Week 12 - Joy Despite Challenges

This week was a good week.

Tuesday we helped a member.  He is older and had some things in storage that needed to be moved to his apartment so we helped him out.  We then had a great lesson with him.  He shared with us his conversion story which was awesome!  We also shared some thoughts on prayer using Alma 37: 35 - 37.  We actually used those verses a lot in our appointments this week but they are really good description of the power of prayer and why it is important to pray to our Heavenly Father every day.  We had a lesson with an investigator fall through when he didn't show up ( missionaries here even have the term 'getting blåsted' for that situation (sounds like boasted)).  We ended up contacting for awhile and then calling some ward members and potential investigators.  

Wednesday we had a lot of good lessons on the street and we had a great lesson with an older lady in the ward that really brought the Spirit into our day, so that was awesome.

Thursday we had district meeting.  We had a really good discussion on what blessings do we receive from the other topics for this month which were setting goals, learning from opposition, and serving our companion.  It was also Äldste White's last district meeting so we had a funeral which was really funny.  We got him a pineapple instead of flowers which made it even funnier.  Just imagine a 20 year old guy laying on a table with a pineapple on his chest while we give our remarks as if he's dead.  It was hard to keep a straight face.

These are from the funeral, and the last 2 are pictures of our district.

I wasn't kidding about the pineapple.

Note from Mom: Mormon Missionaries often have their own unusual customs that are common in areas all over - where ever they may be serving. One of the admittedly stranger traditions is "funerals."  When Missionaries are near the end of their mission, they often have a "funeral."  It is a time when the missionaries they are serving with will say nice things about them as though they had already passed on (to a life beyond their mission) and as you see, they have fun with it.

Friday we did some service and raked leaves outside of the church.  We also did a lot of contacting because we got blåsted again... by the same guy.  Let's just say we are learning patience this week.  We had fun though contacting, we walked all the way to the edge of Landskrona, about 15 to 20 minutes away from our apartment, and then we waited for about 5 minutes for a bus back and right as it is about to pull up, my companion realized he left his bus card at the apartment... so we got to walk back instead.  It was rather amusing.  

Saturday we did another stand outside the church but no one was really interested.  We then had a member dinner.  We had weekly planning after that so that took up the rest of our day.

Sunday I gave a talk in Swedish!  It was only 5 minutes and I had to write the entire thing out ahead of time but it went really well.  A lot of the members said they liked it which was good.  The subject was how to experience joy despite life's challenges.  I ended up using the talk from this last October General Conference titled "Joy and Spiritual Survival" by Russell M Nelson.  It is a really good talk about how joy comes not from what happens to us but what we focus, especially if we focus on the Plan of Salvation, Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  I also shared Doctrine and Covenants 122:7 about how we have difficulty in this life to give us experiences for our good.  I then went back to the talk and shared the story that Elder Nelson talks about from Eliza R Snow about the saints in a freezing winter huddled in a cabin with wind blowing through the cracks and then he quotes 

Eliza recorded: “Not a complaint was heard—all were cheerful, and judging from appearances, strangers would have taken us to be pleasure excursionists rather than a band of gubernatorial exiles.” 

Eliza’s report of that exhausting, bone-chilling evening was strikingly optimistic. She declared: “That was a very merry night. None but saints can be happy under every circumstance.”

I really loved this great example of how they were able to find joy despite the unpleasantness of their situation because of their focus on the Gospel.  If we have an Eternal Perspective, or God's perspective, we can always find joy.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and find the joy in life.

--Elder Ashford

Old Water Tower in Landskrona designed by Frederick Sundbärg in 1903-4. 

Week 11 - Weak Things Become Strong

This week was not as eventful for the most part as weeks past but here goes...

Monday was P-day.  We actually had dinner with a member family.  The dad is from the US so they made us enchiladas which was awesome!  (It's kind of hard to get Mexican food here.)

Tuesday there was not a lot that happened.

