Syster Jordan and Spring in Sweden

April Fools joke...Elder not aware of missionary tag switch.

Easter cookies

Jordan always with a thumbs up loves her mission!

Dinner at a members home along with some investigators.

Soup always a staple.

The Northern Lights

Who says missionaries can't celebrate St. Patty's Day...

Loving the bike but a little challenging in a skirt.

Tennis anyone?

Cold!

Post Ward Council meeting photo opportunity.

"Loving my mission"

Pday exploring

Syster Lund and Syster Poulson

More pday

Planting flowers at the Stockholm Temple

CARE PACKAGE!

Dinner invites

All smiles again!

  

NEWS FROM SWEDEN

 

March 15, 2015

Hej Hej! Happy P day! This week went by sooo fast but that is okay, it's kinda nice when it flies by. We had tacos this week at a members house - it was basically the best thing ever. We have been teaching a less active family (the dad and mom are members and their 3 cute girls arent). And we finally got through to him this last week. We will be meeting with them again tomorrow to talk more about coming back to church and getting the girls baptized. They are a super cool family..it's awesome to meet with them. Our light bulb (the main one in our tiny apartment) went out on Monday. We got it fixed finally on Friday ...but it was super hard to work with little tiny candles and the bathroom and kitchen lights all week. We also got bikes!! Super exciting!! Except we look like dweebs with our helmets but that is okay, because...you know...bikes. I've been kinda sick all week. Some weird sinus thing is going around through the missionaries. I am getting lots better but just didn't feel 100% all week. I keep thinking about a talk I read that as a missionary, if you are tired, you need to push even harder. So, I am doing my best, pushing hard, and knowing my limits so that I can get better quick! We had a lesson with a member on Thursday and just practiced the Restoration (that is what President has asked us to do). We didnt think that we did that great of a job, but it really touched the lady we were teaching and she actually began crying. It was super cool to see how even though we aren't the best teachers, the Holy Ghost is. We have been reading lots of conference talks lately, but something that stood out to me in one that I was reading (as we talk to less actives) is that the ultimate way to show your love for the Lord is loyalty. Loyalty to the church, the teachings, the doctrines, and the commandments. It's super cool knowing that if we are loyal through everything, things will be okay and that we will be in the comfort of the Lord's hands. I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Love and miss you all lots! Syster Lund March 23, 2015 I hope that all is going well with you guys. This week has FLOWN BY.  Happy St. Pattys day! Apparently, people don't celebrate it Sweden, but no worries, Sys. Poulson and I ate pie anddd wore green on St. Pattys day. Last Pday we went with the elders and explored this cool forrest thing and had lunch. We went to this new convert's house for a BBQ later that night...we ended up eating charred lamb but blood on it - not sure how that happened.  We met this guy on the street last week and got his number and ended up playing this cool game with him...they call it bowls. It's hard to explain but it's a mix between bocce ball and bowling. We went and met all his friends #jackpot.  ALSO, St Pattys day was ESPECIALLY awesome because we saw the Northern Lights and they were GREEN!!! Like what are the chances of that...I was beyond happy. So super cool. I was so excited and we just kinda stayed outside for a bit until they disappeared. We ate some weird fish this week...but we didn't get sick! And the family was super nice for opening their home to us anyways.  I got my boots shined by one of the elders here (Elder Featherstone) and he did a super bomb job! They look brand new! Thursday we had to speak Swedish all day, it was hard but super helpful. We got kebab again after the district meeting. We played soccer with all these cool guys again and got some pics.  We tried to make a bunch of cookies this week for less actives and what not...didn't turn out too well so we are going to try again this week.  The bikes we got are super fun! We've been on them twice and turns out, it is a LOT harder to get off in a skirt and rainboots than one would think! #devastating.  We played tennis this week with the wife of a inactive family we are working with!! Man it was so great. She was fun to play with and we just had a good time! And now we know where the tennis courts are. Except its like 230 kr for an hour on one court and 90 kr for balls and 30 kr to rent a tennis racket. Pricy! But it was fun :) We had dinner at Lindas (member) and it was so fun! We helped her out in her house a bit and then talked with her and her nonmember daughter for a while and just ate food. So fun!! Love both of them so much! We gave a lesson in Relief Society yesterday...in Swedish. And the whole RS sang in sacrament meeting. It was basically like a women's day for the main meeting. Even the closing song was "As Sisters in Zion" and the men were all just laughing and trying to sing without being awkward as.  Life is so great!! I am super excited for GC coming up! This week we read a talk called Lord is is I? and it talks about not looking at the faults of others when you have places to improve in. It was really eye opening and a good reminder that we all have a lot that we can do better with and change for the better. Love and miss you all! Syster Lund

March 30, 2015

 Hej hej allihoppa!!
 

This week has been all over the place. Last Pday I got my first little set of actual makeup - yes mom and dad, there is hope for me someday. Sys. Poulson was super helpful when I was trying to decide what was best. We went to Miriam's Monday for FHE with her and the elders. It was fun, she is such a sweet lady (in our ward).

