Well the spring is officially here in Sweden! (5/05/15)

SPRING!

Hello Everyone!

Well the spring is officially here in Sweden which means that it rains everyday and sometime we get some sunshine! It is slowing starting to get warmer and warmer, I am liking it a lot! In April, everyone just expects the craziest weather. You can wake up to sunshine, left the apartment and have it pouring and by the time we get somewhere is sunny, then it hails, and then a bit of snow and usually ends the day with some sunshine again.. No one is shocked by this though, it is "just April weather"... Well let just say, I am excited for May! 

This week has been a SERVICE week. We seriously like served more than I probably have ever done before. It was insane but like really fun. So there is a member here that just got married in Switzerland and she was planning on having a reception there for his family and then one here for her family and friends. So that is where we came in. 

One year down!

We had to help turn the gym into a cool place! That took a lot of work. We had a ton of fun doing it. We were invited to the reception and it was really fun. It was a nice dinner and the people there were really funny. I am sure some people were confused as to why there wasn't any alcohol but they seemed to manage to have a good time!

There is a really cool way that Swedish people welcome in Spring! They all gather together and build a huge bonfire! Personally to me it feels like they are doing a Witch burning.. but I just pretend like I get it. It is called Valborg, and on the same day Elder Pearson hit his One Year mark! So we got together and burned his shirt! It was really fun, we did that and went to the big fire! 

Welcoming in Spring!

We had District Meeting Skövde (my first area)  this week! That was super cool, I love going back there because all the memories of that time just flood into my mind and I just love it. We took the chance to be there and visit with some less actives and it was great!! I think it was so great to be there and see the impact I had on those people! I love them so much!

The pulpit in a old church!

So we know this lady named Annika, the lady that we went to gave her a blessing and had a really great experience with a few weeks ago. We went to visit her again this week and she is so cute. She had heard that we thought it was fun to tour little Swedish cities, so to our surprise we got off the train and she had booked us a table at this really fancy restaurant and then planned to go on a mini tour of her little city! She is in her 60's but man she is young at heart! I loved the whole day, she has terminal cancer so it is really interesting to see how she is choosing to live and the attitude she has towards.. Life! I love being around her, we learn so much for each other. That was a great day, all thanks to her!

We can end this with a wonderful time at church. My whole mission, church has always been my favorite activity we do. The members really do become my family, so I love going to church because I just love seeing everyone. This Sunday was even better than normal though, because of the wedding there were SO many people that came! It was awesome. It was testimony meeting and the parents of the groom wanted to bare their testimony so it ended up being me that translated for them from  English to Swedish... It was really funny, I would honestly say of the entire congregation that I spoke for maybe like 5 couldn't understand English. So every time I said something a little different then what they said, everyone got a big smile on their faces and probably thought: "Look how cute he is..." It was pretty fun. 

Skövde in the spring! So cool.

I learned something, or rather I relearned something really basic though, in our investigator class that is taught by our Ward Mission Leader. We talked about trials and how we need them to become like our Heavenly Father. He talked about how The Lord promises us that he will bring us through the trials, and he will provide the strength (assuming we have done our part) to get through them! But I feel like when ever I am in a trial I always pray and ask: "Please take this from me..." or even "why do I have to go through this, take it away due to my obedience and faithfulness.." But after this lesson I realized that is like not the most right thing we can do! We need to pray for strength to be change so we are good enough to overcome the trials so we can GROW. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I look back and I think, had The Lord done what I thought I wanted and taken those hardship from me, I never would have become who I am today! I am love who I am and who I have been molded into by the hands of The Lord and the my trials. We always have a choice, see the good or suffer the bad. When we can recognize the good early on, I generally think life is easier and a whole lot more fun!

I took this exact same picture
as a Greenie!

I love my life as a servant of the Lord, it is hard work but putting a smile on makes it so enjoyable. I am grateful for those who are in my life right now, I am really blessed with some great people! Thank you all!

Hope you all have a great week!

Äldste Farnworth