December 26, 2015

Merry Second Christmas Day, as the Swedes like to say... It's pday, and that means I tell you what I did with my life.

For anyone confused because they looked at a calendar and the date this was written and what I'm talking about, yes. I wrote this on a Saturday. We have pday on Saturday this week.

On Monday, we didn't have too much going on because it's always pday, so we have a habit of not planning anything then. Except this week wasn’t pday so nothing was planned. It was fine. We were able to talk to a ton of people on the street.
Tuesday was not as blank. We had a district meeting in Lund which turned out to not really be a normal meeting, because we went caroling! We went out and sang to people and contacted them. I don't know if anyone became an investigator, but some people took books and heard some lessons. We went home after that and got cancelled on by our next guy. People don't really like to meet on Christmas week.  But then the lady after that is the wife to a member, and she's praying about whether or not she wants to be baptized. The correct answer would be, "yes." Then we met with our guy getting baptized in a few weeks and that went really well! He is down with the plan of salvation and is still on board for baptism, so that's super sick!
On Wednesday, we went and helped an elderly lady early in the morning, came back the apartment for lunch. Then we walked to the other side of town and we taught like four lessons on the way. We then had dinner with a Norwegian family and celebrated Christmas with them. It was super fun! After we left there we had dinner with a Danish family. It was super fun! I ate so much food...
Thursday was super lugnt. We hung out and opened the Swedish presents we got because Swedes do that on Christmas Eve. I heard from Paul and Erin, the Richardson’s, Grandma and Grandpa, and my family.  Our post is a little messed up right now, so there may be others in the future.  Then we wandered over to a member’s house and spent several hours with them. It was great! I made another turkey, everyone was impressed I knew how.
Friday, yesterday, was also super awesome! We hung out at the bishops.  He's pretty dang cool. I like him a lot, and I was able to skype the family! My mother could probably tell you all about that! [Insert mother comment here].

I really like Malmö! The only downside is the way they talk, really. They are very nice people with open minds, the weather is super mild. The sun exists here!   It is a different experience, for sure. My companion has been out one transfer longer than me, so we are both quite experienced. Together, we have the third most experience of any companionship in Sweden, and if you take out the tripanionship, we are number two by one transfer. I really like it. We get along really well.  Later today we're gonna go swing by the mall. Swedish Black Friday is all this week!

And that's pretty much my week at this point! I hope you all had a great holiday season! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Heiner

At the Bishops with his family and the other missionaries
on Christmas day.

Opening gifts.

Captain Crunch.
I had some this morning.  It was super good!

December 14, 2015

This week has been a week of change for me! I also have like no time at all....................... Thank you transfers...........
I left Katrineholm on Wednesday in the morning, and then traveled south and got to Malmö!
My big suitcases wheels died last transfer so it was a little hard. I can make it through to home though. I should only need to use them two more times. Or once maybe, we'll see. Once I got to Malmö, the other elders here have a car, so they just picked up the bags and drove the rest of the way. That was nice. My companion is Elder Nelson from McAllen, TX, and we serve in the Malmö I area. The apartment is pretty cool. It a little small, but it's really nice. I really like Elder Nelson. He's super obedient, which is super nice.  We've already found a couple people to add in the teaching pool, so it's been good!
Basically, I'm in Malmö with Elder Nelson and it's been pretty great so far! I love my comp and the area, and the ward seems super cool.
Äldste Heiner

December 7, 2015

Hello to all the people! I will get the big news out of the way first! I'm moving! I'm moving to Malmö, the southernmost area in the mission. It's in the third largest city in Sweden. They talk weird, that'll be fun. It's also a ward.  And you don't have to look hard at all to see Danmark. It's super close and there's a pretty cool bridge that you can go over from one country to the other.  It will all be interesting. I have really liked it here in Katrineholm, but apparently, it's time for me to roll out of here. It'll be sad. I have a lot of really good friends here and It'll be a bummer to not be around them so often.
   I also have little to no time left on me thanks to transfers, so I'll give a few more highlights.
   Meisam was confirmed in church today, marking the end of my time in Katrineholm.
   We had FHE this week on Monday and it was super fun. I always have a great time there.
   The Eskilstuna district meeting was super fun. It was also Sister Bolton's funeral.
   The entire mission was super stressed out for this transfer call. It finally came and it was HUGE! Just about everything is different this transfer. It's gonna be crazy.
   Elder Nilsson got a haircut and it looks fab.
   I didn't get a haircut and my hair look fab.
   We found a super good kebab place that is super cheep. Glad I'm moving now.
   There is a light show on a building that is super cool. I only have videos and I can't send those for some reason.
That's all I have time for right now! Have a great week everyone! Next time will be from the south!
Äldste Heiner

