The Past 2 Years...

From when I left the world on May 28th 2008, ALOT has changed.  I'll name some of them...

World and Politics

• We had an Election
• Our President is Black.
• Our President's motto is Change.
• New Healthcare system.
• Plenty of Natural Disasters
• Financial Crisis.
• I should just stop now this sounds horrible.
• Still in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Iran had a failed revolution (I became friends with people who were their and saw people die)
• Facebook.  (when I left FB was pretty much just college students.)
• The church has grown ALOT!  not sure the exact amount.

Family

• One family member is no longer with us
• I've gained 4 family members!
• My family has moved
• Sister at BYU and dating
• new pets, (i think 2 dogs??)
• One of my greatgrandparents died. (got 3 left)
• And my grandma survived cancer!

Personal

• Lived in completely new society and culture
• Learned a language!
• had 6 areas
• Had 10 companions
• I've learned what charity is
• Seen many people join the church
• Seen several leave (yep true) and other crazy stuff
• Learned how to drive stick
• Had a car for 10 months
• I think I've neither gained or lost any height or weight
• seen temperature range from  -34° Celsius to +30° Celsius
• Lived on an island
• been above the Arctic Circle
• Drove on an ice road
• worked with 2 sets of senior couples! (the Johnsons and the Herreys both of which are awesome!)
• made lots of new friends
• met lots of awesome members
• I've become less picky with food (my family won't believe that one)
• I've become much nerdier (thanks to the Office and Jackson)
• I've helped a billion people move
• I've gained a greater understanding and respect for other religions (inculding JWs, Muslims, Adventists, Livets Ord, Buddhists and the State Church) the only one I really don't respect is the state church... like they don't really believe anything.  It's just the club where everyone gets married and buried.
• I've lived in a socialized society and seen it function. (not too bad, works decent for Swedes actually)
• been to several socialized hospitals (only once for me, most of the other times were for langston or visiting people)
• used lots of public transportation (trains subways bikes busses) (yes i've used public bikes)
• taught nearly a billion english and religion classes in high schools
• been to lots and lots of super old buildings, all which have been pretty cool.
• I've been to the top of the tallest church on Gotland!
• I didn't see the sun for 2 months
• I was depressed for 2 months
• on the other hand I never saw darkness for 2 months
• yeah, I think I was anti-depressed those 2 months
• I'm serious about those- I really didn't see the sun forever. and I was depressed.  But then during the summer it really is ALWAYS light outside.
• Been to some pretty cool tourist locations including... the Royal Palace, the Ice Hotel, Copenhagen and pretty much anywhere else in Sweden.
• I did get pulled over once, ok not really, they just wanted to tell me to turn off my fog lights (apparently you cannot have those on in Sweden) 

I've never been so excited to...

• Go to Walmart
• Get a free refill
• Use a free restroom
• eat bigger better and cheaper
• see mountains
• waste 3 hrs in a movie theater
• take a nap after church
• go to Cabellas
• go shooting
• make something (I love random projects with saws and screws etc.)
• feel carpet
• use american idioms and they are fully comprehended
• SEE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!

OK I think that's about all that happened.  No, I'm sure tons more stuff happened I just don't know about it yet!

I'm SUPER excited to see you guys soon.  Hope you all have a fantastic week and I'll see you soon!

Love,

     Äldste Adamson 

LAST WEEK!!

AHHH!!!  It's pretty scary coming home soon!

I'm pretty nervous in some ways but way way excited in other ways.

If you didn't know me and my companion are both "dying" so that makes it even harder.  Pretty crazy.  Anyway we just had a surprise drop in by President Anderson.  Pretty unusual considering we are out on this island that's a 3+hr ferry ride away.  BUT don't worry!  He was out here on vacation with his family from USA who came to visit them.  I'm pretty sure he didn't just come out to spy on us, but that's fine anyway.

So this week things have been getting pretty good.  We've done lots of good work here, I'd say, and the missionaries that come her next will have some good stuff to work with.  We are going to try to get a baptismal date with this boy that we are working with.  We'll see how that goes!

Anyway I've kinda come to the conclusion that posting on this blog is pretty awesome but I don't dare say much to be honest.  I don't talk too much about individuals we are working with, just because I want to respect their privacy.  So you definately get a twisted view thru this.  Haha but you'd get probably the same view thru emails.  It's pretty hard to tell you guys when we only talk via emails etc, and the culture and stuff is just so different here.  So I don't think you'd fully understand what I'm doing out here unless you were out here with me!

But email and all this communication stuff is a great way to talk to you guys and atleast give you a picture of what's going on here on the other side of the world.

We'll I have one more p-day, and that's it!  We are going into stockholm early so we actually are leaving our area in 5 days, going to France in 9 and home in 15.  Yes... I'm counting down.  I'm SUPER excited to see my family and my brother and to go to france and all with mom and matt, and to do all this stuff!  I think a mission has been the best thing ever.  I've learned an incredible amount- from social skills (get a ton of those) to spiritual knowledge to appreciating a culture that is sometimes hard to love (honestly I feel I've really gained a true love for the people here.  I love each swede just because of who they are!  they are so funny in so many ways.)  Anyway a mission's been great, and it's been a great 2 years.  Definitely hard, but definitely worth it.

