Annandag Jul

Letter sent December 26, 2016:

The closest thing we got to our own Christmas tree (we decorated it)

Well, Merry Christmas ya'll. I hope you all had white Christmases because we got a wet warm one! Definitely not what I expected when I got called to Sweden but it was 10 degrees on Christmas! We were going scarf-less it was so warm. I almost thought I was on a deluxe Hawaiian vacation or something. 

This week has just flown by with all the Christmas festivities! We had dinner with a few members, the Del Barco's, Elisabeth Johansson, and Mamma Rosa. Mamma Rosa is one of our investigators and she is the absolute best!! She made us the yummiest food and kept offering her apartment to us saying that we could come just relax there and sleep over some nights and come cook food there if we want because she has her other apartment. We wish that worked with our rules but unfortunately not. She told us she wants to be our mother here in Sweden. Sister McClatchie and I were like, you are the kind of people that our parents pray for. People to just take care of us. 

We went and Christmas caroled in the middle of the city in Lund with our district of Friday. It was so fun and such a struggle haha. First you just have to know that no one in our district is a real singer. The first song we sung was "Nu Tändas Tusen Jule Ljus" which is just absolutely beautiful but isn't super upbeat. It took us  while to really get going. It turned out way fun though. 

Friday night we also had a dinner for one of our investigators and a new convert. We and the elders made it and it turned out so fun! 

Then Saturday was Christmas Eve!! The day that they all celebrate here in Sweden. We're allowed to watch Christmas movies for Christmas so it was unanimously agreed upon by the missionaries in Malmö that it was necessary to wake up at and meet at the church at 6 to begin watching Christmas movies so that we could get a few in before we went to members houses. Later, we went over to Per Larsson's house and made Christmas candy to bring to neighbors and then watched Kalle Anka. Then we went over to May-Elin's for the real fest! It was so so so much fun. They have 6 girls and we just had a blast with them opening their presents and eating divine Norwegian food. 

5:30 am, ready for Disney!

Christmas Eve with the Westgards

Then yesterday was Christmas day and it was just so good! I love having church on Christmas because you get a whole hour to just really remember why we're celebrating the day. The spirit was so strong in sacrament meeting. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and that he was born. That he lived for us. I know that the atonement is for each one of us! It's for YOU. I love Christmas time.

After church we went over to David Bäckström's and ate and skyped. Gahh, it was so good to see the FAM!!! I love you all and how did everyone get so giant?? 

Then this morning Sister McClatchie invited all the sister missionaries that live in Skåne over for a Christmas brunch. It was so much fun to have all the sisters together. I love the missionaries in this mission. Sweden is crazy and these people are the best. 

Christmas Brunch

I love you!!! Have a fabulous annandag jul (another holiday on Swedish calendars..."another day Christmas")

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Syster May

GOD JUL

Letter sent December 19, 2016:

You can't see, but the Christmas tree behind us is MASSIVE

Sorry for the lack of email last week. Some quick updates from last week. We went to Västra Frölunda for work overs and then zone conference. We had to fold a million napkins into christmas trees for the zone conference to please sister Watson, a senior missionary who always does all the cooking for our conferences over here on the west coast. I would do anything for Sister Watson. She is the most loving human I have ever met. Plus, let's be honest. I love doing mundane crafts/tasks like folding a hundred napkins into Christmas trees. We got transfer calls last Saturday and found out that all the elders were going to leave Malmö and 4 new elders were coming. And that I would be staying in Malmö!!! I am so happy. I love love love love Malmö. 

Folding napkin trees with Syster Wagner and Syster Heaps

This week has been solid. On Monday we went down pretty south to Trelleborg to get pizza. Missionary rumor is that the pizza (kebab) gets better the more southern you are in Sweden so we had to go eat at the most southern pizzeria. Afterwards as we started driving back the sunset was just absolutely beautiful so we pulled oft to take pictures. There was a pence by the parking lot but there was an opening and trail off to the side so we went in that way and stood on the ledge of land for a while taking pictures. Then we decided to go out on a little arm of land that stretched a little ways out into the ocean. We were all out on this little arm having a great time until someone decided to breath through their nose and we looked down and realized that this peninsula thing was made up of compost. We quickly realized that we were frolicking on a pile of poop and ran back asap. Turns out the fence wasn't trying to limit our fun, it was just trying to protect us. Anyways, I'm attaching a picture of the sunset because holy cow it was perfect and the moon was shining so brightly. It's on the other side of the panorama. Beautiful. That night we handed out a bunch of cupcakes that May-Elin (she's like a professional cake decorator) had baked on buses. Everyone was so happy and it really felt like Christmas. We were like, we don't even care that we aren't invited anywhere for Christmas, we just want to hand out cupcakes on buses all day. It was the best. 

