Thursday, December 26, 2013
God Jul-Christmas in Sweden
Monday, December 16, 2013
Misc Pictures Dec 2013
Lucia
Hey Everybody!
So, I suppose first off, I can follow up a bit to last week's email. One week ago, I mentioned that there was quite a bit of snow on the ground (and there was a few inches). I thought that it was probably here to stay and that it would probably be nice and white for a few months. But I proved to be very wrong, and no more than two days later (likely less), the snow was completely melted. So, now everything is back to normal, which I think is kind of too bad, and it's just been raining a lot instead.
In other news, this week there were a number of holiday festivities! First, on Friday we celebrated Lucia, which I guess is a holiday about some Italian saint (?). I'm not entirely sure why it's a large part of Swedish culture, but stores sold a lot of Luciabullar (which are sort of like rolls with saffron and raisins), and on Thursday and Friday the state churches had a few choral productions, where they would sing traditional Lucia songs. Unfortunately, we weren't able to figure out where to get tickets before they were sold out of tickets, so we weren't able to go to that, but instead we found a Lucia production that required no tickets in a park in the city. As it turns out, it was a preschool that was doing their own Lucia show, so the choir wasn't quite as good, but the kids were still pretty dang cute. It was a bit unexpected, but still pretty fun.
The following day, Friday, we had a branch Christmas party, a Julbord (lots of traditional food in sort of a buffet style). The party ended up being sort of a large pot-luck, but everything tasted pretty good. There were a lot of more traditional foods, such as ham, sausage, Christmas bread, and Julmust (Christmas soda?), as well as a few other interesting options, including curry rice and some hummus dishes (mostly from S's family, so middle eastern dishes). The four missionary's also sung a musical number (Nu Tandas Tusen Juleljus and Silent night-in Swedish) , and the Stake President played guitar and read a poem. Our investigator Marie came also. All in all, it was a lot of fun, and there was plenty of food left over, which the branch ate after church the next day and then we inherited after that).
Aside from that, the week has been pretty good, but fairly ordinary. We've been out doing the usual thing (finding, teaching, etc.). It's been a good week, I'd say.
Hope everything is well with you guys!
Traditional St. Lucia girl
Monday, December 9, 2013
Snow
Hey Everyone!
This week has been good. All in all, it's mostly been pretty ordinary (just doing the stuff we usually do), but good. It's been fun because it's getting closer to Christmas, so a bunch of Christmas decorations are appearing all over the city and members are starting to invite us over for dinners and such (both of which are very fun). There's a lot of more American Christmas decorations in the city, like lights and such, but also there's a few more that we wouldn't see back in the states. I think the most prominant are rows of lights that people put in their windows (they look like candles, and they probably originally were). Honestly, they look kind of like menorahs, but it's pretty cool because just about every window has one lit. Also, a lot of people have an illuminated star in their window as well. I should really try to get a picture of some.
We did have our first snow storm this year, we have recieved maybe two to three inches of snow so far. The storm started on Saturday, so it's been pretty cool. The snow has been exceptionally light and powdery, which is cool. It doesn't pack very well, but it would probably be great for snowboarding... in a year or so. But still!
And we've been invited to a fair number of member's houses. It seems like in the last week or two we've been over to three or four member's houses (which is quite a lot for a small branch in Sweden). It's been a lot of fun, we've had a really good time talking with them and playing with some of their kids. Additionally, we've already been invited over to two more members this week and I think some more next week. It should be good.
Aside from that, things have been pretty good here. We went to a Zone Training this week in Södertälje, which was kind of nice. At training they talked about serving others and such during the Christmas season. It was pretty good. Additionally, I went of exchanges with Elder Gray (one of the Elders in the district) this week, and that went well, though we mostly just swung by people. We did have a chance to go to a neat museum in the city for a language study, that was cool.
Overall, it was a pretty good week. I hope everything is going well with you all back home!
Love you all!
Eli
ps. I have my camera today, but I'm afraid I don't have any card reader or adapter or what have you, so pictures will have to wait until next week. But I'll have them!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Christmas Season Starts
Hey Everyone!
I'm glad to hear that everything is going well with you all back in California and Utah! It sounds like you all had a pretty good reunion-ish thing in Utah; I bet it would have been a lot of fun.
Things have been going well here. I feel like theres been a few things that have happened over the course of the week that have been pretty interesting.
On Monday and Tuesday (and some on Wednesday) we were able to help some of our branch members pack up and move out. It turns out that three people were moving, two are heading to Kopperberg (about an hour or two away), and another is heading down to Holland. So we spend quite a bit of time carrying boxes, furniture, appliances, etc down to trailers and cars so that they could get on their way. It was nice to be able to help them, but I'm going to miss them, they were all very nice people. Actually, as it turns out, S may not have actually left yet (we got a text from him this morning), but he will be leaving shortly. He's a really nice guy.
On Thursday we had a little "Thanksgiving" meal with one of the American families in the branch. We ended up getting Mongolian food, but it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, so it was kind of like Thanksgiving. Either way, it tasted really good and it as nice being able to talk some with them. It was a good evening. Actually, it was a really good evening, because right before we met with a bunch of other branch members for branch council, and immediately afterward we went to a really cool less active family, the P's. It was nice.
