Hej hej allihoppa!

My sis Stacy and mom

Congrats to Stacy for doing such a fabulous job in her musical! Wish I could have been there. Thanks everyone for all the love, support, prayers and updates you send, its awesome! 

Monday after emails our district went to the church to play some games write letters and then we did our grocery shopping. Us and the sisters went over to the C family's house for the wonderful Chilean dinner! Oh man, there is always sooooo much food and is sooooo good-UNREAL!! Haha then we get singing on the guitar, and Bro C was having us listen to his favorite artist-JOHN DENVER!!! No way!! hahaha that was so funny because I knew all of the songs and it brought back good memories singing it in the car on vacations.

I had been feeling angry and frustrated the past couple of days so I decided to really just pour out my heart to Heavenly Father and now I am feeling a lot better and more positive and happy about everything. I truly am greatful for the wonderful gift of prayer, that we can talk to our Father about everything that is going on in our lives and know he is there listening and waiting to help us.

Cool shot of the moon 

Tues: So this week the weather wasn't too bad, but the sun is fully down now at 3,30 pm. My personal studies were about Zeezrom. He went through a sore repentance but was converted and started preaching the Gospel! How cool!! I also studied the Sons of Mosiah, or Mosiahs söner in svenska, and how awesome they are! They couldn't bear the thought of one soul having to perish. So they gave up their time, energy, money, wealth, everything to go and help their bretheren become converted. 14 year missions! Imagine that!!

On a different note, I finally finished the 12 week training program! To celebrate we watched the District 2 quoting it and laughing at the funny parts. Good times. We met up with our new convert and took him out to kebab pizza to celebrate his year anniversary of being a member.

Yummy kebab pizza

We are working to go to the temple with him sometime this month or next! Its going to be really cool to see him experience the beauty and sacredness of the temple, Im so excited! We went on exchanges with the ZL's and I went to a meeting with the stake president to talk about stake conference. I was a zone leader for about 3 hours which was pretty intense, though I never said a word ha. Our stake president is a fireball and earnestly trying to make "Hastening the Work of Salvation" burned into all of our hearts. We were impressed by him and it strengthened my testimony. When we met back up with the others, we found Elder J had ripped his pants, it was hilarious! He ran into the bathroom and took off his pants so that one of our sisters could hand sew it back together haha!

Wed: Crazy day! It was transfers this day and also tomorrow was our zone conference with 5 zones in Sweden so travel and work was all over the place. We picked up 3 guys (2 of them from my MTC group) so they could spend the night with us and go to the conference together at Gubbängens kappel. I made some cookies that turned out really bad, and I am super embarrassed by it. I think I'll take a break from those for awhile...haha. We stayed up late catching up with each other. It was pretty crammed with 5 people in our apartment, but it worked.

Thurs: Zone conference was awesome! There were 5 zones there and 4 zones that would do theirs the next day. My zone-Stockholm- is in the middle of everything, so I know everything and everyone before they even know me ha. It was awesome catching up with most of the people from my mtc group and just having a good ol time with them. Sister Newell  talked about How to Adjust to Missionary Life and keeping stress down for missionaries. I believe it will help us manage the stress in missionary work and get rid of the unnecessary stress we put on ourselves. She showed us was Pep Talk from Kid President. Man I love that little kid, he says it so clearly and to the point. "Im on your team, your on mine...Stop being boring!...This is my time, this is your time, this is OUR TIME!!" So good. President said that the number of missionaries there on the first conference day was the same number of total missionaries exactly a year ago!! Thats crazy! We had about 90-100 there, yet there was still another 80 other missionaries!!! Its crazy to see how big an affect the age change made!! 

Anywho, I met an Elder M who played on Rangers football club team in Utah. We actually talked about how my team, Fire FC, beat his team in State Cup 2011 for the semis, I think! It was really funny and we had a good chat about football, he plays for BYUs team. I also received my package from ma, mmmm, more peanut butter.  Thanks!

Fre: Weekly planning!! This is most likely my last transfer in Stockholm so I want to give everything I can and say I did my best. Great things are going to happen, we are going to work hard for this, but also realize it always comes down to people's agency. I really love companon inventory because it truly makes a huge difference in the work and within your companionship. I plan to have them with my wife when I am married! Yup, I said that. They really are fantastic at helping you settle petty differences and focus on what is most important -the people and the work. We finished the session with some kebab and calzone from Lidingös best place, Oskars.  

This is a onesie uniform in Sweden's colors, haha

We actually got an approval from our zone leaders to watch the Sweden vs Portugal world cup qualifyer game, because we were with the G's and 2 investigator friends. It was super intense though Sweden lost. I had a great time, though not the best thing for a missionary, but we did have a lesson before! Bro G was just like pops getting really upset and all that jazz. More and more he reminds me of pops all the time.

Sat: Took and investigator to Stake Conference where we heard really good talks about Hastening the Work of Salvation. It does no good to have twice the number of missionaries without members helping. Please, we need your help so much, and you need our help. We also heard from our 2 area seventies: elder olsson from sweden, and elder j......i dont know from Finland. The missionaries sang the EFY medley song to close the meeting that was super powerful! I love it! We are now, I am now, the Lord's missionary to bring the world His truth.

Sun: More stake conference. I actually understood about 95 percent of all that was said in the meetings! Later we went to the G to eat dinner with their friend and have a lesson. We believe he is the closest and most positive person that we are working with and hope to see him baptized soon! We also played spoons with them and I won!! It was intense, but I snatched it and took home the gold:) On the way home we did a swingby of a family and they said they had been reading the Book of Mormon! Fantastic for them.

I am grateful for all of you, with your love and support you constantly give me. I love being a missionary and representing My Lord and Savior everyday, and to be able to help Heavenly Fathers children. Though I can't quite see the success from my labors, I know that I am helping the work go forward. One of the apostles once said that no missionary can ever fully comprehend just how much of an impact he was on his mission. You can't see the seed planted, nurtured, and grown up over time. You can't see how many people one person influence has brought into the church through descendants. But that doesn't matter, do the work and you will be blessed. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

Streets decorated for Christmas

oh ps!! a funny word I learned this week was the word for inside joke which is: intern skämt (huhwhemt, do the huh very fast) it sounds very chinese and it is hilarious!! 

MVH, Äldste Johnson