Thunder From Down Under

Crikey mates I landed myself a greenie from down unda! That's right, my "first born son in the wilderness" is Elder Scott from Queensland, Australia. He's the coolest Aussie with the coolest accent ever and he surfs, skates and snowboards! And all he ever wants to eat is shrimp on the barbie...We've been having a great time together and I'm looking forward to the three months I'll be able to train him in Helsingborg. 

I'm going to miss Elder Walton for sure but I sent him off on tuesday to bigger and better things in Karlstad! I was able to spend tuesday night with the Vendelsö Elders which just so happens to be Elder Erikson and his Finnish greenie, I spent two transfers in Växjö with Elder Erikson so it was a good time catching up. Wednesday was the big day, there were 28 new missionaries so 28 new trainers as well! After getting Elder Scott we were off on the train ride back to Elder Scott's first area, he slept most of the way, I don't blame him, could you imagine the time change from Australia to Utah to Sweden? Brutal. 

We've got a YOUNG district now, two greenies, a missionary out three transfers and one out four and Elder Nielsen and I. It's way fun. We've been doing lots of finding and introducing Elder Scott to the area. On our first day we met a pretty positive lady who watched the Christmas video and accepted a Book of Mormon with a smile on her face after lots of rejection, always a good feeling! 

We've been meeting with Dan our investigator quite a bit and he essentially told Elder Scott and I earlier this week that he was giving up on quitting smoking, it was too hard. We really testified and encouraged him to press forward and were able to recommit him to the plan. He's doing well now and came to sacrament meeting. 

I read 2 Nephi 4:15-35 and I'd highly highly recommend reading it, even tonight if you can! I can empathize with Nephi so much and reading his words and his testimony made me come closer to this Book of Mormon prophet I've read and sung about since I was little. His words really synchronized with me and I really do know that the Book of Mormon was written for our day, in our time, with our worries and problems to provide healing for the soul. 

Cheers!

Äldste Hainsworth

 The boys are back, all fathers now  (Tenny reunited with his buddies from the MTC.  All trainers to greenies now)

 It's a boy! 

Elder Scott gettin over that jetlag, gotta keep his hands warm of course

 Church pic

Black licorice ice cream bar, not bad!

 Last meal with Elder Walton

Hey there Denmark! 

Sleepless in Stockholm

Hey y'all! This week was busy and hectic with the end of the transfer coming up and all the new missionaries coming in, but hectic and busy can be a good thing and in the case of this week, it was! Elder Walton will be transferring to Karlstad.

I forgot to mention last week but this ward totally spoils us, we each got a "Christmas Countdown" with a little present to open each day of December! Helsingborg församling is the best. My favorite present I've opened so far is a Swedish flag blanket. 

We helped a member move to a brand spankin' new apartment this week, it's pretty amazing actually, members have told me that Sweden is one of the hardest places to find a place to live in the world. An 18 year old member here put his name on a waiting list for an apartment when he was 16, apparently that's pretty normal as a teenager cause you wait so many years for an apartment.

We hit the streets this week to spread the Jul message and try to show the church christmas video to everyone. It's been surprisingly tough to talk to people, I thought it would be a lot easier with Christmas and people's hearts would be more open but so far it seems to be the opposite, they close up more. Hopefully things get better as Christmas gets closer and closer. 

We had a good lesson with Lars our investigator in Bjuv. We're really on the same page with him doing things for the right reasons and finding out for himself the things we teach him. It ws perfect for our lesson on the Word of Wisdom since Lars chews tobacco and drinks coffee. He quit drinking 12 years ago though and is very open about the blessings of that decision. Lars is a wonderful guy with the rights intentions and I love working with him and becoming friends with him. 

Train the trainers meeting on friday which started on a train at 6:30 friday morning. I made it to the mission office a little before 1 pm in time for lunch with the fellow trainers and a very spiritual and powerful training meeting. I felt the Spirit confirm very strongly to me when President Beckstrand told us we were called to the Sweden Stockholm mission, for me in Helsingborg, with the companion I'm about to receive for a reason. After the fantastic meeting and being reunited with some mission friends, we went back to T-Central to hop on trains home only to find out a storm had delayed or cancelled most outgoing trains. The train station was packed with people trying to travel out of Stockholm that busy friday night. We got our tickets rebooked after a long wait in line then went and slept over with Elder Peterson and Hemmingsen in Gubbängen. Together with me was Elder Purkey, Christley, and Smith. We were able to make it home by saturday night thankfully and I was reunited with Elder Walton after him being in a tri-pan with the Landskrona elders for two days. 

We've met with Dan a couple times this week and he's doing really well, we've kept his stop smoking plan going and he's committed to keep working at it this week. Starting off the week with 18 cigarettes a day down to 15 a day by the end of the week. 

