fjärde juli

Must wear red, white & blue on July 4th!

Hello everyone!!

It has been a great, crazy week! I really am so sorry I say that every week. Haha. It's always true I swear!!

We started the week by going to Stockholm!! We went up Monday night, stayed the night with the sisters in Täby, and had Mission Leadership Council the next day. I always love MLC. We talked about the power of the Book of Mormon and I got so pumped. Haha I love the Book of Mormon! In my patriarchal blessing, it talks about how the Book of Mormon will become one of my most treasured possessions if I study it every single day. I remember being at home and getting ready for church and blowing the dust off of my scriptures, or not even being able to find them...Now, they are falling apart. Sometimes I spend the entire hour of personal study just reading the Book of Mormon. I've made it a goal to read 3 chapters every day, and I eat them up. Promised blessings always come true! :) As a mission, President gave us a challenge to read Enos and 2 Nephi 9 every night, and see how our lives change. We have just been doing it since MLC, but I have loved it. I start my day with the Book of Mormon and end it with the Book of Mormon too! :)

The STLs -- Kamauoha, Bolton, Beckstrom, Mod, Allred, Powell, King & Sandberg

After MLC, we kind of got stranded....and ended up sleeping over at the mission home! I LOVE THE BECKSTRANDS! They are seriously the best. They bought us McDonald's for dinner (complete with McFlurries----everyone in the mission knows my weakness) and Sister Beckstrand made us french toast in the morning. We felt so taken care of and loved.....And I got to sleep in the same bedroom as I did my first night in Sweden! It was so weird. Fun memories :)

We fixed both Beckstrom's and my visas on Wednesday, and then we FINALLY got back to Lund that night. We were able to teach that night, and we have been busy with lessons ever since. We have been able to teach a super cool girl named Elin, who is friends with one of our members. She got the Book of Mormon on Wednesday, and when we met with her yesterday she had finished 1 Nephi....like okay. Genius. We love her!! She is super positive!!

Aaaaaaaaaaand then it was the 4TH OF JULY!!!! Everyone knows how much I love America. :) We did a little barbecue with the elders (our poor Finnish Elder Kiikko felt a little out of place) and had a lot of fun :) We talked about our favorite president and favorite truck and favorite fast food restaurant....oh how we love our home. Haha! The rest of the day we just taught and carried around the American flag! It was perfect :)

Oh yeah. And it's HOT. B and I each have a bag of frozen vegetables (she has peas, I have spinach) that we use to cool us down....God bless air conditioning. I wish this country had it. However, after my dear winter in Luleå, I am appreciating EVERY second. ;) 

Anyway I just love being here!! Soaking up every minute of Swedish summer :) And final shout out to my best frieeeeeeend akmod who will be ak hunter this week! Love you buddy!!!!! And if everyone could stop getting married while I'm on the mish that would be cool. Thanks. ;)

Love you all!! Have a good week!!!!

xoxoxo Erin :)

A street in Stockholm

People in traditional Swedish costumes

Most of the missionaries from Erin's Luleå days -- Elinkowski, Mod, Archibald

Riding the train

"This is our house and our new way to street contact. lol"

A beautiful girl in a beautiful country.

The girls in Malmö

The delicious salmon dinner that the girls made. Wow!

This is a picture from Luleå. It's old, but so cute I had to post it! From L to R: Moa (a member in Luleå), Mod & Savage