Stockholm Time

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:22 AM
Subject: Stockholm Time!


This last week was an adventure as always. Lots of service opportunites and lessons as well!
Last Monday we went on the search for some less actives in our branch. There are two Nils which we are in the search for. So far we have tried many different times of the day to stop by but no luck. Today was a such day, we had an opportunity to stop by our first Counselors place. First off our ward list was wrong. But as we were on the street looking for the number that didn't exist a member Dani came up to us as she was on the way to work. We have had some difficulty getting to know her so it was a great opportunity to ask her if she new where he lived and such. A little get to know you time as well. I was thankful for the opportunity to see her. We called Pär and got his address and brought him a couple godis. His wife passed away and sometimes he has difficulty with depression and such. He is still alone and these past couple weeks have been difficult for him. We didnt really know we just followed a feeling. He is getting excited to start school again soon and was so grateful that we stopped by.

I tisdags was an adventure. We had plans for a full day of travelling and activities in various area of town. By the end of studying each and everyone who we had planned for cancelled on us. It was a bit of a downer because most of those things had been cemented in on sunday. So evidently Heavenly Father had a different plan for us. We decided that we would make cupcakes for our thank yous that we have been meaning to deliver. As we were beginning that the Johanssons called for our apartment check. We were able to get the apartment cleaned up and cupcakes baked before an unexpected opportunity to teach Alex. He had told us that he was working a lot and wanted to take a break for a couple weeks. When we said cupcakes, he made time for us. The lesson went really well as we talked about the 2 thousand strippling warriors. We talked a lot about the 5 things we have to do in this life (faith, repent, baptism, enduring to the end) we talked about how he has faith now and thats a huge step. We then went into repentance and was able to help him understand that a bit better. He is now working on trying to get in line with the ten commandments. We were than able to stop by Åsa with some cupcakes. She was really surprised that her cat didnt run away from us when we walked into the apartment. She always does! She commented something like "She accepts you guys too now!" It was nice to hear that she accepts us. Silly but it really is nice to know she cares. She helped us out with some smelly stuff for our apartment and we talked a little about faith. We are unsure how to get conversations there and not have her back away. We are being cautious and following the inspiration we recieve in talking with her. 

I ondags, our apartment check took a few minutes and was nice. We had to book it to the bus station to make our journey to Lars-Inge and Solveig, so the Johanssons ended with a prayer and we hopped on our bikes to get to the station. It was a bit funny as Syster Johansson just laughed at us as we walked out of the appartment with our arms full and our helmets already on our heads. I know its a rule and we follow it but sometimes we cant help but sing the circus theme song as we imagine how we look riding our bikes in skirts with helmets and bags full of all those essentails for lessons. Once in Högsjö we had a bit of miscommunication between them and us and we ended up on the side of the actual lake. We back tracked and Lars-Inge found us. He took us back to his house with his family (less active). It was cool to try to get to know them. They are all a little shy about talking about the gospel but talking about there kids were a good middle ground. I finally met Stella. After lunch we had a great lesson with Lars-Inge. Solveigh just straight up asked him why he isnt baptised yet. I was surprised but it got the lesson off to a great start. He joked about how it was because he was afraid of water and then it got serious as his concerns with heaven came up. He has it hard with understanding how heaven can be heaven without his family members. I really feel like I can testify to him and give him the same hope that the gospel has given me regarding that factor. The opportunity never presented itself as everyone was talking and pretty much he did a lot of opening up to us. Hopefully this next week will be that time! We got back on the bus to get back home and Pauline was on the bus so we talked about the church with her and found out that she doesnt quite understand the difference between our church and others. So now we have an idea what to do there. Then Fernando Palomino got on at another stop to go home. We were able to catch up with him and he invited us over for dinner the next day. I really want to help this family back into activity. They are good examples besides the fact that they dont come to church regularly since the car has been gone. 

I torsdags we had a fantastic district meeting about the 4th missionary. It was a great reminder of how much our heart really does get into this work. As soon as you are deeply engaged in the things you are doing, the people you are teaching, and the learning that is taking place, everyone can feel the difference. The Spirit is more present and we are able to all that we can to further the work! We then cleaned up since it was at our building before heading to Bie to be with the Palominos. We promised Franciska that we would do a girls night with her because she was unable to make it to our activity we had at the church a couple weeks ago. Syster Spjut did her nails and I her hair. It was a special time to get to know who she is. I think now we know a little more about eachother and will be able to talk more about things as they come now. We helped with dinner and ate. We shared a scripture in Moroni 10:32 about beauty and shared the different perspectives about beauty and how its whats on the inside that counts even if it is fun to get dressed in pretty clothes with your nails done and such. We didnt have to sprint to the bus this time but a fast walk made it happen perfectly. Once back in town we met with Pär to talk about Member Missionary Work. We made a list of the blessings that we have seen in our lives thanks to the Restoration through Joseph Smith. We talked about how it is so much more from the heart when we try to share those things that mean the most to us from the gospel instead of just throw a Book of Mormon at someone. He agreed and really opened up about his family and how he has lost communication with his sons over the years. We asked an inspired question about if he believed that prayers are answered. He said he wasnt sure and we were able to reassure him that his prayers are answered and heard with scriptural evidence from Mosiah 27:14. We are all now praying for his sons to be willing to get back in contact with him. As we closed the meeting someone rang the church doorbell. It was a little weird, we walked out and it was Gilbert, one of the youth. He is preparing to serve a mission next summer. We were able to follow up with his assignment in Preach my Gospel and give him something else to do. He works a lot and forgets to read his scriptures so we are going to help him with things there. 

