Skip to main content

The Fruits of the Fast

 Hej! 


This week, our ward began a 40 day fast for missionsarbete (missionary work), and the miracles that have come from that...have been astounding. Truly. How it works, is each family in our ward is assigned one day over the next 40 days to fast. And then, at the end of the day, both us and the Elders in our ward send them the miracles we saw that day as a result of their fast. 

It would take ages to type out every miracle we've experienced this week, but I'll do my best to give everyone a little glimpse of the magic we've seen. 

Wednesday: Day 1 of the Fast
- We met not one, not two, but three new people to teach! 
- I gave out a Book of Mormon to a nice guy on the bus.
- Syster Taylor was able to testify of God's love to a girl on the bus and almost brought her to tears.

Thursday: Day 2
- Me and Syster Taylor were asked last minute to go and give another school presentation about our religion. In this one, we followed along with Felicia (a 10 year old member of our ward) to her school class, and gave the presentation WITH her to a class of 18 other 10-year-olds. They were all very curious, as religion is not at all a part of Sweden's culture, and many of them ran up to Syster Taylor and me and thanked us for our presentation afterwards. It was awesome, and Felicia did an amazing job.
- When we were walking home that night, we stopped to take a look at the big Christmas tree they put up in stan, and I saw a man sitting alone near the tree. I told Syster Taylor that I felt we needed to talk to him, so we did. And we're meeting with him this next week! 

Friday: Splits! 
- Splits were awesome. I got to split off with both Syster Bryson and Syster Shaw, and we taught a guy who is going through something that correlated with an experience I've had. I was able to relate to him, and testify with the spirit. 

Saturday:
- I met a guy in the bus who has ALREADY read the Book of Mormon, and ALREADY believes in it. We're meeting with him this week, haha! 
- We met a woman for our first lesson with her, and for the first HOUR we were there, she testified to US about Jesus Christ and her experiences with him. It was incredibly powerful to listen to her story, and the ways she's changed her life (stopped drinking, swearing, started dressing modestly) since she started going to Svenska Kyrkan and reading the Bible. We then got to tell her about baptism, the Book of Mormon, and answer some of her doctrinal questions about the Bible. As soon as she heard that we do baptism by immersion, she wanted it. "Now THATS what I expected!! Not this little tiny sprinkle on the forehead thing they did for me..."  She's one of the most faithful people I've ever met. 

Sunday! 
- One of our friends who we have NEVER been able to get to church, CAME TO CHURCH! 
- The Elders invited a little family to come to church, and Syster Taylor gave the mom of the family a tour. When they went by the font, Syster Taylor explained baptism, and the mom expressed that she'd like for her and her daughters to be baptized!!! 

I know that none of these miracles are our doing. They were brought to pass by the faith of the members in our ward, and through Heavenly Father. This is His work, and I am honored to be a part of it. He loves his children, and he magnifies our efforts. 

I hope everyone is doing well! 
Syster Naatjes

Pictures:
I actually don't remember taking this picture. Some regular day on the bus, I suppose?

Us and the Saffer kids before the school presentation.

They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Sweden, so me and Syster Taylor's celebration was a little smaller than normal, haha.

Julbordet at a ward Christmas advent celebration! 

 Cute Christmas tree in town


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

End of an Era

  Hej!  This past week has been great. As always, we've seen miracles. And weird things, too! But I'm just absolutely filled with gratitude to be a servant of the Lord. Especially this past week, for some reason. This week we: -had an awesome lesson with a young Father, who's just trying to mend his relationship with God. Very pure.  - taught our friend *Anna and her 18 year-old son about prayer.  - made breakfast and watched general conference with our members and our friends on Sunday morning. #swedishvåfflor  - gave out a Book of Mormon in Persian to a sweet old lady who tried to speak Persian to us for like 10 minutes.  - got to have a great lesson with our friend *Marianne, and she had a lot of great questions about conference.  - got to eat some homemade rulltårta with one of our friends and his family. Very cute.  - had in-person distriktsråd and the Elders made us lunch. It was like a finish version of baked macaroni and cheese.  - fi...

The blessed jalapeño

 Tjena! This week was great!  We got TWO MEMBER referrals and it turns out one of them met with the missionaries over twenty years ago and loves our church!! She said that the members of our church "are love." Super cute.  We also: - went to a birthday party for a less active member and they served us papusas!! That was my first papusa experience. #shoutouttobeth - played innebandy at the church with some cool people - had a lesson about the nature of God with our friend *Mont. It was awesome. Everyone go read Alma 42. - accidentally cried in a Willy's grocery store  - met a really nice old Swedish guy on the street, and answered his questions about us and our church for about 30 minutes. And his wife was adorable, too.  - received a lasagna  - spoke in sacrament meeting on Sunday! #nice On Sunday, I spoke about miracles. Our God is a God of miracles! He's done them before, and he'll do them today.  Have a fantastical week. Sys Naatjes  snow! ...

A Busy Sunday

  Hello everyone! We're going to hop straight in.  This week we: -Gave out more Books of Mormon on the street and by knocking doors. Always fun.  - Finally met with a really cute family that had been difficult to meet with! - Met with one of Syster Kearns' distant relatives who lives right outside of Lund! They got in contact with one another through ancestry and were able to meet and talk Swedish together! It was actually really cool. Syster Kearns got to explain that it was because of our religion that their common ancestors fled to the US, and is also now the reason why she's back here in Sweden. #fullcircle - Got kicked out of a Svenska Kyrka by a svenska kyrka priest who asked us to take off our name tags. Classy.  - Met a man who had no idea that his wife of 35 years is a member of our church and listened to him explain his deep, complicated, philosophical ideas.  - Got rejected many times on the street. -Had FIVE PEOPLE come to church yesterday! It was IN...