Hej hej alla!

Last pday we visited Drottningholm which is where the King resides. It is very extravagant and super cool!! I sent lots of pictures. We met a German man named K who followed us and hung out with us for 5 hours! Super cool guy and is interested somewhat.

Tuesday, I played football in the morning with P! He was a superstar football player before he blew out his knee, so that was way cool playing one v one with him. I got one meg on him:)
 

We had our district meeting about how we can bury our concerns which will free us to be better missionaries. There is a story in history about Cortez when he had to go war in another country. He burned all of their ships so they had no way of getting home to Spain. He did this so his men would fight with everything they had, with no chance of getting back unless they won the war. This motivated his men and they conquered. We all have our ships - concerns, pulling us back from giving our all. But I challenge you to burn your ships now and conquer what you have set out for.

Something we did this week because things have been going slow, was to make thank you cards for all of our members that we work with and make cookies for them. I used mamas recipe but used marabou (best Swedish chocolate) instead of regular chips. They turned out fantastic, according to the members. I'm not bragging or anything, but they were pretty darn good:) I also had 2 more kebabs since that first time and it is really growing on me. It is so good and just the best ha!

Wednesday, we met up with H.  Every time we go over she loves it because she always prays for help and comfort, and then what do you know, we come right away! I love being an answer to someone's prayers. It's the best feeling in the world. To follow the spirit and help people realize that God is mindful of them. I firmly have a testimony of this, it happened many times this week and I love my Heavenly Father so much because of it. We also had Institute at the center that night, and I talked with a lot of YSAs! I could understand them a lot more and keep a conversation going on for quite some time! 

Thurs, I did a lot of personal study on family history and founds some really cool scriptures: D&C 138:47-48; 128:15. When we do family history and temple work, we are helping those who are dead attain salvation. But likewise, they help us to attain salvation. Also, why do we call God our Father? Because we are all one big family and need to help our brothers and sisters have the opportunity to receive the gospel.

Before Friday we had only 6 lessons up until that day. But we got 6 in just one day! We ended out the week with 19 which is super stellar! We focused our teaching on church and sacrifice. For some people it is a sacrifice to go to church. But the Savior died for each of us, the least we can do is sacrifice some time to go to church to learn more about Him.

Saturday, we had our ward party which was a huge success! We had 75 people come with several non members. We had a talent show type of thing and we as the missionaries performed a skit about members and missionaries working together- a lot of fun! We ate some food and talked with everyone!  This ward continues to share the love they have with each other. I ate some moose at the G's that night, and it was super good! Daylight Savings was definitely a benefit for us, that extra hour!:)

Sunday, was awesome as always. It is still hard on my brain to go 3 straight hours in a row in Swedish. I love being able to take the Sacrament and just start out fresh again.The Sacrament is for everyone trying to do their best to change bad habits and grow closer to Christ. I am so grateful for the Savior allowing me the opportunity to change and follow him better when I renew my baptismal covenant.

Yesterday, Monday, we hit up the outlets in Jacobsberg with Äldsters M and T. I got another new sweater. We had FHE with the G's and Y and Z. Played some fun games, but most important was the lesson on families. We should set a consecrated time to gather with our family AT LEAST once a week. This gospel is central to families and that is the way of God. I am so grateful for my family. How, no matter what, Monday was family night and that we would gather together to have a lesson. Even when I had football practices that would go past 10 pm, they would wait up for me because it was THAT important. I know it is. I believe it is. I show that it is when I tell people about this gospel. It is the best thing ever, to have a group of people who love each other and want to help each other grow. That means so much to me, and I hope it does to you as well. I love and pray for all of you so much. Have a fantastic week!

Jag älskar er!

MVH

Äldste Johnson

Hur lägget familjen Johnson och väner?

Det loter bra för er! Jag hoppas allt är bra! Men tänker jag att borja med mitt Jesu Kristi Engelium vittnesbörd...In other words, I said: It sounds good for you all! I hope all is good! But think I to begin with my Jesus Christ Gospel testimony (inverted sentence)...Everything here is possesive, so the word "of" is very rare. Like if you want to say "son of man" you say "man's son" instead. Or "in the name of Jesus Christ" you would say "i Jesu Kristi namn". Its shorter, easier, but weird some times ha. Anywho, there is a little language lesson for all y'all.