I fredags we did preparation for our meeting with our Ward Mission Leader Alf which took forever. We multitasked and did some updating in our area book. We then met with Cat for her Member Missionary Work lesson. She gave us information of a wonderful woman in Arizona which she wants to get in contact with the church. She considers everything she has a blessing from the Restoration. It was a great example to us about really recognizing how much the church affects the rest of our lives. We were cancelled on and were able to get some planning done in the evening.

I lördags we have decided to focus on Lars-Inge this month and so we created a Vagen till Dop for this month with his name on it and a plan of how we are going to make it happen. Planning for this next week was a bit hectic but we got her done. We left and did some service for a less active member Jock who is going to move into a new apartment. We cleaned the floors in the new place. Before getting down to business in planning our gren activity that our investigator Leif wants to happen. Its going to be a great activity and the ward is looking forward to it.

I sondags we had a great testimony meeting and a great lesson in Young Women on the temple and making that decision now to focus on the temple. We than met with Alf and went through some of the investigators and things before he needed to leave to take his mother in law home. We are going to visit Rosmery and Leif this evening as well as Amber and Mike. I learned a lot from Preach My Gospel in the Christlike attributes. I mean we do those activitities every month but it seems like each month there is something new. This month was how much humility, faith, hope and love have to do with eachother. As one grows the others all grow if we remember the source from which blessings flow. It was a nice inspiration from studies this morning. 

Igår! It was a full out party in Stockholm we had so many adventures its hard to explain! We had a great time at Stadshuset, which is where the Nobel Prize is given out each year. They have some crazy rooms in that building. Ill send some of the Gold room. Its ledgit! We then ate lunch in the garden there and began our journey accross Stockholm to Vasa Museum. Which is a decked out ship that was to be an example to the world of Swedens power but it sunk off the coast and they got it back up and made a museum around it in Stockholm. It was cool to see as well. As we made our way around the water we saw tons of boats so I was reminded of Dad and made a little video. As we began walking a man came up to us and said "Hello Sisters!" It was a bit weird, two americans from Washington were here on vacation and somehow we both guessed that we would find someone from america here for the touristy stuff. They were just on there way to Stadshuset. We did some shopping around stan and stopped by the youth center there in Stockholm before getting dinner and heading to the train station to catch our train. We decided to eat at the Kebab shop down the street from the center. There was a bit of a miscommunication. (usually in Kebab shops there are a lot of immigrants who run the place and sometimes there are miscommunications.) It was funny but we got our food and began to eat it as another American couple came in and asked us about what we were eating. It was cool to be in a place to help them out with food and such. They saw our tags and of course we talked about the church. It was a cool experience. As we were waiting for the train to get there Brother Harris (from the MTC) has been in Sweden for a while so he was arriving back at T Central when we were getting ready to leave so we got to say hello to them before hopping on the train home.

Idag, after a day of walking everywhere as missionary speed and being out in the rain a little bit we woke up at 630 and we were stinking tired still. But we got up got our laundry in because it was going to be another hectic day. Its been awesome though! We caught a bus out to Hans and talked about 3 Nephi 27 and about the specifics of Christs Gospel. We invited him to church because we are singing on sunday and since he is like our adopted grandpa we figured hed come for sure but they will probably be gone for semester (vacation) this weekend. On the way back on the bus we talked with John Erik and had a very nice conversation about the Holy Ghost and when do we feel it. We talked a lot about prophets and later on today he texted us and told us thanks for the great conversation. We gave him a link to lds.org and he responded thanks! It was super cool. We then had a few minutes before our next bus out to Lars-Inge so we decided to chat with a bus driver friend who was on a smoke break. He is going to also check out lds.org because he was a bit hesitant about scriptures and things like that. Our lesson with Lars-Inge was such a great experience! We were lead so much by the spirit during that lesson it was really cool. We asked inspired questions but only afterwards realizing that they were inspiring. We have fasted and prayed about a baptismal date for him and it seems like the time is now =) same with his wife. She has been a member this whole time and is so patiently waiting for him. We were not there for as long as normal because we had to catch the earlier bus so we left with tons of different fruit and stuff. Our branch takes such good care of us! This evening we are having a geneology course that Rosmery should be coming to and we will hopefully be teaching some more! I love this work and it is work! I dont think I have ever been as happy, as sad, as depressed, as overjoyed, as close to the Spirit as I have been since being on my mission. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve here in Sweden. I love it here! Its become home and with how fast time is flying Im not anywhere near ready to leave yet! Im so thankful that I have these next 7 weeks to get work done! We are going to see miracles in Katrineholm! 

So Challenge for this week! =) Pg 126 in your Preach My Gospels has a great activity about Christlike Attributes! Look at the scriptures and such on the one you are working for. It helped me this week as I was studying humility! I know that as we have the desire to change and pray for help to make the change Heavenly Father is on our side immediately helping us along the way! Thanks for all your love and support you guys are awesome!

Love you!
Syster Juker

PUSH!

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 2:51 AM
Subject: PUSH!

Nära och Kära!

Oj då! Time goes way too fast these days! Its hard to imagine that Steven is home and I've got less than two months left! But I try to not talk about that seeing as I am in denial of that fact. Everyone asks how much time you have left and I have confinced myself that I've got more than I really do so it's good to go! We are working hard and trying to get some baptisms before our time together is up. 

Last Monday we were pretty much bums. We stuck around the apartment until time to write home. It felt good to be a bit lazy for a day. We ended up helping Amber with some things before heading home. It was a pretty chill pday.

