Invite You to Clementines

Letter sent April 25, 2016:

Saw THE. CUTEST. DOG.  in Goteborg. Sry no pic of dog.

Goteborg

Elder Nelson, Elder Holt, jag, Syster Wilson

Jönköping is amazing. This week was incredible. Highlights of the week were 1) visiting Inga-lill. She is an absolutely darling old lady in the ward. Her laugh is precious. We talked for a while and read a conference talk together and then she was like, "I thought I would invite you to clementines." Who of you has been invited to clementines before? None. It was so cute. So we all just ate a bunch of clementines together. 

2) We were out in the city square place and we contacted this lady named Dora. She told us that about a year ago she had went to the ward in Stockholm with a friend that she has since lost contact with. She was going to try to go back to Stockholm to find missionaries but she just felt like she would be able to find them in Jönköping so she stayed. We talked a little about the restoration of the gospel and she was telling us how she had found out for herself that we shouldn't drink tea or coffee and that then she found out that Mormons believe in that as well. It was just so neat. So we invited her to church on Sunday. When she walked in on Sunday we talked for a little while and then she went to go hang up her coat. Then this member family, the Schelin's, walked in. The wife, Aurora, went to go hang up her coat and when her and Dora saw each other they about lost it and started hugging. Apparently Aurora works at the pharmacy where Dora buys some medication from so they've seen each other and talked a few times and they both secretly just wanted to be each others friends. From Dora's side she thought that Aurora was probably Catholic because she's from Italy but she had this feeling that she might be Mormon. From Aurora's side she just kept thinking that Dora would be a perfect member of the church. So now they're just pumped together. We had stake conference and the whole time Dora just kept saying, "Amen. Amen." to everything said. Afterwards she was saying how thankful she was that she was out on the street that day and that we were out so that we could meet each other. We're so excited to start teaching her and Aurora is super excited as well. Immediate fellowshipping. 

We also had zone training this week so we got to go to Göteborg!! It was so so so so (sox500) beautiful. It was wonderful. I got to see Elder Halterman and Syster Bateman (from Jakobsberg) again and Elder Johnson from the MTC which was just a dream. 

There's this old man in the ward named Dudas. He is just a character. He's not completely there but he loves the sister missionaries to call him every single day. He just sobs if we don't. So we talk to him every night on the phone for a few minutes. He leaves us flowers outside the church and it's just so cute. 

We have just decided ourselves to talk to every single person that we pass on streets and we've been able to see a huge difference in the work here in Jönköping. The amount of people we've been able to find and start teaching is amazing. And because we decided to talk to everyone, we met Dora, someone who is just so prepared. It's amazing to see that as we do our best, the Lord leads the work. Things are able to happen that weren't happening before. 

Dao and Earth are cute as ever. Dao's brother and sister-in-law and their child (Ten, Ya, & Yem) sat in on a few lessons this past week which is exciting. We've really been focusing on Jesus Christ with them because they had no understanding of him before. We told them a few lessons ago that we would talk about God's plan for us and where be came from and where we're going after in the next lesson. But then the next lesson we taught them swedish for a while so we only had time for a short short lesson so we just talked about the Book of Mormon and they were like, Wait! We wanted to learn about the plan! It was so cute and just exciting that they're excited to learn. 

This next week we have Sister Conference where all the sisters in the mission come together for one day and Sister Beckstrand teaches us. I'm super excited! But it means another long day on the trains and buses. We're staying the night over on Tuesday night in Jakobsberg. Which is fun because, duh, Jakobsberg. Bad because I know the sleeping conditions there and they have basically one creepy old fleece blanket for guests. So Syster Wilson and I are going to have a rough Tuesday night lol. And on Saturday is the Swedish holiday called Valborg...I'm not exactly sure what it is. I just know that they have gigantic fires and burn everything. not sure what the purpose is. We'll see. I'm excited. 

med kärlek,

Syster May

So keen for this transfer

Letter sent April 18, 2016:

Trying to be a model like Sister Wilson, mostly just looking creepy.

