Don't really know what to put here...

Well, I feel as though we have just been talking, so I don't really know what I should write about. Lets see...

Between Skype and now I have eaten more chocolate, watched Despicable Me 2, made a grilled cheese sandwich, did my laundry, gloomily walked in some rain because anywhere else in Sweden that rain was snow, and watched a super intense church video in which Moroni dies before he buries the golden plates. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me the name of that video.

What else...

I don't really have any more pictures this week. Well, so as not to be empty handed I guess I can give you all a picture we took of the buss stop times just outside our apartment. Not sure why, but something useless is better than nothing at all, eller hur?

But ya, I really can't think of anything else I could say now. Christmas food is awesomely yummy. Pi is a super useful number. Taylor series are also super nice to have. Ever wonder what Daniel was doing when Shadrak, Meshak, and Abed-nago were punished for not worshiping King Nebbachenesser? I have. My companions brother got a pet pig. That's weird. I've had Stockholm Syndrome stuck in my head for a very long time. Scatter Sunshine is a very good hymn. Unfortunately it doesn't exist in the Swedish hymnbook. Some Swedish translations of hymns are strange. Some traditional Swedish foods are super good. Julmust is amazing. I really like pictures of Jesus, especially the ones in the Gospel Art Book. I'm almost out of Lubriderm. My jacket is a little wet right now, and my lip itches a bit. I heard once that if you make a sentence out of 14 words, you are the first person to have said that sentence, but I'm not sure I believe that.

Haikus are quite fun

But sometimes have strange endings

Refrigerator

Check out this cookie my companion decorated

Thththththats all, Folks!

Äldste Wilson

Every contact ever with someone over 60 years old.

To whom it may concern,

This week we had zone conference! It was super good! It happened in Göteborg combined with the Göteborg zone, so that was fun to travel a little north! At the end of the conference President and Syster Beckstrand gave us a Christmas present, we watched Saturdays Warriors! The best part by far was when the two missionaries contacted an Asian woman in the park and she says, in perfect English, "I... don't speak English". You know how many times we've gotten that! It's really funny, let me walk you all through a street contact with an old Swede:

Me: "Hejsan! Ursäkta! Hej! Jag är en missionärer för min kyrka och jag går runt idag för att informera andra om en stor jul initiative! Har du hört talas om Ett Ljus För Världen?"

Old person: "Sorry, but I don't speak English." (In pretty broken English, they really don't speak English)

Me: "Oh! Vilket språk kan du?"

Old person: "Uh, jag kan svenska."

Me: Okej! Jag kan svenska också! Så, jag är en missionärer för min kyrka och jag går runt idag för att informera andra om en stor jul initiative! Har du hört talas om Ett Ljus För Världen?"

That last part was said the exact same as the beginning part, but for some reason they can understand it this time just fine, the contact continues, and they eventually say that my Swedish is really good. I don't get it! And it's a mission wide thing to! Like, it even happens to missionaries that come from Sweden and have spoken Swedish their entire lives!

The other day I was making spaghetti and I suddenly was possessed of a burning desire for yakisoba, so I quickly put away the meat balls and whipped out some chicken and vegetables and fried them and found some sesame seeds in the cupboard (I didn't question how old they were) and fried my spaghetti in soy souse and through in a bunch of spices and wallah! It was pretty good! However, it was not real yakisoba. Äldste Gergetz liked it quite a bit, and I really liked it to, but I knew how faded of an image it really was of what I wanted. That made me a little sad. Also I only made enough for one large plate instead of my normal three large plates, so that also made me a little sad. And we didn't have egg roles with it, so that also made me a little sad. But then I ate some hazelnuts in chocolate in caramel, and I was happy. 

Lets see, what else could I talk about now? At zone conference I got to meet some of my MTC group, so that was pretty awesome! One of them was Äldste Harden, one of my comps. See picture below.

Also, in the Malmö stake center they have a church history display that talks about my ancestor! Bonus points to anyone that can actually read what it says about him!

