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