A Chilly Time Again?!

April 9, 2012

Nära och Kära

Well my friends and family members, I thought spring was coming but this week was a big old mixture of all sorts of weather. We had sunshine, where we didnt need our coats. To Rain and cloudy the next day. Woke up to snow with snow flurries throughout the day. Now its overcast and rainy! I guess my meterology skills are slacking here. But rumor has it that its going to be warmer and that spring is on its way. Let's keep our fingers crossed for this one!

I måndags we took some time to write letters as usual, did some shopping and found a cheap skirt for Syster Pool from a Red Cross. I didnt really find anything. We had dinner at the church after emailing and had our counsel meeting with Maggis and the Rasmussens. They have great ideas and really help the work get moving in the ward. Its going to be different when they head home. They are great with the YSA and everyone loves them. For FHE we had a couple less active members come and participate in a game where they took old cliche phrases and then you had to act it out in a picture so that everyone else could figure out what it was. We hadnt ever heard of that before but they all enjoyed it. We got some time to talk with our members and get them excited about working with us. 

I tisdags we had a great lesson with Emmanuel. We taught him before but we were not sure that he would keep commitments. We sent a text message to our investigators a few weeks back to remind them to come to church and he showed up to surprise us. During Priesthood they talked about the Plan of Salvation and he got hooked. He wanted to know more. So we asked him if hed like to meet and we could teach him. He has strong faith in the Bible and knows his stuff. So we helped him see the plan through the Bible and how it is clarified in the Book of Mormon. We were so thankful that Niklas was with and was able to clarify and answer some more deep questions using scriptures. It was a testimony to us about the importance of having members in our lessons. They add something completely different to the table. I love it! We then went to Råslätt to have lessons with some members there. Li and Wilson who were both less active both asked if they could pass the sacrament on sunday. After watching conference they heard a talk about not waiting to be asked to do something and just asking to do it. So they applied it and we got the ball rolling for them. Its great to see them become more excited about church. 

I onsdags we had an amazing lesson with Sabrina. We were worried that we would have to stop meeting with her because she wasn't progressing much. We explained the Plan of Salvation and Syster Pool lead. It was a great experience to be able to testify about the truths as Syster Pool taught. She did a great job and explained many things in a simple way that Sabrina could understand. She has told us multiple times that she just doesnt feel anything for baptism. She feels a need to have faith and repent but doesnt feel anything about baptism. So we explained the sacrament and how that is also like baptism. It seemed to click with her. It was great to see Syster Pool able to control the lesson and teach clearly with not so much of my help. I think this 12 week program really gives each missionary opportunity to grow in different ways. Especially in leading lessons so early on in your mission. Its great. We ended up explaining how setting a date to be baptised is like working on your thesis. You have a due date but you have things you have to get done before its due to be prepared. She understood that and was ready to make the plan and take it to Heavenly Father. It was a great testimony to me on how we are able to pray for our companions during lessons and know that Heavenly Father can guide our thoughts and help us teach to their needs. The spirit was present and it was great to feel!  We were then able to do our report for our meeting with our ward mission leader and get some input from him. We found out about our ward mission plan, the one we had as missionaries was pretty old. We stopped my Emelie's house and she was there so we got to share with her a talk from the Liahona that I really enjoyed. We got a quote from Bednar's talk " The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" (http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?lang=eng) She let us talk a little spiritual stuff and it went well. We visited the Hegyessy's and they told us of a neighbor who is having a difficult time that we could go and stop by soon. We then recieved a referral from Luleå for a man who moved here to Jönköping. Syster Pool called and spoke english, he asked her if she could speak swedish, she said,"Nej, men min komrat kan." and handed me the phone. It was a different feeling being on that side of the coin. I was able to talk with him and get a time to meet. So now we have a new person to begin meeting with. Heavenly Father is really taking care of us here. We had our language study with Leif and we spoke with him about serving a mission and being apart of that dream of the stone cut away with no hands. It was great! We were waiting in the church building for Niklas to come. When I realized we usually meet at his house. We called and he didnt answer, we smsed and still no answer. I just had an idea we needed to go to his house. We got there and he had forgotten about meeting with us but was really glad that we remembered. We updated our records about our ward mission plan and got some ideas to work with for weekly planning.

