Hej Hej

  Hej hej!  Wow. What a week. New people, new places, new language, new foods.  Some new people: - New trainer! Her name is Syster Taylor, and she's awesome. She's from Idaho, she's been in Sweden for about 6 months, and this past week, we both lived off of her groceries...which pretty much consisted of yogurt, apples, tortillas, and stale chips. Nice!  - New Friend! He came with us to institute last Thursday, and really liked it. We also gave him a tour of the church building! -*Mason! He's super great, he's from Africa, and he came to church with us on Sunday! He's been working on quitting smoking, and is already down to 5 a day--which is WAY less than what he was doing a couple weeks ago. It's amazing what people have the strength to do when they rely on the Lord.  - New ward! All of the ward members that I met yesterday at church were SO nice. They also talked REALLY fast. I did my best to understand.  -New ward mission leader! His name is Nicho, and he...

  Hallå alla!  I'm currently sitting in the Salt Lake City Airport, waiting to board my plane to New York. And then Sweden!  I suppose I'll take advantage of this opportunity to reflect on the FIRE last week I had in Salt Lake City South. Item of business number one: Sister Tolman joined me and Sister Hendrix's companionship last week. And she is AWESOME. We were only companions for one (1) week, but I am SO grateful to have met her.  Item of business number two: We found FOUR new people to teach!  - Ben*, who is from Beverly Hills. He grew up Jewish, but his wife is a member of our church, and we taught him a lesson about why we're here on earth.  - Pete*, who currently believes that we were dinosaurs before we began this life. (We're working on that).  - Connor*, who is super curious and open to learning. He's an awesome kid. We were teaching him a lesson in the park last week when a toothless, crippled old lady wheeled over to us and started yelling...

  Hejsan!  Okay, let's play two truths and a lie.  1) My travel plans arrived, and I'm leaving for Sweden next Monday. 2) Yesterday I fell off of my bike right next to the canal. 3) An old man stroked my hand on Saturday. - Okay. You caught me. They're all true. Unfortunately.  But on the BRIGHT side, I'm leaving for Sweden next Monday!!!! Holy guacamole. I'm of course nervous, and scared...but also terribly excited!!! Yay!  I'm so glad for the opportunity I've had to serve here in Salt Lake City though. I've met awesome people, made great memories, and I am simply SO grateful for my time here. I can't believe I only have one more week! A cool experience from this past week: Last Monday, I started talking to a guy named *Clark near the apartments, and we had an awesome conversation about personal revelation. I testified to him about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and told him about how it has aided me in receiving revelation from God for mys...

  Hej there everyone! This past week, as you might have guessed based on the subject line, was SO HOT. Holy goodness, me.  I learned two things from that trial: 1. I don't like the heat. 2. Black bike seats get SCORCHING when they sit out in the sun. Hot enough that you have to bike standing up to spare yourself the pain. Otherwise your caboose will be SUFFERING. I know it's a shocker, but I have yet to hear from Salt Lake about my travel plans to Sweden. (It's actually not a shocker. This is an official petition for them to get it together.)  Anywho, last week was honestly a struggle. It was hot, I was tired, and I kid you not when I say that every nonmember lesson we had ended up cancelling on us. Or not answering the door. Or not responding. Additionally, one of the people we had on date for baptism backed out, and doesn't want to meet with us anymore.  BUT, the existence of trials does not mean that there are no miracles.  To name a few: - I didn't pass out ...

  Hallå everyone! This past week was pretty awesome. I still have no news of when I'm going to Sweden, but I assume it'll be at the end of this transfer. So three more weeks! (Probably.)  One of many miracles: Last Tuesday, me and Sister Hendrix were going to go bother a less active family that lives in an apartment complex nearby. We knocked, but they weren't home/didn't answer the door.  A couple doors down the hall though, there was a little boy standing outside and staring at us. So I walked over to him, and asked if his parents were home. He stared at me in fear for a couple of seconds, but then disappeared into the room--sending his mom to the door.  She invited us inside, and expressed how she felt like her faith has been lacking lately, and she doesn't know what she's doing in her life.  We shared a little bit about the plan of Salvation with her, and she told us that the past couple days she had been praying for God to send her a sign that he knows her...

  Hej alla!  Big news: MY VISA CAME LAST WEEK!  I'm still waiting to get my travel plans, so I have no idea when I'm leaving. It could be next week, or it could be in 4 weeks. But hey, I'm going to Sweden!! This past week, I feel I faced quite a bit of rejection. A LOT of the work we do as missionaries is just...finding people. And goodness me, it's almost as if people don't want to be found. But I'm optimistic.  We're teaching a couple of 8-10 year olds who LOVE church, but their parents make it incredibly difficult to schedule appointments, and almost never get them to church. It's frustrating.  It's also frustrating to meet broken people, have the solution to their concerns, and watch them reject what could improve their lives. But that's just part of the job.  Some fun things: - This past week, Sister Hendrix was kind enough to sit outside so that I can run up and down the street in the mornings. #exercise - We had zone conference last Wednes...

  Hejsan! Just finished my first week in the field. It was long. But it was good.  My trainer's name is Sister Hendrix. She's from Pennsylvania, and she's pretty cool! We were originally in a trio with another wonderful sister named Sister Brough, but she was having some breathing problems--which didn't suit our biking area very well. She got transferred out of West Jordan (#WEEJO) (our area) last Friday. It's sad for us, but she needs to be in a car area.  Some things I should probably note: - I don't know the first vision in English very well (I know it in Swedish) and when we went on exchanges last week, the Sister Training Leader (Sister Hernaez) threw me under the bus during a member appointment and had me recite it in front of them. I totally butchered it. HAHA.  - We live RIGHT NEXT to a mink farm that smells TERRIBLE. When we're biking back from appointments, and I begin to inhale that minky scent, I know we're almost home.  - It's hard to ge...