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 :) :) :)