Kära familj,
I can't believe you sold Zorro! I guess it's understandable since I'm not there to ride him. Because you know how much I used to ride him all the time... but I'm glad that he's going to a nice home and that he'll be able to make lots of grandkids happy. In the meantime keep putting me in for a good elk tag! Thanks for warning me about the bad news to come so I could mentally prepare myself for it.
Syster Haynes officially leaves Sweden on Thursday morning and she'll get home Thursday night. It's pretty weird being companions with someone who's going home. We had her funeral in District Meeting on Friday. I wrote her eulogy. She enjoyed it. She leaves Borås Wednesday morning, and then she'll go to Stockholm and all the departing missionaries will go to the temple and then have dinner with the Newells and have interviews and everything. She packed everything this morning and managed to get all her bags at or near the weight limit. I was amazed. She's leaving lots of clothes so I'm basically getting a new wardrobe this week. Can't complain. I'm going to miss Syster Haynes though! We got our transfer call on Saturday night where I found out that my new companion will be Syster Byrd! She was in my MTC district. I've always wanted to be her companion, so I'm SO EXCITED! It's going to be great and everyone here will LOVE her! Syster Haynes has no idea when her homecoming will be. She's asked her family not to tell her any details about after she comes home. But I expect it will be on Mother's Day or the next Sunday. I just realized Mother's Day is only two weeks away! YAY!
Warning, this email might end up short because I'm simultaneously trying to get all of Syster Haynes' pictures copied onto my flash drive. A picture's worth a thousand words, right?
Anyway, this week has been amazing because we've been able to use the excuse of Syster Haynes leaving in order to meet with people. We taught Rida and she's doing really well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon even though the Arabic is a little hard for her to understand. She has a very sincere desire to know the truth which is great. We helped Irma in her garden so we got to do some digging and planting and stuff so that was fun. Then we grilled hotdogs with her for lunch. Best service ever! Right after that we went out to the Murrays for dinner and it was great. They're a super awesome couple in the ward who are basically best friends with all the less actives and trying to help them all come back.
On Thursday we had lunch with the Näsström family and Ulrika. She has a lot of support from the ward so we're really trying to get her to come to church... We also went to the Trejos where Sister Trejos cut my hair. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the crazy thing that happened there! She was cutting my hair and she asked if we ever got in contact with this lady, Maria Teresa, who the previous missionaries taught a few times that was there friend. She's never answered our calls. Sister Trejos said she'd invited Maria over at the same time but she hadn't shown up. Then right as we were sitting down for a message, Maria Teresa walked in! It was crazy and not expected and kind of hard because I was on my own trying to turn our lesson into something for her. By the way, I don't think Syster Byrd speaks spanish...
Saturday we helped clean the church then we taught three people on the street including Mariella who we've been trying to get in contact with for over a month now. Then we taught Masoume and she is so excited to be baptized and she wants to move her baptism up but we have to teach her the commandments first and it's hard because we have to have the translator so she'll understand. Then Saturday night we planned a girls night so we could get our investigators to know some of the YSAs in the ward. But everyone bailed except for Rida and one member. It turned out to be great anyway. We made chocolate balls and I learned an Arabic card game and Rida's great. Rida and Masoume both wanted to come to church yesterday but Rida had migraines and Masoume's daughter had chicken pox. :(
Yesterday was a really awesome day. We had Stake Conference, which was actually held here in Borås and broadcast to other stake centers. (I'm in the Göteborg stake.) So President and Syster Newell were there at the meeting. We called everyone to try and get them to church. The only person who came was Ahmed. He's going to Lebanon (where he's from) for a vacation next week but we convinced him to take his Book of Mormon with him! Right after church and after Syster Haynes said goodbye to people and took pictures with them, we caught a ride with the Baqueros to their house where we had delicious lunch and family home evening with them. It was super fun. I was so proud of them because when I was trying to figure out how to say Family Home Evening in Spanish (noche de hogar?) they all of a sudden got excited and knew exactly what I was talking about and Patricia said "We have to pray first!" They're great. Even though they also asked whether I was going to be performing the baptism tomorrow. So we went over the Restoration and the Authority. (The elders are having a baptism tomorrow, a lady named Margarita from Uruguay. She's adorable.) When we got back to Borås after teaching a guy from Serbia on the bus, we taught Jessica and it went really well too. Everyone's going to miss Syster Haynes.
Please pray for Masoume a lot. She really wants to make her baptismal date on May 31st but we're going to need lots of Divine help to get her prepared, even though she definitely has the desire. Also please pray for Rida. She has to talk to President Newell to see if we can keep teaching her because it might not be safe for her. She doesn't have a residency permit so she could be deported back to Yemen, in which case it probably wouldn't be good for her if she'd been baptized here. I'll let you know how everything goes! Jessica isn't really progressing right now. She still hasn't come to church but she's got so much potential! Mohamed and Hlimah have to find a new apartment and they have a deadline so we haven't been able to meet them at all.
Glad Cody had fun at the dance and Peyton got to play the violin. Sounds like fun! How did Matty's job test thing go in Vegas?
Have a great week everyone! Jag älskar er!
