Hey! - December 26, 2013

It was nice seeing you all yesterday! It's kind of strange writing an e-mail to you on a Thursday, but I just mainly wanted to say that I love you all and that I hope you all of have a good next week!

We'll see if I get a transfer call this weekend and actually transferred before I get to e-mail you next Thursday. I know this is a little short, but I just really wanted to say 
LOVE YOU!

Christmas in Sweden - December 16, 2013

First thing, it seems that I will be staying in Örebro at least until 2014! So I'll be here for Christmas and all that entails =) I've officially been in Örebro for over 6 months now and unless I transfer before January 2nd, it will officially be my longest area on my mission. I can't say that I mind though, I really do love it here. =)

Collins is still up in Boden for his interview and he doesn't know when he will be given tickets to travel back. We're just doing our best to keep his spirits up. He still wants to be baptized, we just don't know if it is feasible to happen before January, but we're praying that an avenue will open for him. He wants it so bad and we know that he's definitely ready for it.

A couple of Moses stories:

We showed him the mormonchannel website and before the next time we met him (about five days later), he had watched half of the Bible videos and about 10 mormonmessages, saying that they were all fantastic videos. It was just funny, because we had planned to share a particular video with him (and we had two other videos as back ups) and he had ended up already seeing all three of the videos! So we went with another thing instead =)

We've been trying to help Moses be able to say Sister Hauglid's name, pretty much since we've started meeting him together. There has been a couple of times where he has guessed her name (these guesses range from Sister Joseph to Sister Hungry). We're mainly trying to prepare him so he can remember which missionaries taught him once we leave haha. We found out last week that even though he has always refused to say Sister Hauglid's name that he does know in fact how to spell it.

We had this funny little imagined scenario which Moses will ask a future missionaries "how are Syster Ryan and Syster H-A-U-G-L-I-D are doing?" but then last week at the end of the lesson Moses just said "Okay Syster Hauglid, you can say the closing prayer now?" before grinning and looking down. He just pulled that one of our nowhere and he's said it a couple of times since then. He even had perfect pronunciation (which is saying something, because even missionaries who have known Syster Hauglid for most of her mission struggle saying her name sometimes.

Now onto more about Christmas traditions in Sweden. First up is Lucia!

Saint Lucia is one of the "bigger" saints in Sweden. Every December 13th is Lucia Day and we had the chance to be able to attend the celebrations in the biggest church here in Örebro (the same church as the concert from last week). I can't say that I know the history of Lucia, but the concert involves a young woman (and her train members) and they are all carrying a candle/torch. The young woman playing Lucia is also wearing a crown of candles. They are all dressed in simple white dresses with a red sash. They sang traditional Swedish songs (including the main Saint Lucia song). Often you can see Swedish women wearing a glitter band on their head, which represents Lucia throughout the rest of the day.

I also was able to get some really cool pictures of the castle at sunrise because it was early enough in the day - of course these pictures were taken around 8:00am in the morning haha. The sun isn't officially up until well after 8:00am and it officially sets (but still light out until an hour or two after) before 2:30pm. It takes some getting used to but, it's still fun. The water and sky of course just looks gorgeous. =)

We had a really nice dinner at the Lohman family yesterday and it included the traditional Swedish Christmas drink Julmust, which we'll have to find at Ikea sometime to have you all try it, just because it is a little bit different. The closest American equivalent is Root Beer and Dr. Pepper, but I actually do like Julmust...so who knows?

A picture of the city at night. You can just find these reflections everywhere! Sometimes it seems like I live in a movie.

A path diverged in the woods.... and it was covered in snow. 

But you can find the odd missionary or so making the trek through the snowy woods anyways. And taking pictures of themselves. But the snow did in fact melt.... so who knows if I will actually be able to have a white Christmas after all?

