Stoeltzing Surfing Stockholm

Week 15 - February 17, 2014 - Magic Happens

Great week! We started with our usual P-day meet-up in Göteborg last Monday and, believe it or not, I'm no longer the newest missionary in Sweden!  There are two newer missionaries in the area now. I can't believe that an entire group has gone through the MTC since I left! They are both really cool guys and I'm glad to finally have other missionaries that are where I am with my Swedish language skills... Just beginning!  

Romanian Street Performer in Goteborg - Floating in air!

While we were in town, we saw a Romanian street performer that looked like he was holding a pole and floating in the air. There is a new dude on it every time we go to town doing magic for donations. We also found a cool shack when we went to visit a less-active member. The GPS said he lived in Kungsbacka, but little did we we know, he lived way out in the sticks of Kungsbacka, but we had a really cool drive out there. This old shack was behind their house. 

Quaint Country Cottage in Kungsbacka

Elder Miles has been trying to get me to do more solo contacts to practice my Swedish. It's helped me a lot but, the first one I tried this week became sort of a train wreck. It went something like this (translated to English):

Me - "Hey, we are missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ and we have a message about how Jesus Christ can help us find happiness in our lives.  Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?"  

Contact - "Yeah" 

Me - "That's great! How have you seen Jesus Christ help you in your life?"  

(What I Thought He Said) - "Jesus Christ caught my attention and I have faith in him."

(What he actually said) - "Well I think Jesus caught a lot of peoples attention, but I don't think he was anything special."  

Me - "Super cool!"  

(What I thought he said) - "So how long have you been speaking Swedish?"

(What he actually said) - "So, how many people have you stopped like this today?"  

Me - "Well I've only been speaking Swedish for about two months, so I'm not that great but he (Elder Miles) has been in Sweden for almost a year so he's really good! You should talk to him!"  

And then somehow Elder Miles salvaged it and we ended-up getting the guy's number, so it will be interesting to see how that lesson goes. The rest of my contacts have been going really well though. To practice, we sometimes split-up apartment complexes, so I have been able to set a few appointments on my own... It's getting better! 

Contacting people door-to-door in Kungsbacka

Really cool experience this week. We got stood-up at a teaching appointment at the train station, but we found this awesome South American lady to teach. We invited her to church and she committed to come. In missionary work, it's often true that at the times you are the most frustrated you finally run into the right people.  

Yvonne, the lady we met at the train station, was the first investigator we've ever had to church. She took a bus for 45 minutes to get there, so it meant a lot to us that she she made the effort to come. We saw another guy that we had contacted in the middle of the week walk into church when we drove up as well. We both had forgotten his name and we never would have guessed he would actually come to church. He stayed for an hour and we hope to work with him next week. It was a great Sunday and it was great to finally see people coming to church after all the hard work we've put in.

 I'm loving my mission and can't wait for another great week!  

-Äldste Stoeltzing