I tisdag was a majorly long day but it worked out alright. In nightly planning we had decided to do some service outside of our church building. There is always moss balls and tons of weeds on the sidewalk. So we decided that in the morning while it was still cool to go and get the building looking better. It was pretty awesome how great it felt to serve. Many people walked passed and thanked us for the work we were doing and told us how great it was looking. It was just a random idea that we followed through with and it turned out to be a good thing for others than just the members of the church. As we were there someone came from Örebro with new artwork for our building. That was cool to see, he walked passed us at first and then came and began talking with us. We were unsure who he was. We had a nice conversation and he talked about the church a little but it seemed hesitant so we thought it was someone from the Rehabilitation center next door. Turns out though he wasn't! We felt foolish but it worked out alright. 

We were than able to go out to Flen and visit an old investigator that we have been trying to contact. Now Flen is a little ways off from Katrineholm, but we had some members we hadn't visited in a while so we decided the trip was worth it. As Syster Spjut showed the way to his apartment building we noticed about 5 or 6 Polis cars and an abulance. As we approached the corner it was taped off and all the polis officials were on the other side of the street eating ice cream. We were a bit confused as to what was going on. A group of people gathered as we tried to determine what to do because our investiagators building was blocked off. Katrina (a random lady on the street) came up to us and started talking with us. She lived nearby and new what the situation was. There was a man on top of a building 3 stories up threatening to jump. So the polis closed off the main thoroughfare through town to protect the people if he would jump. She could hear an accent but thought we were from England! So I have changed my accent a little bit!!! Anyway as we were talking with her we were able to talk to her about the gospel a bunch and get her input on things. She didnt necissarily aggree with us but she appreciated what we are doing as missionaries in Sweden. She was very nice. When we began speaking with her she called our attention to the man as he stood up on the buildings roof. Syster Spjut and I had a hard time not watching but as soon as he started moving we hid him from our faces by stepping behind so a building hid him from our view. As he moved around he took of his jacket and threw it down. (He had been on the roof since 9 am and it was close to 6 pm) The polis was able to calm him down and his friends were able to translate for the Polis. He was from Russia and was having a hard time. They were able to get him off the building. We met many people there as the street was opened up again. Many people noticed our tags and asked us about different things. It was not so much of surprise that his building was portcoded and he wasn't answering his phone. But it seemed to us that we were there to help talk to those people who were around during the event. There was a pizza shop owner who came out and began chatting with us, he evidently knew of the man so we talked with him a bit and he found out we were from America and he invited us to come back another day and have pizza at his shop because he has lots of respect for Americans. He was very kind. We then went and visited Majvor. She's an elderly lady with tons of spunk in our branch. We hadn't visited her in a long while so we decided to stop by. She has a hard time walking and had been out grocery shopping. She had to go the long way around because of what she thought was "an accident". As we explained the situation to her she sort of chuckled and said, "He should have jumped earlier! I hurt now!" It was pretty funny. We insisted on next time she needs to go shopping tell us in advance and we can plan a day in Flen so we can help her out. She was very grateful for the invitation. We were able to run to our new ward mission leaders house and pick up Syster Spjuts jacket. It was a little weird being there for like 3 minutes and then had to run to the station. We met a few people on the way back to town and got planning done for splits with Nörrköping!

I onsdags Some days I dont understand why we do nightly planning when somedays it doesn't matter how much you plan everything cancels! We were able to finally serve Cat. She had a room that was just destroyed with trash but seeing as she has difficulties moving she couldnt clean it up herself. So we had talked about helping her (Syster Spjut and I) so when our day canceled we decided to see if it was possible to help her out. She accepted graciously and we were able to get the room back in order. IT felt great to accomplish some service for someone who really wanted it but wouldnt necissarily ask for it. We got together things for our activity that night. It was a girls night. We had Rosemery and Angelina show up first and then Rahel Myriam and Pauline. We were able to paint nails and do hair and talk about what real beauty truly entails. (Moroni 10:31) It was great to help each person individually. We were able to spiritually uplift everyone individually as we did eachothers hair and nails. Sure it wasnt really "my thing" Id much rather be out playin sports but it worked well and everyone really enjoyed themselves. 

I torsdags I had the opportunity to teach district meeting. Seeing as I am the eldest missionary in our district they left it open to whatever I have learned to be most important on my mission. After a bunch of studying and prayer it boiled down to Relying on the Spirit in Unity. I was super nervous but it all went well. We role played a planning session according to the concerns we brought up about our progressing investigators began with a prayer and saught inspiration about how we could help them overcome their concerns. We came up with a pretty great lesson for Alex about the 2 thousand strippling warriors and how our branch is the support system just like each of those young men were for each other.

I fredags I sort of had a "midlife crisis" as Syster DeTinne-Cassel had said something about us coming close to the ends of our missions. I am working hard and I don't want to have to think about school and life after the mission yet. I've still got my head and heart in the game so it was a little tense there but we talked it out and now we are good. We visited the Palaminos again! They are a great family! We really want to get them back! We talked about the Liahona with them and asked them to do better in one subject that they are lacking in of the primary answers of church, scripture reading and prayers. They have been praying and reading so hopefully they can become more engaged in coming to church. 

