Monday, August 6, 2012

Aug 6: An old fisherman and helping home teaching

Hey FAMILY!
   What a wonderful day it is to be alive!  Glad to know you are all
alive. I can't believe how fast time flies. August has just begun but
it feels like it is almost over. YIKES! Christmas will be here before
you know it.
   Well.. lets just skip all the small talk and Ill just tell you
about some awesome miracles.
This week we had some great teaches with members. We have this
wonderful old man who lives in our house named Börje. He is probably
68ish and looks like a tough old fisherman. I think I might have
talked about him before. But we had our mission leader Thomas Hulldin
come. As we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon to Börje we talked
about baptism and why that is an important step. We had already talked
to Börje about Baptism and invited him to prepare to be baptized on
sept 1. So as we mentioned it he stopped us and said.. "I still don't
get why I have to be baptized again..."  Thomas stepped up to bat and
made a home run. He was a convert himself in his late teens and he did
a great job of explaining why he decided to be "baptized again."  It
makes such a huge difference when you have members helping in the
teaching.
   We also taught a young father named Alexander from Serbia about the
Word of Wisdom. He really likes our message and said he would like to
be baptized if he receives an answer. So as we taught him the 5 things
he needs to not eat/drink.. he said "I only have a problem with coffee
and smoking".  So I asked him how long it would take him to quit. I
was thinking maybe a month or two.. he says maybe three weeks.. and
coffee. No problem I can stop today. !! This might not sound so cool
to all of you. But one of my favorite things as a missionary is to see
these wonderful people that you teach start to take steps to change.
It is almost magical to see how they change themselves. Our biggest
problem here in Alingsås has been that people have not been wanting to
change.  But it is only when you do change that you can receive
miracles and gods help in your life.
  Another neat experience was being with the Holmberg Family. The mom
and dad left the church for a time and the mom was recently
reactivated. She also has a son who became a member. But the rest of
the family are not members. So we got invited to help home teach them
this week. That in itself was a miracle. Well as we were sitting there
talking.. it was only the mom and her daughter who has Down syndrome. I
had really hoped to have a chance to talk to some of the kids or the
dad. I all the sudden had a thought.. pray for help. So I had a little
prayer that HF would help me know how to best invite one of the sons
to an activity... how would I get the chance if I never saw him. Well!
After my prayer.. I thought.. I might as well just ask Elizabeth (mom)
if Viktor (son) would like to come to an activity for the young single
adults. She said.. I don you should ask him. He is downstairs in his
room playing on the comp. So with only 5 minutes to head out so we
could make our train--we knocked on his door and invited him.
    Now.. there are a lot of guys I have met who like to just sit at
the computer all day long.. and so my invitation could have been
accepted who knows how!  Maybe we would need to convince him.. he also
doesn’t really know anyone who will be there and he has never met me
before... But! He said yah sure. We traded numbers and he texted us
first and asked what time the activity would start.  ! YAY! We had the
chance to be there again on Saturday and invited another son to come
to family home evening with the young single adults. He said yes too!
SO we shall see what happens.
  Syster Talbot and I are having a good time together here in
Alingsås. I am really grateful that I get to be her companion. I have
learned a lot from her already. One thing that I really like about her
is that when something goes wrong and she gets upset... she never
stays upset for long. She doesn’t hold grudges and that is amazing! So
we had a little conflict during the week. It was a little tense for
about 1 min and then she was fine.. I was worried thinking.. yikes
what if she is mad at my the whole day. So the next hour I spent
worrying about it. haha Turns out after that one minute she had moved
on. I really have learned a lot in these short three weeks.
    But we got a call from president and it seems like I will be
leaving sometime soon. Unsure where but.. where ever it is it will be
my last area and I will be training a syster in sept. So! exciting way
to end the mission.

I just wanted to end with a little scripture thought. I love the book

of Mormon so much and learn so much every day. This week I was reading
in Heleman 5. WOW this chapter blows me away every time I read it. As
I was reading it this week I noticed something new. It said that as
Nephi and Lehi were surrounded by fire that they realized that it was
burning them and that the other bad guys couldn't touch them. They
received courage and started to teach.  It made me think... We don't
always know what God's plan is for us... maybe they could have died
like abinadi. But what we are to do is to follow the spirit with what
ever circumstances God puts us in. Nephi and Lehi realized.. Wow we
have a captured audience... they cant stop us from talking and we have
their full attention. Lets teach!!
    In our own lives we don’t always understand what God has up his
sleeve. But whatever circumstances we are in we should always stand
for what we know is right and follow the spirit. It will be ok. He has
it planned out.

Well!   Jag älskar er!


syster Schneiber II

No comments:

Post a Comment