Katrineholm: 5/30/16

Hi!

     This has been a great week, but it felt super long! On Monday we spent most of the day getting ready to transfer. We cleaned up the apartment and packed in the morning, and later we had to make a transfer report with information about the area and our investigators for the missionaries who would take over our area after we left. It was a lot of work, but we managed to get it all done in time. 

     I got on my first train on Tuesday at 7:45 am and left Karlskrona. I had three train transfers, all of which went well, and got to Katrineholm at noon. My new companion is Elder Roylance. He has been on his mission for a little over 6 months. Katrineholm has been good so far. It is a little smaller, but we have had a lot to do so far. 

     On Wednesday we went out to a little town in our area called Flen and met with some members there. In the evening we taught a gospel principles class, since we have only two hours of church on Sunday and don't have time to do it then. 

     On Thursday we went to Norrköping for district meeting. We have a pretty small district right now since one of the areas in Linköping closed last transfer. So it is us, the Norrköping elders and the Linköping elders, so there are 6 of us total. After district meeting we went to lunch at a place called Max, a Swedish hamburger fast food restaurant. 

     On Friday we went to a town called Vingåker and taught an investigator, then we went to a service in the Swedish church with him. It was interesting to see how another church does their services. 

     Yesterday we had church. It is only two hours because we are a smaller branch. There were maybe a little more than 20 people there yesterday. I got to speak a little while in sacrament meeting because I'm new so I got to introduce myself. After church we called a ton of potential investigators and did other area book work. 

     This week I was reading in Alma about when the sons of Mosiah were about to go to teach the Lamanites about the Gospel. In Alma 17:11 it says: "And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls." The sons of Mosiah were promised help and success in their work, but they had to be patient and endure their trials with faith. We all face many challenges in life, but if we are patient in long-suffering and rely on the Lord, then we will not only make it through these trials, but we will be stronger afterwards.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Elder Roylance contacting a cat

2) Us

3) A banana curry pineapple ham pizza

Transfers: 5/23/16

Hi!

     So I am being transferred to Katrineholm, a town that is a little southwest of Stockholm. It's kind of weird because for most of my mission I have spent three transfers in my area, but now I will be in each of my last three areas for only one transfer. It should be fun though. My new companion is Elder Roylance, who was MTC companions with Elder Dean, who I trained. 

     Last P-day we went to a marine museum in town. It was really cool. They had a submarine and we got to go inside it. They even had the telescope thing going all the way to roof of the museum, so when you turned it around you could see 360 degrees around the museum. On Tuesday we had a branch cleaning day to clean up the chapel, basically Spring cleaning. But it ended up being the missionaries, one of our investigators named Petra, and a few members. It went well though. We clipped the hedges and mowed the lawn and cleaned out old junk out of the shed. Afterwards we all had soup and bread for dinner.

     On Wednesday we had district meeting in Kristianstad. After the lesson we had a funeral for Elder Israelsen and Elder Walker. It was pretty fun. I borrowed a guitar and played "Into the West" from the last Lord of the Rings movie. After that we all went to lunch and got pizza. We ordered three family pizzas, but it was way too much, so there was a lot of leftovers. 

     On Thursday we did service for a member who lives in a town called Nybro. Elder Benson and I spent most of the time painting a few things while the other elders did other odd-jobs. The member had a friend there and it turned out he actually worked on the submarine at the museum when he did military service. So that was pretty cool. 

     On Friday we taught our investigator named Desirée. She accepted a baptismal date! I am a little sad to leave while she's getting ready to be baptized, but I know the other elders will do a good job taking over the teaching. After that we did some swing-bys to less-actives and old investigators. 

     On Saturday we did splits, so I spent the day with Elder Israelsen. There was a woman that the other elders met at a branch party last week and set up a teaching appointment with, but she never came and they didn't have her information. We knew which group of apartments she lived in, so we decided to go find her. It turned out she lived in the very first stairwell that we tried. The door was slightly open with some construction stuff around and someone inside was on the phone but we rang the doorbell anyways and it was her. Then we were in another neighborhood later and talked to a guy who is probably a member! He is from Africa and his parents are members so we talked to him about family home evening and things like that. It doesn't sound like he's been to an LDS church in a while but he said he'd come to sacrament meeting soon. 

     Yesterday we had a super good sacrament meeting. So there are four missionaries in the branch, and Elder Israelsen is going home and Elder Blattman and I are transferring so it was a lot of change. We are actually closing our area too, so only one new elder is coming in. We sang a last minute musical number, but I forgot the name of it in English. After church we went to a member family's house for dinner and had smörgåstårta, or sandwich cake. It's like cake because it has bread and it's layered, but it has sandwich ingredients like cheese, mayonnaise, and other stuff. 

     This week I have thought a bit about how the Gospel gives us peace in our lives. There is so much happening in the world these days, and life can really easily become stressful but we can still have peace. I think that it is amazing how the gospel has a real power in our lives to help us to know how to be happy and that we have something to rely on even when it seems like everything else might be going wrong. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Me and the submarine, Neptune

2) Some of the coolest guns I've ever seen. It's an ax

3) Elder Benson hard at work 

Spring: 5/16/16

Hi!

     This week pretty much all of the plants have grown leaves, so it's super green everywhere. Last Monday we didn't do too much special, we just got ice cream and walked around town. On Tuesday we did service for a member woman, then in the evening we had a YSA activity and we played a game called kubb. After that we had institute. 

