Christmas Conference 2

Hi Everyone!

    So this last week has been good. Of most significant note, this Friday we had  zone conference up in Gothenburg, which went well. The week hasn't been too exciting outside of that (it's generally been a lot of the stuff we usually do), but that's okay. And this week looks like it should be interesting, which is exciting. You know, Christmas and all of that stuff.

  So, this week we actually ended up meeting M on Wednesday instead of Tuesday again because the Delgado's were busy on Tuesday (pretty crazy stuff, right?). But we met Mia early in the week and had a pretty good meeting. We ended up talking for a bit and then going through most of the rest of lesson 5. We're planning on talking about the rest of the lesson tomorrow (there's only one or two more points), and then we'll have gone through all of the new member lessons! Which is pretty cool! And, all in all, things seem to be going fairly well with M. We also helped her fix her computer, which is also pretty neat too. 

  Anyways, on Wednesday we also had lunch with A and J-E at their company, and ended up talking for a while to one of their co-workers, who said that she might come to church. She ended up being busy this last Sunday, but we have our fingers crossed for the next meeting. 

  On Friday we had the Christmas conference in Göteborg. All in all, I thought the conference was  good. President and Sister Beckstrand talked quite a bit about Christmas and how we can use it and the "He is the Gift" program in our teaching and contacting. It's largely what we've been talking about at district meetings and zone training recently, but it was still cool. After the lunch we had skits from each of the districts in the Göteborg and Malmö zones. The districts are weirdly huge now, so there was only four or five of them in the two zones, but the skits that everyone did were actually good. Most of them were just parodies of Christmas songs, but a lot were still pretty funny and one group made a mock video of "The District." We did this thing where we read a short story (ish thing), but with the syllables in the words switched around. It was pretty fun. 

  On Sunday we only had one hour of church, due to the holidays. It was kind of nice, but it also felt a little weird being in church for such a short amount of time. Afterwards we dropped off invitations to a party the Delgado's are having on the 25th, and then wrote an area transfer report. Pretty exciting.

  Anyways, I hope you all have a great Christmas! Happy Holidays! Also, See y'all in (a little over) a week!

Lucia

Hi Everyone!

  This week has been pretty good. The most interesting happening of the week was probably the Lucia concert which we watched this last Saturday. It was very good.

  Because of a schedule conflict, we ended up meeting M on Wednesday instead of Tuesday like we usually do (and, as it turns out, we may do the same thing this week). But that went well, we came and chatted for a while and then went through part of Lesson 5 (we ended up talking a lot about missionary work and enduring to the end and taking the sacrament and other similar things). It was good; those visits always seem nice. 

  Then on Thursday we traveled to Kristianstad for district meeting, incidentally possibly my last district meeting. We actually spent some time working out a skit that we're apparently going to have to perform at the Christmas Conference this week, and then we talked some about using Christmas for our contacting and finding work. Pretty exciting. 

  On Saturday, we had the chance to go to Lucia! Yay! We actually barely missed the first concert (they run about once every two hours or so), so we ended up waiting in a line outside for a while (which wasn't all that bad, just a bit chilly). But then we finally got in, took a seat, and were able to watch the concert. And I've got to say, it was really pretty good! I liked it quite a bit! It was essentially just a winter choir concert except everyone was dressed kind of funny and they were all holding candles, but they did a pretty good job of singing and the music was good. It probably wasn't as good as Mad Dinner (because that knocks the socks off of everything else), but I still enjoyed it. 

  On Sunday we had church as normal, and then during Sacrament meeting we watched the first presidency Christmas fireside.  I liked it; I thought the talks were good, and I also enjoyed the music between speakers. It was a kind of cool change to the usual Sunday.

  I hope everything is going well with you all!

 

 

 

Juletidens Borjan

Hey everyone!

  Things are going pretty well here in Växjö.

  Last Tuesday we had our usual open church time, which went well. But then afterwards, we actually didn't go to M's (surprised you, didn't I), because she invited us over on Wednesday instead so she could cook us (me, Elder Higham, and the Delgado's) a Bosnian dinner. So on Tuesday we ended up doing some swing by's and tracting in the evening, and then we found ourselves at M's on Wednesday evening, where we ate some savory cheese, spinach, and potato pies, and then went through the lesson on the commandments. All in all, it was good. Especially the pies, they were tasty.

  On Thursday we had District meeting here in Växjö, which was a kind of nice change. The meeting itself was good; we have a new District Leader, and he talked about prayer in missionary work. But it was good. And then afterwards we ate at a fake KFC (which was actually surprisingly decent), and then we had some extra time for work here in Växjö, which was nice.

  And then on Saturday we had a branch Christmas activity here at the church. It was really pretty good; they (I'm not sure who exactly, maybe the branch presidency) had printed out a bunch of pamphlet-like things with lyrics to a bunch of Christmas songs from the hymn book and other traditional songs, and we sang those for a while, then played some Christmas-based Pictionary (which is kind of hard in Swedish), and then ate some snacks and socialized. All in all, it was pretty fun, and it felt like kind of a "start" to the Christmas season. It should be a good December. 

Next week we're planning on going to Lucia this weekend at the Domkyrka (the... cathedral thing? The big state church.), so that should be fun. I'm looking forward to going to a real Lucia concert. 

  It's honestly kind of surreal now that it's actually getting close to the end of the mission. It's kind of bittersweet; I'm really looking forward to being home and seeing everyone back home again and everything, but it's also going to be weird just doing something so different from what I've been doing the last two years. It'll probably be kind of an adjustment getting back into the swing of "normal" life, just like it was a bit of an adjustment getting used to the mission life.

  Anyways, I hope all is well with you guys.

 

                                                At the Copenhagen Denmark Temple

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone! This week has been going well. Of most note, this week was Thanksgiving (and I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving), which was fun, and then later in the week we had a zone meeting. Aside from that, the week hasn't been too out of the ordinary, but it's been good.

  So, I guess starting towards the beginning of the week, on Tuesday we had open church and then the usual meeting with M. That went well, we were able to go and review the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. And, as usual, it was nice to be able to visit with her and the D's, as well. 

