Letter dated 16Jul2013

Dear Family! God dag (Good day)! I have been having such a great time! Learning Swedish is the bomb diggity, and it's really funny sounding (the Swedish chef is a lot like what my teachers sound like). I'm starting to be able to think the occasional Swedish word naturally, and my companion, Elder Taggart, and I have had 3 mock teaching experiences where we've been able to say some pretty simple things in Swedish about Christ and the church. My district is composed of 10 people, 4 sister missionaries and 5 elders besides me. For the first couple of weeks here, I am being the district leader, so I am in charge of getting the mail and facilitating a few meetings. It's mainly the mail though, and I try to make it as cool as the owls who drop packages in Hogwarts. It is so fun to be in my district! All of us in it study together for perhaps 10 hours a day and hang out at meals and stuff. My companion is from Utah, and he is really insightful and caring about e'rebody. He wants to be a theology professor when he grows old. The other missionaries are great too! Everyone is super nice and funny. Elder Johnson is also from Utah, he has a sweet photographic memory, and he is going to play soccer for BYUH when he gets back from Sweden. Elder Hansen's from Arizona, was in a class of mine at BYU, and he has a really discrete and funny sense of humor. Elder Baily is from Utah, he played football and always has a really contagious smile. Elder Cushing's from Utah and went to Honduras for a service trip a little before coming here, and he's done a lot of other service things. All of us elders were born in 1994, so we're pretty close in age. Sister Eborn is going to Utah State majoring in history; Sister La Fonataine (sp?) is a dancer who's going to BYU, Sister Darby does track and cross country at BYU, and Sister Andersen is going to BYU after her mission. It feels a little like we're a family, because we're always around each other and everyone is so nice. There's never really an argument that happens and it's really cool. Like the other day I said something sarcastic, so one of the elders said "Shut up Aldste Schindler... Just kidding :)" That's about as strained as it's gotten here. And with the other 5 elders, I feel super close. We are in the same dorm room and they feel a lot like my real brothers to me, except they're all my same age and there's probably more variety of personalities here than there is at home. The schedule here is pretty fun. It keeps us pretty busy, and I think that contributes to a feeling of comradery. The only complaint I have is that we're in buildings all day except for the hour of exercise, and during the exercise you're still pretty far from nature. But fortunately we get to go on a trip across the street to the temple twice a week, and it's awesome to be there and right by the mountains that it's in front of. My favorite event so far has been listening to a talk given by Elder Bednar at the missionary training center a couple of years ago around Christmas called "Character of Christ." In it, he focused mainly on the importance of living what you know, or changing your life to be like Christ, instead of just knowing it. He told the parts of Jesus' mortal ministry where He was tempted by the devil after His 40-day fast to use His power as God for His gain, but where Jesus was just like "No," and even sent angels to minister to John (if I'm remembering whom) who had just been unjustly incarcerated. And he told of when Christ didn't get mad at His apostles falling asleep or betraying Him and even healed the guard's ear in the midst of suffering for the accomplishment the atonement, or when He suffered for the sins and sorrows of all mankind. The message was that Christ was perfectly selfless, and that we need to be so. He told about a woman he knew who, as a single mom attending her young and only daughter's funneral, received a call from a church lady who was angry about not having received a meal from the relief society while she had a cold; and so the selfless woman made a meal for her and dropped it off on her way to the funeral. I loved it so much! And it resonated so powerfully with me about how I need to be so much more selfless. I looked for this talk on the church's website but could not find it. Otherwise I would suggest for everyone to listen to it! Oh, and you say Elder in Swedish like: eld-stay :)