December 1, 2014

This week, I had an entire two days of work in my own area! Yay! It really stinks to feel like you haven't been in your own area helping all the people you should be helping. But what are you going to do? When you have a weird transfer, zone training, and the ward Jul concert all in one week...

   Monday. I killed my father. He's gone. I got on a train with him on the way to Stockholm, and then got off in Linköping. I just felt like I was being babysat there. I was there because transfers were happening the next day, so I needed to be with someone... So I just got passed around between the companionships in Linköping. At least I got to do some work as opposed to just sitting alone in an apartment because I can't go out without a comp. Better than nothing, but that's not saying too much. After a two days in Linköping, I finally got on a train back to Jönköping. I met up with my new companion in Nässjö as he was on his way there on the same connecting train. So we got to talk for a bit. He's been in Norrland for the past few months. Once I heard this, I knew exactly what to do. We went to kebab. See... kebab is different all over Sweden. Norrland is a very nice place, but the kebab is there is the worst ever. Nasty stuff. So I got the chance to re-kebabtise him. Cool stuff. That was the end of Tuesday, so that's two days out of Jönköping.

   Wednesday we didn't really have anything planned, so we walked around and I introduced Elder Jones to the new place. It's the biggest area he's ever served in, and the only ward he's ever seen here. Did some swing bys, taught some lessons. It was the only full day of work we had.

   Thursday morning was good. We walked around town contacting people as we tried to find the Ika Maxi. We finally found it and they handed us a package with 22 Mormons Bok in it. So we carried it home. Yay. Then we walked to the church to help set up the Jul concert for an hour. Then we left the church five hours later. Lovely how things like that just suck you in and you can't... quite... leave.... because everyone else is going to be working there for four more hours, but we need to work... It was frustrating. We did some area work, so that was good that we got some of that in.

   Friday, we got up early to get to Göteborg for zone training. They introduced a new jul program for us to follow as we contact people. Except it is designed for America, and totally doesn't quite work here... oh well. We'll give it a shot.

   Next day, we got to meet with Sandra! Yay! She's doing well! After a really good lesson with her, we got (had) to stay at the church to help finish up the Jul concert stuff. Starting at two. No more work from then on. The Jul concert was good. My parts went really well. I liked how I did on them for seeing the music the first time six days before hand. A bunch of people I wanted to talk to for a long time were there, so I was able to talk to them and try to set up appointments with them. It went really well.

   Then yesterday. It was good. None of our U's came to church, but they were either sick, out of town, or... I forget the other excuse. It was legit though. Had dinner with the Rönndahl's, so it was really good. Did a bunch of area work in Lilliaholmen, så that was nice to get around to. That evening, we just talked for a long while. Got to know each other better. Anyway. Off to do things now!

Freak. I just realized that we have plans today! I won't be able to write any thank you notes if I don't do it right now. I hope you don't mind...

Thank you Marabou chocolate bars, for being Rain Forest Alliance Certified. I don't know what it means, but it makes me feel about 3.47 times better that I eat you often.

Thank you Arabs, for not celebrating Christmas. I'll see you in December!

Just as an update... I'm about 153 pounds right now. I've lost more than twenty pounds since I've out. Oops.

Love y'all! Hope you have a great week!  Äldste Heiner

Oh yeah. Got a haircut. 

Love that moment when you're a missionary,

 and a professional hairstylist cuts your hair for free because

 she's a member and super chill.

That's me, Huba, and Anderson.

 We ran for the train, because we were going 

to miss it.  If it's going to be the last train ride

 in Sweden, might as well make it worth it.

My last picture with Elder Anderson 

before he flies away...

This is what it looked like when I killed

 Elder Anderson.  I sent this to the zone, 

and I could just feel the systrar start to cry.

This is me and Elder Jones.
He's chill.

I don't know what this sign wants to tell me.
I just don't.

This is where I work. This is my workplace.

 Where I do my thing. I bet you're jealous. Be jealous.

