SISTER POWELL: SUCCESS
Hello Hello family and friends!
Sorry that the only ‘snow’ pictures are selfies of us. But I promise, Sweden is just gorgeous right now!
This week’s Swedish surprise is that Sweden in the winter is about as beautiful as Sweden in the summer. I was so afraid that once the snow hit then the beauty would be gone. Nope.
Monday: Celebrated Syster J’s 2nd month mark as a missionary with caramel apples and pizza with the elders. It’s all about celebrating the milestones. I think celebrating month-marks is as fun as celebrating birthdays. People who know me know what a big deal that is.
Tuesday: Played musical chairs for district meeting. It’s great being a sister because the elders don’t want to push you out of the way. Hahaha
Wednesday: Reading 1 Nephi 1 and 2 with an investigator from Nigeria. 1 Nephi 2:4 “And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness.” Reading that verse with this woman who listened to what she describes as the voice of the Holy Spirit tells her to leave her home and her family and come to Sweden just made me a little emotional. There are people today who hearken to the voice of the Lord and do what is asked of them and I just cried and said to her, “You understand what it is like to leave everything you have when commanded?” What a blessing and a privilege it is to serve these people.
Thursday: Every time we go to Vingåker we buy these yummy Daim chocolate balls and a Korv. We are best friends with the Korv man and it just makes me laugh.
Friday: My mom sent me my cousin Rachel’s homecoming talk on CD. I have listened to it 9 times since getting it on Wednesday. On Friday we listened to it through 3 times. And we quote it all the time!
Saturday: Looks like Christmas. Smells like Christmas. The members are starting to talk about their Christmas plans and how we are involved in them…. we are in charge of putting together the Christmas program for sacrament mtg. OH I AM SO EXCITED. I can hear my dad singing, ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christtttmmmmmassss!’
Sunday: Father’s Day here in Sweden. The first Sunday in the MTC was Father’s Day in the States and I remember we all had to watch Music and the Spoken Word that morning. It was all about fathers and families and I just bawled. I just sat there and thought I won’t see my father for 18 months. It was an incredibly rotten day. On Sunday though, I just smiled and thought some more about my dad and thought about how lucky I am to have such a good one. I love him and hey, happy Swedish Father’s Day, Dad!
This week my studies brought me to my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon, Alma 26. Here Ammon “glories in the Lord” and I feel like we each have moments like this that are recorded. We are just so happy and our hearts are “brim with joy” (vs. 11) because we just take a step back and see that this is God and He is good. It is beautiful. Some of my very favorite lines in the Book of Mormon come from this chapter. “I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God.’ (vs. 12). “ Who can say too much of God’s great power, and of His mercy, and of His long-suffering towards the children of men?” (vs. 16). “Now if this is boasting, even so I will boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation” (vs. 35). Ammon is just so happy here and each time I read this chapter I am reminded of God’s goodness. People may believe in a living God, in a literal God, in a powerful God, but I believe in a loving God.
My favorite verse in this chapter is 27, “Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord commanded us and said, ‘Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.”
In 11th grade my very favorite teacher, Ms. Hewitt, introduced transcendentalists to us by having us define these different concepts. We had 3 or 4 minutes to write out a paragraph description of words like hope, freedom and success. I remember I struggled with success the most. How do you define success? I just couldn’t seem to come up with something that did it justice. She then read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s definition of success:
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
My paragraph that I wrote in class that day definitely didn’t sound like that, but I have thought about that a lot since junior year and in my head I have been working on my own personal definition of success.
My whole life I have grown up being so hard on myself. My definition of success seems to always be leaps and bounds higher than others. I have wasted so much energy and time trying to reach this unattainable level of perfectionism, really, in an effort to achieve my personal description of success.
Six days after I entered the MTC each missionary in my district had a little “coaching’ session with our teacher, Brother Bush. He asked us how we were doing and what we needed help with. In my impatient and prideful nature I complained that I wasn’t fluent in Swedish yet and I felt like I wasn’t succeeding. Bro. Bush opened to page 10 of Preach My Gospel and we read together from the bullet points under “A Successful Missionary”. We got to the last one and he asked, “Anywhere in this list does it mention learning the language fluently?” And I shook my head. He asked me, “What can you choose today from this list to be successful at?” I decided to apply a few different principles and Bro. Bush said, “Syster Powell, where were you a week ago?” And I replied, “I was with my family waiting to be set apart.
“So how long have you been in the MTC?” “Not quite a week.” “It seems a little silly to be worried about Swedish right now, doesn’t it?” He was right.
I have looked at that list in PMG many times since then and thought of Bro. Bush saying, “It seems a little silly to be worried about_____right now, doesn’t it?”
Elder Holland has said, ‘Seek to be personally converted, obey the rules of the mission, strive to have the spirit of the Lord in your life, and work hard. These are things every missionary can do. If you do these things, I promise you in the name of the Lord and with the authority of my calling you are a success in His eyes.
There have been times in these short 5 months that my heart has been depressed and I have wanted to turn back. But each time the Lord has come to me and He has invited me to come to Him. He has strengthened me and He has changed me and that is the Success He promises in Alma 26. I am changing. To be successful is to be a bit better than you were the day before. And that is what can happen through the grace of the Lord and through His enabling power. I am realizing that the success that He has promised me is myself. I become a better person each day that I come to Him and ask for His grace. As I teach others I invite them to do the same. And that is the success.
So maybe for me that means that today I understand a bit more Swedish. Maybe that means I contact more people than I had planned to contact. Maybe that means I fight a little less against God’s will and accept His plan more. Maybe that means I talk about homeless and talk about these people more. Maybe that means I serve others instead of waiting for others to serve me. It means a lot of different things. But to be a success in God’s eyes I need to be a better person today than I was yesterday. I need to love a bit more, I need to be more patient, and I need to give a lot more. And I invite you all to do the same. What is your personal definition of success? What will make you a success in God’s eyes?
My theme-scripture for Sweden is Alma 26:33, “And now behold I say unto you, has there ever been so great love in all the land?” I have never loved and never felt more loved than I have with my time in Sweden. I love this place. I love the people here. I love the gospel. I love the person I am here, all that the Lord lets me be. I love the things I am learning here and I love the things I am experiencing. I know that each day as I improve from the missionary I was the day before, I am a success in God’s eyes. He gives me success as I bear with patience my afflictions–He gives me a refined testimony, He gives me confidence, He gives me a better relationship with Him. And I love it.
Thank you for the letters and emails and just LOVE. I feel so very loved and feel like I have the best friends and family in the world! Have a great week.
Syster Hannah Powell