I can't believe you sold Zorro! I guess it's understandable since I'm not there to ride him. Because you know how much I used to ride him all the time... but I'm glad that he's going to a nice home and that he'll be able to make lots of grandkids happy. In the meantime keep putting me in for a good elk tag! Thanks for warning me about the bad news to come so I could mentally prepare myself for it.
Syster Haynes officially leaves Sweden on Thursday morning and she'll get home Thursday night. It's pretty weird being companions with someone who's going home. We had her funeral in District Meeting on Friday. I wrote her eulogy. She enjoyed it. She leaves Borås Wednesday morning, and then she'll go to Stockholm and all the departing missionaries will go to the temple and then have dinner with the Newells and have interviews and everything. She packed everything this morning and managed to get all her bags at or near the weight limit. I was amazed. She's leaving lots of clothes so I'm basically getting a new wardrobe this week. Can't complain. I'm going to miss Syster Haynes though! We got our transfer call on Saturday night where I found out that my new companion will be Syster Byrd! She was in my MTC district. I've always wanted to be her companion, so I'm SO EXCITED! It's going to be great and everyone here will LOVE her! Syster Haynes has no idea when her homecoming will be. She's asked her family not to tell her any details about after she comes home. But I expect it will be on Mother's Day or the next Sunday. I just realized Mother's Day is only two weeks away! YAY!
Warning, this email might end up short because I'm simultaneously trying to get all of Syster Haynes' pictures copied onto my flash drive. A picture's worth a thousand words, right?
Anyway, this week has been amazing because we've been able to use the excuse of Syster Haynes leaving in order to meet with people. We taught Rida and she's doing really well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon even though the Arabic is a little hard for her to understand. She has a very sincere desire to know the truth which is great. We helped Irma in her garden so we got to do some digging and planting and stuff so that was fun. Then we grilled hotdogs with her for lunch. Best service ever! Right after that we went out to the Murrays for dinner and it was great. They're a super awesome couple in the ward who are basically best friends with all the less actives and trying to help them all come back.
On Thursday we had lunch with the Näsström family and Ulrika. She has a lot of support from the ward so we're really trying to get her to come to church... We also went to the Trejos where Sister Trejos cut my hair. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the crazy thing that happened there! She was cutting my hair and she asked if we ever got in contact with this lady, Maria Teresa, who the previous missionaries taught a few times that was there friend. She's never answered our calls. Sister Trejos said she'd invited Maria over at the same time but she hadn't shown up. Then right as we were sitting down for a message, Maria Teresa walked in! It was crazy and not expected and kind of hard because I was on my own trying to turn our lesson into something for her. By the way, I don't think Syster Byrd speaks spanish...
Saturday we helped clean the church then we taught three people on the street including Mariella who we've been trying to get in contact with for over a month now. Then we taught Masoume and she is so excited to be baptized and she wants to move her baptism up but we have to teach her the commandments first and it's hard because we have to have the translator so she'll understand. Then Saturday night we planned a girls night so we could get our investigators to know some of the YSAs in the ward. But everyone bailed except for Rida and one member. It turned out to be great anyway. We made chocolate balls and I learned an Arabic card game and Rida's great. Rida and Masoume both wanted to come to church yesterday but Rida had migraines and Masoume's daughter had chicken pox. :(
Yesterday was a really awesome day. We had Stake Conference, which was actually held here in Borås and broadcast to other stake centers. (I'm in the Göteborg stake.) So President and Syster Newell were there at the meeting. We called everyone to try and get them to church. The only person who came was Ahmed. He's going to Lebanon (where he's from) for a vacation next week but we convinced him to take his Book of Mormon with him! Right after church and after Syster Haynes said goodbye to people and took pictures with them, we caught a ride with the Baqueros to their house where we had delicious lunch and family home evening with them. It was super fun. I was so proud of them because when I was trying to figure out how to say Family Home Evening in Spanish (noche de hogar?) they all of a sudden got excited and knew exactly what I was talking about and Patricia said "We have to pray first!" They're great. Even though they also asked whether I was going to be performing the baptism tomorrow. So we went over the Restoration and the Authority. (The elders are having a baptism tomorrow, a lady named Margarita from Uruguay. She's adorable.) When we got back to Borås after teaching a guy from Serbia on the bus, we taught Jessica and it went really well too. Everyone's going to miss Syster Haynes.
Please pray for Masoume a lot. She really wants to make her baptismal date on May 31st but we're going to need lots of Divine help to get her prepared, even though she definitely has the desire. Also please pray for Rida. She has to talk to President Newell to see if we can keep teaching her because it might not be safe for her. She doesn't have a residency permit so she could be deported back to Yemen, in which case it probably wouldn't be good for her if she'd been baptized here. I'll let you know how everything goes! Jessica isn't really progressing right now. She still hasn't come to church but she's got so much potential! Mohamed and Hlimah have to find a new apartment and they have a deadline so we haven't been able to meet them at all.
Glad Cody had fun at the dance and Peyton got to play the violin. Sounds like fun! How did Matty's job test thing go in Vegas?
Have a great week everyone! Jag älskar er!
Love, Delaney
The Trejos children
Planes made by Bro. Murray (to show Uncle Fred)
The Baqueros
