Week 83 - A Week full of Miracles

A week full of miracles!! Well, I guess every week is.. But you get what I mean. :) yesterday  we  taught primary and one of the kids asked me what the most rewarding or my favorite part of being a missionary is. And I replied with, I love being able to easily see how much the Lord blesses his children. :) I will get to some of the miracles a little later in the email. But for now, what happened this week!? We did some service this week! And you will never be able to guess what we did, built IKEA furniture. You know Sweden, home of the best store that exists. :) we had a few lessons, we found some new people!! We went to young men's and played soccer. :) helped cut down an apple tree, and we got transfer calls! As you can guess, Elder Oldham and I will be doing another together here in Jönköping! So pretty good week this week!

So get this there's this recent convert. Sisters teach her. She's super awesome. She has a Boyfriend. He's a crazy guy. Haha no he is way cool. The sisters have been trying to teach him as well, but he just doesn't seem super excited about it. But, on Saturday we all went over there and him and I really clicked. We're like super buds now. :) but as we were there, he really opened up while he was talking to us. He said he wants to learn more and make changes in his life. So that was a pretty big miracle!!

#2. We have been knocking doors a couple weeks back and met this lady, super nice! We talked at the door gave her a Book of Mormon, she invited us back, when we went back, she was still way nice, but just wasn't really interested in changing churches. We kinda forgot about it and moved on. Then, on Friday we were walking out of our apartment and we see her and her friend carrying a dresser. So we ran up and took it from them and helped them to their car. She was super surprised too see us and was really grateful. Nothing really happened then, but planting seeds man. Who knows what will happen. :)

And last, but definitely not least!!! We found a family!!!!! :))On Wednesday. we had about 20 minutes to go out and knock doors. We went out to the place and knocked 1 door, not interested. 2nd door. Super nice guy says "Well, are we going to talk here or are you going to come in?" Hahah I can't explain to you how amazing that feeling is. :) Super cool Persian family. They have been here for almost 4 years! We went in and talked about the Book of Mormon and they loved it!! At the end, we were closing up and the dad, he was trying to think of a word in Swedish, but couldn't so he said it in English. So I asked him if he spoke English. He said yes, so in English I said we're from America man. And his jaw about hit the ground. His kids love speaking English. So we talked with them a bit. :) we went back for a return appointment, and they had read, check out our website, and talked about it with their friends!! GOLDEN I tell you. :) They said they want to come to church next week! :)) so yeah, little miracle. :)

As a spiritual thought this week, I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants and found a super cool verse! It's in section 6 verse 13. "If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shat be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation." In life really we only have one goal and that is to return to our heavenly parents. Everything else is an appendage to that. And in life there are so many things that can distract us from that. But as we keep focused on our overriding goal, we will never fall away. And we will always have the happiness that comes from the gospel. :) 

Thanks for all of your love and support in all that I do. Thanks for your prayers, they really do make a difference. :) love y'all. Have a fantastic week and you will hear from me soon! Keep the Faith!

Love,
Elder Baggett 

P-Day Adventures on the island of Visingsö

According to legend, a giant named Vist created Visingsö island when he threw a tuft of grass into Lake Vättern so that his wife would have something to step onto.  Today the tuft seethes with life just as it did a thousand years ago!  On Visingsö you can enjoy historical remains, beautiful nature , art and so much more!

Week 82 - Look for the Lord's hand

Hey everyone!!

Hope you have all had a fantastic week. This week has been pretty busy. Lots of stuff going on. This week I got a new comp as I said last week I think. Haha in case I didn't, his name is Elder Oldham from draper. Super cool guy!  We had a pretty chill p-day after he got here. We taught some sweet lessons this week. Just helping others to come unto Christ. :) We also had 2 member meals this week! Got some good finding time. Gotta find the prepared! We did some service for members. One of our friends came to church yesterday. So that was dope. And the highlight from this week was Zone Conference!! I love Zone Conference. It is so spiritually uplifting and it gets you hyped for the next transfer. And you get to see all of your friends which is a good bonus. :)) It was super good! We talked a lot about how we can apply the small and simple things principal to just about anything. As well ask how we can ask better questions and become better more effective teachers. :) Other than that, we had a pretty normal week. Just lots of travel. Haha

So here in Sweden it has been very abnormally Dry and hot. So we have not really been expecting rain and to be honest, I was not prepared at all for it. But last Friday we planned out our day and said okay, were going to do our best to follow our schedule and we did and it went really well. We were in the church at one point and it started DUMPING rain. Like so much. And it could have been really easy to say "wow, I'm really glad we're inside" but I took it as a blessing! The Lord blessed us for following our plan by not raining while we were outside. :) My friends, look for the Lords hand in your life! He is totally there. He blesses you everyday! If you look for it you will find it no matter how bad of a day you had. :)

So every Saturday night, we play basketball with the ward. And bishop is a biiiig basketball guy. Loves it. Super good. Anyways. We were playing and the sisters weren't able to make it but they called us like 4 times and we were like oh boy. What's going on. Haha so we called them back long story short, a lady at the hospital wanted a blessing. So we stoped the game and Elder Oldham and I got to leave and bishop says "I'll take you!" So we dipped and left. And on the way back. Bishop said "ya know that was a really good reminder to me that giving a blessing or any service opportunity to use our priesthood is way more important than any sporting event." That really stuck with me. Love that guy. 

