Elder Arko: June 1st letter

Okay, I may or may not have started this post a few weeks ago and just finished it...sorry, I've been in Utah! Okay here we go! One of the first things Elder Arko mentioned was our lack of letter writing! This is taken directly out of his letter "Lets see, I've only gotten one letter since I've been in sweden so people start writing! I wanna hear from all of you, think of how much you miss me.... or how much you miss someone important and then multiply it by however many of you I left behind :) yeah that's a lot."

He needs letters! I once heard a missionary say that letters (that come snail mail...or in this case air mail) are like pay checks! I know it's hard to get to the post office and pay 98 cents to have it delivered, but the blessings that you received will far outweigh the effort that you put in! Okay, I'll get off my soap box.

Moving right along. Elder Arko says although he misses everyone, he has found himself easily getting lost in all the work. His district has set a high goal for this transfer so hopefully with the focus on finding work they will soon see the rewards. He's been working a lot with the members recently trying to get the ward jumpstarted into missionary work and thinks it will definitely happen. Next week (which has already past since it took me so long to finish this post) will be a big week for Elder Stocks and Elder Arko. They had a lot of appointments set up or people that they have to call back who would be fantastic investigators. They also have two familys they are trying to visit.

In regards to Elder Arko's digestive system, he thinks his stomach is getting used to the food there and he's able to sleep more now because of a blanket that they put up to keep the sun light out since it seems to rise at 4 am. And it's BRIGHT! However, summer is almost halfway through so that won't last long. Everyone there says He will be missing the sun during the winter because it's only up for a little while.

Here is a funny story told by Elder Arko..."Oh, so language mistake time. We were going to the church for ward council meeting and while at the church I was talking to a guy named Björn (I think that is how you spell it.) Anyway, it means bear in Swedish, pretty cool. He said he went to the MTC so I asked him where he went on his mission (all in Swedish of course). He said 'Ryssland'. Now they say the R very fast and quiet...so I interpreted it as Iceland. Ryssland is actually Russia. So, we talked a little more and he said he was in St. Petersberg (nope I still didn't catch on) and in fact I said, "I didn't know they had a St. Petersberg there". He then said, "right, there is one in Florida" and I said, "well I know they have one in Russia too because my friend served there on his mission". Luckily right about then is when our conversation was interupted by another person and what is even better is I didn't learn about it till we were riding home and Elder Stocks told me that he went to Russia on his mission..... ha ha we had a good laugh about how stupid he must think I am."

In my opinion, the best part of his letter was the end. He informed up that he has started doing streches before he goes to bed that help him sleep better, and sends a shout out to Hillary (who must have been the supplier of a book or something). He gets 30 minutes a day to exercise and is thinking that Yoga is the way to go. If any of you blog readers have any tips or tricks in the art of stretching or Yoga, that information would be greatly appreciated by Elder Arko!

On a side note, everyone in Sweden thinks Arko is Finnish?! What the heck?!

(Another direct quote from Elder Arko)

And now for some pictures!

These are 20 and 100 Swedish Krona which together equal about 17 U.S. dollars