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 :) :) :)