Lots and LOTS of travel!

Me and our beautiful car!! Do you like my new suit????!?!! :) ;)


Just another one of me and the car!


This is one of the bridges we "flew" over... :)


Another, much larger bridge... haha This one offers an incredible view.. I will show ya'll sometime!


Hej Familj!!!

Well this week has been awesome! We had lots of things going on! We traveled down to Sundsvall (a two hour drive) for our district meeting. That went wonderfully and we had a great time! We traveled back the same day and got to work. Then, on Saturday we traveled again down to Sundsvall and attended the Baptism they were having for Sadik and Fatau. It was amazing, and their testimonies were... (not to cite any recent happenings..) da bomb!!! :) They were sooo happy to be baptised! Now, all of this traveling around has made for many hours in the car driving through thick forested landscapes and flying over amazing lakes and rivers (over a bridge.. lol). One would think that a travel through the thick of Norrland could not get any better... That person would be wrong. Because you see, a loving family of mine sent me a box. Not just any ordinary box, but a box with a CD in it! And not just any CD... The new EFY CD!!!! hahahahaha Äldste Lopp and I listened to that CD every second of our travels.. It has not left the CD player in the car! We have listened to it at LEAST THIRTY TIMES!! haha It is awesome! Thank you soooo much for that gift especially! Okay, now I was told that I needed to send some pictures in my e-mails... I will be sure to do that! I don't have many good ones yet, but they will for sure be coming soon! Lets see... what else has happened this week... Oh! We taught a man in Persian... lol No, I was not speaking Persian to him, but his Swedish was not that great and his English was, well, it just wasn't working all that well. He pulled out his laptop and plugged it into his large flat screen TV and got Google Translate up and running! I would type the questions and comments and he would respond back to us. It was amazing! Technology truly can be used for good in this day and age! What a blessing!! Through the TV screen and a great deal of patience we were able to understand that this man truly was interested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon. We wont let something like language get in the way of helping this man learn more and feel the Spirit. I am not sure how to fully say how it felt, but this man's desire to know was present in the room. We all could feel the Spirit.. even if Google Translate had to help out a bit here and there.. :) Truly amazing! Another thing this teach taught me was that the Gospel does not need to be taught with big words or fluffy filler comments. Short, simple statements of truth (when spoken with the Spirit) have an amazing way of capturing people's attention and turning their hearts in the right direction. Anyone and everyone can share the Gospel. I have a huge testimony about that... :) Before I forget... Äldste Lopp was wondering what online company you used to make Kevin's Cardboard Cut-out thing. His parents are wanting to do something like that and want to know what you used. So, hopefully you still remember the place! Thanks! Speaking of thanks, thank you very much again for the box! The shirt from Kevin's Marathon was sooo awesome! haha But just one problem, everyone is going to think my name is Kevin! lol :) Thank Landon for the slobber on the magnet and tell him he is lookin' fine!! It is Zone Conference this week and we also have a Zone Activity on Wednesday in Umeå! Fun! More driving with EFY!!!! haha :) Okay, well I have no time!! At all!! haha I am going to attach some pictures and get this thing sent off before it closes and you all get no e-mail! I love you all very, very much! Sorry I had to keep it short today... I will make up for it somehow! Have a G R E A T WEEK!!!

Trogen och Stadig, Är Jag Redo!!!!!
Faithful and Steady, I AM Ready!!!!!

Äldste Kundis :) :) :)

Adventures in Örnsköldsvik!

Hej Familj!!!

