Sunday night dancing

(This picture is a group of sculptures by Carl Milles - "Five Musical Geniuses" - they are often referred to as the Angels in the Forest. He is a famous Swedish sculptor. The building across the little river is the Concert Hall - it is right behind the sculptures.)

We went on splits last week. So fun!

Wow. Mondays just seem to be coming faster and faster. This week I will hit my one year mark!!! Can you believe that? It really freaks me out to think about how fast time goes by.

Thus far on my mission I have been in six cities and seen four baptisms. Örebro, Norrköping, Göteborg, Halmstad, Karlskrona, and Gävle. I feel very blessed to be able to see so much of Sweden. One of my dreams was to be able to travel a lot and see Sweden and that dream has really come true. I have now been in all five zones and for our next zone conference I will get to travel up to Sundsvall and get to experience some of northen Sweden. Finally. Haha. Next zone conference will be in April.

This past week we got to the chance to go on splits. And because of that I have been thinking a lot about what I have learned so far on my mission and what I want to do with the time I have left. I have six months left! I got the chance to go on splits with Syster Hill who is training right now in Uppsala. She served in Gävle for the first six months of her mission and loves it here- so she came here and taught me a lot about the area. Syster Jenson went to Uppsala to be with Syster Talbot- a new missionary. We met up on Friday for district meeting here in Gävle and switched and then Sunday after church we switched back. It was a very fun weekend.

It is always fun to be with other missionaries and see what their talents are. And see how I can help them progress as well. I have come to realize that a lot of missionaries really stress themselves out for no reason at all. Life is so much better when we hand over our stress to our Savior. I have been studying the atonement a lot this week and I have been reminded about how much we are loved.

We got six new investigators this week!!! Heavenly Father really prepares His children and Syster Jenson and I have been the lucky ones to see teach many of them about the truth.

We have found two different, very strong African families that both really want to learn what we have to offer. Actually I am on the phone right now with the Dad of one of the families. He is super nice and he is saying that since we left his house last week he has felt God's love again and has been listening to worship music and he is telling me that he can feel heaven close around him. Amazing. We will be trying to meet with him and his family again this week and hopefully they will be able to come to our music night this Saturday night.

We are having a music night on Saturday with people in Borlange, Uppsala, and Gavle. We have about 15 different music numbers performing. I am very excited.

Now that we have so many new investigators we will be working really hard on getting them baptized! Our mission has a standard of excellence that we are all working towards right now and that includes:

Talking to ten people every day, finding 5 new investigators every week, and seeing 260 baptisms in Sweden for 2012! We are working on strengthening our faith as a mission and I strongly believe that we are starting to see more miracles because our faith is growing.

This past week we have used mormon.org a lot. I LOVE that website. It is easily one of my favorite tools as a missionary. I love showing people videos of people who they can relate to. It is a wonderful thing. Lately we have been getting referrals from mormon.org as well which makes me love that website even more. We have received two this past week and went and visited them. The one is a chinese girl who doesn't even know anything about God and is wanting to hear more about Him. The other we are still trying to get in touch with. Life is grand. Use mormon.org and tell people about the true church!

I have a strong testimony that God loves and prepares all of His children to hear the truth at some point in their lives. And then He gives us this wonderful gift called agency, where we get the chance to choose for ourselves what is true.

I am so grateful that I have been blessed to learn the truth and that I now get the chance share this truth with the people of Sweden.

Yesterday when Syster Jenson and I were on our way back to Gävle from Uppsala we sat across from a man who kept looking at us and smiling. We finally tried to talk to him and found out that he was deaf! Syster Jenson knows a little of american sign language and they started talking. Then he got some paper and we wrote in Swedish back and forth for about 15 minutes. It was a really neat experience and made me realize how important it is to learn Swedish in every form. Even writing because you never know when you will have the chance to teach someone about the church only through writing. I was very grateful for Syster Jenson at that moment. It was such a neat experience to "talk" with a deaf person. He goes to some deaf church in Gävle and wasn't really interested in learning more about our church.

Also this week I had the chance while Syster Hill was here to visit some members and have lunch. Kurt and Gerd Sjöqvist - who are both amazing artists! She actually went to BYU and James Christensen was her teacher. They are the mormon artists who made the really neat Tree of Life model that was in the conference center a couple of years ago. The big model with lots of color. Really breath taking. Anyways, I felt right at home when I was there.

It´s been a good week and I can tell that things are just going to keep getting better here in Gävle.

Syster Jenson goes home in 2 weeks and then I will train again. I remembered that you guys went to Syster Gotberg´s homecoming, so I thought it would be sweet if you went to Syster Jenson´s too! She is amazing and we have become really good friends! And she would love to get some good music from you.

I love you all! I am getting more and more excited about Corryn having her baby! Keep sending me pictures of her belly! Haha. 2 more months! Crazy.

