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!

Midsommer!!

Hejsan hejsan! This week was so fun tack vare Midsommer. :) First though, on P-Day we meet up with our favorite Täby Systers (McClatchie and Young) and and went on the most beautiful little Stockholm boat ride ever. Our bus cards got us on them totally free! The weather was perfect, and there were tourists and cruiseships eveywhere. There were all these little houses and islands all through the port. We all kept saying how we can't believe we are actually here right now. It felt surreal. After we got ice cream and checked out the kings palace. :)

We met with Maria this week too. She is hilarious and she just loves telling us all her great life stories. She speaks very fast Swedish so it's hard to understand her sometimes but we manage. We talked about family history with her and she got so excited. Syster Holley was telling her about her family from Sweden and Maria said she had family in the same city! We joked how maybe they were related and how maybe they are long lost cousins. ;) Could be true though! She told us a funny dream she had about a Monk (m-oo-nk in swedish lol) and a black dog (svart hund) and said she was related to the Monk. Haha intressant. We love her.

We had some great lessons this week too. All I'm going to say it's really hard to be a Syster Missionary at times. We don't really know if people are really interested in the gospel or they just want to meet with us because we are 'nice girls from America' haha...it's a struggle sometimes.

The highlight of this week though was the Midsommar weekend!! Midsommar is a huge summer holiday in Sweden comparable to Christmas! The stake/community in Stockholm put on this huge party for it down at this beautiful national park! It is a tradition that it pours rain every single year during the holiday but it didn't this year! :) So happy. Everyone decorates this huge May pole with flowers and such and then they raise it and we all sing and dance around it. Me, Sys Holley, Hall, and Gil went to the flowercrown-making hut and made crowns! We even gathered our own flowers and plants for them. :) It was so fun. There were so many missionaries down there and a huge tug-of-war tournament as well! Best day Ever.

On the bus ride back this Swedish lady asked us about our name tags. :) We were like oh yeah Mormon is our nickname! Have you heard of it before? and she was like, 'Wait what you're mormon? You guys look like normal people though!' We explained to her that we were indeed normal people haha. We told her we don't drink alcohol or smoke or stuff like that and she was happy.

They celebrate two days of Midsommar here so me and Holley decided to take a little trip to the little Swedish town of Sigtuna! Wow it was gorgeous. Definitely taking my family here next year. It actually was the first spot in Sweden I went to when I first got here back in December! So many memories. Sys Holley loves vikings and there were so many runes here so she was in heaven. There we're a lot of tourists there also and some of them were secretly taking pictures of Syster Holley's beautiful red hair. ;) Så roligt. We then visited this castle and hiked through a forest to get there. Me and Holley both agreed we felt like we were in 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'A Room with a View.' People were celebrating everywhere we went. :) Afterwards our favorite American family the Mitchells invited us over for dinner with the Elders and Don, Camillo, and Felicia. It was such a great holiday weekend.

When all the Holidays were over it was so depressing haha. We woke up the next day just so sad because we knew it was all over. It even was pouring rain. So tråkigt lol. Our great sunday meeting though made it better and so many sweet people invited us over this week. I can't even describe how much I love it here. I'm so grateful for this culture, these amazing people and this opportunity to be a missionary in this beautiful country. I know the Lord is watching out for us and is guiding us everyday. I feel blessed everyday to be serving for Him. I know He's changing me so much out here. I love Him and I'm grateful for all the happiness we've had this week.

Hope you all had a great week as well, thanks for all your prayers and support. Jag älskar er. Vi ses nästa vecka!

Många kramar
Syster Davis



Stockholm Port!

Stockholm båt ride.

​Premidsommar faces! :)

​Flower crown hut.

May Pole

Syster Gil, Hall, and Holley

Happy. :)

​Missionary Midsommar fun!

​Sigtuna.

​Sigtuna Houses.

Mission Tour!

Good morning alla. This week was quite eventful! First things first me and Holley had a great P-Day! We decided to do some sight-seeing and check out the Hässelby Slott. :) It was super cute and had a fun little backyard garden. Our best friends (senior missoinary couple) the Robinsons invited us to the cool underground Swedish Record Archives as well! They showed us all around the different floors and chambers of records. :) It was so incredible! They even let us hold this huge book from the 1600s! Jättecool. They had us all over for dinner this week too. :) De är toppen!

We had mission tour this week also!! Äldste and Syster Dyches from the 70 came and talked to us. It was a great meeting and training. They gave us some tips about missionary work and we had a question and answer session with them. Four zones in the mission all gathered together for it! We even did a fun little origami activity with Äldste Dyches. ;) It was so great to see almost my entire MTC group as well. We got many pictures and caught up on life. They seriously are my family here. :) Love them.