  On Thursday, we were invited over to the D's for Thanksgiving dinner, which was super nice of them! In preparation for the dinner, I baked a pumpkin pie for dessert. I just used the pie recipe on the side of the can of pumpkin I had (which was kind of a tricky item to find, actually), but the pie actually turned out really good. I don't think the flavor was quite a strong as it usually is, but the recipe called for a lot of evaporated milk, which made for a very, very creamy pie. It was really pretty good. 

  Okay, enough bragging. The dinner itself was very good as well, the D's made some very good turkey and stuffing and everything. We didn't have cranberry sauce, but we used some lingonberry jam, and it was pretty close. So, all in all, we had a pretty dang good dinner. It was nice.

  On Friday we went down to Malmö for a zone training meeting. The training was good, we talked about this new Christmas contacting program that the church gave us training about. It sounds like it should be interesting. 

  Anyways, the rest of the week wasn't too exciting. It's been good and all, just not a ton out of the ordinary. I hope you guys had a great thanksgiving, and I hope you have a good week!

Temple Visit

  So, it hasn't been all that long since I last wrote. I think on account of some transfers coming up this Tuesday (which don't affect me or my companion), the office told us to take P-day this week on Saturday instead of Monday. I think it's a little weird, but I guess that some people are moving on Monday, as well. So, moral of the story, I'm writing a little sooner.

  Anyways, this week has gone fairly well. In general it's been fairly routine (as in, it's been fairly similar to the other weeks so far here). On Monday we had preparation day and then ward FHE in the evening. We actually ended up watching Mobsters and Mormons. There's a lot of references to "Mormon" culture that I feel like may not have made too much sence to someone in Scandinavia, but everyone seemed to enjoy it fairly well (even the two non-members who showed up). 

  We had a fairly normal Tuesday: swingby's and such in the early afternoon and then open church and a visit with M in the evening. She's doing well, she seems to enjoy meeting with us and talking about the gospel and such, which is good. This week we went over the Plan of Salvation again. 

  On Thursday we went down to Karlskrona for district meeting. It was nice; it was fun being able to meet with the district members, and Elder Hansen gave a good lesson on Christlike attributes, sort of focusing on examples of the attributes in the Savior's life and how we can try to develop them in ours. I liked it. And then we came back and, because of train delays, didn't get back until about 5 or 6 o clock. It's nice actually being in a district with other missionaries (which isn't something I've had all that often).

  And then yesterday (Friday), we got to go to the temple in Copenhagen! It was a nice trip. I really enjoyed being able to go to the temple, it was nice being able to do service there and feel the spirit that's there. I do have a couple of pictures from the trip, but I don't actually have the right cable this time :/, so I guess I'll try to send them out sometime this week.

  Anyways, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I don't know about you, but I'm planning on baking a pumpkin pie to sort of celebrate (in a little way)! 

Copenhagen Denmark Temple

Julmarknad​en

Hi everyone!

  This last week has been pretty good. I don't remember if I remembered to mention it last week, but happy birthday mom! You know, now that you're another year and a week old. I feel like that deserves mention in the group email. Anyways, this week's been pretty good.

  We've actually had a few service projects and the like this week, which was cool. On Monday, we went to visit a member who wasn't feeling well. We stopped by, visited for a little bit, gave him a blessing (partly because he was feeling ill and partly because he was going to be having surgery this week) and then helped him move some furniture to the recycling center. And, by the way, the surgery went well and he was able to make it to church on Sunday and he looked like he was doing quite well, which is good.

  And then on Tuesday we went and visited another member and helped him with some yard work. We pulled a few bushes out of the ground (which proved to be quite the task), and then took the bushes and some leaves that the Delgado's helped rake to the recycling center (which I am gradually becoming well acquainted with). I think that was pretty much all of the service that we did this week, but it was still nice (on both days). It felt good to be able to have a bit of a change of pace and it felt good to be able to help some of the people here. 

  And... On Thursday we went to Kristianstad for district meeting. The meeting was good, but not too out of the ordinary (but good, we talked about companionship unity and such and played one of those games where you have a sign and try to pass the play to other people by making their sign type of thing. Kind of like "stupid ninja" or other similar games. Anyways, it was fun). After the meeting we went to this pizzeria called Katrine's and had some kebab there that was really quite good. I've got to say, a lot kebab here is good but pretty similar, but this place was notably good and kind of different from other shops. I liked it a lot. 

  Anyways, then on Saturday we went to this place called Huseby for a Julmarknad (literally a "Christmas Market"). It was pretty cool, though they charged 80 krowns (~$10) to get in, which I thought was kind of a ripoff for what was already an overpriced market thing. But it was still pretty cool, especially after the sun went down, I almost felt like I was in medival Scandinavia walking through rows of candle lit canvas shops. It was pretty cool. And they had two tents in particular where people just set up booths selling food, so we just walked around for a while eating the free samples of sausages and cheeses and candies and the like. 

Our new member M doing well; she seems enthusiastic about church and the gospel and everything, and she's now on some sort of activity committee or something. I don't really know, but she has a calling, which is cool. We met her last Tuesday and started going through the "new member" lessons (which is really just the normal lessons again).

  Anyways, I think that's been the highlights of the week. It's been pretty good.

  I hope you all had a good week and will have one more this week!

 

                                                                     Kebab Pizza!

                                                         Christmas Market after dark

Doptjänst

Hey Everyone!

  Things are going fairly well here in Växjö. This week, I suppose that the biggest point of interest was that Mia was baptized this last Saturday. Yay! I feel like there's been some other cool stuff happening too, though.

  Lets see... I feel like there wasn't too much excitement towards the beginning of the week. On Monday I suppose that we started the ward FHE again (I guess that they had stopped it when the Boyers left). It went well, we had a spiritual thought and then played some cards (a few games of spoons). All in all pretty fun. And then Tuesday we visited M and talked a little bit more about baptism and made sure we'd gone over everything. 

  On Thursday we had district meeting here, and then M had her baptismal interview. Both the meeting and the interview went well. And then after that we had branch council and then institute, and we tried to work out the Baptismal program in between. But we got it all worked out, so that's good.

  And then on Saturday we had the baptism! It went pretty well! Elder Delgado and I spoke (I spoke on baptism and Elder Delgado on the Holy Ghost), and Elder Higham performed the baptism. The next day I confirmed M in Sacrament meeting. I think that she enjoyed the baptism and confirmation; she was just beaming afterwards. So it went pretty well. We had to have the baptismal service down in Karlskrona because there's not a font here, but aside from the travel, I think everyone enjoyed it.

