Week 52 - One Year Down...that's weird

Monday was an eventful day... I lost my wallet and despite our efforts did not succeed in finding it. So that's been fun. We did go to Gubbängen and played some basketball up there so that was fun.

Tuesday was awesome. We got to help plant the Autumn flowers at the temple! Most of the missionaries from around Stockholm were there. It was so much fun and the temple looks wonderful afterwards. I forgot to take pictures but I know others took some so those might show up in next week's email.

Wednesday was wet... It rained all day. We did a lot of finding work, knocking on people's doors and such.

Thursday we had district meeting and President Youngberg dropped in. He hadn't gotten a few people for interviews including Elder Langford and I so we took care of those.  We also had our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader talking about how the work was going and then ward council afterwards.

Friday we did some weekly planning and had some members take us out to lunch. They had some delicious hamburgers...seriously, so good.  We also swung by someone we have been in contact with and she is still super positive, we set up an appointment for the next day and everything.  We also did some door knocking and we ran into this guy who was willing to listen for a bit, took a copy of the Book of Mormon, and was okay with us coming back later at some point so that was awesome!

Saturday we helped out a little bit with a move. Our appointment ended up getting moved to sunday but we still had a good day. We did some more finding and had dinner with a member family that was a lot of fun. 

Sunday we had a great day in church and we got to meet with the lady we talked to on Friday. She wants to be baptized! It's so cool. The Spirit was there and she really is open to the church so that was awesome to see! We also had dinner with an awesome african family in the ward so that was pretty cool too.

It's been kind of weird because I have been out on my mission for about a year at this point... I'm halfway done. So weird...  Have a wonderful week everyone!

--Elder Ashford

Week 51 - The story of the lost Finnish JW woman

Monday we headed into Stockholm for P-day which was pretty fun and we did some shopping. 

Tuesday we went out and did some finding. We knocked on some doors including one guy that threatened to call the police on us so you know, normal day's work in the life of a missionary right?

Wednesday we had exchanges so Elder Lee from Hägersten and I were together here in Vendelsö. We knocked some doors and there was one pretty cute kid who knocked back on the window of the door so that was fun.

Thursday we had district meeting and then had lunch and got Elder Langford his first kebab (many missionaries refer to this first kebab eating experienced as being k-baptized). We did a few swing bys then. One old guy wanted to talk and discuss beliefs but wasn't actually interested in the church. We then tried to swing by someone else but he wasn't home but we had a back up plan to go knock doors in a different area so we went there. On our way though we got stopped by this old lady in her car. She was lost and was trying to get to Handen (which is 5 minutes away but out of our area) but she didn't speak any English and only a few words in Swedish and could only speak Finnish. We tried to explain how to get there but that almost stressed her out even more. She almost burst into tears a few times. She then insisted that we simply get in the car and come with her. We tried to call the Assistants and the mission president but neither of them answered but then we remembered that there was a member that lived about 100 yards away. We gave him a call and he drove up a few minutes later and his mom speaks Finnish so he was able to call her and get her to translate and we were able to help this lost Finnish JW lady. She just followed our member to Handen.

Friday we did weekly planning and some finding work. We also had a member meal and the wife was concerned that we didn't have any reflectors so she brought those as early Christmas presents at church on Sunday.

Saturday had a lesson which was fun. We did some studies and finding and had the musical that night. We gave out every single one of our 250 Book of Mormons. We also walked by the building where the term Stockholm Syndrome comes from as it is just across the street so that was interesting.

Sunday we had the Primary program which was a lot of fun to watch and we also were at the musical again.

It's been a great week and I look forward to writing next week!

--Elder Ashford

Pictures are of the district at lunch and then Elder Langford and I about to head out one day (he doesn't fit very well in our entry way).

Other pictures of Sweden courtesy of Elder Langford.

Week 50 - Elder Langford

Monday was a pretty relaxed P-day. Elder Anthon was packing as he prepared to move down to Malmö.