Love, your Swedish daughter.

Talisa Vistaunet!

Beautiful Sweden.

Gavle is a beautiful, very Swedish town and I love it!

This is our chapel here. Cute and pretty big.

This statue that I am standing next to is of the first missionary in Sweden! I guess he was from Gävle. Very neat. Gävle is the city where the church was started here a long time ago. Rich history. Whenever I am feeling down I think of the missionaries who came before me and what I am doing to help with the work.

(I found more information on the "first missionary" monument. It is of John Erick Forsgren. He was a sailor stationed in Boston in 1843 when he joined the church. He later returned to his home town of Gavle as a missionary and baptised his brother, Peter, in 1850. Peter was the first convert in all of Scandinavia. The commemoration was just a year ago. It is in a city park right next door to the family estate! There is a somewhat sad ending to that first missionary story. He baptized others, but was eventually kicked out of Sweden by authorities who did not approve of a new religion being introduced in their country! The statue was dedicated in July of 2001.)

Listen to some Futureheads for me. And Tom´s new band. Caitlin told me that they are getting well known there. And that they are a 50-60 rock n roll type band. Tell Tom to write me and tell me about his new band. Thanks. Oh and tell Caitiln and Kamalei thanks for their letters! I really am blessed with the best friends ever. I am working on writing them back. But, as a missionary we really don't have much time to write.

Oh yeah, this weekend we are going on spilts! Syster Hill is coming up here and will be spending a couple of days with me. Then we will switch back on Sunday after church. Should be fun.

love love love you all!

Love, Talisa igen!

Living in the moment

Wow. One thing that I keep seeming to re-learn is how to enjoy every single moment because you never know when it is going to change.

Gävle is a very pretty city! And it´s actually quite large. It reminds me a lot of my first area- Örebro. I also think it is one of the most Swedish towns I have been in yet. Everyone only speaks Swedish. So, I am getting much better at Swedish. We don´t have very many investigators. So we are doing a lot of finding work and visiting less-actives. One thing we have been doing is contacting people on our way to the less actives homes. It is a much better use of our time, because that way we can tell Heavenly Father where we will be and pray that He will lead us to those who are prepared to hear our message all over our area. We have already seen many miracles from it.

Saturday, we met a really nice Swedish man who seemed very closed off at first but the more we talked and testified of a loving Heavenly Father the more he seemed to listen. By the end of our conversation we got his phone number! He is actually going to come with us tonight to a dinner with some new members! A father and his son who were baptized last summer. I am very excited for the missionary work here in Gävle. I know that there is a lot that needs to be done and that there is a lot that I personally can do. I know I am here for a reason. Now I must find that reason and that person who needs my help. Or people.

This week we have collected eight phone numbers of people who are actually ready to hear our message!I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and I know that I am here in Gävle now for a reason. It was really hard the first couple of days, but things have gotten better and every day is a new adventure. When life gets hard what should we do? Pray. I have been studying a lot about prayer lately and I am so grateful for my knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father.

I love being back with Syster Jenson! It is really fun being with dying (soon to go home) missionaries. She will be the third dying missionary I have been with. Crazy thought. It's fun to be with dying missionaries because it gets you thinking about your mission and what you want to do with the time you have left. Plus all the dying missionaries really want to go shopping, which is fine by me. Haha. That means I am going to have a lot of sweet Swedish stuff to bring home. I have been thinking that it is possible that I am going to stay here for the rest of my mission. But, then again.. look at my track record. Maybe not. I know that I will be here for the next 4 months. Because in March when Syster Jenson leaves I will be getting a new missionary to train and that program lasts three months. I feel like the next missionary I am going to train is going to have a much better experience because now I have had some practice. I am so grateful for Syster Francis and her patience with me. She is such a great missionary!

Pictures: We made yucky heart cookies - oops.

Then this week we did district meeting through skype. I did not like it at all. It was really hard for all the missionaries to stay focused. I felt like I didn't get much out of it. I am told that we are one of the test districts in the mission to see how effective it is to do district meeting over skype. I think because it will save money and time for us missionaries. So, this is a picture of us using it at our church. Strange.

Then we did some weekly planning in a sweet art museum and did some contacting around old town. Very cute.

We found a really sweet slide and went down it. It was pitch black and super fun to go down.

Ok, yesterday was my first Sunday here in Gävle and it was amazing! There are about 40 active members here. I shared my testimony and Syster Jenson gave a great talk on Spencer W. Kimball. After church a sweet couple invited us over for lunch. They are awesome and we had a lot of fun together! Then they dropped us off in town for a teach with an African woman and her daugthers. Her daugthers are super cute and they totally opened up to us. We talked about the importance of prayer and why we pray. We asked them if they pray and they said sometimes. The little girl who was 8 years old has been having some nightmares lately and we told her that whenever that happens to pray to her Heavenly Father because we know that He will hear her and help her. Syster Jenson did such an amazing job at following the Spirit's guidance. The mom was so happy that we took the time to teach her daughters about prayer and told them that God loves them. We left while the Spirit was still very strong. I love being able to see Syster Jenson in action! She is one amazing missionary. I feel very blessed to be with her again. I am going to take full advantage of this time I have with her in order to learn how to be an even better missionary.

Well, I am living in Sweden and loving it. Remember to enjoy the little things that life has to offer. Today a member is going to take us on a tour of Gävle!! I am so exctied. Pdays are going to be fun again! Then tonight we will head over to his house for FHE with our new investigator friend! The gospel is a beautiful thing.

Live the gospel every day and then life will be better! I promise. Look for those people whose lives you can help change for the better.

Love, Talisa!!

Goodbye Karlskrona

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I love you. Thank you for all your prayers.

Okay, so I am first going to write about an experience I had on my train ride to Gävle. I had been praying for help at every change on my route that I would have to make because I had so much luggage. The first switch a man helped me with everything. And then later he came to me and said "excuse me, I noticed your tag, would it be okay if we talked for a little bit?" Um.. YES! I thought. He then went on to say that he is a priest in a Swedish church and he was on his way to Mass with some youth from his church. He asked me about my work and how I liked it and why I decided to go on a mission. He had met missionaries before in Malmö years ago. Sisters actually, and they gave him a Book of Mormon. I asked him if it was hard to be Christian here and he said "yes, but we have a lot of faith in our youth". Good. I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ, God, and the Book of Mormon. Then we said goodbye. Within a couple of minutes he came back and said "the girls that I have with me would like to meet you and ask you questions about why you are a missionary and more about your church". Wow. I smiled and followed him. We had only ten minutes to talk but those girls and that man have no idea how much they helped me. They uplifted me and I hope I uplifted them. He thanked me for the work that I am doing here and wished me luck with the rest of my mission. That was an amazing experience to be able to testify to people who actually wanted to hear and learn. I felt the Holy Ghost guiding my words. I showed them the Book of Mormon but unfortunately since I was moving I didn't have one with me to give away. He said he had one and he would show the girls when they get back home. Very neat.

This past week we have had some amazing lessons. We are really focusing on doing this lesson called the zero lesson which is where we get to know the person, bear testimony, set up expectations, apply questions to the restoration, give a soft baptismal commitment, and then have them pray. We have had a chance to do it quite often lately and I LOVE it. It helps us as missionaries see who is prepared and who we should focus on.

There is a women we met at a bus stop a couple of weeks ago and we called her last week to see if we could come over. She said she had been sick so probably not. I said "we don't care, we want to come and see you and bring you soup". That made her very happy and she told us to come on over. So the next day we went over with soup and she was all smiles. I have never seen someone so happy to see us. She said "you girls are my only friends who have come by and visited me while I have been sick. Thank you." We talked about God. She said she kind of believes in God. She is super homesick and doesn't understand why God wants her to be in Sweden. Well, I can tell you why! She is here to meet us! The first lesson went amazing and we went back two days later and taught her the plan of salvation while sitting on her floor around a heater. It was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. We told her things that she had never thought about before and it made her really happy. I am very excited to hear about the progress that she makes.

Well, I am sure I am forgetting something...but, I love you all! Thank you for all the support and prayers.

This week I am focusing on charity and if you have the chance I challenge you all to read 1 Corinthians 13. Wonderful chapter all about what true charity is.

Remember to live in the moment because you never know when that moment will be gone! Enjoy yourself.

Love, Syster Vistaunet!

Happy Birthday to Jason Bahr, Uncle Todd, Grandpa Doug, Danny, Amy Arnold, David Ridge, Rob Magebly, Chloe, and Josh Lohner!

And Happy late Birthday to Britta, Finn, Tyler, Brooke, Emily, Manders, Kamalei, and Sarah!

Nästa station Gävle.

Our matching skirts from H & M.

Well hello again! The past couple of days have been a blur. Holy cow. I got transfered yesterday to Gävle. I moved from the furthest South sisters area to the furthest North sisters area. As I write this I am still in shock. It feels so unreal. And I am now back with Syster Jenson. I was companions with her in Göteborg with Syster Juker. She goes home in one month and then President Newell told me that I will be training again then. Wow. It is amazing to me how fast things can change.

This past week has been one of the BEST weeks ever! We had so much to do. It was amazing how busy we were and the Elders were very impressed at how many teaches we had set up. I was only in Karlskrona for one month, but I feel like I did a lot there. At least I hope so. We have plans to start up Swedish class on Thursday night, calling referrals, meeting with members and actually sharing a lesson, and doing teaches within 30 to 40 minutes.

