The Rally Brothers

This week, Aldste Haddon was able to go on exchanges with some other elders in the area. As usual, it was a good experience to spend time with other missionaries, but that didn't stop him from loving and missing his companion!

This week they were able to help a man load two tons of wood into his basement. He is an elderly man who can't complete the task on his own so they do it for him every Saturday. This week, they did it in 45 minutes thus causing the man to call them "The Rally Brothers" for their 'heroic speed and strength!'

During one of the exchanges, they were cleaning up the chapel in Uppsala, nearly half of the ward was there working earnestly to get it cleaner than ever. (It's incredible to see the change that has taken place in that area in such a relatively short period of time) One of their investigators came and he was looking pretty upset. They learned that his Grandfather had just passed away, Aldste Haddon gave him a hug and his 'companion for the day' did as well. Which, he said was fine at first but as 30 seconds turned into two minutes and eventually into five things started to get awkward. Apparently, both had been raised to never break a hug until the other person had, it was a battle of the wills and neither of them wanted to be the one to let go first!

 

They were also able to see some of the most famous Swedish landmarks; a moose farm and the world's largest wooden horse!

 

All in all, it has been a good week for Aldste Haddon! Thank you for all of your support and we'll be back next week with more updates!

 

 Moose Farm...? What Happens at the Moose Farm, Stays at the Moose Farm

 Worlds Largest Horse

Worlds Weirdest Missionary

 Moving the Wood to the Basement

 

BIG Changes in a tough area

As you know, the area Aldste Haddon has been serving in has had its well....challenges.... but things are starting to look a lot brighter! They had 60 people at church, an improvement over the normal 40 people that they're used to! There is definitely a new spirit and energy there and it's exciting to be apart of. Here is the email Aldste Haddon sent:

 

Hello There!

Got a couple good ól quotes for the week, 

1# "The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter." (Very True.)

 

If you can catch the message here. Its pretty dang cold here. 

This week has been one of the best I have had on my mission. We were got to teach one of our Zone training this last week. We taught how to be missionaries, 

1.Find, 

2.Teach,

3.Baptize,

4. Strengthen.

But of course, we made it into something that we understand. Football. So you are the Coach for this team, (Christ's Team,) And we first need to FIND these Star players or..... The people prepare for the gospel. Once we have found these prepared people, we now have to TEACH them to play the game, or teach them about the gospel. And when they have learned how to play and are in the game, the score Touchdowns, or get BAPTIZED. Sometimes the star players get injured, pull a hammy for example, and we got to get them all fixed up and that is STRENGTHENING the members. It went super well, we got to teach this group of missionaries, what we can do to be better and be those "Coaches" the Lord needs us to be.

We have been doing some serious work here in Uppsala, This Sunday i felt was a really big example of it. We've averaged about 40 people in Sacrament and this week we had over 60 in sacrament with a total of 6 investigators and 3 less-actives in church.

We were able to teach one of out most positive investigator families with the Bishop and it was just a super powerful lesson. Just the all around feeling of the Uppsala Ward is 200X better, it is amazing to be apart of. The bishop said it himself. There has been some HUGE changes here, and it is never going to go back to the way it was.

We are excited to see it continue to growing, and changing of Uppsala. Love being here, and I wouldn't change what i am doing for the world.

Love,

Äldste Haddon

 

Also, one of our AWESOME missionary mom friends who's son is one of Ty's good friends mom (he is currently serving in Taiwan!) Anyways, she types up a quarterly newsletter for each of the missionaries in their group of friends. She sends out a question and the elders respond, she types it up and sends it to all of them and their families. It has been a great way to stay connected with all of the Stansbury elders. This month, Ty sent us his response to her question so we'd like to share it with all of you!

 

What principle of the gospel have you learned to live while on your mission? Faith, prayer, tithing, love, etc. Share a testimony about it. 

I have learned a lot on my mission one of those things following Christ's example in Luke 15:3-7:

 3 ¶And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

 4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Something I have found Joy in and much success on my mission is through, Bringing back the people to the church.

I have one story about a family that we found in Jakobsberg-Stockholm, It started out with a Woman named, Claudia. She joined the Church in Brasil, and doing that she had to run away from her husband, who was viciously against it. She moved to Sweden. She had 3 young boys, two joined the church in Brasil as well. She found the Church in Sweden and started going as much as she possibly could, problems with the language and distance, made it more difficult to come go as often. 

