May 26, 2014

Kära familj,

I can't believe it, Matty's married! Well I guess I can believe it because there's pictures. Thanks for sending pictures! It looks like everything turned out beautiful. I'm glad I could be in at least a few pictures. Matty looks really happy. I think Taryn looks happy too but you didn't send any real pictures of her. It also looks like you had fun in Vegas. It looks like a great weekend in general. I can't wait to hear all the details!

Monday turned out to be a great birthday. We ate cake and played with balloons. The weather was beautiful. Until at about 5:00 it started pouring rain. But we were already inside with our groceries and everything so it was fine. I didn't get your package until Tuesday, but I love the necklace and the CTR ring! I wore my new necklace to sisters training on Thursday and a lot of people commented on it. Also when we were folding laundry this morning Syster Byrd picked up one of the wonder tees and said "This must be your new one, it's still white!" Thank you for sending it all!

Monday night we taught Sajjad, that guy that came to church last week. He's pretty Muslim and invited us to read the Koran. But he said he'll give the Book of Mormon a shot. We haven't been able to get in touch with him since then. After that we taught Rida. She had a lot of questions about really little things but she was really mad about something and kept shooting these questions at us and not letting us say anything. It was so frustrating. We're not exactly sure what her actual concern is because we couldn't get past why the Book of Mormon wasn't originally written in Arabic or Hebrew.

Tuesday we gave a woman named Maria a tour of the church. She lives across the street from the church so she saw it go through remodeling and wanted to see how it turned out. It actually turned out really well. (The tour, not the remodel. Well, that turned out well too.) She said maybe she and her boyfriend will come to church sometime. It shouldn't be too much of a hassle to get them there since they live right across the street.

On Wednesday we taught Daniel (who likes to speak English) and he brought a friend with him! He looked so happy and proud the whole time we were talking to his friend. The Spirit works in mysterious ways, but I've definitely seen it influencing him. Slowly but surely. After that we got divine help in making a delicious potato soup in 45 minutes to take to Anna. She's going through tough times so we asked if we could bring her dinner. It made her day and she brightened up so much! And we got to teach her and she's super positive just hard to meet with. It was a miracle.

Thursday we had a sisters training meeting. It's basically like a zone conference only for sisters. They basically talked about how to stay strong the rest of our lives. I don't know if other missions even have sister trainings, but I think Syster Newell has decided that as long as we're here on missions, we're going to get the best life training possible. I love sister trainings. It was all the sisters in the South of Sweden, so I got to see Syster Sjöblom again! For possibly the last time before she goes home in July. (By the way, her farewell will be the Sunday right after she gets home, so July 27th or something. In case you're wondering.) We came home and we'd planned to go by a less active way out in the boonies but we missed our train, so we taught a girl on the street and then we went to some closer boonies to drop by a different less active.

On Friday we tried to get some family history help from Irma. Unfortunately our Danish ancestry got her a little stumped, but she promised she'll find out how to find people in Denmark and get back to me. Then we taught Ulrika an dhad dinner with the Engelbrektssons, a super awesome family in the ward.

We finally got to teach Masoume again on Saturday. It's been almost two weeks since we taught her. We found out that she wouldn't let us come over because of some trouble she'd been having with her boyfriend... She's still drinking coffee and smoking so she won't be baptized this weekend. But she still likes us and she's still reading the Book of Mormon. She's going slowly but surely forward.

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in Sweden. Dad, the primary kids DID sing "I Often Go Walking!" I was so excited when they started singing it. In Swedish it's called something like "I Pick Flowers." It was really cute. The Borås ward actually has a pretty big primary, about 25 kids or so. Masoume didn't come to church, but we did have an investigator there! There's this part member family we've been trying to work with, but the kids have been pretty uninterested every time we've been over there. But yesterday one of them was in church! He got up that morning and told his mom he was coming to church for Mother's Day! The YSAs were really good at talking to him and he even commented in Sunday School a few times. After church we were invited to dinner with a great family. Two of their kids are getting married this summer. They were sad that I missed Matt's wedding. Then they asked if we were going to go by this less active member who lives by them. We didn't know there was one, but they have good contact with her so the mom came with us and we met her and it went super well! I don't know why we haven't heard of her before but it was the perfect first contact to work on getting her back to church.

It's been super hot this week. In the 80's and sunny. And we've had to start using the curtains on our window because it doesn't get dark at night anymore. The curtains are lined with blankets to block out the sun. Summer is going to be so great!

I hope you all have an amazing week! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

Princess Tarta (Traditional Swedish birthday cake)

Like shortcake with jam between the layers and lots of whipped cream and vanilla sauce, topped with green sugar paste [like fondant only better].  She doesn't know why, but it's always green.

