Dear Landon... I Love You!!

Hej Familj!!!!!

Well what can I say... I am speechless! Landon has finally arrived and I could not be any happier! He looks beautiful and I am proud to be one of his Uncles! Woo! Sounds like Hillary and Josh went through a bit of a tough time, but just look at the end result!!!!!! I am sure that it was worth everything! Besides, a few days in a hospital is nothing compared to a lifetime of love with your son! Can anyone tell that I am a mess right now?! I immediately started crying when I read that he was finally born, and then I saw the pictures and now I am just in a state of pure joy! I am sooooo happy I can barely type! I just want to go run around and, (this might sound a little strange...) jump for joy! Landon is finally here! :) I love you Landon! I also love you all! This week has been amazing... as every week is! We have been finding people and working hard to achieve our goals. The weather has been pretty nice lately. We haven't received new snow for about a week now and the temperatures have been up. However, I must say that walking around here is extremely dangerous right now. We had a really warm day a few days ago and it started to rain slush! (it seemed like) Then, as we all coming from Montana know, that night it got really cold! Everything is ice. EVERYTHING!!! All of the sidewalks and streets are like an ice rink. The Swedes are masters at safety though and have since spread truck load after truck load of gravel on the roads and even have little trucks that plow and spread gravel on the sidewalks. Even with all of the gravel though, both Äldste Overstreet and I have had our fair share of pretty bad falls. It is actually kind of funny because the really bad falls normally only happen when we are kicking ice chunks back and forth to each other as we are walking. (it is just not a good idea to kick things on ice...) lol Don't worry though, we are doing great and no injuries! :) However, the ice did claim a suit of mine... This was actually a few weeks ago.. We were heading somewhere when I realised I had forgotten something back in the apartment. The bus was coming really soon so I ran back to the apartment. As I turned a corner my traction left me. I slipped and landed right on my knee. The gravel that was there tore straight through the material of my pants and left a few nice marks on my knee. So, one might ask (since I can't wear those pants anymore), "why not just wear the suit using the other pair of pants??". This is a great question, but sadly the other pair of pants were attacked by a large piece of gum on a train station bench. The pants... did not recover. :( So, lol, now I am down to one suit! As we can clearly see... serving a mission in the frozen north has its downfalls! Anyway, I have TONS to do this p-day so I will get to the e-mails! The first up on the list is my Dad! I love you Dad! Sounds like you had an amazing Christmas! Nana's house sounds like it was full of people and everyone was having a blast! Wish I could have been there! I am so glad that you were able to be there for Landon's birth and that you were able to hold him. I bet you were just a mess of tears... as I am sure everyone was! Speaking of new things, the new car sound really nice! I am glad that you and the family have been blessed in that aspect! Did you take it down to Utah??? How did it perform? I am sure that it did great! Well Dad, you had a lot to say this e-mail! I am glad that you could include so much and keep me informed! I love you very much and know that your prayers are with me! Likewise, my prayers are always with you!! Okay, now it is Matt's turn! Hey Matt!! I love you brotha!! It really was a blast to be able to talk to you over the phone. I still don't think I sound any different though! I don't know why you keep saying that!! haha lol So, it is finally time to get back to school? Don't stress it too much... the Swedish kids are back in school today! I kinda just laugh though... I am working day in and day out pretty much 24/7! And I love it!! haha I had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year! Thank you for asking about that! I will tell my New Years Eve story here in your part! We decided to do some tracting that morning and afternoon because we were not allowed to be out working after six at night. So, we jumped on a train out to Fälköping and did some work out there. We had great success!!! It was amazing! Afterwards we headed to a members house in Fälköping to have a little bit of a party. We had a very fancy dinner and played some very fun games. Sad part is, we missed our train once and then missed the second train and the next one didn't leave Fälköping until 22.48 (10:48 PM).. Bad! I know!! We felt pretty bad, and the members just kept on apologising for making us so late. However, it did mean that we were able to see all of the fireworks! We got back to our apartment in Skövde at about 23.30 (11:30 PM) and got ready for bed. By this time the fireworks were already going! The majority of the fireworks they have here are massive artillery shells... yeah I know... SWEET!! We turned off all of the lights and opened all of the blinds and even opened some of the windows so we could hear it. Lets just say, I completely underestimated how many fireworks there would be! Swedes miss out of the 4th of July, but they certainly make up for it on New Years! It was crazy! Everyone was out lighting them off! Many right on our street! It was loud and just intense! We felt as though we were in a battle zone it was so loud! Swedes know how to party! haha So needless to say we had a great New Years. Even if it did mean we were pretty tired the next day. New Years Day we were not allowed to go out until 15.00 (3:00 PM) and at that time we were once again invited to the branch presidents house where there was lots of family over again and tons of really good food! We had a great time! I love Skövde! Anyway, thats enough of that! I am glad you are having a great time and that everything is going well! I love you Matt! Well, this is normally Mom's spot but she is still down in Utah I hear. Good!! Thats where she should be! haha :) So I will get right to the Spiritual thought! This is something someone told me on my mission that I have really taken to heart. It is about ATTITUDE. Now, if you take each letter of the word ATTITUDE and assign a numerical number to it (for example, "A" is one and "T" is twenty... so forth...) the letters add up to 100. Try it! I was amazed! Now, there are many ways that this can be applied... trust me.. haha But this is the path I would like to choose and discuss! Attitude is everything! We all face different struggles and challenges. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. But there is something we all have in common. That is, the ability to have a good attitude. Lets look at ourselves as one of those letters. One day we might be an "A" and only contribute the number one, other days we are a "U" and can contribute the number twenty one! Point being, no matter how "positive" our attitude we help each other towards the common goal of 100. Those we are in contact with, such as our friends and especially our family members need our positive attitude!! We may only be able to contribute a number one that day, but that is important! We are still contributing to that all too important goal of 100.. 100 being joy, happiness, LOVE. As we work and strive to have a good, positive attitude even in our trials, we will be lifted up by those around us and always feel loved. Of this I testify and can promise to you!!! Having a positive attitude makes everything better!! I love you all and hope you are having a wonderful week! It's always a great day to be happy!! :) Until next week...Trogen och Stadig, Är Jag Redo!!!!!Faithful and Steady, I AM Ready!!!!!Äldste Kundis :) :) :)

Here is the reading for this week!!!

Tuesday - p.183 ch.19 - p.187 ch.21
Wednesday - p.187 ch.21 - p.193 ch.24
Thursday - p.193 ch.24 - p.199 ch.27
Friday - p.199 ch.27 - p.204 ch.29
Saturday - p.204 ch.29 - p.207 ALMA
Sunday - p.207 ALMA - p.213 ch.3
Monday (next) - p.213 ch.3 - p.217 ch.5