  We did have daylight savings about a week (or two? I don't remember) ago. It get's dark around 4 ish. Missionary work when it's dark is largely the same as when it's light. We meet people when we can, and when we can't we swing by people or tract. We get around by bike; it's really the fastest way to get across town or what have you.

  So... yeah. On Sunday evening the Ds had us and her over for dinner, which was nice. All in all it's been pretty good.

  I hope everything's good with you guys, I'll see if I can't get some pictures sent out soon.

 

 

                    We inventoried our apt. and found the Book of Mormon in 67 different languages!

                                                                   Baptism Day!

All Saints Day

Hi Everyone!

  This week has been pretty good. There's been some things that have been kind of interesting.

  On Monday (or maybe Tuesday... I don't really remember), we were on our way to the grocery store to pick up a thing or two, and someone came up to us and asked if we knew the address to the other missionaries. It took us a second, but we realized that he meant the Boyers (who were the senior couple here a few months ago but had since moved home), and he wanted their address in the States so he could write them. Anyways, he ended up inviting us in and we chatted for a little bit, which was cool. He's Lebanese guy named J, and he seemed to have enjoyed meeting and talking about religion with the Boyers, and he seemed interested in having us over as well, so we may end up meeting him sometime soon. It was pretty cool.

  On Wednesday we had a fairly ordinary day and then had home teaching in the evening with J-E. We visited two of the branch members, which was nice, though I don't think either of them remembered me from when I was here last. But that's okay, I just thought it was funny. And I suppose on Wednesday we did also have dinner with the C's, the new-er Chilean family in the branch. They're super cool; the kids all like games and tv shows and stuff (which I guess isn't all that surprising), and the parents are really nice. We had a good time there.

  On Friday we had a zone conference down in Malmö. It seems like I've gone down to Malmö for some sort of zone meeting almost every week since I've gotten here.  But the conference was good, they talked a lot about faith and obedience and diligence. All in all I liked it. Also, because it was on Halloween, some of the missionaries dressed up, which was really funny (only a few of them did and they were mostly pretty basic costumes, like a toga over the suit, but it was still fun). 

  Saturday was All Saints Day. The day itself wasn't that exciting, but in the evenings on November 1st the Swedes always go and light candles on the graves of loved ones, so the cemeteries are full of candles. We went and walked around one for a little bit, it looked pretty cool, and they had one part that had a pond with a whole bunch of candles around it. It was very neat. I do have some pictures, but I'll send them out sometime this week, though.

The woman being baptized is probably in her mid-to-late twenties. She's Bosnian, but she's lived in Sweden for most of her life, so she speaks pretty good Swedish, but also pretty good English. And I think Bosnian. Maybe. I've never actually heard her speak it. But things are going well on that front; we're having a baptismal interview on Thursday and then the baptism is planned for Saturday. So that's good. Aside from that, we're trying to find new people to teach. We're doing contacting and whatnot, and we swung by some old investigators and less actives and such this week. Seems like there is always something going on.

Have a great week!

                                                           Candles on All Saints Day

Vaxjo again!

Hi Everyone!

  Things have been going well here in Växjö! This week hasn't been quite as busy as last week (or the week before), which has been kind of nice. No conferences in Malmö or other meetings three hours away. We did have district meeting which took a few hours to get to because it was in Karlskrona (which is a really cool city), but nothing quite as far away. Although this next week we have a zone conference in Malmö, so we'll be heading down again, but then it should settle down again.

  Things are going good but it hasn't been too exciting. Earlier in the week we met with M, who's one of our investigators. She's really very positive, it looks like she's had almost all of the lessons and she has a baptismal date for early-ish next month (the 8th), which is pretty exciting. And she seems genuinely excited for it, and just sort of generally engaged in trying to live the Gospel. She came to church and institute this week. And she seems like a pretty cool person; she's from Bosnia (I think?) and she's pretty into games and such.

  Aside from that... We did have district meeting on Thursday, which focused on prayer, followed by institute that evening. I thought that J, the institute teacher, really did a good job with the lesson, which focused on setting a good example as leaders. It was all in all an enjoyable day.

  In other news, on Sunday I had the great chance to a) meet with all of the members in the ward and everything and b) talk in sacrament meeting. I was asked to give a talk on willingness. I sort of talked about agency and sacrifice and how we can follow the Saviors example. It was nice being able to meet the old branch members as well as some of the newer ones. The branch is largely the same, but right before I left a family moved in, and I had a chance to talk with them some (at least the kids), which was fun. They invited us over for dinner on Wednesday.

  I hope everything is going well back home!

Many Meetings

Hi Everyone!

  So the last week has been kind of crazy / busy. But it's all been good. I guess that my last couple days in Hägersten were all in all pretty good, but a lot of it felt kind of busy. We just had a lot of ends to tie up to get ready to double out of the area, like writing transfer reports and cleaning the apartment, and such. And then on Wednesday I took a train down to Växjö. We were just kind of busy trying to get everything together.

 Since I have gotten here we've actually been pretty busy with a variety of conferences and meetings and whatnot. On Wednesday evening we met and had dinner with the D's, the senior couple here. They're really nice, and really funny people. They seem cool. On Thursday we headed down to Malmö for a zone training meeting (the zone now is pretty much all of southern Sweden (not the southern half, but a good chunk of it), so it was a pretty far away and there were a lot of people there). It went well, the zone leaders had some good thoughts about kind of keeping everything balanced in the missionary work.

  On Friday we had open church and did some contacting, which isn't too exciting. But we also met some of the branch members, which was kind of funny, because most of them remembered me, but maybe had some trouble placing me at first.

  And then on Saturday we packed back up and went back down to Malmö for Stake Conference, which took the rest of the weekend. We attended the Saturday session, stayed the night with the Zone Leaders in Malmö, and then had the Sunday session in Lund, with interviews with President Beckstrand afterward. All in all I liked the meetings. We had a area authority speak, and he made some good points. One thing that I took from it was that we should try to help people embrace the gospel, but we should do it lovingly and understandingly, and try to help them out of a genuine desire to help them. I liked it.

  Anyways, that's pretty much the week. It's been kind of busy, but it's been good.

  Hope everything's good with you guys!