Moon/sunset beauty

Classic

Making cupcake toppers at May-Elin's

On Tuesday we had another classic missionary day of all our lessons cancelling. So we went out contacting and holy cow I was just not feeling it at the beginning but by the end it was so much fun. I love that that always happens. I think that contacting for hours is going to be the worst and then it turns out to be the best because I get to tell so many people about God and Jesus Christ and when they actually stay and talk back it's so rewarding. 

On Wednesday we said goodbye to the fivepan. Elder Loerstcher left at 7am and then Elder Frankman left later and then elder cox. They had to use our bus cards and we had to get their phones and transfer reports so we ended up being at the station when the left and it was so sad. But we were so excited for all the new elders to come in and join us in the best city in the world. No disappointment. They got in that night and we had to hand over all the phones. I had felt so powerful all day with three phones. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Cox, the last member of the 5pan

The new Malmo crew

On Thursday we had dinner at the bishops house. I love their family. They have a son reminds me so much of Dalton. He's like 10 and the whole time they were like, "Sorry, we don't know when he's going to grow up." Haha, reminded me of home. On Friday we had district meeting. Then we taught a lady who used to be taught in Stockholm but had lost contact with the church. A lot of recent circumstances in her life have directed her to know that she needs to learn more about Jesus Christ now. She speaks Persian so next time we'll have a translator with us even though she speaks decent Swedish because she says she really wants to understand our message. Then we did family history with Lena. She's a master, I'm tellin ya. If every person was as good at family history as Lena then everyone would be found by now and the millenium wouldn't even be necessary. Then we taught our investigator named Jennifer. We read through the family: a proclamation to the family and talked about how we all are Gods children and have divine potential. The spirit was really there. It was so good. Then that night we were supposed to go Christmas caroling for a ward activity but like no one came so that was kind of a let down. Sweden really kills the joy of Christmas caroling because A) all buildings have portcodes so you can't just surprise people with singing. You have to like hope that they answer and let you into the building and then they just already know you're there. Also really puts a damper on swinging by and dropping of Christmas treats because, same problem. If you somehow do get into the building they don't have a walkway or porch to drop christmas treats off on if they aren't home. Basically, I'm just really excited to be able to do that next year. I love how everyone in the ward has "their treat" that they bring each year. I was thinking about the Carters homemade melt-away mints and moms white chocolate pretzel stuff. Yum. BUT, mine and sister McClatchie's "caroling" went well. We had a great night. 

The angels of the ward:  Karmen, Sara, Bianca, and Alva

Saturday we met with Khaldoon. He had read the whole restoration pamphlet before we even met and was just so sincere. Then at the end he prayed and said he was grateful that he had received so many answers to his questions. We're so excited to meet with him again. 

Sunday. The ward came in so clutch and people invited us over for Christmas. We're so excited to get to visit so many members this next week. We're going to spend Christmas Eve with May-Elin. She is our Norwegian mother. I love her and her whole family. It just feels like home there.

I'm so excited for CHRISTMAS. I'm so happy to be a missionary again this year. It really helps to remember why I really celebrate Christmas. It's so incredible to visit so many people. Some of which are well off and others which aren't and be able to see humble Christmas celebrations. I'm so grateful that Jesus Christ was born. That he lived and died for us. I know that He loves us and that he can help us with everything that we go through. He is our Savior and the light of the world.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

Syster May

The Fivepan

Letter sent December 5, 2016:

With Mandi at Julfesten

 This week was so fab. On Monday we went and visited the sweetest lady in the ward named Jesy. Her son is the most obedient child I have ever seen. He's like 2 and he cleaned up all his toys without being asked and just kept playing quietly with them. 

