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| Elder Israelsen's birthday! |
Happy birthday
Mom!!!
This week has been so
stressful, not sure why, but there just is not enough time in the day to do
everything that we would like to do. But hopefully, we are doing the things
that the Lord would want us to do!
This week I had the
super cool opportunity to go on splits with Sister Giles!! My old companion! We
had just the greatest time talking about our missions since we were together
and friends back home.
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| Giles and I with the classic 4 fingers of the face |
We went with Roba to Family Home Evening in Stockholm
and she just loved it! She is so cute and positive and wants to learn more. She
asked to borrow a Mormons Bok and we gave her one. She said she was excited to
read it! We went out and hit it hard as missionaries too! We went to the
Emanuelssons this week to did some service for them - cleaning their house and
taking out some garbage. However, it did not go at all how we had expected. We
took out some of their trash and started making dinner and vacuuming and then
all of the electricity went out. Lights were out, tensions were high, and it
seemed like we caused more harm than good haha. We went home and in the light I
realized that my dress was just covered with all this dry yogurt their son had
on his fingers as I was playing with him haha.
We are meeting with this less active named Madelene and she is super awesome. STRONG strong testimony in the gospel but just won't make her way to church. The elders accidentally tracted into her a few days ago too, so we both kinda teach her and that is how she wants it - and needs it. She loves watching the church videos and she'll watch them over and over and over again. So far she's watched and loved both Legacy and the Testaments.
We went with all 4 sisters here to visit a couple people this week. First one! We visited a member named Andras who is super awesome and strong in his faith! He has had lots of surgeries lately but now he is home and resting. We went and visited him and he had made pancakes for us! He told us that we each had to eat 3. haha it was super precious.
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| Our happy friend Roger with one of his turtles |
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| I wasn't really feeling up to holding it myself, maybe next time.. |
We also met with
Rahaf and taught her about faith. We read from Alma 32 and she really liked it!
She said that she felt something that she hadn't felt in a really long time.
Woohoo the Holy Ghost!
We had a great lesson
with a new investigator named Robin with Maria (member). We taught about the
Restoration and bore powerful witness of the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was SO
strong. Maria started crying and testified of missionary work that evening. And
the next day for testimony meeting!
This week was Elder
Israelsens birthday so we had a fun little break the fast with all the
missionaries here in the church. We made tacos and banana whip cream pie? I
don't really know how to describe it, but its got digestives (they're like
grahamcrackers) and caramel and bananas and whipped cream. It was super fun!
WOohoo Birthdays!!
Cool spiritual
experience and then I'll be done haha: Yesterday in the third hour of church
(Relief Society) we were learning about spiritual independence. I glanced out
the window at just the right second to see this lady praying in front of the
church and motioning the Catholic cross. I leaned to Syster Nielsen and said
"hey, can you see that lady?" She couldnt. I had a super strong
prompting that we needed to go out and talk to her. So, following the prompting
without question we went out and talked to her. She said that she prays
everytime she walks by our church because it is the church of JESUS CHRIST. His
church. We asked her if she wanted to come in for church and she just marched
right in. It was super cool! She participated in the lesson and we found out
that she was Greek. As soon as the lesson was over, Syster Nielsen talked with
her as I rushed to find the bishop and another member who had both served their
missions in Greece. She just LOVED talking to them. And it was cool to watch
them bear witness for her in their mission language. While they were doing
that, I went to the few Book of Mormons we had in the church to see if by some
off chance we might have one in Greek. GUESS WHAT. There was. I pulled it out
of the book case and brought it back to the member and Olga (the lady) we got
her number and address and are going to teach her this week! Miracles happen!!
I hope you have a
wonderful week! I love being a missionary and seeing the miracles every day
that come when we work hard!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Pancakes with Andras |
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| Heart attack |
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| We finally felt sunshine! |
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| Taking out the Emanuelssons garbage |
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| We made it to Ikea last Pday! First time ever! |
Happy belated
Valentine's day!!
This week has been
super busy and has felt like forever but at the same time it has just FLOWN
BY. I had the wonderful
opportunity to go on splits with Syster Nielsen the younger! REUNITED. Oh man
it was just so much fun to serve with her and teach and talk to people on the
street with her! She's the best.
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| Splits with Syster Nielsen! |
We went and helped some members clean their
kitchen, and it was a good thing too, because they are pretty old, and were feeling
down in the dumps that day. We talked about repentance with them and had an
interesting gospel discussion. We also taught a less active with a member and
it was super cool as well! The member had a lot of good experiences and shared
her testimony at the perfect moments. The less active is super positive and
wants to come back to church! She said that the Holy Ghost ha been telling her
for a while that it's time to come back.
We were able to go to
the TEMPLE this week! It was just so uplifting and I needed it. We were trying
to go through in Swedish, but it turned out being English. BUT It was good
because there were certain things I needed to learn that I would have missed in
Swedish.
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| Temple! |
We swung by a
Bolivian lady that was MONGO pregnant. We hadn't heard from her in a while and
decided to go by. She finally had her baby! And she was really struggling
around the house so we tried to help out a bit and shared Matthew 5: 14-16 with
her. She started crying and we reassured her that she is doing an incredible
job as a mom of 4. She's a good one :) We met with Rahaf and
talked more about faith. She said that she feels so much peace and safe at
church and that all the members are just amazing. We asked her what it would
mean to her to be a member and she said it would be cool but she was still
unsure. We invited her to pray about baptism and becoming a member in the
church! I'll let you know what happens with that next week.
OKAY HIGHLIGHT OF THE
WEEK: Our investigator Roba is just the best ever. SHE IS SO GOLDEN. I cannot
even explain. We went to Bishop Anderson's house and had a lesson with Roba. We
started with the Restoration (sorta) and the bishop was just teaching all of it
while we were just eating soup (it was delicious). Roba said that she
recognizes a lot of positive things from other churches and that it seems like
we took all the good parts from the other churches. haha We explained to her
about the Apostasy and why there are so many churches today. She also mentioned
that she thought tithing was very good and she said that once she gets a job
here she would like to start paying tithing! She is just my favorite ever. And
she came to church and loved it again. She loves getting involved in her cute
Swedish :)
So Saturday was
basically the worst morning ever. Started with our alarm clock not going off,
then our blender broke, our lesson canceled, the train systems were down, and a
huge activity with a member family that evening decided that they wanted us and
we had to come two hours earlier. Oh and our phone died. Our whole day was
just, weird, and stressful. Tears were shed, but we made it through and Sunday
was wonderful.
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| Part of our bad day, stalling trains/holding doors so the other sisters can have a fighting chance to make the train |
At church we talked
all about service and serving others. I really liked what one of the speakers
said about how love and service are connected. "You can serve someone and
not love them, but you cannot love someone without serving them". I
thought it was so true! So this week, go out and look for the little things
that you can do to serve others! It will spread like wildfire! I hope that you
all have a wonderful week!! Love you!!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Roba at church! |
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| Goldfish in Syster Nielsen's (the older) package |
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| Buns at the Wesemyers |
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| 1 Year in Sweden! |
|
What a crazy week!! I feel like this week
has just flown by, but we have just been working SO HARD. We've been hitting
the streets hard and teaching lessons out on the streets when we aren't in an
appointment.
I went on splits with
Syster Haikkola again! She is an awesome Finnish sister in Örebro. And so cute!
We taught a super cool lesson again to our less active named Yvonne and we took
with us the same member. We talked about and read through the Family
Proclamation which is actually something that she had never seen or even heard
about! It was super cool and we committed her to write down three ways she can
personally strengthen her family.
We went by an older
member couple. They are basically like the grandma and grandpa of our ward. We
practice a lesson about repentance and sang and played some songs for them on
the piano. :) I think they liked it.
We tried to make
cookies for the bus drivers this week too! We meant to do it for valentine's
day, but we got busy so we decided to do belated Valentine's cookies for them
:) we had baked two big containers full of cookies and set out to " go
about doing good". When Sister Nielsen went to hand them to me, they
dropped...all over the ground.
"5 second
rule?"
"Ew no, they are
sitting in slush and gravel."
"Dude come on,
added texture and moisture?"
Haha needless to say
we ended up tossing about 15 cookies. It was a sad way to start the day haha.
But we had saved some of them too.
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| The sad sight of spilled kindness |
Our district meeting
was super good. Our district is just super awesome. We talked all about how to
work with the members and involving them in the missionary work. It was super
cool and we took some good ideas back to our area and we're going to shoot high
this week!
We borrowed the
elders car to meet an investigator who blew us off. But we ended up dropping
off cookies to a lady who recently had a baby as well as a new convert.
We had an AWESOME
lesson with the Nylund family! The wife had invited her friend and the husband
invited his less active brother to the dinner. We talked about prayer after (a
subject everyone can relate to) and invited them to try to say a 10 minute
prayer to God. Sister Nylund's friend really liked it and said she would try
it! It was super cool!
