4 of 114 Print all In new window Hejdå, President Beckstrand!

Kära Familj, vänner, och kompisar!

This week was a little strange, we had spits with two companionship and zone conference so in all we had four days of missionary work in which I was not with my companion, so that was interesting. But the zone conference was our presidents last conference, so that was a little sad. President and Sister Beckstrand have most definitely been the best mission president and wife to have ever served ever. Honestly though, they have been a perfect example to me about leadership, testimony, love, work, you name a Christlike attribute and they exemplify it. I am very grateful for everything they have done, and being mission president over Sweden entails a lot more than it does in most other places, President and Sister Beckstrand are literally the best. 

But in zone conference we had four main topics of discussion, how to liken the scriptures unto ourselves, how to work with members, the importance of the temple, and the importance of finishing. Basically, do those four things when you can. The Beckstrands actually gave the presentation they give to missionaries going home, so I'll have to wait a bit before fulfilling some of the promised they committed us to, but the principles they taught are super, super awesome. Also the Assistants are awesome, one of them actually comes from Highland and went to LP and has actually been to our house before, Elder Jensen. He's going home in a week, so that's pretty awesome. He is one of the coolest persons ever. But they are the ones that talked about likening the scrptures unto ourselves and how to work with members, it was awesome. We went through Mark 5 together and talked a lot about how we can apply it to missionary work and it helped me understand better how to do personal study for myself.

Also, a cool story is when I was on splits with Äldste Murtonen (he's Finnish, man got susi) we were out contacting (as normal) talking to an atheist Swede (as normal) when a mid-30 year old Swedish lady walks up to us and asks if we believe in the Bible, because she does. So then we started talking about it and she starts giving her interpretations of the Bible and checking if we agree with them, and the kind of stuff she was asking about was like: "Based upon my study of the bible, I think we are supposed to worship God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, a separate and distinct being" and "I think that the bible points to there being an apostasy of the church after Jesus and his apostles died" and stuff like that. So that was pretty awesome. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and got her email, so that should be good. 

Now lots of pictures! Yay!

2625: We were walking to the tram the other day and found this, literally four slugs teamed up on a snail and crushed its shell and started eating it. Poor guy. 

 

 

2705: and with every zone conference comes the group picture! Those are the missionaries in the MTC with me that are currently serving in Malmö or Göteborg zones.

2709: Crazy President and Sister Beckstrand

2711: They are just the absolute best.

3174 3178: Mission leadership really is just a big pyramid, ya know?

2738: Studying his zone conference notes the next day really inspired Elder Harrell 

A good week, som vanligt

En gång till hade vi en mycket bra vecka. Ingenting nytt eller stor hänt, bara missioners verk som vanligt. 

In other words, nothing to exiting this week. Just good old missionary work as expected. 

Last pday we played ultimate frisbee and climbed a mountain so that was fun, and I showed off my amazing sloth-impersonation so that was great. I could have hung there for days, it was so easy.

Also Göteborg has the largest half marathon in the world and that was this week, so that was pretty cool. We were in the center in stan when the people first started running by, literally the first 10 people were from Africa and the first Swede to run by was literally 5 minutes later than the people in first. I think the fastest runner this year ran the half marathon in just over an hour, but I know that the world record for the fastest marathon was set here a few years ago at 58 minutes or something like that, so that's pretty crazy. I cannot run that fast.

Other then that, I guess I could take some time to talk about goals. You see, setting goals is very important, but even more so is developing the habits necessary to obtain them. As a missionary we set lots of numerical goals, but we also have time every night to reflect upon the day and upon our personal goals. These nightly reflections (Which I take when writing in my journal) are great ways to make sure we are always striving to become better, and from these moments we can evaluate our efforts to accomplish the goals we have set and adjust plans accordingly. So that's a fun fact of the day.

Sweden loves tubed food and it is getting way way way to hot for pants.

Well, I feel as though it was just yesterday

Family, it's been a long time. Not. I'll keep this one short because we have just talked, but I'll send in some pictures.

This week was good, lots of work, som vanligt. 

Now for the pictures!

2564: the new mission cars

2583: The view out of the apartment I was skyping out of

Well, that's about it. Love ya!

Äldste Wilson

ps. when dad asked me to bear my testimony in Swedish I said "I agree with what sister Smith said about the BOM, and I could say whatever now, so I'll talk about my favorite cheese" so then I talked about my favorite cheese a bit, said some more stuff about the BOM, then closed. He he, it'll be fun once I'm back home with my mission buddies and literally no one understands what we're saying :)

An experience I won't forget, that's for sure.

So some super awesome stuff happened this week.