We'll I hope all is well with you guys and have a great day!!!

ÄA

May 10th 2010

IT WAS AWESOME TALKING TO YOU GUYS!!!

I only called my immediate family for mothers day, but that was all i needed to get all trunked out. yep... pretty weird with only a few weeks left.

The other day we drove through our town that we are serving in, and got a video.  Yep so here it is if you wanna watch it.  You need to download it to watch it I think... So that might take some time.  So only if you really care!
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0M887b9aPQFYTUyNTUxOTktYWZlZS00Y2I5LWE4MjUtYjVhNDA2YmU3MTY4&hl=en


The city that we are in is so awesome!  It's beautiful.

We helped a woman move the other day.  it was kinda cool, and kinda gross.  We took a ton of garbage out of her basement and then we made a big fire from it!  that was pretty cool.

We had an awesome lesson with this 17yr old guy who the missionaries have had quite a bit of contact with.  His mom and sister and him came to church lots, but for some reason they never were baptized but he came to church this week!!  That was awesome!!  We didn't even ask him so what do you know!  We called like an hour before church started and he said he was already getting a ride from the Branch President (who by the way is wonderful.).

It's kinda weird being in a super small branch.  the BP holds alot together and the Herreys.

Anyway have a great day!!

ÄA

Hello!

Ok like usual i'm running low on time. 12 minutes left.

OK this week was kinda good.... EVERYONE is MOVING!

the Herreys left us today... 

our best investigator moved on Friday... (to super far way)

She is moving with her son, who we also talk to, and a less-active member is moving with them up to Helsingland...

our eternal investigator is moving, and we've been helping her pack.

and another investigator might move...

and we are moving!! AH!

We did have some good stuff happen.  The Herreys had a birthday party for Elder Herrey because he is now 80 years old!  Here is a picture with me and them.

WE also had a swedish holiday.  Valborg!!

everyone lights everything on fire to get rid of winter- causing global warming.  That's how Summer comes in Sweden.  And it doesnt last very long anyway.

Ok but it's pretty cool.  And because it was a holiday all the flags were out!!!  Got some more cool pictures.

Anyway gotta go!

Have a great one!

ÄA

April 26th 2010

Hey Everyone!

Ok I'll post some of our cool stuff we've done.

So you know how Samuel the Lamanite had to call everyone to repentance right before Christ came??  Yeah we did the same thing.  We even preached from the top of a wall.

That was pretty fun!  We'll probably take more sometime.

Well... for other news...  Our best investigator is moving.... to the middle of no where...  So we're pretty sad about that.  She's awesome!  She is so funny.  She is just this old grandma who is super nice and loves her "childhood faith" which she is finding out that we have a lot of it!  She really likes prayer and the concept that we can talk directly to God about whatever.  Well... her son is the only thing she really has, and he is moving up to where they used to live, in the middle of no where.  It's 3 hrs away driving to the closest chapel.  We're not exactly sure when she is moving but we'll probably be helping her.

So another cool thing that happened- we got a call from a high school student that wants to interview us for her class.  We obviously would love to do that so I was talking to her on the phone and she wanted to come to church, but it wasn't going to work out.  Then we started talking about when we could do it this week, and she said they could tuesday or wednesday.  And then I remembered we have a new thing called "music night" where we sing and just have fun.  Our branch president is extremely talented with music.  This week we sang "Oh Happy Day" and it was lots of fun.  Anyway so these students are going to come 1 hour before we sing, and then they are hopefully going to sing!!  But the best part is that they will see us doing fun stuff, and see the younger people in the Branch.  (everyone except this one family is like over 50, or 60, or 70, and then we have one young women.)  So it'll hopefully be really really good.  Hope it works out!!!

We did go into Stockholm on Saturday and Sunday.  Oh it was so stupid....  The secretaries ordered us the wrong ferry tickets, so we missed our first ferry... so it looked like it was going to be impossible for us to come in.  They were so dumb.  They had us coming in Sunday morning, and leaving Sunday night.  Hello- we'd be in Stockholm like 1 hr.  Anyway...  But it all worked out.  We called President to see if it was worth it for us to still come in.  And he said yes- because we had to have District Meeting.  We had that at like 9 at night.  Boy it was kinda crazy.  Then we had Stake Conference the next day.  That was really good!!

And this is the Herreys last week..... :(  So we'll be sad to see them leave.  They really help the branch out ALOT and help us out alot.  Ok maybe they have 2 weeks... i'm not sure.  In any case they are leaving soon.

We'll that's about it!!!

Have a great one!

ÄA

April 19th 2010

Time flies!  It's scary!