We had the ward Christmas party last Saturday and they had us missionaries do a little skit. It pretty much started out with us saying:

"Christmas time is very exciting for missionaries"

Then we sang this song we wrote (we actually sang this in English)

Deck the halls with Books of Mormon. Fa la la la la la la la la.
Tis the season to be Mormon. Fa la la la la la la la la.
Don we now our suits and dresses. Fa la la la la la la la la la.
Hope we get one thousand lessons. Fa la la la la la la la la.
"But as time goes on, missionaries begin to miss their families and feel sad."

Elder Lundquist sang "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (pretty much we wrote this entire thing so he could sing this song in particular).

"When we remember Christ, we can remember the true meaning of Christmas"

And we sang the first verse of Silent Night in Swedish.

Jultomten (Santa) came and handed out candy to everyone (including us missionaries haha). It was just funny, because it was one of the young adults in the ward (Christian H. for my personal reference) and us missionaries were all dying with laughter when he first came in and we just weren't expecting it.

Elder Lundquist and I did another musical number in Sacrament meeting (Away in the Manger in Swedish). I have officially done a musical number of some sort or another in Sacrament meeting every month that I have been here in Örebro.

Have a great week and Merry Christmas for now!

Love,

Allie

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (or don't?) - December 9, 2013

Jared will probably appreciate this picture:

We've began implementing Church "open hours" in our mission about 2 months ago. We been trying to think of ideas to see how we can get people to want to come in, so we made this sign that we stick outside the church whenever we're there. It says "The church is open! We can help you with family history. Welcome in! Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10 a.m. until 6 p.m" This is apparently what my whiteboard handwriting looks like haha.

We traveled up to Uppsala for Zone Training and we got to take a zone picture. (Stockholm North!)

Stockholm North Zone

From left to right, back row: Elder Johnson (who was in my MTC district and is now in my current district), Elder Lindquist (who's Swedish), Syster Land (who was just transferred into the Zone), Syster Allen, Syster Kalt, Syster and Elder Davis, me, Elder Lundquist (in my district, obviously), Syster Hauglid (I think I might have mentioned her at some point or another haha), Syster Byrd, Syster and Elder Sorensen (they were once the mission president couple in another mission).
middle row: Elder Barnes, Elder Allsop (one of our zone leaders), Elder Miller, Elder Bailey (in my district now), and Elder Schroeder (who is now in Örebro with Elder Lundquist)
front row: Elder Orr and Elder Haddon (the other zone leader).

After zone training we walked to where we were going to have lunch (A Swedish fast food place called Max Burger, which I really do like), and it started to snow. They were some of the biggest snowflakes that I have ever seen. They were bigger than the size of a half-dollar. This pictures don't really do it justice, but it was my first "real" snow of the season. The pictures just kept getting progressively blurry as it snowed harder, but you can still get the same general effect.

Zone walking to Max Burger

Uppsala has one of the largest churches in Sweden and it is super pretty and cool looking. We had the chance to go inside for a few minutes, so I will just include some of my favorite pictures

The Newells gave all of the missionaries advent calendars and I noticed this quirky little detail. Here's Santa, looking jolly. Notice the positioning of the dogs, Christmas tree, bag, etc.

And then I saw that there was this picture included on the wall of the building in the scene (ignore my hand): And it's the exact same scene. Advent inception?

Of course since it's Europe, the chocolate is actually good in the calendar =) So I've been having a countdown to Christmas like a little kid =)

We had the chance to go to a yearly concert here in Örebro in front of the Swedish Churches. There were a ton of people there and it was very cold mind you, with the snow. But they sang a variety of Chrismas songs in both English and Swedish. I was able to record some of it, so maybe you will be able to see a little bit of it later. =)

A couple of more pictures of the snow, including one of the church.

In other news, they officially opened the Northern most part of Sweden for sisters to work in (Luleå) so I can literally go to every corner of Sweden right now.

Collins is gone for the week for an interview with immigration, but we hope to be able to move up his baptismal date to this month. (Which will make him really happy, if he's able to do that).

Another investigator came to sacrament meeting again yesterday, but she's still very busy so it is hard to meet with her. We hope she can come to the Ward Christmas Party this weekend.

