Good byes, Hair Cuts, and Life Lessons

TJABBBBA!

The quote of the week goes to our dear friend Oswaldo. “I am ready to
convert; I’ll quit all my old habits and start anew. I know this is what I
need to do.” He told us that about 2 ½ weeks ago, and then disappeared. His phone was off, so we couldn’t reach him. He emigrated from Guatemala, and was always running around in Stockholm and he always seemed to find missionaries where ever he went. So we thought that he was eventually going
to show up and he would just find us. But last week he had the chance to make a drive up to his home, and that is when learned that he had passed away about the same time we lost contact.

It was a small African family that was giving us then news of this and we were defiantly shocked, our amazing friend was found dead in the streets of Stockholm. They tried to comfort us, and let us know that they were extremely close to him and it was hard for them as well. We then had the opportunity to teach that family about the Gospel and now we will be teaching them.This was a very sad experience, but in the same time I know Oswaldo is fine. He is going to except the Gospel on the other side, because he already was accepting it on this one. He even help guide us to this wonderful little Kenyan family.

This week has been absolutely insane! We had a zone conference of 122 people, prepared for the new mission president and still work in our area. It has been crazy but in the same it has been fun. (Except the Zone Conference I had to roll play teaching in front of everyone in Swedish, it was a little nerve raking.)

On Friday night, we had the chance to proselyte all night, and we had a
really cool experience. We were in a place called Åkersberga, and we were about to head home. Until we both felt this feeling that we needed to try to visit one more person.  We had an old list, to swing by people and this one woman’s name stood out. So we hopped in the car and drove there.

We had no idea who she was, we imagined she was an old investigator, but we
went up knocking. She opened the door with the biggest smile on her face. We started to talk to her and we still not knowing anything about her we asked her if she had met the missionaries before and if she was still interested on learning more. She started to choke up a little bit as she
replied, “Jag är ju Mormon, och jag ska aldrig förneka det.” (I am
absolutely a mormon, and will never deny it.)

As we spoke to her on her door step, the tears began to just flow from her
face, and she told us how she had been praying for this. She knew she
wanted to come back and didn’t know how, and then we knocked on the door. It was a direct answer to her prayers. She then was able to come to church on Sunday and she hasn’t been in 14 years. I’ve never seen somebody so
M happy.It’s times like these that makes being a missionary completely is worth it. When you get to help be a tool in the Lord’s hands, it’s just Indescribable. We had no idea, that we would have had so much impact for stopping by that woman, but we were guided by the spirit to help find her
and bring her back.

Well, lastly we had to say goodbye to our beloved Mission President,
President Newell. About 45 minutes before we were planning on going over to have our last debriefing, he gave me a call and asked me something I neverwould have thought in a million years. He said, “Elder Haddon, could you
come a little early before our meeting….. And cut my hair. I see that you did a marvelous job for all the elders in the office do you think that you could just trim me up a bit.” In my head I screamed in terror, ”WHAT!@#!?”

But then responded quietly, “Yes, I could probably do that.”

So right before our last meeting I had the opportunity to cut former
Ambassador President Newell’s hair. (It doesn’t look to shabby either.)

To be honest, that was a very hard experience to say goodbye to them both, they were like a Father and Mother to me and to the 200 missionaries here.
They had helped so many people in Sweden, and truly effected hundreds of thousands. They will be missed.

I love you all thank you for the support and love. Stay in tuned for next weeks adventures.

Love,

Äldste Tyson Farlig Haddon

Out With The Old, In With The New

God Morgon!!!!

The Quote of the week kind of a sad one, it was after my last interview
without dear and beloved President Newell. “After we leave on Saturday, we will be silent. No contact, not a word. But when you get off the plane,
you’re going to wish I would shut up!"

This is going to be the last week with President Gregory J. Newell. This is the weirdest thing ever. We will be having one last zone conference which will be having 111 missionaries from all over the country. It will be the last goodbye for him. Then, we will be getting ready for President Beckstrand.

But in other news as you can see it was Midsommarafton, a crazy celebration in Sweden where everyone gets wasted and dances around a pole. (I can explain it better later.) Got to spend a day, having a good time with some old friends doing some crazy old Swedish traditions. (We didn't drink... just so you know.)

