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
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Oct. 22: Pictures
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| Simon, Lukas, and us! (Simon is the blond little boy) We made cookies together and related the recipe to following Gods commandments |
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| Syster Werjefelt and I! (sys W likes to take pictures and has taken over the camera) |
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| Me, Roland and Ingrid at the baptism |
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| train rides to zone conference with karlskrona! |
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| Nancy Sandaline! (the mother who invites us over every week) |
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| sys werj's snazy picture taking skills :) |
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| 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
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!
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| Me and sys Werjefelt |
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| our youth activity during the spiritual thought |
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| the magic carpet |
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| quiet skills on stools |
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| the whole family and us! |
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| the family (janette is in the pink jacket and Ondrej is the one in white!) |
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| Ondrej! |
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| We decided to be twins! |
Monday, October 22, 2012
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 !!
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
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
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.
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.
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