Thursday, June 3, 2010

Uppsala (Monday, May 31)

Kära Familj och vänner,

Det har varit en underbar vecka här i Uppsala. Allt gick bra med förflyttningen och vi har en stor lägenhet här...mycket större än lägenheten i Stockholm. Oh...sorry I fogot I need to write this in english...oops! Let me start again. It's been a wonderful week here in Uppsala. Everything went well with the transfer and we have a big apartment here...much bigger than the apartment in Stockholm. Most important thing is not the size of the apartment. I was just used to living in a one room apt. in the city and now we have 2 rooms, a living room, a separate kitchen, etc. It's quite the luxury I am living in here. ;)

I am companions with Sister Virkamäki from Finland. She is a wonderful person and a great missionary. We are getting to know eachother and I'm sure we will continue to be better friends as the transfer goes on. She is very quirky. She loves to read, and loves music as well. We have a lot in common and work hard together. This transfer is going to be one of the best I've had on my mission!

One of the things about Uppsala that is really cool is that it is a University town. There are tons of students to talk to all over the place. The last couple of transfers have really shown a lot of fruits in this area. Right now, we have 15 investigators and between 30-40 potential investigators. There are many people who are interested in learning about the gospel here and we will continue to find more people to teach and help those who are ready to accept the gospel and be baptized. Also, we have 3 people who have been taught and who we are preparing for baptism...Moses, Sulayman, and Elias. We actually committed Elias to baptism my first day here. Awesome!!! Our goal for this week is to teach them all twice and have them all in church next sunday.

We also have a great YSA here. We receive a lot of help from them with teaches, and they have a very strong desire to do missionary work and to help however they can. A few of them are moving home for the summer, so there will only be a few here...but I'm sure it will be great with those that stay. We have a Senior couple here also...the Larson's. They are wonderful people. They will return home in July so we are looking forward to working with them these next couple of months.

The miracle for this week was an utställning (exhibit) we did here in Uppsala on Saturday. It started long before I got here...that the ward wanted to do an exhibit in the city to have people find out more about the church. Then, the YSA's decided that they wanted to help and be a part of it. So, from there the plans were made, a permit paid for, fasting done, and many prayers for us to find someone at that utställning to be baptized that is a YSA. We saw that the weather was not looking very good on Friday evening...so we prayed that the weather would be better on Saturday. Well, Saturday morning came and the weather was not much better. There was rain coming down and no sun came shining. We continued to pray that the sun would come out, that it would warm up...etc. so we would have lots of people to talk to.

10:00am rolled around and it was raining, a little chilly and we were wondering if there would be anybody to talk with out on such a bad day. I know you might all think that what the miracle was...that the sun came out and we talked to 100's of people all morning, etc. Well...that's not quite how it went. Through the entire time, the sun never came out, BUT...there were people to talk to. We talked to those who were out and we met many people who were interested in receiving a Book of Mormon and learning more. We had much success at the exhibit. We have at least 2 potential investigators who are YSA age who are willing to meet and learn more about what we believe.

The moral of the story is...we don't always get answers to our prayers in the way we want them. It's all too often that we pray for the sunshine...when the answer comes that we need to pray for people to talk to no matter the weather. The Lord is aware of us and our needs. He knew who to have out in Stor Torget on Saturday so we could talk to them. He knew that we would still go around and talk to people in the rain. I just have such a strong testimony of the Lord's hand in everything. He answers our prayers...not always in the way we think is best, but we receive what we need.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here. I am looking very much forward to the next weeks of the transfer. We have a lot to do here and many people to touch. I hope all of you have a Wonderful Memorial Day and that all is well wherever you are. Take care and have a great week!

Love,
Sister Suzanne Wood

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