Tuesday night was super crazy. We had a dinner at 5:30,  bowls at 6 (that weird bocce game I was talking about last week), and a lesson at 7. It was a super crazy night and we were biking all over the place but it was good. I got really good at making Snickerdoodle cookies this week, I did it two days in a row. We made tons of cookies for less actives and investigators and members.

We are working on training our Ward Mission Leader (I dont know why they didn't do it sooner) so we can break into the untapped potential of the ward! Should be good.

We had Ward Council and took a HILARIOUS picture that I will send shortly. The elders practiced jumping over things and got really good at it without getting hurt haha #impressive

We met with President this week during district meeting. Sys. Poulson and I got delicious homemade pudding from our DL because we sent in our numbers first last Sunday!

We went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders! It was my first one but I didnt really know what to expect. But basically we just spent 24 hours with another comp. I was with Sys. Stewart who goes home in 3 days and that I actually went out with the first day I was in Sweden. She is super cool and fun, but I was glad to be back with mama Poulson after.

Syster Poulson sprained her ankle while she stayed here for exchanges. She did it playing soccer so we are out for a couple days. We are resting it and icing and elevating. It's reeeeallly hard for her to walk, but she is a trooper. Anywhere that we have to go that is more than like 200 m we take a bike. And that is only if we have to go...we cancelled a couple appointments we had because her foot didn't feel good. I think it is getting better so hopefully we will be back and running shortly.

We had dinner with a lady that only spoke Danish to us...I'm still working on understanding Swedish so there was basically no hope for me or Elder Burton (other greenie here). It was funny to just watch Elder Featherstone take it all for us and talk to her - true gem.

We've been laying low and catching up on area book stuff and numbers we've gotten.

Good quote from the week that we attached to the cookies we delivered: "When everything says you can't, believe in the part of you that says you can." We are kinda having a tough time right now with people to teach and with Sys. Poulson's ankle, but we have not given up ANY hope. We know where our beliefs are and no one can discourage us or this work!!

Love and miss you all!! I hope you have a great week :)'

Syster Lund

April 6, 2015

Hej hej!
I hope that everyone is doing well!
This week had some lows and then finished on a really high note! Last Pday we got these super cool erasable pens - We searched all over the mall for them and finally found them! We bought like 5 each haha. Tuesday was probably the hardest day of the mission so far. We had so many good awesome lessons planned and they basically all fell through. Our object lesson didn't work super well and one didn't even want to see the Easter Video. It was just kinda tough but we decided it would just make the rest of the week that much better...and it did! Wednesday was April Fools and Sys Poulson and I had lots planned but we decided that it probably wouldnt be the best idea as missionaries so we played a simple nametag trick on Elder Burton and took a picture before he realized haha. The elders got us back good. They called us at 9pm and said hey you need to hustle over to the church, there is a lady that we have been teaching that wants to meet with the sisters because she has received an answer to her prayers. They made this call immediately after we had shagged down and into our Pjs and after I had mentioned that I was surprised the elders didnt get us. Needless to say, I knew it was fake the whole time...but because of the shred of what if they actually are telling the truth, we decided to go. We got there and there was a sticky note on the door that said "April Fools, fools!" oh man we were peeved. We noticed their phone in the corner and grabbed it and booked it out of there as fast as we could. They ran after us and grabbed their phone (after we had sent ourselves the video and deleted it from their phone). They were upset about that one hahah it was hilarious. Props to them for sure though. We talked to a guy on the street that day for about an hour and man he was struggling with all sorts of stuff. We were walking on the other side of the street and we saw him and felt prompted to cross the street and talk to him. After pouring our hearts, souls, and testimony out to him for an hour he didn't want to meet again, which is a major bummer. I'm sure we'll see him again though :) There are construction workers across the street that always call things out to us - I wish I knew Swedish better haha, we'll teach them, sometime this week for sure.

Thursday we got the bishop to agree to let us into his home to practice teaching our missionary lessons! No missionaries have gotten to go to his house in a LONG time, so we are super excited! And we had a whopping 22 people at soccer this week!!

We had an Easter dinner at Linda's Friday which was the bomb! She and her family are so great, she is basically the mom away from home. We played cards and I crushed everyone in Egyptian Rat Screw. I tried Caviar (I dont know how to spell that), the little orange fish eggs. It was nasty. Then I tried it out of a squeeze tube - almost puked. But I tried it!

GENERAL CONFERENCE! It was awesome. All the missionaries in our zone went and got traditional conference godis/candies Saturday. That night Linda told us that she had our Easter Baskets hidden around her house so we went over and hunted for those. She is seriously the best person. I love her so much!! I wish you guys could meet her. Yesterday, was THE BEST DAY EVER. We started the day off by delivering a little Easter basket to the elders in the morning. We then made cookies for some people we are working with - I was pretty proud of them. I got creative with materials because I didnt have a rolling pin, wax paper, or a cookie cutter. I ended up using a lint roller case, a plastic place mat, and our Easter basket shell. We found out that we are getting another elder here in Västerhaninge - Elder Bliss. He was in Syster Poulsons MTC district and he is way awesome, he should be a good addition to the Västerhaninge family. We had a super flaky investigator show up to the Sunday morning GC session! It was crazy! He even bought us a little Easter snow  globe. We watched it with him in Swedish (I'll have to rewatch that one haha) but he seemed to like it! He left with a cig and lighter in hand though haha, we'll meet with him this week for sure. It was a great week!!!! I love missionary work!