So I dont know if you guys know but a volcano in Iceland blew up and it put all this ash all over us!  ok that's just a joke but it's true that if it keeps it up I won't be able to get home because all the airplanes cannot fly in the ash!  Hope it clears up soon!

But on the good side all the swedes are now terrified of God and are pretty worried.  Ok that's kinda a joke too, but it's making them think more.  And i think we are going to pull a Samuel The Lamanite because we have a big wall around our city.  I'll send you pictures.

This week was pretty good.  We went to the mainland and had zones conference.  That was pretty good.  And the Herreys are SO FUNNY!  I love them to death!  Elder Herrey makes me laugh all day.  They are great to work with.  We do lots with them.  We go on big day trips teaching people.  It's sad but true that most of our investigators live quite a far distance.

Oh something stupid happened this week.  We had 3 appointments set up for one day.  We were pretty excited for it because they were all pretty new people.  And then they ALL CANCELED or didn't show up!  My companion was kinda mad. I was too i guess.  Whatever!

We went more fossil hunting with the Herreys.  That was fun.  I found some kinda cool stuff.  It's fun doing that with them.  I'll add some good pictures if I have time.

Anyway I hope that I can get home when the time comes and that no earthquakes or volcanoes will disturb me there!

Have a great day!

ÄA

I also got to go on a polish wooden ship. that was kinda cool.

me on the boat

me and inger bergman

the herreys

ah! not much time!

I've got less than 2 minutes... so i'll be fast!

Tomorrow we are going with the Herreys into the mainland to go to zone conference.  so taht'll be good.

Other stuff... we made a cool experiment for your investigator!!!  We gave her a bunch of seeds and told her to take care of them as if they were faith.  and used alma 32, and it was really good.  So hopefully she gets it.  She likes working with plants and stuff so i'm hoping the experiment works!  We microwaved some of the seeds cauz there are bad seeds in the world today!!

got 10 sec.

ÄA

April 6th 2010

Sorry everyone, yesterday (monday/pday) the library's were closed because it was 2nd day Easter. Swedes need lots of time to remember the Resurrection.

Oh those pictures that didn't work last week should work now. go to...
http://rileyadamson.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-29th-2010-gotland.html

But yesterday was GREAT! We wen't with the Herreys (the senior couple with us) and their granddaughter and her kids out on the beach and looked for Fossils! it was super cool!! We found tons of them. Most of them are from plans or little shellfish. It was tons of fun! THEN after that me and my companion and Elder Herrey wen't on a teaching tour down south.  We taught quite alot of people and we were pretty tired after.  We were out working/doing something from 9am to 9pm.

Dang... Matt just told me I can sign up for classes!  Thanks but dang now I gotta do that.

We are teaching quite a few people which is awesome.  And one of them, probably the most positive, might move.... :(    AND we almost started a civil war in the branch here.  There is this one woman who was extremely mad when we had to cancel a dinner appointment with an investigator.  We didn't want to cancel at all but we had to because we got a really lucky opportunity to talk to some high school kids who wanted to do a report about us.  Anyway she flipped out and got super mad.  She kinda has problems with everyone, but we got off to an early start.  I was well prepared of how to handle the situation because Elder Loomis told me how to handle her, and the Herreys too.  I didn't want to offend her at all, but we really couldnt come.  She called the office, called the branch president, and called all her friends to try to get support, and bash us kinda.  It was a sticky sticky situation.  But I think I handled it well.  She kinda likes to take over everything, and I just didn't let her.  I held my ground, and just tried to reschedule.  She was really not happy.  But life's not fair so she can take it.  But we got over it and it was good.

Oh so something cool.  I'm reading in "Jesus the Christ" and I'm towards the end, and it was going thru the last week of Christs life, and it was Easter week, so that was really cool to visualize and think of.  I LOVE that book.  It's super good.  Hard language, but good.  I wanna finish that and the BOM in Swedish before I go home.

Anyway have a great day!

ÄA

We watched 1.5 sessions of conference.  no, pretty much 2.  But it was kinda crazy.  I'm going to have to download them and put them on my ipod or something.  I can comment more on them once I've seen them :)

March 29th 2010 GOTLAND!!!

Hello!!

Now I'm out on Gotland with Elder Seegmiller!

A pictures worth a thousand words...

From Visby!

From Visby!

From Visby!

From Visby!

From Visby!

It looks like some of those pictures isn't working... just click on them and hopefully it works.

So the city we are in is really cool.  It has a big wall around it like Jerusalem, and it's right by the ocean!

The branch here is not very big.  We had 11 people in church, and 6 of them were full-time missionaries.

It feels a lot like Bermuda!  We have an awesome senior couple!!! the Herreys, who know everyone on the Island.  They remind me a lot of my grandparents.  Äldste Herrey is super friendly and loves to talk to everyone like grandpa.  And the branch is kinda like it... except smaller.  And the island is alot bigger, the one i'm on.  And we're not very far away from mainland.  It's pretty expensive and about a 3 hr boat ride.

