Rainy Week in Gävle!

Hiiii! So I am sure you have all seen that my family is partying hard all over Europe. Okay. I have decided that I will be redoing their same trip in Summer 2016 if anyone is interested. You can email me or send me a letter and we will get that all set up;)

So anyway! My week!:) On our last Pday, we went into the forest near the coast in Gävle with the elders and one of their investigators. It was so beautiful, but rainy and freezing. Just like always. Haha! We were out in the rain for hours and hours and shot bow and arrow things and made a fire. I know what you are all thinking, and yes, a mission has turned me into this crazy amazing outdoors person who can shoot things with an arrow (lol just kidding I was terrible at that). The investigator we had with us, Daniel, practiced street contacting with us. It was so awesome. He is better than I am! Hopefully he will get baptized soon :)

Erin, Syster Hill, Äldste Farnworth & Äldste Gentillon being all outdoorsy

Wet hair, don't care???.....

On Wednesday, we went down to Stockholm and slept over with the Stockholm sisters for Zone Conference the next day! At Zone Conference, we said goodbye to President and Sister Newell, who left on Saturday. We have a new mission president now! We are going down to Stockholm again on Friday for another conference to meet him and his wife. I love going down to Stockholm. I have been there every week since I got here, which is super unusual. This week, we got to see the Stockholm temple, which is sooo super pretty!

Saying goodbye to her first mission president, President Gregory J. Newell and Syster Candilyn Newell.

At the Stockholm temple

And we finished out the week on a high note with Carina's baptism! Ahhh. It was so good :):) She had to get baptized twice, which was a little bit funny. The first time, they didn't say her full name, so we had to redo it. The second time, Veikko (the guy who baptized her) held her under the water for like 15 seconds because her dress wasn't submerged. We were all freaking out and yelling "VEIKKO!! You can't do that!!!!!". She was totally fine, but it was probably the funniest/scariest moment...ever. Oh my gosh. Don't hold the homies underwater when they are just trying to follow Jesus Christ. Hahah!

But yeah!! It was a super awesome week!!! Cute family--I'm in Stockholm all day Friday, so if you are there too, look for me:)

Erin with her food. Haha! She ate the entire half by herself!

And last of all, Swede facts:):)

--I ate kebab this week, which is like...idk just a plate of meat with fries or bread. I would give it a 6.7 out of 10 on the delicious scale. It is super popular here.

--The elders just made us Swedish pancakes, so I am super happy right now. I love the elders in Gävle! They are the best!

--Is all I ever talk about food? Hehe sorryyyyy. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Have a great week!:)

Syster Mod in Sweden :)

Midsommar!! ...in 50 degree weather

Hej!! So just so you all know, I am writing this wearing a coat. It has been FREEZING here, like 50's and 60's! I celebrated the first day of summer in a coat. Someone needs to call Sweden and remind them that it is most definitely the end of June, but whatever.

So we have a baptism this week!! Carina is getting baptized on Sunday, and I am sooooo excited for her:) I absolutely adore her! She has a little dog that she doesn't like to leave home for more than 3 hours, so she is going to come to Sacrament, go home, and then come back for her baptism. We will take it. Haha! She is so happy and fits right in with the ward. I can't even wait for her baptism!

Syster Mod & Syster Hill on the train

We have been crazy busy this week traveling. We have been to Uppsala (which is about an hour south of Gävle) for final interviews with President Newell before he leaves. I will miss President Newell! He and his wife have been so so kind to me. But I am excited to meet the new president too! 

On Friday, we got to go to Stockholm for a giant Midsommar festival! Midsommar is a super Swedish holiday that I am kind of in love with. Bringing it to the US. Basically, we just hung out in a big park with a toooonnnn of other missionaries and made flower crowns and ate and sang and danced around a maypole. It was so much fun!! Midsommar is a nonproselyting day because most of the adults use it to get drunk. The Mormons just dance around maypoles and play tug-o-war. Haha!

