Will Work for Food, Teaching People From Russia, Gambia, Sweden, Togo, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Mosiah 2:9

Contemplation?

Tjena!

So this week was actually really interesting... well like every week mostly because I don't know exactly what people say to me so that makes everything better especially for my companion! We started off at a member's doing some service because they have a bunch to do so the people around here give us food in exchange for service which is definitely fine with us no complaints here! It's actually really cool because their son is actually a less active member but he's 16. No one around here makes their kids go to church at all so they can have kids that are less active. But they are a super cool family and we love going over to their place. On Tuesday we went to a lot of places and a lot of appointments fell through. We have so much to do until we get there and then no one is home or they're too busy even though we called to clear it with them that morning... the life of a missionary I guess haha.

So Green and Beautiful Here!

We got to teach some really interesting people this week. So we are teaching this Russian girl that knows 7 different languages but she just got to Sweden. So we are teaching her and we've only taught her once after we contacted her but hopefully we keep building her faith in her Heavenly Father and help her to understand the happiness that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are also teaching a man from Gambia who we will set a date to be baptized hopefully this week and his faith is actually pretty tremendous. His wife is still in Africa and he asked if there were missionaries there to teach her about what he is learning. It's so cool to see other people's faith build in God when they keep commitments and make changes in their lives that help them to come close to Christ and Heavenly Father. We also have a baptismal date for hopefully this week or next. She is getting a foreign exchange student this Saturday so we probably have to push the date back but she is super positive. It's a part member family and they are just trying to make a bunch of changes to their lives now that they got married to become a family in the church which is so cool to see.

We teach people from all over the world. This week we had Swedes, Gambia, Togo, Syria, Saudi Arabia... I think that's it.. Oh and Russia. It's pretty cool to see how prepared people from all over the world are being taught regardless of if missionaries are in their countries or not. I am also going to keep an excuse book for the best reasons why people can't talk to us because some of them are pretty good. We went to a door this week and it was my favorite response I told them who we were and that we had a message about what we believed in and he said "det lungt" Which is literally, "It's chill"... I turned around and I just don't understand what is chill about the situation... what kind of a response is that? haha

our morning workouts... I äm not sure what normal people actually do on that

Swedish comes more and more every day and I'm starting to understand what people say to me which is always nice to know what they say so maybe at some point I can speak back haha. No the work is going really well here and I am super excited to continue. One of the coolest things I learned from the scriptures this week was from Mosiah 2:9 it says "... for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that you may hear, and your hearts that you may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to you." I loved that this week because I know that regardless of where we are or what we are doing, as long as we have the right mindset and our heart is in the right place, God will teach us what we need to know and unfold his mysteries as we search for the answers that we want.

I love you all and it's super cool to hear everyone's stories and what's going on!!
Äldste Israelsen

African Fufu

Oh and the pictures, so a couple are just the city which is absolutely beautiful they have like a giant castle in the middle and right now everything is super green. One is one of our morning workouts... I äm not sure what normal people actually do on that haha. and the other we ate fufu which is an African meal where you pick up the rice stuff with your hands and use it like your "spoon" I guess and eat it with your hands... I'm down with that haha. Have an awesome week everyone!!

Week 8, Roof Cleaning Service, Africa, Thanks For the Servants We Had Today, Some Things Get Lost in Translation

This is the Swedish word for speed!

tjena tjena!!!!

How is everyone?!?!?! This week has been a pretty great week in Sweden. It's nice to get into the swing of things and really have a full week where it's more planned and we can go for goals that we have felt like we can accomplish. We just go from place to place teaching a bunch of people and finding when we can. The Swedish is going really well I just kinda go for it so when I say things wrong the people in the ward will correct me (because I asked them to) and then my Swedish gets better. I actually had a full blown conversation this Sunday with a member who's actually leaving for a mission in a month to Germany. It was super cool that I could understand him and say things back that made sense! I just don't want to be the quiet greenie that sits there so I speak some sort of language and I hope some of it comes out as Swedish haha. Although sometimes I am depending on who we talk to. If they are old or just talk super randomly I have no idea what they're saying so Elder Held kinda takes over after that. My contacting has become more effective too. It's actually really cool when we are able to talk to people on the street and they are receptive.