Tuesday we went up to the beautiful land of Jönköping. It felt so good to be back in my old stomping grounds. Syster Gill and I had a great time together. She is a wonderful missionary and I'm so happy I got to spend a day with her! It was so good to walk the streets of Östra centrum again. 

Jonkoping with Syster Gill

Thursday we had district meeting. Nothing describes missionary life in Sweden better than our life on Thursday. We had the whole day planned with member present lessons and no extra time and then everything canceled. Classic. So we got some solid time out on the beautiful lit up streets of Malmö.

Friday I got to go to Helsingborg to do the work with Sister Eldridge for a day! I love her. Another classic missionary day occurred so we hit the streets. It's always fun to contact in a different city than your own. 

Helsingborg with Syster Eldridge

Saturday we had our wards Christmas party. SO FUN. We danced around the Christmas tree. (similar dances to the ones we did around the midsommar pole in the summer) I love that it doesn't matter what you age is, all swedes get up and dance around the tree like a bunch of kids. It's so much fun. We (all missionaries) got asked to do a musical number aka just sing we wish you a merry christmas. So the piano player gave us the music to sing to and it just was a bit of a train wreck because I'm pretty sure she printed the lyrics off from a Swedish website because it was not the same "we wish you a merry christmas" that I have been singing my whole life. But it made everyone laugh so I guess mission accomplished right?

Yesterday we had dinner with two young members in the ward; Matilda and Isabelle. I love them. We always feel so welcome in their cozy little apartment. We got a talking to because all Americans drive our cars too much and we're destroying the world. The fivepan had our debut thought together. Haha it was fun to have all of us teach the thought instead of just one companionship. I can describe our past week in Malmö no better than with "the Fivepan!!" One of us will shout it out and then the rest of us will echo shouts of "the fivepan!" (disclaimer: we're not actually a fivepan in case anyone was worried)

Malmo lights

That's a wrap. I just love the Christmas season. We've gotten a few "God Jul"s on the street and it's just real cheery. I love the advent calendar that the church created of ways that we can all follow Jesus Christ's example during the month of December. I've recently been amazed by the amount of love that God and Jesus Christ have for each one of us. I have a very current testimony that this church is true. That the gospel brings happiness faster, better, and more lasting than any other thing in the world. I love it. And I love all of you!

kram kram,

Syster May

Lights

Letter sent November 28, 2016:

Malmo's lights

Not much to say, not much time. Basically the best thing (besides getting to do missionary work every day) was that McClatch and I made the worlds best pumpkin pie together. It was perfect. I was and still am obsessed with it. Even though it's gone. 

The perfect pumpkin pie

The first advent was yesterday so Malmö finally turned on the lights they've been setting up for the past month. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. There is a whole fair thing in one town square. With a carousel and igloos and giants light animals. And down the street there are a bunch of christmas cabins selling cute things like mittens and food. 

Thanksgiving was so fun. We spent it at the Saffer's house. And then had a second Thanksgiving in Karlskrona on workovers. I was so full. it was so good. (see description of our perfect pumpkin pie above)

Also I wore a turtleneck yesterday. Mom would be proud.

Everyone go watch the new christmas video on mormon.org

It's so good.

Ha en underbar vecka! 

Syster May

Monday with the Malmo crew

Malmo lights

Workovers in Karlskrona with Syster Datwyler

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Letter sent November 21, 2016:

with the Täby sisters

Tjena!

This week was packed, and started out with a train ride to Stockholm last Monday night!  (Some throwing up was involved.  Poor elders.)  Ah I love that city.  We got to stay in Täby and it felt so good to be back in the Stockholm area. Nicki, or Syster De Souza, from Jakobsberg is serving there right now so we had fun reuniting. On Tuesday we had MLC which was super fun.  It was a great reunion, and I had my first enchilada in ages.  Sister Beckstrand is an angel. A lot of you have probably heard about it by now, but the church has come out with a Christmas initiative, "Light the World."  IT IS SO PERFECT.  We got a sneak peek of the two-minute film that the church comes out with during the holidays (literally it's amazing - check it out when it comes out on Friday) and learned about the whole initiative.  Basically there's an advent calendar with daily service ideas for everyday of the month.  It goes through different things that Christ did during His life that we can do in our own little ways.  We presented the plan to the ward yesterday and are STOKED to get it going.  The energy at MLC was insane - Christmastime is a dream for missionary work.

