God Jul!!

Hey everyone! So this is going to be a super short email because, even though it's p-day today, it is also Christmas! ha ha in Scandinavia the main celebration is on Christmas eve (julafton) and then they keep celebrating through the 25th (juldagen) and the 26th (annandag) ha ha Swedes love their Christmas! So yeah, we are leaving to spend julafton with a member family in down town Stockholm here in about an hour so we need to get ready. But I'll share a little bit about my week quickly and a few things I forgot to tell you all last week.


So we got some exciting news from Salt Lake two days ago! The greenies got their visas! wooohooo! So they will be getting here on the 27th! We are so excited to finally get them here! It is definitely an answer to many many prayers that they were able to get their visas before the end of the year. So this week will be crazy with all the Jul celebrations and then with the greenies coming! So I forgot to tell you the new situation here at the office! So now the assistants are Elders Hart and Leirimaa, and we are doing the split companionship's thing like we did before when I was with Elder Lamb for proselyting. So now I am with Elder Leirimaa for proselyting but, since we are low on missionaries right now, we don't have any Elders in Stockholm, as in down town Stockholm in the city itself. So that is now mine and Elder Leirimaa's area! Elder Leirimaa was just there as a zone leader before he came to the office so he knows the area and the investigators so we now go into Stockholm to proselyte and teach and Elders Hart and Asp stay here in Täby. It's kind of confusing at times but it is really cool! Elder Leirimaa is awesome and since he is Finnish he is fluent in Swedish so it helps me with my language a lot. So yeah that's update from the office now a days. I really do love the office so much! It's a really fun place and from the looks of things president is planning on having me stay here until March and then leave in March to train a greenie so that would mean
I would be here for the Boyer's when they get here! So I hope that it works out like that! Tell them hi from me and that I can't wait to see them! oh and tell Elder Boyer god Jul och gott nytt år!

So I am so excited to Skye everybody! Lets plan on doing it at 8 o'clock my time tomorrow, so that would be like noon your guys' time wouldn't it? I hope that works! If not email me back as soon as you can. but if I don't hear from you I'll just plan on that:) I am so excited!

Well fam sorry this email is so short but hey, we'll be seeing each other tomorrow! Even if it is just through a computer! ha ha thank you all so much for all you do for me and how loved you make me feel! I love you all so much and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

love-

McKay.

p.s. thank you so much for my pre Christmas package momma! We ate the jerky in one sitting and the Santa hats have been a hit in the office! ha ha and I may or may not have freaked out when I saw all the emergenC! You know me too well momma! ha ha

p.p.s. and the caramels are a hit and I love the vinylmation! Thank you so much momma! You are the greatest! I love you so much!

Pics

From the Editor: Finally have access to internet at my house so I have put all the pictures McKay has sent into the posts they go with. So, feel free to scroll back and enjoy the goodies.

We got the Dop!