And finally, a picture of a notice that shows the general attitude of everyone in Sweden! For those of you who cannot read Swedish, it roughly says: Hey! I'm going to remodel my apartment! Sorry for any noise that makes! If for any reason you find this disagreeable, please call/text me! If it is to loud, do the same!" The best part? That notice is for an apartment on the far side of a different building than the one I was in.

Well dad, you want to know how I get investigators? I wish I knew. Then I could do it.

Kärlek,

Äldste Wilson

I forgot a subject last week, didn't I.

It is with deep sorrow I  apologize for not giving my email home a subject last week. My mind was under great distress caused by shortage of time, and I was unwisely writing while under the influence of chocolate ballerina cookies. With support from you all, the "Triple F's", I should be able to get my emails back in order. I really appreciate your consideration of the matter and your continuous support, and plead with you all, please, visit mormon.org to see the jul initiative.

Well, time for highlights of the week! On Sunday Elder Gergetz and I were drafted to help home teach a less active woman on the east coast of Skåna (pictures 7777,7769, and 7748 are from the drive there) and she lived in a vary Swedish house (all houses here are either a red barn looking thing or white plaster and wood type of thing. Her house was the white plaster and wood one.) that was candle lit and fire place warmed, and she fed us a tomato soup that tasted very Swedish with bread and cheese which was very Swedish and she spoke a thick Skånish accent, it was in all a very Swedish experience. I really liked it. However, her visit marked a mile stone! For dessert we had ostkakor, the last Swedish dish on the list of Swedish foods I have made before my mission. And let me say this, every Swedish food I made is not nearly as good as the Swedish food here, because the Swedish food here is made by Swedes who actually know what ostkakor is.

Also this week we had a pretty awesome "party" with a family in the ward where we sang a bunch of julsånger and ate a lot of traditional jul foods, so ya, Christmas time in Sweden is pretty tasty!

Here's a picture (7784) of me putting in the wash this morning, because why not?

One day we had a movie night and watched a super good church movie called the Mountain of the Lord. It's about the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, super good. I recommend it as a Sundayactivity. Good stuff. (7736 and 7737)

Well, I'm kinda having a hard time focusing now so the moral of the story is that Sweden is awesome and I enjoy serving here. 

MVH,

Äldste Wilson

Family, friends, and others,

Not a whole lot of time today, so I'll just answer some questions I've been asked throughout my mission so far, by you, my faithful followers.

No, I do not think it is cold. The last time I checked, it takes a little more than -2 Celsius to be classified as "cold" in my view, especially when I have to wear pants.

I have not quite yet actually got around to purchasing a winter coat, but if it makes any one feel better (dad) I'll start wearing my thermal undies.

Emma, I will not give you a shout out.

My companion is quite awesome! If I were to describe him in three words, I would ask him what three words he would use to describe himself with, to which he responded "Analyse, create, passion." He's from Wisconsin. He has a brother who just left to the MTC for Argentina. He likes pasta.

After zone conference we had a thanksgiving dinner that was pretty good, but we did nothing on actual thanksgiving day. Sweden does like black Friday though.

Swedish goes pretty good, I mean, obviously it's hard, but it's coming. Oh, and you all thought I couldn't spell in English? Watch me try to spell in Swedish!

The Lund ward is awesome, I love it. I think the rest of the world could learn something from how it operates. Every talk is directly focused on Jesus Christ. Every ward council meeting (which happens every week) is attended by almost every ward council member, even though most of them live about an hour drive from Lund. 

Pictures!

7714: Surprise selfe with my comp!

7706: When you really want a big pot of chicken noodle soup, but don't have a big pot.

7703: For those of you who remember a while back, some poor Swede lost a can named Wilson. Wilson is still lost.

Jag älskar er!

Äldste Wilson

I know something you don't! Na na na na na na!

Family, friends, and robots who scan the inter-webs 

looking for emails to contact and numbers to call,

As far as weeks in Sweden go, this one was pretty AWESOME!!! Do you want to know why? Oh, let me tell you why.

CHRISTMAS INITIATIVE IS ALMOST OUT!!!

My hair being my hair and wishing it could fly. There was no wind that day, we were just walking a solid 2 or 3 kilometers an hour.

