Birthday Week :)

Hiii everyone!! Thank you all for telling me happy birthday and making me feel loved :) I love you all!! YAY BIRTHDAY WEEK! ;)

Remember how I said my life is crazy? This week takes the cake. For sure. Haha!

On Monday, I learned how to rope from my cowboy companion. My daddy and grandpas would be proud. King says I am a natural (she didn't really say that--I am just a wannabe but I try really hard. Haha!). We practiced more on Friday at district meeting. Syster King also taught us how to cowboy wrestle with ropes and I was the target for more roping practice. The elders decided I had to marry whichever one roped me first...Can you see why boys are weird and awkward when they get home from their missions? Hahah.

Steve & Liz Rosevear with Erin. So fun!

On Tuesday, we got to go to the temple with the Hawleys!! I got to see some family friends, the Rosevears, who are serving as temple missionaries, so that was really fun. And I just love the temple. It feels like a home away from home no matter where I am. The Hawleys took us to the coolest town ever after called Sigtuna. Apparently it is one of the oldest towns in Sweden, and it was pretty much picture perfect. Sometimes I just really love living in Europe.

The sisters in an old church from the 1500s in Sigtuna

On Wednesday, I went on splits with Syster Allen here in Uppsala! An elder from Denmark, Elder Held, made us meatza, which is pizza made only out of meat and vegetables...it was surprisingly good. I was impressed. Elder Held is like a Danish weight lifting champion, so he loves protein...hahah. Thursday was crazy too. I went straight from dropping Syster Allen back off in Gubbängen to splits with the Gävle sisters! I got to be in a trio for the day and absolutely loved it. I was with my kid!!! :) Syster Stetler and Syster Giles took me all around Gävle. We taught investigators I had when I was there (not super fast progressors mind you haha) and visited everyone I love and I had a blast! I love going back there.

We did weekly planning on Saturday (aka weekly torture) and watched Meet the Mormons!! We had 5 people show up from flyers we posted around town advertising the movie, among other missionaries and members. It was great!! I love that movie. You would think that watching a missionary say bye to his mom over and over again would be painful (and it is), but King and I agreed that the most painful part of it is watching the Navy football team and realizing we are missing football season again...so sad. I LOVE YOU MOM and I miss you more than sports...but I really miss sports. Haha. I've been missing America a whole lot lately, because on Sunday, the Hawleys invited all of the missionaries and the Tolleys over and we had a barbeque! America!!!!!! It was the best. We had hamburgers and chips and real American pie (Swedish stuff is not the same) and I was so happy. It depresses me how happy American food makes me. Haha!

Fun Facts:

-Swedes think root beer tastes like toothpaste. They are wrong.

-At the barbeque with the missionaries, we all were asking for people to pass stuff across the table and it was loud and fun (as Americans are usually). When we all were happily eating our hamburgers, we looked at Elder Held (the only European) who had nothing on his burger. He wasn't loud enough to get anything passed to him....hahah we were all dying.

-My year mark is this week on a Swedish holiday called Valborg!! I have never been to a Valborg celebration, and all I know is that you have a giant bonfire. So I'm pumped :)

Love you all!!!

Syster Modersitzki

At the temple

Liz giving Erin the hug that she promised Erin's grandma she would deliver from Utah :)

The Stockholm Sweden temple

These pictures are in Sigtuna

Erin found more rune stones. She said that she's still obsessed with these.

So beautiful!

At the church. It was a bit windy!

The only people on the bus

Erin's 20th birthday is NEXT WEEK!

The infamous birthday banner :)

Hej hejjjjj

Okay number 1: My mom sent me the best birthday banner ever with everyone I love (almost ;)) holding up a letter to spell out "Happy Birthday Syster Mod!". I have the CUTEST friends and family in the whole world!!! Thank you guys for thinking of me on my birthday!!! Ask Syster King, I have been staring at all of your faces every time we come home....haha it's so pathetic. I just love you guys so much!!!

Number 2: My. Life. Is. Crazy. I loved this week! I feel like I haven't had 2 seconds to breathe since coming to Uppsala, but I love it anyway! We did a lot of traveling (as always) and had a lot of fun.