I lordags we were out visiting a bunch of old investigators from our area book and a few less active members. We visited Björn and they were very accepting to us and wanted us to come back and teach them next weekend! We were jazzed then we went to visit Uylva. She is a less active who has had a difficult life. We are pretty sure she thought we were hem tjänst to help her around her house. We talked with her about the Book of Mormon and she talked about how she has one and reads it. We helped make her hotdogs and took out her trash. She told us how she has had 10 tumors removed from her brain and then asked us, "Why do you speak so badly in swedish?" It was a little frustrating because we had been speaking swedish most of the day but we understood the context so we will work harder on it. Amber was preparing her first talk in swedish and asked if we could help her with pronounciation. We took some time to go and help her. It was a great use of language study! We then had a dinner with Cat and her two sons John (non member) and Jock (less active) they really have all began to like this whole feed the missionaries once a month all together as a family. Its been great to be with them and share a bit more spirituallity with the boys. We were then invited by Leif and Rosmery to come and have sweet beans at their house. We love it when the investigators want to involve us in their real everyday life. I don't like beans at all! (as you all well know) But I promised her I would eat them for her. They were not all that bad because they were cooked in some serious sweetness. But my stomach didn't like it at all afterwards. 

Igår it seems to never fail that someone cannot teach or do their calling so they call or text us! Its usually after our studies too. So today I took sunday school and once at church Syster Spjut took Young Womens. In class we talked a lot about being the example for our kids and those around us. Someone has to set the example why can't it be us! We were able to give Cat a gift from a member in the branch and tell her she was missed at church. (she was sick) then we spent the evening with dinner and a great spiritual lesson with Leif and Rosmery. Leif said that he is 110% behind any decision that Rosmery makes with her faith and being baptised. Her only concern is not being perfect. We decided as we had turned out the lights last night that it was a good plan to talk next time about the Savior. Leif really opened up and let us in. It was really awesome. He says that it's difficult when the missionaries always come and go to open up so much and then have someone move. He really has enjoyed having missionaries in their home. He considers us a part of his family. He even fixed our bikes so now they are 100 times better than they were. My chain always fell off and our seats were too low but we were enduring. Until he asked if he could help us out. I feel like we are really making progress with them. 

PUSH- It means Pray Until Something Happens. While Syster Hill was with me on splits we shared some insights during companion study and it really struck me again how important prayer is. Even if the answer doesnt come immediately it always comes. So all we can do and should do is PUSH. Pray until something happens and we are guaranteedly doing what needs to be done. So this weeks challenge is to do just that! Pray everyday and try to see what really is happening!
Love you all! Hope you guys have a great week! 

Follow the Spirit

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 10:14 AM
Subject: Follow the Spirit

Nära och Kära!

Crazy how times fly when you are working hard for the salvation of souls! =)
Last Monday we spent the day out biking around! We got to see a lot of cool sights and play some card games in a cool gazibo next to a lake. It was a lot of fun. We ended the evening with visiting Annick. She is from Berundi and speaks like 5 languages. We visit her on monday evenings and do a family home evening with her. This time we talked about EFY because Pauline was with. It was a whole lot of fun! She taught us how to make swedish pancakes and she is like a pro at it. They were perfectly cooked, perfectly round and perfectly delicious!

I tidags I finally met Daniela! She is wonderful! She was raised Christian and really loved learning about the restoration. She asked exactly the questions that lead us to explain each new part of the plan of salvation. It was one of the first whole lessons Syster Spjut and I taught together and it worked out so well. The spirit was there and the questions were answered and she felt it. It was awesome! She begins SFE (Swedish classes for immigrants, shes the teacher) soon so meeting with her will be tricky but she still wants to meet us. =) She talked about what I thought was a child whinning in their room and wanting to come out. Only to find out it was Turbo, he is a big dog but really well trained. I was happy to see and meet him as we were leaving. We then took our lunch hour to do some shopping. It was a workout uphill both ways against the wind in skirts. It was an interesting experience but we are glad to report no food was lost and we didnt die! We then met up with our Visiting Teaching companions and did our visiting teaching. Cat was having a more down day so we were able to bring some light into the day and when we left we were all laughing and smiling it was great to see the cloud lift again. We then visited Amber and Mike, they invited us over for dinner and shared a nice spiritual thought about a missionary who was ran out of town and the priest who kicked him out told him that he needed to rip one rip out of a paper and create a cross or he could not preach there. Its an awesome story and it really works. You can tell the complete story of Christ with one tear in a paper. Their children have really taken to us and like to show us everything in their house it is really sweet. They both told us that when they get big they want to be missionaries! 
I onsdags we visited Hans right after studies. He has quit snusing and gone to chewing gum! He is making progress and is praying in the name of Christ now and we are hopefully going to sing a duet in church so we can invite him to come and see us. We then updated our area book a bit and did some thank you cards before having an english lesson with a couple of the youth. Myriam wants to go to BYU so she asked us if we could help her with her english. She and a friend came and we were able to help her with that. At the end of the lesson her friend asked about how we can answer questions about the church. We had another appointment we had to go fast to so we set up an appointment for later in the week. We had Amber and went and visited Henri, a less active member. He had actually read his homework and had questions about what he had read! He is making progress! It really made us happy. We reviewed the restoration and he learned somethings he had forgotten. Amber was able to practice her swedish and testify so it was great all around for all of us!

I torsdags was an interesting day because the train schedule changed on us and we didnt know it. (SJ didnt know it) We went to Linköping for our district meeting. When we left Katrineholm the weather was a great sunny day but by the time we got to Linköping it was rainy and wet which was a little on the depressing side of things. As we were getting ready to leave there was a knock on the door and a package was delivered! I got cute skirts from Mom just in time to choose my outfit for the day! It was great. District meeting we talked about extending commitments and following up. It was very relavent and we were able to role play a bit. We ended up taking a later train and then missed a connecting train and then were invited to go with the Norrköping Systers to their bishops house to learn how to make cinamon rolls and the like. It was a lot of fun. We got to strengthen them and their desire to do missionary work as two of their sons are out on missions right now as well. We made it back for our appointment with Åsa in the evening. She is less active and is wonderful! I love visiting her and uplifting her. It goes both ways! We always leave her place happy and laughing! We talked about the blessing animals are in our lives. She has a cat who is very dear to here and so we connected about animals because Kasier is important to me. She told us she is always glad to see and hear from us. Which made us feel special! As we were on the way home we ran into Myriam and Scarlet and were able to follow up on the english we taught them earlier in the week. It was great.