Hey family how are you?! So just as I said in the subject of the email, we got the dop this week! haha Dop is the Swedish word for baptism and you pronounce it "dope" haha so we always say stuff like "go get the dop tonight!" or "that guy definitely needs to get dop'd" haha anyways, yeah, Björne got baptized on Saturday and it was such an amazing day! Björne was just glowing and so happy! The best part is, his 86 year old father in law baptized him! haha Before the baptism Elder Lamb went up the the father in law and was like are you going to be okay baptizing him? He just looks at Elder Lamb and is like "obviously! Watch this." and gets down on the ground right there and starts doing pushups. haha It was so funny. But yeah he had no problem baptizing Björne and everything went super well so that was awesome:) It felt so awesome to just sit there on Sunday and see him confirmed and then welcomed in by the whole ward throughout church. He is going to make such an amazing member. Well other than that this week was a really crazy week. We were very very very busy all week getting everything prepared for zone conferences on Thursday and Friday and then had zone conference, then the baptism, then church, and now it's Monday again all of the sudden. haha So that was pretty nuts. Elders Lamb and Marchant go home tomorrow so that is defnitely depressing.... I love those guys so much. Elder Marchant has been with me my whole mission basically since he was my zl in Göteborg and then came up here to be AP. So it will definitely be weird with them gone but the new assistants, Elders Hart and Lerimaa will be awesome. They are both such amazing missionaries and really cool kids. So since Elder Marchant and Elder Lamb's group is going home tomorrow we get to help driving people all over and get everything ready for that, so I've been up since five and unfortunately, we don't get a p-day today, just some time to write really quickly before we need to leave again. me and Elder Asp will probably take like a half p-day on Wednesday afternoon just to go get groceries and things like that. So I am really sorry but this email is going to be kind of super short :( So dad and mom, the mo-tab concert sounds like it was awesome! and wow that is so cool that you guys got to hear that guest singer belt out those Les Mis songs! I bet that was amazing! Don't worry dad, the Lord will "bring me home" in my due time :) about 15 months or so. haha. Thank you for getting me and ornament from Vegas this year even though I'm not there! It looks so cool! Thanks for the picture! Tell Kurt and Brooke congrats on little baby Tatum! She looks so cute! How's Aubs doing with her prego-ness? Is eveything coming along well? I pray evey day for her and the little guy :) So momma, I haven't seen any packages with my name on them yet other than one from megs but i'm sure they'll be here soon :) Thank you so much in advance! You are too good to me! I can't believe that my package already go to you guys! That is awesome! I was really worried that it wouldn't get there before Christmas so that is awesome! I hope you all like what I sent! But yeah that is the only package. Sorry there's not more! haha I would love to send you guys so much stuff but stuff is so darn expensive here so I have to be careful! haha. Thank you so much Dad for putting some money in my account. I will probably get a new suit or possible some ties or something after Christmas when everything goes on sale. So that will be awesome. Thank you so much! So in answer to the question about how Swede's decorate, some of them do lights but not many, mainly because almost everyone lives in an apartment, but something everyone does is they hang these big, lit up, stars in their windows and put these neat candle holders in all their windows and light candles. Just google image search Swedish christmas candle holders and you'll see what I mean. But yeah every window in the whole town basically has one of those two things in it so that is really pretty :) Anyways, I'm so sorry this email is so short but I need to go! I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week! I can't wait to talk to you all in like a week and a half!


God Jul!
Love-

Äldste McKay.

Hey, Guess What!?! I Love You Guys!!

Hey there everyone! How are you all?!

 Gamla Stan (Old Town) Stockholm

So another week has flown by and Christmas is approaching dangerously fast! So I will be sending a package or two home today so look out for those. Unfortunately, they might not get there before Chirstmas. But hopefully they will at least get there within a couple days of Christmas. Anyways, so this week was a pretty good week. We got a call from Björne on Friday saying that he is completely done with coffee! So that was awesome! He had his baptismal interview Sunday and everything went great! So we are definitely having a baptism this coming Saturday! I am so excited for Björne! He is so awesome and has been so prepared! This will be my fist baptism here in Sweden so that is pretty neat! Oh and I forgot to mention, the person he chose to baptize him is his wife's dad who is 82 years old... haha so we will see how that goes. haha Lets just say we are going to fill up the baptismal font as high as we possibly can. haha. So things with Nadia aren't going quite as well... she has been in and out of the hospital this week because of problems with her epilepsy and so we were only able to meet her once. She is still doing pretty well and she loves church and has made a lot of friends there but she still hasn't made much progress with quitting coffee. So that is really hard, but we are definitely hoping to baptize her before the end of the year. So I was thinking about the phone call home this morning and when would be good times for you guys... would it be alright if we did it at like 8:00 am there? I know that's kind of early for Christmas morning there but that would make it around 4:00 in the afternoon here which would be pretty good because I think we have a dinner appointment at like 6:00 o'clock with somebody from the ward. Just let me know so we can coordinate! oh and I am going to talk to the Ericksons today about using one of their computers to skype since their laptops have camera's in them. So then you guys could just gather around mom's mac and then we could actually see each other! I think that would be super cool. What do you think? Oh and plus, skype is free so I wouldn't have to buy a calling card. Do you have skype already? If not just ask Ty and I'm sure he can help you get it set up on your computer. Then just send me your user name so I can call you that morning. We can figure that out more next week, just thought I would mention it so we can start to coordinate :)

