Every day I have to do a reality check and make sure that this isn't just a dream. I absolutely love my mission with all of my heart. It has made me work harder than anything else in life, and it has brought me so much more happiness than I every could have imagined!
To start off the week though, we just had the BEST P-Day ever--I am thoroughly convinced of it. Well, that is, right along with the last P-day in Täby where we played Mush Puck (or mushroom hockey) on a frozen-over swamp! But, this week we went to Ales Stenar!
I don't quite know how to eloquently describe this place, so you will just have to see the pictures for a better description...or look it up. But it is this old Viking fishing village...
Back in the Viking's time, they put up all these rocks to be like a sundial. So, pretty cool--it was so beautiful there. Ocean in the background and a bunch of old rocks makes for an awesome p-day!
But the best part--we played SOCCER in the middle of all of the rocks! And if you know me, you would know that there could not be anything better than a day filled with beautiful sights, fun people and soccer!!! It was perfect!
Well lets see...this week we also had a Relief Society party called Årsfest, and in Swedish it sounded like ostfest, which are very different things. Årsfest= Year Party, but I with my interesting Swedish, I heard ostfest which means Cheese Party! Haha! So after the announcement for it in Relief Society, I turn to Syster Stetler and say, in a confused manner, "a cheese party?"
Naturally, she just starts laughing! Yeah, that was not the last time that was brought up! But once the "Cheese Party" actually came, we had invited out Nyomvänd, a lady who is a new member--and it was wonderful!
This week we also had a combined Zone Conference with the Göteborg Zone, and it was so so good! I absolutely LOVE our Conferences!
This Conference actually had quite a few focuses, and all were just so perfect and oh, so needed! President spoke a lot on Diligence, the AP's spoke on working with members, the ZL's spoke about language study, and Syster Beckstrand spoke about our relationship with Christ.
Recently, with General Conference coming up, I have really been thinking about how to prepare and how to receive personal revelation. So, I tried preparing for this Conference too, and it made so much of a difference. I felt like everything I heard was just for me...
President's section about diligence got me thinking a lot about limits, and just how so much of the time we set our own limits in life. I feel like with so many things in life, if we would just allow ourselves to see ourselves through Christ's eyes, we would be able to accomplish SO much more in life.
If we set goals--and not limits--we would actually give ourselves the chance to let the Lord help us. I feel like so much of the time we give up too early, that we just say, "I can't!" Instead of focusing on "I can't", I think we need to just start saying, "With the Lord, I can!" If we acknowledge our need of the Lord, we will get so much further in life, and will be able to find so much more happiness and purpose.
My favorite part of Conference was Syster Beckstrand's part. She started out with this beautiful video about Christ. It was of people from all different faiths that were asked some questions about Christ...and they answered without words.
It was so powerful and beautiful. They just asked simple questions; like if they believed in Christ, and if they loved Him--and then they just answered by their reactions to the questions. It was so beautiful. I found myself crying by the second question, and I just thought how beautiful it is that no matter what faith you come from, we can all feel the love of Christ.
We have actually been able to see that a lot lately, as we have been showing the Easter video to people, and it is just so fascinating to see who Christ is to people. I often find lines from the video going through my head throughout the day...
" Och om jag låter honom, om jag älskar honom, om jag följer honom, kan han ta bort mina synder, mina sorg, min smärta, fölåta mitt förlutna. I Jesus Kristus har jag fått nytt liv." "If I let Him, if I love Him, if I follow Him, He can take away my sins, my sorrows, my pain. In Jesus Christ I have found new life."
Five ways Syster Beckstrand recommended that we could strengthen our relationship with Christ are:
Increasing the quality of our personal prayers. Making it truly personal and trying to picture that we are actually speaking directly with Him. Because we are.
Selfless service...
Daily striving for perfection...
Seeing the Lords hand in our lives...
And meaningful daily personal scripture study.
One of my favorite things that she said was that whenever we feel like Christ isn't there, then we had better see where we are because we must be far far away. We must make the effort to Come Unto Christ because we are the only thing keeping us away from Him.
She said, "We must come unto to our Savior, close enough that at times you feel like you can touch Him".
The concept of faith is so beautiful to me. Something so simple that we can increase it every day, every hour and every second. As we have faith to find Christ, we will find Him. We will be able to personally know Him and love Him.
In Jesus Christ, I have found new life. Follow Him, and see what a difference it will make. Christ died and rose again for us. Follow Him and find new life.
Med Kärlek,
Syster Campbell
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