November 30, 2015

Dear the people who pay attention to the things I write,
   This week was AWESOME! I'm just going to give away the best part. Meisam and Zoheir got BAPTIZED! I'm really excited for them. The branch is really excited for them too. They will make great members.
   But backing up to Monday, pday. I love pday. There really isn't too much to do here on pday, so we just bummed around. It was pretty great. In the evening, we did NOT go to FHE because Pia was in Skåne. Bummer, right? I mean really. Skåne? We went trakting instead.
   The next day, we had lunch with this Somalian guy named Omar. He doesn't speak anything close to a language that we speak. He really likes to feed us though. It gets really awkward. We try to help him, we just have no communication with him. We then had a TU blåst us, then we had a couple lessons at the church, that was pretty fun. And THEN we went to FHE at Pia's. That was super fun. FHE is always good.
   Wednesday was pretty much just knocking on doors until we went to the church for Gospel Principals, which went super well. A bunch of people came, and it was pertty fun. Afterwards, we made pumpkin pie. That's not really a thing here, so it was pretty new.
   Thursday was THANKSGIVING! We also had district meeting. I made a turkey and a ton of potatoes and then gravy and some vegetables. And pumpkin pies. It was super good! We then had about five lessons right in a row at the church. We were in the church a lot this week. We were getting a bit of cabin fever.
   On Friday, the Eskilstuna elders showed up for some work overs. We went up to Vingåker. We came home and had a final getting ready for the baptism lesson with Meisam and Zoheir. Then we had a really good lesson with Ferdi. That dude is freaking awesome.
   On Saturday, we went down to Norrköping for the baptism! It was super good! They both went under and everyone had some really good things to say.
   Sunday confirmations and that was probably the highlight. It was first advent, so we saw some pretty cool markets for that. We also had a pretty positive lesson with a couple TUs! And that pretty much closed out the week!

I hope you all are doing well! Have a wonderful week!

The Baptism.

I made a turkey.  It was super fun.

Elder Heiner.

There were these creepy dolls in a castle that we went to.

There was this lady doing this thing with
ice.  It was cool.

This bread has been on our wall for over 2 years.

November 23, 2015

I am very short on time, so let me tell you the best part of the week! M and Z will be getting baptized on Saturday the 28th! K might also be getting baptized, but we'll see.
We had a zone training on diligence this week that was pretty fun. President showed us some clips from American Pharaoh's races and then talked about missionaries being diligent. The diligence section in chapter six of PMG is super good.
Have a great week everyone!
Äldste Heiner

I made cookies.

Cool ice crystals.

This is our favorite scene from Legacy,
one of the only  movies we can watch.

A cool church shot from the bus.

Kholm is decorating!

November 16, 2015

Dear all the people that read this,
Like most weeks, this has been a week of missionary work.
I have worked really hard.
We have gotten a lot of people to talk to us.
It's been super nice.
I'm going to tell you a few highlights to the week.
First and foremost, we have been teaching a couple of men that will be baptized next week.
We are really happy for them!
It's super fun to teach them because they already live everything they need to live to be baptized.
We also taught many other people.
Four other people are making steps towards salvation.
It's super nice.
I love it when people do that.
We even had five investigators in church.
That's the most I've ever seen at one time.
There were even two less active members there.
It was great.
Hard work pays off.
There was this one family we met with that all knelt and prayed with us.
I love it when they do that!
Now they just have to read the book.
That would be nice.
I made a mistake this week.
I took off David's hat at family home evening.
He was not happy with me at all.
Sorry David.
Pia tell David I'm sorry.
We had like five lessons going on at one time on Wednesday.
Thursday was one of those days that everything fell through.
It's fine.
It was a good day anyway.
We had district meeting in Södertälje this week.
Travel to and from that place is really annoying.
I think that's all I'm going to write today!
I hope you all have a great day!
And week!
Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!
Äldste Heiner

Gospel Principles class.

A coat Hadi gave me.

A cool water tower thing in Kohlm.

A creepy clown I am trying to convince
Elder Nilsson to take down.

Ferdi.

Candles!

November 9, 2015

Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a great week! I'm doing pretty dang well. I'm healthy, I'm working, I'm happy! We've seen a good amount of success recently, so it's been a happy time here in Kholm!

