October 26th letter

Elder Arko is doing fine over there in Sweden. They've been super busy these past few days. They did get a few inches of snow the other day and it stuck for a day, but it's all melted now. It's still been hanging around 0ut there, so they're getting used to being in the cold. Elder Arko was informed by Elder Loomis that they might go to the beach one P-Day, so Elder Arko is thinking he might get a little sun bathing in...or not :)

And now a little about his home. They have one of the only two-story apartments in the mission, if not the only one. They also have heated floors! It is really nice in the mornings because when Elder Arko gets out of bed, the floor is warm and that is actually how their whole apartment is heated.

Elder Arko has gotten out of leading the music; Elder Loomis does it now and he just gets to sit there. Last week Elder Arko did give a talk and again everyone was very nice and said he did very well. He feels he did pretty well, but as always he was nervous...Swedish is hard. Elder Arko thinks he's getting better most of the time, but some days he just has no clue what anyone says to him at all. It's very frustrating for him.

The Elders have been visiting this older lady and she just loves to knit like she is addicted, so the second time they went and visited her she had knitted them a pair of socks! So now Elder Arko has a pair of wicked awesome knitted socks :)

October 24th letter

This email was a little late because the library Elder Arko uses has been closed for a while and this was the first chance he had to email this whole week! Also, some news from Elder Arko...they just got their first little bit of snow this week and it has stuck so he's pretty sure he'll be seeing white until March or April unless he moves somewhere else. It is now getting dark very early in Sweden. It starts getting dark around 4pm and is completely dark by about 6pm.

Elder Arko is sad he missed the hunt this year, but he did meet and talk with a native Swede whose Father has been hunting moose around those parts for most of his life, so that was very fun to hear about.

The Elders had their District Conference this week. It's like Stake Conference, but they only have a district. It was hard for Elder Arko because it was all in Swedish and they use too many big words over the pulpit, but he'll get it soon. They had fun travelling to Umeå with the Elders from Luleå. Elder Arko likes that he doesn't have to do the driving that the Luleå Elders do. They have to drive so much and so often.

The Elders have heard that Swine Flu has been running around Skellefteå pretty freely. Some of the schools have been closed because of it, so hopefully they will keep themselves out of that whole situation.

Elder Arko thanks everyone for the letters. Until Monday!

This is a landscape shot from up by Elder Arko's little old town of Skellefteå

This is a bridge at about 8pm up in Luleå, a town about a hour and a half North of where Elder Arko lives

October 12th letter

Things have been a little crazy for Elder Arko lately. He wasn't home in Skellefteå very much last week. The Elders left Saturday morning and got back Wednesday morning. During those 4 days, they went on a 2 hour bus ride to Luleå, left for Stockholm on Monday night and stayed there for a night, had their Zone Conference with a General Authority, and the same day flew back to Luleå. They slept there one night and then took another bus ride back to Skellefteå. Crazy! Although it was stressful, they had a good time. Elder Arko also enjoyed mission conference and got to see some people he hadn't seen in a while.

It is starting to get colder in Sweden and it starts getting dark around 6 or 6:30. Elder Arko thinks he's ready to take on a Swedish winter :) They are having fun trying to get some work done and having a good time with all the people they're working with, investigators and less actives alike. They've also come up with a few ideas to give their little branch a push in the right direction.

Elder Arko recently tried another European meal. Elder Loomis (even thought he knew he didn't like it) bought a pouch of Blood pudding (because it was 5 crowns). Elder Arko said, "Yeah, it was not good at all. Ben (who served in England) if you liked that stuff, I don't think I'll trust your taste buds again." Obviously he didn't enjoy his encounter with that British dish.

No pictures this week, but Elder Arko can't wait to hear from everyone again. He LOVES YOU!!!!!

October 5th letter

So this last week has been adventurous for Elder Arko. First of all, he would like to wish Grandma Arko a Happy Birthday! There's a card in the mail for her :)

He also hopes everyone had a good time watching General Conference. He did get to listen to conference, but it's funny because of the time delay. They watched the Saturday morning session on Saturday, the Priesthood session, the Saturday evening session, and the Sunday morning session on Sunday. Since the Sunday evening session played too late for them to watch, Elder Arko still hasn't seen that session yet! There's more. Since their branch is too small to get the broadcast, they travelled to the branch in Luleå to watch it. However, that branch isn't too big either, so they ended up watching it all in SWEDISH! Elder Arko definitely would have enjoyed it better in English, but wasn't completely lost with it being in Swedish.

The Elders just stayed in Luleå for the weekend because today they are flying into Stockholm for their Missionary Zone Conference (turns out it is just as cheap to fly them from Luleå to Stockholm as it is for them to take trains). Elder Arko is excited because they have an Area Authority coming and it seems like he wants almost all the time to talk to the Missinaries so we'll see what he has to say.

Elder Arko can't believe how much his nieces are growing up! The pictures he saw of them on the elk hunt were 'ridiculously cute' and is glad Britlee is being so outdoorsy. No girly girls in our family!

The Elders visited a family in Sweden and they have a little girl that is just about Britlee's age and it was so fun for Elder Arko. For one thing, she switches back and forth between English and Swedish, but she just wanted to show Elder Arko everything and tell him everything she had to play with. She reminded him a lot of what he thinks Britlee is like now so it makes him miss her lots. They also have a 2 week old so a baby and a toddler, just like Paizlee and Britlee.

The dialect is different up in Norrland (the North region of Sweden). It's not too different just how you pronounce some sounds so it hasn't been to difficult for Elder Arko. There are a few places that have almost a completely different language where they have made new words for different things! One of them is called Bonska and one member likes trying to teach us some. Elder Arko says he has enough trouble learning Swedish basics and he doesn't need to learn the complex stuff yet :)

He has been having a great time with Swedish and can hold a conversation now! It's getting to be really fun for him. He can't believe in a week he'll have been out 7 months! It's going by amazingly fast for him.

Elder Loomis made a Skor cake this week for conference and district meeting. It has caramel, whipped cream and usually Skor (the candy bar). Way too much sugar, but it was fun for them to make and eat.

This is how cold it was when they woke up one morning.It's starting to get cold there, but don't worry that is Celsius. It's just barely dipping below freezing right now so it's gonna be a fun winter for Elder Arko. He's very excited! Well, he's off to fly to Stockholm now!