Feb 25, 2019 Back to Stockholm?

We made a fire and roasted hotdogs with a member for P-day.

Last night we got our transfer calls, and I found out that I'll be going back to Stockholm! The news of transfers was expected, but President Youngberg got me by surprise when he told me I'll be opening a new area. The number of missionaires, particularly elders, has been dropping in our mission from 150 to 105, so elder areas have been closing and the ratios of sisters will soon be nearly 50/50. In the light of such events, opening a new area was the last thing on my mind. However, because of the number of elders we have this transfer, we need to open a new area for one transfer and then close it again. I was fully expecting to only have one area left on my mission, but it looks like I'll have at least two! Maybe more?? My new are will be Täby, which borders the area of my old area of Stockholm inner

This is how you extinguish fires in Sweden, 

or at least how the missionaries do...

city. We also meet in the same church building as the Stockholm ward, so I'll get to see the members again! Including Henrik, who was baptized a couple months ago, and Erik, who was baptized by Henrik just two weeks ago! (picture attached). I can't wait :)

This week we had a really neat experience while we were out tracting. We tried to swing by a returning member, but he wasn't home, so we decided to knock the whole building. Only one person was home in the entire building (what are the odds of that?), but that one person was interested and said we can come back, so we'll be going to teach him tonight. It's incredible how the Lord leads us to those he's prepeared.

Other than that, it's been a lot of talking to people in town and knocking on doors! We've met a lot of really neat people recently, and have been enjoying the festive spirit of winter here. They've built a playground out of snow for the kids along with an entire maze right in the middle of town. We even took the opportunity to talk to people in the maze which was pretty fun.


Äldste Sirrine

The playground made out of snow

The maze made out of snow. The walls were a lot hire but have melted. 

February 11, 2019 Juggling missionary work and walnuts at the same time

Proof I can Juggle

This is what our drive into town everyday looks like :)

Missionary work is a constant balance of finding new people to teach while teaching and serving those you already have. It's something I've been juggling since day one in Sweden, but this week I juggled something I never thought I would. Yes, I juggled walnuts.

Super quick background to all this; when we were at a members house on Christmas, he gave us some juggling balls and taught us the basics of juggling. Well, since then I've discovered a real like for juggling and even learned how to juggle under my leg and behind my back. This last Monday we were at a family's house for family home evening, and they started by asking if anybody had any talents they'd like to share, as they do every week. Well, the family was tired of seeing each other's talents, so they turned to us... I mentioned I could juggle, but I didn't have any juggling balls, so one of the sons handed me three walnuts (thankfully still in the shell) and told me I could use them. Apparently God can even help us juggle, because somehow I was able to juggle three walnuts and throw in a few tricks which really made their night.

On Tuesday an hour north to meet the Skellefteå elders half way between Umeå and Skellefteå for exchanges. We saw a bunch of reindeer on the way, so I can now say it feels like Scandinavia for

Reindeer!!

real.

A couple weeks ago we got to teach a man by the name of Erik, and we taught him again this week. The lesson was scheduled for Friday, and we got a call from him on Thursday evening. I'm not going to lie, we were a little scared he would cancel the lesson, but he just told us that he had lost the card marking the chapter he was supposed to read and wanted us to remind him what it was. We reminded him to read Mosiah 3 (GREAT chapter by the way, would totally recommend), and when we came on Friday he told us that he had read to Mosiah 6 and started showing us his favorite parts :) He reads humbly and asks sincerely, so I know the Lord will give him the answer he's seeking for.


Äldste Sirrine

We've had a lot of opportunity to shovel snow :) #goodexercise

Going to a member's house for lunch

February 2, 2019 Non-stop Adventure

I took this on the train ride from Stockholm to Umeå

The mission is a non-stop adventure, but that adventure got significantly more intense this past week.

It all started on Tuesday. We had a member meal, and during our planning Tuesday morning we decided that we would arrive in the area 45 minutes prior to dinner in order to Tract in the neighborhood. We wanted to set a goal for this time, and the thought came to mind that we should call the member when started tracting and ask them to pray for us. We then set a goal to get a return appointment for Saturday at 5 pm, because we wanted to have a concrete success we could report to the member instead of just, "We'll, we had a really nice conversation with your neighbor." We followed our plan in having the member pray for us, and then after a few doors we met a young couple with whom we shared a brief summary of our message. We asked if we could come back Saturday at 5 pm, and after checking their calendar, they responded that we could. It was a really neat experience to sit down at the dinner table with those members and Testify of the power of prayer as we shared this miracle with them and asked the father if he could join us for the lesson. We ended up teaching them on Saturday, and the lesson went rally well. They listened humbly and are excited to meet us again this week.

