Week 44

Subject: Keep Jesus in Your Heart

Dear everyone,

Well, it's been a week. Quite a week. Everything has been picking back up again and we are feeling really excited about this next week. We have a baptism on Saturday for the Mongolian orphan who just moved up to our area. 'His people' as he calls them gave him permission to come to church on his own, and he is really excited about everything. The elders who taught said that when they found him, he had already read the Book of Mormon all the way through and knew it was true. They've been mostly teaching him with the pamphlets since neither his English nor his Swedish are very good. He didn't want translation in church, though, so he must be learning Swedish quickly.

We had a couple of crazy days last week. On Friday we met with two theology students. They were very respectful and open and have recently put their studies on hold because they are exploring the concept of discipleship. We didn't get to talk long about their new plans for the future, but they aren't sure the path they were on was right. More on that next week. We went from them to another Swedish kid who grew up in the Pentecostal church. It was cool hearing him describe the Spirit as that warm feeling you get when you pray sometimes. Also open and pretty cool. Right after we had a lesson on the restoration of the gospel and half of the plan of salvation with a group of mortuary students. Also open, interested, and respectful. 3 for 3! It was great.

On Saturday we went to go visit our new investigator from Cameroon and it went ok. He needs to think about the pre-mortal existence a little more. It was a little too much to swallow. But, when we were done, there was this guy who sat down and asked us who we were and what we were talking about. (We were in the kitchen of a dorm) After we told him he was still really interested in learning more and coming to activities. He and his friend both wanted us to give them a call the next time we'd be back. It was awesome! They are both from Pakistan. Then that night we had a really powerful lesson with another Muslim from Pakistan who wanted to know more about Jesus Christ. He felt something and knew what we were saying was true.

Well, as far as funny things this week, I think the only big thing was this guy who started preaching to us by the bathrooms in the train station. He said he was impressed with us because we were wearing skirts. He asked us if we had Jesus in our hearts and when I said yes started preaching to us about how important that was and how to do it. I told him we were missionaries and we gave him our card. "Keep Jesus in your heart!" He told us. I wanted to point out that I do that literally because I was wearing a name tag with His name on it, but I didn't. We saw him the next day on a train station and he said he wanted to read us a scripture that would open my heart in a new way. It was the scripture from Matthew about a man cleaving unto his wife and them becoming one flesh. I tried to show him a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he refused to even touch the book. He started preaching to us on a train full of people about how it was evil to practice polygamy. I asked him if we could do this later and he left us alone. I didn't want to be responsible for being another example to the Swedish people to support their views that religion only causes conflict. He told us he thought it was a sign he had seen us again that he needed to save our souls. Anyway, that's probably pretty standard other places, but i haven't run into here very often.

So, basically, a great week with lots of fun people. Today I'm sitting with Sis Waite, a sister missionary whose husband is gone for the day. She fell and cracked her kneecap on the ice. I hope everyone is doing well and that I haven't forgotten anyone or anything. Love you all!

Syster Maxwell