Week 8 - Merry Christmas!

It has been an interesting but an awesome week here in Sweden.

On Tuesday Äldste Murtonen and I talked to people on the street, but at one point we took a break and went and saw the Landskrona Citadel.  It is an old fort from when the Swedes and Danes were fighting over what is now southern Sweden.  It was pretty cool!  We also had dinner with a member family that night who speak Swedish but with a thick accent that you hear in the southern part of Sweden called Skånish (pronounced like  "Scone").  For someone who is trying to understand even normal Swedish it was kind of difficult.  Apparently if you can understand Skånish you can understand Swedish anywhere else because this is the hardest accent.

Landskrona Citadel

The next day my companion and I were on splits with the zone leaders in Malmö so we met them at the train station in Lund and I went with Äldste Chugg to Malmö for the day.  We started with helping a member who was moving clean out his apartment with another pair of Elders, one of whom is actually from my MTC district so it was nice to see him again.  Later, after lunch, Äldste Chugg and I did some more street contacting on the main street in Malmö.  We actually had a lot of awesome conversations with people on the street and met a lot of people coming from all over the world.  It's weird how I am in Sweden but I meet people from Palestine or Iran or somewhere else all the time.  We even found a few possible investigators that the zone leaders will follow up with later.  We then had a lesson with a recent convert on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can apply the steps of Faith, Repentence, Baptism, The Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End in our lives.

On Thursday we drove back to Landskrona to meet our companions and take them to the train station in Helsingborg where we met the Halmstad Elders for lunch so that I could go on splits AGAIN!  I went with Elder White up to Halmstad.  We ended up having three lessons that night which was awesome.  It was cool to actually have lessons. Äldste Murtonen and I don't have many people to teach and most of them went out of town for Christmas so we haven't done many lessons.

Friday Äldste White and I went back to Helsingborg.  Our district did a white elephant exchange with the 6 of us before setting up a street display on the street with snacks and hot chocolate and Julmust (a type of soda they only sell at Christmas time or Easter).  We actually had a great time, we talked to a lot of people and a few of them even came in to tour the church.  It was great!  One of the ladies we talked to was one that Äldste Murtonen and I contacted on the street a week ago!  

Saturday we met the Sister Missionaries at the church to relax, play games and eat breakfast since we weren't supposed to proselyte over Christmas.  At about 1 we headed to the Bishop's house where we spent the rest of the day.  It was really fun and we left a christmas message before we went home which was great.

Christmas day we picked up a less-active member who just moved into our ward and helped him get to the church.  It took us 10 minutes on the phone and walking around before we found him!  He was really cool though and we laughed about it.  For church we read about the birth of Christ and sang a lot of Christmas hymns which was nice.  There was a snack then after the meeting so we met with the ward.  We helped clean that up and then later we got to Skype home!  It's always nice to see family, although it's weird to think about how I won't get to do it again until mother's day.  After we all Skyped home we went to a member's home for dinner. It felt kind of weird not having to work at all for the entire weekend, but we were still tired by the time we got home.  

It's been a great week and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  Remember that Christ loves all of you.  I wish all of you a happy new year!  Don't forget to think of something to set as a goal to work towards next year.  So far on my mission I have learned a lot about how much more you can accomplish when you set goals and make plans to achieve them.  I feel like I can accomplish so much more in a day than I used to without planning.  There is always something we can do, whether it's trying to learn an instrument, remembering to read our scriptures every day, or something else entirely.  With planning and prayer, anything is possible

Happy New Year!

Weeks 6 and 7 - Good bye MTC, Hallå Sweden!

The last week and a half have been crazy but awesome!

I apologize ahead of time if this ends up being a long email but a lot has happened between my last week in the MTC and arriving here in Sweden.

Our last Friday in the MTC we had In-field Orientation pretty much all day.  So we got to learn a little bit more about what it's like to actually do work in the mission field and it was awesome!  We learned a lot of cool things and had a lot of fun with it.  Friday and Saturday were also our last days with our teachers so it was kind of sad but we were also all super excited.  On Sunday, we had Sacrament meeting and we had some awesome talks, and my district sang "How Great Thou Art" as a departure musical number, it turns out that it is actually a Swedish folk song which is really cool, and we sang parts of it in Swedish and English and the two Norwegian Elders sang a part in their language.  It was kind of sad to say goodbye to all the Finns, Äldste Domino (the visa waiter) and the Nords.  It was also kind of rough for the Nords, it turns out that they won't have to wait for their visas but they still needed to go to the Norwegian Consulate so they had to wait another week before they left.  But from what I've heard they enjoyed their last week.  They got to hear from Elder Holland on Tuesday, which of course happened just after we left, we were even joking about it before we left on Monday.  Sunday night though we had our Departure Devotional with the MTC Presidency on remembering obedience and to not be afraid to talk to people about the gospel, even though it's scary, especially in another language.  The normal Devotional afterwards was also really cool because the BYU Men's Chorus came and sang Christmas songs.  It was so cool!  It was a great way to leave the MTC.  

