This week has been pretty good, but super busy. Something I think I have forgotten to mention in earlier emails is that we got a car! The funny thing is that only Elder Bliss and I are allowed to drive it. Everyone else technically has a working US license, but you have to get it approved for driving in Sweden, and none of the other missionaries have renewed their papers to drive in Sweden the second year of their missions. So the greenies are the drivers. My first time driving in Sweden was last Monday night. Luckily all the snow from the earlier week melted that morning, but it was really dark and foggy. But I made it alright.
On Tuesday we were supposed to have a lesson with someone at the library, then go teach another guy, but the first person didn´t show up. While we were sitting in the library the other guy we were going to teach showed up. He said he was heading to the mall in Birsta, so he wasn´t sure when he would be back for his lesson. So we just went with him, haha. We basically just followed him around the mall and a grocery store while he shopped for a little while. But he said he´d come to church (and he did!) so it was worth the little extra time.
On Thursday we did splits with the other elders in our district. So I was companions with Elder Gray, the district leader, for a day. It was a lot of fun. We were fed all 3 meals by other people, which is crazy. We had the car, so we met a less active member at Ikea for breakfast. He paid for us, which was super nice. It was a buffet sort of thing. Elder Gray had to be a little hard on him though. He keeps agreeing to commitments then just not doing them. Elder Gray asked him if he would come to a branch activity and church this week. He said yes, so Elder Gray told him he was counting on him to come so he could trust him. After that we taught a man who is pretty close to getting a baptismal date. But we had to explain to him that you don´t need to get married to be a member of the church. It made me think how people can sometimes have questions that I never even really think about. Then we did some service helping a member put up drywall sheets in a room he is refurnishing in his house. After that we drove about 45 minutes to a place called Härnösand to visit a less active part member family. Elder Gray had baked a pumpkin pie, and the family fed us dinner. It was weird to eat pumpkin pie because it´s so American, haha. The family was super nice, but I don´t know how interested they are in church. They gave us a bunch of pepparkaka (gingerbread) dough to take home. After that we drove home. It started snowing when we first started driving that day, so I am pretty proud of my first time driving in real snow. It was interesting to be on splits and see how another missionary works.
On Friday Elder Stafford and I drove down to Hudiksvall, which is an hour long drive. We had a lesson with the older couple that has been investigating the church a super long time, and we had a less active there with us. It was a very bad lesson. The investigator man basically just asked a ton of deep questions, and he and the less active were both trying to talk over each other most of the time. So me and Elder Stafford basically just ended up sitting there with the wife while the other two went on. I was disappointed we couldn´t actually teach them or help them at all during that visit. Next time we go we´re going to try to keep a little better control. We also visited a couple of other less actives, then went home. Something kind of funny was that everyone we visited gave us fika, usually tea and bread, and they made us take bananas with us when we left. So by the end of the day we had 4 bananas.
On Saturday we taught a super positive woman we street contacted a few weeks ago. She was really excited to talk to other Christians and learn more. I think she has tried reading the Book of Mormon before, but it was before she was very good at Swedish and she was reading it in Swedish so she didn´t get too much out of it. Then we worked on a slide show for the branch culture night. We had to find pictures of all the different cultures in our branch and make a ten minute slide show. It was fun, but kind of stressful to do last minute. For the culture night there was a talent show. There are a lot of people in our branch that are good at music. One member man did a really good guitar solo on the electric guitar. The missionaries did a dance with an African member named Richard. We painted our faces white and wore white gloves, then all black. We did kind of an interpretive dance to some African American gospel music. I didn´t feel too embarrassed dancing in front of everyone, so that was good. We took some good pictures with the paint on our faces.
This might be my last full week in Sundsvall. Me and Elder Stafford have no idea if we are being transferred or not. Transfers are on the 26th, so we find out this week I think.
This week for a spiritual message I just want to talk about how we should not be afraid to follow God. This week I read in the Book of Mormon where Lehi´s family went through a lot of hardships in the wilderness. Laman and Lemuel always wanted to go back to Jerusalem, which was probably a temptation for all of them at some point. But if they went back to Jerusalem they would not have progressed, spiritually or physically. They had to suffer many trials, but they were led by the Lord, and by following Him they eventually made it to the promised land, where they could grow into great nations and prosper. So even though we go through hardships in our lives, when we follow God there are always great blessings.
Elder Smith
Pictures!
1) A lego R2D2 we saw in a toy store last Monday
2) Selfie in the elevator!
3) Painted faces!
4) Scary picture
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