On Wednesday we did lots of prep for zone training and had a couple lessons.  Thursday we got to do family history. I found a few more names to take to the temple and found someone that connected our whole tree to another persons tree! It's so fun when you find families in the old Swedish history books and then find out who people's wives and husbands.

Friday was zone training.  We introduced the #LighttheWorld initiative and got everyone PUMPED.  One thing that Sister McClatchie and I shared was the story of The Fourth Wise Man.  Read it if you haven't!  We talked about how the fourth wise man searched for Christ all of His life and never got to actually meet Him in this life or give Him gifts, but He helped people along the way and understood what the real gift to Christ is.  Love and serve others - that's what He wants us to do.  And that's what's awesome about the Christmas initiative!  It's filled with ideas to love and serve one another and that's the most important thing about this season.  After the training we had a Thanksgiving lunch.  Ahh Thanksgiving <3  Enjoy it, everyone.  But we have like three Thanksgivings planned this week so I can't complain. Who knew I would get more Thanksgiving dinners in Sweden than in America?

with Jonathan Stigson

The Zone

We also taught a guy named Sami this week who's from Syria.  Nicest guy ever!  Seriously just a good person.  He accepted a baptismal date on Friday so that was super exciting!  Also painted trim for the Saffers. They have 3 of the cutest girls in the word. They always braid my hair and they're just so stinkin' cute. Sunday was wonderful as always. Us and the other four Malmö missionaries had dinner with the Stigssons and played some Swedish game with them.  Then they showed up on our doorstep at 10 o'clock and brought us lussekatter (saffron buns).  Best.  People.  Ever.  Also, we went tracting and it was actually successful!  I've always had a dream of a cute little old Swedish lady letting us in a freezing cold night, and last night it happened.  Granted it wasn't totally freezing, but she let us right in and we taught her about the Book of Mormon for a solid thirty minutes.  She was adorable and we're meeting again next week.

For zone training something we all did was write a letter to the Savior.  It was pretty incredible, actually.  Especially with Thanksgiving coming up, this is such a good time to think about everything He has done for us.  Even if life is hard or boring or stressful or whatever, we always have a lot to be grateful for.  We don't even realize how blessed we are.  I'm grateful for my Savior and the fact that He loves me unconditionally.  I'm grateful for my amazing family - my mission has really helped me to realize that.  I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and His plan for me.  No matter what direction my life goes, these things will always be true.  That's a lot to be grateful for right there.

love you allll.
don't get run over on black Friday

Syster May

McClatch Mania

Letter sent November 14, 2016:

Köpenhamns tempel

 Wow wow wow what a week. One day Sister Jackson was here by my side making up new lyrics to Les Mis songs and now she's kilometers away in America. (Currently trying to figure out the metric system and have no actual idea on how long a kilometer is) Monday was crazy trying to finish up final things before Syster Jackson peaced out to the USA. She bought a pair of jeans and then Monday night proceeded to try on every shirt she owned with them. She looked like a real person and it was weird.

Giant Christmas tree getting set up in Stan

Tuesday we ate at MAX for Sister Jackson's last time. Max is a fast food place. If it was in America it would join the competition between In-n-out and Five Guys but then it would beat them by miles. It's so good. The lyx shake. Oh my. Tuesday night we ate dinner at the church with all the elders. Our last "family dinner." Basically consisted of Elder Leortcher making the food (typical) the rest of us laughing and Elder Carlsson muttering strange things about the vibe changing and not knowing how to fit it. I love the Malmö crew. Then late Tuesday night Sister McClatchie came in from Karlskrona! 

