September 28th letter

Elder Arko has been doing pretty well up in his new home of Norrland. He and his companion seem to be getting along quite well. Where Elder Loomis is from is an interesting story. His Dad was in the military, so he grew up in Virginia, Idaho, Panguitch (one of those weird small towns in Utah), Hawaii, and Germany. As of right now, his family is living in Virginia. He's a funny kid and Elder Arko is having a good time with him so far. Elder Loomis just hit his 3/4 mark so he's almost done. Elder Loomis is also the District Leader up there. The district consists of their area and Luleå which is the farthest mission North in Sweden. Coincidently, Elder Hanes (Elder Arko's MTC companion), is up there as well.

The branch up there has asked the Elders to do some service to help improve the church building. They've been painting and cutting the grass a little to give it a little face lift.

Elder Arko has been hearing a lot about the hunt coming up and is very jealous! The one thing that he has been missing A LOT is lacrosse. The weather there feels like it would when he started conditioning. He's looked around there, but there is NO lacrosse equipment at all! It's like trying to find ice skates in Jamaica.

He really wants some pictures of things that are going on at home. Speaking of pictures, here is one from him...it's Elder Loomis...

September 21st letter

Well, Elder Arko is now in the Northern region of Sweden and just trying to get settled in up there. It's very different up there and the branch is as small as he was told. Elder Arko thinks this transfer will be an interesting one. There were 9 people in church on Sunday and that was including Elder Arko and his new companion Elder Loomis. Elder Arko blessed the sacrament (along with Elder Loomis), introduced himself, and gave the closing prayer all in the same week! Elder Loomis led the music and next week is Elder Arko's turn. They're going to switch off on that every week. Elder Arko thinks it will be fun up there and is getting along pretty well with Elder Loomis so far.

If Elder Arko is lucky, he might be able to go to a sauna while he's up there! It's quite the thing to do during the winter. He learned a little bit about saunaing on his ride from Göteborg to Stockholm last week. They were riding with an Elder from Finland who had used a sauna basically all his life so Elder Arko is sure he'll be a pro when he gets home.

He'll try and take some pictures of more stuff this week so we can all see what kind of environment he's living in right now, but of course, no promises. Life gets too busy too fast as a missionary, but he'll try! Elder Arko sends his love to you all and hopes to hear from you!

This is a picture of his new space saver bags. They were really nice in helping with packing. Elder Arko doesn't know if he would have gotten it all in without these little life savers.

Elder Arko has a new hobby! While poking around in the apartment, he found a book called "14 ways to tie a necktie and other useful tips" so he's been having fun learning new ways to tie knots. This is one of the coolest ones called The Atlantic and he thinks it's sexy...or he thinks he's sexy...or both :)

Please notice that he is pulling EXACTLY the same face in both of his photos.

September 16th letter

Guess what this means?Transfers came and Elder Arko is MOVING!! He's way excited, but a little sad to leave Alingsås. He is going to be heading up to Skellefteå which is just a little South of Luleå (the farthest mission North in Sweden!!!)

Elder Arko isn't too worried about going so far North. He's heard it gets cold, but not too cold and he has a nice warm coat right now and a rain jacket so he thinks he'll be just fine.

He's going to Göteborg today and then will head to Stockholm tomorrow morning. He'll be able to visit with some other missionaries and maybe do some sight seeing. At 8:00pm he'll get on a night train (so he can sleep) and travel up to Umeå. After that, he'll take a bus to his new area. Elder Arko's MTC companion, Elder Hanes, is up in Luleå so they will be in the same district now.

Alingsås (A) to Skellefteå (B) aprox 1,076 km With the transfer comes a new companion. His name is Elder Loomis and he is in the same group as Elder Arko's trainer, Elder Stocks. Another change is the size of the branch in Elder Arko's new area. Apparently there is only about 5-8 members in church. The missionary Elder Arko is replacing asked him if he could lead music since that would be his new duty in sacrament meeting. Elder Arko is so excited!!! He's hopeful that he can help the place grow a little.

Good luck to Elder Arko with his new adventure!

September 7th letter

Elder Arko is approaching his 6th month mark! He can't believe how time flies. He said he's not sure about the whole tie burning thing since he likes all of his ties. Maybe he'll find a junk one in the apartment and burn it just for fun. The next time anyone hears from him, he'll be 1/4 of the way done with his mission! That may sound like a long time to us and Elder Arko, but his companion, Elder Seegmiller, has been out there for about a year and 4 months, so that makes 6 months not seem so long :)

The Elders ride a bus for about an hour to get to Trollhättan for their weekly visit. They usually just sleep in the apartment the church has there Friday night get up and work Saturday and go back to Alingsås Saturday night. Elder Arko hasn't met many members in Trollhättan, but the ones he has met are the good ones that invite them to dinner or for a game of innebandy.

Elder Arko is learning a lot about budgeting money. Since the economy here has started to rebound, the dollar has gone up in value which means he gets less money. However, they are still getting a healthy amount of member dinners which are really fun for them. Elder Arko really enjoys visiting the members there. They are strong families because they live in very low LDS populated areas. It seems like it would be very hard to raise a family in the church in that environment, so it's really cool to see how strong some of the families are in the gospel.

Elder Arko recently learned that they have a family in their ward that has 8th generation members so that's pretty cool. He also learned that there were many people that moved from Sweden to the United States when the church was first starting. It's been really fun for him to learn about the history and Tolennart is who they usually learn the interesting facts from. However, it's delivered in Swedish and very complex Swedish and a lot of times it goes over Elder Arko's head, but it's good practice for him.

Well, Elder Arko is still having fun being a missionary. The Elders had a good teach in Trollhättan with a man that really wants to learn more and seems very open. They challenged him to read and pray about it; Elder Arko is excited to see how it will go with him on Saturday when they meet with him again.

Elder Arko says thanks for the e-mails and the letter. He also sends his love!

Elder Arko found this at a tourist byrå and just had to have it. It's a patch to sew on something. Now he just needs something to sew it on to :)

Elder Arko was poking around in the storage area of their apartment and he found this...

A bean bag :) It's his new favorite seat in the house and where he will be studying from now on. He was so excited when he found it!