Midsommar with Syster Hill & Syster Spencer

With the Swedish singer in folk costume

We have Zone Conference this week, so I'll be in Stockholm on Thursday. LOOK FOR ME FAMILY!!:) (My mom and sister and a bunch of my extended family are taking a European cruise that starts in Stockholm...of course they do this right when I am serving the Lord...;))

So I am learning quickly how Swedes like to mix a bunch of different religions and say they believe in that. Most also don't believe in a God, but they definitely believe in a higher power. Like...okay. Haha! We talked to a lady in the park, and she said she believed in reincarnation, but she wasn't Buddhist. We also got scolded this week while tracting because God and Jesus Christ are "obviously one person, and if you read the Bible, it is incredibly clear." I need to study my scriptures more! Haha! Tracting is so hilarious. I think I am cursed because no one answers the door...ever. Maybe that is a blessing sometimes? Haha;)

okaaayyyy swede facts!:

-Swedes love cucumbers and literally put them on everything. I had cucumbers in a taco this week (and it was surprisingly really good. I recommend it.).

-When you live with a girlfriend or boyfriend, they are called a sambo. I don't get it. Haha! They are super common. #europe

-We teach a lot of people from Africa. Sister Hill can usually guess what country an African is from the second she looks at them. I am working on developing that talent.

-All of the teenage boys here look exactly the same--think 1990's pants with long blonde hair. It is hilarious and I love Europeans.

I absolutely LOVE it here, even though I am freezing to death! Everyone should go on a mission. For real. It is so super hard, but there is nothing more rewarding than having people tell you that you are helping them become better:) I love that:)

all my loveee!!!!

syster mod in sweden :)

In beautiful Stockholm

Well. SWEDEN!!!!!!!!

Hej hej hej hej hej!!! I have so much to tell you all and I have no idea where to even start! I guess:

1. I made it to this foreign land

2. Not dead yet

3. I LOVE IT HERE!!!

Syster Mod and Syster Hill in beautiful Sweden

Seriously! Sweden is absolutely beautiful. Everything is green and looks exactly like Pinterest said it would. Man. I love Pinterest. I am in Gävle (pronounced yehv-leh) with my darling trainer, Syster Hill! She is 21, from Fresno, California, and she is the BEST! We get along so well. She is super good at Swedish and contacting and teaching and I just love her. I am so lucky. Haha!

I got here Tuesday morning around 9 AM Sweden time. We were met at the airport by the President and his wife (and other people...the first day was a blur so forgive my memory). After we packed all of our luggage up, we went straight to Migrations to get our visas, and then we toured Stockholm. I think it was really pretty, but I can't even remember. I am going to attribute that to lack of sleep and culture shock. We contacted (I really can't remember any of that either...thank heavens) in Stockholm and it was so scary and good. People are not super nice here. Haha! After that I got to go to bed at 7:00 pm and it was the best night's sleep I have ever had. No joke.:) Wednesday I met my trainer and we rode a train to Gävle! It is about 2 hours north of Stockholm. I love it here. We dropped my bags off at our apartment and went straight to appointments. Syster Hill works hard! :) 

The ward is super awesome here, and we have some really fun investigators. We have an investigator named Carina who has a baptismal date next week! I am really excited for her. She was originally a member, but wrote herself out of the church a while back. She's decided that she wants to come back in and has been talking to the missionaries for a while now! I love her sooooo much. 