First Casualty.

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

Our District right before transfers.

Äldste Avenius.  We tore up Norrköping.

Norrköping has this bar in their apartment.
I don't know why, I think they throw parties.

Grocery Shopping Selfie.

November 14, 2014

What a week. This last week has been a lot of work to prepare for this current week, which is going to be super weird. This is Elder Anderson's last week as a full time missionary, and today is his last pday. And then we're doing some splits with Norrköping during the week because Anderson is going to the temple with his departing group, and so is an elder in Norrköping, and it's kind of on the way, so..., and then a weird pday thing on Saturday, then lots of member visits, and then a weird transfer on Monday next week, not Wednesday. Anyway. Next time you hear from me, I should know my future, but right now, I have no freaking clue what in the world is going to happen to me, although I do know I will be a missionary in Sweden. But this week was busy and stuff too, so here we go!

   Last week we went to Visingsö! It's the big ol' island in the middle of Vättern, the big ol' lake by Jönköping, that big ol' city in the middle of Sweden. It was sick. There were castles, and we crawled through the walls to get to the dungeons, and it was crazy. And there were sleeping bags in there. We're pretty sure hobos live in there. I would if I didn't have a home. Anyway, after we were on the island for a bit, we ran out of things to do because it is winter and all the tourist stuff is closed down. So we took the ferry back to Gränna, which, by the way, is the place where they invented the candy cane. Not the cane shape, but the candy itself. So we were there, and all four of us (the systrar tagged along) were all, "we’ll probably not coming back, this is a one time shot..." So we each bought 200 crowns worth of candy. It was really good. And a lot. I haven't finished it yet. Anyway. Came home and proselyted for a bit.

   Tuesday was full and busy. We rode the train with Huba, and then rode the train back, because if we didn't, we'd be chillin' in Nässjö for a few hours, and who would want that? Plus, we had places to go, people to see. Role played with Alex, a member here prepping for a mission, and that is helpful. Had our open church time. Ate and did family history for a bit. Left the church and found a bit of extra time to do a bunch of swing bys, but we only actually had time for two, because the first two people we knocked on let us in, so that was a unexpected surprise. Then we taught a member lesson, because this nice family basically has a weekly appointment with us. Then we had a few minutes before we should have gone home, so we decided to do another swing by, and he let us in, so we were feeling pretty good about swing bys that day. Three out of three. Not bad at all. Then we went home at 9:30, and realized we hadn't eaten yet, and then we ate something and passed out.

   Wednesday was fun. We got up and went to district meeting. It was here in Jönköping, so getting there took ten minutes. After that meeting, though, Elder Miles and I went out into the streets and contacted on the way to Juneporten, then took a bus to Borås because we were on splits! It went really well. We talked to a lot of people and had dinner with the Stake President, and then hung out with their investigator who is waiting to be 18 so his parents can't stop his baptism. That evening, however, there was some communication confusion with the systrar, so we had to call them to clear some stuff up. But they were out of town because all the systers in the entire mission were in Stockholm for a systers conference. Anyway, there was a huge slumber party going on in the Täby systers apartment apparently, so I was able to say hej to Syster Allred from my MTC group. That was cool.

   Next day, we got up and caught a bus to Jönköping so we could get back together with normal comps. We had essentially nothing planned for the day, so we ended up knocking doors for six hours. We had over 75 contacts, with, like, 8 of them being TU's. That is a pretty good percentage. Not bad at all. It turned out really well. Then late that evening we went to visit a less active with a very strong testimony, but no time. He is super chill. But we were talking really late, and we missed our bus, so we got home quite late. Eh. Whatever. It was good.

