The Trees Are Green!: 4/27/15

Hej!

     This week was pretty good I would say. On Tuesday we had an activity with the bishopric and some members of the stake high council. I visited our investigator Jan with a member named Pablo. Pablo was a super good missionary back in the day so he was talking to Jan and relating music to the gospel because Jan really likes classical music. It was a pretty good lesson. 

     We had a lesson with our investigator named Kim who said he has been thinking about getting baptized. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he agreed with almost everything already. We invited him to get baptized and he said yes! His date is for the 23rd of May. He is a super cool guy so it will be great if he is able to get baptized then.

     This week we have met with a couple of members to practice teaching lessons to them. It is something that President Beckstrand started a few months ago. We are supposed to meet with members and practice teaching them so that they can give us feedback and so that we can also get to know the members better at the same time. So far it has been really good because we´re able to get a sort of outside perspective on our teaching instead of just getting feedback from other missionaries.

     On Friday we did splits with our district leader and his companion. I spent the day in Stockholm´s area with Elder Sweat. It was pretty fun. 

     Yesterday in church Elder Dickson and I got to teach the English Sunday School class, because the normal couple who teaches it is gone this week. It was pretty fun. There are a lot of people in there that have really good comments so there was a good conversation. 

     I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) This is a hole in the ground. It was weird

2) Green forest

3) Stockholm

4) An artistic picture of me looking at an area right by our apartment

5) This is a cool tunnel Elder Sweat and I found. It is a pedestrian tunnel that goes through a hill so that people
don´t have to walk over or around the hill

Interesting Week: 4/20/15

Hej!

     This week had its ups and downs, but a couple really weird things happened. Last P-day was pretty fun. We went with two other elders to a store called TGR, which is like a dollar store but a little more expensive. But it had a lot of random stuff for pretty cheap. Elder Downing, my district leader, and I both got pedometers, so we have been texting each other our step count at the end of each day. He usually beats me, but I win sometimes so it´s okay. Unfortunately the belt clip on mine broke the other day when I was taking it off to check my number, so now I just keep it in my backpack and I don´t think it´s as accurate anymore.

     On Wednesday we were walking by a forest on the way to tract some apartments, and we decided to go check it out. There was a huge rock that was basically a hill, so I climbed up it. At the top what should I find but a coconut! That was the highlight of my day, haha. It was funny because Elder Dickson and I quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail a lot. I attached a picture of the coconut to this email.

     On Thursday a member woman asked for help moving her piano, so we went over with the zone leaders. We thought we would be moving it a long ways, but she just wanted it on the other side of the room. Then she gave us lunch! She is a super nice member. And her apartment has an amazing view of Stockholm. I think she waited around 10 years to get it because the housing situation in Stockholm is so bad. 

     This week we met with an investigator named Kim. He is really involved in the Swedish church, but thinks we are interesting so he meets with us. So when we went in to the lesson I wasn´t expecting anything special. But then we started talking to him, and he said that he feels like people in his church haven´t been living their faith like he thinks they should and that he is very impressed by how we do live our faith so he has been thinking a lot about converting. It was crazy. He is a super nice guy with a lot of faith, so I think he will get baptized someday soon. 

     Yesterday in church Elder Dickson and I got to teach the primary about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. There was one 8 or 9 year-old boy who had a talk that day for primary, and he basically taught the whole restoration in five minutes, with scriptures and everything. I was super impressed. Then the primary split up between older and younger kids. We taught the older kids first, and they were all super knowledgeable about the Restoration so it was really fun to teach them. Later on we taught the younger kids and that was a bit more challenging, haha. They were also pretty good though.

     Something I really liked about yesterday was getting to bear my testimony to the kids that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that we can all know that. We have been given the Book of Mormon, prayer, and the Holy Ghost to give us all the opportunity to find out for ourselves that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is Christ´s true restored church. 

     I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) We found a coconut...

