Week 17...A bucketful of Godies is not good...

This week I had a bunch of stuff going on so it flew on by!

Tuesday, we drove out with an investigator Pelle to his brother’s house Leffe about a half hour away. Leffe has had a rough time lately with health problems. He lives alone, has a hard time with smoking which has given him lung cancer. Pelle hadn't had contact with his brother in like a year so it was exciting to see the brothers’ reunion. Pelle testified about how much the Book of Mormon would help his brother and it was great to see Pelle being a good example to Leffe and encouraging him to gain a belief in Christ.

Wednesday, I was on splits (when you split up with your companionship and go out with another missionary) with Äldste Brown, the Zone Leader, here in Västerås. He has studied some Arabic so when we went out contacting people on the street he was just dropping mad Arabic to immigrants ha ha it was so cool. He's a fun guy! Good to be around him!

Thursday, we went right to Örebro for district meeting then I started splits with Äldste Simmons (who was in my group in the MTC!). Greenie (greenies are new missionaries that have just arrived in Sweden) splits was a blast! It felt sweet to be out on our own together, I felt some independence and got some confidence with the language because we had to get by with our little experience. We taught a lesson an hour away and bought some fat Kebab pizzas for the bus ride home. That is always something to regret eating those Kebab pizzas.

K had a lesson with Äldste Carter and Beveridge while I was away on splits and he committed to a baptismal date which was awesome! He came to General Conference (a twice-yearly conference where leaders of the LDS church speak) and watched it with us... he's a crack up. After one of the Relief Society (the LDS ladies’ organization) ladies spoke, he was like YAAA RASTAFARI ha ha it made no sense but was way hilarious. Then when they zoomed out to show the conference center he was like shoot that's a lot of people (but used some other language). He's got some things to fix but it's cool to see his progression. He's hookin’ us up with Chinese food from a friend this week too :)

I tried blood pudding this week! Not so bad with lingon sauce and bacon on it. I went big with Conference Godis (a tradition of buying tons of candy to snack on while watching the church conference) ... I felt pretty sick.

My spiritual thought for this week comes from a talk I heard yesterday about Integrity. But there was a line I remember “Once you lose your integrity once, it is hard to ever get it back.” It made me ask myself What is my integrity worth? There are often things we can do on our own that no one will find out about, but God still knows what goes on. So, my challenge for you all would be to ask yourself how much your word is worth? Evaluate yourself. I've done it and have things I am going to change with the help of God who is always willing to help us change and be better.

Transfer calls go out this week so next week I'll know where I'll be for at least the next month and a half. Exciting stuff! Side note: Rylan got is transfer call and he will be staying in Vasteras and will train a new missionary. Great news, he must have the language down well enough to speak for the both of them.

Love you all! Thank you for the updates and love and support :)

A bucketful of Swedish candy (Godies) tradition to eat while watching General Conference

Recycling our road findings...One Swedish Krona (.12 USD) per can

Blood pudding...yum!