Gray Skies & Drunk Guys

God eftermiddag everyone!! 

We had a zone volleyball tournament down in Malmö on p-day so I'm writing this a day late. It was a lot of fun and my team came in 3rd, I'll take that top 3, better than last! Also don't ask me why the mission paid for us to travel to Malmö and take up our entire p-day for a volleyball tournament but it was good bonding so there's that! 

I had a craaazy experience this week, really weird. So I wake up early in the morning on Wednesday to what I thought was either the mailman or someone outside the window saying "Hallå?", "Hallå?". So I stumble out of bed half asleep to answer the door to whoever the heck is up at that hour and bam, there's a middle aged drunk guy with a scraggly beard and a single earring standing in the entryway to our apartment. I was so out of it I just stayed calm and said hi and shook his hand. His slurred Swedish was impossible to understand though, all I got out of it was he mentioned Jesu Kristi Kyrka cause it's on our apartment door, I just did the same thing I did when I didn't understand anyone as a greenie, smile and nod, always works. He was also very touchy, shook my hand then held onto it for awhile till I pulled away, cupped my cheek with his hand and what not. After talking for a minute or two he just left, my comp didn't even get out of bed for this whole ordeal. There's a lesson for you kids, always lock your front door! 

We met with our investigator Corina this week who had a baptismal date scheduled for last Saturday, she even asked when we met with her if she can still get baptized and we told her we think it'd be best to wait and talk about it next time. Still working on getting her a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon, it'll come! After Corina's lesson we got to give a member a priesthood blessing whose been struggling with depression and it was an amazing experience, always a great reminder of how much Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children individually. 

We've been doing lots of swing by's and finding work this week trying to find a family for the branch here in Växjö! The rain is back but that hasn't stopped us from getting out there and talking to people about the gospel. We've handed out some Book of Mormon's in English, Swedish, Persian and Arabic this week. 

Something me and my companion were talking about during meals and stuff this week is the psychology of human's and how we can improve our contacts and door approaches with people to get more positive results. The more I thought about that stuff though the more I realized that I'm missing the point, I don't need to worry about that stuff. As long as I am obedient then I am promised to have the Spirit with me, and the Spirit will do all the work and persuading and true teaching for me. It's the same way on or off the mission, the Holy Ghost is a gift and with it we can do all things! 

Keep living the amazing lives you do, love you all! 

Äldste Hainsworth

(From Tenny's mom:  Yikes!  You left your front door open during the night?!?! While you slept?!?!)
)

 Serious zone pic.    And silly.

  Ice cream after district meeting in Karlskrona

 Bowling after the volleyball tourney in Malmö

Photobombed! 

The Book of Mormon in the Qu'ran?

Heeeeeejsann! Let's not waste any time with the chit chat and just get right into this week shall we? 

So to start off the week we took another 2 hour train ride (each way) to a specialized zone training about the Book of Mormon and how to use it effectively in our missionary work. It was awesome, the Spirit was strong, I learned a lot. I'm really coming to realize honestly for the first time in my life how deep and insightful and rich and full of light the Book of Mormon is. Our district had a fantastic 15 minute discussion on just the first four verses of Enos. As one member told me, "Other books are clever, but the scriptures are deep". That's really stuck with me, no wonder we're supposed to study them our whole life! We had a zone family home evening in the afternoon and got to ask our mission president and his wife anything we wanted, it was some good zone bonding and fun was indeed had. 

We had a crazy unplanned lesson this week from a guy who stopped us on his bike. He was a muslim guy who likes to learn about religions so we tried to teach him the Restoration so he could understand Mormons better. He kept arguing with us though about Jesus and having a living prophet. When we told him his name is Thomas Monson and he lives in America he asked if he's in a secret society like the Illuminati or something. Super interesting discussion with this guy but we weren't getting anywhere so we just gave him a Book of Mormon. He flips it open to check it out and reads the chapter heading of 1 Nephi 22 and started freaking out and asking us "who wrote this?", "seriously man who wrote this?!". He said it was pretty much straight out of the Qu'ran, we didn't know what to tell him but he said he's gonna go study it some more so that's good! I've sure learned a lot about middle eastern culture and muslims here in Växjö considering we pretty much live on a Mosque, I love it! 

So a member had to go on a day trip somewhere and asked us if we could watch her dog for the day as service so we did to help her out! So we had Ami over for the day, she's a little cuddly dog and we got lots of cute pics with her of course. She sheds a lot though so there was plenty of hair to vacuum up after she left. 

On sunday no one we are working with came to church, just one of those sunday's! It was good though, I tried translating a member of the Stake presidency's talk that was visiting us and his old man Swedish combined with his Southern Swedish\Danish accent went straight over my head, I'm not to that level yet! We've been going by lots of tankbara undersöker (potential investigators) and still hitting that finding work hard, tracting it up! We've been doing this cool thing where we have members write there testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon then handing it out to people like we try to do and then reporting back to them who there testimony helped bring the gospel, it's been awesome! 

