Check out my pepper cakes house!

This week was amazing! So many fun things, and a good amount of teaching, it's been great!

For one, Elder Rasmussen and I made pepparkakshus (litterally pepper cakes house, but actually gingerbread house) with a member family! Not going to brag or anything, but it was super good. Like, super good.

Also, this week we had Christmas zone conference, and it was amazing! President Youngberg is a very inspired and dedicated man, he put on a great conference for us! We also got to watch It's A Wonderful Life, then Sister Youngberg read us the book about the Carpenter named Jonny Cloony or something like that, it was super! I almost felt at home with some of my best friends.

Speaking of best friends, for the first time since the MTC (around 15 months ago) I saw one of my MTC comps, Elder Barker! Not only that, but Elder Harden was also there, the tripan was back! AND... Elder Harden has some second cousins in the Handen ward (actually the members I made the pepper cakes house at) and President Youngberg gave us three permission to do a cross-zone splits and run over and visit them before zone conference! Super crazy, all three of us running around Handen and speaking Swedish with cousins, it was unbelievable.

For those of you who haven't read the First Presidency message for December yet, do it now! It's super good, I'd encourage you all to ask yourselves how you're waiting for the coming of Christ.

Love,

Elder Wilson

To all who read this,

Much apologies, but this week is going to be a shorter one! Just know that I'm doing great! It's snowing a bit over here, but not really sticking, I want it to stick more.

This week we did have work overs with the Elders on Gotland, so that was a party! They came here for two days (so I could have a day with each one) and we partied hard. By that, I mean we contacted a ton of people on the streets, taught some great lessons, ate some tasty food at members houses, and made banana bread for district meeting. It's not often Visby is here for district meeting, so you gotta make something special, ya know?

Thought from the Book of Mormon;

Read 2 Nephi 28:20-32 and think "How has the Devil tried to get me?" This section of scripture describes just some of the ways "the devil cheateth [our] souls, and leadeth [us] away carefully down to hell." 

Have a great Saint Lucia day! (Wikipedia can explain better than I, for I do not really know why Sweden celebrates Saint Lucia)

Elder Wilson

Pictures:

Visby work overs!

Our new hair cuts

Those of you who have missed my tongue

I'll have to keep this one short, but I had a great week! It's been full of finding, and some more finding. But we had an apartment check, and it was super cool to see Elder and Sister Bell from Oregon! Also, my previous companion Elder Jackson came over for stake conference. This stake is massive (geographically) an so six other elders had to take a train in and stay the night with us for that. However, we had to leave to go give out Books of Mormon at the Book of Mormon Musical that night they came over. That was funny, we let these six Elder into our apartment while we left the apartment in clean condition, and when we came back at 12:10 all floor space was occupied by sleeping Elders, and all our food had disappeared. And our TP, but I didn't ask about that.

Anyways, here's something quickly from the Book of Mormon. 2 Nephi 22:3: Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Moral of the story, if you're coming unto Christ and it's not joyful then you're doing it wrong. Christ is always joy, and coming to Christ (repentance) is joyful. Repentance has such a negative connotation, or implicit definition, but it shouldn't. The Swedish word is much better I think, omvändelse. Mom just wrote me a bit about this, and Elder Renlund gave a great talk about it a while ago in General Conference, but omvändelse literally means "to turn around". Check out this sentence:
You should stop sinning and repent.

You're driving the wrong way, turn around.

Du bör sluta synda och omvänd dig.

Du kör fel väg, vänd dig om.

Anyways, I have it evil on time and have to go now.

Well, I guess English translations of Swedish phrases don't always work.

Äldste Wilson

ps, Emma Huntington's son Ballard of a Moonchild on Mormonchannel is super good

Beloved family and friends! This week has been a great one, full of much gratitude, bread, butter, and bulgur! I'm in a good mood today, so expect lots of exclamation marks! However, I will also keep this email short! Don't want to take to much time!

Lets see, what happened this week...

For one, I made some banana bread that I was going to take to district meeting to welcome a new Sister to Sweden, and while the bread did make it to district meeting it was unfortunately in a partially digested state in both my and Elder Rasmussens stomachs. I had made two loafs...!!!

