BRINGING COLOR TO SWEDEN

September 7, 2015

Hejsannn!! This week has been super crazy and we have worked super hard trying to find people to teach. We went to a couple different high schools this week and talked to the administration about volunteering to help in the english classes or to talk about schools in America for the peolpe who are thinking about going on an exchange. We also wanted to try to get into a nursing home and play the piano and talk to the people there. Just basically llistening to them - you know how old folks are :)

Mattias has a baptismal date once again!! It is pretty far away (Dec. 1st) so hopefully all will go well. He has been going to a lot of YSA activities and even went on a campout this weekend! We are still waiting to hear about the details from that!

We met with a young ny omvänd who is just the sweetest. She is around our age and we were able to get to know her a little bit better.

We've gotten pretty tight with the bus drivers here, it must have been the cookies we made for them a few weeks ago haha. One of them took us out to dinner just because. We tried to ask him about his beliefs but he wasn't super interested. SO NICE though.

We met with May this week! She wants to be baptized in December but isn't ready to plan a specific date. She is just a sweet heart haha It's always an interesting time over at her house.

This week we took time out of our Pday to get our faces read by a member named Våge!! It was so fun! He started at our chins and worked his way up to our foreheads and our ears.

Cool moment of the week. I was contacting this lady on the bus the other day who was from the DR or something. She had pretty good Swedish so I was impressed. We started talking about the gospel and she was very open. I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish and she took it super excitedly. Two days later, we were planning to meet with this other Spanish family and teach them with a member who can speak spanish. We saw the mother of this family on the bus and she was talking to the other spanish contact I had! Turns out they are like..best friends. So hopefully we might be able to meet with both together! That would be cool.

This week has been cool with Book of Mormons actually. Here in Sweden there are just so many different backgrounds and people who come from all over so we grab random languages (as we feel inspired) and try to pass them out throughout the day. This week specifically, we had grabbed Spanish, Albanian, Serbian, Mandarin, and Persian and we passed each one of those out on the day we grabbed them. It's been amazing to see the Lord put people in our path when we come ready and prepared!

We also had zone conference this week! We talked a lot about becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary and member. It was super good and spiritual and I was able to take a lot away from that. I always leave conferences like that knowing I have SO MUCH to work on haha.

We went to a little fair in our neighborhood this week to see some potential investigators we met on the bus. We talked a little with them and ended up getting this cheap kinda creepy doll. We decided to leave it on the elders threshold as we do a swing by in the area haha. The elders later sent us a picture of the doll and them saying "the newest addition to our tripan"

This week we have also randomly sung a lot. We sang "I am a Child of God" for two drunk people in the sketchiest part of town. We sang for a guy at his door when tracting "Närmare Gud till Dig" and then "Familes can be Together Forever" to another old lady that let us into her apartment.

In church one of our street contacts came to church! Her name is Ritva and is just the cutest older lady. My heart just swelled when I saw her walk in the doors in her dress. She hit it off super well with a member (they are both Finnish) and she wants to come back next week! Hopefully we will even meet with her this week for dinner or something. We also had a member bring his friend to church! Her name is Diana and she wants to come back too! Just...a great Sunday haha.

OH MAN, SORRY THAT IS SO MUCH. This week has just been really good. It's always good to have those weeks that make everything worth it. Not even just weeks, but sometimes it's little moments. I am so happy to be here serving The Lord!!

Have a great week!! Miss and love you all!!

Love,

Syster Jordan Lund

Cool artwork

Viking Rings with President Beckstrand and his wife

MTC Groupings

Darling Syster Nielsen

Our new baby

Goofing off in library

Shelves of Book of Mormons


Syster Nielsen and I

September 14, 2015


My crazy district

Hejsan!!

This week has been good, but a little on the slower side because Sister Nielsen is now sick, and I am still recovering haha but life is good as a missionary! The Lord blesses his missionaries, truly.

