June 16, 2014

Käre familj,

Wow, what a crazy week! Transfer week is always crazy. Last Monday seems like it was forever ago. I finally bought a suitcase. The lady in the store was like "Wow, you knew exactly what you wanted. Are you going on a long trip?" I didn't bother trying to explain to her that I'm in the middle of one. We didn't get much time to pack because we had to catch the train out to the Karlssons' house for dinner, family home evening, and our correlation meeting. The Karlssons are one of my favorite families in Sweden. They're super nice and every time we got to go out and visit their house it felt like we were at home. I already miss them a lot.

Tuesday was a pretty amazing last day in Borås. Even though I ate way too much food. We spent from 11 to 5 just eating meals with members. First we went by Margarita, the new convert from Uruguay. We didn't know she was going to feed us but we couldn't say no! She had made this nice salad of potatoes, noodles, shrimp, and mystery meat. I said "Oh, is this chicken?" And she said "No. I can't tell you what it is until you try it. Otherwise you won't eat it." So I prayed hard and tried it. Then she told us it was lamb tongue. It was interesting. Weird but manageable. I liked the shrimp better and I might even eat the shrimp again, but not the tongue. Ick. After Margarita we went straight over to the Trejos family for lunch. I was looking forward to some really good (but not tongue) South American food. They made curry. It was also really good though. And we had really yummy banana cake too. I'm going to miss the Trejos a lot as well. Directly after that we ran to catch the bus to the Murrays' for dinner. We had fajitas and they were delicious. Third time's a charm to get some good Latino food! The Murrays are another amazing family. Brother Murray was the bishop up until December and he knows every single less active in the ward because he personally made it a point to meet them and get to know them. And he's awesome coming on lessons and he brings investigators and new members who need rides to church every week. Basically the Borås ward is the best ward in Sweden and I miss all of them so much!!!!

After we finished eating (and eating and eating) we had about an hour to kill before meeting a Chinese girl named Cristina who I met on the bus a few months ago and couldn't meet until now. So we contacted a guy who was a strong believer and he actually asked us if we could sit down and talk about our message. That doesn't usually happen. So we taught him the restoration in the park and he thought it was really interesting. Unfortunately he didn't want to meet because he's the pastor in his own church. Then we taught Cristina who also wasn't very positive because she's Buddhist and not looking to change. But she was really cute and sweet. Then we had an appointment with Anna and we taught her the beginning of the Plan of Salvation. She's amazing and has a lot of good insights about things, but I feel like it will be hard to get her to church. She's one of those "spiritual but not religious" people. Still, it was a really great lesson and an awesome ending to my time in Borås and my time with Syster Byrd.

On Wednesday the real craziness began. We got up, did the last minute packing and cleaning, and got me and my suitcases to the bus. My new suitcase is really nice and works well. I still have one less suitcase than most missionaries. When we met up with the elders at Rese Centrum they said "I thought you bought a new suitcase!" And I said I did and showed them. They couldn't believe that I could fit all of my stuff. But I did! The only thing is I forgot my winter coat (oops!) but I shouldn't need that for a while and Syster Byrd promised to get it to me through the missionary grapevine. I think she'll bring it to zone conference today where she'll give it to Äldste Mangum (he's now one of the assistants to the President) so he can bring it to our zone conference in a few weeks and give it to me there. We took the bus to Göteborg where we met up with Syster Larson and Syster Ryan. Syster Larson transferred to Uppsala (north of Stockholm) so she and Äldste Mangum were on the train with me. We all said goodbye to our companions and got on the train. I got off at Katrineholm where the sisters there met me and helped me get my stuff across the train station and onto my next train to Norrköping. Syster Eborn was waiting there. She got her last companion (Syster Anderson) onto her train, then looked around and saw my train approaching and met me as I arrived. It was pretty good timing! We took my stuff home and I ate some food, and Syster Eborn updated me about the area. Norrköping is on fire! Our white board is filled with investigators and progressing investigators and baptismal dates. We're probably going to have a baptism tomorrow. And two more before July. I was speechless. We went back out (by this point it was about 3:30) and visited a woman named Siw who lives behind the church. They had contacted her a few days ago and she said we could just come by. Then we visited a recently reactivated member named Ann-Sofi. (They're both older Swedish women.) Then we were on our way to teach Olivia (who is going to be baptized in a few weeks) when we contacted a guy sitting on a bench. He was really interested and had a lot of questions so we sat down and taught him about the Book of Mormon and made a return appointment with him for the next day. That was cool. His name's Rikard. Then we taught Olivia. She's 14 or 16 and she's from Uganda. I think. (I've got a lot of new information in my brain I'm trying to process still.) She is awesome! Our next lesson cancelled so we did some tracting and taught a family from Syria. There are a lot of people here from Syria. About 2 out of 3 people we talk to. Syster Eborn can contact in Arabic now and she's teaching me how.

