P-day was pretty relaxed. We hung out with the Handen Elders for awhile. We also got a haircut and one of the members in Handen's ward was there and he bought our haircuts for us so that was awesome!
Tuesday We had a lesson with a girl and she was pretty positive so that was cool. It turns out that she actually lives in Nynäshamn which is in Västerhaninge's ward so we will be introducing her to the missionaries there. We then had a meal with some members in the ward but they actually forgot that they were feeding us. Thankfully they had simply made Swedish pancakes (It's a little thicker than a crepe) so they just made a few more and we still got to eat. We all kind of laughed at the situation.
Wednesday we had Zone Conference. That was fun especially since it was my birthday. As far as mission birthdays go, zone conference is nothing to complain about. We got to see a whole bunch of old friends and we had some great training as well. I got a lot of answers to questions and ideas to solve things I've been trying to figure out for a while now so that was awesome. When we prepare spiritually and search for answers, God will give us what we need to know. During lunch they sang the Swedish version of happy birthday to everyone that had a birthday since last zone conference. The Swedish birthday song is so epic, I still can't get over it. The first line is either "Ja man han lever" or "Ja man han leva" if you want to try to find a clip of it on YouTube or something. After Zone Conference we got to go have dinner with a member family before going back to the church to have interviews with President Youngberg. Interviews are always a highlight. We have about 5 to ten minutes 1 on 1 with the mission president, it's great.
Ja, må han leva!
Ja, må han leva!
Ja, må han leva uti hundrade år!
Javisst ska han leva!
Javisst ska han leva!
Javisst ska han leva uti hundrade år!
In English:
Yes, may he live!
Yes, may he live!
Yes, may he live for a hundred years!
Of course he will live!
Of course he will live!
Of course he will live for a hundred years!
The song usually ends with four repetitions of “Hurra!”
Thursday we had a lesson with one of our recent converts which was a lot of fun. Her testimony is super solid which is awesome to see. She loves the Gospel and just wants to know more. We also did quite a bit of finding work and we somehow we exchanged numbers with a Polish man. He could only speak a few phrases of English and Swedish so in addition to that we communicated through google translate and charades but it worked! We promised to bring him a Book of Mormon in Polish and he seemed to be looking forward to it.
Friday we had weekly planning. We also used google translate to set up a meeting with our new found Polish friend so that we could give him his copy of The Book of Mormon. Speaking of The Book of Mormon we got to go to Stockholm and we passed out copies of the Book of Mormon to people walking out of the Book of Mormon Musical there. We probably gave out 150 to 200 copies that night. We didn't go to bed until about 11:40 at night because we were passing out the books from about 10:15 to 10:35 and then had to travel home after that. It was cool though. A lot of people are impressed that we are there. At first some of them think we are with the play and then they realize we are the real deal and are amazed that we would show up on the doorstep to a play making fun of us, but there we are!
Saturday we talked with people on the street. We also went to a ward activity. Our chapel was built about a year ago so they were celebrating. We were there for a little bit but none of the investigators we invited were there and so we left after a little bit only to find out later that one of our investigators actually came after we left. We went back to the play again that night as well to give out Book of Mormons and it went well, I think we gave out more than on Friday night. We then returned home and once again went to bed around 11:40... that was brutal.
Sunday we had church which went well. One of our members brought a friend so we taught him a little bit. That was super cool. We also had to take care of Handen's investigators because the Handen Elders were doing exchanges with the Elders on Gotland (the big island of the coast of Sweden) and they weren't getting back until that night. So we actually went to Sacrament meeting twice. We went home for lunch and then came back that night because in addition to the party the day before the ward was also celebrating with a concert. It was awesome! They had a lot of really great songs, including one that mixed some church song with the Na Na Na Hey Ya Na part from the movie Frozen. That was unexpected but it was pretty cool. Learning from our mistake on Saturday we stayed at the concert despite not seeing our investigators come and one of the members introduced us to one of her friends that came that is interested in the church so that was exciting!
Hope you all have a wonderful week! General Conference is coming up this next weekend where the Prophet and Apostles will speak to us and I can't wait to hear what guidance they have in store!
--Elder Ashford
Pictures are of Me and Sister Hill at Zone Conference (We both started our missions in Helsingborg.)
Then there was a few of us using the party favors my mom care packaged me for my birthday.
Then there is me and Elder Anthon at the musical.
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