CHANGES

Well, it's that time of the year again.  My companions and I are just here at the Church dressed up as minions emailing home.  Happy Halloween!

News here in Sweden is that the Pope is down in Lund--which equals traffic, which equals not being able to go to Lund to carve pumpkins with other missionaries!  But it's all good. We are having our own little carving party here with the Landskrona and Halmstad Elders today!

So the Pope is in Sweden and guess what we also just heard about?!  "Book of Mormon the Musical" is coming to Stockholm.  Yikes!  No, but I think it will be cool--and a really good opportunity!  Our Mission President and the Assistants have been sending out stuff for us to look over so that we can be extra prepared for any "fiery darts" coming our way!

Well...other than that:

--This past Monday we went to Nimis--it was GORGEOUS!!! Fall colors everywhere, I just felt like I was in heaven!

--Tisdag at Församlings Råd (Ward Council), our Bishop was asking the secretary what they could do to make it so when it gets really cold people will still want to stay for Sacrament Meeting and not just leave.  The secretary said, "if was was that cold, I would just go home!" The Bishop was less than enthusiastic with that response, but the rest of us were just dying! Oh i,t was hilarious!

-- Thursday and Friday we celebrated our YEAR MARK!!!  Crazy.  Well, to follow tradition, we had a little fire to burn some stuff.   I decided to burn a shirt that one of the other Systers left here. (What we call, "ghosts of sisters past"--just clothes that are left behind.)  

So I found the nastiest cheetah-print shirt and burned that.  We were joking that it wouldn't even burn because it was so ugly--and it actually kind of came true!  It lasted the longest by far, and when it finally burned down, it was all goopy and gooey!  So gross!

--Then Friday, Syster Eldridge was in Stockholm for train the trainers meeting!  She will be bringing in a new little Greenie down here to Helsingborg, so Syster Davis and I are most likely getting kicked out!  I might actually leave Skåne!  Crazy!  Seriously though--I have been down south from the very beginning of March to the middle of November.  That is a long time.  But, I've loved every minute of it!

We also had an AMAZING lesson that day.  It was actually with a member's husband who hasn't been interested in taking the lessons, but has lately started opening up to the idea!  So we went over on Friday, and just had the most wonderful lesson.  It was the greatest year mark present I could think of!  The Spirit was just so strong, and you could just really see it touching him.  

At the end, I asked what he was feeling ,and he just touched his heart, and just says,"It feels very sentimental.  Like I almost feel like crying."  His wife bore her testimony the next day in Church, and just said how much it meant to her to have us come over and to see such a change in her husband's heart.  She said that after the lesson, she just talked to him and he said the lesson had opened up feelings he never knew he had, and things that he hasn't felt in a long time.  It was really amazing.

The Gospel is true, and the testimony of one witness is exponentially stronger and far outweighs any amount of critics or unbelievers.  A true testimony far outweighs any logical mind.  Take Joseph Smith.  He had a fourth-grade education, and yet he was the holder of the truth.  As we rely on the Lord for our strength and our support, we will be supported in whatsoever we do. 

Something that I really loved that I read this week was a quote I wrote down in my "Predika Mitt Evangelium" ("Preach My Gospel"), and it says, "Faith is not how much you want something or how bad you hope it will happen.  Faith is doing ALL you can do to make it happen!"  I LOVE that!  

When we want truth, when we want light (knowledge), we must do all that we can to seek it! After all we can do...the Lord does not expect us to do more than we are capable of, but sometimes He asks us to do things that we think we are not capable of.  With the Lord, we really can do anything, become greater and eventually become like Him.

So, maybe we should put as much effort into thinking of who we want to be for the rest of our lives as we do for who we want to be for Halloween--just a little wake up call to myself to start thinking of how I can work to be more and more like my Savior everyday. May sound a little simplistic, but it's true!

Hoppas att ni har en bra vecka...

Vänliga Hälsningar, 

Syster Campbell