Migrating South for the Winter

Transfer's are upon us and for the second time in a row I will be "doubling out" of the area! I will be transferring to Helsingborg to greenie-break (companion after their trainer) Elder Walton and Elder Erikson will be transferring to Vendelsö in Stockholm to train a new Finnish Elder! Elder Erikson and I have been scrambling trying to get everything in tip top shape for the arrival of the lucky two new Elders coming into Växjö. 

On tuesday we went to an appointment we had with somehow in our neighborhood but got our apartment buildings mixed up and knocked on the same door but wrong building. We totally didn't realize it until after though so we just ended up talking to this mom from Thailand with a Thai-accented Swedish for a while till her husband came home then set up a follow up appointment with them! Coincidence? We met Annu at the church after that. Annu loves to talk and so the lesson took another direction and we just ended up reading some out of the Book of Mormon to address his questions and concerns. Annu was setting expectations for himself before we even set them so I'm excited for him. He even said the prayer at the end of the lesson. One of my favorite things about being a missionary is being there for someone's first prayer and how their face lights up and how happy they are that they've just offered a prayer to their Heavenly Father. We met up with Abdi at night so is a former runner on the Swedish national team and ran a 3:59 mile! Wow! He was super nice and we talked about basic Mormon beliefs, specifically for holidays for a school project he's doing in his college religion class. 

I spent the day in Karlskrona on friday since Elder Erikson was at train the trainers in Stockholm. I was in a tri-pan with Elders Linchenko and Christley and it was an awesome time, Karlskrona's a sweet city.

Saturday was pretty much the same as last saturday, we somehow ended back up in Karlskrona and doing service for the same lady, Carolina! It was a super good time with six elders there, she fed us well and we helped her backyard out a lot. 

On Sunday it was bittersweet, I've grown close to the members here and I don't want to leave them so fast but that's just how it is. We had an amazing last time in church where Elder Erikson and I bore our testimonies and got a couple of investigators in church and they had great experiences. The one I'm most excited about is Brad, he's the American who's going to college here in Sweden, 51 and loves to talk about how weird and different the Swedish culture is so we naturally love him. He came to church for the first time cause he's literally alone, getting divorced, new country, and he's looking for the love and support that comes from a church family. I wish I could stick around for Brad. 

Happy Halloween!

Äldste Hainsworth

 Throwback to when Elder Demordaunt and I were in the newspaper! 

Splits Gone Wild!

This week we went bowling on p-day with some of my favorite members, Marvin, Jonny and Helene. It was a super good time and I even got to show them a thing or two from my BYU bowling days. I love how bowling is just as fun here in Växjö, Sweden with people that were complete strangers to me 4 months ago as it was back home with long time family and friends. This mission makes me realize how small the world really is and that friendships and connections to people knows no cultural, linguistic, or religious bounds. 

On Thursday we had district meeting in Karlskrona and I served in Karlskrona with Elder Hart who I knew from before the mission at college. It was a great time and we worked hard and Elder Erikson and Elder Holt came back to Karlskrona on friday night to switch back. The plan was for the four of us to stay in the Karlskrona apartment then Elder Erikson and I to take the train to Växjö saturday morning. We couldn't buy tickets the usual way of calling the train company cause they're closed on the weekend. The only other option was to get the office's help and somehow the office never responded to our insistent calling and texting so we were essentially stuck in Karlskrona all of saturday. We tagged along with the four elders in Karlskrona the whole day and had a great time with some members that accommodated for two extra elders. We ended up sleeping over and catching a train back sunday morning just in time for church. I think I need to bring some backup pairs of socks for future splits in case that ever happens again...

It was a disappointing week for investigators, our investigator Ava who I've come to love and appreciate so much was doing great and had read most of the Book of Mormon in the short 3 weeks we'd met with her. She was doing so well but last night we went by her apartment and her husband and other family members had returned from Syria. Due to family pressures Ava said she can't meet anymore, we were pretty devastated since she's our only progressing investigator at the moment and was doing so well but Ava has a great foundation of the gospel now and I'm confident that she's being prepared for future missionaries she'll encounter in her life. 