Birthday balloons

 

May 19, 2014

Käre Familj,

Thank you for the birthday wishes! It's still early but it's already been a great birthday! The sun is even out even though it was supposed to be rainy. And we got a call from an investigator (Maggie) who's been really hard to get in contact with, and then we ran into another one (Anna) and set up an appointment with her during the week. Also for morning exercise today we danced! I taught Syster Byrd one of the Israeli folk dances we learned last year. Best morning exercise ever! Especially because Syster Byrd is a dancer (she graduated from BYU in dance) so she really enjoys it too. And now I'm here emailing you! So it's great! I'm really lucky I get to have my one Birthday-In-The-Field on P-Day! Later today we're going to go to Jensens Böfhus for lunch because apparently they have really good steak, and we're going to get a princess tårta (birthday cake) and eat it with the elders and Sima. That's about all we've got for big plans but it's going to be great! And Peyton's getting her braces off, so it's everything I wished for!

The best thing that happened this week was Sima's baptism. She has a really cool story. About five weeks ago she met Oskar, a recently returned missionary, and they went to Subway together. The elders bumped into them there and invited Sima to learn more. She was positive right from the start and she's grown so much in her faith!! I met her the first day the elders taught her (the day after they met her at Subway) and we all got ice cream together because it was half off. So I knew right from the start that she was awesome. She also came with us to those islands in Göteborg last month. And she was at general conference with us and Margarita's baptism. She got baptized Saturday night. In order to help her calm her nerves we took her to dinner right before her baptism and went with her to the church. It was a really great program. Oskar gave a talk about baptism, then Äldste Mangum baptized her in the hole in the Relief Society room floor. The Spirit was really strong. Then I got to play a musical number on a violin that I borrowed from a member. (Sima recorded it and promised to email it to me but she hasn't yet. I'll forward it to you next week.) Last week I found out that Sima loves the violin, and then about five minutes later a member told me if I ever wanted to borrow her violin to play I could. It worked out perfectly. Sima had four friends who came to support her as well, and a couple of them were a little interested. She's already best friends with all the YSAs in the ward. I hardly got a chance to talk to her because everyone else was talking to her. She had a game night at her house afterward and three of the YSAs went along with her friends, which is super great. There were 48 people there! She was confirmed yesterday morning and the circle was huge because she's made so many friends in the ward.

We had one VIP in church yesterday. His name is Sajjad, and he's from Afghanistan. We met him on Wednesday when we stopped him on the street and started talking to him about church. He didn't have much time so we invited him to come to church with us on Sunday. So we called him on Saturday and he actually came yesterday! The elders said he had just a huge smile on his face during all of Elders Quorum, and he really liked the YSA sunday school class as well. And I think he liked sacrament meeting. He thought it was cool that I was playing the violin for it. Yesterday was the Young Men's program so all five of the young men spoke, and the young men's president. They talked all about the Aaronic Priesthood, which I'm sure was really confusing for Sajjad because we hadn't even taught him anything yet. But it turned out he knew one of the priests from school, so it was cool that his friend was speaking in church.

About all the rest of our investigators you asked about, I have no idea. We haven't been able to teach a single one of our investigators this week. They all kind of dropped off the face of the planet. We didn't even get a chance to teach Masoume. When we got ahold of her she said she was too sad to meet. I tried to ask why but I don't know enough (aka any) Persian. Then on Saturday she went to Göteborg. She told us she'd come to church but she didn't and she hasn't answered her phone. Jessica hasn't answered her phone, one Daniel forgot and the other one spent the whole day with his dad when we were going to meet him. Haven't heard from Mohamed and Hlimah. Rida was sick when we were going to meet with her, but we did see her on Friday night. The elders put together a barbecue so people could invite their friends. It turned out really well, with about 50-50 members and nonmembers. We brought Rida and Lamech. Lamech had a great time and he played a lot of football (soccer). Rida also had fun. She told us she loves how happy everyone is and how welcoming and inclusive they are. We're going to teach her tonight as well and see why she said she doesn't want to be taught anymore...

So you're probably wondering, if we didn't teach any of our investigators this week, what did we do? Sometimes I wonder that as well but then I look back on the days and weeks and realize how many miracles there were and how many great things happened regardless of the number of appointments that cancel. Like on Tuesday, we had 6 appointments set up. Two of those appointment actually happened, but we also got to teach two more people as well. The first was a woman named Bita who we met on the street. She's been visiting a lot of different churches lately and she was really excited to hear that we have the Book of Mormon in Persian. We haven't been able to give it to her though because she hasn't answered her phone.

