Week 10 - It's official! I'm serving in Scandinavia!!

Awesome week this week! Long and hard, but awesome nonetheless. :)  First off, to explain my subject, I experienced my first Swedish snow storm this week. Usually I love snow, because it means skiing. But no, not on your mission. It means everyone is especially grumpy. lol So I can now say, I have knocked doors is sub-zero temperatures, 25 mile an hour winds, while it's snowing, in the dark, in Sweden. I truly do have the best mission on earth. :) 

Anyways, here in Sweden finding people to teach is really hard. Swedes are really afraid of religion, so as soon as they see your tag, or you say, church or missionary, they do 1 of 3 things. 1) put up their hand and keep walking, 2) say ''Bra, lycka till'' which pretty much means good for you, good luck. haha or 3) they all of the sudden are in a hurry and can't talk to you. So we have been changing the way we find people a bit, we have been working a lot in the Area Book this week.  (which I found out is actually illegal to have here in Sweden. lol)  We found a man named Fredrik, he is an old ''eternal'' investigator. He has been taught on and off since 2005! That's before I was even baptized! So, were not really sure how positive he is yet, but I'm really excited to teach him. Our other investigator, Peter, is still doing great! We are still shooting for the 11th of March for his baptism! Super exciting. :)

Some cool things happened this week, the other elders in our ward, Ä Kendall and Ä Mecham, have been teaching a man named Blanchard who got baptized this week! He is from the Congo which is sweet and it was such a cool service! His wife and his kids were able to come, so that's a plus, maybe now, she wants to have the lessons. :) but the baptism was on Saturday, and on Friday morning the elders asked Ä Nielsen and I to do a musical number. So of course we said yes. We threw something together real quick. He played the guitar and we both sang ''Min Själ, Dig Gläd'' which is Be Still My Soul. It was so awesome! It really brought the Spirit to the service. :) 

Quick spiritual thought, I was reading is the 8th chapter of Alma. Alma is out doing missionary work an not having any success. In verse 14 and 15 it says, '' 

14 And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:

15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.'' 

I love that. No matter how hard it gets, remember that YOU are blessed because you have been faithful in keeping the commandments. So lift up your head and rejoice!

Other than that, pretty normal week! Lots of walking and talking to random peeps. But that's what missionaries do, right? I love you all and thank you for all the support that you give to me! Hope you all have a fantastic week! Love one Another and Keep the Faith! :)

Love,

Äldste Baggett

Sweden, Stockholm Temple

Ä Baggett, Syster Eldridge, Syster Hale and Ä Nielsen enjoying a treat!

Week 9 - Has it already been 3 weeks?

Something about missions, it always seems like you're in a time warp. Tuesday goes by mega slow, then all the sudden it's Monday again. It's crazy. Anyways! Awesome week this week. Really not much has changed since the last time a wrote home. But, our investigator Peter is still meeting with us and we are still shooting for the 11 of March as his baptismal date! Super exciting! :) He's such an awesome guy! He is our only investigator, so we fill all of our other time with finding people! Talking to everyone and knocking on every door. It's tiring, but its what I signed up for!

This week, we were able to take a new convert to the Temple! His name is Peter. His story is unreal. He smoke, drank, dipped, everything you can can think of right up until his baptismal interview and quit everything cold turkey. He was baptized in October and has been an active member ever since! It so cool to see how this Gospel can change people's lives so dramatically! But at the temple, he asked me if I would baptized him. I said of course! We got in to the font and I guess I just wasn't thinking, but I looked up at the words, and it was not in English. haha But, I was able to do it without any problems! It was so cool the feel the power of the gift of tongues! I'm so glad we were able to go with Peter!

Funny story this week, last night we were studying and all of the sudden, I hear a really loud crack, so I look over just as Elder Nielsen is falling off his chair! He broke his chair in half! It was super funny and we got a good laugh out of it. So now, he is out a chair and has to study on the couch. One thing I've noticed about being on a mission, it that stuff that really wouldn't be that funny at all is like the highlight of my week. haha

Invitation for this week, I invite you all to read 2 Nephi 31 (one of my favorite chapters) and see the correlation between that, and the Doctrine of Christ. Which is Faith is Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End.

Sorry I know my letters are weak, and short. But I will work on it. I promise. I hope you all have a good week! Stay out of trouble, and Keep the Faith!

Love, 

Elder Baggett

Äldste Neilson and me.  Stockholm temple.

Gamla Stan

Sweden's national theatre is a beautiful building located on the waterfront at Nybroviken bay.

Nybroviken Bay

Streets of Stockholm

Week 8- Handen II

Well, not much time this week, But an awesome week nonetheless! Went by super fast and I am starting to get into the swing of things! Sorry to those that I didn't get around to emailing, I feel like there is so much to do in so little time! I will get around to y'all next week. Sorry again

But last P day, we went to Stockholm and that place is so awesome, I love it there! So many things to see and do. I love big cities. A few days ago, we heard a ice cream truck. Elder Nielsen and I looked at each other, grabbed our wallets and ran for the door. (Not to mention, its like 18 degrees farenheit, however you spell it, outside.) We run out there and come to find out, you can only buy boxes. So we dropped 110 crowns on a box of ice cream. Man it was so worth it. 

Spiritual thought for the week, we had a zone training and one of the things that they said really hit me. "Think of the missionary you want to be at the end of your mission. Now why not be that Missionary today?" And that applies to everybody! Think of that person you want to be in to future, why not strive to be that person today! Also, I invite you all to read Alma 32 this week. It is an amazing chapter about faith. Take notes and mark it up! Everyone can use more faith! 

I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and support you guys give me! Hope y'all have a great week!

