Lesson Learned: Don't Bother Unpacking

Good Morning, Everybody! Or, should I say, good morning, afternoon, and evening! I must say, it is really fun having an international audience. Welcome again, one and all, to this week's broadcast of Äldste and the Swede with your wonderful host, me! This week's episode is going to be absolutely packed with interestingness, because it's a transfer episode! Now, I know that some of you are thinking "weren't you just transferred to Linköping three weeks ago?" Yeah, that's what I said. I'll be honest right now, if it weren't for the fact that my boss is the all knowing, all powerful God of everything, I would be a little upset right now. I've been here just long enough to get on my feet, grow attached to the people that I was working with, and begin making big plans for the future of this area. But I know that the Lord knows best, and I'm sure that the new missionary he sends here will do an amazing job and take care of the people I care about.

So before I tell you where I am going, I think I'll talk a little about how this week went. To set an overall rating, I would say it went fairly well, if not a little slowly. We did see some really cool stuff this week: one of our investigators began to do släktforskning (the much more fun way to say Family History work) and is super excited about it, and we have another who plans on coming to our family home evening tonight, which is pretty awesome considering she hasn't wanted to come into the chapel for weeks, if not months! Yay for Family Home Evening!

Oh, there is also a really cool experience I thought I would share with you guys! So I was standing around at the bus station last week, and was looking for a chance to talk to someone about the Gospel (trying to break out of my shyness with contacting). I look to my left, and see this really sketchy looking dude with this gnarly looking beard. My first inclination was to be like "nope, keep moving," but I felt impressed that I should speak to him. So I did! And you know what? He was totally awesome! I won't say any names (the fact this email goes on a blog makes me leery to put up other people's information), but I can say this much: he is studying to become a preacher, and was super interested in -guess what?- family history work! Seriously, I am feeling the love with the whole "find your ancestors" vibe. It really helps people connect to the Gospel on a personal level, AND it helps them feel comfortable coming to the chapel, because they have already been there to do family history work! I'm taking it as a sign: God wants us to teach people through släktforskning. Oh, and on that note, I am super exited because I helped clean up some of my family tree this week! Man, I love that we are required to use an hour a week to work on our own family history. Life rocks.

But yeah, that was really the week. So where am I going, you may ask? The answer: Karlskrona. Yep, I'm headed even farther south. Literally, I am going to the bottom border of Sweden. (for those of you who have no idea where Karlskrona is, it's right here: http://goo.gl/maps/4t8QY )

So am I excited? Honestly, I have mixed feelings. While I am excited to apply myself in a new place, I am NOT looking forward to the dialect I am headed to. From what I have been told, in Karlskrona, they speak Blekingska, which is a bad combination of Skånish (mix Danish and Swedish) and Smålandska (also supposedly hard on the ears). I'm sure the people will be absolutely wonderful; I just hope I'll be able to understand them! In all seriousness, though, I am sure that it will be a wonderful place, and that I will love it as much as I loved all my other areas. I guess time will tell.

Anyways, I think that's about it for today. I hope that you all have a wonderful day, and that you remember how much I love all of you! Especially those of you who write me. ;)

Signing out till next week,
Äldste Kody Christopher Ogaard

P.S. Picture of the week: Some super awesome clouds that totally made me think about the Second Coming. Yeah, that's right, I'm going all missionary on you.