I cannot believe how long it has been since I last e-mailed. Either that or how much i've been doing the past weeks. WOW. Brace yourselves for the length of this letter.
We can start off by Malmö's Zone Conference. It was amazing, it was about Strengthening the church through the missionaries home teaching. It was awesome because the bishop from Malmö cqame in after we had taught it all to give a little spiritual thought and at the end he was so enthused he said "As a matter of fact, I would like to ask permission from your mission president to get the full-time missionaries out teaching with the part-member families.. would that be alright? After a couple of laughs in the audience President said "permission granted!" It is amazing to see the spirit move the leadership of the full-time missionaries and membership for the same cause. And that is to strengthen the church! The following day we did our ward visit with the VÄXJÖ branch! ( that was my second area with Elders Takahashi and Barlow as my companions) And it was amazing to see the members there. Too bad Marvin wasn't there but he was with his family in another town! But he is very active and doing great otherwise. But the biggest highlight of going to Växjö was to see a woman that we had taught. Her problem was that she was co-habitating with this man and so her decision is if she had the faith to leave her partner (he didn't want to get married) and join the church... or not. During my time I remember praying so hard that a path would be provided. As soon as I left Växjö, her problem was solved and she was baptized. Coming back to visit I found out that she married a member of the church, he moved to Växjö and and they are both working on the kids to get baptized! The climax was to walk in and to look at her and see hoe much her countenance had changed! The gift of the Holy Ghost is real and changes lives if they just have the faith to follow the influence of it. What stunk the most is that we were in a hurry to get to the next fireside and we were in some Elders car. And I left my backback with my quad, camera, preach my gospel and study journal in there. So the past week and a half (a lot has happened) Elder Jorgensen has taken pictures for me. Luckily we will be headed down to Malmö later in the month so I'll get it back. So that sunday morning we saw thast we would be very busy and wouldn't have time to eat. And luckily we were staying in a hotel the night before and my companion had a brilliant idea to make some sandwiches in the morning. So we used napkins and new (un-used) trash bags to pack up our sandwiches for later use.
P.S. I would tell you each of the wards and branches we visited but I figured I can just print out a calendar later as we look back at it all! Crazy.
On Monday the 25th of July we had Joseph (Congo) invite his family over for dinner and it went amazingly well. We found out he wasn't in Stockholm's area. So we invited the mission leader in his new ward to the Newell's house for dinner. So it was Joseph, and his sister and mother with us there. They can only speak french for the main part. So the Newell's taught them the most because they can speak the language! Joseph told us that they had been reading in the Book of Mormon together for the past couple of days so that's super nice! He is super willing to be baptized and the mom doesn't seem to mind so we will be trying to get the whole family into the water.
We then had Stockholm Zone Conference and the following day was Stockholm South's Zone Conference. This weeks special hymn that Elder Jorgensen and I have been singing has been "where can I turn for peace?" It's got a great tenor line. The following day we went to Norrland Zone Conference and it was very special. The following day we spent in Skellefteå (second highest area in sweden) and we had an amazing contacting time together. We found a bunch of people from Ethiopia. For lunch, the Elders there surprised my companion and I with a Swedish delicacy. The fermented baltic herring (syrströmming). It was served with Potatoes and Meatballs with dill sauce. Let's just say it tastes like sewage. Anyways... I got a really good video about it all and ya'll will love it.
We then took a quick flight back down to Stockholm because we found out that Emma's husband was in town and so we met with him and the Newell's and had an awesome dinner with them. He is willing to be baptized but is under pressure with his career and government so he is just going to wait until the opportunity presents itself for him! Once that family gets sealed in the temple I am going to China to witness of it!
The next day President Newell gave a speech at Fest i nord (which is a YSA's around Europe gathering). He was crazy enough to invite my companion and I along and it was pretty fun! I got to see a bunch of YSA's that I had gotten to know in Lund and Växjö (including MARVIN!) and Borås and Malmö. Very happy time for me. We then were able to visit Vingåker which is this factory outlet place where they sell Tiger of Sweden suits for cheap so we went there for Thomas to go mission shopping because this is his last week here in Sweden before he leaves for his mission! The following day we took a flight to Gothenburg and went to Borås that sunday! There I was able to see Joseph and Elvis there at church and others that I had baptized were out of town (unfortunately) but I told them I would be back with my parents on September 11th! The ward is very excited. I got to bare my testimony there and after the Ward mission leader there (my hero) volunteered to giving us a ride to the next ward we would visit and gave us food for lunch! He is fantastic. I gave him your e-mails so he will be contacting ya'll soon. That night we went to a fireside in Jönköping and stayed at Sture Nilsson's house and he told me to tell grandfather hello because he had had him at dinner with his family there in Jönköping before when he visited!
The following day we had FHE with an investigator we found whose name is Johan. He is a swede with a wife and 3 kids. I would not be surprised if he was baptized in the next month either. He is a very good listener, honest and a warm peronality. We had a strong lesson about Christ and the Book of Mormon and he committed to read in it and pray to know if it's true!
A while back Elder Jorgensen and I had contacted this man right in the middle of downtown Stockholm as he was passing out Scientology pamphlets. After talking to him he told us of his interest to find out more about the Book of Mormon and he was very interested to hear about that.
Just two weeks later (just yesterday) the elders who we referred him to call us and tell us that he knows the book is true and is getting baptized this saturday! Wowee that is fantastic!
I am so thankful to being a missionary! I am loving life, staying busy, and feeling the spirit stronger and stronger every day guiding me to do HIS will. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support!
Love,
Äldste Webster (Wad)
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