Family! Hej hej!
Oh, jag bara älska alla er så mychet!
Well, how is it already week 5 here in Sweden?! Jag vet inte, men Jag bara älska det så mychet! (I don't know, but I just love it so much!)
Well, it hasn't been long since I talked to you last... but there are ALWAYS plenty of stories to share with all of you wonderful people! So I will start with....
Happy New Year! 2016--Crazy! First day of the year was wonderful! It was our last out-of-place holiday p-day and it was just so fun! We woke up, got ready, emailed! And then hopped onto the train and headed to Stan! (and that's a soft "a", but that is Stockholm, center city part), and we went ICE SKATING!!!!!
Oh, it was SO magical! I have always dreamt of ice skating in New York City...but, this just topped all of those dreams! It was SO beautiful and SO magical! Oh, it was just so fun! I fell, we got some gnarley bruises from it, and we just had the best time!
After skating around in heaven we walked around for a while around Gamla Stan and just looked at all of the amazingly beautiful sights and loved it all!
Then after, we had a Zone New Years Party at the YSA Center in Stockholm! It was so fun! Only at a missionary party do they set aside the second hour to start our weekly planning! Haha, it was super fun though! Then we just played a bunch of games and finished off with a wonderful zone meeting/training type of thing.
It was really cool because we were able to come together and come up with some new zone goals for this upcoming year! Its really special, because as a zone we are focusing on better developing Charity--Christlike Love, and better serving our companions and all those around us. Oh, I just LOVE it all! Its just an understatement to say that I love my mission!
Oh, the language...haha--its coming. Its a beautiful language...I just wish I could tell what people were saying! But I try--I listen super hard whenever people are talking and ALWAYS have to avoid my natural inclination to start day-dreaming; sometimes that is honestly the hardest thing...to just try not to zone out...it is just all too easy to do so when you are just surrounded with a different language!
But, it is coming. Slowly but surely. With lots of prayer and lots of loving help from my sweet trainer, members and the other missionaries...I know it will come! Everyday we have Språk, with is language time...Sys. Bateman and I like to be creative with what we do, and a couple days ago we went to Ica, our favorite grocery store, and she taught me the names of all kinds of fruits and veggies and other random things we like! It was quite fun!
Haha, we got to the dressings and I was trying to find the word for dressing. There were 5 different types right there and 5 signs. All the same brand, just different flavors, and each was spelled its own way! Dressing, dres, dressin, dress, dressi......I was SO confused! I said, "SYSTER! How do you say dressing! There are 5 different signs right here!?" She just laughs and says, "Haha, um....well that's funny, because people just say Sås!" (sauce)....so needless to say, the signs in the store weren't very helpful right then!
Oh, and stupid me moment of the week! First day of the year.......Lost my YEAR bus pass!!! Wow! I think that is a record! Oh, I am just the worst! The first day of the year! I had the card in the same pocket as the phone, and it must have just fallen out as I took out the phone for navigating or something! It was horrible! So then, as part of the dreaded routine if you lose something, you have to call the sweet office elders that have to deal with all of those fun little things. So, its bad enough when you don't know them that well....but we serve with them! In the same ward! I felt SO bad!
But thankfully, there have been many others in the past to lose theirs, so the POE's (office elders) have well learned by now--and they register all of the cards now! So its awesome! We will get one soon without costing the Mission anything! All we have to do is walk everywhere until we get to our places! But its awesome, because we just use that time as extra contacting time, and time for Sys. Bateman to tell me other missionaries' similar stories...so its pretty fun! But honestly. The first day of the year...that has to be a record or something!
Well aside from that...This has been a lovely and very spirit-filled week. I have learned lots and I have been inspired in SO many ways to become a better missionary, and just a better person in general.
One of my favorite morning personal studies this week was spent studying Mosiah 4. Read it. Just do it. It has just inspired me to want to be better in so many ways and to just love and give all that I have. I especially love 11 and 12. They are both humbling and beautiful.
"Always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission or our sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true."
I have found a pattern in my studies the last week. I usually read from the Book of Mormon and then switch off between D&C or the Old or New Testament, and I have truly grown to love them. And then to end, I love looking through conference talks. I often will listen to them from our phone and I scroll through and see which one just seems to fit with that day or what I have been trying to work on.
One of my favorites from this last conference was, "What Lack I Yet." Larry R. Lawerence. Honestly, I just couldn't love this more. He talks about our journey of discipleship and says, "It is not an easy one. It has been called a course of steady improvement." I love just seeing how this completely related to the mission. All you really can do is take the journey one day at a time, slow and steady but ALWAYS progressing and improving. And always asking, "How can I improve? What weakness needs strengthening? What lack I yet?" Those have become my very favorite questions.
Another one of my favorites is called "Your Next Step"--Elder Randall K. Bennett. "Your loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, invite you to take your next step toward Them. Don't wait. Take it now." I love that! Oh, and one my favorite things he shared: "The Savior said, "If ye will have faith in me you shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me" When faith is exercised, faith increases." I just love this and have thought about the concept of faith a lot lately and its really quite a fascinating to think about.
But I love how you can just think about it for hours, but the one and only way to really learn about it is to actually show it. To actually use your faith. It a really interesting principle and it can be applied to anything, I think. But, I just love thinking about our investigators and how we teach them about "tro"--faith, and how its not something you can gain a testimony of just by reading about it but you MUST act! Faith is an action word, so ACT on it!
One last thought on this. My favorite...In the middle he says, "With childlike humility and willingness to focus on our Father in Heaven and our Savior, we take steps toward Them, never giving up hope, even if we fall. Our loving Heavenly Father rejoices in each and every faithful step, and if we fall, He rejoices in each effort to get back up and try again."
{Annie's companion, Sys. Bateman, said about this picture: "Right as I went to take the selfie she started to fall and started pulling me down with her ahahaha it was perfect timing!"}
Never give up in life. Whenever you fall, ALWAYS get back up. Life is too short to stay down--especially when others need you up. You do more than you know. "If we are willing to act, we will be blessed with the strength to repent and with the strength to change. We fail only if we fail to take another faithful step forward." We cannot fail when we are on the Lord's side. So trust in that, and keep moving forward. Always have faith and trust in the Lord. "They know you. They love you. They lovingly invite you to take your next step toward Them. Don´t wait. Take it now."
I love you all and I hope you will always remember how very aware the Lord is of you. If you ever forget this or start to question this, Turn to Him. Turn to Him in everything and you will never even wonder.
Jag vet kyrkan är san. Jag kan inte förneka det. Ända sedan jag har varit här i sverige min vitnesbord om min Frälsare har växt så mychet.
Älska alla er!
Syster Campbell
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