I just realized the whole week has been full of birthdays. Tuesday was Annika's birthday, one of the members we've been working a lot with. So we brought by some banana muffins for her birthday. It was perfect. Then Wednesday was Lamech's birthday! We also gave him banana muffins. He shared what he's learned recently from the scriptures, that we have to build on a strong foundation. He's awesome. He wants to come to general conference and visit the Salt Lake temple.

On Friday we had pretty much nothing. So we prayed a lot, and we decided we'd find the prepared in Hestra, where the church is. So we went searching. We ran into this guy named Joakim. I recognized him because a couple months ago I was sitting on the bus and I saw him and had the strongest impression to talk to him. So I did and he wasn't interested. When we saw him again today, he still wasn't interested but he said we could sit down with him and tell him about it anyway. Then his mom came up and we taught both of them. They still aren't interested. But his mom had a change of heart halfway through, and I can see them coming in the future. It's interesting to see how the Lord prepares people little by little and every good contact with the church is a step in the right direction.

I can't believe the wedding is actually here! I'm expecting lots of pictures and details about how everything goes! Matty and Taryn, congratulations (in advance)! We got a call from Syster Sjöblom last night and the first thing she said was "Your brother's getting married on Saturday!" So congratulations from her too.

Good job running the marathon. Even three legged turtles are better marathoners than I am. I should probably start training for the tjejmilen-that 10K we ran last September. I think the sisters are going to do it again, and who knows, I might be back in Stockholm by then. Tell Cody good job on the piano and I'm excited to hear him play all the songs from Frozen, but not until after I've seen the movie. And good job Peyton on being a great babysitter.

Where did Rick Hellstrom and Harold Adams serve on their missions? Funny story, I was actually thinking about Brother Hellstrom once because I was trying to think of people I knew before the mission who have Swedish last names. I didn't realize at the time that he served his mission here.

Well, we're going to go have my birthday lunch now! I realized I didn't really tell you about many miracles, but they're all pretty hard to explain because they have a lot of background story and then they still hardly even make sense to me, and I was there for them. Thank you for your support and all your prayers-they make a difference! Keep praying for Masoume and all the rest! I hope you have a wonderful week!! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

(No longer one of those 19-year-old missionaries!)

 

Tried Chawarma for the first time.

 (Lebanese fast food. Tony Stark mentions it at the end of the Avengers.

So we had to try it. It's delicious!)

Look at the faith of Borås!

For Matty at his wedding. 

 Sima's Baptism!

 I found the new Zorro

 

 

 

May 12, 2014

Kära Familj,

Mother's Day went by too fast! Skyping was my favorite part of the day yesterday as well, even though church was really good too. I feel bad that you guys had to skip your sacrament meeting to talk to me though! Were all the missionary moms in our ward happy that they got to talk to their missionaries as well? We were having a fun time imagining all the moms talking to each other about their phone calls and how great they went. I forgot to ask what mom got for Mother's Day! Besides getting to talk to me of course. :) Syster Byrd and I made waffles yesterday morning to celebrate. They were yummy. I put peanut butter and raspberries on mine. And whipped cream, but it was sour so I scraped it off.

It's always weird to email right after Skyping, but I didn't really tell you anything that happened to me during the week. What did we even talk about? It's just awesome and a little weird to be able to actually have a conversation with you in real life! But this week has been amazing and full of miracles! Like always. Our shopping spree on Monday was really fun. Geckås was like cosco sized with a little bit of everything. We all had some great finds. Then we ate dinner with the Tolleys at their hotel-we had smoked salmon and potatoes. I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about smoked salmon. It's not my favorite but I like it. I know I wouldn't have liked it before my mission though!

On Tuesday we taught these students who were doing a school project on Mormons. They actually had some really good questions and it was fun to sit down and answer all their questions. At the end one of them even took a Book of Mormon! But we weren't able to get his phone number, so we were a little disappointed, but it was still really cool. We could see that the Spirit touched him while we were answering their questions, even though his friends were a little more hard-hearted and seemed more skeptical. That night was when we did yoga and we were late but we got our favorite bus driver who got us to our bus in time. We were in such a hurry because we were planning on teaching Rida before yoga but then she didn't even show up until yoga started so we didn't need to worry the bus driver so much. It was a cool little miracle anyway though. We taught Rida after yoga instead. She has a sincere desire to know the truth but I don't know if it's sincere enough to read the Book of Mormon. A couple days ago she actually told us she doesn't think she needs any more lessons right now...but then she set up a time to meet us tomorrow at the church, so we'll see what the real situation is.