Tuesday we did a bunch of finding work. We actually ran into one of our potential investigators so that was pretty fun. We only had her phone number before but it was super good. We explained a little bit more about the Book of Mormon and then had to leave to go have dinner with some members. We had Flygande Jakob (Flying Jacob) which is delicious. It's a pretty common Swedish dish.

Photo found for Flygande Jacob 

Wednesday we went to the Gubbängen chapel for when the trainees meet their trainers, the three of us trainers who were waiting for our missionaries got sit through the training they gave while we wait for our new missionaries as their plane didn't arrive until about noon. After the larger group that arrived the day before all got their trainers, received a little bit of training, had lunch, and then left for their new areas we were left until our new missionaries came from the airport. A little while later they came and we got a shortened version of what the other missionaries had of meeting their trainers and everything which was exciting. My new companion is Elder Langford from Midland, Texas. After that quick orientation we went home to Vendelsö and got to work. Elder Langford is great, it's been fun to work with him. He's also a solid foot taller than I am so that's interesting, especially since our apartment has low ceilings in some parts so he's been a little cramped at times.

Thursday I led my first district meeting, it went pretty well but it was definitely my first district meeting so I'm still getting the hang of things. We had Elder Lanford's first member dinner so that was fun as he hadn't had much experience to actual Swedes yet.

Friday we did some service for a member of the ward. We dug out around his garage for him and then helped do some landscaping in his back yard. We found this giant cement block in a pile of dirt, it was probably 18"x36"x8". It probably weighed somewhere around 250 pounds. We managed to load it onto a trailer along with a bunch of other stuff to take to the recycling center. We then had dinner with another member family that night and knocked some doors nearby.

On Saturday we did weekly planning and a lot of knocking doors. There was this one lady that we were just standing outside her door about to move on when she came out for a smoke. She hadn't seen us and so I said hello and she more or less jumped she was so startled. After her initial shock she smiled about it. It was pretty funny.

Sunday was pretty awesome. We had a Stake Conference and L Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the seventy was there. It was a really cool conference. There were a few speakers but there was a lot of stuff that was really applicable to life. He talked about the story of Lehi's vision as well as tying it to the story from a general conference talk that related it to how a plane has to be exactly on course or else a miscalculation of even the slightest degree can have a massive impact on the trajectory of the plane. We got home from that and then we had some time. We met a guy and talked with him for a while, but he wasn't interested in the church other than to know a little more about it. We then traveled to Västerhaninge's chapel to see a broadcast from Elder Ballard to the Europe area.  IT WAS AMAZING! I loved it. He talked about how we need to believe in miracles and believe that we can make miracles happen. 

Have a great week!

-Elder Ashford

Week 49 - It Came! It Finally Came!

Good job to all of you who correctly guessed that as a Toy Story reference, I'll explain that one in a minute.

Last Monday we went out proselyting for while, we went tracting and we tried to swing by this one lady that said to try again later. We knocked on the door and a man answered and we asked if he was familiar with our church. He said he was and then followed it up by telling one of the kids "Hämta morfar" or "Go get Grandpa". We continue talking and then next thing we know our ward mission leader comes up! That was a surprise. It was his granddaughter's birthday party that we accidentally tracted into. It was quite the surprise but we all laughed about it.

Tuesday we mostly just did more knocking on doors and talking to people on the street.

Wednesday we did our weekly planning early because the rest of the week was going to be very busy.

Thursday we had District meeting which was fun as always. We talked about better planning and goal setting which was awesome. We also had a couple meetings that night with the ward.

Friday we had our 'train the trainers' meeting (again). We traveled into Stockholm and had our training which went really well. We were the last ones home though pretty much since we didn't have any appointments and we had bus cards so we waited while everyone else who had to catch trains or even planes to get back to their areas were shuttled to the station so we didn't get home until dinner time.

