Dec. 10: A Last Letter of Joy

Dear Family,

Wow. Here goes my last missionary letter! These weeks just keep going by so fast. This week we had some wonderful things happen. I don't even know where to begin.. PS. I'm writing to you in the middle of a snow storm!

Lets start with Sunday. I love church! We were sitting in our meeting with our mission leader (Samuel Caballero... Awesome mission leader!) and I looked out the window and there was Ondrej and his wife Slatta walking into the parking lot. They walked to church!! It took them about an hour. What dedication! He came up to me with a big smile on his face and motioned with his fingers that he walked to church.. and then said "Måste komma till kyrkan!" (Need to come to church!) He speaks very very very little Swedish. Ondrej's daughter has a hard time coming to church every week. She has four kids and not a lot of money and a lot of things going on. So we usually try and go over on Saturdays and get them excited to come to church. But this Saturday we went to the Copenhagen temple! And when we came back we didn't have any time to go visit them. We just figured that they probably wouldn't come to church. So when Ondrej showed up on his own!! He sat through the whole first meeting with no one to translate for him.. But he knew how important it was to come to church!! I felt like a mother.. so proud of him! We also got a Gospel Principles book for him in Slovak and after he explained how he came to church he pulled out the book and showed me three chapters he had already read. He was so proud of himself! :) That was probably the greatest gift.

But this was not the only gift I received this week. When Syster Werjefelt was sick a month ago I found an old investigator named Björn. I called him up and asked him if we could meet. He said yes and invited us over for Lunch. Since then we have taught him four other times. Two being this week. Björn was a huge blessing! I wish you could all meet him and hope you do get to meet him someday. As we taught him this week... I was reminded why I love being a missionary soo much. There is nothing better then teaching someone who is receptive to our message. He has meet lots of missionaries over many years.. but never really taken the discussions from one set of missionaries. So we are teaching him all over. On Saturday we taught him at a members house who he is friends with. It was AMAZING. We got down to the main problem and he also told us that he knew the Book of Mormon is true. Now he is at a cross roads and needs to make a decision. It is amazing to see how quickly you can develop love for someone when you share the message of the gospel. I hope Björn can receive faith, courage, and take a step into the unknown and follow Christ. For the unknown will be greater than any life he could create on his own.

I too feel a little nervous. Ending the mission is like a roller coaster. Lots of different emotions throughout one day. But this unknown will be filled with light and joy if I choose to follow my Savior. (I plan on following him too :)

I also got to go to the temple in Denmark on Saturday with three amazing women from our branch. Marie Jacobsson, Ellie Rhodes, and Claudia Correa! I love these women so much! I feel as though they have been my mothers, sisters, and friends these past four months here in Kristianstad. It was a wonderful experience to go to the temple with them. I loved every moment and I was reminded of the BIGGER PICTURE of life. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and the temple.

There is much more I could share.. but I'm running out of energy to write these long letters to you all! I think Heavenly Father helped me write all these letters these past 18 months.

Well! See you soon!!!

I love you all, and I love being a missionary!

Syster Schneiber II

Dec. 3: Let it snow!

Dear Family!

I don't have much time to write today.. we are going to have a missionary Christmas party in Lund! and we had a late start going because there is SNOW COVERING EVERYTHING!! Yes... i made syster werjefelt bike in the snow.. just so we can save time.. :) Don't worry mom. I'm wearing my helmet!

I LOVE the snow! and I love Christmas! and I love Swedish christmas! and I love church during Christmas! Yesterday we had a wonderful testimony meeting. Everyone was happy and shared about how thankful they were for LIFE! Isn't life just wonderful? :)

Well.. This week started out a little rocky. We have been going a little bit slower.. and our friends that we have been teaching are dropping like flies. Our days seem to be a little bit empty. But in a way I think it is a good thing because we get to go at a little better pace of life. I have found, being on the mission, that lots of people don't seem to like going at my rushed pace. And to tell you the truth it is a little nice to go at a slower pace. You get to enjoy life a little better. Swedish mentality is definitely more calm and easy going. "ta det lugn" ... a very Swedish phrase.

Also ending the mission.. I all the sudden get these thoughts like.. Have I done everything? Have I really done my best? Have I used my time wisely? Did I talk to EVERyONe I could? And then I realize that I was not perfect throughout the past year and a half and I am filled with regrets.. oh no. I have been a terrible missionary. These were the feelings that plagued me at the beginning of the week. Thank goodness for companions though! As we sat Tuesday morning discussing what we learned I had a little break down and shared all my feelings with sys werjefelt. She was calm :) and knew just what to say. Next day I also received a letter from a good friend. He has been like an extra trainer throughout my mission. He wrote to me about exactly what I was feeling and shared with me how he overcame those feelings while he was on his mission. Perfect timing.

I also had another little experience this weekend. We had this last minute big decision to make Friday evening. It was to cancel our plans for Saturday and go to the Copenhagen temple the next day with the young adults and the elders in Lund. (I wont be able to go through the temple one last time before I go home because we leave on a Tuesday early morning and the temple is closed Monday morning.. so we got permission to go on our own time). We had thought about going my last Saturday... but suddenly we were offered this chance and it was a free car ride. Friday night I sat there unsure of which option to take. I did pro's and con's and tried to figure out what to do. I didn't want to cancel on the lessons we had set up on Saturday... but it would be really fun to go with all the youth and it was free... ugg!

I prayed and felt like it would be best to stay and hope that everything would work out for us to go again.

Saturday morning I sat reading and wondering about if I was really a good missionary. I had once again felt an overwhelming feeling that I was not doing my best and that I was not a good missionary. I read "Preach My Gospel" in the first chapter about "How to be a successful missionary" In there it said "Do not be discouraged in yourself. You can know that the Lord is happy with you when you feel the Holy Ghost working through you." ... humm.. I thought.. is the Holy Ghost working through me?

Right then the phone rang and we got a text message. It was from one of our wonderful members who we would be helping that day, Ellie. Ellie's aunt had just moved in and one of the things that we had scheduled for the day was to go help her unpack. Ellie texted us about somethings we would be helping with today and how much her aunt really appreciated us coming to help her.

At that moment I was filled with such gratitude that we had decided to stay home and not go to the temple. I was so glad I didn't have to text her and say.. oh sorry we are not going to be coming to help you today. I realized that the Holy Spirit had worked through me and guided me to know what would be best to do.

I learned I might not be the perfect missionary. I might have missed a lot of opportunities.. etc. But the Lord can still use imperfect tools to help build his perfect kingdom.

Heavenly Father is the best planner in the world. I don't know how he can answer everyone's prayers at just the right moment. I talked to Ellie about how she had answered my prayer on Sunday. She said... "I was just lying in bed and I felt like I needed to text you right then and there. So I did."

WELLL! You will be getting one more letter from me! I'll be home sooner than you know it. Don't expect anyone special to come back... I'm still littl' ol' imperfect me :)

Love

Syster Schneiber

Nov. 26: Pictures!

beach soccer with a football :) in the middle of winter

our thanksgiving party :)

Another heart attack to our sick mission leader samuel

Simon and his family! (these pictures didn't turn out so well.. theyare a little blurry)

Simon and us!

