Pictures!

Letter received July 31, 2016 from a member:

Dear missionary parents,

Today we had your sons and daughters over for dinner after church. We took a couple of pictures of them as we usually do. We know that missionary parents love to see their missionaries, as we have had a daughter serving on Temple Square and remember how we loved to see pictures of her.

I will also send some other pictures from a Pioneer Day pic-nic we had July 23. There will be an article about it with pictures on the Church's Swedish website and later in the Liahona.

Thank you for your wonderful sons and daughters!

Sincerely,

Maria Thörn (a member of the Jönköping Ward)

Sweating Buckets

Letter send July 25, 2016:

Last Monday we went into the forest with Dao and Earth and Yem to pick blueberries! It was so fun and also I felt like an indentured slave or something hunched over picking blueberries. But now we have masses of blueberries to eat so I am happy.

This week I got to go down south with Syster Barrett and spend the day in two beautiful cities! Lund and Kristianstad! On Tuesday we were in Lund and I got to spend the day with Syster Wagner. She just barely got to Sweden for 3 weeks ago and she's from good ol' Cache Valley! We had such a fun day together talking to people on the streets and visiting some darling less active ladies. She was such a good example of just wanting to do everything that God wants her to do and going out of her comfort zone to do it. Also their apartment had a plaque on the door that said Villekulla and I thought that was just the cutest.

Then Wednesday I got to spend the day with Sister Campbell in Kristianstad. She's in my MTC group and we just had an absolute blast being together again. We talked to soo many people around town and the absolute funniest moment was walking into this big park and just stopping and looking around and realizing that probably 90% of the people there were playing Pokemon Go. Tried to take a panorama but it wasn't as funny on screen as anticipated. It was so so hot down in Kristianstad and I was like 1 million degrees hot and I just realized again how grateful I am to be in Sweden and not in South America because I think I would just be grumpy if I had to be hot all year round.

Then Thursday, after a missed train, Syster Christensen and I were finally reunited and we were so happy. We had district meeting in Borås and then finally made it back to Jönköping. We mowed a members lawn this week and we got to use one of those old push mower things with the blade that just goes in a circle and it was definitely not as hard as the movies and everyone talks it up to be. Maybe it just had a really sharp blade.

Contrary to popular belief I did know that it was pioneer day because we had a pioneer day party with the ward on Saturday! A member in the ward, Jennifer, organized the party because she served her mission in Temple Square and wanted to keep on celebrating pioneer day. so we had a pie baking contest and 3 legged race and she built a handcart that the kids got to go on rides in, we got to pan for real gold. It was just a really really fun time. 

Also, yes. I know about Pokemon Go. It came out in Sweden one week ago and it is all the rage. Apparently our church is like a gym or something like that so a lot of people have been walking in to do whatever you do on the app. Unanticipated way to get people to the church haha. 

It was a fast week and a good week. Me and Sister C have rockin shoe tans and we sweat so much every day. And it's only like 27 degrees. What am I going to do when I experience real heat again? The summer is good. Except everyone and their dog is on semester so no one is here or can meet. But we have fun and work hard and get tired and feel content and good and it's just real good. (I've heard the new thing is to say "it's fire"...just I start saying that or is it not a real thing?)

Kram,

Syster May

Bakpulver

Letter sent July 18, 2016:

Hejsan allihopa! 

Holy moly what a week. So Monday afternoon Syster Christensen and I traveled to a city called Skövde where I was going to get on a train to Stockholm with Sister Barrett and then Sister Barrett's companion (sister wagner) was going to come back to Jönköping with Sister Christensen. Everything worked out and Sister Barrett and I got to Stockholm where we were going to stay the night with the Stockholm sisters. Except turns out nobody had informed them of that. So they had a lesson that went late so we just ate dinner out on the steps of their apartment and met basically every single person who lives in their apartment building as they came in and out. Then Tuesday we had MLC, which was absolutely amazing. I learned so much from President and Sister Beckstrand and from the assistants. We talked a ton about following the spirit and having faith that the Lord is guiding us with the spirit. Then we jumped on a train to come back. We were going to switch again in Skövde except when I got off the train there we didn't see Sister Christensen and Sister Wagner anywhere so we all just kind of panicked and Sister Barrett was like, "Just get back on the train!" So I got back on and the train started moving. So we went on extended splits and switched back the next morning in Jönköping. I can't actually describe that story very well and even if I could, you aren't missionaries so the panic just wouldn't be as real. 