I suppose that in general we've been able to meet with quite a few branch members this week. Aside from moving people and an Asian thanksgiving, we also were able to have dinner with R, the Branch President's, family, as well as later in the week with M (the Stake President's) family. It was all very enjoyable; they're super nice families. And the K's have really cute, funny little kids. It was a lot of fun.
Also, earlier this week we went to a choral concert by the Swedish Church (because one of our investigators was performing in it). It was a really cool performance, and a lot of the music that they sang reminded me a lot of the kind I used to sing (or listen to) in Madrigal Dinner. A very old but beautiful sound. It reminded me a lot of the Dinner, and made me feel like it's almost time for Christmas. Also, Christmas lights and decorations are appearing all over the city and people are starting the stock on traditional Christmas food (which I'm still not entirely sure what is traditionally eaten; I'll find out). It should be a good holiday season.
A statue in the city with Kloister Kyrka in the background
Monday, November 25, 2013
District Meeting
Hey everyone!
Things are going pretty well here in Eskilstuna. This last week has been fairly ordinary, but it's been good.
I suppose that the day of most note would have been last Thursday for a number of reasons. First off, it was my first day being in charge of a district meeting, so I got to give a lesson (this week it was about setting goals and planning, etc.). Overall, that went well, for a first meeting. To make it a little more interesting, though, the zone leaders asked if they could come on splits that day (which thrilled me, it seems like they were just here a couple of weeks ago), so I got to have the zone leaders at my first district meeting. Yay! It actually went well, though, and afterwards I got to meet with them and go over district leader responsibilities, etc. But then, just to make things a bit more interesting, President Newell decided to come then for interviews. He doesn't really give a lot of warning (we found out an hour before he showed up), so we found ourselves in the afternoon meeting him at the train station. Though despite all of that, the day actually went well. We met with President (because he's going around interviewing everyone in the mission), and I split off with Elder Jones.
We ended up having a good day together. I accidentally forgot something in the apartment, and Elder Jones accidentally forgot something at the church, so we ended up not being able to do what we had originally planned on (swinging by people across town), but we did some calling, looked in the area book, and tried to visit some people closer to the apartment and the church. Actually, it was good, and we got in contact with a former investigator, which was cool. It proved to be a good day.
Aside from that.... Things have mainly just been work as usual. We've been trying to swing by a lot of potential investigators and old investigators, as well as tracting, contacting, etc. It's been good, I suppose.
I'm glad to hear that everything is good with you guys. Hope you all have a fun time in Utah!
Love you all,
Eli
Monday, November 18, 2013
Zone Conference
Hey everyone!
It's been good to be able to hear from you all this week and everything. It sounds like things are going pretty well back home. I'm sure you've all already heard this a million times, but it's super exciting that Kimberly got her mission call to Romania. That should be a super cool experience for her; I hope she enjoys it.
This week has been fairly good. Earlier in the week I had my last few days with Elder Miller. They went well; we were able to visit with several of the families in the branch here and have a good time with them, and we had a good last little bit together. I really enjoyed my time working with Elder Miller, he was a super nice guy and a good friend.
On Wednesday came transfers. Miller left at just about 8 in the morning, and I got Elder Schindler about 2 hours later. So far things have been good with him. He seems like a really nice, amiable guy and he's a very motivated, hard worker. Based on our only few days together thus far, I have a feeling it's going to be a very productive transfer; I think we'll get a lot of work done.
On Thursday we had some sort of a crazy zone conference thing with about half of the mission. It was actually a really pretty good conference, it was focused largely on stress management and the like (because the church just released some sort of big program on training new missionaries for managing stress, etc.). It was good though, I feel like there was some good advice given.
Also, it was pretty fun because it was with a solid half of the mission. I don't really know why they decided to have so many zones come to each conference, but I liked it. I was able to see a lot of people I have hardly seen since the MTC and talk some with old companions, etc (actually, all but one of my previous companions were there. cool!). But it was good.
Aside from that, the week has been good. We've been doing a lot of work, swinging by old investigators, tracting, etc. A lot of stuff to keep us busy, but nothing too interesting...
Eli
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Transfer News
Hey everyone!
Everything is going pretty well here in Eskilstuna. This week has been pretty good, though not terribly out of the ordinary.
The weather here is starting to get a bit chillier around here; the temperatures are down around freezing, but it's not too bad. I think it'll probably be a bit colder in a month or two.
Our investigators are doing alright. L says she can't come to church very much because there's something in the air that bothers her lungs, but aside from that she seems really positive and really seems to like meeting with us (she actually called us earlier this week to set up an appointment). Our other investigators are doing okay, not too much is different with them.
Probably of most note is the fact that there's going to another transfer (again). Elder Miller will be heading to Gävle and I'll be getting Elder Schindler as my new companion. I don't really know too much about him; apparently he came here about three months ago, so he's just finishing his training. Should be interesting. It was good being able to work with Elder Miller, though, I feel like we got along well and did some good work here. It's been good, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go with Elder Schindler.
Aside from that... umm... On Friday I got to try to make a video for Mom's birthday, so I was going around with a camera for most of the day. I hope that the investigators and branch members that I was filming didn't mind me filming them too much. I don't think they did, though. It was kind of fun trying to put something together.
I guess it's a bit of a short email this week. Next week should be more interesting because I'll have a new companion and we have a conference planned and a few meetings with some branch members and so on.
Hope you have a great week,
Eli
Monday, November 4, 2013
Halloween
Hey Everyone!
