26 May 2010

Dear Family,

I thank you all for your letters! Well done! Courtney thank you for your letter and especially the picture. I almost fell out of my chair. I recognize you, Jeff, Hinckley and Leah, but then there was another child... who is that!? I just cannot recognize him at all! I don't know why that was so crazy. When was the last time I saw Ben? Okay, I guess like a year. That blew my mind. How exciting! I'm only four months on the mission and I already don't recognize my family!

The reason my letter this week is late is because it is transfer week (our P-days are on Wednesdays on transfer week). We have transfers every 9 weeks where the President calls and tells you where you will be for the next transfer. So this was my very first real transfer call day on Tuesday. President called and told Syster Robinson and I... that we are staying in Örebro! We are jätte (literally: giant) excited for that! We get to see Eddie's baptism on Saturday and continue to work with our steadily progressing investigators! Eddie had his baptismal intervju yesterday and he is worthy and ready! He is so awesome. That reminds me of a miracle that happened Monday night...

So, Monday night there is Hemafton for the young adults. This week we invited our investigator Sumith (we are not certain if he is a young adult, but we thought it would be good either way) and he actually wanted to come! We also invited Eddie about it but he had said that it might not work this week because he works nights and he would have had his daughter all weekend and his sleep schedule was all off so it would have been like 2 days without sleep if he came. We invited him anyway (of course) and hoped he would come. It's really cool because Sumith works at the gym that Eddie goes to! Who knew!? We found out the first time Sumith came to church and Eddie hälsad him all friendly. It was a MIRACLE: we rode up on our bikes to see Eddie standing there outside the bishops house at 6 o'clock, ready for hemafton! Then Sumith came. Honestly, for me, those yound adult things are kind of hard and weird and just weird but this one was... even worse. The topis was dating so... And the bishop kept looking to me (I was closest to him) and then sometimes Syster Robinson for input! Uncomfortable. All these young adults. It was because we had lived in America so we understood the talk a little better (Elder Oaks to BYU I think about not hanging out) The bishop asked me to define hanging out. In Swedish of course. Just an uncomfortable situation for me. Really funny though. We left early. Our investigators had a good time though! Eddie and Sumith gave input. Nice. All those people are so awesome. If you didn't get it, the miracle was that Eddie could come and that Sumith came and they could help each other and it was awesome.

We had a very sad teach last Tuesday. Oh dear. We went to teach a man named Aziz. He had said that he wanted to know and that it wasn't wrong to know and to learn. We had taught him about 3 times before. We taught this time on the Plan of Salvation. I had read in Preach My Gospel (Recognizing the Spirit chapter) about my job in the conversion process of others. I need to create a climate where the Spirit can teach. I do that by teaching and testifying of the Restoration. That is what I did during that lesson. Yes I did. We would teach about pre-earth life and our purpose and every time I would testify and teach that we know these simple truths because of the Restoration. We have the Book of Mormon and more revelation that has been revealed to prophets in our day. At one point in the lesson, that hit him I think. It was kind of scary and just disturbing to me. I think I feel things really deeply. He laughed and tried to catch us saying something wrong or something and he finally said, "Are y'all saying that the Bible isn't enough??" Yeah that is exactly what we are saying! We answered honestly, "Yes." He asked again to make sure he understood. I think he tried to show us how horrible and evil we were by giving us back his Book of Mormon and then condemning to in the closing prayer. Wow. BUT the Lord really was watching out for us. It was like I felt bad, but at the bottom, I was grounded on a stable sense of peace. That is the peace that knowing the truth brings. I know that I know the truth so my sorrow can only go so far. I had read that very morning about the Restoration in 1 and 2 Nephi. Ireally love reading that now. Love. 2 Ne 28:28 gave me a lot of comfort. Some will not accept the message. It has been prophesied. But some will. I am glad that he understood what we were saying and then rejected it because if he had not understood, then we (missionaries) would be in trouble. It is still of course not good for him, but maybe one day he will change. There is another verse (1 Ne 14:7) in those prophesies that says that the marvelous work will reveal how wonderful people are or it will reveal how not. That may seem weird, but that realyl gave me comfort. It has been prophesied. I am just doing the work. 1 Ne 13:37 says that those who will try to do the Lord's work in these days will be blessed with the Holy Ghost and everything else wonderful (even good looks. read it). I love the scriptures. The Bible is not enough. The Lord is still talking to us. When we pray He answers us. He talks to prohets and apostles and other leaders. He talks through the Book of Mormon. I have a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a marvelous message to share.

Summer is coming! And we will be able to spend "mid-summer" here! (I don't know what that means, but everyone seems exciting about it..). I think I will put some pictures on here now. I love you all very much!

Love,

Syster Sarah