Sweden - April 22, 2013

A little more on Swedish culture:

Jordan asked, so just for the record, Swedes do love their meatballs! I've had probably 5 or 6 meals with Swedish meatballs of some sort or another (most often served with potatoes).

Tea is big here. It's at ward functions, we often have it at members'/investigators' houses. There are a huge variety of herbal teas that everyone drinks (since members obviously can't have the other varieties). So I think I've drunken more tea in the last month than the last three/four years of my life.

Transfers will happen on May 9th (if everything goes according to plan and the 19 new missionaries are actually able to make it out of the MTC with their visas on time). I don't know yet if I'm going to be training for sure or whether or not I'll be moving, but the most likely scenario is that I'll stay here and be training. I should know within the next week whether or not I'm training and the week after whether or not I'll be transferring (potentially the two can happen at the same time, but now always, so we'll see!).

I did get the package from you all. Thank you for the Reese’s' eggs especially! I've been giving out most of the taffy since most Swedes have never really tried or even heard of it before.

This week has been a little weird... at the beginning of the week after weekly planning we pretty much had eighteen lessons planned (pretty much set in stone) and over half of them canceled last minute. We were able to make up at least some of the difference, but it was a little strange to say the least.

This week we continued to work with two potential investigators who we help teach English to. One of them is really positive towards the Church (which is how we could use how to pray/how to bear your testimony in English as lesson topics), while the other is still warming up to the idea. We’re doing our best to built up our relationship with her.

We were able to meet with a former investigator and she was super happy that we could come. We have an appointment with her next week. She gave the prayer at the end of the lesson and she even asked for the strength to able to read the assignment that we gave her. She was super sweet.

We also were able to meet with a couple of less actives. One of them actually came to Church yesterday for the second week in a row! He was getting ready to go out into the foyer during Sunday School when we asked him if we could have a practice lesson with him, which he reluctantly agreed to. At the beginning we asked him how much he could remember about the Plan of Salvation and he said that honestly he couldn't remember that much. Well, that didn't last for long, because as we began to discuss things in more detail, he began to remember quite a bit and he would get more animated with each moment. By the end of the lesson, the other member who sat in with us had asked us, "Now when is he going on a mission?" just because of how passionate he was about things. It's very clear that he would make a fantastic missionary, so that's the ultimate goal in mind. It's funny because in many ways he actually reminds me of Jared.

This week we were reading in the Missionary Leadership section of the white handbook, and one scripture really stuck out to me, D&C 121:44, which has a phrase "thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death." It got me to think more about how important faith is and how I need to develop it more fully. Having faith that is stronger than the cords of death is pretty significant, because there was only one being that was able to consciously break those cords and it was because of Him, everyone else is capable of being resurrected. So we need to work on having faithfulness even stronger than that! Which is obviously not impossible, but it certainly takes a bit an effort to achieve. So, I'm working on it. Which explains why quite a bit of my scripture reading this week was centered on faith. Ether 12 particularly stood out, simply because of how important it is that we take the time to develop and strengthen the faith that we already do have, let alone of topics we are less sure about. Faith and hope are interconnected and the two together gives us immeasurable strength.

Sweden - April 15, 2013

a little more about general life in Sweden.

Transportation

I think I mentioned at some point or another that I actually technically live outside of my area.  So everyday I either have to walk 10/15 minutes to take the pendeltåg (commuter train basically), which is a about a 10 minute ride, to get to my work area or I have to walk 5 minutes take the bus (which is about a 20 minute ride), to get to my work area.  

From there we have been either walking or taking the bus pretty much everywhere.  Buses can me a little interesting at times though (there is this one investigator that lives out in the country that is like a 30 minute bus ride to get there and once we're there the next bus either doesn't come for at least another hour, or if it's a Saturday another 3 hours... we found that out the hard way, so that Saturday we had to walk 45 minutes to another bus stop so that we could make our next appointment).  We have 2 bikes among the four sisters living in my apartment but we haven't gotten them out yet... the weather hasn't been that optimistic yet.  

So in Sweden, the traffic lights turn yellow before it turns green as well as before it turns red.  The same system is applied to pedestrian lights.  Random I know, but I kind of like it. 