Nov. 26: Thanksgiving

Dear Family!!

Life is swell. I think I got a sinus infection this week but not to worry. Syster Werjefelt took good care of me and made me rest and get medicine. She made fun of me and said she was going to remember me as the snot lady. I am always amazed by how much snot the body can produce. SOO many tissues! And Happy thanksgiving!!

We only have a few American families in the ward and so I asked one of them what they were going to be doing for thanksgiving. They said they would be celebrating it on Saturday with a few other families in the ward. After asking I was hoping we would get invited as well… but no invitation came. I was thinking this might be a not so great thanksgiving. BUT! Then another family came up and invited us over to their thanksgiving on Thursday night! Yay!! I don’t know what I would do without a ward. They really do become your family.

This Sunday our relief society lesson was on a talk from General Conference called “Ask the Missionaries.” I remember listening to this talk and thinking.. o boy I am one of those missionaries. The talk is all about how “the missionaries” are the ones to turn to for all the questions one can have. It seems that we are the solution to any problem  As I listened to the talk I thought.. I don’t feel like I can really solve all those problems! Yikes. So the teacher asked me in the lesson about some of them major things I had learned on my mission… seeing as I was a missionary preparing to go home.

I told her that I had learned a lot… One thing in particular was that I was not sent here to Sweden to just help those who were not a part of this church. I felt I have been sent here to help many of the active members.

The teacher had talked about how it was interesting that they had chosen this talk for the lesson because she felt like it was more directed towards non-members and less-actives. But when I listened to it.. many of the situations that Elder Nelson brings up.. are problems that active members have.

This might not be interesting to all of you.. but I really loved the lesson.. and moral of the story is USE YOUR MISSIONARIES! Love them, get to know them and make them a part of your family and then introduce them to all your friends and extended family 

Simon was baptized!! Finally. Our 9 year old little friend has been sick and lots of other problems that have stopped him from getting baptized the past month. But this Sunday it all worked out. It was definitely the calmest and easiest baptism to prepare and it was really beautiful. 

We had some wonderful miracles this week. Simple miracles. It is funny the blessings I write down in my journal each day. Monday we went to Lund to have a little thanksgiving party with some of the elders in near-by areas. We played Frisbee and sand soccer! And we had planned a fun activity for the evening and invited all of our friends. Throughout the day we got texts back from them saying.. no I cant come.. im too busy.. etc. I felt like I usually would start getting stressed and really worried.. But I have been doing this for quite some time now and I know Heavenly Father will help it all work out. And what do you know..! We had a good turn out of people and had a great evening. Big thanks to our amazing member Hadi!! You all need to meet Hadi. I told you about him before that he was a muslim studying here in Sweden from Iran. Syster Vistaunet and Syster Jacobs were teaching a Chinese member at his school and Hadi was in the background and heard them talking.. and he was interested to hear more about Christ and the Bible. So he came up to them and asked them if he could learn more after they were done teaching. He is now one of the strongest members I have ever met. And definitely the best missionary I have ever met. He has introduced us to all his friends and we have taught many of them.

We also got to FINALLY meet with our cute Vietnamese friend Hang again! Her schedule has opened up a bit and she invited us over to her home to have Vietnamese food. It was soo much fun. We had a big bowl of soup with meet and noodles and ate with chopsticks. Syster Werjefelt had a rough time eating with chopsticks and they all had a great laugh watching her try. 

Thanksgiving we spent with the wonderful Larsson family. The wife, Lisa is from UT and she married a wonderful Swedish man, Bert. They lived in the states for a long time and then moved to Sweden. Their two kids have mostly lived in Sweden. Lisa doesn’t have any American relatives here in Sweden.. just Berts family. So she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to have a big thanksgiving party this year but her son is on a mission in Wisconsin and she knew how important it would be to her that someone took in her son for Thanksgiving. So she said that she threw thanksgiving mostly for us  She also invited all of Berts family for dinner (non of them are members of the church). It was lots of fun getting to be with a family and especially getting to know all of these fun Swedish people. Before we had to leave I just wanted to thank them all.. and I told them about the tradition we have at home to go around the table and everyone gets a chance to say what they are thankful for. SO I just told them what I was thankful for. And then everyone else wanted to join in. It was interesting to hear what they all said what they were most grateful for… Family.

So family! I have loved being here in Sweden.. it has been an amazing year filled with lots of wonderful people that I have come to love. I will miss them a lot. But I have also recognized how MUCH I LOVE YOU ALL.

LOVE

Syster Schneiber II

Nov 12: Who Shall Separate Us from the Love of Christ?

Dear Family!!

Hejsan och hur går allt med er!? jag borde prata mer svenska med er så att ni kan prata svenska när jag kommer tillbaka. Jag älskar er och ser framemot att vara med er snart!

Translation: Hello and how is everything with you? I should talk more Swedish with you so that you can speak Swedish when I come back. I love you and look forward to being with you soon!

Okej! what a wonderful life! This morning syster Werjefelt and I woke up and we had decided to push our beds together. Well I decided to steam roller over her to wake her up. Then we got the brilliant idea to come to the church and play ping pong for our exercise this morning and study at the church and then write to the family. It was a great plan until we got here and only found a broken ball :( but we made the best of it. We live right near a big arena and on Saturday two of our members were in a big ping pong tournament. So we decided to go check it out Saturday morning. I have never seen sOO many ping pong boards in one room with so many awesome players. It was awesome. So we just really wanted to play ping pong after that. While we were at the ping pong tournament we got to meet a few friends of our members and invited them to learn more. I love finding people through new ways :)

The big event for this week was having splits on Thursday. The systers from Alingsås (Syster Talbot and Syster Jacobs) came down to Kristianstad on Thursday and I was going to take syster Jacobs around and syster Werjefelt was going to have syster Talbot as her companion. Let me tell you... it is not easy planning a whole day of missionary work for one companionship... let alone planning TWO full schedules of missionary activities. So we started planning Thursday on Monday. We just scheduled everything for Thursday :) We were a little worried the rest of the week we wouldn't have anything to do.. but we did :) So Wednesday night came and everything was looking beautiful when one of syster Werjefelts main appointments canceled. NO!!! what should we doo!? I was thinking.. if someone canceled on in my schedule it would be ok..we'd find something to do.. but I was worried about helping sys Werj having the best first time leading the whole day. She was going to be in charge. As we sat there thinking the phone rang. It was Björn.

Let me back up. Last week Syster Werj was sick and so I got to spend some time looking through the missionary area book where they have records of all the old investigators they have taught in the past years. Well I found one guy named Björn. We ended up meeting him this Tuesday. The lesson went well but at the end he didn't really seem interested in trying to find out if the church was true during this time. Sys Werj and I were both sad.. but we gave it our best shot and all we can do is invite people.. we cant force anyone.