The elders had a
baptism on Saturday! Woohoo! For a guy named Kent - he's super cool and has
read through the Book of Mormon more times than me! Andreas and Roba both came
to the baptism to get a feel for how baptism is in the Mormon church. They both
really liked it, and we are hoping to get a baptismal date with Roba this week
(couldn't meet last week :( )
Okay last thing, this
week we have focused lots on street lessons, and because of that, we have had
street lessons galor. One specific one happened this past Saturday. We were split
contacting in stan so we could talk to more people and I stopped a man who was
wearing a guitar on his back with lots of tattoos and stuff. We started talking
about the meaning of life and God and he said he was very Agnostic. His name is
Ville. He went on to talk about how his mother had died when he was 12 and that
he doesn't really believe in a heaven. But that he hopes his mother is in
heaven anyways. He hopes a lot. and Has a HUGE desire to have faith. He even
goes to the Swedish church in town and plays guitar there everyday. and just
thinks. I asked if he wanted to meet and he said no, so I simply invited him to
church. Well, the next day, as Sister Nielsen and I were preparing our lesson
for Gospel Principles, he walked in (an hour early). We gave him a church tour
and invited him to stay for the meeting. Not only did he stay for Sacrament
meeting but he stayed for all three meetings! Turns out he even knows one of
the other sisters' investigators. He had a lot of his questions answered in
Priesthood and he played a little bit of guitar for himself after church while
a member was listening and talking to him. He said he wants to meet and is
available everyday between 8 am to midnight! As we were sitting there before
sacrament meeting just meditating and thinking and being reverent he leaned
over to me and said, "It's a good thing you talked to me when you did.
This is the most open I have ever been to religion. It feels good". Other
texts since then have been "I know it is very late, but I wanted to thank
you again and let you know that tomorrow morning, I will go to church in town
and ask for a priest, and ask if I can give my confession, if I can be fogiven
for my past and give me the blessing. I can't stop thinking and crying right
now. I will ask him to baptise me and help me to make this change last. So
thank you very much for just saying hello to me yesterday", "all I
needed was that little nudge". We are meeting with him tonight and we will
be talking more about the Restoration, but he is well on his way!! Oh man, it
was just super cool. He is really awesome, and it's just cool to see how the
Lord places prepared people in our paths!
Have a great week!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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Sweet sister Haikkola!
|
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| Normal distric |
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| Goofy disrict |
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| Our favorite icy canal |
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| Caught in a snow storm |
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| Our investigators in church! From left to right (Roger (convert), me, Ville, Andreas, Sis Nielsen, Roba, Rahaf, Johanna |
February 29, 2016
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| Södertälje Six (missionaries) |
Wow crazy week!!
Biggest news:
TRANSFER CALLS!!
I am transferring out
of Södertälje and moving to Täby! I'm doubling in there..with a GREENIE!!
That's right, mama Lund is training a new missionary! I am super excited but
also nervous because it is the Mission President and assistent's area...NO
PRESSURE or anything. Nah, but I am beyond JAZZED. WOohoo!! I get to pick up my
new missionary this Wednesday :)
On a sadder note, I
am really bummed to leave Södertälje :( I feel like I have worked my behind off
with my companions here and put everything I could into this area. It seemed to
show yesterday when I bore my testimony in church yesterday about how God leads
this work. I read a scripture out of Alma 26:35 which talks about boasting in
God rather than ourselves. I know that each and every miracle that I have seen
in this area and in my mission has not come from me or my companions, but they
have come from God. There were lots of tears yesterday as I said goodbye to
different members and investigators and I'm sure that there will be more to
come. This area is one that, to be honest, I never wanted to serve in. But I am
SO grateful to have had the chance to serve the Lord here. I could stay here
forever!
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| Roger (my favorite and kindest person ever. Baptized 26 Dec 2016 :) getting the priesthood next week!) |
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| Maria Knutsson (Member) |
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| Nina Wesemeyer (member) |
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| the Bautista kids (Astrid and Holger) |
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| Andreas |
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| Anjali (less active Viktoria's daughter) |
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| Rahaf |
Tuesday we had a
specialized zone training where we talked a lot about working with members. It
was super cool and it was cool to get some good insight to be able to apply
that to our missionary work. I went on splits with
Sister Adamson this week too! I already know her pretty well because we live
together, but it was super fun to go out and missionary with her! We talked a
new convert Lasse and cleaned up the church. We also were able to teach a
gospel study class about the commandments. It was super fun to watch all these
investigators and new converts do fun hand signals to remember the different
commandments (something that Sister Mccomb taught in seminary). It was super
fun and I think they really liked it!