   Friday was quite a bit more lungt. We took the train with Huba and came home again. Taught Alex again, then we got blåsted in Huskvarna. We had weekly planning for a few hours. Got to get the planning in. If you don't plan, nothing happens, folks. Make a plan for everything you do! Had a member dinner that evening, and that was really good. They gave us ostkaka, which is nothing like cheesecake, I don't care what the name makes you think. It was still really good, just very different. Then we had a board game activity, which was fun, but weird and would take three hours to really explain. If you ever get curious enough when I get home, ask about A. That is a really.... funny.... girl. And I'm not sure in the quite sane way...

   Saturday started with a lesson with Alex, then we took a train to Forserum to visit a less active family out there. They are less active because they have some unanswered questions. And they are very big unanswered questions. We talked for quite a while, so we missed out train home, but it was worth it. We were stuck in this little tiny town for a few hours though. So we went trackting. Lots of older people and this guy with one of the biggest freaking dogs I've ever seen. We got Marabou chocolate before we left. Got home, visited a few folks and went to a dinner with the Thörn's. It was fun. They are nice people. Then we got saddled with doing a musical number in Sakrament meeting with the systrar somehow. The next day. So we went to a piano and tried to put something together. It was... interesting how it happened.

   Sunday we got up and went to the church for a while to practice with the systrar, then we had a missionary meeting. I ended up teaching the English Sunday School class. So that was good. After church we taught Tanui about the Priesthood and got him set up to get it next week with Paul, our other recent convert. It was super cool. But we were in there long enough that we missed our chance to get invited to dinner. So we went home and got a bunch of food and brought it back, and the systers were also in a lesson, so they didn't get invited either, so we all prepared the food we brought and we had a nice meal together with Rikki, a recent convert. He's cool. That evening, we went out and talked to a bunch more people. Then we came home.

   Now it is pday, and Elder Anderson gets to choose what happens 'cause it's his last one, so I won't have time to write my thank you notes if I don't do it right now. I hope you don't mind.

Thank you, the combined efforts of the wind, hats, and a mirror, for reminding me that I haven't had a haircut in over eight weeks.

Thank you Elder Anderson, for calling all the people that are going home with you. You all are talking about your school, career, and dating plans, and I'm just sitting over in the corner like, freak. I have two more years...

   Now Elder Anderson needs to figure out what to do with his last pday. Somethings gonna happen. My future is at stake here also. This is going to be crazy! I'll keep you all updated. Hope you all have a great week!

Äldste Heiner

On the ferry.

The Castle

Me and Elder Anderson at the castle.

The next 4 are fun things on Visingso

We all took turns getting into this tree.

Svenskakyrkan selfie.

This place has won the world contest for
candy making for a few years in a row now.

The goods, lots of flavors.

Granna

A car in Forserum I thought was funny.

Dear Missionary Parents,

We had your sons and daughters over for dinner yesterday and had a lovely time. Sister L and I practised a song for the Christmas concert and afterwards the missionaries practised a hymn they sang today at sacrament meeting. They are all very musical talented!  Hope you enjoy the picture!

Warmest greetings from Sweden,  MT

November 10, 2014

This week was really short again. As Tanui, one of our recent converts (who's from Kenya!), wisely said, "I don't have the scientific proof for it yet, but I'm pretty sure time moves faster here in Sweden." That is really true. I don't even know which little pocket of the infinities the time goes, but it ain't here.

   On Monday, p-day, we went to a Thai place. It was pretty good. Actually, I changed my mind. It was really good. I really enjoyed it. I couldn't eat as much as anyone else, but it was really good. Then we went to some shops. Hit the tourist place for some things for Elder Anderson.

   Next day, we hit the train with H, talked to him a bit. He's so golden, he is just in a really rough spot in his life where he has no time to even come to sacrament meeting. It's not like he isn't willing to make time, he will literally get so behind if he lets a few hours past. He's going to try on Sunday though. We promised that the Lord will help him if he makes the sacrifice. And he will. That's one of the best things about Heavenly Father. He helps you out when you are trying to make an effort for him.

   We found another lady this week, E, a Swed who lives in Huskvarna. We meet her at the library. She had already accepted baptism, but is going to have to work for that. Which is fine. If people didn't have to work to be better, what would be the point in being here? But she was one thing that happened this week. That was really cool.