I fredags we had a bit of a rough start after studies in the morning as our evening plans cancelled on us and I was having some personal problems. We talked a bit and it got better. We were able to have a wonderful lesson with Myriam and Scarlet. They came up with questions that they get asked a lot about their religious beliefs and we talked through answers and then roleplayed it. In the end they both expressed interest in serving full time missions when the time comes for them. It felt great to be a positive influence for those two, they are so sweet! We then visited a potential investigator who owns a candy store. He had lots of questions since I was the new sister in town. So we were actually able to teach him quite a bit about the restoration and about prophets today. He wasnt all that interested in changing but he had a lot of questions to ask and we were able to answer. We then did weekly planning at home and it worked out pretty well in the evening.

I lördags we had recieved some revelation for how we could explain things to Alex. He has been investigating for a while and we were not entirely sure how we were to help him have a desire to do something. So during weekly planning we came up with an analogy about a cake. Now with a cake if you bake it you can smell it and you can see it and it looks and smells good but you wont really know that it is good until you take the chance and eat it! We decided that is exactly like the gospel! We cannot know that it is good unless we are willing to change a little and do something to show Heavenly Father that it is worth it to us to know. So we took it to the test and did it with Alex. It was a clear analogy and he really understood it. He didnt sign up for baptism just yet but he is spending this week praying about it and the Book of Mormon. It was a great example to us of following random inspiriation to help with our investigators. Amber needed some help with Young Women manuals and swedish so we delivered them their thank you card and were able to help her with a manual. We practiced our song that we might sing on the piano at the church before going over to Aminas house. Amina is muslim and we are helping her with swedish. She is reading the Book of Mormon Story Book in swedish and its helping her to understand swedish more. Its really been a help for her. She is doing ramadan now so there long fasts when they dont eat when the sun is up. She always seems to give us native food so we were pretty sure that wouldnt happen because she was fasting but we were wrong. She cooked us food and just sat there and watched us eat. She helped teach us a lot about the history of why they do it and other things of their culture. It was really interesting. We gave her another story to read and she asked if Amber could come over and they could practice their swedish with each other. It sounds like a great idea so we are working out the details now. 

Igår was a wonderful sunday all around. It was practically perfect weather and the spirit was strong in our meetings. We were asked to help out with Primary unexpectedly. So we had already studied and then the call came. So I got some bathroom revelation and decided to teach the Plan of Salvation and have the kids color themselves and teach them I am a child of God. It went really well and at the end they wanted to draw and color their whole family. It was great. We then met with Alf, our new ward mission leader to get a sense of what he wants to do. Hes got fire and is ready to get the "sleepy branch" up and running again in way of missionary work. We are really looking forward to working with him. We visited Cat again, as she wants to make our sunday visits a tradition. We both felt inspired to share with her what we had learned about Faith, Hope and Charity. It was really great and Cat had a lot of good imputs as well. The most awesome lesson of the day was with Rosmery and Leif. They had visited Jönköping and Syster DeTinne-Cassel talked with Rosmery about baptism and she shared with them her concerns of the whole situation. The whole time Leif was telling her that all of her concerns would be resolved by doing it. It was quite an interesting lesson because Leif seemed all for it. He has faith but not sure of what its in. He loves his family and will do anything for them so he seems to think and support the idea of baptism. Rosmery talked about concerns about raising their daughter. It was awesome to just testify about how the gospel is really what will help them in all aspects of those worries. The spirit lead the discussion and they are praying and discussing the pros and cons so to speak of joining a church. It was awesome!

For your Challenge this week I'm challenging you all to not forget about Sweden even though Steven is coming home =) Can you do that? 

Love you all and thanks for your love and support!!!

Love you

Syster Juker

Nära och Kära,

Jennifer Juker jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net	Jul 16
to john, me

Nära och Kära,
A week to be sick! Yup sick in Swedish sommar is not the most fun for either in a companionship. 
I mondags we spent time in Eskilstuna cutting the Elders hair there. It was fun but it messed everything up as a train was delayed and just made the evening difficult. We did get to visit with Mike and Amber about there recent trip and uplift them a bit before heading home.

I tisdags we had a Family Home Evening or more relavently Family Home Morning with a less active and his wife. Ulf and Birgita this time they had the lesson. It was simple but the spirit was present. We shared our favorite scriptures that give us comfort when we need it. Hers was Psalm 23, Matthew 11:28-30, mine was Proverbs 3:5-6 and Syster Spjuts was Isaiah 41:10. It was very cool to see how the different scriptures of comfort applied to us so differently but all in all worked together to assure us that we are not alone and that we can overcome the difficulties that come our way. He said he was going to come on sunday but he ended up not. This is about when the sickness struck. We went home and ate lunch and during our lunch hour i layed down. Ended up sleeping way longer than I wanted too but my body evidently needed it.
 
I onsdags We went out and visited Hans out in Bie. He is like our adopted grandpa. It was nice to be there. We made extra time so we could go through the quit smoking program with him too. He had a lot questions, but we were able to answer them. He is going good with his commitment to stop snusing. He is great. We were going to leave and go out in the cold and do some planning but Hans could see that I wasnt feeling well. So he just let us stay at his house until we needed to leave. We went to an apotec to see what medicines they could help me with. We had a youth activity where we were able to have taco salad with a bunch of youth and it went really well. We had a couple investigators who came and enjoyed themselves. We had the opportunity to visit the Branch Presidents house and talk about Heros of the Book of Mormon. It was a great to see Alex talk about Nephi as one of his heros. 

I torsdags we had a great combined district meeting in Katrineholm. Äldste Leavitt lead and taught the lesson about how we can improve the quality of our lessons by increasing our love for our investigators and those we are working with. It really made a whole lot of sense. Someone also broght up the idea of imaginining their potential. Like if we are teaching an investigator to imagine them as a Relief Society President and teach them so that they can understand their own potential. It was a real eye opener. We tried to find a place to do some service regularly but with no luck. I just felt worse and Syster Spjut began to feel a bit worse as well. We spent this weekend either sleeping or attempting to plan. Our sinuses have just been crazy and its felt like we have been going through a tunnel. 

Igår President and Syster Newell visited our branch and we were able to help with their presentations. We had arranged for someone to translate but they ended up being sick. With both of us under the weather and then our interpretors cancelling we were a bit worried about how it would work. Thankfully a member volunteered to help us out. We had a minute of spaz as we were trying to set up a projector to the computer without the correct cable. We were going to just try to do it from the tv. When a thought came to mind, "I know where Ive seen those chords before! The monitor to CPU cable!" So I got the key and we tried to get the cable off. It definitely was the Spirit who helped us out with that one. Syster Newells talk on the Holy Ghost was so filled with the Spirit. I doubt anyone could miss it. She explained things so simply, I felt inspired to work on teaching more simply. President Newell also talked about the Holy Ghost and shared some wonderful experiences about following the Spirits direction. We shared a powerpoint about member missionary work and all the technology worked great. We were thankful to have had the Newells here and the branch was full with like 25 people including 3 investigators! After church we ate dinner at the church before visiting with Cat. She really has opened up and I love it. She is so sincere and prayed for us, she usually has us pray but when we asked her she said, "my pleasure" We then were invited over to Myriams house for fika. After church we joked around about her giving us food. She said she would make us carrot cake. Once at her house she had done everything, dinner and cake. She wanted to be with us and had a few questions about BYU. We helped her find the website with all the information she needs and tried to do it as unbiased as possible. It went pretty well.

Today we are going to write some letters by the lake and get things done around here. it will be chill.
Challenge for the week! First off, Howd it go last week? Anyone willing to follow up with me? This weeks challenge is a talk from Brad Wilcox about the atonement. Its called The Atonement Covers All Pain. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-atonement-covers-all-pain?lang=eng&query=%22his+grace+is+sufficient%22 What did you learn? Let me know!
Hope you have a great week! love you all
Syster Juker

Sweden in Sommar!

