Learning, Growing, and Finally Teaching in Kungsbacka!

I truly do not know where the days go.  I think about doing the blog all week long and all of a sudden it is Saturday and my thinking hasn't produced anything.  Well, it has been another exciting and eventful week at the Milne's.  First off, I just found out that I did not get accepted to BYU so we will not be moving to Provo.  I spent the day in self-pity, but today I am feeling much better about life and actually quite relieved.  All is not lost - there is an accredited online program I can do that will suit our situation much better, but hey, I had to apply to the number one program in the country just in case - Right?  As I watched Ty at his baseball tournament yesterday and saw the  joy he had with all of his friends I felt it would be really hard for him to leave.  He has some excellent friends and I love all their parents too!  We would have had to sacrifice quite a lot - all of us!  I am so grateful that the Lord is in charge and His wisdom far exceeds ours.  We are still selling the house and all of next week will be spent packing, moving, and cleaning.  

Next excitement:  Carter and his PVHS basketball team clinched the Region 9 title last night and will be headed into the state tournament.  Their first game is next Friday at Pine View and then when they win we will be heading up to Kearns the following week for the rest of the tourney.  They have an excellent bracket that will set them up nicely for the championship game if they will play like they know how.  It was an exciting night last night.  It was Senior night so Carter and six other players were honored along with their parents.  Great night to win a Championship.  They celebrated by cutting down the nets after the game.  All the fun photos are posted below!

Aldste Milne sounds great this week.  He brings so much joy to our lives.  Keep up the great work Dallin.  I know things can be pretty tough there in Sweden.  I'm sure there are days that it seems no one wants to listen.  Keep your chin up.  The Lord will lead you to his elect.  When you get discouraged remember Noah who preached the gospel for how many years? and to how many people? and then all his contacts were drowned.  You can do it!!!

Blaine's Letter to Dallin this Week:

Hello Dallin,

 Wow, you have been in Sweden 15 months.  What an accomplishment.  9 more months to go.
Another month and you are 2/3 done.

Well,  keep up the good work and keep listening to the spirit and your mom's encouraging words.

You are lucky to have such a fantastic mom.  Make sure to keep safety a top priority.

By the way.  Dr. Branemark, a Swedish doctor who discovered titanium would heal well with bone and created the first dental implant died this past month.  He was from Gothenburg, Sweden and the American Dental Association recognized his death in their latest newsletter.  I thought you might find that interesting. 

Well,  Carter is trying to hang in there on the basketball team with one regular season game left against Cedar this Friday.  They will be a 1 or 2 seed and get a first round home playoff game.

We are awaiting the results of your mom's interview at BYU.  We will be moving into the adobe in the next two weeks.

I am still working at Half Dental and keep trying to have the strength to keep at it.  I had a record production year last year.  I have found this very interesting.

Carter thinks he might want to be a dentist.   According to the American Dental Society, a dentist is the #1 job in America.  Interesting.

Take care ol buddy

BGM

Dallin's Reply:

hej pappa,

Yeah it feels good to have made it this far.  The weeks seem to be flying by lately.  I love getting to sit down and email friends and family every monday.  Sounds like you guys had an exciting week with mom's stuff and dentistry and pv basketball.

Congrats on a the big year last year at HD.  Sure is a good job.  I think its really cool that you are willing to leave all that so mom can pursue her dreams.  Do you know what you would do up north if we moved?  Does HD have some stuff going on up there?  

Thanks for bringing home the bacon for so long.  We sure have it nice thanks to your hard work and diligence.  I really respect you for that.  The older that I get, the more that I realize how big of a mess it is do get through all the schooling with good grades and then to get accepted into a program and then endure it all.  It's a lot of years but it looks like it is worth it.  Maybe I'll give it a shot as well.  Still a long road ahead of me as far as academics go.

Looking forward to finding out where you guys will end up so I can have more of an idea what I'll be getting myself into haha

Ta hand om dig

dilly dal

My Letter To Dallin This Week:

"In consigning His children to lives of opposition and adversity, our Heavenly Father did not leave us without the means of overcoming every challenge we might face.  What tools do we have?  We have faith in Jesus Christ, enabling us to receive the strength to overcome our adversity.  We have the word of God, empowering to do all things that we should do.  We have the Spirit, guiding us in all aspects of our lives and comforting us in our challenges.  We have prayer - the divine channel for asking and receiving help from the Lord.  Moreover, we have hope, knowing that in the end all things shall work together for our good as we endure and transcend adversity.  Furthermore, we have patience because of the knowledge that time will become our ally as we respond in righteousness to adversity.  The process of overcoming was never meant to be easy or a quick fix but rather a process of becoming.  Additionally, we have the support of the people around us - family, friends, associates, and even caring strangers  - who are also undergoing the test of mortality.  We can strengthen and lift each other"  (Pinegar & Allen (2010), On the Bright Side, pp. 27, 28).

