Skittles - taste the rainbow

In the elevator

We made banana bread.

The zone in Goteberg.

Well, now the real transfers have happened this week and I am getting a new companion tomorrow! Syster Juker and I are staying here and we will be getting Syster Jensen as our new companion tomorrow night. So, Syster Juker and I have all day tomorrow to be companions all by ourselves! We are very excited to get organized and make some phone calls for appointments for the rest of the week. I really love being back with my MTC companion. Syster Brown and I have only been companions for two weeks. I learned how to talk to everyone from her. She is really good at that.

The most exciting news is that tomorrow we are getting Elders in our ward! That will be very fun. That tells you how amazing this ward really is. On Thursday night a family from the ward, the Malms, invited all 5 of us missionaries over for dinner! (The dad is the son of Elder Malm of the Seventy.) We are not quite sure how we are going to spilt up the work, but it will be fun to find out. We have heard that President wants one of us sisters to always stay in the Center and for us to really build good relationships with the YSA´s- which is something you don't have to tell me twice to do! Haha. I love working with them. So, it looks like we are going to be going on splits a lot.

Every week we can invite investigators to the Center for FHE, Institute, and to chill. Which means every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night we are usually here. Right now we have two amazing investigators who were referrals! I really feel very blessed to be here.

As I sit here, eating skittles from my family, I am thinking of the future of missionary work here in Göteborg and it is looking really bright! I feel like I am totally in the right place and my dream of working with youth is coming true! Like I said, President really wants all of us missionaries to gain a good relationship with the YSA´s and to focus on teaching their friends and such. YIPEE! We also have tons of middags every week! Which means dinners! Over the last two weeks we have eaten dinner and helped a couple in our ward. They remind me a lot of Tara and Matt and I LOVE them! They are amazing and their kids are the best behaved kids in the whole world- super cute. The husband is American and the wife is Swedish and has been a member for 2 years. They are working towards a temple marriage in October!! neato.

This week was a good week for mail! Thank you to Ilse, Boo, Mat6t, Tessa and Britta Washburn, and Grandma Vistaunet! I also got packages from my family with skittles and a new outfit! Thanks! And then a package from one of my investigators from Örebro. I am trying hard to stay in contact with the people that I meet. Missionary work takes alot of time and memory.

Missionary moment: Last week I mentioned that we would be visiting the daughter of an invesitgator I had in Norrköping. And we did! She was probably in her 40's, way into nature, and being healthy. Just like most Swedes are. Anyway, we had a really good conversation about life and the meaning of life. She respects people who are religious but doesn't think it is for her. We talked about the peaceful feeling you get from the Holy Ghost and she said "no, that´s not from the Holy Ghost, that is just from me". It is amazing to me how everyone in the whole world has felt the influence of the Holy Ghost at some point in their life and they just don't understand what it is. We tried to leave her a Book of Mormon but she would not take it. After leaving her house, I realized how much work there is to be done in the world through missionary work. Remember, every member a missionary!

The next day I decided to call her mom and tell her that I visited her daughter. She said thanks and how grateful she was that we visited her because it got her daughter thinking about God and what is really important. Remember, this was all in Swedish! I reallly witnessed the gift of tongues this week!!

Sunday night. We met a really nice girl on the tram and we exchanged phone numbers and she said she was a missionary too! For Jehovah Witnesses. She invited us to her church. So, we went to a Jehovah Witness church. It was very different and while we were there I could really tell that they didn't have the whole truth. Once again I know that we (members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints) have the responsibility to preach the truth!

I love you all! Be happy and sing a song for me!

Love, Talisa!

Pictures- of my zone in Göteborg. Then Syster Juker and I made Banana bread! YUM. Then elevator fun. Then the second picture is of Syster Lovgren! She was a short time missionary a couple of months ago and now lives in Göteborg.