On Thursday morning we had district meeting so I got to meet everyone in my district. Syster Eborn and I are the only sisters. Then there are the 2 Norrköping elders (Äldste Gray and Äldste Stoeltzin) and 4 elders from Linköping (Äldste Farnworth and Äldste Hewitt, and Äldste Kikko and Äldste Miller). It's a pretty young district. Äldste Gray and Äldste Miller have both been out about 17 months, but the rest of them came out after I did. It's weird being an old missionary... They're all really friendly and really funny. District meeting was fun. After District Meeting Syster Eborn and I had weekly planning-which is so much more fun when you have so many people to work with-and then we taught Rikard again. He'd read the introduction to the Book of Mormon plus all the different testimonies, so that was cool. And he actually said "I want to investigate this and see if it's anything for me!" This was especially cool because Syster Byrd and I recently had a conversation about our investigators not knowing that they're actually investigating something. After Rikard we went on splits with two women from the ward who are our visiting teaching companions so we could get our visiting teaching done. All five people we had set up forgot. But Emma and I still got to teach two people. First we would teach Maria but she wasn't there. Then we went to Prossy (a new convert) but she wasn't home. So we tried to call Jasmine to see if we could come earlier but she didn't answer. Then as we were trying to figure it out, Prossy showed up so we got to teach her anyway. Then we went out to Jasmine and even though she'd forgotten she let us in and we taught her as well. Then I got back together with Syster Eborn and we ran into a previous investigator and taught him on the street. It was a pretty good day.

On Friday I got to meet the Dolmayas. They're also from Syria. They are a wonderful family. The dad, Nabil, was baptized in November. Their daughter Judy is 18. She's the one that is probably going to be baptized tomorrow. She's called off her baptism a few times before now but this time it's been completely 100% her choice with no missionaries or anyone else pushing her. So I think it will actually happen. They also have another daughter named Chris who's 14 and likes David Archuleta and hip-hop dancing. I told her I'd try to remember the one hip-hop dance I once knew and teach it to her. I'm her new best friend. Chris and Judy taught me a cool dance from Syria-folk dance for the win!

Saturday afternoon we went to Linköping (about 45ish minutes away by train) for their baptism. All the missionaries sang a musical number (Beautiful Savior, a capella.) The investigator Sofie was really nervous but prepared. She was baptized in a lake. It was beautiful with the sun setting behind it. Well not really setting-it doesn't do that until 11:30 ish (I know this because I wasn't done packing by that time Tuesday night...) but it was going down.

And yesterday was great! The first Sunday in a new area is always stressful. Norrköping's ward has about 60 active members. They have 2 young women. (Soon to be 3 when Olivia is baptized!) It's mostly Swedish with a few new converts from Uganda. We had 4 VIPs in church: Judy, Johnson (who has a baptism date for June 28), and Cie-Cie (from China. She's adorable!), and a less active member named Kirsi. We walked with Kirsi to church. After church we had some lunch and then we went and taught a less active woman named Mikaela and her non-member daughter Tuva. They were super sweet and gave us each a huge thing of strawberries. We've eaten almost all of them by now.