As the years went on, she stopped going to church at all, went to school, got a degree, and started to work as a cook. She finally got her life together, but she still felt something was missing. She one day finally had enough. She just fell to her bed side and wept. She started to sit there, not knowing what to do. She then started to pray. Her feelings hopelessness and sadness, started to diminish, and  she then started feeling  hope and peace. Then she heard something say to her, "Its going to be alright." She knew it came from God.

After she ended her prayer, 30 seconds later, she got a ring on her cell phone. It was us, the Missionaries. She knew that it was a sign from God, to get her back into the church and to do her duty as a daughter of God. We then Reactivated her and her 2 sons, and the youngest is getting ready for baptism.

I know that whether we are bringing people back, or bringing them here for the first time, it is the same. It is the Lord's work, to bring others unto Him. In my life, I have made mistakes, and been inactive as well. But through good friends like you all, and through the spirits powerful promptings, I am here today. Standing as a witness of Christ, even in the feet of snow. I love you all and thank you for your examples. 

Love,

Elder Haddon

Picture: Claudia and the Family.
Sorry, I have no idea why I can't get the highlighting off of the last quoted part... something to do with how Aldste Haddon copied and pasted the scriptures from LDS.org!

 

 

 

 



Step Up to the Plate

Well things have been crazy for Aldste Haddon in Sweden. Winter finally decided to show up! It was snowing like crazy this week! One morning they woke up to a foot of snow on the ground and they didn't even know it was supposed to snow at all!

 

The elders decided to liken missionary work to baseball because they are both sports lovers and what else should a missionary do?

 

Here's how it goes:

 

Strike out, or Out: Someone just shutting you down completely. “Busy!”,“Not interested.”, “I'm Muslim.” Anything to that effect.

Single: Someone being polite and nice, but not quiet interested.

Double: Having a gospel discussion with someone.

Triple: Getting someones number so we could meet again.

Home-run: A new investigator.

Grand-slam: Baptizing a whole family.

 

 

So, they have been working with an elderly man who is in his nineties and is quickly deteriorating. Aldste Haddon said from last Sunday to this Sunday it appeared that he had lost 10 pounds. He said that he's a little confused but they love him and have concern for him. So they walked to his house to visit him in a blizzard. They realized the importance and fragility of life and feel grateful to be able to serve and love this man toward the end of his life.

 

He finishes his email with his testimony:

 

"After that we defiantly realized that we don't have all that much time here, in Uppsala or on this Earth so we have to everything we can to be those people the Lord wants us to be. We had a good hour walk home after that visit, and it was probably the biggest blizzard I have ever been in. But we still talked to everyone we saw. We got some pretty crazy looks, that was for sure. But whither they listened or not, we still did it because that is what we are called to do. Stand up for Christ, in whatever nation, weather, or circumstance it is what we are called too. But at the end we ended up batting about .500 so it was actually pretty successful."

 

 

These pictures are of a service project they did this week. They helped a man build shelves and put thousands of pounds of paper on them, not totally sure why...



Exchanges

Hello Everyone!

Aldste Haddon had a busy week! They got to go on exchanges with the APs (assistants to the president) Aldste Haddon was paired with the AP from Brittan and his companion was paired with an elder from Finland. He said it was fun to work with the two other elders for awhile... but he had no idea it would be so hard to learn British slang! He couldn't understand half of what the companion was saying!

 

They were able to teach a lot of people this week including a woman in her fifties. He said she was very friendly, some may say too friendly. They kept trying to remind her that missionaries can't give hugs and kisses but that didn't seem to bother her one bit! They were shocked and happy to see her at church the following Sunday, but they quickly passed her on to the sister missionaries to avoid any unnecessary contact! Along with her, they had 4 other investigators at church so it was a pretty exciting week for missionary work!

 

Overall, it was a great week! They did a lot of teaching, a lot of service and most of all a lot of missionary work!

 

He'd also like to give a shout out to Hadlee (my sister in law) who turned 8 in December and got baptized last Saturday! And also to our cousin Landon who got engaged at the beginning of December! (All of us thought someone else had told him about the engagement until yesterday we realized no one had so he's just hearing the news! oops! I wonder what else we've forgotten to tell him!) 

 



Happy New Year...Swedish Style!

A few things to describe a Swedish New Year....

1. Lots of Drunk College Kids

2.The bars FULL to the brim

3. Firework stands overflowing with people

4. LOTS of noise

5. LOTS of partying!

 

Luckily, New Years looked a little different than that for the Elders. They were able to spend New Years Eve with two different families, one of whom is the president's family. He has 5 little girls under the age of 8 so the elder's new years consisted of...

