This week has gone by super fast! But it was really good too. So last Monday me and Elder Stafford went to our apartment, after emailing, to do laundry. Then we wanted to go to the mall, so Elder Stafford said we had to go to the church to meet up with the other elders before we went. I thought that didn´t make any sense, because if we met them at the church, then we´d just have to turn right back around to go back to the bus station and switch busses to go to the mall. But I am an obedient companion, so I went without complaining. When we walked into the church, the other elders and the sisters ran out of the kitchen yelling "surprise!" and throwing balloons everywhere! I was kind of surprised. I was trying to keep my birthday low-key so it wouldn´t be a big deal, but they threw me a little surprise party. It was super fun. They even got a cake with 20 candles on it. After we ate cake and cleaned up we went to the mall with the other elders. First we went to a sports store so I could buy a backpack (my shoulder bag has been making my shoulders really sore) and so Elder Bliss could buy a winter coat. Then we went to IKEA. It was really fun. It was Elder Stafford´s first time ever in Ikea, and my second time. They were selling ice cream cones for only 10 crowns, which is about 1.50 in dollars, so we all got ice cream. Then we walked around the mall for a while.
On Tuesday we taught a lot of English classes. As a kind of community service we did a presentation on America and American high schools for the English classes of a woman we street contacted a few weeks ago. They are good because we can do service, and show people that missionaries are normal people too. We taught three classes on Tuesday, and got free school lunch, which was pretty cool. Their school lunches are really nice, and looked pretty healthy too. We made feedback surveys that we handed out to each class, with questions like "which is better, Oregon or Idaho?" or what they wish was included in the presentation, stuff like that. Some of the answers were pretty funny. One person said they like Oregon, because it sounds like "oreo". Also, Elder Stafford got all three classes to sing the Swedish happy birthday song to me, haha. And it is kind of long, because it has three verses.
On Thursday we went down to a city called Hudiksvall, which is about an hour long train ride south. We´ve never gone there before because it takes so long to get there that we really need a lot of stuff going on there for it to be worth the travel. But last week the other elders got a text from an investigator couple that lives there that has not been visited in about a year. So we decided to go teach them. They have been taught all of the lessons multiple times, and know a ton about the gospel and the church. They have just not been baptized yet, for different reasons over the years. But they are super nice. They picked us up from the train station and drove us to their house. They gave us fika, which is a Swedish thing where you drink coffee or tea (non-caffiene tea) and eat cinnamon rolls or other snacky things. Then the man played us a couple of songs on the guitar. He was pretty good. The only tricky thing with them is figuring out what to teach them. They told us the main issue keeping them from being baptized before is resolved, so we are hoping now they will be ready soon. They other hard thing is that they live so far away from the chapel, which is especially difficult to get to in the winter. But they have been doing scripture study every morning this year, so I think they are ready.
This week we got SNOW!!! It snowed on Tuesday, and we got about 2 inches. The rest of the week it has just been cloudy and pretty cold, so there was lots of ice on the roads and sidewalks. But it is really pretty here, since there are a lot of pine tree forests around, so it looks like a movie almost.
Yesterday was Sweden´s Father´s Day. I´m not sure why it is so far away from father´s day in America. The primary kids passed out father´s day cards after sacrament meeting, and I got one. It was weird, haha.
I have been thinking a lot this week about what it means to endure to the end. I read the book Our Heritage, which is a short church history, and I realized that a lot of members of the church have gone through extreme adversity, persecutions, and personal sacrifice for their faith. I wondered whether I am strong enough to last through anything like what they went through. I think that I can, as long as I do my best and have faith. The Lord doesn´t expect us to be perfect, just to do our best and always be improving. Also, from 1 Nephi 3:7 we learn that we will never be asked to do something that is impossible or that is too difficult for us. Our Heavenly Father wants us to succeed, and so he will provide a way for us to do that. So I know that even when hard times come, I will be able to get through them. Our trials also help us to grow stronger and be more prepared for the next challenge we face.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Smith
Pictures! I will include some from last week as well since I wasn´t able to upload any:
1) Birthday cake!
2) Ikea!
3) Snow!
4) More snow
5) Sometimes our investigators can´t really speak English or Swedish...
There were too many pictures for one email, so here´s another!
1) We buy really big cheese from the grocery store. The milk carton is for reference. I´m not sure if the picture shows how big it is
2) Candles on All-Saints Day
3) It was dark, but here is a picture of more of the graveyard during All-Saints Day
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