I went to a
"train the trainers" meeting Friday to learn about how to best help
these new missionaries. I feel like I was just smacked with a huge humility
hammer and I just hope that I have what it takes to help and train this new
missionary!
We taught Andreas
this week who has been sort of in this limbo thing where he wants to be
baptized but is working with the Law of Chastity. Well folks, at our lesson we
gave it to him plainly that he either needed to move out or get married to his
girlfriend if he wanted to be baptized in two weeks, or he could just push the
baptism back to the fall after the wedding. He leaned forward, looked at us,
and said "I'm getting baptized in 2 weeks. I don't want to wait any
longer. I can move out and get another apartment to just sleep in. That won't
be a problem". WHAT. Can you say miracle? It was so cool and we are so
excited for him!! He will be getting baptized the 12th of March and I will
hopefully be able to come back for the baptism! Cannot wait! He's a
rockstar.
On Sunday we randomly
had to give the gospel principles lesson. Sister Nielsen was translating here
and there into Swedish for Roger while I gave the lesson in English. Why was it
in English you ask? Well, we had 4 new Syrian investigators there and they
don't really speak either english or swedish. Our investigator Rahaf can speak
Arabic and English. So our lesson went like this. I would say something in
English, Rahaf would translate to Arabic and then if any of them had something
to say back they would say it in Arabic and Rahaf would translate back to the
rest of the class. It was just like, way cool. She had a good time and the 4
Syrian men really liked it haha
Life is really good
over here in Södertälje. I feel good to be leaving this area in good shape with
a few baptismal dates and some really positive investigators! The new sisters
here (it'll be a tripan) are going to love it. I have come to love these people
more than anything, but I know I will be seeing them soon enough :)
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Schiazzano family |
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| Crazy kids |
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| Södertälje Six again |
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| Driving |
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| Lasse |
March 7, 2016
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| She's the best! Täby bound! |
Hi everyone!! I hope
that everyone is doing well! The birth process went well! My little baby
greenie is here!! She is alive and doing well! She is a whopping 6' 1"!!
I'm not even joking, she is so tall and just the cutest ever! Her name is
Syster McClatchie and she's from Maryland! Not Utah! She went to BYU for a
little bit before her mission as well and well...I JUST LOVE HER.
This week has
been...well...an adventure. Doubling into an area is pretty tough, but holy
moly the Lord has just been blessing us each and every day.
Last pday we went
into Stockholm with the Södertälje crew and got celebratory waffles to end our
diet! They were soooo good. I also got a free pair of slippers because I won
the competition. Basically it was just the best. We finished the evening with a
Relief Society meeting at Gertie's house. It was just the best way to say
goodbye to all those wonderful women!
Saying goodbye to
Södertälje was one of the hardest things I have had to do :( It was tough to
say goodbye to the missionaries there, but it was the hardest to say goodbye to
Roger. Tears were shed, but he is doing super well and I'll be staying in super
good contact with him. He is preparing for the Priesthood and the temple.
Basically he is just the best and it was super hard to say goodbye to him. But
it all went well!
I went and picked up
my new missionary! As I said, she is just the cutest. We are doubling in here
so it's been nutty! Lots of work in the Area Book and just going out and
talking to people! We did have the wonderful opportunity to say goodbye to two
of my previous companions at the mission home! It was crazy to see all of these
incredible missionaries going home!
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| My baby is tired |
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| Sister McClatchie's kebaptism |
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| Sunday church matching by accident! |
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| Stockholm today |
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| Täby centrum |
We've met a lot of
super cool people here lately and God has been blessing us with nice and full
schedules. NO IDEA HOW. We went and helped an Iranian lady pick apart parsley
from her recent trip to Iran (her plants were literally from Iran). It was
super fun! We met with an investigator Sara who is a young Swede who is more
involved in science but thinks that there could be a greater being. Syster
McClatchie was so pumped on life and is just ready to tell her what's up and
that she just needs to look at it from a different perspective. We met with
Pontus (baptized last week) and his wife and ate tons of WAFFLES with them!
They are like our Swedish parents, and I already love them lots. There are lots
of wonderful people we've met - too many to share!
We've been able to
meet with the bishop and the ward mission leader to get things rolling with two
new missionaries. THE WARD HERE IS AWESOME. So ready, willing, and ready to go
out and work with us.