So it sounds like you guys have been having a blast in Vegas mom and dad! It's good to hear that all the Utah boys have been doing good in the rodeo, it's always fun to root for the home town kids like you said Dad. Aubry sent me a few pics from their Disney trip and it looked like everyone had a blast! Good old Disney magic, haha it never gets old no matter how old you get! So I will have to keep it fairly short this week too, Elder Hart, one of the new AP's is coming in today so that he can kind of get trained in the AP ways before Elders Lamb and Marchant go home next Monday so our p-day is getting cut a little short because we need to go pick him up from the train station. I will definitely miss Elder Lamb and Elder Marchant alot, they are some of my favorite missionaries. But the new ap's, Elder Hart and Elder Lerimaa are really awesome too so it should still be fun. Well I know this email is sooo short and I'm sooo sorry! There's always just too much to do on p-days! But know that I love each and every one of you so very much and can't wait to talk to you here in a couple of weeks! I love this Christmas season and the opportunity and privilege I have to teach about Christ the Savior durring this special celebration of his birth. He lives! And because He lives, so will we in the eternities with our father in heaven and with eachother! I know that to be true. I love you all so much again! Have an amazing week!

puss och kram!

-Äldste Keetch

L to R Elders Asp, Lamb, Keetch, Marchant

It's Looking Like a White Christmas!

Hej allihopa! How is everyone?!

So this week has been so great but very very busy. Unfortunately the new greenies have not yet recieved their visa's, so the mission is in a form of disarray right now as we all just kind of sit and wait for them to come. Because of the fact that we had some missionaries go home and didn't have any new ones to replace them we have had to close some area's temporarily but president is doing the best he can to make sure there are at least missionaries in every sacrament meeting on Sundays. It definitely is very odd to be on the other side of things this time around seeing that the last group to have visa issues was mine. So for now the 7 greenies have been reassigned to Virginia. Hopefully we can get them here soon! As part of all the switching around and things that have had to happen the past little while we got an extra hand here in the office for about four days! On Thursday morning Elder Day (my last companion, Elder Saldutti's son) came to the office because his companion, Elder Car, was needed up in Norrland for a few days to fill a gap. So Elder Day has been here in the office with us for a few days on what president calls, "extended exchanges" haha We are taking him back to his area today but it was definitely nice to have an extra pair of hands in the office for a while!

So we finally got snow this week and man has it been cold ever since! Last night we were out knocking doors and it was -14 degree's Celsius! Which is about 6-8 degrees Fahrenheit. So yeah, it was cold. and that mixed with the pitch blackness makes it very bright and cheery around here lately.... haha just kidding. It's really not that bad at all. Just cold. Speaking of cold, since we have a car as office Elders(which I am so ridiculously greatful for!) I am going to try and hold off with buying any more winter clothes until after Christmas because I guess the sales right after Christmas are really really good. I do already have one coat and I have inherited another, lighter, jacket from Elder Lamb so I should be fine. Elders Lamb and Marchant both say that they have never really needed a super heavy coat so I should be fine but we'll see. So we have definitely gotten into the Christmas spirit here in the office, it's great! We have a tree all set up and stars in the windows and Sister Newell even got all of us here in office advent calanders. The ones that you peel back each day and there is a little piece of chocolate behind it. They are really big here! I guess they are a big Swedish tradition since Swedes actually celebrate the advents. Weird thing though, is that they only go up 24 on the calendar because Jultomte(Santa) comes on Christmas Eve. So yeah, we have fun opening a new day every morning and eating our chocolate. haha. Have you guys gotten the tree up at home? You'll have to send me pictures of the house when it gets all decorated. Oh and mom, you would be glad to know that your decorations have definitely come into use an that happy holidays window decoration is on our kitchen window and now reads "abba soap daily" haha everyone has fun spelling clever things with it so it is fun:) Last night we got together with the Ericksons for out usual RE and we all enjoyed Glögg, which is a super Swedish drink that is usually alcoholic but you can find it non alcoholic. It is so good! You drink it warm and it tastes kind of like apple cider but with a very heavy taste of clove and other Christmas-y spices. It is super good. then, in the middle of our Glögg drinking we got a call from the Stockholm zone leaders saying that you could see the northern lights in the sky so we all ran to the roof but couldn't see anything so that was too bad :( but hopefully later on in the winter.