On Wednesday night, we flew down to Stockholm for our mission tour/zone Conference with Elder Massimo De Feo of the Seventy. He talked about our love for the Savior and letting his Atonement motivate us. He likened our motivation to a rock thrown in the air. Regardless of how strong you are, or how hard you throw the rock, it will eventually fall to the ground. In like manner, if our motivation comes from an external force that acts upon us, it will eventually fail. Our task is to learn how to change our motivation to an internal source, drawing on the power of the Atonement which will never fail us.

We had MLC in Stockholm with Elder De Feo on Friday, and then we were supposed to fly home. I say "supposed to fly home" because after waiting at the airport for 7 hours our flight was cancelled

At the hotel

and the airport put us in a hotel for the night because of some major snow in northern Sweden. Not gonna lie, that hotel was really nice. They included dinner and a breakfast buffet that had everything. It even had salmon :) Well, not only our flight was cancelled, but so were all the flights for Saturday and Sunday.... So Saturday morning we hopped on a train and took it all the way up to Umeå. Definitely the most beautiful eight hour train ride I have ever experienced. I guess it's also the only eight hour train ride I've ever experienced.... We are incredibly blessed that we were on that train, because the storm has continued and the trains also got cancelled yesterday.

So how much snow did we get? About a solid 2 feet between Saturday and Sunday. When we came out of church our car was almost buried and it was all we could do to get out of the parking lot. When we got home, they had plowed the street in front of our apartment creating a massive snow bank we had to remove (which took about 40 minutes of shoveling) before we could park our car... An older lady in the ward asked us yesterday to come shovel a path for her to get out of her house, but they hadn't plowed the roads in that area yet so our car couldn't make it... We went back and shoveled it this morning which made for quite the adventure. They've finally plowed most of the streets by now, but the last 2 days has pretty much been one continuous prayer that we dont get stuck in the snow with the car. I'm absolutely loving the snow, and just wondering how much more we need to get before I can the mission president if we can upgrade our car for snowmobiles ;)

Elder Sirrine

Before shoveling a path for an older member...

After shoveling :) 

January 28, 2019 9 advantages of winter I bet you've never thought of

Elder Ellis and I

Our apartment building

Well, we've been doing a lot of finding work recently, and we've met a lot of people who have expressed interest in learning more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that they continue to act on that interest and we're able to meet them and teach them further. One of the guys we met looked just like a viking. Like no joke, he had a full beard and a sweet man-bun. I thought that he was 30 years old, but then he told us that he was only 17... Every once and a while you meet some people here that just make you glad you that you don't live a couple hundred years ago in a village being raided by the vikings. That would be pretty scary.

All the snow we've gotten has given us some good opportunities serve others by shoveling snow. One of my favorite occasions was when an older lady in the ward (whom we are ministering brothers for)

called us and asked us if we could come shovel her driveway. We attempted our best to coordinate a time with her over the phone, but she just kept saying, "I don't understand you. I don't have my hearing aids in." The lesson in all this? Don't call someone without first turning on your hearing aids. That seems like a pretty important part to having a conversation with someone :)

When most of you think of being a missionary in northern Sweden, you probably think about how cold or dark it is. First off, I can confirm that it's cold (last night it was -15 degrees F, and it hasn't gotten above 0F in about two weeks). However, let me enlighten you on all the things you probably don't think of when it comes to winter.
1. Your white shirt stays clean. With 1-2 layers of thermals, then a white shirt, then a sweater, and then a coat, your white shirt doesn't ever touch anything, thus staying significantly cleaner.
2. On the subject of clothes, you can wear a sweater at all times (super comfortable), and the tie becomes your best friend as it acts like a scarf and holds in the heat.
3. You look forward to clouds! It makes it warmer :)
4. No bugs. Northern Sweden has some huge mosquitoes, but when it's cold, everybody is just happy it's "myggfritt" (mosquito free)
5. The area just before and after a speed bump collects snow, so you don't have to slow down as much :)
6. There are free ice rinks everywhere. We can't use this one as missionaries, but still pretty cool. Hockey is kinda a big deal here.
7. People are always dressed modestly outside. Here in Sweden, it's pretty much no clothes (summer time) or all the clothes in the closet worn at once (winter time).
8. If you don't have enough room in your freezer, put it on your balcony. This is a serious plus that we've been taking full advantage of.
9. You can walk, even drive at times over ice. #shortcuts (The ice is so thick, they legitimately make "ice bridges" by plowing and marking roads straight on the surface of ice of large lakes.)

The list goes on and on, but those are just some of my favorites. Sure it's winter time, what's not to like?


Äldste Sirrine

 

Splits with the Elders in Sundvall