Transfers v15.0

Hi Everybody!

  So this week has been kind of interesting. First and foremost is this week we'll be having transfers. As it turns out, Elder B will be training a greenie and will head over to Göteborg, and I'll be heading back down to Växjö, and our place is being taken by Elder F and someone he'll be training. I think that a lot of areas in the mission are doubling out and such. So that's all pretty interesting.

  But this week's all in all been good. Last Monday we met up with some other missionaries and ate surströmming (I think I sent pictures from that last week). I ended up eating it in a bit of a larger dose than the first time (just a fillet of fish on a cracker), but it wasn't too bad. It wasn't exactly good, but it wasn't too bad. And then afterwards we went shopping around Stockholm some more. It wasn't all that exciting.

  The rest of the week went well. I think on Wednesday, we went to visit M, one of the ward members, because she was pretty sick and wanted a blessing. She didn't hear us ring the doorbell when we came (she pretty soundly asleep), so we waited for a little while and rang the bell a few more times, and eventually she opened the door. She invited us in, we gave her the blessing, and then afterwards she asked if we could help pick some grapes from a vine in her yard. While we were doing that, she went to lie down some more. And it was good to be able to give her the blessing and serve in that way. We ended up meeting her again quickly on Saturday (to give another blessing because she still wasn't feeling great), and she looked a lot better than she did before, which is good.

  In other news, we've been meeting with a somewhat new investigator named D over the last couple of weeks. We met him on Thursday, and he came to church last Sunday. I've enjoyed meeting with him; he's a nice guy. He tends to ask pretty deep questions (as in thought out and deep doctrine), which have been kind of interesting to try to answer, but he seems to enjoy meeting with us and I think that all in all he likes the message. So it will be interesting to see what happens.

  Anyways, I hope all is going well back home!

Referral Crazy

Hi Everyone!

  This last week has been good. It's been a bit less awkwardly-scheduled than last week, so we've been able to meet a few more people and such. A lot of the people we've been able to teach have been people we talked to on the street, but it's still been really good.

  Last Monday we went in to downtown Stockholm and sort of old-town Stockholm and looked around some of the shops and such. It was pretty cool; there was one store in particular called the SciFi store or something like that (maybe scifi bookstore?) that just had a whole bunch of (unsurprisingly) science fiction and fantasy books, magazines, etc., but also a very impressive collection of board games, roleplaying stuff, etc. It was pretty fun looking around it. And then we also looked some at another store selling a bunch of "viking" souvenirs. It was pretty neat as well; I may head back there. And then we also looked at less interesting things like shoes and suits.

   There hasn't been too much out-of-the ordinary in general, but a few things have been fairly interesting. On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the other Hägersten Elders, and I went with Elder Steen. It was good, we did some contacting and then had open church. In the evening we visited this Palestinian guy and his family. He was super nice and very friendly. He tried to serve us some tea, which was very kind of him, and he seemed a little confused when we had to decline, but we tried to explain why we don't drink tea as best we could with the language barrier. He seemed a bit disappointed. Anyways, we ended up getting home kind of late because the lesson went kind of long (and started later than we meant it to; we missed a train stop on the way there), and then we had to wait for a bunch of trains back to Handen. But it was all in all a good day.

  The rest of the week has gone well. We've done a lot of contacting and actually got a kind of weird number of referrals. I think all in all there were 7 or something like that. They were all from other missionaries who were just having investigators, old investigators, or less actives moving into our area, but we still had a lot of people move in. So far we've contacted two of them, and they've both been pretty positive, so we have our fingers crossed with the others. We'll see what happens.

We'll be watching conference this weekend at Gubbängen or Västerhaninge chapels. I think they're at about noon and four, but I don't really remember. Some weird times. But we'll probably be watching it in English.

  You asked how living by the spirit has kept me safe? I guess you could say living by the spirit and by mission rules and such keeps me safe in a variety of ways. Trying to follow the rules and the guidance of the spirit helps me (and missionaries generally) to avoid situations that could lead to physical or spiritual harm, like bad situations with other people or potentially physically dangerous situations. And then, of course, the spirit can help to warn us of other dangers and tell us things we can do. I don't know if I can think of any specific examples right now, but I'm sure that the spirit and mission rules do help.

  Ward or Branch? I'm in a ward. The building is bigger than most of the other buildings I've been in, though it may still be a tad smaller than typical church buildings in the States. Maybe. It's big for a Swedish church, at any rate, which seem to be smaller than American ones. I'll send some pics as soon as I can, but it's sort of set up in a T shape, with the chapel and gym down one hall with classrooms across from them and then another hall (the top of the 'T') with some more classes and offices.

Miss you guys!

Service!

Hi Everyone!

 This last week has all-in-all been pretty good. Last Monday we went and just did some shopping and looking-around in central Stockholm, which was pretty cool. I had a coupon for a clothing store, so I bought a new suit (which I don't think I actually have pictures of yet, but I will soon!). And  apparently on the day that I bought it they were having a deal where I could buy a shirt for half price with a suit. Maybe it was just some sort of marketing trick, but I did it anyways, so now I have a reasonably nice suit and a pretty nice shirt to wear with it. It's pretty snazzy, I'd say. 

  Anyways, on Tuesday we had the chance to do a service project at the Västerhaninge Temple, which was really cool. We essentially planted flowers in the planters around the temple. It took quite a while, but it ended up looking rather nice. And it was good to be able to do some service and have something different to do. I enjoyed it.

  The week generally continued like normal. Our apartment has a balcony-type thing on the top floor that people can use whenever, so on Wednesday we ended up having district meeting on top of the building. We also have a small grill up there, so we barbecued some hotdogs to eat. It was pretty cool. Probably the coolest place I've had a district meeting, anyways.

  On Saturday we were making our usual morning preparations and studies when we got a call at about 8:30 from the other Elders asking if we could help "move some things" at one of the member family's homes in Huddinge as soon as we could get there. It was kind of funny, but when we finally got out there (at about 9:15 or so), we found out that they wanted some help trimming the hedge at their house. And, after a little while, we were asked if we could help with some other things around the yard. I ended up helping them with their compost pile, which was actually pretty fun. I moved a lot of dirt (and other stuff) around, and then moved a giant pile of dirt on top of that dirt. Pretty cool. It was actually all-in-all a pretty good time, and the family, the L's, are super nice. It was good.