Oh well, it was also thanksgiving that day.

Well, may as well make a list of stuff I'm greatfull for!

Agency!
The Book of Mormon!
My body!
A God who still communicates with us through Prophets!

Spell check!

Being a missionary!
Being in Sweden!
Being in Handen!

Crème Fraiche!

All the cool members here in Handen!

10 kronor Baguettes at Willies!

The Plan of Salvation!
A Family who could put up with High School Elder Wilson !

Pepparkakor!

My Companions, past present and future!

And much more! However, I don't have the time to go through them all!

Pictures though! The Bulgur Bowl of the Week is... the pesto feta cheese bowl! Complete with a picture set up similar to that presented by Elder Stevenson in his conference talk this recent session. And, the new district!

Elder Wilson

To start this off, we got transfer calls this week! I will be... Staying with Elder Rasmussen! Yay! This next transfer goes all the way through January, so it'll be staying in Handen for Christmas! That'll be fun, they're lots of great members here. It also means I will have spent 1 consecutive year of my mission in two of Swedens biggest 3 wards. Blessings :)

Well, I'll keep this one shorter though and send lots of pictures. You see, I've been thinking a lot about work and recently found this in 2nd Nephi 5: " And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands." then later in the chapter, "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." If you're not working hard, you're not progressing. If you're not progressing, you cannot be happy. Work hard, be happy. Love the Lord and obey with exactness. Gird up your loins like a man, lengthen your strides.

Have a great week!

Elder Wilson

I've decided to show both teeth from now on in pictures, it just makes you look happier.

This principle in action being demonstrated with two of my mission "daughters", meaning I was their district leader when they first came into the mission. They are both training this transfer, so props to them.

My artwork

And Äldste Rasmussen's art work (shought out to anyone who knows who 9770 is)

Workovers with Visby!

Dearest family and friends! Much happened this week, including the following!

The Elders of Gotland came over and did work overs with us, that was super fun! I was with Elder Strong, he's one of my best friends. This week was Kladdkaka day so you know we made some of that. For those of you who don't know what Kladdkaka is, you're missing out. Think Brownie with so much butter in it that the middle is still like batter when it's done cooking. Not healthy. So this p-day I bought a ton of veggitables to counter that out, and I think it's working well. 

We also trakted an appartment with some super cool art in the stair well, so that was fun. 

Now, I'm a-gunna take some time to talk about prayer. I've been reading the BOM for at least 15 minutes every personal study, and not just reading but really studying. I started after General Conference and just finished 1st Nephi, and if there's one thing I've learned its that the BOM testifies of Christ. I've only read the first book and my testimony/spiritual maturity has increased by a lot. But after finishing 1st Nephi I decided to apply Moroni's promise to each book, so that's what I did. And... nothing spectacular happened. Then the next day (Sunday) we had a Gospel Principles class about prayer and our Ward Mission leader (Father to one of the Finnish Missionaries when I was in the MTC) made this comment about a time he was on his mission with hard companion in a hard area and prayed for help and the answer he received, and while he was talking he invited the Spirit super strongly into the lesson and I though back to that prayer. Then I realized something, I walk around a little place in Sweden and talk to people who mock, tear down, ridicule, and despise me, what I do, what I stand for, and especially what I believe, all day. I've heard every reason why the BOM isn't true, why Joseph Smith was a fraud, why God doesn't exist, you name it and I've heard it. But you know what? That doesn't change the fact that I know God lives and loves us, that He called a Prophet in our time and through this prophet He revealed a new book of Holy Scripture. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know it, and I know that God knows that I know it. That means that when anyone tries to persuade me otherwise the best response is to do all possible to bring the situation somewhere the Spirit can dwell, then if they still reject that so sorrow for them. Then go home and eat Bulgar. That last bit is essential, always eat Bulgar.

Anyways, moral of the story is I'm doing well and am happy. Hejdå!

Äldste Wilson

PS, Hey Mom, aren't you proud of how health I'm eating? It's so green.