Jonkoping

Hello. My new companion, Sister Wilson, is the greatest human that I have ever met. I literally don't think I've laughed so hard, so consistently, in my life. If we had a baptism for every time we have said that we're excited for this transfer literally all of Sweden and a minimum of half of China would be baptized already. We just are so excited and have all this energy to go out and work and we just have fun together. 

Monday and Tuesday I don't even remember what happened because I was probably just panicking for transfers and getting on to all of the trains with 3 suitcases by myself so it was all just a blur. But then Wednesday were actually transfers and turns out I panicked in vain because everything was okay. I had to take a snabbtåg for a few hours but it was super fun because Elder Bentson from the MTC was on the same one with me. But then when I got off I had to take my three suitcases to the next train. It was kind of a nightmare and as I was struggling along at the pace of a snail I could just hear this group of people talking about how I had 3 suitcases and they didn't even help me. So that was unfortunate. But never fear, I made it to Jönköping!! And was welcomed by the welcoming committee of Syster Wilson, Elder Nelson and Elder Holt, Megan, and Alex (members). Jönköping is darling and I am so excited to be here. The chapel is basically the size of a chapel in America which is huge compared to Jakobsberg. We play volleyball with investigators every friday...dreamy. Everyone is so kind here and there are so many children! 

On Saturday we were allowed to go back to Jakobsberg for Emilliano's baptism. It was just such a happy day even though we were literally on trains all day except for 3 hours in Jakobsberg. But when I got there everyone that was there from the ward was like Syster May! You came back!! And they were all so excited and it just melted my heart. This one guy, Carlos, was like, "Syster April! You and your family have to come eat with us when you come back to visit Sweden. But tell them we don't speak english." I told him that dad speaks spanish and he was super pumped and said dad for sure has an invitation to come but mom might just have to stand outside the door haha. THE BAPTISM WAS PERFECT. Seriously. It all went so smoothly and so many ward members came and he made it all the way under the water on the first try. And his mom came. And afterwards as part of the program he bore his testimony. Best. I'm so grateful that I was able to teach him about the gospel. That God led him to the church with perfect timing so that me and Syster Adamson could teach everything together and that I didn't have to miss a single part of it. I told him he has to write me letters when he goes to the temple for the first time and receives the priethood, etc. He told me thank you and I was just like, it wasn't even me it was actually just a straight up honor to be able to hear you pray and to watch and hear how the gospel changed his life and made him a happier person. 

Okay, about Sister Wilson. She's from Australia. She's a little bit older, which is fine cuz like, so am I. She's HILARIOUS. Plus everything is 100x funnier when someone has an accent. Her mom is swedish but even thought she grew up hearing swedish she never learned it. She is obsessed with stickers and dogs. Dog stickers are clearly a hobby. If my words turn australianish it's because of her. We just have so much fun and laugh and dah. It's just good.

When you try to contact and nobody's on he street.

We have the most darling investigators here. Their names are Dao and Earth and they're from Thailand. They are so small and cute. They're obsessed with cats and Dao always sends us pictures of they're cute little cats and uses the little cat emoji with the heart eyes which I find just so perfect and fitting for her. They grew up with buddhist culture but when they were taught how to pray they were like, oh this makes so much sense. We finally know who we're praying to. And we taught them about the word of wisdom and Dao was so excited about it and Earth was like (wait, back up, so Dao speaks english and Thai and Earth speaks thai and very few words of english) "I'm in trouble" It was super funny because Dao said that she had just taught him the word trouble the day before or something. But they're so cute and excited to start living the word of wisdom and Dao is pumped that Earth has to stop snussing. They are adorable and always teach us Thai words that basically all sound the exact same but mean 5 different things. We try to learn the word for cat but there's another word that sounds identical to us that means drunk. So our progress to fluency in Thai has been halted by the first word we learned. 

I'm just so excited to be in Jönköping. I love you.

med kärlek,

Syster May

Dao and cat and Earth

Peace out Jakobsberg

Letter sent April 11, 2016:

With Emiliano

Okay Mom, you better pull out your Swedish pronunciation guide and add a new city to your weather app because I'm transferring to Jönköping! I'm going to be companions with Sister Wilson. All I know about her is that she's from Australia and she's in the group just behind me so she just finished getting trained. I'm so excited! When I told the ward members in Jakobsberg they all said that Jönköping is "Sweden's Jerusalem" whatever that means. I'm very very excited to be with Sister Wilson too. I just think it will be so fun to figure out the language together since we both are pretty new. ALSO Syster Davis is coming to Jakobsberg! So that just is cute.