Then on Sunday, I was able to go to a baptism in Jakobsberg of a man that I taught a lot. He is planning on moving to Utah soon, so those of you out there will probably get to meet him. (He believes Utah is small so he wants to meet all of my friends and family.) It was just one of those tendermercies, to see how happy he was. He had worked so hard to be baptized and now he was able too! Helped me really remember the reason why I am here. To simply help others, and the best way to do that, is through the Gospel. I am so happy to be there for that. I am so happy to be here in Sweden at this time. This is where I want to be.

This week is going to be STRESSFUL with the new mission President and all, but I know no matter what the Lord has got our backs.

Love you all have a great week,

Elder Tyson Danger Haddon

*Pictures: Midsommarafton*

*1) ME!*

*2) Nieminen and me! *

*3) Group of Missionaries*

*4) All of the Stockholm Missionaries*

*5) Taking a bath*

*6) Allsop, Faylor and I back again.*

*7) And again*

*8) Office Crew: Moe, Mangum (Back Row), Sahlin, Johnson, & Haddon*

*9) Midsommarselfie*

Traveling Around Sweden

Aloha!!!

Hope everyone is doing fine in the US of A, And a quick shout out for all
the Fathers, Happy Father’s DAY!!!!

The Quote of the week goes to President Newell. We were at the mission home talking to some of the missionaries who were done with their missions, and we were chatting with one of our super good friends who happens to be Britt. He asked us if we could stay the night with him for his last night,and we told him we actually really need to go home. So he says, (In a British accent,)”Oh that’s fine mate, I didn’t want to stay with you anyway.”

President Newell then blurts out, “That’s exactly what we said to you about 230 years ago!”

To be fair he was an ambassador and chief of state, so I imagine he has to be pretty quick on his toes when he is around the Britts.

Oh man, So much has happened in this little time, we got 3 new missionaries to the mission so we got to help them in and got them ready for missionary life in the Stockholm Sweden Mission. Which is always a good time.

Day after we got a new companion. So right now we have 3 Assistants. His name is Elder M, from Brighton…. That is all I got to say about him. We also as soon as he got here had 3 Zone Conferences. So we traveled the whole country in the span of 4 days.

First took a plane to Umeå, way up in the North. While I was on the plane I had an interesting experience. We were all split up so we weren’t near our companions. So I’m sitting in the middle seat next to two strangers. So of course I thought this would be the perfect time to talk to some people about the Gospel. The first lady to my right, after trying to start up a conversation, put on headphones and turned the other way.  A little
embarrassing but its fine I can bounce back from that. So I turn to my other side and just say something to the effect of, “Hey! What great weather we are having!”

She turns and looks at me with the most disgusted look on her face and
yells, “I do not want to speak with people like you!!!” As you can imagine I am a little shocked, and a little scared that this Swedish speaking Russian lady is about to murder me. And that was only the first 2 minutes of me on the plane. The rest of the plane ride if I even looked in her general direction I probably would have received a gnarly backhand to the face. So that was a long plane ride to say the least.

When we get to Umeå, we realized we have about a 45 minute presentation to plan for to the zone the next day…… And we haven’t prepared ANYTHING! So we got to the hotel and started to plan and we all fell asleep with our books
and pens in our hands. Woke up 6:00 still have nothing planned and we had to run to the Chapel. Get there and just start getting everything set up and we literally had 10 minutes to prepare for out presentation.

We come in do our part, actually turned out pretty good. After President Newell told us that he was so impressed with it, it must have taken us quite some time to put it together…haha, yes it was very well planned to say the least. (To be fair he only gave us a day to prepare, so it wasn’t even our fault.)

After that we took a 7 hour train ride to Stockholm, went to Church in Täby then right after hopped in the car and drove west to my home town Göteborg!!! It was great to go back, the west part of Sweden is so much more relaxed. They people are just the best there. So it was wonderful to check it out again.

After the conference there, we drove right after with President Newell,
down to Malmö. (The Dirty South.) It’s just super beautiful down there.
Flat and full of windmills. Everything went smoothly there. Then had the
long journey back home, driving with only Elder Mangum home.

This week has been crazy defiantly very busy, but I just want to say I
still absolutely love what I am doing, I’m so happy to be here, and to help
the missionaries, members, and non-members here in Sweden. It is something I love and will never regret.

Love you all, and don’t forget to email!!!!

Love,

Elder Haddon

See Ya Thursday

Elder Haddon is traveling the country of Sweden this week to check on all of the elders and sisters. For this reason, he will not be able to email until Thursday so check back with us then!