Wednesday was windy Wednesday.  Most of the south got some heavy winds and further south of us was so bad that I think 3 trains had issues so trains couldn't get through and I think Malmö for a time didn't let any trains out of the station.  It wasn't as bad in Landskrona but we tried to go contacting and there was nobody out there so we gave up on that pretty fast.  I doubt anyone would have wanted to stay and talk with us anyways... if they could even hear us.  We had a lesson with an investigator but he liked to talk and it was hard to really teach him anything.  It was really frustrating for me to deal with.  Swedes seem to be happy to talk to you but for the most part are kind of content with their lives and don't want to change.  It has definitely taken some getting used to.  The title for this week comes from Ether 12:27 and it talks about how if we are humble and come to God, he will strengthen us where we are weak.  It was a good reminder for me and a good opportunity to learn patience and diligence.  Unfortunately I can't make decisions for others, they have to choose the Gospel for themselves, so I need to do everything that I can and not feel so bad if others choose not to.  It's a great reminder of how God gave us agency and the ability to choose.

Ether 12:27
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.
I give unto men weakness that they may be humble;
and my grace is sufficient for all men
that humble themselves before me;
for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me,
then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Friday we met with an older lady from the ward.  We gave her a lesson and the sacrament and it was a lot of fun.  She is always very funny and I love visiting her.  We also had an appointment with an investigator... except he didn't show up.  As we went back to the apartment however, we got a call from a less active in the ward who teaches with the missionaries on and off asking if we could meet.  Since we had a sudden opening we accepted and we met and talked.  He actually told us about some old investigators who could be interested in being taught again so we made some calls and actually set up an appointment with one right then and there!  It was awesome!  While it was unfortunate that our one appointment fell through it was awesome to see how we were ready for this opportunity.  I don't really believe it was a coincidence, I think God may have had a guiding hand in it.  What a miracle.

Saturday we did a lot of contacting and had an awesome lesson with a less active family about the restoration.  We watched the twenty minute video called (believe it or not) 'The Restoration'  and then talked about it.  The spirit was there and the family loved it.

Sunday we had church and we actually spent time testing the translation equipment (some of the units needed batteries) because some of them were not working last week.  We also had a really good meal with a member family with rice and stew.

Today we actually went bowling which was a lot of fun. 

 We also walked around Helsingborg and took some pictures. 
My camera actually worked this time! 

I'll be sure to send some of them but warning: it might take a few emails.
(Mom's note: it took 2 additional emails.)

Hallå, Denmark!

    

Week 10 - Faith, Trials, Miracles and an iPhone

So this week has been super wild so bear with me here.

Let me just go ahead and start with Sunday.  The Halmstad Elders came down and worked our area with us, so I was with Äldste Porter.  We went out contacting and we meant to just go out for an hour.  We ended up talking with a guy from Uruguay for like 20 minutes and it went pretty well, but we ended up missing our train so we decided we would just keep contacting for half an hour until our next train came.  We then ended up contacting a Swedish man.  I was expecting it to be a short conversation like we usually get but it turned into a discussion that lasted at least 35 minutes.  It was so awesome to meet him and hear about his life and to testify of the gospel.  We actually ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and switched numbers with him.  He was my first potential investigator I've gotten for my own area!  We had had little success during the Christmas season finding anyone we could teach and we finally got one.  Äldste Porter and I actually missed our second train while talking to him so we ended up going to the station to make sure we didn't miss the next one, but I know that that man was the reason why we missed the first train.  We needed to talk to him.  He was actually only the first of 6 potential investigators we got over the span of 4 days!  It's so awesome that after a lot of prayer and work that we finally are seeing more success.  

Monday we went to Malmö to do some shopping so I got a better winter coat, some other stuff, and a hand clicker for counting contacts!  (It's so much fun to click it)  Later that day we went back to proselyting and we talked to 21 people and got 4 lessons on the street and found 2 more potential investigators!  I started getting really excited because after getting rejected so many times by people we were finally finding more people to teach about the Gospel.

