Member Missionary Work

                 
                           
                                                           Byebye Gävle. On the train - moving again.

    Our new chapel here in our new city. There are really some wonderful members here. 

Kristianstad is such an amazing place! It is like no other place I
have been in Sweden. The people here are very friendly and are
very willing to talk with us about God. The weather is perfect and the
Branch is a dream.


The Malmö Stake has a goal to have every member in the Stake give out
a Book of Mormon before the next Stake Conference, which will be the
15th of September. So, we hopped right onboard and starting visiting
the members, encouraging them to think of some people who they can give
their Book of Mormon to. Our Mission President has also sent every
missionary a really neat DVD with pictures of every missionary with
their Bishop and then ending it with pictures of Baptisms! Within
the next couple of weeks we are going to be visiting every member in
the Branch here and show them the DVD and get them excited about
giving away a copy of the Book of Mormon. We have already had a
great response and we are getting a list of people to pray for
every night and then we have plans to follow up with the members and
the names of the people they gave us to see if eventually these people
will be ready to take lessons from us! It is a great way to get
referrals. The members here are truly amazing and want to help us with
everything that we do. This last week was a little slower, but we can
tell that it is going to pick up a lot this week and once we both get more
familiar with the area the work is going to really take off!
This upcoming week we have lunch and dinner plans almost every day with a
member. Haha. The Branch really wants to get to know us. I feel
very blessed to be here in Kristianstad. We also went to a tourist
place today. There is a lot for us to see here. We also get to spend
Midsommer here!!!  YES. This will be such an amazing place to celebrate
Midsommers. And with such a great Branch too.


Another huge blessing that we have with being down here is our
distríct. I really didn´t think things could get any better. We
have amazing district leaders - Elder Leirimaa from Finland and
his companion Elder Brown from California. The Zone leaders - Elder
Hart from California and Elder Kleis from Finland, and then we have an
older couple -  The Dunns, from Utah in our district. So, we are a
California, Utah, Finnish group. It´s quite lovely. We get to travel
to Lund or Mamlö every Thursday for our district meeting. Yippee.


Oh yeah!! This weekend a lady that I taught while I was in Halmstad is
getting baptized and she invited me to come. And our Mission President
said that would be okay! So, on Friday we will be traveling up to
Halmstad for her baptism. That means that I get to see Senja and
Mikael again!! And then hopefully I will still be around the Malmö
zone for the Stake Conference right before I go home and will get to
see their baby. So, another baptism this weekend! Syster Jacobs and I
will be performing a musical number as well. I love life!


This morning I studied leadership and what it means to be a leader and
I learned that the best leaders are those who get their hands dirty
and do the work alongside with their peers. Syster Jacobs and I are
looking forward to putting our leadership skills to work here in
Kristianstad. We should be getting the missionary/visiting teaching up
and going here this week too!  The best leaders are those who serve
Christ and try to develop all those Christlike attributes. "I am trying
to be like Jesus.. in all that I say and do!"  I love that Primary song.
Just sing it and then you will be reminded what´s important in life...
LOVE. We have also been praying as a mission to have more Christ like
love for all the people we meet. It helps and it has helped me
want to talk to everyone that I see.


Much love,
Syster Talisa Vistaunet!

Kristianstad!

Hello everyone!

Well, the Mother's Day skype session was wonderful and I am very happy here in my new area. 


Kristianstad is a wonderful town way down South. Syster Jacobs and I were bouncing off the walls when we heard that we
would be going down South. We found out Wednesday morning that we would be leaving that day! It was quite the surprise. We spent the entire morning packing like crazy and cleaning. We left that day around 3pm. 


We were on the phone all morning saying goodbye to our wonderful friends that we have made there in Gävle. I was really sad that I didn´t  get the chance to have a proper goodbye. But, that is missionary life and by now I am used to that. I am really hoping and praying that this will be my last area. I think that there is a good chance of that. But, with my track record one never knows.