Practically all of the leaves have fallen off and the ground is super frosty in the mornings. It averaged around 1 degree Celsius or something close to that. The sun hardly shows its face, but when it does, its nice. I actually had a cool thought about the son, especially here for Sweden. So the sun could be compared to the gospel of Jesus Christ, or Christ himself. The sun gives warmth and attracts all things to it, especially when it is cold out.

Not only does it light our way, it gives us comfort to see where we are going and provides hope for a better day. The same with the gospel and Christ, we are in darkness or cold without it, not knowing where to go. But once we are in the light of Him and his teachings, then we are filled with warmth, comfort and direction.

Mån: The W's (a w is a v, w's are rare), the couple who is in charge of the YSA center, made us pancakes- I haven't had pancakes for 3 months and it was awesome! It tasted just like Ihop. I didn't have any peanut butter with me, so that was a bummer, but instead put some nice jam and syrup on 14 of them! It was great! We had FHE at the Center and helped clean and played games. We had a sick jam session with the YSAs and also played Mafia! Man, that was super intense! 

Tis: A lot of people blåsted us (blås means to blow, like wind and so that means they blew us off, cancelled, bailed, etc..) and dropped us also. We did member lessons and talked about conference and then faith. We shared stories of faith in the Mormons bok (another possessive thing ha) and showed that it was only through their action of faith that they were blessed. We also shared Mosiah 8:18 which says that we can do mighty miracles if we but show our faith. Not just miracles, but mighty ones! That is such a great promise to have from the Lord!

That night, well, when it got dark (it gets dark at 5 and soon will be 4 and yeah) we did some swingbys and ended up lost in the southeast part of Lidingö. We saw a fox! We were walking down a path, and you can always see some part of the ocean here because of all the islands, and we thought we saw the world turning upside down! Turns out it was a cruise ship that we could only see the lights moving across the ocean. We laughed when we found out what it was. We quoted Spongebob back and forth to each other, which really lightened the mood even though we were still lost ha. Eventually we found our way back home.

Ons: Let me just say, that I am really so spoiled here on my mission. But I am super grateful for everything. I believe that I would have struggled so badly in a 3rd world country with bugs flying everywhere. I hate bugs and spiders! 

Tors: I studied Enos today. It doesn't matter what we have done in life, it just matters that we truly repent and change and get back on the path. All day and night he prayed. But I realize not all of it is him talking. Prayer is a 2-way communication. Heavenly Father was talking with him, guiding him to thoughts about certain things to pray for. I challenge you all to pause for awhile the next time you pray and see what you get out of it. I know that it will bless you, that is my promise to all of you.

We have been meeting with d quite often and  I can see and feel a difference in their home. I would like to stay here one more transfer, to continue with this family.

Sister B is also from St. George 

Fre: ZONE CONFERENCE!!! Oh man, it was so great and just what I needed, a fantastic spiritual boost! Stockholm and Stockholm North zones met together in Västerhaninge for the conference. It was right next to the temple, I forgot to get a pic of it, but it is so beautiful!! Anywho, I saw Elder P, who was Elder T's greeny and talked with him about the "T" and he knew a little about me because the T and I went to high school together! I have yet to see Elder T but I'm hoping I do soon. It was fun see people I knew and catch up and take some pics.

The main focus for zone conf was FAMILY HISTORY WORK!! Some people think that fam history and missionary work are 2 different things. BUT THEY ARENT!! Our purpose as missionaries is to invite all to come unto Christ so they can live with their families forever. Family history work unites families together and it is missionary work when you search for ancestors and perform ordinances for them in the temple! It is all one work! We are incorporating all of this in our teaches, lessons, finding, contacting, etc. because everyone is generally interested or at least likes talking about their families!

Things have already started to pick up! We found like 10 people contacting in the 2 days since who are interested in family history work. It really works. Try it out!! D&C 84:88 *I will be on your right hand and your left, and I will send you angels round about you to lift you up* when we are doing the work of the Lord. The desire to achieve it is key. If we expect things to happen, they will. For example, on splits, you expect something crazy good to happen, and it always does!! Expect it, desire it, work towards it. Kämpa På! (Shempa Poa, Fight On!).

