Elder Carter Denton

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Sweden, Stockholm - Return Missionary Reunion Camp Out

Sweden, Stockholm - Return Missionary Reunion Camp Out
September 6 & 7, 2019

Carter's been home 3 weeks

Welcome Home Elder Carter Denton 08/15/19

Welcome Home Elder Carter Denton - Video

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DRVyDx47ZeJEMQSn9

Week 97 - The Last One

Week 97 - The Last One

Wow, and just like that, it's over!

I'll be flying to Stockholm tomorrow and I'll be flying to the US on Thursday. I am going to miss all the awesome people I've met here. They've changed my life. It feels like so long ago in a way that I hopped on the plane coming to Sweden, but at the same time it feels like it was literally last week.

As for my week, I've said bye to everyone in Övik this week. We had an awesome meeting with someone we've been working with on coming back to church. He promised that he'd go to church next week. It was awesome to see the progress he has made.

I'm excited to see everyone back at home!

Mycket kärlek och ha det så bra!
Äldste Denton

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Week 96 - Swedish Farm, French Girls

Wow I go home next week! I have a million emotions right now. I'm
stilling loving life but I'm also excited to come home and start the
next stage of my life.

We had a great week! One highlight was getting to travel out to some
members that live too far away to come to church and help on their
farm! We got to eat really good food that was home made and home grown
and home milked. So good! We also got to meet two girls working as
interns that were staying there with them from France. They were
awesome and we now have contact with them. The couple that owns the
farm reads from the Book of Mormon at every meal so they got their own
copies in French and they thought it was very interesting!

We also had the Elders from Skellefteå come and stay for work-overs
and that was fun. Elder Ahonen and I are both going home so it made
the reality kinda hit us of how little time we really have left.

A scripture I really liked this week.

1 Nephi 11

"22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which
sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men;
wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul."

Experiencing the love of God changes our hearts, but it takes work for
us to realize how much God really loves us. What kind of work? We have
to learn about Him and try the virtue of His word in order to truly
understand and experience how much God really loves us. We don't earn
His love; He gives it freely to everyone. However, we do have to work
to understand it. We learn about God by having experiences with Him.
The scriptures work as a guide to help us have our own personal
experiences with God by telling about other people's experiences with
God. No wonder Nephi learned that the rod of iron in his father's
vision represented the word of God and that only by clinging to it and
continuing to follow where it led could they taste the fruit that
filled Lehi's soul with "exceedingly great joy".

I love you all,
Hope you have a great week!
Äldste Denton

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Week 95 - Surströmming

Week 95 - Surströmming

I crossed off one of my bucket list items this week and ate surströmming. We had a guy offer to eat it with us and help us prepare it the way you're supposed to eat it. He and his mom both love it and both ate with us. We started with the whole fish and had to cut a nice filé before putting it on some thin bread with potatoes, onions, and sour cream. The smell is much worse than the taste, but the taste ain't too great either. Basically surströmming is just fermented herring (herring is a type of fish) and the reason it started was to preserve the herring to last through the off-season. Not many people actually like it, but it seems like a lot of people have tried it. Now I'm one of them.

We also had zone conference this week and it was a little surreal. We had it in the same chapel in Stockholm where I found out who my trainer was and where my first area would be. I remember standing up to give my testimony in broken Swedish at that meeting with my whole mission in front of me. Now I got to stand and give my testimony again with all but a couple weeks behind me. What an awesome feeling.

Today for p-day we took a ferry out to an island with a little summer town on it. It was pretty fun. On the way back, it got windy and cold and the only seats were outside so we got pretty cold. We sat in a spot where we started getting pretty wet from the waves and everyone thought it was pretty funny. It was like the splash zone at Sea World. We survived though and it was super fun. Pictures of that trip below.

Well, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Denton

Week 94 - I'm On Top of the World (eh!) - Imagine Dragons

Wow what a week!

I hit a new record this week and traveled the furthest north I've ever been for workovers in Skellefteå. (64°46'02 N) It was great to be with Elder Ahonen. He's an awesome friend. We got some work in and ate good food thanks to Elder Ahonen's mad cooking skills.

We also caught a a guy that we've been swinging by forever at a perfect moment this week and he finally give us his number and talked to us a little longer. He's a really awesome guy and he and his family have a ton of potential.

We also saw a guy that feeds a limp fox. He says she's not a pet, just a friend. Super cool. We also went to a cave today. The entrance was really narrow and it felt like you were going to get squished by the rocks.

That's it for me this week :)

Love,

Äldste Denton

Week 93 - Icebreakers

It's been a great week. We had our live district council for the transfer and the sisters from Umeå and Sundsvall came and visited. Övik is such a pretty town. It's really growing on me.

We met some awesome sailor guys Saturday night and become real chums with them. They were here with a giant icebreaker on it's way up north. The next day they opened up the ship for people to come aboard. We got to talk to them again and we got to meet a bunch of other really nice crew members. We had a great conversation with a curious military recruiter lady about God and our church. It was super cool.

Not a ton of time this week but here's some pictures!

Have a great week!

Äldste Denton