Wednesday was all miracles, all day. First, it was Syster Byrd's birthday, so there was just an excited energy all day. We went to Jönköping (pronounced yun-shupping) for district meeting and it was really good, and we had really yummy lunch and cookies there as well. We took the bus back and we all got off at the hospital. As the bus was driving away I checked my pocket and realized that I didn't have the phone. So the elders called it and there was no ring and no answer. It was on the bus! Luckily we have the "Finding Friends" app on the iPhones and we're friends with the elders, so we were all able to track our phone to the bus garage together. We walked up to the bus right as the bus driver came out with our iPhone in hand. It was a miracle. Luckily but unluckily none of us had anything to do for that hour so we were able to fetch our phone without too much worry. The bus garage is right next to this exotic bird sanctuary so we took a quick look at the birds for Syster Byrd's birthday. Then we got bloasted for the rest of our appointments for the next three hours as well as our backup plans. So we said a prayer. After we prayed, the name Daniel came into my mind. So we called our investigator named Daniel (Daniel 18), who set up an appointment with us for an hour and a half later. We made our way to Södra Torget to try contacting in a different area of town than usual, Kristineberg, which led us to one of the bus stops that we don't usually take. At that bus stop, a guy who we contacted a few months ago waved us down to talk. We ended up sitting down with him and teaching him the Restoration, and he became a new investigator. His name is also Daniel (Daniel Ski). We were guided by the Spirit in order to be able to teach both Daniels, and we had very powerful, spiritual lessons with both of them. Then we went and taught Masoume. Well, Mojgan taught Masoume and we listened and prayed. I think it went well. After that we got Thai food for Syster Byrd's birthday. Yummy!

We taught Ulrika on Thursday. She's doing really well. We made a goal with her to come to church on June first. Instead of a baptismal date, a come-to-Sacrament-Meeting date. Later on Thursday we got to teach Lamech! I haven't seen him since the end of April because he was on his trip in Africa. He had a good time. It was so great to be able to teach him again. I've missed his faith. It's so cool how new converts do more to strengthen us than we can do to strengthen them.

Friday we went out to the Baqueros and helped them start making their family tree on FamilySearch. My Spanish skills continue to be tested all the time. Now I can explain family history in Spanish. Syster Byrd said the closing prayer in Spanish! The gift of tongues is real! Then we taught Masoume again. It was an amazing lesson! She said she has no doubts about anything that we've taught her, and she knows it's all true and that the Book of Mormon is true! We asked her if there's anything we can do to help her quit smoking and drinking coffee and she said she knows she's addicted but she has to do it by herself or else it won't really work. I just wish there was some way we could help her. We're praying  A LOT for her!

Saturday was kind of like Wednesday. Everything fell through for a few hours including our backup plans. So we did the same thing and said a prayer, and prayed that we would find someone who needed our message right then. We were walking down the street when a woman who I've contacted before waved at us. We asked how she was doing and she said, "Bad. My friend died today." So we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. After we prayed with her she was very thankful and you could tell that the Spirit had touched her heart. Our prayer was answered-she needed us right then.

And yesterday was really good. Of course, it was Sunday and it was Mother's Day! I translated Sacrament Meeting into English for Lamech, which was much easier than Spanish. There were still a few times when I just had no idea though. Especially when they were reading out of the Bible. I did not expect to need scripture mastery for that purpose! We waited after church in agony for the bishop and his wife to come pick us and their daughter (Rebecka, the one you met) up and bring us home. They went to Trollhättan's ward conference instead of our ward. Then they wouldn't let us skype on an empty stomach so we had to eat a taco before we could skype. It was a good taco but I ate it really fast so I could talk to you! It went well last night with Mohammed and Hlimah but they need to read the book of Mormon!

Anyway, I'm out of time. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Jag älskar er!

Love Delaney

Delaney and Syster Byrd with flowers in the background.

They decided Borås is basically Disneyland

because of all the beautiful flowers everywhere.

 

May 5, 2014

Kära familj,

Happy Almost Mothers Day!  I'm excited to talk to you! Honestly the plans are not quite set in stone yet, but here's as much as I know. We'll be Skyping from Bishop Lundahl's house. We have a dinner right after church but they feed us at the church so we're going to try and keep it quick so we can get to Bishop's as soon as possible. The Elders skyped there for Christmas and said that they have plenty of computers for both of us to skype at the same time. They'll also be skyping their son who's in Salt Lake on his mission. Hopefully they have enough internet for that all to work out. I believe it should be fine. I wish I could tell you exactly which time we'll be able to be there. We're going to plan to be there by 16:00 here (8 AM Utah time) but the busses don't run so often on Sundays so I think it's more likely that we'll be there at 16:30. What time do you start church?  Should I just plan on calling Matty's skype account again? Sorry I can't be more specific but I guess just stay logged in to Skype all morning until I can call. I would say I'll send another email later this week to confirm that but really it depends on us getting out of dinner and catching our bus so I won't know until Sunday. But if anything changes from that I'll let you know! I hope I don't make you late for church...

