Heja Sverige!!

 What's up family?! How is everybody? Sounds like this past week has been very eventful! I'm glad to hear that Strawberry days was a hit as always. It definitely hasn't been far from my mind here. It's Stawberry season here and since it was midsummer this weekend, on every street corner there was a little table with somebody selling strawberries, so I definitely got a constant reminder of that. Holy cow, I cannot believe that Ms. Mya is 4 already! That blows my mind! It seriously seems like not that long ago that she was just a few days old and Tyson was holding her in the airport before he left to Brazil, and now here I am in Sweden of all places! haha So crazy. I still have to remind myself often that I'm in a foriegn country. You think it would be easy to tell with the different language, architecture, and all that but sometimes I still have to be like, whoa... I'm in Sweden. That's no good about the fires going on! Hopefully they get them all put out. You can take some of our rain if you want. Here in trollhättan it's been raining for about 3 days straight now.

So midsummer was pretty cool! I'll make sure to send some pictures with this email. It was what's called a nonprosyliting (again, I'm sorry for my awful spelling. This computer is in Swedish so I can't spell check English words.) day, which basically means it was a pday but we didn't go out at 6:00 to work.  We got up early and took a train into Göteborg and then took a bus from there to a little suburb of Göteborg called Utby, it's the zone leader's area. About  half of the zone got together in Utby and we went to the park and did the whole midsummer celebration with the town. They put up this thing called the may-pole and get in rings around it and hold hands and dance around it singing weird songs.  It's celebrating like Mother Earth and the fertilization of the earth or something like that?? haha I'm really not sure. It was pretty cool though. After that was finished we went to the Utby chapel and had a bbq, then we climbed what the Swedes call a "mountain" that overlooks the city of Utby, it was super pretty, a little foggy though.

 Then all the missionaries went back into Göteborg and hung out at the YSA center and played frisbee and stuff like that. It was a super fun day. Oh and yes, it is pretty super weird to have it be light all the time! Midsummer was actually exactly what it sounds like, it was the mark of the middle of summer. So from here on out it will get slowly darker and darker, but for now, when we go to bed at 10:30 every night, it looks like it should only be maybe 6 or 7. haha It is pretty weird! I'll have to take a picture out the window before I go to bed one of these nights so you can see how light it is. So as far as what the work is like here in Trollhättan, we do some finding but not nearly as much as we did in NC. Knocking doors is very ineffective here in Sweden. Swedes are very private people so they don't appreciate you knocking on their door, so most our finding is just on the street as we walk places or on the bus. We have a few investigators but it's really difficult to make times work to meet with them so I still haven't met most of them. We have a girl moving in to our area this Friday that is coming from another area and aparently she is a pretty solid investigator so thats awesome! Hopefully all goes well with her. I'll let you all know. Well im going to head for this week. I love you all so much! Oh and mom, all the mail in the mission gets sent to the mission office and then gets forwarded to us in our areas. So, the mission office address is-

Enebybergsvägen 38

182 46 Enebyberg

Sweden

So if you just send stuff there with my name it'll get forwarded to me, oh and you can send packages and as long as they are under 4 pounds they can get forwarded to me no charge, if they are over I will have to pay the office to have it forwarded to me. Well I'm gonna head, I love you all so much! Have a good week and I'll talk to you next week! Love you all so much!



Hej Från Sverige!

