Saturday, November 22, 2014

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

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

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

Sunday, November 16, 2014

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!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

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