Så många saker

Every week is getting faster and faster and I swear I just emailed a day ago haha. Sorry you all get so many emails stored up in your inbox. ;) anyways I hit my 9 month mark this coming week and it feels so weird. Half way done, what is life. Excited to see what the next 9 brings. :)

We hit up the beautiful Vaxholm this last P-Day. We took a long bus through this pretty landscape to get there. The weather was perfect and the vibes were so happy. We walked around this huge fortress and took pictures with these swedish cannons while we ate ice cream. It was such a great day.

We had correlation meeting this week with Kristoffer too! It was fun we had dinner at his house while we had our meeting. He always makes fun of our Swedish so that's great lol. He's also in charge of Festinord (this big YSA scandiavian fest) this year so he's been giving us all these details about that. He even told us it's going to be in Stockholm again next year! So stoked about that and hopefully I can go next year!

We visited our old lady friend Maria this week too. She's crazy haha. She told us all these stories about how she put the Russian Mafia in prison and how she's a secret spy? Watch she really is and I'm just being a jerk not believing her. ;) She loves us so much. We read some sciptures with her as well and talked about the second coming and stuff. She was like, 'There is no hope for Sweden...' and started laughing really hard in this crazy evil laugh. She's a funny one.

Distrikt meeting was so fun this week. We did some hilarious role-plays. Äldste Bailey pretended to be a warrior fro Lord of the Rings investigating the church and the missionaries did a good job of tying the gospel into his needs of larping. ;)

We met with the STLs this week also! I was with Syster Woolsey. She is the sweetest thing ever and we had such a fun time together. We talked to a lot of nice people and while we were walking back home this random huge van drove past us and a dude stuck his head out at us and yelled, 'BOO!' We both screamed at the top of our lungs and started laughing and we were just so confused haha.

We did some service at this lady's house too with the elders so that was cool, we learned a lot of patience there. ;)

Even though this week has been good it also has been very hard. Sweet Syster Holley has been going through a lot this week. She has been having some health problems and has met with some doctors. Sadly, she will be having to go home next week. :( It is been really sad for the both of us. We knew this would be our last week together so we made it as fun as we could. Even though it has been hard we both said agreed we feel peace and that it was the right thing. The Lord knew this would happen and we are grateful for his comfort this past week. I am so grateful for the time I have had with her and the amazing memories we shared. Syster Holley, I love you so much. Thank you for having so many laughs with me and teaching me how to play chess, and enlightening me with your Lord of the Rings and Linguistics knowledge. :) It amazes me how intelligent you are. Most importantly thank you for being my Syster and being there for Teng and Na. They needed you more than anyone else. I know the Lord placed you in their path for a reason. Tack för att du finns och jag kommer att saknar dig. Vi ses snart och jag älskar dig. :) God speed.

Med Kärlek,
Syster Davis

p.s. We will watch Lord of the Rings på svenska together someday. :)

Swedish vaxholm cannons!

​Vaxholm exploration.

​Sött

Signing the Vaxholm guest book. 'Jag älskar Vaxholm!'

​Stockholm zone (from zone training)

Teng and Na's Dop!

Hello everyone! Vilken underbar vecka vi har haft. We started off the week right by going to this free Swedish history museum on P-day! The theme for the summer was vikings. :) Perfect for Syster Holley. We walked around the coolest exhibit and even did some fun viking activities. We made viking bread, played viking chess, and even a little archery! So legit.

We had dinner this week with the Robinsons too! We had home-made mini pizzas and Äldste Blackburn read us a nice little kid story about warm fuzzies and how we should give to others. It was a great life-lesson. ;) We also met this sassy dude on the street. He was like, 'Have you seen Jesus before?' And I was like, 'Uh no have you?' And he was like, 'No, and that's exactly why he is not real.' And then I said, 'Have you seen Michael Jackson before?' and he was like, 'Huh? No...he died.' and then I said, 'Well if you've never seen him before how do you know he's even real?' He was furious and didn't know what to say and just shook his head and left hehe. ;)

We visited sweet Kristin this week too! She gave us these yummy coconut godis and we talked about the sacrament. We were comparing all the scriptures talking about it in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and she was fascinated by it. She also told us if we ever come back to Sweden we have to stay with her! Definitely going to take her up on that offer haha. We got to go to Lars and Astrid's this week also. They made us Swedish pankakor and piled so many on our plates lol. The whole bishopric was out of town so Lars said he would lead Teng and Na's baptism on saturday. So nice of him.

We had zone training down in Gubbängen also. It was about how we can follow the spirit in our daily lives. It was a great training by Äldste Liddle and Bailey. We all got food together after and Nature godis.

The highlight of this week was Teng and Na's baptism! Me and Syster Holley got to the church super early and started filling the font. We made the baptism program in half chinese and swedish (thanks to Holley's chinese skills) and Teng and Na arrived and we helped them get ready. It was a great service. :) We gave our chinese/swedish talk as well and everyone was so impressed that Holley knew chinese! Teng gave a little testimony at the end too in swedish talking about his life before and how it felt empty without God and the gospel and now he has peace. It was so precious. I am so grateful we got to be a part of their conversion. I know the Lord put us in each others path for a reason. They really are like family to us and I never want to have to say goodbye to them.

Our best friends (McClatchie and Young) down in Täby also had a baptism for Cosmos as well! We got to go see that too and afterwards we had a fun BBQ with the office crew. :) It was such a great day full of happiness and a great reminder of how blessed I am to be a missionary. I love this work with all my heart. I can't even begin to describe the light I feel everyday.

