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.
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| Provo Temple - Mountains |
These two pictures are from our last temple walk the Sunday before we left.
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| Provo Temple - Mountains |
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| 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.
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| 1st glimpse of Sweden |
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| 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.
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| This is a picture of Helsingborg and you can see Denmark on the other side of the water. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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