Saturday was interesting. We got rained on (again... it's been raining all week) but I didn't bring a jacket with a hood or my umbrella because I guessed that it wouldn't rain... I was wrong. We also got a call from President Youngberg. I am going to be a district leader! Our current district is way too big so we are splitting it so I will now be the District leader for the Vendelsö-Hägersten district. It's going to be pretty exciting! We also went to the musical again in Stockholm to hand out books and that was pretty fun, we didn't have the late night shift this time so that was nice.

Sunday we had a really great fast and testimony meeting. I love Testimony meeting because everyone who wants to share their testimony of what they know to be true can share their thoughts. It was a great meeting, especially with everyone having General Conference fresh on their mind. After church we had dinner at a member's home before then taking one of the members with us to a lesson at the church really fast. We missed the bus that we needed to take to get to the musical again in Stockholm so we had the member drive us to the train station so we could catch a train instead and it all worked out great, we even got to the musical a bit early! We gave out all 220 Book of Mormons that were brought and there were still a few people that wanted one. It was super cool.

This week looks like it will be exciting, I'll let you know all about my new companion next week.  

The pictures are of a very wet Elder Anthon and I as well as the fact that Julmust is already back!? (Julmust is a Christmas soft drink here in Sweden... the date today is October 9... what is going on)

-Elder Ashford

Week 48 - General Conference!

It's been a pretty awesome week so here we go!

On Monday we went to Stockholm for P-day. We went and walked around a bit and helped Elder Jackson pick out some new suits for his birthday. We then went to Västerhaninge where we met one of our investigators with the missionaries in Västerhaninge because unfortunately she lives in their ward boundaries not ours... But the lesson went super well and the missionaries there will do a great job.  We started on our way home but swung through Brandbergen to briefly talk to some people and we managed to get a hold of 2 people we had talked to previously and set up a meeting and played some basketball with one of our investigators for about 5 minutes before we ran for a bus. Elder Anthon and I did not represent America well as it was clear neither of us really played back home and we were also pretty rusty so the hand coordination was almost non-existent.

Tuesday we went and met one of the people we talked to Monday night but he wasn't super positive and then our other appointment canceled so we did some more finding work.

Wednesday we met with one of our recent converts again and talked about the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome! I really love the Plan of Salvation. It really shows to me that God loves us. There is a purpose and a goal in this life and we have potential that He wants to help us reach!  We also went and ate dinner with some members but beforehand we helped them out for a bit because they are redoing the ceiling in on of their rooms so they needed a hand. That was pretty fun. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I picked up a drill.

Thursday was District meeting which was great as always. I always learn something new and I love it. We knocked some doors which went pretty well.

Friday we planned for the week and then tried to find a member that we could bring an investigator to to watch General Conference, we called about half the ward but they were all sick or already had plans. 

By Saturday we found a solution... only to find out the person who we were hoping could come got called into work... that was a bit of a bummer. We went with a member on a hometeaching lesson to visit an older lady in the ward so that was fun. We then got to see the first session of General Conference! General Conference is the best. We get to sit and listen to our prophet and apostles speak to us every six months and the guidance they give is always super helpful. We watched the Saturday morning session (it started at 6 pm here) and I felt like so much of what was said was extremely helpful and applicable to me and the things I have been thinking about. If you haven't checked it out yet on lds.org I would recommend you do so.  We were watching and writing notes while eating candy. Missionaries like to buy "Conference Godis". Godis is candy but in Sweden one buys candy buy taking a scoop, scooping whatever candy you want out of a wide assortment and then paying by the weight. (You can literally buy by the kilo and it is ridiculous)

Sunday we watched 3 sessions of Conference so that was most of our day but it was absolutely fantastic. I am so grateful that we have prophets and apostles in our day who speak to us and help us with the concerns of our day!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

--Elder Ashford

This week's photos:

First picture is of a funny sign on a mailbox. It says "No advertisements, but absolutely lots of love letters." The next one is of Stockholm.