A plan for success

Hej everyone, 

     I must apologize that I haven't done the blog justice of late.  There hasn't been a lot of down time.  Most of my time on preparation day has been running around to get ready for the coming week and trying to find a little time to relax and refill the battery.  But being busy isn't necessarily a bad thing.  We have a lot to do and tons of work right now.  We are working with quite a few people who are getting close to baptism.  Sometimes in can be frustrating when people don't do the really simple things they say they will.  We just have to remember that everyone has their agency and can choose for themselves.  Although we know something is better for someone we have no right to impose it upon them.  I just think about the capacity for frustration God has with us. 

    We have been seeing blessings this last week and I have found my personal formula for doing hard things.  This is something the mission President talked about and I have definitely worked to apply it and hope to keep this skill after the mission as well.  If we want something we need to create a vision, we need to lay out what exactly it is that we want to see changed.  A lot of the time we become overwhelmed by these visions or goals that we set because the things we want are big.  So next we need to plan it out, we need to think about what we want and when we want it then plan out baby steps.  We just have to break down the end goal into many smaller time bound goals.  Then we need to be obedient to the plans that we make.  We need to be diligent in following up on those little steps because then no giant miracle is needed, the execution of your vision is simple.  Lastly is faith, the secret to success, at all times we need to know that we can accomplish our vision.  So the formula for doing great and hard things is, Vision, Planning, Obedience (to the plans we set), and Faith.  I have seen the success from this plan.

   Right now we are in the Christmas season here and the spirit of Christmas is all around.  The Swedes love this season and there is joy everywhere.  I am very excited to be heading into my first Christmas in Sweden and my second as a missionary(last year I was visa waiting in VA).  I am doing my best everyday to remember Christ and all that he has done for me.  To really maximize my baptismal covenant to remember him.  And one of the best ways I can do that is by serving others.  I think the best birthday present we can give to Christ is really living the two highest laws, love the Lord thy God and love thy fellow man.  And it's when we show this love through charitable acts that we really serve the lord.  The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ.

   This last week a man who we have been meeting with came to church, he's Swedish and and faithful.  He knows more about religion then any investigator I've met so far.  He has read about every book on religion out there and before we even met him he knew two of them were true.  The Book of Mormon and the Bible.  When I first met him he was quoting the Book of Mormon and he has never met with missionaries before.  Right now he is half way through the Doctrine and Covenants and came to church yesterday.  He loved church service and has agreed that he needs to find out if this is the one true church.  And when he knows it is he said he would be baptized. 

   I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season.  I'm happy to be here and serving the people of Sweden.  

love,

  Äldste Jon Moe