I hope everything is going well for all of you guys back in the States! I hope you all had a good week. Things have been pretty good here, we've been out doing our thing. But it's been a good week.
Earlier in the week (on Wednesday, I think), we ended up going on splits with the other Elders in our district, so I spent the day with Elder Grey. All in all, it was a pretty good day, but it was kind of interesting because they had apparently just called through a list of Potential Investigators and had set up a few appointments with people they hadn't met before. One of them was a guy that owned some sort of a business aimed at helping people from Somalia acclimate to Swedish society. When we met him he started showing us around his office and I honestly wasn't sure if he realized that we were missionaries and not business men. But eventually he did talk with us a little about what we can do to work together, and we ended up setting up an English class. It was, all in all, a pretty interesting meeting.
Later in the day we had a few other appointments that were a little more normal (though we did get to listen to an Irish lady explaining where Halloween came from and a middle eastern man talk about Islam, and a few other interesting conversations). That evening, though, we went to the church because we were going to meet an old investigator there, and we found out that branch council was apparently that night (we thought it was a day later, but apparently not because of a Relief Society activity). So we were trying to arrange with the other Elders to have someone at the meeting and the investigator showed up, and we had to sort of stall until we could get everything sorted out. It was kind of interesting. We did eventually end up meeting with him, though, and it turned out that he mainly wanted to meet so he could teach us how to juggle. It was nice meeting with him, though, he was a super nice guy. Also, I can now kind of juggle 3 balls.
The next day was Halloween. We met in the morning for a district meeting, and, after a somewhat shortened lesson, we ended up getting a pumpkin to carve, eating pumpkin pie (that was baked by Elder Grey the night before), and planning on carving a jack o lantern, though we didn't get around to it just then. So we had a few sort of Halloween related activities, and then we split and went our separate ways. Elder Miller and I actually ended up cleaning the apartment for a cleaning check and then carving the pumpkin we got. We made a pretty cool Jack O Lantern, though it's just an ordinary looking Jack O Lantern. And that was about all of the excitement for Halloween itself... there wasn't too much in way of celebration in Sweden. Apparently a few days later there was some sort of event on All Saints Day where they put a bunch of candles in a graveyard, but we didn't end up going because there isn't a cemetery easily accessible in town and the buses were on a holiday schedule. But next time, if we get a chance, it would be cool.
Aside from that, things have been going pretty well. I didn't actually get a chance to meet with L (our Finnish investigator) this week because Elder Miller met with her while we were on splits and she was feeling sick later in the week (which I believe; there's been some sort of bug going around). But we did meet with some of our other investigators, including another Finnish guy named S and a woman from Congo named F. We also met a few times with a less active member, P, who actually ended up coming to church yesterday, which was awesome. Either way, things are going pretty well here.
Have a great week!
Halloween Jack'o lantern
Monday, October 28, 2013
Training with my Trainer
Hey everyone!
Reindeer in the grocery store!!
First snow of the season
Glad to hear things are going well with you all. Things are going pretty good here. This week has been fairly ordinary, but we've had a few interesting happenings.
Probably the most notable thing this week has been exchanges with our Zone Leaders earlier in the week. Elder Miller went to Södertälje with Elder Moe, and I stayed here in Eskilstuna and worked with Elder Tomlinson (my "dad"!). They came in the morning for district meeting, and it was really pretty cool being able to meet up and talk with them for a while and then catch up with him over the course of the day. He's had some contact with some of the people we worked with up in Luleå, so it was interesting being able to hear how they're doing and what's going on up there, too. It was fun.
While on splits with Tomlinson, we went to visit L again, and ended up having another really good lesson with her. We just watched the Restoration and ended up discussing it, the Book of Mormon, and some other miscellaneous questions she had. She really seemed to love it, though, and she even said that she thinks she found her church. She also came to our meeting on Sunday and seemed to really enjoy it. She seems to really enjoy the gospel, and we're looking forward to being able to continue to meet with her.
In other (quite unrelated) news, we've been meeting weekly with a branch member, Anna, and helping her with various renovations and whatnot around her house. This week, she had two projects in mind (for the two companionships): one was sanding off some excess putty stuff (I don't remember what it's called, the stuff painters use to even out surfaces) in the bathroom, and the other was tearing down a wall. Needless to say, Elder Miller and I had a good time tearing a wall down. I'll attach some before and after pictures.
Other than that, things have been going pretty well here. Hope you all have a great week!
Service in Sweden-tearing down a wall!
The deck we finished building last week
Monday, October 21, 2013
Stavskonfrensen
Hey Everyone!
Things are going pretty good here in Eskilstuna! This week we've had a few kind of interesting things going on, mostly a number of conferences that we've had in Västerhaninge and Stockholm.
Earlier in the week (on Tuesday), we went over to Västerhaninge for our Zone Conference. All in all, the conference was pretty good; it focused a lot on family history work, which is kind of interesting for a bunch of missionaries, but they gave a few points on how to use it in finding or teaching people, and they told us that we can now spend an hour per week doing family history work on FamilySearch, which I guess is pretty exciting. Should change things up a bit.
Then, on Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference, with one session in Västerhaninge and another in a town pretty close to Stockholm. They were pretty good meetings, I enjoyed what was shared at them. It was kind of interesting because they both seemed to focus on missionary work a lot, the Saturday session more so than the Sunday session, but they both talked quite a bit about it. I enjoyed the meetings, and there were some good insights and there was a good spirit there. It was good.