This week as I said it was Zone Conference and we talked about small and simple things. Focusing on the talk given by President Oaks at last General conference. And it is so obvious that the small things we do everyday make a huge difference in the long run! If we read our scriptures everyday for 10 minutes. You may not notice it in a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. But years down the road you will look back and realize how much knowledge you have gained and how much closer you have come to the savior. So this week, I want to invite you all to think of one, just one small and simple thing you can do everyday this week to come closer to christ. I know as you do, the Lord will bless you for your efforts. :) 

Well my friends. That's all I got for this week. Hope you tune in again next week. :) I hope you all have a good one! Do what you know is right. And Keep the Faith!! :) 

Love, 

Elder Baggett 

Week 81 - It's hot here in Sweden!

Pretty eventful week to say the least!!

Lots going on. Which is good. Keeps us out of trouble. ;) haha it has been so abnormally hot here the past month or so and there is no cooling down in the near forecast! I can honestly say I did not expect this from you Sweden. Anyways! We taught a ton of lessons and found 4 new investigators! Three of which were in one day! It was so much fun. I love teaching lessons. :) So awesome! I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Callor. Super cool guy.  We had a few member meals as usual. This weekend, we were able to help one of God's children come unto Christ through the waters of baptism! It was such an amazing thing to be a part of. :) We had the most successful swing by I have had on my mission. I will tell about that later. Some other news on the not so fun hand, my friend Elder Tingey is headed home. It was a really good time together. We worked super hard and laughed while doing it. :) Now I have a new comp named Elder Oldham! He is from Draper. Pretty cool kid. I'm sure you'll hear more about him over the next couple weeks. :) 

SO, long story short, about a month ago, Elder Tingey and I were getting on a bus and a guy whistled at us to told us to come sit by him. Come to find out he is a member who had been in and out of gospel activity. He had just barely moved to Jönköping like a week before. We switched Facebooks and then had a bit of contact trying to set up a time to meet him. Nothing really ever prevailed. We kind of forgot about the whole thing to be honest.. Then last week, the Skövde Elders sent us this less-active's records and saw that he had recently moved to Jönköping and asked if we could swing by and meet him. So we did! We got there, knocked on the door, no answer, just as we were about to leave our friend from the bus lives there!   He let us right in and we talked about the Book of Mormon and watched the last part of the world cup game. Loads of fun! The Lord knows exactly  when and where we need to be to be in the position to help another one of his children.

I found a quote this week by Sister Carol F. McConkie and it says, "Prayer is a gift from God. We need NEVER to feel lost or alone." I love that! We can always, no matter the situation, turn ourselves to God and seek guidance and comfort from him. He is so willing to help us, all we have to do is ask. :) If you ever have questions, need help, or just a little bit extra feeling of love, do as James directs and ask of God. :)

Sorry, pretty crazy day. Hope next week is a little better. :) I love you all and I am so thankful for your love and support that each and every one of you give to me and my family. I hope y'all have a wonderful week! Do me a favor... and Keep the Faith! 

Love,

Elder Baggett

Not quite sure why Charlie sent this picture but I did a Google translate and this is what it says:  Warning for pinching. Dangerous to transport goods in lifts without gates.

Week 80 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

You know I haven't figured out if a holiday is in the middle of the week, if I am supposed to say something about it the Monday before or after. So I'm probably a week late. But anyways! Y'all know how much I love America... Can't wait to blow off some fireworks next year. For the 4th we were able to have 2 parties. One with some Americans and Brits in our ward. We had the party at the royal oppositions home and Elder Tingey and I made sure to fly the star spangled banner out front. :) GOD BLESS THE USA!!

Anyways, it was an awesome week this week let me tell ya. We had a lot of things going on we were able to do some more service this week as well as teach some of our friends one of which will be baptized this Saturday!! So excited for him. It so cool to see the progress he has made just since I have been here. We traveled out to Göteborg to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. That was a blast! I was able to be with one of my old companions Elder Domino. You know we laughed for a solid 24 hours just like old times. :) we had quite a few member meals which was #clutch. Love them. :) some good time to find people as well! And as I have said before, we have the best mission president here in the Sweden Stockholm mission. As y'all probably also know Sweden has been playing really well and advancing in the World Cup. And because it is part of the culture here, President Youngberg allowed all the missionaries to watch the game!! Unfortunately we could not hang with the mighty England, but it was fun to watch is anyways. :) other than that, pretty normal week this week!

