Gratitude Changes Attitude

Good Luck Henry!!

 -_- TAIWAN!?!?!? OKAY. On Tuesday morning we got up and went running and then came back and I meditated for 15 minutes and then got in the shower and then realized: HENRY WAS SUPPOSED TO OPEN HIS CALL LAST NIGHT! So I jumped out of the shower and ran to the phone and saw that we had four missed calls from Isam and three text messages from Senja and Isam! But before reading the messages I called Isam and he put Henrys call video on speaker phone so that is how I found out! I literally screaammeed. I can't believe he is going to TAIWAN speaking CHINESE!!! Except I can believe it because I knew he would go somewhere Asian. Later that day we taught our investigator Grace, from Mainland China and I told her about Henry and she said that one of her best friends here in Sweden is from Taiwan! She said we could meet up so that she can tell me about it. Chinese is going to be a hard language but YOU CAN DO IT. I couldn't... but you can! I am so proud of you Henry and your desire to serve a mission. We won't see each other for three and a half years- which kills me to think about but I know it will be okay. It has already been ONE YEAR (almost) ;). It will be so fun for me to watch you grow and experience the mission lyfffeee. 

This past week has been pretty rough- trying to get the motivation to get up and get to work. We have both been pretty drained and exhausted but we continue to work and we have been blessed. I wish I had time to go through every miracle and blessing that we saw and received this week... We were kept busy and received a lot of success. One of which was that we found a book of Mormon for our investigator Goltom. In Eretria there is one language but so many dialects but the book of Mormon that we found was in Amharic and he can read and understand it. When we handed it to him he was SO grateful and excited. At the end of that lesson we committed him to be baptized on March 29th. He wants to be baptized but he was a little nervous about setting a date- I told him that the date can always change if it needs to be, but that it at least gives us a goal to work towards so that he can be prepared and get all of the lessons in time.

Maria after the spray down

One day this week, we went out to a member's house to help her clean her mom's bathroom. The mom lives next door to her and is also a member- she is so old and so sweet. She just moved in and the person that lived in the house before, smoked, so there was yellow nicotine stains ALL over the walls and ceiling. I mean... could you not... It was so disgusting. We just pulled up or sleeves and got to work- scrubbing nicotine off of the walls :) hahahaha. Luckily the Swedish showers are just part of the bathroom so after we scrubbed we sprayed down the whole thing and there was yellow drips falling down from the ceiling- but we got it all clean and it was actually really fun! 

Nicotine drips

Afterwards we were talking to the mom- Maryvore, and she picked up a picture of her husband and her sitting by the bed side of their youngest daughter, feeding her. She hugged the picture and said "I miss them so much." Her husband died two years ago and her daughter died when she was 28. I picked up another picture of the daughter and Maryvore starting tearing up and kept repeating "She was so beautiful... I love her. She was so beautiful." It made me tear up as I looked at this girl in the picture- her disability was apparent but she looked like an angel.

"E" och vän och babies

I don't think I have been more aware and appreciative of the plan of salvation than I have this past week. I know that we will all be reunited together again. This hope alone gives me the energy to get out of bed each morning and do what I have been sent here to do. Yesterday we went to Elder Bailey's Memorial service. It was . . . perfect- if you can say that about a memorial. President Newell got up and read Elder Bailey's last journal entry- which happened right after he had his first baptism. He expressed how happy he was... and then bore the sweetest testimony. He ended by saying that he loves his family and that he knows they will live together forever. It was so fitting for him to read that. We all gained comfort from his words, knowing, that he was prepared to pass onto the next life. I don't think there was not one person who was not in tears. All of the missionaries that were able to attend stood up and we sang "Blott en dag ett ögon blick i sänder". It was a very sweet and tender experience. 

Anderson, Hosenfeld, LaFontaine and Adelide

It was also a very fun weekend for me because Sister Hosenfeld and her companion, Sister Anderson got to come and spend the night with us on Saturday! We just RAN to each other when we were picking them up. It was so fun to be with her. I think we both realized how much we love each other and loved our time together in Halmstad. It was fun to catch up and talk about everything. I am happy that I got to train her. They were supposed to head home yesterday after the memorial, but we missed our train and waited for two hours and then when we went to get on the train, they told us that our tickets wouldn't work... so we waited TWO MORE hours for another train! And then they ended up having to spend another night with us- but it was very fun. :)

Halmstad Reunion

This week, along with being very tired, I have also been pretty impatient with myself because I make SO many mistakes... I often feel discouraged for what I am putting forth. I feel like I am being judged and I feel far from PERFECT. But today I am grateful for those feelings because they keep me humble. They help me to realize that I always have something to work on. Every day I can try a little harder to PUT OFF THE NATURAL MAN. This is something that I love about missionary work. Our work is centered on INVITING. Inviting all to come unto christ. Inviting all to put off the natural man. Inviting ALL to repent. I am constantly falling- (getting offended, sinning, acting or talking without thinking etc.) 

And I get DISCOURAGED but this week I have gained a testimony that getting discouraged is not what matters. What matters is how long you stay discouraged or angry and then HOW you decide to get back up and try again. I am grateful that Heavenly Father allows us to fall -- because by falling I learn how to get up again. And by falling I learn how to repent. I am grateful that when I have an angry or frustrated thought- I have the choice to act on it OR... to quickly bow my head and ask for forgiveness and help to overcome.

I have ALSO noticed this week that I am not constantly focusing my thoughts on gratitude- which makes my whole attitude change. I get stressed, I don't notice small blessings, I complain, and I am not happy. I believe that GRATITUDE is the root of happiness. I believe that when we have a grateful heart, we notice the beauty of every day life- the silver lining around the clouds on a dark and rainy day. Gratitude CHANGES attitude. So... my goal for this week, along with so many others... is to focus on being grateful- which in turn will help me to be patient and humble.
I love you all.

Love, me. 

doing peace to the lady walking by ahhaha awekwarierd