COOL STORY: We went to go do a swing by and on the way back, Syster Nielsen had the prompting that we needed to go a longer way. Good thing she followed that prompting because we met a lady who is from Peru! We got talking and there is a small chance that her friend might know Hermana Clegg! I have yet to send an email to Lindy about that. We also met a lady who, get this, introduced herself to us as a "seeker". What! Her husband recently died so she is in a very delicate state and very humble. She kind of wandered away after not that long talking and without goodbye so we just kept walking, but yet again, Syster Nielsen got the prompting that we needed to chase after her. At first I was a little skeptical but we basically started chasing after this lady without too much thought. She started crying and she said she wants to come to church! She didn't end up coming to church, but hey, we gave her the opportunity.

We also had apartment checks this week! We passed with flying colors. They took all the random stuff the elders had left over who knows how many years and brought us some necessities like dish towels and trash cans haha.

We met a guy this week at a coffee shop and talked about the prophecies recorded in the Bible. He has had a really really tough life but he's really found his faith in God and Jesus Christ through the Bible and the prophecies in it. He even lived in America - super cool guy.

We also had a lesson with an old investigator named Jackie! We had a member with us and instead of us teaching, the investigator basically taught us the whole Restoration. We ended up teaching about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon instead haha.

BIGGEST MOMENT OF THE WEEK: I finished my first journal, EVER in my life. September 10, 2015. It was a monumental day. I'll attach a picture of the finished journal and the new one. (notice the thickness).

We did an object lesson with one of my favorite families in the ward where we had them try to draw themselves with their feet. We talked about how sometimes missionary work is awkward, but it's possible haha It was just funny - I was cracking up.

We cleaned the church with Mattias and the Murrays and then taught Mattias about temples. It was a super great lesson and the Spirit was so so strong! Mattias didn't seem so sure about it so we will see about that.

We went contacting with a new convert who is thinking about a mission! He is super cool and it went really well, he is a natural at contacting and bearing his testimony. We also ran into Yanet's husband and planned a new day to come by, we are so so so excited!!

We also found about about transfers this week... Sister Nielsen and I will be staying together here in Borås! Wooohooo!! We are so so so excited. Unfortunately, we will be losing Elder Blackburn, but the work here will go forward still!

We had a whole family of potential investigators in church yesterday! Oh man it was awesome. They are from Nigeria and want to come back next week! What made it even better is the members just swarmed them and enveloped them with love.

Great busy week, but so glad to be alive and living here on this beautiful earth! Winter is coming and the thought of putting tights on now, in September, is just not an option in my mind. We'll see.

Have a great week and I love and miss you all!! The church is true!

Love,

Syster Jordan Lund

Future missionary

The family trying to draw with their toes

Lady from Peru

Selfie of me and my lovely companion

My journals

September 21, 2015


Tennis with Christoffer and Elder Blackburn

Hejsann!!

This week was quick the struggle energy wise, but we still worked super hard, and hopefully did everything the Lord needed us to do haha.

Last pday was quite stressful but we ended up going and playing tennis with a cute little boy in our ward! They have a pretty nice clay court just by their house, the raquets were a little different than what I'm used to playing with but it was so fun!! Always a good time with tennis.

Sister Nielsen and I used our hour of family history this week! It was so fun! and super addicting. I LOVE IT. We are shooting to take the time we are allowed to do that each week this transfer. It's just cool to see where your ancestors come from and their different backgrounds and relations.

We met with Mattias and had a little testimony meeting. It was Elder Blackburns final goodbye with him, so it was a little tough but it went well and it was very spiritual. It's now up to him to choose what his decision will be - progression or not. We met with the cutest less active girl and got to know her a little bit better :) And she ended up coming to church! Woohoo!

We said goodbye to Elder Blackburn this week which was sad, but we got a new elder named Elder Treat! He is super awesome and a good missionary!

We FINALLY met with the Spanish family!! And oh my word it went so well! Apparently the day we randomly saw the husband on the street he had tried to call us and set up a time but his phone wasn't working. And then BOOM. There we were. He also said that he felt good around us and that there is a good feeling in his heart. We, with the Trejos family, taught them the Restoration. We absolutely could not have done it without their help translating. THEY ARE ANGELS. It just went so great.

We did a lot of work in the area book this week and just GUTTED that thing out. And now it is perfect and workable for other missionaries after we leave the area, whenever that will be.