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 10:55 AM
Subject: Sweden in Sommar!
Hello My Fine Family and My Fantastic Friends!Its been another great week in Katrineholm. This week was full of a lot of travel. It has been interesting to see the increase of travel time as I have been here. There are so many people all around us who live a ways away that invite us over so we are always going by bike or by train and occassionally car. This week it was a little bit of everything! Its been great! This Last Monday we were not sure what to do with our evening as all of our plans fell through. We came upon an idea to write some cards to our investigators and members and drop them by! I am sure it was the spirit! We were able to stop by Flen and visit with Maria about our branch and finding out new information on people we were unsure about. It was a great success which ended with a sprint to the last train from Flen. We sprinted and we were sure glad we made it to the train in time. Last Tuesday we were able to find some less actives. We were able to meet with Alex and since Gilbert was late it became a member lesson. Syster Spjut played the piano and we sang together as we were waiting for them to arrive. Alex noticed it and was thankful for it. We were a little unsure of what we could talk about but we had a few ideas running around. The spirit directed it and we were able to go to the Book of Mormon and read from Joseph Smiths testimony of his experience. There was a special spirit as we read of parts of the story that Alex had never heard before. We were able to testify of how we have found out for ourselves that Joseph Smith is the prophet who restored the gospel and that he too can know if he takes the time to ask and is sincere. We had dinner and visited Rosmery and Leif and talked with them about being thankful, they are working on noticing one thing every day that they are thankful for.  Last Wednesday we were able to find a lot of people on the computer and got new addresses for some old investigators we found in our area book. It was really awesome how many we could find updated information of and then turn around to use it. As we were approaching our bikes in centrum we noticed a familar face sitting on a bench next to our bikes. We do not know his name besides the Bearded Guy but he stopped to talk with us. He told us to have a seat but that the conversation would not be religious at all. He knows we are missionaries and he knows lots about the church already. He began to talk with us and within 3 seconds it became about religion and continued to be for a while. He is not very open to the church but he knows a whole lot about it. He doesn't "look the part" to be as smart as he is. He told us about how so many people in centrum just walk passed him and never talk with him. This man is super intelligent and shared with us some of his ideas for helping society develop because he believes in us and changing the world. He is a little sceptical and talks about how we have a system to find people and he doesnt want to be in the system, but besides that he is very nice. He said we will certainly meet again! We then headed to Kerstins house. She is a sweet lady who has a cat that thought Syster Spjut and I were cat trees to play on. It was fun until the claws came out. She has family who are members so we try to go over and keep a good relationship so when the time comes she will be ready to learn more. We shared a video about not judging others from what they look like. The Spirit was very strong and it was great to have her feel it as well. As we were travelling there my bike chain fell off but we didnt have time to fix it so we just left it. A neighbor came and asked if he could fix it. We were uncertain but couldnt resist because he was persistant. It took them about 15 minutes and it usually takes us two, but we were able to talk with them both a little bit more before meeting at the church with Gilbert and our Branch President. It went well at first we were able to give him some books that the president had just got and then he found another book. In the end Gilbert seemed a bit overwhelmed. Thankfully the Spirit helped us realize that and we were able to calm his fears and help him realize that everything would be ok, he wants now more help on how to study, with Preach My Gospel that will be awesome!Now we had a plan to have a traditional 4th of July BBQ but that didnt really happen because we had an appointment with Annick to talk about Young Women and help her use the manuals. She offered us Foo Foo and it was pretty delicious. Syster Spjut and I couldn't help but think of how if we were home we would never have had the opportunity to eat a spinach anchoivie soup with a playdough like bread. We were grateful for the experience! Last Thursday was Zone Conference, Satan didnt want us there. It was apparent from the beginning of the day. About halfway up the first hill to the train station I realized I had forgotten my tag. At that very second a riding lawn mower was trying to pass us so I couldnt get Syster Spjuts attention. We then had to book it back to the appartment and really book it to the station. Then once on the bike the chain almost fell of so I smacked the gear with my foot and the chain stayed on. I thought we would make it to the station. Sadly about 95 percent of the way there it fell off. We had to just walk it. So we left it parked and locked at the station with the chain off. But despite all that we made our train! The theme was the Gospel of Jesus Christ It was a great faith building experience. Our zone leaders organized a great round of roleplaying with different members, and investigators. It was great to be able to learn from other missioinaries and see how they do things. I was companions with Syster Talbot when she shared of her testimony to a "less active" returned missionary. She bore her testimony of her own feelings regarding her family members back home who are less active. The Spirit was felt by us all and I realized how real things really are. It was just a role play and yet it pulled a lot at my heart strings because I could relate to the emotions she was sharing. I am thankful for the opportunity to be there and to recieve that inspiration. We ended up spending most of the day in Stockholm because we missed the earlier train and had to take a later train. Once on the train we were dead tired, aka spiritually drained. We had been praying for the opportunity to teach someone. As we were on the train a man named Boris turns to us and starts speaking in english to us. He is a philospher and is very intelligent. He was trying to get into an arguement it seemed but we were too tired to realize it. We talked a lot about different beliefs and the message of the restoration. Pretty much the conversation ended in Katrineholm as he took our pass a long card and gave us his business card. It was a bit tiring but a great lesson as well. Last Friday we had a bit of a crazy day with weekly planning and having our real fourth of july party. It went well and we got great plans set for next week. Saturday we helped out with a funeral for our Ward Mission Leader. It was out it the woods, because you know how swedes do things. It was a gorgeous place, the early pictures are proof. Syster Spjut and I began a new dish washing machine. She was the washer and I the dryer. Our members made many comments of the sort. It was great to serve and really help during the service. The spirit was also present and we were able to help them out in their time of need.  Yesterday in church we had many people and we had ward counsel. It was a great day. Lars spoke about how we need to realize the good in us as individuals and how much we really are needed. He had a great point as a common phrase in sweden is, When someone thanks you for something you did for them you say somthing like it was so little. When we sacrifice ourselves to do something for someone else it always is something that they are thankful for and we should accept there thankfulness more thoughtfully. It was a nice thing to sit and think a second about. We had time with Cat and her sons and were able to talk with them a bit about the gospel before taking and returning a key to Mike and Amber. We ended the evening with Rosemery and Leif we were going to talk about baptism but someone who was very against religion was there and it didnt feel right to discuss that with them there. We talked about Leifs idea for a branch activity and he got jazzed up for it.  Today we spent the day cutting hair. It was a lot of fun but now we are tired. Challenge time! Think about who you are as an individual, make a list of your strengths that you see in you and notice how great of a person you really are. Despite how sometimes you may see yourself you truely are a great individual. Sometimes its difficult to see through that cloud of uncertainty but when you look through with eyes of faith you can know that you are special for you are a daughter or son of a loving Father in Heaven who has created you and the things he makes are great and have the potential to be perfect through the power of Christ! You just have to get HIm on your team by doing what he asks. Like prayer start there and see how much better you can feel about yourself. I know that as we remember who we really are in the eyes of God we are able to feel better and do better in all we do!
 I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!
 Love you Syster Juker

When Mosquitoes Attack

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 2:40 AM
Subject: When Mosquitoes Attack

Nära och Kära,
Its been a great week here in Katrineholm and surrounding areas, we have had many a new adventure! It’s lovely!

I tisdags we had an early morning because we had an appointment in Vingåker at 10 so we had to leave by 920 so there was a bit of disturbance to our studies in the morning but in the end it worked out. We met with Rebecca, who is a daughter in a less active family. She is 17 and engaged, it was rather different because in our heads it didn’t make sense to be able to be engaged and not be able to drive a car yet. But they were really nice. They fixed us a traditional american breakfast with tons of food. Luckily we didn’t really have much time to eat in the morning. Arvid isn't Christian at all he is trying to learn about it so we were able to talk alot about scriptures and the Book of Mormon. Hopefully next time will be about Eternal Marriage.

