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