So Wednesday evening.. Björn calls and says.. you know it was so nice meeting with you guys. I really enjoyed talking with you. Do you think you have some more time this week to meet and talk? WHA?!! yesss.. tomorrow? It worked out perfectly! I love Heavenly Fathers timing.

Thursday came! and I LOVED being with syster Jacobs. She has two older sisters who are the same ages as Katie and Christa and she has a younger brother who is the same age as Erik. She is just happy and full of energy :) I really felt like it was just too much fun to be with her. We went to Hässleholm which is a town right outside of Kristianstad. We took with us a Young Woman named Javi (she is from Chile and wants to serve a mission!! she is 17 right now). We just rocked the whole day with amazing lessons one after the other. It is days like these that I walk out of a lesson and just cant stop smiling and LOVE being a missionary and could do this for the rest of my life. My favorite lesson was with an amazing man named Daniel. He served a mission when he was younger but had to come home early due to some kind of sickness/emotional problem. At that time they didn't know what it was.. He became inactive afterwards.

We had come by two weeks ago and knocked on his door and he was home! (that was a huge miracle) and he said.. "well i've been trying to sort of avoid you guys..." But we smiled and asked if we could come back. He hesitated for a moment but then said ok. So I was a little nervous about what we could say to touch him and invite him to start coming back to Christ. Right now he is sjukskriven (he cant work due to sickness) and is having a really tough time. This week I have been studying hope and I just felt like that is what we needed to talk to him about. And then I was looking through my ipod and I have some Mormon Messages on there and I clicked on one and it was PERFECT. (I believe this is the same Mormon message that erik sent me one day when he had come home from his mission.. )

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#the-power-of-hope

well to make a long story short: We came in, showed this clip with him and then syster Jacobs turned to him and asked him how he FELT during it. He opened up and told us about his worries and there was such a strong spirit in the room. He has gone through a lot and has a hard time with "Faith" and really knowing if God is there and "Feeling" the holy Ghost. It seemed to fit perfectly with what I experienced myself in Uppsala. We testified and taught and I could just feel a strong love for this man. I believe it was Heavenly fathers love for his son and his pure desire to really know if his Heavenly Father was there for him. I walked out with a peace and joy and love that could sustain me through the darkest of dark nights.

I was reminded while sitting there that all the hard challenges we each face are for a purpose. They are not given to us to beat us down and kill us. They are given to us so that we might rise above. I am so grateful for the small challenges I have faced in my short life for they too have given me the chance to better understand Gods children around me, my brothers and sisters... and so that I might better be able to lead a helping hand, a listening ear, and an embracing hug.

There is much more I could write about this week. But I think I will leave it at that. I love you all and hope you all know that Heavenly Father loves YOU. And he has sent certain people to you that you too can help and uplift. And he has also sent certain people to you to uplift and help you during your times of need. And don't forget our savior who understands it all.

Romans 8

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love

Syster Schneiber II

Nov 5: 5 Pictures

1. claudia and us (we love our spanish members!)

2. kevins baptism (our little 8 year old) and Peter Eriksson who baptized him

3. Our branch council :)

4. Sara! our third companion! She will be a missionary soon!

5. Us in the warm sunshine

Nov. 5: hej hej!

Dear Family,

This week was sick week. Syster Werjefelt, She had magsjuck (stomach flue) on Wednesday and we stayed in all day. Usually those days are really hard for me. But I was productive and did a lot of good work at home and sys Werj was a great sport and a happy sick person.

We had so many great positive people we were going to meet with at the beginning of the week. Most of them canceled or said they weren't interested :( So now we are back to the beginning. This is a normal part of missionary work. People have their agency. Even though this was difficult to face... I still could feel that I did the best I could do and could still be happy. When things are down and not going so well that just means that miracles are around the corner.

I don't have a lot of time but I just wanted to tell you about how much I love Sundays!

This Sunday as we headed to church syster Werj was still not feeling so well and it is not always that easy to be positive when things aren't looking so good. It seems every Sunday as we head out.. there seems to be no hope. I got into the chapel and this woman misunderstood me when I tried to compliment her and she got a little angry at me.. We then had a little meeting and as we were saying to closing prayer I realized I had talked the whole time and didn't give sys Werj any chance to talk.. so I beat up on myself a little. I realized this was not the best way to begin church. So! I went to the bathroom and had a little prayer. As I ended the prayer two young women walked in.. and I couldn't help but smile. Then as I sat down for Relief Society.. Marie Jacobsson walked in and got a big smile and chose to sat down right next to us and gave us a big hug. The day just kept getting better. Our less active family showed up to church! and then an investigator walked in for Sunday school.

(one thing I'm looking forward to when i come home is not having to plan a gospel principles class every week for people of three different languages and all at different levels in the gospel... that is HARD.. and I usually only have 1 hour to prepare.. or less on Sunday morning)

Our Sunday school class went really well as we talked about faith and for sacrament meeting I got to sit up on the stand and speak into this little mic to translate for the English speakers. I had a lot of fun with it. I really like translating because I have to focus on what everyone says and I get a lot more out of the meeting... and it was fast Sunday! those are my favorite meetings.

So.. the moral of this story is.. Sundays are the best. Even if they start out seeming hard... say a little prayer and you will find joy in your day.

I love you all!

Syster Schneiber

Oct. 29: A Member's Friend

Dear Family,

Glad to hear that I will be able to come to the next wedding! :) Life has been wonderful as usual here. And time just keeps on flying by. Winter has officially come. It is COLD here. I have my big puffy jacket and warm boots on. I think I look like a marshmallow but I'm warm! :) I am also getting very tired of my clothes so I play dress up in sys Werjefelts clothes sometimes :)

This week was amazing because we were with members and teaching their friends!

Philip is a 16 year old stud and we met his friend at the youth activity we had a few weeks ago. We got to teach him for the first time this week. I think first teaches are my favorite because that is when you get to dig deep and figure out what part of the gospel they need to hear that can help them in their life. Philips friend said that he really just wanted to know if God was real.. if he really existed. We ended up teaching him on a bench outside his house because there was no girl home. It was a little bit chilly but as we all sat there and he voiced his concerns and the reasons why he wanted to know... it was a very special feeling. We gave him the commitment to begin by praying each day. He looked at us for a moment and then answered.. well you got to be open to try everything. yay! So we shall see what happens.

Hadi our amazing new convert from Iran... is on fire! He came home two weeks ago from church and a girl in his corridor came out and started talking to him. She asked why he was in a suite and he explained that he went to church. She ended up telling him that she was lonely here. She is from Stockholm but is studying down here in Skåna and he said.. "well I was lonely when I first came here too.. and then I went to church and made lots of friends.. you should come" So we have met her a few times now, we have taken her to some members homes for dinner and she came to church this Sunday! She is super cute and we hope to help her more!