Love, 

Äldste Baggett

Mom,

This week has been wonderful! It went by way too fast! I don't really know what my favorite part is yet, it's all awesome! Food is bomb. A lot of american stuff (: It's so cold. My goodness. But I'm staying warm! Nothing I need yet, but I will let you know!  We actually speak english a lot! But my Swedish is coming along pretty well. Elder Nielsen is so awesome! We live in a really nice apartment about 20 minutes from the church. The ward is so amazing! They feed up like every night! 

Hope you have a great week! And keep me updated about what is going on back home! Thanks and love you tons (:

*Apparently most of his letters are about food.

Alex is member in the ward that has downs. He's so awesome. We went over for dinner and did karaoke. He's the best. hahaha​

Week 7- We made it my dudes

Well its about time! I made it to the promised land and I couldn't be more excited! This week was crazy, but so awesome! So just a bit about where I am. I am serving in a city called Handen. It's about 20 minutes south of Stockholm. Our ward in the biggest in Sweden with about 140 members! We get fed really well here. It's nice :) My trainer in Äldste Nielsen. He is from Sandy. He is super cool! I like him a lot. 

So this week, We flew into Stockholm and out Mission President, his wife and the Assistants were there to greet us! They took us straight to the Immigration department to get our resident ID's. Then we went and explored Stockholm! Such a cool city and Country! We then went back to the mission home and had dinner and some training. We had a Family Home Evening with the Beckstrand's then they let us go to bed at like 7. It was wonderful. :) Then next day, Wednesday, was transfers, so we met our companions and where we were serving then headed out to our areas! We got to our apartment, dropped of our stuff and did some contacting then had a member dinner! Sorry that was a lot of stuff. haha But after that, it pretty much got back to normal!

One thing we do a lot of here is contacting! I have grown to love it already. It's still kind of scary walking up to complete random strangers and saying,"Hey! We have a Book for you!" haha but Its awesome I really do love it.  My comp said something that really stuck with me. "If you want to baptize some people, talk to some people. If you want to baptize a lot of people, talk to a lot of people. If you want to baptize everyone, talk to everyone!" and it is so true, if you don't talk to anyone, you can't teach anyone. If you don't teach anyone, you can't baptize anyone!

Currently, we have one Progressing Investigator.  His name is Peter and he is from Hungary. Super awesome guy! We have a baptismal date set up for March 11th. I couldn't be more excited for him. He is still learning Swedish, so we teach him in English which is nice. Something cool about this mission, you meet people from all around the world from all walks of life. It's awesome. We actually have a bookshelf in our apartment with every language of Book of Mormon that you can think of. It's pretty awesome. 

Quick Spiritual thought for this week, Romans Chapter 1 verse 16.  "For, I am NOT ASHAMED of the Gospel of Christ" That is the attitude everybody needs to have. Don't be afraid to share the gospel! With your friends, neighbors, coworkers. Everyone can benefit from the message of the Restored Gospel. 

I love you all so much! Have a great week! and Keep the faith!

Much Love,

Äldste Baggett

Me, Äldste Christley and my trainer Äldste Nielsen

The Book of Mormon musical opened in Sweden in January.  We passed out 100 Books of Mormon in 10 minutes!

Handen, Sweden

Handen is a part of Metropolitan Stockholm, and the seat of Haninge Municipality (Haninge kommun) in Stockholm County in eastern Sweden. It has approx. 11,524 inhabitants. Geographically and statistically Handen is a part of Stockholm urban area (total population 1,200,000).

Glimpse of a missionaries first day

JESUS KRISTI

KYRKA

AV SISTA DAGARS HELIGE

SVERIGEMISSIONEN STOCKHOLM

February 2, 2017

Dear Brother and Sister Baggett,

We met your son, Äldste Charlie Carl Baggett, this past week as he arrived in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been a delight to become acquainted with him.

Upon arrival, he was taken into the city of Stockholm for immigration paperwork. He then had a glimpse of Stockholm and went to the Church’s Young Single Adult Center, located in the heart of Stockholm, for a light lunch, training, and contacting in the streets of Stockholm with one of our exceptional, experienced missionaries. The Mission Office was his next stop with an orientation to the Sweden Stockholm Mission policies and procedures. Shortly thereafter, Sister Beckstrand and I invited your son and his MTC group to dine with us at the Mission Home.  I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in an interview with your son. We concluded the day’s activities with family scriptures and prayer and retired for the evening at the Mission Home.

The next morning we began the day promptly at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast at the Mission Home. We departed the Mission Home for the nearby Täby Chapel where the Assistants, Sister Beckstrand and I provided training. In the second meeting of the morning, he met his new companion and trainer, Äldste Samuel Erick Nielsen.  They will serve together in the Handen II Area of the Stockholm South Zone in the Sweden Stockholm Mission. I would like you to know I have experienced some of my most tangible moments of revelation in the assigning of companionships.  I know your son and Äldste Nielsen will learn much from each other, and together they will be edified as they labour valiantly, with full purpose of heart and obedience, in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You may have previously received information on the mailing address for letters and packages. This information will help your packages arrive in a timely manner.  Please share this mailing address information with relatives and friends that may be writing or sending packages.  Mondays in the Sweden Stockholm Mission are traditionally Preparation Day. This is the day you can expect to receive an email from your son. We encourage you to also communicate weekly with your son as this is a great source of faith and support for this sacred work in which he is engaged.

I bear my witness that this is the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and it is a sacred responsibility to wear his name above my heart. I am grateful for all you have done to prepare your son and for the sacrifices you have made and are making to support him as a missionary. May our Heavenly Father’s most generous blessings be with you and yours.

With respect and kind regards,

James E. Beckstrand

James E. Beckstrand, President

SWEDEN STOCKHOLM MISSION

Assigned to Handen/ Stockholm South Zone.  Trainer Äldste Nielsen