We had zone conference this week, so the assistants to the                 resident came and showed us the Christmas initiative video and talked about how to use it, and the moral of the story is the video will be amazing. Definitely the best Jul (Swedish for Christmas, also what I will be using from now on because it is 9 letters shorter.) video the church has made. But ya, the video hasn't come out yet (It is released the 25) but there is a teaser video on www.mormon.org/downloads I think that's a little funny, they made a one minute teaser for a two minute video, but it should be good.          

                                             The Zone

My companion wanted me to take this picture, so I did. It was 4:30 in the afternoon then.

ell, that paragraph started to get a little rambley, so I'm going to start new. The following section will contain spoilers.

This years Jul video will begin with standard church video music playing over standard Jul events: putting up lights, setting up a nativity, ext. Then the video transitions to Christ growing up and serving others. Just when you think you get the hang of seeing Christ serving others, Christ stretches out his hand to heal a blind person and BAM! Scene change! Generic young adult helping a generic old man learn how to read Braille! Back to Jesus helping the blind man up and BAM! Another scene change! A generic young adult showing a generic grandma generic videos of generic children! Back to Christ healing some one and BAM! Generic Grandpa visiting his generic sickly wife in the hospital! Christ embarrassing someone he healed and BAM! Generic young boy 1 putting his arm around generic young boy

after generic young boy 2 messed up in 

soccer! I think you get the picture. The video ends with yet another service from Christ, this time with the text over it "I am the light of the World". Then a more subtle bam, and there's some generic adults helping at a soup kitchen with the text "Ye are the light of the World". Then the invitation to go to Mormon.org to learn how to serve "25 ways in 25 days". You go there and find an advent calendar which begins December 1st and goes through to December 25th (25 days), and each day has a topic (i.e. "Jesus Lifted Other's Burdens and So Can You" or "Jesus .Ministered To Children and So Can You") with several ideas on how you can fulfill that topic listed below (25 ways). It's just the best video ever. Also, it looks as though every day is going to have a video released specific to that topic.

End spoilers

Moral of the story is that the video is the best, service is the best, I'm very grateful we have IPhones so we can show it on the street, and I love Christ. 

Well, I guess I could talk some more about how Yoda attends this ward, or about how I learned to play O Come, O Come, Emanuel on the cello, or how I licked my elbow for the ward talent show, but I think I'll just put in some pictures and call it a day. By the way, one of the above three things is a lie. Guess which one!

The 20 meter tree we cut down

It snowed! For real!

I'm not making it up this time! It snowed in Lund! YAY!

Unfortunately, because it is snowing now my companion wants me to wear my gloves and hat and get a winter coat and all that stuff. Ugh. Two steps forwards, one step back.

Nick, before I forget, you have to tell me if Lone Peak won or not. And who they played.

Well, this week was pretty boring (but not really), so I'd thought I'd start this off with a quick insight I got from one of the coolest guys I know, Broder Strandberg. We were sitting in Elders quorum (which happens to be the most fun event ever, after ward council) when we were talking about some gospel topic and Broder Strandberg mentions the idea of putting on the Yoke of Christ. You see, a yoke is a tool, and is quite heavy. Sitting in a field with a big fat yoke on your neck would be quite miserable. However, once you start pulling your yoke and working with it you can 1) See that you're doing something, and 2) Christ is able to start pulling with you, thus making your burden light. So ya, it does us no profit to just put on the Yoke of Christ unless you start working with it!

Now to the descriptions of how life in Sweden is. Something that is really cool is this week (along with it having snowed) has not risen above 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, so all the plants are completely frozen and, for lack of a better description, freezer burnt, so all the leaves are super cool looking and walking on grass sounds awesome. 

Hey family, don't forget to be memorizing The Living Christ! If I can do it in Swedish, you all better do it in English!

Oh, and by the way, have fun in Trump-land!

It turns out, Swedish Children are the best! So cute! They all learn songs in English they sign to us, and they eat tons of butter, and they all know how to play an instrument because the schools in Sweden have amazing culture programs, and they are totally crazy, and they eat all the snow they find, no matter how old, how dirty, how gray or yellow, they love to eat it all. That last part is actually a problem, but it's still super cute.