I just ate an entire loaf of kanelbulle bread. While drinking chocolate oatly. Not good. But so tasty.

Anyways, this was a really good week. Lots of good hard work was done, so that's always good. Lots of finding, as usual. I did have some interesting dreams, as follows below:

Dream one:

I'm laying in my bed, Elder Rasmussen (my companion) is in his bed, and another elder in the district Elder Strong is on a pad on the ground between us. We're about to start a BYU relaxation on our DVD player (the type of thing where a nice voice helps you imagine a nice beach or something) when a member of my family (who will remain nameless) peaks his head around the door and asks to talk with me. I tell Elder Rasmussen and Elder Strong to go ahead and start the relaxation without me and get up to talk to this male member of my family. As I'm getting up our phone starts to ring, Elder Rasmussen answers it and asks for my help in answering this person but I say "I'll do that later. Just start the relaxation without me."

So then I'm in our clousit with this member of my family and he looks super mad. I still have no idea whats going on. He then says to me "I looked at your planner, and I saw that you planned to call the Sisters tonight for 15 minutes. Whose side are you really on?" Then I woke up super confused, was he mad because 15 minutes is to long? to short? or that because I had planned a time it wasn't genuine? It was a strange dream.

Dream two:
I'm companions with Elder Cluff again, over both Handen and Gubbängen. It's Sunday and we're about to go to church in Handen like we're supposed to when we find out about a sale in Gubbängen by the Gubbängen chapel. So we drive a back-roads rout to this store so that no members see us, and find out the store is a paintball store. As we park a really old car in the parking lot opens up its doors and attached to the doors are paintball Gatling guns, so Elder Cluff and I shoot them for a quick while then head into the shop. The only thing that's actually on sale though is their fidget spinners, so I buy a green-gold super strangely designed spinner for 23 kroner. 

We get in the car again and start to drive to church and I open my spinner but it doesn't work so I get upset with it. Luckily we get a call so the spinner disappeasr and instead I answer to phone. The call is a strange voice that says "You shot my Gatling guns, and that takes money you know! I'll make you pay." then hangs up. We then get to the church and, being a dream, I know it's the Gubbängen church but it look like the Handen church and it's on a hill in Göteborg. We walk in and this Gattling-paintball car in parked in the chappel so when we walk in this guy starts shooting us. Elder Cluff and I run away and are hiding in a classroom when President Youngberg open the door a little bit and pokes his head in and says: "Remember what I said in your interview? You look like a mouse, get a hair cut." Then I woke up. I did not remember President Youngberg saying that in my interview, so I woke up super confused again. That was a strange night. 

If anyone thinks they are a modern-day Joseph or Daniel, I would love to know the interpretation of these dreams.

Anyways, that's about all I got now to write home about. Thank's for reading! The computer is still struggling, so sorry but no pictures!

Elder Wilsonurch and I 

This week has been a total party, especially with the addition of Bob the Role Play Ball. He makes companionship study a lot more entertaining. I'll attach a picture, he's a boss.

Also, sorry for not sending pictures last week, totally forgot to do that. But I'll send more this week.

Anyways though, this week was pretty awesome. Masoud is a man, he's a 4-fold world champion kick boxer. We had a member meal with Familjen Österlund and we got to bring him along so they started talking to him and he showed them his videos, way cool. Youtube Seyyed Masoud Derekeh, the one Irainian that wins those fights and is always smiling is the one that we're teaching. He needs help with his wife though. You see, after winning his world championships the government wanted him to go on TV (he's a celebrity in Iran) and say good things about the government but he refused so they took all his money and sent assassins after him so we came to Sweden for a match and just didn't get on the plane back to Iran. So now he's here in Sweden but his wife is in Iran and recently had a heart attack. The Swedish government is working on getting her here, but it'll take 2-3 months more and it's already been 15 months for them to process Masouds request. Pray that he'll be able to get her here quickly and safely, and that everything will go well with his baptism.

Aside from Masoud being a total boss, we've just had a good week finding and teaching and bringing others to Christ.

