The Day of the Dead

Slack lining in Malmo.

Picasso sculpture.

Ward Halloween party.

Happy Halloween!!

Thank you for the sweet Halloween package! We really enjoyed the american candy. Haha. We had an amazing ward Halloween party on Saturday night and I loved every second of it. We didn't really dress up much but I did wear orange and black. I also got a funny vintage jacket that I wore. My companion made herself a cape! She is a little sewer and took apart her red skirt and made a little red riding hood cape... it was really rad!

Whenever I go to ward activities or parties my goal as a missionary is to uplift whoever I talk to. Actually that has been a goal of my whole mission. No matter where I am- I am always paying more attention to the other people and how I can uplift them. Because what Mosiah 2 :17 says is true. When we are in the service or our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God.

Halmstad´s ward is really little and because of that they really need help running it. I have now been here 3 weeks and every sunday we have done something. I think we are now the official Primary teachers. I taught Primary this past week and it was so much fun! It was all in Swedish, and you would be so proud of me. Syster Kiser said I did a really good job and I have made really good friends with the cute little girls we teach. They are both 11. Well, one of them turned 12 yesterday and we had a surprise birthday party for her at her house after church. We talked about saying nice words and knowing how we can control our thoughts and words. The Lord is really helping me and I can feel my Swedish starting to come more naturally. Yippee!

I get to go to the Denmark temple!! I have now been in Sweden for 6 months! Can you believe it? I really can't believe it. But, that means that it is time for me to get to go to the temple! Our ward is actually putting together a ward temple trip on Nov. 12th and we asked the Mission President if we could go and he said yes! We are very excited. It will be one of the girls first temple trip and she is very excited. She really looks up to us missionaries. I LOVE working with younger girls. I really miss my cute little cousins and Brooklyn.

This past week for district meeting I was asked to give the lesson. So, I happily prepared my lesson on faith. I have come to realize how much I love leadership roles and I really miss them. The lesson went well and I focused it on Elder Hollands talk- This the greatest dispensation. The one with my favorite quote in it that Mom sent me. Oh, that reminds me.. mom.. thank you so much for sending the latest Ensign magazine. I really love that one and I had it in Swedish and was so happy to get one in English. And we actually have used it twice in teaches. You were inspired to send it. Thanks. The articles in it really help explain more about why we read the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

Tomorrow we have been asked to go to Zone Leader Road! Which means we are going to Stockholm and we will be staying over night at the mission home. I feel very blessed. I just hope I can help and be more involved with things. The longer I am out the more I see how sad and depressed the world is. The need for happiness and the gospel is so apparent. Lately I have really felt like a counselor. I am trying my best to lift others up and show them that life is good. Most people are very negative and I am so sick of it. Life is what you make it! That is why prayer is so important. When life is easy... PRAY.. and when life gets hard.. PRAY. I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children and that he does answer prayers. We just have to show our faith first and then act upon the promtings that we get from the Holy Ghost.

We have been really focusing on doing service for the members. This past week we helped paint an apartment and this upcoming week we are going to be helping a less active family clean and then help the Bishop with their yard. In order to bring more of Heavenly Fathers children unto the gospel we first have to strengthen the ward. And we are trying our best to help them. We have a meeting set up for Sunday with the bishop and the ward mission leader. We will be going through the ward list with them and talking about each member and what we can do to help.

Missionary moment: While on the train down to Malmö last week a really cute young girl sat across from me. She had on the biggest, fluffiest hat I have ever seen. So, I of course said, "I love your hat! Where did you buy it?" And she told me where and I then found out that she is a student in Malmö studying art. Cool. Then I listened to the Holy Ghost and I asked if she had ever been religious or if she believed in God. She said "oh my parents are, but that's not for me. .. too many rules". I said "okay, but have you prayed before?" And she said "not really". She said she wants to believe that there is a God but she just doesn't know how to find out. -I freaked out- I calmly said "well, we are missionaries and we go around and teach people about God and how we know he exisits.. would you be interested in meeting with us sometime and finding out for yourself?" And she said yes! The only bummer is that she does not live in our area.. so we gave her number to the Elders. I will be praying for her. We also met a really cool Chinese lady with a baby this past week who gave us her number too! The work will go forward. Every day my faith is tested and every day my faith grows. I love the gospel!

Love, Talisa!

Aka: Syster Vistaunet.