We spent Wednesday night in Vasterhängie with the sisters there and went on spilts  with them. I went with Syster Talbot. We really have some amazing sisters in our mission and I am so grateful for all of them. The next morning we left and had a 3 1/2 hour train ride down South. I love Sweden!  I feel very lucky that I have been able to see so much of this beautiful country. 


Once we arrived in Kristianstad a member picked us up at the station and by chance he mentioned that
his wife would be going to a Relief Society activity that night and I jumped on that and said "hey, could we come?" So, we had about 1 1/2 hours to unpack and then his wife came and picked us up. It was such a great way to meet the women of the branch here.  Everyone was so nice and this branch really feels like a big family. The branch has people from all over the world in it, which makes it fun. Chille, Iceland, Sweden, Mexico, America, and Denmark. We feel very blessed to be here together. 


The neat thing about Syster Jacobs and I is that we are so similar that we have a lot of the same strengths. Which really makes our companionship super. It is also funny because we tend to have some of the same weaknesses. Haha. We feel like we have been called here to Kristianstad together for a reason. We know that nothing happens by chance. So, we are ready to find those people who are ready to hear and accept this wonderful gospel.

Our first weekend here has been great. We actually already have a baptismal date planned. We went out to Hässleholm, which is about 20 minutes away by train, still in our area,  to have our first teach with an investigator and that went great. 


We also taught a sweet Chinese lady with a new convert who is Chinese as well. When we were walking back I felt a prompting to ask him if he had time that we could teach him right then in his school and he said sure. So, in we went to teach him. We talked about why church is important and why we go to church. While we were talking we noticed
another man in the room and we could tell that he was listening to us. When we got up to leave he came over and said "hey I heard you talking about the bible and I would love to learn more"! This never happens. So, we talked with him for about 20 minutes and then invited him to church the next day and he came!! He stayed for all three hours and really enjoyed it. I think we really impressed the branch with bringing an investigator our first Sunday there. Booya! Haha. 


This branch is amazing and is so welcoming to everyone. He felt very loved and we challenged him to be baptized on June 8th and he said yes he would love to work towards that goal. WOW. The next day he went with us to FHE at a members house!


People are being prepared all over the world. All we have to do is open our´mouths and talk about the gospel. Bearing testimony does wonders. We can already tell that this is going to be a great place to serve.  The Spirit was strong and he could feel it. Life is good and the church is TRUE.



I love you all! It was the best day ever last Sunday when I got to see my family and meet my new little nephew. Thanks for everything and i love you all so much!!!

Love, Talisa!

Igor var underbart!

Hello family! 

So, today has turned into a crazy day and we don't have much time to email so tomorrow we will be emailing more. So, just know that I LOVE you all so much! And I will write more tomorrow. So, be on the look out.

Love,

Talisa!!!

                                              Skype with Sister Vistaunet on Mother's Day!!

                                        Aunt Talisa meets her nephew Henry for the first time!

                                                                              Family photo on Mother's Day!!

 

The Stockholm Weekend

                                                                   Stake Conference.

                                            Valborg! This is how the Swede's welcome Spring.

                                                           Sister's sleepover in Stockholm.

                                                    I got my hair cut! It feels so much better.

Hello one and all! 

Another amazing week has disappeared. The most exciting thing is that we are actually emailing from Stockholm because we came down here bright and early yesterday morning for Stake Conference and then we had the chance to go on work overs with the sisters in Vasterhangie-which is where the temple is located. We are going to spend our pday in Stockholm with a bunch of other missionaries today!

Yesterday we left at 5:40am to catch our 6:30am train down to Stockholm. The best part was that we traveled down with one of our investigators that is a cute Chinese student who actually contacted us through mormon.org. We had an amazing day with her and the Spirit was so strong at the conference-the focus was on finding power in the scriptures. Just what she needed to hear. We had a really neat meeting with all of the new members and investigators with the Stake President, our Mission President and his wife, and with Elder Buhm from the area Seventy. There was about 13 new members and one investigator there and they all shared their stories about how they found the gospel. I felt very inspired listening to all of their sweet and simple stories. Heavenly Father really loves and watches after every single one of his children.

