Oh How Swede It Is!: 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