t's definetly that time of year. Week after week nobody is home and our numbers struggle. Last year was the same thing. As I have said before, Sweden literally shuts down in the summers. Nobody is home. Nobody is working. Nobody has any time. Despite this time of year and the lack of lessons we are able to teach, my joy is full. I am doing the work of the Lord and there is no greater thing we can be doing in life.
Wednesday was a day of travel. We went to Göteborg for the Mission Tour. I was in the MTC last year making this Mission Tour the first and last Mission Tour I will recieve on my mission. We left in the afternoon and arrived in Göteborg about 9:30 on Wednesday night. About a 7 hour journey with delays. I was able to go back through Utby's area. It brought back so many memories from the short 8 weeks that I served there. It really is such a fantastic area. I am sad I was only there for a short time, but very happy I was able to serve there anyway. I spent the night with Elder Millsap and Elder Sweat. Elder Millsap was my first companion and trainer here in Sweden. He goes home in 3 months. Elder Sweat is the "greeny" that he is currently training. Thus in mission terms, Elder Millsap is my father and Elder Sweat is my brother. So it was fun to stay with my father and brother from Wednesday to Thursday. I thought I was going to stay in my old apartment, but ended up staying in the other Utby apartment.
Thursday was the day of the Mission Tour. We had a member of the Seventy there. His name is Elder Jose A. Teixeira. He taught us how to get more investigators. And he explained how to do it. And he took 4 hours to teach us, but I am just going to write a few lines. Basically that if we would sit down with all our current investigators, ask them who their friends, family, neighbors are that live near by. Then ask to pray for them. We pray for them, have the lesson, and then after the lesson ask them if we can meet the people that we prayed for. He said they would give us a name. If we did that to every investigator, our investigator pool doubles. If we then do that to our new investigators, it will triple. And thats what I learned. It doesn't sound complicated or even foolproof. In fact it sounds too simple to work. But he promised us that over the next few months that if we did that, we would be teaching our 20 plus lessons a week to just our investigators. Then he said: "If it doesn't work the first time, do it again! It will happen." So that was great and I am excited to try it. But what I really enjoyed and learned the most from was what President Beckstrand said. He talked about our missions and what we are doing here. He started by reading A of F 5:
We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
Thats us. Called of God. Called to Serve in Sweden. We were set apart by laying on of the hands by those in authority. And we preach the Gospel. We bring others unto baptism and help strengthen their testimoney. He then continued to read a paragraph from our mission calls and what we are expected to do. Then he asked "What are you doing and how? What are you doing with the Lords time?" Being in that setting really makes me really think about my mission up to this point. Am I doing everything I can? And if I am not, it is a time for me to recommit myself and to do everything I can now. It's like in a basketball game. I'm in the 3rd quarter. It's the most important quarter. We are warmed up and feeling good. We arn't tired. It's at that point in the game where you will determine how the game ends up. The fourth quarter is all about securing the win. The third is all about doing all you can for that win. So now is when I have to do my absolute best! He went on to talk about contacting and how important that is. He talked about being diligent in our contacting. Not just contacting because we have to, but contacting because we want to and because we know it is something that will bless us. Then he said "I have a few stories here some missionaries wrote me a few weeks ago in their weekly email. I want to read one of them to demonstrate the point that I am trying to make with contacting." He then went on and read the story. Except guess what? IT WAS MY STORY. As he was reading it I was thinking "This sounds really familiar. Where have I heard this?" Then I realized that was my story. But he kept it secret and didn't say the name. He used my example to the entire mission. I turned a little red a little bit. It's a good thing I sat close to the front. Anyway.....
He then said something I really liked: "Head up, mouths open. We can flood this land." Then promised us that if we listen to the spirit, we will see small miracles every day. It was so great! We got promised so many blessings. It just made me so happy. I knew that if we were not on our missions, we wouldn't be getting these promised blessings. I am so excited to work hard this next week despite all that happens with cancelled appointments, and people being gone. So here we go! Heads up, mouths open. We are going to flood this land.
We found out from our investigator Amaka that she isn't moving to Malmö anymore. But that she is moving to Kristianstad. Our hopes went up just a little bit on a baptismal date. But, not yet. If she can't move to Kristianstad, then it will be much easier to talk with her about it. But she still does want to be baptised. With our other investigators, still no baptismal date. She was gone again. But we have a scheduled appointment with her this coming week so hopefully then. The Ward Mission Leader is moving to Utah this week, so we are going to his place tonight for dinner. Name is Jeff Arko, so if you meet him. Our new Ward Mission Leader is Tony Knuttson, he came back from his mission here in Sweden two months ago. It is weird seeing him is a missionary and now he is our leader. He's super awesome and ready to go, so we will really enjoy him as our ward mission leader.
A member in the ward asked us to go and visit her son every week. Her son is 19 years old and he's inactive. Baptized a year ago or so. So we go over there during the weeks and hang out with him. We play guitar and talk with him and such. He loves computer games and so by us coming over and hanging out with him is one of the few ways she can get him off the computer. So that is fun. I think if we could get him back to church and on a mission that would be ideal. So pray for him and for us that we can know how to work with him. He is a great kid, just needs to get out a little bit more.
Last night we were at the Knuttson family again. We spend a few hours in the evening playing some music together. Tony is super amazing at the piano. Him and I just read from the hymn books and play the simple music together. His mom just loves it. In a few weeks we'll be playing something in church. I kinda realized this week that making music isn't what I love, but it is something I can do. It is one of the few things that I really know how to do well. Not even that well, but you know what I mean. Piano is something that I have been working alot with over the past few months and I gotta say, for teaching myself, I am getting pretty good. And I guess the sisters want to do a music night in a few weeks, so I have to participate in that... oh joy.
Well, family, thats it. I seriously feel like I have been doing a horrible job the past several weeks in telling you how my week went. But there really isn't much to say. I got sick over the week, but it wasn't a big deal. Went away the following day. Like, yeah. Lets see. My companion Elder Zaugg might be transfering this transfer because Lena has a crush on him and he doesn't like it. So that is...fun I guess. Hopefully that means I will train! Cause I really would enjoy it. Or at least I would learn a lot. Anyway, it is what it is. I want to wish everybody a great school year. School starts tomorrow and now life can begin, right? And if you're not in school then enjoy work. Because if we enjoy it, it will be more fun! You are all in my prayers and I love every single one of you.
Äldste Christian Tanner
Be someone who makes you happy
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