I got my first real Swedish meatball dinner here from a member named Annicka Granlund! It was so so so good. She is kind of the best. I am sure you all have seen what she has been posting of me on all types of social media...it's embarrassing but my family loves it so it's okay:)

On Saturday, we had a culture activity for the ward, where investigators and members from different countries told a little about where they were from or where they had visited. The member that presented something on America did an amazing job! #favoritecountryever We also had people present on Liberia, Finland, Chile, Namibia, and a few other places. May I just say that I am considering moving to Finland and Liberia because the food is SO GOOD. For Finland, we had lingonberry pie, and it makes me so sad that we do not have lingonberries in the US because they are that good. Ah. I die. And Liberia....I have no words. Yum yum yum yum. :)

Mina (from Namibia) with Erin and Syster Hill

 And finally, the paragraph you have all been waiting for....FUN FACTS OF SWEDEN!!:)

-It is graduation season right now, so everyone that is graduating gets dressed up like a sailor (complete with the hat) and rides around in nice convertibles or big trucks and gets drunk and yells at the general public in the town square. It is hilarious. I am sending a picture. What's better is the driving age here is 18, so their parents usually are the ones driving them around. Lol.

 -Saturdays are the best because you buy godis!! It is a tradition throughout all of Sweden. You go through bins of candy (like the ones at Kohler's in Highland...idk how to describe them) and get giant bags of candy. It is so good. Candy is soooo good here.

Ummm...she obviously takes after her mom. No question.

 -Innebandy! Innebandy is a sport that people play here. It is kind of like ice hockey, but you just run around on a wood floor and shoot a wiffle ball type thing into a goal. It is so much fun. I suck at it. Haha!

-I have found a new cereal that I cannot live without. It is called Crunchy, and it is the best. The chocolate and banana kind can bring you to tears.

-Everyone likes this really weird sausage here called korv. It looks and tastes like a hot dog and it is gross. I think they are all crazy.

-Ketchup on pasta? That happens. Cherish your red sauce for me, Americans.

That's all I got! Sorry this was so long!!! Have an awesome week everyone!

Syster Mod

At the church.

How pretty is this?

Gävle: Syster Mod's first area in Sweden

Another pic of Gävle

The view from her apartment window at 10:30 PM!! (That is not a typo).

This is what her apartment looks like on the inside. The kitchen.

And last, but not least, her bedroom.

Mini P-Day!!

Hiiii everyone! So today is my last chance to do laundry and write you guys in AMERICA! It still doesn't feel real at all. I feel like I am going to live at the MTC forever. Yesterday we had infield orientation, which is basically supposed to pump you up and get you ready for the field. It was sooooo nice to be out of the classroom for an entire day. Haha! We learned a lot about contacting and working with members, which was really nice. One thing that they said that kind of bugged me was that how hard you work as a missionary has a direct correlation with how many baptisms you get. NOT TRUE!! I am going to work as hard as I can, and if I don't baptize a single person, that will be okay! The Lord will be happy with me no matter what! So yeah. I'll get off my soapbox now. Haha! I don't have much else to say other than I am excited to go! All my friends leaving this week--LYCKA TILL!!! (That means good luck:)) You will love it and it will be the hardest thing you have ever done! I wish I could see everyone here..but I gotta leave eventually:) Love you all! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!

Syster Mod

Last P-Day at the MTC!

Well here we are everyone! It is my last P-day before I head off to the beautiful land of Sverige! 5 days before my brain explodes due to culture shock;) I am so ridiculously excited and nervous and pumped!! I have been waiting for this day since January and now it is finally here! Ahh!! My two elders and I leave the MTC at 4:30 AM Monday morning. That's right, folks. What's sleep? We'll get to Sweden the next day around 9:00 AM Sweden time. It will be a long day...haha. But Europe! Woohoo!!!!

Anyway:) So this week has been sooooo awesome! Last Thursday, we were able to do TRC again, but this time over Skype. I fell in love with real life Swedes even more!  Everyone I talked to was so nice and had so much patience with my Swedish and told me they would come find me when I get to the country:) Being a missionary is so fun!

We didn't have any apostles come this week, but we had the Director of Internet Proselyting from the Missionary Department come and talk to us at Sunday night devotional. That was awesome. I am going to petition that Sweden has Facebook missionaries next because the success rates are crazy! Plus it sounds fun. And I may or may not be having withdrawals from social media. Hehe #addictionprobs

With Bro. Dunn. In Erin's words, "awkward sister missionary pose" Haha!