Since we were a ways away from home we were able to visit a couple other people. It took a while because of the distance but we were able to visit our Ward Mission leaders house and talk with his wife. I hadn't ever met them so it was great! He was out of town so we just got to know her and her family. They are sweet. We barely made it back to the bus stop in time to catch the bus back, have lunch and meet with Alex. We talked a lot about how we can get to know and build our relationship with God. We shared the story of Enos and asked him to develop his relationship even more, because he was unsure that he actually had one. Its great to teach him because we always come up with crazy analogies that just work for him. This one was about a corvette, just because I like them. Now if someone gave you a corvette with all the bells and whistles on it would you just park it in the garage and let it sit? Of course not, you'd take it out for a spin, see how it handled different terrain. Its the same with our faith, its the power we have to do everything, but if we just let it sit in the garage the tires will go flat and we will have to work even harder to get it back in working order.

I onsdags we had district meeting in Norrköping. We first visited Hans and talked with him about the importance of prayer in the name of Christ. Hes been investigating for many years but hasn't prayed in Christs name. It was cool to see the sense of revelation come to his face as he realized the importance of Christ in prayer. The Spirit was strong and then he went off on a tangent and we were about to miss our bus when we had to get up and go. Hes busy next week but really wants help with stoping snusing and getting an answer about the Book of Mormon.We then got to the trainstation a little bit early and as we were walking to our spår we saw a lady accross the tracks who was having a really difficult time standing or walking and she just seemed out of it. We looked at eachother and thought about the alchol intake of many people here and pretty much prejudged her. As we stood waiting for our train I got the feeling we needed to help her. I asked S. Spjut what she thought about helping her, she asked the perfect question, "Is it something you'll regret not doing?" Of course it was, so down the stairs we went and around to the other spår. I had no idea really how to approach the situation so I just asked her if she needed help. She graciously accepted and preceded to tell us that she had epilepsy and needed to find a place to sit down. We helped her on her way until her friend came and made it back to catch our train in perfect timing. DIstrict meeting was about faith and having enough faith to do miracles it was really inspiring. We made it back in time to transfer gears and get back into town for our youth activity. We played basketball and soccer. Stephen was there and we were able to talk a bit about church with him before others came.

I torsdags we spent as a bit of a family reunion with Syster Spjuts swedish family members. It was really interesting and It made me realize how much I want to find out more about my own family stories. As we were going up and down forresty paths to see where her Great Great Great Grandfather was born and such we realized we were not really dressed for the occassion in our tradtional missionary attire. It went well besides walking through some stinging nettle no one else noticed and being owned by mosquitoes to whom i am allergic to. We both prayed a lot for the opportunity to do some missionary work with them. It turned out really well as many of their family have heard about our church and had questions that we could answer and such. One had recieved a Book of Mormon before and we found out that two who were there actually live in our area. So hopefully we willl be able to stop by them sometime soon and see if they are more interested.

I fredags was a bit of a travel day as well. Our new member Elenora moved back and invited us to her house to have cake to celebrate her birthday with her. We agreed and she was excited! It ended up that we had to go early again. Then from the bus stop it was a 45 minute walk to her house. She was excited to have us around and to show us everything! We got to know about her conversion story and a bit about her personality because I hadn't been around her much before. She really seemed to open up to us and consider us her friends. It was nice. We sang her happy birthday and met her grandfather who isn't a member as we ate her cake. We were keeping a point to notice the time and she wanted to talk about missionary work so we talked a bit about it as Syster Spjut did her dishes. We were worried we were not going to make the bus back and she assured us we would and took us on a wild strawberry hunt, along the road. It was a little frustrating just because my bug bites were making me feel pretty woozy. We then had to take the journey back at a pretty fast pace. But we made it back and thus made our connecting bus back to Bie for a dinner with the Palaminos. They are a great family they take great care of us and we always feel their love for us. They speak a lot of spanish, and I took French in high school, so that doesnt really match up. Luckily in California you pick up on a bit of it anyways. We challenged them to keep track of their prayers and each night reflect on how their prayers were answered. They were really receptive and thanked us saying "Gracias" I answered and said "De nada" and they just laughed and laughed! It was nice to see them smile and laugh! We want to see them back at church soon! The branch needs them!

I lordags I was in bad shape, my legs were swollen and I was dizzy we had made plans to go to Bie and meet these people we talked to while there on friday but it didnt happen. I ended up taking allergy medicine and sleeping a little while. We did a great weekly planning time and were able to find those in our area book that we want to contact this week to see if they are still interested in learning more. We met with Amina in the evening and was introduced to many of her friends. One who happens to really be interested in genelogy work and finding out about their ancestors. So we have plans to teach her more about that soon as well as meet with Amina and read more with her.

I sondags I was asked to take the Young Women's lesson so that was prepared and Syster Spjut didnt have anything else that she needed to do, or so we thought. Sacrament meeting started with 9 people, we were a bit worried but as we sang the opening hymn many more people showed up. It was interesting to be in a sacrament meeting in such a small branch but the spirit was as strong as ever, it was great! The branch president came and asked if I could teach sunday school, so by default syster Spjut had to. But both lessons went well and we had an investigator in church participating a lot in everything it was great. We were then invited over for food with Cat and Jock. For something known as Jocks special. It was definitely something I have never eaten before so I was a bit hesitant but after it all I just wanted to eat some vegetables. It was pretty much noodles, ground beef, onions, mushrooms and bacon with sour cream and ketchup. We were able to then brighten up Cats day and walk her home to share the spiritual message we had prepared. She really enjoys and has opened up since we have made it a point to visit her on sunday evenings.

Challenge time! Pay attention to your prayers, be sincere and take notes of those things you pray for. Then each night review what has happened throughout the day and you will come to find that your prayers are answered faster then you realize! I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and that he answers them, even if we cant understand exactly how!

Love you
Syster Juker