Pictures- Last weeks pday in Malmö. We did some slack lining with all the Elders. A 19 year old girl from their ward brought it and she actually is from Park city and knows the Nilssons. Small world. She is way cool. And then this cool statue is from Halmstad- it's Pablo Picasso. And then our ward halloween party at the Lindhals. The two younger girls are who we teach in primary. Super fun night. And the last picture is of our really cool Bishop. Haha. I am in a good place.

Nimi's Castle.

Nimi's driftwood castle.

The coast is beautiful.

This castle has been added to and built up for over 20 years.

Sweden's Secret Hidaway

Absolutely beautiful coastline.

Swedish pancakes!

New hairdo!

Thank you everyone so much for all the emails!! I have never felt so loved. And to be honest those were very needed. This past week was a tough one. I am staying postivite and I am really putting all of my skills to use. The work here in Halmstad is quite a different pace than in any of my other areas... it's a bit slower. My companion is a WONDERFUL teacher and I really have a lot to learn from her about teaching. She says that the language is her biggest struggle too, so it's fun to struggle together. She is really good at it though, so my hope is to become like her in the teaching and speaking way. We are going to make these next two months fly by because of all the success we are going to see! I have a really good feeling about this upcoming week. My companion says that we have more teaches planned this next week then she has done in the last three months. I am excited. I am praying every day to see how I can best be the Lord's hands. Remember to do that and you will be blessed.

Today we are heading down to Malmo!! We are having a zone pday! We are going to do some slack lining, visit some cool hills, and see Malmo. I am excited. And we found out that this Friday is when Syster Newell is coming to spend the day with us. I have come to realize that whatever I plan we do. So, I am starting to call people like crazy and set up apppointments. I really would like to focus on strengthing this ward. It is very small and they need all the help they can get. The Bishop and his cute wife are becoming my best friends. And because of their love and shining Christlike attributes I want to be a better missionary for them and fill up the chapel.

I am going to work my hardest this upcoming week at finding more people to teach and serving with my whole heart. My companion and I feel like this area really needs love and because of that we are focusing on doing service for the members and then teaching the restoration while we are there.

This past pday we went to the coolest secret hideaway ever! It is a drift wood castle. I guess a man in his 50's started working on it about 20 years ago and he still adds to it today. It is called Nimi's and it is amazing! I felt like I was in the movie "Goonies". It was about an hour hike in the beautiful Swedish countryside and then we got to the beach. These pictures are from the beach and the fun we had climbing around. We had a really cool member from Helingsborg take us- we had a group of 4 elders and us sisters. My companion really liked climbing around, she was a monkey. Haha. I enjoyed the scenery. The coast here is breath taking.

On Saturday we had the most amazing day ever! We spent it with the Bishop and his wife. They picked us up at around 10 am and we had planned to go to their house and help move wood. But, then he got a call from his sister who needed help, so we dropped everything and went to help. They have twin baby boys and a girl who were all sick. So, we showed up and off they went to the doctor and we stayed behind and were little elves. I LOVED it. We cleaned the whole house. And then we headed to the Bishops house to move the wood. We first had lunch in their backyard- the bishop made us yummy swedish pancakes! Then we went to work and moved wood so they can be prepared for the winter. They heat their cute house by fire. That was a good service filled day.

The next day we taught primary, which means teaching one girl who is almost 12. She has a really strong testimony and I learned a lot from her. She told us that in 2 weeks she is going to go to the temple! She is very excited and asked us if we could teach her about going to the temple. So, this Friday we have planned to go over there with Syster Newell and teach the importance of temples. It is going to be amazing. And I am about due for another temple trip so I might ask President if we can go with them to the Denmark temple! Woo hoo!

Every day I am learning more and more about the Book of Mormon and Bible. It amazes me how many stories there are and how much they come to life when you actually read them. I am almost done with the Book of Mormon for the second time and I am loving it.

We had a really good district meeting this past week on Christlike attributes and the need for repentance. I shared a thought on Samuel the Lamanite and how he never gave up when preaching on the wall. Read Helaman 13:4,11,22 14:7,19 15: 2,7 and then 16: 3,4 they help us remember to never give up. This week I have felt my Saviors love so much. It has been a hard week but, now it's over and the future looks bright!

I send my love!

Love, Syster Talisa Vistaunet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

More photos from Sweden!

Zone Conference in Lund, Sweden.

At the Institute in Goteberg.

Dinner in Goteberg.

Goodbye Göteborg, Hello Halmstad!

This is the chapel in Halmstad.