  Anyways, after we were done, we ran home, ran back out to Västerhaninge, had dinner at a member's house (the C's, I think), and then headed to the church there to watch conference! All in all, I really enjoyed the meetings. I really liked a lot of the speakers from the first session. It seems like a lot of people focused on sort of staying true to our testimonies and trying to help the poor and others. I'm sure there were other themes, but those were two that I noticed. All in all, though, I really enjoyed the conference.

  Hope you all have a great week!

 

                                                  View from our rooftop district meeting

                                                   Some sort of outdoor restroom

                                                                       Eli + rocks

                                                Gardens at the Stockholm Temple

Dancing Queen

Hi Everyone!

  This last week has been fairly... interesting. It's kind of been surprisingly unsurprising, meaning that we've had a few appointments and meetings and whatnot, but they've tended to be in areas that are either hard to get to or just a ways away, so we've had a few days where it's been difficult to schedule things so we'll have, say, a zone training, and then just do some contacting and head home for dinner. All in all, it's been fairly good, just kind of oddly scheduled.

  But on the more interesting side of things, last P day we had a chance to go to the ABBA museum, of all places. And, also somewhat surprising, it was actually a lot of fun! The museum focused some on the history of ABBA and such, but also a little on the development of modern music and things like that. And they had a lot of fun little exhibits and whatnot, like karaoke to their songs and this fancy projector setup so that you could perform "on stage" with a CGI ABBA. It was just a lot of really fun / funny stuff, probably one of my more enjoyable p days. 

  Outside of that, the week has been good, kind of interesting. On Wednesday we had zone training in Västerhaninge, which was okay. The zone leaders talked a lot about overcoming "mountains" in missionary work. I felt like they  had some good insights on how to make the work go a bit better, so it was all-in-all a good meeting. And afterwards we went to pizza hut and I had American Pizza for the first time in quite a while, which was nice.

  On Thursday, we had a few ward activities; we helped the youth have a game of American football, and then had a "ward home evening." I learned I'm not very good at American Football, but we had a really good time playing anyways. And then for the home evening activity we answered a bunch of random questions with scriptures and put the answers in a story. It was a pretty cool activity; I may see if I can get it from the guy who organized it so I can use it back home. We were supposed to have one of our investigators, R, come, but he couldn't make it, which was too bad. 

You asked about the last time I laughed and about my companion well, I have had a good laugh or two during the week. Elder Beck's a pretty cool guy, so we've been having a fairly good time together and we joke and whatnot when we're in the apartment at the end of the day and such. He actually told me a pretty funny joke about a ding dong (I don't think it would work too well over the email), and I laughed pretty hard at that. But all in all we've just had a good time together.

 I've seen some of Stockholm, though we mostly spend time in our area which is predominantly residential. But last night we had an appointment cancel in the center of Stockholm, so we contacted and such around there and ended up walking in to Old Town, which was really cool. We'll probably head back there today. It does feel like a "big city," especially compared to pretty much anywhere else I've lived before (I get to ride the subway to church and stuff, it's pretty cool). That being said, we could walk for not too long, maybe half an hour or so, at most times and get to a forest, because most of the neighborhoods just sort of string out along the subway lines (you can kind of see it if you look at google maps, our area is the string that goes out through Skärholmen). But yeah, it does feel more urban.

  Aside from that things have been going fairly well. We did a lot of contacting, but taught occasional lessons as well. Things are going good.

  Have a great week!

 

Apostle Conference

Hi Everyone!

  This week has been all in all pretty good. There's been a few interesting happenings during the week, the most prominent of which is probably the conference we had last Thursday with President Bednar. It was a really good meeting. He talked a little bit at first, but spent most of the time in a Q and A session with the missionaries, so we could ask him questions and he could answer them. He went over a lot of different subjects. He actually kind of encouraged us to focus on questions that would have relevance beyond the mission, so it was all in all pretty interesting. I feel like one of the main topics he talked about a lot was agency and what it really means to be an agent, especially in regards to covenants we make. It was kind of interesting. It sounded like he said that we use our agency when we make choices to follow God, not just when we make choices. Because of that there wasn't really any specific topic, but one thing that he talked about that I liked focused on Agency and how we use it. I enjoyed it all quite a bit.

You asked about finding joy?  joy this week... I feel like this week (and probably in general) it's just being able to teach people and see them have the chance to learn about the Gospel. We have an investigator named R who is pretty new and we're trying to teach fairly often, and it's always great to see his enthusiasm regarding learning new things about Christ and the Gospel. It's pretty cool.

  Let's see... On Saturday afternoon there was a baptismal service for someone named J (apparently the other Hägersten Elders's investigator). I can't exactly say that I know him terribly well, but it is still good to see that the work is still moving forward in the congregations around the country. I'm sure that his baptism will be a blessing to him and his family. And there was cake served afterwards, which is always a plus. 

  The rest of the week has been pretty good, though not too exciting. It's sort of missionary work like normal: we meet with whoever is willing to meet and then we end up spending the rest of the time contacting or tracting. Admittedly sometimes contacting turns into more us talking and walking along the streets and stopping occasional people, but I feel like we usually try to do a good job of it. All in all things are going fairly well here, though.

Hope you have a great week!

Big Apple

Hey Guys!

  This week has been pretty good. Lets see... Last Monday we went to Imporium, which is a really big mall in Malmö. It was okay; there were a lot of clothing stores and such. It was pretty interesting at first, but after a little while I got kind of tired of it. But we had a good time with the Sisters and the Elders in our district. Then on Tuesday we had open church and taught a few lessons. We also had lunch at a Filipino family's house (well, the wife is Filipino and the husband is Swedish), which was fun. Aaaand then on Wednesday we had transfers, and I was sent to Hägersten in Stockholm! Yay! I guess! But I had a nice little train ride to Stockholm from Skåne, but now I'm here! There are 4 elders in our ward. Geographically it's relatively small area for a ward; we just take a subway line around. We just started teaching someone named R who seems pretty positive.

  So things have been kind of busy since I got here. I pretty much got into town, dropped off my bags, and then went to M, one of the members, house for dinner. It was good; we talked for a while with her and a senior couple who just stopped in. She's super nice and really wants to help people, which is cool. Anyways, I've actually ended up having dinner at member's houses most of the days I've been here, which has been really nice, though apparently somewhat unusual. The food's been good, though! 

