Done with Training! 11/24/14

Hej!

     I am now officially done being trained! It doesn´t really feel like it, haha. This has been a good week. It was busy, but a good kind of busy. As part of missionary training, the greenie is the senior companion for the last week, so this week I was senior companion. It was weird. Basically it was my job to lead daily and weekly planning, lesson planning, and picking which way to walk when we street contacted, so it wasn´t too bad. I´m not a super decisive person though, so I struggled with picking which way to go while contacting. Elder Stafford didn´t ever give any input. All he´d say is "I want to follow you", haha. 

     Early this week we taught an investigator named Emile. We have been teaching him for a while, but he seems to just look at things from an intellectual perspective, so we decided to teach him about prayer and the Holy Ghost. When we started the lesson and asked if we could pray before we started, he said "No, you don´t need to pray." So that led us right into our lesson, haha. He basically told us that he believes all you need to do to know about something is read about it. It was interesting, especially because he is somewhat religious already. But we had to get a little bold with him about how prayer really is important. We tried asking him about how reading can help him know something is true when people can have so many different opinions by reading the same thing, but he kind of avoided the question. It was a tough lesson, but I liked getting to do some more intense testifying.

     On Thursday we had the car, so we did a lot of swing-bys to less-active members and went to a lot of places. It´s amazing how much more you can do with a car. So it was a fun day. We met some interesting people. On Friday we had a lesson with a guy we met on the street. When we met up with him, he said he had a friend he was with. It turned out his friend is a member! So we had a member present lesson, which is pretty rare. So it was cool. On Friday night the young men rented a gym at a school for a sports night. So it was the missionaries, the leaders, and a couple of youth. We played a game called innebandy, which is really popular in Sweden and is kind of like hockey, but you just run around, and you hit a wiffle ball. It was fun, but I´m not very good at it. Then we played basketball after that. Me and Elder Stafford both got pretty sore afterwards, haha. But it was a lot of fun.

     Transfers were this week. Me and Elder Stafford had no idea if we would be transferred or not, so we were a little nervous. But we are both going to be staying in Sundsvall, at least until he goes home at the end of December. 

     This week while talking to people on the street we met a guy from Egypt who is a doctor considering moving here to work. He is muslim, but we had a really good conversation with him about our beliefs, what is the same and what is different. It was cool to talk to someone who is faithful in their religion and genuinely just wanted to know about our beliefs as well. It was a big difference from a lot of the other people we talk to. Elder Stafford and I were talking about it afterwards, and it seemed like we could really sense his faith while he talked. It helped me realize that there are a lot of people in the world who are just trying to be good people and follow their beliefs the best they can. Even though relatively few people are members of the church, there are still many people trying to come closer to God, so that is why we are here to share the gospel. This week we taught a lot of first lessons to investigators, and when we first teach someone we usually go through what our purpose as missionaries is and what we do so that people can understand that we are hoping to help them to come closer to Christ and to be baptized. But one thing that is fun is getting to tell people why we are here. To a lot of people a mission probably seems like a really crazy thing to do, because you give up time and money and TV to talk to people about church stuff. But we are really here to help people find the truth and follow Christ, so it is a great job. I am thankful for my experience so far, and hope I will be able to keep progressing so I can better help people. But it is important to remember just how important the message of the restored gospel is to people. It changes lives, for the better.

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Oh, I just remembered. Elder Stafford and I got to sing Come Thou Fount yesterday in sacrament meeting. I was a little nervous, but I think it went well. We sang in English, so some people might not have understood it.

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) This is some kind of factory on the other side of the hill. They have a smoke stack thing with a big fire on top, but from this place it kind of looks like Mordor from the Lord of the Rings

2) We wore normal people clothes on our way to play sports with the young men. This is a Christmas sweater I found at a second hand store

On the Road: 11/17/14

Hej!

     This week has been pretty good, but super busy. Something I think I have forgotten to mention in earlier emails is that we got a car! The funny thing is that only Elder Bliss and I are allowed to drive it. Everyone else technically has a working US license, but you have to get it approved for driving in Sweden, and none of the other missionaries have renewed their papers to drive in Sweden the second year of their missions. So the greenies are the drivers. My first time driving in Sweden was last Monday night. Luckily all the snow from the earlier week melted that morning, but it was really dark and foggy. But I made it alright. 

