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.