President Beckstrand has given all missionaries the challenge to switch off reading 2 Nephi 9 and Enos every night this transfer and I've been doing it for a couple weeks now and it's been amazing. No matter what, I always learn something new when I read. It has really showed me like I said earlier how important the Book of Mormon is and how much we can learn and apply to our lives. I challenge everyone to try the challenge for at least one week and see what you think, I promise your desire to read the scriptures will grow. 

Have a super crazy good week and I love you all! 

Med mycket kärlek,

Äldste Hainsworth

 The Turning Torso, the tallest building in Northern Europe

You can't see in the pic but I'm pointing to Copenhagen!

Pier in Malmö

Elder DeMordaunt with Ami and a chocolate cake I made

 Ami making herself at home

Walking Ami to get some falafel for dinner (our apartment building in the background, 3rd floor)

Vaka i Växjö

God morgon/eftermiddag/natt! 

This week has been busy which is always a good thing! I feel like me and my companion were more of a manual labor crew than a missionary companionship with how much service we did again this week but service is always a good time!

We set a must-be-reached goal of unplanned people we would talk to this week which was super solid cause that's what this area needs! So we did a lot of swinging by potential investigator's or less actives then just knocking around their area to find people to teach. It's been working out pretty great and we have a good pool of potential investigators that we can hopefully pull an investigator or two out of!

There is one investigator named Corina we have who had a baptismal date and was progressing but sadly she's been on vacation the last 3 weeks, she got back and we met with her for the first time in a while this week and the baptism will be delayed to some later date, maybe in the fall. It's sad but people are people with needs and concerns and desires and I definitely don't want investigators walking in one end of the Church then walking right back out the other end! She'll get there when she's ready!

We had the usual sights and sounds of Växjö this week with taking a 2 hour train ride to Kristianstad for district meeting on friday. We also played soccer again on saturday which is always a good time playing against 30 year old out of shape men.

In Church I decided (with my companion's loving encouragement) to give translating a go. So I translated for a new couple in our ward from London during sunday school and it went really well! Obviously there were some words that went straight over my head but it was a confidence builder in my language abilities for sure.

I want to share an experience that my companion and I had yesterday while doing potential investigator swing by's. It was about 8:30 pm and we were trying to decide if we wanted to go home and eat since we hadn't had dinner yet or keep swinging by people and knocking doors. We decided to swing by Swali, a 20 year old African who was a potential investigator we'd tracted into the week before. Turns out that Swali wasn't home or even lived there but a lady named Anna answered. We decided to give Anna the Book of Mormon to give Swali. Anna said she actually has one herself and we were like what!?  Turns out she's read some of it, likes it, but has never met with missionaries before so we have an appointment set up for this week!! Which for here in Växjö is super exciting, a planned lesson in the week! God really does work in weird, unexpected ways but it just goes to show that His plan is a lot better than ours!

Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is obedience. It says in John 14:15, if you love me, keep my commandments. Our agency is a gift from God but our happiness comes from obedience to His laws. I have seen that so much on my mission, wickedness cannot bring lasting happiness and peace, it just can't. The only way to true, lasting, fulfilling joy is through Jesus Christ and the light He can bring into our life.

Ha det så gott!

Äldste Hainsworth

PS This is random but I love snowboarding and have always looked up to the legend of snowboarding, Jeremy Jones, and I just found out HE'S A MORMON!! My mind was BLOWN! So cool, anyways that was all! 

 Middle Eastern desserts.

4th of July in Sweden

Tjena tjena! 

This week was relatively slow but I'll try to fill you in on the highlights! 

We've been working with a less active who joined the Church 8 months ago by doing service for her and teaching her through the lessons. She is super bad at focusing and not getting distracted so for teaching her the Restoration we decided to mix it up. Her and myself became companions and taught Elder DeMordaunt. She taught so well and stayed focused the whole time! I actually learned from her and got some new insights from how she taught, you really can learn from anyone if you keep an open mind.

On Wednesday a member invited us to have lunch at her non-profit organization's house so we biked there (beautiful day) and had lunch. She was really stressed and was telling us about all the problems she's been having so she asked us to give her a blessing. I was able to offer the blessing and I can truly testify that the power of the priesthood is real. The Spirit was so strong and all I could feel was an intense, burning love for Anita that I know was just a little taste of her Heavenly Father's love for her. 

We've been doing a lot of service this week, mowed some lawns and did some other yard work. One family we did service for needed their lawn mowed so Elder DeMordaunt got right on that while I did the difficult task of playing soccer with her kids (I probably got more sweaty than him actually). It was super fun and reminded me of my childhood days playing soccer outside for hours. 

We got to go down to Malmö this week for zone training! In Kungsbacka it was a 20 minute drive to zone training, now it's a 2 hour train ride. For those who don't know or are too lazy to check google maps, Malmö is at the very bottom of Sweden and right by the Danish border where Copenhagen is. I didn't get to go to Denmark but Malmö was awesome. Such a different side of Sweden and really fun to get lunch and walk around, people also seemed a little happier and nicer down here. 