Brad R. Wilcox in a talk I listened to said "We didn't come to earth to find our self-worth, we brought it with us". That is something I'm discovering little by little in the service of God here in Sweden, that "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" D&C 18:10. We're all one big family here on earth so why not get to know each other and love each other and help each other reach our full God-given potential and understand our divine self worth. 

Love all of you so very much! 

Äldste Hainsworth

 Bowling with the crew

 Elder Erikson hit his year mark!

Food festival in Karlskrona

 Making some German pretzels with Hannah the German exchange student!

A Swedish Style Week, Lagom

Hey y'all! This was one of those weeks where the whole week wasn't amazing but it wasn't bad either, it was lagom. Overall though we did lots of finding work and taught some really good lessons.

We were able to meet with Ava our investigator again and she's doing great, she couldn't make it to church but actually showed up at church just to tell us that. She's the best. We also have been meeting with a young mom named Beatrice who is interested in the gospel and how it can help her and her small growing family. We had a wonderful lesson with her and she took it very well. Having Marvin as a member present was awesome too, it's so much more powerful when he says "when I was sitting in your seat a couple years ago" than anything we could say. 

After district meeting in Kristianstad I went on splits with Elder Duke. He's a brand new missionary and we had a great time together trying to understand people speaking skånish, a Swedish dialect that sounds a lot like Danish. 

We went out to our branch President and his wife's house with some members and had lunch with all of them and it was such a great time with such great people. For our message everyone ended up sharing there favorite scripture and how it's helped them through a trial or time in their lives. Their is such a power in the scriptures. 

I started reading in Helaman this week and stumbled upon this amazing scripture that I've never really noticed, Helaman 3:29-30. "29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked— 30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out". The scriptures are our guide to help us through life and return to our loving Heavenly Father. 

Hope you have a wonderful week! 

Love everyone,

Äldste Hainsworth

 Getting all those conference goodies.

Conference Weekend

Hey y'all! 

We got a new progressing investigator this week! Wooh! I'll try to turn her from just being a name in this email to someone you can truly appreciate and learn to love as I have quickly learned to love her. Her name is Ava and we tracted into her on tuesday. We of course had an Arabic Book of Mormon with us and gave her that to read while somehow finding Enos as a place for her to start. She read Enos and then some when we came back on saturday to teach her again. She expressed how she'd grown up Muslim but had lost her faith and was at a crossroads between Islam and Christianity and wants to find the right way. We promised her that as she reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it she will come to a knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and loves her and wants to bless her and her adorable family of a 3 and 5 year old, both daughters. She also has a husband but we haven't had the opportunity to meet him yet. Ava ended up coming to watch general conference and she got her own little room to watch it with her daughters in Arabic since her Swedish isn't the best. She's sincere and searching for the truth that comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ann Marie our investigator has still been sick but hopefully will be feeling better this week as well as our other investigator Kjell. It's pretty ridiculous how long our two formerly progressing investigators have been sick, please pray for their health! They really need it!  

I also had the privilege of going on splits with Elder Kapp here in Växjö, Elder Reed's (MTC comp) trainer. He's a heck of a missionary and I learned a lot working alongside him. We were only together for the day but we met several positive potential investigators and had a great time doing it. 

On friday we just had a killer weekly planning session, I get so excited after some good weekly planning. We tried to arrange swing by's for the week by geographical area and pair a member we could take with us to everyone we're going by, we'll see how it goes! 

We also had the opportunity to meet "Smokey" on saturday night, he came up and talked to us, his "American brothers". He said he sells all sorts of drugs and guns if we were interested in becoming customers. We politely said we were good but had a good conversation with him, he's been to America twice! And hey, being good pals with the local drug dealer can never hurt. 

Conference was great this past weekend, I ate sooo much candy but hey, conference godis are a tradition! I loved the talk by President Eyring in the Sunday morning session. "As you obey, the impressions from the Spirit will come more frequently, closer and closer to constant companionship". What a blessing and a gift that is if we can learn to follow the pattern and promptings of the Spirit. Honestly missionary work would be pointless without the Spirit's help, it makes ALL the difference. I testify to that.

