A Great and Marvelous Work!!

Min Käre Familj,

I can't believe it's already been a week since I wrote my last email. Time is definitely going. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the emails. It has made my day, my week, to know what is going on at home, and to have your words of encouragement. I look forward to hearing from all of you every week. The work of the Lord is moving forward here in Sweden. I won't lie and say the it isn't hard. Some days it's really hard to be motivated to have 99% of the people in Sweden say, "Inte Intereserad..." BUT, the work is moving, and we will find those who are prepared and teach them with the Spirit so they can be converted by Him.

This week has been really good. We continued to try and get a hold of the investigators the Elders before us had, but to no avail. It's interesting how people so easily put aside God, and the importance of Him in their lives. Anyway, so we have been tracting a lot this week, and calling past investigators to find those who are ready for the gospel. We have also made appts. with several less active members in the ward here, that we hope we can show our love to, and also help them to feel the Spirit so they can again have the desire to come to church and receive all the blessings the Lord has promised them if they will follow Him.

We did have a really cool experience this week. We were tracting in an area called Marielund. This area of town has many apartment buildings, and has many Muslim people. I guess you could say it is a lower-class area of Norrköping. So we were knocking, and we had gone through an entire building of names with not one person who was even willing to listen at all. Well, as we were going to leave the building, there was one more door left on the right side of us. We saw that the name was Svensk, so we thought, well let's give it a try. To our astonishment, a man came to the door, and he listened. He listened intently, and it was obvious that as we testified that the things we told him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he could feel the Spirit. He would describe it to us, he said he felt nervous, but in a good way, and that the feelings he was feeling just then, were "heftigt" or "awesome." Since we met Harri, we have taught him the 1st lesson, and he has had many good questions, and sincerely wants to know the truth and we had our Ward Mission Leader and his wife with us at the teach, and their testimonies added so much to the lesson. We will teach him again this week and hope that he will be able to come to church. If you remember, pray for him, that he will continue to have the desire to read, and pray and to earnestly seek the truth.

We have also taught Violetta again, she is really our only other "progressing investigator" right now. We have finding to do, but anyway...the lesson with her went well. It's really sad, she doesn't feel anything when she reads the Book of Mormon. We focused on faith in the lesson, and how we have to have a desire to learn and once we let that faith in and plant the seed...as in Alma 32, that it can then begin to grow and take place within us. She understood, and I think she has a desire to know, but her past perceptions of God, or her un-belief that there is a God, it making it harder for her to accept that the Book of Mormon is His word. Pray for her also.

Other than that, this area of Sweden is beautiful! There are places we have gone to tract that are right next to a lake, and all of Norrköping has a river running through it. It's just gorgeous. It is also very clean here. The roads and everything are well taken care of, and it's nice to be in such a clean place.

The other night, we went to a ritzy part of town, or a little outside of the city to tract. On our way, the weather was wonderful, and we were ready to go. Then, we got off the bus, and it started to downpour. So, there we were, with only one umbrella, in the rain, and we went and knocked as many doors as we could with the time we had. We didn't find anybody who was interested, but one thing occured to me. At some doors, when people would be rude, I would be a little discouraged when we would walk away, but then as we went on, I realized that for all the doors that would say no, I would find someone, sometime who would listen. I look at tracting now as an opportunity to pull the weeds, so I can see the flowers....oh what a cheesy analogy....but it works anyway. Hahaha.

We will continue to look here, and we will find more who are prepared to receive the fulness of the gospel. I know that to be true. My testimony grows every time I testify, and I know that my work here, no matter how fruitful is not in vain, but that I will bless the lives of all the people I come in contact with, no matter when that may be.

Ok, now for some more practical information about things here. We walk or take the busses here wherever we go. We live in a part of town called Hageby. We are right next to a grocery store and some other shops. It is very convenient. Our apartment is nice, but it is obvious that there have not been any sisters in that apartment for 14 years. Did I mention that before??? We are the first sisters to come into this area for like 15 years!!! Crazy business I tell you...So for the first week, I slept with some sketched artwork done by an Elder of Donatello, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle....Elders I tell you. Hehehe.

My bed is pretty comfortable, nothing to complain about there. I think that I could have come on my mission with no back problems, and still have soreness every night. We carry our back-packs around with us everywhere we go with books and pamphlets, but we both try to keep them relatively light. My back is ok. The Lord has truly blessed me to be able to be here and do this work. We have the same table to eat and study at. Pretty funny. I will send some pictures of our apartment home next week. Steph said to compare it to a room in mom and dad's house....lets see....our entire apartment is probably the size of the living room. or maybe just a little bigger. We do have a bathroom...with a door, and the kitchen is seperated a little bit, but other than that, it's just one big room. It's comfortable, and we are glad every night that we have a place to lay our heads.

I think I've gone on for some time here now....I think I'm becoming a vegetarian. I eat very little meat since my companion is a vegetarian. But, I'm pretty sure that as I hear about you all having BBQ's during the summer months, and Grandma's roast, etc...that I will still be ok to eat meat. Sister Väätti and I get along really well. We laugh a lot. It is amazing to me how the most simple things make us laugh, and it is good. We need to stay positive with all the negativity that surrounds us.

I know that church is true. I know that what I help people to learn is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I have come closer to Him on my mission that I have ever been before in my life. I think of Him in all I do and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve Him. You are all in my prayers. I think of you often and love you all. I will try to write some letters today in response to emails, and just know that if I don't reply right away, that I will reply, and that I appreciate very much your emails. I will say that I would love to get a written letter sometime...no pressure, but it's fun to have that kind of thing now and again.

I love you all. Please take care of yourselves, and know that I am doing well. I am happy, healthy, and trying to be of service to the people here in Sweden. Never forget how blessed you are to have the Gospel in your lives, and to have the knowledge that God lives, and His son lives, and they love you!

Love,
Sister Suzanne Wood

By the way, if you have any other questions you want to know about the area, or the people, or anything, ask me, and I will include answers in my next email....it seems like when I sit down to write, I forget most of what I was going to say.