Provo Temple - Mountains

These two pictures are from our last temple walk the Sunday before we left.

Provo Temple - Mountains

Us and the Nords our last night before we left (plus an extra elder who decided to jump in.)

Monday we finally left.  I was really stressed that morning.  Not only were we leaving but I was the travel leader so it was kind of my job to make sure everyone made the train and all the flights.  So I was really nervous on the train because I haven't had to take them that often but everything went really smoothly!  We got to the airport just fine and got through security.  I felt a little better once we got in the airport since I've flown plenty of times before.  I got to call home from the airport which was nice.  It's weird thinking that I just talked to my family and I'll get to talk to them again soon on Christmas.  Our flight left from Salt Lake and we were in JFK, it was super nice because our next flight was leaving from the gate right next to the one we came in from so we didn't even have to walk that far.  One of the people on our flight actually knew someone who went to Sweden and she took a picture of us which was funny.  From JFK we had a 7 and a half hour flight to Amsterdam.  It felt really long.  Especially because missionaries shouldn't be watching movies on the plane so I mostly just slept, read my scriptures and resorted to playing sudoku and doing crosswords (yes, it gets that boring).  We got to Amsterdam, and it was a little interesting getting around the airport and we had to switch from the international terminal to another one, thankfully there are signs everything both in dutch in English.  We boarded our last plane and finally landed in Sweden at 9 am local time.

 These are from as we were landing in Sweden. 

1st glimpse of Sweden

Beautiful Sunrise in Sweden

The Mission President and all of his assistants and the Elders working in the mission office picked us up.  We got some pictures and exchanged our money.  I met Äldste Halterman which was fun because I know his younger brother and he was leaving on Thursday.  So we talked a bit about Minnesota and what had changed since he's been gone the last two years.  We then drove to Stockholm City Hall for some pictures before we headed to the migration office to start getting our residency cards.  We went to the Mission office for lunch and then went our with the assistants, office elders, and some of the Stockholm missionaries to do "Greenie Contacting" where they make us new people talk to people on the street.  It was weird because it gets really dark here so it was only 4:30 yet it felt like it was 8 at night.  The third person I talked to with my contacting companion, Äldste Hawkins, we almost gave him a Book of Mormon, but instead we got his number but that was really cool still.  Most of the rest of the time we mostly just handed out the #LightTheWorld (#ettLjusförVärlden in Swedish) pass along cards the Church has for Christmas.  It's kind of rough because a lot of people don't want to listen to you but I was surprised how many good conversations we did have.  After contacting we went back to the Mission home and had dinner and met with the Mission President.  Then we finally went to bed, we were all super tired from the jet lag because we had been up for 36 hours.  The next day we got ready and headed to the Chapel and got some training from the Assistants before we found out who our trainers are and where we are assigned.  My trainer is actually Finnish, Äldste Murtonen.  We are in Helsingborg which is actually right next to Denmark.  In certain parts of the city you can actually see Denmark across the channel.

This is a picture of Helsingborg and you can see Denmark on the other side of the water.

This is our "Gingerbread men" picture.

So far we have done a lot of contacting because a lot of our investigators are busy with Christmas plans.  The ward also had a Christmas Concert on Saturday night so we sang in several of the numbers because the ward is so small.  We were actually part of a Ljusiatåg, which is a train of people who sing and hold candles.  We had hats on because we were "Gingerbread men", I'll be sure to send the picture I have.  It was really cool and a great way to celebrate Christmas.  So far the Members have been impressed with my Swedish for being brand new but so far a lot of the Swedish goes over my head.  I did get to bear my testimony on Sunday though and I could get bits and pieces.  My companion was doing English translation because there are a few Americans in our ward who don't speak Swedish.  It was cool though because the Bishop translated for his second counselor who spoke, so I got the chance to hear the English and the Swedish right next to each other and see how much I could pick out.  After church we had lunch with an American member who travels a lot.  He ended up giving us a spiritual thought that was really cool.  He talked about how in Doctrine and Covenants it says that everything points to Christ, like how a tree "dies" and "resurrects" every Winter and Spring.  It was a really cool thought and I am going to try to look for that more, especially with Christmas this week.  

