Elder McKay Vance Keetch: And the award for the nastiest thing on earth goes too....

A putrid little fish named Surströmming! Haha Hej familj how are you?! So as the title eludes to, I have had a pretty eventful week this week! I guess I won't leave you hanging and get right to the Surstromming story. Two weeks ago me and Ä. Sanders were grocery shopping and we came across a can of Surströmming and well one thing led to another and 70 crowns(10 bucks) later we had a big can of rotten fish sitting in our refrigerator. This week it came time to crack open the can and have some. Let me take a moment here to better explain what Surströmming is. Surströmming is an evil, evil thing that was made by accident hundreds of years ago when this ship got stuck at sea and they ran out of food other than a rotten bucket of herring, haha. Now a days what they do is take a bunch of headless herring and shove it in a can and let is rot and ferment in some nasty liquid for years and years. They usually don't even put the can in the grocery store to be purchased until it's either bulging or has rust on in. Haha no joke. I seriously cannot even begin to describe to you how this smelled or tasted, but let's just say it was easily the worst thing I've ever eaten by far. Probably the worst thing I have every smelled too. I have a video of me eating it, but it's too big to send home so I'll have to wait until I send this SD card home, which will probably be soon. But yeah, that was definitely an experience. You know somethings bad when even the Swedes who invented the stuff are telling you to stay away from it! Other than that exciting little venture this week, we had zone conference and a 4th of July party! We had our 4th celebration on the fifth actually, because of the 8 hour difference I guess. It was the 4th for at least a couple hours! We got together with the whole zone since they were all coming in for zone conference and BBQed lots of meat, and sang the national anthem to a flag scarf that one of the sisters had.It was great! I'll send a couple pictures. Zone conference was super good! It was focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ. President Newell is definitely a spiritual giant so it was great to get some training from him. The zone conference was combined with Göteborg zone and Malmö zone so I saw Ä. Maness again. He looks good, still just crazy Maness. In answer to your questions Dad, when we travel we use trains to get to Göteborg and buses everywhere else. Our area covers basically three cities, Trollhättan, Uddevalla and Vänersborg. Almost everyone here in Sweden lives in an apartment and by themselves. There's only a small handful that live in houses and they are members. The only fish I've eaten here so far is that Surströmming, haha. We eat a lot of chicken and a lot of beef and potatoes. It's actually super good. I've loved the foods, and the desserts here so far! Swedes love their desserts. That's super cool that it's Dustin's farewell already! I hope it went well! Tell him good luck for me! He will be such a good missionary! I'm so stoked for him! I think Marcus (from SUU) goes in to the MTC this week too! Well, Fam I need to head for this week. I love you all so much! I'm glad the 4th went well! I was definitely thinking of all of you! Have a good week and know that you are all always in my prayers! I love you all so much!