Vali and Javi are two awesome young woman with an awesome mom Claudia. We came over and told this family about our desire to meet their friends and teach them. Claudia spoke right up and said, why don't we have a movie night next week. We can watch "the testaments" and the kids can invite their friends. I thought.. wow OK.. ya if the kids want to. (I don't know if I would have been that bold to do that with my friends back home) But we showed up on Friday for movie night and they had two friends over! There should have been a few more people but some other things came up. But Vali had just told her friend that they were going to have a movie night and watch a church movie and then another girl listening said that she wanted to come too. Sweet!

So we had a great time watching the movie. At the end when Christ comes in the film and heals the dad.. all of the girls were crying. We turned off the film and asked them what they thought. "It was a lot better then I had thought it was going to be.... I never cry in films and I cried in that one.. so it means it was a good film"

We had a great time talking to them and invited them to learn more. They both said ya! So we shall meet them on Tuesday.

Just as an update.. we met with that girl I told you about last week. It was fun but she said she had already tried with our church and it didn't feel right for her. It was super sad. But each person has their own choice.

Last cool miracle... We have been so busy that we haven't really had time to visit a lot of less actives. But Saturday we decided to cancel a member dinner and instead stay in this one area and visit the less actives. Usually when I have tried to swing by these people they are never home.. But on Saturday... Each person was home! God can help us know how to best spend our time. We are going back on Thursday to visit a few of them and help them feel the spirit again in their lives :)

Well! It was a shorter letter today! But I love you all!!!

Love Syster Schneiber

Oct. 22: Pictures

Simon, Lukas, and us! (Simon is the blond little boy) We made
cookies together and related the recipe to following Gods commandments

Syster Werjefelt and I! (sys W likes to take pictures and has taken
over the camera)

Me, Roland and Ingrid at the baptism

train rides to zone conference with karlskrona!

Nancy Sandaline! (the mother who invites us over every week)

sys werj's snazy picture taking skills :)

Always on the phone...

Oct. 22: It's a good thing we have cell phones...

I don't know how you and dad did missionary work with out cell phones! Geez. We use them all the time!

Kristianstad is still wonderful as ever. It is getting colder now. Syster Werjefelt and I had a great week :) I thought I would share some little miracles with you all.

The power of prayer is real! On Friday night we were at the Sandaline's home. They have had the missionaries over at their house every Friday for the past 20 years. The branch members know that Friday nights are always taken if they want to invite us over for dinner. :) Well, after we had our message we had to walk fast to the bus stop. As we rounded to bend we saw the bus pulling in. On Friday nights it only comes once every hour. We began to RUN. It left the bus stop and began to pull away. All I could think about was not wanting to wait for another hour for a bus.. we had stuff to do! So I chased after the bus like a crazy woman in a skirt and it had to stop at before pulling out onto the main run. I managed to catch up to the bus and banged on the side. The bus driver (he was early too!) was kind enough to stop and let us on. We got on and my bus card was GONE! noooooooooooOOO!

For some reason I decided to pay my ticket and then we called the Sandalines and asked them to look for it. (I should have just gotten off the bus to look for it myself but I had just run all that way to flag down the darn bus!) Well, we got home and they still hadn't found it. My stomach began turning. Ugg.. We had just bought the bus card and it works for a whole month. That would be a lot of money to loose. It had been about 30 mins and I called to see how the search was going. No luck. Well I thought I'd better tell them to just give up and go home.. I'll just have to buy another one. But sys Werjefelt said, "Why don't we have a kneeling prayer before we give up." (I had of course prayed multiple times in my head)

Side comment: While at the Sandalines we talked about how God answers prayers. Sys Nancy Sandaline talked about how she had lost her son one time in a big park. They all spread out to look for him and they couldn't find him for a while. She finally felt like she needed to go find a place to kneel down and pray. After she got up from her prayer her little son came wandering right into her view.

So we finished our prayer and still on our knees--the phone rings. They had found the bus card on their way home. :)

Roland got baptized!!!! Remember Roland and Ingrid? and how they got married a few weeks ago and then Ingrid got baptized. Roland had to wait to get papers back from the church. He got them back and we had a wonderful baptism on Saturday! It was definitely the easiest baptism yet for us to organize.. because Roland did it all. He picked everyone and called them himself to ask them to give a talk or a prayer, etc. He even made his own fika afterwards! (Fika--important word in Swedish... refreshments). Sys Werjefelt and I sang again. It went not too bad :) haha. Best of all was that Roland was happy.

On Saturday afternoon before we were heading out sys Werjefelt found a record of an old investigator that I had pulled out of the area book with syster Vistaunet. She brought it along with her to read more about her. We were on the train after the baptism and she pulled it out and decided to give this girl a call. No one answered (that is usual), so she texted. Later that night as we were heading home from our last lesson we got a text back!! (very unusual) She said that it was cool to have heard from the missionaries again but she wasn't interested. While we were waiting for the train back to Kristianstad , we responded and said it was very kind of her to respond and hope all goes well. Well we got on the train and I was on the phone talking to our mission leader and I was scanning the crowd as we walked down the aisle. Who did we want to sit next to??? The train was pretty full and I came to a man sitting on my right hand side with three empty seats. I was about to sit next to him when I looked to my left hand side and saw a woman sitting alone with three empty seats. So I sat down across from the woman. Shortly after came a girl who looked to be the woman's daughter. She began to smile and I smiled back. Suddenly, still talking to the mission leader, I watched as this girl pulls out her phone and shows sys Werjefelt something. .... whats going on?? that's weird... I could see it looked like a text from us.. did something happen to the wifi and send our text message to this random girl? and then it hit me. This must be the same girl!!

It ended up being her. She was super nice and so was her mother. We talked and laughed the whole train ride back. We texted her later that night and said that we didn't think that was just a coincidence and would love to see her again. She texted back Sunday and said she didn't think it was a coincidence either. We decided to meet this Wednesday!!!

So! we shall see what happens this week! Much to do, with too little time. There were many other amazing lessons and miracles and answers to prayers during the week.. but this is all I have time for.

I love you all!!

Syster Schneiber II

Oct. 16: Pictures!

Me and sys Werjefelt

our youth activity during the spiritual thought

the magic carpet

quiet skills on stools

the whole family and us!

the family (janette is in the pink jacket and Ondrej is the one in white!)

Ondrej!

We decided to be twins!

Oct. 16: A baptism surprise and the best youth activity ever! ps. No more sugar

Dear Family!

Guess what! We had a baptism! Ondrej got baptized!! Oj.. so much to tell! Where do I even begin?? Ok well Ondrej moved to Lanskrona and we thought.. well good bye Ondrej. But President called on Thursday and said "if he still wants to get baptized we can make it happen." We knew that Ondrej would be coming back once a month so we called up Janette on Friday and found out Ondrej was coming home that evening. So we called president back and said he is home this weekend. Should we set up a date for him to be baptized next time he comes home? President said... Why not get baptized this Sunday? uhh.. ok. Yikes! This was Friday night at 10. So we called up Janette and asked her if Ondrej would like to be baptized this Sunday. She translated and in the background I heard a deep voice say "YAH! YAH! YAH!" :) She laughed and said Yes! He does!