Also, if you all can find a good recipe on the inter-webs, make some Saffron Bullar. Jätte bra. 

And finally, our little college town of Lund got another new missionary this transfer! Now all three companionships are training! But ya, he's actually a super cool guy, his name is Elder Shanks. His companion in the MTC was also from Lone Peak, so that was cool. I knew another Knight had a call to Sweden, but I thought he still had some time before he came. Anyways, now that I've sufficiently thought-vomited this email, got to go!

MVH,

Äldste Wilson

It snowed!!!

It snowed!!! In Sweden!!! But not in Lund. That made me a little sad.

Anyways, I thought I'd take some time to share a bit about the Ward in Lund. There are three companionshipsof proselyting missionaries, two Elders and one Syster, and a Lund senior couple. The ward is awesome, the bishop is super sharp. All the missionaries are part of the ward council and every member on the ward council has the power to call people to speak, which is super cool. We use this app called Trello to keep an agenda for ward council and a list of speakers called so we don't over book a week. Sacrament is awesome, it begins with a musical number, then announcements, then the sacrament, then two speakers, then another musical number, then the last speaker closes, all with the standard opening, sacrament, and closing hymns. It's super cool. We usually have around 70 members present, and the ward is able to provide teachers for primary, priesthood, relief society, and five Sunday school classes. So ya, the ward is pretty solid. However, it sounds like the new line up for the MV5 ward is going to be killer! All three of those people are amazing! But who got put into the Priest quorum?

But ya, this week has been pretty awesome! Unfortunately, I did not get a pass along card into the popemobile :( My companion is the district leader so we've been doing splits, and this week I was with someone who has spoken to Hannah and Syster Carly Smith! He's from Pleasant Grove and worked as a janitor for LP, and some how it came up that he helped Student Counsel make posters or something like that two years ago.

This week we also served a family in the ward, familjen Ahlströms, by raking their massive lawn. Dad, if you think you have amassed a big burn pile, check out this guy! I really don't know how he hasn't burned down those trees next to the pile. My comp had the phone and he didn't really know what I was asking him to take a picture of, so you can't really get a good feel for the size of the pile. It's over twice my height and two me's laying down in diameter.

Also, turns out I'm strangely adept at drawing mushrooms and snails. Not really, but one day I couldn't think about something to write in journal about, so I drew a mushroom. Then the mushroom looked lonely, so I gave it a friend.

Well, not a lot of time today, so that's all! MVH, Äldste Wilson

Guess who came to town today?

This week has been pretty awesome! Life as a missionary in Sweden kinda is pretty awesomely fun and hard, but ya know, time really flies. I have been on a mission for over two months. How crazy is that?

Sorry they're late, but I'll attach some pictures of the Denmark Copenhagen Temple. For some reason in both pictures we weren't with our companions. And the pictures aren't very good. But the temple is awesome, the baptistery is two stories underground and has an awesome mural of the baptism of Jesus Christ, and if you look closely (Well, you guys cant look closely because you guys probably never will see it!!! Hehehe!!!) you can see vikings and danish kings in the crowd on the bank.

Someone gave away their personal collection of church literature (Not sure who or why, but it may be an old man who recently died in the ward) and I managed to snag a nice copy of Jesus the Christ. It's a real miracle, the whole book is over 800 pages but this edition contains every page and is still less than an inch thick. It makes no sense.

Also, fun fact of the day, my mission has iPhones. I believe we are the only mission in the world with iPhones, but they have existed here for a while and they are awesome. I have never loved google maps more. As such, I decided to grace you all with a panorama of the apartment I took when my companion was opening mail! Unfortunately, we don't have any big pictures of Jesus in our apartment, so that's rough.

The last picture is the goal: the baptismal font. Except the glass in front of it is super reflective so you cant really see it. But it looks super cool in real life.

So ya, I just thought I'd take this time to clarify something. You all may have noticed that I don't really spend a lot of time talking about my investigators. All I'm going to say is that the number of investigators I have is roughly proportional to the amount of time I talk about them.

