Long Drives and Conferences

Здраво ТХЕРЕ партнер! (Serbian),

Well howdy there folks! How's it hanging? We'll just jump right into some of the quotes of the week:

1) Jeremie (Recent Convert) while we were going through "The Kingdoms of Glory," in the Plan of Salvation.

*Jeremie*: "I don't really remember too much about the differences of the 3 kingdoms, but I do know that I want to go here. (Pointing to the Sun.) We all should, it's like the world's best movie theater, you gotta book your seat man!"

Jeremie is "The Man," every time we meet with him and teach him it's just the greatest experience, I'm so glad I followed the prompting to go play some basketball with him the first time I met him. (Even though I don't think I've ever passed up the opportunity to shoot some hoops with anyone.)

2) This was from Elder José A. Teixeira. He had come and was touring the mission. We had driven all the way to Gothenburg, to pick them up, (5.5 hours.) So at this point we had picked them up and were unloading there things at the hotel.

*Me:* "Is there anything we can do to help this Conference run a little
more smoothly?"

*Teixeira:* "No you’re doing a marvelous job, just go and contact at least one person before you go home tonight."

So that is what we did, it was super late and were exhausted from the
drive, and there had happened to be one man relaxing and smoking a
cigarette, by a building. But what we did is pulled over and did as the
general authority asked, and contacted that man. He was actually very, very
interested and is hopefully going to be taught by some of the Elders in the near future.

This week we had a fantastic time, having a Mission Tour with Elder
Teixeira. We also got to spend some quality time with him, and I felt like
I was able to receive some fantastic personal training, on being a
missionary, leader, priesthood bearer and becoming the man I want to be. To be honest it helped me see the very short time that I have left and see what I can actually do with it. He helped me get that vision back, and
helped me see how I need to live every single day to the fullest.

So after that, it was time.... to not just talk about it and feel good
about it, but to go out there and do something about it. So the last few
days, fueled with the Spirit and just going out and working our hardest, in about 3 days we have about 5 families that we are going to start/are working with. That is almost unheard of! Elder Allsop and I were able to baptize a family, and that was the greatest things ever. But other thanthat I have been able to really help individuals. (Which is fantastic, the worth of *one* soul is great, in the eyes of the Lord.) But now we really are working on getting one of these families the blessing of the gospel.

When I think of my family and how much I love every one of them, and how much the gospel has blessed us, all I want to do now is help another family receive those blessings.

We were able to teach a family tonight about the gospel in Chinese.... (I wish Hunter Anderson would have been there.) And now we are helping them with toward the path to baptism, and having an eternal famiry.... I mean
family ;)

I am so thankful for this gospel, and that I have been able to serve in
Sweden. The time has gone incredibly fast, and I want to use the last bit that I have to its fullest. I love you all and pray for you all.

Much Love,

Elder Haddon

Two weeks in one!

So sorry, we were up at bear lake last week so I didn't post like usual, plus he didn't email until Thursday so first is Thursday's email, and then today's!

Kas ir līdz?

Herrrrow!!!! Nice to hear from you all just want to say I had a decent
amount emails from you all, so keep it up!

This week’s quote is from President Beckstrand, “Man I didn’t know Bilbo
Baggins could jump so high!” (See Picture. Enough said.)

The beginning of the week I was able to spend a good time with my to best buddies Elder Allsop and Faylor, at a fabulous place called “Tom Tits,” (It is like a science museum thing.) It was cool, for small children, but us three still had a blast. (Shows our level of maturity.)

We had the privilege to go to one of the units on Gotland. Gotland is a
larger island south of Stockholm. We went there to check on the small
branch there and see what is going on down there. It is one of the coolest places in Sweden because it was one of the largest Viking trading places. So it has these fantastic old buildings. It is quite a hit in the summer months. (See Pictures.)

We had to take a large boat there and back, and on the way back we got to the mainland around 11:00 and had a large leadership conference at 12:00. And we were about 1 ½ hours away from the meeting. SO that was stressful, I
was actually encouraged by the mission president to speed to get there. Butgot there and had a fantastic meeting with all of the Leadership of the mission.

Then on Saturday, we had the chance to drive to Göteborg, and go do some good work up there. That is where I started my mission so it was really cool to go back there. I actually had the privilege to go to church in my ward Kungsbacka, on Sunday. That was a fantastic experience, just being able to meet those people that I met first in Sweden, now being able to speak Swedish with them and to see how they are doing now.