On Tuesday we did service for the church and we cleaned their super old cool roof and there's a picture below that we took and we probably have to do that this week too. We also taught a bunch of people on Tuesday and we teach people from all over the world. We taught this man with a translator this week and he's from Syria so he can speak English but not that well. We also taught a man from Africa which was way cool. Most of them can speak Swedish and English a little bit but not that great so, when we can, we get a translator for them so that they can really feel the spirit instead of just try to understand what we say. We went to teach this part member family and two of them are preparing to be baptized! They are doing amazing and we learned so much from them . I realized that I really don't know very much I have lived for 19 years and I haven't experienced all these hard things in my life. That's why it's so essential to have the Spirit when we teach so that we can know what to say that will help them. We also taught a 7 year old so that he will be ready for his baptism which is super cool because he knows so much and I love playing with him too. He actually said a prayer in Swedish in a batman voice which pretty much made my day haha. Oh also, in a prayer I tried to say thank you for the service today instead I said thanks for the servants we had today... hmmm.

My Companion got a new juicer.

We had a bunch of adventures this week because we are on bikes so sometimes we find ourselves in random places that we have no idea where we are. Luckily we have our trusty iPhones so we won't get lost haha. I'm starting to get a testimony that God will really help us out when we put ourselves out there. On wednesday we went out contacting and no one wanted to talk to us and we talked to a bunch of people in a park. We doubled our goal that day and no one wanted to say anything... well anything nice. So the next day we were contacting in the centrum and talking about how we didn't want to really because it was so crowded and no one has anything good to say so we almost let the next girl go past. But we finally stopped her and she talked to us for about 15 minutes about the gospel and how she wanted a Book of Mormon and wanted to know more. We talk a lot about teaching the elect but we just have to be able to find them. God knows exactly where they are and he will lead us to them if he knows taht we are willing to open our mouths. So I think that even when we feel inspired to go to an area that people won't talk to us we are showing God that he can trust us with the people that he has prepared because we will open our mouths regardless of if they will talk to us back.

The work is awesome in Sweden and it is progressing really fast even though people might think it's a hard area.

Spiral Staircases are Everywhere and I May Slip And Die

So to explain the pictures, Sweden has a ton of spiral staircases everywhere that I am sure I will slip and die on one of these days. Also the word for speed is fart in Sweden so that's a sign for a speed bump so I was really amused by that sign. My companion got a juicer that he is just ecstatic about so we'll see how that goes.

This gospel is amazing and we are promised to have help if we are going to share it with other people. I've been reading and memorizing this scripture because it's becoming so prevalent in my mission right now. Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 "and whoso recieveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and My Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you to bear you up." As long as we slow down and really think we can see how Heavenly Father really does go before us and we have His spirit to lift us up as we go and do His work.

Love you all!!!
Äldste Israelsen

Sweden! Plane Ride in a Suit, 2 Nephi 23:12 and Tender Mercies - My Trainer is Jr. Weight Lifting Champion of Denmark!

My Trainer Aldste Held and I on Swedish bikes!

Everyone!!

I made it to Sweden finally ( I know it's a shock) but somehow we made it happen. No one had visa problems so that was way cool to see all 16 of us get on our planes all the way to Stockholm. So those flights were probably the longest things of my entire life because we didn't really have anything to do besides sit on the plane in a suit getting weird looks from people. That was actually cool because after we got out of Salt Lake people would ask what were doing or what language was on our badges and we got to tell them what we were doing and our group actually gave a few people a Book of Mormon so that was pretty cool we were all so ready to go.