   Wednesday was different. The zone leaders were in our district meeting because we were going on splits with them afterward! Yay! I got the chance to work with a really awesome guy named Äldste Lofgren. We went to Västra Frolunda and worked there for the day. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a section of Göteborg. It's pretty small, but it was a ton of fun. Worked really hard. Then the next day, we drove back to Borås (they have a car, lucky bums) where we met up with Anderson and Gentillon. It was a good trip. Nothing too special happened the rest of Thursday. Other than it was freaking cold. And it snowed. I haven't seen snow in forever. But it happened.

   Friday was the train again with H. Weekly planning happened. Other stuff that would probably bore you right through your skull. I usually don't mention the things that are really boring. Lucky you.

   Saturday was huge. Six planned lessons, two blåsted, two rescheduled to different times, found the time to go tracting, swing bys, the works. It was a good day. Very busy. Got to keep ourselves busy.

   Yesterday was church. Gotta love church. They presented the stake mission plan in församlingsrådet. Ward council. I had to use Google for that one. Losing my English... Anyway. It was good. Chilled with the Robayo's for dinner, went to an appointment, which blåsted, then went out to Ekhagen. So that was a day.

   And that was a week. Pretty summed up. I hope you like reading this stuff. I know personally I would just skip to the end of this letter.

   Anyway. As It is Monday, and Monday is the day I get to do some personal stuff, like email to the family, hang out at home, and write some thank you notes. We're going to the island today, so I won't be able to write my thank you notes today unless I do them right now. I hope you don't mind...

Thank you Missionary Handbook, for telling us not to keep pets. I just want to know, what made that rule necessary?

Thank you Tenui, for summing up why our African investigators are always late. It went something like this, "In Africa, you could show up to a meeting two hours late and not miss anything."

Just personally, I feel the same way about most the meetings I get to attend, but they're only an hour long.

I hope everyone is doing well! Don't do anything I wouldn't do! Like hug girls. I can't do that.

Äldste Heiner

Snow selfie.

Snow in Huskvarna.

Lunch selfie.

This is Elder Lofgren.
He is actually much taller than me.

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

Outside our apartment building.

Anderson always does this.  Always.

Selfie with the Beckstrands.

These are the Tolley's, the apartment couple.
They are really freaking cool.

At the Malmö chapel for zone conference.

Candles from the cemetary.

Hey, check out that university.
Wait no... that is an elementary school.

October 27, 2014

I would say that this week seemed a little longer than most. At least four days long. At least. It just seemed to drag on and on forever and ever....

   Lemme see... On Monday, we just kind of took it lugnt for a few hours. Played some cards with the systrar.  After pday ended, we went and talked to the guy we're trying to help quit smoking, and snusing now too. I think he's going a bit senile, really. He was talking about when he went and visited heaven the other day, and about how he really doesn't think any of his good spirits still live in his body. Eh. We'll see about him. But the then the YSA's asked us to come to their family home evening, so we went and taught the lesson. Then we were asked to stay around for a while and play their little singing game where you had to have a song and try to help people guess it, but only with six words, and it was really simple in Swedish... But everyone only listens to American music here, so I did really well. So that was a day.

   On Tuesday... wow.............. the things on Tuesday seemed to happen, like, a month ago.... TIME! WHY HAVE YOU SWITCHED AGAIN? Anyway. We just kind of chilled out at the church for an hour for church watch, but then a member of the stake president asked us to team teach a college class with him, so we did that. The systrar showed up for that too. This class had some questions that belonged in a circus because they were intense (intense, in tents, circus.... get it? Sorry....). But they grilled us on the questions ranging from God's wife to why women didn't hold the priesthood. I guess it was really nice to have the systrar explain that one, it probably sounds way better from them than from us. But that went on for a while. After the class officially ended, I team taught a group of nine girls and a guy with Syster Stewert and Syster Lindsay while Äldste Anderson team taught a group of five with the guy from the Stake. We had quite the discussions going on. In the end, ten of them took a copy of Mormons Bok, and a bunch of the other ones took other stuff too. That pretty much ended that day. Wait, no, we went to the university and taught a guy in the library in the middle of everything. That was interesting. He seems pretty positive too.

