Monday, January 11, 2016

I'm Blue

HELLO. How are you guys doing? Everything is going well here in K-Stad.

Last P-Day we went to Malmö and it was really fun. It's beautiful down there. :) And on Tuesday we went on splits. I learned a lot. It was the best splits I've been on. Sister Lindsay is really humble and she just sincerely wants to be good. You seriously don't have to say a word to teach someone. 

_____ and ____ are doing really well. We think they will absolutely love church but she can't really come because she is SUPER pregnant. They are progressing really well though. We had a great lesson with ____ too. She was so funny. "I really want to come to church when you guys come over but when Sunday comes the devil makes me not want to go.... what do I do?" So we helped her with that, because it's a real concern! We met with Omar, too, with the Sandelins. They are really great for member presents, and are absolutely hilarious. We taught him about Christ and invited him to read the Book of Mormon daily and pray in the name of Christ, which is REALLY hard for muslims. But he said he will try it and I really hope he feels the spirit as he does it, because he really wants to know the truth. He's a great guy. But then the Sandelin boys chased us with snowballs all the way to the train station. And Naxhea is also doing great. It's her birthday today so we visited her and met her daughter. 

And then, Elder Duke wrote out the story with ____ really well... so I will just copy and paste that. It's incredibly eye opening and sad... but I'm just SO glad we know him and get to help him... although I feel like he is teaching me way more than I can ever teach him.

"We have a new investigator, named Ihsan. He is from a war torn country and is 65 years old. We met him on Christmas Eve, on our way to the Sandelins. We were walking towards their house with the sisters, then all of a sudden Ihsan and his friend walked up to us and asked us "Do you have a holy book in Arabic?" We were taken aback a bit, but then we said yes we have one, just not with us, (it had been the first day that Elder Payne didn't have it in his backpack the whole transfer) but we could meet with him and give him one. His friend translated for him, because he can't speak Swedish and he speaks only very little English. We gave him our card, and he walked away. Then he walked back and the sisters asked if they could exchange numbers with him. Last week while we were out contacting, we ran into him again and asked how he was doing, and if he would like to hear more of our message, using google translate on our phone. He told us that he was just about to meet with the sisters, and invited us along. We asked the sisters if we could come too, and they said sure, so with an arabic translator on the phone, we taught him the restoration. He loved it, and wanted to be baptized, so we set up a date for the 6th of February! He said he was very excited to come to church the next day! He came to church and loved it. We translated for him on the phone the whole time, and he cried because he felt the spirit so strongly. He speaks fluent Russian, and the return missionary from Russia in our branch was in Finland at the time, but we set up a time for us to meet with him to have a lesson in Russian, but the Sisters couldn't come at that time, so they said we could just teach him. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he loved it. We told Fredrik afterwards that he is the Sisters' investigator, and he said it would probably be better if we taught him, because if Fredrik were to come to the lessons, it would be a lot harder for the sisters to set up the lesson, due to rules with genders. We talked it over with the sisters, and they decided it would be fine if we taught him, but we still felt a little bad because we were stealing their investigator... Anyways, he had us over for an Arabic dinner, and made us lots of food. It was... arabic. I decided to not question what I was eating. It was great though. He told us a lot about his background. In Syria, he was the minister of the University of Damascus. He had studied for many years in Russia, and thus can speak great Russian. In Syria, his family was very influential. He talked about having a five story house with lots of gold and hired assistance. But one day, a group of 'bandits' as he called them, blew up his house. They killed his entire family, included extended family, and took his children prisoner. They came to the university and kidnapped him also, wanting him to do some 'behind the law ' work, but he wouldn't do it, so they took him to a prison and kept him prisoner for 42 days, where he never saw sunlight and they beat him twice a day. It was awful. He was forced to give them all his money, and they let him go, but he never got his kids back. They, too, were killed. He says that he looks forward to baptism because it really is a  new life as a follower of Christ. He is so grateful for the opportunity we have to live with our families forever. He has a very sad story, but he is always happy! He is such a great example of how attitude plays a large role in our lives. He thanks us every time we see him for the opportunity we have given him to learn of the gospel and feel the peace and joy that it brings."

You guys, he's amazing. I love him so much. I gave a talk in church and I talked about him a bit. I talked about coming to know Christ. I get so flippin' nervous but I really do like giving talks once I am standing up there. I hope it helped someone.

I also got a hair cut from a cute member in the ward. Umm.. district meeting was also hilarious. We decided to all wear the same color and have the same hair. And we wrote raps about faith. It was also spiritual, I promise haha. 

I think that's about it for this week. I am still loving it here. This ward is amazing and so helpful. Transfer calls are coming on Saturday and I am really feeling like Sister Woolsey and I will stay together. I super hope so. I love her. 

Did you guys listen to the CES fireside with Elder Nelson? I really want to read that.

Well, I love you guys! I hope you all have an amazing week and I will attach some pictures. 

Syster Stetler




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