One thing that I really sad about that ward, is several of the families
that I knew really well have gone less active, or written themselves out of the church. There was a man who went there who was actually a higher up leader in the church, who now goes around and is trying to take people away from the church. So I could tell the ward was a little beaten up, but was still fantastic to see them all.

We have been traveling all around to visit all of the wards in Sweden,
which has been a cool experience. Everytime we go there we get to go on splits, with the Elders there and it has been a really cool thing, to go
around and help build up some of these other areas. We’ve been able to on this tour with our exchanges get several baptismal dates, new
investigators, and help find less actives as well. So it has been a great experience to be able to work all over the place and simply help others EVERYWHERE come unto Christ.

I am so thankful to be a missionary and to be serving in Sweden. I
absolutely love this place.

Love you all,

Elder Haddon

Today:

Well… Hello there!

It has been a long time sense I have been able to write you all! Oh man!
(Sarcasm through email has never been one of my strong suits.)

But anyway one of the quotes of the week comes from one of our recent
converts Jeremie. (The discussion was on the topic, “Marriage.”) ”Do not rush for marriage, do not rush for kids, what you need is to be stable.
STABILITY! If you get married before you are stable, I will personally come to your wedding and when someone asks does anyone object. I will raise my hand high, and tell your future wife to find someone else! Believe me, frankly speaking I will do it!”

So if anyone thought I was getting married young….. Think again, Jeremie will not allow that!

Quote number two, comes from our dear missionary mom, Sister Beckstrand,”I just farted.”

….. Now I will explain. We were driving in Uppsala doing this mission tour, where we visit all of the units in Sweden. We drove by this biker who was just waving his arm all over the place behind him. I then said, “I don’t speak Swedish-sign language, I don’t know what that means.” Then about a
good 20 seconds after that, we hear sister Beckstrand say, “I just farted.”
We then both proceed to roll down our windows. As she is laughing
hysterically, trying to explain that the man’s arm gestures were indicating that he had passed gas, not that she had.

But anyway, sense the last time that I wrote, things have been going super well. We have had some time in our area finally and we are just working as hard as we can here. I can honestly say, I’ve never been so exhausted in my life, from traveling, training, then coming back and trying to take care of Täby as well. But I know that the Lord is blessing us for our efforts and that it’s what is necessary right now. We have had like 3 super new referrals that we are going to be working with, and it is something that I know is when we work hard, are obedient, the Lord blesses us. But I’ll keep you posted on all of those people next time!

Sorry it’s short but not much to report from 4 days ago. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Haddon

Long Time No Talk

!

Well Aloha!!!!!

It’s been such a long time sense I have been able to write to you all, good night it’s been almost 4 whole days! This quote of week comes from some missionaries yesterday at a fireside that we had set up for President and Sister Beckstrand.

“Wow for it being the two biggest wards in Sweden invited to this, it is quite a turn out.”

……….. 10 people showed up. Let’s just say it was a little frustrating but what can you do! A drunk lady came in too, so that made things interesting.

Anyway, last week I had the opportunity that not many missionaries have to go to Denmark with the President for a P-day. It was fantastic! I was able to see:

Hamlet’s Castle: This is the Castle that William Shakespeare was writing about in his play 

Hamlet. It was HUGE! It’s right on the coast of Denmark facing Sweden, and it was made to fight those dirty Swedes.

Frederiksborg Castle: This is the Castle that has all of the World famous Carl Bloch paintings of Christ. It was cool because they were all placed in this small room with a desk/Alter thing, and this is where the Danish King would meditate a pray. Had a super cool feeling there.

Vor Frue Kirke: This is one of the coolest placed I have ever been. It is where the famous Christos statue is. What was cool about that church was not only did it have this fantastic statue of Christ, but around him they had all of the Apostles as well. It was so cool to see. (See Pictures.)

The Denmark temple: This Temple was sick, that is all I got to say. It looks super small. But it’s pretty large. Don’t judge a book by its cover!

But I was actually really fun to see those things, it was also cool to see how much people really cared about Christ. It’s crazy the change from those times to now. No one even cares about anything in Europe anymore. But it gave me a real boost for missionary work to see that the love of Christ is literally in their blood. 

Not much time, but I love you all enjoy the pictures, and I really do hope to hear from you next week!

Love,

Elder Haddon