October 28, 2013

Hej min familj!

It sounds like you guys all had fun and pretty busy weeks!  My week was pretty good too.  I keep practicing my Swedish and sometimes it is pretty decent and sometimes I have a hard time understanding but I guess that is just how you learn a language!  I think that I think about it too much...just like I would do with sports and stuff.  But yes, the Swedish is coming and it is always encouraging to see missionaries who can speak it so eventually I will be able to get to that point!  

Week rundown:

Monday- Was a pretty laid back pday.  We got to email and stuff and I got to practice a little basketball.  We did also get to have some kebab pizza from Mossen's and we went to the YSA's FHE activity.

Tuesday- The mission has started telling us that they want the chapels to be unlocked and open in case anybody comes by and wants to learn more about the church 2 days a week from 10-6.  So usually what we have been doing is we take a morning 4 hour shift and then an afternoon 4 hour shift on a different day and when we aren't there the sisters are.  The mission told us that for 1 hour a week they want us to be doing family history work.  So I was doing a little bit and found another line of Swedish ancestry!  It was pretty cool to find and I found out that they lived in an area not too far from where I am now.  Hopefully I will be able to go there at some point in my mission.  We were also able to swing by a less active lady and it was good to talk to her.  I hope she can start coming to church again.  In the evening we also had a volleyball sports night.  We have started doing a sports night with the YSA's and it is really good because less actives and investigators come.  And because it is fun to be playing some sports!

Wednesday-  Highlights were having a member dinner with this really nice family (the mom is from Brazil and the dad is from Sweden) and then having a lesson with our investigator Jessica and her family.  Her husband is a member but very inactive but wants to start coming back to church.  Jessica wants to be baptized which is great, the only problem is they have four kids and are always really busy (I am sure you guys understand) and they just moved to a new house.  One of their sons is a really good badminton player and usually plays every Sunday because here in Sweden every sport event I have heard is on Sunday!  So his Dad usually goes with him.  He is eleven and a neat kid, actually reminds me a little bit of Jake even though Jake is almost 13 now!  Anyway we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and watched the Restoration movie with her because last time we tried to teach the Restoration it turned into the Plan of Salvation.  It went really good and the dad, Bob, drove us home in their Mercedes :)  Also one time we were over there and just talking and we literally started talking about the price of tea in China.  I was trying not to laugh when I remembered the saying "what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"  Hahaha, anyway she also came to church on Sunday with her two little kids and it was great to see them there.

Thursday-  Was district meeting, and then we had lunch with a a member and an investigator from Kungsbacka who we have met a few times.  It was a good lunch of Thai food.  So far in Sweden I have had some good Thai food!  We also had a dinner with a nice family and then went by a less active guy that lived quite far away from where we live.

Friday- A member took us out to eat with the sisters to a delicious kebab pizza restaurant.  It was very good and I got pizza with pineapple and kebab on it :)  We also met some people from Minnesota, and they were really nice talking to us but weren't very interested.  We also had a dinner appointment with another nice member family whose son is going to turn 8 soon so they thought that we could teach him the lessons before he was baptized.  So that was pretty neat to teach him the Restoration.  He actually had quite a few questions.  

Saturday-  We helped with the YSA's Halloween weekend thing which had people from all over Sweden, Norway, Denmark and even a few from England that all came.  We also went by a really nice family who have a little 5 month old baby.  We also went into town to look for our investigator, John, who plays the nickelharp but he wasn't there so we ran into a store to buy something and while we were in line we met a guy who was interested in meeting some more!

Sunday- We had a weird church schedule for the YSA's Halloween weekend so we had Priesthood from 10-11 and then regular sacrament meeting from 11-12.  We and the sisters had quite a few people come which was great!  In sacrament there were 3 investigators and 2 less actives that hadn't been to church in a long time!  Also at the end of sacrament a little girl starting throwing up and her Dad tried to carry her out and she just got puke all over the gym floor.  We ran out to grab some stuff to clean it up and us and a member cleaned it all up.  After that we set some things up and welcomed people from 12-1 and then from 1-3 was the YSA's sacrament meeting that was focused on Christ and the sisters had an investigator there that was a Muslim so he didn't really believe much about the divinity of Christ so the subject was perfect and then it was a testimony meeting so people were going up and the spirit was really strong and apparently this guy was crying during the meeting because the spirit was so strong and now he wants to be baptized before he leaves for Malmö on Thursday!  Very exciting!

Dad thanks again for the sports news.  I couldn't keep up with the records but I didn't think I had heard Michigan lose to anyone else but Penn State other than being in a ton of close games.  I hope they just dominate Sparty this week.  Hopefully the Utes can beat ASU, last year they got destroyed by them.  I think that Utah State should have an easy win against Hawaii.  And that is cool that the Tigers got so close to going to 2 straight world series, hopefully in 2 years they'll be back :)

Sounds like it will be a fun Halloween this year!  Not many people celebrate it here but our ward is having a trunk or treat and a Halloween party (both organized by Americans).  Dad good luck on your case with moving the nerve from that lady's leg!  That sounds like a really cool surgery.   And good luck Mom with arranging Estee's class's halloween party! That will be fun for those little munchkins. :)

Have a great week everyone, it is always so great to hear how the family is doing.  Know that I pray for you all and am so grateful for your prayers.  I love and miss you all and know that I am doing well and our Heavenly Father is taking care of me.  Talk to you in a week!

Love,

Äldste Ward

PS My companion decided to get another winter coat so I was able to buy his nice old one for cheap and I think it will be a really great coat for the winter.

PPS Also I bought a portable hard drive so I can save pictures and videos I take on there.  I think with the hard drive I won't be have to be anxious about taking pictures so I am now planning on taking a ton of pictures.  But that is the thing we bought when we met that interested guy in line, and that is why around 50 dollars were taken from my card in case you guys were wondering.

I bought a hard drive

I bought a winter coat