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