Monday, May 21, 2012

April 30: I love being a missionary!

hej på er!

   Well! another week as flown by. Syster Sprague and I cant believe how fast time flies. April has been the shortest month of my life. When you are having fun, working hard, and doing good... its like you are working with a different clock. Crazy. I remember when I first came on my mission... days felt very long sometimes.. now I'm wishing we were going by a 30 hour clock.

   Sweden is still gorgeous as ever. We live in a big house with lots of different apts (town house?). We live on the 3rd (top) floor. Looking out our window you can see the lake we run by in the morning. In the evening when we come home to plan.. we often take a few minutes and just enjoy the sunset. Wow. This world is truly a reminder of a God who loves us.
  
We had a chance to teach Ulf again (Anne Marie's husband).  Anne Marie is a convert to the church for 10 or so years. She married this wonderful guy named Ulf who does not quite believe in God. He does on the other hand love nature.. and is a big softy at heart.  On your first look.. he has a pony tail, doesn't have his right ring finger, and lots of permanent dirt caked into his nails.  He looks pretty rough.  We taught him the plan of happiness last time and this time taught him about the restoration (Joseph Smith's story).  At first he told us.. he wasn't open at this time.  But he watched the Joseph Smith film... and questions came pouring out. The spirit really does guide us in teaches... because it helps us ask the perfect questions to touch a persons heart.  We asked a question about his father and their relationship... ding ding ding!  To Ulf his family means everything. As he explained this love he had for his dad, his children, his brand new grandchild... tears began to fall down his face.  It was amazing. From going to a closed off man he became soft and open ready for the healing affects of the gospel. It was amazing. After explaining.. Ulf said, Okej lets stop now.. i hate crying. haha. And then throughout the closing prayer he kept on crying. I love Ulf! Now he just has to start reading the Book of Mormon.
 
Members make the biggest difference in missionary work. Anne Marie is amazing. We have some other amazing members in our ward. We had an investigator, Solomon, in church on Sunday.  Brother Magnusson came right up after church and asked.. do you guys have a place to go for dinner. Usually we do.. but our member had canceled on us. He said, good come to our home and then he looked at Solomon and said we would love to have you as well.  It was perfect!  We told him later that he did some awesome missionary work that day. He is in the bishopric and said that he often looks out over the ward and thinks.. who needs to come to our home for dinner today.  Your homework: Make new friends! Invite them over! Love them.  And especially if you are going to have the missionaries over... invite their investigators.. or even better invite your friends!!
   
Another amazing lesson happened this week. We had our first lesson with Manal over Skype! We got permission from President to teach her while she is in Lebanon. WAHOO!!  We get on and the first thing she says is.. I gave away my Book of Mormon.  What??  She was reading it on the plane and the guy sitting next to her asked her about.  She gave it to him and all her pamphlets!! He is from Lebanon but living in Michagan... She isn't even baptized and she is doing missionary work. I love her!!  So we need to send her another BOM. She did have her gospel principle's book so we had her open up to tithing.  We explain to her that tithing means paying 10% of your income and before we could go any further.. she said. Yes, I'll do it. ! We didn't even have to tell her the blessings. It is quite amazing to be with someone who has such faith. Now she just has to get an answer about the Word of Wisdom. Manal is definitely one of those prepared for the gospel.
    
Missionary work of course is not always so glamorous. People don't just say yes to following the law of tithing everyday.  On Tuesday we had a full booked up day with lots of teaches. By the end of personal study time.. everything but one lesson had fallen through. :)  This is why backup plans are so important. Plan B. We had a few investigators and less actives that we wanted to go by.  Syster Sprague and I have become professional cookie makers. We knew of a few people who were having a hard time and decided to make it a day of service.. spreading the gospel with cookies!
   
At church we talked about taking upon us the name of Christ. One raised their hand and said .. it is really hard to always remember Christ. I thought about it.. as missionaries we should be the best at this.. but how often am i really thinking about Christ??.. not enough. I leaned over and whispered to Syster Sprage.. Maybe you could get a tattoo on your forehead of Christ so that I can remember more often. .. we burst out laughing and disrupted the class. (don't follow my example). Afterwards Sys Sp said.. but look we have name tags on.. that's just like a tattoo. We are so lucky to have these badges to remind us so often. She makes a great point.  We are so lucky to be missionaries.
   
 Lastly, some times my favorite parts of the week is a short 3 min conversation with a stranger on the street.  On Friday we had some extra time so we went in search of Mr. Krig. (He has a less active wife in jönköping). Mr. Kring wasn't home but his sister was. She answered the door and answered a few of our questions. She knows of the church and has a Book of Mormon.  When we asked her about her beliefs she opened up and told us about how she believes in a higher power.. but she isn't quite sure. It is amazing to me that strangers sometimes open up and they tell us about their fears. But then again it shouldn't be amazing. It is the Goly Ghost. Well we invited her to learn more. she said yes.. but then she said.. but i'm homosexual...  Well that one kind of took us by surprise.. but we immediately replied that she still has a Heavenly Father who loves her and his plan is just as much for her as it is for us. Then Sys Spra.. prompted by the spirit to her about some people who were very close to her who also were homosexual. You could see timid and shyness slowly dissipate and she got a big smile on her face. She invited us back for next Saturday! 
   Sys Sprague said after she closed the door.. that the moment she said she was homosexual her heart started beating really fast and she just felt like she really needed to share that with her.
     That's all I have for this week. I love you all and keep loving everyone around you! I'm trying to do it too!
Syster Schneiber II
   

ps. Frid means peace.. And there is this awesome 18 yr old girl named Frida who got baptized in Göteborg. Frida! I didn't realize our great grandmothers name was Swedish!

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