I torsdags We had our last district meeting with Äldste Rice as our district leader. Hes heading home! It was a great lesson about working with members. We were able to do some egg tradition thing from africa or south america. It was a lot of fun. Our member didnt think we needed her so she just left. Which was funny. But we were able to get lots of ideas to work with them. We want to work on showing love, helping those who want to serve missions to get there, and to get some less actives active again. We are working well towards all of them and we got even more ideas to get it done. We stopped by some less actives appartments before heading home for dinner. Left a message about the Atonement and kept on our way. We ended the evening with a lesson with Johannes. He is making real progress and we are really enjoying seeing him open up more. We taught about the ten commandments and were able to learn different things about it. He had some questions we were able to find the answers to on lds.org. Its such a great resource for those difficult questions. 

I fredags we went early to the Wiklöfs because they were going out of town for the weekend to be with family. We forgot about the holiday bus schedule and had to wait in the rain for a while but we got there just shortly after we were expected. We got to help her clean everything and she made us dinner. Her two grandchildren came to pick her up. One returned missionary and one working on his papers. It was good to talk with them and strengthen eachothers testimony of the Savior as we talked about Bednars talk. We then were able to make it home and do our studies and make some phone calls to prepare for next week. We got a hold of some less active members that we have been asked about from the members and they want to meet with us. We are looking at getting the ward more involved in missionary work with a ward activity. We did some planning about different activities that could involve the whole ward and be a missionary opportunity for the ward as well. We came up with the Cultural Olympics and a Play in a Day. We did them at home before and they went well. We are going to talk with the ward and see what they think. Hopefully it will be good.

I lördags we were invited to spend påsk afton with a family in our ward. They encouraged us to invite people. The Rasmussens invited Sabrina and Johannes came too. It was a great day. We had food. Then we were split up into teams to be apart of a traditional Easter quiz. It was super good. We could only use our scriptures and no topical guide. It was great. The family is great! We really enjoyed it and felt the spirit. Sabrina learned a lot as well. We were then driven to the traditional bonfire in Ekhagen. It was cool to be apart of. Sabrina felt a part of the family and is being fellowshipped well. We asked if we'd see her in church and she said Yes, for a while. We were excited

I söndags, the spirit was strong! We had a great program for sunday with lots of music and Sabrina enjoyed it. I was able to translate relief society for Sabrina and Syster Rasmussen. It was really interesting because they kept using "tvivla" and I couldnt remember how to translate it into english. So I had to go about describing what it meant and then they understood. It was interesting to feel that I am losing pieces of my english. We got a meeting set up with our Bishop and helped take down chairs because a ward member was going to do it by themselves. It felt good to serve. We helped an older lady get to her wheel chair because the member who usually takes care of her was not here. It was funny, we couldnt get the wheel chair going, (the brakes were engaged). They helped us get it going and then left. We wheeled her to where she needed to go and helped her get her coat on. She is a sweet woman. Shes difficult to understand but you could see that she appriciated it. We had a dinner with the Robayos and we began our member program with them. They are excited and ready to work with us to get people interested in the Gospel.

Idag we have had an interesting day as our alarms didnt go off. We woke up late but still got everything done we needed to. Luckily its pday. I havent really thought about a challenge for this week. This week you can all read this awesome talk that we have learned so much form this last week. http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?lang=eng I hope you can have a great time and tell me what you learn. I really decided to change my out look about how life is and how I can pray better and improve myself. I know that that is all part of this wonderful plan written by our loving Heavenly Father! Im so thankful for the blessing that we have known as the gospel. If you think about it a bit. Your decision to be baptised as a member of the church is the greatest decision and most important decision in your life that you can make. All other decisions hang off of that promise to follow the Savior. I am so thankful that I have made that decision and I strive to hold up my end of the bargin each and everyday. I hope you all can strive to do that as well. 

Have a great week! Know that I love you all and that I pray for you too! 

Love,

Syster Juker