August 29th 2009

Ok! This was a pretty crazy week, so crazy I just decided to make a video about it instead of typing about it...

We have some pretty cool video editing software here- so thats what I did pday morning.

We also went to Sys. Carlssons house today and had lunch. She is awesome. We had way good food at her little cottage outside in her little garden type thing. It was pretty cool.
We did some teaching, kinda.  We taught this guy, but it was like a nice bash the whole time...  It was just a tough situation.  He is super positive tho.  We also met some cool people on the street tho.  This one guy talked to us for a long time about if it is even possible if God exists, and if he does then why is this life so hard.   It was really interesting.  Learn alot out here!

Oh and I didnt explain too well, but my finger is healed all back to almost perfect. It healed super fast and way easily. I'm pretty much doing everything normal this whole time. Except I didnt go golfing today, I kinda wanted to go to the range just cause it is across the street and have fun with that.

Other then that I think I'm outta here!

Hejdå!

Äldste Adamson

22 August 2009

Hello Family!

I hope you all enjoyed Lake Powell! Yeppy! It's the last one I'll miss! Lake Powell is my favorite place on earth. I love that place. We'd have so much fun there-- Sleeping under the stars waiting for a huge crazy storm while wakeboarding and kneeboarding and skiing. So much fun!

Anyway, what happened this week....

We'll we dropped off Elder Reid at the airport today- That was kinda sad. He was our 3rd companion for a while- I thought having 3 of us was going to be hard and way awkward, but it wasn't! I really liked him and we had lots of fun. I've grown a lot on my nerd side since I've been to the office. I know all the linux terminology and super nerdy stuff. But it's been lots of fun. We have techtalk and googletalk all the time- where we just talk about computers and nerdy stuff. But it's lots of fun. Reid is going to BYU so I'll see him when i go home. Nati watch out he is after you!

Speaking of that... Here is "the Office" video we made...

Hope you enjoyed that. It was so fun to make! It took one whole pday pretty much. We weren't completely done then cause we needed the 2 first scenes- the Stockholm scenes. You might not know what those buildings are in the first 2 little clips- but those are probably 2 of the most famous Swedish land icons.

We do plan on making tiny episodes- that are like 2 minutes long that just deal with office stuff. Hopefully we get around to doing that.

Oh I'll quickly go over the cast of the office. I'm in there running the shredder; Elder Edmunds (my comp) does the phone switch; Elder Reid fixes his tie; Elder Jackson catches the pen; Elder Langston is the guy who moves the little award at the end; Sister Johnson is the only female... and her husband is the boss guy who lectures us in the first clip.

Thats us here in the office!!

Yesterday we went out contacting and tracking for Elder Reids last time and we actually had a pretty cool story. We met a way open guy who was way familiar with our religion and was super positive and honest. It was so refreshing to meet a honest person who would listen! I'm sorry but most people are horrible at listening... I'm sure I am too but it's super important to listen to what people actually say and what they are trying to convey. Anyway this guy was way cool! He took the Book of Mormon and said that we could come back next Wednesday or Thursday. He was really familiar with the Bible and had read the Book of Mormon one time (didn't meet with the missionaries though, or he could be a member now.) Anyway when we were talking to him I just was way happy. We finally met someone who had their head on straight and would listen to what we said. I really hope he keeps listening to us. He was an awesome guy. He is in his 40's I would guess. I'm really excited to have a actual investigator and someone to kinda think about and worry about. The office is good... but I feel like a service missionary, not a proselyting missionary....

Elder Reid wanted to go to the temple before he left so we got to go! It was pretty cool like always. The session was actually in Norwegian. All the Scandinavia languages are really similar, especially Swedish and Norwegian, so I understood pretty much all of it. Sometimes I was surprised how similar it was. It was almost exactly the same, just with a Norrland accent.

