Friday, April 3, 2015

Week 73; March 30, 2015 – A Bowl of Curry and a Measure of Success!

What a great week! We've focused a lot on helping Stefan quit Snus (Smokeless chewing tobacco). It's been great. We gave him the church’s quit tobacco presentation, and he loved it. He agreed with every point and he even got up and flushed a can of Snus down the toilet! We've been going by almost every day and he's doing a great job! He keeps going longer and longer without Snus and he’s almost making it two days at a time now! We know he'll be ready for his baptism soon. His testimony of the Book of Mormon keeps growing and growing.  

We found another great investigator recently.  His name is Jay and he's a convert to Islam who joined because he felt they have a short pathway back to God. He was shocked when we told him prophets exist on earth today and he genuinely started searching to know if it’s true. He's accepted to read the Book of Mormon and he wants to come with us to General Conference.  

Helsingborg District Meeting
We had a super fun district meeting this week. We stayed the night in Helsingborg and Elder Bybee made us his famous fried chicken. All I can say is he's going to be a very successful chef… It was probably the best fried chicken I've ever had!

The next day we had breakfast with the assistants and a convert Elder Noso met when he started his mission in Landskrona. They were the coolest people ever and she made a killer apple pie! We visited for a few hours and held our district meeting at her place! 

Aldste Stoeltzing reading Den Aldste
On Saturday night we had one of the coolest testimony building experiences I've had in a long time. We we're really hungry, so we decided to try some Indian food. The dinner prices were super expensive, so we told the owner we'd come back later. As we we're leaving she shouted, “Wait!” She invited us back in and explained that she met with some missionaries once and she still considered them to be good friends. She said we were the first missionaries she'd seen in over ten years and she wanted us to be her guests that night! She made us curry chicken and told us all about her old missionaries! She invited us to come back whenever we wanted to talk more! This was so cool for me.

Often, missionaries measure their success in the number of lessons they teach or the amount of baptisms they have, and I admit, I'm guilty of that a too. As a result, I sometimes feel like I haven’t been very successful because I haven’t baptized anyone yet and I've worked in some areas where I didn't teach too much. Alicia, the restaurant owner, showed me that success on a mission is as much about making a friend and touching a life, as it is getting a baptism. It took that bowl of curry to help me realize that maybe my mission has meant a lot more than I thought, and hopefully, maybe one of the thousands of people I've met will one day remember me and the message I shared! I’m sure Alicia’s missionaries have no clue she still remembers them, but I'm so grateful for the work they did and for the lesson I've learned from this experience. 

Elder Stoeltzing and Stefan
Church was great on Sunday! Stefan came and he actually surprised us by bringing his girlfriend Elisabeth! They both loved it and felt a warm welcome from the ward. 

It's been a fantastic week and I can't wait for Easter. I hope everyone has a great weekend with family and friends! 

Äldste Stoeltzing 

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