   On Wednesday, we had district meeting in the morning here in Jönköping. So we didn't have to travel or anything. That was nice. Then we found ourselves with a ton of time, so we knocked on a bunch of doors. Then we went to Visingsö. That's right. The big island in the middle of the lake. There happens to be a less active family who lives in the middle of nowhere on the island, so we went out there to visit them. We actually had a very good conversation with them. It was fun. Then we came home and the Assistants to the Mission President were at our apartment all like, "Can we stay the night?" And we were all, "Sure, whatever." So we stayed up pretty late talking to them about the happenings around the mission.

   The next day, we got up and saw the Assistants out, and went and helped a member family move some stuff. Shout out to Aaron Green for teaching me how to move stuff. I've used it a ton out here. After we moved a washer, dryer, some couches and a table, we went to a different members house for lunch. It was really great. He told us his conversion story, so that was really awesome. Then we had half of a day to knock some doors. And we did. We found a family! Yay! I hope they end up taking all the lessons, but they seem really positive. We're really excited for them.

   On Friday, between all of our finding stuff, we worked on our area book. We kind of have neglected doing that for a while, so we decided to look at it. Got quite a bit of it done, too. That's fun. After all the entire day of chilling out at the university talking to people and just working on stuff at the church, we went to out activity! Innebandy! It's like floor hockey, but with a wiffle ball, and really tiny goals. It was really fun, but I was really sore afterwards. For the next few days really.

   Saturday was annoying and I didn't like it, so I'm not going to talk about it.

   Throughout this week, we took the train in the morning to talk to our Hungarian friend. I don't think he really knows that we take the train to be with him, I think he thinks that we just happen to be traveling to Nässjö also. But we have gotten a few good words in. We'll see if he ends up finding the time to come to church.

   And yesterday after church, we went to Nässjö again to see the Burmese family there. They are really cool, and we're working on them. I have high hopes for them too. But that was really the week.

   I think this week was pretty good, I think I had a good time in general, so yeah, lots of fun. But I am running a bit low on time, I need to write my thank you notes, but I won't have time unless I do it now, I hope you don't mind.

Thank you random beeping on the bus, for giving me nightmares about waking up at 6:30 again. In the middle of the day.

Thank you Elders apartments, for being very clear that only twenty year-old guys have been living in them for the past ten years.

I hope everyone is having a great time! Have a good week!

 Äldste Heiner

This is the Burmese Family.

We went to Goteborg for training.
This is one of the canals.

The hockey game from last week.

Me with my HV71 scarf.

We organized our shelves.

This is one of a set of twins in our ward.
He wouldn't stop hugging my leg for a
good five minutess

October 20, 2014

This week was craaazzzzy, but we'll get to that. But it was. Just be on the edge of your seats there.

   After emailing last week, Äldste Anderson and I went thrift shopping! We hit up three stores around town and blew a hundred crowns each. But we got some good stuff, and it was a ton of fun. Systrerna couldn't make it. They were cleaning their apartment because they were being doubled out this week. So, I'm glad I wasn't doing that. At the end of pday, we just did some area work out in Österängen. We really hadn't set anything else up. Turned out to be some of our only free time to do area work though.

   Also this week, we kind of blåsted church watch... we really shouldn't do that, but we did. We had other things to do, like go to a member's home who wanted to feed us. Who are we to say no to that kind of offer anyway? Both of our sessions of church watch kind of came and went, and we weren't really there. The syster deal this week confused them on all of that, so we didn't really have anyone at the church at all this week. I hope nobody broke the norm and came during church watch while nobody was around...

