Week
95; September 7, 2015 – From Blood Pudding to Buzz Cuts to Blues Brothers
We have
had some crazy stuff happen this week in some of the best and worst ways
possible… I'll get the worst out of the way first.
Has anyone ever heard of
Blood Pudding before? Well, If you haven't, it's exactly what it sounds like,
pudding made out of pigs blood and it's an old Swedish classic. I’ve been able
to avoid it for 22 months, but our very unamusing friend, Stellan, thought it
would be fun to serve it to us and watch us squirm. It was nasty beyond
all nastiness, and an experience I absolutely don't recommend! Aside from that,
the rest of the week was crazy good!
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| Trying a Swedish delicacy, Blood Pudding! |
After we taught Mattias
an amazing lesson, we realized that we hadn’t been focusing on Christ enough. So,
we watched a lot of the “Life of Christ” videos with him and answered a lot of
his questions. Finally the subject of baptism came up. It took some time, but
we addressed his concerns and Mattias accepted a new baptismal date for December!
We were so excited and we know he will be ready this time!!!
We helped one of our
favorite families replace some insulation and then we ate some oven-baked
pancakes which is pretty similar to German pancakes if anyone’s had those
before. Their kids are awesome too and we had fun chasing them around for
a while, they love it when we come over… It’s the best!
Later that week we went
into McDonald’s and a lady followed us in. She said she loved Mormons and
missed talking to them and we hope to meet with her again this week!
Wednesday was really scary…
We needed haircuts and our new Serbian investigator was offering cheap haircuts
in his basement. I told him that I wanted it short on the sides but nothing
like a “zero.” His first cut was very very short and he saw that I was a
little worried. But, he thought I had said that I wanted “zero” on the
sides... His Swedish isn't very good and he got a little confused. I was
terrified, but he actually salvaged it and gave me one of the best haircuts
I've had in Sweden!
 |
| Looking good! |
We had a supper deep
talk with some Jehovah’s Witnesses this week, but on the way to their house we
saw a walker go flying into the street. We looked behind us and saw that a
drunk man had collapsed flat on his face in the street. We helped him up, he
was very, very heavy, but he was thankful. The meeting with the JW's went
good they were surprised how well I knew the Bible. We had a very
respectful conversation and even if they never convert, I am happy to know that
they were able to hear about the gospel from a new perspective that turned-out
to be really cool actually.
Thursday was
really cool too. I felt worried about going back home and adjusting as a
returned missionary. We came back early to start on weekly planning and I just
couldn't focus. I thought even if I don't know if I can be what I want to be
when I get home, I can still make a difference out here. So, I prayed and said,
“God, I don't feel right about staying in right now, we are going to this part
of town, so please put prepared people in our path.” We ended-up getting a phone
number from almost everyone we talked to that night and we had some of the best
finding results I've experienced in months. I know miracles happen and I know
this is the Lord’s work!
Friday was my last zone conference. We
heard a really cool presentation about Sweden’s first missionary who baptized
17 people in a week. Yes, it is possible! Later, President Beckstrand gave
an amazing talk on becoming a “Preach My Gospel” missionary. He has been
an awesome president and this was one of his best messages about the power that
comes from that simple little book, and we felt really motivated to share it!
The day ended pretty weird
when we gave what is called our farewell testimonies, and it was pretty
scary. Since this was the last zone conference the departing missionaries
will attend before they go home, all the members of my group shared their parting
testimonies. Although I tried to gather my thoughts, I couldn't think of
anything to say beforehand, so just tried to speak from my heart and I’m happy
with what I said. I would write about it now, but don't want to spoil my
homecoming talk in 7 weeks!
Afterward, I went on
splits with my old MTC companion, Elder Brown and we helped a family move.
 |
| Working with Elders Brown and Israelsen |
When Elder Blackburn and
I got back we went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant and met a cool guy from
Nepal that gave us his email address and invited us to hike in the Himalayas
with him… We hope to take him up on the offer someday!
Sunday was the
coolest! On the way back from teaching a less-active guy, a man yelled at
us while we were walking. He was doing construction work on his house, but said
he wanted to talk. He wanted to know how we manage to pay for our missions
and Elder Blackburn mentioned he did some construction work prior to leaving.
The man thought that was cool, so he showed us the projects he was doing on his
house and we saw a big poster of a guitar. Well, one thing led to another, and
it turned out that he had a music studio and he was a blues organist. We ended-up
recording a little bit with him and he thought we were awesome! He was so impressed,
he listened to our lessons and he invited us back!
 |
| The Boras Blues Brothers! |
It’s been an amazing
week and it’s sad there's only seven more to go! Thanks for reading each
week and for all the support everyone gives me. I love you guys so much and I
love this work!
Äldste Stoeltzing
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