Gru- at the kebab place

Kebab image from internet, but you get the idea

Lör: I tried my first ever kebab and it was pretty darn good. They say it is better down south, so I'm stoked to go down there sometime!  

We took Z with us contacting to see what missionary life is like. It went really well and he actually translated some Arabic for us! We are contacting more and getting a lot better at it and it works so well with the Family History approach!

Sön: I am getting better at understanding sacrament meeting and priesthood, but my brain still hurts afterwards from straining to understand and translate it haha. .

All is going well for me. The work is picking up, and I can feel that things are about to explode here in Stockholm! I still have little struggles and frustrations everyday, but I still press forward. Attitude. That can determine so much. I can choose to be frustrated because of a rejection, or I can choose to overlook that and work even harder, have a hope that the next contact, the next teach, the next minute will be better. 

Here are some answers to your questions: 

1. Halloween - they have stores with costumes selling big right now and decorations all over so I guess it will be celebrated, not sure how yet.

Giant ghost hanging above street

2. I am in a big city so you can imagine that there are a lot of "interesting" people. As for the hairdos, there are some crazy ones. I've seen strange colors, and weird shape styles, and I've see lots of piercings out the wazoo. Tattoos aren't too big here, well you cant really see them anyways because it is cold so much. The main hairdo for guys is the typical short on the sides with the comb over (euro look)

3. I would say for sports in order of importance is first football (soccer), then innebandy (floorball- think indoor hockey,)  then ice hockey.

4. Most kids go to school till they are 19. They get paid to go to college and they choose their career but that is in the 1st year, so I'm not sure if they can change it after that.

I love all of you so much and hope everything goes well this week for you!

Kämpa På!!

MVH

Äldste Johnson

Kära familjen Johnson och väner!

Well, Gee whiz, everyone seems to be having a stellar time and/or learning so much! That is fantastic! This week has been a bit long and hard, we haven't really had anyone to teach so we have been a bit down on ourselves. We did however come away with 16 lessons for the week, and we aim for 20, so that was a miracle in itself. 

Mån: A group of us missionaries went over to gamla stan to explore. 

 

The *real* viking ship that we saw, wasn't so real. We were about to go on and do a little tour of some viking things around the area, we actually got the guy to get the price extremely cheap, but backed out after we looked inside. Not even close to being real. How lame. I was stoked to navigate the ocean on a viking ship, it looked cool, but just a big scheme.

After that we proceeded to the Stadshuset which is the place where they give out the Nobel Peace Prize every year!

Tis: We helped a less active in our ward move for a couple of hours, well mainly me lifting all of the heavy stuff ha. We then had ward council and I can see that conference has inspired people in Stockholm församling (ward) and they want to help with missionary work.

Ons: We went up to North Lidingö to find a YSA-aged young woman.  We didn't have too much info about her. Found out she is nanny-ing for a family and only has certain days and times off of work. She actually told us that we were an answer to her prayer to know that the church was true and that she wanted some way to come back. Wow! How cool is that, to be guided up to her place (which by the way the view is phenominal),

and be an answer to her prayer. I just love that! Not knowing really anything leading up to what you do, but just living worthy and being in the right place at the right time to answer someones prayer. Its amazing!

We met with L later and committing him to some things that will bring blessing to his family. He is such a great guy!

I had a cool experience also this day. I was sitting at the bus stop and said a prayer in my heart. I said '"God, I'm doing the best I can here and I'm feeling discouraged. Help me feel of your love. I promise the next person you put in my way, I will talk to them." I didn't think too much about that, but as I boarded the bus, a man with a beer bottle sack, sat next to me. I smiled to myself and just started talking to him. Nothing really came out of the conversation, but that answered my prayer and helped me know that God is watching out for me. It is so amazing.

Tors: We had our district meeting today. Our zone leaders talked about how missionaries, especially in Sweden or anywhere not in the same culture, are like new converts. We both are new to this new world, this new language, this new atmosphere, culture and place with no idea of where to go. We both need to feel of that reassurance and help from a friend that what we are doing is right. It is scary leaving your family, your lifestyle, your culture, your world. That reassurance is what binds us together.  Someone to physically tell us that what we are doing is right. A mission demands so much out of us: its physical, mental, social, and spiritual all the time 24/7. It takes a lot out of you, and you can break really easy. One prophet said that if we 18-24 year-olds knew what we were getting into with a mission, how demanding it would be, we wouldn't do it. I think that is really funny, but super true! God is just testing our faith and patience until we get on the edge about to fall, then he steps in, grabs us and pulls us back to him. Its happened to me so many times already, its crazy. It was a much needed discussion and helped me remember that God is there.