An old investigator that we recently came into contact with is definitely very interested in the church. We need to help her develop relationships with members in Örebro that are strong in the church (most of her member friends are either inactive or left the church).

Moses didn't come to church yesterday because of the weather. (But he is willing to meet with us even with the snow, he isn't just going to hibernate for the winter, which is what he originally said he would do). It was just was snowing to hard and since he has been having trouble with his bike, he couldn't come. We've been emphasizing the importance of reading the Book of Mormon every day and he finally agreed to do it (to get us to stop asking him haha). Last Thursday we had meet him and then we ending up meeting him again on Friday (we like meeting him twice a week and those happened to be the two days he could meet) and he said that he read from the Book of Mormon Thursday night, but that he didn't understand.

"Well I read Mormon 8:40-41, and I just didn't get it."

Then I asked, how he decided to read those particular verses.

"I just opened the book randomly and read those two."

He had read, "40 Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads?

41 Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer."

Thankfully we had just been talking about how the Lord allows bad things happen to good people so that the wicked could be judged, but it was just funny.

It reminds of a story I had heard in the MTC. There was a set of missions that were teaching a person that they had just met and they wanted to explain that the Lord will provide a way for us to follow his commandments, so they went and shared 1 Nephi 3:7. The person they were teaching, seemed to be a little frightened and said "No thanks". It wasn't until later (since they had shared the scripture in another language) that they realized that they had in fact shared 3 Nephi 3:7 which reads "Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us—not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance."

A bit of a different message.

I hope you all are doing well!

Love,

Allie

Happy December! - December 2, 2013

Happy December!

To start, nothing on transfers yet. =) The next transfers are on the 18th, and I won't get word if I'll be transferred until the 14th. I kind of hope that I won't be transferred right before Christmas... but maybe I might be needed elsewhere.

It sounds like you had fun on vacation! And a busy week otherwise because of selling the cabin. As for Christmas, lights are slowly being put up everywhere. Something that Swedes do is that they put lights in their windows. Things like this:

So at night, almost every window has pretty light shining from it. We have one in one of our windows (we went digging through our apartment and found some Christmas decorations).

We were luckily feed a meal every day last week, which was a blessing because Syster Hauglid and I had less than $5 in our Missionary Support Fund accounts...which happens every so often I'll admit. I've never had to worry about a budget as much as I've had on my mission (maybe because I'm used to giving myself a higher budget?)

I forgot to mention last week, but two Sundays ago I had to give a ten minute talk in Swedish during Sacrament Meeting. Talk about the most nervous that I've been ever for a talk. But it was fine in the end. I obviously survived =)

After a turn of events, Collins might be able to actually get baptized this Sunday as opposed to January like originally planned (a new family in the ward just moved so they live near him and they are more than happy to give him a ride to church almost every Sunday). So we're hoping and praying for him!

Another investigator came to sacrament yesterday, which was the first time that she has been able to in a few years and she really liked it. We hope to be able teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week.

We also have another investigator, that we came into contact with last Friday and she's super positive. We have a set appointment to meet her this Wednesday, so we'll see how things go.

A picture of me and Moses on a day that we ended up being a little "matchy". It's a little hard to tell in the picture but our shirts are opposite of each other (mine is thick purple and thin white stripes and his is thin purple and thick white stripes). And he even is kind of smiling =) (don't let him know that I have proof of it). We were watching the Testaments with him, which is why the TV is in the background. He really liked the movie, so we gave him a copy of it.

We were helping Victoria (She is a member that I worked with quite a bit, she's now completely active, has a recommend for her patriarchal blessing and is halfway through getting her recommend to the temple - she just needs to interview with the Stake President) move out of her apartment (she's moving to Stockhom to live with her mom for a little while, which is good for her, because it is a lot easier for her to go to church there).

It's strange to think that it's December already. One of my favorite scriptures related to Christmas is 

3 Nephi 1:13: "Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets."

Love you all!