It is time again to write to you all whom I love and care deeply for! From what you have said it sounds like a great week! It has been an interesting week here in Övik! As for the work... it is going slow at the moment. We were hopping and working for a much better week, but it would seem all we received was a trial of our faith.. Gotta love those things right??!?! haha :) We are working hard and continue to have high goals in our sights. It will be a better week this week! I know it! Let me tell you all about an awesome family that we are working with at the moment. It is the Nordin Family and they are awesome! We went over to their house and talked and had some snacks and they even showed us some fun places to visit on our p-days! They are updating their house at the moment so that means there is lots of work to be done. We offered to help out whenever they needed it. Well, Wednesday we got a call from them asking if we could come and help out painting the outside of the house on Friday. We quickly agreed and when Friday came we were out there at ten o'clock ready to go! They had scaffolding all up and ready and painting clothes waiting! We got to work and painted lots! It was a fun time! Äldste Lopp, my companion is a little scared of heights so I quickly volunteered to take the tops of the house! haha It was lots of fun! Don't worry, I was safe and no broken bones!! :) ;) We painted for a while and then they fed us lasagna for lunch. After we finished some things up we left but not before they gave us two cd's of good Christian music! Get this, the wife of the family wrote one of the songs!! Awesome!! :) Now we have a good new cd for the car! :) Okay, that was a fun part of the week! Lets see.. Oh! This part is mostly for Rhett if he reads this.. We have a Cambodian family in the branch! The Mong family! They are so awesome and absolutely love the missionaries! We are over there every Saturday so that Äldste Lopp can teach piano lessons to one of them. The taught me a little Cambodian! haha It is a crazy awesome language! Brother Mong gave the prayer in Sacrament Meeting this week in Cambodian and it was like like mumbling but with a little bounce in it.. haha Super cool! Lets see... We had a great experience the other day. We were out on the main street of Övik and our daily "power hour" of contacting was over. We had nothing to show for our efforts. No one wanted to listen to us. On our way back to the apartment for lunch we were stopped by two familiar faces. They were familiar because we always saw them out on the main street. We never contacted them though because they are almost always drunk.. Or so we suspected. They stopped us and called us over to talk. To our surprise we actually had a great conversation with them! They were not drunk, and were very eager to learn about the church and to read in the Book of Mormon. The man I spoke with, Tommy, has had quite the life! He has seen lots that frankly I hope I never have to even hear of again. His experiences made him humble and at this time, ready for the gospel. Now, am I positive that he will make progress with the Gospel... no.. However, he has his chance to try to believe! I hope he can overcome his addictions and continue on towards a brighter future that only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring. It was a breath of "fresh air" for us that day! :) Okay.. well the last thing I have to say is that my Ecco shoes have failed me... haha I was positive that they