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.

Elder Bailey - March 10, 2014

To quote President and Sister Newell: One of our own has fallen. As a lot of you may have heard by now, Elder Mason Bailey was killed last night in a pedestrian/car accident. Elder Bailey was and will forever be a wonderful person, who knows how to get someone to laugh, who is always a hard worker and just all around good person.

I had the chance to serve in the same district as Elder Bailey while I was in Örebro and I just remember always liking him and what he stood for. He is just continuing his mission in a completely different, but eternal fashion. He'll be just as great of a missionary on the other side as he was here. But if you could keep his family especially in your prayers at this time, that would be greatly appreciated. I know that they should receive all of the comfort that they should get at this time.

First of all, thank you for all of your kind words and thoughts for us. It's been a bit of a rough week, but life continues onward and I know that everything will work out for the best. I'm just working hard to keep going and do everything that I have left to do. D&C 78:18 "And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours," helped me a lot this past week. I know that things will work out in the end. It's like the Mormon Message by Elder Holland about "Good Things to Come". Here's a link for everyone to be able to find it quickly: http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911029449001

As a side note, no, I was not able to attend the memorial service that they had for Elder Bailey (it was just too difficult to get all missionaries there, so they had all of the missionaries from the Stockholm and Stockholm North zones, all of his former companions and his MTC group there). I know that he has made an impact on the mission. They forwarded everyone a little bit about Elder Bailey and what had happened to him and I'll include a portion of it:

"Elder Bailey...was serving in the Västerås Sweden Branch of the Stockholm Sweden Stake at the time of his death. Following church meetings in the Västerås Branch on Sunday, 2 March 2014, he had performed the baptism of a new convert to the Church. The new church member had been found and taught by him, and his companions. A few hours later he died instantly when he and his companion, Elder Max Barnes, were crossing a street in a marked crosswalk, and Elder Bailey was struck by a speeding vehicle....

"Elder Bailey is highly respected for his discipline, faith, knowledge of the gospel, work ethic, quick friendship with others, and infectious happy disposition. He is loved in Sweden by companions, fellow missionaries, Church members and friends of the Church."

The last part is definitely true.

Mars is marching on - March 10, 2014

First of all, thank you for all of your kind words and thoughts for us.

As for my week, we've been in contact with a couple of investigators and even though they have been extremely busy this past week, they are still praying and reading and wanting to learn more. We also met with the wife of the family that came to church last week and the entire family is interested in learning more. We have to start with the basics, because they just have a base knowledge of God and Christ, but it will all be worth the time it takes to teach them.  I even got the picture book again, so that'll help. 

(I had the Gospel Picture book, a very well-made purchase from back in Västerhaninge, but it was misplaced last month, so I ordered another one, but I got it now and now we're all ready to teach! It's such a great help honestly.).

Another sister has been making significant progress. We've started working on family history with her and she loves it! It's just helping increase her desire to come back to church. It's fun to see how others can get so excited about family history. I've been working on ours a little bit, but I'll admit it's hard to find things when we're limited to just familysearch.org and other church sites as missionaries. But, I've notice how sometimes as we search for the names of missing parents, we can find the names of others that deserve just as much to be found and recorded.

I've already been in Malmö longer than I was in Västerhaninge (making it officially my second longest area even at 10 weeks haha) and it's just a little weird to think about. And since I've been getting multiple questions about it, my official end date is July 24th. And honestly that day will come extremely fast, just because time seems to go so quickly nowadays. Okay, I know it goes at the same pace as it has always done, but it certainly feels different while on a mission.

Pictures:

This is one of the more famous buildings her in Malmö.  It turns!  Like a turso!  And yeah... I just said that.

And one of me and proof that I am in fact in Malmö.

More additions to the random statues you can find in Sweden:

I love you all!

Allie

"One of our own has fallen." - March 3, 2014

To quote President and Sister Newell.

As a lot of you may have heard by now, Elder Mason Bailey was killed last night in a pedestrian/car accident. Elder Bailey was and will forever be a wonderful person, who knows how to get someone to laugh, who is always a hard worker and just all around good person. I had the chance to serve in the same district as Elder Bailey while I was in Örebro and I just remember always liking him and what he stood for. He is just continuing his mission in a completely different, but eternal fashion. He'll be just as great of a missionary on the other side as he was here. But if you could keep his family especially in your prayers at this time, that would be greatly appreciated. I know that they should receive all of the comfort that they should get at this time.

Last week was a little bit of a difficult week, but it was full of miracles along the way. The less actives that we have been working with have been showing some real progress. One sister was able to come to the fireside we had last Friday about family history work and she loved it! She wasn't able to come on Sunday though, because her husband was sick and she had to take care of the kids. Another member is starting to show a desire to come back and he is trying hard to read and pray, which is helping him a lot.

As for the others we work with, most of them have been busy or sick this past week, but we have confirmed appointments with them for this upcoming week, which is always good =)

As for a miracle that happened this week, we had handed a mormon.org card with the church address to a man at the bus stop, just really saying hi and inviting him to church. On Sunday, he brought his entire family with him and we are going to meet them this Saturday to explain how the church began. They are definitely really interested! We were definitely inspired to talk to that man, even if it was just for so brief of an instant.

For a funny story of the week: We had an interesting experience while contacting on Wednesday. We contacted this one woman who was smoking and asked her what she thought was the meaning of life. She said that we had asked the right person. She then starts explaining how she has dealt with a lot of difficult things in her life, when this other lady with her dog (waiting to pick up a pizza) comes over and asks if she heard right that we were talking about the meaning of life. We explained that we were and the first lady continues to explain how she has found the strength to continue living each day, even among years of abuse. The original lady had to leave (we were able to give her a mormon.org card before she left) and we kept talking to the woman with the dog. She was interested in learning more, but didn't want to give us her number--but she was really happy to talk to us.

And then she lets her dog off of his leash so she could show us a couple of his tricks. He was a little skittish because there were way too many interesting things/smells on the street. But he eventually cooperated and showed us his trick of jumping through a loop that she makes with her arms.

And then this guy on a bike with a trailer comes around the corner and the dog immediately starts running and barking. The biker starts pedaling faster and the dog follows him. Syster Vaarola and I start running after the dog to help catch him--we definitely felt that it would have been our fault if something had happened to the dog. So just imagine this guy on a bike, with a trailer, a crazy barking dog, two sister missionaries in skirts and backpacks sprinting after them, and an older lady speed walking down the street. Yep.

Thankfully after rounding the corner, the dog decided to come back and we were able to catch him. We just sprinted down the one block ha-ha. The owner was certainly grateful.

And in happy news, a member that we've been working with received her temple recommend yesterday! So now she can go and receive her endowment. She just has a new light in her life and she has been radiating happiness.

Pictures:

The ocean...you can kind of almost see Denmark in the distance.

A really pretty church in a town called Svedala.  There were plenty of birds!  Haha!

The bridge to Denmark.

Scripture for the day - D&C 101: 15-16, 35-38

"15 And all they who have given their lives for my name shall be crowned.

16 Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God.

35 And all they who suffer persecution for my name, and endure in faith, though they are called to lay down their lives for my sake yet shall they partake of all this glory.

36 Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.

37 Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul.

38 And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life."

I felt that it was especially fitting in light of Elder Bailey.

I love you all!

Allie