It's FINALLY Spring!



My destroyed suit pants. May they rest in peace.

Happy late Easter!!!

Well here we are again! I feel like when I first got transferred down here to Helsingborg that time slowed down for a little while. zthose first two weeks went by really slowly. But now time has sped back up to its regular, break neck pace.

So this week was a pretty normal week. We had a good p-day of just relaxing on Monday. I took a nice, hour and a half nap while Elder Whitworth lay on the floor in the little box of sunlight that came through the window. It has finally decided to be spring somewhat here. It is supposed to be about 7 degrees (45 F) all week here. Which will feel super good! Hopefully it will just go up from there! On Tuesday we went to Halmstad to have district meeting with them. It was a really good meeting by Elder Simpson and then, afterwards Elder Simpson took us outside and said we would be doing a "fun activity"... well... that fun activity was... the dreaded surströmming... ha ha yep. He had bought a can of it and it was time for round two. And it didn't go any better than round one! ha ha I don't know if you all remember when I ate surströmming for the first time last summer but yeah... I threw up. ha ha It was a repeat this time. ha ha It was awful. And it was even worse this time because this time, instead of having a tiny bit on a piece of bread with cheese and stuff, we just opened the can and did whole fish! ha ha So we just picked them up by their tails and ate them whole. ha ha It was the worst! I could only bear to chew mine for about ten seconds before it came back out. It is seriously the worst smell and taste you could ever imagine. Like seriously that stuff should be on fear factor. So nasty! I don't know if I explained this before but surströmming literally translates to "sour herring". ha ha So anyways, after district meeting we went back to Helsingborg and had a pretty normal day and then that night we went to a members house, the Malmstens, to have dinner and celebrate their son Daniel's birthday. It was really fun. The Malmsten's are... well... a little crazy... but they are awesome and they love the missionaries so much! haha They will definitely be a family I take you guys to meet if/when we come back. They are so amazing and they have the missionaries over for dinner like every week. The ward really is amazing here in Helsingborg. They take good care of us. We get fed probably 3-4 times a week on average. Which is the most I've had on my mission. Then, on Tuesday night, something tragic happened.... as we were walking from the car to the apartment Elder Whitworth and I started running up the stairs and stuff and in the process my pants ripped... big time. ha ha So I am now down one suit. It was my blue suit with white buttons that I bought last summer from H&M. I was so mad! ha ha I love that suit! It is my first Swedish suit. ha ha When I looked at the pants that night I just kinda laughed because all I could think about was a picture that Tyson sent home while he was on his mission of him holding a pair of his shoes that he had walked in to the point that they had fallen apart and gotten holes. I just thought it was a funny contrast between our two missions. He walks his shoes right off of his feet and I tear the crotch in my tight Swedish pants. ha ha But yeah, so no more blue suit :( May he rest in peace.

Wednesday was a normal day and then on Thursday we went down to Malmö, went to their district meeting and then went on splits with them. I was with Elder Hitch who is still a pretty young elder, he just finished his training, and then Elder Whitworth was with his comp, Elder Martinsson, who is also kinda young on the mission and is kinda having some issues right now with laziness and disobedience. That's why we went down there on exchanges. So we worked the rest of Thursday there with them and then stayed the night and then went back on Friday morning. It was really good and helped them a lot I think. Other than that the week was pretty mellow.
As far as investigators go, things are going great! We had six investigators come to church yesterday, three of which were Hermina, who has a baptismal date for the 13th of April, and Molood and Azar, who are referrals from a less active member in the ward. We sat down in the first hour and taught Molood and Azar the restoration and it went really well! They are both very interested in the church and accepted the invitation to be baptized when they receive an answer that it is true. They are from Iran and are the sisters of a less active member's wife. They live in Helsingborg but it is hard to meet with them regularly because of how busy they are with both work and school. They are very positive though. I'm really looking forward to meeting them more. They are awesome! In the second hour we sat down with Hermina and taught her both the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ along with a couple commandments. It was a lot at one time but it went so well! She accepted all of it very readily and looks very positive to be baptized on the thirteenth so that is awesome. We are also teaching a kid by the name of Gregor who is the boyfriend of a girl in our ward. We met with him on Wednesday I believe and then again today and things are going really well. It is kind of hard to read him during lessons but he really likes it and wants to continue to meet with us. He is leaving on vacation to turkey this week though so it will probably be a week and a half or so until we can meet with him again.

It sounds like Easter went super good back home! I can't believe that this is my second Easter away already! It feels so weird! ha ha. But I'm glad the picnic went well any that the girls had a blast. ha ha I can't believe how goofy their conversation was on the blanket mom! ha ha oh man... that is priceless.

So holy congratulations to Aubry and Cody! Hayze is so stinking cute! I'm glad everything went well with the delivery and that he is healthy and everything even though he's a little early. Man, my first nephew! He's gonna be a football player for sure! I'll make sure of it... ha ha. Man it's weird to think that I won't be able to meet him until he is one! That is so nuts! So, speaking of birth, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA! I hope VP gets you something nice and you eat some yummy food :) Know that I will be thinking of you on Wednesday and that I love you so much!

Easter here was really good. We had a special Easter program in church that was... a little dull... but good. ha ha It was very Christ centered though so I can't complain. Then we got invited to dinner by the Höglunds in the ward. It was super fun! They live in an old theater that they have converted into a house so it is pretty big and then it just had this huge, open room with massive white wall they they project movies onto so that was pretty cool. We shared a little movie for our message so we got to watch it on the big screen so that was fun. In Sweden they actually celebrate Easter just like they do Christmas. They celebrate for three days not just one. So Saturday was Påsk Afton (Easter eve) Sunday was Påsk (Easter) and today is Annandag Påsk (second day Easter.) ha ha So that is a little different. As far as food goes, they eat kind the same stuff they do for midsummer and Christmas. But then they also eat this stuff called sill which is pickled herring. It is not nearly as bad as surströmming, which is fermented herring, but it is still definitely not my favorite! ha ha But that is more just for traditions sake. They don't eat too much of it.
Well fam I'm gonna head for now but I want you all to know how very grateful I am for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that he died for us, and that he lives today. He truly is, as it says in 2nd Nephi 22: 2, my strength, song, and salvation. I love this gospel so very much and I know that it is true!

With all my love-

Äldste McKay Vance. 

Me, Whitworth, and the Malmsten family. They are so awesome!




This is called the turning torso. It is apartently like the tallest building in Europe. Me and Elder Hitch tried to get in it to tract when we were on splits in Malmö. It is so tall that you can see it from Helsingborg!