Aside from those, things have largely been missionary work as usual (trying to visit old investigators and inactive members, tracting, etc.). On Wednesday, we actually did tract into someone who was not only willing to meet but kind of interested in our message (which doesn't happen too often here). She was an elderly lady named L (I think) from Finland. From what I understood (she was speaking kind of fast with a Finnish accent, which doesn't help), she used to be a member of the PingsKyrka (Pentecostal, I think?), though she didn't think it felt right, so she left. However, when she was listening to our explanation about the Restoration, she said that it felt good, warm. So she seemed pretty interested in learning more, and we're looking forward to teaching her later this week.
Either way, things are all in all going well here! I would attach some pictures, but I accidently left my card reader back home... But next week!
Eli
Monday, October 14, 2013
Eskilstuna week two
Hey Everyone!
Various Kinds of Graffiti in Eskilstuna Sweden
This week has been pretty good. All in all, it's been a fairly normal week: We've visited investigators, members, less actives, etc., had church, district meeting (which is still pretty neat), and so on. Though there have been a few things that have been kind of interesting.
Last Tuesday, we were invited over to P's, a less active member, and her friend M's apartment to help them with Swedish (which, I'm still not really sure how much we're able to help; they've both been in Sweden a lot longer than we have. But they invited us back, so I guess it helped some). At first it was kind of interesting because they gave us some dinner, which was really very spicy but also tasted quite good, though it was also a little bit awkward because they just gave us food and more or less waited for us to eat. It tasted good, though.
Then we helped teach them Swedish (or, rather, tried to figure out what we can do to help them), which all in all went pretty well for a good while.
On Friday we visited a pretty cool less active family who came later that evening to a Volleyball branch activity, though they weren't able to come to church on Sunday, which is too bad. But we had a good visit with them.
On Saturday we did some service in the morning (again for the lady who's doing renovations, I think I mentioned her last week), and then in the evening S (a member of our branch) invited us over for a birthday party for his daughter. I think that he actually invited pretty much all of the branch, so there were a bunch of 10 year old girls and then a whole bunch of people from church squeezed into their apartment. But it was fun, we ate a lot of hamburgers and a pretty good sized cake, and it was nice being able to talk with all of the people from the branch. I like the branch here quite a bit.
Anyways, things have been pretty good here.
Eli
Various Kinds of Graffiti in Eskilstuna Sweden
Monday, October 7, 2013
Hey Everyone!
Hey Everyone!
Things have been going fairly well here in Sweden. This week has been kind of interesting, largely on account of the transfer earlier in the week. I'm now in the city of Eskilstuna, which is sort of over by Stockholm (a few miles to the west of it). I'm now with Elder Miller, which is pretty good. I think that working with him over the next few weeks/months should be good. Eskilstuna itself seems like a pretty cool city; it's a bit bigger than Växjö and has a lot of really beautiful buildings and rivers. It seems quite cool so far.
I suppose that my last day in Växjö was fairly interesting. We were able to spend some time helping a new family move into the branch. They seemed like a young, vibrant family, and I think that they'll greatly help the branch there.
Transfers happened on Wednesday. Fortunately everything went well with that, it was about a 5 hour train ride (though there was an hours delay). That evening we were able swing by and visit a few of the investigators here.
And the last several days have been pretty good. A lot of the time we've been doing swing bys and the like, but there's been a few more interesting things happening. On Thursday we had a district meeting, which was kind of nice for a change because I'm now actually in a district with other missionaries, so we actually met, had a lesson, go lunch, etc. It was kind of nice. On Friday evening we were able to meet some of the branch members and play volleyball with them. That was really quite fun, and the branch members (at least those that I've met so far) seem really cool. One of them, D, invited us over for General Conference yesterday, and we had a pretty good time talking with him and his wife after the meeting. On Saturday we were able to go to another member's house, H, I think, and do some service for her (she's renovating her house fairly extensively). I largely helped build a patio, which was kind of cool. We didn't quite finish it, but we made some good progress.
And then on Saturday evening and Sunday we were able to watch conference. And, per tradition amongst missionaries here in Sweden, we went and bought Konferens Godis (or Conference Candy) before the meeting, and over the course of the meeting, we probably ate at least half a kilogram of candy each (which is kind of a lot of candy). It was fun. Oh, and the talks were good too :) I remember especially liking Uchdorf's talks (I usually like his talks), as well as Eyring's talk from the Sunday morning session and Brother Causeé's talk. And a lot of the other talks, there were a lot of really good speakers and ideas and everything. It was good.
Hope everything is going well for you!
Hope everything is going well for you!
FALL COLORS IN ESKILSTUNA
Monday, September 30, 2013
Transfer to Eskiltuna
Hey everyone,
This week has been a bit more interesting (and this time it actually has, I'm not just writing this in hopes that I'll think of something interesting to write).
First off, this week we were able to visit a less active family, the F's. They invited us over so we went and visited with them for a while. It was nice, they have a good family and I think that they really appreciated the visit; they seemed to have a good time. They gave us this Chilean dish that was sort of like a hot pocket (which is a really bad way to describe it, but it's the only frozen pocket pie thing I can think of) with hamburger, olives, and a few other things. It was pretty good.