     On Tuesday we were supposed to have a lesson with someone at the library, then go teach another guy, but the first person didn´t show up. While we were sitting in the library the other guy we were going to teach showed up. He said he was heading to the mall in Birsta, so he wasn´t sure when he would be back for his lesson. So we just went with him, haha. We basically just followed him around the mall and a grocery store while he shopped for a little while. But he said he´d come to church (and he did!) so it was worth the little extra time. 

     On Thursday we did splits with the other elders in our district. So I was companions with Elder Gray, the district leader, for a day. It was a lot of fun. We were fed all 3 meals by other people, which is crazy. We had the car, so we met a less active member at Ikea for breakfast. He paid for us, which was super nice. It was a buffet sort of thing. Elder Gray had to be a little hard on him though. He keeps agreeing to commitments then just not doing them. Elder Gray asked him if he would come to a branch activity and church this week. He said yes, so Elder Gray told him he was counting on him to come so he could trust him. After that we taught a man who is pretty close to getting a baptismal date. But we had to explain to him that you don´t need to get married to be a member of the church. It made me think how people can sometimes have questions that I never even really think about. Then we did some service helping a member put up drywall sheets in a room he is refurnishing in his house. After that we drove about 45 minutes to a place called Härnösand to visit a less active part member family. Elder Gray had baked a pumpkin pie, and the family fed us dinner. It was weird to eat pumpkin pie because it´s so American, haha. The family was super nice, but I don´t know how interested they are in church. They gave us a bunch of pepparkaka (gingerbread) dough to take home. After that we drove home. It started snowing when we first started driving that day, so I am pretty proud of my first time driving in real snow. It was interesting to be on splits and see how another missionary works.

     On Friday Elder Stafford and I drove down to Hudiksvall, which is an hour long drive. We had a lesson with the older couple that has been investigating the church a super long time, and we had a less active there with us. It was a very bad lesson. The investigator man basically just asked a ton of deep questions, and he and the less active were both trying to talk over each other most of the time. So me and Elder Stafford basically just ended up sitting there with the wife while the other two went on. I was disappointed we couldn´t actually teach them or help them at all during that visit. Next time we go we´re going to try to keep a little better control. We also visited a couple of other less actives, then went home. Something kind of funny was that everyone we visited gave us fika, usually tea and bread, and they made us take bananas with us when we left. So by the end of the day we had 4 bananas.

     On Saturday we taught a super positive woman we street contacted a few weeks ago. She was really excited to talk to other Christians and learn more. I think she has tried reading the Book of Mormon before, but it was before she was very good at Swedish and she was reading it in Swedish so she didn´t get too much out of it. Then we worked on a slide show for the branch culture night. We had to find pictures of all the different cultures in our branch and make a ten minute slide show. It was fun, but kind of stressful to do last minute. For the culture night there was a talent show. There are a lot of people in our branch that are good at music. One member man did a really good guitar solo on the electric guitar. The missionaries did a dance with an African member named Richard. We painted our faces white and wore white gloves, then all black. We did kind of an interpretive dance to some African American gospel music. I didn´t feel too embarrassed dancing in front of everyone, so that was good. We took some good pictures with the paint on our faces. 

     This might be my last full week in Sundsvall. Me and Elder Stafford have no idea if we are being transferred or not. Transfers are on the 26th, so we find out this week I think. 

     This week for a spiritual message I just want to talk about how we should not be afraid to follow God. This week I read in the Book of Mormon where Lehi´s family went through a lot of hardships in the wilderness. Laman and Lemuel always wanted to go back to Jerusalem, which was probably a temptation for all of them at some point. But if they went back to Jerusalem they would not have progressed, spiritually or physically. They had to suffer many trials, but they were led by the Lord, and by following Him they eventually made it to the promised land, where they could grow into great nations and prosper. So even though we go through hardships in our lives, when we follow God there are always great blessings.