Allie

Happy Thanksgiving! - November 25, 2013

It's kind of strange to think about, but since I've already celebrated Thanksgiving, that's okay. The Bishop (who's American) and his family had the missionaries come and join their Thanksgiving celebration last Saturday. It was all super good food (we even had turkey and mashed potatoes, which are not Swedish staples) and a lot of fun. Adam (recent convert we've been working with) was also there (he's pretty much been adopted into their family as another son).

Last week we got the chance to watch the movie Ephraim's Rescue and I would definitely recommend it. I thought it was interesting and really well done... of course I still haven't seen 17 Miracles and that's the one that everyone recommends that we should see. Maybe around Christmas I'll get to see it.

Those we're teaching:

Collins is still doing well. He's trying to do what he can so he can come to church in December. He's just a little lonely since he's been stuck in a little town called Stråssa, which has absolutely nothing there.

Moses is doing really well, especially considering everything that has been going on in his life. He made the effort to come to church, even though he was only able to stay for about 45 minutes. We've been watching the Testaments with him, which I think is helping him understand the connection between the Bible and the Book of Mormon better.

Scriptures - Ruth 1:26 and 2 Corinthians 2:8 stood out to me, mainly because they remind me of two characters in one of the books I've written. Kind of random, but they inspired a couple of ideas for writing.

I hope you all will have a great week and a happy holiday!

Love,

Allie

Trains, trains, trains - November 18, 2013

It's been a week with a lot of travel. Last week a freight train had derailed in a tunnel, which made travel a bit difficult (because a ton of trains had to be rerouted and even more were just canceled). One time a trip that can just take us a mere hour and 45 minutes, took over 5 and a half hours because of delays and rerouting and having to switch trains 4 times. But, we had the Zone Training/Conference in Stockholm as well as a weekend of Stake Conference in Stockholm this past week. We got a new stake presidency and they had the 40+ missionaries in the Stockholm stake sing during the adult session of stake conference (we sang the EFY medley in English, so it was something we were all familiar with).

Some pictures of Stockholm:

Last Monday, I officially ate a part of one of the biggest pizzas I've ever seen (I'll email a picture later). Adam wanted to take me and Sister Hauglid out to dinner and let me say that this pizza was delicious.

We have a new elder since Elder Muirbrook was transferred to be the zone leader of another zone. Our new elder is an Elder Schroeder.

A couple of updates on the people we teach:

Collins - we decided on a new baptismal date for January. We hope by then Collins will be able to save enough money to make it down to church once in December and once in January (when he can also be baptized).

Fredrik (recent convert) - is making a lot of progress! We went through the baptismal interview questions again and that helped him quite a bit.

Moses (recent convert) - has been having an extremely difficult time since we was denied permission to stay in Sweden. He has an appeal hearing in three weeks, so he still has a chance. Otherwise he'll stay at least until he turns 18. It helps that he has a strong testimony of God and Christ =) It is helping him make it through a lot better than it would have been otherwise.

Preach My Gospel - I've been making my way through the commandments lesson and something that stuck out to me was that the 10 commandments are all really about relationships: how we respect and treat God and others. It really has just been the two great commandments "Love God" and "Love thy neighbor as thyself" from the beginning =)

Romans 4:18 - It's just a phrase, but "who against hope believed in hope" stuck out to me. I just really like it.

Love,

Allie

Sweden - November 11, 2013

It looks like Syster Hauglid and I will be sticking with each other in Örebro for at least a little bit longer. The next official transfer happens on the 18th of December, so we'll see if I get to stay in Örebro until that point. If I do, that would mean that I'll have been in Örebro for a third of my mission. =) I want to stay through the 23rd when our American Bishop is going to have all of the missionaries over for a Thanksgiving celebration. But I'll do whatever I need to do.

We don't know when Collins will get baptized, because his economical situation has taken a downward turn so he is unable to come to church for some time (until he saves enough money to travel the 1 hour trek).