Then, on Thursday we had exchanges with our zone leaders. It was pretty good, we actually ended up going to Helsingborg and joining in on their district meeting (which was kind of fun, since there's actually other missionaries in their district. And it's in Helsingborg, which is really just a cool city). I then went with Elder O and we returned to Växjö and did some work here (though nothing terribly out of the ordinary, just swing by's, tracting, etc.). Then, in the evening we joined some of the YSA for institute, which was taught by Elder Boyer. Overall, things went fairly well.
The next morning we met back up with Elders Ricker and Day again and returned to our areas. The splits went well, but it was kind of a lot of time on the train over the two days (it takes about 2 hours to get to Helsingborg). But it was kind of nice, sort of a fun change of pace.
Then, on Saturday, we got a call from the President. It turns out that I'll be transferring to the town of Eskilstuna, which is a little ways west of Stockholm. My new companion will be Elder Miller, and, for those who are interested, Elder Sandquist will be replacing me here in Växjö (still with Elder Ricker). I think I've enjoyed my time in Växjö so far, but I'm looking forward to Eskilstuna. Should be an interesting change.
Anyways, good hearing from you all.
Eli
Eskiltuna Sweden
Monday, September 23, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Another week in Vaxjo
Things have been going fairly well here. This week has been fairly ordinary. We've largely visited the usual people and whatnot, so it hasn't been too exciting. We've been able to visit some of the branch members and try to help some of them out (service), and that's been kind of nice.
Elder Ricker and his recorder
A view in Vaxjo
Zone Conference in Helsingborg- If you look behind the missionaries, that's Denmark off in the distance
We also (per the Senior Couple's suggestion) went out to visit one of the branch members, A, who had some ideas for trying to find new people. Some of them were pretty good ideas, like putting fliers up at the university for the single's FHE and other activities or trying to give a short lesson on our religion to a class or something (which is something I've done before; it's kind of fun). But, at the same time, she had some kind of interesting ideas, like giving coffee to people who pass by the church in the evenings (which is apparently something that some of the other Swedish churches do). All in all, I feel like she did have some good ideas. A was enthusiastically talking about how everything will help, and Elder Ricker and I. All in all, I think it was a good, helpful meeting.
Helsingborg The mighty Radhuset was completed in 1897 in neo-Gothic style and contains stained-glass scenes illustrating Helsingborg’s history.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Uncle!
Hey Everyone!
First off, congrats to Jared and Britt on their new child! I'm glad to hear that everything went well and everything. It should be super exciting for you guys, a whole new chapter in your lives! Yay! And I'm an uncle now, too, which is cool! I saw a few pictures of the baby and he looks cute! Congratulations!
Secondly, Happy Birthday to Jessica! Hope you have a good birthday (it sounds like you had a good celebration with all of the family in Utah). Gratis på din fördelsedag, as the people say here. Hope you have a good year!
Things have been going fairly well here. This week, we had another Zone Training meeting, though this time it was in Helsingborg (last month it was in Kristianstad). The meeting itself was kind of odd; they pretty much had a short learning activity and a few testimonies, the whole thing only took about 30 to 40 minutes (as opposed to a usual length of about 2 hours or so). But we were able to meet with people we don't see very often, walk around the city some (which is a really cool city), get lunch, etc. I did actually take some pictures of the festivities, though once again I managed to forget my camera back home... So I'll upload a lot of pictures next week! (Sorry guys!)
Also, earlier in the week, I was able to visit the mother, who's not a member, of one of the YSA here in the branch (M). It was actually kind of spur-of-the-moment meeting; we stopped by the church in the late afternoon to look something up, and we found (M) there. We talked to him for a little while, and then he invited us over for dinner that evening, so we went over and had a rather nice dinner with him and his mom. She seemed like a really nice person, and seemed to really enjoy having our company for a while. It was fairly enjoyable, and we're hoping to be able to meet with her more later.
This week we also got a referral from Mormon.org, and someone actually requested a visit from the missionaries. They lived out in Älvesta, which is about a 20 minute train ride away, so we went out there on Saturday. He ended up not being home, but we left a note for him with our phone number, so he can call us now, and we're hoping to be able to head back out there this week sometime. Hopefully something good will come of it, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Anyways, I love all of you guys! Have a great week!
Eli
Monday, September 2, 2013
Hey Everybody!
Hey, Everybody!
This week has been fairly good. It hasn't been too eventful, but there's been a few interesting happenstances and whatnot.
This week we were able to help one of our branch members, "D", move from Älvesta to a new home in Växjö. There was only a few seats in the van we were taking, so we ended up taking the train to Älvesta, took a few minutes finding his house, and then helped him move, for about 10 or 15 minutes. It turns out that he really didn't have a lot of stuff, and we had 4 people helping him move. So that went fairly well, though we ended up taking a lot more time traveling than helping. But I still think that he appreciated the help, so it was still good that we could come and lend a hand.
In other news, I got your post card this week! It was actually kind of funny, because it came in the morning while we were still at the apartment, and Elder Ricker, who is from Portland, went to see what had arrived when we heard the mail slot open and close. He saw that the card was from Portland and apparently thought it was from his family, but, much to his dismay found that it was addressed to me instead. It was funny.
What else... This week I also decided to try to have a jar of pickled herring for dinner (which I had before and kind of liked), and they sell it at the grocery stores, so I picked one up and cooked some potatoes to have with it. That actually turned out to be a pretty terrible idea. It makes an okay side dish, but just eating herring with potatoes was kind of gross. So don't try that.