2) Stockholm view right behind Elder Dickson and me

3) This is in the subway station. Hagsätra is the name of the subway line, and Trevlig Helg means happy weekend, so it was fun to see

Another Week: 5/13/15

Hej!

      This was a pretty good week! But a little crazy. On P-day we went to a place called the Tyresö palace, which is a really old mansion that Sweden calls a "castle" but it was a super cool place. It had a lot of lakes around it so it was fun to walk around. Later we went to an island in Stockholm called Gamla Stan, which is the super touristy part of Stockholm. We found some fun stores with viking stuff and other things. 

     On Wednesday we went tracting, and the first door we knocked on was someone interested in meeting! It was really cool because that doesn´t happen often here. It has been a good week for talking to people because it is starting to get warmer, haha. Everyone is happier and more willing to talk to us. 

     On Thursday we had sports night, which was pretty fun. On the train home there were a couple of guys sitting near us that we started talking to and found out that they were on their way home from a sports night at another chapel. They were fun guys and actually live in our ward boundaries, so we invited them to our sports night, haha.

     On Friday we had a zone training about how to use personal and companion study times more effectively. It was pretty good. 

     Yesterday we had a stake Easter concert. It was really good. Elder Dickson and I sang in a small choir in it. It went pretty well considering some people in the choir had just seen the music the day before. We had a couple investigators who came and I think it was really good for them. 

     This week I got to listen to the rest of General Conference, and I really liked Elder Holland´s talk from Sunday morning session I think. He talked about how there must be a God and a Christ for us to have meaning with our lives. We are not here on the Earth randomly. God has a plan for us and if we follow it then it will help us all to be happy and have joy in our lives.

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Me and Elder Dickson taking an awkward picture

2) A better picture

3) We were walking around and decided to take pictures here

4) Us with some other elders

Conference Weekend: 4/6/15

Hej!

     This was a good week. We didn´t do too much last P-day, Elder Pearson just had to do a few things to get ready for transfers. On Tuesday we did family history with our investigator Jan, and after that we went to the train station to pick up my new companion, Elder Dickson. Elder Dickson is 18 years old, but came to the mission the transfer after me. 

     On Wednesday Elder Pearson´s train left early in the morning. We were all pretty tired, and all three of us slept through the alarm, so we woke up ten minutes before the train left. So we just got ready as fast as we could and headed to the station to find another train. Luckily there was another one that didn´t leave too long after the first so Elder Pearson was able to get on that train. Elder Dickson and I found some other missionaries at the station, because on transfer days you will run into tons of other missionaries there. A small group of us went to McDonalds for breakfast. The rest of the day was a lot less stressful than the start. 

     On Thursday we had district meeting. One of the new sisters in our district is Sister Bolton, who I had a couple classes with at BYU. There is also a new greenie in our district now, named Elder Reed. After district meeting we all went out to lunch together, which was a lot of fun. 

     Conference started for us at 6pm on Saturday night. We got to the church about 40 minutes early to make sure we could help set up and get good seats. But we found out that pretty much only the missionaries and a few members come to the church to watch conference. Our investigator Jan came on Saturday, so I watched the Saturday morning session with him in Swedish. I am happy to say that I was able to stay awake and attentive the whole time. It was my first time watching conference in Swedish, and I think I did alright. 

     Yesterday morning we watched the Priesthood session of conference at 11am, and Saturday morning session started at 2pm. Jan came again for Saturday afternoon session so I watched it with him in Swedish. There was something wrong with the audio, so the English audio was playing at the same volume as the Swedish translation (usually they make the English quiet so you can´t hear it), and I think there was also the German translation playing in the background. So I couldn´t understand unless I focused really hard. I couldn´t focus well enough. But luckily Elder Floyd, my zone leader, went up halfway through and was able to fix it so only the Swedish was playing loud enough to hear. After that it was a lot better. After that ended we went to a member´s house for dinner. We tried watching Sunday morning session on the computer, but it started freezing right during the good part of Elder Holland´s talk. We got really sad, haha. But we will probably watch it today or sometime soon.

