Elder Heiner's Mission to Sweden: November 3,2014

The week, the week, the week... Where does it go? I guess at this point there isn't much preface to do here, so I think I'll just jump right into it.

Last Monday, we did stuff... I we walked around and played some cards. If anyone has any ideas for pday, let me know. I'm not any good at coming up with them. Next week, though, we will go to the island to see some castles, we're thinking. We didn't do it this week because we didn't plan for it. Going to Visingsö takes a bit more planning than we had done. So yeah. We just chilled. Then after we were done with that, we rolled out and talked to people. We started to teach P. (our new convert) how to speak Swedish. I think that will really help him connect with the members here. If they see someone trying to learn their language, they get really impressed and try to help that person out. So we are working with him and trying to help him understand that as he asks God for help on this, or really anything in his life, he will find greater success.

The next day, we were up early in the morning to catch the tåg with H. He has some great jokes. Ask me about his jokes sometime, and I'll tell you one. It's great. Also, he teaching SFE, which is basically a class for immigrants so they can learn Swedish and all about Sweden in preparation for living here. He thinks his students are so stupid, and he rips on them all the time. It is so funny. He tells us these stories of how these people don't understand even the most simple things... anyway. Fun stuff. We also had open church on Tuesday. More area book stuff. And we studied there a bit too because we were on the train in the morning, not studying. We did more stuff that evening, but I feel like you wouldn't really enjoy hearing about our crazy amazing adventures knocking on doors where people don't speak Swedish or English. But we did knock on the door with the super golden family again, but the husband, as it turns out, is not nearly as cool with the gospel as the wife, the kids, and the grandparents. He told us not to come back, so we may just be around the house sometime, hoping that one of the other one's comes out and talks to us...

People who stop other people from learning about the gospel are annoying.

We did go the Schelin's again to do some lesson practice. It was fun. I really like them. Cute kids, too.

One Onsdag, we helped the Ronndahl's paint their living room. It turns out, I'm really bad at painting a wall a color it already is. Nobody else had that problem, wonder what was up? But really, it was, like, off white, and we were painting it, like, beige (whatever the heck that even means), and I just couldn't quite get where I had painted. But we worked on that for a few hours. Then we went home and showered up so that we could go proselyting, you know, do our job. We went to Österängen and knocked doors. But then we were called and asked to help give a blessing to an older woman in the ward, so we went and did that, and I did a part of it, and I had to do it in Swedish. That's a little harder than in English, but when it comes down to it, just as long as you have all the parts, and the faith, the authority, and the power, it doesn't really matter how bad your grammar is. But it went well. We then went to the Robayo's for dinner, and they make really good food. Strong family. But it was hilarious. There were times all the missionaries (the Systers were there too) and the two kids (who aren't really kids, they are 23 and 26) couldn't quite breath due to laughing, and the parents (who don't really speak Swedish or English) were all, "Jag förstår inte..." (I do not understand) which made the entire thing funnier. When we got out of there, we when to P.'s again.

Thursday... what a day. After a morning with H. on the train, we went to Bankeryd, which is a good while into the Systrar's area, but it was okay, because a member invited us for dinner. But it was like, an hour travel from our apartment, and we went there straight from Nässjö, so that totals to three hours of travel before we had even eaten yet, and we got to her place at lunch time. So that was fun. Then we went back to the church (another hour) to get blåsted. Then we went back to our apartment (half hour) to get some bags of clothing and our overnights stuff, then back to the church (half hour). There we cleaned a little bit and the POEs, the APs, and President and Sister Beckstrand came over. YAY! The President! He is so cool! Anyway, we had our interviews with him, and mine was a little scary. He said, "I hope you're ready to train." Freak. He didn't say I was *going* to train, but he seemed quite... ominous about it... Anyway, the rest of it was great. I really like him. But after we had those interviews, we all loaded everything up into a couple cars and went for kebab! YAY! I love kebab! Then the POEs drove us down to Lund. By the way, that was a four hour drive. We stayed the night with Äldster James and Barnes, the Lund elders.

The next day, we got up and tåged it to Malmö. We had zone conference. It was combined with the Malmö zone, so it was quite big. The conference itself was really good. If you really want to know what it was about, talk to me in a few years. Lots of stuff to cover, but I will say that if you are obedient, you will receive blessings and guidance from heaven. I also got to see Elder Hemmingsen at the conference! He is the only one in my MTC group that I have seen so far. Me and him are the only ones in our respective zones, but the rest of the people in our MTC district have all seen each other a bunch of times... gosh. Whateves. We all be going to BYU or BYU-I after the mission anyway. We'll see each other eventually. Then we took a tåg home to Jönköping. It was the first day I really haven't moved in a long time, so I was freaking wired. The other three were really tired, but I was not. I think that kind of bugged them. In the end it turned out to be a good thing, because that night, when Anderson was asleep, and I wasn't, and it was 11 at night, and the POEs happened to call because they needed a place to stop driving and stay for the evening, I was able to get things ready for them to crash. It was... alright, I guess.

Taught people Lördag (Saturday), a fun thing, until it got sad. It was the holiday in the evening where everyone takes candles and lights them in the graveyard. I went and read some of the gravestones with lots of candles, which I shouldn't have done, and realized that this really was a sad day.

Yesterday we went to the DeLima's for dinner and played with their kids for a bit. They don't get tired. Ever. I mean never. I've seen them go and go and go and go....

But yeah, that was a week. I really am running out of time. I think I spent a little too much time writing, so I guess I'll just have to do my thank you notes right here real quick.

Thank you missionary couple that takes care of housing for the entire mission, for telling the missionaries that we all had vacuums in our apartments. None of the elders seemed to know...

Thank you, the two elders who dressed up like Jehovah's Witnesses for Halloween/Zone conference, complete with a stack of "Lighthouse"s. You really made us all laugh, and quite impressed the Mission President too. Made him speechless. He really couldn't say what his mind was thinking when he saw you two.

Anyway, have a great week y'all!

Äldste Heiner