Thursday we lived our lives as normal and taught some lessons and went to help some members clean up their apartment so they can take pictures to sell it. 

Friday we had zone training in Göteborg so we headed back out on the train. Actually Sister Christensen and I were on a super ghetto bus on the way there. But we made it. The training went well. I was super nervous to teach a bunch of missionaries because I feel like they're all so talented and knowledgeable and stuff but I just stood up and did it and was calm and stuff. So I was pretty proud and felt accomplished. 

We got a challenge from our zone leaders to pray every single time we're faced with a decision of what we should do this week. So Saturday we put it to the test. We had two options. One, to just go contact people in the centrum for like 3 hours or to go play soccer with the ward and a bunch of non members. We prayed and decided that we needed to go to the centrum. We ended up talking to a few super awesome people and teaching the restoration a couple times. So I'm super happy that we decided to do that. It feels good to know that you're doing everything you can to be led by God and do what he wants us to do. The way I figure is that if I'm trying my very best to listen to the spirit and follow it's guidance and it's turns out that I'm just not very good at it, then if there's something that God really wants me to do or know that's super important then he'll let me know in a way that I will recognize. 

Yesterday at church we were just expecting Dao and Earth to come. But then right before sacrament meeting started we saw Ted walk in and this girl we met on the street named Marisia said she was there also! We were so happy! It turned out to be such a wonderful sabbath day. We ate lunch with the Rönndahls and then went to go visit Dudas. He was just absolutely tickled that we had come to his apartment. 

Good good week. This week is going to go by super quickly because Sister Barrett and I will be down south until Thursday morning. I'm excited to see the south (Lund and Kristianstad). I hear all the time how beautiful it is! Also scared to hear Skånish for the first time ("dialect" they speak down south...basically just swedish with a big accent that sounds slightly danish...i think).

Nate told me that the swedish word of the week is bakpulver. hence the subject. I'm teaching you the most useful words.

Have it good.

Sister May

Mine and Syster Barrett's dinner

Sister Barrett and I on the Stockholm Sisters' roof

cutest

The "mountain" all the members tell us we should climb on p-day

Syster Christensen's favorite yoga pose

Email sent just to family on July 11, 2016:

Hey fam!

I'm not going to do the big email today. Yoga looks so fun and the picture looked like it was perfect weather. Floating the river and the 4th of July looked fun. Seems like you had a fun gang to go with. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and chips for the 4th so it felt like a real Utah bbq. 

So this transfer I am going to be an STL, sister training leader. Normally the STL's are together in a companionship but every sister in the mission is either a greenie or training right now so we are going to be in different companionships. So the other STL in our zone is Sister Barrett. So later today we will be traveling to Stockholm to go to a Mission leadership conference. Basically being an STL means that we'll teach a part of our zone training and that we're in charge of all the sisters in our zone and go on splits with them. Except there are no STL's in the Malmö zone so we will also go on splits with all of them. So I'll get to go down south and learn from all of the missionaries down there! I'm super excited! I think it will be a great opportunity to learn and grow and become a better missionary. Also everyone says that mission leadership conference is amazing so I'm excited to get to go to that. 

