Find, Teach, and Baptize 2012

These feather trees are placed all over the city around Easter time every year..kinda neat.

We went to Ikea and had a blast. The food is super yummy and really cheap. I have the feeling that I will be eating there quite often once summer time gets here.

This past week has been amazing. Every time I sit down to think about my past week and write my emails I am just filled with so much happiness. Being a missionary really is a HUGE blessing and I am so grateful for the chance I have to be here in Gävle. This city is prepared for the second harvest and Syster Jacobs and I are seeing it unfold right before our eyes.

I have such a testimony of my Mission President. I was reminded a couple of different times within the past couple of weeks that my goal as a missionary is to find, teach, and baptize. With my re-focus and opening my mouth more we have seen the blessings pour out. We had 25 teaches this past week and 20 of them where with investigators!

As a mission we have a standard of excellence that we are focusing on this year and the focus is on these three areas of missionary work:

Find- To talk to ten people daily and have 5 new investigators weekly.

Teach- To have 20 teaches weekly and to have 3 investigators in church every week.

Baptize- To have a new baptismal date every week and to have a baptism weekly withing our zone.

When I first heard these goals I didn´t have much faith because my numbers were only that high some weeks. I didn´t really see it reachable. I now know that these goals are very reachable and I am very grateful for the chance I have to be a missionary here in Sweden where we find, teach, and baptize! We have a goal for our mission to see 260+ baptisms for this year. I know that is possible.

Syster Jacobs and I made some goals for our time together and we want to see 7 bapitsms together.Which is very possible because we have three people that we are working with right now towards baptism. April 21st is the day that we are aiming towards. We have some great people we are teaching now. It is amazing to see how Heavenly Father really leads us to his children who are prepared. It is great to have members willing to help us do missionary work too.

We had four investigators at church on Sunday and it was quite the show. We were running back and forth like chicken´s with their heads cut off. Haha. I was very grateful for the wonderful members that we have here in Gävle and the support we felt from them. Kurt Sjöqvist actually taught the investigator class. We taught a class in English in another room. It was the most amazing Sunday I have had on my mission! Syster Jacobs and I are really seeing Heavenly Fathers hands in our work and we know that we could not do this work without His help. It brings me so much joy to see my brothers and sisters accept and learn more about the gospel.

After church we went over to a wonderful member's house and had a wonderful birthday lunch and made her feel like a princess. I love birthdays and making people feel loved.

Okay, so every single day we have amazing, very memorable experiences and it´s very hard to write about all of them. I will share one of them. Last Wednesday we had a youth activity. Missionaries in Gavle have done activites every Wednesday night for the past year or so. It´s a great chance for us as missionaries to really get to know the youth and then it is a great chance for them to invite their friends to meet the missionaries. This past week we had two investigators come to the activity and we gave them a church tour with the help of two young members.The spirit was present and you could tell that these two young people were really understanding everything we were saying. Then we had a lovely night playing a bunch of get to know you games. We are making so many friends here in Gävle-since both my companion and I are very social- that´s what happens. Haha.

I am excited for General Conference. We have been invited to drive down to Uppsala with our ward mission leader for Saturday and then on Sunday we have been invited over to a families house here in Gävle for dinner and then to watch the Sunday morning session. We have been going around and visiting lots of members and challenging them to come up with questions that they want answered through general conference. I know that if you do that then you will have your questions answered. Remember that God´s living Prophet is speaking to us this weekend. I am grateful for that.

Our district leader has challenged our district to focus on three things:

1. Talk with everyone!

2. To teach in Unity.

3. To boldly invite.

Heavenly Father is blessing our missionary efforts here in Gävle. Syster Jacobs and I are on fire and we are just going to keep working as hard as we can.

I love being busy and doing Heavenly Father´s work. I love you all! And wish everyone a happy general conference watching.

Love, Talisa!
AkA:Syster Vistaunet

Miracle Week

WOWOWOW!

The past couple of days have been insane. Ever since Syster Jacobs arrived here we have been very busy. It seems like we don´t even have time to think. Haha. I seriously am in Heaven. Syster Jacobs is so much like me that it is sometimes quite scary. Haha.

We really work well together. I can tell that we are going to see a lot of success here in Gävle together. We had 22 teaches last week- the highest I have had since coming on my mission and we already have 2 baptismal dates!!! One for April 7th and one for April 14th. Yippee!!

