August 26th, 2013

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty good. We taught Hjalmar and Anna twice and the first lesson was on baptism and why we as missionaries focus so much on that. It went really well and at the end we gave Anna a blessing. Also Hjalmar has been making huge leaps in quitting snus, he went a whole day with only taking one pinch! He says that he is in constant withdrawal and that it is really hard, because he sweats and shakes. Dad, could you sent me reasons why tobacco is bad for your mouth, because Hjalmar is convinced that it fights cavities and is only bad for your gums.

We got to eat at a few members houses this week again. we went to Lil Forsberry who is the sweet old lady that fed us the american pancakes last week. She is so funny, this week she had us come over at 1:00 and she fed us a fish soup, it was good, and for dessert she fed us apple pie. She is such a nice lady.

We were also treated to a dinner by a Less active from our ward. He is from Chile and used to have a restaurant there so it was really good. We went with the sisters, and we actually have a new sister named Sister Varrola, she is from Finland. 

Sanne has not contacted us and she does not respond to our texts or our calls. That has been sad to see, but we are still hoping. Her best friend Petronella talks to us and we are planning to meet her next week, so we hope that will be a chance to talk to Sanne as well.

last P-day we played Vollleyball with a bunch of missionaries and some investigators, it was really fun.

This P-day we went to Göteburg on the coast and took a boat out to these cool islands.

 It is crazy how good the public transportation here is... the boat we went on today is basically like a bus and we just used our bus passes to get on. We climbed up this mountain on the island and I took some pictures.

I hope you are all well,

Elder Peterson  

This was before we took the boat to the island at the docks in Göteburg.

I thought that these docks and all the boats were so cool. 

This was at the island.

This was the view when we got to the top of the mountain.

more of the view.

here is a picture of us grilling meat at a members house

this was our zone a few weeks ago

it was raining when we were grilling... this was a few weeks ago I just now got these pictures from my comp

this was also a while ago when we washed a members car for her.

This was the P day that we stayed in Trollhättan... we were picking raspberries

August 19th, 2013

Hello Everyone!

Well this week was good. On P-day we played mini golf in Göteborg, it was really fun, I got a hole in one (pretty sweet rhyming right there, but no, I really did, haha). We also went to the same pizza place as last week and I got the same thing, but, it was not raining (so we ate outside) and I got a picture of the pizza. 

We also got to go to a lunch this week at an older Swedish ladies house. She is so funny, she made us "american pancakes" which turned out to look more like rolls, and for efterrätt (dessert) we ate an interesting Swedish dish, pretty much like yogurt and strawberries, like I said, it was interesting.

Well I think that we kind of scared Sanne a little bit with the law of chastity, because we have not been able to contact her this week, and because she didn't come to church this week we are going to have to move her baptismal date back... bummer, but we did talk to her friend Petronella who we are meeting this week and she said that there was no problem with Sanne, she was just busylast week. So we're crossing our fingers. 

We are still visiting with Hjalmar and Anna, lessons there are always interesting. I think that this week though we are going to focus on getting a baptismal date for Hjalmar to work towards, obviously pretty far in the future because he needs to first quit snus. A really funny thing about Hjalmar that I found out about this week is that he has hometeachers, an investigator with hometeachers, crazy stuff. He is practically a less active. 

last week I forgot to write something funny that the bishops wife said when we were visiting them (I think that one of her hobbies is to come up with ways of nicely saying that people are not all there because she has alot, this one was particularly funny) she said "the wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead". 

Anyway I am doing really well as always and I really enjoyed the letters that I received this week, thank you so much. I realize that it costs more to send things to Europe though so if you want, feel free to email me at hans.peterson@myldsmail.net I really enjoy getting mail. 

med kärlek,

Hans  

Here is my district, still happy even after we got stood up.     

Remember how I said that we lived in Iran... well this is the nameplate of the person that lives right below our apartment. Cool neighbors right?

