Monday, March 31, 2014

Busy, Busy Busy

 Things are going well here in Landskrona! This week has been really really busy; we've been running around like crazy meeting a whole bunch of people and everything. All in all, it's been really good though, I'm glad that I can be here. I'm not really sure what to say about the week; it's been really busy, but a lot of it has been fairly similar (meet with an investigator (or try to), talk a while and teach a gospel principle, and then try to meet someone else). I suppose that to break it up a bit, on Tuesdays we go to Helsingborg and have Open Church, and one Fridays we go to Helsingborg and play Inebandy (floor hockey) with the ward (and any investigators who can come).
We've also been working a lot with our investigator A. We actually just met A last Sunday; she called us from a Mormon.org  card Elder Noso had given her a few weeks ago. There's been a bit of a language barier in teaching her; she's from Albania and only speaks a little English, but we've been able to make good use of simple English, Albanian church materials, and Google Translate to try to convey simple doctrines to her. She really likes it, came to church and had a good experience there, and has agreed to be baptized later this month. She's apparently had a really rough life, and is working to try to gain asylum here, but she is a very humble and very kind person. It's been great working with her.
The Second Coming was an assigned topic for me in Sacrament meeting this week. Apparently the past 4 or 5 missionaries who have come to Helsingborg ward have given a talk on the second coming, which is kind of funny. I focused on the parable of the Ten Virgins, drawing largely from Matthew 25 (of course) and D&C 45, and talked sort of about what we need to do to fill our lamps (so to speak) and how doing so will help us when Christ comes again and when our faith is tested.
  Elder Noso speaks Finnish, but we communicate mainly in English (he speaks pretty good English). He does speak Swedish okay, but he's still learning it, like other missionaries. But he does have really good Swedish.
  Teaching and finding is going really good right now. The area is very good, there are a lot of people who are willing to at least meet and see what we're about (even Swedes!), and we've been running around like crazy the last week or so trying to meet everyone. It's been really good. When we teach people, we usually speak Swedish unless they can't speak Swedish, in which case we try English. Most immigrants (but not all) from Albania, Serbia, etc. speak Swedish, and sometimes limited English. So we teach in Swedish (usually), I hope that was confusing enough.
 
I hope all is well with you guys! 
 
A picture of all the Elders serving in the Helsingborg ward
 
 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Landskrona

Hey everyone!
  The last week or so has been pretty good! Everything went well with the transfers, and I'm now settled in to my new home, which is actually not Helsingborg like I thought it would be. I'm in Landskrona, which is a fairly small town. There's a lot of older architecture and such, lots of older looking buildings and a cool castle (which I haven't actually visited yet). My companion is Elder Noso; he's from Finland. There are only four missionaries here (I thought there would be more because it's a bigger city, but I guess not), though the other pair are the zone leaders. I'm in a ward, I guess that there's about 80 people or so on a normal Sunday (there was a bit more yesterday because of ward conference).
 There's also a lot of really great people here. I'd say that the majority of them are from the middle east (there's a lot of people from Albania and Serbia, etc), so it's been interesting meeting them, but they've all been super nice and willing to at least chat for a little while. I'd say that most of our investigators are middle eastern. The members here are also really nice; several of the members have invited us over for pancakes, meatballs, etc. There's one family, the M's, who invited us over for pancakes, but we didn't actually have a lot of time, so we came by and said that we could only stay for about 15 minutes or so. But K, the father, was set on making us pancakes or a cake or something, so he disappeared into the kitchen and, about 15 minutes later, came out with this giant cake, probably about 2 to 3 feet across (it was mostly whipped cream, but it was still impressive!). And there were pancakes in the middle! It was really funny, though we could only eat a little bit of it (literally). Overall, it's been good getting to know the investigators and members here. We've also had some pretty good meetings with the investigators and potential investigators, and it's all in all been pretty good so far. I'm looking forward to my time here.
 Hope all is well in the States!
 
Here are some pictures taken my last few days in Karlstad. And the cake!
 


The infamous cake!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Another Transfer

Hey Everyone!
This week has been pretty good. Early in the week (on Tuesday) we had Zone Conference, which was really good. It was a pretty big conference, I almost want to say that it was a half of the mission. In the morning (before lunch) we had a sort of memorial service for Elder Bailey (the missionary who passed away), which was really nice. There were some good things said about him and about life. The rest of the conference was good. I honestly don't remember what it was about offhand (they usually focus on a whole bunch of different things). Though, on a neat note, at the end of the conference it was revealed that we were going to begin using iPhones in the mission! We were distrubuted new phones, and they've actually been really useful during the last week. It's convenient having easy access to numbers, addresses, records, etc. And playing with Siri is fun.
  Either way, the rest of the week has been good. All in all, it's been pretty ordinary week. We've been doing the usual stuff, swing by's, tracting, etc. On Sunday, we had a lesson with someone who the Browns (the senior couple) have been teaching, H. It was a really good lesson, we talked about the Plan of Salvation, and he really seemed to enjoy it. At the end of the lesson, he got up and gave us all hugs :) He seems like a really humble person, and it was good getting to know him.
We've been meeting this guy names H about once a week for about three or so weeks now. That's been going fairly well, but he's kind of hesitant about some things because of islamic familiy relations. But he's a really nice guy, asks good questions and seems happy to meet with us, so that's cool.
The swing bys aren't usually that exciting, usually we just go to someone's apartment and see if they're home, and if they are they usually either tell us to go away or to try again another time. Occassionally they do let us in though, and that's always really cool. Last week I tried someone, a couple who had been investigating a few months ago, and they were totally happy to let us in and chat. The husband didn't want to hear about doctrine so much, but I think they let us share a spiritual thought and gave us some Påskmust (which is exactly like Julmust, but for easter) (which is also really really good and you guys should start drinking it because it's amazing).
Also, in other news, I found out that I will be moving down to Helsingborg this coming Wednesday. It's been good serving here in Karlstad, though it will be interesting to see what's coming up around the bend in Helsingborg. I've been to Helsingborg a few times for zone training meetings, etc. when I was in Växjö; it's a really nice city, it has a cool castle in the middle of town. It will be interesting to see what happens.
  Anyways, hope all is well with you guys!
 