Quick trivia question based on the past life of Elder Wilson: What random obsession came before Sweden? The correct answer is... Baptizing the Pope! And guess who is coming to Lund today? None other then the Pope! I mean, how cool is that? If I can ninja star a pass along card into the Popemobile, not only will one of the Lund Elders buy me a kabob pizza, but I could also fulfill my second prophecy. Go to Sweden on a mission? Check. Baptize the adored leader of the catholic church, and in so doing convert roughly 100 percent of South America? We'll see... You can all watch the news to see if I succeed or not.

MVH,

Äldste Wilson

Jay-walking a highway! Twice!

It's Halloween time! All the pluckgodis stores are going on sale, which means the amazing Swedish candy Saltlakrits is super cheap, so I can eat a lot of it!!! Pluckgodis stores are amazing though, the way candy works in Sweden is you walk into a massive store and all the walls are filled with shelves of open bins of candies, and you just walk around with a bag and scoop candy into it, then pay based on haw many kilograms you have in your bag. There is this one Swedish candy that's a flavored marshmallow-thing wrapped in an almost fondant candy, then sprinkled with sour sugar, it's the second best candy ever. The best is saltlakrits, salt licorice. It's these super black licorice candies completely covered is salt. When you put them in your mouth, your mouth completely explodes with satlyness, but once you suck that away you have an amazing piece of black licorice left that tastes absolutely amazing. Just as the great apostasy makes the restoration seem even more brilliant in comparison, the licorice's taste becomes even more fantastic after the salt overload leaves your mouth.

Yesterday we had dinner with the Röndahl family, and brother Röndahl was an apprentice to one of Sweden's best chefs or something like that, so dinner was kinda super duper amazingly beyond good. We had meatloaf wrapped in bacon served with boiled butter potatoes and lingonberry jam, then for dessert we ate an awe-full raspberry cake. And when I say awe-full I mean every bite made me full of awe for how beautiful life is. Absolutely amazing. Between all the pluckgodis, Kebab pizza, Julmust, musli, potato and korv, bacon wrapped meatloaf, raspberry torta, and Swedish cheeses, it's a true miracle that the kilos keep shedding.

This week the ward council went to the Copenhagen temple, so I got to confirm over 25 (there is a super bad shortage of names in Europe, so the youth are limited to four temple names or as many personal names they bring, and the endowed can only do family names) people that day, but Äldste Gergetz wouldn't let me report that to the zone leaders :( But I did go to Denmark, so that was cool, and I got to learn the confirmation prayer is Swedish, so that was good, and I got to hold my breath for a super long tunnel which was also great.

Also, something that makes life in Sweden super fun is in city limits pedestrians always have the right-of-way, no matter where they cross a road, and jay-walking is legally protected. Then on the high ways between city limits pedestrians don't have the right of way, but are still allowed to jay-walk, and they have massive roundabouts instead of on and off ramps. So on the way to and from dinner at the Röndahls I may have jay-walked a highway roundabout twice at night. It's actually pretty awesome. A little sketch because any oncoming traffic is coming at 70 kilometers per hour and I'm wearing a dark suit at night and they are turning, but everyone has to have something unsafe with their mission and getting told to wear a jacket doesn't count.

Just so everyone know, I did finally get a jacket. It came from a second hand store, which is nice because that means it was pretty cheap, and it has this weird quality to it which makes it look like a thick jacket, but it really isn't. The thing is, it still hasn't dropped below 7 C during proselyting times, and I don't really think Sweden gets super cold this south in Sweden, so I don't really anticipate getting an actual coat this winter unless I get transferred to Norrland, the north third of Sweden.