Either way, things are going fairly well here. Love all of you guys! Hope everything goes well with the baby!
Love you!
Eli
Monday, August 26, 2013
Transfers
Hi Everyone!
Eli
This week has been pretty good. I'd say that the most eventful thing this week has been transfers, which happened this last Tuesday! Elder Jensen went up to Boden, where he'll very likely stay until he goes home in December, and, Elder Ricker came into Växjö, where he'll probably be until he goes home at the same time. On the day of transfers, I was paired with the Boyers for the day, as Elder Jensen departed at about 10 in the morning, and Elder Ricker wasn't scheduled to arrive until about 8 in the evening. With them, we visited a less active member and another branch member, looked for some repair parts for some bicycles and a few other errands. It was a fairly good day.
And I've been able to meet Elder Ricker. He seems like a really interesting individual. He's kind of crazy (he's from Oregon though, so that kind of explains it), but he's a really nice guy. I've really enjoyed my time with him so far, he's good a keeping things fun and enjoyable. He's quite musically talented, and he enjoys playing his recorder and flute. It's been good.
Aside from that, it's been a fairly ordinary week. We were able to meet a friend of one of the branch members, named D. He was really nice, and we played ping pong a little with him. I'm not sure whether he'll be interested in meeting much, but we'll see where it goes. It was good to be able to meet someone new and have an enjoyable time with them.
Either way, it's been a pretty good week,
Eli
Monday, August 19, 2013
Ja, Må Han Leva!
Hey Everyone!
The last week has been pretty good! We've been able to do quite a bit, including having the Zone Leaders over for work overs, a rather enjoyable birthday party or two, and a branch barbeque. Overall, a lot of it was quite a bit of fun.
On Thursday, we had our zone leaders, Elders Day and Lappalainen over, and we split with them and headed off to different parts of Växjö to try to see what we could do for the work here. I went with Elder Lappalainen, and we tried to visit a bunch of less active members and old investigators in and around the downtown area of Växjö. It went well, we were able to meet with a less active member named P. A., who largely said that she never really had a testimony that the church was true, but would be happy to visit with the missionaries when she can. Then, later that evening, we went on a home teaching visit with another member, J-E, to a member named P. N. We just went through the First Presidency message with him (on thankfulness), and it went well. I think he enjoyed the visit.
Then, that evening, we went to the Boyer's (the senior missionaries') apartment for cake. I actually ended up being quite a bit late (Elder Lappalainen and I had trouble catching a few busses), so instead of coming at 8 or 8:30, we ended up showing up at about 9 ish. Either way, we had a good time. Sister Boyer baked us a super good cake, and we sang Happy Birthday (in Swedish and English). It was fun.
The next day, I opened my package from you guys (Thanks for everything! It was pretty funny; I like the pet parrot). Then we went back to the Boyer's for round two of birthday cake. It was still really tasty, and we were all wore the laies and glasses and everything (which was probably most of the photos that were sent to you). We had a pretty good time, and we also helped them set up a dvd player for a branch activity later that evening. It was good.
Then, on Saturday, we had a branch BBQ at the F's house (a less-active family). We had a grill and barbequed hotdogs (grillkorv, in Swedish), and of course ate a ton of hotdogs. We then played Kubb with a bunch of the people there (I'll have to make sure to bring a kubb set back to the states, it's pretty fun), and roasted marshmallows. Around that point people started leaving, but we stayed for a bit longer and played some more with the F's kids and P. N. We threw an American Football around some, played some (non-American) football, and then just sort of ran back and forth across their lawn. It was really fun, and the F's had a really good time as well. It was a really enjoyable Saturday.
Either way, it was a pretty good week. I love all of you guys, I hope you all have a good time in the various places you find yourselves!
Love you!
Eli
Monday, August 12, 2013
Giant Festival
Hey Everyone!
The last week here has been pretty good! We've been able to do a few different things this week that have been good. We were able to visit a less active family in a nearby town and have a pretty good meeting with them, which was quite enjoyable. We also visited some of our other investigators and whatnot. It was good. The less active family we visited out in Alvesta (about a 15 minute train ride away), F and her family, seemed to really appreciate our visit. They're from Peru, and for a few weeks, F's mother is visiting from Peru, and wanted to invite the missionaries over. We came, and ended up having a pretty good time. We talked to them for a while, got to know them, read some of our favorite scriptures together (in Spanish and Swedish), and generally enjoyed each others company. They were super nice, and really seemed to enjoy the visit. They even gave us dinner, which was nice of them. And, this Sunday, though F wasn't able to make it because of work, her daughter and mother joined us for Church, and they both seemed to enjoy it. It was cool.
In other news, there was some sort of giant festival this week (over the weekend, though it seems like they were setting up for it for a few days before). Apparently there was some sort of holiday that they were celebrating, though I'm not entirely sure what. I think it had something to do with the early pioneers, but most people we asked said that they had no idea why it was celebrated; it was pretty much just an excuse to party. Either way, the downtown area was packed with people, there were a bunch of booths selling things like pastries or music or whatnot, and they had a few carnival-type rides set up (like ferris wheels). It was kind of crazy, at least for a few days. By Sunday evening, however, the stalls and rides had all packed up, and within a few hours were gone completely. But it was interesting while it was all here.