  Anyways, the next day we had district meeting and then we went on exchanges with the district leader, Elder Steen. Well, I went with his companion, Elder Kapp. It was good; we tried to visit some people, contacted some people, and then ate dinner at another member's house (who's name I don't remember right now... But they're from Lithuania, I think). Sort of just missionary work as usual, with food. I just thought it was kind of funny that I went on exchanges when I hadn't even fully unpacked yet. Or even very much unpacked. 

  The rest of the week has good. Church on Sunday went well. We ended up teaching Young Womens as well as Priesthood and Relief Society (though we admittedly had planned on giving a presentation on member missionary work in the combined Priesthood and RS meeting). Kind of a busy day, but all in all good. We also discovered that taco spices in mashed potatoes tastes a lot like chili. Who knew?

Also, the weather's good. It's probably in the 60's or 70's (whatever 20 Celsius is in Fahrenheit) and it's been sunny, so it's been fairly comfortable.

  Anyways, I hope all is well with you guys!

 

                                                          Scenes from a Malmo Mall

Surstromming!

Hi everyone!

  This week has been pretty good so far. I suppose the first and foremost, there's been notification of an upcoming transfer. This Wednesday I'll be leaving Landskrona and Helsingborg (aww...), and I'll be heading up north to Stockholm (yay?) the borough of Hagersten. It should be good. I've had a great time getting to know the people down here in Skåne, and I like them a lot, but it should be good having a bit of change of scenery, too.

  In other news, this week has all in all been good. On Monday we went to this place called Ales Stenar (maybe I mentioned that last week?). It's sort of like a Swedish Stonehenge, and was apparently an old Viking graveyard type of a thing. It's pretty cool, we have a lot of pictures, which I will send soon.

  On Wednesday we went to the W's (a member family's) house (garden thing), and we had the opportunity of trying the very Swedish dish of Surströmming, which is essentially fermented herring. The smell was really rather terrible, but the fish itself didn't taste bad at all. It smelled kind of like a toilet, but just tasted like fish and salt. We ate it with a lot of potatoes and onion, and it tasted pretty good (I thought, anyways, my companion didn't like it at all). It was, all in all, an experience. No one else liked the Surströmming. They all thought it was pretty gross.

  The rest of the week has gone fairly well. We're still teaching N and some of our other investigators, and we've started trying to teach A Swedish, which is going fairly well. So far we've really just covered greetings and such, but it's good. All in all things are going fairly well here. Today we're planning on heading down to a shopping center in Malmö, which should be fun.

 

You asked about a favorite scripture? Umm... I feel like it's kind of hard to say what my favorite scripture is. One that I like a lot is D&C 18: 10, 15-16 (well, 10-16 are all good), which you probably recognize as one of the scripture masteries from this year. But I like a lot how it sort of emphasizes how much the Lord values us. God cares about us individually, and He wants us to find happiness and help others find it, as well. I also kind of like Alma 5:45-46 because it emphasizes how important prayer is (i.e. despite the fact that Alma saw an angel and had a vision and everything, he still attributes his testimony to prayer and the Holy Ghost).

 

Hope you all have a great week.

 

 

 

Mission Tour 2

Hi Everyone!

  Sorry I didn't write yesterday. We were planning on going and seeing some sights in southeast Skåne with the Helsingborg Elders (some place called Ale Stenar; it was pretty cool), and I ran out of time to finish up with some of the email. But we're here a bit early for District meeting now, so I can shoot this off quickly.

  All in all this week has gone well. In general things have been pretty straight-forward with teaching investigators, contacting, etc. We've actually been pretty busy the last few days meeting with various different people and so on. 

 On Wednesday the other Elders and we met with A, said some good-byes before she left for her vacation in the States, got lunch at a pretty good Thai place, and watched Prophet of the Restoration. It was all in all a good bit of fun. Ahe seemed to enjoy the movie, so that's good.

  Anyways, the next day we had a Mission Tour in Göteborg with Elder Teixeira. As usual, it involved a kind of long train ride there and back (which isn't always too bad; on the way there we played card games), and then we had a pretty good meeting. Elder Teixeira seemed to focus a lot on using our time effectively and generally trying to work hard. Some of the other topics included obedience, planning, dress and grooming, and so on. It was all in all a good conference.

  The rest of the week was overall pretty good. We met with some new people, met with some old people, and generally the work is going well. 

Miss you all.

 

Some fun at Ales Stones

 

21

Hi Everyone!
  I hope everything is going well with everybody. This week has been pretty good here. I suppose first off, and this probably goes without saying, but it was my birthday this last Saturday. Thanks to everyone for the birthday well-wishes and whatnot. The rest of the week has all-in-all been pretty good.

  On Monday we had the chance to go to Malmö for p-day. I don't really remember if I talked about this last week or not, so I'll make this brief. We got to go and generally sight see around the city. We went to the Turning Torso, which is a somewhat well-known sky scraper there, and we also went to a nice coast line neighborhood (apparently one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Sweden, it was very nice), and also some soccer player's former house (Zlatan or something. I dunno). It was fun.

  Lets see... A lot of the rest of the week was really pretty straight forward. I suppose one pretty cool thing that has happened was that we have had the chance to start teaching this Albanian guy named N. We contacted him last week and at first there was some confusion because he doesn't really speak Swedish, but we found soon that he actually spoke pretty good English (not amazing, but pretty good). This week we have been able to teach him a couple of times, and he seems very receptive to the message. It's been good, and we're looking forward to working with him.

  And then Saturday I had the birthday! It was pretty good; in the morning we taught N and then shortly after that A threw me a "surprise" birthday party (it's kind of hard to keep it a surprise when you're joined at the hip with one of the conspirators). She and her son S gave me a little "animated" Star Wars book (the pictures change as you turn the pages) and a box of lollipops. It was pretty funny. And very nice of them. Anyways, that evening we went to a wedding reception for a recently-married ward member, and that was all-in-all very enjoyable. We listened to a few words from the Bishop, ate some food, watched a few videos from their families and then had cake (it was kind of like having birthday cake, except there was a lot more of it). It was pretty fun.

