Aug. 20: Welcome to the South

Hello family!
   I am officially in Kristiansand (kri-juan-stad) and I LOVE it!! Oh
my goodness! I feel like I am in South America! I say this because
half of the branch are from Chili. I miss and LOVE Spanish people!
They are just so welcoming. I feel like Spanish and Swedish culture
are opposite.  I also feel like I am in South America because we have
SOOOO many investigators! Wow! I have never had so many people to meet
with at one time.  Syster Vistaunet and I have been running around
like crazy. Quite a few days we don’t have time for dinner or lunch. I
LOVE IT!!
    So my last day in Alingsås was just wonderful. We went to Göteborg
for P-day as usual. For my farewell to Göteborg we decided to go to a
restaurant that is known to have the biggest cinnamon rolls. They are
basically bigger then your face! :) I ate almost a whole one. It was
superb! I will have to take you there when you come to visit. I was
sad to leave Alingsås but I think it was time. A new Syster needs to
get in there and mix things up. I was beginning to recognize someone
everywhere we went.
   So Tuesday morning I headed out on a train and headed down south. I
am now in Malö zone... it is often referred to as "the dirty south".  It
has the reputation of not being a really great place to go. But our
zone leaders, and the stake presidency have been changing things up.
This place is blooming with missionary work! and the Members are a
huge part of it. It is amazing. Right now there is a stake challenge
for everyone to give a Book of Mormon away before the next stake
conference. I think it is a brilliant idea!
   I also must tell you about the amazing people I have met here.
#1. Sammy (changed name due to safety).  WOW. This guy is amazing.
Sammy is from Iran and he is a new convert as of two months ago. I
have never in my life met a new member so prepared and dedicated to
the Lord as Sammy is.  The first day I met him he said "Nice to meet
another soldier in Gods Army."  We were on the way to a member lunch
with Sammy and he wanted to know how to say a word in Swedish. Sys V
and I weren't sure how to say it. So he tapped the young boy in front
of us on the shoulder and asked him how to say the word. After getting
the word he proceeded to introduce himself and then said... "Let me
introduce these two ladies behind you. This is sys V and Sys S. They
are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Sammy contacted someone for us! Well... we started talking to him.
Turns out he is Christian and he really would be interested in
learning more!  Oh my goodness. I couldn’t believe it.   Next day Sammy
texts us and says... "do you have a Book of Mormon in Chinese... I have
a friend I would like to give it to."   We got to meet this friend and
invited her to learn more and Sammy invited her to Church... and she
came!
   I LOVE HIM! We should all try and be like Sammy.
   Two other amazing people that I have met are Ingrid and Roland.
Roland was baptized into the church when he was nine but then his
family left the church. He is now in his late thirties. Sys V and her
companion were in the grocery store when he stopped them and started
talking to them. (This is very unusual to have a swede stop and talk to
you...but Roland is special :) So they ask Roland if they can come back
and visit him... he says yes of course. This guy is also one of the
most sincere people I have met and most reliable people I have met. He
is living with his girl friend Ingrid and she is also interested in
our message. Well. Right before I came they had an amazing lesson with
them and invited them to get baptized. and they said yes! or Roland
wants to come back to church and Ingrid wants to get baptized! So they
were about to set a date when the member at the teach was like...
uhh...Systers... what about marriage?? :) Oh! right! So we left them a
pamphlet on Chastity and said we would talk about it next time.  At our
next teach we follow up with them to see how it went... if they read
the pamphlet. Roland takes out the pamphlet and in all seriousness
says "Up to the point that we read this... we were living in sin."
Sys V and I were shocked. It was silent... you could hear the crickets
in the background.........  But then we came back and told them about
repentance. They had told the Systers before that they wanted a big
wedding for their family next year in July. So we offered the idea
that they could have a small wedding soon and then get baptized and
then have the big wedding next year.  They loved the idea! So!! we are
now planning a wedding :)   The ward is calling us the wedding
planners now.  :)
   There is way too much to tell about all the amazing things that
have happened and all the amazing people. But I have to end with my
AMAZING companion :) Syster Vistaunet is a bubble of sunshine with
crazy colors thrown in. that is how I would describe her.
Unfortunately she will be going home sept 20th. So we have decided to
have just work and laugh and sing till we drop! Oh yah! and guess
what! she mixes up the lyrics to songs too!
 I love you all !
 Syster Schneiber II

