Keep it cold please!

Hej Familj!!!


Haha!! We are having some great weather changes here in Sweden! Two days ago it was warm and sunny which made huge rain/ice drops fall later in the day transforming the streets into icy/slushy rivers! The next morning, yesterday, I stuck my head out of our door to see which shoes I would wear as to best battle with the slush. Sadly, I made the wrong observation... I thought for sure that the slush had frozen overnight and that I would want to wear my shoes that have better traction. Well, I walked outside and realized that the slush was indeed STILL SLUSHY.. But we needed to go and I figured that it would be okay. It wasn't okay.. haha I arrived at church with soaking wet socks and shoes! I should have worn the boots because those DON'T have holes all over them unlike both pairs of my shoes! I am glad I can look back and laugh at that.. It was quite the pain all day having soaking wet feet and sloshing around in ankle deep ice/mud slush! Today I was smarter!! I made sure that everything was frozen again before I made my shoe choice! It is nice and cold here and I am okay with that because it makes walking around much easier and much less wet! :) :)

We have been pretty busy the past week! Contacting, tracting, teaching and more! The AWESOME life of a missionary! I must say though... Everyone here in Sweden keeps reminding us that the end is coming soon. It is getting harder and harder with every day to try and not think about it!! haha I think this is the hardest I have ever EVER tried to NOT think about home!! I honestly am sorry for that, but you all are just sooooo distracting! ;) I love you too much!!! :)

Anyway, Äldste Shear and I are both helping each other to stay focused and working hard. We are united in all that we do, with the exception of me moving my bed out of our bedroom... haha You see, Äldste Shear snores, A LOT!! hahaha I have been losing lots of sleep, and the ear-plugs are starting to hurt my ears. SO, lol I have "moved out" I am now sleeping in our kitchen on the floor with the foam pad from my bed! VERY nice! Especially with the blanked the Family sent me two Christmases ago! Thanks again Family! :) It is quite funny that I am sleeping there, but I have been getting GREAT sleep now and I don't hear much of his snoring! Yay! I love him.. It is just the snoring that I have a hard time with! :)

So, today for p-day we don't really have much planned. Some of the Elders around the Stockholm area will be getting together in Gubbängen to play sports and just hang out... We will head that direction when we are done here in the library. Oh! Yeah! We are planning on going to a great Greek fast-food place in Stockholm that Me and Äldste Woodruff found when we were there together. I have been talking it up to Äldste Shear and we both feel that it is about time we go there and take part in the majestic gyros! :) Mmmmm! So, that should be lots of fun! We WERE going to be ice-fishing with a new member named Cris, but when we called yesterday to make the final plans he informed us that he was very sick... He sounded terrible! So hopefully in the future we will be able to go with him, and he will get feeling better! Never been ice-fishing, but he has made it sound like something I want to try! Ice-fishing on the frozen lakes in the northern Scandinavian country of Sweden.. Nope, NEVER thought that I would be able to do that!!! ;) haha Fun!

This week is looking pretty good! Marcello has not returned as of Saturday, but he should be back this week for sure! We will try to get over to his place and teach more of the Gospel! Kent, sadly, has dropped off the face of the Earth! lol We don't know where he is and he doesn't seem to be answering our calls. This happens from time to time.. Normally it means that the person either doesn't want to talk anymore, or they have run out of money to use their phone. We still have faith in Kent. He is out there somewhere, so we will keep trying and hopefully a miracle happens! We live by miracles, right?? ;)

Okay, well I better respond to these e-mails!! But before I do I just want to thank whoever attached that picture of Landon!! He is so awesome! I just can't wait to meet him!!!! :)

Okay first up we have Dad! I love you Dad! Wow! Someone was rescued in Northern Sweden from being stuck in their car since December 19th!?! That's crazy! haha No, it is not that bad down here in Jakobsberg! Norrland (Northern Sweden) is for sure getting a beating, but we are okay. There are lots of roads and trails up there and LOTS of cold and snow. So, I am not really shocked that someone was buried under the snow, but the fact that he survived that long is incredible! I guess the snow must have acted like some sort of igloo or something?!?! haha Pretty crazy! It is a different kind of place up there. Not too many people, and if something goes wrong out on one of the roads it may be a while before someone, if anyone, passes! Danger is often times associated with beauty, and Norrland is a VERY beautiful place! Nature can be harsh sometimes! :) Anyway, it is good that the guy was able to be rescued! What a blessing! You know what, I share the same feeling that you expressed at the beginning of your e-mail. Time is going very fast! It DOES seem that just yesterday we were e-mailing and it was p-day. Crazy how time just runs like that. Slow down!!! I promise to make the best of the time I have left. It takes a constant effort to stay focused. We are keeping the drive to do all that we can as we move from day to day. Thank you for the encouragement! It helps a lot! :) I love you Dad! Have a great week!

