Vägen till Glädje!

Our Relief Society dinner.

Dragon Gate: just outside of Gavle.

Man alive! Conference was so great! I am so grateful that I am a missionary right now.

We had some amazing experiences with watching Conference. We watched the first session by ourselves on the computer at the church and ate lots of Swedish candy. Haha.

The next morning we went over to an investigator's house to make lunch and watch the Saturday afternoon session with her. She is amazing and she is preparing to get baptized in April. She had even watched the Saturday morning session the day before by herself!

Watching conference while on a mission is such a different experience because the whole time you are watching you just keep thinking about the people you are working with and how this message can and will change there lives for the better.

I loved Elder Nelson´s talk about just making sure people know that there is a God and who He is. Every single day we come in contact with so many different people and I feel very blessed when, after talking with them, I can feel God´s love for them.

I know that God exists! He is there and He hears and answers our prayers. I am so grateful for the chance that I have right now to declare that wonderful message to the people of Sweden.

After watching Conference we went and visited a sweet old lady and told her what we had learned from Conference. She is the sweetest old lady who has quite the personality. She loves to speak English with us. Haha. Then we headed over to visit another family in the branch. They are wonderful and have four children. We tried really hard to have one of our investigator families come over for dinner and to watch conference with them, but something happened that they couldn´t get a ride. We hope that they watched it by themselves anyways. It was really nice to watch conference with a family and Syster Jacobs made a yummy lemon cake to share. She is a really good cook... I feel very lucky. My cooking skills will improve a lot more. I can´t wait to make all the yummy things I am eating for you all! I am going to have parties all the time and say come and fika! "Fika" means to have tea with a cake of some sort. Swedes love there fika time and as missionaries we eat a lot of fikas.

This past week we had a meal with a member every day. Gävle is going to make me fat. Haha. I feel so loved. The best part about the Gävle branch is that they really want to do all they can to help with missionary work.

We have not yet watched all sessions of conference. We will be watching the last session with some members later this week. I am looking forward to that. And I am looking forward to watching President Monson´s talk again because we watched it in Swedish. I got most of it but we both really want to make sure we fully understood. We watched three talks in Swedish and that was quite the treat. I am happy to report that I could understand most of what was being said.

This past week we have had some amazing teaches. Syster Jacobs and I are such a power team. We are both very happy people and all we want to do is serve those around us. The more we get to know each other the more we realize that we are together now for a reason. Gävle is in need of happy missionaries who will talk to everyone.

This past week we have started to go out with our ward mission leader and his wife to visit all the less-actives in the branch. It has been quite the adventure. They took us to this really cool Chinese place in the middle of nowhere and we had fun taking pictures. Haha. We have met some really nice people who are less-active just because they don´t have the energy to keep going. But, after this Conference I have so much energy and the faith to know that anyone has the ability to come back. All we have to do is trust in God and His plan for us and USE the atonement. When I ask people who Jesus Christ is to them.. I am surprised at the answers I get. Many people just know that he was a good man but they don´t understand that he took upon himself all of our sins and died for us. Wow.

We also had an amazing night with some investigators.They have become very good friends. We had an amazing lesson with them about who God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are. And about the Book of Mormon and why we read it. I have learned that many people just doesn´t seem to understand the importance of the Book of Mormon. They love the Bible so much and they believe that they don´t need anything more. But, I am hear to testify and let everyone know that we have a living Prophet today and that his name is Thomas S. Monson. I know that he is God´s prophet today, especially after watching conference.

Something we have started doing with our branch is going around to all the members and dropping off a vägen till glädje calendar. This means the Road to Joy! On every single day it is marked with two very important things that we can do with our families in order to receive more joy.

1. Family prayer.

2. Family scripture study.

We believe that people just need to be reminded of the basics again.

As a missionary I have been blessed to really feel God´s love for His children. I LOVE every single person that I meet. Even if they don´t understand why I am doing what I am doing. I know that God has a plan for every one of His children and I am here to help them remember that plan.


Life is grand and the church is true! Remember to be an active Latter-day Saint and help our Heavenly Father rescue His sheep.

Love, Talisa!