SPRING IN SWEDEN....SYSTER LUND LOVING HER MISSION! Scroll down to read past emails and see all the great pictures.

SWEDEN (on our run)

May 11, 2015

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Hej hej!

This week was pretty standard, nothing crazy. Tuesday we were able to go to the temple for Sister Poulson's 6 months (or more) in Sweden. It was awesome, we actually did it all in Swedish! It was Featherstone's birthday and Poulson and I gave him a signed and laminated picture of us haha Those last minute birthday gifts though.

We tried tracting a few doors this week, and one guy randomly let us in! He was Muslim and we taught the first lesson. It was feeling pretty good and then he got super off topic and started talking about Isis and some conspiracy theory about how Michael Jackson was murdered by Lady Gaga or something like that..
Tried a new contacting method this week - when you seee a runner, start running with them and teach them as much as you can haha. I knew these runs in the morning would pay off haha. We had district meeting in the woods Thursday haha it looked so sketchy haha but it was so nice out that none of us really cared. I went on exchanges with Syster Bolton which was way fun! We ate some nasty dinner at a members house - gröt, raisans, and raspberry soft. Took everything I had to hold it down, let's just say it didn't agree super well with my tummy.

We met with a sweet lady we are teaching and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She was super receptive to it and was basically teaching us about repentance haha it was awesome. She asked what our view on equality between men and women was and before we could answer she was talking about how she thinks we are all equal but have divine qualities and gifts that complement each other...like wut. #familyproclamation. It was awesome. We invited her to pray about baptism, and she text us yesterday morning to say she didn't think it was right. We asked to meet with her one more time and kinda tell her how it is, so we will see. We passed out cookies and cards together this week haha that was a new idea that kinda worked I guess. We did some yard work for an inactive and I used a blow torch and a weed whacker for the first time in my life. He's also very healthy and natural so I was able to try dandelion straight off the lawn and egg shell right off the egg. He's an interesting gem. A guy we play soccer with swung by to give sister Poulson and I some cool ugandan shoes that his mom made for us. Super sweet and they are actually really cute!

The worst part of the week was when we found out that Syster Poulson is leaving :( She will be going to Sundsvall and I will be staying here and getting a sister named Syster Irene. We will see how it goes! Featherstone is also leaving and going to a branch of 6 members in Skellefteå! The greenies (me and Burton) will be taking over VH!!

We gave a few spiritual thoughts this week on a talk by President Eyring on Continuing Revelation. There is one quote that I really liked, "Revelation continues in the Church: the prophet receiving it for the Church; the president for his stake, his mission, or his quorum; the bishop for his ward; the father for his family; the individual for himself". Always keep your heart ready and open to receive inspiration - you never know when or how it will come, but it will ALWAYS benefit you in your life and help you prepare to return to God's presence.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! It was so fun to skype yesterday. So special. Have a wonderful week!!

Kärlek,

Sister Jordan Lund

 

The Football Crew

The two elders I beat in tennis (kneeling)

Last night in VH

Fam

Syster Irene and I

Rope Structure

Airing out umbrellas at the church

May 18, 2015

Haaaaaaalllååååå.

This Pday was much needed, we have laid so much groundwork for this transfer the past few days and I am just exhausted. And my comp is sick, so today we will be taking it super easy.

Last Monday was the best Pday yet though! We played tennis, football, and went into Gamla stan one last time before Poulson left. I even got a little sunburned. What a great feeling. Tuesday was beyond packed because we were saying bye to all sorts of members, investigators, less actives etc. We met a guy that follows the Mosaic Law completely wearing tassles, linen on his head, and carries a staff. Interesting to talk to but kind of frustrating because he kept throwing everything we said to him right back in our faces. Long story short, the elders are meeting with him now haha.

We had a great last evening in VH together with the elders playing in the rain and getting soaking wet and laughing about all the good times we had. It was super hard to say goodbye to Sister Poulson the next day, I will seriously be forever grateful for everything she taught me in our 3 months together. I picked up Sister Irene and she is cool too! She is from Wyoming and is just 1 transfer ahead of me in the mission. But she went on an exchange to Sweden sooooo she is basically fluent. It's super nice to be able to ask her any questions about swedish and have them answered simply. She has been sick with a head cold since she got here, so we aren't going to hard right now and getting lots of sleep to make sure she gets better ASAP. 

We met a tonnnnn of youth that stayed at the Gästhem by the temple that were there for a few days to do baptisms and whatnot. There was a kid that looks just like TAY. No joke, I had to do a double take...and don't worry, I took stalker pics to show you.

We had dinner at a members house that had 7 dogs! They were climbing all over our feet and begging at the dinner table..dad would have hated it. We met with John to talk about the baptismal questions and turns out he isn't ready for his baptismal date, so we will have to push that back. We made a bet/challenge with the elders to see who can get the most contacts this week. The reward you ask? if we win, we get to put makeup on them and take a pic. If they win, we have to buy them cheap ties. Sister Irene and I climbed to the top of this large rope jungle gym (like 30 ft up) and it was cool. This young girl started shaking it at the bottom and laughing at us struggle to keep our balance..#satanic.

This has been an exhausting week of preparing ourselves for the next 5 weeks. I am so tired but it feels so good! Doing everything we can over here haha. 

Have a wonderful week!! Love you all!!

Syster Jordan Lund

The pizza champs (trying to choke down the last few)

The Elders at the Lundborgs house soaking up the sun

Field behind the temple

Pouyeh!

Irene and I

May 25, 2015

Hallå allihoppa!

it's been a bomb week!

Sister Irene has been super helpful in språk study and she has been helping me out lots. She writes out sentences in English and then I just translate them to Swedish.

The Hagmans was hilarious this week. Andreas kept saying that Syster Poulson and I were Navy seal missionaries. Like when nothing else is working they send us to him. "You probably get on your little bikes, turn the corner, and WHOOSH! You are zapped back into the heavens" hahah he's the greatest. 

We had zone training this week!! It was awesome!! Our Zone leaders are way cool (Archibald and Barnes). We went to pizza hut after and Archibald and Burton battled it out in who could eat more pizza. They tied at 25 pieces of pizza....disgusting. It was hilarious to watch.

We had a man on the street spit on us and tell us to leave our church so we can have eternal life. I had to have SOOOOO much patience to not go off...Jesus wouldn't do that. 

I've gotten in this habit of calling out to people to say hi from WAY far away. Sometimes it's successful and sometimes people think that you are completely nuts. This week was successful! I said hi to an old lady on her balcony about a football field away haha we walked over and we talked a little about our church and she said I had really white teeth haha, looks like the brushing is paying off! 

We went to lunch at the Lundborgs today!! SOOOO SWEET. They live way over in Sorunda so we got picked up at the station and then drove over there. it was sooo pretty! With all the flowers blooming, it really is lovely. 

We walked all over Nynäshamn swinging by less active members. We probably walked around at least 3 miles. But we met some cool people and tried to teach as much as we could! 

We had a ward party Saturday! We had a little tiny ward talent show and ate hamburgers. Some random less active kid tried to stab me with a staff.

We had a nice chat with Pouyeh!! Shes a new convert and just amazing! Shes from Iran and can speak persian, english, and swedish. SOOOOO AWESOME.

Bozedar came to church Sunday again! He even wore a baby pink outfit haha he's the greatest. We tracted in the area and got some follow up appointments! We talked and taught two people in just their tight boxer briefs....we taught the Restoration but had a HORRENDOUS laugh attack in the beginning. I thought we weren't going to be able to make it through but Irene stepped back a bit to control herself and I tried to persist on. TOO FUNNY. We met a guy named Broeric who is SOOO prepared!! He asked all sorts of good questions so we hope to meet with him soon! I love Sister Irene! We are having a blast together and laughing lots :)

Have a great week! love and miss you all!

Syster Jordan Lund

Ring (viking metal)

Taking a break in the flowers

Glad Morsdag to us!

June 1, 2015

Hejsan! Hoppas allt är bra med er!

This week was great, we have been super busy getting lots done and teaching people! Last pday (the 25th) we didnt have time to email at all but we went into Stockholm to get some stuff that we needed. I ended up playing an elder (Elder Archibald) in ping pong and he started off by saying, "so I've never been beat on my mission" hahah it was fun. I also got a ring from Gotland! I had coordinated with an elder to have him get it for me because that is the only place you can get them. It is a ring with a design on it and it is actually made out of VIKING METAL. It's super cool and a lot of people in Sweden wear them. We played 4 games, I won all of them and he was slightly devastated haha. Thanks for all the training dad. We were all sorts of busy in Stockholm beside that and my bike had broken on our way to the church to email in the morning (which we didnt do). We asked to borrow one of the temple couples bike because when we were getting back we had lots to do that evening as well. They happily lent us their bike and offered to fix mine. Super sweet of them! Long story short, lots went wrong in Stockholm, we got on the wrong train back to VH and were 30 mins late to our dinner appt and got lost on the way, and we got blåsted by our other lesson. It was just somewhat stressful and tense and had been a little bit of a rough day. We got back to the church to give their bike back (8:30 ish) and there was my bike, parked in the rack, with a simple note on the seat saying "It runs GREAT now!" I almost cried, after all that seemed to go wrong, this genuine temple missionary had fixed my incredibly broken bike and even bought 2 new spokes for it. He said it was even fun to tinker with President Malm of the 70. So that is cool that they fixed my bike haha. and it was really a tender mercy of the Lord.

We have been practicing our lessons with members this week as to work better together and in better unity as a companionship. It's tough with a new companion because you had gotten in the habit with teaching, but it's been going well! 

We got locked out again of our apartment. Oh man...we felt stupid. But we had swing bys to do so we did those, and then some dark clouds started rolling in...and we didnt have jackets. Thank goodness it never rained, but we were locked out of our apartment for about 6 hours haha. We did practice lessons and whatnot, and the members must have known we were starving because they gave us melons and bananas...another tender mercy of the Lord. 

We gave service at the temple this week! We worked picking weeds and dead flowers for a couple hours..it was super fun! We baked a ton of cookies for less actives that we visited later that evening on splits in Nynäshamn. It was me and Mathilda (RM), Irene and Pouyeh (New convert), Burton and Henrik (1st counselor in Bishopric) and Hansen and Lars (WML). It was awesome! We were able to go visit lots of people.

We tried a new thing this week called "toilet tracting". I had to use the bathroom so bad...so I knocked on a random door and when they answered I said, sorry we are from america and I really need to go to the bathroom may I please use yours? and the guy was like preferably not hahaha aaaaaannnnddd that was the end of that. 

We met with Jenny Saturday and she said that she would sing with us in church! YES! We are so excited. We will most likely sing O Store Gud or Närmare Gud Till Dig. I'll keep you posted on that. 

We stopped by Pontus as well and had a nice time talking with him and Jessica (the ones we play Boules with). Saturday evening we ended up talking to a lot of drunk people, but one guy contacted us and said come teach me tomorrow! We tried to stop by the next day and he wasnt home, but we will for sure be back :)

The Young Women had a program yesterday in church and it was amazing! Any of those girls would just be amazing missioanries! it was swedens mothers day yesterday so they passed out roses and chocolate for the girls over 18...that was us :) We had a Persian lunch with Pouyeh and I tried eggplant and dates for the first time. We had 3 lessons after that that all fell through. We had dinner with a family in the ward who really needed us. We were at there house for a while talking and giving them support and the elders gave a few blessings as well. It was really cool that we could be there for them in their time of need.

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG. This week has just made me realize how much the Lord really loves all of his children and has His hand in our lives guiding our ever step. I love missionary work!

Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Syster Jordan Lund

Abba Museum

Bozedar

Moroni

Bunnies at Kristina's house

June 8, 2015

Hejsan!! Hoppas allt är bra med er!

This week has been super great! Last Pday we went with a bunch of other missionaries to the ABBA museum in Stockholm. I even got to see Syster Poulson and Elder Featherstone! Reunionnnn!! It was cool. We ate vegetarian chili with Thomas that evening and talked about how he likes to blow things up, it was a great convo haha We went to visit Bozedar at his work and we met some of his coworkers. He even gave us little stuffed fluffy things. We also had an awesome lesson with a new investigator named Michelle...she is so awesome! And we just answered some questions for her and the Spirit was so strong!

We had two girls from Örebro stay with us in our teeny apartment. It was super fun to have a little sleepover. We had ZONE CONFERENCE on Wednesday! Oh man it was so good. The main topic was Disciples in the Digital Age (apparently we are getting ipads sometime) but the assistants talked about magnifying our calling and how even when we get rejected, blåsted, spit on etc, it is a GIFT and a BLESSING that we can be here on missions.

We went and visited a sweet new convert from Denmark that just moved into the Handen ward. She lives on this reallllly pretty property right next to the lake. We talked and ate popsicles and played with their bunnies. It was super fun and she is so nice!