One of my favorite days this week was Thursday! We had sisters conference in Gubbängen. I seriously just love all of the sisters in the mission way too much. The theme was The Wizard of Oz, and we got fun treats and had a photo booth and got red nail polish as our "ruby slippers". Have I ever mentioned how much I love being a sister? I love it. A lot. Haha! We figured out just how cute The Wizard of Oz is, and we got to watch a few parts of the movie. Syster Beckstrand talked about the unexpected blessings of the mission and shared a Glenda the Good Witch quote, "Home is a place we all must find." That's true!! I have two homes--wherever my family is, and here in Sweden. My heart will stay here forever!

Erin & Syster King with Syster and President Beckstrand. Gotta love them!

Syster Powell, Syster Beckstrom & Syster Mod

 We met with Kim on Friday, and that went super well. She had texted us a few days earlier with "some exciting news". We were thinking she had like found American candy for us or something, but she surprised us by telling us that she has been praying and praying, and Heavenly Father has answered her prayers, so she wants to be baptized! We freaked. Hahah. I was so so excited!! We set a baptismal date for August 1st. It is pretty far in the future, but she wants to get her last name legally changed first, and August 1st is her birthday. We may move it up because she is SO prepared, but we are just excited for her right now!

Other than that, we have just worked and worked and worked. On Saturday, we did spring cleaning with the ward at the church for a lot of hours....if anyone ever is in need of a really good raker, I'm your girl. The church looks awesome now though! Yesterday at church was fun too. I had to give a talk (so scary), and the elders brought a Romanian family to sacrament. They took up the entire back row, bringing church attendance from what it normally is (around 40 people) to 56ish. Of course on the day I have to speak! ;) (I realize this probably seems lame to you guys...let's just say I am going to be freaking out when I have to speak in a Utah ward again. Haha!) It was really cool, actually. They needed English translation, so I wanted to just wimp out and speak in English, but I didn't. Mom & Dad, I hope you're proud.

Fun facts:

-We had a lesson with a lady on Sunday who told us she heard that Mormons are allowed to marry their own siblings....uhm like my brother is adorable but nope that's gross

-We watched the Testaments in Spanish when I was sick this week because we have seen it in English too many times. Our lives are sad. We only lasted like 20 minutes though because Spanish is hard

-We get woken up by natural light now around 5 am or 6 am every day. I am still appreciative of the sun, but good laws. That is annoying.

LOOOOOOVE YOU GUYS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE SISTER PAIGE!!!! Swwwweeeeetttt 16 :)

xoxoxoxo love Mod :)

 

Syster Mecham (sitting next to Erin on the left) went to Lone Peak High School too!

Such cute companions!

 

At Mission Leadership Council

 I think this picture of the systers backpacks is cute. Photo Credit: Äldste Brown

Syster Mod & Syster Spencer....the 2 sisters who have been in the mission the longest for now.

Spring is in the air

Cute sisters in Sweden!

Hååååålla! :)

This week has been a blast!! We have been traveling and on splits and busy busy busy. Even though it's crazy sometimes I just love it!

 

We started off the week with MLC (mission leadership council) on Tuesday! We got to go to Stockholm and see all of the zone leaders and other STLs (Sister Training Leaders). It was really weird for me to realize that I am almost the youngest STL age wise, but the oldest STL mission age wise. Where did the time go? That was a lot of fun though! We talked about how studying can make us better missionaries and I have been really motivated in my studies ever since then. I want to read Preach My Gospel the entire way through before the end of my mission, and I still haven't succeeded in doing that. But now I am going to! :) Preach My Gospel is seriously so great. I have learned so much already! We compared studying the gospel to being in God's classroom. Would you fall asleep in God's classroom if He was there? Would you show up late? Would you not show up at all? I was mindblown...I can do so much better. Haha. Sometimes you just need to hear motivators like that!

Syster Beckstrom & Syster Mod

After MLC, we headed straight on splits with the Täby systers! I got to go with Syster Beckstrom, who is pretty much my best friend :) I just love her! We were able to teach a lot of new people that Syster King and I have contacted, so that was cool. We taught an American girl who has lived here in Sweden for 10-ish years. She tried explaining where Oklahoma is to us (because no Swedes know where that is), and when we told her we knew about Oklahoma, she was all, "Oh....It's been so long since I've met someone who understands me..." Hahaha I was dying. Americans have gotta stick together :)

On Friday, we headed back to Stockholm for zone training! The zone leaders asked us to help with a role play about God's classroom, so we acted as the good students and got chocolate for being so good :) I wish I got chocolate every time I was a good studier! I think I would have done a lot better in American Heritage at BYU....hahah. And after zone training we got MEXICAN FOOD! I was so happy. Ask my companion and everyone else at the table. I was loving my life. Swedes don't have spicy food here (they have awesome food...but they are spicy wimps), so it was really nice to feel the inside of my mouth burning ;)

This city is so pretty!

