sea2swe: Acting in all Diligence

Good day y'all!

This week has been very interesting with plenty of ups and downs to fill ya in on. The assistants extended a challenge to us at the beginning of the week to work to get a baptismal date with someone this week, so Elder Scott and I rolled our sleeves up and got to work.

On monday we helped Sister Wrang move down to Lund and had dinner with the stake patriarch in the evening so we managed to squeeze emailing in there somewhere and everything else we had to get done.

Tursday we had a good lesson with Bai and Terry in their chinese shop talking about Lehi's dream. We had a lesson with our investigator Joe with a member present and honestly it was a disaster...We made it halfway through reading 3 Nephi 11 before they just started going at it arguing about the Godhead and faith and the Plan of Salvation and they Spirit was long gone. We tried to butt in but it was hopeless, we eventually just cut, said we had to go, held a prayer and left. I'm so glad I don't have to resort to that as a missionary. Kent an excommunicated member we had a lesson with blåsted on us so we did some contacting and taught a few lessons on the street.

Wednesday we had a quick visit with Örjan then rushed to the train station to catch a bus to Bishop's house out in the country near Höganäs. Bishop has such a sweet cozy house with lots of natural light looking out over the ocean. I gotta have a room like the Swedes all have, full windows and tons of natural light but still inside and climate controlled and comfy couches and stuff, so nice. We had a super good talk with Bishop about how we can better help the ward and are excited about applying his suggestions. We had a trettondedags jul party with the ward which is pretty much 13 days after christmas you dance around the tree and throw it out (literally) and eat some fika. Joe came so that was good! We called potential investigators at night and set up some good lessons later in the week and next week!

Thursday we got blåsted by two potential investigators in the afternoon so we did some contacting instead and caught up on the 12 week program. We had the most ridiculous night getting to a member dinner outside of Helsingborg,we took the wrong bus, got off at what we thought was the right bus stop but wasn't, couldn't find her address (obviously) then called the member and as we were talking our phone died! So we finally figured it out after walking around in the cold for a half hour and hopped on another bus and was there an hour and a half late! And she'd invited her friend for us to teach so we felt pretty bad! The dinner went well though and we were able to have a good lesson with her friend Ella who's turning 90 this year and still going strong. We gave her Alma 40 to read and pray about.

Friday we had a super interesting discussion with Bai and Terry about foods compared between China, America and Australia. America totally wins! But apparently in China at KFC all the guys have black buns like for chicken burgers and all the girls get pink buns, I guess they use food coloring? Sounded interesting though. We had dinner at the Svensson's then straight to innebandy which made for some sucky cardio running around on a very full stomach but still a good time!

Saturday we prayed and thought a lot about it and decided going to Påarp and our potential investigators was the best way to get a baptismal date. Two of them weren't home and Tommy was heading out to see his daughter so we planned to be in Påarp 3 hours teaching people and were standing there on the street in the freezing cold with 2 hours 45 minutes left. We prayed about it and decided to stick around and tract. The last house we knocked, 5 minutes before our train pulled up, we got something! Dan answered and was interested so we taught him about the Book of Mormon and testified and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back! We both agreed that was worth missing our train for and having to wait another hour for our next train. We took dinner and ate at the only restaurant in this small little town, Påarp Pizzeria. Now was the time to shine, two potential investigator lessons at night, lets get that dop date! We head off to Mohammed the first lessons and he's a hardcore old muslim from Palestine that just tried to bash on Christianity and convert us. It was a waste of time so we left just to see a text from our next lesson saying he couldn't make it. We're pretty desperate so we call every possible person we could get a baptismal date with but nothing's going through so we end up having to call it a night at 9.

Sunday we had normal church and a member dinner at the Wikströms which left us minimal time to meet with people. We set up a lesson with a positive potential investigator so the plan was to ride back to central station and bus it to her place and commit her to baptism. She blåsted on us on the bus ride to the train station so we were pretty bummed. We were just standing at the bus stop trying to figure out what to do when Zumbulka comes up and asks us if we're with the Mormon church. We get super excited and talk to her, she's met with missionaries before and we're so desperate that we ask her to be baptized. She doesn't say no but she doesn't say yes but she gave us her number and wanted us to come by. We'll take it!

This week was full of prayers and while we may not have accomplished the challenge, we did our very best and left the rest in the Lord's hands which resulted in a feeling of peace and satisfaction looking back on this week instead of disappointment and regret.

Mycket kärlek,

Äldste Hainsworth

p.s. It came up a while back that Elder Scott uses shampoo and soap to shower every few weeks, he showers daily, it's just more of a rinse you know. He says it's the way to do it in Australia and better for your hair so I've officially not used shampoo for a week, just a good rinse and my hair is doing great!

So blessed to be serving here!

Father son bonding (from Sherri (mom): I reminded Tenny that when he had his pre-mission physical that proteins were found in his urine a few times. The Dr. traced it back to him taking protein powders before going to the gym. She told Tenny that taking those was never a good idea & that he should stop. So....I hope these boys are just messing around in a store & didn't bring these huge packages home!)