Transfers

Hi Everyone!

  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

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

 

                                                         Partying with the Birthday Parrot!

           Celebrating my 20th Birthday with Elders Day, Jensen and Lappalainen

                            Inside our church in Vaxjo-what does that sign mean above the door?

                                            Outside of the church in Vaxjo-yes it is in an office building

 

 Kronoberg Castle, a ruined fortress constructed in the 15th century. This castle was used as base by rebel Nils Dacke during the Dacke War. The fortress has thick walls and an interesting array of artillery portals that face out onto the lake Helgasjön to the north

 

                                                         Interesting bathroom signs

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

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