Syster Eborn is amazing. We work really well and REALLY hard together and get a lot done. It's fun to tell people that we met even before the MTC. We already have a picture of the two of us on facebook from a year ago when we went to lunch. I'm pretty sure I posted it and said "Future companions!" Who'da thunk?

Friday is a non-proselyting day because of midsommars afton. We're going to do something with the members but I was too busy trying to figure out their names that I'm not sure exactly where we're going. It should be fun. I'm kind of sad I don't get to celebrate midsummer with all my Borås friends but this will be a good opportunity to make good friendships with these members as well. 

Sounds like it's been a pretty crazy week for you guys as well! Happy late father's day dad! And happy late birthday Peyton! I'm glad you got the chocolate. Oreos are better with marabou chocolate. Thanks for the updates on everything! I hope you have another great week! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

 

Margarita (Recent convert from Uruguay)

Bro. & Sis. Murray

The Karlsson Family

Pinocchio

Packing letters from home

 

June 9, 2014

Käre familj,

That's so cool that you got to go to President Beckstrand's farewell and meet him and his wife! And I'm really relieved that you think I'll like him. I'm going to really miss the Newells though. We have zone conferences coming up in the  next couple of weeks where we're going to have our last interviews with President Newell. The zone leaders already got theirs and they said it was really amazing so I'm looking forward to it. By the time President Beckstrand gets to Sweden, I won't still be in my second area. The big news of the week is that I'm transferring on Wednesday! I'll be going to Norrköping, which is in the Södertälje zone, which is south of Stockholm. So I'm going back to the Stockholm area! It's a little further south than Västerhaninge was, but I'll be going back to the Stockholm South stake. And my new companion will be Syster Eborn. She's also from my MTC group so I already know her. She's the one that I met up with before we went to the MTC. I'm really excited to go there!

Things are starting to pick back up again in Borås and we've got some investigators now! It started last Monday on the way to emailing when a woman named Margarita (not the one who was baptized a month ago) sat next to Syster Byrd and started asking about the Book of Mormon. She knew all about the church because she went all the time in Chile. We taught her on Thursday night, and got a little taste of a South American mission. She's very open and very Christian and very loud. And she knows Margarita, the one who was baptized a month ago. And she knows the Trejos. They're all good friends. So it's great! She didn't come to church yesterday though because of something about her grandson, but we're going to teach her tomorrow with Margarita.

On Monday night to Tuesday I went to Kungsbacka for exchanges with Syster Ryan. I was a little nervous because everyone talks about "exchange miracles" and I felt like I was responsible to bring about some miracles in Kungsbacka's area. I shouldn't have been so worried-why shouldn't there be exchange miracles? They're in about the same boat as we've been-not much to do, so lots of going by old investigators to see if they're interested. So we went by this old investigator named Otto, and when he answered the door and we talked for a bit he said "Yeah, my brother's a member of your church. But he lives in Borås." I live in Borås! And I knew his brother. It led into us being able to sit down and teach him the Plan of Salvation. Talk about exchange miracles!

After I got back to Borås on Tuesday afternoon we went to the end of a YSA movie night at the Engelbrektssons house. We had pretty good timing to just miss watching Tangled and still be there to socialize and leave a message. Helen and Sajjad both came. We taught about the Holy Ghost and all the YSAs shared their testimonies and experiences. Can you imagine a more spiritual environment? It was perfect! Helen set up with us that night that we could come over the next morning and teach her again, so we came on Wednesday morning with one of the YSAs that was there and taught her the Restoration. Basically Helen is the best. She said she'll be baptized if she finds out that it's true. The Spirit was strong. On Wednesday night we went by Anna and taught her again. She's ready for the gospel, and open to it. She just has to answer her phone...