This week me and Syster Holley decided we really wanted to find a new person to teach since we haven't had so many in a while. We said a very faithful prayer and 'ironed our skirts' ;) and went out determined to find someone the Lord would put in our path. It was the usual hand-in-the-face by everyone we talked to but this last lady we contacted, stopped and listened. :) She then went on to tell us that she was a Medium! Just like Theresa Caputo. ;) I asked her if she knew the show Long-island Medium and she said yeah. I told her me and my mom loved that show haha. We then brought out a Book of Mormon and she flipped out! She grabbed it and her eyes grew super wide. Me and Holley looked at eachother confused haha. She then asked us, 'Is this a Book of Mormon?... Can I please buy this from you?!' We were shocked and happily told her it was free. :) She was shocked as well and told us she was going to read it and meet with us again with many questions! We told her it talked a little about the spirit world and what happens after this life and she was so excited. She then gave us two huge hugs and left. Afterwards we both jumped for joy and knew the Lord guided us to her. :) We said a thank you prayer.

The amazing Don and Camillo got baptized this week as well! They are these two young guys who have been investigating the church. They are some of the greatest people I have ever met and are so knowledgeable in the scriptures. They've had so many miracles happen to them with the scriptures. Me and Holley chatted with them after church for a long time and shared some amazing spiritual experiences we've had. It was so fun. :) Vi älskar dem!

I alla fall, this week has been great. So many great things happening in Jakobsberg and I am so blessed to be a part of it. We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store for the future. :) We are also so stoked for Midsommar this week! It's going to be a fun one. Love you all and until next week.

Kram,
Syster Davis

​Me and Holley in another skog. :)

​Cute houses.

​Pretty field we found on the way to a members house!

​Skön

Swedish Archive Chamber!

​MTC family.

​Mission Tour! Ä.Scott and Moultron :)

​Some Artsy daisies vi hittade.

Summer Lovin' VASA

Hej hej this week was a blast. It started with us having such a fun national Sweden Day on P-Day! Some of us missionaries went down to the VASA museet. It is this huge Swedish Boat that sunk just out of the harbor in 1628 because the Swedish king put too many canons on it lol. It was such a sight to see! We then walked around Stockholm and watched a little parade celebrating the Swedish Holiday. There were Swedish flags everywhere. :) This member from Peru who only knew spanish stopped us on the train too and was so excited to see missionaries! So cute. :)

We had splits this week too. Syster Holley got to go up to Uppsala with Syster Harkness and Syster Mecham came down here to Jakobsberg. It was super fun. We did some usually contakting and this dude we talked to went off for about 30 minutes about how he was some kind of spy so that was interesting. We found this cool compass stature too. Later we met with this sweet member named Renee. We had a great conversations with her. She made us some authentic swedish chocolate pudding. Det var toppen. :)

The next day we switched back and headed to Täby for distrikt möte. It was fun. We got pizza and salad after. Såååå bra. We have the best distrikt ever.

This week we had dinner with the amazing Mitchell Family as well! They seriously are my favorite. They are from American but have lived in Sweden for a while. They have the most beautiful house I have ever seen. They had a trampoline too that I jumped on and a mini tennis court in their backyard! So many friends came over and they made us some classic american cheese burgers. :) It felt like I was at home again. Love them so much! Nice talking to Americans too. ;)

Me and Holley went to Skatteverket to get her her personnumber this week too! It felt like yesterday Me and my mama Brink went to get mine and now I got to take Holley to get hers. ;) So many feels lol.

We had a lesson this week with our really good fried Jai. She is from Thailand and she made us this amazing cake! We talked about temples and how grateful we are for them and how strong the spirit is in them. We all shared cool experiences we've had in them and cool miracles that have happened. It was so great. I love having deep talks. :) We planned to meet again and go together to see the Stockholm temple soon! Love Jai so much.

Me and Holley just got incredibility lost this week too. We weren't complaining though because we got to go through the most gorgeous forest ever. We both agreed we felt like we were in Lord of the Rings. ;)

Sunday was super super busy. We had so many visitors come so that was great! These two sweet girls from Gävle came down to visit Jakobsberg ward. :) Our friends Reza and Mohammad came too so that was cool. They said they loved how happy they felt at church! And they said we were angels haha. Nicki gave her farewell talk too. She is leaving on her mission to the Salt Lake City Temple Square mission soon. She is going to be so great and I want to find her there next year. :)

Any who, this week was good and the next few weeks are going to be even greater! We have Midsommer and Mission Tour coming up. :) So happy for summer and to be able to spend it in this beautiful country! I love Sverige and I love sharing gospel!! Life is good. Tack för att ni lyssnar till mig. Jag saknar er och hoppas ni har en underbar vecka. :) Hejdå!

Mvh
Syster Davis

​Distrikt Lunch

National Swedish Day

​Swedish Parade. :)

VASA

​Photo creds to Kristopher