Church was just the
best. We started sacrament meeting with about 10 members and by the end of the
meeting it was packed! Lots of wonderful members! They have just received us
with open arms and I could not be more grateful. The missionaries before really
left a good impression - now it is up to us to keep that going and strengthen
them even more!
It has been a huge
humbling experience to be here, in a brand new area, with a brand new
missionary. I've been realizing more and more of my weaknesses and Ether 12:27
has become a new inspirational scripture that I get to apply to my life every
day! I LOVE IT.
Have a wonderful
week!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Smallest street |
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| Snowy runs |
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| Baby, mama, grandma |
March 14, 2016
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| My precious daughter! |
Halllåååååååååå
This week has been
great!
We've met some really
cool people on the street this week, one of which became a new investigator. We
met with him and talked about the Restoration of the Church in these latter
days. He wasn't super open to it, but we signed his Polish Book of Mormon and
then went on our merry way. We'll see if he takes our challenge to read, pray
and come to church :)
We went and visited
lots of members this week and one of them was a family in the ward who has a daughter
with some crazy jaw problems. She actually went to BYU and will be heading back
in the fall! Hopefully I'll see her there and we can speak some Swedish
together!
We learned from some
cool new chinese members how to contact in Chinese. We are still working on the
correct pronunciation of the words. haha But they are the cutest couple ever!
Love them lots!
We have had some fun
service this week at a member's house. It all started when we went over to
"serve" her. I PROMISE those were our intentions. I took the
vacuuming and Sis McClatchie took the bathroom. Well, Sis McClatchie dropped
one of the members rings off the sink and into the toilet brush. "That's
disgusting" she thought as she reached down to pick up the ring and wash
it off in the sink. Then, it fell down the sink - OH GREAT. My little greenie
comes over to me to tell me while I am vacuuming. Well, we pulled out all sorts
of hair and muck out of the pipe and played plummer until we found the ring.
THANK GOODNESS. After I went back to vacuuming and accidentally vacuumed a lead
of a plant causing it to fall off the table. Great wives we will be one day
haha but for reals there was so much cat hair everywhere that we had to go home
and change before going back out to proselyte.
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| Our furry friend |
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| The ring.. |
We visited a lady who
is working on coming back to the church who is just DARLING. We are so obsessed
with her. We talked to her about faith and staying anchored in what we already
know. She is so strong!
We had zone training
and we learned all about this wonderful new video the church has come out with
focusing on Easter! It was very spiritual and we all are super excited to go
out and use the film in our missionary work!
We went and visited
another member who has two ADORABLE daughters. We made some American Pancakes
with them for dinner and shared with them a cool object lesson to talk about
repentance. They loved it!!
I continue to be
amazed with how ready to go this ward is. I really am so impressed with them.
They are very on top of it and are really willing to walk the walk. At ward
council we decided a day to bring all of their less active and non members
friends to church and have a really cool meeting to fit their needs and the
simplicity of the gospel. It was just the coolest thing ever to have them not beat
around the bush and put it off but instead just go forward with it!
I was able to call
into a baptism for our friend Andreas in Södertälje! It sounded like a
beautiful service and we will hopefully be getting lunch with him soon. He just
feels so happy and is so glad he made the decision :)
I'm out of time, but
I am so grateful to be here in Täby and to be working here alongside my little
Syster McClatchie. I love watching her learn and grow and I love watching my
weaknesses become apparent. We can't overcome them if we don't know them right?
Right.
Have a great week!!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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Celebrating fat Tuesday a little later this year
|
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| Climbing trees on our way to appointments |
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Language study on our
balcony
|
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| Bus stops all day every day |
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| Evening scene |
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| The sun came out and warmed it up! |
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| Glasses all round |
March 21, 2016
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| Last pday with the Täby missionaries |
Hello everyone!!
This week has been
super great! I don't have much time to email so I will just try to get the
highlights!
Last pday we went out
exploring with the office elders and the APs! It was super fun! We had a little
picnic in the woods and talked about life stories and miracles in our lives. It
was super fun - good missionaries! We also stumbled upon a random castle and
walked around that for a bit.
We had a lot of
random service activities this week including one for a family in the ward (who
we hadn't met yet). They moved from one apartment building to the one across
the way...except the new one was on the 7th floor. We shoved as much stuff in
the elevator and then would have to run up 7 flights of skinny spiral stairs to
get the elevator at the top and unload the load into the house. We must have
had to do that over 5 times...but it was a good workout and the family was very
grateful. We also helped a lady home with her groceries who was impressed by
our Swedish as she was a Swedish school teacher. She wasn't interest but
referred us to her friend! Who also wasn't interested, but still.