Shout out to newly ordained Elder Renlund of the 12 Apostles for being an RM from Sweden! 

Have an amazing week!

Mvh,

Äldste Hainsworth

On the lookout for investigators

General Conference this last weekend! 

The Rap Artist I Wanna be Like is Jesus

This has been another awesome week here in Växjö, I think I just passed my 4 month mark in this great area! Let me give you the low down on how this week went.

Last monday we biked out to an older inactive member couple and of course they were just heading out the door to walk their dog so we said we'd come back later. We had a good night of tracting and got some good potential investigator's out of it. 

Tuesday was just one of those cloudy down days. We did a lot of area book work and calls in the afternoon to set stuff up. That's one awesome thing I've learned from Elder Erikson is the gold that can be found in the area book, I mean think about it, it's just a ton of work that missionaries before you have already done in your area in one convenient binder! We went by the coolest old investigator ever, Luciano. He's dropping a rap album about faith soon so he gave us some samples of his beats and rapped and sung to them, I was diggin it. It's gonna be in English, Swedish, Italian, and Spanish. He invited us into his studio sometime to see how his English is in his English raps. He also brought up the topic of baptism himself and how he's thinking of getting baptized, he's pretty set on a friend of his baptizing him but we'll see what happens. Quote of the day, when Luciano was talking about his favorite rappers, "The rap artist I wanna be like is Jesus". 

On wednesday we met up with Elder Hart and his brand new greenie, Elder Holt, in Växjö since they had to do some immigration stuff for Elder Holt's visa. We had lunch with them at a moderately fancy restaurant on the lake and had a grand old time. We did some swing by's in the afternoon in a neighborhood where we seem to visit a lot. After that we met up with Helen in the branch and read the classic story of Laban and the brass plates with her. We had open church then went home, had dinner and planned. 

Thursday was a good day. We took a train down to Malmö for zone training. It was a great training all about working with members and helping people keep the Sabbath Day holy. My favorite part was watching a little Bible video of Christ and the last supper, if you haven't watched it, do it today, it gave me such feelings of peace and love and made we want to run to church to take the Sacrament on sunday. We made it back to our area then did language study then headed to an old investigator's house, Jacob. We had a good discussion about the Bible and I learned a lot from teaching him. 

On friday we went out to Anita's house to do some service packing up books. Both of our lessons blåsted on us so we found a referral and did some tracting then weekly planned at night.

Highlight of the week for sure! Saturday I was in my old hometown, the country of Lego and putting lots of butter on stuff and expensive cars, that's right you guessed it, Denmark! Well, Copenhagen to be specific. We got up at 5 am and drove down with the Stokes as part of the stake temple trip. It was pretty special to me cause we lived in Denmark and I was there for the open house of the Copenhagen temple in 2004 as well as my older sister Nicole serving a 3 month mission doing tours for the temlpe open house. We did 2 sessions in the temple, one in English and one in Swedish which was SO cool! And for the second session I happened to run into 2 of the Danish elders who I went through the MTC with that happened to be there as well, how random is that? After the temple we went to the Vor Frue Church that has the original Christus and 12 Apostles, so incredible to see, Christ was portrayed so beautifully and majestically. We drove home at night and that wiped out our whole saturday, made it to our apartment at 9:29 pm. What a day! 

Sunday was church then meeting with an old investigator named Antonio then biking out to Teleborg and tracting and meeting with a member family.

My thought for this week is about the temple. My testimony of the temple is strengthened every time I go and I know with more and more certainty that it is the House of the Lord. There is a feeling of peace, joy, and love that abides there and to put it simply, it feels like home. It feels like coming home. D&C 88:119.

Have a fantastic week as always! 

Med mycket kärlek,

Äldste Hainsworth

 Selfie overlooking Denmark!

The original Christus 

 Selfie overlooking Denmark!