July 29th, 2013

Hey Mom 

I don't think that I am allowed to go onto blogs, but if you could send me the letter that would be great. Proverbs 31 is a super good chapter, and it made me think of you. I am so glad that you and Dad are always trying to do the right things. I have been realizing more and more what a blessing it was for me to be raised by you.

This week was great! We are still teaching Hjalmar and Anna, we are really trying to get Anna to participate in the lessons but it has been a little hard. We set a date for Hjalmar to quit snus and we have been trying to get Anna to want to quit suns, but as of yet she does not.

Also Sanne who has a baptismal date for the 31st of August is back from Spain and she sent us a text asking when we could meet, so we will be meeting her on Wednesday. I am excited to see how she is doing, while she was in Spain she texted us and said that she brought her Book of Mormon with her to read on the beach and that she was praying every night and morning. It has been great to see the progress that she has made, she seems like she has more of a light in her eyes every time we meet.

An interesting experience we had, yesterday on the way home from church the bus driver turned around and asked us, "what do you guys think about all the confusion of all these religions and all the wars and things" so we taught him about the restoration and the great apostasy, he said that he was born a Hindu in Africa and learned English there, he also said that he was confused by all the different churches because they all taught a lot of the same things but then there were all these wars and bad things that happen because of them. He said that he tries to be open to all sorts of different beliefs. It was a great discussion and we gave him a Book of Mormon and a card. He said that he was interested and that if he had any questions he would give us a call. That was a cool experience, and I hope that he calls us.
  

I have noticed a little bit of improvement in the language, it is coming slowly but surely. This week we went on splits with a couple of the members from our ward... and no one we visited or the guy that I went with could speak any English, so that was fun. The scriptures are really great to have and they help a ton when it's hard to understand people. One of the people we visited while I was on splits was a man named Lennart who is a less active from our ward he is about 70 or 80 and has some interesting ideas. One of which is that he thinks he is Jesus, and that one of his friends who he showed us a picture of in one of his scrapbooks is John the baptist. He is very hard to understand because of his dentures which are not very well made, but we have been meeting with him at least once every week and he has come to sacrament meeting every week I have been here.

I also found out this week that great grandma Edla Peterson was born in Karlskrona somewhere... which is down in the very south right part of Sweden. I thought that was cool.

anyway I love you all and I hope that you are doing well!

Hans      

Here is a slug that was on a path... yesterday I saw like a hundred of them I think that it is because of the rain.

Here is a picture of a tie that I got for 4 bucks and I am standing on a massive rock.

seriously massive rock...

We trackted all of these houses and we even placed a card with a guy and talked with him for about 20 minutes about the Church. we offered him a Mormons Bok but he didn't take it. He did say that we could stop by again if we wanted to though.

some pictures of a forest right by the houses that we trackted in the picture above.

This was in the same forest. they are just some cool stone stairs, and my only other Swedish tie, now I have 3.

This is a stone bridge in the same forest.

July 22nd, 2013

Hey Mom,

The surprise party sounded so cool and fun! I wish I could have been there, and that is so funny about Ariana said that, that sounds like something she would say. 

Well this week went well, but it was very hard to get a hold of anyone because of Semester (vacation) swedes take their vacations very seriously here, and apparently pretty much the whole summer is like that. Apparently her in Sweden people will just disappear for months on end in the summer and not tell anyone, including their closest friends (I guess its a culture thing, and it might have to do with so much sun in the summer and almost none of it in the winter. 

We had a good P-day, we took a train to Gotebörg and spent most of the day there with a lot of the other missionaries. I tried kebab which is actually a middle eastern thing (basically pizza) it was pretty good.

On Tuesday we got to go with a member to pick strawberries and they were so good. The rule was that you did not have to pay for the ones you ate there, only the ones that you wanted to bring home. In Sweden they do not use any pesticides so everything is organic... they were so good! I took some pictures that I will send in addition to this. That day we also visited Hjalmar (the viking) and we had a very good lesson. He is really struggling with snus (kind of like chewing tobacco but more addictive). While we were there I said a prayer in my head, I prayed that he would either not have a desire to use snus anymore or that the snus would taste bad to him... and on Saturday when we visited him he told us that he had been having trouble because every time he uses snus now it "feels like someone is shoving tobacco leaves up my nose, it's horrible" I was super happy and we finally set up a date for him to quit using snus. 

This week on Wednesday we helped move and stack logs it ended up taking 7 hours and it was pretty tiring. 

mostly though this week we tried visiting with less actives... unfortunately everyone it seems is on semester, so we knocked on a lot of doors.

I also got to go on splits for the first time in Västravalunda (i'm not sure how to spell it but it is in Gotebörg). 