ps if you want to read sys V's blog you can check it out at ...
surfingonawildcat.blogspot.com  or you can look up Telisa Vistaunet on facebook

Aug. 13: Pictures

Me and Syster Talbot!

Mona

 Sunset on the roof

Christer Callgard!! (a less active who we have been meeting with.
He is awesome! and he came to church this Sunday.. what a stud!)

1. Anna and Algot

2. Me and Anna's family Alice and Algot (little girl with the curly
blond hair is just a friend)

Dead bones cremated at Lennarts work! (Lennart..one of my favorite
members works at a crematorium!)

 Bian and Leila at the Hägglunds! (most amazing miracle ever! Our
investigator Leila and her son Bian came to eat dinner with us at the
Hägglunds house!!)

 the couch (we didnt have a couch.. and anna didnt want her couch!
no problem with the help of some of the boys in the ward! Sys T is so
happy now :)

Aug 13: Can one have too many miracles in a week?? pshhh nahh Never!

It is always hard for me to come up with cool subject lines... hummm.
   Family! It was wonderful to hear from you all this week. I feel
very strange as a missionary right now. I am moving to my last area as
a missionary tomorrow. Kristianstan (Kri-juan(said spanish
like)-stad). I will be with Syster Vistaunet until September 20ish
when she goes home and then I will get a new missionary. Then I will
be with her for a little over 12 weeks... and my time is done as a
missionary. AHHHH YIKES!
    Yesterday was a wonderful last Sunday here in Alingsås. I love
this ward. I can't wait for you to meet them. I already told some of
them to expect to meet my family when I come back. :) Even though I
have been far far away from my family this summer Alingsås ward has
taken me in to their family. I'm going to miss these wonderful people.
      The most amazing part of yesterday was that Anna came to
church!!!  Anna is about 35 ish and she has two adorable kids. Alice
and Algot. Algot has Down syndrome and is about 2. Anna is a single
mother and we became friends through her friend Frida Mattson (who is
a member of the ward).  Anna is amazing! I love her so much and I have
loved getting to serve and teach her. This week we were over at her
house and we were talking about how it was going with Prayer. She has
never really prayed before and has had some negative experiences with
Christianity before hand... but now she wants to find out if there
really is a God. So she has been testing out praying. She said that
she finally just prayed and asked "Is what Frida is telling me... is it
all true?"  She then turned on the TV and a Mormon documentary was on
:)  That is not usual. She smiled and said... maybe that could be a
sign! :)
         SO! We rode our bikes over Sunday morning and helped the kids
get dressed and all loaded up in the car. I forgot how much it takes
to get a whole family to church compared to just little ol' me.   She
pulled into the parking lot... tons of other members in the parking
lot.  I couldn’t help but put myself in Anna's shoes and imagine
driving up into this parking lot with lots of other people all around
who know each other... and you know almost no one... I would be a little
nervous and not even want to drive into the parking lot.  BUT! Not to
worry we were there with her. We got out and Frida and her two girls
walked over to meet us.  We walked into the church... and it just went
perfectly! Everyone was so nice to Anna and Algot and Alice. They fit
in perfectly with the ward.  There was a baby blessing that day (The
Shrope family! I love them) and so there were a lot of visitors at
church.
       I leaned over to tell one of the members that it was Anna's
first time at church... His eyes went wide... He thought she was just
from another ward :)  YAY!! So I am very sad to leave Anna but I know
sys Talbot will take care of her. (I will send pictures of Anna)
   I was telling Syster Talbot during our personal study time that
there were toooo many miracles this week. I had a challenge getting
them all down in my journal.
 So... I will just stick with one more amazing story. Every night in my
nightly prayer as I "counsel with the Lord" (Alma 37:37) I try and
make two goals for the next day to try and be a little better. This
week a common one was prayer more often and more sincere.
  Saturday evening our lessons were canceled. We decided to head over
to this one area... but no one that we had wanted to see was home. I
felt pretty down. This was my second to last evening here in Alingsås.
I have been here for 5 months. Shouldn't I be with a whole bunch of
people who love me instead of out on the empty streets? So we had
about 15 more minutes till the bus came. We had one goal still
unaccomplished for the day.... we really wanted to get one more
investigator. We talked this over... but there was no one really out...
so we decided we could walk to the bus stop and start planning if no
one else was out. Well I had a silent prayer that if at all possible
we could reach this goal... and Almost more for Syster Talbot’s sake so
that she could feel happy and successful for the day.  We rounded the
corner about 2 meters from the bus stop and a girl walking her dog was
walking towards us. I turned to sys T and asked... should we contact
her... yah why not. We stopped and petted her dog and started talking.
   Turns out! Syster Erickson and Sprague helped her move into her apt
in March... and she knows one of the youth in the ward because she is
her teacher!! We asked her what she believes and if she would like to
learn more... she said yah! Sure... come back on Tuesday... WHAT!
       Please note. This is not normal in Sweden.