It was really neat to see people from Örebro, my very first area. Many hugs were exchanged and I could actually understand them and speak Swedish with them this time around! 

Elder Buhm from the area Seventy talked about having patience with our Heavenly Father-He will always answer our prayers, but He will always do it in His time. In order to recieve answers to our prayers we must do our part...which includes; 

reading the scriptures, attending church, and praying every single day. Elder Buhm also talked about not comparing ourselves with others around us. It doesn´t matter how smart we are, all that matters is what we do with our knowledge. What kind of member am I? How am I fullfilling my missionary member role? Are we still rejoicing? This gospel is a gospel of JOY. So, go and spread that joy.

 

 After Stake Conference we headed out to Stockholm to walk around a little bit with our investigator. She is super sweet and we think that today was a really good day for her to see and understand a little bit more about the church. She wants to get baptized, but she really wants to finish the Book of Mormon first. We told her that she didn´t need to do that, but she really wants to. So, we are praying for her to find the time to read. She is in 2 Nephi and is really enjoying what she is reading. 

We then said goodbye to her and headed to meet the sisters to do work overs. I went with Systers Hill and Brinton to a new converts for dinner and to re-teach them about the Restoration. It was a wonderful experience to be able to teach with two other sisters in unity. We taught and played off each other really well. It was a great learning experience for me. There is power when you teach the Restoration in one setting and when you teach the lessons all the way through. I want to re-focus on teaching them all the way through. The Spirit is so important whenever we are teaching because that is the way that we can know exactly what the person needs to hear. 

We have so many wonderful sisters in this mission and i am so grateful for that! We had a sister sleepover last night with Sisters Hill, Talbot, Brinton, Francis, Jacobs, and I. It was great to see Sister Francis again! She is doing great and really enjoying Sweden. I also got a really good update on Karlskrona. Things are going well down there. And now she is in Norrköping. Fun.

Oh, yeah I also finally got a hair cut!! A lady in our branch offered to cut it for me. It is amazing to me how much more I feel like myself. I just am a short haired person. I am happy.

 

During this past week we got another baptismal date- for June 8th. And then tonight we are going to get one with another investigator for June 8th also. So, hopefully we will have two baptisms for June 8th.

 

Wow!! Baby Henry is super cute! Haha. I loved the picture of him meeting all of Dad´s action figures. I am glad to know that nothing has changed with Dad. When is little Henry going to be blessed? I am super excited to see him this weekend over Skype.

 

Well, we ran out of time. Bummer.  I love you all!!!

 

Love, Talisa!

Zone Conference, DOP, and Auntie Talisa

Wow! What a week! 

Baby Henry is so cute and little. I send my love and kisses for my new little nephew. This seriously has been a missionary dream week. And then I get the news that my sister had her baby...which made the dream week even better. Thank you for sending so many pictures. I am really looking forward to seeing him on skype in a couple of weeks!  We will figure out more next week on email. I am getting really excited!

 

Okay now onto the Dop! (which means baptism) It was this past Thursday. What a good day. We had a lovely program and I have never seen someone so happy. Christian was beaming the entire night. He has grown up in Gävle and has quite the life story. A couple of months ago he met Cicci-his fiance- who is a member. They came to church for the first time the last week of March. The next couple of weeks we taught him all the lessons and it was really neat to watch the change taking place. We could see the light and happiness coming into his life from our wonderful message.