Pretty cool story from this week! So as missionaries we set goals every week for how many people we want to find and how many people we want in sacrament meeting etc... This past week we set a goal for 4 and we really only had 2 people who said they could come. But we relied on the lord and knew he could help us accomplish this goal. We called a few people on Saturday night and talked to a guy that wanted to come! So we got up to 3 and couldn't find anyone else. Bummer, we did our best, better luck next week, but NO! We were sitting in sacrament meeting and this guy that I taught when I was here a year ago just showed up! He said he wanted to to give the church another shot. :) so cool to see how the lord blesses our righteous actions. Set goals people! It's how we get results.

Funny story, we were walking to a member meal right after the football game and we walked by this group of guys and they stopped us and we started talking. Super funny guys! They saw our tags, so we talked about the church a bit and he looks at my name, and said, "Elder? How high is that in the Jehovahs church?" and I said we're not Jehovahs Witnesses, we're MORMONS! And they just about lost their marbles. Haha they were so excited to finally meet Mormons. They asked for a picture with us. And we switched Facebooks and sent them on their way. Hahah good times. :)

In elders quorum this week, elder Tingey and I taught the lesson. We talked about President Nelson's talk from Priesthood session when he talked about the power of the priesthood. We talked a good bit about blessings. How we should not be afraid to give them or ask for them. It is to great benefit of the giver and the receiver. We are able to call down the powers of heaven and HEAL physically and spirituality. How cool is that!?! So never underestimate the power of the priesthood if you ever feel in need of a blessing, just ask! Let the lord help you. :)

Well, that's about all I have for today! I hope you all have a grrrreeat week! I love y'all and miss you tons. Keep the faith!!

Love, 

Elder Baggett

Watching the World Cup!

Week 79 - I got a fist bump!

Hello everyone! 

Another great week this week! Lots of stuff going on! Lets get right to the point shall we? The weather has been honestly so nice here! I LOVE it! Super warm. Very unusual summer actually. As highlights this week, we set up two, you heard it two baptismal dates!! :) so awesome to see people open their hearts and accept the gospel. :) we had some good time to find this week and met some really cool people. Hopefully we can meet them again! We did some service with members, helping the older folks figure out computers and all the good stuff we had some lessons, had some member meals, played some basketball at the beach with the ward and picked up some homies walking around to come play. Good stuff! This past Wednesday, Sweden played Mexico and PUT IT WORK. 3-0 to Sweden good work boys. We had a member send us that meme about it. It's really fun being in another country for a competition like this. Fun to be involved in a different culture. :) Really not too many crazy things happened this week! But as always still going hard and being obedient! 

Funny story from this week. We went and swung by our investigator Iragi and he wasn't home. We were like Dang it! So we went and tracted and we were knocking doors, knocking doors and nothing was really happening.  We continued to knock doors and nothing! We talked to some cool people on the street and we found the bus stop and realized that we had 10 minutes and we would try one more building and nothing there either! We were like "That's OK.  We can go back to the apartment and try again tomorrow." We were sitting at the bus stop and there were like four 13 year old kids that rode up on their bikes.  There were three boys and a girl and they were dropping the girl off to get on the bus.  One of the kids came up up and in Swedish asked us "Why are you dressed so nicely?"  I told him that we were missionaries for our church.  He leans over and gives me a fist bump and says "That's sweet man!"  So we started talking, they were some pretty cool kids.  We asked him a Swedish question, we asked him how to say "scooter" in Swedish. He told us and then I told him that we were not from around here and that we are trying to learn Swedish.  He asked where we were from and we said "America".  They were like "NO WAY!  We love America!  We didn't even think you were from America.  We thought you were Swedish." It was super funny.  Then we got on the bus with the girl and we talked with her for a bit and then she got off. 

 This week I was studying my patriarchal blessing and it was so cool to see how personal it really is! Blows my mind every time. It is a testimony to me that God know and loves each and everyone one of us. And is intimately involved in our lives. That is the the first thing that we teach someone when we teach the 1st lesson. It is such a comfort to me to know that I am a Child of God and he has sent me here. :) when you are praying think of who you are praying to, it's not some unfathomable being or a power hungry person that wants to make you suffer. It is a LOVING Heavenly Father who wants the best for you want to bless you and see you succeed. As you think about that you prayers will change and you will see yourself grow in the principle of revelation :) 

I hope you all have a great week! Rely on God and he will direct your life! I love you all tons and I will see y'all in a short 5 months. :) Much love! 

Keep the Faith, 

Elder Baggett 

Munksjön and Elder Tingey

We had to put on our shirts for a PICTURE. :) GO SWEDEN!!