Stoeltzing Surfing Stockholm

Week Seven (The Long-awaited Arrival) - December 23, 2013

Merry Christmas! 
 

Sweden is so AMAZING!  We touched down at 7 am last Tuesday, December 17th, after flying for 22 hours. Then we got to meet President and Sister Newell as soon as we got off the plane. I really liked them – They are going to be really fun to work with! 



Flying over Stockholm
 

We spent our first day touring Stockholm.  The city was beautiful and, believe it or not, it was much warmer here than it was in Provo when we left. We also made our first street contacts in downtown Stockholm. That was super scary, but once we tried it, it wasn’t all bad.  



Safe Arrival

Okay… This may seem super weird, but I was the first person to wake up in the mission home after arriving from an all-night flight. Going around the world switched me from being a night person to becoming a morning person! I guess it was smart to send me half-way around the world after all.

 

Welcome to Kungsbacka!

So, early on day two we actually got our area assignments and trainers. I was assigned to Göteborg (yettaborry) in the Kungsbacka area to the south. My trainer is super cool. His name is Elder Miles from Provo, UT and he actually played soccer for BYU before his mission.  He's been here for nine months and he speaks great Swedish.  Right after we met we left for a three hour train ride down to Göteborg. Unfortunately, I pulled a “greeny-move” and left my shoulder bag in the train station.  It’s alright though, because the office Elders got it for me… It’s still kind of funny!    

 

Kungsbacka is south of Goteborg 

Our apartment is very cool. We live with the Zone Leaders who are both great guys!  It’s going to be really fun for the next 6 to 12 weeks!  Our first day of proselyting went really well. Our first investigator had an electric guitar and he let me play it, so that was a great way to start teaching… Ha ha!  We went to drop-in on some old contacts after that, but most of the people weren't home. We try not to tract too much because it’s not very effective here.

 

Aldste Stoeltzing and trainer, Aldste Miles, assigned to Goteborg

 

However, we actually have taught quite a bit (Five discussions so far), but it’s hard to teach lessons right before Christmas. Our goal is 20-25 per week. Elder Miles felt that we needed to tract in a complex nearby and on our first knock we found a great potential investigator and we taught him a discussion about the restoration of the gospel. He committed to reading the Book of Mormon during the first lesson!

 

Beautiful Goteborg

On Sunday we met our new ward and they were amazing. They sang for half of the Christmas program and it was easily the most talented ward I have ever seen!  This past Sunday was probably one of my favorite Christmas services ever… Their Sacrament meeting was fantastic!  They probably had more kids than our ward in Carmichael, so it is extremely strong for Sweden.  



Merry Christmas!



I love Sweden.  The food is great, the clothes are way cheap, and the Christmas decorations are really cool with lights in all of the windows, best of all, I’ve got a car here!  Well, I have a lot more to write about, but I need to go now. I’ll call home with more on Christmas.

 

I love you guys – Merry Christmas everyone!!!



The newest arrivals to the Sweden Stockholm Mission = "The Greenies"