The Malmö crew

Wednesday morning we brought Syster Jackson to the train station and she and Elder Backman got on a train to go up to Stockholm before the flew home on Thursday. Syster McClatchie and I went home and did our studies and then got a call from the sisters in Kristianstad telling us that for reasons that would take too long to explain, we needed to come to Kristianstad to be Sister Kinnison's companions for the day. We said yes and then realized that Sister Jackson had taken the bus card with her to Stockholm. One of the elders took one for the team and gave us his bus card for the day so that we could go. So we were on the train a lot on Wednesday. When we finally got back to Malmö we went and met with the relief society president to go over a list of women in the ward. She is so classy. Her voice is like a soft pillow. She's basically perfect.

Tripan in Kstad

Then Thursday we did some contacting. Sister McClatchie got a warm welcome to Malmö from the birds. We finished talking to this lady and she asked me if there was anything on her head because she said she had felt something. I looked and saw nothing. Then after the next guy we talked to I looked down at my hand and there was some pukey brown stuff on my hand. It was also all over my coat. I rechecked Sister McClatchie's head and there was a massive bird poop there. Not quite sure how I missed it. We went immediately home.  Later we met with a guy named Adel. He's hilarious and random. We talked to him about the restoration of the gospel and Jesus Christ and how that can help him go through all the fear he feels and hard times. Thursday night we went the Grant's house for dinner. It was such a pleasant little time there. They have the cutest little pup that reminded me of Finn. On our way home we talked to this guy around the corner from our apartment and ended up teaching him the whole restoration and about the Book of Mormon and everything. He was seriously so into it. I've never talked to anyone so into it on the street before. He's from Poland so we're referring him to the missionaries there. It was way cool. 

Friday we taught Adel again. It was kind of a messy lesson because he asked soooo many questions. We also had district meeting. It's always fun to get a new group of missionaries together after transfers. Faith was renewed in humanity afterwards when we went to a pizzeria and none of our cards were working because they don't have a chip and the owner was like, "It's fine. You can just eat and then bring me money tomorrow." That seemed a bit sketch even to us so luckily we got our cards to work. Turns out the man just didn't know how to work the machine. 

Saturday we went to the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!! Yayaayay. So happy . We did 2 sessions back to back with the ward and it was so good to be back. The spirit is so strong in the temple and it's just so peaceful there. And plus like holla I was in Denmark. We came back at night and taught Deepti. The most darling member came with us. Her name is Ligia Del Barco. We taught the restoration and really focused on her relationship with God and Jesus Christ. It went so well.

Sunday I gave a talk. Holy cow I was so proud of myself because I didn't even panic that much while I was giving it. The pre-talk panic was so real though as it always is because i just like to freak out about things. Prayers were said praying for a sickness so that I wouldn't have to go to church and then more prayers were said saying sorry that I had asked for a sickness. Everything worked out though and the talk was a success. 

Then this morning before we came to email today we taught Deepti again! We had asked a member, Lena, who helps us with släktforskning, to come. It turned out PERFECT. Because when Lena met missionaries she was Deepti's same age and had a daughter who was the same age as Deepti's daughter is now so she could really relate. We taught the plan of salvation, again focusing on Jesus Christ and following Him and also how happy Heavenly Father is right now that she is trying to learn more about him. She said also that she's going to prepare to be baptized on the 9th of January!! We asked her if she would and her first response was, "I'll have to pray about it." Perfect. She's adorable. We'll have to take a picture with her this week to send next week. The spirit was literally tangible in the lesson. It was so so strong. I don't feel the spirit that strongly often so it was wonderful to be there. 

Today we headed up to Stockholm because MLC. Pumped. 

Have it good. 

Syster May

She's Riding the Beanstalk Home

Letter sent November 7, 2016:

The shortest bench ever

Last Monday I tried to be all crafty and artistic and carve a bomb pumpkin and alas I carved the same pumpkin I carved last year. Except last year it started out with a spider in mind and this year it started out with the intent of becoming a cat. Both ended up being a giant hole because I chop the legs off every year and then the whole body falls off. Rough. One day I'll perfect the art.

This week we met with the loveliest woman named Rosa. The elders used to teach her but they said that we should start and we finally set up a time with her. Her son was there also. His name is Lenni and he's 17. He used to come to church with Rosa at the beginning of the year and said that he really liked it and he would feel good the whole rest of the week. So we hope he starts coming again! 