Teng and Na were confirmed on Sunday and it was yet again another spiritual day. Love life so good and I'm grateful for my time here. It seriously is flying by and it is weird to think I am almost at my half way mark. I never want this to end!! Love you all and until next time.

Med kärlek,
Syster Davis

​Teng and Na's Dop

​Dop selfie

​Kyrkan är sann!!

Office crew BBQ.

Happy 4th!

Happy July everyone! Sadly the swedes don't celebrate Amercia independence day but us missionaries sure do. We had a little grill fest on P-Day so that was fun. The Woods made us these amazing hamburgers. Me and Syster Holley were a little sad though to see no fireworks. :( Oh well we always have next year.

We got to meet all the new greenies this week too so that is always fun. Perks of living in Stockholm. One of them was even in my EFY group back in 2012! What a small world. :) I went with the sweetest syster ever named Syster Greeff. She was adorable and had no fear talking to every person who came her way. Love her greenie fire.

This sweet lady Mira invited us over for lunch too. She and her friend are from Slovenia! So cool. Her and Syster Holley talked a lot about languages and we helped her translate this thing to english. She was so sweet.

Transfers were this week as well so we got a new distrikt leader! Äldste Blackburn!! :) He is the best and has literally been companions with so many elders in my MTC group so that's fun. We had our first distrikt meeting with everyone and it was great. We got a new assistant as well Äldste Halterman. He is hilarious and we all went around and told everyone our secret talents. Such a great distrikt already at week 1.

Teng just got back from China this week also! He came back with gifts for me and Syster Holley. Each our own fancy chopstick set!! So sweet. :) We met with Teng and Na a lot this week to get them ready for their baptismal interview. :) They are the cutest things ever. Teng kept saying. 'I belive!' in english in his chinese accent. Äldste Blackburn interviewed them and said they are so prepared! They get baptized this Saturday and I could not be more excited for them. :) Me and Syster Holley plan to give talk in Swedish and in Chinese. We'll see how it goes. ;)

We talked to some interesting people this week too. These two drunk guys who begged us to help them fix their phone (we did) and another fellow who went in for a kiss on the cheek lol. Lots of nice people here in the city of Jakobsberg! We got some lunch with the elders this week too at kebab pizza! So delectable.

Sunday was great too. I was asked to give a talk so that was scary but I think it went well! It was about how the Adversary (Motståndaren) wants us to think we are alone in the world and how he wants us to think God has abandoned us or doesn't exist at all. I shared some experiences I have had were I knew the Lord was there for me and I was grateful I didn't listen to the adversary. It was a happy sunday and Teng and Na were there too. :)

Love you all and thanks for all your love. Till nästa vecka! Kram!
Syster Davis

​Our own chopstick sets! :) Tack Teng and Na.

Learned how to say my name in Chinese.

​Fourth of July outfits on fleek.

So many farewells!

Happy 4th of July allihopa! Shoot lots of fireworks and grill lots of hamburgers for me. For P-Day we are having a little forth of July fest in Stockholm so that should be fun. :) Last monday we decided to go thrift shopping. We found all these Swedish Harry Potter books for very cheap so that was fun. It will be cool to read those when I get home. We hit up H&M too (typist). ;)

This week was pretty normal though. Still kind of in the post-holiday blues but we are getting through it! We had dinner with the Robinsons, Cisternas, Inger, and the Garcias this week too so that was something that really lifted our spirits. I love the members here!! They take good care of us.

The highlight of this week was probably seeing my Stake President (Robert Davis) from home and his family! I love the Davis' so much. :) We met up in T-central and just caught up on life. It was such a dream seeing them it didn't feel real. So great seeing friends form home. :) Tiffany and Robert both served missions here in Sweden and they were here on vacation to visit! Such a great treat to get to be with them. Miss them already but I'll see them again soon in the Spring.

Our favorite assistant Äldste Hemmingson had his funeral (farewell fest) this week as well. The Beckstrands came too so that was a fun surprise. He has been the assistant since I came to Sweden so it is sad to see him leave. :( We are going to miss him so dearly and all the laughs we had. The Beckstrands made a little farewell video for him! So sweet.

This week was our good friend, Nicki de Souza's farewell party too! She's in the Jakobsberg församling and is leaving to serve a mission in the Salt Lake Temple Square mission on Wednesday. :) So excited for her. I told her I will find her and speak Swedish to her when I go back to school. ;) She is the sweetest ever and her farewell fest was filled with so many tears and hugs. She is going to be the best. ❤

We met with Na this week too. We are so excited because Teng comes back this week too and we are getting them ready for their baptism. :) So excited for them. They are so adorable. Random, but we also talked to this sassy french guy on the street as well. Syster Holley took 5 years of french so she is basically fluent lol. They went off back and forth. It was a sight to see. ;)

On Sunday we got to teach primary so that was cute! We taught about temples and drew pictures together. It was really fun. It was fast sunday too and Castleton-Rudolf gave his farewell testimony because he is moving to Göteborg. Me and Holley are still safe in Jakobsberg another transfer! So happy. :) It feels like home here now. So grateful for the people I get to be with everyday and it's sad how fast the time has to go. The Lord really has a hand in this work and I know he's put these people in my life for a reason. Making every single day count. Till next week.

Kram
Syster Davis :)

The sweet Davis' who came to see us. :)

​Hejdå Castleton-Rudolf, vi kommer att saknar dig

​Creepy selfies with Nicki. Don't hate me for sending this. ;) Gonna miss you!