I am so excited for Christmas and for the opportunity to remember our savior and all he has done for us.  I love everything that He has done for us.  Remember that while we may celebrate Christ's birth on Christmas, his birth is important because of what he went on to do and His Atonement.  So I invite all of you to take some time to ponder this Christmas about the Savior and think of how you can follow Christ's Example this Christmas.  I love the Church's Christmas Initiative and I invite you to check out some of the ideas on Mormon.org of how we can be like Christ this Christmas.  They have different ideas every day and some of the ones for this coming week are awesome.  

 A great big christmas tree in the town square by our apartment​.

I just want to finish with that I love my Savior and all he has done for me.  I know He loves me and you as well!  I wish you all a merry Christmas from Sweden!

PS My P-days are now on Mondays so that is when I will be emailing.

 I apologize that I don't have many more pictures but my SD card has not been saving all the pictures I've been taking.

1st Area: Helsingborg!

Helsingborg is a town on the coast of Sweden.  It is Sweden's closest point to Denmark.

Can't wait to hear more about it in the coming weeks!  Äldste Ashford's new P-day (aka day for emails ... and other preparations for the week) is now on Monday.

If you want to send him emails, do so on Sunday as Sweden is 7 hours ahead and he may be reading the messages while you are sleeping.

2nd Day in Sweden: Training, New Companion, New Area!

I may have spent the last couple of days stalking Facebook (a mission page and a secret one for us crazy loving and non-worrying moms 😇), the mission blog, and my email waiting to hear about where our missionary's first area will be.  The wait was over this morning.

Here is another part of the letter we received from President Beckstrand

"The next morning we began the day promptly at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast at the Mission Home. We departed the Mission Home for the nearby Täby Chapel where the Assistants, Sister Beckstrand and I provided training.  

In the second meeting of the morning, he met his new companion and trainer, Äldste Tuomo O. Murtonen. They will serve together in the Helsingborg I area of the Sweden Stockholm Mission."

And the Photos!

(Mom's Note: I have learned that his companion is from Finland and has been on his mission just over a year.)

He made it to Sweden!

On Monday morning we had a nice chat with Äldste Ashford while he was waiting for his flight to leave Salt Lake City.  They had a very early start and then took the light rail to the airport.  Spencer was assigned to be the travel leader - and he said they just gave us directions about which stops to take and then sent us off.  He was a little nervous to be in charge since he hadn't done the light rail before, but it all went great.  He was cute about ending our conversation in time to round up his group to make sure they all made the flight.  We will have to wait to get an email from him to hear how the rest of the travel went.

There were 9 elders and 1 sister missionary that traveled to Sweden.  One of the elders is still waiting on his visa and will be in California until it arrives.

We followed their flights across the globe.  They traveled from Salt Lake City, to New York (JFK), to Amsterdam, and finally to Stockholm.  They were traveling more than a day but lost a few hours in travel, they were so excited to finally arrive in Sweden.  Hopefully they were able to sleep a little bit.

We know that on this flight they sat together in 2 groups.  Not sure about the other flights, forgot to ask.

We received an email from the mission home on Tuesday:

Dear Parents,

We just wanted to let you know that your missionary arrived safely in Sweden this morning. They were in good spirits and excited to be here. We will be emailing you some more pictures in a few days and your missionary will be emailing you on Monday.

Syster ClouseCorrespondence Secretary

Also included were the following photos.  We got an email from the President Beckstrand, the mission president, this morning that detailed how their first day went.  It helps when looking at the photos.

"Upon arrival, he was taken into the city of Stockholm for immigration paperwork. He then had a glimpse of Stockholm with photo opportunities, a light lunch, instructions, training, and contacting in the streets of Stockholm with one of our exceptional, experienced missionaries. 

The mission office was his next stop with an orientation to the Sweden Stockholm Mission policies and procedures. Shortly thereafter, Sister Beckstrand and I invited your son and his MTC group to dine with us at the mission home. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in an interview with your son. We concluded the day’s activities with family scriptures and prayer and retired for the evening at the Mission Home."

Nope- No sign of our elder in this photo.

Not in this one either, maybe he was in the van loading the luggage?

 Photo Opportunities in Stockholm

Light Lunch.  Doesn't look very Swedish.  :)

And why are most of them still wearing their coats?
Specifically, of all of them, why is our Minnesotan still wearing his coat?

I love all of the smiles!  They all look very happy to be there.

His travel plans are finalized!

