In case anyone ever wished to know just what it is that we do as missionaries every day, we’d like to share a little information to give you an idea of how extraordinarily ordinary people as ourselves function and serve as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here in Sweden.
To begin with, we serve under the direction of a Mission President who is called to preside over the Mission…in our case, the Sweden Stockholm Mission which includes all of Sweden from coast to coast and from top to bottom. Serving along with us are around 100 young men and women missionaries and a handful of senior couples such as us, from all over the world.
As a senior couple we are here primarily as support. Our main function is to assist and strengthen the local members and member leaders in the area to which we are assigned to serve, which for us is currently here in Karlskrona. Our congregation consists of members from a wide-flung area of southeastern Sweden and we have learned to love them all. Like members of our church all over the world, we are all united by our faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and we love serving them and serving with them.
Mondays are the days we take care of laundry, clean the apartment, do calendar planning and get organized for the week… and if there is time afterwards do a little local site seeing. We shop for groceries at the local supermarket and once in a while drop into the public library. Reading children’s books is a great way to learn Swedish and we try to learn a little bit about the history of the area! We also keep in contact with our kids, our grandchildren, other family members and friends, all of whom we miss very much. We as a family believe strongly in what we are doing and as parents exercise our faith in the Lord to bless and care for our family back home. It’s great to get email and video messages and use technology to interact periodically with our family. Every day is new and different and we look forward to being on the Lord’s errand.
Are we glad we decided and glad we accepted a call to serve the Lord as a Missionary Couple?… Yes. It’s the reality of what we are here to share and whom we serve that makes every moment worth it…especially for the people who choose to listen and make the choice to follow Him and realize their lives will never be the same.
Our day begins with morning prayer to thank God for a new day ahead and for the one we had the day before. We look out the window to check what the day looks like and see what the weather will be. There hasn’t been a day yet that the birds have not sung from early morning till the end of the day! After a good hearty breakfast, some language and scripture study time and with the plan at hand for the day, we head out the door. We visit members, perhaps bringing them a home baked treat, and study with them or help them research their family history (our specialty!) or work on a project they need some help with or simply encourage them any way we can. Every day we meet new people who are interested in our invitation to ‘come and see’ as we invite them to Church and talk with them about how the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ as a second witness to everything the Bible teaches. We share how both of these books compliment each other in defining the truths and original doctrine
set forth by Christ during His ministry.
Why…We Serve As We Do
I guess we could say we feel blessed to recognize the need for all of us to understand why we need the Savior in our lives. I can’t help it that He actually lives and that there is more to life than living it in the ‘now’…that there’s more purpose than supposed, and more understanding, and knowledge available for anyone searching for answers to find out for themselves just what it means to be here. God lives independent of what anyone believes or doesn’t believe…just like real truth exists whether anyone believes it or not. But we do know and we can’t deny it. So we share and hope people will listen and reason and exercise a little faith by checking it out for themselves, by cutting through the deceptive ‘noise’ of worldly philosophies and not be deceived by casual indifference. The truth about our existence and life here and after has been restored as the scriptures said it would be. Think about it. Study it out for yourselves. The answers to questions you don’t even voice deserve an answer….
It’s pretty much why the Savior spoke in parables, so that those who listened and were seeking answers would develop a desire to ask questions and want to find out how His teachings applied to their lives.
Come see what we believe….
https://www.comeuntochrist.org/
…Our purpose is our motivation, to bring people to Christ…To let them know that His purpose is for us to learn of and accept His teachings…which truths will bless us now and in the future…and forever.
