HI! Everything is great!
So we got our travel plans! It turns out that we're leaving on SUNDAY! The 15th! Super cool! We report to the travel office at 5:00 AM. Our flight leaves at 8:30 AM and it's a 5 hour flight to JFK in New York. We're there from 3:11 to 5:10 and then we take an 8.5 hour flight to Sweden and land at 7:45 AM. That should be really fun! I've never been to New York before, let alone Sweden! Hopefully I'll be able to talk to some people on the way and have some great experiences.
I bought a cheap calling card ($3.50) that should work at the airport. If there's time I might try and call before my flight in SLC, so anytime from 5:30-7:30 your time. I have no idea, so I guess just have the phone close. Then I'll definitely try to call in NY, but that's such a quick layover I might not have much time. But maybe from 12:30-2:00 your time. I guess you'll have to miss the last two hours of church! Sorry!
I'm looking forward to talking with you. :) Hopefully that all works out okay.
I've heard that I'll get a chance to email home when I get there. Mondays are P-days. I'm not sure when I'll know my address, but I'll get it to you when I can.
Mom, when you find out my address in Sweden, could you get it to Kaylyn? It would take me awhile to get it to her otherwise, so that would really help a lot. Thanks!
Apparently there's a facebook group where Sister Newell puts up all kinds of stuff about the missionaries. Maybe you should find and stay informed.
So Dear Elder tomorrow is the last chance you'll have to contact me before I leave. I'm pretty sure I have everything I need. My money and bags should work.
Some cool stories: Last week we got to clean the Provo temple! It's closed this month, so they assigned us to go over there and volunteer for a few hours. That was really cool! And it was super weird to see the temple in disrepair, with custodial closets open, wallpaper taken off and everything not in use. We cleaned the men's and women's ordinance worker locker rooms with toothbrushes and toothpicks. I actually enjoyed it since it was in the temple.
On Friday in the TRC Elder Tomlinson and I got to teach a whole family! The mother spoke really good Swedish, though with an American accent so it was easy to understand. She learned from her parents, and she's been teacher her kids, who were really good. The 14-year old girl and the 10-year old boy were excellent. The 1-year old boy was super cute! When the mother asked him, "Var är missionärerna?" (Where are the missionaries?) he looked right at us! And she had a 12-year old non-member step daughter who couldn't speak Swedish very much. I hope that was a good experience for her.
We taught how to receive answers through prayer. The Swedish in that lesson was just flowing. It was so cool! The mother said at one point, "Of course prayer works! Your Swedish is amazing! It's the gift of tongues!" It was so cool that we had that miracle to really make it an impactful lesson for the family.
I feel that I'm basically ready for Sweden. It will be a shock, but there's not much more I can learn here. So here I go!
Last Friday we had a super epic soccer game. It was 6 Britts verses 5 Americans, and somehow it was actually quite evenly matched! I like playing with fewer players like that because we all participate quite a bit. I usually play defense, but halfway through I got moved to offense. At the very end of the game, I was running towards the goal on the left side, and got this awesome cross to me. I sped up as much as I could and was able to get my right foot on it. It bounced in the air right in front of me, and I smashed it with my left past Elder Tomlinson's fingers, behind the crossbar and into the top of the goal. It was so awesome! Elder Tomlinson later described it as a "screamer" because of how everyone reacted. :) Run, bounce, smash. Yes.
Mom, that's really funny about Sister Hess speaking Swedish to you. I wonder how good she is. It'll be fun to converse with her when I get back.
Yesterday we learned that Äldste is actually an adjective rather than a noun. Brother Winegar told us about one elder he knew named Äldste Drake, which translated literally as "Oldest Dragon." YES! :D
Elder Tomlinson and I have been teaching two of our teachers as investigators. One of them, Viktor, got "baptized" last Saturday! It was really cool to work with him to get all the way there. I'm looking forward to real experiences like that in the field.
Yesterday we got to host again and help the arriving missionaries get their nametag, keys and books, find their residence nad get to their classroom. That was really cool! I helped an Elder Atwood from Alberta going to Provo, and an Elder Christiansen from Sandy, UT going to Thailand. That moment when they get out of the car and say good-bye for two years is crazy intense. And to see that repeated over and over again down the sidewalk! I was glad to be able to help those two elders in that very critical part of their mission--the very beginning.
I hope all is well for all of you. I hope you're enjoying your summer! I'm SO excited to get to Sweden! I'll take lots of pictures and send home plenty in letters. Hopefull you'll be able to experience some of that with me. I'll have plenty to talk about when I get home.
I finally feel like a real missionary. I'm ready to do this. This last week was so great! I've had so many amazing experiences and I've grown tons. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! I can feel them.
I know this church is true. I can feel Christ's love for me constantly. I'm so excited to share that good news with the world!
Love,
Elder Lawrence
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