Howdy Big "D"!

Greetings from sunny Southern Utah!  We enjoyed a warm 75 degrees today.  It was beautiful.  I am sorry if you are still suffering in the winter cold of Sweden.  Maybe my quote on adversity will help you through that!  I really enjoyed your letter last week.  It sounds like a few things are starting to happen there in Kungsbacka.  Were you ever able to meet with that family again?  How long do you think you and Elder Olsen will be together?  How's your health?  I pray you are staying happy, healthy, and warm!

Wow!  It has been an exciting week.  My interview was on Monday.  It was an exhausting and very interesting day.  It was formatted a little differently than I expected, but I still felt okay about everything.  They asked very interesting questions such as: "if you could be any animal which one would you be and why?" and "what type of animal do you consider yourself to be now and why?".  I was interviewed first in a group of five candidates with three different sets of professors and then I was interviewed by myself three different times with the same sets of professors.  I also had to do a writing sample on the computer - three questions, three paragraphs, and fifteen minutes to finish.  I have absolutely no idea what they thought of me.  They said that they had a lot of applicants and that the 22 candidates they were interviewing should feel really good about being there.  They will only take 10-12 of the candidates that were interviewed.  They fed us breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we were able to meet some of the graduate students already in the program.  I was surprised because the interviews were not really in depth.  They didn't spend a lot of time getting to know you.  They just asked general questions.  However, with one set of professors their entire goal was to get you to cry and show emotion.  They asked very pointed questions about why you dressed the way you did, why you said the things you said, and even why you smile so much. They at times and even bordered on being quite rude to some of the candidates.  I could tell what they were trying to do so I simply played along with it.  Whatever they asked me I was very blunt, open, and honest.  I didn't hold anything back and laid it all on the table.  When they asked why I was still smiling while being emotional I told them that it was a habit.  As a young girl I learned to put on a happy face each day going to school even though I had been up all night with a drunken father and his rantings.  I said that I had a lot of lingering effects from my childhood but that I have addressed them over the years and I spend each day working on them.  I told them that is why I wanted to be a therapist so I could teach others with painful histories and other dysfunctions the same tools I have learned to cope on a daily basis.  That seemed to appease them, but they still did not let on to any of us how we did and what their perceptions of us were.  One male candidate was upset because they told him he was emotionally constipated because he wouldn't open up to them and that he would not make a very good therapist.  Another candidate was told that she talked like a fourteen year old when she was crying and that her clients would never take her serious.  It was a little intense.  However, I wasn't the oldest one there.  I was probably the third oldest, and the other 19 candidates were your typical 25ish year old student.  Some were married with one young baby and others were single.  Most of them were female and there were probably five males.  They told us they would let us know by the end of this month.  They said they would call the candidates who were accepted and send a letter in the mail to those who weren't accepted.  Yikes, I really don't know what to think.

Anyhow, on Tuesday I spent the day in Salt Lake City with Dr. White working on the book.  She took the day off and we spent about nine hours writing and editing.  We have the preface finished, the introduction, and the first two chapters.  We will be sending this portion to a few publishers probably next week.  I am currently working on the last three chapters that deal with the atonement and healing.  Dr. White's boyfriend (soon to be fiance I think) met us for dinner.  He works at the MTC and is in the curriculum development department.  He showed us some new documents they were putting together for mission presidents and missionaries that they will be sending out to 30 stateside missions in the next few weeks.  It is a program on how to deal with pornography and electronic media.  There are many missionaries who struggled with pornography prior to their missions and apparently still struggle on their missions.  The mission presidents interviewed also said that females are surprisingly almost as bad as the male missionaries.  Pornography is a modern day plague that is permeating every aspect of our lives. Missionaries and members of the church are certainly not exempt.  Do all you can to guard yourself from this.  I know that it is everywhere and can be a great temptation, but the consequences are spiritually and emotionally deadly.  Pornography destroys precious relationships as well.