This past week we met two really cool people on the street. One's name is Daniel. We were almost ready to head to the church for a lesson but we thought we'd talk to a few more people before we left and we stopped this young guy. Normally the youth all just don't believe in anything and don't care about anything but we asked Daniel what he thought the meaning of life was and he was like, "Oh, I have to get to a train but do you want to walk with me?" We were like, okay. And started walking toward Juneporten (train station like 10 minutes away) with him. He was like, "I've thought about this a lot, what do you two think?" So we all shared what we thought and started talking about why we're here as missionaries. We got to Juneporten and he said he still had 20 minutes before his train left so we found a bench and sat down and continued talking. We got to talk a ton about prophets and how they're called and that process. And he was like, "Nah, I don't think I believe that because after Christ died the power wasn't on the earth anymore." We were like, EXACTLY. And got to teach basically the whole restoration and Joseph Smith's first vision. We switched numbers like half way through the conversation. He was like, I will call you! (don't worry, we got his number also). Turns out he is 18 just graduated high school. Super cool. We haven't met with him yet though. We called and texted him the next day and he never responded so we were just devastated. Then Saturday night we texted again saying that he was welcome to come to church on Sunday and he replied and said that he was on vacation in Spain for two weeks. We were so relieved and happy. 

Then the next day we talked to a young girl on the street. She's also probably about 18. She said her church is closed right now so she needs another church and got super pumped to talk about what happens after this life. So we've had good contact with her. We were going to meet with her tonight but I'll be heading to Stockholm tonight with sister Barrett and Syster Christensen will be here with sister Barett's brand new greenie who's been in Sweden about 5 days. I think they could teach her, Sister Christensen is a very good missionary, but she said she would feel more comfortable if I was with her so we're going to reschedule. 

We played soccer with a lot of ward members and non members on Saturday, it was really fun but Sister Christensen and I got a little sunburnt! 

To answer dad's question, I'm still loving Jönköping. It really is such a beautiful little town. There was an iron man here yesterday so that was kind of cool. We got to see a couple people finish as we walked by. And got to see them swimming as we went to pick up Abdul for church in the morning.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love,

Syster May

Kebaptism

Somehow I missed posting this letter from June 6, 2016:

What a week. Last Monday, Syster Christensen was welcomed into the fjäll club. She got the black backpack with the leather straps and it is safe to say that I have backpack envy. Sister Christensen is from Provo and she also went to BYU for a couple years before she came out on a mission. She is darling. I love her.

This past week we met with Dora a couple of times. We taught her a couple commandments and she, as usual, was obsessed with them from the moment we said what they were. Then she realized that tithing is off of our full income, not after we buy everything we need for the month. That was unfortunate. She is a doll and I love her but right now the law of tithing is too much for her. She has such incredible faith so I am certain she'll decide otherwise in the future. It's just a matter of when. 

We also met with Abdul quite a few times this week. He is doing amazing. He has been reading from the Book of Mormon and he came to church yesterday for the first time! 

We met with Dao and Earth as well this week. We've decided to go back to the basics with them and teach the simple truths of the gospel like that God is our loving Heavenly Father, that Jesus Christ is the Savior, etc. 

This week my testimony has been strengthened. I've realized how important all of the commandments that we have are. Each one of them helps us to come back to our Heavenly Father. I know that He loves us. We are his children and he gives us these commandments because he knows that they are what will give us the most lasting happiness in life and in the life to come. When we trust that basic truth that God loves us and wants what's best for us, it becomes easier to follow the commandments because we understand the source of them.

This week we also went to Gothenburg for a zone training. We talked about the temple a lot and how baptism isn't the end goal. It's a goal that helps us to prepare to go to the temple to make more covenants with God. The temple is such an important part of the gospel. I am so grateful for the temple and the peace I find when I'm the there and the peace I have when I'm outside of the temple knowing that I've made covenants with God and that I'm worthy to return to the temple. 

Here's the new Jonkoping crew.  Elder Luke came here from Umea this transfer.

 After zone training we went on splits. Sister Banks came to Jönköping with me. She is a dream. We had such a fun time together in the quaint little Jönköping. We talked to some super cool people while we were out. Also we played beach volleyball with a bunch of ward members and investigators and it was so so fun.