We walked all the way around the wall and took pictures, and then when we got to the ocean i think my companion had a hard time.  he used to live by the ocean.  And then we got talking to some high school kids, and they were pretty chill.  One of them took a book of Mormon and they listened to us a little!  One of them believed in God! that was impressive.

Well I think that's about it for today.  I don't have all that much more to say then i'm VERY excited for the next 2 months.  They are going to be awesome!!

Have a great day!

ÄA

March 22nd 2010

Hello Everyone!

OK!  I got quite a bit of stuff to tell you.  I'm going to get transfered one last time... so this'll be my final area.  I'm going to Visby (Gotland)!!!!  It's a pretty big island in the middle of the Baltic Ocean.  Here's a map.


View Larger Map

Hopefully that worked.  Yeah so that island right in the middle that says "Gotland" is my new area!!!  The branch there is pretty small... but I don't know how small.  And we have a senior couple there - the Herreys.  Their sons are pretty famous.  They won "eurovision" or something like that. It's kinda like the American Idol of Europe, but bigger, and I'd say more organized and better. Them and ABBA are the only people to win from Sweden. I've meet most of them, but It'll be cool to serve with their parents!
here's 2 good links I found for them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herreys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTFec_mrD-c

My companion will be Elder Seegmiller.  He's actually in my same group.  So we'll be "killing" eachother.  So that'll be interesting.  Usually the elders out there only come back into mainland once a transfer, but it sounds like we'll be coming back quite often which is good.

So yeah.  Stuff about this week...  Yesterday I was "pleading from the porcelain alter."  That's no fun if you get what I'm talking about.  My companion was sick last week, and then it seems I got it from him.  No fun!

We went on splits with the assistants (they were coming to spy on us to see if they wanted to close our area, which they didn't cause we are actually doing really good right now).  But while on splits I was back to Täby, my old area when I was in the office.  That was fun to get to go back and see a bunch of members.  We contacted a woman when we were walking around and then we ended up teaching her.  That was good.

And while I was on splits in Täby the elders that were in our area got a baptismal date!!  So that was awesome!!!  She is a friend to a member and has come to church lots and lots, but her parents wouldn't let her get baptized... but now she is 18 and so we've been working hard to get in contact with her.  So we finally got to talk to her and it sounds like she is doing good and will get baptized sometime soon.

We'll that's about it.  Have a great day!!!

I also gave a talk on sunday and would like to talk about what I talked about.  The topic was "member missionary work" but i took it from probably not a normal angle.  I talked about charity and how because God loves us we have the Attonement, and the chance to be here, and why we do missionary work is cuz we love the people we serve, and god.  and then i talked abotu how awesome my mom is, and that moms are the best missionaries.  And that it's most important that you have a good family- but you should also be a missionary.

ÄA

March 15th 2010

Hey everybody!

This week was an interesting week.  We kinda had a lot of crazy stuff happen, that made it pretty chaotic.  We had sharpening(1 day messed up), then we had splits with the zone leaders (2 days), then we had surprise splits with the elders in Södertälje(3 days) because one of them can speak spanish and we had a teach in spanish that we needed help with, and it just worked out that way.  and then we were gone the next day playing a swedish sport called innebandy(4 days).  So yeah!  that was quite the adventure.  After that I just felt like I needed to get like a missionary reboot.  It's kinda hard living in a 4 man apartment.  There are so many distractions and such.  I think it's alot easier to live in just a 2 man.  and a 1 man would be cool- like i'm looking forward to it.  Having a companion glued to you 24/7 is like the hardest thing about missionary life I think.  I just wanna do something on my own like go hiking or make something or do some art or something.

Anyway enough of "wo is me" stuff.
Our teach that was in spanish was pretty good.  We teach those 2 kids from Equador.  They are awesome.  The older one wants to be baptized, and just needs to come to chruch to get ready.  She gets it all! she just needs to start making steps.

And our new member from Chile is having a hard time.  His parents live right on where the earthquake is, and doesn't know how they are doing.  he heard they were alive, but with all these other earthquakes he's not sure anymore.
And the other day we met a girl who was homeless.  she was selling these magazines, like they all do.  I gave her 20kr cuz i felt bad for her, but didnt want a magazine.  And she seemed like a respecable homeless person.  I've just gained a "sad love" for people who've had a hard time.  Like I just feel really bad for them.  It's just crazy what we go thru in this life.  The next life better be freaking better!!!  sheesh.  I just kinda had a view of us up in the pre-mortal world looking down, and then realizing "oh dang, there's not much time left. Oh no, like i gotta go down in that crazy world soon." Like I know that's a pretty pessimistic view but that's just what I though.  But then look at all the good things we have in this life!  I guess we gotta experience hell before we appreciate heaven.

