Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Faith

Dear Family,
   I am so grateful I can be a missionary for the Lord right now. Syster Dabb and I have had a great week. After finishing up Christmas we felt ready to get back to work and do the Lords work.  There have been a lot of things I've been thinking about this past week. I wish I had time to share them all with you. But!! I'll just have to share my top experiences and hope that you can catch a little bit of the wonderful spirit that has been with me.
   Ulla! Ulla is the wonderful older lady who is becoming a second mother and cooking teacher for us here in Jönköping. She taught us how to make rolls last week. This week we met with her at a member’s house to teach the plan of happiness. The lesson went great. She wrote down all of the scripture references and wants to go back and re-read and study them.  It was a very uplifting and peaceful teach. At the end we invited her to be baptized again and gave her a date to prepare for.  She smiled responded quickly and said it was not possible for the date we had chosen. I felt a little embarrassed for asking for such an early date. But then she said--if you will have more patience and I will try and go a little faster, we will end up crossing.  As she said those words the spirit intensified, as if to say that her words were right  and that this was the right path. Each of us felt something. You could see tears in Ulla's and the members eyes, as well as my own! and Syster Dabb and I looked at each other with big eyes. Our member said, this is the Holy Ghost and he is testifying that this is the right path.  And Ulla said, well! we must be doing something right. :)  It was really a neat experience.
Syster Rasmussen is a convert from England. Her husband was the missionary who baptized her. They are now living here with 7 kids.  We went to their house for Boxing Day. She is really funny and really sweet. As Syster Dabb and I were having companionship inventory on Saturday night at the church... the primary was having a new years activity.  Just as we were finishing up Syster Rasmussen came in and sat down. Everyone else had gone home and she was just cleaning up.  I know there is a power that comes from being set apart as a missionary.  One of the many powers is that people just feel comfortable around us and opens up and talks about things they normally wouldn’t just bring up in any old conversation.  This woman is amazing and if I ever start complaining about life just remind me of her.  I wish you could all have sat in on our conversation... but I'd like to share one story from her life.  She said one of the first things that led her to know that this church was true was that she started getting answers to prayers. Since then she hasn’t stopped asking.  She and her husband were really low on money and her son only had one pair of jeans.  His jeans were getting so old and torn up... she really wanted to throw them away and get him a new pair... but they just didn’t have enough money.  So one day as she was doing the wash she prayed to Heavenly Father and asked him for a new pair of jeans.  His response was throw away the jeans and I'll give you a new pair.  But she thought, but what if you don’t give me a new pair... and I throw away his only pants... then he won’t have any pants. Can I have a new pair and then Ill throw away the old ones? The thought came again. Throw away the pants first and then I'll give you a new pair. So she threw them away.  Later that day she went to a relief society activity. And as she walked in a friend of hers told her... Hey there are some free clothes in the primary room... Go see if you could use anything in there.  She walked in and of course there were the new jeans for her son. :)
  She shared many other stories of how she prayed and the Lord answered. 
  That night after talking to her we were able to watch the movie 17 miracles. It’s a movie about the pioneers. After watching that movie and talking to her... It seems that the harder challenges we go through in life bring greater faith.
 There is so much more I wish I could say... But! I have to go.  I love you all a lot.  and I hope this New Year brings you much joy but also greater faith.
 Love Syster Schneiber

No comments:

Post a Comment