Crazy Busy!

Sweden Stockholm Temple

Valborg-Bonfire before May Day to officially welcome in Spring

Aldste Moe and some departing missionaries

Barbecue with the office crew

Jonathan is doing good. He's just very busy right now and will send a blog update soon.  We just received photos today.

Happy Easter from Aldste Moe

Swedish Candy store

The missionaries I'm currently working with.

 Hej alla.

 This last week has been a great week.  It was Elder Tomlinson's last week here in Täby. It was sad to se him go but we saw really good things come out of this week.  Today I will be getting Elder Tyson Haddon as a companion.  He's a great guy, from Utah, he was actually state mvp in Utah for Baseball.  The last few weeks we have really gotten a lot going here in the Täby area so I am excited to see what Äldste Haddon and myself can accomplish.

   This week and last, we went over to three different members houses and all of them had invited friends over to meet us.  It was perfect.  One of these was yesterday and we now have an appointment to return to their house next week and teach about the restoration of the gospel.  Members can have a bigger impact on the work then they can imagine.  Being Christlike and extending friendship to all is one of the greatest things we can do, and we should always strive to do so.  But if we truly love people we will want them to have access to the same truths we have, we would invite them to learn more if they would like.  Being pushy is never fun or appropriate, but everyone would appreciate the gesture of a simple invitation.  Just love your friends enough to let them know how you feel about the gospel.

   So this week is Påsk, or Easter.  Like all Swedish holidays the celebrations are held the day before on Påskafton.  Actually, everyday this week is a holiday, and each day has a different name.  It's Black Monday, White Tuesday, Damper Wednesday, Cleansing Thursday, and Long Friday.  The average Swedish person would not declare themselves very religious but the culture is soaked through with Christianity.  Instead of hiding eggs here everyone just gets one extremely large egg, like bigger then a basketball, which is filled with candy.

   Something that is really exciting is how interested the young people are with religion.  Its now the time in Sweden where a lot have grown up without any sort of faith and are curious about religion.  There is a 15 year old boy here in Täby that referred himself to the church and will be baptized soon.  After the first meeting he read 17 chapters in the Book of Mormon.  Three is another girl who is 19 and studying here in Stockholm who we are meeting with who will likely be baptized soon.  Almost a year ago now Elder Ballard came to the North for a Nordic regional conference.  He then prophesied that the key to the church is the young people.  They are the strength and they will be the catalyse for growth.  Last year the average age of someone baptized was 35.  So it is exciting seeing that already unfold.

  I'm thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I feel his spirit everyday in my life and I'm thankful for this time of year when we can celebrate and ponder the blessings of the atonement.  I hope everyone has an amazing Easter! Lots of Love!

Har en glad Påsk,

    Äldste Moe

Seeing new parts of my mission!

 It's been two weeks since I have really written something for the blog and a lot has happened. I will try and keep it short.  First off, I love my new area, and being companions again with Elder Tomlinson is cool.  I'm also living in the office now so we live with Elders Nightingale and Ogaard who are both funny and good missionaries.  Elder and Sister Lowry from UT also live here.  I worked quite a bit with the Lowrys when I was in Södertälje so its great being able to be near them again.

   My proselyting area is in the city of Täby and the surrounding cities.  Right now we have quite a bit of picking up from the previous missionaries.  Täby has an amazing ward with a lot of diversity, there are members here from all over the world.  Even a few families from the U.S.  It has been quite a while since the Täby ward has had new members join but the missionaries before me have all been working really hard and there's a lot of potential, so we can definitely see some miracles soon.  This is my first area in the city of Stockholm and I love it.  It reminds me of home at times.  This also means that I have served in all four stakes of Sweden while I have been on my mission, so I have been able to get to know people from all around the country.    

   My first week in this transfer I drove up to Umeå which is an eight hour drive there and eight hours back.  A long trip but it was so beautiful.  Then this last week we drove to Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden.  That was really nice as well.  On the way we stopped to work with missionaries in Göteborg and Jönköping.  Jönköping is a city I had never been to before but is a sick city.  It's right on the southern coast of Vättern, one of Sweden's great lakes.  So there's a ton of very old ruins and beautiful views.   

   On my mission, I have taught quite a few people who have never heard too much about God or Christ.  This last week, we had the opportunity to teach someone who had never thought too much about God before.  We have been meeting with him for a while now and when we began he wanted us to explain what God was.  Last lesson he stopped us and explained that he was feeling power in his life, and he couldn't explain it but he knew it was from God.  He knows God is supporting him and encouraging him.  It was amazing to hear this person talk about the wonderful feelings and new purpose he had in his life.  He has agreed to be baptized but just needs to continue building his faith.  It's great to see people have hope and faith for the first time in their lives.

  I'm excited for everything coming, especially General Conference and Easter.  I would love to hear from everyone back home.  I hope you're all doing well! Love you all!

puss och kram,

    Äldste Jonathan

Moe

Photos from my last week! 3/29/14

Beautiful Streets! 3/24/14

Jonathan transferring to Stockholm

Beautiful streets in Scandinavia

Transferring to Stockholm!