1. LOTS of patty cake

2. dodging little girl kiss

3. Girl Talk

4. Getting jumped on

5. little girl games

 

Aldste Haddon said that he had never felt so exhausted! But it was fun to spend New Years Eve with them and appreciated them opening their home to them.

 

On the Missionary Work side of things...

They had been working for awhile on trying to contact a family who was not from Sweden but has lived there for awhile. They have two daughters who are 19 and 21 and they were trying to get the missionaries to teach them. The elders had been working hard to contact them with no success so Elder Haddon had decided to write a note to himself to no longer contact them, assuming they no longer wanted to be taught. Then, Christmas morning he got a phone call from their dad asking him to come back to teach them. All the father wants is to be able to teach his family the gospel and be able to be sealed eternally as a family. Elder Haddon said it was such a blessing to see the importance of never giving up on people and that as long as we remain diligent, Heavenly Father will make up the difference!

 

HAPPY 2014!!

 

 

P Day Changes

So because of Christmas and New Years Aldste Haddon's pdays have been changed. We didn't hear from him today but most likely will on Wednesday or Thursday so check back then!

 

Thanks! Happy New Year!

Merry Late Christmas!

Christmas was good around here and we hope the same for all of you! Aldste Haddon was able to Skype us from his church building yesterday and it was great to hear from him! His spirits were high and he showed a great love for the people of Sweden and the work he is doing there!

He introduced us to his best friend and companion, also named Tyson with a little brother named Hunter! They said that the work they are doing in their area is tough, but they are grateful to be together because they're able to lift one another's spirits and get back to work!

He mostly recapped stories that we had heard before, they're a little more exciting 'in person' and it was good to see his face and hear his voice. His nephew and niece Tate and Emerson are so big and loved seeing him (and themselves) on the screen! He sent a more detailed email of his Christmas Eve (that's the focus of celebration in Sweden) here are pictures and details!

 

His thought he shared at the end of our Skype that he'd like to share with all of you is something a man they have been teaching brought to his attention:

(this is pretty much how it goes)

'We often thank Heavenly Father for our blessings and the things he provides us in our lives but how often to we thank Him and show appreciation for the faith that He gives us? He is the one who gives us that too."

 

"Well this week has been a lot of fun. In Sweden, they celebrate
Christmas on Christmas Eve (Julafton.) So on the 24th is where we had
the “Real Christmas Celebration.” We were luckily invited to the
bishops home.... Which was in Täby, in Stockholm.

"We woke up fairly early and took a train there. When we arrived, went
around the city with the beautiful lights, went around the old city
which had more than 100 year old buildings, shops and art. Elder
Allsop has never seen them so I gave him a little tour sense that was
my area so I knew it pretty well. (See pictures)

"Then, we meet the Elders in the office and road with them to the
Office in Täby (My old Home and Area) which we got to take the big ól
van to Bishop’s house. He has a beautiful house in one of the most
wealthy places in all of Sweden. But even with his wealth he is one of
the most humble, and generous people I have ever met.

"His wife passed away about 5 years ago from cancer, and he had gotten
remarried a year ago. His new wife is a woman from Norway who’s
husband passed away 2 years ago. Even though they hard some very hard
times, they are still some of the happiest people I have ever met.
They just have such a great understanding of the Gospel and know that
there is so much more after this life. It was great to be surrounded
by people like that.

"But anyway the nights activities went as followed:

1.Kalle Anka- Donald duck, in Sweden for the last 50 years there has
been a Donald duck program that plays every Christmas eve at 3:00 PM.
Millions of people watch it every year its quiet the tradition.
(Everyone knows the words by heart... and trust us they know it by
heart.)

"Julbord- The Christmas Feast, (See picture) A table full of different
food, Meatballs, Fish, Janssons Frestelse (Potatoes, cream, and
anchovies,) and of coarse the famous Swedish drinks Glögg and Julmust.
It was the best.

"Went to the graveyard to light some candles for there deceased
spouses. Swedish graveyards are beautiful and quite scary. (On the way
back they played “The Thriller,” as loud as there speakers would go.
Because it looked a lot like the set to the music video.)

"Played pool (Bishop and this little kid named Benji hustled us.) and
read Luke chapter 2.

"All around it was a great time, we got to spend it with people who
really cared about us and had a legitimate Swedish Christmas which we
are super happy about. But one thing that was defiantly different
about this year that it was just 100% focused on the Lord. It was
about the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Its crazy to
see the magic of Christmas brings so much happiness to everyone. It is
a huge testimony to me that it really was the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

"I love you all and I hope that you could feel the Christmas spirit
this year, too bad it is over, but it will be here again sooner then
you know it. Love you all!"


Elder Haddon