May 25, 2015

   Hejsan allihoppa! How are all you doing? Having a great time? I hope so.
My week was good. The usual really freaking fast, but it’s fine. I'm used to it now. But now... the week!
   Monday was full of chillin' out. After we emailed, we went to the store for food and then just... hung out, I think. That was nice. Once the other Elders were done with their junk, we went to Myrorna together.  That was fun. Poppin' tags! After that, we were in the church with a new convert for the evening. It went really well.
Next day! We had to get some forms ready for the branch council about the new converts in the branch.  They want to make sure that the new converts are being taken care of, so we met with a few of them to get the information that they needed. Bam. Check that off the list. Anyway, we went out to Bäckby for some area work after that, so it went well. That evening I was introduced to AWESOME TUESDAY. There is a member in the ward who is married to an investigator and they have the missionaries over every Tuesday evening for dinner. Pretty much the best thing ever. It was a lot of fun.
   Wednesday, Wednesday.... we went to Eskilstuna! It was zone training, but they called it Jedi Council, so we had Jedi names. Mine was Jedi Elder Heinifus. I bet they would have given me a pink light saber with that name.  It was super fun to see all those people and Syster Johanson was there. Hadn't seen her in eight days.  That evening we had branch council.
   Thursday. In the morning we remembered that we had agreed to do a special musical number for Sunday, so Elder George and I prepped for that in the morning. Then we walked around a bunch. We taught English class again. That was fun. In the evening we hopped on a train to Örebro, where we switched companions. I went with Elder Williams in Örebro and Elder Smith went to Västerås with Elder Backman.
   The next day we got to work. We went to a ton of people and taught a bunch and found a couple more people while we were at it. Missionary Work!  We switched back that evening. Yeah. Train rides.
   Saturday we went to the church early to practice our song, then we helped set up for a ward party, then we went to the ward party, then we cleaned up the ward party, then we set up for a baptism, then we went to the baptism, the we cleaned up the baptism, then we went home.
   We were super busy taking care of things in church. I blessed, then spoke, then sang a song. Then taught Sunday School, then translated for an American. Yeah! Then we had a meeting, went home and weekly planned. Life.
And now I'm out of time. I really like Västerås. I'm having a good time. We're working hard. Just doing the work, ya know?
Hope you all have a great week! Have it good!
Mvh, Äldste Heiner

Cool Castle!

Some weird things we found in Eskilstuna.

Dop font selfie.

Don't ask, cause I don't know.

I found this place to preach from.

May 18, 2015

Well hello to all you people! If you don't know what's going on,  I can give you a little bit of a run down. I moved from Sundsvall with Elder Steen to Västerås with Elder Backman. Elder Steen and I were on a train together out of town, and we split ways after a train switch in Gävle and Uppsala. He went on to Stockholm for a plane home, and I hopped on a bus to Enköping and switched to a bus to Västerås where I met up with Elder Backman and we immediately set off to work missionarying. Elder Backman is super cool. He works really hard and he's a lot of fun to be around. He is from Ogden, Utah.  Västerås is super pretty. It is the closest town to Eugene I've had. It's super green, tons of trees, all that stuff. Less hills though.  We first dropped all of my stuff off at the apartment, which is freaking huge, by the way, and then went to the church to teach a few older ladies how to speak English. That was fun. Then we had home teaching with a few new converts. That went really well.

   On Thursday, we went out so I could kind of find my bearings here, and talked to people all the way. It was fun. After a bit of that, we went out to a pizza joint of a new member and he fed us pizza. That was super awesome, but even better was that his friend and workmate was pretty interested in hearing more. That made me pretty happy to talk to him. After we had to leave we went by another recent convert who fixed my bike. It was super annoying to have a bike that dropped its chain. Should be better now. The Stake President had us over to his house that evening for dinner, so that was super good. I love it when people feed me.

   Friday had us in Örebro for district meeting. We have a really good group of obedient and hard working missionaries just poised to tear it up. I'm excited. After that, we got Chinese together. It was the best Chinese I've had in Sweden. It made me happy. When we got back to Västerås, we went out to Valby to work the area. It went pretty well. Met some people, had a good time.