Yesterday, one of my teachers, Brother Dunn, had his last day teaching here at the MTC. It was very nearly the saddest, most pump up day of my life. I love Brother Dunn sooo much and I am so sad to see him go! He's the best. We spent our last class going through his pictures from the mission and listening to all of his stories. Sorry 'bout it everyone, but Sweden is the best mission ever. No competition. It is the prettiest, most awesome, diverse, COOLEST place in the world :) Our teachers pretend to be investigators they really had on their missions when we teach them, and Brother Dunn told us all about the investigators we "had" here at the MTC. I can't wait to meet these people in real life! Ah! I am positive I am going to be one of those annoying RMs who can't stop talking about their mission and showing people pictures because I love hearing stories from everyone else! It's cool. My parents will listen to me if nothing else;)

I have looooooved seeing all my friends come to the MTC this last week, and I'm really sad that today is the last time I'll ever be able to say, "Welcome to the MTC!" to anyone with a dork dot on their name tag. Haha. Everyone coming to the Provo MTC is so lucky! It's just like a mini Lone Peak/BYU :):) I love it here so much!

And last but not least, my final s/o's :) Biggest s/o to my sister who turns 17 in 2 days!! Happy birthday Shae!!!! Everyone tell her happy birthday for me:) And also s/o to my bestie Paige Eastwood who is now Hermana Eastwood...that is too weird. Haha I LOVE IT. Good luck in Mexico and Tennessee girlfrannn love you!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! I have another email time on Saturday morning so I will talk to you all then. Cherish your time in America for me;) Hej då!!

Love love love love,

Syster Modersitzki :)

With Anna Gazdik and Elina Chun (friends from BYU)

With Erin Gazdik (darling roommate at BYU)

With Anna Gazdik (really good friend from BYU)

With Brittany Ewell (friend from Lone Peak)

With Makell Morrill (Erin's mom's cousin's daughter...confusing, she's related)

With Elder Kitchen (friends from BYU)

With Elder Fjelsted (friend from Lone Peak) & Zuster Bradley

With Sister Toma (Erin runs with her at gym time)

Cute companions!

Søster Ripa's last day in the MTC

Missionary work is exhausting! :)

The common missionary teeth-whitening picture. :) I just love her!

Happy Month Mark to Me :)

Hi everyone!! This week was sooooo good! Happy month mark to me (in two days):) Time is absolutely flying by. Personally, I'm cool with it. I looooooove the MTC, but get me to Sweden!!:)

This week, we had Elder Russell M. Nelson and his wife come and speak to us. I was the only girl usher and it was the best job ever. Elder Nelson even looked at me when I came to sit down (front row holla) and I'm pretty sure he thought to himself, "Wow, what an amazing sister usher! Seriously the best!" That was fun. I have seen 4 apostles in the 4 weeks that I have been here and it has been so cool. I have been so blessed to hear from the ultimate missionaries!

The language has gotten a lot better this week. I can understand 90%-ish of what my teachers say and that blows my mind!! We had TRC last week, which is where we teach something like a home teaching lesson to members (usually--we have had a nonmember before). The members that come are usually native Swedes, or just got off their missions to Sweden. I understood the majority of what everyone said to me and it was the BEST! I have been working so hard and it is really starting to pay off :)

I met a real Swede this week too! He is from the southernmost part of Sweden, and was telling me about the accents in Swedish. He told me that if I go to where he is from, I won't understand a single thing. It was comforting. Haha! But really, he spoke Swedish to me with the southern accent and I died. Not only was it the coolest, but all I understood was "What's your name?". Such a good sign..haha. But he is so cool and made me so excited to get there!

Oh! I got called as Sister Training Leader for my zone this week! Just call me Soeur McCall Mod:) I am going to have the calling for my last two weeks and I am really excited. Since my zone is so small, I literally have to take care of myself and my companions. It kind of rocks :) My biggest responsibility will be helping the new Danes when they get here next week. Super exciting!

