Monday, July 12, 2010

Is it really "warm" here?? (Monday, July 5)

Kära Familj och Vänner,

It's been a great, and very warm week here in Sweden. We have had several days of about 80 degree weather...which has been quite a surprise. It's actually a little too warm for me...I'm going to die when I get back into that hot, dry, southern Utah weather! Oh well, I don't need to worry about that yet. :)

The work in Uppsala is going well. We are continuing to meet with our investigators and help them move forward in the gospel. Sister Virkamäki and I headed into Stockholm for a Sisters Training at the Mission Home on Monday and Tuesday. It was wonderful. I want to share a little of what I learned there that I really liked:

President Anderson shared a message with us during our training, and one of the things he shared was a story Pres. Packer tells of a trip where they were on a boat going from one island to another...and to enter into the harbor of the island they were approaching, there was only a very small whole in the reef where they could enter with the boat. In order for the boat to know where the little entrance was, there was the lighthouse light at the top...but besides that, there needed to be a lower light that would shine and the captain of the boat needed to line up both of the lights in order to know that he was going in at the right place. Well, in the story, the lower light didn't get turned on because the person in charge of it fell asleep during their watch. As a result, the boat could not enter in at that place, and the boat had to go another 20 miles to another harbor in another part of the island.

With this story, Pres. Anderson compared us as missionaries...or we can say as members of the church...to the lower light. Christ is the upper light that we are all trying to come closer to...or follow, and we as the Lord's servants are the lower light. We are the way in which people come unto Christ. We help people line up their lives so that they can come to Christ through repentance and become perfected in Him. I really liked the analogy he used. We then sang, "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy"...and the lyrics of that hymn are directly connected with the story Pres. Packer tells.

I was really uplifted and motivated by our training last week. We also got to do a session at the temple...it was amazing!!! I realize continually that I still have much to learn about how to be an unwavering, orubblig (unshakable) servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. I continue to stay on watch...and I'm continuing to help others come to Christ.

I'm doing really well here. I hope all of you had a wonderful 4th of July. We were invited to an American woman's house for a little celebration on Saturday, and it was wonderful to get to celebrate...even in another land. We need to all continue to be grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in the USA. It is a choice land.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. To end, I'll share a miracle we were able to see from last week. We had been contacting in the city for quite a while...and it was a pretty rough response...and we were going to take the bus home and went to see how long it would be before the bus would leave. Realizing that we had a 5 min. wait before the bus would come, we decided we would contact on the way to the next bus stop and catch the buss from there. As we started to walk, Sis. V saw two girls headed our way. She stopped them, and as we got talking, we realized that one of them was a girl from Pheonix, AZ visiting her friend Sandra...who is from Uppsala, but had been in Pheonix as an exchange student for 1 year. Not very far into the conversation, Sandra asked us if we were from "Mormonska Kyrka"...we replied yes, and they then preceded to show us their CTR rings. I was like...WHAT?!?! You have CTR rings?? Are you members of the church...and they replied no. Well it turns out that Sandra had been living with an LDS Family in Pheonix, and she got back to Sweden the day before we met her on the street in her home town of Uppsala. We got her phone number and told her that we have a church here. She was very glad to hear that. It was so amazing to have that opportunity to meet them. I pray that we will be able to meet and teach Sandra, and I am very sure that we were an answer to many prayers...that she would be able to find the church when she came back to Sweden. This work is a work of miracles, because it is the work of the Lord.

Have a great week! Take care of yourselves. I can't believe it's July. We have Sharpening tomorrow...with interviews, and I'm sure this week will be full of adventure, and more importantly...with miracles.

Love,
Sister Suzanne Wood

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