December 4th - Gospel Induced Labor

Hello! The christmas craziness has begun! We're flying down to Stockholm tomorrow to spend p day there then sleeping over with my old comp, Elder Baquedano, monday night then we have a Christmas conference with the Stockholm and Norrland zones on tuesday. So I just wanted to send a quick email about the week now while I have the chance. 

This week has had its fair share of highlights. We were with a less active lady, Carmen, and her family. She has some non members living with her and so there's a ton of little kids. Oh and they're from Columbia so some speak Spanish, some English and some Swedish. It's a blast. We got to play with their kids and teach Darlin and Lina-Maria who are each moms. Lina-maria was pregnant and actually went into labor while we were visiting and teaching them so we kept the message short so she could be driven to the hospital! 

Two struggles with the Norrland life are:

A. Our bikes are our main source of transportation and we keep them outside. Below freezing the bike lock freezes and we can't unlock our bikes. We have to use a hammer.

B. Our chains are both loose and so we stop every couple minutes to put it back on. This means wherever we go the first thing we do is always wash the grease off our fingers. 

On saturday we had district meeting here in Skellefteå with the zone leaders then did workovers with them. It was a ton of fun as the four of us helped a member move a stone countertop piece that was insanely heavy and did some other service while it was -20*C. We drove out to a frozen lake and took some really nice starry night pictures after that. The zone leaders stayed the night then we all had church together today. 

Other exciting news, Skellefteå branch just got a tv and the setup so that we can start streaming sacrament meeting from Sundsvall, a large branch of 90ish members down closer to Stockholm. That'll be nice for the branch to get some variance in their speakers and what not. 

Things are rough with Alexander, he cancelled on us a couple times this week and the communication with him hasn't been there. We're really hoping he's doing alright and that we can meet with him soon and talk things out, see what's on his mind. His baptism will definitely be pushed back though. Pray for him!

Anyways I've gotta get going but take care! Happy holidays! 

Hej så länge! 

Äldste Hainsworth

Email Received: December 4th, 2016

November 28th - One for the Books

Hello friends and family! Happy thanksgiving! From the pics I got from home thanksgiving looked like so much fun in Centerville. Äldste Mecham and I spent the day going to district meeting in Luleå and staying warm in our cozy little cabin that always reminds me of Rics cabin. Shoutout to the Tidballs, miss you guys<3

Well this week wasn't too eventful to be honest so I think I'll mostly capture the events of the week through pictures. We spent most of our time contacting people on the street. It was a grind kind of week. Fun though since we're talking to people about the Christmas initative on mormon.org and showing the video. Go watch it if you haven't. 

Oh one random experience, a lady we contacted just put her hand on my shoulder, said that she'd just gotten a full body massage and didn't have the energy to talk about that stuff then walked off. That was a new excuse in the books. 

Things are going well, time is flying and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment in the Lord's service. 

Have a super week! I know I will since we can officially start listening to christmas music! 

Much love,

Äldste Hainsworth

Skellefteå's main square

Big celebration in the city for the first advent

Street we live on (our apartment's on the far left) 

Sunrise. Taken from our porch. 

On a frozen lake

Northern lights!!!

Here's a typical day of dressup: underarmour, dress shirt, sweater, puffy vest, big jacket. Don't forget the hat gloves and scarf! And wool socks. 

Heated floors are a blessing

Email Received: November 28, 2016

November 21st - 45 Minute Talk

Hey everyone,

I have been really enjoying my time up here in Skellefteå, or down here in Skellefteå if you're in the Arctic Circle I suppose. It's been warmer than my first week and the snow has turned into bumpy ice and lots of slush. Just this morning on the way here Elder Mecham fell making a turn on his bike when his back wheel slid out. He's ok though and we're biking slowly and carefully. It's kinda fun, my mountain biking days are coming in handy cause I haven't fallen yet *knock on wood.

So a missionary came up to me at a big training we had in Umeå and was like Elder Hainsworth my mom asked about you this week. I said what how come? He said apparently your mom was talking on facebook or somewhere about how she's worried about you staying warm...So I just want to publicly say that I'm staying warm! It's all about layers. I appreciate your concern though mom, love you! 

Alexander is moving forward and has committed to live the Word of Wisdom. I've got a lot of respect for that guy. Him and his fiance are living together and she's been giving him a hard time about the church. He said after our last meeting he was going to talk to her about it because this Church means a lot to him and she should want what's best for him. 

We did a fun workovers up in Boden with the Elders and that was a fun time. I got to teach some lessons and contact with Elder Carter whose brand spankin new to Sweden and it amazes me how competent he is in missionary work and Swedish. Motivates an old goober like me.

Some facts about the branch of Skellefteå

-it's the smallest in Sweden with 4 active members

-church is 2 hours long, sacrament meeting and sunday school

-the branch president and missionaries mainly give talks

-we meet in a cute little house nestled right outside the city

My first sunday in Church I had the opportunity to give a 45 minute talk. Yes that's right, we took the sacrament then I spoke then the meeting was over. It went suprisingly well, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was easier to talk since there was only 5 people I had to make eye contact with. 