The Swedish woman we've been working with came to Relief Society again and most definitely wants to keep meeting. She's trying to rearrange her schedule so she can come to Sacrament meetings as well. She's definitely very much interested, we'll see how things pan out.

All of our recent converts (and I mean pretty much all 8 of them in the ward) seem to be having a rough time as a late. Between school, work (or the lack of), or the question about whether or not they will get to stay in Sweden has certainly been taking its toll on our people. I just want them all to be happy!

Scriptures from this week:

Deuteronomy 24:5 "When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up (HEB be happy with) his wife which he hath taken."

Thought it was interesting that they put so much emphasis on safeguarding that relationship--allowing the Israelites that time to be happy and have joy together during that first year together.

Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

Joshua 1:5 "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

Pretty much the same message with these two scriptures. Of course they remind me of President Monson's recent talk from General Conference. We're not alone, even if it is sometimes easy to think so.

John 21: 25 "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen."

There were so many different things that Christ taught. We have the chance to keep learning and growing every day.

Acts 2:36-38, 41: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost....

"Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

This is one of the scripture masteries with an extra verse added on the end, because I like to know the result of the events of that day. Miracles happen. They really do. It doesn't matter if they are "small" or "large". Little instances are often what "prick the hearts" of those we come into contact with and help them draw nearer to Christ.

Love you all!

Allie

District picture (last district meeting of our current district before upcoming transfers!)



Elder Lunquist, Elder Packer (he's moving to Örnsköldsvik), Elder Johnson (he was in my MTC district!), Elder Muirbrook (he's moving to Borås), me and Syster Hauglid

And a picture of everything we dumped into our Elders mailslot last week. 16 Kex bars (they're pretty much a better version of Kitkat and both of our elders really like them), 100+ notes containing quotes, inside jokes, and memories, two toothbrushes, confetti, and Book of Mormon picture figures. So you can just imagine their surprise when they opened their door and found this wonderful surprise! This was as mean of a prank we could do haha.

Sweden - November 4, 2013

It's been a little bit of a rough week with a lot of the people we've been teaching being busy, but it was a holiday week so we hope that this week will be much better.

First off, Collins wasn't baptized yesterday. He had an interview with immigration and they had to take him up to Boden (to get there he had to leave Saturday morning and arrive Sunday afternoon because it is so far away). We hope to move it to a date later this month, but we don't know exactly when right now.

Halloween in Sweden; they don't really do all that much here. It is apparently more popular down south. They do celebrate All Saint's Eve (which was on November 2nd) where they place lighted candles on family graves. It's actually really beautiful. It also marks the first day of winter.

We had exchanges again last week and I was with a Sister McCollaum (this is actually the second time I've been with her on exchanges here in Örebro). Transfer phone calls are this Saturday with the next set of transfers occuring next week, so we'll see what ends up happening.

Some scriptures I liked from this week:

Deuteronomy 20:7- in regards to selecting soldiers- "And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her." (just thought it was an interesting concept),

Luke 18 and the parable of the unjust judge (I mainly find this story a little funny because I can just imagine this judge cowering at the thought of the widow coming to ask him again to take care of her enemies, and eventually relenting. But of course, knowing this, how much more apt is God and Christ to answer our prayers in comparison), and

Luke 22: 32, "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

Love you all!

Allie

Last week of October! - October 28, 2013

The moment that definitely stood out the most this week was going to the temple last saturday with a few of our recent converts for baptisms for the dead. Three of them (Adam, Niloofar and Fariba if I mentioned them before) were able to do work for their families and the spirit was definitely extremely strong.

Collins is doing fantastically and is definitely ready for his baptism on Saturday! We've been through all of the lessons with him, even one over the phone at one point, but everything is all set up!

Frezghi and Moses are both doing well and they're both off of school this next week so we hope that we'll be able to meet with them at least once or twice (we plan on seeing Moses today at Eddy's/Balansama's place)

I officially finished off my second journal while on my mission and started my third... I think I'll definitely have to purchase a fourth one somewhere along the way.