Ha det bra!
Elder Wilson

"This guy is such a freaker" - Elder Rasmussen

No really though, my new companion is awesome. He's from Salt Lake and is pretty funny, tall, and has a nice chin. He also has a way of finding strange things, like cars painted like the galaxy.

This week we also had stake conference, Elder Clayton came and is was amazing. Masoud biked the 45 minutes to Gubbängens chapel, and he loved it. Then later that night there was a broad cast from Elder Ballard to Europe, and it was way good. There were some really cool ideas, and Massimo de Feo, Elder Sabin, and Elder Clayton (again) also spoke, it was super good. Elder Ballard shared some super cool stories and had super good spirit.

That's all I got, have a great week!

Elder Wilson

This week we got transfer calls, and Elder Jackson will be leaving me 

However, I will be getting Elder Rasmusson! I've never met him before, but so far he's been described to me as such, "He's super tall" and "He's like a bear". So ya, that should be pretty fun!

I'll still be in Handen, so that's a plus!

Other than that, this week has been pretty normal and awesome. Here's an average week in the life of a Sweden Stockholm Missionary:

Monday; p-day until 6:00 included shopping groceries at Willies, emailing home, and sitting in the church taking a break with the Elders in Vendelsö. I'm in one of four areas in the entire county of Sweden where two wards share a building, the other one is Stockholm ward goes to Täby's building. After 6:00 we contact people for three hours, then end of day.

Tuesday; We had an investigator named Brandon, but he lives in Stockholm. As such, we went in to Stockholm to have a hand-off lesson with him and the Elders in Stockholm. Before and after that was walking around Handen talking to people on the street or calling people who have given us their numbers and trying to meet with them.

Wednesday; We had an African say he'd love to meet up with us, but he didn't come to the lesson. So other than waiting 10 minutes to show up, Elder Jackson and I walked around and talked to people all day. We got 10 peoples numbers, which is pretty dang good.

Thursday; After district meeting we got blåsted [blOw-sted] a few times (investigator didn't come to the lesson) so we did our studies instead, then we walked around and talked to people again! (we do that a lot)

Friday; Today we had three lessons blåst us in the morning/afternoon so we ended up having a lot of time to contact, then at night we had a lesson with a "christian apologist" from Packistan, that was, well, interesting.

Saturday; Another two lessons blåsted us so we contacted, then a member called us and asked if we wanted to go get kebab with him, then we headed into Stockholm and handed out Mormons böcker outside of the musical. 

Sunday; Masoud called and said he couldn't stay for church so we quickly met him at the church and taught him right before church began. After church we had dinner with a super nice family, then went in to Stockholm again to hand out Mormons böcker. 

In all, it was a little annoying with all the people that didn't come to our lessons, but I enjoyed contacting anyways. That's my favorite thing to do nowadays, nothing beats a nice conversation with atheist Swedes or immigrants that can't speak Swedish or English and are Muslim anyways (unless they're a Christian Apologist).

Really though, an amazing week. Masoud's super solid, he said that he wrote a book in Iran about sport food and that it's basically the Word of Wisdom with exercise tips. 

Ha det så bra!

Äldste Wilson

Family,

I love general conference! My favorite talk was Elder Oaks', the Family is super important and it was awesome to hear such a solid defense about the Family. Every talk though was super good, I learned a lot from every one. Even the woman's conference was super good, although I've only read the talks, not watched them. The churches graphics department really stepped up their game though, nice work!

I don't have a whole lot of time now though, so ya! Have a great day!

Elder Wilson

Zone conference! Gotland! Yay!

This week we had zone conference, and it was way good! President and Sister Youngberg talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation, and the moral of their presentation is that the plan is true. Then we had trainings on how to plan the day, and have effective personal and companionship studies. It was super good, and super fun to be with all the other missionaries. The Sweden Stockholm mission is the seventh largest (geographically speaking) mission in the world and there are missionaries in every corner of Sweden, so it's not often we get to meet up. It was super fun to see lots of my friends again, and the trainings were super spiritually uplifting. 