We got to Amsterdam and everyone actually speaks pretty ok English but we almost missed our flight because one of the elders in our group got selected for a random search so they literally looked through everything. We got there with like 2 minutes to spare and left Amsterdam in one piece if only just barely. We got to Stockholm and we had been up for about 24 hours and I believe it was 9 in the morning for the Swedes. We were greeted by a huge group of people. The mission president and senior couples and the APs and a few other missionaries. They took us around town and each of us was interviewed by the mission president so he could see if he needed to make any changes in his decision for the trainers. Stockholm is absolutely beautiful and after we looked around and got some training and a lunch at the YSA center in the middle of Stockholm we got to go out with an experienced missionary and go contact people. I went with elder Moe who is actually my great grandpa and I didn't even know it at the time. Anyway, that was a really cool experience. The people are super nice even when they aren't interested they tell you really nicely and almost all of them actually stop and explain why they won't talk to you. Oh and also I'm not really sure what language they speak here, I thought it was Swedish but now that I got here I'm pretty sure it's not Swedish ;).

So after we slept for a solid 11 hours we got up the next day and found out who our trainers are and where we would serve. I am serving in Örebro and my trainer is Elder Held who is a super cool guy and he's super passionate about missionary work. Right now he is the district leader in our district and he's been out for about 11 months. He's also the junior weight lifting champion of Denmark so that's pretty incredible. We work out every morning in the park outside of our apartment. His English is really good and sometimes I give him pointers when he wants to say out there kinda stuff but he's helping me so much with my Swedish it's insane how much I've learned since I've been in Sweden. The missionaries call Örebro the heart of Sweden because it's members are really strong which I've come to find out and it's really cool. Also, most people speak english really well here but they love to hear that you're trying to learn Swedish and the people in the ward are super helpful. I had my testimony in sacrament meetin gthat I had to give so that was cool and people came up and said how great I am at Swedish for only being here a couple of days which could translate to "wow I can't believe that I actually understood at least 3 words you said!" haha. But I told them to please correct my Swedish if there was something wrong so they know I won't get offended and they are so helpful. The Bishop's family is so cool and we've been to his house a couple of times for dinner and they will just help a ton and talk my head off which helps my Swedish so much.

We went to a baptism in Karlstad for a baptism that elder Held helped teach a couple of months back and that was so cool to see. We also have a couple of baptisms in the area coming up so they will be super cool to see get baptized. Right now I'm just trying to open my mouth so that Heavenly Father will help me fill it and help other people come to Christ while I learn Swedish. Even though I can't communicate super well yet I have no doubt that Heavenly Father can still work miracles through me to the people he needs to as long as I am willing.

I love this area and my companion is really cool. Something that I learned in the scriptures this week was in 2 Nephi 20:33 where it says, "and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down; and the haughty shall be humbled." I am reading the Book of Mormon to find examples of love and I know that Heavenly Father helps us to become humble so that he can turn us into something that we can't even imagine. in 2 Nephi 23:12 it says "I will make a man more precious that fine gold." Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us to return back to Him and sometimes that means that we have to be humbled every once and awhile, or experience really hard things because, without knowing it, he is making all of us into something that we can't even imagine ourselves yet. Part of the reason that I am out here it to help other people realize their potential and come nearer to that goal of becoming like Christ.

I love you all and I miss you!!

Äldste Israelsen

P.S. Some people is Sweden said "Om du sager nogontin fel ska vi döda dig" så licka till till mig!!

I Made it to Sweden and Letter from President to My Parents

JESUS KRISTI
KYRKA
AV SISTA DAGARS HELIGE


SVERIGEMISSIONEN STOCKHOLM

26 July, 2014

Dear Brother and Sister Israelsen,

We met your son, Elder Jacob Owen Israelsen, this past week as he arrived in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been a delight to become acquainted with him.

Upon arrival, he was taken into the city of Stockholm for immigration paperwork. He then went to the Church’s Young Single Adult Center, located in the heart of Stockholm, for a light lunch, training, and contacting in the streets of Stockholm with an experienced missionary.  After orientation at Täby Chapel on the Sweden Stockholm Mission policies and procedures, Sister Beckstrand and I invited him and his MTC group for a light dinner there at the chapel. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in an interview with your son. We concluded the day’s activities with prayer and your son retired for the evening at the nearby Scandic Hotel.