The relief society president in Lund is a laser physicist and I overheard her after Sunday school asking another scientist in the ward a great question about the electrons in a water molucule and I just wanted to go and sit with these two geniuses and listen to science and look at the drawings they were making, but with a lot of self restraint and encouragement from my companion, I went to Priesthood instead. Then on the way home I saw that they had changed the boards at the bus station to advertisements for Doctor Strange, and that also made me sad because that looks super good. Then during dinner with the Röndahls someone started talking about the Nightmare before Christmas, and once again I felt the desire to watch that movie, or at least listen to it's soundtrack. Those last two instances I got over pretty quick, but I still find myself wondering what a laser physicist would not know about the electrons in a water molecule, and wanting to ask her about it, and talk about what she does as a laser physicist, and wanting to do more science and watch Cosmos and do calculus and study how DNA packs itself into spindles and ugh. I miss science. 

MVH,

Äldste Wilson

Da Jesus Book

I love Sweden. The first four pictures are the view from the YSA center. For those of you who don't know what a YSA center is, which was me until 21 days ago, they are centers for young single adults. Basically thy are buildings where young adults can come anytime and hang out, they teach seminary and institute in them, they hold family home evening and have game nights in them, ward council meets in it, they're pretty useful. It's kinda like a second church building, but the entire building is treated like the gym. But ya, they have one in Lund and it's the fifth floor of a building, so it's got a pretty nice view of Lund. I love Lund. I love the weather here, even though I do keep getting weird looks for not wearing a jacket. Actually, three days ago we were exploring an apartment complex, looking for a way around port-coded doors, when we tried to stop this man with the usual stuff but he said "No, I'm not interested. Put a coat on, it's cold." and kept walking with out changing speed. That is probably the bluntest a Swede has been to me.

 
Lund is strange. I cannot get a feel for how big it is. I have walked and bused to almost every side of town, but it keeps getting bigger. They the other day I was in Malmö on splits with a Zone Leader, and when we were driving back to Lund I found several skyscrapers. And I was like "What? Since when did Lund have skyscrapers?" I mean, I know there's one in the picture I just sent, but I saw multiple skyscrapers that I have yet to find. On the topic of skyscrapers, look up pictures of the Twisting Torso, in Malmö. Super cool building, I've seen it in real life. It's real.

Anyways, we have an investigator that could use some prayers. His name is Johannes, and he's coming to a fork in the road and can't decide what direction to go. He doesn't really want to believe in God because he knows that he has not lived Gods commandments and doesn't really want to follow them. But he knows he feels the spirit testifying of the truthfulness of our message. We have only taught him twice, so we haven't gotten to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he said he wants some time alone to think about whether he wants to listen to us. Can you all pray that he will decide to continue meeting with us? I know that if we get one more lesson to talk about the Atonement he's as good as in the water, but Satan is really trying to get him to stop listening to us.

On a more trivial note, the sixth picture is of an amazing book. Da Jesus Book. It's the new testament translated into Hawaiian Pigeon. Emma, if you have Mrs. Write the Gov and Pol teacher, tell her that I found this book in the possession of a Priest in Sweden. She has a copy in her class room and she read to us The Lords Prayer, it's good stuff.

Anyways, life is good. Sleeping is awesome, my bed is literally the most comfortable bed I have ever been in. My apartment is kinda small, but has some amazing views out the window, picture five. What a beautiful tree. Just beyond the tree is a cultural center that likes to play loud music late at night, but it's ok because my bed is so soft the sound just gets absorbed. I got stung by a bee two days ago while hussing to catch a train, so my thumb is a little swollen, but I was mostly just surprised that bees are still active in the rain and cold of mid-October Sweden. 

They have two meats here that taste amazing, Korv and Kabob. Korv is like a sausage, if they have it at IKEA you all should get it and try it. It goes with pasta, in eggs, fried then sandwiched, it's the perfect missionary meat. Kabob is actually banned in the USA but I don't know why, so that's a little sketch. But it's this massive slab of meat (I don't know the animal) that is skewered and cooked like a rotisserie chicken. They shave off thin slices and put it on pizza with fries, best pizza ever. If I were to come home now, Kabob pizza would be what I miss most.

Brooke, Link and Addison are so cute! I sure hope you show them pictures of their God Father at least twice a day.

Well, that's all I got time for.

MVH

Äldste Wilson

How would a 3D character be expressed in a 2D world?