On Wednesday I met up with Chantel and her two cute little girls Ava and Jaylee.  I had to pick something up from her to give to Raymond to take to Monticello when he went to pick up Grandma.  Grandma Susan spent all of last week in Monticello helping Aunt Julie with her new baby.  He is really a handsome little guy.  I will post his picture on the blog. After visiting with them I headed home to make it to the big basketball game against Desert Hills that night.  Oh my goodness, what an exciting game.  The gym was packed to the hilt, and it was crazy.  PVHS was down as much as 16 points but they kept chipping away at it, and in the end they came away with the win - 74-70.  They are now tied for first place with Desert Hills.  Kody Wilstead had a career high of 33 points.  He also signed his letter of intent earlier that day to play football at BYU.  It was a big day for him.  

Friday nights game was against Canyon View.  I don't know what it is with PVHS and Canyon View, but PVHS always plays to their level.  They took us to overtime once again.  PV played with no intensity at all.  The crowd was flat as well.  I think everyone was still exhausted from all of the excitement of the D-Hills game.  Nevertheless, it was fun to see Kim and Mike there, Aunt Glenda and two of her grandsons, Uncle Kirk, Clint and Kristen, Josh, and Jason.  It was also great to see Carter and Keaton on the floor together again.

Saturday dad took Ty and Carter over to the baseball fields and worked out with them.  He is trying to get them in shape for the upcoming season.  Ty's basketball team didn't have a game this weekend.  Saturday night I did some more writing and Carter and dad went to the dental office to work on Uncle Kirk.  I relieved Carter after two hours and then two hours later we were finally finished.  Poor Uncle Kirk.  That is such a long time to be in the dental chair.  We pulled a bunch of teeth and prepped him for two bridges and put temporaries on him.  He was a good sport through it all.  Dad and I went to dinner at about 11:00 pm and arrived home after midnight.  As you probably noticed that is when I sat down and finally did your blog for last week.  I am so sorry.

Today was a beautiful day.  Our new church time is at 9:00 am which I love.  I bore my testimony today.  It is our last Fast Sunday in this ward so I thought I had better tell everyone good by.  My young women's basketball team also wanted me to tell the ward that they had won the Stake Basketball Championship.  I coached them and they were undefeated.  That leaves me with three undefeated basketball seasons in my coaching career - two in Orem when I coached Carter's basketball team and this one.  Haha, I have to toot my own horn once in awhile.  I have absolutely loved serving in Young women's, but I am not going to lie, I am enjoying some down time after being released as the president.  That was a heavy mantle, but I was truly blessed in so many ways.  They Lord has been very merciful to me.

Well, this week we will try to motivate ourselves to start packing and moving somethings up to the old house.  This will certainly be an adventure.  It will be interesting to see how it goes.  Dad is excited because we will be attending the ward that he grew up in.  We have been making some minor repairs and most everything should be ready by the end of this week.  We want to be all moved in before we head to Salt Lake City for the State Basketball Tournament at the end of this month.  There is certainly lots of excitement in the air at our house.

Dallin, I pray for you each day (several times a day). I am so proud of you.  I know that missions are hard, but I also know that you are equal to the task and will be equal to whatever lay ahead for you as long as you include the Lord in your daily life.  He loves you and is so intimately aware of your thoughts, feelings, needs, and desires.  I know that He will grant you the righteous desires of your heart.  Continue to work hard, play hard, and pray harder.  I love you so much.  I can truly not believe that you only have nine months remaining.  They will certainly fly by.  Give it your all - leave it all in the field!!!!

You're Amazing!

All My Love,

Mom

Dallin's Letter Home:

 Sup fam,

Wow sounds like one heck of a week that you guys had.  Especially your interview experience, haha pretty interesting.  I'm glad that you felt good about it though and that you were able to handle the pressure and avoid getting told off too much haha.  Way to go mom that is super exciting!  Keep up the good work with the book.  I feel like it will bless so many peoples lives.  And I am super pumped for pine view basketball.  Sounds like they were both exciting games.  That's pretty cool that canyon view took them to OT again.  What a relief that they were able to pull it off.  I'll be excited to hear about upcoming pv vs cv baseball games too, especially when carter tosses against Keaton.  Dad is telling me that Carter is talking about being a dentist.  He must of had a good time with dad working on good ol uncle Kirk.  Kirk is one of my favorites.  Always happy and full of love.  Me and Carter used to talk about starting our own dental practice, maybe it'll go down.  Dentistry is a really good job and its going up according to the internet.  I hope that Ty is still doing well in the 8th grade.  Middle school sure were the days.  And hey, I didn't know you were still showing everyone up coaching basketball mom ;) haha way to go on another undefeated season.  But most impressive is all the good work you did with the young women as the president.  I always admired how you always do all that you can to magnify your church callings.  Thanks for that example.