Wow, I don´t know where to start. This past week has been crazy. Since last Monday was my last p-day in Göteborg I organized a big lunch with some YSA´s and missionaries. It was so much fun! We had about 20 people in this cute 50´s diner place for lunch. I was in heaven. The only thing that was missing was the 50's music. I will really miss Goteborg. That whole morning I felt like I was at home because I was contacting and texting everyone in order to say goodbye. I really miss parties. But, it is really cool to see that I can use my party planning skills here.

The next day we had two middags and two fikas! To say goodbye. We went to a member's house for lunch- who I LOVE. Then to an older lady in the ward who is super strong and is the only member in her family. But, she knows that one day her family will listen to her and then she will be able to live with them forever. Amazing strength. Then all five of us missionaries headed over to the Holdaways for one last visit. I LOVE that family and I will really miss them. Then all five of us headed to the Institute for some reason. I had no idea what was going on. Once we got there Talitha, Soffia, Maria, and Mette were there and they had made me a cake to say goodbye! I felt very loved and they easily made my week. The Andersons, Elder Bush, and Elder Jenkins were there too. It was a lovely goodbye party. And Talitha told me that she put some of the pictures up on facebook already. Haha.

Then Wednesday came- the move day. Elder Bush and Elder Jenkins drove me down to the station. I had an hour train ride all by myself. I wrote in my journal. When I got to Halmstad my new companion was there to pick me up. Syster Kiser. She is from West Virgnia. She goes home on Jan. 12 and I will be with her until then...and then President said that I would become senior companion after that! I am so exctied for that. I just cant wait!

Halmstad is very pretty and we spent the first day just walking around and riding our bikes all over. I have a BIKE again! But, it is starting to get really cold. Not too dark yet... but I can tell it's coming. I am told November is when that really starts. Friday and Saturday we spent in Lund! I really love all the chances that I am getting to travel. We had zone conference and it was amazing. Focused on how to listen to the Spirit and how to really use the Book of Mormon when teaching. I love President Newell and Syster Newell! They are amazing people and really know how to invite the Spirit. In fact, Syster Newell is going to come down here to spend a whole day with us and see what missionary work is like in the field. We have been told sometime in early November. I really look up to Syster Newell and so I am really excited to get to spend an entire day with her. On Saturday we had a really cool finding actvitiy in Lund. We had a total of ten missionaries there and we set up a booth and started talking to people and passing out Book Of Mormons. A lovely day indeed. I contacted so many people all by myself! And all in swedish! It was very nerve racking but I did some major praying and my prayers were answered.

Then next day was Sunday and we had church. This ward is very small. There are about 20 people who are active. About half of those are children. The members here are very strong and I can tell that we are going to become good friends. I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting and everyone said that they were really amazed at my Swedish. I was shocked. Swedish is coming! After church the Bishop and his wife invited us over for dinner. They also invited a cute young american exchange student. She is from Wyoming and will be living here for the next year. She is amazing and has such a strong testimony. The Bishop and his wife are really young, like Traci and Justin's age. I LOVE them! The wife reads all the Provo mormon ladies blogs. She kept saying that Stephanie commented on her blog. She is super cute! And when we got to their house she put on the Lower Lights! Ahh. I was happy. She also makes jewerly and I got some cute earrings! They are very nice and I love them. They are planning on having a big halloween party at their house on Oct. 29th and want us to help set it all up and get investigators there! We are excited about the work.

So, life is good. I have felt the Lord's help more then ever during this past week. I know that he loves me and will provide a way for me to be happy. We have some good plans to meet with lots of members and less actives this upcoming week. And we will try to find some investigators. I LOVE you all!

Love, Talisa!

P.S. Congrats on the new BABY Traci!!

Goteberg

With our time capsule.

Moving again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERINA!!!! And Happy Birthday to MOM!!!

Another two months and I am moving again! I guess I am needed somewhere else. President Newell called me on Saturday and told me that I would be leaving Goteborg on Wednesday and going to Halmstad! That is where Syster Juker was before here, so she has been telling me everything I need to know. I have to say that I cried when I found out that I would be moving. I was just feeling comfortable here and felt like I was just making lasting relationships with all the YSA's. I had so many good ideas to work with the YSA's and so many ideas to involve the members more. I am really sad. I am also leaving two great companions. But, I do know that I have made a difference here and that I am needed elsewhere. I will go and do what the Lord wants me to do. 1 Nephi 3:7 has given me a lot of comfort since I found out I would be leaving. I am really excited about seeing my Swedish language skills improve. I hear Halmstad is a really hard area. So, this will be interesting. I am trying to stay positive. Looks like I will be spending Christmas there. That's okay. Please pray extra hard for me and this upcoming move. I leave on Wednesday.

