This week has been kind of crazy, but in a good way. So last P-day for our fun activity we hiked up to an obstacle course that is in a forest here. So we hiked up this really long hill, then we ended up at the bottom of what is a ski run hill in the winter, so we had to hike/climb up that. It was pretty hard. But we had a cool view of the city when we got to the top. Then there is this path in the forest with bridges and balance beams and rock walls and stuff, so it is an obstacle course. It was a lot of fun.
Then on Thursday, we got up at 4 am to get to our 5:30 train so we could go to Stockholm for a mission conference where David A. Bednar came! It was so cool to see an apostle in person. The missionaries in Western Sweden didn´t get to come, but most of the mission was there. We filled up a chapel. Elder Bednar talked to us a lot about being agents and not objects, meaning we need to make decisions and use our agency so that we can continue to have agency. Also we need to act if we want things to happen. He said that faith is really an action, so we show our faith by acting. Then after a little while he told us that we shouldn´t try to take notes of everything he says, because we realistically won´t read them much if ever anyways, so we should just write down spiritual impressions and listen more. He compared it to the large and small plates from the Nephites. The thing that helps us more is the small plates. Then he did a kind of Q&A thing, so people would share insights from some of his talks we were asked to read before the conference, and he would respond and share stuff in response. It was pretty cool.
After that we got a little time to talk to all the other missionaries there. It was cool to see how everyone in my MTC district is doing. Most of them are around the Stockholm area. It seems like people are a little more willing to stop and talk to missionaries where I am than in Stockholm, so I am very thankful to be in Sundsvall. But from what I have heard everyone in my MTC district is doing great. After that we took the 4 hour train ride home. It was a long day.
Then on Saturday we had District conference in Umeå, which is a 3½ hour train ride north of Sundsvall. District conference is like stake conference, but we have a district made up of branches instead of wards. So we had part 1 on Saturday night, and another 2 hour session on Sunday morning. President and Sister Beckstrand were there, so it was fun to see them. Sister Beckstrand gave 20 minute talks in both sessions, one of which she found out about last minute, and her Swedish is probably about the same level as mine so it was impressive that she could do it. She had one talk prepared in Swedish, but the one she just found out about she was able to just do in English and a member translated for her. They were kind of long meetings for me, because I still don´t understand much of any Swedish so it was hard to stay attentive, haha. But it was alright.
Saturday night we stayed in the zone leaders´ apartment. We heard there were supposed to be northern lights that night, so we got permission from President Beckstrand to be out at 11ish to see them. So we went out and found a dark road to look at the sky, but there were no northern lights. But there were quite a few stars out so it was still pretty cool.
So this week I spent most of 3 days travelling. And this Thursday we have zone conference, so we will be going up to Umeå again. But it´s not too bad.
This week we had some pretty cool tracting experiences. We tracted this one apartment building, and a man answered the door and just said, "come in." But as we walk in, we see a woman who looks familiar. It was someone we had contacted our first day in Sundsvall and were trying to schedule an appointment to meet with her! It was pretty crazy. The family was kind of busy, but the father met with us, because he explained that in his culture you can´t just send someone away when you´re busy, you have to let them in. He was super nice. So we taught a short lesson, and are going to meet with him again soon. We also got let into another apartment this week. It was a Christian woman who is very interested in learning about all the kinds of Christianity. We taught her that day, then came back a few days ago and gave her a book of Mormon. She is super excited to read it, because she hasn´t heard of a church before with more than just the Bible. She is really nice and loves God, but is not interested in coming to a new church or anything. But we hope that she will be able to feel the truth of the Book of Mormon when she reads it.
It has been a pretty great week! Super busy but also fun.
I hope everyone has a great week!
-Äldste Smith
Pictures:
1: me and Elder Stafford at the top of the big ski hill
2: elder gray, elder ogaard, me, elder stafford, and sister young near the obstacle course
3: There are these dragons all around Sundsvall. Elder Stafford wanted a picture with this one
4: I just found this picture on the phone. I was very tired, haha
5: at the top of the big ski hill
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