The next morning, your son attended an early Swedish Breakfast Buffet at the Scandic Hotel.  He then departed the hotel for the nearby Täby Chapel where the Assistants, Sister Beckstrand and I provided training.  After a Testimony Meeting, a Swedish luncheon was served after which the new elders and their companions travelled to their assigned area in the Mission.

Elder Israelsen and Elder Mats Held will serve together in the Örebro I area of the Sweden Stockholm Mission. I would like you to know I have experienced some of my most tangible moments of revelation in the assigning of companionships.  I know your son and Elder Held will learn much from each other, and together they will be edified as they labour valiantly, with full purpose of heart and obedience, in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Attached is information on the mailing address for letters and packages. This information will help your packages arrive in a timely manner.  Please share this mailing address information with relatives and friends that may be writing or sending packages. Traditionally, Preparation Day is held on Monday in the Sweden Stockholm Mission. This is the day you can expect to receive an email from your son. We encourage you to also communicate weekly with your son as correspondence from home can be a great source of faith and support for this sacred work in which he is engaged.

I bear my witness that this is the work of our Savior Jesus Christ, and it is a sacred responsibility to wear his name above my heart. I am grateful for all you have done to prepare your son and for the sacrifices you have made and are making to support him as he continues in his labors. May our Heavenly Father’s most generous blessings be with you and yours.

With respect and kind regards,

James E. Beckstrand
James E. Beckstrand, President
SWEDEN STOCKHOLM MISSION

Travel Plans! Family, Teaching and an Heirloom Tie?

HEJ what is going on?!

So this week has been pretty insane first of all we got our travel plans on Friday!!!!! Hopefully everything is good with everyone's visas (cross your fingers). So we get up at 4:30 and go to SLC. We have a flight at 9:50 to Minneapolis. We land about 1:30 and have another flight at 3 to Amsterdam so that's way cool I'll be in the land of Megan for about an hour. We fly from there to Stockholm and arrive around 8:50 in the morning. I have to say that is going to be one long day because we can't sleep while we are there I'm sure there will be plenty of people to stammer to and not understand.... I'M WAY STOKED.

I got all of the letters from the family reunion and I just want to say thank you to everyone!!! Those were awesome and they totally made my week I wish I could have been there at the reunion but I guess I have a pretty good excuse this time :) It sounds like everyone had a blast and the "You know you're an Israelsen when..." lines were pretty dang true I love it. I'm super grateful to have the fantastic examples in my family, and it's amazing how many people showed their faith in doing things that are far harder than I have ever had to do. Our choir sang true to the faith during the devotional on Tuesday. It was one of the coolest things because I realized how many people had to exercise amazing faith for me to be where I am right now. There has been a big push for family history in missionary work recently and it's because our family and what they have done is so influential in our life. It just made me realize that this is the time to show our faith and let our family and our future family see our example in whatever we choose to do. On that note if anyone can send me stories about ancestors they think are really cool that would be awesome we just got a big lecture on using our family history during our missions so that would be way awesome.

Where's your companion Elder?

So a pretty cool thing happened this week as we were teaching that really strengthened my testimony especially on the Holy Ghost. Elder Archibald and I were teaching our teacher (who was an investigator he taught on his mission). We didn't really know where to go we thought that each lesson we planned was going to be awesome and exactly what he needed but we felt like he wasn't really getting it i guess. So we prayed about it and he loves the Book of Mormon so we went in there prepared to teach him about some of our favorite scriptures and how they connect to Christ. He threw us a curve ball and said that he just broke up with his girlfriend and he never really grew up with any sort of real happiness and we had talked about the atonement briefly and he asked how Christ could help him. While my companion bore his testimony I felt like I really needed to talk about Alma the Younger's story and I went through like 6 verses and taught him about his story and related stuff back to him and I don't even remember half of what I said. I realized this week that it really isn't me whose teaching. It's the Holy Ghost. There is no way that I can teach these people convincingly with the amount of Swedish I know or even if I was teaching in English. No one in their right mind is going to want to join this church without the witness of the Holy Ghost. I also know that Heavenly Father really is looking out for all of us even when we are teaching fake investigators and we can be given the things we should say in the moment we need them.