Hope everyone has a blessed week! 

Äldste Hainsworth

 Christmas countdown from the ward

Our Charlie Brown christmas tree

 Gamla stan in Stockholm

Elder Christley is the man

 From Monika, in Tenny's current ward of Helsingborg:

We have a tradition to give the Elders a “bag” of gifts starting from the 1^st of December.

There is twenty-four packages, so there will be one for each day until Christmas day, which 

is on the 24^th of December

/Monika

Also, from Monika this week.  These photos & text.

Hi! 

Just a few photos for you today, so you can see that the Elder are in good shape. 

We are getting closer to Christmas, but it's doesn't really show here on the weather. Up north they have some snow. 

Today's the 13th and that means Lucia in Sweden a wonderful tradition, and very old tradition to celebrate the queen of light. I enclose some pages that you can have a look at it, if you like. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgxZS4mWSrw

The Week of Never Ending Activities

Hey it's official Christmas-music-listening-to season now, we made it everyone! 

We've begun meeting regularly with our investigator Göron who has a lot of health problems but is such a good guy. We got him out to an activity the ward had on saturday and are just working with him on a social conversion cause he's got that strong testimony of the church, just needs help feeling comfortable with the ward and the members. 

We went back out to Påarp and met with Tommy our motorcycle guy again. We chatted for awhile and it feels like Tommy and us are old pals even though we've only known him a few weeks which made it feel natural to share the message of the Restoration with him. He accepted a Book of Mormon and we bore out testimonies of it. We went by Emma from last week and her dad answered and said she wasn't interested. Well maybe greenie me wouldn't have gone back but I'm not giving up on Emma so fast, if we're getting dropped it's gonna be from Emma herself! 

We held a game night for the young hip people of the ward (YSA's) and it was a total success! Almost everyone we wanted to came and Terry our investigator came and dominated in blow pong, we had ping pong going, spoons, treats, it was such a good time! 

We spent a couple hours on thursday whipping up a couple dozen rolls and two apples pies for thanksgiving. We gathered with an American family, a Canadian family, and a half American half Swedish family at the church for dinner. It wasn't a Hainsworth thanksgiving but it was super tasty and we had fun playing magic tricks on the younger kids.

We had a super fun activity saturday night where we acted out scenes from Disney movies and dressed up, talk about theatrical gold. Then we had another YSA activity kinda like BYD on sunday at the Wagners which was way fun. We did a Julmust blind taste test (Julmust is a seasonal drink comparable to rootbeer in Sweden) and the Ikea Julmust actually won so go buy yourselves some Ikea Julmust kids, Sweden's favorite! 

President Beckstrand called yesterday and told me that I'll be training a new missionary in the coming transfer! So I'll be heading up to Stockholm on friday for Train the Trainers then picking him up a week from this Wednesday in Stockholm. Exciting stuff!

Christmas season is upon us and the Church has released the Christmas video A Savior is Born along with the website mormon.org/christmas. Go check it out and share it with others, there's nothing more important than discovering why Jesus Christ was born and what it means for each one of us. 

 Peace and blessings,

Äldste Hainsworth

 Dude with his chihuahua on the train

Our patented toaster technique

A buddhist temple in the tiny town of Bjuv, Sweden

 Blow pong

 The District

Ward activity, acting out Lion King

The Crew with our main man Örjan (Simba)

Snowball Fights & Beautiful Sights

Hello! In the spirit of thanksgiving this week I just want to say that I'm thankful for you and all that each and everyone of you has done for me. Your prayers and love are felt. 

This week Bai and Terry taught us this super fun game named Mahjong that has a lot of rules and chinese symbols but once we got the hang of it it was a blast. It's been great meeting with them and strengthening their knowledge of the gospel, especially the Book of Mormon. There is nothing greater than a curious mind that is eager for the light and knowledge that come from the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We had a killer lesson with an investigator Eric and his buddy Peter. They don't belong to a church but instead have their own Bible study group. Teaching them was awesome cause they're way knowledgeable, quoting Bible verses right and left. They loved our lesson of the gospel of Jesus Christ with it all drawn out. And Sissa, a member who's going on a mission to Nebraska Winter Quarters was with, so it was even better! 

We met a pretty positive potential investigator tracting on wednesday, her named is Emma and she listened to our message on her doorstep wholeheartedly. She accepted a Book of Mormon and we'll follow up on her this week. We also went by Tommy, remember who loves motorcycles, from last week. He ended up inviting us in to show us some pics of motorcycles and some other stuff in his house. He even let us share a message at the end. Such a good guy. Also contacted a guy on wednesday that said he's "discovered through psychedelic drugs that God doesn't exist". Whatever floats your boat I guess. We also met a less active at night who we were very open and honest with and had a great lesson with him, he ended up coming to church on sunday! 