Also we got to go do work overs on Gotland! Gotland is the island in the Baltic Sea, it's a very cool spot. The big city is surrounded by a wall that's almost a thousand years old and super tall and thick, with towers, and there were crazy old churches all over on the inside, and the whole city has cobble stone streets, it was a little hard to tell if we were contacting or had accidentally jumped back 500 years into the Feudal ages. The branch on Gotland only has around 12-15 active members, so it was super awesome to get to know them. One of them gave me this super cool rock that says (in ancient rune-script Swedish) "The old Vikings say: If we had known about Christ, we would have been Mormon Missionaries too!"

We don't have that much time now, have a great day! Masoud is doing great still, keep praying for him!
Elder Wilson

So this guy's pretty cool

So this week has been pretty normal. Lots of good stuff has happened, including splits with Elder Warnick. He also went to Lone Peak so it was fun to talk with him. We actually had math together in 9th grade. If you were to have told 9th grade Elder Wilson that he would meet a (very) drunk Cuban named Farmor Ben (Uncle Ben) on a tunnelbanna in Sweden with his classmate 9th grade Elder Warnick, I don't think he would have believed you. Or he would have thought "That is super specific, you must be right." I guess we'll never know until someone invents time travel.

Also, Elder Jackson and I started teaching a man named Masid, and he's got a cool story. He is a world famous Kick-boxer and has won world championships and has documentaries published about him. He's from Iran and was known for being the "Christian Kick-boxer". The Iranians loved him. So the Government asked him to get on the radio and say that the Government is awesome, but he said no. After that the Government took everything he had, tried to kill him, he fled to Sweden, and now loves meeting his new family Jackson and Wilson. So that's cool! Also, we don't have to worry about teaching him then having other people find out and try to kill him, because that's already happened! Besides, any assassin would have to be really sneaky to catch him off guard, and he would destroy them in any kind of physical battle.

I also found a tattoo parlor that makes me re-think my no-tattoo mentalitet. 

This graffiti describes life as a Sweden Stockholm Missionary.

Hejdå!

Äldste Wilson

The Vasa

Pretty much this week was awesome, but the part that will interest y'all most is the pictures of the Vasa. For those of you who don't know what that is, I'd suggest looking it up, it's way cool. The height of Swedish military.

Other than that, this week was full of lots of work and teaching and motab. Last week we had this one guy just walk into sacrament meeting who needed translation so I translated for him, then after that started talking to him and he really want to be a missionary. So we explained that there's a path to get there, and we would love to help him with that ;) Cool stuff. His name is Saladin, pray for him.

Well, now I'll just attach some of those pictures from the Vasa! Way cool stuff.

Elder Wilson

Swedish History Museum

Family, friends, and others,

Last p-day we went to the Swedish History Museum and it was super cool! I'll attach a lot of pictures. 

Funny story, there is this one person we are teaching who is from Nicaragua (shout out to Elder Gonzalez!) and we were talking about how God is our Heavenly Father and so I asked this man if he's a papa and he says yes then askes if I'm a papa and I say "Nej, men jag har en papa" but the man missed that first part and thought that I'm a dad. Funny story. 

Something that's cool about Sweden is that I get to meet people from everywhere. There are probably more countries of which I've met someone native to it than there are countries I haven't met someone native to it. I've covered almost all of Europe, all of Asia, and most of South America and Africa. So that's pretty neat!

Also, one day I thought to myself "Self? What do you want to study today? Well, Self, I would like to read from a random spot in the Book of Mormon." so I opened up to Alma 11 and read all the way up through 16, super good chapters. Zeezrom was literally doing the same thing as Alma had done, and had the same experience (substitute Angel for Alma) as Alma, and ended up being a missionary like Alma. Moral of the story, the Lord knows each of us personally and sent someone to Zeezrom who would know what Zeezrom was going through. Thus, Alma is also a type of Christ in this story and Christ went though the atonement so as to "[S] suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me." (Alma 7:11-13)

Moral of the story, the scriptures are good. 

I am doing great, still in Handen and having a party with Elder Jackson, have a great week because I know I will,

Elder Wilson