I love Syster Byrd! She's from St George, and she graduated from BYU the winter before we went to the MTC. She majored in dance. But she doesn't know any of my folk dance friends because she did contemporary. She turns 25 on Wednesday, so we're going to have a birthday party in district meeting. Then since my birthday is on P-Day we're going to do something for both of our birthdays then. It will definitely include ice cream. I don't think she has any history of hunting. She doesn't speak Spanish but she's really good at Swedish. We would always chat together in Swedish in the MTC. She also likes to cook, thank goodness. We've already made some delicious enchiladas and pizza together since we got together on Wednesday. We've planned to make taco soup and tuna casserole this week. It's going to be the best!

So this week has been crazy! We had so much to do! On Monday we were basically just running everywhere to try and get everything done that we had to do. Syster Haynes had to pack, we had to make eclairs, and then we caught a train to Fritsla to do service and have dinner and our meeting with our ward mission leader. Then Tuesday was even crazier. We visited Ulrika, set up the font, did last-minute family history with Irma so Syster Haynes knows what she's doing on her own, made chocolate balls for the baptism, had fika with May, then went to the baptism. Margarita was really excited and it was a great service! Syster Haynes was actually the first one to contact Margarita, about a month and a half ago. Her mother and daughter were both baptized in Uruguay but have since passed away, so Margarita knew a little about the church. She was interested in meeting and gave Syster Haynes her phone number, but she said "Don't call until next week, because it's my birthday this week." Between that and when we planned to call her, she saw the elders walking through her neighborhood, and called out to them that she wanted a Book of Mormon and wanted to learn about the church. So they started teaching her. It was perfect because she actually lives in their area so we didn't have to try and figure out who should have taught her. Äldste Mangum did her baptism in Spanish and she was confirmed yesterday by Brother Trejos, also in Spanish. She's the sweetest little lady! We got home at 9:30 and still had a lot to do with packing, cleaning, and updating the area book.

Wednesday felt very long, because we got up at 4:30 AM. We had to catch the bus from central station by 7:00 and we didn't know how long it would take to get all of Syster Haynes' luggage down the five flights of stairs, onto the bus, and from Södra Torget to central station. We made it in plenty of time and actually ended up taking the bus from Borås at 6:25. Syster Haynes got on her train to Stockholm at 8:00. Syster Byrd and Syster Randall met us there and I stuck with them for the next few hours. We went back to their apartment on the outskirts of Göteborg where I made pancakes while they did their own packing and cleaning. It was really nice that Syster Byrd didn't have to transfer too far. We came back to the station to pick up Syster La Fontaine (also from my group) who is now companions with Syster Randall in Göteborg, then Syster Byrd and I got on the bus back to Borås. The whole day I was dreading getting her suitcases up the stairs to our apartment, but it ended up not being too bad. We went and dropped by Masoume so she got to meet Syster Byrd. Then we taught this guy named Steven who tried to teach us and wouldn't listen to anything we said. He didn't like that we had rules and couldn't come into his house. SKETCHY! Wednesday was a holiday called Valborgs Afton, where they welcome in the Spring. It's basically another excuse to drink, so we weren't supposed to be proselyting past 5:30. We went to a barbecue with the Ågrens, the bishop, the stake president, the ward mission leader, and the elders. Äldste Roosendaal transferred to Vendelsö, and our new elder here is Äldste Sandquist from Riverton! We know all the same people and he even knew Rich and I knew his girlfriend, but we've never met each other. The Swedes thought that was outrageous because in Sweden, if there's another member in your school, you know them. It was a really yummy dinner with really yummy kladkaka.

Thursday we had a cool miracle happen. We had a random awkward hour of time before our bus to the Baqueros so we planned to contact and teach someone at Södra Torget. We were standing on the sidewalk talking to each other there when this guy came up and just started talking to us. He was Christian and really interested in knowing more, so we sat down and taught him about the Book of Mormon. It was great and he committed to come to church! (More on that later.) The Baqueros are doing really well and it was fun to go out there and visit them again. They need the strengthening.

Friday we taught our three most positive investigators. First we taught Rida and she's still doing awesome. She watched Finding Faith in Christ and she loved all the miracles that Christ does. She's still working on developing faith that He's the Son of God. But everytime she talks about it she says "I don't believe in that yet." I love that she always says "yet!" She even said the closing prayer with us, which was a big step! After Rida we taught Daniel who likes to speak English. He's doing really well also and he'd even prayed since we last met with him! He said he might come to church sometime as long as he can bring a friend with him. We were happy to oblige. Then after that we taught Masoume again, with Mojgan on the phone to translate. We taught the word of wisdom. It was a little rough-she smokes a lot and drinks a lot of coffee-but luckily Mojgan was in the exact same situation before she got baptized, so she's perfect to help understand the blessings that come of it! Masoume said she wants to stop and she's going to try but it will take some time. PRAY FOR HER! She still wants to be baptized on May 31st if she's ready by then. It will take a lot of faith and prayers, but she can be ready.

