Week 37

Happy Fathers Day!

¿Qué tal amigos?

I hope all you padres had a wonderful Fathers Day!

Wow a lot has happened this week! I'll start by filling you in on transfers last week.. So, I'm staying in the same area, but now I'm gonna be in a zebra companionship! That means I can't practice speaking Spanish with my companion, but I'm definitely going to try my best to teach him some Espanol! My new companion is Elder Stevens, and he's from Tucson, Arizona. Great missionary. Should be a great transfer! I also got called to be a District Leader. On top of all this, they are moving us to Mankato, MN. Now we are living with four elders in the apartment. It's a blast lol.

Other news from this week, on Monday our apartment flooded AGAIN!! This time it was the kitchen and bathroom.. kind of a bummer having to clean and go through that again but we got it fixed for good now. We are lucky it happened right before we moved out so we were able to catch it!

Since moving to Mankato, we've gone into a sort of transition phase where we are still trying to get out to St. Peter to see all our progressing investigators there, while trying to meet and find more investigators in North Mankato. This week was golden with all the set appointments we had, but unfortunately it was just one of those weeks where everyone fell through. We did get to see one of our new investigators Cathleen and met her family! We were able to teach them a lot about the restoration, and though they are very strong in their Christian church, we committed them to come to our church! We also saw German and he is doing well, but still won't accept a date to be baptized because he feels he isn't getting an answer to his prayers.. In due time!

A miracle from this week happened when we were going through potential people in Mankato. We stopped by this lady named Pam, and it turns out her nephew's family was taught by the missionaries a few years ago and joined the church. We talked about her experience with the Book of Mormon and she was really open to our message. As we talked on the doorstep, she felt the spirit touch her heart as we testified of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith, and she committed to finally read the Book of Mormon in full and pray about it!! We'll definitely be following up with her in the next weeks, but she was the most solid person we met so far being here in Mankato.

Something different from this week -- we went to a different Christian church on Sunday. In our commitment with Cathleen's family, since they love their church and weren't really willing to come see what our services are like, we made a deal. If we went to their church one week, they'll come to ours! So, we went to their church called Two Rivers Vineyard Church. And it was interesting, but good. We were the only guys in suits there, and there was also a live band which was new to us. But we hope they keep their end of the deal because we truly want them to feel of the overwhelming peace that is present during our sacrament meetings 😊. Their pastor is also from Ohio so we had a nice chat about the church history sites there and temples!  We had to hustle back to our church, but we made it in time. I always treasure the Sabbath day we have to worship God and renew our spirits through the sacred ordinance of the sacrament! It also made me appreciate the things that set our church apart, such as prophets and apostles, modern day revelation, and priesthood authority.

This weekend I've been thinking a lot about my father and grandpa and their amazing love and kindness. It made me ponder the incredible love that our Father in Heaven has for us! A scripture that is really powerful for me is John 3:16, and it says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." What better gift from a loving Heavenly Father than to give his own son as a sacrifice for mankind to atone for our sins!! If we have faith in Christ, repent, are baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure along the covenant path, we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. God loves you and knows you personally, and He has a plan for each of us. I know that Jesus Christ is our personal Savior and that he directs His restored church is hear upon the earth today through prophets and apostles. I'm thankful for the chance I have to preach His gospel! 

I love you all! ¡Disfruten su semana!

-Elder Bolinder

Elder Bolinder and Elder Stevens