I have a testimony that the Church is true wherever you go. I received a warm welcome here in Skellefteå and it's been the same every area I've been to. I love the community of brothers and sisters we have all over the world. Makes the world feel just a little bit smaller. 

Take care, happy thanksgiving! 

Love,

Äldste Hainsworth

Nice pink church, reminds of the centerville house's old paint job

The district

Waxin up my jacket to waterproof it, it's usually black

Email Received - November 21, 2016

November 14th - Northern Lights Spotting

Good morning Vietnam!!! Well my first week up here in Skellefteå has come and gone and it was a quick one despite all the Swedes laughing at America after the election. My new companion is Elder Mecham, here's a brief bio:

-talented photographer with a big camera. Expect some nice pics

-from Springdale, Arkansas

-very outdoorsy 

-loves music 

-been on a mission for almost a year and a half and in Skellefteå one transfer

It's been so fun cause Elder Mecham's an experienced missionary so we just go to town and we're both on the same page and it's been so great! Skellefteå (pronounced "Shu-left-eo") is the smallest branch in Sweden with a whopping five members! Well, seven including missionaries. 

I was greeted in Skellefteå with a miracle, you ready for this one? So the sunday before I came up here was fast sunday right? So the ENTIRE DISTRICT (like a stake but smaller) of Norrland, all missionaries and members, fasted for the little branch of Skellefteå. In walks Alexander to the picture. One of the members, Ivar, has a personal asssistant named Alexander. A nice, quiet Swedish guy in his 20's. He reads the Book of Mormon to Ivar whenever he visits him and had taken a Book himself and had read the whole thing. Elder Mecham and Thacker asked him when they were at Ivar's if he'd like to meet sometime. He agreed and so my first day in the area we met Alexander, taught him the Restoration and he took it so well that we invited him to be baptized. Alexander accepted and is now scheduled for the 10th of December!! 

Otherwise we've been doing lots of finding work and showing me around the city. We also had district conference with all of Norrland so we slept over in Umeå saturday night and saw President and Sister Beckstrand and lots of other missionaries and members on sunday. It was a beautiful meeting, Ivar and Alexander came, and I received a confirmation of my being in Norrland during the meeting. 

Our district consists of the Luleå sisters and Boden Elders, we're the most northern district in the mission. The closest area is a two hour bus ride away. 

I saw the northern lights!!!!! They weren't that strong but still it was my first time. As we were biking back from a member's house in the evening we saw them on the horizon, green streaks across the sky.  So beautiful. I feel blessed to be in this beautiful part of the world and wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world doing anything else right now. 

Much love,

Äldste Hainsworth

Zone leaders and Sundsvall Elders on a frozen lake in Umeå

Elder Mecham the new partner in crime

Our cozy little apartment

The main square

Swedes call it a "spark". Direct translation: "kick" 

The big "bro"

Our modest church 

Email received: November 14, 2016

November 8th - Migrating....North For the Winter

I just got transfer calls for the LAST 3 MONTHS OF MY MISSION!!!!! Where has the time gone?!?! I'm going way up north for the middle of winter, it's gonna be sooo cold I don't know what I'm gonna do. But I'm stoked out of my mind, northern lights, reindeer, moose, winter wonderland of snow, I'm getting the real swedish deal for christmas time. I'm excited to keep y'all updated and I'll even send some pics from where the movie "Frozen" was filmed ;) kidding but seriously that's what I'm expecting! Elder Kilton my comp has served up there so he gave me the inside scoop. More next week though. Elder Kilton's staying and getting Elder Brown from Karlstad. 

Some of the highlights from this week: 

SNOW! It's begun! Well here in Norrköping at least, I'm guessing it started snowing a while ago up in Skellefteå. 

Ricardo is doing great and is on track to be baptized the 19th of November. I'm sad I'm missing his baptism by a week and a half but I know I'm leaving him in good hands with Elder Kilton and Elder Brown. 

Adrian is doing awesome and is just chugging along towards being baptized in January. These two guys are about the same age as me and I've loved having them as investiagators, it just feels like my friends back home except that they both speak three languages and are on track to be members of the Church. 

We did a 3 day 2 night workovers in Katrineholm and it was awesome! I love Elder Holt and Anthon and we had a blast playing Uno with some members and teaching lots of lessons to their investigators. 

We went to Linköping on p day to hangout with Elders Blattman and Johnson for Halloween, it was pretty lame, no ward halloween parties, but we played ping pong and made some mini corn dogs. 

I said goodbye to the ward on sunday. I've come closer to these members as a whole than any other on my mission and it's just made it harder to say goodbye. So many stellar people that I'm going to miss. 