Sorry if there is some stuff I've been forgetting to mention. I sometimes kind of forget who I say what to and whatnot. But yeah, A is coming to America, and she is planning on being baptized. We had the baptismal interview this last Friday, so she's all squared away for it! Exciting! I hope some of my Utah family will be able to be there for it. They are invited.

You asked about my companion. Yeah, my companion does have a British accent. It's not quite as strong as some of the other British accents I've heard, but he's definitely a Brit. He does kind of speak Swedish with a British accent, though I think it's harder to hear than when he speaks English. And, I guess while I'm at it, I feel like my companion and I do have some commonalities. We both enjoy having fun, and I feel like we both really want to help the people here. I think one of the best things I could learn from him is from his dedication to do good work and work hard while still having fun. It feels like it can sometimes be a hard balance to strike

  Anyways, I hope everything is good with you guys! Hope you have a great week!

 

 

Release Date

Just got this from the mission office:

Dear missionaries; President Beckstrand announced at this weeks morning office meeting that the departure date for your groups will be Tuesday December 30th.
Mom note: I guess we get one more fun skype from Sweden this year! Happy that we will be home a week later and he will be home in time to start school on January 2. Now on with this weeks letter:

Hey everyone! I'm glad to hear that things are generally going well with you all. It sounds like Utah was fun the last week or so; it sounds like everyone had a good time.

  Things have been going well here in Sweden. This week has all in all been good, although there hasn't been too much out of the ordinary, so to speak. It's kind of funny, but it feels like we've been super busy and not-too-busy at the same time. I guess that's just sort of missionary work, though.

  Generally the week was pretty straight-forward. We visited people, went contacting, met with some of the members, and so on. On Tuesday we had the chance to go to the H's house (the bishop and his family) for lunch, which was really nice. I've probably mentioned it already, but they have a nice little house up in northern Skåne. And Bishop H is possibly one of the nicest guys I know. It was a good visit.

  Sometime during the week (I don't really remember if it was on Wednesday or Friday) we met with A and had a picnic at the beach. It was generally a really nice day for a picnic; good weather, nice and sunny. The only problem was that there have recently been a lot of wasps around, and they were quite attracted by the hotdogs we grilled. We caught quite a few of them in a cup, but there were still a lot of them. It was kind of funny and kind of annoying at the same time. But it was all in all a nice meeting; we talked for a bit and then played Kubb. Good fun.

  In other news, we met up with a somewhat old investigator this week named MC. We're starting to teach one of the members from Africa Swedish, and she came along to that, and, after trying to help the member with some basic Swedish (he actually did pretty good), we had a quick spiritual thought and invited her to church, and she said she'd come, which was pretty cool because she had always been reasonably hesitant with previous invitations. Either way, the next day we saw her there, and afterwards she said that she enjoyed the meeting quite a bit! We'll keep working with her, but things look reasonably positive so far.

You asked about "What strengthens your faith when you feel down?"

  This is a pretty good question. I would say that one of the things that helps, especially with faith (specifically), would be reading the scriptures. Even just taking the time for studies in the morning I think helps make the days a bit better. Maybe on a somewhat less faith-strengthening and more on a helping-when-I-feel-down note, I think just taking a few minutes (usually in the evenings or what have you) to relax a bit helps a lot. Sitting and not really worrying about things, ect., I think helps with stress and or discouragement. There was something else I was going to mention, but I don't remember exactly what now, so I'll leave it at that. 

Hope all is well with you guys! Have a great week.

Contacting Day

Hey Everybody!

  Glad to hear things are going well with you guys! It sounds like everyone's having a good time in Utah! I wish I could be there to join you all, but it's okay. It's good being here too.

  This week has been good. It's been somewhat more ordinary than the last two or so have been, but it's all in all been good.

  On Tuesday we had open church and such, though we were visited by President Beckstrand, who came on Tuesday to give a fireside to the ward. He was honestly kind of busy with preparing for the fireside, but Sister Beckstrand joined us for the district meeting and a lesson later on, and we got to have interviews with President. All in all, it all went well. They seem like a really cool mission president and wife; it should be good having them here for the next few months. And they gave a good fireside about missionary work and talking about themselves; I think the ward members really enjoyed it.

  On Wednesday we had a bit of a bet with the other missionaries on who could contact the most people, so, after studies and whatnot in the morning, we went out for a long day of contacting. We did try swingning by some people, and we had a lesson with a less active couple in the evening, but aside from that we didn't have that much else to do, so we contacted a lot of people (I think in the end we had talked to about 250 people; needless to say we won the bet). By the end of it, though, I felt pretty dang exausted. I suppose it was good, though, we found a few good potential investigators who we'll hopefully be able to meet during the week.

  Lets see... The rest of the week was fairly ordinary. One kind of cool happening was on Sunday, when I made sushi for dinner. It was really good! The first roll I made was kind of ugly and didn't cut very well, but the second roll looked really good, and they both tasted good, too, which is a plus. I've been trying to make a few new foods recently (I cooked doughnuts last week and earlier this week and I'll be trying to perfect those and the sushi probably next week). Cooking and trying new stuff is fun.

  Anyways, I hope all is well with you guys!

  Eli

New Companion

Things have been going pretty well here in Landskrona this week. First things first, we had transfers on Wednesday, and Elder Martinsson went to the mission office en route to home, and I got a new companion, Elder Roosendahl. He's a pretty cool guy. He's from London, so he's got a cool accent and everything. He seems like a hard worker, but he also seems like he's going to be a lot of fun.

  This week we've been fairly busy doing a variety of things. Early on in the week we were partly trying to make preparations for Martinsson to go home and partly trying to visit a bunch of families here before he left. We had some pretty good visits with some of the members, less actives, and so on. Anyways, then on Wednesday the transfer went off without a hitch (that's the expression, right?), and I got Elder Roosendahl.. 

  Since then, things have been going good. We've largely just been visiting / swinging by people trying to meet with folks. We actually had a kind of funny and cool experience. We were calling some people in the morning before we went out and we called an old investigator named A and talked with her for a little bit, but she said to call back later. We later went out and were contacting people on the street and decided to talk to an African lady sitting on a bench in the park, and when we said we were the missionaries, she said she had just talked to them on the phone earlier. As you might have guessed, she was A! We talked for a little while there and then set up an appointment for later. We're looking forward to meeting with her.