To office stuff- I fixed most of SJ Prio Cards problems... Most of them... I emailed them and they never responded so I called them up and asked what was up and so they replied with our current account info- It was pretty close, I was actually pretty impressed besides the fact they deleted 4 missionaries off our account. Hopefully they don't need to take a train anytime soon.

Last night was Elder Reids last night. We played Scum (best card game ever) and stuff, and then Langston stole my pillow so I had to get it back and then we had a techtalk. It was pretty fun.

Oh I did a little work on- LakeSideArt.com

you can go see some slight changes (more like just fixed a few typos etc.)

Keep visiting and posting on- jcadamson.blogspot.com

Well that's about it!

Hejdå

Äldste Adamson

August 18th 2009

Well my whole family is in Lake Powell.... so I'm not quite sure why I'm writing. Ok well I guess I'll write so they know what I was doing when they were gone!

Ok well we did a ton of office work this week. ALOT! We actually got a lot of problems solved. 1 massive problem we've had is that the long distance trains here, well you need this card to get tickets. Our account should be hooked up to all the missionaries cards, and it's not. The past 6 months they didnt always get hooked up... Well and also we have alot of missionaries that are now home with active cards. Thats not good, so I spent alot of time emailing this company telling them what to do. No one in Sweden works during the summer. That's just how it is. So it's been pretty frustrating to do anything that envolves swedes during the summer. But we got that solved -- hopefully. We are waiting for a email from them confirming that they actually did that stuff.

Oh and another kinda fun thing that we did was order nametags! Alot of missionaries wanted nametags but the ordering system isn't the best and how to work it has kinda been lost down the generations of secretaries. We'll we texted every missionary in the mission and asked them if they wanted nametags. So basically we got a huge order put together and hopefully they arrive soon!

Oh for P-day we went and played basketball, then we went to stockholm - parking was 138 kronor. It was a holiday of sorts (not really sure what they were celebrating, culture or something) Anyway the cool thing was they had lots of really nice cars around. So I got some cool pictures of them. We also ate lunch with Vanim - a recent convert swede who now lives in utah! He lived in Kristianstad so I knew him from that. He was just back in Sweden for his brothers wedding.

Here is a picture of some guy and his car.

We also had a pretty interesting teach the other day. A few weeks ago we contacted this pretty young girl - we dont normally do this, but she talked to us, and later her friend came over too and we were just talking about religion on a bench and stuff. It was pretty cool-- but they said they would read and pray (yeah they kinda did that actually) and we'd meet again sometime. So we finally met again and it was pretty good. They both felt like they didnt get an answer, so we explained Moroni 10 a little better- hopefully they got it! AND they said they would come to church! So we'll have to see about that. The good thing is that here in Täby we have tons of young women in the ward, so they could help them out.

The assistants are teaching this couple that is awesome! It's way cool. At first they were not so interested but for some reason the girl, they just contacted her on the street, gave her information without really thinking about it cause she was in a hurry. And sence then they've really read and started to get answers! They are awesome! They are moving to France soon to study, but the missionaries there will hopefully keep them going. They had a really cool story about it.

Anyway I'll report more as it comes!

Have a great week! And hopefully my family reads this when they get back from Lake Powell!

OH I ALMOST FORGOT! My mom is getting married on 2009 09 09 So that will be pretty exciting. I think it will be really good for my family! Sounds like everyone back home is excited for it.

Hejdå

ÄA

Next week i'll post our office intro video.

August 8th 2009

Hello Everyone!

This week was pretty cool, we went to zone conference and that was pretty fun- it was a 3 zone conference. Maybe in normal missions that is no big deal- but here it was huge. We had probably 2/3 of all the missionaries - and for some of them it was a 3+ day trip. Honestly it really was. All of Norrland (Skellefteå, Umeå, Luleå, Ö-vik and Sundsvall) they all flew down 1-2 days before. It was actually a two day conference, well the first day all the leaders got together. Anyway they came down, stayed for 3 days, then flew back. so it was a big deal for norrland.Driving to Gubbängen was kinda crazy. I was driving our big huge van - her name is Rida. Anyway our instructions wern't too good, but i knew close to where it was. And we were in charge of packages - and I'm pretty sure we didnt messup! That is always good. Keep those missionaries happy. We get alot of people who do orders really late and try to get in last minute things and that is not good, and i think we forgot 1 thing but they told us way late.