A lot of finding work being done this week, tracting loooots of buildings trying to find more investigators. It's been a test of diligence for sure but the small successes are rewarding enough to keep pushing forward. It's been in the 80's this week, the apartment is like a sauna when we walk in, I have no idea how other missionaries do this all the time! Rain is in the forecast! 

Oh and we sadly did nothing for fourth of july, no parties, no fireworks BUT a (Swedish) member played the National Anthem in Sacrament meeting and I sung the words in my head so that made up for it!

The theme recently has been Ether 12:27 for me. I know Heavenly Father is testing me and that diligence and pressing forward through trials is not only the best way to learn and grow, it's the only way! It's why we're here on earth! I know the Lord is consecrating my performance every step of the way. 

All the best, viva la Sverige!

Äldste Hainsworth

  Biking with the comp

Breakfast of champions

Sightseeing in Malmö

Walking the streets, almost in my old homeland of Denmark!

 (Malmo, across from Denmark)

 City Hall

O'boy is like Nesquik but better, so happy I found O'boy cereal!

Utah license plate??

Settling Into Vaxjo

So I moved! I'm no longer in the very Swedish town of Kungsbacka but have moved down south to the very immigrant-y, bigger town of Växjo in the middle of nowhere. My new companion is Elder DeMordaunt and he's awesome. He went to 2 years at BYU before his mission and even stayed in the same dorm as me. He's been out for about 9 months and is a tall guy, like 6'3". He's from Eagle, ID so we know some of the same people! And we have a lot of common interests so yeah it's been way fun so far! 

I was sad to leave Kungsbacka this week but I'm happy with how I left it with a good investigator pool and lots of stuff for the sisters to do. Växjö kind of has a reputation for disobedient missionaries so there's not much going on in the area but that's ok! I'm optimistic and we've already found some positive potential investigators this week. It's a tiny branch, about 14 active members in church every sunday so you know what that means! Yep, I gave a 10 minute talk in church on sunday haha guess I joked about it happening too much, but it went great, good chance to really see weaknesses in my Swedish since it was dead quiet except for me speaking at the pulpit. 

They have an accent here called Smålandska which is like the southern Swedish accent but less intense and more beautiful (the southern accent is more like a danish accent where your r's are w's. I still smile everytime I hear it cause it's just so funny the way they talk but I'm getting used to it! The chapel here is really cool, it's right in the middle of the city on a busy street so we do open church a couple times a week to let people come check it out. 

We've been doing a lot of less actives swing by's and tracting so far. The youngest member in the branch is 30 so we gotta get some families going here in Växjö, what's a Mormon church without little kids running around and crying in sacrament?! So anyways, it's been a different and new experience but that's the best part of a mission so I'm just gonna work hard and enjoy the ride!

 "Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism" -Gordon B. Hinckley.

It's not always easy but choosing to be happy and remembering how blessed we are makes all the difference!

Äldste Hainsworth

 My mission dad, "they grow up so fast"

Headed to bigger and better things in Växjö!

Trying to roast marshmallows in the rain

Playing a traditional Viking game called Kubb, like horseshoes meets bowling

Goodbye Kungsbacka, Hello Växjö

Hallå allihopa! 

This week was pretty crazy, transfer calls are in annnnnnnd I'm leaving! No more Kungsbacka for me, or even Goteborg zone! I'm headed to Växjö which is a small branch kinda in the middle southern part of Sweden. I don't really know what to expect and I know nothing about my new companion but that's the beauty of it! Oh and the Elders area in Kungsbacka is shutting down, at least for now, so Sister Mecham and her new companion will be busy next transfer with all our investigators and what not we're handing over to them. 

On p-day we went to Ulåred which is the biggest shopping store\center in at least Northern Europe, picture a Walmart but like 7x bigger, it was crazy!! 

We had a super good lesson with Lars this week, we discussed a lot about evolution and science and it was way good, I love serving in Sweden cause everyone here is so dang smart and doesn't just accept everything at face value which is super good but can be annoying at times too! Makes for some great discussions. 

We went by Harry Mordbey's (we call him Wizard Mordbey) for the last time. He's a member in our ward that reminds me of the turtle from Kung Fu Panda. We got to look at his book collection and I always learn so much from him, I hope I can be old and wise one day. 

We had an AMAZING lesson with Vanessa on thursday. She's a lady we contacted last week and we got to give her a tour of the church and answer a lot of her questions. She's an awesome investigator and she's one of the people I'll miss most about leaving, I have high hopes for her with the Sisters next transfer! 

On friday it was Midsommar so we pretty much got the day off cause people like to drink...haha it was so fun, we went to two midsommar parties and danced around the Maypole and it was just really cool Swedish tradition where people wore traditional Swedish clothes and performed traditional Swedish songs, Sweden's the best! 

That's about it for this week, exciting week ahead sending Elder Christensen home and heading to Växjö, har det gott!

Äldste Hainsworth

 Dancing around the midsommar pole

Missionary tanning

I thought we were doing a serious one

The 4 man<3

Had to say bye to our investigator Bent, I'll miss him

 Midsommar pole!

Tapas from a Spanish member

My companions getting a little excited....