You asked about when I have felt the spirit the strongest?  I'm not sure which specific time I've felt the spirit the strongest... I feel like a lot of the times when the spirit is very strong is when we're meeting with someone (an investigator, usually, but sometimes just people we've met for the first time), and we teach about something and perhaps bear a testimony, and then they respond. Maybe it's the teacher and student being edified together thing, but I think the spirit is always strongest when they learn and then give their feedback, thoughts, or testimony. It's always great to see that and see that what we're teaching is actually helping them.

  In other news, this weekend the carnival was in town. We walked around it for a little bit, and then later we ended up coming for a while with A (our investigator person). It was fun, Elder Roosendahl and I ended up riding one of the rides and we went with her son on one of the kiddy roller coasters. I have pictures, I'll upload them as soon as I'm really able to.

Also a men's clothing store here (Dressmann) was having a sale, so I went ahead and bought a suit! It's gray and I kind of need to hem the legs (or find someone to hem them; they're too long right now), but it looks pretty good and it was only 500 kr. It was a pretty good sale.

I'll send pictures when I can.

Hope all is well with you guys!

Helsingborg Elders!

 

Hard things

Hi everyone!

  This last week has been fairly good, and there's been a few interesting happenings. Lets see...

  On Tuesday we had our usual Open Church / Distict Meeting day. It was good, though, and we played a fun vocab game where we point to pictures of words on the White board. I took the idea from my old highschool french class. It was fun. Anyways, then in the evening we had ward council. It wasn't too exciting; we just talked about upcoming activities and how we could help some of the ward members and such.

  On wednesday we had a pretty good meeting with our investigator, A. we chatted for a while and then talked some about baptism and how she feels about it. All in all, she seems fairly positive, and is just waiting a little bit. And we had a pretty fun time visiting with her and everything. It was good. 

  On Saturday we had a fireside where a recently returned missionary gave a presentation about his mission. He largely just talked about the people that he was able to baptise and how happy he was for them. Which was nice.

 I feel like one of the hardest things about a mission for me is just working so much with people. It is sometimes a bit frustating when investigators don't keep commitments or you have to work with someone (companion, ward member, investigator, etc.) you don't really get along with. And I don't really feel like I'm the most... sociable person, so it's kind of just hard making myself talk to people. But at the same time, it is fairly rewarding working with people as well, because it's cool seeing them become better people. And it's also kind of fun making new friends all over the place.

  Hope you have a great week!

Zone training (bows and arrows-oh my!)

Hi Everyone!

  Lets see... This week's been pretty good. There hasn't been too much out-of-the-ordinary, but it's still been a good week.

  Monday and Tuesday were okay. We had a fairly ordinary P Day / Open Church day (nothing too exciting in either of those), though on both of those evenings we went to visit one of the ward members. On Monday we were invited over to teach a restoration lesson with them and a recent convert, and then one of the family members invited us over the next day, so we came back on Tuesday. The lessons went well, though they were a bit hectic because there was a family visiting from Costa Rica who's staying with them (a family relation) and there were a bunch of kids running around. Got all that? But the meetings were good; I think they enjoyed the visit and it's always nice when we're able to meet people.

  On Thursday we had a zone training meeting. It was all in all a good meeting, talking some about Enduring to the End and helping investigators make it to the temple, and ended in a discussion about Porter Rockwell and us shooting a toy bow and arrow. So it was quite a bit of fun as well, but it was also a good discussion. We have pretty cool zone leaders.

New President

Hi Everyone!

  Things have been good this week. There's been a few interesting happenings and such, including being able to welcome the new mission president, which is pretty cool.

  On Monday, we went to Halmstad and played cards with some other missionaries and members for p day. It was good fun. I had a chance to try Bang in a full-fledged 7 player game, which was pretty fun. It's a pretty good game. We also played some basketball and ate at a pretty dang good sushi buffet (with pretty dang spicy wasabi). All in all, a pretty good day.

  On Tuesday we had our open church time, which all in all went well. A (one of our investigators) showed up and I ended up spending an hour or two playing with her two year old son, which was pretty tiring but was pretty fun as well. It was nice to have something to do during open church. And it was nice being able to chat with A and her son.

  On Thursday we went up to Göteborg for a sort of zone conference thing. We got our new mission president this week, and we were there for a "meet and greet," which sort of meant that we would listen to their introduction and have the chance to say hi to him and such. It went well. He seems like a really nice guy. It seems like he likes fun and trying to make things interesting. It'll be interesting to see what the following months have in store.

  On Friday we got to have a Forth of July celebration at A's apartment (which is kind of funny because she's not American at all, but she likes America a lot and invited all of the Americans from the ward over). It was a lot of fun, with a lot of hamburgers and fries and such. There weren't any fireworks, I'm afraid (it's too light to be able to see them anyways), but it was still fun being able to talk with everyone and enjoy the good food and everything. And we played Kubb, which was fun too. Anyways, I enjoyed it.

Hope all is well with you and have a great week.

 

                                           Saying good bye to President and Syster Newell

Open Church

Hi Everybody!

  Things have been going well this week. Admittedly, it wasn't quite as awesome as last week; midsommar and everything would be pretty hard to top, so to speak, but it's been okay.

  Lets see... On Tuesday we had out Open Church day (i.e. we were at the church in case someone wanted to come in sort of a thing), and someone actually came in! If memory serves, his name was E, and he just saw the welcome sign outside of the door and decided to come in and check it out. He said he had met some missionaries on the street a few months ago, but he still didn't really know that much about the church, so I had the opportunity to sort of explain a little about who we are and what we believe in. He really seemed to appreciate the visit, and seemed to like the church and the experience overall. It was quite nice. Hopefully we'll be able to see him again before too long. 

  Later in the week (Friday, I think? Not exactly sure), we had a kind of interesting lesson at T and L's place (a very nice less active couple). We had been trying to set up an appointment with them for a while and were finally able to make it over there, and when we got there, somewhat to our surprise, Kr and I (L's parents) were there as well. Which is really okay, but it just made for a kind of interesting time trying to juggle conversation with them and L. And then shortly after we were invited to K and I's place, where some of their other children / grandchildren were visiting from Costa Rica, so there were a bunch of kids running around and playing with each other and such. Which isn't bad, it just made for a kind of crazy meeting or two. But all in all, it was a pretty good day.

  I hope all is well with you guys!