power of prayer

HI!

Dearest everyone,

THANK YOU MOM FOR THE PACKAGE! And thanks to the Lowe's again for bringing it to me! It was so fun to meet Sister Lowe's parents and that Isam could come as well! We have all been enjoying the treats etc. that you gave me. Maybe a little too much. :) The Elders in Örebro told me that a package came for me in Örebro- I don't know who its from but they picked it up for me and I should be getting it from them next week at a zone training. But THANK YOU to whoever sent it to me!

At the beginning of last week, I went on splits to Gävle with a Sister who is being trained. It was fun to be in the city where my fourth great grandpa was from! There is a statue of John Forsgren in "old gävle" that I went and got a picture by. The whole time I thought it was Peter Forsgren (my direct relative) but then as I was looking at the pictures, I realized it was his brother hahaha but still cool.

Sister Anderson and I have THE BEST companionship. We work so well together and have the most spiritual conversations. It is the greatest thing in the world. This week we went tracting for two hours in the rain and we had some really cool conversations with some people. One of which, was with an old lady, Doris and her husband Olle. 

They have heard about the church before and weren't interested in learning but they gave us their number and told us to call them sometime to come and have dinner. So we called them on Saturday and they said, "come over for lunch tomorrow!" So after church we went over and had a delicious lunch with them. They are the biggest sweethearts and I love them. She bought me gluten free cookies and bread. :) And they dropped us off at the train station afterwards and said "We love you our dear children!" And they want us to go have a pic nick with them some time. We were able to talk to them about the church and they actually ended up being interested! But more than anything, we were so grateful to be invited into their home. I feel like they are my grandparents.

We called Sister Hosenfeld and her companion this week to set up going on splits and Sister Hosenfeld said, "SYSTER CHRISTENSEN!!??" 
Me: yes... 
Hosie: I thought you went home!?? 
Me: What do you mean? I have two months left! 
Hosie: I found a paper with your name on it along with all of the missionaries who just went home in Sister Lowe's group -with all of your information and picture and everything! HAHAHAHA. Someone made me a departure thing and so Sister Hosenfeld thought that I just randomly went home from my mission early! So funny.

Last week I told you about the two guys who said that they of course wanted to meet with us two... well it turns out that they are actually our most sincere and progressing investigators! Their names are Ashti and Lawrence and they are so sick (great). We taught both of them the restoration together and then we taught Ashti the plan of salvation a couple days later. He said that he started reading the Book of Mormon and had four sticky notes filled with questions that he had. He also read about the word of wisdom etc. and said that he really likes it and that it makes sense. Sister Anderson and I were just smiling ear to ear the entire lesson. He is super funny and very smart (at law school). They both came to church on Sunday along with three other investigators! We are being so blessed right now. I can't handle it! Just kidding, I can. And it's awesome. Mohamed is still doing well. We meet with him often and he is praying about a new baptismal date.

Sister Anderson and I have the greatest companionship studies. We are both learning so much from each other as we talk about all that we are learning in our personal studies. We are so weird but we get so into it and at the end of each of our conversations we are like: THE CHURCH IS TRUE and we get so excited to throw on our back packs and head out the door. 

This week I studied a lot about prayer. It interested me to study about it more in depth as I read a little bit about prayer from a book that dad sent me. It says "You might try asking God for specific problems you have. This is good. Or, better, you might try asking God to help you help someone else with a specific problem. Or also, excellent, you might try expressing gratitude. The more specific you can be and the less your prayers are about you, the better they'll be. Prayer deepens as it moves from self- concern to service to gratitude." It also says "Talking is just half of the prayer. The other half is LISTENING... note which feelings you have and which impressions come and then act." I LOVED THAT. And I decided to change the way I say my prayers. It is hard to imagine at times, that God is really there and really listening. But when I imagine or picture him sitting across from me as I tell him about my life, concerns, and situations, it makes it so much easier for me to then sit, and listen for the answers. He always answers our prayers- so maybe sometimes we are the ones not listening. 

One day we headed out to a less active's house hoping that she would be home. She wasn't. So we decided to go tracting for an hour or so. We knocked on a lot of doors. One door we knocked on was to a lady from Ethiopia who said no and then went inside and we could hear her and others laughing at us. Sister Anderson and I looked at each other and smiled and started singing "We are as the Army of Helaman" as we walked to the next door. It made me sad but also so grateful to keep moving forward to finding the one who is prepared. After tracting we went back to the less actives and knocked on her door. She still wasn't home. As we were walking away, I said a simple prayer of hope that we would be able to see Maria and teach her. The spirit confirmed to me that we would. As we were walking to the bus stop she pulled into the parking lot and we had a beautiful lesson with her on the power of prayer. We all learned a lot from that experience. I know God answers our prayers. I know he is mindful of all of us and our needs big or small.

the elders walked by us as we were contacting hahaha

We got contacted by a guy this week who is actually from Utah but is living in Södertälje. He was a missionary here in Sweden and is living here with his wife and kids. We asked him how he enjoys the ward in Södertälje and he said that he is actually an "atheist" now. We were shocked and sad- it is so sad to see people falling away especially after serving the Lord and seeing miracles everyday that show that the church is true. 

The next day I was reading Alma 30:39 and 40 about Korihor and how he says "he always knew there was a Christ" after he had denied Christ and brought so many away from the truth. Sister Anderson and I talked about how scary Satan is and how he can deceive us into believing and desiring things that seem pleasing to the carnal mind. So how do we avoid falling like Korihor? We continue to do the simple things. We pray and read the scriptures everyday. EVERYDAY? YES everyday. We don't read anti-mormon things. We serve and love and continue to apply Christ's atonement to our lives everyday. When we are doing those things, there is no way that the devil can get into our hearts and lead us astray. 

I wish I had more time to write. I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS! But we have Family Home Evening right now and we have been in Stockholm all day! I love you all. Thank you for your letters. I AM SO BLESSED WITH AMAZING FRIENDS AND FAMILY!! Thank you for the support.

Love, Adelide

Ps. We had about 20 people at soccer the other night. Soccer... ya not my thing. I just kind of stood there and cheered everyone on hahaha but hey- at least I tried! And it is so fun to be able to do these activities in the summer. We got investigators, less actives and members there! IT was sweet!

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! puss och kram (kisses and hugs)