The Eagle District

Well howdy everyone!


This past week Syster Jacobs and I decided to have finding week. We
started the week off with fasting on Sunday to help us open our mouths
and find those people who are ready to hear about the gospel. Because
of that we had an amazing week! We ended the week with a total of 26
teaches, 4 baptismal dates, and 5 new investigators. Wow. I have a
strong testimony of fasting and praying for help. Syster Jacobs and I
have been witnessing first hand the miracles that can happen when we
ask and show our faith by acting upon the answers that we recieve.


Last Monday for pday we spent most of it with Bonnie and Bella picking
blueberries. And then we had blueberry pancakes-YUM. Today we have had
a relaxed pday and we did a lot of grocery shopping, which was very
needed. 


I think that the best news of the week is that we have no more
bed bugs! Haha. I just realized today that I haven't even told you
about our adventures with bed bugs. We had them for about 2 months
here in Kristianstad.. but after a lot of work, we finally got rid of
our beds and the bug lady came one last time and sprayed! 3rd time is
a charm I have heard. But, because of the bed bugs, Syster Jacobs and I
have been sleeping on air mattress´ for the past couple of weeks and
every night it feels like a sleep over! It´s been fun.


On Thursday we had district meeting here in Kristianstad and it was
focused on asking inspired questions. Most of our district has been
together for 2 1/2 months and because of that we have become really
good friends! Our district is leading our zone and because of that we
call ourselves the Eagle district. It´s amazing to me that it has
taken me almost my entire mission to really understand and see how
missionary work works and how a district is put together to help each
other. When the Elders came up here on Thursday, after our meeting we
all went out and split off to contact some people. I can´t explain the
support and strength that I personally recieve when I see other
missionaries spreading the gospel.. it really makes me want to work
harder. We have been really working with each other and giving each
other referrals. The work is going really well here in the south of
Sweden.


Yesterday, in church Syster Jacobs and I taught the branch
missionaries before church, taught a part of the combined relief
society and priesthood meeting, taught sunday school to our
investigators, and both gave talks in sacrament meeting. It was quite
an exhausting day. In sacrament meeting we had a young man speak who is
preparing for his mission, us two full time missionaries, and then our
branch mission leader who has been home from his mission for about 2
years. There was a really neat missionary spirit there. While we all
sang "I believe in Christ" I got chills up and down my arms. One of my
favorite things in the whole world is singing in Swedish! I am really
going to miss singing hymns in Swedish when I come home.


Right now we are working with two different couples who are living
with each other but love the church and they have both decided to get
married and then be baptized afterwards. We are so excited! We are
hoping to have two weddings before I go home and then have 3 baptisms
follow. One of the people getting married is marrying a member. 


We have also been working alot with less-actives. After
working with so many less-actives through out my mission I have come
to realize that many people just plain don´t know how to come back to
church or they are scared out of their minds to come back. When
working with our brothers and sisters who have been lost we must always
remember just to love them. LOVE.


Life is grand and it´s fun each week to see the newest pictures of
little Henry. Syster Jacobs and I both laugh at all the action figure
baby shots you send. Haha. Enjoy that summer sun and eat ice cream
too! I LOVE you all!


Love, Talisa!

Malmö stake

 We went sight-seeing at the tip of Sweden. Beautiful.

We had an amazing girls day for our last pday. We spent the day with two awesome women. Bonnie drove us all the way down to the very tip of Sweden. It was quite an amazing drive and we saw some really neat Viking stones in the shape of an old Viking boat. It was really neat to see and it was super windy. On the way home we stopped at a market - supposedly one of Swedens biggest. It was neat. Then today we had another pday with Bonnie. She invited us to go and pick blueberries with her! When you are in Sweden that is something that you must do. We had a really nice day with her again and then she made us really yummy blueberry pancakes with the blueberries we had just picked in the woods!

WHAT!?!? I can´t believe that you guys have received my travel plans. That makes this all so much more real. I really will be home in no time. That is a crazy thought. You were the first ones to tell me that I would be flying home direct from Paris. Wow. That's really all that I can say.

This may be a short email this week because we are just having way too much fun hanging out with the members on pday and seeing all of Sweden. I love busy adventure full pdays! I know that sometimes poor Syster Jacobs just wants a relaxing pday. But she is with a dying companion who just wants to see everything and do everything. Haha. She is a great sport and I love her! Syster Jacobs and I have become great friends. We don´t know what is going to happen when we will have to part. Nothing is ever for sure...you know. But, we do have our hopes up that we will stay together until I leave.