I shared my testimony on sunday of something I've learned in my time in Norrköping. It's the worth of a soul. I compared it to the cemetary at night on Alla Helgons Dag with all the small tea candles dispelling the darkness. If one small candle can dispel all the darkness of the night, how can we let the darkness in the world conceal our light? It reminded me of one of my favorite poems called "The Sunshine Kid" by Harry Baker (go listen to it right now if you haven't). Especially rolling into the winter season as the nights creep forward and the sun shys away, our contenance, a smile or a kind word can do so much. That's one of my goals these next couple months is to be a light in the darkness, literally and figuratively. 

Have a good week, sköt om er! 

Puss kram hej hej! 

-Hainy (as Alex our new convert calls me)

Little late but our halloween decorations

Halloween costumes: Harry Potter and Swedish women's volleyball player

Elder Holt, Elder Anthon, and comp

Cleaning the church with the ward

Halloween sighting

Ricardo

Bishop Bondesson and his wife

Kerstin

Alla Helgons Dag where everyone lights candles in the graveyard at night in remembrance of those that have passed on

Email received: November 8th, 2016

October 31st - Surprise Drug Test

Hello everyone! 

Some good highlights happened this week! Everything seemed to fall into place, well not everything, but a lot of things! 

We are working with Ricardo who now has a baptismal date for the 19th of November. He's awesome and it's so fun working with him since we're like the same age, he just started his freshman year of college and tells me about the struggles which I can totally relate to. 

I witnessed a miracle this week. Adrian, our awesome investigator out in Nyköping, is going to flight school. He made some mistakes a couple months ago with drugs and what not but has completely moved on and is working towards baptism. He gave us a call this last week saying that there's a drug test in school and he's worried he'll get kicked out of school despite his efforts these last few months to follow God. Not only that most of his classmates were going to fail the drug test. So the night before the test they all got together, read the scriptures, prayed, and fasted. Many of Adrian's friends were atheists and had never done something like that before. We get a call the next day in the afternoon and Adrian reports that EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the class passed the test!! It's unexplainable and impossible but it happened. He says one of his previous atheist friends walked out of the school after the test and said "God is not dead man!" 

Have a great week! Sorry I don't have a ton of time this week! 

Love,

Äldste Hainsworth

Mini corn dogs at district meeting

Alex brushed us up on our middle eastern geography

Splits with Elder Anthon 

We found a pet cemetery

Email Received: October 31st, 2016

October 25th - My Mom Came to Visit.....

Happy fall! The rain's been coming down this week and the trees are turning bare as we wander the streets of Norrköping in search of those prepared (hey that rhymed). 

We got a referal! Adrian brought along his roommate out in Nyköping when we met with him and we got to teach him! I learned that it's important to get to know someone before you start teaching 

them. We hopped right into a lesson with his friend and taught the Restoration. Everything seemed to be going well when he interrupted me giving the first vision of Joseph Smith to ask what happens after we die. So we totally changed directions and talked about the Plan of Salvation which he really liked and accepted. 

Mirium our friend and investigator who lived in America came to church and the members loved her! It was the primary program which she also loved. Little kid swedish is much cuter than little kid English in my opinion. Some members were confused because Mirium lovingly refers to me as her other son (she only has one real son) so they thought she was my mom coming to visit the ward. I wish! 

Other exciting news, we got Ricardo back! Ricardo was our old investigator that we handed over the Linköping elders but since he hasn't actually moved to Linköping they handed him back to us to teach and prepare for baptism. I'm really excited, Ricardo's the coolest dude ever. Chilean but born and raised in Norrköping, Sweden. Met the missionaries 6 months ago and just started college. 

I wanted to share something I've been doing most of my mission and has just been an easy and effective way to lift up other people that you could try if you don't already do this. I like sending members or investigators or whoever a text when I read a scripture or general conference talk that I think they'd like or makes me think of them. Multiple people this past week have responded saying how they've been going through a trial at the moment and how it was just what they needed to keep going. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass". 

Having only a couple months on my mission and so much left I want to accomplish it's been overwhelming to think about everything. This quote was an answer to my prayers of how to go about everything. 

"Start where you are. Sometimes we feel discouraged because we are not “more” of something—more spiritual, respected, intelligent, healthy, rich, friendly, or capable. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve. God created us to grow and progress. But remember, our weaknesses can help us to be humble and turn us to Christ, who will “make weak things become strong.” Satan, on the other hand, uses our weaknesses to the point that we are discouraged from even trying. I learned in my life that we don’t need to be “more” of anything to start to become the person God intended us to become. God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work with you. All you need is a willing heart, a desire to believe, and trust in the Lord." -President Uchtdorf

Anyways that's about it for this week. Take care until next week! 

Love,

Äldste Hainsworth

Aron an RM from Arizona, good guy!!

Elder Kilton taught me how to play Warhammer Age of Sigmar on p day. It was fun exhausting.

Idk

Passed out in my chair

Pool on splits with Elder Holt and Pia

Emailed received: October 25th, 2016