I also found a candy that had the warning "Excessive consumption may cause laxative effects".   I gave the bag of said candy to one of our elders, who apparently missed the warning, even though I told him multiple times about it. Oops.

We had root beer floats to celebrate my 9-month mark! A ward member tracked down some root beer and Reese's for us (neither of which are readily available here and Sweden) and I'll admit that root beer float tasted heavenly.

Have a good week!

Love,

Allie

Snow already?1?1 - October 21, 2013

Let me say straight off...I have seen snow. Last Friday, when we walked out of the apartment at

5:20am to catch a 5:30am bus to make our train for Stockholm (we had a zone conference in Västerhaninge), there was officially snow on the ground. It wasn't that much, and a lot of it has already melted, but some still exists. I do not like how fall here feels like winter back home, but with the added addition of snow. It feels so cold...not that having to wear a skirt helps anything.

We've been working with Collins, who really just is a cool guy. He wants to be baptized on November 2nd and he should definitely be ready by then. He was able to come to church yesterday and the ward just seems to love him! But honestly, how could they not?

We've been trying to find more people to teach. We have a lot of people that we currently work with, but a most of them are not really progressing. Or they will read the entire Book of Mormon, but not pray about it to see if it is actually true or not.

But it has been good to work with Moses and Frezghi after their baptisms. These two together on a lesson is one of the funniest things (and they both know it!) Last Thursday we ended up meeting with both of them. We were planning on showing Frezghi the Restoration video (since he had only ended up seeing a part of it when we taught him originally) and Moses most definitely did not want to see it again. So we ended up talking to Moses in another room, while Frezghi watched the Restoration by himself in English. We hear the video end and then restart, so Syster Hauglid goes to check on Frezghi (and to make sure it didn't start over in Spanish, which has happened before). But Frezghi had started it over in Arabic. Then when that one ended, he came in to where we were with Moses and widening his eyes, he said "I liked that movie. I watched it twice."

"Would you like a copy of that movie?"

Noise in the affirmative.

"We can get one for you then."

Then Moses was like, "Do you have any questions for the Sisters?"

"No."

"Well I have a question for you. Why did God and Jesus Christ come to Joseph?"

"Because they loved him."

Moses leaned forward as he studied Frezghi for a little bit. "Yes...okay, why did God create you?"

And then Moses just continued to ask Frezghi questions for about 5/10 minutes. Moses has been around us too much haha. He's just preparing to be a missionary himself =). Moses did tell us (and Frezghi) how much of a difference meeting us and learning about the church has helped him. They're both such good kids, I just hope they realize that.

It's strange to think about how I've been in Örebro now for over four months and have almost officially been on a mission for nine months. Definitely seems like the longest and shortest nine months of my life. I'll admit some things have been extremely difficult; sometimes I just wonder how I am able to just keep going everyday. Certainly not just through my own sheer will power. Prayer is a wonderful blessing. And all of the bad and heartache that I've experienced has definitely been for the good. Just seeing how much a person's life can change. True, an investigator doesn't always choose to accept the gospel at the time, but that doesn't mean that life hasn't improved. I'll straight up say that just working with Moses and Frezghi has been worth more than everything else.

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;"

Love you all!

Allie

The Gift

There is a short time

To fulfill a purpose sublime--

Direct our souls under

A constant onslaught of thunder

Evil abounds here

But I have no need to fear

I have tasted sadness

But overcame it with happiness

Through accepting a Friend

To be with me until the end

Who guides and atoned

So I'm never alone

I am among the children of men

All given the chance to live again

And to be with the One

Who gave us, His Son.

Moses! - October 14, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Moses's Baptism

Moses's Baptism! It went really well! And really smoothly honestly. He was definitely a little nervous, even though he certainly wouldn't have admitted it. He very visibly relaxed once he finished changing...particularly since that was when Cherry walked into the church. He was definitely super happy and grateful that Cherry came to watch.