The assistants gave
us a challenge this week to get a baptismal date with one of our investigators
(all across the mission). We looked at what we had...2 investigators who we
really hadn't had much contact with. We met with one and it went okay, we
invited him to baptism and he said he would need to talk to his son about it.
Well, his son wasn't happy and gave the office a call and told them to never go
back to his father. Right. Okay so then the other one we met with for the first
time and he is just SO PREPARED. He had so many questions but we helped him to
answer a lot of them for himself. He said he always feels good meeting with
missionaries and that he is just much happier. We invited him to be baptized
and he accepted a date to work towards! His name is Terry and is just the
coolest ever. He is half Iranian and half Scottish. So that was a huge
miracle!!
We've gotten to know
some amazing families this week which has been a huge blessing for us in just
trying to get to know the ward better. We've had the chance to do family home
evenings with the members and they TRUST US. It's the coolest thing. The work
is really going forward here, especially with the members. I showed one of the
families how to catch whipped cream in their mouth and when the 2nd counselor
to the bishop tried he just got it ALL over his face - it was hilarious!
Funny greenie moment:
Sister McClatchie has never used a cheese slicer and so this week at one of our
dinners she tried to cut the cheese like on the side trying to use it like a
knife and it was just soooo funny to watch her struggle until the member was
like, no you use it like this. hahah greenie experiences. Gotta help them learn
it for themselves!
We got canceled on a
lot this week but the Lord had another plan for us in our work and we were able
to meet those that are ready and willing to act. It was super cool to see how
it all worked together! And Sister McClatchie placed her first Book of Mormon
all by herself this week!! I'm a proud mom :)
I think that's all
for this week. I am sooo grateful to be a missionary here in Sweden and
especially during this Easter season. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and the
relationship I have with him. If you don't have one yet, get working!
LOVE YOU
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Lunch with Andreas |
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| Got my daughter a fjällräven kånken - HAPPY CAMPER |
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Random tulips from a
nice Muslim man
|
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| Happy St. Patty's Day! |
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| Running buddiez fur lyfe |
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| Pontus and Sussi |
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| Some color! |
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| Pretty sunsets |
March 28, 2016
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| Jumped in this pic at Zone Conference |
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HAPPY EASTER!! GLAD
PÅSK!!!
This week has been a
marvelous week! I feel like the weeks have been just FLYING. We are already
completing week 4 of this transfer! What in the world!
We had zone
conference on Tuesday of this week and we talked ALL about Swedish, how to
improve in our Swedish capabilities and how much the members appreciate how we
learn Swedish. We also talked about getting to know the members and making sure
that you know every single person that sits there in church. Some cool goals!
We also talked about developing a relationship with the Savior and going back
to the fundamentals to do so.
Sister McClatchie and
I are still loving each other. SHE IS JUST THE BEST. I hope we get to stay
together even after training is done. We have started teaching a lot more with
the brochures and have seen a TON of success with it. We taught a man named
Tomas with the brochure and he followed perfectly. He's had some janky
experiences in the Swedish church which have made him a little apprehensive and
he actually left the Swedish church. We've been focusing a lot on prayer with
him, and we are actually meeting with him tomorrow too!
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| Happy Easter! |
Terry is doing well!
He had some classic questions about authority and we answered them by and
through the Spirit using the pamphlet yet again! He is in Scottland this week
with his family so we won't be able to meet with him next week. Something cool
he said though was "I always come out of these meetings invigorated and
inspired to be better and change my life. You and your message are the main
source of inspiration in my life". So, he's awesome.
I was able to go on
splits this week with a wonderful sister from my MTC group named Sister
Harkness! She is just SO GREAT. She actually served here in Täby when she first
came to Sweden. We went and swung by some of the people she had worked with and
they were so grateful for everything that she did to help them. One of them is
a less active who is going to the temple this summer for her endownments! The
other is Pontus who just got baptized! And then we also saw Jeremie who is one
of her bestest friends and she helped reactivate him as well. Actually funny
story with that...we had a pretty tight schedule to make sure we got to see the
people she wanted to. Turns out we got on the bus to Jeremie and we missed out
bus stop and cruised pretty far out before realizing it. Then we had to catch a
bus all the way back. We got off two stops too early and we were already
running late to Jeremie..like 30 minutes late. So we decided to trek it out on the
side of the high way. It was for sure an adventure and Jeremie forgave us when
we came into the church all sweaty and dirty and razzled. hahah But it was a
lot of fun to chat with Sister Harkness about our missions and how much we've
matured and learned in the past 14 months ish. LOVE HER.