Äldste Ashford and his group are flying to Sweden on Monday!  They are leaving super early in the morning for a 9 am flight for their first leg of the journey, so start sending your packages to the Stockholm Mission Home!

We are so excited because he gets to call from the airport before that flight!

Week 5 - Photos

The first pic is the picture I mentioned of Elder Beveridge and I in our matching light up ties, 

next is Elder cook sporting Elder Beveridge's other tie.

Äldste Ashford and Äldste Beveridge

Äldste Ashford, Äldste Cook, and Äldste Beveridge

 The third one shows what happens when everyone thinks it's funny to send 

Swedish Fish to Swedish Missionaries.  

In case you were wondering, those things are way to sweet to eat through!

The last one I took from the temple steps.

I'll send another one I took of the temple itself in a sec. 

(and Bam! it has already appeared!)

Week 5 - Sweden, Here I Come

It's my last week in the MTC!  We leave on Monday, and of course we get to leave at 4:30 in the morning for a 9am flight.  It'll be great!  It's crazy to think I'm almost out of here.  I have been here for so long that I almost forget about the outside world sometimes.  I can't wait to finally fly to Sweden!

Our travel plans arrived on Friday, so that was a very exciting day.  Unfortunately one of our Elders' visa hasn't arrived yet, so he will be serving in California for a transfer since he can't leave yet.  We all feel bad for him but surprisingly he is excited, even if he does have a little longer before Sweden.  

Saturday was a pretty normal day.  We had a great discussion in class though about faith while reading out of Alma 32 (verses 26-43) about faith being like a little seed.  We have to plant it and let it grow.  It's amazing how fun talking about scriptures is in the MTC.  People seem to always think it's boring but when you really get into it with others who are also interested, it's a lot of fun and everyone learns a lot!  I also read a talk that one of the Elders gave me.  It's 'The Fourth Missionary' by James Corbridge.  It is amazing at explaining how as missionaries we need to be obedient to be effective and be able to change others' lives, but we also need to be obedient in our thoughts and heart if we want to be able to change ourselves.  If our mind and heart aren't aligned with God, then even if our might and strength are, we don't benefit because we haven't given our whole self to God's work.  It's a really good talk and I highly recommend it for anyone considering a mission.  If you can learn the principles in there early, I can guarantee you will be ready by the time you serve a mission.

Sunday was Fast Sunday!  It was an awesome day.  In Priesthood we talked about the Book of Mormon and how our entire religion rests upon it like the keystone of an arch.  Because we know it to be true, we know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that God has restored his church on the Earth, and that His priesthood power and authority have also been restored to the Earth.  It was an awesome discussion.  Fast and testimony meeting was really powerful.  The spirit was so strong.  Our whole district got up and bore our testimonies and most of the Finns did as well.  We all got up and testified of Christ, and then we all sang the 2014 Mutual theme 'Come Unto Christ'.  The Spirit was so powerful I was tingling for about a half hour.  My heart was so full.  After Sacrament meeting my district started practicing our departure song for the next sacrament meeting.  We are singing 'How Great Thou Art' which is actually originally a Swedish tune.  We are having the Nords sing a verse, we sing a verse, we all then sing a verse in English, and then the last verse we all go back to our own mission languages.  Hopefully it will go well.  That night we also watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  It had some great reminders about Christmas, such as the fact that Christmas is important because of Easter, if Christ hadn't atoned for us, His birth would not have the same importance.  He has also given us better gift than we could ever give, which is His atonement.  It was an amazing devotional, so if you have spare time I recommend watching, it should be on LDS.org.  Sunday night Elder Beveridge and I realized we got care packaged the same light up tie so I will link that down below, we totally got a picture of it.

Monday we had a great discussion in class on the importance of having investigators make commitments and then following up with them.  We actually taught ourselves because our teachers had their own devotional to go to.  Elder Beveridge and I also taught our replacement zone leaders so they can take over on Sunday.  It's crazy to think we are almost done with that assignment.  I still feel like I've only just started my assignment as zone leader.  

Tuesday we had our last Tuesday Devotional.  We got to hear from Craig C Christianson of the Presidency of the Seventy (FYI he spoke during the Christmas devotional on Sunday).  He gave an amazing talk on the importance of yoking ourselves to Christ, our companions, and members.  If we yoke ourselves it means we have to work together, but we also gain the strength to do far more than we can alone.  Tuesday night it was Vanhin Crump's Birthday (one of the Finns) so we had a bit of a celebration.  It was funny, they lifted him up in the air in a chair Bar Mitzvah style, it was hysterical.