Is this real life!? Am I really in Sweden!? ha ha Oh man this seriously is too good to be true! I love it so much! Where to even start? I guess I kind of already told you about my first day and things so I'll let you know about my area and trainer. My comp's name is äldste Chris Sanders. He is from Cedar City and he is awesome. I really do love him. He has been out for just about a year and is super super cool. He is pretty solid at the language so I'm excited to learn from him. Our area is called Trollhättan and it is in the Göteborg (yet-a-boar-e) zone/stake. So a little more down south. It is a super cool little town, we have a ward of about 60-70 solid members, and about 6 youth. We have a pretty cool looking chapel, I'll have to take a picture of it and send it to you. our Bishops name is Dag (dog) Stulen, he is super awesome, he has three kids, one son is a RM who served in Greece and one just graduated and is getting ready to start his papers, then they have a daughter who is inactive. So we'll have to see if we can fix that. We actually went to the Stulen's home for dinner yesterday. It was so good! I need to be careful here or I am definitely going to get fat! ha ha But it's okay, President lets us do p90-x for work outs and since me and Elder Sanders are going to be together for at least 12 weeks, we are starting a full 90 day cycle tomorrow. I've gotta be able to fit into these Swedish suits. ha ha oh speaking of which! This coming Friday is Midsummer, it's like the second biggest holiday to Swedes other than Christmas so we are allowed to go to it, so I'm super excited for that! and just like in America, there's always really good sales around the holidays so we are going to go shop that Monday probably. Hmm.. what else? President and Sis. Newell are amazing! I love them so much. President is a very humble, powerful man, but so loving and oh man does he have some credentials. He was the ambassador for Sweden for a long time. He has had assassination attempts on him and has served under three different US Presidents in the white house. ha ha He and Sis. Newell are definitely a little intimidating, but I love them so much! They make us feel so welcome and loved. They are awesome. Oh and apparently President Newell is on wikipedia so you'll have to look him up. ha ha So it's good to hear that all went well with the reunion! It sounds like it was a blast! Mom, I'm sure you did great in your Fathers day talk, you always do! Oh and Dad, happy late fathers day! Maybe I'll find you a nice skinny Swedish tie at the midsummer sale and send it home! I love you so much! Tell Miss Mya grattis på födelsedagen! (Happy Birthday!) Give her lots of extra loves for me! Well me and my comp need to head to catch a train into Göteborg, we are going to hang out with the zone at the YSA center for p-day. I love you all so much! Oh that reminds me, we use buses, trains and a little bit of bikes to get everywhere here. Oh and ask Tyson if he knows an Erika Sprig! She is from PG and is in my district. The Oscarson's are in our district too so I'll meet them on Thursday for district meeting. Well I love you family! So much! Talk to you later. hej då!

Sweden...sounds nice, I think I'll go!

So, by the subject of the email you can probably see what my big news for the week is! We got our Visa's! All five of us! We fly out this Thursday morning at 6:15. Unfortunately I don't know details of our flights like layovers or anything like that, but I will definitely try and call again if I get a chance! But yeah, so I will go to the mission home on Wednesday night at 8:30 and just spend the night and then get up and head to the airport early in the morning! I'm so excited you guys! And it couldn't have come at a better time because Thursday I was having kind of a rough day and I was just saying my nightly prayers asking Heavenly Father to let me know if this was my mission or if I was still going to Sweden so that I could just stop wondering and worrying and go to work. Then the next day, I got the call from President Thomas! ha ha He was like "Well, you bags got their visa to go to Sweden, would you like you go with them?" ha ha Yes please! So yeah that's the big news from me for this week! We had a good week here. We had pretty solid investigator all the sudden stop contacting us so that kinda stunk. Her name is Alma (go figure huh? ha ha) Will you please pray for her? Oh and we started to teach a mildly schizophrenic guy so that's pretty awesome. He's a little off but still totally accountable if you know what I mean. ha ha His name is Randolph. Oh Dad I forgot to tell you, the water feature turned out great! That's super cool! I'm glad Ty got back on with Costco and his car is up and running. That's definitely good to hear. ha ha ha Dad, when you were telling me about Tyson's work schedule you forgot the "F" in shift. ha ha I had a good laugh over that. ha ha Maybe a little bit of a Freudian slip there? ha ha Just teasing. The Smith fam reunion sounds like it will be a blast! You'll have to tell me all about it and send me some pictures. Oh and Mom, that picture board sounds super cool! That's a good idea. Good luck speaking on Father's day mom! And happy early Father's day Dad! I love you so much! You have no idea the example you have set in my life. I will be lucky to become half the priesthood holder you are some day. I love you Dad. Well family, I know this is short...again. But it's just super hard to email with three people and one computer. And now there is a guy waiting in here for the computer and Elder Hughes still needs to write so I'll head. I love you all so much! You're all in my prayers every day! Keep on keepin on and I'll talk to you all from Sweden next week!


Love- Elder McKay Vance.

Well, Once again I don't have much time.

