I have been in Sweden for almost a month! It feels really weird to think about it. The weeks go by really quick here. I had my first week in the mission without taking a train! It was nice to have a break from traveling for a while. This week was pretty good. Our sister missionaries both went home though. Last P-day we gave them a funeral, which was pretty fun. We had a eulogy and stuff, and made them a slide show using pictures sent to us by their old companions. It is pretty awesome to have iPhones here.
So we have a few weeks without sisters until next transfer, which will be in mid October. Elder Stafford and I are teaching some of the sisters´ investigators now. One of them is really great, and wants to be baptized in January. He could probably very easily be baptized earlier, but first he has to quit drinking coffee and taking snoos, which is like chewing tobacco but it comes in a packet and is really bad. But he is making a lot of progress with it.
This week there was an international food festival in Sundsvall. On Tuesday we went there with the sisters before taking a bus to go meet one of their investigators that we teach now. Sister Barton got a kangaroo meat hamburger, which was interesting. She let us all take a bite. It didn´t taste too different from beef from what I could tell, but she had some very spicy peppers on it so it was hard to focus on the taste of the meat. Then Elder Stafford and I bought 3 pretzels: a salt one, a cheese one, and a pizza one. They were really good, but super filling, haha.
Elder Stafford and I are teaching a family from Syria. We have had 3 lessons with them now. They have been reading the Book of Mormon and are pretty awesome. It is just sometimes a little hard to communicate with them, first of all because they don´t speak English very well, and then also because they are from a different culture so they see a lot of things in a different way. We have to be sure that they understand us completely. They really want to speak to an Arabic speaking church member, so we called the proselyting elders, who said they will ask President Beckstrand who will then contact other missions to find Arabic speaking elders who can skype our investigator family. It is pretty cool.
Yesterday in church it was the primary program. There are about 20 primary kids in our branch I think. They were pretty funny. Then I got to teach the Gospel Principles class about tithing. It was just the missionaries, the branch mission leader, and our investigator, so luckily I got to speak in English. I think it went pretty well. It helped me realize how many great things are done with tithing money, and why we pay tithing. It isn´t just so the church has money, but it´s to show our Heavenly Father that we are obedient and faithful and care about Him more than money.
Last night we went out tracting, and we were in an area where we haven´t been able to find the stairs to go to the upper floors of the apartments. But last night we found the stairs, and the second door we knocked on was an older Afghan couple. They didn´t speak English, so they led us to their neighbors who could translate. The neighbors were a young Afghan family, and the father translated for us. Pretty soon he invited us all in and we did what we call a "zero lesson", which is where we just explain what we do as missionaries and about what we hope for the investigators. We set up a time to come again and meet with them all. We have a few Persian speaking members in the area, so hopefully one of them will be able to come with us.
We have met a lot of pretty awesome muslim people here so far. It just makes me wish I could speak persian and arabic, haha. Maybe someday they will send persian speaking missionaries to Sweden. From what I hear, they would be busy.
Overall it has been a great week!
I hope everyone is doing well and has a great week too!
Elder Smith
Pictures:
1) Me being sleepy in the library while trying to study
2) Kangaroo hamburger with Elder Stafford and Sister Young
3) Saying goodbye at the train station (at 6am, so that is why I look tired)
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