Okay, now we will move on to Matt! I love you Matt! I hope that you had a great week and that you felt the love coming from Sweden! You were in my prayers! That is pretty funny that Bishop Jacobson is getting you excited for my return.. Tell him to slow his roll!! I still have lots of time here! I still have brothers and sisters to find, teach, and baptize! It's going to be a fight to the finish! I want to also thank you for your positive encouragement to keep working hard! You are right, this is our time to shine! To answer your question, yes, I am very comfortable with Swedish now. It is a beautiful language, and I can't wait to continue studying it! this is pretty cool, I can also speak Norwegian! haha Well, not exactly, but I can understand pretty much everything when they speak! Danish is harder, but still possible.. Finnish is not even a language.. its just a bunch of strange noises.. haha I have no idea what those guys are saying! But I am very thankful to my Father in Heaven for the ability He has given me to learn a new language! It has been an incredible growing experience! :) I really wish that I could speak Spanish though. We have lots of Spanish members and the often times speak to each other in Spanish. I am just the strange missionary that butts in with "Hola como estas??!?!" haha I am sure you can picture that! They are teaching me some cool phrases though, so I am getting better and better! Half of an education is a desire of education right?!? Haha I love made up statistics! :) So, I hope that you have a bomb week and that you enjoy listening to Rascal Flatts! Someone in the ward told me that they are about to come out with a new CD!!! Look forward to that! :) haha I love you brother! You will still be in my prayers! :)

Okay, now it is Mom's turn! I love you Mom! Haha, yeah, I am sure that everyone will be telling the story of the "tidal wave" for a good while here in the Jakobsberg Ward! I know that I will for sure be telling it! Dermas is still doing good! We were over with him on Saturday and had a great discussion about studying the scriptures! He is a great new member! I already talked about Marcello, so you know whats going on there. Hopefully we can meet with him this week! Okay.. you continue to surprise me every week with some new health thing.. do me a favor, and just be healthy! haha It is so much better to hear that you are doing okay then to hear of surgery after surgery! Anyway, I am very thankful that these things are getting taken care of. What a blessing to have trained professionals ready and willing to help! You as well will be in my prayers this week, and I look forward to hearing that everything is taken care of. :) Forward in Faith! :) Oh, by the way, the package you sent arrived at the mission office today! Thank you so much! I will be getting it in Gubbängen when we head that direction! Woo! :) I am pretty spoiled! ;)

Okay, I guess that this week everyone just thought it would be good to offer their encouragement! Thank you for all of that! I really need it now! :) That was an awesome thing you did with the Primary kids! Haha Turning the word GOOD into GO and DO!! I am sure that they loved that! Nephi is a great example to us no matter what age level. He was faithful and had courage to do all that the Lord asked of him no matter what everyone around him might think. Go Nephi! Yeah!! haha Okay, well I love you Mom! Have a great week and good luck with all of the medical things! :) I will be praying for you! :)

Okay, well now it is time for a Spiritual Thought! Woo! It comes a talk given by one of the Sisters in our ward. Sister Karumo! She said this, "We should not be quiet about that which we believe in." I really liked it when she said that! When we truly believe in something we should do everything in our power to share that with the world. If we have a burning belief in Global Warming, then we should probably go out and stop pollution and what not.. If we have a burning belief, something often referred to as a testimony, that the Church is true we should probably go out and teach the Gospel!! We should NOT be quiet about that which we believe in. The Lord has promised us that we will know what to say and when to say it. Do we have faith in this? If we know the Church is true, I definitely think we should be able to trust in the promises of the Lord. Turn to Mosiah 4:9. Get your faith from that! "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." God has ALL Wisdom, ALL Power, and guess what.. He is on your side. We are on His team. When we believe this to be true, we will desire more players on our team. We fight for victory, but the end has been decided. I can't remember off the top of my head who said it, but one of the General Authorities said that in the end Satan will fall. That is a fact. Our team will win. We are on the winning team. Lets make sure we do all we can to not see losers. hahaha :) ;)

I love you all very, VERY much! I am so thankful for your support and for not being quiet about that which YOU believed in. You have blessed my life in such an incredible way! Thank you! As for me, I am going to hit the streets and try to get our team some good recruits! Missionary work is awesome! Have a GREAT week everyone! I love you!


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

Äldste Kundis :) :) :)