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) A lego R2D2 we saw in a toy store last Monday

2) Selfie in the elevator!

3) Painted faces!

4) Scary picture

Sveriges Fars Dag 11/11/14

Hej!

     This week has gone by super fast! But it was really good too. So last Monday me and Elder Stafford went to our apartment, after emailing, to do laundry. Then we wanted to go to the mall, so Elder Stafford said we had to go to the church to meet up with the other elders before we went. I thought that didn´t make any sense, because if we met them at the church, then we´d just have to turn right back around to go back to the bus station and switch busses to go to the mall. But I am an obedient companion, so I went without complaining. When we walked into the church, the other elders and the sisters ran out of the kitchen yelling "surprise!" and throwing balloons everywhere! I was kind of surprised. I was trying to keep my birthday low-key so it wouldn´t be a big deal, but they threw me a little surprise party. It was super fun. They even got a cake with 20 candles on it. After we ate cake and cleaned up we went to the mall with the other elders. First we went to a sports store so I could buy a backpack (my shoulder bag has been making my shoulders really sore) and so Elder Bliss could buy a winter coat. Then we went to IKEA. It was really fun. It was Elder Stafford´s first time ever in Ikea, and my second time. They were selling ice cream cones for only 10 crowns, which is about 1.50 in dollars, so we all got ice cream. Then we walked around the mall for a while. 

     On Tuesday we taught a lot of English classes. As a kind of community service we did a presentation on America and American high schools for the English classes of a woman we street contacted a few weeks ago. They are good because we can do service, and show people that missionaries are normal people too. We taught three classes on Tuesday, and got free school lunch, which was pretty cool. Their school lunches are really nice, and looked pretty healthy too. We made feedback surveys that we handed out to each class, with questions like "which is better, Oregon or Idaho?" or what they wish was included in the presentation, stuff like that. Some of the answers were pretty funny. One person said they like Oregon, because it sounds like "oreo". Also, Elder Stafford got all three classes to sing the Swedish happy birthday song to me, haha. And it is kind of long, because it has three verses.

     On Thursday we went down to a city called Hudiksvall, which is about an hour long train ride south. We´ve never gone there before because it takes so long to get there that we really need a lot of stuff going on there for it to be worth the travel. But last week the other elders got a text from an investigator couple that lives there that has not been visited in about a year. So we decided to go teach them. They have been taught all of the lessons multiple times, and know a ton about the gospel and the church. They have just not been baptized yet, for different reasons over the years. But they are super nice. They picked us up from the train station and drove us to their house. They gave us fika, which is a Swedish thing where you drink coffee or tea (non-caffiene tea) and eat cinnamon rolls or other snacky things. Then the man played us a couple of songs on the guitar. He was pretty good. The only tricky thing with them is figuring out what to teach them. They told us the main issue keeping them from being baptized before is resolved, so we are hoping now they will be ready soon. They other hard thing is that they live so far away from the chapel, which is especially difficult to get to in the winter. But they have been doing scripture study every morning this year, so I think they are ready.

     This week we got SNOW!!! It snowed on Tuesday, and we got about 2 inches. The rest of the week it has just been cloudy and pretty cold, so there was lots of ice on the roads and sidewalks. But it is really pretty here, since there are a lot of pine tree forests around, so it looks like a movie almost. 

     Yesterday was Sweden´s Father´s Day. I´m not sure why it is so far away from father´s day in America. The primary kids passed out father´s day cards after sacrament meeting, and I got one. It was weird, haha. 

     I have been thinking a lot this week about what it means to endure to the end. I read the book Our Heritage, which is a short church history, and I realized that a lot of members of the church have gone through extreme adversity, persecutions, and personal sacrifice for their faith. I wondered whether I am strong enough to last through anything like what they went through. I think that I can, as long as I do my best and have faith. The Lord doesn´t expect us to be perfect, just to do our best and always be improving. Also, from 1 Nephi 3:7 we learn that we will never be asked to do something that is impossible or that is too difficult for us. Our Heavenly Father wants us to succeed, and so he will provide a way for us to do that. So I know that even when hard times come, I will be able to get through them. Our trials also help us to grow stronger and be more prepared for the next challenge we face. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures! I will include some from last week as well since I wasn´t able to upload any:

1) Birthday cake!

