May 20, 2019 "You can't beat the Mormons"

Swedish forest

We went up to a members farm to help 

out and the daughters made us a bouquet!

Things are going really well here in Karlstad and it's been a busy week! We have transfers this week, and Elder Olson will be transferring. We've had so much fun together and I'll be sad to see him go, but I'm looking forward to my new companion, Elder Karlsson! Elder Karlsson actually comes from Stockholm, so I've served in his home ward for 6 months and his family is one of my all time favorites! I remember being at his house before he was a missionary and getting help with Swedish from him and his brother, so I'm looking forward to having a walking dictionary beside me and being able to speak Swedish 24/7 with a native. Elder Karlsson is one of two native Swedes in the whole mission, and everyone wants to be his companion to help improve their Swedish, so I feel incredibly blessed to be with him.

On Friday we had an entire school class come tour our church. The class consisted of about 28 high school seniors, which I have to admit was a little intimidating. First off, Swedes are surprisingly tall, so although I was a year or two earlier than the students, I felt kind of small. Second, they're all my age and native Swedes, so all of a sudden I was somewhat self conscious of my Swedish and hoping they understood. Lastly, over the last two years I've gotten used to speaking with 1-3 people at a time, so speaking to a class of 28 was kinda new. The tour went really well, and we were surprised by how attentive and interested everybody was. Swedes are happy to tell you that Sweden is the most secular country in the world (something I hear on a regular basis...), but interestingly enough all high school students are required to take a religion course, so we didn't really expect them to be incredibly enthused or excited to be there. However, at the end of the tour we offered free copies of the Book of Mormon, and 16 of them eagerly came up to get a copy for themselves. They were all talking about how much they liked it as they filed out of the church, and their teacher came up to us and said, "You guys do such a great job! I love coming here because you just can't beat the Mormons." Amazingly, Elder Olson actually tracted into her a couple months ago when there was snow on the ground, and after she expressed strong disinterest they decided to shovel her driveway as an act of kindness. She remembered that occasion and took the opportunity to thank us for doing so and showing true Christlike kindness.

The tour was their last class of the day so everyone went directly home afterwords, but one of the students, Samuel, stayed and talked with us for another 15 minutes. He expressed his belief in God and described how he's visited a few different churches in search of the truth, but doesn't feel like he's found it yet. He was excited to have a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he asked if he could come to church with us and learn more. Unfortunately he had a soccer tournament this last Sunday, so he was unable to come, but we look forward to seeing him in the future!

Äldste Sirrine

Remember when we had about 4 hours of total daylight 

here in Sweden during the winter? Well, now we're to 

the time of the year when it pretty much never gets dark. 

Here's what it looks like when we go to bed at 10:30.

Here's a political campaign poster. 

"Lagom" is a word that means "just right" 

(not too much and not too little) in Swedish.

 Only in Sweden would that be a positive 

thing to campaign for.