New Danes means that our old Danes are leaving on Monday :( I am really sad to see Sister Ripa go. We have become BFFs in the past 5 weeks we have spent together! All of them will be amazing missionaries and I am so pumped that I get to go out right after them!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thank you for supporting me and loving me! This church is so true. I feel like my faith has been put to the test here and what has come from that is an even stronger testimony! I know this church is true because I feel God's hand in my life constantly. He never would put me in a place to fail, but He wants me to grow and progress as much as I can and I am so grateful for it! God answers prayers and He is so good:) Have a great week!!

All my love,

Syster Mod

We always get notes on our board when we get to class and I thought this one was sooo funny. It was from the Turks :) My fish is the one with the long hair. Haha!

Erin's companionship and her new best friend Sister Wilson (from Australia who is going to Germany).

Halfway done!!

Sup everyone!! Just to let you know, I am halfway done with the MTC. Like I have been here 3 weeks. It's whatever. Not that anyone is counting. :) We are supposed to leave on June 9th! Getting so close!!

So this week included shaking an apostle's hand (no big deal), eating Swedish meatballs in the cafeteria (they weren't super gross...that is a big deal for the MTC), having a Norwegian companion for 3 hours, and a mustache party. It was kind of eventful considering I usually do the exact same thing every day.

Usually for Sunday devotional, we have an MTC operations employee or a Seventy or someone speak. This week, they told us we were going to watch a video instead, and I was kind of bummed because I like firesides. We watched a talk from David A. Bednar and at the end I thought, "This is great and all, but what if he was here? So cool!" Then he walked into the room. This is evidence that I have special missionary powers. Elder Bednar did a Q&A session with the entire MTC and it was aaaaaaamazing. He is like my favorite apostle. After he was done talking to us, me and a few elders from my zone got to go meet him and shake his hand. He was so nice! I hope there are as many apostles in Sweden as there are here because I am going to have nothing to say in my emails if there aren't...hahaha. Coolest Sunday ever!

The rest of the week has been really good too. Yesterday, I was paired with the new Norwegian teacher for a block of class time. She doesn't have any students right now, so she has been hanging out with the Swedes and the Danes. She pretended to be my companion and taught me how to actually study with a companion. #solosisterprobs but it was really cool! I am already looking forward to teaching with a companion if that is really what it is like! The only problem with that was she tried to speak Norwegian the whole time...I am learning Swedish. Correction--I am trying to learn Swedish. Haha! I could understand a little of what she said but I kind of just stared at her the majority of the time...It was a rough time for both of us because she could not understand me either. We taught a lesson to a "less active" together and it was good, but I felt so bad because I could not keep up with the two fluent speakers who could understand each other...I guess it gave me a taste of what Sweden will be like! Haha!

I have been feeling really frustrated with learning the language lately, but I know I am improving so I'm okay! Full immersion into a language is pretty overwhelming, but I can't believe that I have only been studying Swedish for 3 weeks and I can already express myself. Chalk that one up to the gift of tongues :)

S/O to my mother for the cutest Mexican food package! That is where all of the mustaches in the pictures came from. It was a good time. Except word to the wise: don't send refrigerated food through packages, such as Los Hermanos salsa, because the MTC will take away your refrigerated food and not be sorry about it. I am not bitter. Not one bit.

So yeah! I can't wait to get out of the MTC and do something different, but I know this is helping me so much. I love my zone and I love my district and I love my teachers and I am having so much fun here! I can feel everyone's prayers for me and I am so grateful for them! Thank you all for being such wonderful examples to me, and for not forgetting about me just yet:) I love you all!!!

Love,

Syster Mod

Lots of LP friends at the MTC! Felicia Thompson, Mazie Reneer, and Lisa Evans

Søster Ripa, Syster Mod, & Zuster Bradley at Temple Walk

The Zone. Only 9 missionaries.

S is for Sverige