Let it Begin!

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, May 28, 2012 at 7:29 AM
Subject: Let it Begin!
To: john juker <tugcaptn@hotmail.com>, Nancy Juker <njuker@gmail.com>


Nära och Kära,

My heart is with you all! Isn't it great to have the knowledge of the gospel at a time like this? Sure its tough but just think of the amazing reunion taking place on the other side! Grandmas got to be about the happiest she has been in a long time! Here in Jönköping its been an interesting week capped off by an interesting pday in which I left my planner at home so i get to try really hard to remember everything that we did this week! Yay! Lucky me!

Well this won't be the most organized of emails home because I can't remember much and so I hope you enjoy reading it anyway. This week we taught people that we usually teach. It's been some rough times here but we are working through them. I think my favorite things that happened this week was when we got a referral from up north Umeå. We got a call that a man had called the temple to see if he could be baptized. Now obviously there was some teaching to be done but it was a blessing in a time where we were really having a difficult time. We were able to go out and visit Leif on Tuesday. We hadn't ever met him before but I had talked to him on the phone. It was actually quite a funny experience on the phone because my Swedish accent is almost non existent because I just can't hear differences in sounds, whereas Syster Pool's accent is like perfect and her understanding was lacking for a bit. So I got to call and he heard my accent and tried to speak English with me. It took him a long time to say anything, and it seemed to take everything out of him. So In swedish I told him that I've been here for a while and I can understand swedish I just have an american accent to it. The conversation went a whole lot easier after that. He told me pretty much his whole history and we set up a time to meet. We went out without a map just a google map print out of the roads close to where we needed to be. But we got there without a problem and we sat outside of a pizza place in Värnamo with him. When he opened the door we were surprised when he opened the door because we were not sure what to expect but he wasn't really what we expected. He is a great man of almost 70 named Leif. He has a girlfriend in Umeå and she told him what's up and he jumped to it. They have known each other forever and now is their chance. The happiness on his face as he talked about his Siv was great to watch. His eyes just lit up with each story about them. We invited him to church and he turned us down this time because he got free tickets to a soccer game. But he will try to come this week. 

We have been working with Marcos also. He is about ready for baptism but he asked if we could move it to another week because he is out of town this next weekend. It is really funny because he has had a baptismal calendar with the time and subject of each meeting we needed to have before he would be prepared to be baptized. But we are working with him and getting it all figured out. He has been so prepared its been great to see someone who when we introduce something to him he can already explain the spiritual importance of that commandment. Heavenly Father does bless us more than we realize when we are trying to do our best even in difficult situations. 

We met with Lasse, Syster Pool's cousin who had some questions about how we change the bible because in the bible Jesus drank wine. We explained modern revelation and it all made sense to him. He really is enjoying coming to church and learning more and more. Syster Pool set him up with a cool Book of Mormon timeline and he is going to try praying this week. Its pretty great! 

On thursday we had a great district meeting where we listened to a talk with 12 points of overcoming Satan. It was great and really opened our eyes to the simple things that we do each day and how incremental they are for our spiritual protection! Just reading the scriptures helps us to keep our focus on those things that are good and let those unimportant things that Satan tries to distract us with go. Also with Johannes we have turned it into language study and a spiritual thought because we have taught him everything and the ward is now focussing on him. So this week we worked with him and he helped with our pronounciation. It will be good. Even thought its super frustrating to not hear the sounds that everyone else hear so easily! 

On Saturday we spent a lot of the day in service! We left before 8 to help some nonmembers move. It was a great experience to help in a situation where a small family is going through a difficult time and she couldnt lift anything and they were moving an entire house to another house across town. It was a great way to just relieve my worries by helping someone else. We got dirty and lifted tons of stuff. But we had a real "mormon move" as they refered to it as. The YSA were there and our investigator Marcos came to help as well. It was great. Syster Reynolds and I got to be the ones in charge of stacking everything into the trailer. It wasn't up to ups standards but it was fun anyway! We then came to the building to help clean, it was our ward activity to help prune everything and get it all ready for summer. So many people were there and it went great. 

On sunday we had ward conference and that was great. I saw a bunch of people from my different areas back to visit for stake callings and such. We ate lunch together afterwards and were able to talk with many of the members before teaching Marcos the 10 commandments and the Law of Chastity. That was interesting because he had never heard of pornography and we had to figure out how to explain it to him. Like I said he has been prepared. We then visited Berit a widow in our ward. She was super cute and showed us a bunch of her pictures on her laptop and a couple of the books that she is working on writing. We got to show her that she is loved still and be with her on the Swedish Mothers day. I think that the widows in the ward really enjoy seeing us on sunday nights. They have all asked if we could come to each of their houses in the coming weeks. Its great to feel needed.

As a challenge for this week, read 2 Nephi 2:24, think about how you can apply that to your life today. It has been a great source of comfort and strength to me in times when I am unsure of what I can do to possibly continue to tred the water of life. He knows what He is doing. Even though I don't really understand everything I know that I can rely on the fact that He does. I have a little brain compared to lots of people but I know through my heart and faith that this is true. It sounds silly and possibly like something that people make up just so that they can begin to comprehend the things that they cannot understand intellectually. I know that that is not the case. I know that God is our loving Father in Heaven. That we are his children and that He has a plan for why we are here and with those things that we are doing. If we take the time to talk with Him in prayer and ask for some understanding on the subject He will open His windows and pour down the blessings of understanding that we are all waiting for. He has helped me know what I can do in so many different situations in my life from before my mission to daily on my mission. He is always willing to give more information if we are but willing to ask in faith. Test it out and you'll see that I'm right because I know thats the truth through the Holy Ghost. 

Hope you have a great week!

love

Syster juker