The service then officially got started. Elder Muirbrook gave a talk, and I played a musical number. Robert, a ward member and our mission leader, baptized him. Afterwards Moses bore his testimony about how he was baptized when he was a child in the Catholic church and how when he came here and first met the missionaries and learned that perhaps he needed to be baptized again that it was hard for him to hear. He explained how we told him that he needed to ask God and how he knew that God and Christ were the ones that really knew what he needed to be doing. He received the answer that this was how he needed to follow Christ, through getting baptized again and how he felt extremely happy afterwards.

We had oreos and Fanta among our fika options...because we found out that from Moses that oreos "was my favorite treat in Africa" and Moses is a fan of Fanta. The oreos were a hit though haha. Quite a few of the Swedes hadn't really had them before (or so often).

We've been able to keep in contact with our other recent converts, Frezghi and Fredrik.

Scripture- I finished both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants this past week and Moroni 10:32-34 and D&C 138:56-57 stood out to me. His grace is sufficient and we have been called to a great work. I'm grateful that we have scriptures to help us draw nearer to God and to Christ. They really do make a difference in everything.

Love you all!

Allie

General Conference - October 7, 2013

General Conference has of course been rather good the past couple of days. I still haven't been able to see the Sunday afternoon session, but I hope to sometime this week =) Of course it's a little more difficult to watch it live when it is aired at 10pm at night haha... but it was nice to being able to watch at least the morning sessions live.

I'll admit that it was a bit of a surreal experience to hear Elder Ballard talk about missionaries he met in Europe, knowing that I was one of them. Of course we talk about the importance of missionaries and members working together quite regularly while on a mission. I really liked all of the first presidency's messages and Elder Holland's talk. Okay... I liked a lot of conference.

I got to watch it in English at the church (they had it playing in Swedish in the chapel and in english in the primary room). The Västerås elders came down on Sunday to watch it with us (since their branch in Västerås wasn't broadcasting conference) and we had candy, cookies, and we may have even made a cake (it was one of the Västerås elders' birthday.) which we shared of course with the Örebro elders and various other men who attended priesthood yesterday morning (they had rebroadcasted it at 11 am our time).

Fall Colors

In other news, Syster Spjut, my companion in Västerhaninge, is now officially engaged! I'm super excited for her =)

Moses decided he wants to be baptized! He said that he's been praying about it and he feels like that he has received the answer that this church is true and that he needs to be baptized because that is what God wants him to do. He's definitely ready now. We're trying to get everything ready so he can be baptized this Saturday. I'll keep you updated on it next week.

We've been keeping contact with our other investigators and recent converts, but as a whole, just about everyone has been super busy. so we haven't been able to meet. We hope this week will be better.

Love you all!

Allie

Orebro Castle with red ivy

Almost October.... - September 30, 2013

Story of the week: Our day started off a little bit interesting since everything that we had set in stone, canceled last minute. We had been meaning to drop off some cookies to a ward member to thank him for helping us with Frezghi's baptism last week, so we quickly made some for him and dropped by. At the moment we knocked on the door, there was about 15-20 people in the entry way. The ward member and his wife were definitely very excited to see us, so we just dropped off the cookies and left, feeling a little confused. The next day at church, the wife explained to us that all week she had been praying that the missionaries would come by the house (to have an unthreatening introduction to the church) while her family was visiting and at the moment that she thought it would be absolutely perfect for us to come, we knocked on the door. Everything worked out for a reason! =)

Moses- we met him quite a bit last week--he has several friends that he wants us to try to teach, so he's been sitting in on other lessons. It's interesting because he still isn't sure about baptism. He says that he wants to, but that he doesn't know when. We're encouraging him to keep reading and praying so he can know for himself.

Frezghi (recent convert) - was confirmed yesterday! He's doing well--he's still super happy he was baptized; though he is having a hard time with school.

Fredrik (recent convert)- wants to go to the temple, so we're helping him prepare for that time.

As for my studies in the last week this scripture stood out: 3 Nephi 15:24 in conjunction with Doctrine and Covenants 50:41-42. We never have need to fear of being lost.

Love,

Allie