2) Ikea!

3) Snow!

4) More snow

5) Sometimes our investigators can´t really speak English or Swedish...

There were too many pictures for one email, so here´s another!

1) We buy really big cheese from the grocery store. The milk carton is for reference. I´m not sure if the picture shows how big it is

2) Candles on All-Saints Day

3) It was dark, but here is a picture of more of the graveyard during All-Saints Day

No More English 11/3/14

Hej!

     This week went pretty well! Last P-day we went to a big mall in a place called Birsta, which is only about 15 minutes from Sundsvall. It was fun to be in a mall that is very similar to American malls. We mostly went to clothes stores and looked at stuff. It was all pretty expensive though, and nobody needed anything bad enough to buy anything. But I think we are going to go back to that area today, because there is an Ikea that we need to go to, and there are a couple of other big stores that we want to go to. Also last Monday we went over to a member´s house for dinner and to plan an act for the upcoming branch talent show. The member´s name is Richard, and he was showing us youtube videos of what he wanted to do with us. It is called minister mime, or something like that. Basically, you paint your face white, and wear white gloves, and do interpretive dancing to gospel music. But the music has singing to it, so you do movements and facial expressions to match the lyrics. It´s going to be very interesting, haha. I´m not much of a dancer, so it will be a challenge. Also, Richard fed all the missionaries dinner, and it was an African food called fufu. It looks like mashed potatoes, but it is doughy. The way you eat it is that you roll some of it into a ball, about an inch in diameter, and you dip it into a spicy soup (luckily the soup he gave us was not hot spicy, just flavor spicy), then you put the ball in your mouth, and swallow. No chewing. Technically you can chew it, but it is supposed to just be swallowed. When I tried my first one, I wasn´t sure how I would ever swallow it. It looked pretty big. But then I put it in my mouth, and it went right down, haha. It was a really weird experience. It´s like trying to swallow a big vitamin. Elder Stafford had a hard time trying to swallow them, but he got it by the end.

     On Tuesday, we woke up at 3:15 am to get ready to go to zone conference. Our train left at 5, but there aren´t any buses that leave that early, so we had to walk to the train station. Zone conference was really good though, so it was worth it. On the subway from the train station to the chapel I got to talk with Elder Bradley from my MTC group, so that was fun. The zone conference was mostly about how we need to teach people, not lessons. We talked about ways to plan a lesson specifically for the person we are going to teach it to. The lesson guides in Preach My Gospel are good, but we need to be aware of what our investigators need and what will help them progress the most. Then we took the train home. We got back to our apartment around 10:30 pm, so we were pretty tired, haha.

     This week was Halloween! We didn´t really do anything special for it, haha. But we did go and buy some candy for ourselves. Halloween isn´t celebrated too much here. Me and Elder Stafford did some goal setting for the month of November, and we have decided that we are going to only speak Swedish this month. It´s going to be pretty hard, but I think it will be super helpful for me. We haven´t taught very many people that speak just Swedish, so I haven´t been using it as much as I should. So hopefully by the end of this month I will be a lot better at speaking and understanding Swedish. 

     November 1st was All-Saints Day, which is a Swedish holiday where people put candles on graves. So we went with the other elders to a big cemetery to see all the candles. It was really cool. I will include pictures of it if I can. Me and Elder Stafford forgot the phone cord, so we can´t upload pictures to the computer. But if the other elders come soon we can borrow their cord. 

     This week we had a couple of days that were super nice and sunshiney. But, the sun is going down faster and faster every day. Today the sun is supposed to set at 3:38 pm. It´s pretty crazy. 

     This week I have started reading Our Heritage, and me and Elder Stafford have been listening to some lectures about the Church´s early prophets. I think it is amazing how many people there have been who were so dedicated to the gospel and who sacrificed so much for their faith. It makes me realize that if we have faith we can accomplish great things and overcome whatever hardships come our way.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith