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| Church with Mattias |
August 3, 2105
Hejsan!!
I hope everything is
going well!
This week was kind of
all over the place but overall it was good! We taught Mattias a little more
this week and then kind of took a break towards the end of the week and then
met back up Sunday at church. We're going to lunch with him right after this,
but he still loves coming to church and learning about the gospel!
Sister Giles is actually getting transferred!! NOOOO!! She will be moving to
Kungsbacka and I will be staying and getting a sister named Sister Nielsen.
Kungsbacka is still in our zone, so I will see her still! But man, sad day :(
We had some really
good member dinners this week. One of them was the Trejos, they are a Columbian
family and they made us some really good vegetable and chicken pizzas and told
us to keep eating haha WE WERE STUFFED. They are such a cute family! I loveeee
them. ANother meal we had with another Columbian family consisted of fish soup,
rice, salad, and more cooked fish. The fish had all sorts of bones in it and we
were getting stabbed all up in our gums until the daughter showed us a way to
squish and squeeze the bones out without stabbing outselves. hahah it is
always crazy when we go over the Baqueros becuase there is lots of spanish
flying and then some Swedish and then a little bit of english. haha not to mention
the Columbian music blaring in the background. OH and to drink? We had warm
squash froth. It was...not for me. I tried to play it off like it was good but
I couldnt help but gag every gulp. Eventually I stopped with still like 3/4 of
the cup left when the mother of the house who doesnt speak very much swedish
said "Inte bra?!" I panicked and Giles took a bullet for me and
grabbed my drink and glugged it down. Oh man, it was so hard to drink..I was
actively looking for the best place to throw up if it pushed its way back
up.
District meeting was
in Skövde this week and we talking about success and how we all measure it in
different ways. Our DL made a "I'm a Mormon" video with all of us in
it, it was super cool haha We had hotdogs after! Deff not the same as American
hot dogs, but close enough.
Another thing we did
this week was make cookies for the bus drivers!! I made probably 50 cookies to
pass out to the drivers we saw throughout the day, and it really brightened
their day!
We found out that
Robert is going to be moving to Göteborg to almost the same area that Giles is
going! So hopefully she can take that all the way to the font! He is seriously
SO AWESOME.
We met with an
investigator who we have been trying to meet with the whole transfer. She is
superrrr sweet and has a little guinea pig that crawls in your shirt...because
apparently that is where they are more comfortable? Jag vet inte. Minna (the
guinea pig) is SO CUTE. She was sitting in my shirt the whole lesson haha
anddddd she peed and pooped all over me...I guess I was really hoping that my
dedication and patience with this animal would show the investigator that I
really cared haha. AND, she ate a big chunk of my hair! ugh. I walked home
smelling absolutely DISGUSTING. Oh well haha
I think that is about
it for this week! I miss and love you all!! I hope you all have a great week!
Don't forget to read your scriptures!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Guinea pig in my shirt |
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| California will be splitting up |
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| Giles and I practicing our song |
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| Always praying |
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| Eating some Colombian food |
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| Fish head soup |
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| Saying goodbye to Elder Farnsworth |
Halllååååå
This week has been
super crazy! One transfer and lots of little miracles. On Tuesday we had our
last little District Meeting with our DL who was finishing his mission. We did
a little "funeral" for him which was super duper fun. We had a
testimony meeting to finish it off. It was super good, spiritual, and needed.
We sent Elder Farnworth off on his train to Stockholm and there were more tears
than dry eyes. He was one of the best DLs I have had so far.
We had dinner at
Sinikka and Hilma's house and Mattias came with us! It was super good and we
had a great discussion about baptism and how to prepare for it and the
blessings that come. It was super duper good for Mattias to meet more members
in the ward :)
Giles finished
packing this week and shipped out to Kungsbacka which is still in our zone
which is nice. We celebrated with her favorite Indian restaurant with the
elders right before she left. We're going to miss her but she is very much
needed in Kungsbacka from what I have heard. AND WE GOT A NEW SISTER. Her name
is Sister Nielsen and she is just the cutest! She is from Oregon, came into the
MTC 6 weeks after me, and is the hardest worker. Oh man, it is super awesome.
AND she eats healthy and likes to run! WIN WIN. Basically this transfer is
going to be amazing and it already has been!
We taught Kia and
Josefine this week and kind of figured out where Josefine is at. She likes to take
lessons and learn but probably isn't super close to baptism so we will take it
at the pace that is best for her.
The buses here in
Borås are..unfortunate. The scheduling is hard and it's somewhat difficult to
figure out when and where and how we are supposed to get somewhere. We were
supposed to take a bus from centrum to the Eks but it didn't end up working out
because we had read the time table wrong. I thought that I had figured it out
though until we got to Ulricehamn and there wasn't a bus that took us the
additional 20 minute drive to where we needed to be for an
appointment/middag/lesson. I was wrong yet again. I had messed up TWICE. I felt
really bad and I was about to call this family and ask them to pick us up when
a very nice bus driver who had just finished his shift offered to drive us
there. I nearly lost it with tears because of this tender mercy. I felt bad for
leading all 4 of us missionaries the wrong way, but the Lord truly does help us
when we are found in a state of desperation. I think about this experience as
sort of an analogy. After we have done everything we can, after we have put
forth our best effort to be who we should be and we still fall short, Christ
can take it the rest of the way. And it was truly a miracle that we needed.
Church was good!
Everyone loves Sister Nielsen which is perfect! We were invited to the
Engelbrektssons for dinner with the elders and Daniel (New convert) and we had
tacos and pie! Afterwards, we had planned to swing by some people and do a
little bit of tracting. We got distracted on the way talking to people and
ended up having a couple cool street lessons. After some successes and failures
on the way home, we saw a lady who was sitting outside her apartment building
alone. We tried to talk to her about the Book of Mormon but the Spirit took it
another direction when Sister Nielsen told her how much Heavenly Father loves
her. She asked us to pray her her and we kneeled down right then and there and
prayed with and for her. She was very touched and called us angels.
Something that has
been super cool lately I've really been seeing the love that God has for all of
his children no matter where we are in the world. We have seen lots of miracles
so far, and we are excited to see many more!!
Sorry this is so
long, but have a great week!! Love and miss you lots!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Last picture of Syster Giles and I |
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| Californians! |
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| My new companion, Syster Nielsen |
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| Borås is the place to be! |
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| Swedish church....One of the biggest in Borås |
So like...where did
all of August go? And summer??
Weird.
So this week was
super good and busy. Last pday, we went to a less actives house and had a BBQ
with her and her non member son. It was super fun! We played some lawn games
and then ate and gave a little spiritual message. We had studied for a lesson
we were going to have with Mattias on temples and then decided against it, but
we ended up talking and teaching about temples to a new convert who wants to go
to the temple! So that was cool that even though it didn't turn out how we
planned, we still used it elsewhere.
We had a lesson with
a new investigator named Mahut in his backyard. We tried to teach about Jesus
Christ and God but it turned into him asking him to marry him or his son haha
Craziest thing!! We
had met a guy who said that he doesn't have any faith and we invited him to
read Alma 32 and text us after he has read it. He did!! He texted us!! He said
that there wasn't much more seeking he could do but we knew there was more. We
bought him a little plant thing for cheap so that we could drop it off at his
apartment (where we met him) and explain that the plant had started as a little
seed. We walked all the way to his apartment complex where we had met him the
first time sitting outside. Turns out the building was port coded. But we knew
we needed to get in there. I tried to look at the buttons and see if any were
more worn out than others but they all kind of looked the same. Sister Nielsen
suggested we pray so we did. The 4th combination later, the door unlocked. I
guess the Lord really needed him to get that plant!
We tried to swing by
a referral we had received but the building was also port coded. We knew that
if God did it once he could do it again. So we prayed again that we could find
a way into this building. 15 seconds later, a super nice man walked up and said
here I can let you in. I guess God wanted the referral to have the opportunity
to accept the gospel! Turns out the referral was a joke, but still - God
wants his children to have the opportunity!
This week we met a
lot of Jehovahs witnesses! They are super nice and love to preach. We actually
met with two last night who are pretty young and open to learning! We listened
to them respectfully and then they listened to us...it doesn't happen too
often, but it was cool to hear their beliefs and talk about Jesus Christ.
In a lesson with
Mattias this week, he brought up an analogy using sudoku and claimed that you
cant just guess and hope it works. I was able to grab my backpack and whip out
sudoku cards that I had and explain that even though you can't take a guess and
go off faith all the time, there is always another way to solve it. ALWAYS. It
really got through to him and he understood. And the crazy thing is, I tried to
take my sudoku cards out of my backpack 2 weeks ago because they were taking up
too much room, but something told me to keep them so I did. It was awesome. We
also taught his BROTHER this week. With Mattias! It was super awesome. he asked
really good questions and really appreciated all the knowledge he got from
us.
Unfortunately,
yesterday Mattias shared that he doesn't feel ready for his baptism on the 5th
of September and that he thinks he needs more time. So we are going to have to
push it back. I might not be able to be here to see his whole journey, but at
least I saw part of it! And we never really know what is going to happen with
him haha
We had zone training
this week! It was awesome and we talked about diligence! Something that is
always good to talk about and learn more about so that we can be better
missionaries!
Something I have
noticed this week is that our contacts and getting better and better. Some days
we have less, but better quality. Super cool!
Love and miss you all
so much! The Lord really does bless us when we align our will with His!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Lake this morning |
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| Elder Blackburn (Blackbjörn the greenie) |
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| Syster Neilsen |
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| After church with Mattias |
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| Working in Irma's garden...Service! |
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This yogurt called
Rissi Fruti. THE BEST THING EVER. (saves us on those hot days)
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| Guy we randomly taught a lesson to on a balcony and he gave us "88 icecream" because he is 88 years old. |
August 24, 2015
Hejsannn!!
I hope that you guys
had a good week! This week was a good busy week :)
We went to the Murray's
house to move and stack wood for the winter. We got the whole stack done which
they didn't think would happen so they were super appreciative and they fed us
tacos!
We met with Mattias a
couple times this week and he said the funniest thing. He is SUPER GOOD at
english, but there are still a few tiny things that are tougher for him to
understand. Anyways, he asked "Is collecting a sin?" And we were like
no...and he said "But it says in the Bible not to collect or commit
whoredoms." because he that that that was some form of the word hoarding
haha. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he made the decision to keep
going strong and get rid of anything that could persuade him to do
otherwise.
We also went to
Alingsås this week! It is out of our area, but we got permission from President
to go over there and meet the girl that will be staying with Sister Nielsen's
family for 10 months as an exchange student! We ate some crazy shellfish that I
wish I had gotten a picture of as proof. I tried crab claws, baby shrimp, and
then like...a bigger shrimp thing. Definitely out of my comfort zone but good!
The family is super sweet and they live in a beautiful house.
This week sleep wise
has been all over the place. Sister Nielsen told me she woke up to me talking
in my sleep contacting someone in Swedish haha and then I think I tried to
explain something to her in my sleep missionary wise and woke up halfway
through. She said "what?" and I said "Nevermind we can talk
about it in the morning" haha the missionary work never ends!!
We had Swedish
pancakes twice this week with members. Swedish pancakes served by real Swedish
people!
This week was tough
trying to talk to people and we got a little bit down on ourselves. We kept
pushing forward and saw so many blessings!! We have a pile of swing bys and
every time we decide to do a swing by we pray about which one we should grab.
One day, we grabbed one and went over to Hedvigsborg to do a swing by and a
little tracting and contacting. We tried to find the guy's name on the
building's resident list but we couldn't find it. The building was MASSIVE. 19
floors or something crazy. We decided to tract the buiding anyways and we met
some TUs that we had been trying super hard to get in contact with. We also
accidentally tracted into a member family...awkward. We were getting lots of
doors slammed in our faces when finally - the second to last door - we met a
guy who let us in to his house. He introduced himself as George and his son as
Ahmin. We didnt think anything of it and we tried to teach a little bit about
Jesus Christ and he said that he had met missionaries before. When we got the
number at the end and asked for his name again he said George K., who was the
exact person we were looking for! 100+ doors later haha. It was awesome ad he
wants us to come back sometime this week. And we got a call from someone who we
had talked to about Jesus Christ and they want to meet sometime!
We walked to the
library so we could use the bathroom and on the way back had an awesome discussion
with a man on his balcony! He was super sweet and we talked about the existence
of a God. He even gave us ice cream to celebrate his 88th birthday. We went to
the bishops house for dinner and had a BBQ and discussed the needs of the area.
It was super fun and we have an awesome bishop and ward mission leader. We
helped a Muslim lady with her stroller and 2 kids on the bus today and she gave
us both hugs! That doesn't usually happen, so it was cool.
Yesterday was a
mission farewell and it was super great!! At the end of the program, we stood
and sang Gud var med dig tills bi möts igen. It's Bro. Murray's favorite song
and he had really been a help in getting this young man on a mission. Needless
to say, the tears came flowing haha.
This week has been a
little on the tougher side but Sister Nielsen and I continue to push forward!
Life is always better when you look on the brighter side of things and truly
see the blessings God provides to us :)
LOVE YOU ALL
Syster Jordan Lund
Syster Jordan Lund
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| On our 6 mile run this morning by the lake |
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| Swedish pancakes from a member |
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| Every child a child of God |
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| Nielsen and I |
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| Syster Jordan Lund |
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| Boräs |
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| Found a frog while doing service |
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| Walking home last night |
August 31, 2015
The months are just
flying by! It is almost September!!
This week has been
pretty solid!
We went on splits
this week and I was able to go with my "grandma"!! She is my
trainer's trainer so it was super duper fun! We talked all about our past
companions that we have had in common - super fun. We swung by some people and
then had dinner at Hilma's with Mattias. We made a princess torta and it turned
out pretty solid!
We went and visited
the Zebeda family for dinner and got to know them a little better. They own a
big chocolate company that basically imports chocolate from all over the world.
Like high class expensive chocolate. It was super fun and dinner was healthy,
organic, and DELICIOUS. We tracted around in the area and found a cool spanish
family - I so wish I had paid more attention in high school and practiced my
Spanish.
In District Meeting
this week, we practiced role plays and even though it is like the most AWKWARD
THING EVER, Elder Stoeltzing made it super fun and goofy. We had a great time
and learned a lot!
Big stupid thing of
this week is that I have been sick! I started having a sore throat on Thursday
evening and then it progressively got worse haha butttt things are looking up
and it's going away now so all is well. It is super hard to put forth
everything I have to missionary work when I'm not evening working with 100% in
the first place haha. Super frustrating.
We met with Angelika
and Robin (Jehovahs Witnesses) and they bought us pizza and we chatted for a
bit. We laid down some expectations and they didn't really agree with them so
it looks like we're gonna have to let them rest for a bit. We met with Rickard
for the second time and taught the Restoration again because the first lesson
was all over the place! We aren't super sure where his intentions are, so we
might be handing him over to the elders.
We tracted a lot this
week which is bomb! I love tracting. We basically preached to a few couples of
Philippino women and their Swedish husbands. They just let us into their house
and they were all super drunk and eating shellfish. Nice people, not so nice
about religion, but it was fun to talk to them. We had dinner at the Delve's
and had dumplings and sushi! All vegetarian and super good! Kinda funny story,
we've been playing this game with members to help them realize how many people
they can share the gospel with and it gets pretty competitive. The wife of this
family is young and super awesome but competitive too haha right before we were
starting the game, her 7 year old daughter was kind of nagging her about
something. The mom just turned to her and was like "Ellie, not right now
sweetie, mommy's busy" in kind of a stressed voice and the little girl
just started bawling and the mom felt really bad. Poor girl, the mom apologized
don't worry, all is well.
We saw a less active
in church yesterday that we have been trying to meet with! She is 20 years old
and just so awesome! Hopefully we will meet with her again soon. We had a
lesson with Mattias with two members from our ward and they talked about their
stories and the struggles they have had with addictions, it was super awesome.
The Spirit was SO there!
This week has been a
lot of finding effort and we haven't necessarily seen too much success, but we
are still kicking all the way! And we are having fun doing it. I like to think
of it as we are looking for the ones that are prepared to receive the gospel
and planting seeds along the way.
Have a great week!!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| People try to be nice about not wanting anything |
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| The streets of Sweden and classic rainy weather |
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| Splits with Syster Kind ("Grandma") |
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| Baby snails everywhere this week |