This week has been amazing and full of lots of great hard work. My companion does a great job helping me learn Swedish, and learn it I am! Jag tro.  I can speak decent Swedish, but on the streets my pronunciation gets caught in my nose and I have a super hard time speaking because I'm trying so hard to match everyone's pronunciation. It's weird, but ya. In Skånland people talk super high in their mouths, like the end of the Y in 'by' while breathing out of your nose with your tongue along the roof of your mouth, but they do that for everything. So when I stick out my hand and say my normal routine it ends up sounding like I'm trying to blow my nose while I talk. But the worst part is that's kinda normal. Especially for the girls. The girls here in Lund talk super weird, like, if you didn't know Swedish it really would sound like the Swedish chef. There you have it! The fun fact of the day! The Swedish Chef if actually a female!

As for our investigators, the work is slow but successful. We don't have a ton of investigators, but the ones we do have are all very interested in our message. Unfortunately we did have to drop a couple of people this week because they were not so much interested in conversion but bible discussion. They were super nice and funny and open to sharing what they struggle with and stuff, but they firmly believed in grace saving everyone and did not accept the BOM or Joseph Smith or even the need for Priesthood. Anyways, I still love them and something my companion keeps saying is even if someone doesn't accept the gospel and Gods plan now, they have kept their first estate.

The picture is a great one my comp took. For those of you who can't read Swedish, it's a poster for a missing cat named Wilson, full of a nice description on the characteristics of Wilson and pleading to call some number if you see him. Sorry for not a lot of pictures, because Lund is super beautiful and has cobble stone roads and massivie stone churches and all this cool stuff, but I never really think about taking a picture, sorry. I'll try to get more this week.

Back in the MTC, one of the Öldungers enjoyed deep theoretical questions, and he was talking about dimensions one day and said something I keep thinking about for some reason. Basically, if I were a 2D character and I met a 3D character, I would only be able to see his 2D characteristics. So if I were to draw a 2D box around this 3D person, I would be unable to comprehend how this 3D person stepped around the box.

So basically, I have created two events in my head. Both of them occur on a football field, and height and width are the same for both characters. In the fist situation, the 2D characters time corresponds to the 3D characters time, but mr. 2D is stuck on the 50 yard line. Then if mr. 2d puts a 2d box around mr. 3d, mr. 3d steps sideways, forwards, then back to the 50 yd. line and, to mr. 2d's eyes, magically escaped an inescapable box. Basically, mr. 3d has unparalleled control over mr. 2d's physical world.

In the other situation, mr. 2d's time corresponds to mr. 3d's depth. So at t=0, mr. 2d is on the 0 yd. line. At t=.00001, mr. 2d is on the .00001 yd line. In t=.00002, mr. 2d is on the .00002 yd line. Do this for the entire length of the field, and you get a mr. 2d tube, a solid shape that represents 100 seconds of mr. 2d's life. Now put Mr. 3d on the field, and he has a very strange ability to interact with mr. 2d's time. If he stands on the 20 yd. line and watches mr. 2d draw a box around him, the box doesn't even start to exist until t=20, so mr. 3d can step to the 19 yd line and get around the box, but in so doing he also changes when mr. 2d first sees him, changing when mr. 2d begins to draw the box. Well, time's up now, so I'll have to leave this with you with this not fully explained. I have more thoughts on the matter, but they'll have to wait 2 years. Basically, the moral of the story is that I need to better anticipate what to write about, so I can email home better stuff about my mission, not about mr. 2d and mr. 3d. 

MVH,

Äldste Wilson

So, Sweden kinda rocks...

Well, I made it to Sweden! After long flights and much half-sleep, we landed in Stockholm roughly 9am on the 27, then did a little photo shoot and sight seeing, then met the missionaries serving in the Stockholm area. A short devotional and quick walk later, I was giving en Mormons Bok to a Swede while Äldste Behle (Just who I was assigned to temporarily) talked about something along the lines of either miracles or the baptist faith. Not entirely sure. That night though all my MTC district slept in the mission home and awaited our doom.

The next day we all gathered in a small chapel and had a great fireside on missionary work and working with members. Then we actually got our areas and our comps., and I got sent to, drum roll please, ... LUND II! Lund is a collage city just north of Malmö, but still definitely southern Sweden. I was actually hoping to get sent some where south because they don't speak Swedish here, they speak Skånish. Basically, Skånish is a crazy dialect of Swedish so if I learn it first I can learn it the same speed everyone else learns normal Swedish, and then wherever else I go the Swedish will only be better! Unless I go to Gotland, Gotlandish is special.

My new companion is Äldste Gergetz, he's a pretty cool guy! He's from Wisconsin and has been out for a little over a year and I think we work pretty well together. And don't worry Kristy, I make sure to give him plenty of opportunities to come closer to Christ by serving me.

Probably the weirdest thing I've noticed so far is the toilets. Instead of having a lever on the side there is a button on top to flush. Other than that, everything has been pretty normal. Also, Sweden has a pretty high tax on cars so only the rich can afford them, and the rich only buy nice cars, so literally every car I've seen has been super nice. Like, over 60,000 USD at least. In Stockholm I saw a Tesla literally every five minutes, and I've seen two Model X's.

Now, picture time! 

That's all I got today, so ya! Sweden kinda rocks!

Elder Wilson

The end is nigh!

This week we got our flight plans, I am so exited to get out of here! I mean, the MTC is super great and all and I love being here, but nothing compares to Svergia. 

O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto the Swedes!

Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of Sweden.

But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the time at the MTC which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

Anyways, I leave on monday, so I'm pretty much gone. I mean, by the time Dad reads this to the familj and Mom posts this on my blog thing, I'll definately be in Sweden already.

Our MTC zone is all of scandinavia and this week the Finns left us, so we were all super sad monday and tuesday because the Finns were the coolest people I know. There were so many of them and they really knew how to live MTC life. I mean, they were here for over two months! I've been here five weeks and can't wait to leave, I cannot imagine having another three weeks! Finnish is so crazy though, you know in English how if you wanted to go onto a house you could take a sentance about going into a house and just change one word? "He went into the house" becomes "He went onto the house". Pretty simple. In Finnish, every single word gets conjugated based on the extent of action the verb has, literally every word! Like, your name changes when you enter a place, when you leave a place, when you cross through a place, when your on a place, when you go up to a place but don't enter it, you enter a place without a roof, the weather can affect sentances, literally everything makes a change to how every word ends. It's crazy. I'll stick to Swedish, where the hardest rule to understand is that commas can be removed by switching word order of the second phrase, "I wonder what will happen, that is a big plug" becomes "I wonder what will happen is that a big plug".

Other Swedish trivia, Att Döpa means to baptize, and Att Dopa means to be high (on drugs), and Ett Val is a choice, and En Val is a whale. So I may have told an investigator that Jesus wants him to be high. And that we have a being-high-service next saterday. But he must make the Whale to join us.

I actually didn't say that, but I could have.

The hardest thing so far for me to adjust to was when I experienced how much math I forgot. At the bookstore I went to buy something and the total was $4.96 and I wanted to get rid of the maximum about of change I had but I couldn't figure out how to do it so I ended up paying $5 and getting four cents back. If I had paid $5.06 cents I would have traded six pennies for a dime, but I literally had to work that out on a piece of paper in the Res. Life was sad that day. I miss being able to math.

Fun fact of the day: if you connect the reference numbers in Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham in order, then turn it upside down, it makes Abrahams face. Try it, I kid you not.

The Finns left on Monday, but yesterday (Wednesday) we got new Finns. They are pretty cool and all, and there is another Swede going to Finnland in this group. He's from Boden, the furthest north area where everyone wants to go because it's on the Arctic Circle, so he has a nice Norrland accent. As a whole, this group of Finns is not quite as good as the old group of Finns, but they will suffice. I only have to be with them for a total of four days.

Well, my laundry still has 25 minutes until it's dry, so I'm pretty much wasting time. As a missionary that is not good because I'm actually wasting the Lords time, so I'm going to get off now and do something productive.

Älskar er!

Äldste Wilson