Örebro Part II

There are so many things that I can post about Örebro that I know that I'm going to just spread out over several entries...  First, from Zone Conference in August 2013!  This was right before the big transfer I mentioned last time... So here are the Örebro sisters!

Me, Syster Gambles, Syster Hauglid (my future companion... we just didn't know that yet!) and Syster Miller!  We all had our golden nuggets which represented various people that we were working with.  We needed to "summon those nuggets" and take care of them to the fullest and help them to the the fullest!  Beautiful Uppsala!

ZONE PICTURE!!!!  Elders Packer, and Tietjen, Syster Hauglid, Elder Hanson, me, Syster Gambles, Syster Allen, Elder Keele, Elder Larson, (Elder Hitch and Nieminen in front), Elder Floyd, Elder Pehrson, Syster Anderson, Elder Ogaard, Syster Miller and Syster Davis (Elder Davis was taking the picture).  Taking care of those nuggets!  "Summon the freaking nugget!" haha

One last district picture:

Elder Nieminen and Elder Larson (our zone leaders and actually not a part of the district, but came for district meeting).  Syster Hauglid, me, Syster Miller and Syster Gambles.  In front: Elder Packer and Elder Tietjen

An experience that let me know that those scenes in romantic comedies can actually happen and that sometimes... well I should just explain.  It was the third of August, 2013.  "Today was hot! Over 30 degrees Celsius (which is only about 90 degrees for those of us here in the States and is nothing to what I experience in Fresno every summer... but it seemed hot haha), which is high for Sweden especially considering just how humid it gets here.  We started the day by meeting Moses at the church to show him where football is and he brought 2 friends with him!  Football was fun, but most definitely ridiculously hot--I drank both of the water bottles I had brought with me.  (apparently the heat really made an impression on me that day haha).

"The other main event of the day was when we went to go see E.  We left a little early and waited a little bit at the train station before we started walking to his friend's apartment.  When it was 20 minutes after when we were supposed to meet with him and we hadn't heard back from him yet, we sent him a text and he responded back letting us know that he had missed his connecting bus and  was running significantly late.  We ended up backtracking and meeting him halfway between his friend's place and resecentrum (the central bus station).

"We talked to him for a little bit, trying to figure how he was doing because we knew that he been in the hospital the last few days, though we had no idea why--still don't know for that matter.  We tried to answer his questions about baptism for kids and the sacrament and how it was different from communion.  As we were finishing our lesson (we were outside sitting on a couple of benches on a dock by the river that runs through the center of town) it started to rain... well sprinkle.  I hurried to say a 30 second prayer and by the time I said amen it was pouring.  And I mean POURING!!!!  We all started running down the street.

"Are you taking the bus?  " ...We don't know.. uh bye!!!" (Very articulate when we are sprinting through the pouring rain haha).  Syster Gambles and I quickly realized we had missed the nearest bus by 4 minutes and that the next one wouldn't be coming for nearly an hour so we decided to walk home in the POURING RAIN because we were already all the way soaked through (because OF COURSE we didn't have ANY jackets or umbrellas... or thought to plan ahead or anything).  It poured for about 15 minutes before it lessened to a more normal rain.  We did arrive back at our apartment about 45 minutes after we started.  There was lots of thunder and lightning involved... and we decided to make cookies to celebrate surviving the journey."

But really when you least expect it, it can start pouring rain without any notice whatsoever.  We decided it could have a been a good scene in a romantic comedy--if we weren't missionaries and if we were with love interests.  It made for a very memorable lesson nonetheless.

Pre-drenching haha..

My little interpretation of us walking through the rain

To round off this entry: Adam's baptism!

I'm sad to say that I don't really have any pictures of me and Adam on that day (I was busy playing piano during the group photos) but it was really just one of those feel-good, Spirit filled baptisms.  I remember being so happy for him and feeling that he was so ready to take this step.  The primary song, When I Am Baptized, always comes to mind when I think of this day: 

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain

And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.

I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know that when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,

And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.

