My zone.
I thought of Aunt Tamra when I saw these orchids!
Well, this Friday I will have hit my half way mark! It is very surreal. I think I will be burning some tights. I hear that´s what sisters do. Time goes so fast when your having fun.
In about a month I will become senior companion! Wow. I hope that also means that in about a month I will be able to understand more and be able to respond more in swedish.
This past week was easily one of the best weeks of my mission. We had p-day on Tuesday instead of Monday and headed down to Lund for Thanksgiving dinner with our zone. All of the Elders played football while Syster Kiser and I went out shopping. I LOVE Lund. I got a really sweet orange and yellow paper star. The way people decorate here for Christmas is with candle lights and paper stars hanging in their windows. When we are out at night it is really neat to see all the paper stars and candles in everyone's windows. Swedes also celebrate 1,2,3, and 4 advent. Which I think just means lighting a candle every Sunday in December leading up to Christmas. Yesterday we went over to a members house and lit a candle for 1st advent.
Anyway back to thanksgiving...we played games with all the Elders after shopping and then we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. The Lundwalls made it for us. I really love and admire the older couples who serve missions. They help the work move along so much! Grandma and Grandpa´s friend...Elder Jansson called me last week to say hello. He and his wife are serving on the opposite side of Sweden. Maybe someday I will get to see them. After Thanksgiving our whole zone traveled together up to Göteborg for zone conference! That was a very fun train ride, about 2 1/2 hrs. I got to know all the Elders better.
We pulled into Göteborg around 8pm and Talitha and Maria were waiting outside the train station! That was really a lovely surprise to see them. I love the YSA´s and miss them all so much. They rode the tram with us all the way back to the Sisters apartment and we caught up. They are planning a huge trip to America next September when I get home! I am super excited to be able to show them all of my favorite places in Utah and they will be spending Halloween with us and then we will road trip it to California to visit Syster Juker.
We then had a sleep over in Göteborg with seven of us sisters. Systers Dabb, Winterton, Juker, Jenson, Sprague, Kiser, and me. It was a party. Didn´t get much sleep. Haha.
The next morning we had zone conference with Elder Gerlad Causee of the First Quorum of the Seventy. It was an amazing day filled with the Holy Ghost. It re-energized me for the work in Halmstad. He reminded us that as missionaries we should be teaching a total of twenty lessons a week. That is very hard to do here. But then he said that we could count lessons with active members. Which hopefully will make that number more reachable. In fact tonight we are going to have FHE with Solisa and the Källbergs. He said for every contact we do we should, teach, question, testify, and commit. He reminded us to never be ashamed of the gospel. After all, we have the answers to the questions to life. After the wonderful conference we headed back home. We first stopped by the Center real fast to say hello to some YSA´s. I saw Sofia, Mette, Danielle, Josefin, Talitha, and Maria. And I also saw Sophia from the ward who loves to sing and actually sent me a really great gospel cd a couple of weeks ago. Life is good.
Sweden is a very interesting place and the longer I am here the more I am starting to understand it. Most of the country really doesn´t believe in God and they hate religion- which makes my job very hard. But, something that Elder Causse stressed was to focus on finding the elect. When you are talking with someone you can usually tell if they will be interested in what you are saying within seconds of starting the conversation. I am hoping that with this Christmas season people will be more open and willing to talk about our Savior, Jesus Christ. The past couple of weeks in church and all around everyone has been stressing the importance of remembering Jesus Christ. So, please everyone remember Jesus Christ this Christmas season. Do some service and spread the Christmas spirit.
Congrats Corryn!! A baby boy! I am super excited to have a nephew waiting for me when I get home. Now that´s a crazy thought... when I get off the plane there will be a baby nephew! Awesome. Good luck with the pregnancy. When I read how happy Dad and Rob were about getting another boy in the family I started laughing so loud. This new baby will grow up loving Batman.
Thank you so much for the Thanksgiving package! I got it last week and I was very happy. I also got letters from Meredith, The Rowelys, Dave and Julie Vistaunet, and Manders last week. So, thank you all so much!! In the next package... if you send one for Christmas, please put some pop tarts in it- the brown sugar kind. I really miss pop tarts. And if you could somehow get Alex Proberts and Natalie Christensen´s addresses I would really love it. I think they are both in the MTC still... maybe.
Love, Talisa!
Pictures: When in Lund Sys. Kiser and I went shopping and I found some really sweet stores! Sheena is a punk rocker! Then the rest of the pictures are from our lovely thanksgiving in Lund last Tuesday.
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