We also met with Zuleika and Nathaniel again. They came to Simone's baptism last week and Nathaniel told his mom that he wants to be baptized. So she was talking to us and saying that she wants her brother to baptize him but that means that he needs to be reactivated also. When we went to their apartment this week guess who was there! Her brother! We played uno and taught about the restoration kid style so that Nathaniel could understand. It was so good and the spirit was so strong. I wish everyone could meet them. They just melt your heart they're so cute. 

Zuleika and Co.

We also went on splits with the Lund sisters. I got to go serve in Lund for a day with Sister Hale. I've heard a lot about her because she was one of Sister Christensen's MTC companions. She's so wise and calm and nice to be around. It worked out perfectly because a few weeks ago we met a guy in Malmö who wanted to meet with us but it turned out he lives in Lund so we just met with him together to pass him off to them. Sister Jackson and I were so excited because we realized that because we were just switching with Lund (like a 15 minutes train ride away) that this was the week we were going to have to travel the least so we would have the most time in our area. Apparently we can't handle that because we got on the wrong train leaving Lund and ended up traveling all the way to Helsingborg. So much for short travels. 

Ending up in Helsingborg

This Saturday we had just basically nothing planned so we got to go out and contact for many hours. It was fun to throw it back to our first few weeks here at the end of our time together. Contacting for days. Just roaming the streets talking to people. It's just a carefree life when you have no investigators to worry over. 

But we also got transfer calls! Obviously Syster Jackson is peacin' out. Back to Logan she goes. And Syster McClatchie is coming in to Malmö!!!! I'm so excited! She is a literal saint. She is coming to turn me into a good person haha. We were joking about it yesterday with the elders and they were like, "One day we're going to try to get ahold of the sisters and we'll find out that they've been translated." Probably not funny to anyone except missionaries. We laughed. Then realized the truthfulness because Syster McClatchie is perfect. I'm so excited to be her companion. 

Sweden's nice. It's getting FREEEZING. The wind is deathly. We have a little baby heater like the size of a plate and it is life. We huddle around that bad boy every night. 

Last night Sister Jackson and I had a movie night and watched the Testaments. We pushed our beds close together and set it up on our teeny dvd player. I sobbed. What a good movie. 

Hope you all have a fab week. 

Movie night with Testaments

Have it good. Kram

Syster May

ps. Elder Frankman titled my email. 

pps. bonus points to anyone who understands it

Happy Halloween

Letter sent October 31, 2016:

Pics from splits last week
With Syster Davis

With Systers Davis and Campbell

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL YOU PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Sweden is currently trying to copy America and make halloween a thing here but it just isn't. You can't trick-or-treat here. The church kind of celebrates it because there are so many american missionaries and just why not so we had a party this week. Apparently there will be candles out in all the graveyards tonight so that should be cool. 

The weeks been rad. 

On Tuesday we met with Venessa. She's my favorite. She's hilarious. She was baptized like a year ago and we just have so much fun with her. We talked about keeping the sabbath day holy and what that entails. That it's so much more than just avoiding working or shopping on Sundays, but that it's a day we can come closer to God. Yesterday's theme at church was keeping the sabbath day holy as well so it's been drilled in this week. Yesterday a lady made a nice comment in combined relief society/priesthood about how the sabbath is a gift. Until then we had been talking a lot about how on the sabbath we show God that we care. We show God our devotion. Everything we do is a sign to God. Then she said that the sabbath is also a gift that God has given us to be able to draw ourselves closer to Him. It's a blessing that we get to relax and focus on our spirituality. 

Then we traveled on up to Gothenburg to do work overs in Västra Frölunda. I was with Sister Wagner but we didn't take any picture together. sorry. She adorable though. So tiny and fun. I really had a great time up there with her. We were walking around in this one part of town and felt like we should tract an apartment building. So we walked over to it and found out it was port coded (classic. All building are portcoded here) So Sister Wagner just looked at the list of names and just called up to one of them. Some lady answered and we were like Hey we're missionaries and she just let us in the building. It always surprises me when that happens. I've only done it a few times because it just feels so weird but like, hey we got to tract the whole building and we talked to the little old lady who opened it for us for like 20 minutes. She wasn't interested but like I'm pretty sure we made her day. 