Anyways, things are going well here. We also found out fairly recently that Elder Jensen is going to be transferred soon (in a week and a half or so). Though it's not set in stone, he may actually be going up to Luleå (my previous area)! That'd be kind of funny if that's where he went, but it's be cool. Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Love,
Eli
Monday, August 5, 2013
Zone Conference
Hey Everyone!
The last week has gone fairly well. We've been able to meet with a few people, go to a zone conference down in Malmö, and continue to work here in Växjö. Overall, the week's been pretty good, and we've been able to try to contact a lot of people.
Probably the most exciting thing this week has been a two zone conference down in Malmö. We were able to go and listen to some excellent advice from President and Sister Newell, our zone leaders, and the assistants. It was very good, they had some good advice on how to help the missionary work be more effective and successful in the different areas, specifically focusing on how to more effectively work with the branch (or ward) in missionary efforts. I feel like that, specifically trying to work with the members, is going to be the future of missionary work in Sweden, and, hopefully, everywhere. I'm looking forward to being able to, hopefully soon, effectively work more with the ward for finding, teaching, and converting new members to the Church.
Aside from that, the weeks has been fairly ordinary. We had a few lessons, called a whole bunch of old investigators, and tried to visit others. We had a fairly good lesson with one of our investigators named R, where we were able to give her a Book of Mormon in Polish and commit her to read it. Even though her family isn't very enthusiastic about her interest in the church, she said that she'd be happy to read it and pray about it. We're excited to hear how things go with her.
We also had an interesting contact with a person in Centrum (downtown). He pretty much stopped us by shouting "Mormons!" as we were going through on our bikes, and he wanted to talk for a bit about Christianity. He was a bit drunk, but actually seemed to have a few good questions and a good testimony in Christ (as well as some interesting ideas about some of the parts of the Old Testament-like about how the giants in Genesis are half human and half angel.) It was kind of cool and kind of funny, though.
Either way, it's been a pretty good week. I hope that everything is going well for you guys!
Love you,
Eli
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
6 Months
Hey Everyone!
Things have been going pretty well here in Växjö. We've been trying to meet with our investigators and branch members, and things have been going pretty well with them. I apparently didn't mention in my last letter, but the branch member who was sick is now feeling better. He was apparently extremely sleep deprived, and he got some help from the hospital, so he's feeling a lot better now (his sleep schedule is now back to normal). So everything is well on that front.
In other news, this week we had a more-or-less surprise visit from the mission president! That was pretty fun! We learned late Wednesday evening (right before going to bed) that President Newell was going to be coming by to visit us at 8 the following morning. Quite exciting! It went well, though. We tried to tidy up the apartment a bit the following morning, and he came and interviewed us, looked in our area book, etc. From what I've heard, he's been sort of going around the mission visiting the missionaries and seeing how things are going in the different areas. So that was pretty exciting.
Then, just later that day, we went over to Kristianstad for zone training! We went, listened to an excellent presentation from our zone leaders, and were able to meet with the missionaries in the Helsingborg zone. It was all very good. It was kind of interesting being with all of the missionaries because in part they aren't the missionaries I've gotten used to seeing at zone meetings in Norrland, and also because some of them are missionaries who came to Sweden with me, but who I haven't really seen since the MTC. It was quite cool being able to meet with them, though.
Aside from that, things are going well! We're trying to continue with the work here in Växjö. It is, admittedly, a bit slower than the work in Luleå, but it's been good. We've been trying to work with old investigators and the branch members, and things have been going pretty well with that. We were able to do some service for one of the branch members, Peter, this week, (we loaded a bunch of old furniture and boxes and the like into a van and helped get it to the recycling center) and we've enjoyed trying to get to know the other Saints here.
Also, I suppose that I hit my six month mark this week. It's kind of weird to think that I've been out here for six months now (wearing a white shirt and tie just about every day for half a year!) Overall, I think it's been a good half a year, though. I feel like I've gotten to know a lot of people, more-or-less learn a new language, and help a lot of people. It's been good, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for the next year and a half.
Love you guys a lot!
Eli
Monday, July 22, 2013
Kebab Pizza
Kebab meat - yes, kebab meat - is the most popular pizza topping in Sweden. The kebab pizza is a Swedish invention which combines Italian and Turkish cuisine in a way that might horrify Italians and Turks.
The standard toppings on a kebab pizza are tomato sauce, cheese, onion, fefferoni peppers, kebab meat and, of course, kebab sauce. Some people also like to add fresh lettuce or cucumbers to their kebab pizza.
Here are pictures of Kebab Pizza I have eaten in different parts of Sweden.
Kebab Pizza in Vaxjo
Kebab Pizza in Umea
The standard toppings on a kebab pizza are tomato sauce, cheese, onion, fefferoni peppers, kebab meat and, of course, kebab sauce. Some people also like to add fresh lettuce or cucumbers to their kebab pizza.
Here are pictures of Kebab Pizza I have eaten in different parts of Sweden.
Another week in Vaxjo
Hejsan, Everyone!
The last week has been good here in Växjö! Overall, things haven't been too exciting; we've been trying to do some finding work (mostly looking in the Area Book and trying to contact people through that), though with not too much success. So we still have a pretty small investigator pool, though we're trying to increase it.
This week one of the branch members, M, was quite ill. He had gone to Fest i Nord (the YSA conference for Scandinavia), and had apparently become quite sleep-deprived over the course of the conference, which lead to some kind of bad problems when he got home. His parents were out of town for a few weeks, so another branch member - V, the Boyers (the senior couple here), and we helped take care of him some earlier in the week. It went fairly well, but he occasionally went into seizures of some sort and we would all help get him to the hospital. Made for a fairly interesting start to the week.
