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

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