                                                     SCENES FROM AROUND KARLSTAD
 


                                                         Our Apartment Building
 
 
 


Monday, March 10, 2014

Another week/testimony

Note-This week I am including Elder Cahill's letter as well as the very inspirational testimony of the mother who lost her missionary son when he was hit by a car in Sweden two weeks ago. She is a great example to us all.

Hey Everyone!
  So not too much has happened since last time I wrote you all. The transfer went well for Elder C, he's now safely in Hagersten, so all is good there. We were able to have a pretty good last few hours together in the tri companionship (well, we did haircuts and stuff with his buzzer, so maybe not that exciting), and then he got his things together and headed off.
About last week when I went to Stockholm alone;  It was fine being alone on the train. I just sort of looked out the window, etc., so it wasn't too exciting. Actually, it was just sort of nice to be alone for once in over a year, I guess.   There was actually one person who talked to me a little in Stockholm on my way back from the conference, who actually approached me and started talking about some other church and finding Jesus. I don't think she knew I was Mormon at all, she sounded like she hadn't been in Sweden very long and was probably from Nigeria or Congo or something. Either way, it was kind of fun; I said that I was trying to help people find Jesus too.
  The rest of the week has gone fairly well. We had the Zone Leaders over (again) for exchanges on Thursday. It seems really weird that they came again after having been here two weeks ago, but I suppose that they were planning on helping us some with the tri companionship and everything while that was still the plan. But we had an okay day with them. It was essentially just the normal stuff.
  Aside from that, things have been fairly good, though pretty ordinary. We've been doing a lot of swing by's and finding work, etc., so we're hoping to be able to find new people and reestablish contact with old people who we can meet with and who may be open to the message of the Gospel. But until then, we just keep doing our thing. I hope that all is well with you guys! It sounds like there's a lot going on with Kimberly's approaching report date for the MTC and everything that's happening. I hope that you all have a great week!

                                                                    Haircut time! 
 
 
A message from Elder B's Mother
 
My heart is so full this morning, and I have profound peace and clarity. Whilst we miss our Dear Mason, I know that he lives and is still carrying on his Heavenly Father's great work, that he truly truly loved us and so so so many of you, and that he is in complete light, joy, and understanding, and that he wants us to be our very best and rejoice in the gift and truth that we as LDS members know! I am so very honored to have been his mother and have loved and raised him for so many of his very short years here with us. He was amazing to me as well in so many ways. I marveled at his gift of working so hard and yet having a blast at whatever work it was! He laughed ALWAYS! I have always felt our HF has a great sense of humor and he is amused at many things like us, and that laughter brings joy and health! Mason shows us that laughing and loving with those around us is PURE and GOOD! He was so, so good, and laughed and smiled nearly all the minutes of his short and influential life with us here. THANK YOU TO ALL who REACHED OUT or SHARED...you have stunned and comforted us with your compassion and support. Mason LOVED his Savior and couldn't wait to meet and hug him one day! Let us all try to keep the resolve to do our best as well, that we are inspired to do by Mason's example at this time.

Here is a link to the local newspaper article in Sweden that covered the Memorial Service that was held for Elder Bailey last Sunday. Hope you know Swedish!
http://vlt.se/nyheter/vasteras/1.2411480-mormoner-tog-avsked-av-forolyckade-van
 
 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Transfers Galore/Prayers for Baileys

Hey Everyone!
  Things are going well here in Karlstad. The last week has been pretty interesting.
  Monday and Tuesday were pretty ordinary, though on Wednesday I went to a conference in Stockholm for leaders in the mission. That went really well, it was a good conference focusing a lot on sort of tying together different parts of missionary work (so having our finding, teaching, etc. work together). It was a good meeting, and I also got to meet a lot of the people who were came to Sweden with me (i.e. were in the MTC with me) and I haven't met a lot since I got here. It was also kind of weird because I was just sort of given train tickets and told to go to the conference, so I was on my own for a few hours on the way to and back from the meeting. Interesting experience. But it went well.
  On Wednesday we also got a new companion (making three of us here in Karlstad), Elder Bodine. He's a really cool guy from New York. He loves adventure time, so the three of us (Elder Christensen is also apparently a big fan) have been quoting it pretty much non stop since Wednesday. Good fun. He's also a crazy good musician, which is cool.
  On a similar note, we actually just got a call today telling us that Elder Christensen will be transferring to Hagersten, in Stockholm. It's kind of weird because we thought that the three of us would be working together for about another month or so. But he's heading out now, so it will just be two again in Karlstad. 
  Also, as I'm sure you know, the Bailey family could use your prayers. They're going through a hard time now.
  Good to hear from you all! Love you all!