October 31

Dear family,

 I am really working on trying to understand the gift of Holy Ghost. It seems like I have been more aware of his promptings during certain parts of my life than others. For some reason now... I don’t really feel like I’m getting promptings... It is more like the Lord is just putting things in my path. So it is hard to really "feel" like the Holy Ghost is guiding me. But I'm once again beginning to record the things I think are promptings and trying to really recognize the spirit in my life. I have already begun to see a difference. :) 

So the grand miracle for this week would definitely be Håkan!

Håkan, who is the most prepared man I have ever met. We were playing frisbee two weeks ago before district meeting and he just walks up to us and starts talking to an elder.  He watched a show on Mormons and thought we were really nice. He saw us playing frisbee and thought we looked pretty normal. (This is what I am talking about... I didn’t feel like I got any promptings to go visit this man... or to play frisbee... the lord just placed him in our path!) He understands perfectly the need for a restoration and has already read to Alma in the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized on 19 November. He is a writer for a living, so he really likes reading and has a lot of time to do so. He is a little socially awkward (mostly because he talks so much) but had a good time at church. He smokes and on Saturday we were planning on talking about the word of wisdom with him. But, when we sat down, the first thing he said was "Today I have quit smoking". We were so surprised!   When he said that I automatically thought, "This must be a trick! It just can’t be true!"  So I spent the whole lesson battling on if I should trust this guy. I talked about it on the way home with Syster E... We ended up talking about pride.  Håkan doesn’t really need ME or Syster Erickson. It doesn’t matter really who teaches him as long as he gets the lessons and is baptized. He really did it all on his own.  So this leaves me feeling.... well if its not really me... than what is supposed to motivate me to talk to one more person... or try and push myself out of my comfort zone... Syster Erickson quoted a scripture in Matthew. "If you love me, feed my sheep.

The only thing that should be motivating me to talk to people or to help people get baptized is my love for the Lord. I still feel parts of me that want to say... I FOUND HIM! Or I helped him get baptized! But... I'm learning to take me out of the equation. So! Pride. It’s a terrible thing.

So this last part is from Syster E's letter. I ran out of time. But I love you all!!

Quote from Syster Erickson’s email: "But for some reason.... I think he might like Sys. Schnieber. She said that he wanted to talk to her alone. So during one of the passing periods in church they "talked" but Sys. Schnieber didn’t understand anything he was saying (he uses a lot of big words in Swedish). I just found out about this because of the text he sent latter about how he felt bad for talking about "olämpliga saker" (inappropriate things) for a missionary. So, it is rather funny but I see my fault in this. I need to make sure I am in sight AND sound of my companion, even at church when everyone is talking in the halls"  haha... so slight problem but! Not to worry we have a plan to just make up a boyfriend for me. Ill keep you posted next week!

"Maj Grandmo is doing better. She was struggling with having a desire to stop smoking. Even if she believes the Book of Mormon is true, she wasn’t connecting the dots. But we met her with Tore and Solbritt Buhrman, (they have become her good friends) and she got a blessing from Tore. The next day, she said she got up to start rolling out her cigarettes and they were both "trasiga" which means broken and she took that as a sign from God that she needs to stop NOW. So, we hope we can help her with that. 

Then there is Ingrid Hede. We taught her about the Law of Chastity this week. It actually went really well, even though we were nervous. She said she doesn’t think she wants to marry Ali and doesn’t really think he is interested in learning about the gospel because he is Muslim. Apparently they met in France and then after awhile Ali came here to live with her. He is just going to school right now so she is the only one bringing in money. She is not really sure what to do since there isn’t really any place he can go. Ingrid is also trying to find a new job right now so she has a lot on her plate. I think we might have to push back her baptismal date a couple of weeks (it was the 12 of November). She still doesn’t quite understand the restoration because she still wants to go to her bible study class at the Swedish church. But we are having contact with her everyday and she is reading the Book of Mormon and praying so I think everything will work out in the end."