Sunday was an amazing day. The branch loves Syster Jacobs and we had a fun lunch after church and we really got to know the branch members better. I feel very blessed to be able to be here. We had one of our investigator families come to church on Sunday and they loved it. The 14 year old daughter wants to get baptized on April 7th! My birthday weekend. I am so happy.

I have a HUGE testimony of just opening your mouth. Syster Jacobs and I have been doing that all last week and we have been getting so very blessed because of it. We have obtained nine new phone numbers and all of them seem pretty interested in learning more about the gospel. I know that the second harvest is real and we are lucky enough to be a big part of it.

The church is true! I have felt the Holy Ghost testify to me personally many times this past week about the church. I love being a missionary.

I am sorry - we seriously have been very busy these past couple of days so that today we don't have much time to write emails. So sorry. Just know that I am thinking of all of you and I send my love and birthday wishes to Aspen and Ann! I love them so much.

I love missionary life.

Well, I love you all. Sorry my time is short. Enjoy . And that is super cool that you went to Syster Jenson's homecoming!! I love it. I promise next weeks email will be much better and much longer. Enjoy the pictures.

Love, Talisa!

Beautiful Sweden.

Transfers just happened and I will be staying here in Gävle and training again. Yay! Syster Jenson and I leave very early Wednesday morning and a cute member is going to drive us to the train station. I am so grateful for nice members. Then I will get back into Gävle around 5pm and after that we have a welcoming party at the church for the new missionary. So, hardly any time to drop off luggage. Straight to missionary work baby! Another cool thing that I found out is that Systers Juker, Detinne-Cassel, and I will all be training at the same time!! I am so excited to see them.

Last pday we had a blast! Eight Elders came to Gävle to play football and frisbee. Even though I didn´t really play I still had a lot of fun with them. We also stopped and got hot choclate and talked. I love finding other missionaries who love music just as much as I do and talking with them. The first couple of pictures are from that fun pday last week.

I have found a great friend here in Sweden. The picture is of us goofing off. She is a 16 year old girl who was baptized a couple of years ago. Every Wednesday night we have an activity at the church for the youth. It is a fun night where the youth can invite their friends to come to church and meet the missionaries in a non-threatening way. It's a really good resource for us here and I love being able to meet so many young people and be able to help them understand more about how to be happy in life.

This past week we played ping pong and we both got really hyper and were laughing a lot. We had a young girl investigator come and she could not understand why we were so happy and laughing all the time. Everyone there just said "oh, that's just who they are". Haha. I love her. She really reminds me a lot of me when I was younger. She even wore a crazy 1960´s outfit last week.

This past weekend Syster Jenson and I got spoiled! We started the day off with a lovely ride out to the ocean with some great people. They had packed a breakfast-lunch for us to eat. We saw the ocean and then took another little drive and pulled over in the middle of the woods to picnic. I love Sweden! They keep promising me lots of berry picking during the summer.

After that we got on a train to visit some amazing friends that are investigators. They live about an hour away. Once we got there we were welcomed with hugs and lots of laughs. They are always so happy. We helped cook some African food with them for lunch-dinner and while we were doing that the Dad kept quizzing us on our Bible knowledge. He knows the Bible really well and it was a lot of fun to see how much we actually knew. We focused most of the discussion on Jesus Christ and the Dad asked us why we call ourselves Christian. I said because everything is focused around Jesus Christ and His life. He is our perfect example and I try everyday to live like He did. It was a great Bible time. They had invited two more friends to come over and listen to us too. By the end of the night we gave everyone a Book of Mormon and left with really good memories. We also got to try on some amazing African clothes!! It was a great time!

This week we had district meeting over skype again. It´s super strange. But, Elder Davis, our district leader wanted all of us to try and teach people using it. He had invitied one of their investigators to join us and we all took different turns teaching this investigator over skype! It was really neat to see how much good can come form technogly. It really is a huge blessing for missionary work and now we have yet another resource to use when invesitgators live too far away. Wow. We are supposed to use skype every other week.

This week we get to travel to Borlänge for district meeting and then after it we are going to do a finding activity with all the other missionaries there. A great way to welcome the three new missionaries to missionary work here in Sweden! I am looking forward to it.

Yesterday at church we had an amazing day. The theme was missionary work and after that we seemed to get a lot of members talking to us and we even scheduled more dinners. Haha.

The best thing that happened yesterday was that a member who hadn't been to church in a while came to church! She is a wonderful woman. After church she took us home to her house and made us really yummy food and we watched "Legacy" together. I love her, she's my Swedish Auntie. Every time we go over she always teaches us some Swedish culture and we eat or make some Swedish food. I love her! I really want her to know how much Heavenly Father loves her. She's great!

