Week 60

Tjena!!

Long time no see

We had a wonderful week, lots of tender mercies.

We also woke up to the following message from Olivia:

"Hello my name is Olivia and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"

The amount of pure joy, let's talk about this baptism

Got to the church at 7 am to start filling up the font, then we went home to get ready and finish last-minute details.

Then we got a message from our bishop, saying that the water was to hot last time and to try to make it cooler.

So then we went right back to the church to turn down the temperature. After turning it all the way down I touched the water to see how hot it was, and it was ICE COLD.

So I waded into the water to feel the water coming in, ice cold.

Ran with soaking wet feet to the kitchen to check the water there, ice cold.

Went to the bathroom, ice cold.

SO without further thought we start boiling all the water we could, hoping it would make a difference.

I mean, we knew out tiny pots of boiling water wouldn't make a difference, but it felt good to do everything we could.

Our bishop ran around trying everything he could to get the warm water working, and then 15 minutes before the baptism, it started working. We adjusted the program slightly and everything went so well, and the water wasn't ice cold.

This has caused to me to stop and reflect the following scripture-

"For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."

- 2 Nephi 25:23

Not sure who said it, but the scripture says "after all we can do, not because of all we can do."

Us boiling water and pouring water into the font made no difference, but let me tell you the relief I felt and the connection to God I felt was even stronger than if I had just sat back and prayed. I felt God working with me.

And that's the thing, as Brad Wilcox put it "the question isn't are you saved by grace, it's have you been changed by grace?"

I know that I have. Because of his grace I know who he is, I can receive forgiveness, and I can do things I wouldn't be able to do by myself.

So thankful for this gospel principle.

Other highlights-

- Olivias mom, who speaks a tiny but of English, spoke enough to say that star wars wasn't for her

- Spent $10 on butternut squash today to make soup, consequantly the best meal I have had in Sweden

- Checked out with 100 things of deodorant

- Accidentally infested the church with spiders through leaving our apples there WHOOPS

- Literally just apples

Love you all

- Syster Helquist

BILDER: