Elder Heiner's Mission to Sweden: November 22, 2014

So here we have our little weird pday thing happening right now. I won't be having pday on Monday, just today. So next week, I won't have any pdays. Then we will resume our normal pday schedule. So I hope our food and our laundry last through this week. It would be bad if any of those ran out...

As promised, I know what is happening to me! Well... not really, but I know what is going to be going on in the upcoming transfer. I am staying here in Jönköping. Äldste Anderson is not. He will be getting on a train on Monday and going to Stockholm. And then stay the night in the mission home. And then get on a plane. And then change planes a few times. And then get off a plane and out the doors in the SLC airport, where his family will be hanging out waiting for him to come down those stairs so they can talk to him again. And then he's going to his stake president's and getting released as a full time missionary. And then he's a normal (-ish) guy again. I've heard that quite a few times as this is what every single person in the ward wants to talk to him about. Eh.

But I get a new comp! I have never heard of this guy, but Elder Miles in Borås has. Apparently he is a really awesome guy and a really hard worker, so we should be able to tear it up here in Jönköping. His name is Äldste Peter Jones. We'll see. Should be fun.

This week was good, tror jag. We worked really hard for a few days in the beginning, but the end of the week was kind of thrown out the window because of the upcoming transfer and stuff. On Monday we had a normal pday, and... okay, it wasn't normal at all. We didn't do laundry so we could get out the doors fast, but we had just done it a few days before, so it's fine. We went to a few stores to finishing up some shopping for Anderson before he leaves Sweden for a while. After a few hours of that, we went to the church and played a game called Castle Panic. It was pretty fun. I enjoyed it. At the end of our time, we went and visited Tommy. He's moved back into his real apartment because they've finally finished fixing the water damage in his other one. It took 'em five months. Almost six. It must've been bad.

Huba wasn't on the train the next morning even though we were. We were already past Huskvarna by the time we found out. His niece was sick, so he stayed home with her while his sister went to work. So that trip turned into a bit of a nap time. Wasn't bad. Wasn't bad at all. Went to the church later to practice a lesson with Alex, then stayed for a real lesson that was supposed to happen. And the really weird part is that it did happen! Yay! It's a referral from Sister Schelin. Her name is Sandra, and she is very positive. Sister Schelin sat in on the lesson, so it went really well.

I am excited to be able to teach her in the future. Hung out in the church after that, got blåsted a few times. Never a good day without a blåst. We had a while after that, so we went trackting in Öxnehaga, and found some very positive people there too.

Next day was district meeting in Borås. It was a lot of fun. The meeting was the last of many that Äldste Anderson has attended, and he prepared a speech adapted from King Benjamin's address in the beginning of Mosiah. It was quite funny. Came home after walking around Borås as the whole district, attracting all the looks. It was funny. Went by some folks that wanted to say goodbye to Anderson. And then we had dinner with a member of the Stake Presidency. It was very kind of them, and we had a very good conversation with them.

Torsdag was easily the craziest day on my mission so far. It would also be good to note that this was the last day of full work for Elder Anderson. We started on the train with Huba, all was well and normal. Lesson with Alex, it was good. All was normal, but we were off to a great start. We then had a lesson with Elizabeth in Huskvarna, so we went up there. She didn't show up, but it's not a real day without a blåst, so it's all good. We decided to have lunch then because we had a bit of time. On the way to the restaurant, we contacted people. Two of the people we contacted were Turkish and couldn't speak anything we could very well. At the end of the contact, they wanted us to go with them to their business to sit down, drink some coffee, and talk. We assumed they were talking about a coffee shop and they just wanted us to buy some drinks, so we were hesitant at first. We finally agreed after the third invitation. They took us to an apartment building (yes we thought that was weird too), and then down into the basement. I don't know about apartment buildings in the US, but in Sweden, the basements are freakin' sketch. The stairs down are narrow and dark, and then the actually basement is dark with a labyrinth of short hallways with about a billion doors on either side of you. This was just the same. We thought we were about to get shanked. Then we walked through one of the doors and it was this totally legit business. It was the weirdest place for it. But we sat down and taught a lesson to these three Turks. It was... odd. We left there and went to a burger joint. Burgers are not as good here, by the way. We went up to Öxnehaga again, and found two very positive families that I am excited to get to teach sometime. Then we went to the Robayo's on the other side of town for dinner. It was a good dinner, and South Americans are hilarious people when they get going. We left there and had two more members ask us to come over to say goodbye to Anderson. By the time we left the last one, we watched as the bus we HAD to take if we wanted to be home in time roll past. So we started sprinting after it. We would have caught it if it had stopped at the bus stop, but nobody was there, so it just rolled on. So we sprinted after it more. It was no use. Right as we realized we had no hope, an African lady pulls over in her car and tells us to jump in. So we do. She's all "Tvån?" And we're all "ja." So she speeds up, and catches up to the bus and we jump out and leave her with a card and we get on the bus. It was crazy and ridiculous. So everything happened that day. Lesson with a progressing investigator, member lessons, member dinner, non progressing lessons, contacting, trackting, got some TU's, got blåsted, thought we were gonna get murdered, and we got a miracle to cap it all. Good day. Good day.

Friday was pretty ridiculous as well. Elder Anderson got to go to the Stockholm temple, but I didn't. So I was on splits in Norrköping, which is way out of Jönköping. But one of those elders was also going home, so he got to go to the temple. So I was just with one elder and still got to get in a full day of work. They didn't have too much set up for the day, but that is okay, I was a little down in my contacts for the week in my contact battle with the Borås systrar. So we tried to do swing bys as we contacted 118 people. That is a lot, by the way. We usually get about twenty or thirty. It was a fun day though. Elder Anderson had a good day at the temple.

We have some good stuff planned for today. Like Thanksgiving dinner. We get two of them! Yay! American families are great. And haircuts! We're gonna get haircuts today! I've needed one for a month and a half now! But that's the week so far.

Today is a weird pday, and I won't have any time to do anything on Monday because that won't be a pday. We have so much to do today, so I hope you don't mind, I have to write my thank you notes now:

Thank you Turkish guys, for not killing us when it totally would have been the right situation in any movie.

Thank you Syster Stewart for being transfered two days before the Christmas concert, and leaving me all your solos to perform. Next week. I haven't even heard these songs before!

Anyway, I'll let you know how life turns out in a week and two days. Have it good y'all!

Äldste Heiner