That was amazing! So Syster Talbot and Jackobs will be visiting her
next week :)  Heavenly Father answers prayers.
 I LOVE YOU ALL

Aug 6: Painting a House

We did some service for members this week and painted their house. They live out in the boonies! :) It is so pretty out there!

Posted with Blogsy

Aug 6: An old fisherman and helping home teaching

Hey FAMILY!
   What a wonderful day it is to be alive!  Glad to know you are all
alive. I can't believe how fast time flies. August has just begun but
it feels like it is almost over. YIKES! Christmas will be here before
you know it.
   Well.. lets just skip all the small talk and Ill just tell you
about some awesome miracles.
This week we had some great teaches with members. We have this
wonderful old man who lives in our house named Börje. He is probably
68ish and looks like a tough old fisherman. I think I might have
talked about him before. But we had our mission leader Thomas Hulldin
come. As we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon to Börje we talked
about baptism and why that is an important step. We had already talked
to Börje about Baptism and invited him to prepare to be baptized on
sept 1. So as we mentioned it he stopped us and said.. "I still don't
get why I have to be baptized again..."  Thomas stepped up to bat and
made a home run. He was a convert himself in his late teens and he did
a great job of explaining why he decided to be "baptized again."  It
makes such a huge difference when you have members helping in the
teaching.
   We also taught a young father named Alexander from Serbia about the
Word of Wisdom. He really likes our message and said he would like to
be baptized if he receives an answer. So as we taught him the 5 things
he needs to not eat/drink.. he said "I only have a problem with coffee
and smoking".  So I asked him how long it would take him to quit. I
was thinking maybe a month or two.. he says maybe three weeks.. and
coffee. No problem I can stop today. !! This might not sound so cool
to all of you. But one of my favorite things as a missionary is to see
these wonderful people that you teach start to take steps to change.
It is almost magical to see how they change themselves. Our biggest
problem here in Alingsås has been that people have not been wanting to
change.  But it is only when you do change that you can receive
miracles and gods help in your life.
  Another neat experience was being with the Holmberg Family. The mom
and dad left the church for a time and the mom was recently
reactivated. She also has a son who became a member. But the rest of
the family are not members. So we got invited to help home teach them
this week. That in itself was a miracle. Well as we were sitting there
talking.. it was only the mom and her daughter who has Down syndrome. I
had really hoped to have a chance to talk to some of the kids or the
dad. I all the sudden had a thought.. pray for help. So I had a little
prayer that HF would help me know how to best invite one of the sons
to an activity... how would I get the chance if I never saw him. Well!
After my prayer.. I thought.. I might as well just ask Elizabeth (mom)
if Viktor (son) would like to come to an activity for the young single
adults. She said.. I don you should ask him. He is downstairs in his
room playing on the comp. So with only 5 minutes to head out so we
could make our train--we knocked on his door and invited him.
    Now.. there are a lot of guys I have met who like to just sit at
the computer all day long.. and so my invitation could have been
accepted who knows how!  Maybe we would need to convince him.. he also
doesn’t really know anyone who will be there and he has never met me
before... But! He said yah sure. We traded numbers and he texted us
first and asked what time the activity would start.  ! YAY! We had the
chance to be there again on Saturday and invited another son to come
to family home evening with the young single adults. He said yes too!
SO we shall see what happens.
  Syster Talbot and I are having a good time together here in
Alingsås. I am really grateful that I get to be her companion. I have
learned a lot from her already. One thing that I really like about her
is that when something goes wrong and she gets upset... she never
stays upset for long. She doesn’t hold grudges and that is amazing! So
we had a little conflict during the week. It was a little tense for
about 1 min and then she was fine.. I was worried thinking.. yikes
what if she is mad at my the whole day. So the next hour I spent
worrying about it. haha Turns out after that one minute she had moved
on. I really have learned a lot in these short three weeks.
    But we got a call from president and it seems like I will be
leaving sometime soon. Unsure where but.. where ever it is it will be
my last area and I will be training a syster in sept. So! exciting way
to end the mission.

I just wanted to end with a little scripture thought. I love the book
of Mormon so much and learn so much every day. This week I was reading
in Heleman 5. WOW this chapter blows me away every time I read it. As
I was reading it this week I noticed something new. It said that as
Nephi and Lehi were surrounded by fire that they realized that it was
burning them and that the other bad guys couldn't touch them. They
received courage and started to teach.  It made me think... We don't
always know what God's plan is for us... maybe they could have died
like abinadi. But what we are to do is to follow the spirit with what
ever circumstances God puts us in. Nephi and Lehi realized.. Wow we
have a captured audience... they cant stop us from talking and we have
their full attention. Lets teach!!
    In our own lives we don’t always understand what God has up his
sleeve. But whatever circumstances we are in we should always stand
for what we know is right and follow the spirit. It will be ok. He has
it planned out.

Well!   Jag älskar er!

syster Schneiber II

July 30: Prayers Are Answered

Hej familj!
  Hur går det? I'm still here loving life as syster schneiber. Today
as we were riding the bus to the church to email.. I just couldn’t
believe it.. I'm in Sweden and I can speak Swedish and I'm a
missionary. Wow.
   Summer time is sometimes slow as a missionary.. and this week was
like that. But! There are always miracles to write down in my journal
each night. We went on a walk with a less active named Syren. I LOVE
THIS WOMAN. She has such a strong testimony but has a very hard time
getting to church. So as we walked I shared with her what I had been
reading in the Book of Mormon. I am at the beginning of Heleman. A war
just occurred and it was mainly because the Nephites were battling
against each other and then the Laminites were able to come in and
attack. I feel like this is a lot like our own lives. Often times there
are little civil war battles we face with ourselves. We might not know
where we stand on a certain principle, we have bad self-esteem, or in
our families we are having hard times, etc.  And then when we are weak
a bigger enemy has the chance to come in and take over.
   At first I couldn’t help but thinking.. if only the Nephites could
have been good and just stayed united.. then this battle would never
have happened. But then I realized.. when is life ever perfect? there
are always little battles. The most important thing is that even when
the enemy gets in.. as long as the Nephites turn to God for help--we
can win.  So in our own lives.. its ok that bad things happen and that
we make mistakes.. that’s life. It isn't meant to be perfect. The most
important part is what we do when there is a battle raging. Turn to
God and we can overcome.  :)  Well I shared this with Syren and asked
her about her life.  I didn’t think much about it then. It was just a
spiritual thought. But she texted us later that night and thanked us
for the message. It gave her hope and a new perspective on her life.
    I believe heavenly father leads us most often when we don’t even
realize it.  So it happened with Syren and that I just gave the right
spiritual message to touch her heart.
   There was another little miracle during the day. We had an
afternoon that was open and we decided after trying a few different
options that we would go to a less active. Well as we began walking to
her house I became very nervous. Sometimes working with less actives
can be the hardest part of our work. She comes from an active family
and... you just don’t want to do anything wrong that will make their
feelings towards the church worse.  So we kept walking and then I
thought.. it is such a beautiful day what are the chances of her being
home. She is probably at the beach or out with the kids.  It just felt
like there was a lot trying to make me turn around. But I had felt
like we really should visit her this week. So we kept walking and I
just kept praying that 1. she would be home and 2. that she would not
be angry with us and that we could get a return apt.  Well! we got to
the door and it was wide open. We knocked and her and her daughter
came to the door. Turns out her son was sick and that was why they had
to be home that day. We talked and shared a scripture and asked if we
could come back and maybe make American pancakes for the kids.  The
little girl thought that would be super cool. So hopefully we will get
to go back this week.
   Even though this story doesn’t seem so miraculous at all.. it was an
answer to my prayers.. and for that I am so grateful that we have a
heavenly father who loves us and cares about our simple prayers.  I
feel this way daily. I pray about such simple small things.. and I
can’t help but get excited and surprised every time my prayers are
answered.
   Now that I am the only one who really knows the area a lot of the
planning is placed upon me.  This can cause lots of stress and for
me.. one of the things I had a hard time at the beginning of my
mission was having open space in the day and not knowing what to do
with it.  But I have realized that I don’t need to worry about that so
much. Plan the best I can and when things fall through and our backup
plans fall through... it is because heavenly father has something else
planned. :)  That happened this week too. We invited a member to a
teach. We show up with the member and no one answers the door.  :(
that is not a good feeling. The member was super nice about it though.
So we decided well there is something else we need to be doing with
this extra time. We decided to stop by a few old investigators. One
named Kevin. We had gone by Kevin a few times and he never had time.
But this night he did! We sat outside on a beach and read the
introduction with him.  As he read it seemed to all finally click
about what the Book of Mormon really was. It was possibly one of my
favorite teaches in reading the book of Mormon. So! we are excited to
keep teaching him.
  That is all I have time for this week.  But I love you all. What
have you been learning in the Book of Mormon? How has God answered
your prayers this week?
  Love syster Schneiber

July 23: Trains!

Dear family!
     

  Well! Sys Talbot is here and sys Sprague has left in safety.
Sys Sprague left Wednesday morning. We had Peter and his daughter
Josefin take us to the train. We helped load her bags onto the train
and turned to jump off the train.... but the doors closed. Guess what,
once they close they stay closed till the next stop! So we ran to
find the conductor. We found her once the train had already started
picking up speed. She said, sorry! You will just have to get off at
the next stop.  Next stop was in Skövda... an hour away :) Haha   SO!
I got to stay with sys Sprague a whole other hour! It was a pretty fun
adventure. Peter said we are now Train friends.  Syster Talbot is
wonderful! She majored in piano at Weber state and is very ambitious
and likes to work hard. She has got a lot of energy and drive and wants
make it BIG.  I feel like being with sys Sprague helped me calm down
and learn to be more stable and happy about who I am as a missionary.
When I first came to Sweden sys E said I trained myself... I was
constantly wanting to go go go... I remember it being stressful on
sys E. But now that I've been out for a year I know how to be
effective and not waste so much energy in worrying and being stressed.
Sys Sprague helped me learn that a lot. Take things at a little slower
pace. Be happy and spread that joy.  Now that I am with sys Talbot I
feel I was running and all the sudden sys Talbot runs past me and is
keeping a faster pace and I have to keep up with her. It feels good to
be with someone who has big dreams, ambitious, obedient, and wants to
work hard. So now maybe I can keep this stable happiness AND run
faster. :)