 

Yesterday at church the Stake President and his counselors came and spoke to us and it was great. They are amazing men and we could tell that they are called of God to serve the Malmö stake at this time. They recently got a new Stake President. We are still working on helping the members think of how and who they can give away their Book of Mormons before stake conference, which is in about a month and a half.  In fact it is the Sunday before I go home! Crazy. 

So, I hope all of you have not forgotten my challenge to give out a Book of Mormon before I come home. We are truly seeing miracles happening here because of the members actually talking with their friends and sharing the gospel. We love this place and the members are great. While the stake people were at church they kept giving props to our branch because of all the hard work that they are doing. Our branch is actually leading the Malmö stake in many different ways. The area that our branch and the rest of Sweden needs to really work on is re-activing YSA´s. My age group is such a crucial age group and so Syster Jacobs and I have decided to start visiting all of the YSA´s who live in our branch and inviting them to the Lund center.

 

Which reminds me, our new convert is going to Festinord this week! Which is a HUGE YSA activity in Denmark this year. We have heard that about 700 people are coming and about 200 of those people are coming from different lands other than the Scandanavian countries. Super rad. I hope to go someday... maybe next year. I will save up my money now. Haha. 

 

Lately we have been really working with less-actives and it seems to be picking up. We have one cute girl who is 18 years old that we have been working with recently and she spent the entire day with us on Friday and then today too. She is super cute and wants to come back to church, she just needs love and a ride. Friday was a miracle day. We picked up this girl and headed out to Tyringe where Bonnie lives and we first visited another member and shared a great message on letting our lights shine! Then we headed to teach a referral that we got from a member in our branch. We taught the plan of salvation and it went pretty well. After that we went and did some service and then Bonnie fed us all dinner. We ended the night on a spiritual high of talking about scripture power and why we study the scriptures. The spirit was very strong and this young girl, who had spent the entire day with us, felt it as well and she told us that she has been reading in her scriptures recently because someone in the branch actually gave her a new set of scriptures for her birthday. The time is now. I am so grateful for how Heavenly Father talks to each one of his children in the exact way that they need. I love the spirit!

 

Oh, yeah we had another neat experience with a referral from one of Syster Jacobs friends from home! Way cool. We met a young woman, her boyfriend, and their baby last Thursday in Malmö right after district meeting and had lunch with them and talked about what we are doing and our message. We hope that we helped them see that we Mormons are not that strange.

Life is grand as you can see!

 

Love, Talisa!

Denmark Temple with our new convert!!

The amazing Malmö district.

Trip to the Copenhagen, Denmark temple.

Wow. Words cannot express how grateful I am. 

This past week we had the chance to travel to the Denmark temple with our new convert. Our mission president said that we could go with him if we went with a family. So, we asked a family in the ward and they, along with this convert, planned a wonderful trip. We went this past Saturday and I once again believe that the Denmark temple is my favorite temple. It has been my mission temple- this was the third time that I have had the chance to attend. Going to the temple with a new convert was such a breath taking experience that I don't think many missionaries get to have. Once we got there we first watched him do baptisms and then we got to do some confirmations. When he first stepped into the water he could not stop grinning. It took a little bit of time for him to get used to being baptized so many times in a row. But, after the session was over we gathered back together and he told us he has never felt so wonderful in his whole life. That is what the gospel can do for a person -  it gives them something they didn´t even realized they were missing. He kept telling us that it felt like he was helping people who are dead break the bonds of death with his help of the baptismal saving ordiances. Within the past 2 months we met this new convert, taught him, and have been able to watch him grow and grow in understanding. He truly is a miracle and strengthens my testimony every time that we talk with him. He has a strong desire to serve a mission but is too old so he is taking a mission prep class from Elder Dunn in Lund and now has a Preach my Gospel book, which he loves. We ended our wonderful day with all of us getting dinner in Malmö with one of his friends that he wanted us to meet. What an amazing missionary experience.