Well I officially hit my 3 month mark since Ive been on a mission this day! Thats super crazy! I am still super diligent with my journal writing every night, I am actually already on my second one!

Fre: Our weekly planning went not-so-good, nobody answered us. And those that did, dropped us and said they weren't interested anymore. We did a comp inventory and it was great! They really do help so much, I have a testimony of this. We had a make it or break it lesson with several people about keeping commitments or we have to drop them. Man, some weird things happened in that. I'm sorry but I cant explain ha. Oh, and I organized our bookcase and it rocks. 

We were in charge of chill night at the YSA center. There was a lesson about the Restoration and it was amazing. I didn't understand a lot of what was being said, but I could feel the spirit testifying to me that it is true. I felt it and still feel it so strong that we do have the truth restored to the earth. I know it with all my heart. To close, we watched a video about little snippets of Josephs life while the Motab was singing Praise to the Man and I just wept. It was so powerful to me. He died to seal his testimony of the truth of the Restoration. Would you? 

Lör: I was in the shower and all of the sudden the power goes off. But the water was still going because it was pressurized. So there I was singing and showering in the dark. hahahaha ill admit, i was a little scared, but I laughed. So I opened the door so I could see and then continued my shower in peace. We found out later that we only blew a fuse and that we had to just flip a switch, whoops! It was a good story in the books!

In our contacting/swing bys, we came across this gigantic football field, dog walking park, area it was sick!

That night, J and S invited all of the missionaries in stockholm and the ap's over for a taco night. It was so good, and we all had a great time. The sisters taught a lesson about patriarchal blessings which was fantastic. I realized I hadn't read mine for awhile but I shared some insights about what they are and what it means to me. It really is the most personal thing between you and God. What he has blessed you with, and what he has in store for you. They really are amazing.

Sön: I studied up on my own patriarchal blessing and had a good time reading and feeling what my father in heaven wants from me. I cried for awhile because it testified to me how much God really knows me, more than I know myself. I don't understand most of mine, but I know he has a plan for me and wants me to do the best I can. We all have potential to be great, lets do it.

SS lesson was on prayer which has been significant for me this week. I was feeling down a lot, unhappy with my work, whats been happening, our *un-success*, things like that. But when I look back on the week, God has blessed me so much, I just didn't realize it. I now pray to have my eyes opened and be thankful for what I do have, instead of focus on what I don't have. Prayer really is one of the best gifts from God, a way that we can communicate to him; someone who is there 100% of the time always, if we allow ourselves to be there too. I have been so strengthened by the power of prayer on my mission, especially this week. I know God lives and is waiting for us to go to him in prayer to bless us. When we humble ourselves and turn to him, he will Always bless us. I know this. I love you all so much, I hope you all have a great week!

MVH Jag älskar dig

Äldste Johnson

Conference was Awesome!

Hallå alla!

Man, what a week!! I am on such a spiritual high from conference, I feel like I am on cloud 9! Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf, the investigators', and everything that is going on here. Unfortunately we didn't have a baptism, but we are still eager to go out and get one. Btw our new apartment is so nice!  We are blessed.

 

I am sleeping really well here. I like working so hard everyday that when I come home, the only thing I can

do is fall right to sleep. I know the Lord has helped me with my insomnia here - I've been blessed to sleep the whole night through, and even get up feeling great! It still kills me that no matter what, I always wake up 2 minutes before my alarm goes off, every time! A lot of missionaries have a hard time getting up in the morning, but not me. If ever I have a thought to stay in bed, I quickly change my attitude and get out. I think about that I am on a mission. I have dedicated and consecrated all of my time to serving the Lord. So waking up exactly on time to go workout and get my exercise only helps me have the energy to go throughout the day serving the Lord. When I think about it this way, its not hard getting up right away. Sure, I would like to sleep in (and sometimes we don't get to bed on time) but thats not why I am here. I am here to serve.