Wednesday we had our last TRC so Elder Beveridge and I talked with Hampus from Sweden over Skype.  We had a great time talking about Christmas and the #LighttheWorld initiative the church has.  It is so much fun to be able to have great discussions with actual native speakers.

Sorry this email is so long, but it's my last one before Sweden!

I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy the Christmas season and take a second to ponder why we celebrate it.

Vi Ses!

-Elder Ashford

Week 5 - Preview Photo!

Here is a photo of another MN reunion at the MTC.  Tom Parkinson used to be in our ward several years ago before moving to Idaho and serving a mission in Norway.  Fun that they ran into each other at the MTC.  Thanks to Tom's mom Karen for sharing it on Facebook.  :)

Week 4 - Open Your Mouth

Hey everyone!  

It's been another great week here at the MTC, and now I only have a week and a half left.  It's Crazy!

Saturday I got to break out my sewing skills.  I got a small hole in my suit and had to stitch it up.  It might have been the first time I've sewed something since 7th grade.  (Thanks FACS class!)

Sunday definitely had a theme of obedience.  Our district meeting and devotional both covered that topic, and the video we watched that night was also in that theme.  We heard from Stephen B. Allen, the managing director of the Mission Department.  He was really funny.  He really understands what goes through missionaries thoughts.  He made a really great point of not letting Satan push our buttons.  He wants us to go home, give up, or not do our best.  His mission is to not let us live up to our potential.  We need to not let him push our buttons, and that's especially true as a missionary.  He talked about the importance of following mission rules and how they are not there to make our lives miserable.  They come from the First Presidency and nearly 200 years of Church missionary experience.  They are designed specifically to not allow Satan to take hold of us.  That same point was also referenced in the Holland Devotional recording that we watched that night.  He also mentioned that when Joseph Smith went to pray, Satan couldn't kill him, so he tried the next best thing, he bound his mouth so Joseph couldn't speak.  We can't allow him to shut our mouths.  We need to not be scared to share the truth of the Gospel with others.  When we are too scared, he has power over us.

Monday we finally got snowed that stayed!  It finally feels like winter.  One of the Elders in our district figured out our flight plans early.  We get to go through New York and Amsterdam to get to Stockholm.  It's crazy to think we only have 2 Sundays left before Sweden!  We also figured out from our teachers that the day we arrive, it should be some sort of light festival in Sweden that is supposed to be really cool.  We had a really cool day in class.  We talked about the amount of Faith that Enoch in the Bible and the Brother of Jared had in the Book of Mormon.  They must have had to have such obedience to receive the amount of power they did. It was a great discussion.  On our way back from class we took some pictures of the lights with the snow.  As we were walking back there was a huge snowball fight and we walked right through the middle of it.  It was great to see all of these missionaries having a great time.

Tuesday we heard from Jorge Zaballos of the Quorum of the Seventy.  He talked to us about making sure we teach with the Spirit.  We can't do everything for our investigators.  They need to be able to find their own answers, but we can certainly help.  Afterwards Elder Beveridge and I had leadership training since we are now zone leaders.  We talked about learning how to both administer and minister.  The phrase also popped into my head to have "love with expectations".  I really like that, especially the more I thought about it.  Whenever you are a leader to someone, they need to know you care about them.  If they know you care they will have respect and trust in you.  Then the expectations come in because that's how you encourage others to do their best.  You hold them accountable when they fall short and help them see how to improve.

Yesterday we had TRC again so we were teaching members in Swedish.  This time we Skyped a woman in Denmark who grew up in Sweden.  It was awesome!  We understood most of what she said, although her Swedish was also pretty rusty so she might have been speaking a little slower, but I won't complain.  We taught a good lesson on sharing our light with others.  We also shared a thought that we heard from Elder Zaballos that we don't say "Go to Christ", we say "Come unto Christ", implying that we need to already be near Christ before we can invite others.  It was really cool to talk to her, and it was amazing how much we came to care about her after only a 35 minute Skype call.  It's amazing how much easier it is to teach people and help them when you come to love the people you serve.  Yesterday I also got a whole bunch of cinnamon and orange rolls with some cookies in the mail.  Knowing that I wouldn't possibly be able to healthily eat them all by myself I shared them with the zone.  All the elders loved it!  Our zone has gotten really tight and we have a lot of fun together.

Today has been pretty quiet but that's not necessarily bad.  It's nice to have a brief break every once in a while.

-Elder Ashford

Elder Ashford and Elder Beveridge

MTC Campus lights with new snow

Snowball Fight!