Then, later in the week (Thursday), Elder Jensen went to Stockholm for Leadership training. That went fairly well; I think he had enjoyed the training, and I split with one of the Elders from Halmstad, Elder Tanner. He had only been in Sweden for about a week, so it was kind of interesting working with him for the day (we stayed in Växjö). We visited a member for lunch and then tried a few swing bys in Alvesta (a nearby town). The lunch was good, though none of the people we swung by were actually home, so it wasn't that exciting. We also got to play Drak Borgen that night with him and Elder Millsap, which was fun.
Overall, it was a pretty good week. I suppose that it did have some exciting days, as well as some days that weren't as exciting. Either way, it was pretty good.
Love you all!
Elder Cahill
Monday, July 15, 2013
Vaxjo
Hey everyone!
Things have been pretty good here! It's been my first few days here in Växjö, and it's been really good!
The last few days in Luleå went quite well. We had a few lessons (pretty usual) until Tuesday. Because Elder Jones was getting a new missionary for a companion, he had to go down to Stockholm to meet him and go through some orientation on Tuesday, so I stayed with the Bybees for a good part of Tuesday and Wednesday morning. That went well, we had some lessons that evening and got to the airport alright on Wednesday.
And then on Wednesday I flew down to Stockholm and then took a few different trains in to Växjö. I ended up arriving at Växjö at about 6 or so on Wednesday evening.
Things have been going well here. I've been working with Elder Jensen, my new companion, over the last several days. The Växjö area doesn't have a lot of current investigators, so we're working on trying to find people that might be interested from the records in the Area Book, and we're going to try to begin working with some former investigators. We haven't had much luck yet, but we're going to keep at it and hopefully find someone to teach. We've also decided that we want to try to work with the branch, and we've tried to set some goals and plans to try to help build unity in the branch and hopefully get them more involved in the missionary work. It seems like it should go well.
Aside from that... We've been having a pretty good time here. We've had a chance to go and look around a cool castle (Teleborg Castle-built in 1900, now a hotel and restaurant) here for a little bit. Played an old Swedish board game called Drak Borgen (The Castle of the Dragon), and we've been trying to have some fun while still doing work. It's been pretty good so far. It seems like it's going to be a pretty different transfer than my last, and it should be good.
Our trip to Jokkmokk-this is what the Arctic Circle looks like in the summer
Love you all! Hope things are going good in all of the places you are!
Eli
Teleborg castle in Vaxjo
Monday, July 8, 2013
Repentance
One sort of neat thing about the Swedish word for repentance (Omvändelse) is that it, when literally translated, means to turn around (or a turning around). When we repent, we're really just trying to do better than we have been, to turn from sin and turn around towards God. And as long as we continue to do so (that is, try to face towards God), it doesn't really matter how bad we've been, because we're trying to do better and, after enough time, we will improve. I think our desires and what we're trying to do to follow Christ is really what's most important and that, coupled with Christ's atonement, is what allows us to become like Him.
Transfers
Hey everybody!
This week has been pretty good! We've been quite busy up in Luleå trying to find people to teach, teach our investigators, and prepare them for baptism! Things have been going well with the Work here, and I've been happy to be involved with the work that I've done here.
This week, we had a few interesting things happen. For one, we were able to have the Zone Leaders, Elders C and K, here on work-overs for a day. Honestly, aside from them being here, it was a pretty ordinary day. We tried to split into a two companionships and we both tried a bunch of appointments and swingbys, but most of them didn't really go through, so we ended up doing a fair amount of tracting and area book work. So that wasn't too exciting, but it was fun having other missionaries up here.
We've also been working towards preparing "F" for baptism this week. We've been trying to involve the branch more in his baptism and in progress with him so that he can feel more welcome, and overall I think progress with that has been going well. We've been lining up talks and whatnot, and it is looking to be a good service so far. We're all excited for the commitment Francis is going to be making this Saturday.
We've also had the opportunity to start teaching a new investigator, "R". "R" is from Ghana and is living with his brother in law, "T", whom we have been teaching for a little while now. Previously, "R" didn't seem all that interested, and mostly just sat on his bed on his computer. Apparently, however, he had been listening some, and "T" recently told us that he would be interested in studying (as they put it) with us. Of course, we were happy to agree, and we soon enough we were sitting down talking about the Restoration. "R" more or less took a restoration pamphlet, read through it, and said that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so that he could know if this is right. It looks like there's a minor details we may need to sort out with him, such as regarding priesthood authority, but considering how much we've taught him, he seems more than a little positive towards the message. It will be good to continue to teach him (at least for the Elders who will be doing so).
And, finally, I did receive word as to where I will be transferring this week. On Wednesday, the 10th, I'll be leaving Luleå on a plane to Stockholm, where I'll then be boarding a train to the Växjö (pronounced "Veck-wuh" or "Veck-shuh", if you're in the north). It should be a pretty different experience than Luleå; it'll be a smaller branch in a completely different part of the country, but I'm looking forward to serving there. It should be an adventure, and I know that I'll be going where the Lord needs me.
Good to hear from you all!
Eli
Vaxjo from a plane
Aldste Jones, Iranian friend, F and Aldste Cahill
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