Thursday we met with the adorable Ulla. Holy cow, Sister Jackson and I are just obsessed with her. A couple weeks ago when we were there we were asking her if she had watched any General Conference and she said now and we asked her if we could show her how to access it online. There is always a laptop witting on the coffee table there. She was like, "Ya, sure, I don't understand all this technology. This computer sucks, it never does what I want it to so I think I'm going to just throw it away." It's like brand new. Classic old people. Anyways we just set her home page as general conference so she wouldn't have to try to find it herself. Hashtag ways to reactivate.

Us and Ulla

Blow drying spaghetti for the Halloween party

On Friday our ward had a Halloween fest. The young men and young women put it together. In the basement in the church there's all these creepy tunnels and it's just straight dirt down there and so scary. So they set up a haunted house down there and it was actually terrifying. Sister Jackson and I had to do one of those "feel the creepy food" booth things. So we had guts aka overcooked rice with oil all over it and a vampire heart aka a creepy peeled cooked tomato and other stuff like that. It was so gross but a good time samtidigt.

Halloween party set up

Saturday I attended the most done up extreme baptism of the century. A little girl in the ward, Simone, got baptized. They had balloons everywhere that had her face printed on them and a banquet feast set up in the cultural hall and she was wearing a ball gown with a little fur shrug over the top. When it got time for the actual baptism everyone panicked because she just started sobbing and wouldn't get into the water because she got scared of it. Eventually she got in and her dad forgot to say her name the first time so they had to redo it. But afterwards she was so so happy and said she wanted to do it a hundred more times. She and 2 other girls from her primary class sang "I like to look for rainbows" and it was the most precious thing. Also yesterday at church Alva, the little Piper look alike, sang during sacrament meeting. She sang "I know He lives" and it was the absolute sweetest thing I've ever seen. In swedish the chorus says "Jesus är min bästa vänn" (Jesus is my best friend) and it's literally the cutest thing ever when the kids sing it. Tear jerker for sure. 

Yesterday we also go to go with the elders when the gave the sacrament to a lady who can't come to church. I've never seen it done before outside of church and it was such a cool experience. It was so personal. I thought of Elder Renlund's talk from the April conference when he told the story of the lady who received the sacrament after church one week and she was like, "Oh, how nice, he (the priesthood holder) did this just for me." and then she was like, "Ohhh, HE (Jesus) did this just for me." Church is so important because we get to take the sacrament every week. It's a time that we can recommit ourselves and receive forgiveness. A time to think about Jesus. I'm so grateful that we have that chance every single week. 

Have it good.


[An excerpt from letter to Mom:]

Also, Dudas, that old man from Jönköping I talked about a lot (I think you maybe will remember him), he died last week. It was sad. I know he's a lot happier now and he gets to be with his wife. I've just never had someone so close to me die. Like, grandpa and great grandpa died but I was little and didn't talk to them very much. But I called Dudas every single day I was in Jönköping. Four months! I'm happy for him now but it made me really sad the night Sister Christensen told me. 

Teeth Probs

Letter sent October 24, 2016:

Hike to Nimis

Sorry this is coming in late. We went to the neatest driftwood castle thingy today called Nimi's. Apparently (if the rumors I have been fed by other missionaries are correct) some guy just decided to try to build his own little civilization out in the middle of nowhere by the ocean. And logically he thought it needed to be made of driftwood. He hadn't quite mastered the carpenters trade because there were nails sticking out EVERYWHERE. But like, I dodged them all and had a good time. I'll send pics but they really don't do it justice. 

Nimis

Last Monday though. We taught Simone. She's a little 7 year old in our ward who's getting baptized in a couple weeks and her parents asked us to come teach her the lessons before. They made it all special, just her and us, and it was so cute. Simone's dad is danish and her mom is from Peru or something so Simone has learned Swedish in school. She has a younger brother, Joshua, who just speaks pure jibberish. He hasn't been to school yet so he only speaks danish and Spanish and Sister Jackson and I just stare at him when he talks to us. He's adorable. While we were eating dinner with them after teaching Simone they brought out a cake that Simone had made with sprinkles on top. They asked us how to say sprinkles in english so we told them and Magnus was like, "Isn't that the thing Americans have on their lawns that shoots water out?" hahahha sprinklers.