We got a great phone call from him a couple of days before the baptism and he said that he had just helped an older man in his yard and then spent most of the day with this older man, that he didn't know, because he felt the love of Christ. I am so grateful for this wonderful gospel and for the chance that every one of God´s children has to hear of it. Christian asked Syster Jacobs and I to give the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. Then Annicka sang "I like to look for rainbows" out of the children´s songbook with Syster Jacobs playing the piano. It sounded great! We were very grateful for Annicka - we asked her that morning if she could sing and she said yes! She has a wonderful voice and did a great job. The spirit was so strong throughout the entire program. When Christian came up out of the water you could tell that he felt his Heavenly Fathers love and that he was a changed man. Christian and Cicci will be getting married on May 19th and we have been invited! Then they have the goal to be sealed in the temple in one year. Maybe I will be able to travel back to Sweden for that occasion. Yes.. that´s my goal.

 

We also had a wonderful zone conference this past week up in Sundsvall. The theme of the conference was the Plan of Salvation. President and Syster Newell did a outstanding job of teaching all of us missionaries the importance of God´s plan. We did many role plays throughout the day, all in Swedish. That was fun to speak Swedish with lots of other missionaries. We focused a lot on Alma chapters 40-43. I know that we are all God´s children and that one day we will all be able to live with Him again. 

Syster Jacobs and I were in charge of teaching about the resurrection. So, the night before the conference Syster Jacobs came up with the idea of making a spirit. I was down for that. Then I realized what that meant. I sat on a chair and let her wrap my body in tape, it was a very uncomfortable experience. And the best part was that President called in the middle of all of this. He called to see how our companionship is going. I just had to laugh. We are like sisters and President also told us that we would be together for a while. Yippee! Summer time in Sweden with the best companion ever.

 

Miracle of the week: On Friday we were out traveling around and a lady came and sat by me on the bus and we started talking and she asked me if I was Swedish. I said no. And she said "I thought so because you are just so happy and very social". We talked for about five minutes about life and what I was doing in Sweden and then she said "last week my husband, daughter, and I saw you and your friend on the bus and we wanted to talk to you but then you got off the bus. Then today I run into you again!"  God´s work I told her. Syster Jacobs and I were really happy and a little bit hyper on the bus that night when she saw us and she said that we made her day. She and her husband had been talking about us and wanted to see us again. While I was talking with her on the bus I felt God´s love for her and her family so immensely. Everything happens for a reason. We exchanged phone numbers and she said that she would love to hear more about God's plan for her. I found out while talking with her that both of her parents are dead and so I got the chance to apply what I had learned at zone conference with a lady on the bus and we will be meeting with her this week.

God wants to bless us and He will bless us, we just have to be doing our part first. Syster Jacobs and I also decided indepently to fast for the same reason yesterday! To find those people who are prepared to hear our message. And then yesterday we found two new investigators and had an amazing dinner with one of them! The church is true and i know it.

 

I love you all and I am so grateful that I am Heavenly Father´s missionary at this time in Sweden! This weekend we are having stake conference in Stockholm. Syster Jacobs and I get to travel down there and stay overnight at the Systers apartment in Vasterhengie. Then we'll spend pday in Stockholm with lots of other missionaries. Isn´t life grand! And today we are heading to see Jay and Ullis and spend the day with them. Friends for life.

I send all of my love again to my new little nephew... Henry! I am so happy for that good news. Congrats Corryn and Rob! Good work.

 

Love, Auntie Talisa!

 

Pictures: Our spirit from Zone Conference. And a Baptism!!

May flowers

There will be no pictures this week...we are so busy! It's great.

This upcoming week we have many amazing missionary moments planned for us. We have zone conference tomorrow in Sundsvall!! I am super excited to travel up north. Then I will have been all over Sweden. I feel very blessed. The most exciting news is that we are having a baptism this Thursday!! We have a very busy week ahead of us.

