Faith and hard work in Halmstad - sadly, no pics this week.

The past seven days have been the best of my entire mission.

 

I have been in the same city of Sweden for the past three months of my mission- Halmstad. When we first arrived here, we didn't have anything to work off and we didn't have any signs of success. The first month of my mission was really discouraging for me because I felt that I hadn't made a bit of a difference. If I left Halmstad at the end of October, it would have been like I was never there because nothing had changed. November was a better month. We had more people to teach, I was learning the language quicker, and I was more patient with the progress. December was even better! We met many of our investigators that we are teaching now, we began pushing ourselves to talk to more people, and there were good things that were happening. But January so far has blown all other months out of the water!! Syster Christensen and I made the decision at the beginning of the month to push ourselves harder than we had before; we decided to be exactly obedient in all of the mission rules, talk to everyone we come in contact with, and have more perfect faith that all of the goals that we set can be accomplished through the Lord's Hands.

 

That is what we have done. We have worked incredibly hard this month and we have seen the blessings:

 

First, Morgan will be baptized this month! He had chosen the date to be baptized in mid-February, and we were very happy with his decision. But as we began to meet with him three times a week, we soon realized that we would teach everything he needed to know very quickly. When we brought up to him that we wanted to move up his baptismal date to January 25th, he seemed hestitant and told us that he desired to push his baptismal date later in Feburary or March. We asked him to pray about it, and he accepted our invitation. We met with him the day after and told us that he would be baptized on the 25th after a calm feeling he felt when he prayed. We are so excited for him! Although we only met him a month ago, he has grown so much. He is no longer the same person who smoked 20 ciagrettes a day and drank 10 cups of coffee. He is a new person, and it has been a blessing to see how much the gospel can change someone. 

 

Second, the week we taught 20 lessons. This is the first week that we have hit this number! As missionaries, we are asked to teach 20 lessons every single week, and for the past couple of months, we have been working really hard to reach this number, and we finally hit it! We have blessed so much! :) 

 

I am extremely happy and grateful for everything I have been able to do on my mission so far. All of the lessons I have learned, the opportunities I have experienced, the growth I have made. Life is great!

 

I love you all! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you.

 

Love,

Syster Hosenfeld