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| Sister Harkness and I |
It was Elder
Hemmingsen's birthday Saturday and we had the chance to celebrate with him! We
had breakfast at the Clouses and then went out for lunch later in the day. We
even made a cake! And the day finished with a wonderful baptism! It was for a
man named Janos who just married a member about 3 months ago. It was so great
to be able to glance back to him and to his wife and just see the joy on their
faces as well as the hope for the future and being sealed.
We met with Sara who
was a full blown atheist. We talked about Alma 32 and she expressed how she is
almost worried that there actually is indeed a GOD!! So cool!! We are meeting
with her this week to talk more about Faith and building our testimony on the
fundamentals.
This week I have
really realized the love that God has for all of His children. We have been out
on the street talking to people quite a lot and I don't even know how to
explain it, but I can feel and see these wonderful people in a similar way to Heavenly
Father. It's something that before my mission I would have never been able to
do. Even though the love that God has for us is endless and so great, I feel
like I can feel and appreciate that for everyone we come in contact with. It's
super cool :)
I'm out of time for
today but I love you all so much! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Have a
great week!!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Trying to find a members house |
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| This was the dessert. just for me. it was lots of whipped cream, a little cake, and fruit. |
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| Smörgås tårta. Nicely presented by Pontus! But not my favorite Swedish food... (mayo and shrimp) |
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| Treking on the side of the road |
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| Happy birthday Elder Hemmingsen! (Yeah, we made that cake) |
April 4, 2016
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| Holding the sun |
Woohoo!! April!! One
of the best months of the whole entire year! I hope that everyone had a good
time watching conference and that they took some good things away from it :) We
were able to watch the sister's session along with the Saturday sessions but we
have yet to watch the sessions on Sunday. I absolutely LOVED all of the talks,
but I really liked Elder Stevenson's about the keys of the priesthood. I think
he did a great job of explaining the power and authority of God and I liked the
analogy.
This week has been
great!! We have had some ups and downs, but overall it's been great!
Last pday we got
together with about 30 missionaries and played a huge game of soccer! We had
some members and non members there too! It was super fun. The only downfall was
it was supppppper slippery with mud. Needless to say I came home totally
muddy..but with a nice big smile :) It was way fun.
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| Missionary soccer |
We had the chance to
teach a couple part member families this week too! Maritha and her husband are
the cutest ever and live in the coziest apartment ever. They LOVE art and we
discussed a lot of things that they really enjoy doing together. We also talked
about prayer and how when we turn ourselves to God he will help us throughout
our whole lives..not just the bad times, but that he is really there for us in
the good times too. We also taught the Boden family and it was super fun to get
to know them and their young daughter. They are very humble and willing to
learn. The bishop had asked us to go by and say hi and boy was it an adventure
to try to find it. We finally found them though and he owns a junk yard so it
was not super recognizable. But they are just the greatest!! The assistants are
actually working with them, but it was cool that we had the chance to talk to
them about Easter and the upcoming conference.
We had the incredible
opportunity to travel with the assistants and their new convert to the temple
for her to do baptisms! It was the coolest experience ever. When we met with
her at the train station she just grabbed my arm and said "I am SO excited
to go to the temple today! I feel so blessed!". Jasmin is this cute little
Chinese lady who was baptized a few months ago. Ahhhhh I just love her. We had
the chance to help her through everything in the temple and she bore the
sweetest testimony when Elder Archibald was baptized for her grandfather. She
will be a vital tool to the missionary work in China lemme tell ya. We also had
the chance to do a few names too :) A lovely day.
We taught Tomas this
week!! We actually retaught the Restoration because he wanted a little review
and this time he took the Book of Mormon!! And he said he would come to church!
Still working on helping him ease back into prayer though..
We traveled to
Norrtälje and did all sorts of swingbys. Turns out there are like 50 less
active members out there...they had a branch there at one point in time
actually. Anyways, we "heart attacked" two families, and met with two
others as well as took in the BEAUTY of the country side!! I have so many
pictures...I'll probably just attach them all.
April fools was this
week! We took our dinner hour to pull some pranks on the elders with the help
of a senior couple :) #allies. We filled up all sorts of water cups and laid
them all over the ground in their office and laid some cookies too :) I'll
attach a pic. well worth our dinner hour!!
