July 27, 2015

A few things did happen this week: I hit my year mark. I talked to everyone in my group at the same time. They are hilarious people. We all burned our worst shirt to celebrate, a tradition in our mission. I love fire. We got five new investigators at one time too. They are all 20 year old girls, so this will be an interesting one. Anyway. We went to Eskilstuna and played volleyball with the zone. That was super fun. Anyway. Have a great week!

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A door...

Selfie with investigators.

We went to this huge viking tomb, forgot to say.

One year mark.

July 20, 2015

Well people of the outside world and people of the inside world and just all the people in general who might be reading this, I want you to know: don't take time for granted because it will bite you in the butt when you realize you've been on a mission for a whole year and you have less than a year left. Because that happened to me and it was super messed up.
   On Monday we did normal pday stuff until six. We then fired up the grill for a YSA activity. We grilled so much korv. After hemafton we booked it over to the Fernströms to teach them about the church. It went super well. They're really cool people, just super forgetful.
   Tuesday had us working out in Bäckby again. Got blåsted, that's always fun. Talked to a few more people and then had a little extra time for language study, so we got haircuts to learn that aspect of the language. We have way shorter hair. Then we had AWESOME TUESDAY. Awesome Tuesday is awesome.
   Wednesday was fast. We were with a ton of members, and it was super fun. We were able to have dinner with an older man named Fred. He is super freaking awesome. He was baptized about four years ago after meeting with the missionaries for 40 years. His wife was a member for all that time, but she past away last year after 60 years of marriage. He is just an amazing man who is strong in faith and loves his God.
   We were in Rönnby on Thursday. Turns out that no one in that part of town really likes religion in any way, shape, or form. We'll work a little more on it. Really long day.
   On Friday we had a zone conference. The first half was normal, and we talked some more about how to use the Book of Mormon better in teaching and finding. But for the second half, we all went to a room where all the chairs were set up in a circle and had "family home evening" with President and Sister Beckstrand. They let us ask them any questions we wanted and they just answered and talked about their lives. At the end they told us about their experience of getting called to be the mission president and wife. It was really cool to get to know them better and see how much they really care about us.
   We met with a couple people in Sala on Saturday. One of which was a dirty old man. He needs to not think the way he thinks.  And then we also met with Molisho. He is having a really hard time in his life right now and so we read Ether 6 with him and he loved it. He was talking about how it was exactly what he was going through and I was all, "yes... YES...." But not out loud.
   Sunday was crazy too. I did a lot of things during church, including teaching lessons I knew about, lessons I had no idea about, and giving blessings. After church we found time to work more out in Bäckby. Good stuff. It was a good week.
   I hope everyone has a great week! Have a good one!

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Cool little å through town.

Sweden.  And there is no one outside to talk to. 

4 of my MTC group that are in the same zone now.

I made fried rice.

Pretty Stuff.

There was this super sketchy door in the
middle of everything.

So we knocked on it.

We had some extra time so we went in a straight
line.  Made us feel like we were serving a jungle
mission or something.

July 13, 2015

Okay. This week. We were busy and we taught a lot, so that was good. We're all happy and healthy, so that's good.  We have a keyboard in the apartment I’ve been using to learn more piano stuff.  I like it. So that's good. So let's get down into the details....
   Monday was all laundry and emailing and then we went to the mall to shop around for some things that Elder Carlson didn't have, like a spring jacket. So that was pretty fun. We found a really good pizza place with all you can eat and free refills on the soda! You don't get that in Sweden. So it was good. We went bowling in the evening with the YSAs for family home evening. It was super fun.
   Tuesday was hectic. We had more legal stuff to do for Elder Carlson to be in Sweden and then had lunch and after a ton of studying we went out and met with some people. We met with Daniel and he decided that it was time to take a break, so we won't meet with him for a while. Eh. Then after some area work and teaching people we went to Awesome Tuesday and hung out with David and Ida and taught them and they fed us really good food. Awesome Tuesday is the best.
   Wednesday was crazy. We ended up being at the church all day. We got blåsted first and that was weird because the guy we were planning to teach called us at 6 in the morning to set it up for that day. He called like three times. Then we taught English class, swung by a lady across the street, practiced a lesson with a member of the branch presidency while waiting for Emil, who taught Swedish class. Then we went out to Rasdom and met with his family. Crazy stuff.
   Thursday was district meeting and right before we got on the train to Örebro crazy dude came up to us and started to rant how everything that we taught was true. We gave him a Mormons Bok and then a different man came up and told him not to trust us and started leading him away by the arm. The guy was all, "Okay I won't" then turned around and was all, "You guys are legit." Weird. After we got home we went over to a member who had us and an investigator for dinner lunch. It was really good.
   Friday was tracting. All day. It was good. We found some people. Then in the evening we had dinner with the stake president and his family. Super awesome people.
   Saturday we were in Sala. We met with a member then with an investigator way up there. He needs help, so we hope to figure that one out.
   Yesterday was a lot of teaching during church then studies and weekly planning and giving blessings and sacrament and then dinner. And I'm out of time.

