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