Okay now that I have gotten that out- ELY got BAPTIZED!!! Yippee!! It was an amazing service. When we got to the church Ely was just heading down the road to pick up her brother and she asked me to go with her to get him. So off I went with her to pick up her brother. I was amazed at how much Heavenly Father loves me because I spoke the entire time in Swedish! And we were laughing and could understand each other. It truly was a miracle. And when we got her brother and his girlfriend I was able to talk to them about the church and why I am a missionary. I did it all by myself. It was a long walk and I spoke Swedish the whole time. Somehow, ever since I found out that I would be leaving Goteberg, my Swedish has gotten a lot better. I have a HUGE testimony that Heavenly Father will help us fulfill our callings.

The experience of having a woman get baptized was amazing. Syster Juker, Syster Jenson and I were behind the scenes of the baptism and we were the first ones to hug her and tell her congrats. The Spirit was very strong and I have never seen Ely so happy. She actually kept saying to us..."this feels like I am getting married". She is the same wonderful investigator who said Jesus was like a hippie. She has strengthened my testimony so much. And her good example of getting baptized is going to help her whole family! She knows the truth and is already an amazing member!

We also had the chance this week to go to a high school and talk to a bunch of teenagers about the gospel. We had 4 Elders there and us 3 Sisters. This was all in Swedish and I have never been so scared. I am totally fine with talking to a bunch of people about the gospel when it is in English! I prayed for help and Heavenly Father helped me through it. Of course sometimes I would slip into English. Luckily all the teenagers thought it was funny. It was really neat to be able to watch all the Elders in their element. I really look up to them and all of their hard work.

Well, I love you all! Have a good birthday week and ROCK N' ROLL!

Enjoy the Sounds!! Booya. Be on the look out for a package from me.

Love, Talisa!

The first picture is us five missionaries and the Holdaways. They are one of my favorite families! I love them all so much! They have two children. Cute family and they are always willing to help and invite us over for dinner. I will really miss them. The next pictures are from the baptism.

Book of Mormon to the Max

At the castle we went to last week!

WOW. Another temple in PROVO!! I am so excited and happy about that. Thanks Dad for sending me the picture of the drawing. It looks lovely. It will be really neat to go to the temple in the Tabernacle where I grew up performing and attending stake conferences.

Well...this past week we met with our Bishop and had a great meeting about planning a big ward activity to try and get the ward more involved in missionary work. Our ward is huge and our bishop has told us that they need our help. So, on Dec. 10th, we have a big Jul party! Jul means Christmas. We are going to start visiting all the members and sharing with them the message of the restoration, so they can see how we teach and then they will trust us to give us referrals. The work here in Göteborg is really taking off and we have some amazing plans for the end of the year. We also met with the YSA council yesterday, in between sessions, and made plans for a missionary fireside to help get the YSA's more excited about doing missionary work. We are planning some amazing activities and I feel like I am getting to use some of my talents to help with the work. Which is what I should be doing in life..Right? Actually using my talents. Remember to be active in the church and USE your talents to help strengthen the Lord's kingdom.

We are really focusing on helping the less-actives and we have seen some of them start coming to activities and back to church! I have a strong testimony of how well the Lord knows each of us and how each person we meet in our lives we meet for a reason. Look for ways to uplift someone else and I promise you, you will be happier. Like President Monson said in conference - when we are busy with the Lord's work the time flies past!

Conference was amazing! On Saturday we went to the church and watched the Relief Society session- Elder Uchtdorf's talk was my favorite and was very powerful. I think that during this conference we all got to see powerfully strong testimonies from all of the Apostles. I know this church is true and that we can all help spread the truth, even if we are not full time missionaries! Even though I am. Haha. After the Relief Society session Syster Juker and I headed to the tram stop to pick up an investigator for the session. The plan is that he will be baptized on Oct. 29th. It was an amazing experience to sit next to an investigator during conference. I will never forget how it felt to watch conference with someone who doesn't know the truth. We actually had an investigator at every session!! Life is grand and I am happy. And Ely, who is getting baptized this weekend watched all the sessions at home with the member family she is living with. They all loved conference and we have plans to meet with all of them this week and discuss what they learned.

Some of my favorite parts from conference:

We must be worthy to receive inspiration and then ACT upon it. We must trust and communicate with our Heavenly Father. -President Monson

I really enjoyed how BOLD all of the Apostles were and how a lot of them stressed the importance of being a bold witness of Christ.

