Käre Familj och Vänner,
Jag
ska säga denna ska vara än intressant vecka, för jag ska prata svenska
hela vecka! (translation: this is going to be an interesting week, it's
SYL week!)
No, for real, I am speaking Swedish this whole week. We are
preparing for the lovely new greenies who will be gracing us with their
presence in the middle of this month, so we all need to be on our top
game! May I just say, I am SO glad I am not training this round. Some of
the other people in my group may be, and I feel sorry for them. =)
But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? Hello everyone, and
welcome to another week of my adventures in Borlänge, Sverige! It has
been a wonderfully exciting/exhausting week, and I have about a billion
and a half stories to tell, and I am guessing I will not get to half of
them. So have some patience with me, and I hope you all enjoy the ride!
So to start off, Äldste Anderson is gone. Yes, we sent my
dearly beloved blond friend up to the icy climes of Sundsvall, where he
will surely return a Utah-cicle. It was a sad day on wednesday to see
him go, but such is a missionary's life.
Luckly, I received a companion who is just as cool, if not
cooler. His name is Äldste Hitch, and he hales from the rainy land
Washington (some random town on the peninsula). He has been out just a
little under ten months, and I must say, it is
really hard to understand his Swedish, because up until this point he has served his entire time in southern Sverige, and has a
terribly strong
Skånska accent (the bad birth child of Swedish mixed with Danish).
Luckly for my new companion, he redeems himself with his hilariousness
and his AMAZING musical talent. This guy plays guitar to put Carlos
Santana to shame, sings like a rockstar, and plays the violin like it's
nothing at all! Needless to say, we have a good time.
In fact, we actually had a really fun opportunity with music this
last week: we got invited -well, more like forced- to play for some
drunk partying Swedes in our neighborhood. We were walking home from a
day of swingbys on our newly fixed bikes (I missed biking SO much), and
we passed by these people grilling. They were totally wasted. One of
them stands up and walks over to us and says, in terrible English "Hey,
do you speak English?" We said yes, and he then asked us if we were
priests. We, thinking this could be some kind of bolt out of the blue
blessing, replied that yes, we were priests (after a manner of
speaking). Apparently he was more interested in the guitar attached to
my companion's back, however, and he asked us to come play some music
for his friends and him. We, never being the ones to turn down a contact
(drunk or not) played a couple songs for them: Hallelujah, random songs
about California; basically, the kind of songs that drunk Swedes expect
from musical American traveling priests (I like that title, by the way.
It has a ring to it). After a while, we made an excuse to get away (it
probs didn't look too good with us sitting playing guitar with a bunch
of beer cans sitting everywhere) and proceeded to spend the rest of the
evening laughing our heads off over the whole experience.
Oh, another experience worth noting: I got my first two legit
door slams in Borlänge this week. Sadly enough, they were both less
active members, and both times I only came to give them food and be on
my way. The first was a Chilean woman who rejected a cake I brought for
her birthday. I was rather upset about that for a while. Seriously, who
rejects cake on their birthday?! The second was a woman who turned down
free cookies that we had spent all morning making. I'll admit, I wanted
to just hand them to the kids who were playing outside, but I thought
that probably wasn't the best idea. So yes, a little bit of rejection
this week, but I think I'll live. (Oh, and if by some strange twist of
fate this email reaches rejecter #2, those cookies were
delicious, and made with Marabou chocolate in them. Your loss)
One more thing that we had this week was a baptism! Now,
before you get all excited, it was a 8 year old from Utah who was
visiting Sverige with his family. His great-great grandfather came from
Dalarna, so they decided to have the baptism here in one of the lakes.
It was a wonderful experience. That boy was glowing, and also slightly
frozen. =) It was a really fun experience. Also, he's from Sandy, and
his parents know Grandma and Grandpa Ogaard. Small Mormon world. lol
(For Grandma and Grandpa, it's the Johnson Family, and I believe the
father's name is Bryce)
Lets see, anything else? Nope I don't think so. That is, unless you all consider important
the
broadcast from the General Authorities of the Church backing up
everything I've said about member missionary work for the past 4 months. Not
going to lie, I felt pretty dang good after watching that broadcast; it
was really a testimony to me that my focus on less actives and
strengthening and encouraging our wards is the key to success in
missionary work right now. I know many of my missionary friends have
already said this to all of you, but please, please, please pray to see
who you can share the Gospel with. I have a statistic for you: of those
contacted by the missionaries alone, 1 in 1000 will become a member.
When missionaries teach with a member, however, 1 in 3 becomes a member
of Christ's church and follow his example. Think about it: when you
invite people into your homes so they can see the blessings of the
Gospel in your lives, it has a profound impact on them. In fact, I would
ask you all to watch this video and then follow what it shows. I really
love this, and I think it teaches a lot.
http://bcove.me/1ah4fj3u
We are disciples of Christ. We are not out to increase number in our
church, we are out to invite people to follow Him, and the Spirit will
testify of that. Show all the love of Christ, and be an example of the
believer. Miracles will happen.
I love you all, I miss you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week.
Sincerely,
Äldste Kody Christopher Ogaard
No comments:
Post a Comment