So we've been playing chess in our apartment lately.  I won my first game pretty easily, and then I lost last night to my companion in the "finals".  I was dominating him and then he got me, pretty quickly.  It didn't help when I made a dumb quick mistake.  I just didn't think it out very far and assumed I'd be fine.  But if I did the smarter move, it would have been a toss-up and a long game.  It was already past bedtime!  And then I couldn't sleep so I stayed up thinking about life and reading stuff about Dad, like some letters he wrote, and some journal entres he did.  Did you know that I'm older then both of my parents when they had me?!  Yep like 8 months older then my mom apx and 2 months older then my dad.  Crazy huh!!  I just wish I could be like my dad.  He was sure awesome.  I still think about him all the time and tell stories all the time.  I think my companions think it's weird- whatever.

Next week we have transfers.  I'll most likely be emailing on Wednesday.... just to give you a heads up.

Anyway I hope all is well back home and that no earthquakes happen in Utah, especially now that our house is right under the "mmall sountain."

Have a great day!

ÄA

March 8th 2010

Ok!  Sorry I didn't write last week.  I'll update us on last week too.

So as you might know we have 2 wards here.  the first ward is just right by the train tracks and is very small in area but has tons of members.  Ok we do very little work with them but one day a member called us and said he has a referral!!  It was awesome!  He is super open and has said several times "I'm going to become a really good mormon" and that he wants to get to know all the people in the book of Mormon because they are our brothers!  It's really cool.  We taught him the first 3 lessons now, and the third lesson is about "the Gospel of Jesus Christ" and part of that is Baptism.  We asked him if he wants to get baptized and he said once he gets to know about the church a little more.  He hasn't been to church yet, so thats our next step.  He said he will work on changing his work schedule so it's easier to go.   HE'S SO AWESOME!!!

Another guy we are teaching is a man named Leroy from Jamaica.  He's super cool.  Did you guys know that Bob Marley is a prophet!  I didn't know that either.  We brought this kinda less-active/new member on the teach with us (he has a really cool story.  His dad was the King of Sierra Leone, and he was to be the next King but all this political uprivial stuff happened, and his dad was murdered, and now our buddy moved to Sweden and is save.  he was Muslim but then found out that Christ is the Son of God, with guidance from the missionaries!)  Anyway we all got together and had one of the coolest teaches I've ever had.  We had quite the spectrum there. It was super awesome.  We taught the Plan of Salvation in a very un-standard manner.

We are still teaching our two spanish kids from Equador.  They are super cool.  We're just trying to help the girl come to church alone (her little brother doesn't want to come cause it's too boring. I agree! idk if I was 12 I would come to church on my own.)

Well that's about it for people we are working with!  Other things... there are some interesting things going on.  some guy is going around giving anti-mormon shows at churches (which blows my mind.  can you ever picture our church supporting an anti-anything activity)  anyway they are having a meeting in our area (which is heavily mormon) so that'll be very interesting...  I've heard some of his stuff and influence when I was in Luleå and it sounds like he doesn't have much to show, besides alot of peoples bias and bigot towards us already.  "onward, ever onward, as the triumph song we sing, God our strength will be, press forward" and the church will just keep rolling.

We met with the bishop and his family.  It was cool one of his daughters was into photography so we had a good chat about that.  pretty fun.

Anyway I hope all is well back home!

ÄA

Oh one other story.  We had a guy who got baptized a while ago, and his family lives in Chile and apparently their house got destroyed in the earthquake and they didn't have any access to water.  So they need help.  he's pretty terrified about it- I guess I would too!

making it short...

i don't have anytime to write today!  It's been stressful.

Everything is going good and we are having some good stuff happen.

Have a great day!!

ÄA

Feb 22nd 2010

This week was a pretty good week.  Let me tell you about it.  We went on splits with some members of the Ward.  Our 2 awesome members.  and taught some people.  I was with Oliver and we taught our 2 spanish kids.  They are awesome!  They didn't come to church though... which was sad.  And we worked really hard at getting them a ride.  so we'll have to see what the problem was.  But they are good, especially the daughter- she has a pretty good understanding and spiritual side.

IT HAS SNOWED HERE ALOT!! and it's REALLY COLD!  It was LOTS colder in Luleå, but we had a car.  it was snowing sideways for a couple days.  we got quite a bit of snow.  I'll add a picture.

Here is what I wrote President
"

This week was a good week for V.H.  We didn't teach as many times as I wanted, but we got quite a few member teaches and a golden referral from a member!  THAT WAS GREAT!  He lives in the first ward, and is very religious, and pretty open, but not too open.  I'm excited to work with him.  the member that has helped us did an EXCELLENT job.  

Other things... we got 2 new investigators, which is great.  we cannot find the romanians- but we haven't tried too hard.  we'll be doing that here soon.  we found someone who could speak romainain in visby actually.

what we've done the past couple weeks is...

we took every past investigator out of our area book, and got a new copy of our ward list.  Then we organized them all by area, and street.

Now we are pounding out it area by area.  On saturday when it was really cold and snowy, and probably alot of poeple at home, we pounded out a good area.  probably 80% of past investigators are completely unable to find.  they have moved and have changed phone numbers.  So we've been doing a lot of clean up. It'll be good for sure for future missionaries, and also probably a good way to find new and old people.  And we did some tracting.  It was good.