would last me all two years, but a pair of them now has two holes right where my pinkie toes are. Sad. :( haha, luckily, my other pair is still okay. Pretty beat up, but workable! Missionary work is hard on shoes! I will let you all know if this pair fails also and the situation becomes dire.. haha :) Now! On to the e-mail! Dad! I love you Dad! Yes, I think we have been to heart lake before... It sounds familiar. I am not positive, but I will say yes just to give an answer. I am glad to hear that you and Matt had a good time! What an exercise! I am proud of you! To answer your question, yes I do know Hans and his wife! Their last name is Karlsson. They live about two hours from Örnsköldsvik by car out on a farm. I have not been out there yet, but apparently the missionaries go out very once and a while to spend a day on the farm helping out with all of the work! I look forward to that experience! They are really nice and strong members of the branch here. It will be a fun transfer with them! Funny that you mention Äldste Lopp and I going and street performing! We already have plans to!!! haha :) That will be fun! About the suits! No, we are not sharing a suit.. lol It was a buy three pay for two deal. So, three of us got suits and payed together. Sadly, the cashier could not split it three ways, just two ways. So, Äldste Deleuuw payed me and Äldste Leavitt back later. Haha mystery solved! :) I will be sure to keep an eye on my Wells Fargo account. I love you Dad! Have a great week and thanks for your e-mail!! :) Mom! I love you Mom! Wow, you are second today! That doesn't happen very often! Don't worry Mom, we are driving safely! I actually have not driven the car yet because we are not sure my licence is still good for driving in Sweden. They are checking into it in the office. So, my first District Meeting went great! I focused on Christlike Attributes and how they relate to us as missionaries and how they relate to our investigators. The Spirit was there and I was able to say all that I needed to say! This week we will be traveling to Sundsvall for the meeting and I will have the opportunity to interview TWO of their baptismal candidates! Yay! Success! Äldste Lopp comes from Orem, UT to answer your question. That is soooo awesome that Landon is starting to crawl! And that he has a love for cell phones already! Too funny! Oh! You asked about the branch in comparison to my other areas. Bigger than Växjö, smaller than Skövde, and the same HUGE love feeling! :) :) :D Okay, I need to move on to Matt, I love you Mom! Have a fun week! Matt! I love you Matt! You look amazing as usual in the pictures! The big blue whales were too hilarious! They made me laugh really hard! Enjoy your Summer and work hard! Don't worry about my tan.. lol I am working on it! The sun stays up FOREVER up here!! Crazy! It is like noon day sun when I go to sleep at ten thirty! :) You are in my prayers Matt! Truly you are.. I love you and hope that you are doing well! Love Mom and Dad and do what they ask... They truly know best!! ;) I KNOW that is true! Anyway, keep on working hard for football and making your goals! Have an awesome week! I love you! Okay, now I will get to the Spiritual Thought! The thought comes in the form of a challenge! Find a copy of Preach My Gospel and turn to page 115. At the end of that chapter there is an activity! DO IT!!!! Let me know how it goes! :) I love you Family!! You are always on my mind! I love my mission, I truly do! Until next week...