After splits we went to lunch with Alex, a member here in Jönköping. We KEBAAPTIZED sister Christensen. Basically you just eat kebab pizza for the first time. And by basically I mean that that's all that you do. And take a picture. Classic. She liked it.

Sunday, Abdul came to church like I said. Also other wonderful people from JAKOBSBERG were there! The Bishop from Jakobsberg has a daughter living in Jönköping and they were blessing their baby today so Bishop Miranda and his family were there when I walked into the church yesterday. I was so happy. I love them so much.

I don't really know why this picture is so skinny. Ohhh, I think we started taking a panorama and then a guy started walking past us the the right so we had to abort that plan. Anyways, Jönköping is beautiful. Besides that nasty white stuff in the bottom left hand corner of the picture.

I LOVE SWEDEN. It is so beautiful and pretty and fun and I love the people here. Today we're going to an island about an hour and a half away and we're renting bikes and taking them on the ferry and then we're going to bike around the island. Doesn't that just sound like an actual dream? It does. I'm so excited.

Ha en bra vecka! 

Kram,

Syster May 

Happy 4th

Letter received July 4, 2016:

What a week. It's been good. We got to meet with Dora again this week. We went over to her house and talked and she said that she still believes that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that our current prophet and apostles really are called of God, so we just need to help her understand what that knowledge means for her. 

We also met with Dao and Earth and they are just my absolute favorite. We talked a lot about prayer with them this week and how we get answers to our prayers. We made goals with them for what they want to get out of prayer and what they need to do to accomplish those goals. They said that their prayers have become better and that it feels like they have a stronger relationship to God and they feel peace when they pray and like somebody "has their back." I like that. God really does have our back. We just have to learn to trust that.

This week in district meeting we talked about the temple sealing. How it really is just a massive blessing that we have that we're able to be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. And how we can help our investigators get to the temple to be sealed there as well. It was super wonderful. I'm so grateful for my family. I love them x500millionthousand. So glad we get to be together forever. Also, super cool because later that day we were talking to this guy on the street and were kind of going back and forth about prophets and who Christ is. It wasn't going too well, mostly just back and forth. Then we got to share about Joseph Smith's experience and how we know that God and Jesus Christ have bodies and that they are two separate people. We quoted the first vision and during that the whole mood changed. It was amazing. You could just feel the difference. Afterwards he was like, "You two are Mormon huh?" Usually when people say this, it's doesn't turn out too good. But instead he was like, "You are the only religion I have respect for. I respect you guys x200. I take back everything I just said. You guys have the most incredible families and marriages." And just kept going on and on about how wonderful so many families in the church are. So we got to talk about what we had just talked about in district meeting about how we have an eternal perspective in our church because we know that we can live together forever and how that helps us grow in unity and stay strong and everything. It was legit.

There's been a food market/food truck round-up type thing in Jönköping centrum the past week. It's like a traveling thing that goes all around Sweden and it has food from all different countries in the world. We never ate there but there's a huge american truck that just has a giant sign that says, "American food XXXL" on it. Classic.

Also this week we got transfer calls. Surprise surprise, I get to stay in the lovely Jönköping with with Syster Christensen (also lovely)!  Syster Crawford, my mom, goes home in like 2 days which is just crazy. When I was with her it felt like she had such a long time left. It'll be weird to not have her here. I am so so happy that she was my trainer. She's the best. But wow, time flies. 

Here's a picture of our lovely hundred acre woods district.

Also, today is the 4th of July, and turns out that the whole world doesn't celebrate America's independence day which is a little unfortunate. But don't worry! We made fourth of July waffles this morning and said the pledge of allegiance and all that important stuff. Also today we have a party to go to with a half British family and a half american family in the ward. The invitation read as follows: "You are hereby invited to help us invade the British territory, aka Strömberg's on Monday July 4th at 4 pm. After the battle there will be chow. -The Americans, aka Hegyessy's" We've also been informed that the amount of food we receive will be based on how much American History we know. So this will definitely be a 4th of July to remember.