On Tuesday we finally went on splits with the sister training leaders. I went up to Uppsala to be with Sister Harkness. She was so fun to be with and it was soo warm that day. We had a great time together. She had to introduce me to all the swedish treat traditions of godis because Sister Crawford never did... Sister Harkness said she failed as my mother (trainer). (She's allowed to say these things because she was sister crawfords MTC companion). 

Also this week we taught Emilliano a few times and he had his baptismal interview! We taught him about missionary work and you can just tell that he's so excited to be able to go. I feel like this is the dream. To see somebody that I meet out here be able to prepare to go on a mission also. It took him all of 2 minutes to decide to go on a mission and at the end of the lesson he was praying and asking for help to prepare to go in 3 years. He's amazing. AND we took a picture with him this week so now you get to see him. He came to church on Sunday and he had a white shirt and tie on and it was just so adorable. 

Speaking of church...saddest sunday of my life. I LOVE Jakobsberg. Seriously. I love every human in this ward. But the bishop and his family said that they have a son who lives in Jönköping and his wife is about to have a baby so they'll come for the baby blessing. Yay! I'll get to see them again! 

Camilla o Jenny

David och jag

Lars and Asterrid Nilsson

Marcela

On Saturday Sister Beckstrand invited Syster Adamsson and I over for dinner and to help her paint a little. So we painted some doors at their home. (Mom, you would have been proud of my edging with no tape abilities around the doorknobs) Then we had dinner with President and Sister Beckstrand. Yum and so fun. It was so cool to just talk with them one on one and have them to ourselves for a night. I love them so much. They're so wonderful.

When President selfies

Basically yeah. There it was. My final week in Jacobs Mountain. I'm sad to be leaving but also excited to see what else exists out here in Sweden. I'll be in the Göteborg zone so I'll get to go there for zone conferences and stuff which I'm super pumped about. 

Kram,

Syster May

Wut.  No filters or anything on our way home one night.

Letter sent April 4, 2016:

Jordbro fotboll

This week has been hip (trying to learn the slang that you people are using in America). But actually though, it's been super good. On Monday we had a big get together of missionaries and members and investigators for p day. We went to Jordbro and played soccer all together. I was not talented enough when it comes to soccer to compete with these people (a couple of them literally played on pre pro teams..intimidating) so I just passed a football around with a few people for a few hours. It was so warm and nice to be out and in PDAY CLOTHES. Lol any opportunity to wear non dresses and skirts is a plus. Normally we just have to stay in them 24/7 even on p days. Then that night we went over to Jay's house for dinner. She's from Thailand and made us thai food and it had an edible level of spiciness which was a blessing lol me and my intolerance to spicy foods. 

Tuesday we watched the womens session of general conference which was so so good! We see so many refugees here all the time. everywhere. I thought it was so interesting that they talked so much about them and about serving in ways that we're able. We met with Emilliano and I was again amazed by his testimony. He is literally amazing. I wish you all could meet him.

Wednesday we did some stuff and then taught Emilliano again and the Garcia's house and had dinner with them. We taught about the priesthood and it was so good to have Brother Garcia there because to be honest I don't know all the logistics of the priesthood so he explained that. You can just tell that Emilliano is so excited to get the priesthood. Dah, he's so good. It's so funny because every times we teach him we have a different member with us there and they always ask about how he found the church and are amazed by how young he is and he always has to explain everything over again. And then the members always try to convince him of the importance of reading the book of mormon and praying to receive an answer and he's so good and listens to it all. It really is good to hear the perspective and testimony of all the different members. But it's kind of funny because sometimes we'll be like, "Yes, that's so important to listen to the answers we receive from the spirit. Emilliano, why don't you tell us about experiences when you've felt the spirit." And then he proceeds to throw down his testimony of the book of mormon and how he feels the spirit whenever he reads it. After writing that down it's possibly only funny to me. 