Repentance is a divine gift for each one of us. - Todd Christofferson

LOVE = TIME.

Elder Uchtdorf was so powerful and I enjoyed both of his talks. In Relief Society and General Conference. We must ALWAYS remember that we matter.

Do the right thing at the right time without delay. -Jose Alonso

Here are my questions I had for conference: 1. How can I find the balance of being myself and a missionary? 2. How can I help others see the importance of the gospel? 3. How do I strengthen my weaknesses? 4. What is the best way to strengthen less-activies? 5. How do I lose myself in the work?

Welp, I love you all so much! And I thank you for your great examples to me and support. One more little story: This past week I was a walking heart attack. Haha. We have decided to start heart attacking some of our members and less actives and let them know how much we love and care about them. We wrote scriptures on the hearts and then my companions stuck them all over me because we wanted to not make a lot of noise by the door, and then we transferred them to the persons door. Lovely indeed. A picture should be included. Enjoy.

Love, Talisa! Your rockin missionary.

Happy Birthday to the Rocktober birthdays! Suzanne, Kate, Frances, Ilse, Serina, Mom, Danny, Donnette, Crew, Dad, and Wendy! And I am excited for Traci and Justin for their new baby that will be coming soon! Yipee.

We gave a heart attack!

I love this store...we walk by it daily.

Ray Bans!

Part 2.

Hello once again!

So, this week has been amazing and I have decided that I need to be better at writing more details. So, here we go. We have a solid baptism set up for Oct. 8th with a girl from Peru. We have been meeting twice a week with her for about a month and I have become really close to her. We love her! We actually had a lady from the ward come to the teach with us and she added so much. We LOVE having members come on teaches with us because they always bring such a special spirit with them. It also helps with Swedish teaches because they usually can understand much more than we can. Haha. I am learning to make my weaknesses strengths.

Every week we have usually at least 2 dinners with the Elders and Members. This past week we had a really fun dinner with a cute girl that made us the entire dinner and then we shared an amazing spiritual thought on prayer after. All five of us missionaries went around and shared our favorite scripture on prayer. Mine is Alma 37:37. I shared how when I was at girl's camp one year, we made a little heart flyer with that scripture on it and then put it in our scriptures. Then, years later when I was having a hard time, I looked through my scriptures and that little heart flyer fell out and I re-read that scripture and ever since that day my prayers became much more spiritual. The gospel is real and I know that prayer works.

Be good this week and listen to general conference! It will be super amazing and I know that you will be uplifted. We will be watching conference on Saturday at 4pm- the relief society session, 6pm the sat. morning session, and then on sunday we will watch it at 2pm and then 6pm. And then the last session we will watch together on Monday. I believe on Saturday we will be watching it at the church and on Sunday we will be watching it at the Center. Life is good and the Church is true!

I LOVE you all!

Love, Talisa!

Aka: Syster Vistaunet

One Year ago.. and 7 months on a mission!

Howdy! And Congrats to Nate and Kia!!

One year ago, on Sept. 22nd, I received my mission call. I thought that was insane. I am amazed at how fast time goes by! I have also been here in Göteborg for a little over a month now. Wow. I am still loving it here and getting to know the ward better and better every week at church.

Yesterday we had an amazing relief society lesson and I actually understood what was going on. The lady who gave it was an American who married a Swede. I have found that I can understand Swedish a lot more when it is a persons second language. Go figure. Anyway, it was on Quentin L. Cook's talk from the last general conference titled " LDS women are incredible!" I thought you would enjoy this quote she shared:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Last night we had dinner at The Anstensens and you all would love them! They are amazing and the dad really reminds me of my dad. He is a curator for art and has his own modern art gallery. I really felt at home there. Their oldest daughter is my age and is studying social work and they have a son on a mission and then their youngest daughter is 16 and reminds me a lot of Serina. So crazy. We shared a spiritual message with them about prayer and they loved it and we talked about some names of people who we can pray for together and showed them that missionary work starts with a prayer and that's all.

Well, the picture of us in the stripes is from today! My companions keep saying "I want to be more swedish" and it turns out that they just dress up like me. Haha. Guess I am more Swedish than I thought. So, they both are wearing my shirts and shoes. Well, except for the red converse- those are a girl's from the ward. Seriously everyone here dresses like me and its fun. I have never seen so many converse in my whole life.

Love, Talisa!

We are going to a castle here that closes soon so I will be back later and I will send more then.