 

So, I will start off with talking about our baptism. About three weeks ago a couple came in to church late and no one knew who they were. We later found out that the lady goes to the branch in Våsteräs and is moving here soon because she is getting married to her boyfriend. He became interested in learning more about the church, so we started teaching him then. They have become our really good friends now! He is ready for baptism and we are very excited for this next step that he will be taking. He has the full support of his fiance and the branch has done a wonderful job of  welcoming him into the branch. I have a strong testimony of working with the members to help the missionaries teach. All of the lessons that we have with members seem  to always go better. Of course we are still teaching a lot at the church, but we are trying real hard to focus on getting all of our teaches with a member, and most preferable, in members home. This young man decided that he wanted to get baptized and he wanted it to be as soon as possible. So, we have met with him every day since then preparing him for baptism. Yesterday at church we had him try on the baptismal clothing and he was so happy. He came out in pants that were too big and just said "Rapper". Haha. Syster Jacobs and I are very excited for our first baptism together. We feel like we will be able to see many more.

 

This morning I was thinking about prayer and why it is so important. I started thinking about all the times that my prayers have been answered. I realized that Heavenly Father always answers our prayers. Sometimes it just takes longer than other times. I feel like Heavenly Father has recently been answering my prayers like crazy. I prayed to have a companion who would understand me and I got Syster Jenson and then I prayed to have a companion who would be like me. And Bam! Syster Jacobs. Life is going really well here in Gävle and we are witnessing many miracles.

 

Yesterday we had branch conference and a lot of people from the Stockholm stake came up and taught classes and spoke in sacrament meeting. We had five investigators in church and a lot of less-actives came too. The sweet older lady that we visit every week actually had the chance to come! This past week she asked us to pray for her that she would have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone. We gave her some pass-along cards and then the next day some of the nurses where she lives were talking about life after death and she saw that opportunity and took it! She was so proud of herself, telling us that she got to bear her testimony about life after death and that God´s plan is for every person. Evidence once again that God does hear and answer our prayers.

Three of the investigators who were in church were sisters from one of the African families that we have been teaching. They all stayed for all three hours of church and then after we had a big lunch with everyone and they stayed as well. The girls also got invited to come to a YW´s activity this Friday and we did too! So we are looking forward to spending time with the YW. We are also planning on making American nachos with them this week. Fun and Yum. We hope and pray that these girls will eventually get baptized and wíll be the leaders for the rest of theír family. I love how missionary work works!

 

Annicka also made me the coolest bright orange mittens this week! I am so spoiled by her. And yes, mom I did buy that fabric. No worries. I am planning to make a bag or something of that sort. That was my birthday present that you bought me. Thanks. 

Once again life is good and I LOVE you all! Enjoy the spring weather. Because the past two days here it has snowed! Blah. We had some really lovely days and then all of the sudden the rain and snow has come back. But  May is just around the corner. Spring fever is totally all over. Here in Sweden they have this cool tradition of selling a cute May flower pin at the end of April/start of May. Syster Jacobs and I each bought one. Yippee! I was kind of sad though because this year the flower is a brown color. Lame. You buy them from cute little Swedish girls who go around selling them for about 8 bucks and all the money goes towards helping children. I love Sweden!

 

Love, Talisa!

Cake with my face on it.

 Easter Witches! These are all over Sweden for Easter.

So, the highlight of my week was a surprise birthday party for me! Some members in the branch have a tradition that they do with every missionary who has a birthday here.  They order a cake with their picture on it and then invite them over for a party. I thought that we were going to have it this upcoming week.  Then last week this sweet sister called up and said that she wanted us to teach one of her friends-sweet a referral! That is what I was thinking but, then bam! In walked some members to help celebrate. A true surprise birthday party was in store for us! It was so much fun and will be something that I will always remember. Hopefully Syster Jacobs and I will be together for her birthday in June too! 