We had dinner with some great members, Lucy and Hermy, from the Phillipines. The phrases I remember are "eat, eat!", "don't shy" and "feel home" over and over. I was stuffed to the rafters after that one. 

We've been meeting quite a bit with our investigator Dan cause the last roadblock for him is smoking, he smokes about 20 cigarettes a day and that's from working it down from 30. He's working on cutting it down more over the next two weeks then stopping completely so he needs your prayers right now, gärna! 

Great dinner with the Rasmussens this week and had our investigator Lars there as well. He's the man, short guy with a big skånish accent. And talkative. We have thanksgiving planned with two American families on thursday so I'm pretty excited, it won't be home but it'll be the next bbe

Saturday we got the first snow of the winter! It's here! We had some great snowball fights with the other missionaries, members, and some random kids on the street. Gotta seize the opportunity right? 

With much love and gratitude in my heart, happy thanksgiving.

Äldste Hainsworth

The Finding Grind

Heeeeello allihopa! Hope each and everyone of you has had a fantastic week! Elder Walton and I both agreed this past week the days felt like weeks and the week felt like a day, but hey at least the week flew by right?

We've decided to try utilizing the pamphlets we have that teach the message of the gospel simply and quickly and it's been working great for contacting and finding, especially with language barriers! Just whip out an Arabic Book of Mormon and boom off to the races by pointing at stuff and having them read it. 

My comp and I went out to a small Swedish town named Påartorp and did some tracting and taught a couple lessons and got some good potential investigators! We met a guy particularly named Tommy who wasn't very interested in religion at first so we just started talking to him and turns out he's a motorcycle mechanic and got excited and ended up talking with us about motorcycles for 20 minutes and showing us his current project in his garage, it's a pretty sweet harley. Turns out he has friends in Sandy, UT and he ended the conversation by saying maybe he'll swing by church sometime, everyone needs some comfort in their lives right? And said we're welcome back! 

Wednesday was the big day! We got together with the Landskrona elders and did a finding activity we'd kind of planned but mostly decided to do spontaneously in downtown Helsingborg. We found these way cool professional signs in the church and a small fold up table and lots of pamplets and Book of Mormons and were on our way. We set up this stand on a busy walking street and had two of us manning the stand and two walking around talking to people. We taught some great street lessons and gave out some materials for about an hour and a half before the rain was coming down too heavy for anyone to talk to us! Great activity that we'll definitely do again, we got some hot chocolate after to warm up. Splits with Elder Nielsen the rest of the day in Landskrona. 

We had a wonderful zone training with President and Sister Beckstrand and the assistants and zone leaders, they are truly inspired leaders and they gave some great counsel on diligence and the First Vision of Joseph Smith. 

On friday we taught Bai and Terry how to play Blackjack and Texas Hold em and they loved it! We went to the Okassio's for dinner before innebandy and made dinner for them! I love the idea of it and they loved it, we made fettucini alfredo with bacon and green peas. Dessert was made by Elder Nielsen and Groberg, they did a strawberry shortcake. Who says Elders aren't good homemakers?! We ended the night with some innebandy with the ward, always a good time. 

Saturday we took a trip north to Höganäs to visit some members! We met with Robin and Clas, Höganäs is what I thought of when I got my call to Sweden, it's quaint with these pretty Swedish neighborhoods and houses. We were told by previous missionaries to specifically ask Clas to use the bathroom when we visit. So we did, and he said to put our shoes on...the bathroom was downstairs in the basement with lots of spider webs and scary stuff, Clas is a brave old man alright. We met with Dan at night and sang I am a Child of God in Swedish with him! None of us were good singers but it brought the Spirit in a powerful and noticeable way and Elder Walton and I both decided we want to sing hymns with everyone we meet with! We read Moroni 4 with Dan and he had some great questions and comments about it. 

We sang with the YSA's in sacrament on sunday and I got to give a little 5 minute talk on preparing for my mission since the theme on sunday was missionary work! Also our investigator Lars said he wouldn't be able to make it to church but showed up to surprise us, what a guy! Anyways we were happy to see him and glad he made it to church. 

Thanks for the examples of hard work and diligence each one of you are to me, lets work hard and be diligent so we can all have happy and productive lives! Elder Holland said this "when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind". What an amazing opportunity we have to be angels in the lives of others through our words and deeds.

Med kärlek, 

Äldste Hainsworth

 The stairs to Clas' bathroom

Reading the Book of Mormon with Örjan

 Rain rain go away

 Cooking with the Ocasio's

Gotta protect the shirt and tie     (isn't he the cutest?  -mom)

Singing & Such

Well hej everyone!! 

