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