As for my end, we had a pretty good week.  It didn't exactly work out the way that we had planned but me and Elder Olsen had a good time.  We are closing in on the end of the transfer.  We'll find out on Saturday if either one of us is transferring.  We are assuming that Olsen will be leaving because he has been here quite awhile.  And I hope that I get to stay anyways.  Kungsbacka really is a nice place.  I love the ward members here, especially the ward mission leader and his family.  All wonderful people and I feel like I could do something good here.  And apparently I'm starting to build a rep as "the elder with good humor" haha idk the old ladys love me.  I love being the district leader here too.  I'm 99% percent sure that we are the biggest district in the mission.  This week I taught about the importance of lesson planning and being yourself as a missionary.  We had a good discussion and then we did this object lesson type thing involving rubiks cubes, air soft guns, and paper air planes that I put together last minute but it worked out pretty well.  Sadly, we didn't get to meet with the family this week, we had planned to meet them on saturday but when we showed up they were in the middle of a kid being out later than he should have been or something and were trying to figure out where he was so they said to just call in a couple of days and that we would set something up for later.  Kids these days.  But we were able to teach some other people and we contacted a whole bunch this week as well.  More than we had done in awhile.  We also went on splits with the elders in Alingsås.  I went to Asås and Olsen stayed in Kbacka and I was with Ä Downing who I actually went on splits with in Umeå when I was 8 weeks old and he was 2 weeks old haha.  We had a good time reminiscing and talking about all of our different experiences.  But yeah, I am feeling good and having a good time.  Cool to think that I am down to single digits when it comes to number of months left on the mission haha.

I'm so grateful to have been called to Sweden.  I've learned so much about myself, my faith, other peoples faith, and just other people in general.  I feel like I was pretty naive and immature before the mission and early into it but am starting to understand everything a lot better and seeing things from both sides and really connecting with the people.  I'm doing my best to see everyone as our Heavenly Father sees them, trying to get that pure love of Christ.  Sweden has humbled me and turned me into a completely different person (in a good way I think haha).  Looking forward to finishing strong and feeling good about everything.  So far so good.  

Thanks for everything especially all the prayers

Love 

Dallin    

This Week's Photos:

 We eat frozen pizzas sometimes but we made this one about 100x better by putting chicken, fries, and bacon on it.  Fries on pizza is a thing here in Sweden and it is awesome.

District meeting in the middle of something

Elder Olsen....  What a guy!

Beautiful Kungsbacka

Carter's Basketball Pictures:

This large poster was on the big glass windows as you entered PVHS by the restrooms and ticket booth

Recognizing the Seniors and their parents

(Thanks Ty for taking the pictures)

We are so proud of Carter!

Carter cutting down the net

Up close....  Thanks Ty!

Carter is funny

Region 9 Trophy

How sweet it is

Lookin' good Cart!

Baseball buddies there to show support

Coach Larsen with the St. George News

Another funny one...

Region Champs!

PVHS Seniors

Back Row:  Kendrick Spencer, Kody Wilstead, Jed Newby, Blake Ence, Garrett Bowker

Front Row: Carter Milne, Chaz Peterson

Congratulations Pine View!!!!

More Pictures from Aunt Kim's Blog (thanks Aunt Kim... You can follow her at www.kimkhansen.blogspot.com) 

It was another barn burner Canyon View VS PVHS at the PIT.  PVHS pulled it off in overtime.

It was so fun to have Uncle Kirk and his family join us.

The Adam Milne Family

(Can you believe how much they have grown!)

Carter in action

Cousin Keaton taking a big shot!

Blaine and Carter went to support Keaton and the Falcons at Desert Hills on Wednesday

The Falcons pulled out the upset in overtime...  It was Awesome!

Blaine always finds a teaching moment

This is a  throwback that Aunt Kim posted....  A going away party for dad (Blaine) at the Pizza Factory;

he was heading off to Florida for his first Spring Training with the St. Louis Cardinals!

This is priceless....  Thank you Aunt Kim and Cousin Kandi for providing us with this special memory!