 

Well, as you can see, that was the highlight of the week. Syster Jacobs and I recently have been feeling the need to focus more on less actives. So, this past week we started some visits - which went okay. I think that the most heartbreaking thing to experience as a missionary is when you arrive at the home of a less-active and they say that they don´t want anything to do with the church anymore. We had that happen twice this week. But, we are at least doing our job and inviting people to act upon their God given gift of agency. I am all about inviting people to act upon their agency now. As missionaries and members our job is to invite. It has taken me pretty much my entire mission to truly understand my role as a member and as a missionary. When we just open our mouths and invite that is when miracles can happen and will. But, on the bright side of the less-active work, we also came in contact with two families who would like us to keep in contact!  Sometimes I just can´t believe how much work there is to do. I love missionary work and I am looking forward to helping with less active work when I get home.

 

Syster Jacobs and I are staying together! We were very scared to turn our phone back on once we got out of the Denmark temple because we knew that that was the day President was making transfer phone calls. But, I am happy to say, that we will be staying together! We feel very grateful for that and we also know that this is our time now to really see four more baptisms together! We have quite a few investigators right now. But, because it is summer time it has been a little bit harder to get a hold of them. All of our investigators also seem to be in very different spots of conversion. We have four people who would like to be baptized and we are hoping to see them baptized within the next couple of months. Because of Summer we are looking towards August when they come back from vacation for their baptisms.

 

On saturday night one of our investigators called us up and said that she had made dinner and was wondering if we would like to come over and eat with her. We said yes and headed right over. We had just gotten back from the temple so we were on fire. Syster Jacobs was really on fire and the Holy Ghost was present when we were teaching. Our investigator has had a problem with accepting the Book Of  Mormon and because of that Syster Jacobs had the idea for us to just read out of the Bible with her. That changed her entire attitude and she was much more willing to listen to us after we showed her how much we actually love the Bible too. We also watched a mormon message with tons of different people singing "I am a child of God" and that brought the Spirit so strongly. Our investigator even started singing along! Amazing powerful teach.

 

Then on Sunday we had a very jam-packed missionary day!  We taught young womans, sunday school, and had four investigators in church! We were very busy running around the entire day. Haha. I would have loved to have seen us. I love the young woman program and we have such amazing young women here!! We taught the lesson on scripture study and why it is so important for us. We are also planning a really big fun activity for the youth in August with missionaries. The work is wonderful and I love it.

 

Not much time left. But, today we are going with a member to a big outdoors market and to see some really neat Viking rocks. I love pdays and members! I love you all and wish you a great week!

 

Love, Talisa!

Red, White, and Blue forever!

                                         P-day in Sweden.

                                         Dressed patriotically for the Fourth of July in Sweden.

                                         Zone Conference.

This has been another wonderful week. The highlight of the week was
zone conference in Göteborg. The theme was The gospel of Christ. Which
means faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy
Ghost, and enduring to the end. I am so grateful for President and
Syster Newell, they are truly inspired people. Syster Newell always
gives the most wonderful presentations that inculde many clips from
youtube. This time my favorite was a music video about living
the good life. I loved it and was so grateful for my knowledge about
how I can live the good life and how I can help others learn how to
live the good life.


Syster Jacobs and I actually are working with four people right now
towards baptism. We are hoping and praying that we will get to
stay together until I go home so we will be able to accomplish our
goal of having seven baptisms together. On Saturday night we took
a member with us to teach a less active man and his sambo, which
means girlfriend.  We had an amazing experience teaching and
by the end of the plan of salvation lesson we challenged the girlfriend
to be baptized and she accepted! Syster Jacobs and I looked at each
other and were very happy and were trying to decide how to tell them that they
needed to be married before she could get baptized, since they live together,
and before we knew it the member that was with us was telling them and by the end
of the night we had a wedding and a baptism to plan! Haha. We are planning
both of them for the end of August. Yippee! The gospel is true.


On the 4th of July we were invited to go to Bonnie´s- the cute
American woman´s house for a BBQ with the branch. We went early to
help set up and bake chocolate chip cookies. They are a really big hit
here in Sweden. We had a really great time grilling and singing good
old American songs. We had only three true Americans there and lots of
Swedes who love America. I am very grateful for America and for the
freedom that we have. After living in another country I can see how
much freedom we really enjoy and for that I am really grateful.


