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.