Saturday we taught Jessica. She's doing well but she's pretty stubborn. Basically she said she'll come to church someday, but she has to wake up on Sunday morning and feel like going to church.

And Sunday. We were THIS CLOSE to having investigators in Sacrament meeting. It was ridiculous! Kam, the guy we taught at Södra Torget, actually showed up Sunday morning to take the bus with us. We rode the bus together and were walking to the church when he got a phone call and had to go because his friend was in the hospital. LAME! So we'll hopefully get him all the way in next Sunday. Masoume also came to church for Relief Society and Sunday School, but then she had to go home and take care of Helia because she was up to no good. So she left right before Sacrament Meeting. DOUBLE LAME! Rida couldn't come because she has this new job that she had to study for or something. And Jessica didn't wake up feeling like comeing to church. But it was a great meeting anyway. We taught Masoume again last night and Mojgan talked to her a lot then said "Sisters, I think this would be a really good time to teach the Law of Chastity." I think Masoume had just had a fight with her boyfriend so the Law of Chastity was even more powerful right then. It was scary to teach it without any preparation or even a pamphlet, but Mojgan did most of the teaching. At least I think they were talking about chastity. I don't know Persian. Masoume asked if there are any more commandments. Once we get past tithing we'll be home free. Again, PLEASE PRAY FOR MASOUME! She has the most sincere desire to be baptized and she definitely will be baptized. We're doing everything we can to help her prepare for May 31st.

Today we're going to Göteborg to go shopping at a place called Geckos(?) that's apparently really big and really cheap. So hopefully I can find some summery clothes I like. I can't believe Diane and Randy got a trampoline! Jump on it for me! Have a wonderful week and I'll see you on Sunday! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

                                                

Delaney, Margarita, Sis. Haynes

 

April 28, 2014

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!

Love, Delaney

 

 

The Trejos children

Planes made by Bro. Murray (to show Uncle Fred)

 

 

The Baqueros

 

April 22, 2014

Kära familj,

Sorry you anxiously awaited my email all day yesterday and didn't get anything. In Sweden, Easter (Påsk) is a really big deal and they celebrate all week, plus Monday. It's called "annandag Påsk", another day of Easter. So the libraries were closed, so we couldn't email. But I was on a boat too! We went to Göteborg and took a boat trip out to some islands. Unfortunately because of the holiday the boat didn't go so often so we had to turn around and come right back, but I LOVED being on the boat. Don't worry, we took lots of pics. It was also really warm, 20 degrees Celcius which I believe is around 70 farenheit. So you could have had the same weather here in Sweden! The whole week is supposed to be pretty sunny. In other words, it's officially spring.

We didn't have a baptism on Saturday. However, we taught Masoume on Friday and she asked if she was going to be baptized the next day. She wasn't ready though. We haven't moved on to teaching any commandments yet because we've had a hard enough time making sure she understands the basics of the restoration. Mojgan, the translator, is super amazing though. Masoume came to a ward activity on Saturday (äggapickning-we hit easter eggs together and tried to crack each others') and then to church on Sunday. She went to the Spanish sunday school class because Sister Trejos who was teaching it is Masoume's friend from SFI (Swedish for Immigrants). So I translated it from Spanish to Swedish. It was much easier than trying to translate from Swedish to Spanish. Last night Masoume told us that she knows she will be baptized but she's waiting to get an answer to her prayer, but she knows it will come. We set a new goal for May 31st. Now that we know more how to work with Mojgan, I'm more confident that this one is going to go through. As far as our other Persian friends, they've been pretty hard to get in contact with and we haven't taught them for a couple

weeks. :( They're in the middle of trying to find a new apartment so it's tough.

Our other VIP in church was Rida. She's from Yemen, she's adorable, and she's one of the most open and sincere people I've met. She's got a lot of questions about Jesus Christ but she's not shy to ask them so it's great. She went to the YSA sunday school class on Sunday (she's 29) and it was great. She said she wants to come back to church, so we're in business!

I wrote a really good letter on the bus rides to and from Göteborg yesterday to make up for this not-so-great email, so I'm sending that today and hopefully it gets there soon. I put it with Matty's birthday present-sorry it's late Matt! 

California and the cruise sound super fun. I can't believe the things Peyton ate! {Peyton tried fried calamari, lobster tail and escargot.  She didn't like the calamari or lobster, but thought the escargot was ok.}  Or that Cody only ate 40 ice cream cones. Thank you for sending pictures! I love them!