 

Friday the 13th was an amazing day full of wonderful miracles. We visited so many of our wonderful friends and taught lots of great lessons. We even ran into some members while we were out and about on the busses. Syster Jacobs is a great missionary and I reallly am learning a lot from her every day. She has such a big heart and all she wants to do is serve Heavenly Father. We had a girls night and had six girls show up. Life is good here and we all had such a great time together just being girls. We gave a great lesson on inner beauty and remembering to tell yourself every day that you are a daughter of God. Then our friends Jay and Ullis called us and told us that they were in Gävle and would be coming to pick us up to "kidnap" us and take us to dinner. It was great. They picked us up around 8pm from the church after our girls party and then took us to Max hamburgers. We had a lovely night together. I know that I will remain friends with them forever.

 

Sunday was such an amazing day! We had a total of 6 investigators in church!! Syster Jacobs and I just kept watching all the members faces in the branch when investigator after investigator walked in. It was a great day. We are showing the branch that we are working really hard and finding people to teach and we have some great appointments and plans with some of the members this week. We hope to start getting some referrals. The people here really want to help. Our job as missionaries is to help them share the gospel with their friends and family. We have about five really positive investigators that we are working with right now. The work is really moving forward here in Gävle and Syster Jacobs and I are busier than ever! I love keeping busy and relying so much on the Spirit. We both have had some amazing experiences this past week with the Holy Ghost and following those promptings. If I can give everyone one word of advice it would be for every person who reads this to really figure out how the Holy Ghost speaks to you and always ACT upon those promptings.

 

During sunday school we taught two women in English and I kept getting the feeling that we needed to talk about  the ten commandments. Then one of them asked, "So, I have noticed that no one here takes the name of God in vain...why?"  Thank you Holy Ghost. We explained that was because we want to show respect to God and then she answered herself and said "why would you put the blame on Him when it´s your own fault?" She is truly amazing and such a sweetheart. She has never had nachos before and amazingly enough none of the other YW have either.. so we are going to have a nacho making party soon. Funny.

 

The more the days go by the more Syster Jacobs and I find out about each other and how similar we really are. Haha. She loves Labyrinth! And we tend to quote it quite often. Haha. Two of these pictures are us with some Easter witches. Sweden is a little strange in that sense. At Easter time all the little kids dress up as witches or old ladies and go around trick or treating, pretty much. So, lovely Veikko drove us around last pday and we took some pictures by some of those witches.

 

Well, I love you all! I loved all the pictures of Corryn´s baby shower and her BIG belly. Cute. Keep pushing through the end of school and rock n´roll when May gets here! Today I actually purchased another Swedish cd. Håkan Hellström again. Really good. And Syster Jacobs got some really good jazz Swedish music. Oh, music. 

Life is good and the church is true.

 

Love, Talisa!

Aka: Syster Vistaunet

Conference, Birthday, and Påsk!

My heart is so full of LOVE today. I really feel very blessed to be on a mission in Sweden. Sometimes it´s hard to remember the life that I had before I came on a mission. The people that I am meeting here already feel like life long friends.

The Birthday adventure:

I woke up to the sound of my companion singing Happy Birthday and then saw that our Vin Diesel poster said Happy Birthday to me. Haha.

Then we got a phone call from one of our investigators who needed help around 7am. So, we called our ward mission leader, and asked him if he could give him a blessing. We were all at the church by 8:30am to give him a blessing. I am so grateful for priesthood power and for worthy men who can call upon the powers of God to heal and comfort. It was an amazing experience to be able to sit there and watch Viekko give him a blessing in Swedish and to be able to understand what was going on and feeling the Spirit that strongly. We will be meeting with this investigator again this upcoming Saturday.

After that we got dropped off at the place where we pick up packages and I got my birthday package! Thank you family! I loved the signs and all the fun letters from the people I love. Thank you to Jane Stewart for the little miss sunshine shirt. I loved the yellow tights and I wore them yesterday for easter. Then we did our studies and ate a lovely birthday breakfast.

Then we had an amazing teach with one of our investigators. She is planning on getting baptized on April 21st. We are hoping and praying for that. She is so prepared and knows this is the truth. We watched conference with her last week and she loved it.