**oh and here's another one of us all getting ready to open our advent calanders on the first day of december. poor elder day, since he was only here for like four days he didn't get an advent calander so we made him a photo copy. haha **

So an update on our investigators, Nadia came to church this week and really enjoyed it so that is awesome! As long as she can quit coffee on time she will be baptized on the 16th of this month. Björne is still doing awesome and is for sure getting baptized on the 15th of December! He is seriously the most prepared person I have ever taught so far on my mission. He is really solid, understands what he needs to do to be baptized, and is set on doing it. So hopefully we will have a double baptism week here in a couple weeks! All your prayers are felt in their behalf and our behalf and are so appreciated! Other than those two, we are working with a less active member who's sambo (girlfriend living with him) has become interested in the gospel. So it's kind of double duty on that one, trying to get him active again and teaching her, but it's good because then they are a support for eachother. Their names are Jan (said yawn) and pen. Jan is Swedish and Pen is a thai women. They have been together for quite a while but are not married so we'll have to fix that... haha.

So sounds like Aubry and Cody will be having a blast at Disneyland this week! That will be so fun for the girls to be there during the holidays! Have fun in Vegas at the rodeo mom and dad! Pick out a good ornament for me even though I won't be there hang it up! haha.

So holy cow that is so awesome that Stan and Roxanne got their calls to Sweden!!! They will definitely be the new office couple here to replace the Erickson's who go home in early March! That is so great because I know eveyone was a little stressed because we didn't have a replacement for the Ericksons until now! They aren't actually in our program yet that shows all the people who get their calls here but I'm sure they'll show up within the next few days! That is so awesome! I will almost definitely be here when they come. President has told me and Elder Asp multiple times that we will be here for quite a few months. (but just on a side note, he told me I could possibly be becoming a dad in March...) so I'm sure I will actually help train them in the ways of the office once they get here! haha It will be fun to speak some Swedish with Stan! I remember at my farewell he tried teaching me how to say the church's name in Swedish and I couldn't do it, and now here I am speaking Swedish fluently! haha It's so crazy to think about! Give them both huge hugs for me and let them know I can't wait for them to get here! On a not so awesome note, I found out that even though temple couples like the Backlunds are called to our mission, we have next to nothing to do with them :( We don't even get to pick them up from the airport, the temple just kind of does their own thing. So that's a bummer! But if I go to the temple in January or something maybe we could work it out to meet there.

Mom, thank you so much for sharing that awesome story about the geneology! That is so neat and is such an awesome example of the tender mercies the lord gives us every day. he really does love us so much!

Well unfortunately our p-day kind of got cut short because of errand running for President so I will head for this week but know that I love each and every single on of you so very much and I can't wait to talk with you on Christmas! Here in the next couple weeks we will coordinate when I'll call and everything :) This time you will be able to hear some real Swedish, not that MTC Swedish I spoke over the phone at the airport last time. haha.

I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!

puss, kram, och kärlek!-

Äldste Keetch

Good ole office work!