Try a Little Harder to be a Little Better

Hällå Där Allihopa!

President Beckstrand: “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things here in Sweden, but I have never seen 3 bank robberies in the same day. And especially not when we are picking up new missionaries.”

So we got a new batch of greenies on Tuesday. Which is always fun to see there smiling faces and help them get situated and show them around Stockholm a bit. One of the things that we usually do as well, is take the greenies out and go contacting people on the street…. But not this time. We start to pull up to the Stockholm YSA Center to show them around and take them contacting. But there were police taping off the main street in Stockholm, police running around and personally interviewing everyone they saw.

So President thought it would be a good idea to maybe forget contacting and think of something else to do.

But other than that it was a pretty great week. A lot of work like usual and a lot of cool experiences. Wednesday night, we got the chance to send home some of the missionaries and I sent home 2 of my past companions…. So that was weird. (Elder Moe and Elder Knecht.) It really hit me hard because I really love those Elders, but in the same, I’m next. Just helped me realize that I don’t have the most time left. So I need to keep working hard, and do as Gordon B. Hinckley admonished, “Try a little harder to be a little better.”

This leads to one of those days, where we went out and started to hit the streets. We felt impressed to swing by this less-active member. The bishop has asked us to go by all the less-active members, just to see how they are doing and try to reach out to them. But we saw this guy on the list and went by. He opened the door, and had the most confused look on his face. He then replied, “I haven’t seen you guys for like.....(started counting on his fingers,) 15 years.” He kindly let us in.

He made us smoothies and we met his son and girlfriend. The girlfriend was from California. She was really curious why, “Two sharp dressed men,” from the US are in Sweden, in the cold. She also asked us why we were Mormons! So we were able to explain why we are missionaries and how much this message means to us. She wanted to learn more, and so we had the chance to teach her right on the spot about the Restoration of the Gospel.She after said that she just knows in her heart everything we said was true. She said she didn’t know why so many people are becoming Mormons, until now. Haha

She began to tell us the story of her life and how the Lord had prepared her for this moment. She had always searched for the truth. She even went to a school for nuns, to learn more about Jesus Christ. Eventually her life lead her to come to Sweden, and just as soon as she made it here, she meets us. So we are now helping her towards baptism. She will most likely be leaving soon, so she might be baptized back in California, but we will see how it goes.

I love this work, it’s just an explosion of feelings, happy, sad, frustrated, excited, joy, and everything in between. I love it. Thanks for everyone’s prayers, and just keep on, keepin on!

Love,

Elder T.D. Haddon

как ситуация!

как ситуация!

Nothing like some Russian to get you excited for an email! This Quote of
the week goes to our dear friend Zhixiang a.k.a. Bruce.

*“Hey dis guyz a babe.”*

He is a 17 year old, and wanted to learn some English slang. So we decided
to teach him some stuff. It just didn’t really stick… But he is still a
stud. But speaking of our friend Zhixiang and his father Ziping they were
baptized this last Thursday!

But before we had some preparing to do. On Tuesday, we had to get them
interviewed for baptism, and getting them ready for the baptism. We decided
to do it at the church, and little did we know that they were going to be
having a Zumba class there at the same time. So we are trying to have a
spiritual moment with them and all you hear in the background is Beyoncé
with all “dem single ladies.” But it ended up being really good. His wife,
who had no idea that they had Zumba, in her normal clothes, hopped in and
started dancing with them. So in the end it was perfect, even if we thought
I was going to be a disaster. The American instructor and his wife were
talking to each other after… kind of. One spoke Chinese and the other spoke
English. But they somehow managed to communicate with each

other. (I guess it was the language of dance.)

The baptism was on Thursday, It was unbelievable. We had speakers in
Chinese, and they were baptized by a member who could speak Chinese. It was
just wonderful. The whole time we had a member translating the Swedish and
English parts into Chinese for the wife. At the end of it all we had a
conversation with the wife and an interpreter and she wants to follow this
and be baptized. So now we are going to be teaching her actively, to get
her baptized as well.

I have learned a lot from this experience, it helped me understand how much
the gospel and this church can help and strengthen families. To see them
come to church every Sunday, and to be praying together as a family, when
before the believed in absolutely nothing. You can really see how much
closer they have gotten with each other and the Lord. They still have a lot
to learn and grow, but it has been so great to help this fantastic family
be a part of this wonderful gospel. (Again this would be so much easier if
we just had Elder Anderson with us teaching in Chinese.)

It has been a spectacular week and expecting more fantastic and wonderful
things to come. Love you all and take care of yourself!

Love,

Elder Haddon

They're Real!

Sup!

This week’s quote comes from the sweet old lady Syster Rosenlund. “I
appreciate this act of service, there is a couple packs of wild boar, about
37 of them, who do this to my lawn every week.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the rumors are true… Wild boars aren't just on "The Lion King," they are real, and will absolutely destroy your lawn to find themselves some grub. (See picture.)

Well besides living with the harsh reality that wild boars exist and like
to destroy 80 year old ladies lawns, it’s been a fairly good week. We had
some fantastic experiences. We have been teaching this little Chinese family who is planning on getting baptized this Thursday, (Why Thursday? Very good question. Why not Thursday?) It is the dad and the son who are going to be baptized. The mother just moved here from China and speaks no English or Swedish. So our communication with her is very short. A couple
“Xièxiès” are all we can say. (Thank you.)

But last week we had to teach a couple of the commandments, but we had a little trick up our sleeves. We have a new member just moved in, who is fluent in Chinese! So we got to take him with us and teach two of the harder commandments to them. Tithing and the Word of Wisdom. They lived in a one bedroom apartment, with 4 people, and it only smelt of coffee. So we
thought this one might be a little tough.

As we started to teach, with our trusty member, the wife came in and
started to get engaged. They all started talking and by the end the wife said she wants to follow these commandments and know it is true….. The first lesson she comes in on is Tithing and the Word of Wisdom, and she wants to learn more. That is a prepared person my friends. At the end of the lesson, they all committed to following it and the father invited the
wife to pray. She said she had never done that before but would try. It was fantastic, even though I had no idea what she was saying, we could all feel it.

So the father and the son are planning on getting baptized next week, and we will be working more with the mom in the future to get her prepared for baptism. It was just one of those fantastic moments you have as a missionary. Get to see some of the fruits of your labors.

Had a lot of things to do this week, with transfers and some conferences coming up the office is getting busy. But I also got a tender mercy, with going on exchanges to Södertälje with Elder Allsop. Elder Faylor and Allsop are in a power companionship right now and doing some amazing things, so I
thought I would just come in for the day, and crash the party. It was
really good! Got to do some good old fashion missionary work with, a old
bud. Nothing better.

General Conference was fantastic, need I say more.(Shout out to Tim
Buckingham, You sang beautifully!) It helped me in so many different ways. It really helped strengthen my testimony that this church is run by men who receive spiritual guidance from God. I had several questions I needed answered and the most of the talks spoke directly to me. IT just reassured me that this work is real, this church is true, Jesus is the Christ, and I will always be his disciple.

Love you all, take care skött om