Trogen och Stadig, Är Jag Redo!!!!!
Faithful and Steady, I AM Ready!!!!!

Äldste Kundis :) :) :)

Greetings from fabulous Norrland!

Hej Familj!

Welcome to my p-day! A day filled with excitement and fun! Wait... that is everyday! haha ;) I am writing you all from the wonderful little coastal town of Örnsköldsvik! May I just say that I absolutely, positively, without a doubt LOVE IT HERE!! IT is such an awesome area! We are in probably the most beautiful part of Sweden and not only that... we are here at the most beautiful time of year! :) Funny side note.. The accent they speak Swedish with up here is really funny sounding to me. There is absolutely no way I can type it so you will just have to wait until you can hear it in person. Basically they enunciate the "s" differently, and a few letter combinations sound strange. It has made for lots of confusion and lots of laughter already! Also, they roll their r's a lot up here. Kinda funny! On my mission I have been exposed to all of the different accents of Swedish. I bet people are confused as to where exactly I come from! haha :) Okay, well things truly are going great here in Övik! I absolutely love the area.. we have some great investigators, and I haven't even met them all yet! Having a car is really nice, and quite necessary here. We are getting a new car in a couple of weeks so that is very exciting! Äldste Lopp, my new companion is really awesome! Like I told Josh earlier we have become quick friends and we will definitely hang out after the mission. This week will be exciting! My first District Meeting as a District Leader! I am a little nervous, but I know that the Lord has prepared me for this! In the district we have Umeå (Which are the Zone Leaders) and Sundsvall which is about two hours south of us by car. Pretty fun! We will have weekly meetings switching in location from Sundsvall to Örnsköldsvik with our first one here in Övik. As a District Leader it is my responsibility to watch over the district and make sure all is going well. Yes, I will be doing things like baptisimal interviews, reporting numbers and companion exchanges but the most important thing is that I love my district and ensure that the work is moving forward! It will be a great transfer! Well, I am once again writing from a library with a time limit so I better get to the e-mails so I can have time! You all overloaded me with e-mails this week! I was soooooo happppyyyyy!! :) Okay first we will have Dad! I love you Dad! I am happy to hear that you received the candy! Woo! I hope you enjoyed it, even if it was a little melted! Ooops! Sounds like you and the family had a wonderful Fourth of July! (Even if you did still go to bed early!) That is great that Grandma Holladay is up there with you and the family! Let her know that I love her and pray for her! Hang will be great in Stockholm. Leaving was very unexpected, but he has friends in the Ward and plus Äldste Woodruff is still there for him. Hey, a quick side note.. I purchased a suit on my card. My suits are torn and to be honest, this was a really good sale. I went in on it with two other elders so I have some money to send home. Question is, how would you like me to do it?? It is about 500 kronor or about 80 dollars. I could go and exchange it.. maybe lol haha and send it in the mail like I have done before, or I could keep it here and use it instead of my card... haha It is up to you! Let me know and I will get right on it! Okay, enough of this lets get back to the real e-mail! I love you so much Dad! Thank you for your wonderful e-mails and the prayers. I too enjoy our early mornings together! :) Okay, now I will move on to Matt! I love you Matt! I am sooo glad that you had a fun time at EFY. It sounds like you were quite the popular kid on campus?!?? haha You are lookin' fine in your pictures and I can tell that football has become a huge part of your life. Both the pictures I got of you today you were wearing football shirts! How do you feel about the NFL and NBA lockouts I hear are going on? Are they going to end soon?! Crazy stuff! HAhaha I just went back and re-read your e-mails.. too funny about the session director calling you up and telling everyone that you added his daughter on facebook! haha I wish I could have been there! Have you talked to her since that? Just wondering! OH MY!! I just looked at how much time I have left!! Ooops! Okay, I love you Matt! have a great week! Okay lets get to Mom! I love you Mom! Yeah, it was pretty crazy that I transfered! It was my intuition also that I would be staying! I guess the Lord had other plans! No worries though, I was glad to get to Örnsköldsvik! I love the branch feel!! haha You were blessed with good weather on the Fourth?! No Way!! That is not fair that you have it when I am gone! lame! haha jkjk You truly are making tons of trips down to Utah! But I bet you just love it! Minus the driving aspect.. HOw is the new car holding up?? Haven't seen any pictures of it lately.. How about my truck? Junked it yet? ;) OH! I know that you will truly appreciate this.. Äldste Lopp, my companion is amazing at the piano. Simply put, he is amazing. Guess what we have in our apartment?? An electric piano! Haha Two guitars a piano and tons and tons of sheet music! We have already started writing songs together! Yeah! Fun fun! Okay, I have no time left! I will get to the Spiritual Thought! I love you Mom!! Okay, here it is... I was reading recently in Mark chapter 13. In this chapter Christ answers the disciple's question as to when the second coming would happen. Christ tells of wars and false Christs etc... In verse seven we see something cool.. Christ says, "And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled..." Many people ask why war happens. "If there is a God why does he allow war??" I often hear. But to tell the truth, this is all part of the plan. Our Father in Heaven knew this was going to happen. But we should "Be not troubled" because we know that God is in control and that if we follow and obey what we are asked to do all will turn out well. Mark 13:37 says, "And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch!" I love you all my time is gone!

Trogen och Stadig, Är Jag Redo!!!!!
Faithful and Steady, I AM Ready!!!!!

Äldste Kundis :) :) :)

New Changes!! Lots of them!!!

Hej Familj!!!