Thursday we did some other fun stuff and then visited Inger. She wanted a blessing from the elders so they came also. Basically she was going to visit her parents up in Skellefteå last week but then she got too sick because her dad can't have sick people around him so she wanted a blessing so that she would be able to go visit them the next day (she had re-booked her travel plans). She texted us on Friday and told us that she was sitting on the plane to fly up to Skellefeå!! The priesthood power is real and God cares about all his children. Then we taught Emilliano and had dinner with him at the Telles house. 

Friday we had district meeting in Täby. Then we taught Emilliano in Jakobsberg. A member named Keith came to the lesson and we taught him more about baptism and confirmation and went through the baptismal interview questions with him so that he's feel ready for his interview this week. GUYS. You don't even understand how cool he is. We were talking about the gift of the Holy Ghost and he asked us what he could do more than following the commandments like the word of wisdom and reading the scriptures and praying every day to have the spirit with him more. It's been super cool to see that the spirit has come up in every single one of our lessons with him whether we plan in or not. He's very excited to get the gift of the Holy Ghost. I've never given the Holy Ghost so much significance in my life but for him it really is something that he's super looking forward to. It was so funny and terrifying while we were going through the interview questions because we got to the one that asks if he's ever committed a serious crime before. And he was like "yeah.." mine and Syster Adamsson's hearts sank. And then he proceeded to tell us that his serious crime was that he had worshiped another God before he found this church. We were trying not to laugh because it really wasn't a funny moment but we were just so relieved and it was interesting that he thought that that was a serious crime even though we were talking about legal crimes. Like against the law. He really tries to do everything he can to follow God and Christ and do everything possible to become more like them. 

Then Friday night we had the ward activity that the missionaries had to plan. It was a culture night. There was bomb food and everyone had so much fun. There is the cutest family from Mongolia in our ward. They speak zero Swedish and only one of them can speak super super limited english. We had conveyed to them with google translate that we wanted them to present Mongolia and they went all out. It was awesome! They are amazing. They come to church every single week without fail even though they understand none of it. 

On Saturday we got to watch the saturday morning session of general conference! President Eyring opened it up like a straight boss. It was so good. Emilliano watched it in Spanish at his house and right after it ended he texted us and was like, "I just watched general conference...wow *thumbs up emoji*" Then Sunday we went to watch the Saturday afternoon session and Sunday morning session in Västerhaninge. There were quite a few missionaries there which was fun plus it was conference so obviously it was amazing. And tonight we get to watch the sunday afternoon session. I'm so excited. 

Okay, here's an actual hilarious story. During one of our lessons with Emilliano one of the members asked him about prayer and what he thought about it and the difference between how he used to pray and now and he was like, "When you pray as a muslim you don't feel it in your heart, you feel it in your feet. Because it hurts." It was so unexpected and me and Syster Adamsson just started busting up. It was hilarious. 

Also I am not appreciating everyone sending me pictures of them in warm climates. Hawaii, Cancun, St. George. fun. soak in the sun rays for me. I'm the color of paper at this point so I'm fully expecting translucency by next April. 

Basically I'm just so excited for Emilliano I am losing my mind. I love you all. I know God exists. He loves us. Christ lives. He didn't just do amazing things while he was on the Earth. He lives now to help us everyday. 

Ha en jätte finn vecka! 

Kram,

Syster May

When every building you go to is port-coded...might as well take a selfie.

1...2...3...comp inventory

Glad Pask pa er!

Letter sent March 28, 2016:

Easter in Stockholm

Hejsan allihopa! 

This past week was amazing and so busy. We had a zone conference on Tuesday which was incredible as always. We combined zones with norreland so I got to see Syster Davis! That was super fun and good and she said one of the prayers during the meeting and it was so fun to hear her Swedish since I haven't heard it since the MTC. President and Syster Beckstrand talked to us about developing a personal relationship with the Savior. And how the Savior can give us energy. President told us that if we aren't happy or satisfied with our days and work, it's because we aren't being diligent enough. I think that's true and I also think that it applies to everyone, not just missionaries. If you aren't satisfied with how the gospel is working for you in your life, you probably aren't being diligent enough in your daily scripture reading, praying, or church attendance. We can always do more and as we do more we're able to come closer to the Savior and strengthen our relationship with Him. Then at the very end of the conference they tied it all back into the Easter initiative and how we have hope through Christ that we can live with our families forever and how that's what we're spreading with everyone right now. Then they started this slideshow video of all the missionaries in our zone's pictures of their families. Maybe you knew about this? Basically literally everyone was sobbing. lol and then they just wrecked us even more and we sang families can be together forever as the closing psalm and maybe like 6 people managed sing. Haha it was so good. Conferences are so good and energizing.