   Saturday had us doing swing bys that didn't answer and weekly planning. So nothing too crazy. You probably don't want to hear about all that stuff, actually.

   And yesterday we were at church, meeting people, having a good time. A member had us over for dinner and then we did more swing bys. Fun stuff!

   Anyway, I'm knocking on the door of going over time, so everyone have a great week!

   Shout out to Jacob the previous Elder Heiner for getting home safe and sound.

Love you all,

Äldste Heiner

Me and Elder Backman

Modern... art?  

Guess whose city has a golden calf on a pillar?

I live in a really pretty place.

May 12, 2015

It was great to see and talk to the family! I really enjoyed it.
As you all don't know, I'm transferring out of Sundsvall this week to Västerås. Basically, a lot has to be done in a very short period of time. AKA I don't have time to give you a full run down of what happened.  I’ve said goodbye to a lot of people... I taught people about the gospel...

Thank you notes!

Thank you travel office for getting me four trains in this next transfer. How did you know I loved to carry three fifty pound bags around with me from train to train?

Thank you having no time and six people needing to use two computers for not letting me write good thank you notes! I'm sorry!

Äldste Heiner

I hope you find something in the pictures that explain things to you.  We really are on limited time today.

May 4, 2015

I swear one of these times I'll get around to telling you what's going on in depth.  But there are six missionaries and not as many computers. So strap on your seat belts for the abbreviated version of the weekly rapport!
   Monday we hung out with the Grönblads, who are some of the chillest folk you ever did meet! Tuesday, we taught some of the systers people because the systers were stuck out of town. Wednesday we hung out with a less active YSA who is super chill. I love that kid. Torsdag we had distrikt meeting, went really well, and then I went on splits with a YSA while Steen went to Övick because he needed to help some people move. That sounds weird, but it was all godkänt. On Friday we gave a blessing to a lady to help her stop smoking. Then we went to Härnösand to be with some less active people up there. Then we had dinner on the top of the mountain. Grilled korv. Yeah. Saturday was Sports Saturday and David! So that was fun. Sunday had church and dinner with a super awesome young family. I love them.  And we're going shopping today!  Steen has his last pday here before he heads home.

   Anyway, that was a really fun week. Good stuff. If you have questions, let me know! Here’s a thank you note! I only have time for one.

Thank you sun for coming up and staying over way past your welcome. When was it suddenly cool to hang out with us?   It's still only like.... 6 degrees though. But I'm used to it. Shorts and a tshirt!

Have a good week!  Äldste Heiner

April 27, 2015

I had a pretty good week here, I mean... I'm on a mission, so that's super awesome. Okay, so here's the deal.... I forgot my planner, so you're just going to get the really condensed version from memory. So basically, you're getting two things that happened this week, pday, and Saturday.
   On pday we went up a mountain to a place where they have this obstacle course. Two of them, actually. It was super fun. I had a good time, jumping around on the rocks and the ropes just hanging out with everyone. Good stuff.
   On Saturday, we had a baptism! It was super cool. I love this kid and his family. Great great people.
   And I guess I should be thankful, so here you go.

Thank you Swedish Printers, for not printing. You never work until hours of convincing and a fika. Kinda like a Swede.

Thank you hospitals for looking and smelling like a warehouse. It's a bit unnerving, but hey, if it cures an allergy to electricity, go for it.

That's all I've got! Have a good week!

Äldste Heiner

A random pic from the week.

Great view.

Getting ready for the baptism.

Playing the part of Joseph Smith
in primary.  Elder Steen was Oliver Cowdry.
Perkins was Angel Moroni and Allen was
John the baptist.

April 20, 2015

   Hej på alla er. Hoppas att dt går bra! This week was good! I enjoyed it, we had a good time, we were able to get out and work a bunch, so it was good! Really short, but good. So unless there are any other orders of business we need to address, let's move on with the program...

