Week 40 - Hej Hej Borås

Week 40 - Hej Hej Borås


​​​​​​​​​​Alright so this week was full of surprises.

First surprise was that this super nice family invited us to spend midsummer with them. Midsummer here is second only to Christmas and we got the day off from proselyting. Instead, we danced around a pole with shady pagen vibes and wrapped with leaves and sang Swedish folk songs while holding hands in a circle and pretending to be different animals and to play the violin... If you've never been to one of these and you're thinking it might make more sense if you were there, it might, but not by much. It was pretty weird :) Then to finish off the longest day of the year, we went out to a cottage in the middle of nowhere with some ward members and grilled some food. After dinner, all the men played golf in their front yard (real golf, not the mini kind). I didn't do too shabby actually considering I had only golfed one other time in my life. The 'green' was just mowed a little more and pretty much the whole lawn was at least a little rough. You had to be careful not to hit the cottage too. All things considered, it was a jolly old time. 

Second surprise is that three people showed up to church with their friends and we taught them during Sunday School. They had questions about temples and baptism for the dead. We're meeting them again on Wednesday. It was a mom, her 19 year-old son, and her fiance. That was pretty cool! They were really nice people and their friends they came with helped us teach them and are helping again on Wednesday. 

Third surprise is that we got invited last minute for dinner after church and we ate moose :) It was really good. 

I love this place. It is soo fun. The ward is so funny. They are all such good missionaries too. My companion is a baller. He's a nature kind of guy. He likes backpacking, fly fishing, and that kind of stuff. He's from Kaysville, Utah and went to Davis High School. We're only three months apart in age and he's only been out on the mission six weeks longer than me. It's pretty cool being with someone who's pretty much at the same point as you. He reaches his year mark this transfer and I reach mine the next one in August. Looking forward to really digging in here in Borås!

Didn't send pics last week so here are a bunch.

Have a great week!

Äldste Denton

​​​

Week 39 - Five Star Week

Week 39 - Five Star Week

Hey Everybody!

We had two baptisms on Saturday here in the Gubbängen ward! Laura and Ronald are their names. One service was in Swedish and the other was actually in Spanish since that is Ronald's first language. We went to both, but Ronald was the on we taught. Man I love that guy. He bore his testimony after his baptism and it was so powerful even though I didn't understand a lot of it (it was in Spanish with very quiet translation to Swedish happening in the row behind me) I could see the conviction in his eyes and the power of the Spirit. It was a humble but sweet service. He was baptized (in Spanish) by a member who helped teach him and who is preparing to go on a mission. His name is Ephraim.

 

Gubbängen District

                                             

In other news, I'm transferring! I'll be heading to a place called Borås just about an hour outside of Göteborg, or Gothenburg. Heard some good things about it! So excited! I know so missionaries serving in the Göteborg zone right now it's crazy. My trainer Elder Cook will be in my district and I think my companion from the mtc Elder Dumas is in my zone and as far as I know is companions with Elder Bringhurst who I know from home. A good chunk of the Sundsvall crew is there including Elder Wolff, Elder Domino, and Elder McCarl. Elder McCarl was my companion too. So basically, the only companion I've had that won't be in my zone will be Elder Fortuna who will be holding down the fort here in Gubbängen. I'm going to be with Elder Caller who I don't know too well yet, but I've heard he's a stud. 

Pretty much the news here!

Hope it's a good one for you all! 

Äldste Denton

Gubbängen District

Week 38 - "You"ll never believe what I've got for you to do"

Week 38 - "You"ll never believe what I've got for you to do"

Hey everybody!

It's been a great week! Ronald has his baptismal interview and baptism this week and we are so proud of him. He's made some big steps in his life to be ready for this. It really takes a lot of courage to make those changes. Couldn't be happier for him.

We also did something crazy this week. We got a call from our ward mission leader asking us to come help out with something so we came. When we got there, he told us "You'll never believe what I've got for you to do." Turns out what he had for us to do was lifting a metal table about two or three times as long as me on a rope and pulley up ten stories along the outside of his apartment. Believe it or not it worked! Somehow I got the job of being the guy at the back of the rope with it around my back. In case one of our grips slipped I was the "anchor" to keep the table from falling all the way back down. Pretty sure that table was heavier than me so I'm just glad no one's grip slipped. (don't worry mom, it wasn't as scary as it sounds)

I wonder how many times God hear's our prayers telling Him about our deepest desires and biggest dreams and just silently thinks to himself "You'll never believe what I've got for you to do." I'm convinced that the majority of trials in life have at least these two purposes: Teaching us what we're made of, and teaching us to trust God. I feel Him so often raising my sights. Our potential is limitless, and just like I had no idea what crazy thing my mission leader needed me to do before we responded to his call for help, we really can't imagine what amazing things God has for us to do if we trust Him and respond to His call. 

Here's a scripture from the book of Hebrews:

35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

 I think it's so easy to look at things that go wrong or the people that seem like they're succeeding more than you and shrink back from giving your best. But like, that's a pretty lame way to live. It's better to just be yourself and give your best. Then wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled. I promise He'll be there every time. I believe that God has wonderful things in store for the faithful. My challenge for anyone reading this is to dream bigger. See more in yourself than you do now. 

As Katy Perry (Katie Parry?) put it: "Baby you're a firework... Make em' go aw aw aw" or something like that. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Äldste Denton 

Week 37 - The Key to Success...

Week 37 - The Key to Success...


So I've been joking with my companion about how so many people say the key to success is this or that or the next thing. You'd think if there really was a single key to success that everyone would say the same thing. But that's not how it is. One of our zone leaders says the key to success is crazy, stupid confidence. My companion heard from different guy that it's all about critical thinking. I personally think balance is the key to success. But they can't all be the key... Right?...

What I've decided on is that the key to success is finding your own key to success. Or actually more like keys to success. We talked at Zone Conference about how each of us have our unique skills, traits, and perspectives that we are being encouraged to tap into as missionaries. We're being encouraged to think outside the box. So my companion had an idea this week.

We went tracing in shorts and a t-shirt. Why? Because we wanted to find someone we could help in their garden or painting or anything really. It was a Saturday morning. The sun was shining and we set off. I'm sad to say, we got shut down... No one would let us help them... :( but! That's okay, because I heard somewhere that the key to success is never giving up. So even though tracting in shorts didn't work out, we'll keep on thinking outside the box and learn from our failure. In fact I heard last week that the key to success is learning from your failures.

Our ward saw a baptism yesterday! One of our families here was able to see their dad be baptized after years of investigating the church. A family from my first area came down to see it and the branch president from my first area performed the confirmation in both of their first languages of French. I didn't understand anything but it sounded pretty! He was baptized by his son who was baptized himself about a year ago. Such a special experience to get to see.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, 

Äldste Denton

Nice flowers and a baptism. Pretty much nothing to complain about.