Mosiah 4:9

(Aldste Cummings)

This week has been pretty wild.

Our teaching pool has grown quite significantly in just these past couple days and two people we have been teaching have committed to be baptized next month! Everything is just rolling along. At this rate, a couple weeks down the road we might have so much to do we won't actually be able to do it all with just the two of us. It's Skövdelicious.

On Saturday, Elder Martineau and I ended up in a town called Hjo because of some travel shenaniganry. It's this really small town right on a lake and it was absolutely beautiful. It had a really weird Twin Peaks kind of vibe, though, and appeared to be peopled entirely by retirees. Everyone was just strolling around and no one seemed to have anything urgent or anything. Also, apparently there was no train station even though both of us distinctly remember stopping at a Hjo train station on our way to Jönköping. Weird. We both felt like we had entered the twilight zone or something. I don't think we could find that place again if we tried.

Something here in Sweden that I find very striking is how many people are truly very apathetic about any sort of religion. Granted, there are a Swedes out there who have faith, but they tend to be few and far between. The epitome of this attitude is exemplified by something a woman I met on the street told me: "It doesn't matter if God exists or not."

That's not athiesm, it's just complete apathy. An unwillingness to believe in anything. King Benjamin's exhortation to us to have faith in Mosiah 4:9 is something that has helped me in my life and my faith. His statement is not only that God exists, but that we can trust in Him. That He knows all things and is always there and can comfort us. Essentially, King Benjamin tries to show us that it does matter if God exists because in Him we can find a loving and all-knowing Father whose purpose it is to bring us back to him.

I love that. I know that God lives and I know that through His Son Jesus Christ we can find the comfort and peace we need to be reconciled with Him.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Mosiah 2:34

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej hej!

Last week was kinda crazy, but this week is about to get even more busy. We had a couple meetings last week that fell through but were rescheduled for this week. On top of all the people last week that we met for the first time who we're scheduled to meet this week, it's a lot of people. If everything goes according to plan, we will start teaching 10 new people this week, not counting anyone we haven't met yet.

On Wednesday we went on splits (that means we switched companions for a day) and I was paired with Elder Grover from Borås. He's only been out 7 weeks and I had only been out 1 week. So that was interesting. We spent most of our time just talking to people on the street. I actually had a lot of fun though and it turned out to be one of the most fruitful contacting-stunds I've been a part of.

Also this week, we had a conference to attend in Göteborg. We stayed the night with the elders in Västra Förlunda, one of which is Elder Wolff from my congregation back home in New Jersey! That was really fun and reminded me of home a little bit.

One of the people we met tried to teach us, among other things, that the Bible teaches us that dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. Again, I would explain, but it would just be more confusing.

The scripture I chose this week is something I came across in my personal study. The part of it that I appreciate the most is the part where King Benjamin encourages us to "render to [God] all that [we] have and are."

It is most important that we recognize how much we owe our Heavenly Father. we are "eternally indebted to [Him]." He has given us everything, not only that we have, but most importantly everything that we can have through the Atonement of Jesus Christ whom He gave us as well. We owe our life, salvation, and eternal life to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. In return, it is only right and just that we devote everything to Him. Not only everything we have, but also everything we are. As we turn to Him and offer ourselves to Him, He will be able to make of us what He needs.

Enjoy your weeks, I love you all!

Äldste Cummings

Roubando Cigarros

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey yall!

This week was fun. We ran around talking to people and having fun. I think one of my favorite moments was when our investigator, Antonio, gave us a huge handful of cigarettes. We have been working with him for nearly 4 months and finally he called us almost in tears saying that he was sick of being addicted and brought us these. I saw a man really come to his knees and plead for help. We taught him about the Atonement and before he left he managed a smile and promised to read.

Take that!!! Haha

The later at church we had all these cigarettes in my bag (i forgot to take them out) and in Gospel Principles I pulled out my scriptures and all of them came tumbling out. Then the Patriarch asked for all of them and took the filters off and handed me back the white part. I was like... why?? and apparently the filter stops cuts really well. LOL I love being in an area where all the members are converts!

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. The Church is still true!

Sister Ellsworth

D&C 31:3

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjena!

This week has been wild.

