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

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

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

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.

  Love you all! Hope things are going good in all of the places you are!

  Eli

             Our trip to Jokkmokk-this is what the Arctic Circle looks like in the summer

                                                       Teleborg castle in Vaxjo

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

Elder Cahill Address/Birthday

Hi! This is just a reminder of Elder Cahill's Address in Sweden, he would love snail mail!

Elder Eli Cahill
Sweden Stockholm Mission
Enebybergsvägen 38
182 46 Enebyberg
Sweden

Also Eli's birthday is August 16th, please send cards!
Thanks

Midsommar

Hey everyone!

  It's been a fantastic week up here in Luleå! The work has been moving forward: We've been finding investigators, teaching, and doing well with helping people come to Christ. Overall, it's been a good week. Several of our investigators have been able to progress, and one of them, "F" is well on track to be baptized on the 13th of June. Everything seems to be going well with the work here. 

  The most exciting event this week would most likely be Midsommar (which is Swedish for midsummer, in case you couldn't tell). Overall, it was a fantastic experience. The Elders in Skellefteå came up the night before (Thursday) because they were invited by the family that hosted us for the day and they didn't have anywhere else to go for the holiday. We stayed up a little chatting and playing a few card games, and then got to bed for an early start up to Haparanda. On the way up the next morning, we stopped in Kalix and had the chance to see a pretty cool old church there, owned by Svenskakyrka (the Swedish church). It was cool, the first cathedral here I've had a chance to go inside of. We then headed off for our destination again.

  Once we were at Haparanda, we spent some time driving around looking at the city. We tried to go to IKEA, but it was closed for the holiday (despite the fact that it says in big letters "open every day" on the side of the building), but there were also a few cool building and whatnot around town. We also may have driven over to Tornio, Finland, Haparanda's twin city, where we largely looked at bookstores full of books in Finnish. It was pretty interesting. We also went and looked at another old church in Finland, which looked very cool. There was a tour guide there that showed us around the giant organ and even took us up to the bell tower. And, as an added plus, we were able to sit and talk to her for a while about our church and what we believe. She actually seemed pretty interested; it was quite neat. 

  After Haparanda (and Tornio), we headed back to the D's (one of the member family's) cabin, where we had a few festivities, including diner and desert, as well as some Badminton, a game called Kubb, and a few other games. Overall, it was very fun. We had a good time, and were soon tired from the games and full from the food. We soon headed back to Luleå, where we promptly went to sleep and then prepared for the next day. Although we didn't have the chance to dance around a maypole or do any of the other more traditional festivities, it was a very good midsummer, and I think I day I'll remember for a long while.

 

Eli

 

PS-Single letters denote personal names..such as "F" or "D" in this case.

 

                                                          Swedish church in Kalix

                                                        Inside the church in Kalix                         

                                                              A Church in Torino Finland

                                                   In the Bell Tower of the Torino Church

                                                                  At the "D's" place

Branch Conference

Hey, everybody!

  The last week has been pretty interesting. We've had several good lessons, and several of our investigators are moving along (some more quickly than others, though). In particular, one of our investigators, F, was interviewed on Friday by President Newell and was given permission to be baptized in about a week and a half, on the 13th of July! He's tried very hard to stop smoking (as well as a few other issues with the Word of Wisdom), and he's managed to stop and has a strong desire to begin a new life. Everyone here is very excited for the new steps he is making.

  Which, in a way, leads me to the second interesting thing this week: I received news that I'm going to be transferred on the 10th of July. Unfortunately, this is three days before the scheduled baptism, so I won't be able to be present for it, but I'm looking forward to going to wherever I may be going next. I don't yet know what my new area will be, though I'll be receiving word about it on Saturday. Though I'll be sad to miss F's baptismal service, I trust that I'll be sent to where the Lord needs me at that time.

  In other news, this week we had the opportunity of having President Newell (our mission president) visiting the Luleå area for Branch Conference. It was overall very good having him here; he was able to help on two of our lessons (though one was in Swedish, so he didn't say too much), and he also gave some good advice for the area and for the people here. We spent quite a bit of time yesterday discussing the area with him. One thing that he recommended, in the mission and in other aspects of life, was trying to come up with some sort of a vision or an idea for how something could be, set a plan to follow it, and then try to execute the plan in faith that the Lord will help. I'm looking forward to trying to help the Luleå area while I'm here and trying to help my next area, as well.

  I can't think of anything else that is notably interesting this week. Overall, it's been a very good week, and I feel that the Lord has been helping the work here. It's good to be here and be helping people come to Christ. 

  Love you all!

    Eli

PS: Sorry if I don't respond to your emails today! We're planning on trying to go to Jokkmokk for my last p day here (next week will largely just be packing). Love you all; I'll try to write more to you guys next week! Thanks!