Here's a story that involves some people that most missionaries that served in Västra Frölunda/Göteborg would appreciate.
We had been teaching the disscussions to a part member family, the Remstedts. Jonas, the father wasn't a member, but he was a golden investigator. Prompted by his wife, Betsy, a Norwegian member, he had been studying the church for a while when she asked her brother, Robbie Lundqvist, a stake missionary, to bring the elders and teach her husband. I was transferred into the area and taught Jonas all the discussions at his home with his wife and brother-in-law.
It was great teaching them: Robbie would pick us up in his car and drive us an hour out of Göteborg to their little home almost "ut pa landet." (in the middle of nowhere, basically) We usually ate dinner with them and afterwards had a wonderful, spiritual discussion. The only problem was that Robbie, being a Norwegian (who had been to the Utah MTC and on a mission to Finland) and his sister would lapse from Swedish to Norwegian. Apparently Jonas was used to it, and would speak his native Swedish. The discussion would be a brain twisting mixture of swedish, norwegian, and the occasional english phrase. I would come home with a headache and wonder if I really knew the language (after being in-country for over a year). After four months of weekly teaches, Jonas was ready for baptism, and my new companion, Elder Ryan Lewis, and I had prayed and felt good about his setting a date.
As we went to the Remstedt's home, I realized I hadn't told Elder Lewis about the screwy Norwegian-Swedish nature of the discussions. I decided to keep this fact to myself. Lewis had only been in the country three months and was getting a good grip on the language, and it was just too easy to pull a joke on him.
We went to the teach and Jonas committed to be baptized the next week (and he was). I could tell Lewis had some trouble during the teach, but being the "wise and thoughtful" senior companion that I was, I left him on his own throughout the whole night.
When Robbie dropped us at our apartment that night, Lewis was pretty quiet until we got inside. I was excited about the baptism, and didn't notice his being quiet when he finally said, "Man, I thought I was doing pretty good lately with my Swedish, but tonight I didn't understand a lot."
After I stopped laughing at him I finally told him what was up. I guess he didn't think it was funny that I was laughing for an hour afterwards. And the rest of the week.
Story: Dale Olson