On Thursday we had zone training in Skövde, so we were on trains for a long time. Zone training was really good. We have amazing zone leaders right now. One of them, Äldste Lawrence, goes home on Thursday. He has such a strong testimony and he's taught me a lot from his example and all the zone trainings he's been here for. We had to take two different trains to get to Skövde and the first one got delayed so we were going to miss the second one, but it turned out to be late too for some unrelated reason. So we still made it to zone training on time! When we were coming back to Borås, the lady who checked our tickets was the same one who checked them on the way up, and she was surprised to see us again so soon. Only missionaries take a 1 1/2 hour train both ways for a 1 1/2 hour meeting! Thursday night was ridiculous. After leaving the chaos of Margarita's house (her grandson is a hurricane. He stormed into the door and immediately started yelling. "Who are they? Can I have fifty crowns? I do what I want!") we were walking through town contacting people when this guy came up to us and started rapping at us. We still haven't figured out if it was prepared. He said the most crazy things but somehow they all made sense. Like he made these weird connections with words so that he jumped from the Holy Grail to the tree of knowledge to Constantine to ants. But it all made sense in the most twisted way. The part I remember most was that Constantine constructed a concept to con a continent. Where do people come up with this kind of stuff? We laughed about it for about five minutes and then went to our appointment with Jessica that she wasn't home for.

Friday was Swedish National Day. We didn't see much celebrating except a lot of stores had shortened hours and the buses ran on Sunday schedule. The ward had an activity for it which Rida and Helen came to. They both came on the bus with us so we got there early since they only go every half hour on Sundays. This was great because we had time to show them the Restoration film before the activity! It was a little tough because we speak English with Rida and Swedish with Helen. But the film was in English with Swedish subtitles so it worked. At the activity we answered trivia questions about Sweden. I did the easy questions and got 85%. Not too shabby. Afterwards Syster Byrd and I went to visit a woman named Tiffany who we contacted a few days earlier. She's from Illinois and we heard her speaking English, and she was happy to invite us over because she was "desperate for someone to speak English with." She really was desperate. She told us her whole life story. It was pretty cool that she was so comfortable with us and now we know her really well so we know what she needs. And a lot of her beliefs already coincide with ours. She even has food storage! She's had a tough life and we feel like we can really help her and now is her time.

Friday night we had an appointment with the Trejos. The Baqueros were there too. They'd come to the activity and just stayed at the Trejos for a while after. That was a huge blessing since we won't have time to go out and see the Baqueros again before I leave on Wednesday. They were the first people I told that I'm probably leaving on Wednesday.

On Saturday morning we helped clean the church. I've vacuumed the Borås chapel four times in my four months here. I'm pretty good at it now. Then we had a little time before our appointment with Jessica so we thought we'd try this bakery on the way back from the church. We've always wanted to try it. So we got on the bus, but then the driver skipped the stop by the bakery and we couldn't get off until the next stop. (In Sweden you have to push a button to tell the driver to stop, but sometimes they don't notice or they forget.) So we got off and started walking back up towards the bakery. We contacted a woman who already had a Book of Mormon and had visited the church a couple times. We didn't get her number or anything, but just talking to her we could see how her heart was softened a little and she remembered a little of what it felt like when she was learning about the church. Then we contacted another lady, from China. She didn't know any Swedish. So I milked my Chinese abilities for all they're worth. Our conversation went something like this. "We're Jesus teachers." "Jesus!" "Jesus?" "Jesus!" "This is a Jesus book." "I have that book." "Do you want this book?" "I have that book." "Do you want it in Chinese?" "I have it in Chinese." "We have it in Chinese." "I have it already." "The Book of Mormon?" "What?" "Jesus book?" "I have it." "Do you want to come to church?" (only I don't know how to say church so I said it in Swedish but I think she understood.) "I go to Göteborg for church." "Where?" "Göteborg." "Do you want to come to our church?" "I don't speak Swedish." She has a point-our church meetings are conducted in Swedish. Not Chinese. But at the end she took a card with the church address and said she'll come next week! I won't be there but I'm sure there's someone in the ward who knows some Chinese, right? Anyway, it was really cool how we were led to those two just by the bus not stopping. And then the bakery was closed. So we went to Jessica's, who remembered this time and was home for our appointment. She was gung-ho about coming to church yesterday. She was totally going to come! She just asked us to call her Sunday morning and make sure she hadn't slept in. Also on Saturday we got our transfer call to find out that I'm going to Norrköping with Syster Eborn and that Syster Maxwell is coming to Borås with Syster Byrd. 

