The home of the trolls...

Trollhättan was my second area in Sweden!  I was only there for a short 5 weeks, (and extremely fast 5 weeks, let me tell you!)  The city is located on the middle western side of the country, south of the big lake called Vänern (I actually had the chance to serve near both of the bigger lakes of Sweden--both are gorgeous)

I became companions with Syster Land (the first of my "daughters" and my first "trainee").  

I think the thing I remember most about this area was just how much time seemed to just keep flying by.  We went down to Gothenburg/Göteborg almost every monday (as well as when we went down for mission tour with Elder Richards).  It was during my time in Trollywood that Elder Ballard came to Sweden and we had a mission wide conference with him, President Teixeira, and Bishop Causse.  That was a very good set of conferences. 

A few pictures to round out this rather short entry:

 

Västerhaninge - My birthplace!

 In mission lingo, we call our first area our birth place and our trainer is our parent.  So I was born in Västerhaninge to the lovely Syster Spjut! (The beautiful one on the left).


 The others are Elder Knecht, Elder Ririe and Elder Norr. :)

I'll be writing more about this holiday later in this post :)

I served in Västerhaninge for a total of 8 weeks, the entire of which I was serving with Syster Spjut.  We had to cut down the normal 12 week training program to 8 weeks because a group of 17 sisters were arriving at the end of the 8 weeks and almost all of the sisters currently in the mission would have to train at the end of that time. More about that next entry.



But Västerhaninge has a very notable feature to it, it is also the home of the Swedish Temple! 

Västerhaninge is in the general Stockholm area (southern part of the greater Stockholm area).  It has one of the bigger wards in Sweden.  I had the opportunity to visit Stockholm fairly regularly on preparation days.  It's a beautiful city.  I never had the chance to serve in the general Stockholm area after Västerhaning, but I was grateful for every chance I got to visit the area (thank you zone conferences and Mission Leadership Council!).

I got to spend my first General Conference, Easter and Valborg (a svensk holiday celebrating the arrival of spring).  Valborg is celebrated by having a big bonfire:

Most of the missionaries that came to the Handen/Västerhaninge celebration (some had to leave before this picture was taken).  
Back row: Elder Sanders, Elder Schwab, Elder Ririe, Elder Farley, Elder Halley, Elder Whitworth, Elder Haddon, Elder Knecht, and Elder Day
Middle row: me, Syster Spjut, Elder Zaugg, Elder Norr, Elder Larson, Syster Blomqvist, Syster Lowe
Front: Elder Leirimaa

I panicked a little bit about the idea of training after only eight weeks in Sweden (I was certainly a lot less confident in my Swedish ability), but I knew that I was willing to do whatever the Lord had in store for me.   Which led me onto my next area, Trollhättan!

A quote I referred to quite a bit during my time in Västerhaninge: "Every happiness and every joy that has been worthy of the name has been the result of keeping the commandments of God and observing his advice and council." - President George Albert Smith.

Flashback to the MTC!

One thing I learned while on my mission is how relative time can feel.

"The days are weeks and the weeks are days"

Time passed quickly and slowly at the same time.  While in the field, life before the mission seemed like a dream and eventually even my time in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) seemed like another lifetime.

For those of you that don't know, all missionaries go to the MTC for a period of 2 to 9 weeks before they head to the place where they will be serving.  I was a part of the first 6 week group headed to Sweden (before us there was a 9 week study period).  At the MTC you basically learned about how to be a missionary and you start learning your mission language.

I was part of a group that was nicknamed Legion... because we had 32 missionaries headed to Sweden!  It might very well be the largest group ever headed to Sweden at the same time!

Back Row:  Elder Beus, Elder Olson, Elder Higham, Elder Keele, Elder Farley, Elder Schwabedissen, Elder Gentillon, Elder Magum,  Elder Judd, Elder Richards, Elder Stafford and Elder Forsyth
Middle Row: Elder Bilodeau, Syster Lowe, Syster Sjoblom, Me, Syster Faux, Syster Swenson, Syster KKalt, Syster Larson, Elder Ogaard, and Elder Hills
Front Row: Elder Gray, Elder Simas, Elder Miles, Elder Miller, Elder Simmons, Elder Hanson, Elder Cahill, Elder Johnson and Elder Zaugg

My MTC district:

The Back Four: Elder Miles, Elder Simas, Elder Stafford and Elder Ogaard
Front Row: Elder Cahill, Elder Zaugg, Elder Hanson, Syster Faux, and me :)

The MTC as a whole is all a blur.  We had the opportunity to listen to Elder Ballard speak (As you will see later, Elder Ballard was a main figure of my mission).  The MTC was hard, but very worthwhile.   I learned a considerable amount about myself and I knew that I wanted to do everything that the Lord required of me, no matter how hard that may seem at the time.

Visas came in three waves with our group.  12 missionaries left on time, 9 left a week later, and the others a day later.  I was part of the middle group.  I arrived in Sweden late on 12 March 2014!

New layout and mission stories!

A little heads up on what to expect from this blog in the future.

I will making a series of my favorite mission stories as well as talk briefly about the different areas that I served in while on my mission.  Pictures and everything fun will be headed your way!

Expect an update every Friday!


My new background is derived from this picture of Jönköping my first Monday (1 July 2014) in town.