November 22nd letter

Elder Arko had quite the fun week! A lot has happened this past week, including his BIRTHDAY! The Elders had a District Meeting on Thursday up in a town called Växjö. After the meeting, they went back home and participated in the music and poem night they were having as a branch. Elder Arko got to hear music and poems from a cornucopia of people (including Elder Owens). Both Elder Arko and Elder Owens had a...part to play, but it's a little difficult to explain so hopefully we'll get to see the video sometime :) All who were in attendance thought it was really good.

After the music and poems, the Elders traveled to the neighboring city of Kritianstad to prepare for their journey the next morning to...COPENHAGEN!! That's right! Elder Arko has been to Denmark! It seems both President and Heavenly Father wanted to give Elder Arko a birthday present, so the Elders were allowed to go to the temple in Copenhagen

It was so much fun for Elder Arko. Being mildly lost in a foreign country, running through the snow to get to the temple on time, and having to try and communicate in Danish made for an exciting time.

They decided to go and see "The Church of our Lady"a very old Christian church where the first Kristus statue is along with statues of the apostles.

Then, they just happened to eat lunch at the first McDonalds in Denmark!A day full of history! :)

After the adventures, Elder Arko and Elder Owens were quite tired since they had to wake up at 4:20 to reach the temple in time. They enjoyed getting home to their beds that night.

The next day was Saturday and Elder Arko's birthday! They were out visiting an investigator who lives a little ways away and then Genesis' family (including extended family) invited the Elders over that night and had a little birthday celebration for Elder Arko. He received a few gifts that were really nice, this one being his favoriteElder Arko thinks this shirt describes him PERFECTLY!!! And it also says what Genesis thinks of him. They had a great time with Genesis' family and they spoiled Elder Arko with cake and everything!

The Elders are getting ready for 2 Thanksgiving dinners. They're going to have one with the missionaries in their zone on Thanksgiving and one with their branch on Saturday. Elder Arko and Elder Owens are hosting that one, but don't worry, they have help from professionals. Elder Arko thinks it's gonna be awesome! The Swedes don't really have this kind of celebration for harvest since their main harvest celebration is Midsummer since their harvest doesn't usually last this late into the year.

Luckily, they don't have snow yet, but it's been raining for a little while. The office still has Elder Arko's birthday package and hopefully he'll get it this Thursday. Elder Arko says thanks for the package and for the two ties from Amanda.

Elder Arko knows they're not suppose to start looking to Christmas till after Thanksgiving, but they've started it already :) They are having fun and it's really getting them in the Spirit so Elder Arko is excited for the Holidays.

November 14th letter

Another fun filled week has flown by for Elder Arko. The Elders had some fun traveling to Lund for sharpening. It took all of Thursday and it was rather exciting that morning since there were 6 Elders in one apartment all getting ready :) They were just in time for their train.

Elder Owens is Elder Arko's companion and he is from Arizona. Elder Owens has only been out for 1 transfer(not including this one). He has been doing really well with the language and is doing great on teaches so Elder Arko has nothing to worry about on that end. Elder Arko thinks Elder Owens is definitely pulling his own weight.

The Elders are having their Leadership Training session soon. A lot of the Priesthood leaders are traveling to Malmö or Lund to get the new booklets.

Elder Arko can't believe he'll be turning 21 this week! He's starting to feel
old...in mission age and in regular age.

The Elders have been busy nearly every day this week teaching people. It has been quite insane with how many people they've been meeting with and how much they are doing. Elder Arko has been taking advantage of every minute he has with his bed. He sends his love and thanks for all the birthday wishes!

November 8th letter

Elder Arko can't believe that a whole week has gone by! This one just flew by like it was nothing! On the subject of time, transfers are coming up at the end of November. And it has been cooling down in Sweden. During Celebration time, they hit the negatives over there (in Celsius that is, so below 32 Fahrenheit) so they've been scraping off their windshield the past few mornings.

Elder Arko was proud to hear that his parents participated in a 5k event this past weekend.

The Elders have been working with all sorts of people over there. They have new investigators, less actives, old investigators who are making progress, etc. They are still doing their Swedish and English classes as well. That is why it seems like this week went by so fast for Elder Arko!

The Elders had an encounter with Hot Pickles from India this week. Elder Arko didn't see anything that should be classified as a pickle in the jar, but whatever :) Anyway, the guys from India the Elders were having dinner with said it was "Mild" or "Medium" in India...Ha! Elder Arko had just a little bit of the pickles with a bunch of rice and is sure it gave him a fever of at least 15 degrees! The Elders also had some fun Curry stuff as well so it was quite the adventure.

Anyway, Elder Arko hopes everyone is happy and healthy and sends his love!

November 1st letter

Halloween passed by the Elders without too much of a 2nd thought. They made some jokes about planning to dress up like Jehovah's Witnesses by just taking off their name tags...ha ha...yeah, missionary jokes are stupid :)

Surprisingly, they didn't get snow this whole week. They'll be ready for it when it does come back. They just changed their tires so now they're rockin the studded ones :) It's a little early to change, but the end of the transfer is going to be around the first of December and they didn't want to take the risk of not getting it done. So, they took the car to this do it yourself lift and it only cost about 10 bucks to use their industrial lift for half an hour. That meant they didn't have to mess around with one of those stupid little scissor jacks, plus it was a lot safer.