Everyone have a great week!
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Carson and I out tracting.

Bowling with the YSA

July 6, 2015

Hej everybody! How y'all doing? I hope you had a great Fourth of July, because I did. It was pretty great. But I guess we can start at the end of the week and go back just mix things up a bit. Get ready!
   On Sunday we went to church. Church was fun. Had a good time. Fast and testimony meeting so that is always good. After church we went home and called a bunch of people, got ready to go and got to work in Bäckby. We met a few really cool people, and taught this dude named Simon the restoration while we were standing on the street. After a good whileof trakting, we went home, had dinner and I finished teaching my son how to solve a Rubiks Cube for some down time.
   The previous day had us playing Fotbboll in Bäckby with the branch. I was never good at soccer, but while I was on my mission, I found out I was really bad. Now I'm just bad, not too bad though. We came back to the apartment to get showered and rolled back out to work. We taught the guy we found on Tuesday, Daniel, and he read the book! Super exiting. After Daniel went we to Rose Marie and she is doing really well too. I brought my big markers and we drew out the Plan of Salvation super big and colorfully. It was fun. Then while we were walking down the street we taught and older woman who wanted to know who we were. Cool stuff. WEEKLY PLANNING!
   On Friday we went to Södertälje for a zone training. I brought the cookies and everyone liked them. The conference was good, we’ve got to focus on the Book of Mormon. To all you people out there, read the book. It's a big deal. Then we got back to town way later than planned because the train company messed up our tickets. But since we got back late, there was a huge car show going on! Really cool cars with really cool people and really uncool cars with really drunk people and more drunk people without cars and then just a lot more cars. So we sat and watched for a bit because President said to not make a big scene with the drunk people.
   On Thursday we waited for an older couple to come by for apartment checks. They were really late, so that cut into our day a bit. But they were really impressed with how clean we kept our apartment. I like living in a clean place, what can I say. And now that mom can't make me do it, I just have to deal with it. So we got out and taught a couple older women English and then had Emil teach us Swedish. We did some more work around town and called it a day.
   Then on Wednesday we were going to work in Skallberg, but it seems that they all have lives and were busy so they weren't home. We left that and went to work in Bäckby and taught T, who was still drunk, and this Pingst guy who turned out not to want to listen, just liked to improperly quote scripture. After that we visited Rose Marie. Then the Sävhammer family had us over for dinner, which was super cool. I really like them.
   Before all that, Tuesday came along, and we visited an older couple in the branch. They're super nice and really just need someone to talk to them. Well... someone to talk to. So we went to Bäckby after that and taught these three people. One of them decided to not want to listen after all, the other one said they would read, come back in August, and then there was this Ethiopian guy! His name was Daniel and he said we could come back on Saturday. We just need to get him an Amharic book. Then we had Awesome Tuesday with David and Ida. It was great.
   The the week started with us going to Stockholm! We got up early and President Hagman drove us because he makes that commute every day. We got to the mission office and set up a little bit. Then we surprised President Beckstrand, Elder Treat, and Syster Gardner with a birthday party! It was super fun. When we got back, we had FHE with the YSAs and got ready for the week.

That's what I got, in reverse order this week! Have a great week!
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The Car Show

Grilling Steak

Sunset Shot