Week 61

Subject: The blessings of consecration

Hejsan allihopa,

So, this has been quite the week. We saw so many miracles this week. We found a guy from Brazil who has a friend on a mission in Australia, so he was excited to meet with us. He hardly speaks English, but we can fill in the gaps with Spanish and we have a Brazilian lady who can help as well.

On Saturday, we saw part of the Göteborg half marathon. We were there when the first runners came by. They were mostly Kenyans and broke the course record with 1:00:02. They all looked so pretty like they could run that fast all day. It was cool to see live. They run the race all through down town Göteborg. There were maybe 45,000 participants and all the public transportation was closed down. Getting home was fun, but it worked out. I think it would be fun to run someday.

That evening we met a guy from Nigeria who seemed really positive at first, but then his questions got more and more accusing and pointed, until we were defending our faith and the fact that we actually do follow Jesus Christ. We couldn't get him to end the flow of questions and ended up getting home late. On the way home, the drunk who we'd met with once before (he was sober at the time), happened to be on the tram with his Indian friend who was also drunk. I decided it was a tender mercy. Put me in a much better mood. His friend told us all about Mormons, and the first guy told me how much he liked me, patted me on the head, and blew me a kiss as the tram pulled away when we got off. They made me laugh and the positive sentiments about our faith lightened my mood. I love the people we meet!

We also met, R, a PhD candidate from India. He didn't show up to an appointment on Sunday with us, but he came on Tuesday. The Spirit was so strong and he was so ready to hear and accept our message. He agreed to meet again on Thursday, and when he came on Thursday, we found out that he knows a guy who just got baptized in the Utby ward from cricket (they play on Saturdays. We're going next Saturday!). In the teach, the Spirit was again there in abundance and he gladly agreed to be baptized. The 4th felt like the right date. I didn't realize until after that it's really only 2 weeks away. Ah!

On Friday we had a nice chat with Z about everything going on in his life, and during the opening prayer, I felt prompted just to go ahead and ask about how he felt about baptism. He said, 'I was going to ask you about that. What does someone need to do to get ready?' We were overjoyed and he is enthusiastic about the idea. We are praying really hard he gets his driver's license the first go around because the classes are keeping him from coming to church. When we got home that night, as we knelt in prayer, I got a strong impression that these are the blessings of consecration. I want to continue to put off my own desires to help those who are here. This is my time to serve and I am so grateful for it. Love you all!

Syster Maxwell