A baptism is not always the easiest thing to plan. I feel like often when we help people take the steps towards baptism often times they get cold feet right towards the end.. and it is just stress those last few moments. With Ondrej, he was completely ready. But there always needs to be stress in planning a baptism sooo.. of course we planned one last minute. We called up our branch president and he said.. sounds wonderful. Why don't we do it at 10 am before church starts.

You would think.. you have all Saturday to prepare.. no problem. Well! Saturday we actually had a stake youth activity in our chapel. And guess who was in charge of the first 3 hours. Me and Syster Werjefelt. (If sys Vistaunet is reading this... It is her fault ;) Well we had planned and decided to do a bunch of different team working stations with the kids. I am SOOO glad I was a counselor at Badger Creek. All those skills have come in so handy multiple times on my mission.. especially this time. So Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the church after our studies and help got all the stations ready. We had the zone leaders and our district leaders (missionaries) also coming up to help out. We had 5 different stations and we hoped to have around 4 groups of 10 kids.

I cant believe how well it went. We really were not as planned as we could have been.. and none of the other missionaries knew what they were doing till about 30 minutes before hand. We were also really worried about how many kids would show up. I was really worried it would be lame and there would be only 20 kids or something.

And as the clock struck 1 pm and we began the activity there was only about 20. But!! As usual with Mormon Standard time... we had about 50 kids total. The day went AWESOME!! from 1-4 we did our different stations (I will send pictures to better show what the different activities were) and then we set up the gym for dinner and then the young woman would take over and they would have a dance and a movie going. By the time we sat down for dinner..I was tired!

A big goal with this activity was to #1 strengthen the youth #2 give the youth an opportunity to invite friends!! We had about 6 or 7 friends at the activity. At dinner I sat down next to a youth in my ward named Philip (coolest kid ever!) and his friend who he had invited to the activity Daniel. As we sat and talked about his life and what he thought about the activity.. we ended up talking about religion and God. He seemed to be a deep thinker and really liked to study religion. I had the chance to invite him to learn more and he said ya! why not. We are going to meet up on Friday at Philip's home. :) !!!!

After dinner we took our District Leaders over to Ondrej's house. We taught him about fasting and then he was interviewed by Elder Hinkson. That night I was wiped out!

There were of course a few other complications before the baptism took way.. But everything turned out wonderful. Ondrej got baptized at 10:08 and was as happy as could be. He is such a sweet man and is easily touched by the spirit. Syster Werjefelt and I sang "Nearer my God to Thee" as a musical number. (I've never had so many opportunities to practice my singing and preform.. I am going to miss that when I go home... I told sys Werjefelt this morning that I want to sing "Blott en dag"--a Swedish song for my home coming and that she should come and sing it with me ;) I realized as we began singing that it was in fact the perfect song for Ondrej. He always told us that he really wanted to get baptized so that he could come closer to God. He was willing to pay tithing and live the word of wisdom, chastity etc so that he could come closer to God. Nothing was ever a problem for him.

So the baptism went wonderful... but I think my favorite part of the day wasn't the baptism. It was testimony meeting when Ondrej got up to bear his testimony. Janette got up to translate for him. He told the branch about how when he first heard that his daughter had joined a new church he wasn't very positive or interested. As time went he would always leave when the missionaries came and her home teachers. But he kept asking her questions about the church. She would explain but he never understood. So she finally just gave him a Book of Mormon and said--here! Read it! He took the book and began reading. At first he did so in private and was a little embarrassed about it. But as he read more and more he realized.. that this book was Gods word. And so he began to read it all the time. He said he read it every morning and night. This is where I came into the story. As sys V and I would come we would always ask him where he was in the Book of Mormon.. he was first in Mosiah, then in Alma, and then 3 Nephi! He had been asked several times before hand "Would you like to be baptized" But he said no at first, then said.. maybe,... then someday I will. And so when we asked him to get baptized.. he knew and he was ready and so excited. He said in his testimony that he read the Book of Mormon every day. He is now in Ether and when he is done with the book he will start over again. As he tried to share his feelings about how when came to this church he felt the spirit like never before in other church's--he began to tear up and could not express his feelings of gratitude for his chance to be baptized.

Even though I cant talk with this man and don't know very much about him.. You can feel the change within him. Janette said "He has changed soo much!"

:)

You have probably heard enough from me today. So many more things happened this week but I don't have the time to write them all in my journal every night let alone in an email once a week!

To end last night we were at a family's home for dinner and family home evening. We ended up talking a little about the 3 Nephites and also about what the father missed most about his mission. The 3 Nephites get to be missionaries 24/7 for the rest of the earths time. And this father missed most getting to serve the Lord 24/7.

I often times have hard moments and don't feel like I am really all that great.. I make tons of mistakes. It is also hard hard work mentally being a missionary. But I too LOVE LOVE LOVE getting to be a servant for the Lord. Remember that even though you are not doing it with a name tag on.. you too can be a servant of the Lord every day. There is nothing better :)

LOVE Syster Schneiber II

PS. Sys Werjefelt and I have committed and written down that we-- for the rest of the year will not eat dessert/sugar !!

Oct. 8: General Conference: "Ask the Missionaries"

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY FOR THE LORD! :)

Well... It was basically Christmas for me this past week. I love having general conference. During the Saturday morning session Sys Werj and I were sitting in the computer room with a woman from America and another wonderful older fellow watching it in English. When President Monson announced the change in age for guys and girls to go on missions ... It was like Santa had personally walked into the room. It was so exciting. I can't believe how different that would have made my life if it had come out when I was 19. I know that God is watching out for each and everyone of us and I really feel like it was the perfect time for me to go when I was 21. If I went when I was 19 I don't think I would have gotten into the nursing program and wouldn't have been able to go to Jerusalem and maybe not even be a counselor for Badger Creek and wouldn't have had the amazing roommates I had etc. Of course maybe these things could have happened when I came back.. but It was all perfect timing for me and guided by a Heavenly Father who loves me.

For Sys Werjefelt it is a little different! She is on a short term mission because she is only 19. BUT NOW!! things are different :) So she has some big decisions to make. Life is exciting.

I loved listening to Nelson's talk "If you don't know what to do about.... ask the missionaries!" It was exciting to sit there and think.. wow He is talking about me! Am I really ready to answer all those questions? Can I really help people with family history? Marital problems? etc.??? Yikes! But I know that our message can solve all problems and I know the Lord's spirit is with me every step of the way. SO! Bring on the problems! Let's test it out with the gospel message!

(christa: I watched some talks in Swedish and I was sooo surprised how much I understood! The first conference i couldn't understand anything in Swedish.. second was better.. this was no problem at all. but it is still way better in English)

I came to conference with a few questions. One major question is what do I do when I go home and I am not a missionary!? How do I keep being a missionary?   These are the two answers I got... 1. Serving people is the most important ever (and the biggest part of service is inviting people to come unto Christ). 2. Follow the spirit Especially when it is inconvenient and uncomfortable (it usually causes the best results :)

What did you all learn/what answers did you get? (CRAZY that i will be home next conference!)