   On Monday we were going to meet with a TU, but he totally didn't show up, so we were a little let than down with that. We had a great pday anyway. We went to Pia's for the evening and it was awesome! I always have a great time at hemafton.
   Tuesday was kind of a funny day. We were up in the morning talking to Pia because she had questions she wanted answers to, and she wanted them THEN! So we answered what we could and it went well. I think. Ask her. After that we were with an investigator in the hospital and then after that we had lunch with him. During the day, we were in the library for a little study time and we taught this random guy that had a Mormons Book in his bag. It was super funny, and I'm not sure what happened, but he could really use a shower. Later in the day, we met with a super cool Christian guy named D and he really wants to learn more. He's been feeling like he needs to get baptized, not necessarily in our church, but just baptized. He's been reading the Book, so it should go really well for him.
   On Wednesday we contacted a couple of Muslims that were very hard to work with. I lost my nerve a little bit, only a little bit, because they told me I wasn't allowed to pray if Jesus' name was in the prayer and I was all like, "No." and they were all like mad because I wouldn't accept the Koran as the word of Allah and it was kinda funny because they hands down REFUSED to even touch Mormons Book. It was super ridiculous. Took too much time and energy and focus, but we had an amazing day after that, so it's just a funny story now. After that we had Gospel Principles class, and true to form, it ended up splitting into three different lessons. One of the lessons turned into a baptismal date! One of the other ones agreed to baptism, but not a date, so we'll see how that goes soon. It was super good day.
   The next day we taught a guy named T. He doesn't want to talk anymore, but his name is T. We only talked for like five minutes on the street, but it was kinda a funny lesson. We had some other less exciting lessons during the day, and then we had institute in the evening. The Karlstad elders stayed the night because we had a zone training the next day and they live in the middle of nowhere. So...
   The next day we got up and showered and ready and on the tåg to Eskilstuna! We had a pretty good zone training about chapter six in Preach My Gospel and President and his wife randomly showed up. I made cookies for it. After we got back from the training we, had a lesson with a less active member who has pretty crappy reasons for being less active. We're working on it. The hour after that started, we had an awesome lesson with M and Z! Who both now have solid baptismal dates for the 28th! We're super excited for them. It was a good day.
   Saturday we went to Gubbängen for stake conference, but before we left, we were able to talk to a couple really cool people and have a lesson with them. And then we went to the meeting, saw some really good friends, and stayed the night for another meeting the next day, and then ordained Hadi to be an Elder, and then came home and had another AWESOME lesson with M and Z. It was a pretty crazy week. It was super productive, but it was really crazy.
Have a wonderful week everyone! Thank you for everything,
Elder Heiner

There's this wooden chair in stan
 that's just carved out of a tree stump.

There was a fire.

At McDonald's

Shelf of pigs in a shop...

Elder Backman!

Stavskonferens selfie

Inside the church building.

November 2, 2015

This week has been a week of transition for the mission. In other words, we had transfers this week. I stayed in the same place here in Kholm, but Elder Johanson went to Borås. I'm a little sad to see him go, we had such a great time together, but now I have Elder Nilsson! He's a funny guy, super new in the mission, I'm greenie breaking him. This should be a very nice!

   I'll tell you a little about the week, but I don't have too much time, so don't hold your breath. Mom.

   Most of the beginning of the week was Elder Johanson saying goodbye to people. He did a lot of really good work here, so there were a lot of people we had to go by. Looking at it, we probably went by about fifteen homes, and we weren't even able to go by all of them. It was kinda a bummer, but it's fine. Elder Johanson was actually shipped out on Tuesday instead of the normal Wednesday, so that's the reason. Elder Nilsson came in Tuesday, a few hours after Elder Johanson left, so I hung out with Hadi, and we had a great time. It's a good thing Hadi is a priest. I was actually able to have a companion during the entire thing!

   Wednesday was full of meeting people and teaching people and then tracting and then some elders that accidentally got on the wrong train came and hung out with us, so that was pretty fun. They were also from my group, so that makes it even cooler! In the evening we had three lessons going at one time and it was super cool. I was jumping in between them, trying to help as many people as I could under the time that we had. I have a picture during a little break I had.

   Thursday was a little weird. We were trying to talk to people and had a guy listen (we're meeting for real today, so I guess I'll let you know about it next week.)!

   Friday was district meeting and everyone was mad I didn't make cookies. I didn't have flour. Sowwy... But yeah, had a good lesson with an investigator right after that, and then we went out to Flen and had a great dinner with a member.

   On Saturday we started off by teaching a Temple Prep class (When do you want to do that Pia? I always forget to ask...) And it went really well! But then it was Halloween and no one else wanted to talk to us because of it. We were invited to spend the evening with Pia and David! It was super fun! We were gonna go and see the candles, but we ran out of time, so we did it while we were in kholm instead. Super cool stuff these natives do.

   We had a couple investigators come to church yesterday, so we were pretty excited about that! Then we went by some super cool members for a quick visit, then we had dinner and planning. That was the week! Have a great life all you all! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers!

Äldste Heiner

Some pictures of the living place.

Teaching English.

Hadi and Johanson.

Last picture with Johanson.

Elder Nilsson!

Elders Peterson and Hemmingsen got stuck on a train...

Not... too... sure... this is right...

Gadianton the spider! 

Some cool candles that our camera can't do justice.