Tuesday we visited the sweetest old lady named Märta. She's like 98 and lives in an old folks home because she's completely blind. But she's completely there mentally. She gave us little books of her life history that she wrote. It was adorable. Then Tuesday was cut short because we got on a train to go to the lovely world of Stockholm for sisters conference. Holy cow Wednesday was so much fun. All 40-ish sisters from the mission were there and the theme was princesses (all the elders thought this was a joke-it's not). Each lady took a princess and taught us the things that we can learn from that princess. Like for example, Sister Watson talked about Mulan and how "a mere girl" can accomplish amazing things. After all the classes there was a photo booth. My body flashed back to all my days working at the 169 at BYU and was in photo booth heaven.

Group pic at Sisters Conference (Elder Nielsen is in the office right now so he was there)

Confession moment: Tuesday I had a melt down. I was getting ready in the morning and I looked at my teeth and I am certain that I saw a cavity on that blasted baby tooth that has never fallen out. So during personal study I couldn't even concentrate for like 20 minutes because I was just thinking about this probable cavity. I just panicked about not having dad here to fix it and coming home and having creepy witch teeth or something. So during companion study sister jackson asked me what I had studied and tears just started streaming out of my eyes. I couldn't even help it. So yeah. Add that to the list of weird things I've done on my mission: cry about my teeth.

Thursday we met with this guy named Bosse at a little cafe. He was telling us his whole philosophy on life and basically he just explained the gospel of Jesus Christ to us but just used un-religious terminology. We were like. Let us meet with you again and teach you about God's plan. He was down.

Then we also met with our investigator, Christian. He had read a little from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and then random places within the book and proceeded to tell us all the things he learned from reading. He read about the great and abominable church and was like talking about how it's just the world and how people get all caught up in worldly things. We also taught him about the restoration. We're meeting again this week hopefully.

Friday we had a fabulous lesson with a less-active lady, Anette. The spirit was so strong while we talked about the plan of salvation and the temple. She has such a firm testimony of life after this and it's always strengthening to hear how själv klart everything is to her. Then in the evening on Friday we switched with Helsingborg to go on splits with them. The absolute funnest because they are a tripan of sisters so I got to be with not just one of them, but two!! And guess which two they were...Sister Campbell and Sister Davis. MTC love. We just had a great day together on Saturday. Every few minutes the conversation would turn back to the fact that we hit our year mark this week. We were all losing our minds and could hardly handle it. It was fun. Also terrifying. I was contacting with Sister Davis and we met the sweetest little hispanic family. They're background is catholic but they wanted to meet with us to learn more. I feel like being in Sweden I have just learned to understand why all the missionaries who go to serve in South America just fall in love with the people there. Like half the ward in Jakobsberg was latino and probably a third here in Malmö is also from south america and I am just obsessed with all of them. So I hope that darling little family can feel the truthfulness of the gospel.

Saturday night we went to a members house for dinner in Lanskrona. They were the most hill-billy swedes I have ever met in my life. They were so funny and chill and such a fun time to be around. They were laughing so hard when they told us this story of how they went out to buy cups earlier that day so that the missionaries would have something to drink out of and when they got home they poured some water in them and it just all came out the bottom! Haha every cup had 3 holes in the bottom and they were just losing it. They were like, this is some kind of rip off. Of course, if you just read what was written on the cups it said "speed stacking." It was so funny. 

Sunday we went over to the Larsson's for dinner. It always feels like home when we're there. Kids going crazy and making taco's that only have cheese inside. Good times. The elders gave a little thought at the end on Christ and how the Book of Mormon teaches of Jesus Christ. I know that I have come so much closer to Jesus Christ and understand more fully how I can use the atonement by reading the Book of Mormon. Because the atonement is just massive and can help with so many things. The Book of Mormon is true. Reading it daily has honestly changed my life. I love it. I can't wait until I get home and I can just read it as much as I want to!

Have it good.

Syster May

Emma and I (from last letter)