I bought my first Swedish tie on Monday I will send a picture of that as well.

Love,

Hans

 

 

 

 

July 15th, 2013

Hello from Sweden!

Well I have arrived. The weather is so awesome here, and so are the people. my first day about three hours after I got off the plane I placed my first Mormons Bok. First President Newel and his wife gave us a tour of Stockholm and then we had a short meeting and then we contacted on the streets of downtown Stockholm. I went with Elder Haddon who has been here for about 8 months, I tried to ask a couple of people at first but they weren't very receptive. In Sweden though if people are not interested they just say no right away or they ignore you completely, so thats nice. I heard that Elder Oberender got yelled at though. anyway as we were walking up the street we saw a girl and her boyfriend who was smoking (everyone smokes here) and I walked up to them and said in Swedish, Excuse me, do you¨believe in God? at first they were a little taken aback so I asked them if they had hear of our church they said that they had not. the girl said that she was a Christian but her boyfriend said that he believed in Christ but not in God. my companion then pretty much took over and talked more to the girl she was really happy when i handed her the book of Mormon and she abruptly gave us both hugs. We talked for a while after that and I explained that it was my first day in Sweden and they could sort of speak English.

After that we got to go to the mission home and Sister Newell took us for a walk by the Baltic sea. it was gorgeous and I took some pictures... remember that I had just gotten off the plane like five hours before so I may look a little tired. Sweden is so green! I feel like we live in a fairy land or something... funny thing though our whole apartment complex is Muslim. so all the people are either Iranian, or really black, and all the women wear berkahs. The mission home was great! their neighborhood is the most expensive neighborhood in Sweden and I saw a few Porches and Ferrari's, and everyone else drives BMW's. the mission home is in lantmannavägen 125.
My first area is called Trollhättan, it is really great and our ward is awesome... mostly older people but there are a few families and there is this little girl I talked too who is six her name is Alice but she pronounces it the Swedish way, I told her that I had a little sister her same age and she thought that was cool. she likes Barbies and her Barbie's name is Rapunzel, I asked her if she had seen Tangled and I think she had. She is really funny and she corrects the missionaries Swedish.

My very first lesson we taught an investigator named Hjalmar that has been taking the discussions for 10 years, he was married to his wife two weeks ago though, so now all he has to do is quit snus, he and his wife anna have two boys one of them is 13 and the other is 8 or 9. he was born in Iceland and grew up in Skona so he speaks Skonish, We taught him in English though and he speaks it very well. I think he is pure viking and he has axes and swords on his walls and an extra apartment full of parakeets and other birds. '

The second lesson that I taught was to a Swedish girl named Sanna who is 21 or 22 years old, this was her 4th lesson and we challenged her to be baptized and she said that she would! we set her baptismal date for the 31st of august. She was not able to come to church this week because she is going to Spain for 10 days, but she said that when she gets back she would like to come.

One other lesson we taught was to a less active member named Lennart, I could not understand what he said at all but we challenged him to come to Church and he came yesterday!

I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and a lot of people said that I spoke Swedish really well. We ate dinner at the Bishops house later that night and she said that the people behind her said "it sounds like he's from Germany" (apparently I still have a strong German accent) funny thing though I have talked to two Germans and I can understand their Swedish the best. This week we also taught the bishops son who is going on a mission to Phoenix Arizona (we help him with his English and he helps with our Swedish) and he said that I sounded Danish, they thought that it was funny that I had Danish ancestry.  

My trainer's name is Elder Faylor, he is super great. He really knows how to teach the people here and so I am really happy. we ride the bus alot, and I actually got to take a couple of trains from Stockholm to Trollhättan. The views here are amazing!

Today for P-day we are going to Göteborg for the day I am really excited!

Love you all and I hope you are well,

 Hans

 

July 2nd, 2013

Hey everyone!

 

Thank you so much for the package it was great! I really enjoyed receiving the letters that were in it and don't worry Mom I will make sure to write them back... I think that I will send them to our address and then you can give them to them.

This week was amazing. A couple of nights ago I got to give a blessing to Elder Lofgren as he was coughing so much that he could not sleep. I felt the influence of the Holy Ghost very strong as I gave him the blessing and after the blessing he got back in bed and did not cough for the rest of the night. I was very glad that Elder Steen had his oil with him at the time. The next day the six of us in our classroom gave blessing of comfort to one of the sisters in our district.

I am very glad that I am worthy to hold the priesthood, and it is amazing how much power we are allowed to wield in this life.

 

I hope that Deidra's skin gets better, I will pray for that. Tess sent me some pictures of Audrey, she is getting so big! I am sad that I did not see Aunt Annette or uncle Jeff, but I have seen Josh a few times and Josh's companion even took a picture of the two of us together, he seems to be doing well.