How we find/teach people

It really is in a variety of ways.  We've taught both Swedish and English classes (yeah, I don't do so much in teaching Swedish... though I probably can now, but we haven't taught Swedish in awhile).

We haven't really tracted, but we do quite a bit of street contacting.  But we do plan on going tracting this week because we found a street with the same name as my companion - so we kind of have to do something!

Mostly we've been working with either potential/old investigators we find in the area or with members.  On a typical week over half of our lessons are either with active or inactive members.  Anyway we can help!

My companion

I know that I've typed some of this, but my current companion is from Bountiful, Utah.  She's over 6 feet (so roughly a foot taller than me, especially when she wears heels on Sunday).  She studied Chemistry at the University of Utah before the mission and she has plans on going to pharmacy school once everything is done.  She doesn't have that much time left on the mission (she leaves around July 11th).

Food

As a whole, I would say that I like the food here, but it's a bit bland in comparison to some of my favorites.  You know how I like my spicy food!  But, that's okay really.  It just makes me laugh when someone warns me that something will be spicy, when really it isn't.  Not at all!

Weather

The snow is finally melting!  There are snow piles everywhere, but a lot of the ice has melted.  The last couple of days have been a bit drizzly, but I don't mind.  I do actually like rain after all.  You all might have a better idea of what the weather is like, because you can actually see what the forecasts actually are!  But it's been good.

The Last Week or so....

So that art show featured 2 artists.  One was more photograph based while the other used a variety of mediums (oil, watercolor, hand printing, pastels...).  There were a couple of things that I really liked (and a couple of photographs that would so be something Mom/Dad would use).  

My ankle is pretty much completely healed up and ready to work.  Meaning, it's still a bit weakened, but no pain whatsoever anymore.

Ah, running out of time, but I love you all and I'll write you next week!

Oh, can't forget a scripture.  

Mosiah 2:41 "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it. "

I just like the emphasis on happiness!

Sweden - April 8, 2013

I was able to watch three sessions of conference, 2 of which were live (the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions which were kl 18,00/ 6pm our time haha).  The stake had recorded the Saturday afternoon session, so we watched that early Sunday afternoon.  I was glad that I was able to get to watch them in English so that I can actually get something out of them!

Lessons were a little more sparse this week, but that certainly doesn't mean that we haven't been working hard!  We just had to deal with a lot of fairly last minute cancellations, which isn't any fun.

We have a couple of new investigators this week.  One is the cousin of a member in our ward, came to general conference and we've had a lesson with her before.  She agreed to meet with us on Wednesday, so I 'm excited to get to know her better!  We also have another member referral from Handen, who wants to learn more about the Church and to learn some more English as well, so we're hoping to be able to help him with both.  

We've been working with a couple of potential investigators as well. There is a couple that we're very optimistic for.  My Companion first met them last month, where they said that they would love to meet us after the 6th of April (one of them was involved with an art show).  We were able to meet them at the art show and we plan on meeting with them later this week.  We also have been working with another member referral. We were first able to actually meet him last week and we have an appointment with him on Tuesday and another on Sunday.  He was eager to learn more about how we have a living prophet so we were glad to be able to give him a copy of last month's Liahona.

I had one instance that really stood out to me in regards to the Spirit this week.  Early in the day I had found my copy of Elder Holland's talk "None Were With Him" and as a little side note to myself, I stuck it in my bag on the off chance that I would be able to read it throughout the day.  Well, that day we had a lesson with an inactive.  It turned out that talk wasn't meant for me, but rather for her.  It fit perfectly into her situation.  We were able to give it to her to read and she told us that it really did help her.  

This is certainly one of the reasons that I've been a little more focused on my studies in the Book of Mormon this week.  One thing that I found really interesting was a story of conversion in Alma 24.  In Chapter 24 the Lamanites came to destroy the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.  The Anti-Nephi-Lehites had already taken up their oath to never fight and they instead just remained kneeling in prayer.  A thousand and five individuals were killed that day. The Lamanites saw this and realized just what they were doing.  They repented of their deeds, and more than  a thousand were converted to the Lord that day.  In verse 27 it states quite deftly "Thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people."  Which is most definitely true.

Love you all!