Elder Heiner's Mission to Sweden: September 15, 2014

So this week was crazy. We started off just doing the usual things, going to appointments and the such. We had set a goal to have at least two hundred unplanned contacts this week, so we were stopping a ton of people, and the people here are super nice, so they would just stop and talk unless they were extremely busy. Then they would stop and explain that they are busy. Funny people. So yeah, we were having a good time.

Here is a funny thing, we were invited to go to a high school and teach a religion class for two days. I thought it was a joke until Äldste Anderson told me it was a thing, teaching in a school. So we packed up a bunch of Mormons Books and pamphlets and cards and went to the local high school. We walked in the front door, and everyone thought it was normal or something, because we didn't get too many second odd looks. But we went to the third floor and taught about thirty 17 year-olds the first lesson. Then we showed the Joseph Smith movie, and then opened it up for questions. We were kind of dreading that part because we don't really have complex vocab down, but they had good questions, not just annoying ones. So it was fun. The next day, they wanted to come to the church, so we did the same thing, but taught the class in the chapel the next day. The whole thing was odd to me, but that is probably just because I'm from the US of A.

Äldste Anderson and I were building up our appointment list for Thursday because we were going on splits that day, so we wanted to have a good day for that. So Thursday comes along and we do the splits (I kind of made it sound like we wouldn't, didn't I?), and we traveled to a town halfway between Borås and Jönköping to trade companions. I picked up Äldste Sandquist and we bused back to Jönköping. And we did have a great day. We had six or seven lessons even though we were blåsted a few times. We contacted a ton of people and in the end of the day, we had a lesson with P., like the coolest guy ever. So yeah, it was great. The next day, we had a district meeting in our chapel, so we just switched back to normal comps. T'was a good split.

I'm going to talk about the temple trip now. I apparently didn't mention M. last week. Just over a year ago, Äldste Anderson confirmed him a member of the church. On Sunday after the Holstrom conference, I had the opportunity to stand in the circle as he received the Melchizedek priesthood. He was preparing to go to the temple. Now, he had asked Anderson to help him go through, because this was his first time, but we live in Jönköping, which is a good while away by tåg (the Swedish train), and the temple they would be going to was in Denmark. So that was probably not going to happen. We called President anyway. On Friday morning, Anderson got permission to go to the temple in Copenhagen. And he couldn't go alone, so I just HAD to go too. Bummer. I was so stoked! So the only way we would make it in time was if we left on Friday evening. So we went to the tåg station and went to Göteborg and stayed the night with Äldster Bodine and Sweat. On Saturday morning we took another tåg all the way to Copenhagen. We walked from the central station to the temple. Note, I thought it would be warmer in the South. I was wrong. I thought the temperature would be nicer. It was pouring rain. And my incorrect assumptions led me to not bring an umbrella. So we were both under Anderson's. We made it work, but now I always have an umbrella. Anyway, got to the temple, met up with everyone involved and had a great session. Afterward, we took a bunch of pictures and took a tåg all the way from Copenhagen to Jönköping. It was a great day. Also, President told us to take it out of pday, so email and groceries are all we get today. Totally worth it.

So... that pretty much dominated the week. But Sunday was my first normal Sunday. We had Stake conference in Göteborg last week, so it's been a while. We had a few hours of meetings with various leaders in the ward before church started. Then church started. And then church ended. I would tell you what happened, but... it's all in Swedish. I only got about half of what happened. They had me get up in sacrament meeting and talk for a few minutes. I think it went well. No one was honest and told me how bad I was. They said I had good Swedish. I'm... not so sure. Anyway. We then went to the Röndalls for dinner. It was very fine. Then we did a ton of swing bys to less active members and old investigators. I had a good time. Talked to a ton of people. And that puts us at today. I hope everyone is having a wonderful life. If you ever get bored, I wouldn't offended if you wrote a letter............................................ Anyway, have a great week!

Äldste Heiner