     One of the things I really liked from conference was President Uchtdorf´s talk, which I think was during Priesthood session, where he said that sometimes the things that we can count don´t really count, and sometimes the things we can´t count do count. He applied it to the setting of goals. Sometimes we focus too much on numbers and the measurable affects of the things we do to improve and help others. But sometimes the most important things we can do that have the greatest influence will not be things we can measure. It is important to do the little acts every day that help those around us and help us as well to grow.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Some Swedish nature!

2) This is a place we just randomly found while walking out of a building across the street. It is either the first or just one of the first buildings the Church used in Sweden.

3) The member´s house that we went to had a good view. It´s just kinda hard to see behind me, haha

4) There it is!

Transfers: 3/30/15

Hi!

     We got transfer calls this week! I will be staying in Gubbängen for a third transfer, but my companion Elder Pearson will be transferring South near Göteborg (Gothenburg I think is how that´s spelled in English). My new companion will be Elder Dickson, who came to Sweden I think one transfer after me. 

     Elder Pearson and I have both been pretty sick all week. Last P-day we just took it easy and pretty much stayed in the apartment all day, haha. After that we were okay, but still kind of sick. On Tuesday we had an activity where the missionaries went on splits with members of the ward council to go out and visit members. I went with one of the bishop´s counselors named Dennis. He is a cool guy. We went to visit a less active named Gustavo, but before we went we stopped by a grocery store and bought some food to bring. We got samlor, which are a Swedish pastry (I encourage googling them) and Påskmust, which is an Easter-time soda. The visit went really well.

     On Wednesday Elder Pearson and I got to go to the temple. It was my first time being in the Stockholm temple, so it was really cool. 

     On Saturday we had a taco party with the other missionaries at a member family´s house. The members are super nice and have the missionaries over a lot. On the train ride over there Elder Pearson and I met a guy who has lived in Utah! He sat down next to us, and Elder Pearson saw that he was wearing a Utah State hat, so we talked to him about it. He studied there for five years and then came to Sweden for his Phd if I remember right. So that was pretty cool. 

     Yesterday we had a rehearsal for an Easter concert choir that Elder Pearson and I were asked to be in. It was interesting, because I´m still a little sick so I couldn´t sing very well, haha. But it was still fun.

     Also, Elder Pearson and I had been asked last week if we could teach the 12-18 year-old Sunday School class yesterday. We were given a lesson plan, and I really planned on planning it out with Elder Pearson, but I actually just forgot all about it until it was time for Sunday School yesterday. Oops. So we just winged it. It went pretty well, because the topic was the Atonement and we talk about it all the time. It was fun to ask the kids what they thought about the Atonement. When we started we had everyone tell us their name and their favorite food. At least half of them said their favorite food was sushi, which Elder Pearson and I think is really weird. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures! 

1) Me and the other missionaries at a member´s house. From left to right: me, Sister Nielsen, Sister Hong, Sister Allen, Elder Pearson, and a member named Kevin.

2) Me at the temple!

Solar Eclipse!... Kind of: 3/23/15

Hej!

     This week went by super fast for me. Last week for P-day we didn´t do too much, but it was good. We made another meatza with the other missionaries, and this time we took pictures! I´ll be sure to attach one. On Tuesday we did short exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Floyd and I realized right after we split that neither of us had taken keys to the church to open it for family history night. Our investigator Jan was there early because we told him he could practice piano at the church before doing family history, but we ended up just standing outside for about half an hour. Luckily it wasn´t too cold. Eventually we just went to a library so we could wait inside somewhere. 

     On Thursday President Beckstrand came to our district meeting, and I got to have an interview with him. It went well. That night we did Sports Night, which was pretty fun. Afterwards Sister Hong gave Elder Pearson and me haircuts. She worked at a salon with her mom before her mission, so she is pretty good. It was a much better haircut than the last one that I did myself, haha.

     On Saturday one of the sisters´ investigators got baptized! She was pretty late, so everyone was a little nervous, but once she got there everything went super well. A lot of members came too. 

