Hey everyone how are you?! So another crazy Swedish week has rolled by
and things are going great! Mom, you were asking about the Swedish
people and why I think it's so hard for them to change and accept the
gospel. Well there are two main reasons that come to mind. One is just
like the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon, they are caught in the wicked
traditions of their fathers. Once upon a time Sweden used to be a very
christian country. You can tell just by looking around each city here,
there are churches everywhere dating back to even the 1600's! But these
past few generations have rebelled against that lifestyle by going the
opposite way. The second reason and probably the bigger reason is
because Swedes are content. They are happy. They make good money, the
government pampers them, they are content in their ways and have
convinced themselves that they are happy so it's hard to open their eyes
and show them that there really is more to be had in this life. They
are a pretty prideful people. The reason the church grows so quickly in
Africa and South America is because the people there are humble. They
don't have much and are willing to accept that there is more to be had.
So yeah, those are my thoughts on it. It is definitely tough to have
been out seven months and not have a single baptism, but it's okay, I
know that as long as I can maybe improve a few people's opinions of the
church then I'm doing my job. About investigators, Jill and Mellie are
doing...well. We had a dinner at a members with Jill this week and
watched the full restoration movie with her. She liked it, but it seems
like all she really got out of it was that Joseph Smith gave all he had
and all he got was a bullet in return. She is very angry with God and
has a lot of "why" questions like "why would God let this or that
happen?" So it's kinda hard to get through to her. Mellie is looking
possibly more positive as of now, she is definitely more humble, but she
is harder to meet with. As for the
mormon.org referral,
her name is Emillie Nilsson-dag. She is really nice and seems pretty
interested but has a hard time meeting with us because she is a college
student in a different city so it's hard to catch her at home. She lives
in Uddevalla(about 30 min away from Trollhättan.) so that's the update
on the work for this week. Things are going forward slowly so that's
good.
This Friday we will have zone conference here in Göteborg,
I'm super excited! We will have personal interviews with President so
I'm hoping to find out what President's plans are for me. If he still
plans on taking me to the office or if I'm staying here for a while.
we'll see. I love Trollhättan but I am definitely ready for a change.
Trollhättan is a really hard ward to be in. To put it bluntly, they
don't really like the missionaries. So it's hard to trust them with our
investigators we bring to church. It's just not a very strong ward so
that makes it hard. That is why me and Elder Saldutti are trying so hard
to strengthen the ward with the PMG lessons. Mom, that is so awesome
about the PMG studies that you are doing now! I love that book and have
such a strong testimony that it is scripture.
Oh man I can't believe that the world series is already almost
here! I don't quite know who to root for Dad, what about you? Let me
know who the final two are and I'll pick from there, haha. That way
I'll have a 50/50 percent chance of getting it right, haha. Good luck
to PG with Bingham! That's always a tough game. Man I miss sports!
Sounds like those chickens turned out great Dad! Man I can't wait to
come home to a smoke master for a dad! I'll never move out. I'm sorry
Dad, but I can't say I'm sorry I'm not there to help you pull up the
garden... haha but I hope it's not too big of a project!
Well fam, I'm gonna head for the week but know that I love you and
miss you all so very much! I am so grateful for my chance to be her in
Sweden! I really do love this place and these people even if it isn't a
very fruitful work. I just revel in the small victories :)
Love you all!-
Elder McKay.