Well, I am sorry to be sending this e-mail right now... As you all know, transfers are this week, and that means I would normally e-mail on Wednesday. Sorry to say that President Newell changed that, and now p-days on transfer week are on Tuesdays. So! I did not get an e-mail from ya'll and that makes me kinda sad! I guess there is always next week!! I truly am sorry if this upsets some of you... lol Mom and Dad, but it is just this week! I have some awesome news though! I am being transferred! Can you believe it???!! I normally stay in areas for a long time, but I am out of Stockholm as of tomorrow night at 11:00 PM! Thats right, my train to my new area leaves Stockholm Central Station tomorrow night at 11 PM. Why you may ask yourself? This is why!!! I am being transferred to Norrland!! I will be serving in a city called Örnsköldsvik! Or, Övik for short. You can for sure look it up on a map, but it is in the northern part of Sweden, right on the beautiful coastline! Sources say it is an awesome place to serve! I will board the night train and sleep for the 8 hour trip... hopefully sleep that is! Sadly, I will be leaving Stockholm and my awesome companion, Äldste Woodruff. My new companion is named Äldste Lopp. (Pronounced like the "la" in Fa La la la la, with a "p" at the end... lap... but it is spelled, Lopp haha) Also, some other exciting news... President asked me to be the District Leader there! So, that will bring lots of new experiences, and I know that I will learn a lot! :) OH!!! I will get to drive a car!! Awesome!!! hahaha! Okay, now I will take some time to fill you all in about our new Mission President!! His name is President Gregory Newell. He lived in I think Provo or Orem.. lol He has shaken the hand of FOUR US Presidents, served as the Ambassador to Sweden, owns an international business company, and has stories so exciting it makes you want to keep prying for more! haha We first met him this past Friday at a Mission Conference for the Norrland, Stockholm and Stockholm South Districts. It was a GREAT conference. President Newell and his wife are awesome and very, very Spiritual. The meeting had everyone in tears! Seriously, not a dry eye in the place! It is funny though, you can definitely tell that he has a political background. He almost acts like the president of the country. Not to mention, everyone treats him as though he was a celebrity.. (probably because he actually IS lol) After the meeting we had a chance to go meet him and shake his hand. It truly felt like a political rally... My emotions were quite confused! So, he is changing things around here with no delay! Making changes and switching things around as he feels best. That is good! Get it all changed and do it quick. That way we all can get used to it! Lets see, Hang is doing well!! He is awesome and the Confirmation went wonderfully! I was pretty nervous about doing it, but I was comforted and everything went perfectly! We talked after about the Holy Ghost, and we asked him how it felt. He said, "It felt like I was improved by some Spirit... I felt equal to the others in the room... at peace..." haha He is AWESOME!!!!! It is sad to be leaving him.. :( Not to mention I am leaving the ward!! They were a lot of fun! I was not able to even get to know all of them, but I know they are good people! Övik has a small branch.. Kinda like what I had in Växjö, my first area. It will be exciting switching back to the small branch feeling! Wooo! So, I hope that all is well in the land of Kundis and friends! What is going on?!?! I feel as though we haven't talked in ages! There must be sooo much to hear about! Matt with EFY, Landon, haha sooo much! OH!! Happy Fourth of July! We were able to celebrate with a couple American families that were having a big party. We grilled some cheeseburgers and had a good time together. We sang songs and talked about sports haha.. You know, all the fun things of the 4th. No fireworks though.. :( bummer! I sure hope that Kevin blew something up for me like he said he was going to do in the calendar you all sent! haha :) Well, I am getting tired of typing on this computer!! Also, I have LOTS of packing and preparation I need to do so things are ready to go tomorrow! The life of a missionary is amazing. I love it so much! I have found joy in the journey, and it continually amazes me how happy I am. I was a happy person before my mission, but now I am just so happy I am noticing I am happy more.. haha Does that make sense?!? Probably not.. Kinda hard to explain both through e-mail, but even in person! :) So, now for a Spiritual Thought! Here is a quote to get us started.. It is by C.S. Lewis. He says, "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship..." Sister Newell quoted that on Friday at the Mission Conference. If we think about the quote and truly try to apply it to our lives, I think we would live differently. I think that honestly, the world would be a much better place. Not only would we treat one another with respect and love, but in that same moment we see someone in their godly state we are transformed and will be made happier and have a feeling of joy. Truly, this potential is in each and every one of us... Even those people that cut us off while driving, or the guy who takes the last cookie at the fireside. We are all on the same planet Earth. We are all yearning for the same loving embrace of our Father in Heaven, whether we know it or not... I love you all so much and look forward to this next transfer! I hope to hear from you all next week and read about all that has been going on. Jag Älskar Er!!


Trogen och Stadig, Är Jag Redo!!!!!
Faithful and Steady, I AM Ready!!!!!

Äldste Kundis :) :) :)