 

Yesterday I decided to get scripture flags and I am now going through my scriptures marking all the scriptures in the lessons of preach my gospel. I have color coded them to each lesson, and as I have been going through the scriptures I have really grown to value them. I think that it is so cool that Heavenly Father has given us this much knowledge to work with on the earth and I would encourage anyone and everyone reading this to mark up your scriptures and study with your journal (remember a goal that is not written down is not a goal). I have also grown to love the Doctrine and Covenants it is incredible how much revelation is contained in that book.

 

 

The language is difficult but it is slowly coming, and I was very happy when on Saturday I taught a lesson with an RM who spoke Norwegian and I not only understood alot of what he said, but I was also able to translate a few phrases from Norwegian into Swedish for our investigator. We were also able to skype with Swedish members in Sweden on Monday and I was able to understand most of what he said and teach a lesson.

 

I am very glad to hear that I got my visa... I have been praying for that. We got our travel plans this last week! and while I am at the airport I will be able to call you, so be ready to accept calls on Monday next week. We leave the MTC at 3:30 AM on Monday, and we arrive in Sweden at 6:55 AM on Tuesday their time. On the way we will be stopping in Atlanta, and Amsterdam.

 

I love you all, I love hearing from you all, and I hope you are all doing well,

 

Elder Peterson

June 25th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

 

Thank you for the pictures they were really cool to see, I will have to send you pictures when I get to the field because my camera is not working with the MTC computers.

 

This week was great as all are, yesterday we had the great opportunity of Skyping with members from Sweden. I thought that it was really cool that I could carry on a conversation with them in Swedish, and teach a lesson, my companion and I taught them about receiving personal revelation from the Book of Mormon. We taught two people and both of the lessons were amazing, it made me really excited for when we leave for Sweden... only one week and 6 days from today if I get my visa! 

 

How are you all doing? I have been thinking about and praying for you.

This week we were also able to teach some members from Provo mostly return missionaries but there were a few from Sweden, that was also really cool one of the lessons we taught was to a father and his daughter and their son/brother is serving in Sweden right now they took our picture and put it on the facebook page for Swedish Missionary Moms. (mish-o-nary moms) I think that is how you get on to it.

 

The launguage is hard but I think that I am getting the hang of it, and I feel more comfortable with it every day.

 

I really enjoyed going to the Worldwide Broadcast on Sunday, and I thought that the announcement was interesting. 

 

This week there was a virus that went through the MTC, and unfortunately me and my companion have gotten sick, nothing too bad though we just have headaches and nasal congestion. Other than that I can't complain although it's always nice to get more letters, I have 7 stamps and I will reply to all the letters that I get in the mail. Still waiting on that package.

Jag vet att Mormons Bok är sann och jag vet ett om er läse det varje dag kan ni vet också. Jag älskar er och jag vill er att vet dett är värfor jag har kommer att min mission. Jag också vet at Joseph Smith var en Guds Prophet och jag vet ett om er be och läsa skrifterna varje dag kan er starka er tro på Jesus Kristus och hans evangelium. Jag känna Guds kärlek för mig varje gång jag läsa skrifterna. Be, läsa skrifterna, och kommer att kyrkan. Jag sager detta i Jesu Kristi namn amen.

 

Love you! 

 

Elder Peterson

June 18th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

 

I loved the brownies, thanks Serena! I am doing great, today marks the halfway point in the MTC for me, as long as I get my visa. This week flew by so fast, and sorry I couldn't send any pictures, so far my camera has not been able to upload things to the computer, the one I sent you was from my companions camera.

 

 Elder Clawson and I greeted the 32 new missionaries this thursday and showed them around the MTC, it was a great experience but it is a little weird to be in charge of so many brand new missionaries.

 

The launguage is still hard but I am able to understand almost everything that my teachers and investogators say. It is a little hard to stay in one room for 16 hours a day but I make do. I am glad that I like my companion because being the zone leader I get to hear about some of the conflicts between some other missionaries. 

This Tuesday the whole MTC went to the Marriot center for a devotional for the first time in the history of the church and I think that we are in a picture. This sunday we are probably going to hear from the Prophet unless he is sick. That should be cool.

 

I am liking the MTC but I feel a little like I haven't started my mission yet because we are not in Sweden.

 

Tell Bruce and Kathy that I loved the cookies that they sent... and so did my roomates.

 

Feel *free to tell anyone to mail me at dearelder.com I would love more mail.

 

Please send the following when it is convenient for you:

Q-tips

my white cycling waterbottle (I left it in my golf bag)

scriptue markers

 

I love you all and I hope you are well, read D&C 100,

 

Elder Peterson

 

 

 

 *obligated (haha just kidding) (no, but seriously)