The Elders had a great activity this week at the church with a bunch of people. All they did was play ping-pong, but they had about 15 people there and it was fun to sit around and talk. They also played around the world with ping-pong so that was really fun. Elder Arko's only regret is he forgot to take pictures. The Elders also helped teach primary this week! It was really fun for Elder Arko. They had all the kids hold some ingredient from a cake recipe (of course they were all fake or child proof in some way...they're not that stupid). The Elders had the kids combine them all to make a cake, the same way our families combine in the temple forever to make a great chocolate cake! :) Needless to say, the Elders were pretty popular among the kids after that. Elder Arko is just glad they don't have to think up something every week to keep those little ones entertained.

Guess what? Elder Arko has a plant now :)

And here is Elder Arko's vegetable and fried meatball meal :) He just keeps surprising himself with ingenuity!

October 25th letter

It has been a long week for Elder Arko. They have been doing a lot of work this week and it has felt like there is not a moment to sit down and breath so they have just been going and going. One more thing to add to the fun was they got SNOW! Okay, that was a little too dramatic seeing as how they only got a little and it didn't stay, but to make us all more worried about how 'little Jeff' is going to freeze this winter, he went ahead and took this picture while on his way to district meeting.This was out in the country a little bit so it didn't get at all that bad in town, but the Elders did have to scrape off the windshield. Don't worry, Elder Arko has a car! Plus, he still has plenty of warm stuff from last winter and it's all in good condition so not to worry. Also, don't worry about him using all his warm clothing because the members there do act like their mothers and make sure the Elders are dressing right, eating right (AKA too much), and everything else.

Along the same lines, the Elders get to change the tires on the cars from the regular ones to snow tires so we'll see how that goes. All they have is one of those dinky little jacks. They might go to a little do it yourself places that has a nice professional lifts. You obviously have to pay, but will probably be well worth the cost.

Elder Arko got to teach the institute class this week and it went pretty well. They are studying the book "Jesus Christ and His Apostles Lives and Teachings" and it's going pretty well. It has been really interesting for Elder Arko, not being one who has extensively studied the Bible before, so it's good for him.

The rest of the Elders week has been teaching people. They have a less active who is starting to come back to activity it would seem...3 Sundays in a row! They also had 2 investigators in church which was pretty good. Elder Arko thanks you for the prayers and support!

October 18th letter

Elder Arko had quite an exciting week. The Elders did their first Religion class at a local high school and it went really well. They did a short first lesson about Joseph Smith, The Restoration, and The Book of Mormon. Then, they had some good old Q and A where they got into the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Elder Arko thought it was a BLAST! The best part was they had visited the same students previously, but it was for their English class so the Elders didn't speak a peep of English (other than when they accidentally slipped into it) so when they came back and were practically fluent, the students were rather surprised. That was extremely fun for Elder Arko!

It is starting to get cold in Sweden. The short sleeves have gone into the closet and they don't seem to want to come out for a while. The Elders woke up to frost on the windshield of the car a couple of times this week and the temperature has been hanging around 10-5 degrees C (which is around the 40's F) for those of us who don't convert temperature too well.

The Elders also traveled to Lund for a Zone Conference and were able to receive some fabulous instruction on missionary work among many other things. Their branch also put on a music and poem night so people could play a little something or read a poem. They had about 4 or 5 people that performed, but each one did multiple things so it seems like it was a success. The Elders were only able to make it for the last half hour so they didn't see the entire thing, but it was still nice.

Now for the pictures. Here are the Elders trying to figure out an apple pie...lucky for them an investigator was helping...and...pretty much made most of it. The spice drawer was just too much to handle.

Here is the final outcome. Doesn't it look great? Well, that is all for this week. Elder Arko hopes everyone is doing great and sends his love.

October 11th letter

The Elders were having a little fun today. They had a zone activity in Helsingborg where they played American football (two hand touch). Elder Arko has missed playing that a LOT! Then, they played ultimate frisbee which was awesome as well :)

Elder Arko had a really fun experience that isn't so missionary related, but really fun, so he must share. One of their investigators told us they were going to make Kropp kakor. These things are about the size of a baseball and are made with bacon in the middle and a covering of mashed potatoes and shredded potatoes. You boil them until they floate and then eat them with lingonberries. Elder Arko knows that doesn't sound like it works, but it does.

The Elders have decided to start teaching English and Swedish classes once a week (for free) to attract people to the church. So, they will start that this Wednesday and hopefully it will be a success. They also have a religion class coming up at the local high school that Elder Arko is a little nervous for. They will have about a half hour presentation and then Q and A for a little bit so he hopes it goes well.

Other than that Elder Arko is just having fun being a missionary. They've been having some really good spiritual experiences lately and are working really hard.