So many small and yet amazing miracles happened this week.. but I just cant write them all! So I hope you can get a feel for how my week was with just a few:

This week syster Werjefelt showed me a scripture that means a lot to her that helped her through a period of time when she was sick. Doctrine and Covenants chapter 101 verse 36-38

"36 Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full. 

37 Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul. 

38 And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life." 

We had the chance to go to a less active who is now in Hospice care (terminal illness where people go before they are going to die). A member told us that he wanted us to visit after he had received a letter we had written him a few weeks ago. We had gone to visit him but he wasn't home so we left him a letter. Well we showed up and talked to him a bit and then Sys W asked if she could read the scripture to him. He responded a little hard and said "No.. I'm not in the right mood for that." She was a little bit taken aback but said okej and we kept talking to him and getting to know him more. As we spoke further to him about his life and his sickness he finally softened up and asked her if she would read it. As she read it a strong feeling came to me that this was the perfect scripture for him to hear. His eyes closed and his body seemed to soften and he seemed to look more peaceful. I had the opportunity to say the closing prayer. Even though I cant give blessings.. I felt as though I searched for the words that God would have him hear. It was a beautiful experience. As we went to leave he looked at us with happier eyes and thanked us for coming.. "it really uplifted me". He said he would like to take the missionary lessons again once he gets back into his home. That was a powerful experience for me.

fear not even unto death....care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul....ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life.

Another really neat experience this past week happened Monday night. Sys Werjefelt felt like it would be good to take our young single adults and our New convert to the young adult center in Lund (40 mins away by train). It was Sunday night and we were trying to plan. I was a little bit skeptic and at first kept trying to give other ideas. A thought popped into my head.. "Sys Schneiber, be humble and support the ideas of your companion.. she receives revelation also." So I said OK lets do it.
Well Monday came and we got off the train in Lund and found out all of our friends bailed on us! ugg.. That is one thing I am going to try to do when I go back home.. Try not to cancel on people. But it happens. So we were standing there at train station trying to make some decisions. Should we 1. go back home and try and meet with a few other people? we will have about an hour and a half of time before we have to be home. 2. stay at the center and go to their family home evening activity.
problem with staying at the center was.. we really are not supposed to be there unless we have an investigator. We had this one random guy though named nick. Nick is from Romania and we met him sys W's first day on the train back from Stockholm. He sat down and turns out he had met missionaries in Romania and had played sports with them and stuff.. He told us that his mom and dad had died from cancer (he is about 25?) and that is why he has a hard time believing in god. But he doesn't drink and smoke and he wants good friends. Well he called us Sunday night also and we told him that we would be in Lund if he wanted to come meet us. So... maybe he would come. Maybe.

There we stood. The train back to Kristianstad was there and we had the doors were getting ready to close. We both looked at each other.. what do we do!!??! Finally sys W said I don't really want to be at the center. I said me too, lets get on the train! But then she pulled my arm back.. but i feel like maybe we should be there.. we came all the way here.. nick might just come. I stopped. The doors closed.
And the train pulled away. Well! We have to stay here now at least for the next hour till our next train comes. SO we smiled and headed to the center.

Long story short. Nick showed up and it was a great evening! Nick really enjoyed getting to know all the youth and wants to come back.

There was more I wanted to share.. but I'm all pooped out.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Syster Schneiber II

Find people who need service and bring them closer to Christ

Oct 1: Simple Blessings

Hello FAMILY!

Glad to know you are all doing well otherwise and that the weather is good over there on the west side. I am loving life with my wonderful new companion sys Werjefelt. We laugh.. a lot. This week was a little bit slower than previous weeks. That's just how life is. So one afternoon when our whole evening plans changed we decided to go in search of a less active nearby us. Well as we started out on our bikes after looking at the map, I told sys W.. "I really think I am getting a better sense of direction since I first came here to Sweden."

10-15 mins later we are cycling down a long farm road in the middle of nowhere. We pull over and look at the map.. turns out I took us West instead of south! whoops! So we decided to just keep going that way and go see another less active instead. We couldn't stop laughing for a good while until we could get on our bikes again and start riding. Good thing sys W is patient and likes to laugh :)

We got to visit a less active named Per. He joined the church in his early 30's but became less active. One reason was due to GOLF. He likes to Golf a lot more then he likes to go to church :) As we came into his apt, he had a whole bunch of trophies up around the living room and his golf clubs in the corner. We had a great conversation and asked him if he would like to take the missionary lessons again to see if it helped him in his life. He said yes and that we could come back next week. I am excited to work with him and see if we can help him have a better life. But when you guys come to visit next summer.. he says he can take you out to all the golf places :) hahha

OH ya! I don't know if you remember a guy I taught in Jönköping named Johannes Strömberg. He was a less active that we started teaching. I talked to the missionaries there. Turns out he has taught gospel doctrine the past several weeks, is passing the sacrament, is a wonderful strong active member!!!! When I heard this... I cant even describe to you how I felt. SUPER happy! I didn't get to help anyone get baptized in Jönköping.. but I did get to help Johannes. :)

Even though this week was slower.. lots of simple blessings happened. One day we were coming home from a nearby town.. We didn't really have anything work out right while we were there.. but as we entered the train station we ran into Bao. He is a new member who is Chinese. We had lost him for the past month and he wouldn't return our phone calls. Turns out his phone was broken and we were able to set up another apt with him. see! Little miracles :)

Anther miracle happened on Sunday/Saturday. We got home on Saturday evening and got a phone call. One of the bishopric asked us if we could give talks tomorrow in church.. both 8 mins on the restoration. Sys Werjefelt was nervous about having so little time to prepare and give a talk. This was definitely the shortest time I was ever given. I really only had an hour the next morning to prepare. But I have been through enough experiences already to know that HF will help me be prepared to talk with the time given.

This doesn't mean that the one hour of preparation was that fun.. It is still not easy to write talks especially when you want to give a good talk. For me--I love personal experiences.. so I racked my mind for an experience that would go along with the restoration. I ended up deciding to focus my talk on God is our loving heavenly father and therefore he has given us prophets. I finally came up with the perfect story.

Mom do you remember that time that I asked for a body pillow? and then I forgot all about it. I went to aunt Nancy's for a week or so.. and then when you guys came to pick me up from the bus.. i got in the car and said "mom why don't you cook more home made food like aunt Nancy.." (or something really dumb like that).... I hurt your feelings and you ended up leaving the house for a little while. Well, I remember coming home and feeling terrible... and to make it even worse.. I walked into my room and there I found that body pillow I had asked for a while ago. You had remembered.
What a terrible daughter I was!

I chose this story because I talked about how even though I was a very ungrateful child and didn't deserve your love at all.. you still forgave me and continued to love me. That is just like Heavenly father. We do stupid and dumb things all the time.. He must have to take alot of long "heavenly" car rides to get away for the children for a time :) But he always keeps on loving us and is always there to take us back. And he has shown that throughout time as he has continued again and again to give the world a prophet.