Sunday morning we called Jessica. She had slept in. She still had time to get ready and catch the bus. On our way out the door we prayed that she would "hurry up and come to church." Sometimes our Swedish isn't perfect so we accidentally say some funny things. She called us on our way to the bus and said she couldn't come before 12 at the earliest. (The bus leaves Sjöbo at 10.) so we told her we'd find a ride and pick her up between 12 and 13 so she could still come to sacrament. She was going to come to church gosh darn it! She called again halfway through relief society. Her sister had to go to the doctor and she had to babysit and she couldn't bring her niece to church with her because she didn't know when her sister would be back. So Jessica did not come to church yesterday.

The good news is, Helen is great. She called us on Saturday night to see if she could come to church with us. She lives down the street from us so she takes the bus with us all the way to church. At church a bunch of people talked to her and we didn't have to worry about her at all because she always had someone to sit by. They asked me to bear my testimony in Sacrament meeting since I'm leaving. It was really sad because I LOVE this ward and I'm going to miss them so much! After church the Larssons invited us to dinner, but they live really far away so they make the dinner at the church and we all eat there. This was perfect because I could say goodbye to all the members while dinner was cooking and not be rushed out the door. Also, the Larssons are the family that Helen already knows, so of course they invited her to dinner too, and we got to teach her with some great members! We volunteered to do all the dishes so they could leave, so we ended up being at the church for 7 hours straight yesterday. Missionary work is fun!

It's going to be a crazy few days getting ready for the transfer. We have dinner tonight with our ward mission leader and his family, then tomorrow we have lunch with the Trejos and then dinner with the Murrays. I still haven't replaced my broken suitcase. Don't ask me when I'm going to pack! Guess I'll go get on that now!

It's always fun to hear about your summer adventures, and all your adventures! I hope the family reunion was fun! Jag älskar alla er!

Love, Delaney

June 2, 2014

Käre Familj,

Wow, it sounds like a busy week! Good job everyone! I can't believe how much you've done in the last week! Opened presents, sold horses, awards night, frisbee dates (sounds like fun!), I guess life didn't slow down after the wedding. You've been a lot busier than I have! We had another week of pretty much blank planner pages and dropping by less active members and talking to masses of people (individually, not all at once.) But we have had some really good things happen!

Did I tell you about Bita? We contacted her on the street a couple weeks ago pushing her little girl in a stroller, and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. We went back on Tuesday to teach her and give her a Persian Book of Mormon. As soon as we walked in, the Spirit was really strong. She is an amazing woman and she loves Christ and lives so that she can feel the Spirit as much as possible, and you can tell when you see her. We taught her about the Restoration and it was a little hard because she had so many questions about it, but she was really interested. She's going to read the Book of Mormon and she's going to get an answer that it's true! It was an amazing lesson and Syster Byrd and I both felt really blessed just to have been able to be at her home and teach her.

On Wednesday Syster Haynes dropped by to pick up the stuff she left. She was so happy she got to meet you all at her homecoming. And her mom gave me a big hug. It was weird to see her again not as a missionary.j

Thursday ended up being a pretty good day. We got to do some service and help clean the church. Then after that our phone lied to us and said the bus was coming right at one o'clock. So we hurried to the bus stop only to find that the bus wouldn't come for another fifteen minutes. There was a lady with her daughter waiting at the bus stop as well, and since we were all waiting for so long she let us teach her about the Plan of Salvation. She didn't accept it right then and wasn't interested in meeting or coming to church, but it was cool how we ended up being there and being able to teach her. Someday when she's ready for it, she'll remember what we taught her and how the Spirit felt. Thursday night we taught Rida and it was one of the best lessons we've had with her. She was actually listening to us. And the Spirit was really strong, which is what matters. One of the best parts of Thursday was when we got a text from the missionaries in Västerhaninge saying that Yahaira has a baptismal date for July 12! I'm so happy and excited for her! 

