I'm trying to focus on being grateful

Hejsan Familj!

That means hello family. you say it like heysahn famil....there's your swedish lesson for the day. oh and mom to smile is att leenda. you say it like aht layndah. fun times. swedish is insane. it's so fun, but i've kinda hit a plateau this week. it's been hard because the norwegian missionaries left on monday and we were all really close. also we got word that one of our teachers it quitting in 2 weeks. yeah monday was rough. we did have an amazing experience in the trc...teaching recouce center. that's where we go to practice teaching. our "investigator" was really responsive and the spirit was really strong. i've been a little worried bcause i don't quite know how to teach with the spirit yet and monday was an answer to a prayer. we have to teach in swedish on monday...yikes! keep your fingers crossed that we can do it. there are still huge gaps in out vocabulary. in english and swedish. anyway (iallafal in swedish...) conference was amazing! it was super neat here. that's definitely and experience that i'll always remember. if i had to choose a favorite talk it would be the one about how you're never lost when you can see the temple. mom, i thought of you during that one. i also absolutely LOVED elder perry's talk about being member missionaries. i don't think we realize how important that is. every single one of us has a chance to share this amazing gospel and we should take advantage of it. president monson's talk was also amazing, of course. and elder holland. i can't choose.

joe, i'm glad that your baseball team won last night! and sarah...CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING A JOB WITH CHANDLER!!!!!!!!!! i'm so excited for you that i had to write in all caps for a minute. you HAVE to write me and tell me all about your crazy skills testing day. and don't freak out about mesa. you are a good lifeguard and whether you get a job there or not doesn't change that. remember that they're closing half of their pools this summer so they won't be hiring very many people. please don't get down on yourself. one of the things i'm trying to focus on is being grateful. so when you start to feel sad about something, think of something that you're grateful for. play the glad game! we can all play it together!

Mom, i'm glad that you had a good birthday. saturday sure was rough because i wanted more than anything to be there with you. just remember that after your next birthday, i'll only have 7 months left and than we can go shopping and stuff. and if you want to use my gogglers they're in one of the drawers under my bed. they're pink. AND PRETTY!!! quick sarah, what's that from? oh and thank you so much for the parcel...(sorry, i'm reading jake's email...). it was so nice to just sit down and sing. i'm going to audition for firesides next week. hopefully it's not too late. i'll only have 3 weeks left then. can you believe that i've been here that long?! i leave for sweden in 4 1/2 weeks! also have so much fun at the easter pageant. i was thinking about it last night. we had a great devotional with vaughn j. featherstone and he talked about a nonmember that he met at the manti pageant and what a great missionary opportunity that is. if any of you have the chance, please take someone who is not a member of the church to the easter pageant. you won't be sorry. also, remember to love everyone. that's one of the things that i'm learning is that without love, you can't so anything. elder maxwell said that "love may not be reciprocated, it may not be appreciated, but it is never wasted." so love everyone!

dad, i', so glad that the new yogi's finally oopened. you must have been such a happy boy! and i am totally jealous. the closest we get to japanese food here is teriyaki stix that they bring in on friday nights and it's yucky.

oh i forgot to tell you that sister wood's mom has a friend who knows mom's cousin dana. she says their last name is pedersen and they live in cedar city...so yeah. also, we had a new elder come last night from denmark who's going to norway whose brother goes to mesquite high. random, but pretty cool. i have so much more to tell you, but my time is almost up. i miss you and love you all so much! keep smiling and praying.

love,
sister elisabeth.