   Måndag was fun. We all just brought our lugnt game to the church and chilled out for the day. It was really good. After a good long time of that, we hit the tanning booth so we could feel really happy. And we did. We always do. At the end of pday, we went to an appointment, but he was working, so he couldn't meet. We were a bit bummed, so we hopped on the bus to get to the next thing, and lo and behold, our appointment that canceled was our bus driver! It was crazy! So we talked to him for a bit. It makes so much more sense why he's so busy all the time. He drives buses, duh, what was I thinking?  Then we were able to get into the home of a member family we've been trying to visit for a while now. We helped them move a hide-a-bed, but it wasn't that bad.  An evening that didn’t seem it would be successful ended up being great.

   The next day was a bit interesting. We had things planned to do, but they all fell through, and every time we went to the next one, we would be early, so we would have more time to do it. But we couldn't for some reason. So eventually we just went to the other side of town and had a lesson, then went to the church for family history night. I guess we also picked up the ZL's from Umeå up at the train station that evening too.

   On Wednesday, we went on splits. I was with Elder Tanner, who is a very hard working young man. He's in the same group as Elder Steen, so he'll be going home in a few weeks. We first had distrikt meeting and lunch with the peeps, then we swung by a ton of people in Timrå. That evening, we met with Jesper and he had his baptismal interview! Can't wait until Saturday! I don't really know if I've told you about Jesper. Eh. I'll take a picture. He's chill. He's a son in a less active family, and the family is going to come back to activity because of him. I know it.  So that's awesome! We had some more lessons that evening.

   Next day, tons of swingbys that were a bit uninteresting. Sorry. Uninteresting day.

   Friday was the same, actually, just up in Härnösand. Yay. Sorry....

   Saturday was my birthday! That was fun. We took a train to Umeå. All day. Then we had a conference. I was asked to sing a special musical number when I got there. That was interesting. Then the next day continued the conference. It was a stake conference. Then we came home last night. And that was the week. 

   So here we are on Monday again, and it's time for thank you notes!

Thank you train rides to Umeå for being long enough to teach everyone how to solve a Rubik's cube. President just thinks we do it during comp study...

Thank you Conference in Umeå for having everyone in Norrland present. I don't think I've ever felt such heat in a room in a place that was so cold.

Anyway, have a great week!

Äldste Heiner

Must be trash day!

Fun in Umeå

The Tolley's, the apartment couple.

In Umeå, also.

Translation:  Perfect for your butt.

April 13, 2015

Okay... here we go... the week... again... I feel like I wrote yesterday. And the day before.
   This last Monday we went on a mini splits right after tanning and all that shopping stuff. I went with Elder Perkins, who is helt ny, and went to a couple of lessons. He's a good one. He has a great heart. He'll do well.
   On Tuesday, we finished our grocery shopping (we cut pday in half for some lessons), and then we went to the church and watched the final session of general conference. If you haven't watched general conference, look it up! It would be a great thing to see. Then we went over to a member home for a lesson with their son, and the father was chopping down a tree, so we chopped down the tree for him. It was fun.
   Wednesday evening was good. We went to one of our investigators, who is the son in a less active family, and he's ready to be baptized! I'm super excited. We just need to find a good date that works for him and the family.
   Thursday was full of car junk. We had to change out winter tires and stuff. Annoying! In the evening we were able to get out and teach a British guy named Lee on the bus. It was super cool.
   Friday was full of being on a train to Umeå and sitting in a zone training. Yay. Then we came back after kebab. It was great actually. I love to see all the other missionaries.
   During the weekend, Elder Steen wasn't feeling well, so we weren't able to do too much. I did a lot of organizing in the area book, so that was good. I learned to bake more. I made a pizza. Some cookies. Biscuits and gravy. Tons of stuff. It was fun.
   So that was the week! Hope you enjoyed! If not, here are some thank you notes...

Thank you Sweden for being obsessed with American things. I too enjoy cheep plastic things designed in Japan and made in China to be sold by an Indian man to an American.

Thank you Swedes for not knowing how to use a turn signal. You only paid 18,000 crowns and two years in driving school to get a license.

Everyone have a great week!

Chopping down a tree.

"I just finished reading this really interesting
book" said no one ever.

Fun Graffiti.

Notice something a little weird?

Pizza making.

New Stamps!

Gas receipt.  Ouch... glad I didn't pay for that.