The weekend was especially hard because we just didn't have anything to do. We basically don't have investigators. And the ones we do have aren't really investigating with much enthusiasm. So we're searching. Saturday night I did have a really cool experience though. First of all, in Swedish there's this word called "orka". It means basically "to umph" or "to have the umph to do it." It doesn't translate very well. So when people say "jag orkar inte" they basically mean "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request." or "I just don't have the energy to do that right now." It's pretty common in Swedish. Anyway, so earlier on Saturday we'd brought some flowers and a card to a member who's been having a really rough time and we figured we could help her cheer up. (Also we didn't have any ready-made cookies. Thus, flowers.) She invited us in and we talked for a bit, and she said sometimes it's hard to keep living the gospel when you just "orkar inte." It's true. Sometimes it's hard to get the umph to keep doing everything we know we're supposed to be doing. We talked about the atonement and how even when we really don't have that energy, Christ will give it to us so that we can keep going. It was a really good lesson. So Saturday night we were on the bus ride home. It had been a long hard day and we had talked to so many people, and it seemed like nobody cared or wanted to listen. I was sitting on the bus thinking "Jag orkar inte!" I was just ready to go home. Then I remembered what I had said just a few hours earlier, that we can get the umph from Christ. So I repented and prayed for some umph to contact someone on the bus. Soon a girl sat down next to me. She looked really familiar so I asked her her name, thinking maybe I'd contacted her before. But I hadn't. I told her the truth, that I thought I'd recognized her. She looked at my nametag and said "Are you Mormon?" I said yes and she said "That's probably why, I've been to your church before." It turns out she's friends with some members in Göteborg, she's read some of the Book of Mormon, and she's been taught by missionaries before. I asked if she ever wanted to visit the church again and she said yes, so I invited her to come the next day. Sunday morning she called us to make sure she could still take the bus with us, and she came with us to church! As soon as we got to the church one of the members recognized her, gave her a big hug, and took care of her for the rest of the meeting. Sometimes that last little umph is all you need to make big miracles happen, but you can't get the umph anywhere except through Christ's grace.

I didn't realize this until I read your email, but in the last few weeks we actually have had to open the overflow during Sacrament Meeting on Sundays. We ARE filling the church with our VIPs! And the members here are so good at taking care of them! Other than Helen (the girl I met on the bus) we also had Sajjad at church again. We hardly had a chance to talk to either of them during church because the members were all talking to them. Then after church they both asked us if we were coming to the activity on Tuesday, because they were planning on coming. We didn't even know about the activity and thus hadn't even invited them-the members did it. I was dumbfounded. But pleased. Very pleased. This is the best ward in Sweden.

Am I going to even recognize the house when I see it again? I'm trying to imagine what it will look like from your description, but I can't really. It just sounds like a lot more space! It would be really nice to have a laundry room upstairs, I approve! The garden also sounds like it's doing really good. I think it's funny that the cucumbers are just for pickling. Doesn't anyone in our family like cucumbers? They're really good on tacos! I have a growing list of foods that I like that I didn't like before. It now includes pineapple and water chestnuts. And of course Thai food! I think we're going to a Thai buffet for lunch after emailing... Maybe when I get home I'll give Brussels sprouts another try. I remember liking them a lot when I was younger!

I hope you have lots of fun at the Smith Family Reunion! Take lots of pictures of everyone for me. And say hi to everyone too! I'm glad I only have to miss one! Have a wonderful week! Jag älskar er!

Love, Delaney

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