There is something special about the Sweden Stockholm Mission. It is
called "The Second Harvest" While visiting a mission conference as an
apostle, Elder Hinckley addressed two Swedish missionaries who were
finishing their service. "Let me say a few words to you that I want
you to take home to Sweden." Then he lifted a glass of water and
pointed to it.
         "Sweden has for many years been like this glass of water —
not much action. In the middle 1800s when the first missionaries came
to Sweden, thousands of people joined the church. It was a great and mighty
harvest. When you go home, I want you to tell the members that there
will be a new harvest, a second harvest in Sweden, that will bring thousands of
Swedes into the church."

When the first missionaries came here to Sweden there were thousands
that joined the church and most of them moved to the states. But
Hinckley promised a second harvest… one greater than the first. We
have been working a lot towards that. When the temple was rededicated
Pre Monson prophesied this Second Harvest and said that it would come
when the members and the missionaries worked together. Sweden would
also be an example to other nations and help the harvest spread far
beyond Sweden.   SUPER COOL.  I really feel this prophecy beginning to
be fulfilled.  So that has been a big part of what I feel like my
mission has been. Trying to help the second harvest come to pass.
     Anna is the perfect example of this. Anna is our most positive
investigator. She is a member’s friend. We had dinner over at the
member’s house this week and Anna came with her daughter. We watched
the restoration Film and we talked about prayer afterwards. She heard
us say how we pray over daily things and she wondered... what kinds of
things do you pray for daily?? I can understand a big decision you
need help with... but daily small things? It was great to have the
members there to answer her question and I felt like it strengthened
the members too. If only every member could have a friend like Anna!
      Remember Alana from last week? She got baptized and we got to go
support her. Well what I forgot to tell you was that the total time it
took for Alana to meet the missionaries and get baptized. 1.5 weeks.
CRAZY!  So on Monday after Pday we went over to her apt and got to
talk to her about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Sys Sprague
and I feel like we got to really share in Alana's baptism and like we
got to be her missionaries too.  This woman is so sweet and humble. I
loved every minute spent with her.  I plan on keeping in contact with
this wonderful woman.
   Lastly! A quick super cool miracle. Saturday we didn’t have too many
of our plans turn out. We contacted a guy named Alexander with his
little baby son during the morning. We just contacted a Greek woman
before us and she said we could come back and give her a BOM. So when
we talked to Alexander and he said.. ya sure I'd like a BOM.. we were
really excited! Two new possible investigators!  Well we said we would
come back on Sunday to give them their BOM. We ended up back in
Alexander's neighborhood trying to find an old investigator. We sat
down to text someone before we headed into an apt complex when
Alexander called us and asked us if we could come teach him right now.
 We looked at each other.. What are the chances that our apt fell
through so we came back to his area.. and he calls us just then! So we
headed over there and ended up sitting at a picnic table and explained
the BOM. He is from Serbia and he kept talking about these other
people he had met with that were teaching him but he couldn’t find them
and he was really interested in our message. Turns out they are Jehovah
Witnesses.. but what was the coolest thing for me was just... how in
the world did we find this guy! He really does want to know. He really
is interested! It just blows my mind that we can find the small
percentage in the population who are really searching for God.. and
want to do something about it. :)
   It is just another point for God. He really does run this show and
has a plan. I know that.

I love being a missionary. I love having this chance to give up my
life in order to find it. I hope you all take the time to kneel down
in prayer and find out if Heavenly Father is really there for you too