     On Friday there was a solar eclipse here, but it wasn´t a complete eclipse so it wasn´t such a big deal. There´s a member in the ward who is an astronomer, and he said it was about an 89% eclipse, which is not very noticeable. I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn´t show up very well on the camera. 

     Elder Pearson and I were asked to sing in a choir for an Easter Concert that is going to be in the church. We were recruited because there weren´t any tenors yet in the choir. We had our first practice last night. There were about twice as many men as women, which almost never happens in choir. We are singing some good songs, so I think it will be fun.

     This week I finally went through my scriptures and marked a bunch of scriptures with sticky notes that I will be able to use to find scriptures quickly in lessons. It was really cool to read through a lot of scriptures that all show the love our Heavenly Father has for us and how we are given the scriptures to help us to know how we can come back to Him. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) The meatza

2) We found some flowers while out contacting. Spring is coming (almost)

3) Partial eclipse

Busy Week: 3/16/15

This was a pretty good week. Last P-day we went to the world´s biggest IKEA and ate meatballs with mashed potatoes. Then we walked around some outlet stores. At the end of P-day we went to do some grocery shopping, but decided to go to McDonalds first to get some dinner. While we were there a woman walked up to us and asked if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, except she asked it in Spanish. She didn´t speak much English or Swedish, but we found out she is from Bolivia and has lots of family members who are members of the church. She has been looking for the church in Sweden, and then she found us! We have a sister missionary in our district named Sister Hong who speaks Spanish, so we got her to call the woman and explain how to get to church. I thought it was pretty cool.

     On Wednesday we helped furnish a new missionary apartment. It is only a couple subway stops from where we live, so it´s in our area. It was on the third floor with no elevator, so carrying things up there was interesting, haha. But it is a super nice apartment, so we hope we might get it next transfer. But we´ll see. It has a bedroom and a pretty big main room with a big couch, so it would be pretty nice.

     On Thursday we did exchanges with our district leader and his companion. So I had our district leader, Elder Downing, in our area for a day. It went pretty well. Elder Downing is good at contacting people so we talked to a lot of people. We taught a lesson to one of our investigators named Jan, and it went pretty well. Afterwards we went to Sports Night, which is every Thursday. It was pretty fun, because this week I was on the team with all the really tall and good basketball players. 

     This week Elder Pearson and I made a pretty great discovery. We were at this grocery store called MatDax, which is basically one of the sketchier stores but everything is really cheap so we like to buy some of our groceries there. We were about to check out, and there was an ice cream freezer right next to the checkout line. We found a 5 liter tub of Philadelphia strawberry cheesecake ice cream for only 30 crowns, which is about 4 dollars. It is super good. There´s chunks of cheesecake in it too.

     Another cool experience this week was that Elder Pearson and I went to a place called Skatteverket to get Elder Pearson an ID number for Sweden so he can check out books at libraries and go to medical centers, and one of the security guards there said "Hey I´m a member of that church." It turns out he was a less-active guy who hasn´t been to church in about ten years. We didn´t talk to him much since he was working, but we gave him our card and invited him to church.

     Yesterday was pretty crazy. After church we went to visit the couple that is doing a family history mission here to help give the wife a blessing because she is sick. They fed us taco soup and some cookies. Then we went to a member dinner with all the other missionaries, which was super fun. It is a really nice family who gave us some really good Bolivian rice and bread. Then after that we went with the zone leaders to yet another dinner at another member´s house, and he gave us fried fish and potatoes. I was very, very full by the end of the night, haha. 

     A scripture that I read this week that I really liked was Mosiah 4:11-12, which basically says that when we recognize our own weaknesses and look up to God with humility, then we will always have cause to rejoice. I like this because it tells us that when we are humble and admit our shortcomings, then we will be able to have joy despite these trials. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

Pictures!

1) Here is a picture of the ward council and missionaries

2) Ice cream!

3) I found some chips that are flavored like me! Haha