Tuesday we did more contacting and downloaded a Book of Mormon onto CDs for one of our potential investigators.  (well, at least the first half because we only had 10 CDs.  Fun fact: we discovered that the Book of Mormon requires 23 CDs to get the full thing)  We also found another potential investigator and gave him a Book of Mormon in Persian.  (another note.  I've started keeping track of the countries and languages I've run into because there are so many.  So far in 4 weeks I've met people from at least 25 countries that I know of and probably upwards of 20 languages)

Wednesday we contacted, tried and failed to meet with a potential investigator, and I also did some family history.  It was super cool because I actually found the parents for someone we didn't have before!  I was so excited to find people that we didn't know about!  We also got a self-referral so we stopped by, got his number and gave him a Book of Mormon.  We then went contacting and actually found another potential investigator, it was awesome!

Thursday was where it started to get... interesting.  We had a really good district meeting and talked about how we deal with trials and how we can learn lessons from our hardships.  It was a really good reminder of why we have opposition and difficulty in this life.  Speaking of opposition, I ended up dropping our phone and the screen went black... and it wouldn't turn on again... oops.  We went on splits with Halmstad after that, and we were down a phone.  We weren't able to set up any appointments without the phone so we went contacting.  I felt like going to the less busy area of Landskrona, in the residential area for some reason so we went out and tried to talk to people.  There were not many people at all and we didn't have many that wanted to talk to us.  But at one point I just felt like following the spirit.  I just felt like going down one road then the next, then cross the street, and sure enough I stopped this woman who was just running home.  We had a really good discussion and we explained the First Vision.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she took our card.  With the phone not working I forgot to actually get hers so I hope she eventually calls us.  *fingers crossed*

Friday was the 13th day after Christmas which is another holiday so all the bus and train schedules were a little different.  We met back with Äldste Murtonen and Äldste White to end splits.  We then went to the church because they brought Äldste Porter's iFixit kit so he ended up working on our phone for about 4 hours, including during our ward Christmas party.  He couldn't find a way to fix it unfortunately but we did discover that the mission office would reimburse us for it if we went to get it fixed. 

Saturday we went to the store and turned in the phone, they said that it might not get fixed until the next week.  We then went to Helsingborg in case we needed to use the Sister's phone to set up an appointment with anyone.  The sisters then got a call from the store, our phone had been fixed within 3 hours!  It was a miracle!  We had been praying so hard to get it working again so that we could get a hold of investigators and it went from needing a week to a mere 3 hours.

On Sunday we got a call while we were at the church about a half hour early from one of our less actives that he wants us to help him get from the station to the church and that he would be there in 20 minutes.  Äldste Murtonen and I had to rush to the station to pick him up, thankfully one of the members was willing to drive us.  The sisters also had a new investigator.  He was someone they had contacted on the street but never met with and he came to church!  It was amazing!  We have had so many miracles!

If there is one lesson I have learned it is that miracles happen as long as we have faith.  In Ether 12:6 it says that "faith is things hoped for and not seen, wherefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

Week 9 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

 I know I'm emailing a day early but because of New Year's we have a P-day schedule and I don't know if I will have a lot of time to email tomorrow because we are going to Malmö for our actual P-day.  

Monday for P-day we went to to the mall and I got a Fjällräven backpack.  It's a Swedish brand that is really popular among missionaries.  We also had a member dinner with more Christmas food because the day after Christmas is sort of like another  holiday in Sweden, the food was really good.  

Tuesday we did a lot of contacting on the street.  It has been really hard to meet with people to teach because of Christmas and New Year's.  At one point Äldste Murtonen had the thought to swing by one of our investigator's that we weren't planning on visiting and that we hadn't been able to get in contact with.  We ended up running into his girlfriend actually.  He had lost his phone and had gotten a new one but we didn't have his number and we got it from her.  It was a small miracle!  We had some good conversations on the street as well and I have been trying to contribute more, even with my limited Swedish.  

