Wonderful blessings! (Monday, Oct. 12)

Dear Family,

We have had a great week here in Stockholm. There have of course been trials, but there have been many more blessings than trials...when we look for the hand of the Lord in His work. I am always so grateful and amazed when I take the time to see what the Lord does for each of us...even on a daily basis. I think it's when we forget to notice the miracles, or small blessings that we become discouraged of think that the Lord has forgotten us. There is so much to be said for counting our blessings. Speaking of which, we sang that yesterday in Relief Society...and I started to cry...you all know me....big baby...well there is a wonderful sister named Louise Gleissman who was leading the song, and as we sang she looked at me and teared up to. It was such a wonderful spiritual reminder to always look for the blessings the Lord provides for us.

We have had several wonderful experiences this week, but I am going to focus from about Friday until yesterday. Sister Swenson and I have spent much time over the last week really trying to do the will of the Lord. We have prayed much to be led in what we need to do here in Stockholm. We had a couple of hard days before Friday, so as we did our Weekly Planning, we focused very much on what we can do to help the people we are working with and the ward members in Stockholm. Planning went really well, and we felt like we had some wonderful inspiration as to what we need to do. So, we went on with our day...and everything seemed to go down hill from there. Our appts. cancelled for Friday night, and we ended up having nothing solid planned for most of the day on Saturday.

Well, we tried to stay positive on Saturday, having lots of time to contact people in the city, and look for those people who are looking for the truth, and it seemed the longer we went, the more people were not exactly kind, and our Spirits were getting down. We continued to work hard though, knowing that the Lord always needs us to prove our faith in order to give us the blessings, and so we continued to work hard. We went home, ate dinner, and then went back our on Saturday evening to find a few less-active members we did not have phone numbers for. It was freezing, and we were not having much success. Well, as we walked, we got a phone call from a member in a ward called Gubbängen. His name was David. He called to tell us that he has a friend that he would be bringing to our ward yesterday. We couldn't really hear what he was saying, but just that one phone call made the rest of our night look SO much better.

We had started our fast Saturday evening, and when yesterday came, we were excited for the possibility of someone who might be interested in learning the gospel brought by a member to our ward. Well, as it goes, along with fast sunday, we also have testimony meeting. Well, during the testimony meeting, David (the member who brought the friend) stood up and bore his testimony, which was wonderful. Then, no sooner had he sat down....that his friend Kristoffer stood up in a congregation of people he did not know, in a church he knew not very much about, and he told us about the things that he knows are true. I can not even describe the Spirit that was in the room when this before Atheist man stood up at the pulpit and expressed to us the gratitude for the feelings he had in the meeting and for the experience he has had finding God. It was absolutely amazing.

After Sacrament Meeting, we all went to Sunday School and we talked about our Heavenly Family. The realization came to me during class that we really do have a Heavenly Father who knows us infinitely well. He gave us our personalities, our talents, and we had a very clear picture of what we were agreeing to when we decided to come to the earth. I sat there, and thought about my love for music. It hit me...I loved music before, I learned about it before. Heavenly Father gave me those talents of music before I came to the earth, and wanted me to come here so that I could bless the lives of others with what He gave me before.

I don't say this to express my "talent in music" but to point out that no matter what it is we are good at, our strengths, our talents, our personality traits, we had them before. We are all God's children, and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that God loves each of us enough to give us those things we love, that we can improve and bless others with, and that we can have as a testimony that we were given so much before we came to the earth.

The rest of church was wonderful. I felt the Spirit strong the entire block of meetings, which I really needed. I felt so close to the promptings of the Spirit. After church, we invited Kristoffer to meet with us and learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, "Of course!" We will meet with him this week, and pray that his heart will remain open to accept the simple, beautiful, eternal truths that are the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have lots of plans for this week. We are excited about all we have to do, and the new investigators we have. We are continuing to see success here, and even though some days it's just the very smallest thing...like somebody who is not interested in the Gospel being kind in their rejection...but the blessings are everyday, and everywhere if we look for them.

I am grateful to all of you for your support and love toward me. I am grateful for all I am learning in this amazing time to serve the Lord. I love Sweden. I love the people here. I am understanding the Atonement more all the time and that Christ really did atone for all of us. Those who accept Him and those who don't. It really was an infinite Atonement. I am grateful for the knowledge I have that we can be together forever if we strive to live the Gospel. I love you all very much, and I miss you too!

Take care and have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Sister Suzanne Wood

P. S. Swedish word for the day is BRÖD....bet you can all guess what that is....yes...it's BREAD. I had to do that one because we have started to make this homemade bread....in a bag...that is delicious and super easy. We are becoming professional bread designers besides the servants the Lord needs us to be.