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.