On monday this week Elder Walton and I and the Landskrona elders went to the big mall near Helsingborg and shopped around a bit and had a good time. We went to a member family at night, the Wagner's, they were super fun and we shared crazy stories of missionaries we'd heard and had a good time. 

On tuesday we met with our investigator Terry and read out of the Book of Mormon. I love those two guys, so smiley and happy. We did some less active swing by's in the afternoon and evening. 

On wednesday we read the Book of Mormon with Örjan, a great member in the ward here. We've also been having to go the last couple days without a phone because it had to be fixed by the office elder's in Stockholm and we got it back today....not fixed though....hopefully next week though! We had dinner at the Okassio's. One of their daughters, Maya, was celebrating her 8th birthday so we had hungout and had some DANG good homemade nutella ice cream and played with the kids. They're the best! 

On thursday we had zone training in Malmö and talked about going back to the basics and being diligent and it was just what I needed to hear. And we'll get to go back for more next week at a specialized zone training! We had a great lesson in the afternoon with Dan our investigator, he's stopped drinking alcohol and coffee and is cutting back on cigarettes every week, so happy for him and his progress. He's an example to me. 

On friday we taught Bai and Terry how to play cards. They loved it, we started off with Go Fish to teach them the names of the cards. So good, Bai asked Terry if "he had any K" and Terry laughed and said "nooo you stole all my k!". We moved on to Egyptian Ratscrew and had a ton of fun with that. We also read out of the Book of Mormon with them. We spent the afternoon weekly planning and then had a great dinner with the Rasmussen's. We had to take a short cut from their house to catch the train by running along the tracks and jumping the fence but we made it! 

On saturday Maya Okassion was baptized and confirmed in church! It was a great service and a great opportunity to meet friends and family of the ward. We helped clean up after the service then got some pizza with the Landskrona elders and finished off the night with language study.

Sunday was a busy one for us, us four missionaries sang "Han sände sin Son" in sacrament meeting then Elder Walton and I taught a lesson in sunday school we found out about at the Rasmussens on friday night about the Book of Revelation and the symbols contained in it....in Swedish...needless to say it was interesting, but I think it went ok! After church we had an early thanksgiving dinner with the Wikström family, Brother Wikström is a professional chef so it was probably the greatest thing I'd ever experienced. We hungout with them in their super cozy home trying to recover enough from the dinner to have some dessert. We ended the night reading the Book of Mormon with Örjan. 

I've thought a lot about the Book of Mormon this week and I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and the power and truth contained in its' pages. I know that it's the word of God and have a testimony of how it can help us in our personal and daily lives. As Elder Holland said "“No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so". 

Have a stupendous week everybody and I love you all! 

Äldste Hainsworth 

Hamlet

Lock your heart!

 duck huntin'

 Elder Walton cleaning the font

A giant vinegar bottle, how exciting!!!

 Elder Nielsen working the camera angle

Maya!

Skånish Probs

Hej! 

I'm wrapping up my first week in Helsingborg and have loved it so far. I've never been this excited to get out there and do some dang missionary work even if it's been getting dark around 4:30 in the afternoon. My new companion Elder Walton is the man, he's been in Sweden 3 months and already speaks great Swedish. He's from Salt Lake City and is a real outdoorsy guy and went to U of U before the mish so we're arch enemies... I still love him though! Helsingborg is the biggest city by far that I've been in and I love it! You can also see Denmark from the city so that's pretty cool. 

Elder Walton and I have spent this past week talking to lots of people, meeting our investigators and members (who are awesome by the way), and trying to celebrate Halloween as best we could! We didn't do very halloween-y things, we had dinner with a family in the ward and played soccer, still fun! Halloween's growing here in Sweden for sure, it's not as full out as the States but it's still a good time and some people dressed up.

The accent down here in Helsingborg is full on Skånish which has been a tough adjustment from the relatively clear Smålandish and very clear Göteborgske, my companion has understood more of what some of the thicker-accented people say than me! 

The work is really clicking along here in Helsingborg and I'm looking forward to my time here. I just want to leave y'all with this thought. Growing up I had a lot of people I looked up to and strived to be like. My amazing parents, cousins who've served missions, siblings, church leaders, teachers in school, probably some celebrities, the list goes on and on. I've come upon and tried to apply this simple realization on my mission that the ONLY person I need to look to, to strive for, and to seek after is Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example. There is no other path to take, no side road, no shortcut because every person I looked up to is following the path of Jesus Christ in some way or another. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me". 

Äldste Hainsworth

 Tenny doesn't say where these are taken, but I'm sure it's in his new town of Helsingborg.

 Very impressive Slot.  Castle.  With the Swedish flag flying very high.  (mom comments)