Anyway we had a good conference. It is cool to see them from an administrative point of view - even though i dont know much. But it was cool. I wore my new suit that I told you about last time. I got it for a way good deal and it is a super sick suit. And the tie I'm wearing has a good story about it. I got it at a white elephant gift exchange last christmas - but it was way wide- like 2x as wide. So me and Elder Langston decided to make it a skinny tie. I'm not sure if skinny ties are in in USA but they are here. I guess it is just that swing of the fashion. And my suit and pants were pretty tight. I was kinda worried that they would split the whole time and as you know i'm way freaking skinny haha. Here is the picture.

Anyway so then after zones conference we drove all of the Norrland zone back to the mission home, and then went tracting with them. that was pretty fun. I was with Elder Hanes- he went to my high school and graduated 1 year later. We didnt really know eachother but we knew tons of the same people so that was fun to talk about them and catch up on stuff. There is another missionary here from Alta. His name is Elder Murri.

Elder Hanes, me and Elder Murri

Ok but this is the best part about this week. On saturday, being our pday, we filmed the office intro (for you who are unfamiliar with The Office TV show better watch some - it's halarious.) Well anyway we made our own version of the intro. I'll add the final product later. It's super funny. we got all the scenes pefectly copied and some awesome stuff in it. If you've seen the office you'll love it.

Oh i forgot to tell you! I'm in a 3 comp right now. Elder Reid is my 3rd companion for this week and next week. He is going to go home so he can go to byu next semester and so he is just waiting here at the office with us. it makes things kinda weird sometimes and hard, but it is good. Elder Edmunds is awesome tho- I look up to him alot.

Oh ok one day we were suppose to meet these girls that we met the week before. Anyway they forgot about it but we were by this basketball court in this huge area and there were some teen guys just chillin by it. one guy was shooting hoops and the others were drinking and smoking. Anyway I was like hey we should go talk to them - for several reasons. 1- we have 3 of us, what else are we going to do? tracting or contacting would be way awkward! 2- we should always talk to everyone. 3- I always wanted to play basketball in a suit. So we go over there, and I said in english something like hey do you guys want to play some ball, I'm from the states. So we played a quick game, swedes are pretty wimpy athletes but they were pretty good and it was lots of fun. But then after we just talked with them for 2 hours about everything. life, the states, sweden, and most importantly we talked quite a bit about the gospel. they were all drunk, but hopefully they remember some of it. it was pretty intersting to hear what they said. They asked us if we wanted to drink and smoke and we said no, we dont do that and guess what! They said "oh you guys are smart, I wish i never started." Ok we get answers like that sometime =not too impressive, but this is what really impressed me. They straight up asked what we thought about sex before marriage, and I told them and they were like "wow thats actually really cool." I was pretty shocked. Then they were said stuff about not getting STDs and stuff. Anyway I thought it was pretty cool. We did alot of missionary work by just playing basketball with 10 teens. ok they were between 18-24 or something, but it was really good.

Well thats about it! Oh this week we are only going to listen to christmas music. I'm not really sure why, or how long it is going to last but it will be fun!

Have a great week!

Take care,

ÄA

Ok this is a picture of the remainders of our awesome district. Elder Stocks, Balhorn, Adamson and Langston. Elder Dixon is in Utby and Elder Czuba is home.

August 1st 2009

This week I honestly don't have too much exciting stuff to report- so it'll be quick.

Ok now I'm thinking of more interesting things I've done the past week.