We had dinner with Jenny this week at a members house (Tove) and Pouyeh. It was super good! We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it relates and links to everything else in our religion. The temple is closed for 2 weeks to clean and whatnot, but it was cool because we got to help clean inside!! It's so weird seeing it in the cleaning process compared to normally. I finally got to meet KARMEN. She is so sweet! She gave me the package (thank you mom and dad) and we talked for a little bit about Santa Barbara and how she misses it...haha it made me miss it as well. We did our weekly planning outside and got 1 slightly shade darker! It was awesome and felt so good. We went to Mary (a member in the Handen ward) house for dinner and karaoke! It was super funn!! We got to spend time with her and her son who has Autism (I think) and it was just fun to be with them and feel their spirit. We had lunch with a lady who has a son who has some crazy disease that only 3 other kids have in Sweden. She is so sweet and so is her son. And daughter. We did the tea bag lesson with them and they loved it!

We started a big district wide health challenge!! We are seeing who can lose the most weight in the next 2 and a half weeks! We'll see how it goes. We got a call from a lady Saturday evening who asked to come to church! That does not happen!!! It was awesome. She came to church yesterday but it was a little bit of a different meeting. Elder Holland addressed us about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it. The lady, Cecilia, really liked it! She said she wants to come back and she had already read in the Book of Mormon! Oh man she is so so so golden. It was awesome. ANd we got a referral yesterday which rarely happens too! It was great. We went to Lindas for lunch and had a good discussion about life and being better people and reaching our full potential. We also had dinner with Tibor and Barbro and sang some songs with them. They are just the sweetest people.

My testimony has grown a lot this week about the Lord's hand in this work. I know that he is always looking out for his missionaries. And I love being a missionary!! Love it so much!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and the experiences that I have had in my life to be in this place right now.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Kärlek,

Syster Jordan

Persian Dessert

Sister Haynes (MTC teacher)

Me and Sister Irene

Kladdkaka we made for an elders birthday

Cute little girls dressed up the day after the Prince of Sweden got married

June 15, 2015

Where did June go?!?! The month is half over!

This week has been super good and full of great experiences. Our district is on this health kick to try to lose weight before the transfer is over and it is super funny to see them all out trying to run in the morning haha. 

We had a great lesson with Andreas this week. We played an outside Swedish game with him and his daughters. We then talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon in relation to other gospel principles. We drew out a nice map for him that said "if the Book of Mormon is true then..." and led to every part of our gospel. We testified and went pretty hard on him, but he needed it. The Spirit was sooo strong and guided our words. There were a couple times I could tell that both me and Sister Irene were just waiting for the next prompting from the Holy Ghost. 

We've worked in the temple a lot this week because they have needed all sorts of help. It has been super cool to be able to do that. 

We have done a lot of tracting this week as well which is awesome! I love tracting! Somehow we always tend to end up teaching people in their underwear...#eyecontact. Soccer was nuts this week haha. One member that plays with us passed out and thankfully Irene and I knew what to do to keep him together and all that jazz. Thank you Girls Camp. Another kid was throwing up because he ate too much ice cream before haha. And Burton thought that he broke some of his ribs (turns out he is fine) and he couldn't really breath for about a day or two. We had exchanges this week and I was able to be with Sister DeMille! We taught Carolina and Sofie (new investigators) about the Restoration and holy moly it was just such a great lesson!! In the beginning they were pretty timid and shy but in the end they were so open and they asked all sorts of good questions. The daughter (Sofie 14 years old) was really into it too. Oh man it was great. I testified specifically about the blessings that come from this church and the truth found in the Book or Mormon. At the end, Sofie said the prayer and said "Please help me to receive the same blessings as...Syster Lund" It was so sweet! They said that when they come to know that these things are true they will be baptized.

We went to Muskö Saturday to give some service and mow a lawn and pull some weeds...but man we had no idea what we were getting into. We barely made a dent in the lawn and the weeds around it..The house had an interested smell and when we were eating some (older) fruit there were flies crawling all over my plate. We are going to go back this next week to finish because there is SO MUCH to do. 

Cecilia came to church again! And she stayed all 3 hours!! We were able to teach her the second hour about the Plan of Salvation and focus it lots on families. It went super well and she is continuing to read in the Book of Mormon. We had lunch with Pouyeh and had eggplant, eggs, and tomato (kinda looked like mush) and it was delicious!

Transfer calls are this Friday/Saturday, I hope I can stay here one more transfer with Sister Irene! We have seen a lot of success this past week! Life is good as a missionary! I love it so much!!

Have a woonderful week, love and miss you all!

Kärlek,

Syster Jordan Lund