After that we headed to a Birthday-Easter lunch with AnneLill and Janne. They have a tradition for every missionary who has a birthday here to make them a cake with their face on it. I was really looking forward to that. Then they told me that I will have to wait until April 19th for that so we can have a real party because that is when the Elders from our district are coming down for district meeting and lunch with them. So, I have something to look forward to. They gave me cute blue earrings. Then we left to find a mormon.org referral. A Chinese student. We did not find her but, we did end up talking to some nice people when we were out and about.

Syster Jacobs, Syster Vistaunet and our Ward Mission Leaders, who are so great!

Conference was such a wonderful experience this year. We had the chance to watch most of the sessions with members and investigators. We even watched some of it in Swedish! It was neat to watch it in Swedish and then go back and watch the same talk in English. I had different notes from both experiences. Knowing another language is really neat. I still get frustrated sometimes when speaking Swedish, but my love for the people and the language is huge. Sweden will be a huge part of my life forever.

Now I will share with you some of my favorite notes that I made from conference:

The truth will go forth boldly! The purposes of God will be accomplished. -Monson

How much faith do we really have? -Hallstrom

"Don´t judge me because I sin differently than you." -Uchtdorf

What does Christ think of me? -Andersen

Come back, come home, come unto me. -Monson

It seemed to me that theme of conference was repentance and how Jesus Christ died for each one of us. It is never to late to come back. Another theme was the importance of families and many Apostles gave great ideas of how to be a good teacher for your kids. I know that Thomas S. Monson is God´s prophet today on the earth. Whenever he speaks to us it is as if Heavenly Father is speaking to us.

Yesterday, Syster Jacobs and I had the opportunity to teach Relief Society on sustaining your leaders. Syster Jacobs took the lead and it was such a great lesson. I was praying for her the entire time and she did a great job with speaking and understanding Swedish. I know that we are called of God to be here in Gävle at this time for a specific reason.

Later on my birthday an awesome member picked us up for a birthday dinner in the woods. We changed into pants and then headed to a really cool place, about 10 minutes away from the church building, for a campfire and fun. She had her cute kids with her and we had a blast running around and seeing the view of Gävle from on top of a skiing hill. She also fed us a great dinner cooked over the fire. The best part of the night was that Syster Jacobs was pretending to be a T-rex and chasing the kids all over the place. They loved it.

I got a really sweet turquoise necklace from her for my birthday. Her daughter picked it out for me. The entire night that we were together her daughter kept saying, "I love you Vistaunet". Haha. It was cute. I really love talking with younger Swedish people because I feel like I can really connect with them, that might be because I have somewhat of the same vocabulary.

I had an amazing birthday here in Sweden! 24 years old. Crazy. Through out the day Syster Jacobs would give me a little present every time the clock said 24. She would start singing Happy Birthday and then reach into her bag and pull out a gift for me. Haha. I loved it.

THANK YOU ALL for the birthday wishes! I love you all and wish you a wonderful week. Enjoy the spring weather. I know I am.

I love you all. Please don´t worry about me. I am well taken care of here. Our ward mission leader and his wife are picking us up in about 15 minutes and taking us to see the beach and eat lunch with them. Wow. I love my life. And then tonight we are going to have an FHE with Annicka (in the above photo). Yipee.

It looks like you all had a great weekend too. Corryn is due so soon and you know what that means!? That means that our Mother's day skype is coming up soon too!! I miss you all so much but I will be home before we know it.

I am so happy for Serina to be going to UVU. Tell me which classes she gets and who her teachers are. I am so happy for her. Is she planning on moving out when she gets home? Or will we be roommates?

Well, the rest of the week was wonderful as well. But, I think that is all that I will write at this time. I love you!

Syster Talisa Vistaunet!

Ps... Tell Caitlin thank you for all the love lately. She is wonderful and I can tell that she is happy too.