I am trying to end my mission on a high note.
Syster Jacobs and I are teaching more and more in unity and
because of our love for each other and dedication, the work is really
taking off. I once again feel very blessed to be here. Kristianstad
has my heart. Wait, Sweden does. Summer time here is beautiful! It has
just started to get really hot. The weird thing about Sweden is that
for the month of July the whole country seems to take off work and go
on vacation which makes things a little bit harder for missionary
work. But, we have four baptismal dates that we are working towards
and things are going really well. I love being a missionary!


If you haven´t read Elder Uchdorfs message in the Ensign for the month
of July, read it! It is entitled "Always in the middle". I love it and it
has helped me to re-focus on always living in the moment and enjoying
life by sticking to the middle.


Happy Birthday Brian! It looks like you all had a great birthday
celebration. Little Henry seems to be getting longer and longer. I am
really looking forward to meeting him. I love you all so much.
Enjoy your hot summer! And Serina, enjoy the last 2 months of your big
room. Cause soon sister is coming back! Haha. But, really.


Love, Talisa!
Syster V.

Miracle´s happen!

We love our new bikes!!

Well, wow. That is super rad that you all got to meet Syster Jacobs sister and her family. I have heard so much about them and you all looked so cute together! Eternal families with eternal friends. I love life. I am looking forward to meeting them. My mind is starting to freak out about coming home. I can´t believe that I will be home in 2 1/2 months! Insane. And yeah, don´t worry about sending me any more packages, just send letters and I am happy. Syster Jacobs got her birthday card and was extremly happy about it. She could not stop talking about the artwork from Brian. Haha.

We just had one of the most amazing weeks that I have had while on my mission. We had TEN teaches with a member present! That means we taught our investigators with members present, which makes the work so much easier. I love using the members to help teach and they love it too! In fact, we now have three investigators with a baptismal date and the entire branch is very aware of them and they want to help us in any way possible. We have a little girl who is 11 years old who wants to be baptized and yesterday we brought her with us to the Jacobssons for dinner after church and their little daughter was so cute and helped us teach her on the trampoline outside, along with another member who actually referred us to this little girl to teach. The Spirit was so strong when this cute little ten year old was bearing her testimony about how the church was restored. We read the Joseph Smith account from the children´s Book of Mormon and then gave her her own copy of the book. That teach will be a teach that I will remember for the rest of my life. Sitting in the sun on the trampoline with our new Swedish friends speaking Swedish together and understanding and uplifting each other. The church is true! I really have never been so happy in my whole life.

Syster Jacobs birthday was a miracle day and we had so much success that day. We were blessed to have lunch with Bonnie, our American Grandma, and then head out to Hässelholm to teach a new convert, and right after that we taught a new chinese investigator that we have. After that we headed to the church to teach a19 year old girl who was a referral from a young woman in our Branch. We gave her a church tour and that was powerful and we asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes! All because of her friends really good example. This Branch is truly amazing and we are getting so many referrals! Some times we don´t even know what to do with all the work that we have here. Haha. It´s a blessing. I love it here!! Then after that amazing teach we headed to a birthday dinner and they had another friend  there for us to teach.. the cute little girl who wants to get baptized! We taught her with them and then we headed out with a member on another teach. What a full day. It was one of the best days ever!

We get to travel to Göteborg this weekend for zone conference!!! I am so excited to go back to Göteborg. It´s almost been a year since I was there. Hopefully we will be able to do some kind of work overs or spilts with the sisters there.

We had a really good week full of cute older ladies in our Branch. I don´t know what we have done but we sure have won over the hearts of the older ladies in this Branch. They love us and want us to come over every single week for lunch or dinner! Haha. The best part is that we can´t even understand some of them. But, who needs language to communicate? I am looking forward to Heaven where I will be able to talk to them and understand everything that they are saying to me. But, we are really having a grand old time with all of them. We have acquired about 5 to 6 Swedish, Danish, and American grandmas here. We are watched over. It is wonderful.

Well, I love you all! Don´t have much time today because a cute older couple in the Branch is taking us down south by the beach to enjoy this beautiful weather and summer time in Sweden!

Love, Talisa!

Awesome!

Tonya here - just wanted to put up a few photos on Talisa's blog of us meeting Talisa's mission companions sister and family. We met them at an art open house in Kanosh, Utah, of all places! Such a small world. I love this church, and I love that Talisa is serving in such a wonderful place - Sweden!!