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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