We woke up on Monday at 2:30 AM to arrive in Sweden at 6:00 AM Tuesday (Sweden time). I couldn't fall asleep on the plane and we didn't get to go to bed until 10:30 PM that night. So we had been up for 36 hours by the time we finally got some rest.

I have been assigned to serve in Skövde with Elder Martineau! It's a medium-sized college town near Göteborg. It's been pretty great. We have been working pretty hard and have been very busy. The congregation here is pretty small--around 30 members come to church on a good day--but they're hardworking and we are too. Together, we make a good team.

Weird experience of the week: A schizophrenic lady with no pants walked in on a lesson we were teaching and spent the next 15 minutes talking about how much she wanted to bear the children of the man we were teaching. I would explain more, but it would just make less sense.

I chose the verse above this week because it reminds me of how important this work is. Sometimes, you can get dragged down in how difficult it is and how often you get rejected or how tired you are, but the Lord councils us to rejoice in it. I am here to do His work and there is no greater call. I really could not be spending my time right now in a better way and I am so excited to keep going at it for the next two years.

I love this work. I know Christ lives and is our Savior.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Fall In Portugal

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey! There are many stories that happened this week... It rained once. Apparently that means it's fall now! And it rained on Pday and I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but we went out to see Rossio and Santa Apolonia anyway. We went with a huuuuge group of Elders. Our zone has 30 elders and 6 sisters. It was us and half the elders so it made for some pretty fun and crazy adventures.

We had a couple of lessons with some lazy investigators and gave them the whole 1-2 thing. It's basically where you give a really powerful stop-being-lazy-and-do-the-things lesson and they wrestle with the spirit the whole time. One decided to start reading and the other kinda just backed off and continued to run. That's okay. Area book, right?

We had a fantastic Zone conference though. Our president gave an awesome training on being a Woken up missionary. You can look the scriptures up later because they're pretty cool. (2 Nephi 1:13, Alma 12:11, 2 Nephi 4:28,  Psalms 24:3-4, Mormon 9:27, Alma 5:7, and Mosias 4:5.) I would also add Revelations 3:16 and Mosias 4:27.

He talked about waking up is when your conversion takes place and you being to understand how the Atonement works and why it works. You start to work because you love the Lord and not just because your District leader is going to call that night and ask when happened or that the Zone leaders are pushing and pushing for numbers. One of my companions asked me once how she can work tirelessly and we had a good long talk about how the good missionaries are the ones that try and don't stop trying. They're the ones that work hard when no one is watching, the ones that smile and are happy when talking to people even if they know that they are standing in fresh poop (that happened this week too XD).

I think the most important thing I've learned so far is how to love being a missionary. This is the best thing I've ever done and I've never been so happy (and so exhausted) in my life. I mean just look at this beautiful place....

Rossio

top of a restaurante named Bellalisa in Rossio. You could see all of Lisbon. We stayed there for a long time :)

​bahahaha *points finger and laughs* Oh tourists. You're so funny with your crazy sunburns. She had a white hand mark on her arm from sunscreen.... you gotta rub it in honey......

Love you all, Sister Ellsworth

Arrived Safely in Sweden

(Aldste Cummings)

Raw Eggs, Animals and Brazilians

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey yall!!

This week was pretty fun... Telo smashed a raw egg on my head. C'mon guys I need ideas for missionary appropriate revenge.... LOL!

We had divisions this week with Sister Salas and Sister Pastrana. Sister Salas and I stayed here in Povoa while our greenies wandered around in another area... lost and scared without their moms. Haha! Sister Salas and I had a party here were we hit the ground running.... Literally. We were late for like everything but we taught a bunch of lessons and contacted a bunch of really cool people.

We were walking in the road and we basically found a picture of Portugal.

This is an underground trashcan that is so full of beer bottles that it's over flowing. We left a Word of Wisdom pamphlet :)

We found a new best friend!! It's a little teeny tiny lizard that hung out with us and rode around on my shirt for a while. He was so cute!!!

Also there's a petting zoo really close to our house and one day the peacocks got out and we helped chase them back into their pens!

Okay I swear I'm doing missionary work and not just playing with animals XD

We also found this Brazilian family this week. The mom had talked to the Elders a while ago and invited us back and we heard their whole life story in an hour. We laughed and cried and groaned and now we're best friends. The best part was hearing that they believed that God sent us to teach them about God.

Love you guys! Have a great day!

Sister Ellsworth