Syster Francis is an amazing missionary. I have total faith that she will continue to do great work there in Karlskrona with Syster Winterton. Miracles will keep happening. I just know it. Right now I am feeling a little bummed about being in a new place again. But I know everything happens for a reason. And I have faith that my Heavenly Father knows exactly what is best for me and He knows where all of His missionaries need to be.

I am so grateful for the chance I had to start to train Syster Francis. I don't think she will ever realize how much good she did for me. I love that girl. Luckily last week we both got the same skirt from H&M so that is our companion ship unity item.

The computer is going to kick me off soon, but I will be able to sign back in so the rest of my email will be coming in a minute...

Love, Talisa!

pictures

Snow in Sweden!! Beautiful and cold.

MTC companion reunion - we have been out 11 months now. Wow.

Thanks so much for the valentines package! I got it and I was so happy to see poptarts and white chips!! THANKS!! Man, you spoil me. We will be making those cookies this week. Happy happy joy joy.

I love you all!

Talisa

Systers Conference

Sister's Conference held in Stockholm, Sweden.

Hello one and all!

Well, another week has passed us by. I will start off by thanking everyone for your prayers. I know that I would not be able to do this work without them and your support.

My companion and I have witnessed many miracles this past week. Last Tuesday we had a kind of bummer day- everyone kept canceling on us but we kept going and then a miracle happened. We had planned to go to a members house for dinner and to bring her milk and bread. Every p-day missionaries bring her milk and bread and then she usually feeds them. Such a sweetheart. Anyway, we felt prompted to bring one of our investigators with us because of the warm environment. I was a little nervous to ask our investigators mom if she could come with us but then we did and her mom said "yeah, no problem"! So we ended up taking them to dinner. Our investigator just turned 12 and she loves the church and actually wants to go on a mission when she is older because of us. Cute. But, her family life is not so great- her mom is drunk a lot and that makes it hard on her. We brought the two little African girls with us to dinner and had a fun evening together. We ate and had fun together and then we gave a lesson on being thankful and we shared Alma 34:38. The Spirit was present and we all left being spiritually uplifted. And we are actually going to do the same thing tonight!

I have a firm testimony of working with members. Once missionaries and members work together the success of the area overflows! Karlskrona better be ready.

We had another amazing experience on Thursday. We had district meeting in Växjö, which is about 1 1/2 hours away and the zone leaders came and we talked about how to be a bold missionary. I had told my district leader last week that that is what I struggle most with. So we practiced and shared ideas. Then I had the chance to put it into effect that very night! We had three teaches planned for when we got back and they all happened! We first went straight to a members to teach her friends. Some cute older Swedish ladies. Sometimes it is hard to understand them but, the Spirit is always present when we teach them. And we can always see the gift of tongues blessing us after we leave. Then we headed to the church to teach an investigator who cannot be baptized but has a solid testimony and comes every Sunday! The teach went well, we talked about the priesthood. After that we had a less active member come and we had one of the best teaches I have ever had! You would be so proud of how bold I was! Haha. We talked for a while and got to know each other and then I asked "when was the last time that you came to church?" He had to think for a while and then said about a year ago. We had a really good discussion about Joseph Smith and living Prophets and then that moved onto the atonement. We found out that he is just scared to come back. He wants to be worthy to take the sacrament when he comes back and he has a lot to change in order to feel better. We talked about having more faith. And that led perfectly into fasting with us this Sunday to have more faith. He said he would! Wow.

Then Systers conference was on Saturday and it was really uplifting and inspiring. There is just a different spirit that exists when you are around all systers. We have some amazing systers in the Sweden Stockholm mission! A bunch of firecrackers.

President and Syster Newell held a wonderful conference and I felt inspired. Syster Newell talked about what happens when we fall down? Do we push ourselves and get right back up or do we sit there and cry? She went onto talk about putting more faith in Jesus Christ and pushing ourselves to be better. Pretty soon the systers in the mission will get the chance to go on splits with other systers every 6-8 weeks! Our first one will be on April 5. And we are signed up to do it with Syster Juker and Schebier in Jonköping. I am excited!

I have never been so happy to see my old companions. I miss Syster Juker and Detinne-Cassel! I was really blessed with some amazing MTC companions. The Elders in the mission love us and say that we are the most down to earth systers and they are very grateful for us. Haha. So, here are a couple of pictures from our weekend in Stockholm.

Well, we finally have a lot of snow! It really feels like winter now and I am not sure how much I like it. Haha. Being out in the cold all day is exhausting. I guess not all day. We are teaching inside for most of the days.

Today we went to H&M and we got some new scarves and skirts! We both bought the same skirt. Cute. Yay for new clothes!

I love you all! Love, Talisa!