And guess what!! we get to listen to the prophet this upcoming week!! I'M SO EXCITED!
(go to lds.org for those reading and who also want to see a prophet speak. Sunday and Saturday)

Well! That is all I have time for. The days are going fast and sooner then you know Ill be back home.. So you should all write me as much as you can !! :) Cuz there is nothing better than writing a missionary. You get blessings from God! ;)

Love Syster Schneiber II

PS. Mom: Our cute little Vietnamese investigator got sick this week..so we didn't get to meet her :( But I'll keep you updated on her. No there are not too many Vietnamese here. She is the only one I have met.

Sep 24: Sit and Run

Dear family!

I LOVE MY LIFE! I just love being a missionary. Sys Werjefelt is super awesome. I love her already. Some one asked me if my Swedish has gotten better in this first week.. To answer.. I have definitely already learned some very important new words. Toot :prutta, Burp : rap, Growling stomach: curra (they actually say purring stomach).. :) I thought you guys all might get a laugh out of that.

So I collected my wonderful new companion on wednesday in stockholm. I had to say good bye to Sys Vistaunet. I was sad to leave her. But I will get to see her soon. And then it was back to Kristianstad with Sys Werjefelt. This week has been a whirlwind adventure. As a trainer President said that we should try and have a good scheduled week for our new missionary. Well the first day out Sys Werj and I were running from each lesson. I don't think she was expecting missionary work to be such a good work out. It is interesting because you get to a persons house all out of breath and you sit down and have a great lesson for an hour and then up and out the door you go and running to the bus. You sit for an hour and then run and then sit for another hour and then run. It is a good thing I like running :)

We were walking out of a lesson that first day and we finally got to walk to the bus instead of run. We got to the bus stop and sys Werj looked at me and said "we haven't talked to anyone yet..." I smiled and said ok! How about those two girls. There were two girls walking up to join us at the bus stop. (side note.. sys Werj makes funny awkward sounds) She got this funny look on her face and made one of those funny sounds. So we get on the bus and end up talking to them and they sit next to us. We got to talk to them the whole way back and told them about our purpose and asked them if they would want a Book of Mormon. One of the girls practically jumped out of her seat "Yes!" As we walked away sys Werj and I had big smiles on our faces. That was our favorite moment of the day. That is probably one of my favorite parts of being a missionary... getting to talk to random strangers and tell them about our message.

Some more cool facts about sys Werj. She is 19 and is from stockholm. The reason she is on a short term mission is because she has had the chance to do some member missionary work. In the past year three of her friends have joined the church. That first night as I got to know her better.. it was amazing to hear about the experiences she has had with these three friends of hers. She told me about this change that she saw occur in her friends lives and how much joy it brought her. I have an amazing companion and I am so excited to learn from her.

We had some sad things happen this week but also some very exciting things happen. Two of our strong investigators wont be meeting with us any more. It is really sad when one of these friends chooses not to learn more even after they have had so many great experiences. You really do love them and care for them and want the best in their lives and you have so much hope for them. I hope we will be able to meet with them again. But! With the sad there was some good.

We met with the cutest Vietnamese girl. I had been keeping in contact with her throughout the week and she had texted back that she reads from the BOM every day and loves it! I was getting so excited to meet her. So we sat down on saturday and she told us that she has been talking to a priest from back in Vietnam and he says that this book is not true and it is not worth her time.. etc. etc. My heart dropped. What do we do! But I thought we best start with a prayer before we can go forward. So we said a prayer and then began talking again. We had planned on teaching her about the plan of life but sys W and both felt like we needed to start with the Restoration. This girl is just amazing! At the end of the lesson she said "I trust this man alot.. but I have read this book and I believe it is true. I am going to keep reading it." She is prepared. Often times when we teach people they dont quite get the message that we are teaching. But she got it. We had a member with us, a 15 year old young woman. As we walked out of the lesson she said that was her favorite lesson because it was so cool to see how she really understood our message and see it click and her accept it. I am excited to continue teaching her!

We have another amazing man that we are teaching. His name is Ondrej (andre) and he doesnt speak any English or Swedish. His daughter became a member last year. The missionaries started teaching him a few months ago and his response was.. no i don't want to get baptized. Well they stopped focusing on him and started teaching his son more. But they gave Ondrej a book of Mormon and asked him to read it and he said he would. Well it is now about 4 months later. He is in Heleman now and he wants to get baptized now. It is amazing to see the change that has occurred in this man. He is so sensitive to the spirit and he loves coming to church even though he doesn't understand much. Most of all he loves the Book of Mormon. This change in him is all due to this book. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. The family even had some problems this week with other relatives. The relatives called and said "what are you doing joining this church and why do you go to this church and read this book. its not the bible..etc etc." The member daughter became all upset and was so worried and began to wonder if she had made the right choice. Ondrej stepped in to help and said "This church is TRUE. This book is TRUE. we are going to this church!"

Of course I got all of that from them translating. But it was exciting.

This is all I have time for today. I want you all to know that much much more has happened this week. The Lord has big plans for this branch and he has guided us to people who need us. I am so grateful for prayer and that we can get answers. I get answers everyday to my prayers. I know you can as well.

Thank you for your letters as well!

LOVE SYS schneiber II

Sept. 17: Faith to move mountains with the whispering of the spirit

Dearest Family and Friends!

This week we had a baptism! Ingrid was baptized! Roland has to wait for papers to come back because he was a member before. It was a beautiful baptismal service. We were sooo busy that day, I don't know how it all was accomplished. I was worried as we arrived to the chapel 30 mins before hand. We hadn't called any members to remind them to come. 5 mins before there was still almost no one there. We also had some last min problems with the program and other things. But I said a prayer and just felt at peace that everything would go well. As I walked back into the baptismal room there were tons of members just getting seated. We got the programs handed out. The service started and we even had some visitors.. their first time at our church. The most amazing thing to me was that Syster V and I had a musical number. We sang "A child's prayer". We had been practicing for only one day.. and we really were not that good. As we opened our mouths and began to sing.. I had to look quickly up and check were I was. It sounded really good.. I thought.. maybe its just the acoustics. But.. it wasn't.. It just sounded really good. I think I received some heavenly help. Many of the members came up to us and the visitors and said that they felt something really special as we sang. wow.

I also had a really interesting experience this week. Before my mission I found myself in conversations sometimes discussing the different types of "mormons".. I have often heard conversations on "utah mormons" and about judgemental mormons.. etc. Well I was in a group conversation where this topic was brought up.. I have been a part of these a lot of times and participated. But something very interesting happened as I sat and listened. I just felt an uneasy feeling.. It didn't feel uplifting.. and felt very negative to me. I just wanted to leave the conversation or change the subject. I couldn't quite pin what it was that was bothering me. Then I realized it. Being a missionary.. I never really talk about the different levels of members.. if they are bad or if they are judgmental or about the members in UT vs the members outside of UT. I really focus on helping all just want to be better and love one another. I focus on the main doctrinal points of Faith, Repentance, Obedience, and enduring to the end. As Syster V and I walked away from the conversation I asked her how she felt. She felt the exact same way. I don't think I really noticed that by me talking about not good things of other members was gossiping.. or just not really good. But having the chance to be separated from those kinds of discussions.. when I was put back into it.. i noticed right away a different feeling.