"

Sunday was a good day.  We had a member dinner with some temple workers and their family.  that was really good.  We had a good discussion.  and then after we went to some members with a bunch of youth and watched "the other side of heaven".  I had never seen it and it was really good!!  Our bishop was with us, and he knew the main charators brother, and told us it was all real!  pretty impressive.  It was a really good show of how missionary life is in general, and probably pretty good for Tonga!  I enjoyed it!

On saturday when we did all this crazy work, like i mentioned in my letter to president, we ran into this less active.  Boy he is LOST.  It was quite sad.  We testified pretty strongly of the book of Mormon and he kinda just danced around it.  It was sad.  Hopefully one day that guy figures it out.

TODAY for P-DAY we are going to tour the COCA-COLA FACTORY!!!  It'll be lots of fun and we are getting some missionaries together and some members, and other people.  It'll be really good.  the factory is in our area, and is the only one in Sweden.  Hopefully it's cool.

Update:

This is us at the factory!  We got a tour of the whole place and it was pretty amazing!  they have quite the system.  It was really intense to see how they do it all- but we couldn't take pictures.

the best was the unusual stuff like where all the "defect" coke goes.

this is us drinking unlimited amounts of Coke and coke products for about 5 minutes!!

then we played a fun game. Our tour guide was really cool.  we gave her a Book of Mormon. Great!!!

Feb 15th 2010

Hey family!

Another missionary sent me an email-  I did some research into it and there are some very interesting things out there!!

go to http://rileyadamson.blogspot.com/2010/02/gold-plates-not-only-in-mormon.html

Anyway!  Reporting this week.  We had a pretty good week!  We had 13 teaches (we wanted quite a bit more, but things just didn't work out.  we want to get 25 sometime.) and 2 people in sacrament and 3 member teaches!  it was pretty great.

We are learning spanish pretty much.  We are teaching 2 kids that come from Equador, and then we just meet tons of members and stuff that are spanish speakers!  I wish I could speak Spanish!  Maybe i'll learn it when i get home- that or Portugeuse.

Haha so I compeletly forgot yesterday was valentines day.  - it's no big day for missionaries.  7 hrs of church is just too much for me sometimes.  Yesterday I just had to get out of that building.  my feet start iching, and I cant sit still, and pay attention.  Its good though.  I translated for the 2nd sacrement meeting for this girl.  That was good.  It's hard to do- especially when I haven't translated for about 1 year.  I couldn't figure out how to say hjälpförening in english.  it's the Relief Society, but i was thrown off.  and also by how you say Wit's proposed" when sustaining people.

Anyway everything is pretty good!  I like this area nand I'm having a good time.  Talk to you later!

ÄA

"gold plates" not only in Mormon "mythology"

hahaha check this out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2939362.stm

"Unique book goes on display 

The world's oldest multiple-page book - in the lost Etruscan language - has gone on display in Bulgaria's National History Museum in Sofia.

It contains six bound sheets of 24 carat gold, with illustrations of a horse-rider, a mermaid, a harp and soldiers.

The book dates back to 600BC

The small manuscript, which is more than two-and-a-half millennia old, was discovered 60 years ago in a tomb uncovered during digging for a canal along the Strouma river in south-western Bulgaria.

It has now been donated to the museum by its finder, on condition of anonymity.

Reports say the unidentified donor is now 87 years old and lives in Macedonia.

The authenticity of the book has been confirmed by two experts in Sofia and London, museum director Bojidar Dimitrov said quoted by AFP.

The six sheets are believed to be the oldest comprehensive work involving multiple pages, said Elka Penkova, who heads the museum's archaeological department.

There are around 30 similar pages known in the world, Ms Penkova said, "but they are not linked together in a book".

The Etruscans - one of Europe's most mysterious ancient peoples - are believed to have migrated from Lydia, in modern western Turkey, settling in northern and central Italy nearly 3,000 years ago.

They were wiped out by the conquering Romans in the fourth century BC, leaving few written records."



Well what do you know!
And the funny thing is that all the people who BELIEVE the Book of Mormon is not true will continue to do so. and all the people that BELIEVE in the Book of Mormon will continue to do so.

Feb. 8th 2010

This week was pretty awesome!

We had some great things happen.  On Saturday we were swinging by our huge list of less actives and previous investigators etc. and we went to this one door looking for Eva.  A man answered, (an imigrant by the way) and said that was his wive, and she is not home.  But then he said, wait a second, and went and got this woman, and there was a TON of poeple in this appartment.  The kinda looked like gypsies to be honest.  But the woman couldn't speak anything but Romanian!  her and her husband and 5 kids or something just came to Sweden like a week ago or something.  So we had extremely minimal communication.  but this guy could translate, but he wasn't there the whole time.  Anyway So they started crying when we told them what we were up to, and they would point up, and then point to us, and stuff, basically saying that we were from God.  It was pretty cool.  Then we somehow organized that we would pick them up to go to chruch the next day!!  It was awesome!!!  So we had 5 in sacrement meeting!  pretty AWESOME!!!  but they couldn't understand anything, and we learned some basic Romanian stuff it was pretty funny.  They were kinda confused when the book we gave them said mormon on it and not the bible. hahah.  but we are working on getting a translator.

