God Yul och Gott Nytt Ar

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: 2011/12/26
Subject: God Jul och Gött Nytt År


Nära och Kära

Oh the joys that Christmas Brings! This week has been absolutely out of this world! We have had so many different experiences in which the Lord has blessed us and the people we are around! I am so thankful for this season and for the opportunity I have to be a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I dont think I quite understood what that meant as I accepted the call to serve. Its an amazing responsibility that presses on my mind daily. Its the same commitment that each person who is baptized in His name will do. Its Hard to comprehend all of the different facets that this could entail. I dont know I realized that doing the right thing is living with Christ in our hearts and doing as He would have us do. Its us keeping our part of our commitment. I think we can all work on more fully living up to the promise we have made. I know I certainly can. 

Last Monday we went shopping to find some holiday decorations. They have these little bearded santa gnome, its super cute! I got one to come home! We had a lesson with Tony during FHE and talked about following the prophet. He still is hard to understand sometimes but the lesson went well!

Tuesday we had a great adventure. We planned on visiting less actives and things before a teach. We had some time to prepare stuff. I think I told you this story on the phone call. But long story short my companions and District leaders suprised me with Mette and Maria surprised me with a cake that the elders had decorated. Ill attach a picture of it. We then had to do splits so that we could do two things at once. Mette and I stayed at the center as everyone else went to have FHE at a members house. We taught utbys investigator Jonas. It was about the plan of salvation. In the middle we had a ring on the phone and Tony showed up. He wanted to be taught. So we taught him too. He was able to testify to Jonas in Portuguese as I and Mette taught him in Swedish again the plan of salvation. it was awesome 

Wednesday we had a bunch of Christmas gifts to deliver to people before our dinner with the Anstensen Family. They are an awesome family. We also visited Erik in the Hospital to see how he was doing. Hes doing better and has the best attitude ever still 

Thursday we did a service project at the Malm's house. Family was coming and they have been remodeling so we all did a bunch of different things. We stayed for a couple hours and Syster Sprague and I put up this weird drywall stuff on a wall. Its pretty cool. We then headed to the center to teach Li. He lives in Utby and will be baptized in January! He is golden! He cried as he said the opening prayer and let us know what was going on in his life. We met with Ehsan and Khalil was able to bear testimony to him in persian of how he gained his testimony. He was baptized a few weeks ago. It was super fun and the spirit was strong. Then Marie-Louis had us over so that we could learn more about Lucia. It was interesting. As we were there, (she lives in a building on the 12 floor) we were looking out the window and saw fireworks going off. It was literally in the front yard of the building next to ours. it was fun to see the stuff left over. 

Friday we had a great Zone Conference. My favorite part was as Syster Newell Talked about the true meaning of being charitable. You have to be charitable to yourself and others! We can know who we are from our imperfections just as we can recognize an orange by its unique qualities. As we walked in all the elders joked about the huge box that had my name on it. I thought they were joking until I walked into the dining room. It was pretty funny. We took a break before lunch and went caroling. It was really cool to sing the carols in swedish on the streets and have people stop and listen a little while of us. After Conference we stopped by and suprised Erik as he is obviously spending Christmas in the hospital. He was sleeping so we surprised him and then left. He called us back after realizing he had missed our phone call. We sang some christmas carols to him to help him feel the spirit. It was a fun experience. We got to see Sophia in a concert outside in the rain as her choir sang in the form of a christmas tree. its super cool!

Saturday We ate so much food. Here they celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. So we had a lunch with Martziah. She fed us the multiple course meal and then we went to the Sahlins where we got to hang out and play around. This is where the story from the dice came about. We watched despicable me and got home late in time to open my pajamas and get it bed to sleep.

Sunday! We opened gifts and went to church to have a great hour and a half worth of a musical sacrament meeting. The spirit was strong and Ehsan was able to attend. We then made our way to the Pettersons to eat dinner and have our phone calls home. It was difficult at times talking to everyone because their children were running around but it was absolutely wonderful to hear everyones voice! You guys rock!

Challenge time! From the Book that I got for Christmas entitled "Created for Greater Things" by Jeffrey R. Holland " We should honor the Savior's declaration to "be of good cheer." "Indeed, it seems to me we may be more guilty of breaking that commandment than almost any other!" How often throughout the day do we let one bad thing ruin the day? We focus on the negative and how things should have been instead of being thankful for how they are working out. I am so thankful for this commandment. No matter what happens in life we have the choice to react as we would like to. We are admonished to be of good cheer. That is what I hope we would all do. I am so thankful that I can choose to be happy when things dont go exactly as planned. It makes the moods we are in more in our own control. I hope that we can please apply this more in our lives daily. Take the bad and choose to be of good cheer. No matter what happens it is all our choice!

I love you all and am super thankful for all of the things that you have done! I hope you all have a great new year! 

Love

Syster Juker