Hey Fam! Well I'll go ahead and just let you all know, I got screwed on my emailing again this week. ha ha It's really hard being in a tripanionship and you have to take 3 hours out of P-day to email because we only have one computer. So Elder Matthews and Elder Hughes got an hour each... and I get... 40 minutes. ha ha and that's both to email president and read and answer your emails so sorry but it's going to be a short one again today! Everything is going great here. I feel like I'm starting to get a little bit used to the humidity. It basically just feels like you just got out of the shower. ALL the time. ha ha It's always the best when we're on our bikes because once you start sweating, you don't stop. ha ha but it's okay, I've actually lost a little weight so far. So that's sweet. It's good to hear that Memorial Day went well! Sounds like I missed a good cake and some good ribs! Dad, yes NC is definitely a BBQ state. Speaking of which, I had the best pulled pork I've ever had at a members house the other night! Oh it was so good! We usually get fed by the members once or twice a week is all. I'm actually kinda glad about that though because I do not want to get fat! ha ha Anyways, how is everything at home?! Tell Tyson and Aubry I love them so much! But, once again I have no time to read their emails. I'm so sorry! P-days are kind of stressful. Hey mom before I forget, could you send me the recipe for those from scratch pancakes? I'm craving them! Mt. Island is a really small ward, just over a branch. We don't have very much priesthood which is frustrating but other than that it's really good. We are basically in a suburb of Charlotte. It's kind of hilly I would say, enough to get my legs burning. ha ha but yeah, definitely kind of a ghetto town. I love it though. Well, and just like that my time is up. ha ha I really am so sorry that I have no time! Next week I'll for sure try and get on first instead of last. Elder Hughes and Elder Matthews owe me. ha ha Well have a good week everyone! I love you so much! I'll talk to you next week. Sorry this email was so scattered and random! ha ha I love you!




My address

9916 season grove lane

apt. 206

Charlotte NC, 28216

Hey from NC

Hey Family! Yes, I am alive. ha ha Sorry it has taken me so long to get to you! Our p-days are on Mondays but it was Memorial day on Monday so the office where we usually email was closed, so then we came yesterday to email but there is only one computer but three of us so my comps emailed but then I didn't end up having time so we got permission for me to come today and email. ha ha So sorry it's Wednesday! So how is everyone?! It was so good to hear from you all! I will say right of the bat, since it's not p-day, I don't have much time so this email might be kinda short... but I'll try my hardest to get you all the info! Oh and Tyson and Aubry, I didn't have to time to read your emails because I just wanted to get started writing but I will read them Monday and respond I promise so thank you so much for writing me! So holy cow this week has been crazy! I guess I'll just start from when we landed in NC. So we came down the escalator and Pres. and Sis. Thomas were there waiting for us. President came and hugged us all and it was just a super peaceful feeling, that even though this is just temporary, this is where I need to be. So we got our luggage and the AP's took us to the mission home. Once everyone got there (they had some missionaries coming in on a flight an hour after us too) President interviewed all of us and then we had dinner that Sis. Thomas had made. Then after having a small testimony meeting it was about 8:00 and President sent us to bed... and told us to sleep in until 8 the next morning! ha ha It was so awesome and so needed after the flight! So Tuesday morning was filled with orientation and things and then Tuesday afternoon a bunch of missionaries from the surrounding area's came and picked us all up and we did transfers with them for the rest of the night. The Elder that took me was Elder Cutler. We went straight down and started tracting in the ghetto, and I mean the straight up ghetto. ha ha It was crazy and a little scary but super cool! We taught a couple lessons to people and then had a couple appointments with investigators and then we went to the Oliphants house for dinner. It was really cool to meet them! They were the first white people I had seen since being at the mission home. ha ha Seriously... so no i wasn't still there when Bro. Oliphant called you but he did ask for you guys' info so I figured he would, that's really cool! It really is nuts how small the world is sometimes! So the next morning we got taken back the the mission office and then we headed up to Statesville for transfers. That's where I got my comp. So I'm actually in a tri again. President did that so that once I get my Visa I can just take off and it won't mess stuff up too bad. My trainer's name is Elder Matthews. He's from Evanston, Wyoming, he's been out for 21 months and he is a total stud. I really like him and I relate with him super well, he was into film and music in high school too so that's awesome. We have alot of fun together. Our other comp's name is Dlder Hughes. He is another greenie but his actual mission call is here. He doesn't say much in lessons or anything but when he does it's usually pretty good. He is from Vernal, Utah. I love both of them a lot. So our area is called Mountain Island. It's kind of a suburb of Charlotte. Our ward is called the Mt. Island ward. It's kind of a small ward but super strong. So another cool thing is that we already had a baptism! ha ha We baptized a guy named Ryan Mansfield on Saturday. He's 24, ex-air force, Tongan, and 6'5. ha ha He's super cool, Elder Matthews and his old comp only had to teach him for like 3 weeks. He was definitely prepared to hear our message. Well sorry this email is kind of short but I've gotta head. So I'll just have to cram more info into my email on Monday. ha ha but everything is going good here. It is sooo humid! ha ha O sweat all the time. But it's okay. We have a car exchange, so we get a car once a week and then we ride bikes the next and switch on and off so the mission has just lent me a bike for now. I love you all! We gotta head to a teaching appointment so I'll talk to you soon! Love you!


Picture from left to right- Elder Hughes, Me, Elder Matthews, Ryan, and John (Ryan's soon to be Bro.-in-law.)