Wednesday we traveled an hour away to meet with a less active who recently moved into our ward.  Him and his daughter served some really good arabic food that was delicious.  We had a really good meeting with him and we could tell that he has a really strong testimony of the gospel.  We then had run a little bit to catch our bus back to Helsingborg, it was even a double decker which I thought was especially interesting.  We did some contacting and then had yet another member meal for dinner that was also delicious.  We had a great meeting with them and a a fun discussion about temples.

Thursday was great.  We had district meeting and part of the preparation for that was that we were all supposed to read the talk "What lack I Yet?" from the October General Conference in 2015.  It is a great talk about how we can ask God what it is that he wants us to improve on.  He [Elder Larry R. Lawrence] shared some examples of people's experience and I thought it was interesting that the Spirit only gave them one thing to work on at a time, and it was something surprisingly simple.  It's a great talk and I would definitely recommend applying it because there is always something we can improve on.  Our district meeting was on planning and the importance of goals.  If we don't have goals we lack the direction to really achieve anything.  I have been able to accomplish so much more in the day because we set goals and plan everyday.  I never have to wonder if there is something I should be doing.  Later that day we met a less active family for dinner.  We shared a message on the Gospel of Christ.  It was an awesome discussion... despite the efforts of their very energetic 16 month old daughter.  They also had some really good other questions for us about sharing the gospel with others, questions others have asked them, and others that we did our best to answer and I could feel that we were really able to bring the Holy Ghost into their home.  It was awesome!  On a funny note, on our way there, we actually got stopped for once by someone who gave us some pamphlets about Islam.  It was interesting to be on the receiving end for once.  I ended up giving him one of our pass-along cards in exchange.

Friday my visa paperwork and residence card showed up so Äldste Murtonen and I had the fun experience of going to fill out paperwork so that I can get a Personnummer, which is the Swedish version of a Social Security number that you need every time you go to the doctor, go to the dentist, etc...  We also visited an older lady in the ward and had a wonderful discussion on the Plan of Salvation.  Two other women in the ward came in a bit late but they also joined in.  They also all missed the sacrament on Sunday so we got to help give that to them, it was my first time in Swedish to so that was cool.  We had yet another member dinner that night (My companion tells me not to expect so many meals with ward members after New Year's) this family was actually the first family I had dinner with in Sweden.  After that meal we went to Helsingborg and did more contacting.  We actually had a really great conversation with a muslim couple and we even gave them a Book of Mormon!  We weren't able to get their number but hopefully something comes out of that.  We actually missed our train because we talked longer than expected and had to contact for another half hour until the next train came.

Saturday we did some weekly planning and thought of some new ideas for how to have the members help with missionary work and how we can find some new ways to find people to teach.  I'm kind of excited to see what happens.  We had a member dinner for New Year's and there were actually 3 families from the ward there which was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately because the next day was Sunday we had to be home by 10.  I had prepared a thought but we didn't get a chance to share it but I can share the talk with all of you.  It was "A Year of Jubilee" from the 1999 October General Conference from the Sunday Evening session.  It was a great talk [by Elder L. Tom Perry] about using the new year (because it was the last General Conference for the century) to set goals and make time for the things that matter like family scripture study, family prayer, and family home evening.  There was also a great quote in it from Spencer W Kimball about changing our environment to invite the spirit more.  It was a fantastic talk that is worth studying for New Year's.

After we got back to the apartment we tried to go to bed at 10:30 like we were supposed to but it was hard to sleep and then at midnight it became impossible.  We live right by the park in the middle of Landskrona and people were setting off fireworks.  These Swedes were going crazy with the fireworks, they were all over the city!  We ended just getting up and watching for a few minutes because we knew we weren't going to be able to fall asleep until the fireworks calmed down.

It's been a great week and I'm so excited to see what the rest of my mission holds in store.

I hope you all have a great 2017!

P.S.  I have a whole bunch of pictures both from this week and last.

Main Street in Helsingborg.  Their apartment is nearby.

A few photos of the Tower in Helsingborg.

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.