Appendix Troubles

Tja!

Oh man time flies by! This last week was too quick it was ridiculous! BOOM!

Quote of the week,

Äldste Sahlin: "Why is he back in the hospital?"

Me: “His second appendix exploded as well."

Sahlin: "WHAT!!! I've never heard of that happening before!!!!"

Me:"Yeah it's pretty rare..."

So there was a missionary, Elder Schwabedissen, who had his appendix rupture. He felt prompted to go to the hospital before it happened actually and they helped him before any real damage could be done. He had been in and out of the hospital because of the surgery for the last couple of days.

So after we took him to the hospital for the fourth time this was the
dialog with Elder Sahlin (Swedish Missionary) and I. (He is doing super
well now, don't worry.)((And just so you all know... you have only one
appendix.))

This week has been super interesting. We have had missionary leadership meetings that Elder Moe and I were able to teach and lead in. (Which turned out pretty good surprisingly.) But after the meeting President Newell started interviewing all of the missionaries, because he will be leaving soon. So i had the pleasure to be in the chapel in Täby from 9:00 to 10:30 on Wednesday. That was a long day let me tell you. But luckily i was able
to be with my good buddies Elder Allsop and Faylor, so it turned out
alright.

Something i learned a lot this week was just one of those simple truths of the gospel, "To get and keep the Spirit." One thing about being in the
office, you simply get stressed and burned out. There are always problems to fix, missionaries to help and you also have to take care of the area you work in. So through this mess of things, I started to realize, I wasn't feeling good. I was so stressed from everything I couldn't feel the spirit. I realized at this point how important the spirit is to me, and how i needed to slow down and quiet simply get it back.

It helped me realize that no matter what is going on in our lives we need
the spirit to be with us. It gives us peace, happiness, joy, strength, and
guidance. Without it, it is like running through a dark forest without any
light. We will feel scared, sad and alone. We need it in our lives, like we
need air in out lungs, food in our stomach and blood in our veins.

I can testify that when we have the spirit with us, we can do anything. Do everything in your power to have it with you and i can promise your life will be filled with so much happiness and hope. I know this to be true. I love you all and hope that you all can "tar det lugnt." and feel the spirit more abundantly in your life.

Love,

Elder Haddon

Twins!!

Hejsan!

This week was a good one it even scored itself 2 quotes of the week!

1)      We are sitting at the beach resting after contacting like 100
people, and this dad was jogging and his little kid was riding behind him on a bike. The boy yelled, “Pappa! I did you see those twins!”

The father replied,”I don’t think they are twins.”

The boy, “Yes they are! They’re clothes are exactly the same! They have to
be!!!”

2)      Walking in Sergels Torg a big square in Stockholm, and we were out and contacting people. We stopped this group of Africans from Sierra Leone. I started to talk to one named Paul. His English wasn’t the greatest but he made the cut. After telling him what we do as a missionaries this was his response,“allz I wanna dos iz preach Jesus word.”

It’s been a good week a lot of preparation for the upcoming weeks.
President Newell our mission president is going home in 2 weeks…. Then we will be training the next one President Beckstrand and let me tell you that is going to be nuts! They get only an hour to overlap and talk about the mission. Then he’s 100% counting on us to know our stuff…. Gulp. So we are just getting everything set in place for President to leave and to get and train the new one.

Last Monday we had a really cool experience with a man we are teaching. He was a referral from some member way up north. We had taught him once before but this time there was something different. He was more engaged and really wanting to know and he explained why. A couple days earlier he found these old Books of Mormon that his friends had given him over the years. He had never really like religion before, but for some reason when he found these old Books of Mormon he just had the strongest feeling that they were true and needs to read them. He finally felt he needed to find meaning in his life and to know why we are even here. This is crazy because if you talked to him a couple months ago, he would have told you he doesn’t care at all!

Now has been just diving into the scriptures and really looking towards
baptism.

It was cool to see that this man was being prepared by the spirit for over
a number of years, and that the Lord had a plan for him specifically to get
him to come back to his fold. That’s something I know to be true. That
there are 1,000,000s of prepare people out there trying to find the truth, and not knowing where to find it. That is why we are out here as
missionaries. Not to baptize everyone, or to make our parents proud, but to bring the hope, the love, the light and salvation to everyone. To help people understand that God is there and he cares and loves them personally.

I’m so happy to be a missionary and thankful for the opportunity to serve.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder Haddon