Dad, WHEN we come to Sweden together, we will play some golf with J. Notice the when and not if. "If, if is good." (name that movie!!) NO! "If" is not good! "If" is a possibility of perhaps performing an action. "When" shows and implies action. "When" motivates you to make the action happen rather than wait for a possibility. That was just an interesting thought that popped into my head.

Monday: a bunch of the missionaries went to a Thai food restaurant and then our district took a final photo together before the transfers.

We said our final goodbyes to those who would be leaving, I am really grateful for these guys helping me out in my birthplace of the mission. I am still a little baby, in missionary terms, but now I am an active 7 year old running all over the place getting things done. We had that FHE with the YSAs to try to get to know us better and instill more help in our missionary work. 

Sis L, Elder M and myself all did a little 5 minute thing about us. I actually walked on my hands for a bit and juggled some balls whilst talking a little about myself. It was really fun and cool to kind of break out of my shell. Honestly tho, missionaries have no embarrassment. What need is there? You aren't trying to impress anyone, so be yourself and serve the Lord no matter how weird you may think you are or sound. That's something that has really helped me speak to more people rather than being seclusive and not talking to anyone.

Tuesday: We helped a member move his home from Lidingö to Solna (west side of stockholm). The fresh new grön saker (green things, or greenies) arrived and were at the center of town to do the contacting for a bit. All the missionaries in Stockholm came help out the greenies.

Yes even me, the greeny trying to help another greeny! Wow! That was a lot of responsibility and scared me quite a bit. But i was super excited to bestow my knowledge unto the younguns. It is so great to not be the young one anymore. I feel like a weight has been lifted, kind of. I feel more free and less self conscious about myself. My understanding speaking is getting better. I took one greeny with me and helped him out. Sure, we had no success, but we did talk to some people and let him see how contacting is and how missionary work is in Sweden. I gave him a lot of advice and he is super eager to serve! It got me re-excited about missionary work seeing that spark in him. It went really well, i was sr comp for a good 20 minutes and it was way fun! 

Wednesday: I dropped of my comp at the central station. Man I'm going to miss him, even if we had our differences, like BYU vs Utah:

Met up with a few new guys in the zone, and said goodbyes to some cool guys like elder H. I really hope I can be comps with him sometime. He went to Stansbury, played football, and we get a long great! So me and elder C went on splits because we had to wait for our new comps to arrive. We went to this less active's place and a man let us in. We thought it was the less active guy, M. Nope. It was his roommate E who had us come in without even telling us that he wasn't who we thought he was. He knew we were church people and wanted to hear the word of god. A lot of people called him on the phone while we were talking to him about the restoration, and he got way upset because he wanted to hear the word of God!! Oh man, I love Africans so much! They are so humble and just love hearing the word of God! He really liked what we talked about and we set up a return appointment for Elder C. He gave us this huge sandwich and coke after. We didn't even know him 30 minutes earlier and he is giving us lunch!!! These people are so amazing and loving, its the best! he said it was customary in kenya or africa to always prepare food for an extra person, even if you had no plans of having anyone over, just in case! Wow, that is so cool! He was definitely a great guy!

We then went to central station to wait for our new comps. We actually missed my comp come out, so he was waiting for 10 minutes alone before we saw him! hahaha it was pretty funny. My comps name Elder H, he comes from Washington, has been out for more than a year, he is amazing at the guitar (bought one hear in sweden, plays like august rush, man it is amazing!) He is super hilarious/weird and the biggest thing about him is that he looks EXACTLY like Gru from Despicable Me. I cant even tell you how much he looks and acts like him! He has this black coat that zips up tight, a gray scarf, pointy nose. When it gets colder, I will take a pic of him in his gru outfit. It is unreal!

Thursday: did some swing-bys to get to know our area a little better for my new comp. I was putting too much stress on myself trying to set up appointments and call people and all of that jazz, but he said I need not worry. We will figure it out together. So that was really helpful for me. Its still hard though trying to get him up to date with everything, but it will be just fine. We taught a boy whose dad, wants him to get baptized. The boy is interested and wants to know more and get baptized too! We don't have a date yet but hopefully soon! We talked with the dad about being the one to baptize him and he said its been on his mind a lot! He knows he needs to get active to do that and wants to! Man, how cool is that! we talked with him about conference (and the need to watch it and how they can grow when they watch it) and he wants to watch it! A great thing with that lesson was that we taught roughly 50-50! Something that I haven't done before! We are already working so well together. One of the first things H said to me when we met was that I am not a greeny anymore so he wont treat me that way. We are going to work together in unity! At sports nite we got to play football (anytime i say football it is soccer) I was so stoked! We had a lot of Africans and Swedes who knew how to play so that was a lot of fun for me! I scored a couple of times and did some fancy tricks and impressed a lot of people ha. I still got it:)