One last thing.. I was looking through my notes that I got from people before I came here of Swedish people that any of my friends or family knew. I found one of those and read off the names of Kurt and Gerd Sjöqvist, friends of Caitlin´s grandparents!! They are the artists that I talked about a couple of weeks ago. But, I just put two and two together that they are friends with Donnette´s parents! Small world in the church.

Love, Talisa!

AkA: Syster Vistaunet

I am happy.

Musikafton

My District.

We teach on the bus!

Music night. This was so much fun!

Well howdy everyone!

This has been a week full of music and that has made me very happy. I have the coolest district ever and before I came here they had planned a music night wih our branch, Uppsala. and Borlänge. The music night was held on Saturday and we had about 70 people show up!! We had a potluck dinner and then the music began. We had about 15 different numbers. One of my favorites was Kurt Sjöqvist. He sang some Swedish folk songs with his guitar and it reminded me a lot of Dad and Brian´s music. I was happy. I kept thinking that you guys were probably playing around the same time! Cute. Thanks for emailing me the pictures from your show. It looks like it was great! Everyone looks so happy. I am imagining your music now. Lovely.

My district leader writes his own music, so he wrote us a district song and we sang it together that night. Lots of people came up to us afterwords and told us that they loved the night and can´t wait to do it again. It was an amazing activity and I think we really impressed the branches that we are working in. The next day was fast Sunday and a lot of people from our ward shared their testimonies about the music night. We had about seven investigators show up as well! It was a night full of fun and the we could really feel the Spirit there. We plan on having another one in May. In about a week Elder Davis, Elder Smith, and I will all be training! 3 greenies all in the same district. I am looking forward to that.

Syster Jenson and I are having so much fun together and we are having so much success! I love being able to be with her again. Tonight we are going to teach a family with a new convert who is preparing to serve a mission. My birthday weekend will be a good one, with a baptism we hope! Booya! Well, that´s the plan. Please pray for us and the work here in Gävle to go forward.

We are working with two amazing African families right now and I love them so much. One is an amazing couple who are so Christ like. He comes from Africa and she is Swedish. They are the happiest people I have ever met. He drives the bus here in Gävle and we have taught him a couple of times while he has been driving. He calls them Mobile teaches. Haha. Last time we came on the bus he said he needed a sign that said, "Daughters of God on board". Haha. I love making so many friends and bringing them closer to our Savior.

Well, so it happened, my one year mark came and went pretty quickly. We didn't do anything super exciting other than the traditional one year phone call with your MTC district. That was super fun to hear about everyone and where everyone is at this point in our missions. We have all grown up so much. It was a great call and I love my MTC group. It looks like a handful of us will be training this next week. I am excited to see everyone.

As far as the Rosen family, yes I know them! And I remember them telling me that there son was on a mission in England and I was wondering if Zack would know him. And by golly he does. Way cool. They are a wonderful, big mormon family! They have ten kids and are all super active and strong in the church. They are great examples to me. The Dad is an amazing musician and has a really wonderful music room which I took some pictures in this last week when we were over there for lunch. One of the pictures is me standing by some really old accordions. And then Syster Jenson and I in his music room. I guess he is pretty well known and every night at 6pm a church here in Gävle plays his music.

Oh yeah! Last week on pday we did a little bit of shopping and I found a sweet cd store with tons of amazing Swedish music! I got Rock Olga, who is Sveriges rockdrottning! Which means Swedish Rock Queen. She was big in the 50´s and 60´s here. I love her music. Kind of a Swedish Wanda Jackson. And I most likely will go back and purchase Britt Damberg, another Swedish Wanda Jackson. I am happy.

So, another crazy thing happened this week with our district. The other Systers in our district got moved from Uppsala to Vasterhenige. Which is where the temple is, right in Stockholm! I love that systers are now in Stockholm! I hope I get the chance to go there on splits. It looks like a possibility. Elders got moved to Uppsala. We went to Uppsala this past week for district meeting- that is a very awesome city! Next week for pday we will be going there as well. Syster Jenson wants to spend her last pday in Uppsala with some of the members she knows. Hopefully I will finally get the chance to go inside the Domkyrkan. That is the biggest church in Sweden. This is Syster Jenson´s last full week of missionary work and we have a pretty full amazing week planned! I am trying to learn everything I can from her this last week before I train again. I am feeling better about being here in Gävle and I am loving the branch here.

I think that´s about all! I love you all. Spring is coming, so go and spread joy! Start preparing for General Conference because it´s coming sooner then we realize.

