January 25th letter

Hello from Elder Arko!
Here is what He has been up to this past week. He left Skellefteå, his old area, at about 5:30pm on Wednesday and arrived in Umeå around 8pm. He then took a bus to a nearby town called Vännas and caught a train there at about 11:45pm ((Elder Arko: insert song "Don't stop Believe'n" excerpt about taking a midnight train going anywhere :) I'm soo clever). He then arrived in Stockholm at about 9:00 the next morning. After waiting about a 3 hours, He caught a train to Lund (a city close to Malmö) and arrived around 4:30pm. That is when Elder Arko finally met His new companion, Elder Depew. Getting off the train was quite the adventure for Elder Arko. The train tried to pull away too fast and all His luggage wasn't off! They got it figured out and ended up on the road aroung 6:00pm and arrived in Karlskrona around 8:00pm so more than 24 hours of travel for Elder Arko. It was quite the adventure for Him.

Elder Depew, who has been out about 3 months longer than Elder Arko, is from Georgia. When Elder Arko first arrived in Sweden, Elder Depew was serving in an area close so they knew of each other. Elder Arko is excited and thinks his new companion is pretty cool.

Elder Arko's last few days in Skellefteå were pretty fun. They took a pretty nice P-day where they went to a ski resort (that was closed at the time) to go sledding. They looked at purchasing sleds, but didn't want to spend 50 krowns on them so they improvised. Elder Dees took a cooking pan while Elder Arko selected a cardboard box. The cardboard box didn't go very fast, but the views from the middle of the ski slope were pretty cool even though they had to walk up it themselves.

Elder Arko also said goodbye to a lot of people in Skellefteå and it was sad for Him to leave, but He's really excited about their new branch. It is most definitely bigger than His last one and there is more going on so we'll see what this new transfer brings.

Elder Arko is working towards being able to drive in Sweden. That involves learning the signs and all the rules, but He doesn't have to get a new license. He can drive there with His American drivers license for a year and then just has to get it renewed so that is lucky. Elder Arko is very excited to start driving again. He has missed with all the trains and buses He's been using.

The apartment the Elders are in isn't too big and it's kinda messy from unpacking so hopefully we'll get to see pictures next week after they have a chance to clean up a little, but no promises.

In regards to weather, it's only a little bit warmer where Elder Arko is now than when He was up in the North. However, it doesn't stay cold the whole day where He is now, so it's not as bad. They most definitely see the sun more which is good.

January 18th letter

Elder Arko has been having a good time. Around transfer time, rumors spread like wild fire in the mission and everyone wants to find out before transfer call day where everyone will be going. However, lies are told just to keep everyone on there toes so they are rarely accurate. Elder Arko found out that He'll be heading WAY down South to a town called Karlskrona. Skellefteå to Karlskrona: 1,261 km – about 15 hours 37 mins

The bad news is He's leaving the frozen North (which sounds like good news to me)...but oh well, life goes on. The good news is Elder Arko gets a CAR!!! Some more good news for Elder Arko is His new companion. He is a very fun loving guy and Elder Arko is positive they are going to have a BLAST together. Elder Arko is also excited because in His travels He'll probably be able to get to see a lot of friends throughout the mission He hasn't seen for a while.

Last week was pretty interesting for Elder Arko. He had lutfisk at a members house again and it wasn't as bad as the first time. For those of you who don't know about lutfisk, here it is. A fish is taken and laid in lye, a very basic substance, and that washes a lot of flavor out of the fish making it not taste at all. Also, most of the bones turn to a jelly-like substance. Then, it is served with an onion sauce. Yum. He also tasted cow tongue. The member was smart and waited until after He tried to tell Him what it was.

That's all from Edler Arko for now.

January 11th letter

It has warmed up a little over in Sweden and Elder Arko is only dealing with temperatures right around freezing the past few days. The Elders had Sharpening this past week and it was really fun for Elder Arko to get together with other missionaries and just have a little break from the day to day life. On their way to sharpening, there was a line of cars in front of them making them have to slow down on the freeway. The Elders wondered what was going on and then they saw a herd of reindeer that were crossing the road! Elder Arko scrambled for his camera and only got a few pictures, but this was the best one.If you look closely you can see some of them have collars on. The Sami (Suomi), or natives, can herd and own them. It's apparently quite expensive if you hit one that is owned. The Elders were very tempted to stop and try and get one to cook for the meeting they were going to :)

Some more exciting news is transfers are next week! Elder Arko thinks he'll be staying in his current area, but he's not sure. He is hoping to stay because seeing the Aurora Borealis is something he hasn't done yet, but really really wants to!

One thing that will keep the Elders busy is and English class! They have started doing it to help a few people out. They have also received a new load of potential investigators because of it. Elder Arko has had some good tracting recently and gave out 3 Books of Mormon.

This is their meeting house after a pretty good snow storm. Elder Arko and the others had a good time keeping the snow off of it.

January 4th letter

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Elder Arko!!! To be honest, Elder Arko didn't celebrate New Years too much because He had a lot to do and yes, they were still suppose to observe missionary hours :) so no countdown for them, but oh well :) HAPPY 2010! Elder Arko was so busy New Years Eve with...CLEANING THE CHURCH (and the font). Now that doesn't sound very exciting for You and Me, but they were cleaning it for a man who was going to get baptized the next day! Elder Arko's first baptism!!! Yay!!! It was a very cool experience for Elder Arko and Austin was extremely ready.

Here is a picture of Elder Arko and Austin right before the service started.

Elder Arko said there's just one tiny little problem with getting Austin baptized...they just lost their best investigator to the church :) I'm sure the pros FAR outweigh that one little con :) Now the Elders will be hard at work looking for new ones!

The Elders have found a new sport. It consists of jumping off hills of snow that were made by tractors and landing into...SNOW! Elder Arko said they sink in about to their belly buttons and then have a hard time getting out. It's their end of the day activity and they go indoors soon after their jumps!

Elder Arko can't wait to start getting mail again. In Sweden around the Holidays mailmen make bank! They get soo many days off! The weather isn't getting any worse right now so Elder Arko is doing great!

Here is a picture when Elder Arko went inland a little and saw the beautiful landscape. It was right before the sun set...at 1 ish...which is still pretty crazy for Him.

Elder Arko also wants to say, "Happy Birthday Mom! My card to You is going to be a little late because everything was closed down for New Years, but I'll get one to you! :) I hope you have a great day!"

That's all for now from Elder Arko. He sends his love!