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.