That is really cool Mom and Dad that you guys are in Vancouver with the Blotters! That sounds really fun! The picture you sent of it raining kinda looked like Sweden and so did the other pictures! It reminds me that everyone here asks what is the biggest difference between Sweden and the states and I think their food is the biggest difference, but honestly there isn't too much of a difference at all in terms of culture and food. The basic meal that I have had here with members and stuff is salad and then potatoes with some sort of meat and sauce poured on them (like Swedish meatballs :) ) and then for dessert ice cream. I think that Swedish people really like ice cream. :)
That will be really cool that the Blotter's get to see Josh! Tell them to tell him hi for me! I'm sure that the sea plane trip will be a blast and I hope Mom you don't get too seasick on it! I also hope that Abby is still doing great watching the kids at home :) I'm sure it will all be fine. I really liked the letter that Estee sent me! So cute! :) That is really cool for Grandpa that he retired. That will be really fun to spend more time with him! I got to email him back last week and he told me that it was his last week with the county! Way to go for Jake as well! Is he enjoying cross country? I think it is really cool that he is doing that!
Thanks for the football news. Good to hear about the Aggies winning. I hope they win next week over BYU. I am pumped that Brighton beat Alta! Their was a sister in the MTC with me (who is also in Sweden now) who went to Alta but just graduated in 2012 and she is actually in my district right now so I will have to tell her that Brighton won. Good news it sounds like about everything.
The language progressed well this week, I can usually understand at least what they are talking about and can have conversations with people which is great. It is funny because everyone says that it is always easier when you are learning a language to understand, not to speak it, but for me I think it is the other way around so far hahaha. I actually got a nice compliment from a guy in church yesterday that said I have good pronunciation and that it was a gift I had. It totally is a blessing, I am really grateful that Heavenly Father blesses me so much to be able to communicate so well for the little time I have been here. Truly remarkable! Also while we are on compliments given last p-day we were shopping in H&M (there are so many of their stores in Sweden) and some guy came up to me and asked if I was from England and I said no, USA and then he said he just thought that because I looked smart. I wasn't really sure what that meant but the Elder who was with me told me it meant stylish! So I guess I have been looking pretty good lately ;), but thanks for buying me all my nice clothes that I have now and for teaching me how to look nice. I thought that was funny, anyway onto the rest of the week!
Monday night was so much fun! We went with our new convert, Petter, to Kungsbacka (a nearby city a little south of Gothenburg) and met the sister missionaries there to go and watch a soccer game with one of their investigators at his house. It was only allowed if we were there also with someone so we were glad that it did work out and during halftime they had a little lesson and I felt like Petter did a great job of connecting with the other guy. It was really fun to have a sports night. The game was a really big one, it was in the Swedish national soccer league whatever it is called and the teams were IFK from Göteborg and their rival from Stockholm, AIK. IFK was ranked #3 and AIK was #4. I almost forgot to add in that IFK won 3-1! I think right now IFK is sitting at number 2 in the rankings. It was seriously so much fun. We got a ton of pizza and other snacks and I just ate so much :) (by the way AIK from Stockholm had a really good guy who looked quite a bit like Denard! You guys should see if you can look him up!). Also another highlight for p-day was that I had my first taste of Swedish fast-food. I had a little meal from Burger King, it was pretty good. The thing that stinks about Sweden is that no where has free refills :( but luckily we don't go out to eat that much so it's fine :).
Other highlights form this week were that there is a family (the Lee family) who only the husband is a member and he is inactive but recently they have been coming to church. We started teaching the wife and this week we were able to commit her to working toward being baptized in Late November (probably Nov 30 for now). Her name is Jessica and we are excited for her. They have four kids and two are old enough to be baptized but they never sit with us during the lessons so we hope that we can start teaching them soon as well!
I also found a really cool talk this week about the Book of Mormon, you should read it if you have time! Very interesting. It is called A Treasured Testament and it was given by Russel M. Nelson.
We had a dinner this week and we were in charge of bringing a dessert so we made some banana bread which was actually really good :) but we were running late for our bus and so we were sprinting down the sidewalk in my sweater and suit pants holding a loaf of banana bread wrapped in a towel hahaha. I am pretty sure I looked ridiculous. But it all worked out and things went great!
This week I had the best kabob pizza I had had yet! I got pineapples, onions, and fries all on it and dang, it was sooo good :) So I thought that was a pretty cool thing, the place was called Dr. Fries Pizzeria, kinda a weird name but it was good and it was with a member which was cool.
We also moved apartments to the Oscarson's (the old couple who went home a few weeks ago) and it is only like a 5 minute walk from our old place. We had to move because we are getting two elders living with us next Saturday, but they will be working in Kungsbacka and will have a car. In our old apartment Sisters are moving there to be working in our area with us! So pretty exciting news. Also I heard that Lambson, who doesn't serve too far from us, will be transferring over to somewhere near Stockholm! So I won't be seeing him for a while I guess, it was really cool that I was able to see him the times I did here!
Our Elder's Quorum President, Rich, the guy that texted you guys, had us come over for some lunch and then move a bunch of chopped wood for him (because his house or something in the winter is heated by them burning wood so it's important to him to get that done) anyway he also gave us "Christmas presents" in case we get transferred before that and I got an awesome Swedish soccer ball (my companion a ball with flags from all over the world on it) and we both got these nice waterproof jackets that are from the french car company Peugeot. It was so nice of him to do that! He is seriously such a nice guy and a great help to us!
On Saturday the Kungsbacka sisters had a baptism for this African guy named Emeka (meka) and we have met him a few times because he actually lives by us and he is super cool guy! Anyway he wanted me to baptize him so I did and it was a really cool experience. Everything went perfect! Also while we were sitting together before the program there was a fly buzzing around and Emeka caught it right out of the air! It was pretty ridiculous.
Anyway not really any other news that I can say, it sounds like things are going great back home! Have a great week and it is so great to talk to you all and hear from you and thanks for all the nice and motivating things that you say. Thanks for all that you do for me and all that you have done for me! I have the best parents ever. I love you all and miss you!
Love,
Äldste Ward
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