Love, Talisa!

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!

What is True Conversion?

My district, minus the missionary couple who serve with us. When I looked at this photo I realized I really needed a brightly colored scarf! What was I thinking?

Semlor ~ a very delicious treat! Yum.

My thoughts are with the family this weekend for Great Grandma´s funeral. I had a feeling that when I left I would be saying goodbye. Well, goodbye for this life at least. I am very happy that she is now back with Great Grandpa. That definitely was a joyous reunion! Thank you for sending pictures of me with her. I send my love. Great Grandma Powelson was a wonderful example to me. She lived a wonderful life and always had a smile. She will be missed and I am looking forward to the day when I will get the chance to thank her for everything she did for me. She was a powerful example of a righteous and faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Enjoy the funeral and send me a program. I love you all!

Something that I have been thinking a lot about lately is - what does it really mean to be converted? I have been thinking about this because while being on my mission I have had the chance to work with many less active members. I have grown to love them so much. Because I love them so much I want to know how I can best help them come back and remember their testimony. Today I was reading in 'True to the Faith' and I read under "conversion" to see if I could see why so many people leave the church or seem to forget their testimony. It gave four characteristics of a truly converted person: 1. They desire to do good. 2. Do not rebel against the Lord. 3. Share the gospel. 4. Are filled with LOVE.

This has made me start thinking of myself and the pathway that I have been on to true conversion. In my missionary purpose it states that our purpose is to bring others unto Christ through repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Every day I think about how can I bring someone closer to our Savior today and how can I be a tool in the hands of our Heavenly Father? Something that I think people forget is to endure to the end with Faith.

Our mission is really focusing on building our faith in order to see miracles happen. I know that if we face each new day with a faithful prayer to our Heavenly Father that He will help us and answer our prayers.

We had another really busy week and I can't believe that I am sitting at the computer again writing you. It is amazing to me how fast the days go by. I really truly am involved with this great work and all I do every day is think about how I can help others.

I am now starting to understand why it would-will be hard to come back to real life. It is amazing to me how much work there is to do. And how many people there are that don´t know the truth.

We have some amazing members here and I am excited to get to know them better. We had branch council on Saturday and I now feel like I have a vision somewhat of what this branch needs from me. They really want us missionaries to focus on less actives and bringing them back. They want to help us with our work and go out on teaches with us to visit our investigators and the less actives. I am feeling much better about the work here because I know that I have the support of the branch. It was an amazing experience to be there and to be able to be involved with the discussions going on. I am witnessing the gift of tongues every day. I know that I could not do this work without my Heavenly Fathers help.

At the end of every day I am exhausted and fall right asleep. I think it´s because my brain hurts from thinking so much in another language. Haha. My love for the Swedish language is coming. I still get frustrated sometimes because I feel like I can´t express myself. But that´s okay, I can work on that.

Missionary miracle: So, about a week ago we received two referrals from mormon.org. Super rad! We called them and only one of the phone numbers worked. I ended up talking to a really nice lady for about ten minutes about the church and she is very interested in learning more and receiving a Book of Mormon. The only problem is that she lives about 3-4 hours away! We are trying to figure out when the best time is for us to travel there. The other referral we got was here in Karlskrona. So, we set out to visit her. Once we finally found the house we knocked on the door and a teenage girl answered and said that she had never heard of us and had no idea that we would be coming. It looked like it was some kind of joke. But I knew that there had to be a reason we were sent to that neighborhood. So, we made a goal to contact every person we saw. We stopped a young girl who thought that I was speaking English at first and said "sorry, I don't understand" and then I said "but I was trying to speak Swedish". She got all embarrassed and said "oh sorry, that´s so cool that you are learning swedish.. why?" Bam! We explained that we were missionaries and asked her if she believed in God. She said YES! She then went on to tell us a story about how God helped her when she was feeling really sad. She bore her testimony of God to us. The discussion picked up from there and we talked for about 20 minutes about God, life, and The Book of Mormon. She even offered to help us with our Swedish and we said we could help her with her English. She really liked that. We gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read the intro and then when we meet next week we could talk about it. Fridays are the days that work best for her. She was 16 years old and went on to say that her boyfriend and sister might even be interested in learning more as well! Heavenly Father led us straight to her.

Well, life as a Swedish missionary is grand. This weekend we are having a sisters conference and I am super excited! We will be traveling to Stockholm for it.

I love you all. Be good and be a missionary! Or at least invite them over for dinner.

Love,Talisa!