Anway other then that we had a good time!  We taugt a bunch of times, like 17, and just had a good week.  Next week is going to be even better.

Have a good one!

ÄA

Feb. 1st 2010! Birthday!

So I've got lots of questions of what on earth does a missionary do on his birthday?
Answer: Email his family if he's lucky!  1/7 get to!

Yeah it's cool I guess.  We are going to have a fun day though.  Hopefully.  We are just going to go around Stockholm, and i'm not sure what we'll do after that.

Anyway I'm here in Västerhaninge.  It's a really good place, TONS of members.  It's crazy actually.  I'm kinda used to being the only people anywhere who believe in God, and now we see members all the time.  I imagine it's somewhat similar to California.  A good mix of members... but still not 50%, and everyone knows about the church.  It's good and bad.  The bad part is we have pretty much NO investigators...  We've tried to call and set up stuff with the past investigators, but it's not really worked out.  it was kinda a bad week.  This next week will be good.  We've got a good plan.  We went thru the area book, and got all the past investigators that live in Jordbro.  Just this little area, that is somewhat poorer.  Then we went and got all the less actives that live there too.  Then we got them all organized by street etc.  and now we are just going to pound thrugh them, and go tracting at the same time.  Hopefully something will turn up.

The good thing is I really like my companion.  He's awesome!!!  He's a really good guy and we have some good conversations.  I've really developed a love for serious conversations thinking about deep stuff, and trying to come up with solutions for "world problems." like wouldn't be cool if businesses gave out scholarships for HS students?  like if Boeing said any student who gets a 5 on 5 AP science tests, we'll pay for the exam fees, and give you a scolorship for college or something.  And like if OGIO gave out backpacks to any students who get like a 5 on the calculus AP test, and then maybe a job or something.  I'd be cool.

But yeah my companion is 6'5" and weighs in at 360 lbs.  he's a big kid!!  I love him to death tho.  We get along pretty good.  He's pretty funny.  We're just going to start working harder and pounding out this area.

Being a missionary, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty hard.  I was pretty excited/sad when we went to dinner with some members and he started telling us about his hunting trips!  and showing us his guns, and I knew all about them.  I just miss shooting stuff!!  And creating stuff. Like working with my hands and building something in the garage and improving it or something.  Just that kinda stuff we don't really get to do as a missionary.

Anyway have a great day!

ÄA

25th of January, 2010

I've been transfered to Västerhaninge!

It's where the Stockholm Temple is, and right next to our church.  It's really interesting!!  Everyone knows who we are and lots of members!!

I SURVIVED!  6-7 hours of Church!  Boy that's tough!  How do you bishops and stake presidents do it!?!  My companion was pretty proud of himself that he only fell asleep 2x.  I don't really fall asleep easy, so I didn't quite have that problem, but boy by the end of it, I was hungry and tired.  And we translated one of the sacrement meetings, that was hard.  I havent' done that for about 6 months.  It takes some tuning in, and some tricky stuff to do it.  it's hard figuring out what they are saying, and at the exact same time say it.  I didn't understand what this one word, was, and so i was kinda lost for about 5 minutes, and then I figured it out so i was like "ok let me updated you on the past 10 minutes" it was kinda funny.  We have all the american temple workers in our ward, and it's pretty much just for them.

Like I said before my companion is awesome.  I was way excited to get him.  Elder James Argyle is his name and he's a big boy.  He played on the offensive line for Plesant Grove HS.  Oh hey all you bermudians- He knows Elder Hadley!  They went to the same HS.  We were going thru pictures, to get to know eachother and he was like "oh I think i know him" and I was like yep, he came from PG i think.  That was funny.

Well we have a lot to do! and alot of good work with the members.  We are trying to think of some way we can find people, that only we could contact, using our talents or something.  I'm thinking aobout making an art workshop or something like that... We'll see what happens.  I was thinking maybe i could show them one of my artworks, and explain why i did it that way, and just give the background.  That could be good, and then just help them with their art projects.  I'd have to learn alot of new vocabulary if I do that!!!

Well have a great day!

ÄA

19th of January

Hello!

So as you know now I'm up in the North at Luleå.  This morning we got transfer calls from President and it looks like I'm headed down to Västerhaninge where the Temple is!

There are 2 wards there, which is crazy for Sweden.  There are ALOT of members in that little area compared to the rest of Sweden.

Our appartment has 4 elders in it, which is pretty cool.  And I know all of them pretty well.  I'm WAY excited.