It's Syster Haynes' last week so we've got a busy week ahead of us. Lots of members want to say goodbye and they're finally going to let us do some service that we've been asking to do for the last three months. It should be fun.

Sorry to send such a short and late email, but I guess it's because you sent a short and early one. :) Have a wonderful week! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

PS- Please pray for Masoume, Rida, Jessica, Mohamed and Hlimah! :D

 

 

On a boat in Goteborg

The Easter Bunny came to Sweden

Easter Tree in the middle of Borås.

They put feathers in the trees for easter. It's supposed to be a witch's broom.

Also, the girls dress like witches and go trick or treating. It's weird.

BBQ on P-day last week

Delaney, Syster Haynes & Rida

Eating ice cream  (Delaney says only one cone is actually hers)

 

April 14, 2014

Kära familj,

I agree-Spring is beautiful. There are blossoms and flowers and green grass to be found everywhere here! According to one of the elders who was here in Borås last year, there's nothing more beautiful than Borås in the Spring! 

This week has been HARD. I guess after having such an awesome week last week (you know, Lamech getting baptized and everything) we were in for a tough week. We called everyone we could think of trying to get appointments. But then even when people did make appointments, most of them didn't show up. We had no less than 16 cancellations during the week. It was pretty humbling.

On Monday we were all too worn out to go to Göteborg like we'd planned, so we just hung out around Borås. We got more Indian food and ate it in the sun by the river.Then we shopped a little, made bread, ate treats, and pretty much just relaxed. We needed it. Have I ever mentioned that everything here is really expensive! I paid 125:- (that's the sign for crowns) for a bottle of contact solution-that's about 20 bucks! The Indian food was also very expensive, as is every other food place here. Basically any real food costs 10 dollars or more, usually more like fifteen. Even a plain old hamburger from McDonald's is about a buck fifty and a double cheeseburger is three dollars. It's ridiculous!

On Tuesday we taught this guy named Sean. He's from New Zealand so he has a really cool accent. And he says "mate" about every fifth word. We asked what he would do if he knew the Book of Mormon was true and he said "Well I'd become a Mormon in about six seconds, mate!" (Read it with the accent, it's better.) It was kind of intimidating to teach him though because he pays very close attention to the words you say, so you have to say exactly what you mean. We were supposed to teach him again this weekend but he cancelled because he had to go to Göteborg.

We basically spent all day on Wednesday riding busses. That's what it felt like anyway. We took a bus to teach a lady named Erika that we'd met the day before. We had literally just gotten to her door and rang the doorbell when she called us and cancelled because she was running errands and had too much to do that day. So we rode the bus back home to eat lunch. Then we took another bus to Viskafors to teach a lady named Gul-Maj. She wasn't home. So we took the bus back and ate dinner. At least when we have all these bus trips we can talk to people and try to find more people to teach. We did get to teach Masoume with help from Mojgan. She's still waiting to receive her answer and we're going to have to push her baptismal date a little further out so she can have more time to prepare. It's hard because we can't really teach her without a translator. Well we can, she actually understands a lot of Swedish, but she doesn't tell us when she doesn't understand, so we need a translator. After Masoume we ran for the bus and went to the Engelbrektssons house to teach Lamech about the Priesthood. He is so great! He spends an hour every night watching the Mormon Channel. We watched a Mormon Message with him while we waited for the bus home and he loved it.

Thursday was my halfway mark-crazy! I celebrated by going on exchanges with Syster Richins! We all met up in Ulricehamn around 10 in the morning and then she came back with me. We taught Erika-it actually went through that time-and it was really good. Even though her 18 month old son was pretty distracting, the Spirit was strong and she said she'll start reading the Book of Mormon. We also taught Annika, a member who's been going through a hard time, and it was a really awesome lesson. I learned a lot from Syster Richins about how to teach. We were going to have a lesson with the Trejos but they cancelled, and so did the other two people we were supposed to teach. We called a guy that Syster Richins had just contacted who said he was pretty free and set up an appointment with him for later that night, so then we had two hours. We ate dinner at McDonald's to celebrate my halfway mark then we went to one of the appointments we'd had even though he'd cancelled. It was weird because he called and left a message saying that we could still come by and drop off the Book of Mormon with his wife. So we went with the Book of Mormon and then he was home but he wouldn't let us in. Then we came back to meet the guy we'd just set up an appointment with but he didn't show up. I don't know how you can forget about something you'd decided on just two hours earlier. We were waiting for a bus and I was trying to figure out what we could do for the next two hours before 9:00 because our plans and backup plans had all fallen through when all of a sudden a seagull left a huge present right on Syster Richins' head! Her reaction: "Eew! Eew! Take a picture, take a picture!" So we went home so that Syster Richins could get cleaned up and went through the area book looking for people to teach. We actually did get a tentative appointment set up with one of the old investigators, so it was good. We laughed about it all night. Oh, the miracles of exchanges...