Me and Syster C love 12 Week

The Elders think they are tricked-out versions of Mary Poppins

Kram kram,

Syster May

Midsommar: The Dreamiest Holiday

Letter sent June 27, 2016:

Okay everyone go on to google and search 'sweden midsommar' and then just be in awe of what an adorable holiday it is. (not actually sure what will pop up because I've never googled it myself) And i got to participate in the wonder this week. IT. WAS. SO. PERFECT. to be continued later on in the email.

So, last Monday we went to the Husqvarna museum. Apparently Husqvarna makes everything in the world but mostly motorcycles and lawn mowers and guns and sewing machines and lots of other stuff. So ya, everything in the world. The museum was just full of original model stuff and then what they have today and all the in between models. We went because Elder Luke is obsessed with motorcycles and also because, once again, they make basically everything in the world so they're a pretty big deal I guess. 

I got to have a tea party this week with Jessica, a darling little 6 year old in the ward. I was the mom and had to make all the food and do all the dishes. She served the food. She thought it was hilarious when I just tossed the wooden food behind me to pretend like I ate it and we spent a good 5 minutes just laughing and chucking food over our heads. 

Also this week we had apartment checks so the apartment couple came by, Elder and Syster Watson, they are so sweet, and inspected everything. Basically we have the ghetto-est wood floor ever and you have to always have socks on or you are in danger of splinters. So Brother Watson was like, oh! We'll just go get some sand paper and wax and we can just sand it down and wax the spots that need help. Good idea in theory. Until we almost died of wax fumes and the wax turned the floor a slightly different color and I got battle wounds trying to sand the floor. I'm tellin ya kids, fixing floors should be on worlds most dangerous jobs. So then me and Sister Christensen naturally decided that we would just have to wax the whole floor so it would all be the same color. So on the night before midsommar's eve we moved everything out of the living room and smashed it all into the entry way so we could wax the floor. Turns out that one tiny can of wax doesn't cover a whole floor. But then we got in the cleaning mood so the whole morning of Midsommar's eve we scrubbed the whole bathroom down for like 2.5 hours. So exhilarating and satisfying.  

waxing woes

Then MIDSOMMAR!!! So cute. We got to make the midsommar stång. So everyone in the ward went out into the forest behind the little field we were at and collected greenery and flowers so that we could create the pole. 

one of the rings we made

Then we carried it around all of the ward with the young men until we came to the hole where it would go, then we stood it up. Then everyone gathers around in a circle around the pole and you sing and dance around it. It was actually the most fun thing ever. So cute and traditional. Brother Magnusson played the guitar and led us all in the songs. 

We also all had to try sill. By "all" I mean the missionaries. Aka raw little fishies. Gross.

After the party we went to the Strömberg's house to play games for a little while. It was super fun. We played a game kind of like catch phrase but in Swedish. Basically we didn't know what any of the words meant and had to just keep skipping until we got to easy ones. 

Then half of the next day was also non-proselyting probably because everyone is still intoxicated. It also was President Beckstrand's birthday so we made a cake and sand for him and sent him a video of it.

This week was so much fun and we got to know the members so well. But I'm excited that this week will be normal and we can work all week long. We're ready to go find some new investigators! 

I've been realizing just how important prayer is. It's so fundamental. You can't receive a testimony with out it. You can't find out what God's will for you is if you don't pray. It's so important that we learn how to pray well. My whole life I've just been satisfied by rote recitations of the same things every day like help us to have a good day, and bless the food. But prayers become so much more meaningful when you really think about them and have a conversation. It really is wonderful that God wants to have conversations with us every day. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of God; that He is our Heavenly Father and that he loves us. I know His love is there. And I know that we can access it and feel it even stronger when we sincerely pray.

I love you! Have a great week!

Kram,

Syster May