Heirloom Tie?

I got the package from Kenna and Jacob and Riley thank you!!! The ugly ties have been a good time and my favorite is the hot pink one. (I convinced a sister that it's a family heirloom from my great grandpa who went to Thailand) I kinda feel bad but she thinks it's the coolest thing ever so I don't want to hurt her feelings now... haha. I also said the F-word in Swedish during a lesson this week I conjugated "recieved" wrong and that's apparently what came out of my mouth... I guess it's better that it happened here than when I get out in the field right? Anyway, I love and miss all of you! I can email again on Saturday so if you have any questions or good jokes or whatever I would love to hear them! Oh and P-day will be on Monday's from now on.

den här kyrkan är sann!!!
Jag älskar dig
Äldste Israelsen

Retro Monday! All the way back to June 18! This didn't post right so it is out of order. Loser Mom!

Min Familij och friends!!! (I don't know how to spell friends in Swedish sorry)

This week has been one crazy thing after another. I feel like the MTC is talked about and kind of shrouded in mystery at the same time so let me enlighten you. You get to the MTC and pick up all of your books and study material and drop off bags and immediately go to a classroom where you will spend about 12-14 hours a day for the next forever. We study with a teacher for part of the day and with our district- which in this case is just our class- the other parts of the day. It's a lot of studying but I still feel like I don't have enough time to get everything done that I really need to. Oh yeah and literally on the second day (around 16 hours after you get to the MTC) you get the opportunity to teach an investigator who you teach every day except for Sunday and P-day. Honestly that first day was one of the more humbling experiences of my life because I had to teach this person from Sweden the gospel in the most simple form possible. It's definitely not easy but I actually understand most of what everyone says in Swedish and I can kind of respond at this point which isn't too bad considering I've been studying Swedish for a whole week now. 

The second day at the MTC we had to figure out the leadership in our zone because the day I arrived so did most of the zone I am currently a part of. So zones are by language and our zone has Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish with a total of 5 districts. They assigned me a district leader for now so we'll see how this goes. There's so many meetings and training sessions here and most of them are leadership so we'll know how to lead a district or a zone when we get into the "field." Elders and Sisters keep using that word like it's some mystical place that we'll never get to. 

One super cool part about being in the MTC is that there are devotionals every Sunday and every Tuesday and normally it's someone that has a ton of experience or has some sort of senior position in the church. On Sunday Sister Sheri Dew spoke to us and that was super cool. I have to say though, that the highlight of my day was when we listened to a talk after by Elder Bednar about the character of Christ. He is now officially the most intimidating apostle by far. Every new missionary has to watch this at least once and it was one of the best talks I think I have ever seen. He talked about how everyone needs to develop the attributes of Christ to truly become converted to the gospel. This is also the talk where he says that we should get a paperback Book of Mormon and write a question in it and read it cover to cover to get an answer. I was challenged to read the Book of Mormon before I leave the MTC so that's what I am working on right now and it is pretty amazing. The Book of Mormon is absolutely inspired and can give us answers to anything we're looking for. The holy ghost works through all scripture but especially the book of Mormon to give us revelation and answers to our questions and I love it!

Yesterday we had Elder Ballard come and speak to us. Listening to an apostle talk about our time and how missionary work is taking off like never before from the foundation of the Earth is pretty incredible. The spirit that he brought into the room was sooo strong and I know that these men are called from God. The spirit here at the MTC is really unlike anything else that you could think of. I have to say that the gift of tongues is real. We have learned way more Swedish and retained way more than we should be able to on our own. God is truly looking out for us and helping us in very tangible; noticeable ways. 

So my third companion went home yesterday so it's just me and Aldste Archibald now. I'm not sure why he left but he packed and went home before I noticed anything it was weird but I hope he's doing ok. Alright here's the funny thing that happened this week. So in Swedish the word for baptism and dope or drugs are only different in the way you pronounce the "o" in the word. So, when my companion and I were teaching about the priesthood power he wanted to say "I have the priesthood power to be able to baptize you" instead he said, "I have the priesthood power to give you drugs (specifically crack)." Someone was bound to do it so we had to clear that up with the investigator real quick haha. 