We tried to go around to the student dorms and contact some of the younger people because they are more open to discussion. The first door we knocked was a scruffier guy who was young and we introduced ourselves and our purpose. Right then, his cat ran out and started running away. We all chased after it. Then, we lost it. We had absolutely no idea where it went and we were taking it as a sign that maybe we shouldn't talk to younger people haha. After lots of prayers in our heads and pleading with God to help us find it, we finally did. We ran back to the apartment with cat in hand as he explained that it wasn't even his cat and that he was cat sitting for his brother...whoops. But we got back to our purpose and we ended up teaching the restoration to him and giving him a BoM.

We went and picked up some donations for immigrants from Syria from an Albanian lady and we had the elders do it with us, there were like 12 bags full of kids clothes that we lugged to our apartment from her (walking) and then from there to the church the next day haha

We cruised over to Norrby, aka the ghetttoooooo of Borås. We did some swingbys and tried to bond a little bit with all the muslim people there and let them know that missionaries are cool people haha.

We saw the sweetest old man with his walker across the way from our little balcony patio thing. He had soapy water in a bucket on his walker and wash rag that he was using to wash the railing. He went down the whole railing even though his door was the first. So sweet! Made me love and appreciate Swedish people even more!

I love Sweden and my mission so much! I see the Lord's hand in this work everyday. Even though times get tough, it's always reassuring to know that we are holding hands with our Lord every step of the way :)

Love and miss you all!

Syster Jordan Lund

Companion love

Cute old man washing railings

Bullet hole...Faith over Fear!

Updos...Syster Nielson is good at it.

Don't look back!

September 28, 2015

Short hot chocolate break

Hej hej!!

Jag hoppas allt är bra med er :)

This week has been super good! Unfortunately I don't have my journal with me today to pull from but I can hit the main points hopefully :)

We had a LOT of lessons planned and almost all of them fell through! But that is okay because we found other stuff the Lord needed us to do.

We met with some less actives this week that havent been active for....a few years I think? They have still had a lot of contact with members of the church as they are neighbors with the bishop haha. Needless to say they have been prepared by all these wonderful members still keeping in contact with them and helping them along the journey. We met with them last week for the first time and were able to meet with them again this week. And oh my word are they awesome! We had dinner (bacon wrapped chicken) and then watched the testaments. It was SO spiritual and the wife was tearing up pretty good. We talked about it after ward and they said they really want to come back to church and that it was time to get back. They recognized the blessings that they had received when they were going to church and then the drought thereof when they weren't. As we were leaving, the wife whispered to us to pray for her to have the strength to come back to church (she has a disease where she is exhausted all the time). It was really sweet.

A funny quote of the past few weeks between us and the elders has been "There goes our last middag" when people cancel on us for dinner (middag=dinner). And it's a direct reference from Ice Age where they say "there goes our last female" hahah kind of an inside joke.

We also had zone training this week!! Woohoo!! It was awesome. We talked all about how we can better work with our ward and the ward council to help this work go forward. It was perfect because I am pretty sure every ward needs help with this! It was great to meet and mingle with other missionaries and learn from each other.

We went out of town a little bit to go help a member with some service for a non member older lady. We worked in the garden a little bit and she watched us and talked to the other member. It was really sweet to be able to help her out in some little way. She said that she would never forget us. It was super sweet!!

Today we had a lesson with one of our investigators who is kinda on the edge right now of taking important steps to help his progression along. He must have had a hard and tiring day because he was nodding off every few minutes. Needless to say, we taught that lesson loud with a lot of slight banging on the table to keep it together. haha We've got some work to do but he's a good guy!

Spiritual thoughts of the week:

Satan doesn't want us to pray. Everyone knows that he wants us to be miserable like himself. The important thing is that even when we don't feel like praying, we should be praying that much more.

"When everything seems to be telling you that you shouldn't pray and you don't want to pray, pray until you want to pray."

Second thought is along the same lines of prayer. If we pray for something, we better be ready to work towards the blessing we request from Heavenly Father. We don't just pray and then wait for blessings. We pray and then do everything we can to show the Lord that we are WORTHY and willing to receive answers or blessings.

"When you need help from God, get on your knees and pray to Him for help. Then get on your feet and get to work."

Have a great week!! I love this work and the chance I have to be here serving!

Love you all!

Syster Jordan Lund