Well we had a very successful day with numbers actually! 3 new investigators!! and 7 total teaches and 2 member teaches! pretty impressive for the office AND we did about 20 hrs of service work this week-- I'll explain that later.

Well we went by this tänkbara undersökare - I honestly cannot think of what that is in english. Well a maybe investigator, oh a potential investigator. Well anyway we went by one of those to see if she was intersted -- she wasnt home. So we went trackting for a little bit - that was super boring - so then we just went contacting and walking around Täby Centrum.
Anyway it was my comps turn and I saw this girl walking up and so I told him to talk to her and so he did and she was like ok cool - well can we sit on a bench or something? uh... yeah! thats cool. So we talked to her for a little bit and then she said her friend is coming so we talked to her too. It was pretty cool. her friend has read the bible 3 times! Quite unbelievable for a swedish girl. Thats definately more times then i've read the whole bible. Well anyway it went good- the believe in something, but are not really sure what (thats how most Swedes are. On the surface they say they are athiest, but if you talk to them they usually admit that somewhere they atleast have a desire to believe.) Well the both committed to read and pray! It was pretty awesome. So yep we are going to meet them tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.

oh we got sucked into a pretty crazy service project. I'm still not sure what i think about it. It was good and all but i feel like we just kinda got owned. this member from Handen called and told us she needed Rida- our big blue van. Ok so... yeah? well in the end we ended up driving all over stockholm moving this girls stuff that sounded like it wasnt too urgent - she just wanted to get it done before her trip to spain. well whatever. It was good tho. it just seriously took 8 hours.

For pday we went to Ikea again. I thought I promised last time to never go there. Haha somehow I ended up in the maze again. Well it was good tho.

Ok i feel like i'm just complaining about all the stupid stuff that happened every week. Haha I guess that happens - but to make up for it I'll share a pretty cool story.

A few weeks ago we were trackting and we meet this woman named Frida- she is way cool but didnt have time right then. Then we went back like 4 times and finally this week when she opened she said ok this time you guys can come in! It was pretty cool. She was awsome - willing to listen but also explained her beliefs. Like alot of people she just believes that God is a energy kinda like love. It was pretty respectable and she was competely cool with what we believed and willing to test it out a little! So we are going back not this week, but the next one.

Ok here is another not so positive story that just happened a few hours ago. So honestly if you want here is a good place to pretend I'm done!

Anyway, we were trackting in nice neigborhoods and this guy was outside of his house and we started talking to him and he was one of the strongest athiest i've ever meet. And he was pretty smart - just wouldnt listen at all to what we said for the most part. He had the standard athiest ideas - such as the religions are to blame for everything bad in the world, and that God is just in our minds. So we tried to explain but it didnt go so good. He had some crazy concepts. It was really sad to see that because he had absolutely no faith in a god (plenty of faith in science) he valued life at almost nothing. It was really sad. It just felt weird. I'm just going to be honest and not glorify my mission and the people here and tell you what he really said. He said that once he gets too old he is just going to commit suicide. Ok if you have absolutely no hope in the existance of a god i guess that kinda makes sense - but this was the saddest part - my companion said that before he kills himself would he just pray and ask god if he exists just to try it. He said he wouldn't, absolutely not, because of the principle of the thing. It blew my mind that we just had that conversation.

BUT he did have some good things to say. He said that out of all of the religions (he was very familiar with ours and many others) he said that ours was "one of the best" he had seen. Budha was the best - but us mormons he thought actually stood up for what we believe and actually followed it. It was kinda intersting.

This wasnt your ordenary man- he could communicate in around 15 languages - completely fluient in english and swedish of course, but said he is still learning languages. He is working on spanish right now.

Yep that is whats going on right now in Sweden! I'm pretty excited about our 3 new investigators - that will be awesome! I've felt lately that we dont teach near enough here in the office, so it will be good to start teaching more.

Anyway love you all!
Hope everyone is doing good

ÄA