My companions name is Elder Argyle from Pleasant Grove UT... I think.... And he is HUGE!  He is like 6'6" and definitely a big man- I'm way excited for it.  It'll be awesome seeing him talk to people and look them in the eye and say "get baptized- cause the church is true"  haha, no, I'm just excited for it all.

Lets see... I'm pretty sad to leave Luleå though.  The branch is pretty awesome (even when they don't have their meetings and all the other problems:).  And I really like my companion right now- Äldste Clarke.  We get along pretty well.

It's pretty crazy - Äldste Langston who I was comps with for a long time, and pretty good pals with is headed home!

Well everyone!  Have a great week!

Talk to you soon!

Äldste Adamson

New Year January 11th

Hey Everyone!

This week some pretty cool stuff happened!

Check out this! -34° Celsius!
That's around -30° Fahrenheit!!!!

From 07 Luleå Clarke

From 07 Luleå Clarke

Yes... that's WAY cold!

But it did some crazy stuff that weather. Then yesterday and today it warmed up SO much!  It was positive for a few hours.

We also went to Umeå for Sharpening- basically mini-zone conference. That was pretty cool.  While I was there I got my package!  From Tami and family!!! SO that was really really awesome!!! Thanks you guys! I got all the stuff I needed.  I have food and candy and warm stuff!
BUT the best of it all was the letters, the journals and everything else!

I've got some pretty cool stuff up my sleeves for when I come home.  I hope you guys are all ready to do a service project....

We also had a pretty good week as missionaries.  We had a lot more teaches then we had over the holidays.  And we had some really good teaches.

I was probably the braves/boldest I've almost ever been on my mission.  We were talking to these 2 guys from Africa. They are awesome, but didn't really want to take anything but the bible.  My companion asked them an awesome question.  He asked them “how do you know the bible is true?”
one of them started to go off about history... and I stopped him, no I pretty much interrupted him.  Then I asked him if he wanted to know how I knew?  Then I basically just said the best answer which is--- that GOD told me the bible is right, and that the Holy Ghost bore testimony to me it was right!  And when I live the principles of it- I am HAPPY. And then we basically bore testimony of the Book of Mormon- how it's also the word of God.  We have to start our commitments pretty low- this time it was just read and pray about the bible.  They said they don't even read it all that much cauz they are too busy.

Another awesome teach was with our friend from Iran.  He's lived in Sweden for a long time, and basically has a swedish mentality.  But we invited him to “the challenge” which is to read and pray every day, and meet the missionaries 2x a week, and come to church!!  So we'll see where that goes!!!  If he holds to it obviously he'll get an answer!

Anyway have a great week!

ÄA

Great Picture of the Week:

From 07 Luleå Clarke

Purely Social Commentary:

From 07 Luleå Clarke

When you have the highest rates of abortion in the world - your opinion of saving food and hugging trees is automatically disqualified in my eyes.

sorry... i'm a missionary and shouldn't make social comments.  This just came from when I accidentally dropped an egg.  It just sparked my creativity/sorrow.

2010! January 4th

Howdy Everyone!

This week was an alright week.  We didn't have much success in normal missionary stuff this week.  It was not so great.  But I'll tell you about it anyway.  The hard times are just as important as the good times right?

Well our English class kinda tanked.  We had one Chinese man come who is actually pretty good at English, well he knows a lot of words, but we helped him learn how to say them.  He is the same guy who wants to join the American Army.

And we went on splits with the Zone Leaders.  That was pretty good actually, but kinda ineffective like all splits are.  On Wednesday, we drove all the way to Skellefteå and switched.  Then we came back and helped our member that lives out in the middle of the woods.  And we were there forever.  She needed help getting water out of her well.  And then we went to Boden to visit the new members there.  That was that whole day.  And then the next day we drove to Skellefteå again, and had district meeting.

We did go contacting on Saturday and had some success... We got 3 phone numbers.  So hopefully those turn out to be golden.  Oh this was actually a pretty funny story, and kinda a typical story, but at the same time extreme.  We were tracting and this door didnt answer forever so we just went down the stairs to the next one, but then I heard it answer, so I went up there and there was this old woman, about in 60's.  I said something like "oh hey we are going around talking to people about God" and then she said "Nej!!  Nej!!  Stig här ifrån!  Stig här ifrån!!" (translates to No! No! Leave from here! Leave from here!!)  and slammed the door.  Yep.  It was after a pretty long day, and boy that just helped.

BUT on a more exciting note, I got my package from my family!!  That was awesome!! I love mangoes and beef jerky and thanks Matt for the kit!  I really like it!  And the gloves are pretty awesome too.

And we had a fun time with the Näslunds on New Years.  That was really fun.  We had some really good food, it reminded me of America. (yes it was that good.  Not saying swedish food isn't good, cause it really is, just in America everything is bigger and better.)

AND this upcoming week should be a lot better.  We are going to dedicate us a little more, work harder, and we already have a few appointments set up and we have 'sharpening' (mini-zone conference) on Friday.

Anyway Sorry I don't have too much positive to report right now!  We're working on it!

ÄA