirt and a new suit for when grandfather comes so I will look good and because the suits and shirts are like half off right now soo.. yeah... So exciting! Thanks for writing me! Love ya mamma!



Monday, August 16, 2010

TACK

Wow. today was definitely a record high for e-mails in my inbox... but hey... what do you do? granted.. 3 of them were from Brynn... NBD!
Dearest family! thanks for your amazing emails! Truly inspiring and totally what I needed!
This week has been great. We were able to see one of our investigators from India Anirudh after a while and he is coming ba´ck into the school schedule so he will be less busy (weird right?). Unfortunately one of our great investigators Surendra, we had given him the Gospel Principles book because he was so positive... he read a little bit about what Joseph Smith said about Heavenly Father... as well as our potential to become like him... therefore... quit investigating the church. But I too... like Paul.. am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and will continue to search the elect who have been prepared by the Lord. Li from China has come back from vacation there and has been doing great! We were able to get a baptismal date with him. So we called president and he told us to change it because SOMEONE would be coming by for a visit on September 4th. Grandfather! So we went back and talked to Li about the date and he said he had been talking with his father that previous night and he told him that he shouldn't because his dad had just enrolled him in the communist party. Therefore... he has a great decision on his plate... Stay communist and have "benefits" when he retuns back home. OR be baptized and return home with different beliefs and recieve the eternal benefits that the Lord has waiting for him. He told us that his main concern was his belief in God. He said he just wants to make 100% sure that God exists... then he will do EVERYTHING for him! haha so he says... but that is a man with great hope! He just needs to put that hope into Action! Any advice?
One day we were able to go contacting and we were able to find a guy who didn't understand that much of what we said. He comes from Turkey and his name is Daniel. We told him about our message and he said "yes I will come to your church!" Funny thing is is that we didn't even commit him to... he just wanted to! We were able to teach the 1st lesson to him. It made sense to him, but his problem is that he works friday, saturday and sundays.... also is illiterate. So with much Faith and Prayers... his desire to come to church will bring us some results.
Our 3 new converts are doing great. Zaki from Afghanistan got ordained a Priest on Sunday, moved in with our ward mission leader... and is doing great. Zeina from Lebanon has been out of town the past couple of weeks... but just got back yesterday and was able to take the sacrament! It brought peace to my soul seeing the new converts coming to church and Enduring it WELL to the End. Colette from Ivory Coast is doing super great we were able to show her the restoration film and she loved it. Our two swedish investigators are doing great... they are slow with commitments... but progressing in their own ways! Michelle our awesome investigator from China is DONE working everyday all summer so we were able to meet with her again. She has forgotten a lot so I kinda think of it as a good way to get on the right foot with her again. Build up her Faith a lot... and then commit to live the Word of Wisdom.. and be BAPTIZED! Kiran from India is an amazing investigator... he is busy with school right now but is really searching for truth and has a desire to come to church and read the Book of Mormon... when he has time... so just patience with him. Alinda from Sierra Leone we actually found out has left there because of the Diamond conflict there (Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone... ANYONE?) anyways... we were able to give her a really powerful lesson about holding to the rod... a member was there to bear testimony and the spirit was really strong there telling that she needed to commit doing a lot more than what she is doing right now. Slowly but surely she will be baptized.
Well tomorrow we have Zone Conference which I am super excited for! Well... this gospel is true! I am blessed to be born and raised in it!
Dearest family you are the best! Keep up the writing and talk to you next week!
Love, Wad

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Pictures from Växjö and BORÅS

HOORAY!!! Finally new pictures! He looks great! This batch includes two old companions... he's training now, as I said previously, but anyway... here's the little Aldste!
He's awesome, happy, and loving life!

Aldste Adam with his companion Aldste Barlow in Växjö


Hanging at a graffitti sign...
Adam with the twins he was teaching in Växjö

Aldste Barlow







Transfers and leaving Växjö
at the train station

Adam with three of his MTC companions!
Aldste Webster with two of his companions, A. Barlow and Takahashi!
I'm sure these are out of order... but at least you can see the cute little Waddily!
Aldste Webster and Aldste Bush
At the new digs in BORÅS

I guess he and his companion, A. Bush, were into taking pictures of each other
brushing their teeth... whatever!







At a Swedish celebration



Baptism of Zaki... July 3, 2010



Baptism of Zalina... July 17, 2010



This is at some Swedish festival...


Aldstes Webster and Bush
Doing "senior" stuff on the phone
Comps and the sunset! He sent a million pictures of sunsets... they are all amazing!





Helping Aldste Bush pack up... don't notice the mountain of garbage... what an elder! ;)
Bye bye Aldste Bush... Transfers... and training Aldste Stoddard in BORÅS.