I love this gospel and even though I can only share it right now in broken Swedish I can't wait to share it with the people of Sweden!

Love you all! Oh and if you want to write in Dear Elder it's the fastest way at least in the MTC and I can write back through the mail during the week otherwise email is great but I just do that on P-days.

Aldste Israelsen (there's two dots over the "A")

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation given to everyone that believeth." Romans 1:16

Stayed Up Until 11!, Sister Carrie Underwood, Slightly Larger Swedish Vocabulary and Called to Be Zone Leaders

HEJ ALLA!!

So this week was pretty much just one big giant blur.  So I guess I'll start with Friday.  We had our 4th of July celebration which we celebrated with a devotional because what's more fun that that? haha.  The devotional was way cool though.  I think most of them are almost like rallies to help strengthen everyone because most people are having a discouraging time at the MTC with learning languages or being away from home etc.  But it was really cool, he talked to us about how we truly were going to where we needed to at this time because Heavenly Father is hastening the work.  After that, we got to watch 17 Miracles and I swear everyone in the gym was crying (except for me because I don't cry - don't worry) and then after the movie the conductor got up and said that we could go watch the fireworks and he thinks that (quote) Sister Carrie Underwood is done with her concert in Provo.  That was the weirdest use of the word Sister that I have ever heard.  We just chilled after that outside in the parking lot and watched the fireworks and celebrated a little.  We were up till about 11 so I mean it was pretty much awesome!

Teaching is becoming something I absolutely look forward to even though we have to do it in our own language.  I've decided that part of teaching by the spirit is really listening to what they way and then after they are done speaking to try and figure out what you need to say.  At first, we listened to the first part of what our undersokare would say and just jump right on top of it with the answer which may or may not have been what he was looking for.  Now when I just listen and try to feel just a little more I feel like our lessons go much better and we help him grow closer to Christ which is what teaching people is all about.

I have a slightly larger Swedish  vocabulary so that helps when trying to answer questions without large gestures or playing charades.  Fast Sunday was this week which in the MTC was one of the coolest things ever.  I got to study almost all day and we went to a campus wide meeting from 10 to 12.  The MTC President got up and said that the First Presidency change their policy about investigators and instead of find, teach, baptize.  It's now find, teach baptize, retain, reactivate.  So we have to teach all 5 lessons before and after they are baptized and we have to stay really close as missionaries for at least 4 months but recommended as a year.  They are really focused on retaining people that come into the church which is super cool because I think some new converts get a lot of support and others really don't so the missionaries now have a big role in that.  So that was an awesome meeting.

For the Sunday Night devotional, we had Joshua Wright come and play for us and he is a pianist that has played in Carnegie Hall and he was amazing.  He played a combination of spiritual and non spiritual music and it absolutely blew everyone away.  I am super glad I got that have that experience.  The spirit is always super strong with music.  I love when we have good musical numbers in the MTC, it really is powerful!

My Comp. and I were made the Zone Leaders on Sunday and hopefully we can make some sort of difference with that.  There isn't a whole lot to do as zone leaders in the MTC except to make sure that everyone is getting used to the mission lifestyle and having a good time.  Probably one of my favorite parts of the week was getting to see Elder Anderson and his wife speak on Tuesday.  He talked a lot about the Spirit and how it communicates with us.  I think one of the biggest things that I took out of that meeting was that the Spirit is absolutely real and that we need to trust that gift as we live worthy to retain it and I'm so happy for the opportunity to build upon my understanding of the gist of the Holy Ghost and follow it more and more.  As we do this, Heavenly Father will bless us with more revelation and we just keep becoming better sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.

Ok, I leave in a week and a half and I'm pretty much super excited and super not ready at the same time haha.  It's going to be a blast and I'm way excited just to go and try and share the spirit that I have with others and even though I won't speak the language very well, as long as I am a representative of Jesus Christ, I'll be alright.

Love,
Aldste Israelsen

P Day Washing and Letter Writing in the MTC!