On Thursday we went on splits with the Gubbängen sisters. Syster Haikkola came to Jakobsberg to be with me. She is technically in my group but she already spoke swedish when she came to the MTC so she left after 2 weeks and came earlier to Sweden. She's from Finland and is just darling. We had so much fun together and taught super well together and it was really just a good experience. 

With Syster Haikkola on splits

On Saturday we had a little missionary activity that Elder Richardson and our zone leaders organized. A bunch of us got invited to go to Stockholm and they were making waffles at the YSA center and then tons of missionaries went out and told people that they could get free waffles to celebrate Easter and then there were missionaries inside the center that would eat and talk and teach the people in. Basically at the begining nobody really thought it would be that successful but you've just got to change it up sometimes but it turned out to be super legit! SO many people came in and so many lessons were taught in just a couple hours. 

Then Saturday night we went to Ekerö (an island in our area that we hardly ever go to because it takes like 1 hr 45 min to travel to) and had dinner with the Engstöms. The kids were so adorable, I was dying. The mom, Jasmine, speaks Danish, English, and Swedish. So the kids know all those languages for the most part. The littlest one, Benjamin, is 3 years old and he was impossible to understand. Just imagine trying to decipher baby language in a different language that is possibly Swedish and possibly Danish. Possibly a combination. It was soo stinking cute. The oldest boy, Tobias, is super super smart at math and was teaching me all these math tricks which was just so satisfying and fun. 

Yesterday in church we did our missionary musical number. It I Know that My Redeemer Lives. Everyone was so happy about it. Which made me super happy because, don't tell the other missionaries, but it didn't sound all that good. Haha noone is really a fab singer. Just dece. Everyone was like, "Where did you find that arrangement?? I've never heard something like that." Basically I think they were anticipating us just to sing and play a hymn straight out of the hymn book. I was like, the internet, people. Search it up on the google. That was clearly an unheard of idea. They're still working on technology skills. Then we had a riktig easter dinner with the Nilsson's after church with lamb. Lars read us some poems that he wrote and they were actually so good. He is an old man of many talents. He's the one that was in the Olympics for bobsledding and was a professional boxer. Turns out he was also a super good artist and now he writes poems. They are a darling couple. 

We taught Emilliano a few times this week. He is soo good. I wish you could meet him. When we taught him about the Word of Wisdom he told us that he drinks tea but then he was like, "That's such a small sacrifice to come closer to God." Like, okay. Yes. If only everyone could have that mentality; members and non-members alike. He tells us this church is true all the time and that he just feels it more and more as he comes to church and reads the book of mormon. Right now, he is wanting to be baptized on the 16th next month. And guys, his prayers are out of this world amazing. There's no such thing as a bad prayer, blah blah blah. But you all know that some people just say super eloquent and bomb prayers. Emilliano. He does that. And he's only 15! After one of our lessons last week the bishop was like, Wow. that prayer was amazing. So sincere. 

Have I told you how obsessed with Jakobsberg I am? I love it. Ise passed the sacrament last week!! That was super exciting! 

Yes, we celebrate Easter here. Yes, we had daylight saving yesterday (the way you get destroyed and lose an hour of sleep). Easter was sooo cute here!! I will send pictures of the Easter trees. Adorable. They don't have plastic eggs here...but they have these gigantic carboardish eggs that they stuff full of godis (swedish candy).

Love love love.

Syster May

MTC Posse 

Cutest little pask tree

With the Engstoms (Vanessa, Tobias, Isabella, Benjamin)

Trying to get the Easter tree in the back, but it was sooo windy!

Last P-day in Stockholm