Week 70……..Rotten Fish + 7,000 Flowers + Conference

October 11, 2018

Week 70……..Rotten Fish + 7,000 Flowers + Conference

Tjenare allihopa!

This week was busy! It started off Monday with Elder Craun completing a backflip flat on the grass out front of the church with some tips from yours truly. That had nothing to do with the week but thought I'd share anyways.

We had a zone conference Tuesday so my companion and I gave a little training on how we can give people personalized commitments. The main takeaway was to be confident, look them in the eye, be direct, and do whatcha can to prepare yourself beforehand. I've learned on my mission that the success of almost everything in life depends on the quality of planning.

Wednesday night the long-awaited time came... Surströmming night with the Dufour family. They're awesome, they've got 5 kids and love the missionaries. Sister Dufour prepped us to eat surströmming the correct way. Let me explain:

Surströmming is a fish that's put in a can and one waits until it's rotten to eat. The stench itself would make a baby cry and a grown man cringe, as well as some Swedish elders gag. But we laid pieces of it down on soft bread with butter and potatoes and tried to choke it down. Honestly, I only got down one bite before I tapped out but the taste haunted my burps into the following day.

Thursday, we traveled to the temple in Västerhaninge about 45mins away. They had ordered 7,000 flowers that needed planting and we had a crew of about 30 missionaries or so. We started at 9am and had to take off at 3.30 and they still weren't done. Even though we didn't finish it all, it was fun to be with missionaries from the other zone and catch up with some of my past comps who were there (Ä Francis and Ä Callor -- real good guys).

Saturday and Sunday were General Conference, the conference the church holds twice a year for our church leaders to speak to us. Friday, we bought 2kg of godis (Swedish candies) and lugged our big buckets to the church with us... everything was gone by the end of Sunday. I say American candy is better than Swedish candy yet when there is 2kg of it sitting on my lap for 8 hours it's gonna get eaten.

Today I tried out the Arabic eyebrow threading experience. For about 11 bucks this Arabic man with a beard that looked like it could grow clear up to his eyes worked his magic with floss and wax. The brows have been tamed and I feel beautiful. Thanks mom for the tip on the bushy eyebrows 😍

It was spiritually uplifting to hear from the Prophet. I'm grateful for the technology we have to be able to broadcast that conference clear around the world to our chapel here in Gubbängen. It's strengthening to see the conference center filled with people who share the same belief as me as well. Hearing the prophet speak made me thankful that God keeps connection with us through chosen people, some of the best men to walk the earth. Check it out at lds.org if you get the chance.

Have a good one!

Elder Gordon

Side Note: I asked Rylan about the English class they teach:

English class is going alright. We don't have any immigrants that come actually, it's less of a teaching English class and more of a fine tune your English pronunciation. So, we have a member from the ward who is Swedish (about 55) who comes and tries to sound better because his kids give him a hard time about his English sounding funny. We have another Swede who is an actor that comes regularly . Besides that, we are trying to get more people but it's difficult, we need to use our resources better (aka technology). the class is once a week.