Guess What!?!?!?!?!?

Dear family and friends,

Alright I wish I could have a drum roll or something.. but maybe you can just imagine it....... .... ... Manal is getting baptized! General Conference Sunday she told us she was moving back to Lebanon and we didn't know where to go with her if she was moving. Well she was still here so went for it and she said yes and the date is 28th April. This will be my first baptism that I found, taught, and baptized. I walked out of her place and just cried. I have never had my soul filled with so much joy! Literally! Its amazing to me when you really forget yourself and care for others you yourself are happier. Its like you feel yourself grow inside. I feel like my spirit was like a child and now I'm like a teenager or something. I don't cry every time I feel the spirit now, which I'm super grateful for, but I guess I still cry when you see other peoples spirits grow also.

Well we are happy to say that we have continued to have wonderful days here in Alingsås. The sun shines and people want to hear what we have to say. We really can't explain it, but we are happy to be apart of the work here. Sometimes its been hard for me to see all these people God has prepared, but I feel like we have been finding them everywhere now. Syster Schneiber an I are not sure what has changed though. I would love to pin that down. One thing we have noticed is our district meetings have been quite wonderful. We always leave with a commitment from Elder Marler and he always follows up too. As we have applied his commitments our weeks are amazing. This last Thursday was about helping our investigators recognize the spirit. This is exactly what Manal needed when she said yes to being baptized. We even have another, Mona, that we felt struggled with feeling the spirit. Since then she has come to church and even brought a friend. I love being a missionary!

We met a boy on the street named Erik and a few days later we saw a member who is his same age named Nicholai and they know each other. Hopefully we can get things put together and meet Erik with Nicholai. Right after we walked to a member lunch while it was raining. We were sharing an umbrella and singing most of the day :) at one point we passed a garbage truck and a man got out.. he needed to turn around to walk to the back of the truck but he just stood there and watched us. Then he said something like oh you two look so happy with life on such a gloomy day. He was smiling so big. It made our day to make his. So most of the day we sang, "Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap..." there is more to it but I'll leave it at that.

We got new missionaries over the center in Göteborg. Elder and Sister Anderson went home to Utah and Elder and Sister Oscarson came from Utah. Ha ha and guess where in Utah...? Yup right there in little Pleasant Grove. And a few blocks from home. They live on 200 south right next to the high school basically. People here can't believe they live 4 blocks from me and in a totally different ward and stake with another entire stake in between us. There really are a ton of members in Utah. I can't imagine being a missionary there. I would only imagine it is a lot harder.. especially because you can't get to know the members. So sad.

My shin splints are alright... they hurt if I go running with Syster Schneiber or play sports on Mondays, but its hard to not when your companion is doing it. Well and I've never been the best at taking it easy even when I'm hurt. Today we're going to play frisbee! Syster Juker says hello =)

Tack för allt ni göra! Jag uppskattar er!

Love Syster Sprague