1: There's this old-er crazy drunk that we run into fairly often on the spårvagn who is super funny. He shows us pictures that he takes from his apartment of the sky and tries to sell them to us because there are weird animals and shapes in the clouds. He also keeps a pair of nunchuks in his jackets inside pocket because the thinks the government is out to get him (and, as the Swedish government, it really is, just not the way he's thinking), so one day we get in the front of the spårvagn and he's sitting in the back and we see him and give him a wave and all that good stuff, then he gets off at the next stop, runs up to our window, taps on it, pulls out his nunckuks and starts waving them all over the place. It was super funny, this older Swede making the funniest face imaginable, just going to town on the air infront of his face. He's ends up hitting himself in the face, pretty hard, but kept on going at it until the spårvagn left, at which point he grabbed the other end, clapped the two ends together, and made a (what was supposed to be) intimidating gesture to us. It was hilarious. Love the guy.

2: We also tracked an island this week, so that was special! Turns out, kebab on islands is better than most kebab. Also turns out that people that live on islands are not big fans of religion. Also turns out that a while back some missionaries tracked that island but didn't keep a tracking record of it. But it was a cool experience, and we did help some people out, and did eat some really good kebab. 

3: We had this one baptism with an older lady named Ann-Charlott, and it turns out that she can't hold her breath! So I'm the one baptizing her and we do it the first time like a normal baptism, but she goes under the water, freaks out, and her foot comes up. I pick her back up (I didn't see the foot, so I think it's all good) and she's crying, hugs me, gets out of the fount and falls on the sisters, and I'm all like "Wow, she's so happy" but then I realize that it's not a happy cry, and she's not hugging the sisters but they're carrying her back into the bathroom. Turns out, she has never held her breath before, so she just kept on breathing like normal under the water, got a bunch of water in her lungs, had a panic attack and an asthma attack, and was pretty distraught. So there she was, crying in the bathroom while I'm standing in the fount because she has to get baptized again because of the foot thing, and the sisters and a member are trying to get her to go back and actually get baptized. 10 minutes later she comes back and we spend a long time where she's just trying to dunk herself while I'm holder her but it's just not happening. Eventually my companion puts on some white cloths and comes on in, and he starts trying to teach her how to hold her breath (she kept saying if she goes under water she'll get water in her mouth, didn't get that you can close your mouth under water. Also didn't get that you can breath in, wait, then breath out). Eventually we end up with Elder Harrell (Who was actually a serf-teacher in high school) holding her suspended in the water under the legs and lower back (when Princess Buttercup jumps into Andre the Giants arms at the end of The Princess Bride) while I'm holding her hand and upper back, and together we baptize her. Once again though, she breaths in water, panics, kicks, and a foot comes out. So she gets out of the fount again, talks to the sisters again, and comes back in for a third time. So this time we try the same pose, but instead of doing a normal squat next to her I'm squatting on my right leg, and reaching across her feet with the left leg so they don't fly out. If I were to make this pose without holding a person I'd look like a ninja. Anyways, after some more time teacher her how to hold her breath ("Breath in, hold it, no, ugh. You didn't wait again. You have to breath in then not breath out, like this *example of holding your breath* OK. You try again" x a number very, very high) and agreeing to just go straight down we baptized her again, but as we pushed her down she hit the bottom and the top of her head was still two inches above the water, but as Elder Harrell and I awkwardly squatted there praying hard, a tiny wave of water came and barely covered her head, but cover her head it did! So we both ripped her out of the water, she stood up, and was 100% OK, said it felt good, thanked us for helping her get baptized, and walked out of the fount no problem. In total, Elder Harrell was in the font for an hour, and I was in the font for an hour and a half. That is a very long time. And the thing is, we had taught her that we baptize by immersion, and had gone through several practice baptisms before with her and all she said was "I'm not a very good swimmer", I just don't think that she understood that going underwater means not breathing in because she's literally never in her 57 years of life not been breathing in or out. Very strange, and definitely an experience never to be forgotten. I was squatting for well over an hour. My thighs are now almost as good as my calves, they are definitely one area of me that has grown. 

Picture time!

No explanations,

Those long-awaited pictures :)

Well, I'll make this short and send a lot of pictures. My new companion, Elder Harrell, loves pictures so there's a lot of 'em, and we had Valborg so that was a party.

2402: Elder Harrell ate eight hamburgers and a large fry because he wanted to

2440: they sell double-stuffed oreos in Sweden

2432: Elder Harrell is all about the pictures, I am not

2464: Like, minecraft is based off of Swedish geography, so this scene brought back memories

2448: More of Elder Harrell loving pictures

2454: More of me not loving pictures and trying to take the iPhone back so he would stop doing so, but in so doing looking like the happiest fella in the entire world

2459: And once again, Elder Harrell loves pictures

2461: while I still do not

2469-2494: Then this Sunday was Valborg so we got a p-day type thing that night and spent it with the sisters going around Göteborg and touring the churches, then making our own Valborg fire to burn away winter​​

Well, love ya!

Frid, Kärlek, och tempeläktenskap!

Äldste Wilson