I want to be the best I can and live with God again

~Nita Dale Milner

You can listen to this song here:

Örebro Part I

"O be wise; what can I say more?" Jacob 6:12
 

This town will always have a special place in my heart!  I served in Örebro for almost 7 months, over a third of my mission. I only had two companions during that time, Sarah Gambles (for a little over 2 months) and Camille Hauglid (for four and a half months).  I love these two!

Syster Gambles!  Right before she left Örebro to head to Malmö (more about that in a bit)

There were a lot of fun moments in Örebro and I certainly met people who changed my life. Since I was there for so long, it is most definitely fitting that I split up Örebro over a couple of different blog entries.  

Örebro was one of those transfer calls were I immediately just felt it was right and where I was meant to be.  It was certainly an immediate feeling of confirmation.  Since I was there for so long, it seems like someone agreed that it was where I was needed at the most (it might have been where I needed most as well).

I first got to Örebro on the 12th of June, 2013.  At the time we had four sisters serving in the city.  I was to finish up Sister Gambles's training.  Sister Gambles is one of those really funny people you meet... we had a lot of silly times to say the least.  She taught me a lot about writing better journal entries (which is why the quality of my journals increased dramatically during my time here and I thankfully held on to that for most of the rest of my mission--now if I can just keep that up now... but I digress).

I discovered the solar system while I was there:

Look!  It's where we are! We're here! We're here!

Sadly... This was made after Pluto was demoted, so it was not included.  But you can walk down one of the main streets of the town you can find all eight of the "actual" planets (the last one is on Svampen):

The water tower that you can actually go to the top of and see the entire city.

A couple of moments from my time with Syster Gambles:

"We found Cherry!  That is all."

We played SOOOOOO much football together (that it justifies the use of 6 o's believe me.  We played every Wednesday and Saturday with the ward and our investigators).

Our district was the four sisters in Örebro as well as the 2 elders in Västerås.  We went back and forth between the two cities for district meetings and they came for a p-day at one point (we went hiking with the other sisters)

Elder Tietjen, Elder Packer, me and Sister Gambles at the top of Svampen

We found one of the live action role playing stores and the elders had to try some of the equipment.

We had the opportunity to work with some wonderful people during my time with Sister Gambles.  We first met Moses and Frezghi while we were together and I got to meet Cherry and Balan during our time together.  Let alone all of the other great people we had the opportunity to work with.  I honestly cannot begin to truly name all of the wonderful people I met.  


My companionship with Sister Gambles came to an abrupt end on August 21st.  We had thought that we were missed in the transfer calls the previous Saturday (none of the companionships in my district had received a call), but things changed suddenly at 4 pm on August 20th.  We received a call from President telling us that Sister Gambles would become companions with Sister Miller (one of the other sisters serving in Örebro) and be opening a new area in Malmö, while I would become companions with Sister Hauglid (who was then currently Sister Miller's companion) so that a pair of elders (Elder Muirbrook with an elder from the MTC) could be whitewashing in to take over the new area, starting the next day.  Change was in the air...

Change

What has happened in my life since my last birthday?

I've lived in 5 (and a half) different cities in two different countries (I've visited 3 other countries--though I'm not sure if Ireland really counts).

I've learned a new, beautiful language.

I've met thousands of new people.

I've created friendships.

I've faced serious rejection and disappointment.

I've found a whole new meaning of the word love.

I've found out that there exists things that can absolutely terrify me.

I've found that those things can't beat me in the end.

I've seen people's lives change.

I've seen my own life change.

I've grown (and yet I'm still forever under 5'3'' haha).

I've studied the scriptures extensively and learned much that I will forever cherish.

I've come ever so much closer to God and Jesus Christ.

I've devoted nearly 11 of those past 12 months to Them.



In short my life changed.  It changed in almost every single way possible.  I am a different person than I was a year ago, let alone two.  And, I'm happy.  I am most definitely happy.  I wouldn't have said that three years ago or even four.  I am so glad that I can say so now.

There's a lot to look forward to in the future.  I anticipate the highs and lows and the sudden right and left turns.  I cannot predict exactly what might happen.  But I look forward to all of it.

Life is worth it.

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.