On Friday we had zone training in Göteborg, so we went there first thing in the morning. It was a good zone training. After zone training we had interviews with President Newell. Most people have really long interviews but mine always end up being like three minutes or less. We didn't get home until about six o'clock (it's okay, though, because our six o'clock lesson cancelled) so we dropped by Ulrika (not home) and then this family from Romania that we've taught a few times. He gave us the Book of Mormon back and wished us a nice life. :/ We did have another lesson with Masoume, and it went really well.

My planner on Saturday looks crazy because there's so many things crossed out and written over because SO MANY PEOPLE CANCELLED ON US! After calling everybody and weekly planning, we finally went out looking for someone to teach. We even went tracting but nobody let us in. One lady said we could come back next week. We decided to go by this girl, Frida, who we tracted into about 2 months ago and she was actually home and let us in, so we got to teach her and her  sister the Plan of Salvation. That was a miracle. Then we taught the Trejos and then Lamech. Thank goodness for Lamech-he doesn't cancel on us. He bore his testimony to us about the Book of Mormon and he said "I love this book. And I'm going to keep reading it and keep loving it!"

Yesterday was CRAZY. We went early to meet this girl, Anastasia, who's really positive. As we were waiting for the bus, she texted us to say that she couldn't come because her daughter got sick. It was really disappointing. So we went to church where I was dragged around (literally, they grab my hand and pull me around) by members to help them translate how to sew a dress out of a t-shirt into spanish and things like that. Finally Relief Society started and I realized why it's called RELIEF society. Then it was time for Sunday School. We went on splits with some women in the ward so I could teach Spanish Sunday School while Syster Haynes taught Persian Sunday School for Masoume, and we hoped that someone would take care of Lamech in Swedish Sunday School since we couldn't offer English Sunday School. Spanish Sunday School went great. I'd ask a question and they'd answer but I'd have no idea what they said so they'd all just start discussing about it. That's what we're going for, right? Gospel discussion? We did get through all the steps of repentance so I think it was a success. Luckily Brother Trejos was a bishop in Ecuador so I can count on him to teach true doctrine and help the Baqueros when they're confused. Sacrament meeting was very interesting. They almost forgot to confirm Lamech. The bishop got through all the announcements and started the sacrament and Syster Haynes and I were panicking because we didn't know if he'd forgotten. I had talked to him right before church about it so we didn't think he would forget. (Funny story-I asked the Bishop if he would be part of the circle for the confirmation and he thought I was asking if I could be part of it. We both got pretty confused. My Swedish is really bad on Sundays.) But then the Björn, who was going to do the confirmation went up and talked to the bishop and they did the confirmation right after the sacrament. It was really great. Lamech came back and sat by me and said "That's GOOD!" Haha. He's going to Africa on Thursday to visit his mom and he promised he's going to discuss the Book of Mormon with her! Once he was confirmed we went out to help Masoume get connected to the real Persian Sunday School class over Skype, run by Mojgan. I ended up having to sit with her in the foyer as she listened to the class over the phone, trying to calm down her CRAZY eight year old daughter Helia. By the end we felt like all the members were pretty annoyed at us because she was riling up all the other kids and everyone was just running around. When we left the church Syster Haynes felt like something was wrong because I think I had some look on my face like "I can't handle one more person talking to me!" because that's how I felt. We went home for dinner and she made me listen to this Relaxation CD that Syster Newell gave to everyone in the mission. Breathe in relaxation, breathe out tension and stuff like that. It actually helped. We also ate soup and then I had some ice cream too to help calm down.

The rest of our plans on Sunday also cancelled, including Mohamed and Hlimah. So we dropped by these two women that the elders had contacted who said we could come by. One of them, Britt-Marie, already had a Book of Mormon and seems to have read a lot of it. We read from it with her and had a great lesson and got a referral and a return appointment. So it was worth it. The other woman was a Jehovah's Witness.

This week is looking much more promising! Everyone's off for Easter so hopefully that means they'll be able to meet! Have fun on your cruise and have a great Easter! Remember to think of Christ's resurrection and how incredible of a gift it is to us. It's the greatest miracle that's ever happened!

Jag älskar alla er!

Love, Delaney

PS-Happy birthday Matty!

PPS-The spanish emails are very helpful, so you can keep writing them en espanol! :D

 

Delaney and Syster Richins on splits

Eating at McDonalds to celebrate half way mark of mission

Spring flowers that seem to have appeared overnight