Early morning fog

Friday: this week we were low on lessons to teach because of all of the switches in the area and conference, but we took a lot of time getting to know the area. H has been in areas where there aren't that many people so he is constantly amazed at how many people are in Stockholm, how the tunnelbanas work along with the buses, seeing other missionaries very often, and things like that. It makes me laugh because I don't know any different, but for him it is so new! I guess I will experience the isolated areas eventually. Something interesting to know is that I still get hot so easy, even in Sweden. I have to sleep with the window open because I get too hot at night, and in my personal studies I like to be right up next to the nice cool air emanating from the window. 

We taught D who is waiting for something before he will get baptized. We need to pray that his family will be open to us so that D can be baptized and bless them all! D and I always have our own private conversations about missionaries and things like that. I love that man and I want to see him in the water!! 

Saturday and Sunday: We had a plan to meet with Y to teach him but he could only do it when we would be at the chapel for conference. So the G's stepped in and said they would teach him and have him watch conference with them, after feeding us of course! Man, they are just the best! So we then went to the chapel in gubbängen for conference. Here's how we watched conference: saturday morning we watched at 6pm and then went home. Priesthood was on sunday morning at 11am, then saturday's afternoon session was Sunday at 2pm, then sunday morning session we watched at 6pm then went home, I need to watch sunday afternoon sometime this week. 3 different rooms to watch in swedish, english, or spanish) watching THE GREATEST SESSION OF CONFERENCE EVER!!!!!! It was seriously so good and perfect! Everything was so powerful and inspired and just the best! I cried during most of the talks because it was that powerful! Everything seemed to be exactly what I needed to hear, and what Sweden needed to hear.

I love how Uchtdorf invited everyone to our church and everything with that. Home teaching was thrown down, something much needed here to be picked up on. Showing love to everyone was a major thing that I picked out of conference. We need not judge, but love and bring people the gospel of joy!! Don't be a sayer of the word, but a doer of the word and testimony that you have. Conversion is a process, not a destination. Always strive to be better and help other people! I want to go out now and apply everything that I learned and help everyone come to the Savior! I would love to hear from all of you what your favorite talk was and why! please, I would love to hear this! I honestly have no one favorite, they were all my favorite! Pres Monson's about his wife was so tender and loving, we need to follow him!

Something absolutely crazy that happened was with S. We haven't had too much contact with him for the past 2 weeks (he's been sick) M called him and invited him to conference, and he didn't seem to excited about it. He still has been reading the bom everyday, but we challenged him to really pray about it. Sunday morning at 3 am, he texted that He knew the BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!! He was so excited that he had to tell us immediately! He came to priesthood and another session. When he got off of the train at the station, he ran to us and gave us a big hug!! It was the greatest thing ever! HE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!

I am sooo happy for him and excited!!! It will be on the 20:e (the way of making it 20th, or tjugonde) of oktober!! Man, it was just the greatest feeling in the world, to be a part of teaching him the gospel and seeing him making the decision for himself that will make him so happy! WOW, what a great feeling!

I had transfers this week. You may all have transfers in your life: into a new home, new lifestyle, big decisions, etc. Along with these transfers, it is a good time to reflect on what is going on in your life. See where you are and what you can do to get to where you would like to be. Conference helped with this for me. Constantly check up on your life and see if it is in line with the savior. We can always work a little bit harder, a little bit longer on things that will bless us and our families. See where you are right now in your life with your testimony. Ask yourself where you would like to be, and then get to work on getting there. I know that I have a lot to work on and make better. Its going to be hard at times, but I know that as I always have a goal to be like the savior and rely on him, I can do it. You can do it now. 

I love you all so much and so greatful for you. Apply what you have learned and see how the Lord will bless you. Have a wonderful week, Ha ett underbart vecka! Jag älskar er!

Äldste Johnson