Entrance to a mall in Malmo.  Sweden has interesting architecture.

Me and Aldste Muirbrook

I love these guys that I get to serve with.

Family Wilkstrom from Helsingborg

Hej everyone,

   This week is going to be my last one down in the south for now.  On Wednesday, I am moving up to be in Täby, an area in Stockholm.  I have heard the ward is great and loving, but I am as always, going to miss the people I am leaving here in Helsingborg.  It has been sunny for a while now but up in Stockholm its going to snow again today and it's still a bit darker.  So I get to go back into winter.  I am very excited though.  I will once again be companions with Elder Tomlinson and we got a lot done together back in Södertälje.  I haven't been in Helsingborg very long but the best part about leaving an area is thinking about the changes that happened while you were there, in yourself and in the ward, and in the people you knew.  Doing this I have been able to recognize growth in every area, in myself and in the work.  

  This last week, we had a conference in Göteborg and we talked quite a bit about the lessons we are teaching.  As missionaries a quality lesson is not necessarily a lesson where we present as much as we can, but rather when we have helped them come closer to Christ.  The assistants challenged us to find ways to teach more meaningful condensed lessons.  We were also reminded about the large help we can be in the wards we serve in, how we are still members and still part of our ward families, even if we are just there temporarily.  Also, this last week the entire mission received iPhone 5c.  The phones have already been helping us greatly.  They're going to continue to help the work go forward.  With all of these technologies and new duties the work isn't necessarily changing, just how we do it is changing a bit.  

     This last week, we were teaching someone again who is really coming to learn about Christ for the first time.  She learned about baptism and talked about how that is something she would love to do but she does not feel like her faith is there yet.  She spoke about how she wants to develop that faith to the point where baptism would have that sacred meaning it's supposed to have.  Her concern about baptism showed us just how much this meant to her and just how important she was taking it.  I know this is the gospel that can help people find peace.  I feel as if I often forget that myself.  

  One thing I really admire about the people in Helsingborg is the joy they have.  The members in Helsingborg are a happy people.  And their happiness does not come from the world but from Christ.  After having gotten to know them I realized that I have learned a lot from them and could learn quite a bit more from them.  They are perfect examples of 2 Nephi 27: 30.  When we base our joy and our happiness in Christ then as the wave of life take us for a journey we will continually have peace because Christ is immovable, and perfect.  When we ground ourselves in him we receive that sure foundation.  

Love,

   Äldste Jonathan Moe

A week of tragedy

 Hello all, 

Sorry for the short post last week.  This week there's been a lot of good, and a lot of tragedy.  

Towards the beginning of the week my companion and I had to travel to Stockholm for a leadership training.  To save money we drove the car all the way there.  I got to see some of the beautiful scenery of Sweden and drive through some of my old areas.  At the training we spoke a lot about progression and how missionaries are only really helpful when we invite others to act and make progression towards Christ.  

   A couple days after the training we lost the car.  We didn't misplace the car but rather they needed a car up near Stockholm so we gave ours away.  This means that we have to get real familiar with the Helsingborg bus system, fast.  We won't be able to get around as fast, but hopefully we'll able to keep our effective schedules.    

  Also, this last week we had two very cool spiritual experiences I would like to share.  The first was with an investigator who has not been Christian before.  We read in Alma chapter seven about the atonement of Jesus Christ.  There was a long silence after she finished pronouncing the last words of verse 13 in Arabic.  I then asked her what it meant to her that Christ had done that for us.  She immediately began crying but spoke of her thankfulness for Jesus Christ as her savior.  

  The second experience was with someone who has investigated the church for a while and right now is going through a really hard time.  We were offering our help in anyway we could be of service but then I felt the spirit tell me that I had to testify of the peace the gospel brings.  I shared again that we were willing to help the best that we knew how but the best way we could help was in sharing the gospel knowledge we had and helping her act on it.  She agreed and said that is what she needed the most, Peace, the peace the gospel could bring.

   This morning we received a text from the mission office, just last night a missionary here in the mission passed away.  He was hit by a car as he was returning home from his last appointment. It's not something easy to hear or to talk about.  I didn't know him very well personally, but it hurts knowing he was here fighting the good fight and now he's gone.  I would like to ask anyone who reads of this to pray for the family of Elder Bailey.  Elder Bailey was a wonderful missionary.   It is moments like this that the faith and knowledge we have are to be put into practice.  Like all of those that pass he is now in a state of peace.  A place where he can rest from sorrows and worries.  But not rest from doing good.  The restored gospel stands alone in the glory given to the righteous dead.  The unembodied are not dead, they may be more living then we are.  There is work to be done on both sides of the veil.  It brings me peace and happiness to know that we can be a force of good no matter where we are.  And the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring us happiness in every point of our existence. 

much love,

   Äldste Jonathan Moe