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| April fools prank |
We have been focusing
a lot about having the faith to find. Sometimes it gets hard when people won't
give the slightest time of day, but I know that the Lord is preparing the
hearts of these people!! This week is going to be fantastic! We taped a quote
to our door from the rededicatory prayer for Sweden by Thomas S. Monson. It
says:
"Grant that
every missionary who receives a call to come to Sweden may know that he has
been called to a choice land. That he may come with a renewed determination and
a kindled spirit of enthusiasm to share his testimony, to follow the mission
policies, and to bring to pass the conversion of many souls!!"
Have a great week!!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Swedish house |
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Getting the greenies
their personal numbers (SSN in Sweden)
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| Norrtälje |
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| Beauties of the countryside |
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| Love love love Syster McClatchie |
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We drove too far
through a forest on a narrow road and ended up in a field..I had to back it up
through the rugged forest about a quarter mile!
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April 11, 2016
Hello everyone! What
a wonderful week to be alive and living here on this beautiful earth! Am I
right?!
This week has been
super great. I've officially ditched the tights and cleaned those out! No need
for those suckers any longer. What a freeing feeling haha.
Last pday we met with
a part member family and talked to them about prayer. One of the daughters has
some disabilities and we just got to know them. They are all so darling!
Hopefully we will get the chance to go back and talk to them about eternal
families.
We met with a few
Iranian ladies this week that are just the SWEETEST. LOVE THEM. We got to try
Iranian cookies that are made with just different types of flour. They were
actually really good! We are going back for dinner this week :) We've talked a
lot with people about General Conference this week as sort of a follow up. A
lot of people LOVED the theme of service and helping the millions of refugees
around the world.
Sister McClatchie was
super sick this week. Probably the worst cold I've ever seen. It was really bad
for a few days and we actually had to call and cancel appointments because
Swedish people (maybe normal people too) don't want you in their house when you
are sick. Poor Sister McClatchie is the biggest stud ever and pushed forward.
On that note, God seriously blessed us to be able to meet our goals this week.
We went out every second we good and tried to just help people grow spiritually
in way or another. We met some really cool people that hopefully we will be
able to meet with this week too!
We met with Sara
(right before she got really sick) and talked more about how we can receive
answers to life's hardest questions. Now it's just up to her to put forth the
effort and wait for an answer! I'll keep you posted on that one.
We got to go on
workovers with some sisters this week because their companions were going to a
train the trainers meeting. It was super fun and I got to work with Sister
Crawford, a sister from my MTC group! We went out all day in the rain and
talked to people as well as swung by some older ladies in the ward. LOVE THEM.
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| Sister Crawford and I! |
We met with Terry who
still has a baptismal date for the 28 of May. We taught the first part of the
Plan of Salvation and he seemed to really grasp it. He had lots of questions
about the godhead but understood it by the end.
We swung by a less
active who doesn't want any contact with the church. Smart right? She answered
the door and was very kind as she explained that she still believes in the
church but just has had a hard time lately. She even started tearing up! TWICE.
Each time she started to feel something or tear up she tried to shrug it off
and say bye. For whatever reason, something told me we needed to come back and
just serve her. SO we will be trying to do that this week. She was just very
sweet and tender and ready to come back.
Our district meeting
was kind of more of a testimony meeting this week about why we came out on a
mission and why we are still here. We were blessed by the presence of the ZLs
and President and Sister Beckstrand. Lots of tears were shed and it was a good
last District Meeting. I talked a lot about the love I have for these people
and even how much more God loves these people. These people are chosen to be
here at this time. I'm chosen to be right here, right now, to assist in the
work of salvation. And boy does it feel good!
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE
WEEK: Was yesterday. We were on our way to a less actives house to teach her a
practice Restoration lesson. On our way there we stumbled upon a refugee camp
of about 600 refugees from all over the middle east. They stared at us as we
walked in their building to try to find someone to ask about volunteering
there. We came back out and immediately all the children flocked to us and just
surrounded us and stared at us smiling. We tried to communicate with them with
little success. All I know, is that the LOVE that I felt in that moment was
probably the most love I have ever felt for someone or a group of people. I
think about how much of an emphasis this is right now, and couldn't help but
think about awful situations that they have been in as they have been forced to
leave their countries. We planned to go and play soccer with them this
afternoon and I am SO excited to bring a little more joy into these kids' lives
:)
Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all the prayers and
support! I can feel them and they propel me each and every day. Helping me to
become better!
Love,
Syster Jordan Lund
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| Is this the right house? |
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| Food baby competition brought more tears than laughs haha |
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| The bay by Näsby slott |
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| Got to celebrate 15 months with my MTC comp! |
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