     On Wednesday we met with one of our new investigators. She referred herself online and requested a Book of Mormon, so we set up a lesson to teach about the Restoration. The lesson went super well. We had a member with us and she was a huge help. Also we got to have the lesson outside and it was really nice weather so that was a plus :)

     On Friday we had a specialized zone training in Malmö. The theme was "back to the basics" and we talked about planning effectively and using our planners. Afterwards we had interviews with President Beckstrand.

     On Saturday we had a branch party. There was a lot of music, then we had mexican food. It was super good. 

     This week I was reading in Jesus the Christ about when Lazarus is raised from the dead. Even though Christ had a lot of power, even enough to raise someone from the dead, he still had others lead him to where the sepulcher was, and he had others remove the stone from the cave entrance. He had the people do everything that was in their power before He used His power to do the miracle. This is the same way it is in our lives. We cannot expect God to do things for us that we can do ourselves. Part of this life is that we need to act for ourselves and exercise agency and show our faith. In Doctrine and Covenants 63:9 it says: "But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe." 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Wild flowers in the forest

2) Canola fields 

3) A cathedral in Malmö

Sunshine: 5/9/16

Hi!

     This week has been good. It has been super warm (65 degrees roughly) and sunny all week. On Monday we went to visit a little town in our area called Karlshamn. Unfortunately we couldn't find too much to do there that was different from Karlskrona, but it was still fun. We went to a family home evening activity with the YSA and we played the game called brännboll again that is kind of like baseball, and we also played red light, green light.

     On Tuesday we helped a member move furniture out of a house that he sold. It was some big wooden dressers and things but we managed to get it all out. On Wednesday we did companion exchanges with our district leader and his companion in a town called Växjö. So our district leader Elder Gergetz came down to Karlskrona with me for the day. We ended up doing street contacting most of the time, and talked to a ton of people so that was good.

     On Friday the high school students started their first party to celebrate graduating (even though they don't graduate till June), so they were all in the streets yelling and blowing some horns, so we couldn't get much work done downtown.

     On Saturday there was a baptism for a woman the Växjö elders taught, and since they didn't have a font in Växjö they used our chapel so we got to go too. It went super well. Yesterday morning I got to skype home for Mother's Day, and that was super fun.

     I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation. In a world where there are so many worries and uncertainties, we can know that we have the ability to live with our families forever. We can know that no matter what happens to us, we can be happy. We can also know that there is a purpose with this life, to prepare ourselves to return to our Heavenly Father, and that He loves and cares about us. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) This picture is in most elevators here. It is a warning that you can get squished if you're in an elevator that doesn't have a second door.

2) Me, Elder Blattman, and a member named Cyril while we were helping another member move.

3) Here's the chapel, and my finger

Called to Serve: 5/2/16

Hi!

     This week has been great! We've done a lot of service. Last Monday we didn't do too much for P-day, but in the evening we had FHE with some of the YSAs. We played a game called brännboll, which is like baseball but you toss the ball in the air yourself before you hit it, and it needs fewer people. On Tuesday Elder Blattman and I did some yardwork for a woman in the branch. While we were out it started hailing a little, but besides that it was actually okay weather. That night we had institute, and I translated for one of the other elders' investigators named Kamal. The lesson was on polygamy, so that was fun haha. It was actually a really good lesson though.

     On Wednesday we did service for a couple in the branch. We mucked out the area where they kept their sheep. We had pitch forks and shoveled a bunch of the old dirty hay onto a tarp, then we all dragged the tarp over to the other side of the yard and dumped it into a big pile. After a few times we decided to just hook the tarp onto the hitch of the car to drag it over, since it took 5 of us pulling as hard as we could to drag the weighed-down tarp. It was fun though. At the end we each got to hold a lamb.

     On Thursday we had district meeting in Kristianstad. We have three wards in our district, so each week we go to a different building for district meeting. Afterwards we all went out for pizza. On Friday we visited a less active with the other elders and we chopped some tree branches into firewood since the other elders cut down a tree in her yard last week. After we finished the work outside, we ate pizza and made bracelets. The member woman is really into making bead jewelry and stuff, so we each made an "I love Sweden" bracelet. It was fun. 

     On Saturday we did splits with the other elders, so I went with Elder Benson for the day. We traveled to a town called Ronneby to teach a man they met the day before. He didn't speak much English, so we were having their investigator Kamal come with us to translate from Arabic. It turned out that the potential investigator lives right across the hall from Kamal! He wasn't home, so Kamal invited us to his apartment and gave us Arabic food, so that was fun. Then we went to town becauseSaturday was a holiday called Valborg. We finished proselyting at 5, so we changed into normal clothes and met up with the other elders and some members and investigators in town. There was a choir of old men that sang, and then we walked to an island in the southern part of town, where they were going to have the fire. During Valborg they make a giant fire, the two main reasons I've heard is that it is supposed to scare away witches, and that it is just to celebrate that Summer is coming and Winter is over. We had to wait a long time, but eventually they started the fire. It was pretty cool. 

     There was something interesting that I read in Jesus the Christ the other day. James E. Talmage was talking about how Jesus Christ offended a lot of people. It wasn't because Christ was a bad person or did anything wrong, but it was only because the people chose to be offended by the things He said that were different from what they expected. At one point, because He was not acting in the way many of the Jews expected the Messiah to act, many of Christ's disciples left him. At this point, Christ asks His apostles "Will ye also go away?" But "[t]hen Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." We need to always remember where our faith really lies. When we have doubts or possibly even get offended by doctrines or other things we don't agree with, we need to remember that we follow the Savior, and that if we rely on Him, we cannot fail. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that when we humbly follow Him we will always be led in the right direction.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) We woke up to SNOW on Tuesday, in the end of April :p

2) My new friend

3) #streetclothes

4) Fire

5) Lots of hay and other stuff