So this is the coveted kebab... seriously soooooo good. Go district meeting lunch!

Last P-day on the way to the church my companion got a flat tire, so we walked them home... at least it didn't rain. I think we literally walked over ten miles that day.

This is a picture of the mini golf course that we hit up on P-day... super fun, hole in one. haha

Me. golfing like a champ.

August 12th, 2013

Hey Everyone,

Well this week was great. We received two new investigators this week, both of them are older ladies. Rachel, who used to be a member, was really nice and fed us pineapple pie which actually tasted pretty good. She was really cool, it was hard to talk about the gospel, partly because it was all in Swedish and partly because she is really good at answering without really answering, and she likes to talk, she told us about when she went to Tonga which was pretty cool.  

  We are still working with Hjalmar and Anna, but it is difficult because I think that they both have ADHD to the max, so it has been really difficult to keep them on topic, Anna has been sitting in on the lessons though so that is good.

 Thursday was District meeting, and for lunch afterwards we went to this cool Kebab restaurant near the church, it was raining so we used umbrellas and walked there which was fun. Kebab is really good, basically it's just pizza, but the crust is thinner and the toppings are more diverse. 

Rain was a recuring theme this week but I think that I recognized it the most on Saturday when we were stopping by less actives all day... I definitely used my umbrella. 

On P-day we went to Göteburg and climbed Utby mountain which was really fun but it is more like a hill, or a large rock... I bought a pair of clippers, and gave myself a haircut which was cool, and I was glad that the Swedish style is pretty simple to cut. 

anyways I am doing great. I hope that everything back home is going well. 

Love,

Hans

August 5th, 2013

Hey Everyone!

It is so great to hear from you and it sounds like you had a very full week. 

Well this week was great, as always. For P-day we just stayed here in Trollhättan which was actually kind of nice. On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference which was great! President Newell and his wife came which was good. It was a really inspiring meeting and I think that it motivated all of us missionaries. 

This week I got to go on splits with one of our zone leaders, Elder Carpenter forThursday and Friday morning, we had a great day and ended up teaching a lot. One of the teaches was quite interesting. So last week Elder Carpenter and his companion were on a bus trying to contact someone (who was not interested) when a German guy asked them "hey are you guys from the states?" the responded yes and then they started talking to him, eventually he said "hey you guys should come to this grill (BBQ) I'm having at my house on Thusrday night." so they accepted and they got his number. On Wed he texted them and told them "just bring your own meat to grill and some chips, but don't worry about drinks I have plenty of German beer" so we brought our own drinks haha. 

When we got there there were a bunch of people. We sat by Henrike (the German guy) and one of his friends who was Swedish. We actually had a good discussion with them about the church and it was funny because the Swedish guy looked just like Bruce Wayne.

 After the grill we went to a less active lady's house, because she wanted a blessing. She is very English and like Elder Carpenter said "she is basically a nice version of Beautrix Lestrange from Harry Potter" he was "spot on". We talked with her for a while and then we gave her a blessing of healing (she is struggling with addiction to prescription drugs). The blessing was very nice, and she said that she felt comforted right away.

anyway we are still working with Sanne who is back from Spain and her friend Petronella who is also back from Spain. While I was on splits my companion taught Sanne the word of wisdom, she said that it seemed logical and that she would live it.

Hjalmar and Anna are still using snus but Hjalmar said that the scriptures we send him everyday have been helping.

Also this week I was excited to find out that missionaries in our mission are allowed to have guitars! I actually got to play a very nice 12 string guitar in a music store last week when Elder Carpenter was buying a harmonica, the guitar sounded great, the harmonica... not so much. The 12 string was 1200 SEK though which is around 200 dollars, I don't know if I will buy one or just find one that has been left by another elder (which happens a lot but they are not usually in great shape) either way I have a lot of time to choose.     

Anyway I am doing well and I hope that everyone else is also well. I love getting letters from people so keep them coming!

Love, 

Äldste Peterson