I don't know if you really understood that. But the moral of the story is. What are you talking about? Is it uplifting? is it positive? is it kind? The spirit will leave if not. And if you are sensitive you can feel him leaving.

Lastly, there is a goal in the branch from the branch president to have 12 baptisms throughout this year. So far we have had five. I would like to help the branch reach this goal of 12. But through my past 12 months as a missionary.. one would say it would be very very very impossible. We need 7 more people to be baptized in less then 4 months.

We had stake conference this sunday and as Sys V was teaching our friend Lu.. she said "Come to the meeting with a question." I thought.. We are always telling people to do things.. i should do it to. So I had a question... is it possible to have 7 people be baptized? is it the Lords will? I had forgotten about the question during the meeting and then as a woman was speaking I suddenly had the thought.. "remember your question!".. so I quickly looked down at my paper and reminded myself that I was searching for an answer to my question. And then I realized what the woman was talking about. Her talk was directly focused on having faith that through the lord all things are possible. "Lord, I believe, help me my unbelief". I felt a warmth lighten me and felt that was a part of my answer.

I still feel worried and unsure. It seems quite daunting and very unlikely. I dont want to put my hope and try and get all the members hope into something that is not likely to happen.. or maybe isnt the lords will. But I think I am trying to find within me more faith to grasp hold. To believe that.. if the Lord wants to.. 7 people is no problem. I shall go forward with faith. Remember the Lord can move mountains.

I love you all. Sys V is going home. I will be sad to see her go. She is so fun and uplifting and amazing. But I will be having Syster Werjefelt from Stockholm. She is a swede! So it will be an exciting 4ish months to come!

Love Syster Schneiber

Sep. 10: One Hour as a Missionary

Dear Family!!

I love being a missionary! WOWWW! Today I just want to tell you about some amazing people I know here in Krisitanstad. As missionaries we keep track of how many lessons we teach and how many new people want to learn from us (investigators) and etc. Well this week has had the highest numbers of my whole mission. We are RUNNING all day long! So I don't even know where to start about telling you about all these amazing things that happen on an hourly basis.

But here are some of the people that I am teaching...

Pablo! He has lived here in sweden for over 20 years. He is about 32. He is so humble and he comes from Chile!--He came to family home evening with us on monday to a member family's house. He even went to their house for dinner before family home evening. He asked the dad what a testimony was and how do you know you have one. When people ask questions like that.. it means they are searching. :) We spent the whole lesson answering his question.

We taught him later on in the week. We had Sandra Cabellero with us. She is a convert herself. Also from Chile. She was so powerful to have in the lesson with us. We started off by talking about his question about what a testimony is. 1. Do you believe in God: he said yes. 2. Do you believe in Christ: He said yes. 3. We asked him about the Book of Mormon and if he knew it was the word of god. He said yes. Then we asked him WHY do you think God gave us the Book of Mormon? He said.. so that people can know which church is the true church. YES!!!! Then we asked about Joseph Smith and if he believes this is the only true church upon the earth. He said Yes, I believe. WAHOO!! I couldn't stop from gleaming. Pablo has been praying sincerely to Heavenly Father. And he has been getting answers. It was such a powerful experience to hear him bear his own growing testimony.
Ingrid & Roland! Roland was baptized when he was 8 but then his family left the church and wrote his name out too. Syster V and the missionary before me found them in the supermarket.. or rather roland found them. Ingrid is his "sambo" (live together but not married). We have been teaching them and they want to get baptized this friday.

Welll!!!! Before they could get baptized they needed to follow gods commandments and get married. and guess what. Yesterday we took them down to Malmö and THEY GOT MARRIED!!! The small ceremony went wonderful! They were both sooo happy! and they are excited for their baptism this friday. We taught them about tithing on Saturday. We had already taught Roland by himself about tithing but he wasn't really sure if he could pay tithing till next year. So we came in and testified to Roland that the Lord would provide for them if they paid their tithing. After we testified and taught... we extended the commitment again. "Roland will you pay tithing after you are baptized?" I wasn't sure what he would say. He paused.. Then looked back at us. "Yes. I will move back from school and commute to school. We will have to stop paying for this and that. We will have to quit the lottery..."
At first I thought he said.. I will have to quit school. And it hit me. We are asking people to change a WHOLE lot. Wow. I felt a little nervous for a moment.. wait! Should I be asking you to change to so much.. and now we are not just talking about coming to church any more.. we are talking about people's money and Rolands education.

But then a peace and power came over me. The promised blessings from paying tithing are real. This gospel is real. Their lives are going to change. But they are going to change into the best lives they could possibly have. It was a small moment I will never forget from my mission. To see a man take such step of faith and be so humble.

This message is true. We are about the Lords work.

Brian-- a member who had written himself out a few years back found the elders in Malmö and told them he wanted to come back to church. He is in our area. We met with him on saturday and the first thing he said was.. "I know this church is true.." and he came to church on sunday. He was beaming. He traveled two hours to get to church. WOW.

Hang--We met this Vietnamese girl on the train last week and when we told her about the Book of Mormon she asked if she could have two copies. We met with her this week. We met in her nail salong and pulled out the Book of Mormon and told her a little about it. Then we asked her about how she knows god exists. We spent the rest of the lesson listening to her tell us her conversion story of how she knows that there is a God and that he answers her prayers. It was a beautiful experience to see how God can touch the lives of so many of his children all over the world. She told us about how her mother died when she was young. She became hardened towards God and chose not to believe in him. And then her sister got sick. As she turned inwards she found herself praying to God and found peace there and she became humbled once again. She hasnt stopped believing since and is still seeking to have him more in her life. We are excited to teach her more.

WAIT! I have to tell you about one more fantabulous experience!! On tuesday night we helped out with a primary activity! The activity was "An hour as a missionary". This was all organized by our amazing members. The primary kids were split up into companions and were given someone to visit. They were to share a scripture and share their testimony and invite them to church. They visited a less active family, Pablo!, a family that are not members and not even our investigators, and a part member family. Syster V and I went on splits and we got to go with one of the groups. It was amazing! This ward knows how to do member missionary work! I was so impressed.. and if I have to be the primary president one day.. I will try and do this same activity!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! You get to meet the most amazing people, help them have a better life, and end up changing your own life. All because God exists.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

Alma 36:20, 24

Syster Schneiber II

1. My district! Eating swedish pancakes thanks to the missionary
couple the Dunns. (Swedish Pancakes are crepes)

2. Me and my missionary companions from the primary activity! (Daniel and Saga)

3/4. Me & Sys V taking a moment to enjoy life :)

5. Roland and Ingrid's wedding!