Sunday was probably my favorite day of the week! We had an investigator show up to sacrament meeting who we didn't expect to come, and a really cute investigator who lives in Gubbängen (Stockholm) come to our church and invite us to come visit her after Sisters Conference this Thursday (which is also in Gubbängen), and halfway through Sunday School, a lady came to the church and said she had grown up in the church and hadn't been in years, but felt like she needed to come today. I was stunned. We have a lesson with her later this week! We also visited a darling old investigator Sunday night...It was just amazing to see the Lord's hand in missionary work. I know I say this all the time, but I am so blessed to be here!

Fun facts:

-I DIDN'T WEAR TIGHTS ONE DAY THIS WEEK and it was so great. I love the freedom. But it's gotten cold again, so we are back to wearing them (aka prison)

-We learned Uppsala is the 4th biggest city in Sweden, and yet it still feels like Provo is bigger..awkward

-The sun is out until 8 pm now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! I will never take summer for granted again.

Love you guys! Have a good week!

xoxoxo Erin

 

 

 

 

It was such a windy day!

 

Glad Påsk!!

THIS is the reason Erin needs to be in Sweden right now.

Hi everyone!! Happy Easter and General Conference weekend!! :) I have had such a fun week and a sad week and everything just rolled into one. But it's been good :)

The first part of the week was full of goodbyes! Syster Maxwell and I visited basically every member in the ward so she could say bye. I probably gained 30 pounds from how much food we ate. Haha it was so much fun! We also got to meet with our investigator Kim, who I just like to call "Golden". Haha! She had talked to us on Monday at FHE and said she really needed to tell us something, but we ran out of time. We met Wednesday morning before Maxwell left, and she described how she had been doing what we had asked and praying about Joseph Smith. She said that every time she tried to ask if he was a prophet in her prayers, she felt this overwhelming feeling and started crying. It had happened a couple times and it made her wonder, so she messaged a member on Facebook to ask what was happening. The member told her about the Holy Ghost and how it works, and that she was receiving her answer. I was so excited!! We asked Kim if she believed Joseph Smith was a prophet, and she answered with a resounding "YES!". Like okay. I just love her. I love the Holy Ghost. I am so excited to keep working with her!!

Syster Maxwell saying goodbye to the Holmdahls.

After our lesson with Kim, we drove down with the Hawleys to drop her off at Stockholm's central station. I was so sad. The whole car ride down, I tried to put myself in Maxwell's shoes and watch the Swedish countryside go by for the last time...my brain was just like  "Oh no no no oh my gosh I am never going home. I never want to leave this country. Never never never." Haha even when it's dead and trying to burst into spring, it's beautiful here! I was sooooooo sad to say bye to Maxwell. But I'm sure she is having too much fun at home :)

Erin & Syster King

After saying bye, we picked up Syster King! She is SO cute! She is from Montana and is a real cowgirl from a ranch :) My dad grew up on a farm, so I know about half of what she talks about, like branding cows and roping and stuff...Haha it's so fun to be with someone who has such a different background from me. She even has ropes that she is going to teach me how to use ;) We also went to BYU at the same time, so we have a ton to talk about. I love being her companion!

We have had a busy week since King has been here, and it is about to get busier. But we both agree that the best part of the week was conference :) I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! I always learn so much. I absolutely loved Wilford W. Andersen's talk and President Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood session (yes we totally went and watched. hahah). Every single talk was so inspiring! I felt super blessed. Every question I had written down before General Conference was answered. We have one more session to watch tonight because of the time difference, and I can't wait :) Our investigator, Sireh, also came and watched a session with us! The first time I watched a session all the way through was like October 2013, and even then I probably fell asleep...haha. So Sireh is already better than me! She said she really enjoyed it :)

Next week is going to be full of traveling, but we have already had a ton of people text and call us to make appointments...that never happens. I just feel extra blessed this week. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here!!! :)

Love you guys!! Have a great week!!!!

Erin

Påskris (Easter trees)

Watching Conference with our families. Hahaha!

Erin & cute Alice