Thought: I really liked what Elder Oaks said in the Saturday morning session about how we should really live what we claim to believe in. So often it is easy to just do what is right on Sundays but really we should be carrying it with us during the week and throughout our lives. The guy on the street that we talked to forever had bad experiences with a mormon girl who was clearly not following the commandments. Because of her bad decisions and hypocrisy, he has a view of Mormons that is completely backwards - super frustrating for missionaries haha. Just remember, ALWAYS LIVE LIKE YOU BELIEVE.

Love you all!!

Syster Jordan Lund

April Fools Elder Burton!

The massive soccer crew

My pride and joy Easter cookies

Love love love Sys. Poulson

 

April 13, 2015

Hej hej!

I hope that everyone is doing super well! This week has been super great - full of great lessons, new investigators and all sorts of funny things.

Last Pday we went to Gamla Stan and explored the old town of Stockholm with another companionship (Syster Beckstrom and Syster Harkness) - it was wayyy fun! We also planted flowers at the temple this week!! I slipped pretty hard off this short wall and scraped up my leg and now my ankle is turning purple...not really sure what the deal is. But it doesnt hurt too bad so I'm not super worried (I'll send pics). The missionaries in our zone (like 22 of us) planted something like 7,000 flowers. It was nuts but it went super fast - whereas normally it takes the grounds crew 3 weeks to get it all done (we got it done in about 4 hours). It is SO much more complicated than anyone could even imagine. Let's just say I have a new respect for flower beds. Oh another thing - a shy timid elder got locked in a bathroom after planting flowers and was somewhat fretting. But because the locks at our house are similar to the lock that was on the bathroom door, I was able to pick the lock with a coin and help him get out haha Thanks for teaching me your ways Tay.

On our way home from Ward Council the elders showed us this cool tire swing thing they have been playing on and it is super cool - they have these tire things at almost every playground here so it is super awesome. There were a couple super embarrassing moments involved with that but it's all gucci. It's hard to explain the swing but I'll try to get a picture before next week.

I got the Easter Package - thank you SO MUCH. I was so excited it was unreal. And the sunflower seeds...you know me too well.

Soccer was especially crazy this week - the elders tend to always bail on this activity even though they are in charge of it. We were trying to organize like 20 boys into teams and make it fair so everyone has a chance to play...I got a little flustered haha but it was fun! Not too many injuries.

Friday we had zone training which was great! We talked about our personal and companionship studies in the morning and how to take full advantage of those. We went to lunch at a super good burger place after - the first legit hamburger I have had here. We went to a less actives house and had some tea and talked about the gospel. It was a good lesson, but I basically burned all my tastebuds off. She gave us these little marzipan chocolate things which I didn't think were too bad, but Sys. Poulson tried to shove hers in her pocket. Silly goose. We had dinner with the Forsmans (American family) and played with their cute kids - they are so NUTS. I give major props to the parents, they have their hands full. But it was a lot of fun and it was nice to speak english haha :)

We met with an old investigator who is a hippie sailor. He has been all over the world and been through a lot. He is super serious and just kinda funny. He hasn't been baptized because he thinks the font in the church is unsanitary (he thinks that thousands of people have been baptized in that font....HA. not quite). So we offered to have him baptized in the sea or up in Nynäshamn and he liked the idea so we will see how that goes. We met with Tibor and Barbro (sweet old couple living above us and are part of the Swedish church) and taught the Restoration, sang some songs, and just laughed. They are super sweet and they told us that we are like daughters to them. We met with Peter too and he said that we are the most positive thing in his life for the past 10 years - it was super sweet of him!

Syster Poulson and I have realized that we teach a lot of people that like to spill everything to us. And that there are certain strange things behind each one - but hey, people to teach!

I fasted for Travis yesterday which was a cool experience. We swung by Kjell's house yesterday to see if they were back from Spain and they are! We are going to have lunch and teach them this week. I am super excited for that - he has a cool twirly captain hook mustache and speaks super fast Swedish. We met BozedaR too! We talked a little about baptism and whatnot. He asked if he could take a smoke break in the middle of our lesson and we said it was fine but I for sure read him scriptures the whole time hahaha He then said the prayer at the end with his eyes open and staring at us. I did everything I could to not crack up. He is so awesome though. Last night we practiced our Swedish and English with this couple in our ward. We learned a lot of stuff pertaining to Swedish and clarified lots. SO HELPFUL. And the couple is just super sweet.

Wonderful long week!! I love being a missionary!! And I love you all!

Love,

Syster Lund