   Onsdag was something. Changed up quite a bit, really. We got out of the house pretty early and went to the systers apartment. We're not usually allowed to do that. We then carried both Syster Fawcett's and Syster Sorenson's luggage all to way to a nearby bus stop, where we took up a good portion of the bus with all this stuff. We then got off at Juneportan with all of this, and met up with a tåg that would take Syster Fawcett to Malmö. We then stood around with Syster Sorenson for a while before her tåg to Trollhätan came to the station. Then we continued our day, without any systers for miles. Went to a few appointments, including a member lunch, so it was a great day. We then walked around for a few hours talking to people. We were supposed to only walk around for half an hour, but the new systers coming in missed two trains in a row. Pinsam. So it turned into four hours. It's okay. We pulled, like, three TU's. Finally the new systers arrive, and we immediately take them to their apartment, because they have no idea where it is. We give them their phone, bus passes, transfer reports, the works. Oh... their names are Syster Stewart and Syster Lindsay (Syster Lindsay is a greenie, and I am now not the youngest missionary! Well, age wise, I still am, but I've been out longer!). We then take them to a member appointment we had set up, and got fed again! Twice in one day. It was great. As a joke, Anderson and I got them both a big bar of chocolate. Filled with black licorice. The wrapping doesn't really say it has licorice. Anyway, we left them on their way, and we went home and called everyone else in the district. Because they were all new. Everybody was transferred except us. And Syster DeMille, who was a greenie until Wednesday, where she started training Syster Savage right out of the MTC. Wouldn't want to be in those shoes. We also have two other elders in the district, Elders Miles and Dickson. Dickson is right out of the MTC too. So everyone in our district is either a trainer or a greenie. Yay. But I'm not the youngest! Well, I mean.... I'm not the one who just came out of the MTC! I'm still the youngest though...

   Anyway. That was Wednesday. On the day of Thor, we went to Göteborg! Because why not? Okay, we had zone training. We got up, and since we live right next to the train station, we just got onto the train and tried to hold it up a bit because the new systers weren't quite... on time... We succeeded though, and they got into the tåg right before we rolled out. So that was good that didn't get screwed up. We then went all the way to Göteborg and had zone training. It was on prayer, and it was really good. We all need to pray more. Everyone. The entire zone then went to this tiny kebab place and filled it up. The workers seemed a little surprised, but they made really good pizzas. By the time we all got home, it was late afternoon, so we went out and hit up some TU's in Öxehaga. We even go to teach a couple of lessons. It was good.

   On Friday, we got up early to take the tåg to Nässjö so we could teach our Hungarian friend on the train. It went really well. He said that he wants to be baptized, but he feels like the church needs a whole man, and with his schedule, he is not a whole man. So that was good. We'll work on him. Got to Nässjö and said goodbye, turned around, and came back to Jönköping. We did our weekly planning, met with someone, and went to a hockey match.

   Oh yeah. We went to a hockey match. It was crazy! We had an investigator with us, so it was a-okay to go! We have some pretty fun pictures of it on the phone, but I didn't bring the right cord for that, so we're just going to have to wait for those next week. But I think I'm a fan of hockey now. We had ringside tickets, so we got to see some really great stuff. The team around here is HV71. That is a really weird name. No other team I have ever heard of has that name, including Swedish hockey. I got one of their scarves though. It looked cool, and it is really comfy. So there.

   Saturday was spent inventorying our apartment. The POEs told everyone that they wouldn't send us our mail until we did it, so we did it. I think they're lying anyway. The POEs don't even deal with mail.

   But yeah, that was the week, I think I had a good time. I really didn't have much time to myself, and I didn't get to write my weekly thank you notes. But it is Monday, so I think I'll do it right now, if that is okay.

Thank you Swedish money, for helping me lose weight, and looking too cool to spend.

Thank you Sweden's lack of deodorant, for getting Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" stuck in my head.

I think that's all for me! Everyone have a great day!